Chapter 3 — Spreading the Word

The scene shifts to Team Z's island, now that half of the month of deliberation has passed. Over the two years, they have been living without trouble and growing as a family. They have only one strange occurence—Danielle Harrington's birth. Her parents, Dep and Fortress, were shocked not only from the fact that Danielle came to them at 3 years old (the Bean Titans had an age detector). They did not know it, but the reason behind it was because she actually aged like a real horse does, with a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years—meaning that for every year, at least three or four passes for her. Dep and Fortress were even more surprised that she looked similar to Bonnie, who is now Danielle's aunt. She was a feist (type of dog), light tan-skinned, and had dark brown ears like her, but Danielle had short brown hair while Bonnie had long red hair. No one knew why this happened, but at least they have their eighth member of Team Z.

At the current time, Team Z are in a training session in their "mistified" Danger Room. Derby (aging normally now, age 12) had just discovered his wood element and used his first Wood Burst towards Thunderbolt. The blast was a green beam lined with spiraling tree bark and many razor leaves.

"Whoa... Derby, do that again." Thunderbolt said, smiling.

"Like this?" he asked, demonstrating the Burst again.

"That's great! Durango, did you see that? ...Durango?" Thunderbolt called, seeing that Durango was looking down with a frown. Tina knocked on his head.

"Oh, yeah... that's cool." Durango said, as if he were snapped out of daydreaming.

Mina sensed his troubled mind. "What's wrong?"

Durango sighed when everyone gathered in. "It's those Acolytes I'm thinking about again. Two years ago, they took me and Tina and almost killed us all... now they can strike whenever they want. So why haven't they done it now?"

"Do you WANT them to do it?" Dep questioned.

Hearing that, Durango had a little change of heart. "Not what I meant, sorry. You know, I think that it's time we took some action."

"What do you mean?" Fortress asked, holding Danielle (age 5).

"We should take them down... for good." he suggested.

"You can't be serious... Shockmutt was a nightmare enough; she was nowhere near easy to beat!" Thunderbolt protested.

"Was she the 'evil' in the story, mom?" Danielle asked.

"Yes, Dani." Fortress replied.

"Who're the Acolytes anyway?" Derby wanted to know, as he did not really know them.

"They're a very powerful group of bad guys. There's 27 of them still, and they're all too tough for our own good." Tina told him.

"Whoa." he uttered in a bit of fear.

"The reason why I said it is because of what this Danger Room is doing for us. Since Derby put those Chaos Drives into the system, this Danger Room is better for our powers than the one at the Home Base."

"It is?" Dep interrogated, moving over to check the status boards. Durango was right, as Thunderbolt's power level was almost 9,000. "I guess so."

"That'll have to wait." Sweet's voice was heard, before Team Z saw him in the back of the Danger Room.

"Sweet! How'd you get in here; did you know about the Danger Room, too?" Durango asked.

"Yeah. There's a teleporter behind the north wall. What's with the rainbow mist around here?"

"When we got here two years ago, Derby put the Chaos Drives into the system. This mist came afterwards, and it's been like a power boost for us." Thunderbolt explained.

Sweet understood. "Hey, whatever floats your boat. But I digress... the real reason why I came here is to tell you that on June 3rd, we'll be choosing 12 Bean Titans as the next running force under the Legendary 12."

This shocked Team Z (except Danielle, who was new to all of this).

"Wh-What? No way. Does that include us?" Durango asked.

"It would've, until I heard about what this room is doing for you guys. If you guys are planning on taking on the Acolytes, you're gonna need to spend some more time in here. That includes Derby and little Danielle as well. I can sense your powers now... and I believe that you can beat them all. This also means that you yourselves will be a powerful force aiding the Titans as a whole, so there's really no reason to single everyone else out and put the eight of you in the New 12. Team Z is what you guys are now, and this team—this family is what you make it. Remember that." Sweet told them.

"We will." Thunderbolt responded on behalf of Team Z, putting his fist on his chest towards Sweet—it was the Titans' Salute. "June 3rd... we'll be there to see who the lucky 12 are."

"Excellent. Now, I must go and tell Titans X about this news as well. The rest of the Bean Titans don't know about any of this, so don't tell them just yet. Godspeed."

Sweet exited the Danger Room via secret teleporter, en route to the Moon Base.

Durango moved forward a few steps and then stopped to look at the rest of Team Z. "After that day, we hit this place hard... capiche?" Durango proposed. The group was in favor of their first big task: getting rid of the Acolytes.

The Moon Base has handled itself pretty well, with Titans X in its care. It was their new home after their headquarters was destroyed years ago, after their overwhelming casualty.

Only nine members are remaining (all male): Lucky (now age 50), Hershey (48), Ralph (45), Charlie (21), Frisbee (39), Boomer (24), Max (17), Marvin (17), and Ivan (22). They are still looking for new members, but it is hard to manage the base while managing the team. Times are quite straining for them, but at least they have no real enemies.

Why? The Acolytes forced BFP's team to have the same power and mindset as they do, making them Acolytes in the process. However, when they struck the immortality deal with Wrinkle's Syndicate, those affiliated with BFP were forced to be sacrificed in order for the "ritual" to work.

Neverthess, this is Titans X's living: supporting the Titans League in any way possible and rarely leaving the Moon Base.

"Everything here is finished except the Danger Room." Charlie started. "We've tried fifty things to make this Danger Room the best there is, and it still doesn't look like anything's changed!"

"Settle down." suggested Frisbee. "We'll find a way to soup this room up eventually."

"Waiting on the answer is the bad news." Boomer generalized.

"You just need some good news, then." Sweet's voice was heard, from down the hall.

"Sweet, my good friend!" Lucky happily greeted, shaking hands with him and giving him a quick hug.

"How's it going, Lucky?" Sweet asked.

"The usual: thinking and searching."

"That's good."

"Do you have good news?" Ralph asked.

"I must assume so. Come June 3rd, a New 12 will be announced in the Bean Titans."

"You can't be serious...!" Max and Marvin simultaneously exclaimed.

"Oh, but I am. I'll explain all the details later. I'd love it you all could come and see who the lucky 12 will be." Sweet proposed.

"We'd love to, but..." Ivan started.

"We have a big operation on our hands too. We want to be able to help you guys, but we are weak right now... and if we did try to fight, even Wrinkle could destroy us. That's why we're spending so much time on this Danger Room; it's not just for us, it's for every present and future member of any organization in the Titans." Hershey explained.

"I fully understand, and I give kudos to you as well. However, would you still like to consider watching the inauguration from here, if Dotty patches you through our system?" Sweet questioned.

"That'll work." Frisbee replied.

"Great! That's all I came up here to tell you all. I'll see you later. Take care!" Sweet went on his way out of the Moon Base.

"A New 12... time flies, I tell ya." Lucky reminisced.

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More to come. :)