The Roles we Play
Accusations
Thanks everyone who reads my stories!
***I just checked and I still don't own the Teen Titans. Guess I will check again next week… ***
"Suspicion haunts the guilty mind" – Shakespeare
***TRwP***
"Batman"
"Robin"
The two crime fighters once again began their stare down.
"Are we waiting for something to happen?" Beast Boy whispered to his mechanical friend who shrugged his shoulders.
"Could we get on with this please? Robin woke us up early for this crap." Jinx muttered out, still exhausted after having the boy wonder pound on everyone's door frantically at six in the morning.
"I'm with her actually I could use a bit more…"
"Can it Flash" The Green Lantern growled back, his lack of sleep already noticeable as well.
"We are here because there have been some… questionable events surrounding you and your teams lately Robin." The dark knight called out causing the boy's eyes to narrow in distrust.
"What sort of 'events'." The man's apprentice inquired.
"The type of events that we cannot afford to have linked to us." Superman responded.
"So this is an inquiry on The Teen Titans as a whole, or just my particular team?"
"Both, but primarily yours Robin."
"Oh could we partake in the breaking of the fast before the questions begin please?" The Tamaranean suddenly interrupted, earning the rumbling of stomachs from both sides as well as a few chuckles.
Robin gave a deep sigh, not only did The League insist on showing up and making accusations, but now he had to feed them. What a lovely start to a day.
***TRwP***
The one true advantage that the Titans had over The Justice League, considering that the latter of which had experience, political pull, fame, and power, was that they had the home field advantage.
That and the more mature heroes had decided on starting this investigation when all of the Titans were already present, thus providing a unified front for Robin to work with.
After breakfast, which consisted of so many pancakes that many believed the batter would overflow the tower, they finally got down to business.
The Justice League insisted on setting up a type of court room type of situation, which Robin agreed to since the alternative would be splitting up his team into separate interrogation rooms.
"Now then let's get down to business." Batman began, as he pulled out a large stack of files and folders of information. "First up was an incident you were with involving the FBI, walk us through that please." Robin's eyes narrowed as he questioned where this was all heading.
"Very well, we had been contacted by the local FBI liaison, the Chief of Police from Jump City, and the Mayor to act as consultants on a Federal case. According to them there was a serial killer on the loose somewhere in the area who had been targeting younger teenagers and kidnapping before brutally murdering them. The actions were especially violent since he would broadcast them on the internet from a dozen websites, thus creating a sort of 'audience' for his murders."
"So you were called in to give your professional opinion on how to capture the man? I am curious as to why they did not try and contact Batman first." Wonder Woman interrupted.
"I can't say for certain, perhaps if they thought he would be reachable via your orbiting satellite fortress they would have attempted to do so." Robin responded, sarcasm lacing his voice and earning a growl from the heroine.
"What was that?" She shot back.
"Enough! Both of you, we aren't here to start a fight we just want to get answers." Superman interrupted, causing the tension to dissipate slightly.
"When did they ask for your actual assistance in the matter?" J'onn J'onzz pressed, trying to get the conversation back on track.
"Almost immediately, I believe they had been planning on asking us to pose as 'bait' from the start but were afraid that anything other than a direct confrontation would not have the desired effect." Cyborg calmly replied, giving his leader a bit of time to calm down.
"What exactly was their plan?" The Lantern asked.
"They wanted Robin to go under cover and pose as a potential victim where they believed the killer would be searching. Then Robin would either apprehend the killer himself, or the trap that they had planned would secure him." Raven finished.
"I thought that the changeling had been chosen for the assignment." Hawkgirl muttered out.
"Nah I volunteered later on, Rob was the original choice but I figured he would be better suited to planning while I would be the better choice for bait, considering I can actually turn into bait." The shapeshifter joked.
"Quite noble of you to do so son." Superman praised, the other Titans looked down at the table for a moment, all of them knowing that the boy had been guilt tripped into doing so.
Beast Boy on the other hand just waved it off.
"That reminds me Beast Boy, you never did tell us how you came up with the disguise you chose." Robin spoke, turning the attention towards the changeling.
He merely shrugged, "Guess I just put pieces together till they fit."
"It was more than just that though, wasn't it?" This time it was almost accusing. Robin had a mystery to solve and the green skinned boy knew he couldn't just duck out of it like normal.
Beast Boy let out a sigh, "Fine, it's what I would have looked like."
