Nightwing grinned as he saw Starfire squirming in Babs' sisterly embrace. He had to suppress a chuckle, as he thought that it was hilarious to see his wife on the receiving end of an unwelcome hug. His grin continued to grow and was only interrupted by the feeling of a large hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Bruce's smiling face.
"I guess you aren't the Boy Wonder anymore, you have a wife now."
"Yeah, I do." He replied breathlessly.
"And I see that the changeling and the demoness have paired up."
"You know about that?"
"Yes, also that her clone and the Atlantean have paired up."
Nightwing turned to his former mentor, his mouth agape.
"You know that she's a clone? That's supposed to be a secret." Nightwing hissed.
"I know." Bruce replied. "Your official story is that Rachel is Raven's twin sister. Except you and I both know that Raven doesn't have a twin sister. She does, however, have three half brothers."
Nightwing chuckled. "You haven't lost your touch. You still are the world's greatest detective."
"Actually, everything I know about Raven I learned from Zatanna."
Nightwing grinned. "That's right; she's an old flame of yours."
Bruce suddenly looked taciturn. "I have too many of those … I'm really happy for you, Dick. Starfire is a wonderful girl … I wish I could say the same about Raven and her clone."
Dick glared at his mentor. "Hey! That's unfair! Sure, Raven will never win any Miss Congeniality contests, but she's a good person … I think of her as the sister I never had. She's actually very innocent."
"I agree that she's a good person, but she has a hell of a temper. I hope the changeling knows what he's getting into with her."
"That's what Raven told him."
"Well, she is honest, I'll give her that. But don't delude yourself about her innocence."
Nightwing looked aghast. "What are you talking about?"
Bruce glanced over at the ladies, who were done hugging and were engaged in conversation. He gestured Nightwing to follow him to a console. He pressed a button and a small screen came to life. There was no audio. The scene was a bubbling Jacuzzi, with an undisguised Raven standing next to it. Dick's jaw almost hit the floor when he saw Raven disrobe and enter the spa. When Beast Boy joined her, naked as a jaybird, his jaw completed its journey to the floor.
"How the hell did you get that footage?" Dick seethed. "And why are you spying on them?"
"I'm just keeping an eye on them."
"So you sneaked in and installed all those cameras."
"I didn't sneak in."
"Don't give me that BS, Bruce. Sneaky is your middle name."
"It's not BS. Those cameras were installed when I bought that house five years ago. Alfred uses them to keep track of what's happening in my remote properties."
"You own that house!?"
"I do. When I learned you were moving out I contacted a realtor and made sure she rented the house to them. The rent was a bargain; I could easily get four times as much. It's an exclusive neighborhood. Mitt Romney and Larry Ellison are my next door neighbors, at least when they're in town, which is pretty much never."
Nightwing shook his head. "Why, Bruce? Raven and Beast Boy can take care of themselves."
"Deathstroke is back."
Dick paled upon hearing the news,. "Are you serious? He vanished without a trace, years ago. And why is he a threat to the Titans? We don't have any past dealings with him … did someone hire him?"
Bruce shook his head.
"No, he's not for hire anymore; that much is certain. He's moved beyond that, he's far more ambitious now."
"Ambitious? What do you mean, Bruce?"
"You don't know then, do you?"
"Know what?" Dick replied with a hint of impatience in his voice.
"Slade is Deathstroke."
"That's impossible." Nightwing gasped.
"It makes perfect sense. Remember when the Justice League declared war on Deathstroke and we threw everything we had at him?"
"Well, yeah … that's when he disappeared."
Bruce crossed his arms. "His trail went cold. Slade appeared years later and he picked your city to be his base. Then you showed up."
"I still don't believe it."
"Believe it, we got a DNA sample from one of his masks and compared it with Deathstroke's."
"He could be a clone." Dick interjected.
"We considered that, but there's something else. Wintergreen has been spotted in Jump City."
Nightwing face palmed as he sighed
"I know he cloned Rachel, so he's still Slade the mastermind. But according to our intelligence network he's resurrected his old Deathstroke identity, which means he will be far deadlier and more ruthless than anything your team remembers."
Dick rubbed his forehead. "This is bad, really bad."
"You should tell your teammates right away, they are all in danger, though it isn't imminent. Deathstroke has vanished and that means he's getting ready for something, though I don't know what that is. I was thinking we should all meet next week here at the manor."
"We're not supposed to do that." Nightwing interrupted.
"I do plenty of things I'm not supposed to do … but don't worry, the government will never know. I'll send private jets to pick them up."
Nightwing slammed his fist on a nearby console.
"I don't see how this could get any worse."
"It is worse. I don't have any details, but apparently one of his children has joined him."
"Slade has kids?" Nightwing asked incredulously.
Bruce looked grim as he replied. "He does, one of them is one of your honorary Titans; the one you call Jericho. It isn't him though, it's someone else, though I don' know who. The identities of Slade's other offspring is a well guarded secret."
