It was an awkward scene at Delores' Diner, the late night customers were usually a bit off but most of the time they were not super heroes, and most of the time they didn't wear combat armor and haul around weird high tech energy rifles, the presence of two of the Teen Titans was comforting to the aged waitress named Mavis, she sighed and straightened her apron, gathering her tray and smiling at William the fry cook, he returned her smile with a crooked grin of his own mopping his sweating bald pate with a nearby handkerchief as Mavis gathered her tray laden with a trio of coffee mugs steaming and black, a short walk later brought her to the table where the three teenage heroes sat and awkwardly stared at one another, "here ya go kids, we just brewed her up fresh" with that Mavis placed the mugs in front of them "ya'll gonna order some eats or should i let you enjoy yer joe?"
Lunatic smiled at the grey haired waitress nodding politely as he brought the black mana to his lips and took a short slup of the bitter brew, sighing "oh I needed that!" another few moments of awkward silence followed as everyone took the time to enjoy those first few wonderful sips of brew, finally Beastboy placed his mug on the table top and looked Lunatic square in the eyes "alright dude so whats the deal are you a hero or a criminal?" he exclaimed sounding annoyed, Raven stared at the side of her green teammates head "way to be blunt" she droned, "what my...hasty friend here meant to say is why did you cause that rampage the first time we met? and why did you save the guards in the armored car this time?" She continued to glare at her embarrassed green friend, who had the good grace to blush. "Uh Admittedly I didn't know they were gonna do that, I know I was taking villainy 101 but I sort of thought it was, well I didn't really think they were serious, some of the classes were neat, oh man the combat classes were fun!" Lunatic laughed in fond memory.
Beastboy blinked stared in gaping awe for a few moments before yelping "THERES A VILLAIN SCHOOL!" Raven and everyone in the immediate area wince at the volume and pitch, Raven closed her eyes before sheathing B.B.'s whole head in dark energy, letting him scream and rant himself hoarse while leaving the rest of the diner in peace, "thank you" gasped Lunatic "getting blown up hurt less than that!", Raven sighed "he means well but sometimes the blood rushes to his head" Beastboy seemed to catch on that no one was listening and prodded Raven's side so that she could see the pointed glare he was leveling at her, with a sigh she let the bubble burst leaving the the green teen fuming at the goth, she seemed to forget herself for a moment and favored him with a small smile obviously amused by his childish pouting, this caused the ire to fade from the green teen's face, the whole scene had Lunatic feeling uncomfortable, sort of like he was intruding on a private moment so he contented himself with sipping his coffee waiting for the two of them to stop being shy at each other.
Soon Mavis returned to take their orders and after asking for a salad a club house sandwich and more coffee the trio continued their discussion. "so... what were you doing outside the bank?" asked Beastboy around a mouthful of salad, causing Raven to start as though she hadn't thought of that, "Beastboy raises a valid point, for a change" she cast a sidelong glance at him as she threw that little barb, Lunatic blushed rather hoping they wouldn't ask that, "uh I was kind of planning to swipe a bag of cash to tide me over y'know while they weren't looking, and then that Dr Light fella kinda threw a wrench into that little plan and here we are incidentally, uh can you guys spot me for the meal I don't feel like doing dishes tonight" The two heroes gave Lunatic an incredulous stare "your just out and out admitting to planning a robbery?" gaped Beastboy incredulously "and whats the difference between robbing a bank and running out on the check anyway" at this exclamation Mavis leveled a baleful glare at the green teen, Raven drew a couple bills from within her cloak and handed them to Mavis who looked abashed but took the cash none the less, with the formalities out of the way Raven returned her piercing gaze to the armored boy across from her and Beastboy, awaiting an explanation. Lunatic sighed long sufferingly and scrubbed his fingers through his hair before settling into ranting mode "I don't believe in stealing from small businesses because the owners even the well to do ones worked long and hard to get what they've got and for the most part squeak by on what they earn, meanwhile larger businesses such as banks and the like tend to be backed by both rich and or corrupt investors who could stand to lose a bit of cash besides the banks have that cash insured so its not like they are really losing anything anyway" after that mouthful of dialog Lunatic inhaled and sighed bringing his mug to his lips and taking a drink of his cooling coffee.
