"Exposure - Jump City's Premier Gentleman's & Ladies Club" read the huge neon sign out front. A guy getting out of a jaguar convertible sneered at the lime green minivan, secretly T-Car1, as Cy eased it into the parking lot. The guys piled out, little feline Gar became full sized human Gar and he quickly pulled on his clothes.

At the entrance to the place, Speedy's fake ID's worked again, but the huge security guys by the door seemed more suspicious of them than the they'd been at the last two clubs. One handed Dick's fake ID to an even fatter guy behind him who the Titan boys heard referred to, appropriately enough, as "The Fat Man". He was apparently the owner.

"Hey boss, what do you think about this?"

The huge weeble shaped man took Dick's ID in his pudgy fingers. "Anal retentive?"

The others all laughed, interrupting Garth apologizing to Wally for the seventh time for kissing him in the gay club.

"Alan!" Dick corrected. "Alan Ray-tawn-teef. It's . . . french!"

"Oh. French." The Fat Man rolled his eyes as if that would explain pretty much anything and gave the ID back to Dick.

No one else's ID was challenged but it seemed to Wally that The Fat Man gave them all a very close scrutiny, staring at them as they went past then following them into the club before turning away to deal with some issue at the bar.

Inside, the Titan boys were hit by a wall of sound, Guns N Roses, at first, then also the hoots and shouts of the men at the tables and bar. Wally was surprised at how big the place was inside, three rings of tables large and small in semicircular rings around a stage with a bar off to one side. The place was almost full when the incognito Titan boys entered. Wally glanced around. There were some tables that could accomodate their group but they were all taken. The seven Titan boys walked up one aisle to a spot that wouldn't block anyone's view while they tried to figure what to do. They'd told some short guy near the entrance that they had a party of seven and he said he'd do what he could but they'd have to wait till a table opened up.

Wally looked to Roy and Dick, the two tacticians. What do we do? They both shrugged. Then, over his shoulder, Wally couldn't help but overhear the conversation at the large table behind them. None of the Titan boys could help overhearing it. Wally saw Garth get a distressed look on his face at the stupid bravado of the seven idiots seated there. Abject stupidity out for a night on the town. F-- this. F-- that. I'd F-- her. Bambi's more my type, look at the rack on her. But, hehe, I wouldn't kick Fawn out of bed. Still, it's Bambi for me! F-- you. She wouldn't look at a fat slob like you. F-- you. F-- you. Hey let's buy some more lap dances! Ah, they got better bitches at that Scores place in New York. F-- you! No, F-- you.

And on and on it went though a glance at the idiots was enough to convince anyone that any woman who looked like the club's dancers would never have anything to do with any of them.

Finally, one of them said to their apparent leader. "When we goin' to her place, Tony?"

"Soon as she calls."

"I'll be listenin'."

Slap.

"It's on vibrate, dipshit," he said pointing to a phone on the table next to some empty shot glasses. "You'll probably see it before you hear it."

Wally caught Roy's eye. Roy was the only one standing diredtly against their table. Wally sidled up next to Roy. "Tell me when my finger's right next to that phone," he said into Roy's ear. Slowly, very slowly, so as to not attract any attention, he extended one arm, not looking that way, behind Roy beside him and along the table, past an empty beer glass toward the phone in question.

"Now," said Roy and he glanced back over his other shoulder to see Wally's index finger vibrating, making a sound just like a phone set on vibrate.

Zmmmmmmt! Zmmmmmmt! Zmmmmmmt!

Roy smirked. Wally's other fingers looked perfectly normal. His index finger was a blur.

"That's her!" shouted one of the group of morons and their leader picked up his phone as they all piled out of the booth past the low table and out into the aisle. Busboys immediately appeared and cleaned the table grumbling about the insufficient tip. The Titan boys slid in just as a new group of dancers appeared on the stage to whistles and shouts. As at the two clubs before that, Dick and Garth took the spots on either side of Wally, Gar sat next to Cy and Roy next to Ty. After they ordered drinks, Dick got up to use the bathroom. At least, that's what he said. All the Titan boys knew better. Dick was so predictable. He was doing a recon of the place, it was an obsessive compulsive thing with Dick. He took a circuitous route to the rest rooms and Wally guessed he probably assessed the threat of crime from every person in the place as he did so. Roy slid over next to Wally as Garth was talking to Cy on his other side.

