Chapter 3. Tiger Cruise
Richard John 'Dick' Grayson, AKA Robin, was in unusually high-spirits. Not because he was known for being or often was cynical, pessimistic, or the glass half empty type, even if sometimes he was Exhibit A for that sort of thing. As a matter of fact, he figured himself the perennial optimist, even if not as giddy to share his joy all the time as much as certain other members of his team. Rather, he simply felt better on the inside than he normally did because things on the outside were simply better than they normally were.
Not that things were normally bad, just that, normally, he wasn't hailed as a hero of an interstellar scale for finally bringing peace to entire star systems long devoid of it.
Normally, the adult heroes of the earth weren't so keen to turn their benign neglect into tacit, if underspoken, support and would not be so willing to give a nod, a pat on the back, and a 'Good Job'-or, in his famous and infamous old mentor's case, just the first thing.
Normally, the broader Teen Titans network was not so large, strong, and productive.
Normally, his flagship, everyday team patrolling Jump City wasn't so big and harmonious for long.
And normally–especially–he wasn't two short steps away from finally getting engaged to the love of his life.
'Starfire…'
Batman, AKA a certain genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist whose Fortune 500 company was headquartered on the East Coast, had cautioned against it–the Dark Knight's own odd lapses notwithstanding. Against ever losing sight of warring on all criminals to cherchaz la femme. Against her or anyone like her ever stealing his heart. Against falling in love.
There was a time not all that long ago in the grand scheme of things where he would have agreed. Where he got it. Without hesitation. Without question. With every intention to make his adoptive father proud–even after they had parted ways and their relationship was on its lowest rocks and he would have never freely admitted it, even to himself. To Dick, nothing else had mattered except the mission. The mission was everything. All encompassing. All consuming. Not a step, not a breath, not a thought wasted in anything that did not eventually add up to accomplishing the mission, let alone anything he thought could divert him from seeing that course out to the end, whatever that might have been for him.
Yet now, as he leaned against the wall of that hallway in the tri-carrier, watching Starfire chat it up, laugh along, and generally be Miss Congeniality as she was so want to be with the rest of the Titans and their new friends for this new enterprise in their crazy lives, Dick didn't get it. Couldn't get it. Didn't want to get it.
How? How did Batman not see? How did he willingly close off his heart? How could he still manage to even after so many years?
It was rhetorical, of course. Mostly.
Dick knew full well about the how and why Batman kept going, living life as he did. He'd seen that driving force in action more times than there were stars in the sky on a clear night. He might not have got it as something he should've embraced for himself, but he still got why Gotham's Guardian did, even if time had only widened the divide of his disagreement.
So much of his mentor's daylight hour persona was a front. A sham. A mask.
Ever since he was eight years old.
Ever since then, he was Batman.
Maybe not to the degree people, even Batman himself, thought, but still. In so many, many ways, Batman was the real him. And Batman could not have ANYTHING compromising his precious mission…or dare to have anything hurt him in a way that made the mission that much harder.
For Batman, the neverending battle and leading a happy social life was a zero sum game. It had to be one or the other. He couldn't have it both ways.
Batman kept a guard on his heart for good reason.
But Robin?
Dick Grayson had always been social. He liked people. He liked interaction. He craved it even. It was one of the things that had always separated Robin from Batman in the public eye, and very much in private.
Which was to say that this type of interaction, what he felt for Stafire, was one he was… not a stranger to… yet not completely familiar with yet. He had a crush before, since he was ten and she was… old enough to babysit him.
But was he truly ready for this kind of love? He thought he was, especially after Tokyo. He thought he was just now looking at her being her. He'd been atypically on cloud nine recently. But sometimes, like now, if he found himself gazing at her for too long, the doubts crept in along with the love.
Would she want what he did too?
Would something else bad happen on Tamaran that required her to leave?
'What am I even doing?'
A familiar pressure built up in his mind as the only person he trusted fully to dig around in there made her presence known.
"If your feelings were any more obvious, it wouldn't take an empath to know them."
Robin shook his head, a little embarrassed (but mostly glad) at Raven for the distraction from his thoughts. "Yeah. I would have been fired from superheroing a long time ago if I wore my emotions this loudly on my face. Sometimes I forget it was beaten out of me. Thanks for the catch."
"Anytime."