Raven and Beastboy shared a glance and returned their collective gaze to the armored boy across from them "so what do you plan to do now?" asked Raven calmly finishing her coffee and placing the cup in front of her, Beastboy subtly tensed at this, the soft creak of vinyl not lost on Lunatic as he relaxed further into the booth "I guess i start looking for work I don't exactly want to be a thief, even if I'd be really good at it" he chuckled "its just that there doesn't seem to be much need for mercenaries in this city and I know so very little about this world, so like mine but so unlike it as well...kinda frustrating really" Beastboy sat patiently through this monolog, a feat worth of song in his opinion before he piped in "ever think of trying your hand at the other end of the super ladder? y'know try being a hero" Lunatic arched a brow and replied "isn't the super hero thing kind of um anti-profit?" Raven frowned ever so slightly at the sentiment before replying "we are given a stipend from an anonymous benefactor to live on we don't make a profit from doing our job" Lunatic leveled a baleful stare at the goth "well not all of us have mysterious benefactors, some of us kind of have nothing to our name but the skills we possess and some impressive firepower and frankly my skill set is meant for more ...combative projects" he sighed and massaged his forehead, "and i did not trade up my sanity to become a superhuman so i could flip burgers at super speeds" Beastboy giggled at the strange mental image of a man in combat armor flipping burgers with an apron and a hair net, "oh dude you should work in a burger shack it'd be so funny" he continued to laugh at the thought.
Raven let her green friend continue his one man laugh riot turning to look back at the armored man she frowned "your basically looking for the day to day amenities to keep on living, that seems reasonable", Beastboy scratched his head confused "so why don't you join the Titans?" Raven stared at B.B. incredulously as Lunatic's mouth slowly worked trying form words that would be somewhat appropriate the rather ridiculous exclamation, finally after a moment Lunatic sighed "you do remember three months back when i knocked you into the wall left you all busted up in the tunnels?" Beastboy shrugged "yeah but you turned on my locator made sure the others knew i was hurt no harm no foul I'd have done worse in your position heh."
Raven rubbed the bridge of her nose twixt thumb and forefinger before leveling a stare at her green friend "Beastboy just because he has a decent streak, doesn't mean he has the drive to promote justice" Beastboy sighed and leveled a pointed stare at the hoodded sorceress "if we don't help him now whose to say someone doesn't decide to offer him enough cash to ignore that decent streak for a while it only takes one step down the slippery slope of evil for some one to ..uh fall" finished the green teen a bit awkwardly, Raven looked a bit taken aback "that was almost a good point" turning to look at Lunatic piercingly taking in his unruly mop of brown hair with the occasional peek of silver in the midst of the mess, the drawn face with its irritating half smirk, the rather plain features neither handsome nor ugly, if it were not for his performance not half an hour ago, and of course the outlandish weapons and armor he could pass as a very fit teenager.
After her prolonged inspection which caused a jealous glower to grace Beastboy's visage and an embarrassed heating of Lunatic's, she nodded and pulled her communicator from her belt, "Raven calling Robin" she droned, "Robin here" was the prompt reply "you remember the kid in the weird armor who gave us the slip about three months back, the one Star was ranting about for three days" "Did you spot him! We can be there in two minutes!" Raven smirked almost unperceptively "actually were at the thirty second street diner having coffee" the silence that followed and the blank look on the masked boys face forced a cackle from Lunatic followed by a chortle from Beastboy, as the boys had their giggle fit Raven continued "He said he is looking for a way to make ends meet and Beastboy and I watched him take on Dr Light and rescue a few security guards from a burning truck, he admitted to having intentions to rob the armored car but was side tracked when Dr Light attacked the vehicle, the security footage will show his actions rather better than i can describe them, the long of the short of it is he wants to join the Titans" The Boy wonder mulled this over for a moment before sighing "alright if he agrees to turn himself over to us I'll think about giving him a shot be he is put in a cell while i think it over" with that Robin signed off.
Raven closed the communicator and placed it back in her belt, casting her gaze on the armored boy Beastboy had stopped laughing as had Lunatic, "I guess i should surrender my weapons and put on some hand cuffs right?" he reached for his knife placing it on the table and handed his rifle over to the sorceress with a grin, Beastboy took the rifle and the knife examining them both excitedly "duuuude is this some kind of super quantum disintegrator ray that can like atomize a city block with a single blast and render it lifeless to any and all who would enter it?" his eyes shone as he clutched the heavy rifle in both hands peering down the sights making odd little ray gun sounds as he aimed down the isle causing customers and staff to scatter with yelps and shrieks of terror, Lunatic snatched the rifle from the green teens hands thumbing the safety on and powering down the weapon, "uh how bout you carry this" he handed the heavy rifle off to the darkly clad sorceress, who took the weapon in both hands and with a murmur sent it through a dark portal into parts beyond, the knife she simply placed on her belt "I'll be getting those back right?" Lunatic asked nervously, Raven favored him with a neutral gaze before replying "if Robin doesn't decide your a hopeless criminal then yeah i don't see why not" Lunatic exhaled his relief before frowning "so how do we get to your base do we call a cab or something?" Raven's response was to smirk and chant while Beastboy turned into a dark green raven and fluttered onto her shoulder, then everything went dark.