It's been a slow day for the titans. Not that crime slowed down, but the time its taking for them to recover is. When you're being grabbed with a stone hand so tightly you're rendered unable to move anything but your head, a squeeze like that tends to make your body sore and aching for a while. Robin has been trying to look for other titans that could help with their problem, but all of them were busy on their ends.
"Ugh, what am I going to do? We're in no battle condition and nobody is able to help us." Leaning back onto the couch, sighing in frustration and groaning in pain, he didn't notice until Starfire sat down next to him. The alien girl was one of three that weren't debilitatingly hurt, but she was nonetheless busy making sure that Raven, Jinx and her boyfriend Robin well and healthy.
"Robin, you need not push yourself so hard. You must let your body rest." She expressed worriedly, taking a hold of his hand. Silkie climbed up onto the couch and rested in Starfire's lap, so she petted him.
"But the city is completely vulnerable. Without us, the city will crash and burn." He argued, only to get distracted when Silkie started to climb up his torso. She removed him and lovingly looked into its cute/ugly face.
"Silkie, were you trying to get Robin's attention? Oh ho, you want to volunteer for him now do you? Do you my little bumgorf, do you?" She giggled as she started tickling the mutated larvae, which started squirming around in glee. But to Robin, something that she said tipped him off, so he thought and thought until he shouted,
"That's it-ow!" He clutched his sides and sat back down.
"What is the it?" The Tamaranean asked.
"I'm going to call a meeting on it!" Although unlike most meetings, this one had to take place in the infirmary, where Raven was in a wheel chair until she could walk properly again. Same for Jinx when Gaea's stone hand inadvertently busted her legs.
"What's this about Robin? You interrupted me wallowing in pain while Cyborg catered to my whims." Jinx complained.
"Was she being sarcastic or literal?" The Boy Wonder inquired. Cyborg shrugged while answering.
"Not the wallowing part. But I was bringing her some blueberry waffles." The metallic titan than handed the female metahuman her breakfast.
"Thanks Cy." She expressed gratefully before starting to eat. "Well, what's the meeting about?"
"Since half of the team is debilitated by Gaea three days ago, and none of the other titans are free, it seemed hopeless. But then Starfire here..." He placed his arm around her shoulders, making the girl giggle. "...gave me the brilliant idea that we could make our own miniature team!"
"What's mini-us's going to do, brah?" Beast Boy questioned, confused by what he meant.
"No, not miniature versions of us, but a mashup of characters like Silkie here. And no, I don't mean a team of Silkies." Robin clarified when the green teen was going to ask something else.
"You mean like a bunch of little buddies that we either create or find?" Cyborg questioned.
"Yes, exactly! A team of little buddies! They could fight the kind of crime that we normally leave to regular police."
"Such as?" Raven asked.
"You know, abuse against people and animals, illegal waste disposal, busting drugs, that sort of thing. Stuff that's below supervillain stuff."
"I can't tell whether that sounds too silly or too stupid of an idea." Jinx commented, but then shrugged. "But, why not? I could use some fresh air and maybe find something out in the city. Starfire, want to help me?" The metahuman asked the Tamaranean.
"Joy! It'll be like a girls outing!" The princess cheered as she floated to the back of Jinx's chair.
"Would you like to come along with us Raven?"
"No thanks. If we're seriously going to be doing this little buddy thing, then I need to do it alone. It might be dangerous."
"Very well. Let us go and find the buddy Jinx!" The witch cried out in fear as she was pushed really fast out of the infirmary doors.
"Well, I'm going to my room. See ya." Raven wheeled herself out.
"I've gots something to do too. You all will be surprised with what I've got." Beast Boy boasted before turning into a wolf and head out.
"I'm heading out too. Going to see if I can find something out there myself. Later." Cyborg said before exiting as well.
"Well, guess it's just me." The Boy Wonder shrugged before heading to the laboratory.
Beast Boy headed to his room, checking under his bed, shoving his arm past a moldy piece of pizza, underwear, several bones and a cup of milk that became cheese that became stone. Grinning, the green teen took out a special button remote with a long antennae and pressed it, before putting it back under his bed and went to his videogames to wait.
