Supergirl sighed as she entered the room they had given her for the night. It wasn't really decorated but then she hadn't expected as much. Truthfully, she had been fully prepared to return to where she had been staying in a hotel for the night, but Nightwing pointed out that Blackfire would be after her head after she had humiliated her. Supergirl couldn't argue with the logic even though she was pretty certain she could take anything the Tamaranean could throw at her. She wasn't sure yet, she figured the sparring match she had talked Starfire into would give her some idea of what Blackfire was physically capable but not her mental state because she couldn't see Starfire being nearly as ruthless and sadistic as her older sister, she had too gentle a disposition for that.
She sat on the edge of the bed and couldn't help thinking about Raven, Nightwing had referred to her as a sorceress, how did she come by that label? Her powers were nearly as much a mystery as what she faced in the Tamaranean sisters. It had been obvious her focus had been magical not physical, her powers had not granted her any super strength, durability, perhaps, but she seemed to possess no more strength than a well-trained human woman of her stature could naturally possess. That meant that the superhuman strength of the Tamaranean woman had outclassed her easily but left Supergirl wondering what the battle would have looked like if Raven had been met with someone who she could meet in strength punch for punch.
The next day arrived, and they met outside at the training course. Supergirl had figured if she was going to ask Starfire to cut loose on her it was better to do it where they could do little damage.
"Are you sure you wish for me to not do the holding back?" Starfire asked dubiously.
"Yes… I'm Kryptonian, I can take it…" Supergirl replied "I won't be attacking at all, I will just be defensive… I need to see exactly how much force you hit with… knowing your lifting strength is one thing but that doesn't tell me how much force you can hit with."
"Okay" Starfire sounded unsure as if in the back of her mind she wondered if Supergirl was taking her own publicity a little too seriously.
"Yeah…" Supergirl smiled planting her feet in the sand of the beach.
"Okay…" Starfire replied floating a couple of feet off the ground.
Supergirl watched as Starfire pushed off of the ground and went for a direct punch. She used her forearms to diffuse the hit but even with her feet dug in it still pushed her back a good ten yards (30ft or 9m).
Supergirl moved her arms looking more than mildly impressed.
"If I hadn't been able to dig my feet in I think I'd be in the water." She mused casually.
Starfire's eyes went wide as her mind tried to process what she had just witnessed. Supergirl had stayed upright, and she hadn't pulled that punch at all.
"Now that's the physical strength… do you have any other abilities that your sister might have used on Raven?" Supergirl asked as she walked up still rubbing her arms. The blow hadn't done any damage, obviously, but it did kinda hurt even though she really didn't let it show.
Starfire put a hand up and a ball of green energy formed around her hand.
"That looks cool…"
"We call them star bolts." Starfire replied "Our bodies absorb ultraviolet radiation and concentrate it into these beams of energy… I can fire them from my eyes as well."
Raven watched silently as Supergirl took stock of the Tamaranean's abilities. She was shocked at how much punishment Supergirl could take without so much as a wince or a single mark being left behind. Her mind began to wander until she noticed something strange further down the beach.
"Cyborg…"
"Yeah.. Rae…" he replied turning to her.
"What's going on over there?" she asked directing his attention further up the beach.
"Dunno.. but he looks like he's in trouble!" he said running towards where a strange person flew in with a lot of effort and crashed into the sand.
Cyborg and Raven ran to the guy to see him lying there, he barely managed to get out the words "help me" before falling completely unconscious.
"Nightwing!" Cyborg yelled "Over here!"
The others ran to Cyborg's side.
"Who is he?" Nightwing asked.
"I have no idea, he just crash landed here." Cyborg replied, "He couldn't be any older than Amanda."
"What happened to him?" Beast Boy asked as he came to stand beside Raven.
"You're guess is as good as mine." Cyborg groaned "All he managed to say was, 'help me."
Starfire and Supergirl were the last ones to arrive on the scene. It took them a minute to notice Raven wasn't getting too close.
"Raven… what's wrong?" Supergirl asked.
"I feel his fear… I think he was being chased… someone is after him." She replied finally coming a little closer "I don't know who or why… but someone is after this kid."