"What do you mean 'would have looked like'?" Wonder Woman asked.
The boy growled in annoyance.
"I wasn't born green if the situation had been different that was what I would have looked like."
The room fell into silence, as the various individuals flinched at having pried into what was apparently a very personal issue.
***TRwP***
"Please continue the debriefing" The speederster called out.
"The plan was simple Beast Boy, the disguise of a holoring, would pose near a bus stop as a young teenager at night, meanwhile the rest of my team and the FBI would take up hidden positions all around the area with random patrols to rule out any kind of surprises. Once the man made contact with Beast Boy and attempted to kidnap him we would take him down, quick and efficiently." The boy wonder replied, finally having calmed himself down enough to remain impassive.
"But it did not happen that way did it?" Batman inquired, his voice taking an accusing tone.
"It would have had circumstances not…"
"You should always be prepared for changes Robin. I taught you that remember? Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and be prepared for the unexpected."
"How exactly are we supposed to prepare for the unexpected? You can't plan for everything no matter how much you try!" The masked boy fired back at his mentor.
"That is why I didn't think you were ready to lead a team of your own Robin you still have much to learn."
"Robin is a good leader, and he's right. No one can plan for every single thing that might happen, it just isn't possible. How could we have known that Cinderblock was going to attack a residential area nearby?" Cyborg chimed in, coming to his leader's defense.
"Then the FBI should have been told how to run the operation."
"I did tell them. Stagger patrols at random intervals, no communication devices in the ears or on the chests, no parked cars on the street, no agents in any vehicles or by any windows, all cameras hidden in plain sight. I know how to run an operation." Robin interrupted.
"REGARDLESS of what happened, it seems as though you had everything you could under control as far as you were able to." Wonder Woman called out, silencing the argument, while giving Robin subtle praise which he nodded in appreciation of.
"After Cinderblocks defeat we still had heard no signal from the FBI or Beast Boy, so we decided to grab some food and continue on a backup plan should this one fail." Robin muttered out the second half, knowing full well what was coming next from the older heroes.
"You left him there! What the hell were you thinking!?" Hawkgirl practically screamed out.
"I didn't realize until later that we had disabled our communication devices, we couldn't afford someone overhearing or picking up on the transmission." Cyborg mumbled.
"Incredibly irresponsible of you, the first priority should have been staying in touch with your teammate and the other agents, especially once the threat was removed. How long did it take you to reacquire communications?" Batman reprimanded.
"Around an hour and the half." Starfire whispered out, guilt surging back through her at how they had acted towards their friend.
Superman shook his head in disapproval before moving back to the task at hand.
"What did you do when you returned to the area?"
"After a short 'debriefing' from the FBI field head we began our search, it wasn't until hours later that Cyborg found a clue through the traffic cams." Robin responded.
"What about your sorceress? The report we have on her says she has the ability to find individuals through empathy." Wonder Woman inquired.
"It is based on my own emotions I was too distraught at that moment to focus my powers. By the time my powers were focused again he would have been beyond the range that I could search easily." The girl lied.
It seemed to work though as the others nodded, though Batman glared at her.
"Perhaps you should work on that control then Raven?"
"Leave her out of this." Beast Boy called out in a growl.
"Very well, then why don't you take over the story Beast Boy, you were captured and then what? We viewed the footage. Somehow you escaped the chains and were about to flee before you turned back. I would like to know why." The dark knight shifted the focus once more back onto the changeling.
"I took him down with some sweet martial arts moves. First I started with a wicked roundhouse kick, then I lead into an awesome jab then I went all Bruce Lee on that guy's ass and…"
"Where is he now?" Superman interrupted gently, noticing his friends growing annoyance with the boy.
The shapeshifter shrugged in reply, "Beats me, I left after I kicked his scrawny white ass all over the place."
"You left a dangerous serial killer alone after you beat him up?" Hawkgirl asked, an edge finding its way into her voice.
"Well there was no way to call for help so I had to contact the cops or something. Unfortunately whatever he had spiked me with original messed me up pretty bad so I sorta wandered around for like a day or two until I found a town, finally by that point I was recovered enough to find my way back home but I have no idea where I was taken originally."
"It seems rather convenient that you have no idea where the location was, especially since the serial killer was never seen or heard from again." Batman spoke out.
"Hmm I guess so, but maybe he just stopped killing because he is so afraid of my sheer awesome."