Raven was in her room, using her telekinesis to draw an evocation ritual with white chalk on her wall. Once it was done, the sorceress lighted some incense by the sides and focused her magic.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthose!" She chanted, her eyes glowing white as the center concaved until it collapsed and became a portal. Reading a book on how to create your own demon, she read aloud. "To create your own demon, you need just three steps. 1. Blood of the castor." Taking a deep breath, she used part of her soul-self to create a dagger, and pricked her finger to produce a drop of blood, which was sucked into the void. Healing her minute wound, she resumed. "2. The bones of a black animal." Raven then magically received from one end of her room a few small bones of a cat. Letting them drift in, she read, "3. Think of a purpose." Wondering about, she considered what the demon should be like, until it came to her. ("I want this demon to be a hero. To help with her team, and be able to enjoy her life without worry of desertion or betrayal, and have fun to its content.") Once the purpose was formed, a white bubble escaped from her head and went into the void. In a flash of light, Raven was momentarily blinded, forced to cover her eyes, until the light stopped. Looking over her arm, she saw a little black demon just lying there, curled up like a newborn kitten. Opening its white eyes, she yawned while getting up and stretching, before looking at her creator.
"I wonder what I should call you? Lucy sounds way too on the nose. And so is Lillith." Raven pondered. While she thought about a name, the demon sniffed something and went to a bowl of dried lotus and started to eat them. "Huh, hey! Don't eat those lotus!" She cried out, trying to float towards it, but her internal wounds made her wince in pain and fell to the ground. Looking at her fallen creator, she leapt towards the ground, confused. "Don't worry about it. I'm... hurt." She told the demon, trying to stay strong for herself. Whimpering from seeing her creator in distress, she went to her side and jumped into her wound with no trouble, shocking the half-demon girl. "Wait, what are-" She could feel her insides heal as the demon used her power to stitch and heal her organs back together in a way they no longer needed to heal. The demon jumped out once Raven was all good as new. "You... you healed me. Aside from mild telekinesis I couldn't use my powers without aggravating the wound. Thank you." Raven reached out and petted the demon, resulting in it purring before pointing to the bowl of lotus. "I guess you do deserve it." Standing up and picking her little buddy up, she let the demon eat all the dried flowers in the bowl. And once it was finished, it burped, accidently causing the bowl to break and her hair to stick on end like static electricity, surprising the titan. "Taking care of you is going to be messy if you live here." She mumbled in despair while the demon just purred in her arms. "But you still deserve at least a name." Looking down at the bowl, the slightest smile graced her face. "How about Lotus?"
Cyborg was in the Jump City Dump, trying to find if there was anything he could try to fix up since there likely wasn't time to make a buddy entirely from scratch.
"Let's see. Coffee maker? No. Toaster? No. Definitely not a dishwasher. I've been searching for an hour and all I can find is junk!" Just as he was about to give up, it was then he heard a familiar sound.
"Pain."
"Wait, that high pitch, the warbling in it. Could it be?" Cyborg pondered as he scanned for any mechanical life in this dump.
"All I know is-" It cut off with with some static, but there was no mistaking it now. Running over to to a pile, he dug through the junk until he found it: a red robot with missing treadmills, scratches all over and a busted bulb, but it appeared to still be alive.
"Oh man, it is you!" Digging the robot out, it was the Pain Bot. "Pain Bot! You were the champion of Battling Bots back in the early 2000's! Sure, it may not be an 80's show, but it was still awesome with what it had. But how did you wind up here?" It only responded with the word 'Pain'. "Well whoever dumped you sure lost out! You're coming with me."
Starfire pushed Jinx's wheelchair through downtown, unsure of what to find.
"Can you think of anything that might be useful as a lil buddy, Star?" Jinx asked, bored out of her mind.
"No. Perhaps we could get the inspiration by doing the shopping?" Starfire suggested.