"While we're having our little mind to mind, anyone or thing trying to probe the team's minds, yet?" He was quick to divert his thoughts after that slightly embarrassing exchange from the normally subdued Azerothian.
"If they are, can't tell. They'd have to be a greater telepath than me."
"I hear ya." He smirked slyly in his mind. "Speaking of, you and Ms. Grey getting along?"
"Har har," Raven laughed half in sarcasm, half in genuine amusement… by her standards. "If you really have to know, Jean and I are having a lovely conversation about the manga I'm reading. It's surprisingly deep."
"The conversation or the manga itself?"
"Yes."
Robin raised a brow in his mind.
"And for the record, she's also very nice and helped me train my psychic scan."
"So… not the kind to secretly infiltrate our minds and extract whatever critical information she wants, then?"
"More like the exact opposite. Just like her file said."
She glanced at Beast Boy, who at that moment was playing the armpit tuba with Blue Beetle, Static, Gear, Toad, Nightcrawler, Spike, Spider-Man, A-Bomb, Ben 10, Michelangelo, and whoever the parachuting blonde with the thick shades was. To their credit, most of the onlookers were either confused or the exact opposite of entertained, yet Sora was laughing up a storm, mentioning something about how one of his friends would love this while the other would absolutely hate it.
"Though, to be fair, it seems we're apparently fortunate to have so many people with nothing in between the ears to steal in the first place."
Robin had to chuckle mentally at that, even if he was loath to judge the others on their intelligence as harshly. He'd wait till he saw them in actual action. Not just… male bonding… before making that call.
Suddenly, Michelangelo stole the attention of everyone in the hallway whether they wanted it to be or not, by letting rip the mother of all armpit farts. The horn that was his pit echoed throughout the gunmetal halls of the tri-carrier such that Robin thought they must have clandestinely clad in some vibranium they were vibrating so violently. So much so that, wherever he was, Robin wouldn't be surprised if Nick Fury's eyepatch was knocked clean off his face from the sheer explosion of sound.
"And THAT is how it's done!" Michelangelo shouted proudly, giving the high threes all around the circle of fellow class clowns as most of them heaped praises upon his name while everyone else was immediately… horribly bewildered at what just happened, including Robin himself.
Raven in particular then shifted gears to looking like she was about to vomit onto her copy of Death Note.
Something she soon looked a lot more like doing due to the madness that was to ensue.
"Nah man… THIS is how you do it!" The toady mutant took a deep breath, smiled, tensed up… and exhaled out both ends with a rip-roaring explosion of butt air.
The ensuing stink literally burned retinas, and everyone dispersed, pinching their noses as tightly as they could as Toad grinned triumphantly. "And the Toad is in the hole!"
"The toad blew OUT the hole! MAN!" Cyborg retaliated, sweating as he held his nose.
"For real!" agreed Power Man.
"Not even Goofy would like this!" yelled Sora. "Ahhhhh! My nose hairs are singed! I need CURAGA!"
"P.U. dude! P.U.! Ahhhhh!" shouted Beast Boy in complete accord.
Cyborg asked Beast Boy to turn into a skunk just so he could use him as a gas mask, which Beast Boy immediately complied with to escape the stank himself.
Robin was tempted to break out his own proper gas mask from his utility built, when he heard via the intercom the familiar voice of a familiar Agent of SHIELD, one Assistant Director Maria Hill. "Agent Fury will see you now. Please, enter."
"Can ve at least give frog-legs over here a minute to freshen up or somesing?! I do NOT want zis stank contaminating ze entire carrier!" said Nightcrawler.
"You're just jealous cause it masks your musk!" Toad shot back, arms crossed, nose upturned.
"NEIN! You DO NOT get to turn your nose up at me! Not after… zis!"
As the two began to bicker, which seemed to be an everyday thing for them, and Cyborg in his infinite mercy and wisdom passed Beast Boy in skunk from around to those who needed a reprieve from the ghastly gastrointestinal fumes the most, Robin noticed that Raven was leaning right next to a button there on her spot on the wall opposite him labeled, 'Emergency Ventilation'.
Snapping his fingers to get her attention, Robin furiously pointed at the button once he got it and Raven, like her life depended on it–which it probably might have–punched it with all her might.