Roy grinned conspiratorially and leaned toward his fellow redhead. "So . . . . you can make just one finger vibrate?" he half shouted just loudly enough to be heard over the music.

Wally nodded. "Sure. Whatever parts I want."

Roy was leaning forward now. "Wait. So, it's true? You can make one part of you vibrate, and it can be . . whichever part of you that you want?

Wally nodded.

Roy's face could barely contain his smirk. "Then . . . ," he looked down at the crotch of Wally's pants. " . . . you could even make . . . " Roy nodded downward. " . . . that . . vibrate?!"

Wally suppressed his smile, mostly, as he gave a faint nod. Roy convulsed in laughter and clapped his hands together.

"Ahahahahaha! Awesome! Awesome! Ahahahahaha! That's-that's . . world changing, Wally! That's guaranteed satisfaction! Wally, my man! Do you know what you are?"

"Christ, Roy. I know what the hell I am and what I can do!"

"Does . . Jinx know?" Roy snickered beneath suggestively wiggled eyebrows.

"Of course she does. What do you think we do together?"

Roy burst into extended laughter before finally composing himself. "Well, shit, Wally, I don't know. In the car, you were talking with Dick about how much you like cuddling with her. God, Wally. Shit like that could get all of us in trouble. If they all expected us to just hold them in bed . . . !" Roy finished with a shudder. "Chicks or guys," he added before a second shudder.

"I hold her in my arms afterward you dope. I like it."

Roy quickly fell back into enthusiastic chuckles. "Yeah, but first you . . Zzzzzt! Zzzzzt! Zzzzzt! Ahahahahahaha! God! No wonder she's still with you even though you're such a brainiac nerd. I mean, okay. The face and the body. The buns, of course. The suit only helps, but-"

"Roy! She reads books just as much as me."

"Hey! Does she have some special sex trick, too?"

"If you think I'm gonna tell you, you're fricking nuts, archer."

"Oh my god! She does! Doesn't she? What's that old saying, unlucky in cards lucky in love or something like that? So she dispenses all bad luck otherwise but , , between the sheets, hahaha!"

"Roy! Shut the fuck up!"

"Well . . jeez . . you don't need to get all offended."

"I'm not offended but you can't seriously expect me to tell you anything about her? I didn't tell you about me!"

Roy shrugged his shoulders, fair enough, then leaned forward over the table paying close attention to the nearly naked dancers gyrating on the stage. Wally sighed and then turned away. A blast of cold air hit him from the air conditioning system. He shuddered and somehow that and Roy's mention of cuddling made him think of the time the past winter when the Tower's heating system had gone out. Something about a plasma based electro magnetic pulse from one of Immortus's lackeys having overloaded circuitry. Whatever the cause, the place was icy. Out in the middle of the bay with winds whipping around, it was not an easy place to heat. Cyborg had rigged up some geothermal energy draw and solar and tidal action energy generation but the circuits running it all had been damaged. Kid Flash got back to his room after trying to help Cy with things. It would be some hours more he reported to Jinx from the doorway.

"Wally! I'm cold," declared Jinx from across the room as Kid Flash entered and walked toward her.

"Don't say that about yourself, Jinx. Don't. Reserved? Sure. Aloof? Perhaps. Maybe distant, but not cold. Don't say that about yourself, Jinx."

She'd given him that look that threatened a thousand volt hex. "Speedster. Get. Over. Here."

Kid Flash was behind her in a microsecond, his arms wrapped affectionately about her, his cheek pressed to her so that he just could whisper in her ear. First his words made her smile. He couldn't see it but he knew it was there. After more sweet sincere words she let out a soft sigh of pleasure. She always liked him holding her. Her body temperature was naturally 2 degrees below normal. His was 2 degrees above. Each felt like a pleasant, needed contrast to the other. He squeezed tighter. She squeezed his arms back . He turned her head far enough to kiss her. Cyborg didn't get the circuits working again till the next morning but there was no shortage of heat in that room of the Tower.

