Chapter 2

Speedy's always considered himself a pretty easy-going guy. Run into him on the street? He'll forget about it after a couple minutes. Rob a bank? He'll haul your ass to jail but won't harbor any hard feelings the next time you need a loan. Flirt with his girl? Speedy's never minded a little competition.

Until now.

He glares at the Mohawk-donning, smirking boy who'd had Raven up against a wall a couple moments before. The boy is currenttly rolling his eyes as Rachel Berry lays into him about "harassing new students and jeopardizing any chance of new membership and therefore her future career as a star…" Speedy stops listening after that and focuses instead of Puck.

He has to admit, the other boy is well-muscled, tall, and could probably be considered good looking. Any other girl, and he would have relished the competition. Probably welcomed it as a well-needed challenge. Any other girl—but it wasn't any other girl.

It was Raven. Stoic, mysterious Raven with her sharp tongue and cool head, who never reacts to his flirting even after they go from casual acquaintances to good friends. The Raven who'd placed a cool hand on his thigh and kept him from losing his leg to Trident's poison barbs even as he shivered at her proximity. It was bad enough that he suspected Wonder Boy had a thing for her—there was no way he'd let some punk-ass civilian get in his way too.

"Roy? Roy!" Speedy looks down at an impatiently scowling Raven. He blinked, taking her appearance in for the first time. "What are you wearing, Rae?" It's not the first time he's seen her in civilian clothes—but definitely the first time he's seen her in a blouse that ended just a little higher than her skin-tight jeans, revealing a sliver of midriff.

"Eyes up here, Roy. Just because I'm not up to my usual power level doesn't mean I can't kick your ass for gawking." Raven's eyebrow is raised, her voice is sarcastic, but Speedy thinks he sees just a bit of red in her cheeks. He grins, purposely invading her private space. "I'd like to see you try, sweetheart." If Puck was able to get so close—

Raven ducks easily away, punching him in the shoulder. "Have your pissing contest somewhere else," she orders, "What happened?" Her voice lowers, and Speedy thinks wryly that Rachel Berry's lecture is excellent cover for their covert conversation.

He shrugs. "Last thing I know, I'm kicking monkey butt and the next—boom. I'm in the girl's bathroom and she's threatening to call the police on me." He jerks his head towards a still ranting Rachel. "Her name's Rachel Berry, by the way. She's the leader of the glee club." Raven looks confused, so he explains. "Glee club's sort of like a performance thing where they sing and dance competitively. Puckerman didn't tell you?"

She ignores his cheap shot at Puck and glances at him. "Did you still have your bow? Other weapons?" His uniform is gone as well, leaving him with a loose T-shirt and jeans. Her eyes travel up to his face, and she stops, momentarily stunned. "Roy, your mask—"

"You've seen me my eyes before, Rae," he pointed out, "I haven't been attacked yet, and/or proposed to by screaming fangirls either, so here, wherever "here" is, is far enough away that it's not going to make a difference. I can hardly go around wearing a mask all the time, and sunglasses will only draw attention." He winks, bright green eyes glinting mischievously. "'Sides, I need to woo you away from Mohawk with these babies."

Raven ignores that. "Ok, my turn." She points to herself. "I'm Rachel Roth. Same civilian name, so it shouldn't get confusing. Robin'll probably guess that's the name I've chosen, but Wally and Jinx might slip up a little. Speaking of which, do you have any idea where they are? I want to hit Wally for rendering me powerless."

Speedy shoot his head. "As much as I'd like to see that, I haven't seen them." Her last sentence registered, and he raised an eyebrow. "You're powerless?"

Raven nodded. "I'm not completely out of power—but my reserves are down. I can probably still sense things that I have a strong enough bond with, but not much else." She stopped, "Of course!" Sitting down in her usual lotus position, she closed her eyes and began to murmur quietly under her breath.

Speedy watches as the muscles in her neck and shoulders relax. She opens one eye and jerks her head towards the still talking Rachel. "Distract them. I have to concentrate if I'm going to find Robin."

I can probably still sense things that I have a strong enough bond with…

Damn. He knew the Boy Wonder was competition.

Rachel Berry was not having a good day—even by her standards. She woke up, to quote one of her favorite Broadway stars, "feeling like shit," and from there it just got worse. Since arriving to school, she'd been slushied a total of three times, and two of those times Jacob Ben-Israel swooped in with his camera and took highly inappropriate pictures. She swore she really was going to get that boy arrested for sexual harassment.

She'd been in the bathroom, trying in vain to wash the slushie out of her hair and fervently hoping that she wouldn't get slushied again—she was down to her last pair of clothes—when she suddenly realized there was a boy lying on the ground. She'd frowned,—she'd been positive she was alone—noted that what he was doing was probably highly unsanitary considering the various activities she knew had gone on said bathroom floor, and then promptly shrieked like her dads had taught her.

Now, baby girl, they'd coached a five-year old Rachel, if you ever find yourself alone with a strange boy, we want you to scream like your hair's on fire. You've got a good set of lungs on you, and we know you can do it. Show daddy, ok? They'd finally stopped with the lessons after their neighbors called the police and the social workers came expecting to find abuse, but by then Rachel had the lesson drilled into her head.