"You know what, I like the kid. He kinda reminds me of… well me." Flash whispered to his fellow League members.
"Yeah, you are both so humble. I wonder if he is your long lost brother." Hawkgirl muttered back, earning a smirk from the Green Lantern.
***TRwP***
"Approximately fifteen months ago your team took part in the assault on a bank could you walk us through what happened please?" The man of steel politely inquired.
"Sure, we responded to a 'theft in progress' that was reported by Jump City Police, when we arrived they informed us that there were several armed men in the bank, nothing heavy reported but a few light automatics. Robin split us up, me and BB took the back entrance while Robin, Raven, and Starfire went in the front to create the initial distraction." Cyborg replied, earning nods from the older heroes.
"BB, uh that is Beast Boy, and I snuck around easily enough, I had hacked the cameras so that the bad guys couldn't use them, and we managed to get a few of the hostages who were held in the back out before taking a couple of the bad guys down… that is until crap hit the fan."
"You were ambushed." The dark knight spoke up, earning nods from the Titans.
"They were waiting for us, hiding in an office and waiting for when we would be distracted. I was taken out of the fight early on when an energy blast hit me, spraining my leg. Cyborg was handling the second man after Starfire had taken down the one who had hurt me. That was when Raven moved to heal my injuries, and when Beast Boy took a bullet."
The various League members glanced over towards the boy, who was sitting back in his chair with a relaxed expression. There was no hint of accomplishment on his face, no large grin like they had been expecting, just a calm demeanor.
"Go on" Wonder Woman encouraged gently.
"Raven managed to heal Robin quite easily, afterwards we were met the ups with Cyborg who had defeated his opponent. It was around then we realized that our friend was missing." The Tamaranean replied, tears beginning to form at her eyes as the painful memories came back to her.
"I found him moments after he had been shot in the head at near point blank range." Cyborg muttered out quietly, earning surprised looks from the other Titans, and even League members.
"So Raven managed to heal you?" the Martian guessed, but the empath shook her head.
"I cannot heal major brain damage or severe organ damage. There was nothing I could do, his pulse was already gone."
"But how are you alive then?" Flash asked, directing his attention to the changeling.
The boy let out another sigh, before giving the same explanation as he had when asked before. "Axolotl and Hydractinia."
"Uhhh" the speedster's mind blanked at the words that had just been thrown at him, before glancing at his teammates, most of which just shrugged.
Batman did not.
"Regenerative properties…" he muttered out, closing his eyes in a thinking manner before opening them in realization, he shifted his body towards the boy and spoke words that many were beyond shocked to hear.
"I'm sorry."
The boy merely shrugged.
'Sorry for what? Why would he be sorry about Beast Boy being able to regenerate himself, that isn't a bad thing…' Raven pondered, before storing the question away for later research.
"After that we returned Beast Boy's body to our morgue before he later revived himself." Cyborg continued, purposefully leaving out The Doom Patrol to keep his friends life a bit more private.
"Well we are certainly glad to hear that." The man of steel complimented, before moving on to their next topic.
***TRwP***
"The last incident we mentioned doesn't end with the shootout though." Batman began, after they had taken a short break.
"He's right, a few months after we received a report that made mention of a mercenary group that had been hiding out in South America, apparently they were found violently butchered in their hideout. They match the description of the group you encountered." The dark skinned Lantern continued, narrowing his gaze on the teens in front of him.
"Ouch"
The galactic guardian blinked, shocked at such a minor dismissal from the green skinned hero.
"That's all you have to say, 'ouch'?"
"Ouch, that must have hurt?"
Robin was shaking his head, trying to alleviate the oncoming stress, while Cyborg was holding back the laughter that was threatening to emerge from the boy's reply.
"This is serious young man, the reports said that they were tortured for some time." Superman narrowed his gaze at the shapeshifter.
"The dude performed a coup de grace on me at point blank range with an oversized handgun, that being after he tried to shoot my teammate in the head. Sorry if I don't immediately break down in tears at the thought of his passing."
Superman winced a bit at the reply, but the caped crusader picked up where he left off.
"True, but I am surprised you are not more shocked to hear of his passing."
"You did say he was a dangerous mercenary who was hiding out in a third world country, those people tend not to die quick and painlessly."
"You seem quite knowledgeable in this regard." The masked man accused.
The boy shrugged again, before putting his feet up on the table and resting his arms behind his head.