Wally looked up, suddenly reconnecting with the whole room and the loud music and the two nearly naked girls, one black and one white dancing on the stage 25 feet away. Roy and Ty hooted at the black girl's moves. "Woohoo! She is sweet! Shake that ass!"

Wally coudn't get into that same frame of mind right away. He couldn't adopt that coldly impersonal perspective that strip clubs encouraged, where a guy doesn't see a real person, just a fantastic body spinning and grinding away there for him. Have some alcohol. Stare. Music. Dancing. Stare. Just look at that body. She's there for you. It's okay. Everyone else is hooting. Just a body, there for you. Just stare.

Everyone in grade school had liked Wally West. Wally was smart and fun but lots of other boys were smart and fun. Reed thin Wally West was a really good baseball player and swimmer too. But there were lots of boys who could say that, too. The girls would smile at his orange hair and his blue eyes. Of course, they wouldn't show it because Wally West was hopelessly poor in a school district where if your family was merely rich you were behind the curve. The thing was, Wally West couldn't hurt anyone. He just wouldn't. And everyone somehow knew. Other kids lashed out callously from a secure place. Wally West couldn't lash out. He wanted to connect. He desperately wanted a strong connection. It was as strong as his young teen boy's sex drive. And then he became Kid Flash and was even more completely separated from everyone. And then he met Jinx and they connected in every way. This encouragement of lust with no connection meant looking at girls in a way that was unusual for Wally. But the music kept playing, Roy bought a round of drinks for everyone then Cy bought another. All the other guys were hooting. And the hot girls kept dancing . . .

Dick Grayson stared at the girls, too. They were obviously in great shape. The black one, especially, seemed like she might be a good fighter. There weren't many good fighters in the place. Other than the incognito Titans, he calculated that 114 of the 137 customers were drunk to the point of impairing their ability to fight. 20 others were no threat as a result of being either old, obese or small and weak. That left the black guy at the bar sipping his drink slowly and the two guys at the table down front to the right. Of those, only the black guy was lefthanded which would require special-

Dick Grayson took a deep breath. He took another. And then a third.

"Stop it!" He shouted in his own mind. Stop it! Stop . . . strategizing!! He closed his eyes and took another breath. Stop!!

He tried to direct his own thoughts. But it was hard. It was hard for him to break such deeply established patterns of behavior and relax. It was also hard because of how he'd been raised. A strip club was the last place the Graysons had prepared their darling boy to be. Raising their amazing son in the circus with all sorts of shady characters around, the Graysons had intentionally erred on the side of protecting Dick. At 11 years old, he'd never seen anything other than a G rated movie. He'd never seen a picture of a naked girl, not even statues and he'd never came close to kissing one. His parents didn't even let people swear around him. They and the lion tamer and his wife and the single mother who cared for the elephants had worked together to provide a very sheltered life for their kids. And then Dick's parents had been killed and he was taken in by Batman. Where the Graysons had tried to keep smut away from their boy, Batman positively attacked it. Batman loathed prostitution and strip clubs and spoke of them in the harshest terms. It was difficult to see any lust as natural and acceptable after spending 3 years as Batman's protege trying to clean up the despicable sex industry of Gotham City. It all dovetailed neatly with Dick's extreme emotional repression. All feeling, all passion in him went into the vengeful crime fighting of Robin the boy wonder. He wished he could be like Gar or Cy or Wally, fighting crime as pretty much their normal selves. Maybe if he had a power. Maybe then. But it wasn't the way it was. He had to be so perfect at all times. Still . .

Sigh.

But, Wally was right, he reminded hiimself with a quick glance around the table. Speedy. Hot Spot. Kid Flash. Aqualad. Beast Boy and Cyborg. They had massive power just at this table, the seven of them. Massive power. And there was more power back at Titans Tower, in all the girls. And there was even greater power still on the way in the form of the Justice League. It . . it would be okay this-this once to let his guard down. Just this once. It would be okay. And the music kept playing and Roy and Cy bought rounds of drinks. And all the other guys but Garth encouraged him to hoot and whistle as well. And the hot girls kept dancing, almost naked just down there in front of them . . .

