The Titans said goodbye to the departing members of Titans East and the auxiliary members from the roof and the jets had just barely lifted off when Raven turned to Beast Boy.

"The Tough party and the Cool party?" she moaned.

"Alright, it could sound better."

"Not exactly a testimonial on behalf of your being leader," she muttered.

"Oh, go easy on green buns," chuckled Jinx from Wally's side where they leaned against each other as Beast Boy stomped off. "I think he was right that someone else had to run for it. We couldn't just have Bee and Robin."

"Fine. But the tough party and the cool party?"

"Is it any dumber than having a jackass or an elephant as your party's symbol?" asked Kid Flash.

"He's got you there, Raven," laughed Cyborg.

They all made their way to the elevators and then down to their rooms. Once inside their room, Wally immediately took Jinx in his arms and spun her around so that her back was against the door. He nibbled at her lower lip.

"Mmmm. I know what that means when mmmm you start mentioning mmmm guys' buns."

"Did you notice Dick?" she whispered as she availed herself of the contours of her husband.

"Whoa! And I thought you were horny when you mentioned buns-ow-!"
She slapped him.

"Oh gods! To be called horny by you, mister zero refraction time! And you know what I meant. Robin. He was awful quiet wasn't he?"

"He's . . not exactly mister garrulous normally."

"I think he's taking this as a bit of a rejection by everyone."

"But that's not what it is!" he whispered, rubbing the end of his nose gently against hers trying to shift the focus of their discussion.

She chuckled and turned to one side.

"He's your best friend!"

"Okay. I'll check on him . . later."

She gave him that stare, the one that said "You'd better mean it speedster! You're not just putting me off so that we can get it on!"

He nodded solemnly. She smiled.

And then they got it on.

Meanwhile, up on the 14th floor, Robin stared at the huge computer screen at the communications center console. The 72 inch screen displayed a case file entry with a slowly flashing cursor awaiting an entry for the barometric pressure at the time of the team's fight with a stray group of Immortus's flunkies two days before.

And Robin stared.

And he stared.

And he stared.

The patient little cursor flashed in place, waiting for an entry for half an hour. It waited while a motionless Robin recounted in excruciating Bat fashion every word said, every facial expression, every example of body language of his friends and colleagues. The patient little cursor didn't move on from it's position in the box for the entry of barometric pressure until a single bitterly muttered word, "Election!" passed the keyboard operator's lips.

And meanwhile, out by the water's edge of the tiny island on which Titans Tower stood, Beast Boy flipped the pages of a large book.

"Ehh. Giant prehistoric cockroach. Not that useful."

He flipped to the next page with a sigh. This was training and research for a changeling, finding new and useful forms to include in his repertoire. Books about prehistoric animals were particularly useful as many of the creatures depicted within were extremely powerful, even if they couldn't survive a giant asteroid striking the Yucatan peninsula and clouding the planet over for years. Luckily, that sort of thing seldom happened in the Titans' various fights.

Beast Boy, now more man than boy at six feet one half inch tall, flipped to the next page of the book.

"Ahhh! That's promising!" It was a prehistoric snake, incredibly long with a body nearly as thick as the fuselage of a jet airliner. He stared at the picture for several seconds than concentrated on the image of it in his head.

At that moment, a boat happened to be cruising in the bay halfway between the Tower's island and the Jump City financial district on the opposite edge of the bay. It was one of those boats that could carry a hundred or so people and that functioned as a floating series of bars so that couples could talk with the night time silhouette of the city in the background. Of course, Titans Tower was always a landmark to be pointed out by the captain. And, occasionally, there was something to see. Once, the T-Jet took off from the Tower and zoomed right over them. Another time, a boatful of tipsy onlookers gaped at the sight of Kid Flash sprinting across the bay right in front of them. At least, they were pretty sure it was Kid Flash. The blur was like a band of yellow on top of a band of red. But it had been a while since the captain of the Jump City Bay Cruiser had seen anything particularly interesting. He alerted the passengers, those who weren't yet blind drunk, to the presence of Titans Tower off the starboard side. But it just stood there, a silent T shaped sentinel. The boat turned in its usual spot and only a couple guys who'd made the novice drinker's mistake of starting off too fast could still see it from the ship's stern as the boat was finishing its turn. Two pals, both in their mid 20's, new to Jump City, working for an accounting firm and not drinkers, had tried to impress some of the long time employees of the firm. They didn't impress them much and certainly wouldn't if they puked as both now thought they might. As one bent over thinking he might retch, he took a deep breath realizing that he wasn't going to puke, at least not just then.