"Nah, nothing special or useful will come from the mall. The boys are likely jury-rigging some stuff up that would be better than anything the mall will have. No, what we need is something that's bound to have success. Something like-" The girls heard a crash, turning their attention to a cat that had short black fur all over its body and had golden eyes, just minding its business walking under a ladder, causing the person on it to fall off and break his back. Walking behind a street bench, that caused the legs to give out and a teenage boy to fall onto his side, crying out in pain. By the time it got close to the girls all the mirrors in a mirror shop inexplicably cracked, bringing decades of bad luck to whoever worked there.
"Ooooh, a kitty!" Starfire gasped in joy. Jinx smirked and had an idea.
"Come here sweetie." She held her arms out, which the cat noticed before accepting and jumping into her lap, being hugged into the witches embrace. "We have a lot of common. We're sleek in black, we're cuddly..." She listed as she snuggled with the cat. "And..." She was about to continue when she noticed the cat had a collar. Looking at it, the metal piece had the name of Luna, but the address on the other side was scratched out, like the previous owner didn't want to be found. Jinx sighed sadly. "And we're both cast out. Not to mention we appear to be bad luck as well, which was probably why you were kicked out, but since I can manipulate luck, how about we polish it into good?" The cat purred in response. It was then they heard a woman shout.
"Help, someone stole my purse!" A robber was running away with said stolen item.
"Stop thief!" Starfire shouted as she was about to give chase, when Jinx stopped her.
"Wait Star, let's see what lady luck has in store for us." Sending her power through the cat, purring as she was being petted, they waited to see what happened. A brick of a windowsill gave out, letting a potted plant fall and hit the thief on the head with a loud shatter. He cried out as he stumbled around and placed his weight on an old fire hydrant, which couldn't take it anymore and shot up, breaking the man's jaw in the process. He fell on his back, fainted from the intense pain. "I'd say that our work here is done. Come on, let's get you some fish and catnip. You've earned it." The cat meowed again, making the girls giggle as they headed to the nearest store.
Finally with Robin, he's been tinkering in the lab making a couple of AI chips, one long and one square. Sure, he wasn't the tech genius like Cyborg was but blue prints helped. Implanting the first AI into one of his Birdarangs, along with crafting a beaked mouth to speak and anti-gravity pulses for mobility, he turned it on to see if it'd work. The object floated up and looked at Robin.
"What's up?"
"Yes! My first success! So, uh... Birdarang, what is your objective?"
"To protect Jump City with a team, bro."
"Ya. And I'm in the process of making your partner. By implanting spares of my extendable staffs, this boombox will be able to walk, run, punch and kick stuff, and reach far away stuff." The boombox, with said staffs, laid down on its front with the back taken out with modifications to the circuitry and mechanics with just one final component missing, the AI. Once the titan leader put the chip in, he screwed the back on, set it up and turned it on. After some static, the boombox changed radios until it found the signature line of a Frankenstein drama.
"It's alive! It's alive!"
"Yes, you are alive, of sorts, and now there's just one more thing!" Going over to a bird cage was a red breasted Robin in it, the Boy Wonder took it and placed it inside of a pod.
"So what's the word with the bird, bro?" Birdarang
"I'll tell you why the bird is the word. The team is going to need a leader, or a right hand bird, either way if there's a better leader, so I thought it'd be cool, or even funny, hehe, if I put everything makes me Robin into a robin bird. A Robinized robin."
"That's ri-donk-culous. I like it!" Birdarang commented. Boombox simply just started to play "Birds surfin'", giving the atmosphere a rhythm as Robin started pouring all of his mental capability and DNA to augment its body to be more combat efficient. Once all that was done, just one more button press caused the pod to flash in blinding bright light until it stopped, the pod opening letting vapor out. The robin jumped out, rolling through the air before doing a perfect landing, gave the titan leader a stern look and saluted.
"Alright! I dub you Super Robin! Here's your miniature utility belt, staff and other accessories."
Once all the preparations has been finished, all the titans sat were outside with a giant curtain obstructing their view. Beast Boy instantly realized that Raven was better.
"Hey Rave! Glad to see you're standing again! But... I thought you couldn't heal yourself without also aggravating the injury?"
"My little buddy helped." She replied, smiling from her successful evocation.
"That's so cool! Happy to hear you're feeling better. I loves ya Rae." He tried to kiss her but she placed a finger on his lips.