And down at one end of the semicircular leather booth, Gar and Cy wore their disguises. They had cloaking rings on, too. But the greater disguise in the strip club was the attitudes they affected. Across the table from them, Roy and Ty hooted and shouted at the dancers and made jokes about Dick and Garth and even Wally. Gar didn't want to seem like a wuss to Roy and Ty. He hooted and shouted and made comments to the rest of the table. Cy could hardly let the skinny pretty boy, blond now but usually green as a weed, appropriate considering how quickly he'd shot up from five four to six one, seem more of a man than him. He shouted and whistled at a volume that put pretty boy Gar to shame. And so Gar shouted some more and made some lascivious comments and more firmly affixed his disguise in turn. And this pushed Cy further, who then pushed Gar further, etc . . And the music kept playing and Roy and Cy bought rounds of drinks and the hot girls kept dancing, first down there and then a lap dance for each one of them . . .

On the other side of Wally, Garth couldn't look at the girl now dancing in front of their table the way Roy and Ty could, either. He was a prince, a sophisticated atlantean raised on only the highest culture, atlantean of course and the best symphonies, ballets, operas and plays from the surface. He wished he could see her the way the others did, at least the way Roy did, at least half way to where the others were.

He had hoped it would be a phase, the way he was. Atlanteans considered themselves to be much more sophisticated than surface dwellers. Atlanteans accepted, no, almost expected that a handsome boy would experiment. He was extremely desirable for . . that sort of young man. It was no failure to give in once or even twice. It was the highminded atlantean perspective. Nothing was thought of a dalliance or two with other handsome boys. When the royal court first murmured about Garth Poseidon and the son of the Duke of the Indian Ocean, there were just faint smiles. The prince was an uncommonly handsome boy. Not only all the maidens at the court were chasing after him. But, then, in some circles there were stories of the prince and the son of the Count of the Mediterranean. In other places there were rumors of the prince and the young Marquis of the Bay of Bengal. The royal queen was patient. It was just a phase. Garth was taking longer to get through it than some of the other handsome boys. But there were so many beautiful maidens at the court. And Garth was such an impressive young man, so strong, so able. He could control water! Even his father could not do that! He could control water! This phase would pass and Garth would produce heirs and rule magnificently some day. Oh, perhaps Garth was a bit of a fop. But the life of a prince did tend to make a boy a bit passive. Garth might swim through the sand shoals and come back to the palace to clean up. He would step forward from the entrance to the royal bath. On each side a servant would removes his gloves. Another disinterested step forward and servants would pull the prince's unitard down to his waist. Another step forward with right leg raised and more servants would pull the prince's unitard off one leg. Then the same with the other. Lastly a servant would reach between the prince's legs and carefully remove his dance belt. All the while, the prince would barely notice them, perhaps yawning and playing a Beethoven sonata or a Mozart concerto in his head. Then, another batch of servants would scrub and lather the royal person. The prince never cleaned his own skin. And, when the prince used the royal commode, a servant stepped forward, on cue, to wipe the royal ass.

Aquaman was happy that his son was adopting the life of a hero. Just the thing, he thought, to shake the little snob out of his languor. And, to his pleasant surprise, Garth loved it. His days finally had meaning. Being a prince under his father had meant no responsibility at all. Fabulously comfortable but aimless days followed one after another. As a hero, he saved lives. Oh, they were surface dweller lives, but Garth found that so many of the stereotypes everyone at the royal court had about surface dwellers were wrong. And who were those people at the court to sneer at surface dwellers? Some of them were like that snake Deverell, always snickering behind his back. Ho ho, it seems that the oh so handsome prince is still stuck in his . . haha . . phase of only being interested in other oh so handsome boys. Oh ho ho, what if there will be no heir? The nerve of that philistine! What body of water was his protectorate, anyway? Long Island Sound?! Ha! Practically irrelvant. The Duke of The Atlantic should assert his rights and have Deverell removed from the court!