Immediately, the air vents up and all around them suddenly grew wider and sucked out all the stank and ejected it to parts unknown. Though Robin knew not where, his mind was suddenly filled with the image of any pigeons flying close to the exterior of the tri-carrier suddenly dropping out of the sky like flies, which both saddened him as a fellow bird, yet gave him a strange sense of… peace… as a lifelong urban dweller.
"Ahhhhh! Get it off me! GET IT OFF ME!" shouted the last person to hold Beast Boy in skunk form right as the emergency ventilation kicked in, Ben 10, pulling the green furred changeling off him after having no doubt been overwhelmed by his stench with the surrounding air having returned to normal. "Here Kevin, you hold him!" he said, tossing skunk Beast Boy without looking.
"Dude!" both Raphael and Beast Boy shouted in unison, the latter turning back to his human (enough) form right before hitting the teenaged mutant ninja turtle so hard that they both collapsed into a heap on the cold steel floor, eyes spinning and heads wobbling.
As the younger teen immediately regretted his mistake and ran over to apologize profusely, the rest of Ben's team shaking their heads and sighing profusely along with the rest of the turtles, Robin looked back to Raven and gave a thumbs up, which she reciprocated.
To his supreme satisfaction, he also got thumbs up from basically everyone not focussed on Raphel chewing out Ben over his attempts to say he was sorry or Nightcrawler and Toad's verbal fisticuffs.
Including, of course, Starfire.
Feeling once more unambiguously unusually on top of the world, Robin held out his arm for her and asked, "Shall we?"
"Oh yes. Let us."
She grabbed his hand and the two made their short way over to the door into the auditorium.
They pressed the button together, walked through the threshold hold together, and took their seats at the front row together, arm in arm.
Not for the first time–and, hopefully–not for the last time either.
T-T-T
Director Nicholas Joseph Fury, Agent of SHIELD, stepped out from backstage and onto the podium at the front of the stage once all of the teen heroes he'd picked up were comfortably seated. In the brief moments before he spoke into the mic, his keen eye noticed, much to his irritation, the rest of the New Warriors assigned to this task sneak their way into the room from one of the vents in the center of the auditorium.
'They were already here before we splashed down, and they're STILL late.'
He shook his head, making a note to make a note of that in his report concerning Squirrel Girl's, Agent Venom's, Cloak's, Dagger's, Triton's, and Iron Spider's performance on the mission at hand.
Speaking of, after tapping the mic thrice to ensure its proper operation, and to quiet down his adolescent audience of forty's chatter, Nick began the briefing with, "Alright now. Listen up boys and girls, because I'm only going to say this once: this is not a pleasure cruise."
"Yeah. No kidding, dude. Because if it was, we'd be drowning in free snacks already!" said Beast Boy in a whisper he thought Nick couldn't hear.
"I know right? Where's the free pizza, dude?" replied Michaelangeo.
Nick glared at the two and said, "Pizza is at 1200 hours in the mess. It is presently 0600 here in my auditorium where you will now be feasting on knowledge for the next–"
"YEAH! KNOWLEDGE!" Sora suddenly shouted, just as suddenly getting out of his seat, fist pumped righteously in the air, a big, wide, goofy grin strong enough to power the gummyship for eons plastered from ear to ear on his face.
Multiple members of the Teen Titans laughed, sighed, shook their heads, slapped their faces, or–in Starfire's case, looked equally as giddy and ready to burst with excitement and enthusiasm.
Everyone else was in multiple states of confusion, including Nick as he replied, "Uhhhmmm… yes. Anyway…"
He picked up the remote on the podium and pressed a button, turning on the giant monitor screen up and behind him for today's feature presentation, which began with an image of a SHIELD manilla folder labeled, 'Operation Triple T' at the top and 'Top Secret' at the bottom.
"What I'm about to show you, what you're about to hear, absolutely MUST NOT leave this room. I am well aware that are many more people here that think OPSEC is an instrument–"
"Wait, so it's NOT a type of trumpet?" asked Toad, much too genuinely for the liking of his team.
"Than I would like," Nick continued, "but I implore each and every one of you to keep it to yourselves, even during the brief time you're aboard my fine flying multi-roll watercraft. With that said, welcome to the tri-carrier, and enjoy your stay."
Ben 10 sighed. Clapping sarcastically, ignoring the eye roll from Kevin Levin and the death glare from his cousin, he said, "Well a fine Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah to you too, Mr. Fury."