Alfred entered the Batcave, his heels clicking on the solid rock floor. He was pushing a serving cart, which was laden with linens, china and silverware.
"Dinner is ready. Since you are all in costume, I will serve it here."
The Majordomo quickly and adroitly set the table, and when he was done it looked simply stunning. It looked worthy of a royal dinner in Buckingham Palace. The china, the crystal ware, the silverware were dazzling. He even folded the freshly pressed napkins into swans. A large silver candelabrum was in the middle of the table and he lit the candles.
"Please be seated, I will return with the salads." He announced before disappearing into a service elevator.
To Dick's surprise and to be honest, his immense relief, Starfire and Babs sat next to each other, chatting happily.
"You're in for a treat, Star." Dick announced. "Alfred is a master chef, no offense to Cyborg, but this is going to be real food."
She gave him a puzzled look. "Are you saying that Cyborg makes the synthetic food? That would explain why Beast Boy refuses to eat it."
Babs snickered. "What Dick means is that Alfred's cooking is worthy of a King, of course, you are a princess, so it's only fitting."
Alfred returned with the serving cart and four salads were placed in front of the costumed heroes. He turned to Starfire.
"Does her highness have a preference for her salad dressing?"
The Tamaranian looked perplexed at first, then she smiled. "Do you have mustard?"
"Mustard? I do have a honey Dijon dressing." He announced as he reached for a silver gravy dish that was full of the grey colored dressing.
Starfire gave it a critical look just as he was about to serve it. "That is not mustard."
"Forgive me, your Highness, but it is. I made it myself, using the finest Dijon mustard."
She shook her head. "I do not know what that is. I desire the mustard."
Alfred looked lost. "But your highness …"
Nightwing cleared his throat. "Alfred, do you have any yellow mustard in the kitchen?"
"Well, yes, I do, though I do not know why. It is an affront to the culinary arts."
"That's OK, Alfred. My wife will have plain yellow mustard on her salad."
Now the poor majordomo looked befuddled. "Master Richard, if this is a prank, I must say that it is in the poorest of taste."
"It's not a prank. And I would suggest that you bring the entire container down here ... she'll be putting it on everything she eats."
Alfred was aghast. "Not on my chicken cordon-bleu!"
"I'm afraid so, Alfred."
Alfred frowned and walked away with a stiff gait, as if he had broom shoved up his butt. To his credit he returned promptly with another silver gravy boat, filled to the brim with French's yellow mustard. Dick didn't have the heart to tell Alfred that Starfire would sometimes drink yellow mustard with a straw. Alfred quietly served the mustard over her salad, and did the same for the others, though with more conventional dressings.
Starfire smelled the delectable aroma of her favorite Earth spice and devoured her salad, without using any utensils before Alfred finished serving the others. She licked the plate clean with her huge alien tongue.
"Delicious! May I have some more, please!?" She cheered.
Alfred kept a straight face, though Dick could read from his body language that he was shocked by Starfire's table manners.
"I will get another salad for your Highness." He announced in a monotone worthy of Raven.
As he walked past Dick he leaned down and whispered in his ear. "Master Richard, are you certain that she is a princess, a real princess?"
"One hundred percent certain." Nightwing whispered back. "From the House of Tamaran."
"Aliens." The Majordomo muttered under his breath.
As Alfred wandered away he began to worry about the three other Titans who would soon be visiting the manor. He wondered if the so called Beast Boy would demand to be served his dinner in a dog bowl. One thing was certain though, he thought to himself: Master Richard had strange friends.
-( scene break )-
Back in La Jolla …
After spending a relatively chaste time in the hot tub, the Chromatically Challenged Couple™ emerged and dressed themselves. They took a long nap together in the master suite, which had the biggest and most comfortable bed they had even seen. The slumbered for hours and Raven woke first at around 6PM when her stomach rumbled. She sat up and yawned, after which she checked her alarm clock. It was just past 6 PM. She turned to her beau and nudged him.
"Wake up, sleepyhead".
The changeling groaned. "Do I have to?"
"Are you hungry?" She asked.
"You bet." He replied.
"Well, we have two options. The kitchen is stocked, so we can make our own dinner."
"I don't feel like cooking." He replied.
"Neither do I. There's a nice vegetarian restaurant on Prospect." She replied.
His face paled. "How far away is it? Do we have to drive?"
"Are you volunteering?" She asked. His only reply was a loud gulp.
"I'm signing us up for driving school tomorrow; we are going to learn to drive the correct way." She announced in low growl. "For now I can teleport us into an alley, no one will see us."
-( scene break )-
The Chromatically Challenged Couple, who were disguised with their holorings, materialized behind a dumpster in an alley just off of Prospect St. They walked out of the dark alley as nonchalantly as they could. It was a Saturday night and Prospect was crawling with its usual throng of college students from nearby UCSD, tourists and locals. A teenager who walked with a walking stick and a pronounced limp noticed them emerge from a distance and followed them until they reached the vegetarian restaurant, after which he disappeared into the crowd.