But as a hero on the surface he didn't have to deal with schemers like Deverell and some of the others at the court. And he found something else. Camraderie. He was always apart in Atlantis. Prince Garth. Above every Atlantean but his father in rank. And that rank was constantly being emphasized. Atlanteans always prefaced their speaking to him with apologies. He wondered if he hadn't spent a year of his life just listening to pointless apologies. "Beg your pardon, your highness, but . . " "Please excuse the intrusion oh prince, but . . " "A thousand pardons my young liege, but may I so humbly suggest . . . " "It may not be the place of a lowly commoner like me to ask this, my prince, but . . ." Aaarrrggghhh!! Just get on with it!

But as a Teen Titan, he was just one of the team. In fact, both Bee and Robin outranked him and all of them were lower ranked, sort of, than the Justice League members. It was refreshing. He could have give and take with his teammates and other heroes. Even Roy's stupid pranks with crazy glue and that damn flatulence inducing powder he kept sprinkling in the kelp became less irritating if seen as part of interactions with teammates.

But some things didn't change on the surface. It was still the handsome young men who caught his eye. He visited the Justice League satellite, the Watchtower, with Aquaman and met Flash and Kid Flash. This did not help. He stared at the young speedster with the distinctive physique in the skin tight suit. And he also met, for the first time, Green Arrow's protege, Speedy. But, where Kid Flash seemed, thankfully, oblivious to what he was thinking about him, Speedy's face always seemed to be a smirk that he knew. Then they both became members of Titans East. And there was the smirk every day. I know. Ha! I know. Every day. And he was so annoying. Despite a capacity for intelligence, he was crude. So annoying. He could not be that way except intentionally. But why would he always seek to antagonize, wondered the prince. Then, they kissed. A night alone in the Tower. A dangerous mission executed well, leaving a feeling of celebration. Thanks for saving me. No! You saved me. They couldn't decide. But they both realized they cared. They looked in each other's eyes. They kissed and it started.

Garth thought it would be what he saw between Wallace and Jinx. He thought it would always be that. And sometimes it was. Roy could be so much better some fo the time. He could love that Roy. They certainly had passion enough for a real love. But after a while Garth would hear rumors of Roy having affairs. Men. Women. Models. Waiters. Waitresses. All comers. Meanwhile, the word of their romance had just spread across the hero world. It was all over the Watchtower. Bumble Bee sat down with Mas and Menos to explain to them. And word, of course, reached the Titans in Jump City. Just as Garth was having doubts about it due to Roy's infidelity, he was being pushed to play a role as standard bearer for a kind of love. And it pained Garth that some heroes could not accept it. Oh, no one said anything directly to him. But Robin and Beast Boy and Cyborg were so stiff around him, never relaxing, always keeping an eye on him. At least Wallace and Jinx didn't care. Their room became his favorite place on all the surface even more than Titans East's tower. He could talk and laugh freely with them and both of them were intelligent and respected sophistication. Wallace knew roughly how he thought of him and didn't care. Why couldn't Richard and Garfield and Victor be like that? Just because they were desired didn't mean he would jump them or something! Did they attack every girl they found attractive? Soooooo silly. But Wallace was past that and he was intelligent and funny and great company. And, Jinx was so much fun. There was a straightfoward attitude about her that was so much easier to deal with than all the soft, entrapping females at the court in Atlantis. Garth could not admit it to her or Wallace but, sometimes, looking at her, he could almost feel something, almost feel what he imagined a gentleman felt for a young woman like her. But then Wallace with his spectacular rear end would come into view and Garth would have a difficult time focusing on Jinx.

Aqualad stared at the girls gyrating on the stage. The music and alcohol did nothing to change his sentiments. He enjoyed his occasional glances to his left at Wallace and Richard, his light blue eyes so striking, more than the show in front of him.

"This is tawdry Wallace," Garth finally sighed as the blond girl doing lap dances left their table.

"Come on, Garth. It's not high minded but is it that bad?"

"Well, I can tell you we don't have entertainment like this at the royal court in Atlantis. That girl who just shook her behind so close to your face, what sort of desperate situation must she be in to remove nearly all her clothes and dance in front of strange men like this. Don't you feel sorry for her, Wallace?"

"Garth! Isn't it possible that she likes doing this? Isn't it possible that she's proud of her body and gets some enjoyment out of this? Even you, Garth, can't you see how great she looks?"