And that was when it rose out of the water, the head of a snake, 20 feet wide, with a mouth that could have swallowed him whole or maybe just used him to floss between its giant, razor sharp teeth.

He pointed at it, and turned frantically to his buddy. "S-s-s-s-s-sn-sn-sn-snaysnaysnay . . . snake! Snake!"

But his buddy had passed out.

He ran to get someone else from the group, nearly tearing the lapel of his jacket in the process. "Look!" he shouted, pointing behind the ship but not impressing his boss's secretary with the sight of the gently undulating surface of Jump City bay that presented itself. She raised one eyebrow and folded her arms.

"There was . . there was a sea monster!"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm still not sure who held his liquor worse, you or him," she said pointing to his passed out pal on the deck.

Beast Boy stepped back up on the island smiling to himself. "Sorry dude," he muttered in apology to the guy who'd seen him. "It's a changeling thing."

He shook his gloved hands dry and picked up the book again. The next page was some sort of brontosaurus cousin. Ehh. That didn't do much for him. He already had brontosaurus among the forms he could use. He'd changed into one a couple times. He felt so slow and sluggish as a brontosaurus. All it was good for was being huge and having incredible mass. One time Gizmo was going to get away from the scene of a fight in some sort of flying disk, jet thing. He'd changed himself into a bront and sat his massive green butt on the thing. The engines sputtered then burned out trying to take off with his added weight.

"About all being a bront's good for," he muttered recalling the incident and turned to the next page, at the sight of which his eyes lit up. Utahraptor! He'd heard of this one, biggest therapod. He'd been trying to find a good picture. The book had both a picture of a full fossilized skeleton in a museum and a computer simulation of what one must have looked like. Beast Boy stared at the picture. Utahraptor. He stared several moments more and then formed the same image in his mind. Instantly his body changed from the green skinned guy the haute couture models had loved so much backstage at the last Paris fashion shows into a fast, powerful dinosaur predator. He trotted around the island some and tested out his strength throwing small boulders before trying some jumping and sprinting. Then he morphed back into his handsome self with a nod of his head.

"That could be useful," he muttered to himself. He spent another hour going through the book seeing if there were any other animals that might be useful for him to turn himself into in a fight. Then he went back up to the Tower and up to the 14th floor to the kitchen. He could see Robin at the communications center typing away. Beast Boy rolled his eyes as he grabbed some tofu from the fridge. Case files. But he thinks he's the only one doing anything.

He swallowed a couple mouthfuls of tofu then closed the fridge and made his way to the elevators, the -taktak taktaktaktaktak- of Robin's typing audible in the background. And the more he thought about it going down to the 13th floor and then into his room, the more it bothered him.

He's mister responsible and I'm just the green goofball even though I was working just as hard as him!

And the more he thought of the stereotypes people had of him, the more it fed into his worries about the coming election. He was running against Bee for the nomination of the Cool party. What if she won 20 to nothing? There were 20 people in the Cool party and 20 in the Tough party, weren't there? What if she won 20 to nothing? He imagined the results being read off and everyone laughing at him. Ahahaha! Ahahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!!!

Beast Boy was nearly hyperventilating in the middle of his room. "I'm not the stupid little class clown any more," he muttered. "I gotta . . . I gotta make plans . . use . . strategery so I at least do okay."

But what should I do? He was stumped. He pondered. And he pondered. What-what can I do to persuade people to take me seriously?

And then it came to him. Of course! I need to persuade people. Who better?!

He reached for his communicator on his nightstand and quickly pressed 7 buttons.

*773339

He could hear two rings on the other end of the line and then that certain casually cool voice.