"Let's get him inside… we'll figure out what to do about him once he regains consciousness and we learn who he is and more importantly who is chasing him." Nightwing said.
Cyborg collected the kid into his arms and the titans all returned to the tower all thoughts of Blackfire put to the back burner in favor of the new mystery that was just dropped into their laps.
They got to the med-bay to find Amanda was still fast asleep. She had been doing a lot of that since her diagnosis. She felt miserable and the titans were loath to admit that they couldn't do much more than give her supportive care until she got over the salmonella poisoning. They put the strange kid on another bed and watched as the sensors brought up his vital signs.
"Everything looks normal… kid is probably exhausted." Cyborg sighed.
"So, the best thing we can do is let him rest." Nightwing sighed.
Beast Boy looked like he was pretty much useless in this, and Raven had busied herself checking on Amanda and specifically her fluids. She felt about as useful to the new arrival as Beast Boy was, so she had found a way to make herself useful and check on her little cousin.
"Raven…"
"Hey… go back to sleep…."
"I can't too much racket… Why is everyone in here?" she asked looking around to see that all of the titans were in the room.
"Some strange dude just crash landed on our beach… we're trying to figure out who he is… how he got here and why he's so exhausted." Beast Boy said.
Amanda rolled over on her back and propped herself up on her elbows so she could get a look at the other young teen.
"Oh… holy…" her eyes wide with shock.
"You know this kid?" Cyborg asked.
"There's no way… I haven't seen him in ages… Jean…"
"Jean… is that his name?" Nightwing asked in confusion "Do you know his full name?"
"Yeah…" she said still in shock "If I'm right that's Jean Xavier… he was a friend of mine back in Dakota… truthfully after I well… after I regained my powers he was my only friend…" she paused coming up to a full seated position in bed "I just don't understand what he's doing here in Jump City… I haven't seen him since I left Dakota."
Beast boy started to say something about Jean asking for help when suddenly he felt something hit him in the back of the head. He turned around his eyes taking in the floor to see a full I.V. bag sitting there, he could only assume that was the object Raven had pegged him in the head with. He then looked up and saw Raven giving him a glare that would send any intelligent person heading for the hills and he decided it was best for his health that he kept his mouth shut.
"Okay… sorry we woke you, Mandy, you get some rest… we're going to try and trace Jean's route from Dakota to here, see if we can find out what's going on and what put him on our doorstep." Nightwing said giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
The room cleared out slowly and soon Amanda was dozing off again. The minutes ticked by in silence as both Amanda and Jean rested.
Jean was the first to rise, looking around the room in bewilderment before his eyes came to rest on Amanda who slept in the next bed over. He looked at the I.V. and realized she was unwell and didn't want to bother her, but he quickly realized she sensed he was awake as she turned to look at him.
"Where are we?" Jean asked.
"Titans Tower… Jump City…" she replied "What happened? Last I knew you were in Dakota."
Jean hesitated, looking away, he didn't want to worry Amanda, he knew she had a lot on her plate as it was.
"Jean you know you can talk to me, I'm not a little kid… I'm one of the Teen Titans." She told him but that didn't change anything. He didn't want to scare her with his problems. He began to search for some way, any way to change the subject when Raven approached, and he felt weak with relief.
"I see you're both awake" she commented then signaled for Nightwing who took a couple of minutes to get there.
"Hi… welcome to Titans Tower… I… I have a few questions for you." He said to Jean.
"And I'd be happy to answer them…" his eyes fell on Amanda momentarily then back to Nightwing "But do you think it would be okay if I got out of bed?"
"Yeah… sure" Nightwing said stepping back to give him space to stand not initially catching on the other reason Jean wanted up.
"We should go upstairs so we can get the whole team in on this" Raven added. She realized he was trying to avoid talking about something in front of Amanda and she feared what it could be. What could possibly be that bad?
They got to the living room and the others gathered in concern as Nightwing guided Jean to sit on the couch.
"Okay the big question, who is after you?" Nightwing asked sitting on the coffee table just to Jean's right.