"Well, she does look good, for a girl, I mean. As you know, I . . I prefer a different relationship of waist to hip width, though," he said, gently pressing one hand to Wally's hip.

"And, I seem to remember a certain Atlantean being anything but shy in the locker room with his unitard off," whispered Wally just loud enough for Garth to hear.

"That was with you guys, Wallace. Not in front of strangers."

The next dancer, a black girl, shimmied over to Wally in time with the music and then shook her beautiful body within an inch of his face to the music and the accompanying hoots of the other Titans. Finally, she bounced away.

"That was unfortunate, Wallace. I hope you can see that she wasn't just proud of her body. She was crassly displaying it to you without any dignity at all."

"GarthGarthGarth," Wally laughed while putting an arm around the atlantean's shoulder. "You need to just relax and let things go a bit. Besides. With a rear like that, she should be dancing in a club like this."

The other Titans within earshot, Roy and Ty, laughed and even Dick grinned at this.

"You shouldn't say things like that, Wallace," said Garth. "We atlanteans have in common with Jinx's hindus a belief in karma. You guys bring bad karma on yourselves acting like that."

"Oh, please, Garth. Re-lax," said Dick and the rest of the table burst into laughter. Dick, telling somebody else to relax!? It was a good minute before anyone else could speak. Roy slapped the table several times over, his shoulders shuddering with his gasps for breath. Gar had to wipe tears from his eyes he'd laughed so hard. Garth shook his head at just another indignity. "What else was there in an establishment like this?" he wondered.

And for a while his warning seemed ridiculous. Everything was fine and the guys enjoyed some more lap dances and leaving one dollar bills as tips in the dancers' miniscule costumes. They barely noticed the four guys sitting down at the small table ahead of them and to one side. They were having fun. They completely shrugged off the first remark those guys made, making fun of Dick's height as he returned from the bathroom. And the stuff about Gar being a wussy pretty boy had been dumb. So what? But the stuff they said to Ty was borderline racist. The fries that one threw over his shoulder at the Titans boys' table had been easy to overlook. They were heroes. They knew they were more powerful than those idiots. They didn't feel the least insecurity about it. Then they started shouting remarks about how this or that dancer was so hot only the fags over at that table, they would point to the Titans, aren't getting hard right now. Ty shouted something back. The four idiots shouted something. Cy stood up. There was more shouting. As it was happening, Garth leaned over toward Wally. "Is that true, Wallace? You guys are all getting . . excited?"

"Just a little. Just barely," Wally replied.

And just as he did, the fight broke out. Wally and Garth didn't see it start but the other Titans swore that the four idiots started it, one of them taking a swing at Ty and another swinging at Gar. But Cy stepped forward, bigger and stronger than anyone there. One of the idiots broke a cheap chair over Cy's back and even though Cy barely flinched, this was too much. Roy and Ty as well as Gar and Dick rushed forward and more furniture was broken as they throttled the four idiots.

The music stopped and all the other customers craned their necks away from the nearly naked brunette doing a pole dance and looked toward the commotion. Just a few seconds later, the hugely fat owner, six two and 350 if he was an ounce, waddled up to them. To the exasperation of the Titans, the four idiots immediately started lying and saying that the Titans boys had started it. They pointed to their table and its chairs and the empty ones that had been next to them, all ruined, cheap furniture that splintered when the Titans boys had thrown the idiots. Dick argued about how ridiculous this was and pointed out that they'd hit Cy with a chair before anyone else had been hit. The Fat Man said he doubted that because Cy didn't look like he'd been touched. Not a scratch on him. The Titans boys had no easy argument for this one. They couldn't exactly retort that this was because their pal was a super powered cyborg whose body was half machine. And The Fat Man kept staring at Dick.

"Yer that 'Anal Retentive' one with the funny ID, aintcha?"

"Alan," Dick corrected though no one was laughing this time. "Alan Ray-tawn-teef."

A scrawny, oily lackey now appeared at the Fat Man's side. "What should we do, boss?"

"Get the damn music back on and get everyone else focused on the girls. I'll sort this out here," he bellowed.