"Talk to me."

"Roy, it's me, Gar."

"I saw your number. You're lucky you didn't call me five minutes earlier. I wouldn't have been out of that model's room."

"You're not at East's Tower?"

"Nope. Apartment complex next door to Star City model management. But I'm on my way back."

"You had a call?"

"Yeah, from the new russian girl there, black hair, green eyes. Nice and curvy, not anorexic like some of 'em. Really hot."

Beast boy sighed. "Look, I-I want to ask you for a favor," said Beast Boy and he could hear Speedy getting into a car on the other side of the line.

"Gar, I prefer to think of my loving as a gift, not a favor."

"That's not what I was asking about!" groaned Beast Boy and he heard Speedy's carefree laugh on the other end.

"I know, Gar. I talked to some of the girls at the Gotham Fashion show, the spring summer 09 show. Yeah, they remembered you from the Jump City show, greenie."

"Well . . I . . I . . "

"Dude. You don't have to apologize. This is Speedy you're talking to, not bat mitzvah. I understand having fun. Anyway, they spoke . . very highly of you. You made a big impression on them, Gar. Big. And you had that boy Jeremy, that french model, all frustrated. He wanted you so bad."

"Uh . . yeah, I realized that. When a guy keeps trying to stick his hand down the back of my pants in front of other people back stage, I understand that he wants me."

"I had to console him for a long time. A loooong time," chuckled Speedy.

Beast Boy just looked at his communicator, shaking his head. Speedy!?! "Look, dude. I . . I want your help."

"With what, Gar?"

"This election thing, the . . the me against Bee, the primary."

"Oh yeah, right. The Cool party," said Speedy with a chuckle.

Beast Boy sighed. Fine. Whatever. "I . . I don't want to get wiped out."

"Bee thinks she'll kill you."

"What?!"

"She's so sure of it, she's already planning her campaign against Robin."

"What?!"

"She was at the communications center making notes when we got back and everything I saw on paper was about Robin, how to compare herself to him. She's taking you for granted, Gar. She thinks a matchup with Robin is inevitable."

"But . . but I led the comeback against the Brotherhood of Evil!"

"Cute little goofball."

"What?!"

"Well, not so little any more. You're taller than Robin now! Hahaha! And, like I say, you made a . . big impression on those models. But, yeah, goofball."

"That's the way people think about me? Goofball?!"

"Look. Totally seriously Gar. It's just an image. I mean, look at me! I'm a sophisticated-Hey, hold on a sec, I'm about to switch to vertical takeoff mode."

Beast Boy listened and heard the typical sounds of a T-Car being shifted into flying mode and then the whoosh of the engines as the T-Car lifted off then the sound diminishing.

"Okay, Gar, where was I? Oh yeah, image. Your image isn't the truth. It's just a perception, Gar. Everyone thinks I do nothing but bed models."

"Uh . . you just left a model's apartment, dude."

"Well, yeah, but that's not all I do. I'm like you, Gar. I spend hours and hours working on new arrows and working out at the top dojo here in Star City. I've seen you with your zoology books trying to find new forms. But sooooooome people think their typing away at case files is the only thing that counts. She doesn't talk about it but Bee's almost the same way as Robin."

"I . . I need to make everybody appreciate that I'm not just some goofball. I just want to make a good showing against Bee. Can . . can you help me?"

"It's an interesting proposal, Gar."

"I thought of you right away because I realized I need to persuade people. And you're good at . . at persuading people."

Speedy chuckled then said, "Hold on a sec. I'm about to land on our roof."

Gar heard Speedy working the controls then the telltale whoosh of the flying T-Car engines pushing downward as Speedy landed on the roof.

"Okay. Sorry Gar."

"No sweat."

"I'm intrigued, Gar. I really am. I love competition. I love puzzles. I love games. Ask Garth. He was tutored by a chess grandmaster down in Atlantis and assumed he'd wipe me out at that game but I beat him. Okay, I had to put a piece or two in my mouth and simultate certain things and turn around a few times to distract him-"

Gar rolled his eyes.