Raven and Beast Boy were greeted by the hostess, who after confirming their reservation took them to their table that was just off of the sidewalk. A waitress promptly appeared and after giving them their menus she rattled off the specials for the evening, after which took their drink orders and quickly disappeared.
The young, disguised couple relaxed in their seats and took in the ambiance around them. It was a warm evening and the air smelled briny as they were only a block from the ocean.
"It smells like home." He remarked.
"It does make me think of home, except for our surroundings."
The changeling watch with mesmerized eyes as a brand new Ferrari pulled up and a stunning and very buxom young blond emerged from the passenger seat. Raven cleared her throat.
"I'm over here."
"Sorry Rave." He chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm not the jealous type, Gar. It's fine if you look, just try not to gawk, OK?"
"Sorry." He apologized a second time. "I suppose that if I said I was looking at the car…"
"You were, but you were also looking at her." She calmly rebutted him.
Realizing that it was a lost cause, he decided to study the menu instead. The waitress soon returned and took their orders.
"Sure are a lot of people here." He remarked.
"And a lot of them are clueless tourists, ripe for the picking." She replied in a distracted monotone as she stared down the street from their sidewalk table, which was separated from the pedestrians by a short, wrought iron fence. He could tell she had seen something and looked off in the same direction.
It was a couple, who looked like a pair of corn fed, Midwestern tourists, probably from Nebraska or the Dakotas. They looked like two children at Disneyland, soaking in the glamorous surroundings. She was admiring what were probably a pair of $1000 shoes in the store window where they had stopped to look. She was holding her purse in her hands, an imitation Fendi purchased at Target that fooled no one on Prospect Street.
That was when he saw him. He was waiting down the street on a scooter and to the untrained eye looked completely harmless. But the Chromatically Challenged Couple's™ eyes were very trained and they saw the tell tale signs of a thief. He was focusing intensely on the couple, and he looked very intense. He gripped the handle bar on the scooter so tightly that his knuckles turned white. While clearly an amateur, he was the hunter and they were his prey, and he was waiting for the moment to pounce on his kill.
He didn't have to wait long as they were done window shopping and approached the curb, readying themselves to cross the street. He gunned the engine and his scooter lurched forward with a surprising alacrity. As he drew near he reached out and snatched the young woman's purse. She screamed and her spouse began a futile chase on foot as the scooter zoomed away, yelling at the thief.
Beast Boy noticed that Raven's expression went blank and recognized the look. He was barely able to notice that her camouflaged eyes faintly glowed black through her disguise. A long dark tendril shot out along the ground in to the street. It intercepted the scooter's front wheel and tangled it. The bandit and his two wheeled escape vehicle came to a calamitous stop and he fell over. As he slowly rose to his feet the young corn husker, who was huge and angry caught up with him. He threw the purse at the young man and tried to escape on his scooter. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't meant to be as the front wheel was hopelessly mangled and was useless. A police car suddenly pulled up and it was game over.
Beast Boy chuckled softly. "Nice one, Rave. And no one noticed what you did, good job."
A male voice from behind them spoke up. "Actually, I did notice."
They both turned around and saw a thin, undersized teenager who walked with a limp and with the aid of a cane. Without being invited he sat down at their table.
"Who are you?" Raven snapped at him.
The young teen extended his hand to her. "I'm Freddy Freeman. And you're Raven Roth and Garfield Logan."
Raven examined him with a jaded eye. He didn't look anything like the boy in the dossier. But as she looked more closely she recognized his face. It was thinner and less rugged looking, but there was a resemblance.
"So you're supposed to be Captain Marvel Jr.?" She growled at him.
"I know I don't look the part, but then again, you guys don't look like yourselves either."
"Are you wearing a holoring?" Beast Boy asked.
Raven became wide eyed and shook her head.
"It's not tech, Gar, it's magic. Powerful magic, I can feel it … he is who he says he is. He's one of Shazam's champions."
"Actually, I'm more of a sidekick. Cap sent me to stay with you guys."
"Cap?" The changeling asked.
Freddy smiled. "It's what I call my boss. If I say his full name I'll …"
"Transform into Captain Marvel Jr." Raven completed his sentence for him.
"That's right, but it wouldn't be a good idea to do that here."
"Obviously." Raven replied as the waitress returned with their orders.
"Oh! Someone joined you! Can I get you anything?"
Freddy smiled at the waitress. "A cheeseburger would be nice."
The server frowned at him.
"Dude, it's a vegetarian restaurant." Beast Boy whispered.
Freeman smiled bashfully. "Sorry … how about some eggplant parmesan?"
"Good choice, I should be able to bring out to you right away!"
Once the server had left they continued their conversation.
"So, Freddy, why did the big red cheese send you to stay with us?" Beast Boy asked,
"Don't ever call him that to his face, he hates that nickname. And the reason he sent me is because Deathstroke the Terminator is coming after you."
-( scene break )-
No mail bag today. Sorry.