1
The tower is a hive of activity. All around auxiliary titans are shouting, demanding to know what's going on and what happened to their friends. Flash and Jinx are sitting over on the couch, patiently waiting for us to tell them what happened. Bart's been the Flash for awhile now, ever since Wally died. I think he'd be proud of him.
A loud hiss echoes throughout the room, announcing his presence. Without even looking up I know it's him, the volume level dropping to non-existent is all the reassurance I need. Everyone always stops talking when Nightwing enters a room. Well, everyone who doesn't remember him as the traffic light.
He looks in my direction and nods, his usual greeting. Gathering everyone in a semicircle around us, he gives me the go ahead to start the presentation. Typing in a few commands on my left bicep, I pause as I await the interruption I can already hear coming down the hall, cybernetic hearing does that for you.
Bursting through the door, panting, a red haired, blue eyed man catches his breathing before looking at the crowd. Already Bart's trying to hide his face.
"Strewth, am I late?" He asks, looking around the room for someone he knows, "This is the Titans meeting, right? Is that you Bart?"
Still staring at the ground, Bart motions for him to come over. Ignoring the gesture, the man continues to ask questions.
"Where'd you park?"
"Owen! C'mon!" Bart shouts, making Jinx jump.
Climbing through the sea of bodies, he mutters things like "I made it" and "Nearly drowned getting here." Mumbling his apologies, Bart motions for me to continue. Finishing loading up the specs to the main computer and inserting a disk into the mainframe, I nod at Nightwing to start.
"Titans," He says, "As you've no doubt noticed, someone has kidnapped everyone of inhuman origin. Raven, Superman, everyone." He says, pausing for his words to sink in.
"What you may not know, is who has done it or why. And that is what we intend to explain to you in the next half an hour or so," He continues, opening up a holographic image of the Earth and moon, "We've recently been contacted by both Raven and Starfire, asking for help. They're both fine but they are in danger."
"Yesterday afternoon, an alien spacecraft entered into Earth's orbit. Until recently we didn't know what they wanted." He says, calling up an image of the ship, floating between Earth and the moon, "This is what the situation looked like ten minutes before they went missing."
Pressing a final button, the holographic Earth is surrounded by perhaps several dozen alien ships, "And this is what it looked like when they were taken. What this means is that any ship attempting to leave Earth would be instantly vaporized," The red haired man from earlier raises his hand, oblivious of Bart's roll of the eyes, "Yes, Captain Boomerang?"
"What exactly do these blokes want with us? Why capture just them?" He asks.
"I was getting to that. About the time of the Mayans, these aliens landed here. The natives thought they were gods and held several ceremonies in their honor. During their time on Earth sacrifices were made, wars were fought, and thousands were killed."
"The aliens were horrified. Getting back on their ships, they left us with a warning. They'd be back in the year 2012, either we stop our murderous ways or face extinction. Well they're back, and from what they've seen our wars have only gotten worse."
"What are we going to do?" Arsenal asks from his position on the couch, next to Mia Dearden, the new Speedy.
"We're gonna fight back." I say, standing up to tower over the crowd.
"Exactly," Nightwing says, smiling as though we'd planned exactly how this meeting would go, "According to Raven, the aliens have given us six months. Not out of kindness mind you, rather, it's going to take them that long to get all their ships in position to destroy Earth with the least amount of outward damage."
"Several other heroes have already banded together and are working on a base of operations as we speak," I say, taking up my cue from Dick, "From there, they gonna find a way to stop the bastards and make sure we don't die. Now I don't know about all y'all but I'm good with living. So I'm gonna go and help out, and I know Nightwing, Changeling, and Terra are coming with me."
"The question is," Dick says, picking up where I left off, "Who's coming with us? You can sit around if you want to, hoping we'll take care of it or just spending your remaining time with loved ones, we won't hold it against you."
"Or you can join us and stand up against them," Gar says, stepping out from the crowd.
"We've decided our lives are worth living," Terra adds, coming to my side, "Now you've got to ask yourselves that same question."
Our speech is met with a roaring cacophony of heroes all volunteering at once, Boomerang being the loudest. After revealing the location of the new base, we all go our separate ways to pack what we're going to bring with us.
Walking down the hall to my room, I'm not at all surprised to find Terra trailing along beside me. Wrapping an arm around her, I feel a burst of curiosity targeted at the huge grin plastered on her face.
"What are you so happy about?" I ask, "Haven't you heard? The world's about to end."
"Yeah... but that couldn't have gone better if we'd had a script." She says, smiling up at me the whole time.
"You got that right." I say, scooping her up in my arms as she gives out an indignant squeal, laughing all the way.
"So where are we going?" She asks, cuddling into my chest, despite it being made of metal.
"You, are going to your room and I, am going to my room. It's called packing Terra." I answer with a grin as I set her down in front of her door and open it for her.
"Fine then, party pooper," She replies, mock pouting. I turn to go but she calls for me to turn back around, "Don't forget to pack this " She says, flinging a thong from inside her room at me before closing the door.
I stare dumbly at her door for a few moments, the thong resting on my right shoulder, before turning to go to my room muttering, "Damn girl's gone outta her mind..."
Standing by the door, I watch as, one by one, the other heroes file out the doors, the main titans going to their rooms. The last to leave, Boomerang, I stop before he can make it out the door.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?" I ask, trying to keep my intimidation techniques in check.
"Sure thing, mate," He replies walking over to the kitchen with me, "What can I do for ya?" He asks.
"Look, Boomer, I don't want you to take offense to this but why are you doing all this? We've worked together before, I've never really gotten the sense that you care about people." I say, trying to keep my voice as calm and level as possible.
"You're right, Dick. I don't give a bloody bunyip 'bout those other blokes. But Bart's family, ya know?" He replies, casually dismissing my look of shock.
"Family?" I ask, unsure of how that happened. As far as I knew, Bart was born sometime in the late 30th century.
"Only family I've got left. My mum was some bird in the 30th century, not sure how dad got there or how I got here, but we did. Bart's my half-brother. I mean, I can't exactly track down my other family and say 'Hey, I'm your great, great, great, great, couple more greats, great grandson' to some twenty-something year old guy, now can I?"
"I suppose not..." I reply, trying to imagine just what said person's reaction would be.
"You see, Dick.. Sometimes you've gotta stick by family through things you wouldn't normally do. If Bart wants to go play hero, well then I'll just have to go along and make sure he doesn't get killed," He says, smiling the whole time, "You mean to tell me you haven't had to stick by Bats through something before?"
My whole body tenses, remembering the reason I left Bruce. I don't answer him, don't even look at him again. I just get up and walk away, all the while thinking about Boomer's family advice.