"But I beat him. I figured out what it would take and did it. I love the puzzle, the fight, the pressure to figure out how to win. I love it, Gar."

"But this is a different kind of fight, Speedy."

"That's what makes it so interesting. A purely mental fight about images."

"Can you help me?"

"Sure, Gar. I'll be there later in the afternoon. You can beat Bee."

"Beat her?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"I-I was just hoping to not get my ass kicked."

"Ya gotta aim higher than that, Gar. Trust me. I'll have you winning."

"Um, okay. See ya!"

Beast Boy hung up and took a deep breath. There was so much to think about. Winning? He hadn't even considered the possibility of winning. Hmmmmmm. He daydreamed about the possibility for a while then started playing one of his video games while waiting for Speedy to arrive at the Tower.

A little over an hour later, Speedy came down from the roof and almost bumped into Robin on the 14th floor.

It was a moment that should have come with a Sergio Leone soundtrack guitar riff from Fistful of Dollars or maybe the The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Even with masks on, each knew that the other was looking only at him. They both knew right away.

Spobin!!

"When?" was all Robin said.

"Five minutes," was all Speedy said.

Kid Flash happened to be going by in the hall and saw the two of them stare at each other in that certain confrontational way.

"Alright!" he chirped and followed Speedy toward the elevators.

"Spobin?" he asked excitedly.

Speedy gave only the slightest nod. That's the way it was with the two of them. Once they'd agreed to another of their incredible combats, they were laser focused on it.

"Alright!" said Kid Flash and he ran to tell the others. He sped to Cyborg's door and knocked a restrained 100 times in a second.

"Cy! Cy! Spobin! . . . . Spobin!!!"

He heard a muffled "What?" from inside and then the door flung open and Cyborg faced him.

"Spobin, in five minutes!"

"Booyeah!" shouted Cyborg. "I didn't even know Speedy was here. I'll be right down there. Just gotta save some debugging results on my new energy imprint detection array."

Kid Flash nodded then zipped down the hall to Starfire's room and, again, knocked a restrained 100 times in a second.

"Star! Are you in there, Star? Spobin!"

She came to the door right away with a look of excitement. "Friend Speedy is here?"

"Yup. And they gave each other that stare. It's on. Spobin! In five minutes!"

"I will make the snack for us to have in the stands, friend Kid Flash."

Kid Flash paused. Starfire's cooking.

"Um . . you don't have to do that, Star."

"No. I want to do something for my friends. I will bring the snacks. I must hurry," she added then flew off down the hallway."

Kid Flash zipped down the hall to Beast Boy's room. Another 100 knocks.

"Gar! Spobin!"

The door flung open.

"Speedy's here already?"

"You knew he was coming?"

"Yeah. He's here to talk with me about the election."

"Well, first . . . Spobin!"

"Do they have to?"

"Gar. Do speedsters have to run fast? Do changelings have to take other forms? It's in their blood, Gar. It's a release for both of them. Besides, it's so cool to watch."

"That's true. It is cool. I'll be right there."

Kid Flash zipped down the hall and vibrated right through theh door to his and Jinx's room. His wife was lying on their bed on her side.

"Honey! Spobin!"

Jinx marked her page and closed the book.

"Roy's here?"

"Uh huh. And Spobin! Total Spobin. I saw it. It was like one of those Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns," he said then imitated one of the sound tracks. "Wadawadawahhhhhhhh wahwahwah! Bam! They just looked at each other then Roy started down to the combat training room."

"When?"

"In five minutes, probably three now."

Jinx got up from the bed and started toward the door. Kid Flash zipped over to the next door and gave 100 knocks to the door to Raven's room.

"Why do you do it that way?" he heard here groan from inside.

"Because then you know it's-"

The door swung open and Raven appeared with her cloak off.

" . . . me."

He stared. She looked so . . good without the cloak.

"Yes?"

"Oh . . Spobin!"

"Really?"

Kid Flash nodded 100 times in a second.

"When did Roy get here?"

"Just a minute ago. They just looked at each other. Bam. Spobin!"