"I watch a lot of action movies, just as Cy."
Batman growled in annoyance at the situation being taken so lightly by the boy.
Robin, however, was enjoying the hell out of himself. Despite Beast Boy's blatant disrespect, or perhaps because of it, he was getting to see a side of his mentor that he rarely had, agitation. He silently thanked whatever Gods were listening that it was Batman having to try to pry information from his teammate and not him. It was always fun watching the shapeshifter screw with interrogations like they were just a game.
"These are serious accusations that are being brought against you." The dark knight continued.
The boy suddenly sat up, glaring back at the man.
"What do you want…."
"I want the truth."
"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"
The room fell into silence at Beast Boy's shout, before his serious face broke into a large grin and he fell backwards onto his chair laughing.
"I have always wanted to say that!"
Most of the Titans just stared at the boy with shocked faces.
Batman glared daggers.
Cyborg and Robin were trying to hide their chuckles.
The Justice League was silent for a moment, before Flash burst out laughing to join his newly found brother.
"Holy crap that was great! Did you see how easily he did that!? Dude you should be an actor."
"I have always wanted to be a move star." Beast Boy nodded in agreement.
"Flash…. Shut it."
***TRwP***
"So what's next on the agenda?" An irritated and bored Raven inquired, having already sat through several hours of questioning.
"The final situation we will be discussing was your most recent mission involving the cult." Superman replied, also feeling a bit weary at having to spend most of the day in the tower.
"Alright let's get on with it."
"Robin, take us through the scenario if you would" Batman commanded, much to the boy's irritation.
"It started when we were called in to stop Adonis, he had begun attacking a bank and we arrived a few minutes after his initial rampage. It had been obvious that he had upgraded his battle suit since our last confrontation and we went about probing for weaknesses. The startling discovery was when Raven found that the armor itself was able to resist her abilities, giving the man a notable edge over her. Luckily we were able to stop him before anyone was seriously hurt and we retrieved the various pieces of the weapon for analysis." The masked teenager began, before glancing to Raven and Jinx for further explanation.
"After an extensive research we located the source of the shield, apparently he had inscribed his armor with magical runes that allowed him to dampen the effects of magic used against him, thus allowing him far more protection against my abilities." The empathy continued.
"Yeah, after that we found out that some jerk had been in contact with the overcompensating ass and we set about doing some undercover work." The pinkette grinned, as she glanced towards her towering boyfriend who looked away with a slight blush.
"Go on…" Batman interrupted, rubbing his temples in irritation at how the team was acting.
"We arrested the man easily and after a thorough interrogation we determined that…"
"Hold on a second, where are the notes on this interrogation?" The Green Lantern interrupted the boy wonder, as he began shuffling through the notes that The League had put together.
"Well…"
"I didn't take any notes, kind of hard to do so when you are directly interrogating someone don't you think? I mean does Batman keep a bat shaped notepad on him at all times next to his bat pencils for when he is holding some guy upside down on a rooftop? Then when the guy starts confessing he gently sets the man down and says 'hold on I need to write down what you are saying just in case I am questioned about this later on.'?" Beast Boy chimed in for his leader.
Several of the experienced heroes smirked, and glanced towards the masked man who scowled in return.
"Okay forget the notes, would you mind walking us through it then?"
"Nothing really to walk through, we had a pleasant conversation, talked about various things like the weather and his kids. Apparently he might be a grandpa soon, after that we compared notes on sports teams and I gave him some pointers on what he might buy his teenage son for his birthday. Real nice guy overall just kind of got down the wrong path."
At this point all of the heroes in the room were openly staring at the shapeshifter, most were slack jawed.
"And that… worked?" Flash stuttered out, confused beyond all belief.
"Sure, you would be surprised how much information you can get if you just act civil towards a person rather than immediately shouting at the guy or doing some silly 'good cop bad cop' routine."
Batman shot a glance towards the two Titans, who were looking a bit embarrassed by this accusation.
"Ummm right, so could you explain how the man was in such bad shape when we spoke to him then?" the Lantern continued.
The boy, once again, shrugged before leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes.
"Beats me, but considering that he was sent to a fairly high level prison my guess is that he ran into some criminals who didn't like him. He did technically rat out his employers after all and I can't imagine that sits very well in jail."
"Moving on… how did you manage to infiltrate the cult?" Wonder Woman asked, trying to get the conversation back on topic.