The lackey scurried away and in a moment Def Leppard blared from the speakers again.

"Let me see your ID," the Fat Man demanded of Dick.

"Wh-why? You already did, at the door."

"Now, pipsqueak or I call the cops."

Dick reluctantly got the fake ID from his wallet and handed it to him.

"Hmmph. Just what I thought," said the Fat Man before turning to Cy. "Let me see your ID, tough guy," and then to the other Titan boys, "Let me see all your ID's."

They all reached into their wallets and turned over their fake ID's.

"They ain't 21, aint' they!" groaned one of the four idiots rubbing the shoulder that had smashed into a table when he landed on it after Roy threw him.

The two huge security guys from outside the club now waddled up to the owner.

"Any trouble here, boss?" they said trying to look menacing to the mostly slender boys who didn't seem to buy the act at all.

"May-be," the Fat Man drawled. "Look at this mark, here," he said pointing a pudgy finger at one fake ID. "And the way that picture is against that background," he said gesturing to another. "These boys are all in here with fake ID's," he said and handed all seven fake ID's to the greasy little lackey who hurried away with them.

The other Titan boys were looking for Dick to respond, to offer up some kind of strategy but he was paralyzed by a sudden resumption of feelings of guilt at both using fake ID's and being in a strip club.

"I don't know who started this," said the Fat Man to the Titans boys. "But I'll call the cops on the whole bunch of you kids! Phony I.D.'s are kind of frowned on with all the homeland security shit goin' around. All yer rich daddies and mommies will like finding out their little trust fund babies now have records, won't they?"

The incognito Titans boys gulped. The Fat Man waved the four idiots off and they disappered toward the other end of the club.

"Bruce will never let me hear the end of it," muttered Dick in Wally's ear.

"Flash'll be so disappointed!" whispered Wally back to him.

The Fat Man surveyed all seven boys with a smile. Wally didn't like he he was particularly looking at both him and Dick. He started waddling slowly around them, glass crushing under his shoes while, in the background, one song ended and another started blaring. New dancers emerged from the back room and employees righted chairs and tables that had been overturned in the fight.

"You boys are gonna have to pay me for everything you broke. And it's all high quality stuff. Nothin' but the best. This is a gentleman's club."

"Ha! It's a den of the lowest common denominator and every table, chair and light in here is the cheapest junk possible," declared Garth.

"Shut up, you! You boys did at least 3,000 dollars damage to my place-"

"That's ludicrous!"

At that moment the greasy little lackey returned to the fat man.

"Scanned 'em in, boss and shot 'em over to the other offices, too."

"I said shut up, dark eyes. What were you doin' in here anyway? You barely glanced at any of my girls."

"I'm a . . gentleman!"

"Uh huh. Sure. I think you were a little more interested in your handsome friends, weren't you?"

Garth sputtered a denial.

"Don't matter. You got some reeeeeeeeal pretty boy friends," he said, continuing to waddle around them all as an employee following, hunched over behind him and vacuumed with a dustbuster after each step.

"You boys didn't seem to be able to handle bein' the audience. Maybe yer better suited to bein' the . . entertainment?"

"What?!" Dick positively screeched.

"You heard me. Yer some right . . pretty boys. If you don't want me goin' to the police right now then go through that door over there and trade a few hours of yourselves for your freedom," he said pointing with one flabby arm. "Take your clothes off and we'll be in to pick four of ya in a minute."

The Titan boys were stunned. They looked to Dick and Roy, the master strategists for the next move.

"Thirty minutes of being a chippendales dancer in black tights and a bow tie. So what? muttered Roy to Dick though the others heard hiim as well. But the Atlantean was adamant.

"Ha! We'll never submit to being active participants in this tawdry commerce!" vowed Garth.

The fat man just smiled at the atlantean. "Fine. Have it your way. See how your families deal with you," he said and flipped open his cell phone then dialed 9-1-1. Before the first ring, Dick Grayson's hand grabbed it and pressed the red, call end button.

"Alright. Alright. Just . . don't call the police."

The fat man smiled and pointed again to the door at one side of the club and seven super powered teen boys shuffled off in that direction.