"Well . . normally, fighting doesn't interest me but . . Spobin . . "

She grabbed her cloak off a table by the door, closed the door to her room and started for the elevator. Kid Flash started to join her. Jinx and Beast Boy were already in the elevator. But Raven put her hand out to stop him.

"Did you tell Arrowette?"

"She's still here?"

Raven nodded. "Room 17."

Kid Flash zipped off to the other end of the hall as the elevator doors closed. He got to room 17 and gave a restrained 100 knocks, sighing. The others had no idea how much he slowed himself down for them.

"Arrowette!? Are you in there? Arrowette?"

The female teen archer appeared at the door.

"What is it?" she asked, thinking it might be a call from the police or a mission.

"Spobin!" grinned Kid Flash.

"Spobin?"

"Spobin!" he nodded. "In a couple minutes."

He seemed about to zip off. "Wait!" She tugged on one skin tight yellow sleeve. "What's . . what's 'Spobin'?"

"Speedy . . . and Robin. Come on! We're all gonna watch!"

She was still perplexed.

"Spobin? Is that like . . Flinx?"

"What?"

"You know, Flash and Jinx, like they call you two in the tabloids. Flinx. The name for the couple. So . . Spobin is . . . "

She smirked.

Kid Flash's eyes went wide.

"What?! No. They're not . . . . I mean, they don't . . . . I mean, as far as I know, anyway. It's not like I go into their rooms or anything. I . . . But, no. No way! Not that there would be anything wrong with it if they did. But, I mean, they don't even really like each other. That's why they have the greatest training fights, the two of them, Speedy and Robin. It's like the best fistfight and sword fight and kung fu fight in the movies ever all rolled into one, every time. Speedy against Robin. Spobin."

"Why not 'Reedy'?"

"What?! No! That'd never work! No, it's Spobin. That's what us and East call it when they have one of their incredible training fights. They're really the best fighters. I mean, they don't have powers but they're so amazing. I pick up tricks from them every time. And, like I say, it helps that they don't like each other and that they're both so tough."

"Spobin huh?"

"Spobin," he nodded.

Arrowette closed the door behind herself and followed Kid Flash to the elevators where they were joined by Cyborg.

"How many of these things have they had?" she asked.

"Twenty three," answered Cyborg. "12-11 Robin's ahead. That's one of the great things about it. It's always so close. It's not like if I was fighting Captain Unitard here," said Cy lifting Kid Flash off the floor of the elevator by the scruff of the neck of his stretchy uniform to giggling from Arrowette.

Kid Flash swatted in vain at Cyborg's metal hand. "Hey! C'mon, Cy! Put me down. C'mon! Cy! It makes my uniform feel even tighter when you do that. C'mon, Cy! Put me down! Please Cy!"

Arrowette laughed at his exasperation. Finally, Cy put him down just as the elevator got to the observation level, 30 seats in three rows behind a thick glass viewing window all set on story up from the floor of the surprising large combat simulations room that measured nearly 200 feet on a side. Kid Flash sat next to Jinx and the others had the seats all around them. A minute later, Starfire came in with two huge bowls, two feet across each, filled to overflowing with what looked like a slightly off colored popcorn. She passed the bowls around. The others all glanced at them warily. Starfire's cooking. Beast Boy tossed a few pieces of the popcorn into his mouth with everyone else watching intently but trying to be furtive about it. He chewed and swallowed and smiled. Cyborg and Kid Flash glanced at each other. Hopefully he doesn't die. But Beast Boy smiled.

"Mmm. Good stuff," said Beast Boy to Starfire as he reached for another handful. "It's got a slightly different taste than regular popcorn. I like it."

Starfire smiled. The others all began digging in, too.

Down below them, Speedy entered the combat simulations room from one side. He was the picture of focus. This was not playboy Speedy or wiseass Speedy. This was Speedy, the world's greatest archer except for, perhaps, one person and the master of several martial arts. From the other end, Robin entered.

"Oh boy, Spobin!" muttered Kid Flash leaning forward in his seat.

Cyborg pressed a couple buttons on his forearm and was now speaking from an overhead speaker to Speedy and Robin.