"Holorings" The changeling replied, as if it was the answer to all questions.
Again the room fell quiet, as if everyone was expecting a longer explanation.
"Could you elaborate on that please?" the Martian finally spoke up.
"Okay… we used Holorings to change our appearance and blend in like who the cult might recruit. Don't they teach you guys this stuff in superhero school or something?"
"Not really…" the fastest man alive muttered out, before racing over and making himself a sandwich before sitting back down in the blink of an eye.
The others glared at the man.
"What? I told you I was hungry again and this is dragging on more than we agreed upon."
***TRwP***
"When did you become aware of the cults true purpose, to summon the demon lord?" the dark knight asked, directing his question towards the Titans as a whole.
This time it was the empath who spoke up, "Two days before the ritual actually began, and before that we were kept in the dark as to what the true purpose."
"What about when you were made aware? What was your plan for the encounter?"
"We were waiting for all the major players and cult leaders to arrive, at that point we would rush in while Beast Boy and Raven held them off and take them all down at once." Robin replied.
"A decent plan, but you should have begun the assault as soon as they arrived, to catch them the least prepared. You know better than this Robin." Batman criticized.
Robin glared back.
"Regardless, the cultists were neutralized and despite the fact that the leader killed several of his lieutenants we managed to prevail." Raven finished up.
"I believe you are missing some key details out young lady." Hawk girl pressed.
"Such as?"
"For starters, the fact that this is yet another case in which the main target was found dead, this time when the police arrived." Superman continued.
"The battle got a bit heated and he was killed in the crossfire, things happen." Beast Boy said with a shrug, as if it was no big deal.
"And the fact that they managed to partially summon a powerful demon warlord into our world is among those things that just 'happen'?" Wonder Woman replied, her voice taking on an edge to it.
The boy just stared back at her before tracing his eyes over the other Justice League members, who were staring back with interest.
"You seem to know quite a lot about our missions recently, including the things that were not made public or shared with others…" The shapeshifter commented.
Robin's eyes widened the narrowed suspiciously towards the adults.
"Yeah… why is that exactly? And why are you so curious about Robin and the team? It's not like we failed any of these missions." Cyborg inquired.
"That's because they aren't after me, are you?" Robin spoke up, earning a glare from his mentor, before the realization hit the boy wonder.
"You're after Beast Boy."
The other Titans, save for the changeling, stared in shock, before several of them made subtle moves closer to their friend, showing signs of protectiveness.
"There are a lot of unexplained deaths focused around that boy we are trying to get to the bottom of them." Batman replied, not at all surprised at the turn of events.
"You knew…" Robin gasped out in surprise, earning curious looks from his fellow Titans.
"Knew what Robin?"
"They knew Starfire… about all of it. They never seemed surprised during anything that was revealed. So how much did you know in advance? Did you know we were being targeted by the mercenary group? That Raven's magic would actually help the cultists? Did you know that one of us was being targeted by the serial killer?" Robin pushed, focusing the anger of the room onto the seven heroes.
"You do not have the authorization for that kind of information Robin." Batman replied, earning a growl from the boy.
"Get out…"
"Excuse me? What did you say?" Hawk girl growled back towards the whisper from the Titan leader.
"I said GET OUT! We aren't part of your team and you are not our supervisors, you have no right to come down here and interrogate our teammate or any of us. You have no control over this team what so ever."
"Unfortunately we cannot do that until we get answers Robin." Superman intoned.
"Sorry supes, 'you do not have the authorization for that kind of information'." The changeling repeated with a grin.
The man of steel's eyes narrowed at the boy.
"How do you figure Beast Boy?" The Green Lantern asked menacingly.
"You don't have the authority to arrest us, you aren't a government and you have no real political power. Hence why you can suggest and bring the bad guys in but the can be released immediately afterwards. You aren't part of our group which means you can't fire me or anything like that. But best of all there is the fact that if you were to try and do something I can just claim I was ordered to remove the threats, which stops you dead in your tracks." The shapeshifter continued.
"Why would Robin ordering you change…"
"I didn't say Robin..." The green hero replied, before lifting up his right sleeve, and revealing a strange tattoo just above his wrist.
It looked like the number eight with a large 'A' above it.
Batman's eyes widened at the sight, while the other heroes just stared on curiously.
"I don't get it, what's the point of…"
"So it is true then…" Batman interrupted the speedster.