"YEAH! ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH to ya, Mr. Fury!" Sora shouted, clapping like a happy trained seal before Starfire joined in.
While Nick knew that the two titans were earnest and meant no harm because they quite clearly didn't understand the smack, there was no way, absolutely none, he was gonna let Ben off the hook for such blatant, casual, unrestrained disrespect. He got enough of that from Peter, and didn't need it from anybody else.
"Young man, how many manners have you got stored in that databank upstairs?"
"I dunno? Ten?" Ben shrugged, putting his feet up on the desk before his seat, Kevin's palm now meeting his face and Gwen's death glare twitching like she was holding back putting a magic pink bubble around his head and slowly squeezing until he couldn't breathe.
"Well allow me to take the place of your Grandpa for a sec and hammer five more in so hard you'll be called Ben 15 if you don't shape up, boy!" Nick stated raising up his right hand in slap attack formation to emphasize his point. "And get your shoes off the regulation desk! What do you think this is, a lounge? This is serious business, not a social club run out of your mommy's basement! You're in my army now, son!"
A grave chill ran through the adolescent audience, frightening even the bravest and most well behaved (or in the case of Kevin and Gwen, most embarrassed and irate) among them, forcing even Sora back into his seat.
"And he'll… make a man… out of you…" Sora softly whispered so as not to incur the wrath of the one eyed spirit of vengeance before him.
Without another word, Ben, lip quivering far more than he wanted to, took his feet off the desk and sat normally, at attention, ramrod straight, like he was back at military school. Kevin and Gwen soon followed, all thoughts of reprimanding Ben in their own way far overshadowed by their own fear of being reprimanded by The Colonel.
"Now then, if we have no further interruptions," Nick went on before coughing into his fist, "I STRONGLY CAUTION YOU ALL to contain any further emotional outbursts, even if you personally find it to be warranted," he finished, paying special attention to the Titans, eye lingering especially long on Robin to the point the Boy Wonder raised a confused yet curious brow.
Content that the message was received–as much as he ever could've been–Nick closed his eye, sighed, and with a press of the remote's button, the next slide on the projection came up. It displayed two men in an alleyway looking out to the street beyond from an isometric perspective.
The swift chorus of audible gasps and murmured, 'Oh no's' technically broke his words of warning, but Nick let it pass. After all, it was the exact same reaction he'd seen when he and the intel crew received the news as well, and it was honestly less dramatic than he'd anticipated. Besides, the Titans had been through enough with the orange and black, armor clad figure on the left of the slide and didn't need him badgering them on top of that bad history.
"Our Intel strongly suggests that this man here–" Nick pointed to the man on the left on the slide, "has been supplying both the Japanese and Chinese underworlds in Tokyo, including this man here–" he pointed to the man on the right side of the slide, "with off-the-books quantum vapor. A highly potent, highly cost effective, and highly illegal mutagen capable of turning most humans into mutates and most mutants into even stronger mutants."
"Quantum vapor!?" yelled out Gear, leaning on the edge of his desk as far as he could.
"That's… that's Bang Baby gas!" Static shouted in alarm, standing up out of his seat.
"Bang baby gas?" asked Toad. "I gotcha bang baby gas right back in the hallway! She was pretty potent too!"
Everyone of the teens groaned at that, except for the delinquent New Warriors, who were just confused. And also Toad himself, who was yucking it up after mucking up the briefing so badly after reminding people how much he mucked it up back in the hallway.
"Oh for crying out–can I have some order again!?" Nick barked.
Without hesitation, Raven used her powers to cover up Toad's laughing maw in a claw of dark energy and Jean used her powers to violently shake Toad till he was so out of it he was seeing stars and remained placidly still in his seat.
"Thank you." Nick nodded.
Raven and Jean both saluted fully and silently and respectfully.
The toady mutant's emotional outburst done with, it was Beast Boy's turn. "That's... That's..." He began shakily for all the other Titans in the room, just as shakily pointing to the guy on the left of the slide.
"Slade," Robin snarled, his eyes narrowing into slits and voice a feral growl, Starfire holding his wrist to soothe the savage beast he'd unleashed within himself at the mere mention of their longtime and hated arch rival.