"Okay, gentlemen. Today's setting is . . . "

He pressed another button on his forearm and a series of different words, "Open", "Factory" and "Food Court" among them flashed across one display before it stopped at the word "Warehouse".

" . . Warehouse. Today's setting is warehouse."

Neither Speedy nor Robin reacted in the slightest way at their positions just inside the doors on the left and right sides of the combat simulations room nearly 200 feet apart. Cyborg pressed another button on his forearm and the whole combat simulations room changed. Walls with gymnastic mat coverings flipped over to become cheap wood and metal. Huge squares of floor flipped over to become concrete surface with crates and boxes of various sorts. In just a few seconds, the room around the two combatants became for all outward appearances, the interior of just another Jump City warehouse.

"Okay gentlemen," said Cyborg and both teen fighters moved forward.

As the onlookers gawked from above, Robin sprinted forward while throwing three birdarangs at once. Speedy stopped and shot 3 arrows neatly taking out the birdarangs like oversized skeets. But it allowed Robin to get closer. And, in fact, those three birdarangs had been duds, with nothing in them, just decoys to occupy Speedy.

"Robin has to get close against Speedy," Kid Flash whispered to Arrowette. "He can't win a distance fight against an archer."

Arrowette nodded. This could be useful, to see how she, a fellow archer, should fight.

Robin was behind a wood crate now and the crate slowly moved forward. Speedy burst it open with a concussion grenade but Robin wasn't behind it. A birdarang skidded along the floor between some other crates then bounced off a back wall toward Speedy before exploding. Speedy had time to jump away but some of the arrows in his quivver went flying. No sooner was he up than Robin was leaping at him from behind a different crate. Speedy nearly speared him with his bow, catching a groaning Robin in the side. The shorter Titan immediately extended his bo-staff with a flick of one arm then stood up and advanced on Speedy. Speedy jumped back, drew an arrow but shot inexplicably wide of Robin. But then it made perfect sense because that arrow must have had some kind of powerful magnet as it ripped the metal bo-staff right out of Robin's hands as it went by and both arrow and bo-staff ended up lodged in the far wall.

Robin leaped and kicked at Speedy, "Aiiiiiiyah!" but only landed a glancing blow as the taller Titan was nearly as fast as he was. There followed five straight minutes of martial arts fighting better than anything in Enter the Dragon as the two endlessly resourceful teens kept turning momentary disadvantage into temporary advantage. Robin leaped at Speedy who dodged and shoved Robin as he went by, who crashed against a wall and found a discarded birdarang to throw at Speedy who ducked under the throw and continued low toward Robin and took him out with a leg sweep that put Robin on the ground from where he tripped up Speedy who rolled as he fell, grabbed Robin's cape and threw the smaller Titan against a trash can etc etc.

At one point the two were standing face to face throwing punches, kicks and elbows for nearly a minute, both shattering the sides of crates with punches and kicks barely dodged by the other. They ranged all over the 200 by 200 combat simulations room, making use of whatever was at hand for weapons, a chain busted loose from a gate as a whip, boards from the sides of crates as both clubs and shields, each other's gloves and belts for grip for throws. Everything was used as the two master fighters instantly assessing the available resources. The fight ebbed back and forth, Speedy seeming to have the upper hand initially with some excellent throws and roundhouse kicks and then Robin for the middle 10 minutes or so after getting Speeding to slightly inhale some sort of gas from a pellet in his utility belt that he withdrew as the two were grappling against a side wall. Speedy retreated and Robin scored some excellent punches and kicks but couldn't put the taller archer away while the gas was affecting him. All the while, both of them were ferociously focused, tremendously impressing Arrowette who'd never seen Spobin before.

Speedy finally won due to clever planning. That early exploding birdarang that had seemed to score a partial hit and cause some of Speedy's arrows to fly out of his quiver hadn't actually done nearly that much. Speedy was aware that Robin would try to bring the fight in close and that he wouldn't be able to fire off arrows if Robin did get close. He had thrown some arrows aside to specific locations to be available later in the fight. So, as a weary Robin charged a similarly fatigued Speedy and they both went crashing over a crate, Speedy spied a certain arrow out of the corner of his eye. Robin couldn't figure why Speedy had turned his back on him but had to take advantage. Speedy sprinted, dove, plucked the arrow off a forklift and threw it, with all his might, at charging Robin's feet. Instantly, the special directionally expanding glue shot upward from the Titan leader's feet, covering him in a nearly unbreakable rubbery coating up to his shoulders that stuck him to the spot and froze him in place.