"Not in front of everyone." Even though she turned away, she did grasp his hand with hers. "I love you too."
"Alright Rae." He obliged, smiling in that awkward adorable kind of way. Seeing the two act romantic, even if thankfully it was restrained and put off for later, it made Jinx think about herself. Given her hardcore life and living with the Hive for so long, the pink haired witch wasn't sure she'd ever trust someone enough to fall in love. But turning her gaze to Cyborg talking to Robin, the tin man who managed to turn her life around in more ways than one, she nervously smiled. She wasn't ready for love, but that doesn't mean she's not open to the idea in the future. It was then that all but Robin were instructed to sit down while the titan leader began to make his reveal.
"Titans, we are here to open with our newest idea. Through collaboration, ingenuity, hard work and just a little bit of luck and love, we now have ourselves... our Little buddies!" Unveiling the curtain, they saw a line up of all the creatures they have gathered. Birdarang, Boombox, Super Robin the fighting bird, Silkie the mutated silkworm, Luna the Jinx Cat as dubbed by Jinx, Pain Bot, Lotus the demon and... "Wait, where's your buddy, Beast Boy?" Robin asked.
"Wait for it." He confidently said, his arms crossed as seconds went by before a wolf howl rang through the air, spooking everyone. In the distance on a small hill, a wolf stood tall and proud before jumping down and running to Beast Boy, lapping at his face. "HAHAHA! Down boy, down!" Once the wolf did the green titan petted him. "Good Dave."
"Dave? How do you know that wolf?" Raven questioned incredulously, genuinely taken aback by this turn of events.
"I don't tell you dudes everything. I found Dave as a pup as I was returning from a trip from the Doom Patrol. He was abandoned so I took him with me to the tower. Sure, there were close calls, but I took care of him until he started to get too big and I set him free, but not before giving him this collar so that he'd always remember me by. It even has a remote feature so that I can summon him if the need arises.
"And he's tamed?"
"Yep. He tends to chew on things he shouldn't but hey, that what little doggies and wolfies do."
"That explains why our shoes had bite marks for a time." Robin remarked with a disapproving look. "Eh whatever, just line him up with the others." Beast Boy led Dave the Wolf to sit right next to Lotus, whom stared wearily at the large dog. "Alright, since most of you can understand me, I'll just let those that don't refer to either Cyborg or Beast Boy. Here's the reason why you're here. We just fought a hard battle and we're still recovering from aches and injuries, but crime's still taking a hold on Jump City over there." He pointed at the city. "Some of you even came from there, so you know how dangerous it can be unchecked. Your job is stopping crime we don't normally cover, like animal or domestic abuse, illegal disposal, busting drugs, and whatever you may find. For those that are animals, here's some collars that will be track your motions and will act as radios. Beast Boy will be head of communications for you. In return for this, you get all this food as your reward!" Raven snapped her fingers to show a smorgasbord of food such as freshly cooked meat, fish, catnip, insect grub and zorkaberries provided by Starfire. All of the animals went wild. Raven then snapped the food away. "Now you know what you're working for. With that said, here we go! Buddies, GO!"
A sinister looking man was handing out sweets and treats to unsuspecting children while he was in a van. Birdarang and Boombox spotted this wrongful act in the process.
"Well that's a no-no. Let's break it down, Boombox!" The floating weapon declared. The musical box slammed the two ends of its arms together in agreement.
"Come on children, there's more inside." As they were about to climb in, a voice called out to them.
"Hey kids!" They all looked towards Birdarang and Boombox, who pressed a button and started to play the song, "What Does the Bot Say?" Boombox started to breakdance, making the kids all excited and surround them, distracted by the amazing sight, angering the sinister man.
"Hey, you two scram! These kids were having loads of fun already!"
"What, like giving them candy that'll make them fall asleep and you kidnap them?"
"Is that twue, mistah?" One of the younger boys asked.
"What, no way I'd do that to you guys. I'm just a simple guy wanting to see the satisfied look of you kids."
"That so? Try this lollipop then."
"Hey, I'm diabetic, so I can't eat sugar." He lied, but they weren't having it.