Raven was similarly incensed by her standards, her teeth gritted slightly, her brow furrowed wrathfully, and her eyes briefly flickering into the four famed demonic eyes associated with her heritage on her father's side of the family. She only managed to calm down when Beast Boy patted her on her shoulder, reminding her of where she was and getting her to breathe deeply enough to dissipate enough of the anger to become decidedly less… demonic… again.
"Slade Wilson," said Nick. "AKA Deathstroke the Terminator. AKA Mr. 2nd on SHIELD's most wanted list for two years running. A new record as of 0100 hours this morning."
"Why? Did he summon the Darkness and try to envelop the universe in it?" Sora asked, summoning his Keyblade and checking all the corners as if he expected a fight to suddenly break out at any moment.
Nick blinked. "Actually… yeah. Something like that." He cracked his neck reflexively at the memory of when he learned what the mercenary had been up to. "Ever since aligning himself with the devil incarnate and turning most of the people in this room and the world to stone–and before anyone asks, it'll all be laid out in the detailed files you'll be given at the end of the briefing–he's fallen flat off our radar. That is, until two weeks ago when we managed to acquire this evidence pinning him to Shinjuku city on the night of that subway station explosion some of the more astute of you have probably seen clogging up the news cycle."
At another press of a button, a photograph of a large bullet train station on fire with rescue workers and local superheroes working overtime labeled, 'Shinjuku Station: Aftermath of Mutant Criminal Brawl' appeared on the slide below the main image.
"Wait a minute," said Cyclops. "I thought that was supposed to be some sort of gas main accident."
"Well, a gas main certainly was involved," said Nick, "but the reason it really exploded was because of a turf war between the Triads and the Yakuza that flared up a little hotter than normal because everyone was puffed up on illicit super steroids. A lot hotter, actually. In many instances, quite literally."
"Sooo… these steeroyeds are like elixirs," Sora stated.
"Sorta kinda," said Static, shaking his hand for emphasis. "'Cept you don't drink these elixirs, you huff gas from a canister or inhaler."
"Wait… it goes through your nose? Ew!"
"Or your mouth," Gear added swiftly.
"Ew! You can eat the gas? Ew! If that gas is anything like the gas I just experienced, then I want nothing to do with it!"
"Well, you're in luck, because neither do the Japanese," said Nick.
"Which is why we're here, I take it," said Leonardo, leaning back, arms crossed over his chest.
"Precisely. But first, a brief overview about Mr. Handsy here standing next to Slade," he said, pointing to the man on the right of the slide. "Name's Tomura Shigaraki. Local troublemaker. Hates superheroes a whole bunch and really wants them discredited, dismantled, and destroyed. The way the Japanese put it, he's small fry by both SHIELD and their own standards. So small, the file they shared with us was only a couple pages long. Yet it should be known he's led multiple attacks against the students of UA High School, the best teen heroics education institution in the country. The first such incident took place at their USJ facility–"
"They attacked Universal Studios Japan!?" Beast Boy shouted, jumping out of his seat, pulling at his hair like he was just told he ate a piece of meat. "No way dude! Please tell me The Hollywood Dream is still standing!"
Despite forgetting all about keeping Raven calm, the green teen shapeshifter's outburst over the fear of losing a (admittedly great) roller coaster in this situation ironically thawed Raven out from her stupor, the purple robed sorceress's eye twitching before saying, "Please, stop tampering with the urgency of this briefing with your idiocy. We have far too much of that in this room. We don't need any more chaos."
"Finally!" yelled Nick, relieved. "A teen after my own heart."
"Thank you sir," Raven said, using her magic to make Beast Boy take his seat, and keep him pinned there despite his protests.
"Now, as I was saying," began Nick, "Shigaraki's first attack happened at UA's Unforeseen. Simulation. Joint. facility. And before anyone asks, I know, strange acronym. Might be casting a stone in a glass house considering we're all working on behalf of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, but yes, I agree. Moving on, just prior to his second strike, he was seen threatening one of the students in the middle of a crowded shopping mall before disappearing for a little bit and showing back up just this past summer at The Beast's Forest training facility–"
Several of the X-Men scoffed briefly in a mirthful fashion at the mention of the name of that place. Beast Boy's eyes widened.
"-A place where he almost succeeded in the kidnapping of one of the students during his attack there by a hair's breadth."