Robin grunted, straining with all his might but stuck in place, in mid stride as Speedy, still wary, got up from the ground, went around back of Robin and did a slow motion kick, just touching the sole of one shoe to the back of Robin's neck. The shorter Titan sighed heavily and stopped struggling.

Arrowette thought wiseass Speedy might do something to mock helpless Robin but the archer immediately made his way to his utility belt across the room. It had somehow come off as they grappled at one point, and withdrew a certain metal capsule. Without a word he approached Robin and shattered it at his feet. The instantly drying glue that had made a statue of the smaller Titan immediately started to dissolve and the smaller Titan moved freely again. The two didn't shake hands. Robin nodded slightly. Speedy nodded back the same way and the two headed for the respective doors from which they'd entered.

"Booyeah. Awesome fight. 12 to 12 now," said Cyborg.

Arrowette talked about how impressive it was, the total focus both showed. "Are their fights always like this?" she asked.

"They're usually a bit longer," said Raven. "Twenty minutes seems a little short for them."

"Oh, hey, Star," said Kid Flash getting her attention before everyone walked away. "Good popcorn."

"Oh, it it not the popped corn," chirped Starfire.

Everyone stopped.

Kid Flash was afraid to ask. Those mustard laden casseroles. That jellyfish goulash. Oh god. He didn't want to know. But he had to ask. He'd eaten 37 handfuls. He held one more up in his red gloved hand.

"This isn't popcorn, Star?"

"Oh no. It looks very similar, but it is a Tamaranean delicacy, the corthell oculars," she said with a happy nod of the head.

"Wait-wait! Oculars?" asked an increasingly frantic Kid Flash.

"Yes. What you would call the eyeballs," she chirped matter of factly.

Kid Flash spit. Beast Boy spit. Cyborg spit.

Kid Flash went around the inside of his mouth with one red gloved finger trying to get any remnant of . . he shuddered. He couldn't say it to himself. Eccccch!!

"You fed us . . popped eyeballs!" shrieked Cyborg in a pitch higher than the others thought he could reach.

"Yes. They are small and when popped from the application of the heat from the waves of the micro, it looks just like the earth popcorn."

"You fed me animal parts!?" shrieked Beast Boy.

"Oh no, friend Beast Boy! The corthell is a plant. It grows to be nearly 50 feet across and has hundreds of eyeballs which it uses to scout for animals to lure into its many thousands of tendrils. It typically subsists on feenorfs, an animal very similar to what on earth is called a . . . goat. Yes."

"You . . fed us . . microwaved . . eyeballs . . from a plant that eats goats!?!" shouted a stunned Kid Flash. He noticed a few "kernels" on the yellow chest of his uniform. He frantically brushed them off. Jinx rolled her eyes at his squeamishness.

"They're good," she said and she and Raven both dug in to one huge bowl for additional handfuls.

"Mmmmm," agreed Raven. "They really are," she added and licked her fingers after finishing her handful.

The boys looked at them horrified.

Sorceresses!

Beast Boy couldn't wait for Speedy to meet him back up at his room on the 13th floor so that they could talk about the election and he could get the thought of eyeballs popped in the microwave out of his mind. At last, there was a knock at the door and a bruised Speedy walked in.

"So, you want to beat Bee?"

Beast Boy nodded. "Yeah, I do. The more I think about it, the more I want to. How do I do it?"

"Jujitsu. You turn her strength against her. I heard her talking to Argent and Superboy. She thinks it's a sure thing that she's going to face you. So you have to move right away while she's not even paying attention to you. You build up a base of support in the Cool party that she can't overcome while she's trying to curry favor with the people in the tough party."

"How do I do that?"

"I've been thinking about it. I've got some ideas."

"So, tell me!"