"Why do you ask?" Jean asked and Nightwing finally noticed his slight British accent. "What would make you think someone is after me?"
Nightwing looked down for a minute.
"I'm an empath" Raven replied, "I could feel your fear as you arrived."
Jean looked at Raven then at Nightwing and smiled.
"That makes sense" then let out a long sigh "You are exactly as I imagined you would be. That's why I came to you lot for help." Jean paused gathering his thoughts. "I am being chased by a metahuman I know only as Syphon" he explained looking at his hands.
Jean looked away quietly "I was in a fight with him not to long ago, he nearly took all of my powers… I barely escaped and got here to you."
"So, what do you think we can do about this guy?" Beast Boy asked dubiously.
"You hold the honor of defeating Trigon, surely ones who can accomplish feats such as that can help me now."
"That was Raven's amazing feat… we didn't do much." Nightwing admitted.
"Either way… we have to find out who this Syphon is and what he can do before we have to go against him." Cyborg groaned.
Jean nodded then looked at Raven and Starfire then to Supergirl.
"I get the feeling I just added to your troubles." He sighed.
Nightwing looked bewildered, sure he knew what was going on but how did Jean know?
Jean smiled "I'm a telepath" he then paused and gestured for emphasis.
"Besides, we've got Supergirl in a team, from what I've heard that is never a good sign." Jean grinned.
Nightwing quired a brow but didn't ask what that meant.
"One of our own was nearly killed last night." Nightwing sighed "We are trying to find the attacker so we can make sure it doesn't happen again."
"I could help with that once I get my powers back." Jean sighed "the problem is I don't know when that will be."
Nightwing looked at Raven to see what her powers were telling her but the look on her face said that she hadn't had the time to process what she was getting.
"Well, what happened, maybe I can help?" he continued sitting forward his elbows on his knees "How about this, you let me stay here while I recover my powers and I will help you with this problem."
"And what if we say no?" Nightwing asked.
"Then I'll still help, I'll just find someplace else to stay… I don't know exactly what happened, but I can tell it has people extremely upset." He paused "The last thing I want to do is add to anyone's problems."
Starfire and Nightwing made eye contact over Jean's head, and she nodded mutely, an action Raven repeated when Nightwing made eye contact with her, asking her the same unvoiced question. He then looked over to Supergirl who nodded wondering secretly what Jean meant by that comment that the fact that she was working in a group was inherently a bad sign.
Jean looked at her.
"Sorry it's just a weird crossover thing?"
Supergirl quirked a brow.
"We can address that later… back to what we were saying about yesterday?" Raven sighed.
Starfire looked down "My sister has taken, what you would call the 'sibling rivalry', a bit too far." Starfire claimed quietly.
"Enough said…so I take it she's who you're looking for." he sighed.
"Yes…" Starfire replied hugging herself. She hated the position this put her in, but she had no choice but to fight Blackfire.
Jean looked up at her and sighed softly.
"I think I have an idea on how you can find her." He admitted.
Cyborg looked from Starfire to him.
"How is that… we've been scanning all morning but she's illuded us." Cyborg said.
"Have you been looking for Tamaranean life signs?" Jean asked turning his full attention to Cyborg who was standing off to his left.
"Yeah and all we've been getting is Starfire?" Cyborg replied in annoyance.
"How do you know she's Tamaranean? Hell, how do you know what a Tamaranean is?" Nightwing asked.
"I have met a few in my travels…" he replied absently then returned to the conversation at hand "Are there any kinds of metals that interfere with your sensors?"
"Not that I know of… not that would be in high enough quantities around here."
Jean looked pensive for a moment, then began to worry. It was impossible but it was true, it looked like someone was interfering, but he wasn't sure he should tell them. He didn't want to put any more stress on them.
Raven looked at him in concern then made eye contact with Nightwing as if silently confirming the young detective's suspicion, that Jean was hiding something.
"Don't worry about it, we will deal with this together." Nightwing assured him.
Jean nodded then addressed the business at hand.
"Who did she attack and how severely?"
"She attacked me" Raven said coming into full view, her hand moved to her throat without thought to what it would look like.