"I don't get it," Nightcrawler said. "Zis guy sounds pretty tough, yet seems like a major letdown. I mean, he's no Magneto or anysink! Ze Blob seems more dangerous!'"
"Very few people are as dangerous as Magneto, Nightcrawler, yet that doesn't preclude them being dangerous enough to be worth our particular brand of TLC. That idea applies very much to Mr. Shigaraki here. While he may look like Frankenstein's monster by way of Hot Topic–"
All the New Warriors laughed at that, especially Spider-Man since he personally had Agent Frank of the Howling Commandos on speed-dial.
"-we believe his mutant power allows him to disintegrate objects on contact with his hands, hence why he's covered in them. So please: do not play tag with him."
"What if we high five him instead?" Michaelango asked, cheekily smiling.
"Then I hope you enjoy turning into turtle soup mix, because that's the reward you clowning around is gonna get you around this guy."
Michelangelo's eyes widened and his mouth narrowed, Raphael smacking him upside his head and loudly whispering, "Stupid!"
"Hey man, not cool dude!" Michelangelo loudly whispered loudly back. "And yeah, I know. I know!"
Continuing, Nick said, "Now, on the very real chance a significant portion of you don't take this guy's powers as a threat despite him being involved in the trafficking of something that acts as a power booster, the most dangerous thing about him is that he's assembled an entire team of whackos with more powers than common sense to his cause: The League of Villains."
He pressed another button on the remote, the slide changing to a 3x3 grid of mugshots of nine different people labeled, 'Known Members of the League of Villains' with Shigaraki in the center.
"Generic name I know, but we believe the vagueness was part of a ruse to get the Japanese authorities to think of them as less threatening than they really were. In any event, their powers include, but are not limited to–"
A press of a button, and the screen zoomed into the top left square, Nick reading out the words that appeared for all the teens in the cheap seats in the peanut gallery. "Kurogiri. Presumed second in command. Powers: portal creation."
Cloak and Raven narrowed their eyes dangerously on the suited shadow.
A press of a button, and the screen zoomed back out and into the top middle square. "Mr. Compress. Powers: can compress objects in a spherical area around his arm into a small, marble-like object without damaging it on contact with his hands, including himself."
A press of a button, and the screen zoomed back out and into the top right square. "Twice. Powers: can create an exact duplicate of anything, living or not, so long as he knows the precise measurements and characteristics and he's performing only two duplications at a time.
A press of a button, and the screen zoomed back out and into the center left square. "Dabi. Powers: can create large gouts of blue flame of intense heat and blast force."
A press of a button, and the screen zoomed back out and into the center right square. "Magne. Powers: can apply strong magnetic polarity to people around her within a 4.5-meter radius–men polarized south and women polarized north. Exceptions: herself. Can use her power in conjunction with her weapon, a large magnet, to magnetize enemies and use the magnet to draw them in using their respective polarity."
A press of a button, and the screen zoomed back out and into the bottom left square. "Himiko Toga. Powers: can transform into a physical doppelganger of another individual and copy their voice for a given amount of time dependent on the ingestion of a sufficient amount of blood of said individual."
Several of the teens grew squeamish and cringed visibly and audibly at that.
A press of a button, and the screen zoomed back out and into the bottom center square. "Spinner. Powers: Gecko-like physiology. Enhanced strength, speed, durability, agility, and the ability to cling onto walls and other sheer surfaces with his hands and feet."
A press of a button, and the screen zoomed back out and into the bottom right square. "Chenso Nomu. Powers: Enhanced strength, speed, durability, agility, and can grow six extra arms from his body that have tools artificially grafted on instead of hands. Four of the arms have chainsaws, while the other two have a drill and a claw hammer, respectively."
Another press of the button, and the screen zoomed back out to showcase the mugshot grid in its entirety again. "So, yeah, I will reiterate: DO NOT underestimate these guys. ESPECIALLY because, AGAIN, if they were juicing up HALF as much as the wannabe mafiosos the Japanese caught, they're all likely EVEN MORE DANGEROUS. And don't forget–" He pressed a button and the slide shifted back to the one showing Slade and Shigaraki in the alley, pointing at the former. "They're working with a man whose last big play almost took the earth down with it and quite possibly multiple other worlds too. I repeat: until proven otherwise, the League of Villains are presumed to be guilty of being at least as dangerous as Mr. Wilson here. Going into this OP, all of them are classified as Omega Level threats."