"'Fraid we're going to have to insist bro." Boomox during its dancing tripped the man so that he'd fall onto his back, grunting in pain. Birdarang took a lollipop that a kid was about to eat and shoved it into the guy's mouth, unintentionally crunching it.
"Ow! No, I wasn't supposed to ea-" He stopped before falling back down unconscious.
"Yep, sweetened sweet concoction. We did it Boombox! Now let's take this party elsewhere!" Switching radios, the machine started playing William Phareel's signature song, "Cheery". All the kids followed them to have a real good time.
Pain Bot was rolling down another street down in a homely neighborhood with Silkie laying on its lightbulb when they heard a commotion. While it was muffled, the words were quite loud enough.
"Another D, Billy? I'm paying thousands per year for your education and you're still so stupid! What's the matter with you?!" A slap was heard and a boy's cries could be heard.
"John, you know he's got a disa-Augh!" A second slap was heard.
"I don't care what he's got! Your softness is encouraging him to be useless!" Having heard enough, Pain Bot said one thing.
"Pain." Rolling up to the door, Silkie climbed off and vomited over the ground in front of the door. The silkworm then hid while Pain Bot extended a hand and knocked on the door. Everything quited down before the terrible husband and father stepped out, looking around before doing so downwards seeing the robot. "Pain."
"What are-Agh!" He slipped on the vomit, allowing the robot to drag him out of the house, onto the yard, and unleashed all its blunt instruments to him with an anvil, boxing gloves and hammers, while also using its electrified claws, a flamethrower and even a piranha. Seeing what was happening, the mother took her crying son to the car, before saying to the robot,
"Thank you!"
"All I know is pain." It replied before she drove off. When it was done, the man was brutally beaten and crying.
"Wh-wh-why did you do this to meeee?" He sobbed from the agony he suffered. Drawing out a sentence, it read, 'Don't mess with Billy.' "Okay, okay. I won't beat my son anymore. Just... no more."
"Pain." It said before picking up Silkie, and rolling off.
Dave was walking through the ally ways with Super Robin on his back, keeping track of anything that could be off when in the distance, they heard the sound of an alarm and wheels screeching in the distance. Raising a tiny grappling hook, it helped pull him forward into the street and just see the back end of the stolen car. Flapping his wings, Super Robin flew straight over the buildings, keeping an eagle-or robin eye view of the car, along with Dave zigzagging through the ally ways to try and keep up. Figuring he could use some help, Super Robin swooped down and got near the car, and threw a tiny birdarang. It spun threw the air as it entered through the broken window, bounced off the dashboard, and hit against the emergency break, stopping the car. The car thief slammed into the steering wheel with enough force to set off the air bags, crushing him into the seat. Woozily, he opened the car to get out only for the door to be slammed shut on him by Dave pouncing on the door, knocking the criminal out. The audience cheered while the animals bowed before Dave decided to drag him away to gnaw on his legs.
Lotus and Luna were also lurking through the ally ways, since the darkness and familiar terrain for the cat will provide them much service for their job. But what they didn't expect to see was a very strange... being. It was very simple in appearance, being mostly bean shaped at three feet tall and colored red with only a mirrored visor to indicate a face. When it realized it was spotted, it gave a surprised yelp before pressing a button on a little gizmo, and teleported away. Luna meowed in curiosity while Lotus sniffed the ground, then narrowed her eyes before proceeding to make a portal where the alien stood. Both jumped through, and they found themselves at the sight of crashed aliens! There was 12 in total, including the red one, along with every color of the rainbow including black, white, brown and pink, and they all looked the same shape wise. All the aliens spotted the cat and demon and cowered at being spotted, crying out for mercy. Sensing what was going on, Lotus formed tentacles from her hands and rapidly drew a shape in the ground. The red member noticed what it was, and stepped forth to see it was two hands shaking. Morphing the appendage into a hand, the demon offered her hand, and waited a few seconds before it accepted. In the best way they could explain, they're the crewmates of the crashed ship called the Skuld, trying to reach their home planet when they were hit by an asteroid, and forced to make a crash landing. Without the necessary spare parts to fix the wires, steering, shields, fuel tanks and reactor, they're stuck on this planet. Luna rubbed against Luna, and then pointed out to the streets to follow. Figuring she had a plan, Lotus followed the cat, but didn't stop they were on the sidewalk. Winking, Luna walked onto the street and sat right in the middle of the road, where a family van was coming. Screaming from the sudden animal, they veered and crashed into into an electronics store. Some of the products were damaged, but nobody was killed. Luna meowed and pointed towards the Skuld, Lotus figured it out and chuckled at the morally grey plan to help the aliens. Slithering through the store putting everyone involved asleep, the demon opened a suction portal that took not only the van, but every electronic in the store. Returning to the aliens, they were cheering from the abundant pile of new parts. With the teamwork of the 12 crewmates along with Lotus, it only took a little while before the spaceship was completely fixed. Only the unconscious humans in their chairs remained. The red alien happily shook hands with Lotus while the black and pink ones petted Luna, making her purr in delight. Rising up, the ship quickly left, heading home. Lotus and Luna gave a high paw to each other.