She didn't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't for the boy to stand up, holding his head, and ask her wearily is she could please stop. Please stop. As in, actual manners. Rachel Berry hasn't encountered a boy with those since Finn broke up with her, and despite her steadfast belief in her future adoration by the male population, (after she becomes a star), she'd started to wonder whether high school civility from them was just too much to ask.

And yet, here it was, a high-school boy saying please. Ok, so he was basically asking her to please shut up, but Rachel Berry was never one of those picky types. And he was attractive too—with lean muscles enhanced by the way he wore his clothes and a casual sensuality that reminded her of Puck—except Puck would never say "please" to her. Ever.

Speedy started to get uncomfortable after the girl's staring drew from a couple seconds to a minute. Thankfully, she'd stopped her screaming, but she was still blocking the door and he wasn't sure if he could slip out without her snapping out of her daze and freaking out again.

He could not believe, out of all the place he could have been transported to, it had to be the girl's bathroom. Ollie would bust a gasket—assuming he ever saw his former mentor again. That meant getting past this human fire alarm. "Excuse me," he said, keeping his voice polite, "Can you tell me exactly where I am?"

Her eyes snapped back into focus, a semi-manic gleam filling them. "Oh, are you a new student? You are currently stationed in the girl's restroom on the west wing of McKinley High." Speedy was about to cut in, thank her, and get out of there, but she barreled on, "My name is Rachel Barbara Berry, and I apologize for my extra-ordinary vocal chords. You see, my fathers trained me from a precocious age in the art of vocal defense against prospective male attacks, and therefore when I saw you prostrate in a highly inappropriate area, my natural instincts kicked in."

She beams at him, "But perhaps I should slow down. I have been told that my extensive vocabulary combined with my background of vocal training can result in long and monotonous speeches, though I cannot see how my voice can ever be called monotonous especially since I spend so much effort enhancing it with extreme emotional power." She paused to take a breath and Speedy finally saw his chance.

"Roy," he said, holding out his hand, "Roy Harper." He was taking a gamble here, making sure they hadn't simply been transported to another city back in the Titan universe. Rachel Barbara Berry doesn't scream again, or leap at him, or scoff in disbelief, so he assumes that here, wherever "here" is, is no where near Star City. Or Jump City. Or the world he'd just come from.

"Very pleasant to meet you, Roy Harper," she says, "Do you happen to be a new student who has perhaps lost his way? If so, I have an above-average memory and that, combined with my years of experience as an attendee of this school, shall take it upon myself to escort you until you have mastered the various passages yourself…"

Roy quickly weighs the pros and cons of answering her question—despite her tangent, he assumes she still wants an answer—and instead decides to wait until he's found another Titan to compare notes with. "Something like that. Listen, have you seen a—" he pauses. He can hardly describe his friends' costumes, now can he? If they all arrived like him, they'd be wearing civilian clothes. "Anyone new?" he finishes, "I got lost from my group of friends."

"Unfortunately, I have not," Rachel says, "However, if you would like, I shall accompany you and help you in your search." She sails out of the bathroom, and Roy follows. The hallways are deserted—thank goodness—but though that means its easier to spot stragglers, none of them turn out to be Robin, Jinx, Wally, or Raven.

"The bell is about to ring," Rachel points out after they've searched for awhile, "Shall I show to a quiet room where we can perhaps restructure our search plan? Perhaps, with better descriptions of your friends we can put up posters—"

She stops at the door of a small room and pauses, nose wrinkling in disgust. "It seems that Noah has again decided to engage this room for his inappropriate sexual activities, despite my repeated warnings, threats to place cameras, and powerpoints illustrating the sanitation problems with this arrangement."

She stomps over to swing open the door, and Roy observes a boy pressing a girl against the wall, bringing his lips down to hers. She's a sexy thing, with shapely legs and short cropped black hair. Her head turns as she leans to avoid the kiss and Speedy catches sight of violet eyes.

Raven?

Rachel Berry watched with some satisfaction when Roy hauled Noah away from the poor girl he was undoubtedly harassing. She'd launched into a very detailed expose detailing all the fine points of his abhorrent behavior, and was currently lambasting him, driving her points home with a finger to his chest.

To her fury, Noah doesn't seem to care all that much about getting caught, if his eye-rolling is anything to go by. She notices that Roy, who'd been talking to the other Rachel moments before, had walked over and ends her speech. Noah looks relieved, rubbing ears. "Hell, Berry, I swear your voice gets shriller every time you start yammering."

She opens her mouth, ready to launch into a lengthy protest and defense of her soprano voice, but Roy cuts in smoothly instead. "Don't mess with chicks who don't want you and you won't have to listen to it," he says, and Rachel hears the challenging tone in his voice.

Noah apparently hears it too. "I wouldn't say she didn't want me," he says, smirking, "She just needed a little persuasion before she admitted it." He licks his lips meaningfully and Rachel's head swivels to Roy, who's eyes are narrowed. Now this is drama, she thinks excitedly. With this kind of tension on the stage, our glee club could soar to new heights. We can expand, become respected, change the social hierarchy!

She's about to bring up (casually, of course), Roy's need to join the glee club, when the other Rachel walks over. "If you boys are finished?" she asks dryly, "I think I know where Robin is."