Another series of audible gasps and murmurs erupted, though this time from all in the crowd, not just the Teen Titans. Even the New Warriors, who had previously been rather silent watching the proceedings, knowing better than anyone else by this point not to cause such a raucous ruckus when Nick was giving the preamble to whatever assignment they were given, couldn't help but partake in airing their concerns amongst themselves and the other teens.
Or in Spider-Man's case, airing said concerns at the head super spy himself. "Okay, okay, Nick. Just… just back up a sec." He shook his head and his hands, so evidently overwhelmed by what he was hearing. "I think I can safely say on behalf of everyone that this is all so… weird. Like, eating a nice juicy slice from Joe's with a knife and fork kind of weird."
The Turtles, the X-men, the rest of the New Warriors, and Jake Long all nodded along and made various verbal affirmations at that. Even Toad, who was beginning to regain proper consciousness after having been shook so hard.
"I mean for one," Spidey continued, "if the situation's so big and bad with so many nightmare scenarios that could happen if things go even further south… why call all of us?" He pointed to himself and generally to all the other teens. "Why not order in forty of the biggest, baddest, and adult superheroes around instead of thirty-nine teens and one overgrown manchild who still can't be bothered not to use my toothbrush whenever we have to bunk?" He pointed a thumb at Nova.
"Well maybe if you didn't keep using mine to scrub the toilet, brush defiler," Nova whispered angrily at him.
Ignoring him, Spider-Man went on to say, "I know everyone's super busy with the whole Inhumans thing, but you're telling me you can't spare even one Avenger or one Leaguer? Not even Hawkeye? Not even Hawkgirl?"
"Wait a minute," Nova suddenly said aloud, eyes widening. "Are Hawkeye and Hawkgirl related?"
So many people in the room groaned and laughed at that, Nick himself flaring his nostrils wide to huff out in frustration. Trying to set the track back into place (as best as he could), he said, "In regards to the question you just asked me: because not every problem is a nail that needs hammering, Spider-Man. Which, for the record, is also the reason why neither we nor the Japanese or anyone else is sending in boots on the ground with planes, tanks, and warships to help them blow up this problem skyhigh. Plus, as you were getting at, while the Inhuman thing is actually stabilizing as I'm sure Triton can attest–"
"I can," the sole inhuman teen aboard said, nodding, coming down from chuckling and gesturing at Nova's humiliation.
"It's still eating up a lot of people's attention as of late," Nick continued. "It also doesn't help that at any given moment nowadays there are still well over a thousand other things going on that could use even the odd thunderbolt or errant heat vision beam to solve that are still stuck on the itinerary. And furthermore, Spider-Man, you know full well that while the Avengers have been known to work closely with SHIELD a lot in the past, and the Justice League in a couple of critical moments, neither are under any obligation to follow any orders I give them anymore than most of the kids in this room are to collect for UNICEF on halloween."
Wiping away a tear that had apparently fallen underneath his expressive mask, Spider-Man, still mirthful from the latest Nova self own, got his voice back to sounding serious again, asking, "Okay, but... why kids? And why all these–" he gestured generally to all the non-New Warriors, "kids? Why not just get any other of the thousands of other, older, less toothbrush stealy folks, ship them off to Japan, and throw them at the problem however you want? I mean, it can't be a matter of logistics. We're all literally surrounded by a flying aircraft carrier with thousands of personnel, even if it's just sailing normally at the moment."
"One: I'm about to get to that. And two: you're right, logistics has nothing to do with it. Being as secret, covert, and clandestine as possible so as not to tip off Slade and his amazing new friends that SHIELD is on to them, does. And the kind of footprint required of our adult Agents to manage him and them would definitely be something they'd catch wind of pretty quick."
Spider-Man scoffed. "Alright, so tell me Nick: how do you expect a superpowered teen platoon of mostly strangers who've also mostly never worked together for a second in their lives to accomplish what that many regs at SHIELD couldn't?