By sundown, all the little buddies were back home with Beast Boy talking to them.
"All right, let's see how you guys did. Birdarang, what have you guys accomplished?"
"We saved kids from a junk chump giving tainted sweets to kids, and had a party afterwards!"
"Yippee-ki-yay!" Boombox spoke a signature movie quote in agreement.
"Cool, cool. And what about you two?"
"All I know is pain." The robot responded. Silkie just gurgled.
"Eh, let me handle Pain Bot. I can just upload what he did from his memory." Cyborg offered.
"Okay. Dave, Super Robin, what you got?" The enhanced bird gave Beast Boy a small yet detailed report.
"Okay then. For you." Beast Boy handed the report to regular Robin.
"And finally you two. What happened on your end?" While Luna just meowed, Lotus jumped through Beast Boy's head, momentarily giving him a headache.
"Augh, headache! Ow! Ah-oh. You helped some aliens return to space. Cool! Too bad about the family though. I'm sure we can cover it though. Well, from the sounds of it, this was a giant success!" The robots beeped and booped while the animals either meowed, barked or chirped in victory. "Raven?" He asked his girlfriend. With a smile, she summoned the table of food back as promised. "Bon appetite." The animals instantly went to the food while the robots provided all the lights and music needed where they could have a party.
A/N: I say, this is really interesting. I don't own the Among Us cameo reference. I was told this was too silly by a couple of people, but it's thanks to Eris that this could be possible. Thank you. So, I have two ideas in mind. First is a custom chapter not based on any episode along with being an idea from a commenter at AO3 by the name of WJ Fogg, as it was a theoretical replacement for the little buddies, where the titans try to initiate a program of Tween Titans for kids around 8-12 years old. 5 kids. Three girls and two boys. Respectively, they have ranged size manipulation, creating explosive bubbles of all sizes, control of all sorts of bugs, giving life to inanimate objects, and with the power of touch make anything soft and squishy. My friend TomoMoon1 recommended that I could use an orphanage angle which could help deal with any concerned parents dilemma. They were supposedly going to do what the little buddies did in this chapter but now I need a new plot. Perhaps you guys can help? Maybe a C or D list Teen Titans villain perhaps? Also, for a plot of an actual episode, it's going to be on the episode Uncle Jokes, but on a different take of the role changing, along with no uncle jokes. Here's my idea. Starfire tries to connect with Beast Boy and Cyborg more by trying to adopt their comic relief style, but Robin and Raven feel like that would be too much focus on stupid, immature comedy for the team. Thinking of a solution, Cyborg suggests that they try switching the roles of the group dynamic for the day to get a better feel and understand each other, if not for the sole reason that it would also be hilarious. They draw straws for which role they get. While anybody can give me ideas if they have one, I'm going to specifically ask you Eris. In two reviews separately, could you please give me a solid plot on both these ideas so that I can write them? That'd be great. What do you think? I await for your answer and your ideas on the Tween Titans and group dynamic swap. And just so I'm clear, it's not mind swapping personalities, it's swapping group dynamic roles, like the cool angsty leader role, the goth role, the comic relief role, etc.