"Yes, it is. So now you see how pointless this situation is. You have no authority over me just as I can claim all responsibility for the deaths I was involved in, which was all of them by the way."
"What does that tattoo mean?" Wonder Woman inquired.
"It symbolizes a very famous 'hand' in poker, 'aces over eights' which is referred to as a 'dead man's hand'. It also happens to be the symbol for The Doom Patrol."
The room grew silent as the older heroes who knew the name stared in shock at the boy who had just claimed to be part of a black ops strike force group.
"The fact doesn't change that you killed people Beast Boy, I am sorry but we have to take you in." Superman spoke with reluctance.
Beast Boy nodded, standing up and walking towards the heroes, despite the protests from his fellow Titans, several of which were standing up and appearing to get ready to fight in his defense.
"I assume that you will all be turning yourselves in as well then correct?" Beast Boy spoke quietly when he reached the group of experienced heroes.
"And why is that?" Wonder Woman inquired.
"Well if you are arresting me for murder I might let slip on the killings all of you have been involved with. It's not like any of your don't have blood on your hands, plus the fact you are breaking international law with your space station laser gun." The changeling whispered back with a smirk, which only grew as the various League members looked on in shock.
"How did you…" Flash began before the boy chuckled.
"Oh come on, you don't really think that you are the only ones who spy on superheroes do you? The Doom Patrol considers you a threat just like you consider them one, and we have spent a long time analyzing your weaknesses and darkest secrets just in case."
"This isn't over…" Batman growled out, before the members turned to leave.
"Actually yes, it is." Beast Boy replied, before returning to his team.
***TRwP***
"How did you do that Beast Boy?" Speedy asked excitedly over dinner that night.
"Do what?"
"You know get under their skin so much, man you must have balls made of steel or something."
The boy chuckled in response, "Nah I just know how to screw with people. Everyone seems to think that interrogations are one way, but I find it is just as easy to get information from the people asking the questions, after all they are just as emotionally motivated and their guard is usually fairly relaxed since they expect to be getting answers, not the other way around."
"Oh I don't know about that Beast Boy, your balls are quite impressive from what I remember." Argent spoke out in a flirtatious manner, earning jaw drops from most of the men in the room.
"Dude…nice…"
Robin was muttering angrily to himself about how he was still winning in the 'man category', which elicited a laugh from the mechanical teammate.
"You are definitely good at pissing people off BB." Cyborg laughed, while shaking his head.
"Oh yes, the heroes were most set of the up at your answers."
"I think you mean upset Star… you know what never mind." Jinx muttered with a giggle.
"Do you think that was the end of it Rob?" Cyborg inquired, directing attention to their leader.
"I don't know, what did you say to them at the end Beast Boy?"
"Nothing much, just reminded them that I knew more about them then they knew about me, plus the fact that they are breaking international law."
"WAIT WHAT!?"
"Dude volume control…" The boy muttered, rubbing his ears after their leader's shout.
"Like I said, they are break…"
The boy froze, his eyes widened in panic before returning to a soft, almost sad expression as he glanced down towards his belt.
"Beast Boy what's…" Raven started.
Robin immediately had noticed that Cyborg had appeared confused, and Wildebeest agitated at the same time.
An ultrasonic frequency was apparently causing the confusion.
The changeling reached into one of his pouches, retrieving a small pager like device before staring at it with a gloomy expression.
Seconds later the device fizzled and sparked before smoke rose out of it, signaling its destruction.
"Swan Song, ensemble" the boy muttered out.
"Beast Boy, is everything… okay?" Cyborg asked hesitantly, while the others had stopped eating and focused on the suddenly depressed boy.
"They are dead…"
***A/N***
Cliffhangers for the win!
I do so hope no one is annoyed that we had another sort of 'summary' chapter. I promise this will be the last one that does this.
To everyone who got the reference that Beast Boy made shouting at Batman, good for you it's a great movie.
As for the 'international law' that I mentioned, the "Outer Space Treaty" which they desperately need a cooler name for prohibits using anything more than 'conventional weapons' in space. I assume a giant orbiting space laser cannon 'with the punch of a small nuclear weapon' does not count as 'conventional'.
The 'Swan Song' comment will be explained in next week's chapter, also for next week expect a bit of a sad chapter, since I already mentioned death. I am hoping to make a few people's eyes water at least.
Until next time! I hope everyone enjoyed the story!