He sighed and put his head in his hands as he realized what that meant muttering something about this not being his day.
Nightwing quirked a brow but didn't ask right away.
"What do you mean?" he asked after several seconds of silence.
Jean took several deep breaths to calm himself down.
"The only reason I can think that you can't find her because someone is hiding her."
"Who would be hiding her and why… and more importantly how?" Beast Boy asked.
Jean stood to pace for a moment then looked to Nightwing and then to Starfire his expression one of low-key dread.
"I think Syphon may have found your sister." He said, "He knows I'm here and he sees Blackfire as a worthy ally."
Starfire gasped in horror. She was already feeling this situation going from bad to worse.
"So why didn't you want to talk about this in front of Amanda?" Raven asked.
"Because she is already unwell… that and I didn't want to upset her any more than she already is" he paused gathering his thoughts.
"I was trying not to stress her with this while she was still in that bed unable to help out." He sighed "it would make the slow process of recovering that much harder on her."
"You really care about her, don't you?" Nightwing asked.
"Who are you… really?" There was a protective edge to Raven's tone as if she worried he might be more than he appeared. Low-key afraid that he was some kind of danger to her cousin.
"My name is Jean Xavier and as you have probably guessed I am not from this universe."
The unease in Raven's stance grew as he spoke. She didn't understand how this was supposed to calm them down. She had to keep Amanda safe, she had promised Madison and Mason no harm would come to Amanda under her care.
"During my travels I met Amanda, and we became best friends, she was like my little sister. She has suffered enough trauma in her life without me adding to her problems."
The thought briefly filtered through Starfire's mind that it was a sweet gesture to try to shield her from harm.
"But here's the thing, she's one of us, she's going to find out anyway." Cyborg warned "Wouldn't it be better if she heard it from you?"
Jean nodded "It would be better, and I will tell her, but let us wait until she has recovered from the illness so that she can do more than lie there and worry." He paused and looked away.
"That makes sense" Nightwing admitted.
"I have some remedies that might hasten the process" Jean offered.
This earned a suspicious glare from Raven. This was all too convenient, and she didn't trust him.
Jean turned to Raven sensing her distrust.
"If you want I can show you how to make this tea that I think will help her."
"Okay… show me." Raven replied her eyes landing on Nightwing as if silently asking him for his take on the situation.
Nightwing nodded as if to say he thought she should, that perhaps she could get a feel for who Jean was and if was really being honest.
They went to the kitchen and Raven opened her mind as if to try to get a read on Jean.
She immediately got hit with his worries about what Amanda had seen and then suddenly it hit her like a freight train what he and more importantly Amanda had seen that had him worrying so much about her. She had witnessed her mother's death firsthand, watched helplessly as her mother took four bullets to the chest including the fatal one to the heart.
She clutched the counter as it the weight of it hit her.
"I didn't say it out loud because it wasn't my story to tell but I am not going to hide it from someone I know has given as much of herself to take care of Amanda as you have and longs so much to keep her safe." He whispered so softly only she heard him. He knew what she had just seen from his mind, the thought of that day was never far from his thoughts where Amanda, or Mockingbird as they called her, was concerned.
Raven's eyes went wide as he said that; it was true it was for Amanda alone to tell them what she had really seen that day but why did he show her.
Nightwing looked up to see Raven turn pale and instantly he became worried.
"Raven is everything okay?" Nightwing asked.
Jean looked away in shame, he didn't mean to cause such an uproar, but it needed to be known.
Suddenly Raven's communicator went off, it was Amanda.
"Guys are you going to let me in on this little secret?" she said impatiently, "I know I look half dead but I'm still alive down here."
Jean's eyes went wide, and he looked at Raven his expression screaming "What do I do?"
She growled under her breath.
"You tell her the truth!" she said darkly getting into his face "You quit treating her like a child and tell her what she needs to know. It isn't going to be easy but if she finds this out any other way she is going to be furious with you!"
"All right, all right let's finish making the tea first." He says putting his hands up.
"Okay…"
It didn't take nearly long enough to make the tea and they went to take it to her. Jean didn't know how he was going to tell her this, but he was out of time, he had to do it now.