"Ain't that the trillion dollar question," Nick said, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head briefly before fixing Spider-Man with a look somewhere between his usual glare and… understanding. "I won't lie to you." He looked out over the crowd. "Any of you. I'll tell you right now what I know you're all suspecting: the game plan for the mission you are about to undertake is very… seat of your pants. You have to understand, neither the Japanese nor SHIELD ever prepared for a scenario like this. We were also given very short notice about the current and potential magnitude of things. You are all walking into terra incognita. Which dovetails nicely into the why you forty are here, and then the how."
Several pushes of a button and Nick changed to a new slide. With another, the slides afterwards automatically transitioned once every three seconds, and with yet another, they did so on a loop.
Once again, much of the adolescent audience gasped and murmured, though a considerable contingent of the group groaned in disgusted realization. What else could they do? They'd all been through a lot. Some more than others. Some a lot more than others. Some had even seen things that Nick himself probably wouldn't have been able to handle all too well, at least, in the moment.
But none of them were Nick, who witnessed images like the ones they were currently seeing all the time, and worse. Pictures of people burnt, bruised, bloodied, lacerated, disfigured, missing digits and occasionally even limbs, and generally looking broken and like they'd seen better days.
Much better.
Yes, even teens like the ones in the pictures.
And the ones assembled before him.
Nick considered both sets fortunate that the former set were at the very least still breathing and recovering, even if for much of them, their lives would be irrevocably altered and harder to lead from then on out. A lot of times, more than Nick could rightly stomach at times, there wasn't even that silver lining in the storm clouds his one good eye had to endure. "Of the hundred and one wannabe mobsters involved, it's estimated that a whopping eighty percent were at one point or another regularly attending UA. What you're looking at above me are the mugshots of thirty-three of the forty-two the Tokyo PD have caught so far. All the ones I'm showing you now are the teens and young adults. Didn't have the heart to show you what happened to the ones as young as twelve."
For another half a minute, the slides continued. His audience, usually so rambunctious, so talkative, so filled with the energy and over enthusiasm of youth, were all crickets. Nick sighed. He wished there was another way to get his point across. A better method of getting them to finally pipe down and clam up and let the gravity of things sink into their collective little heads. He truly did. Yet in his experience, there was nothing that truly eclipsed getting his Agents to appreciate the impact of the public service they provided than by showing them what they were working towards, or in this case, working towards preventing.
The first to inevitably break through the unusual air of tense, awkward quiet was Robin, Starfire holding onto his arm tightly for comfort. "Disgusting!" he yelled, fist clenched and teeth bared. "These scum are no better than Ra's al Ghul! Recruiting child soldiers to fight their battles!"
Nodding in agreement and with Jean holding onto him for comfort, Cyclops said, solemnly, "I get it now. You suspect in addition to the quantum vapor angle, there's some sort of major mobster recruiting operation involving UA in some way."
"And you want us to sniff it out by going undercover," said Leonardo, grimly.
"Precisely," said Nick, pressing another button that moved the screen to a slide showing all forty of the teens before him dressed up in thick trench coats, fedoras, and sunglasses. "You forty, America's best teen superheroes–and the ones we lucked out in getting on such short notice–will pose as foreign exchange students to UA's Hero Course from America, find this major mobster recruiting operation, and work your way up to Slade, Shigaraki, and the quantum vapor, avoiding detection and/or direct confrontation if at all possible.
"To accomplish this task, you must each create a comprehensive alias for both your civilian and hero identities, the names of which are due by midnight tonight and the appearances and personal histories of are due by midnight six days from now.
"Once at school in Japan, you must also each pass the entry exam which involves both a written and physical portion. From what I gather, it's nothing you all can't handle, but in any event, in the time you have aboard this ship, you will all undergo a comprehensive and mandatory crash course in everything we think you'll need to be both effective and convincing for both said exam and your real assignment at UA."
"Oh, so you mean that Nova will most likely be back here after the tests," White Tiger snided.
"Oh go scratch a pole, Kitty," Nova snided right back, eyes blazing. "I happen to be an excellent test taker. Honor role three semesters in a row as you outta know!"
"Then you should pass the cram sessions, no problem."
Spider-Man held up his hands, a serious look on his expressive mask. "Ok, ok, ladies. Enough with the cat fighting. Serious time now, ok? Besides… everyone knows that I'm the BEST crammer here!"
Nick sighed. These young teens knew exactly the dangers they faced. However, they just wouldn't be kids if they were in too sour a mood forever. Besides… they were about to have their eyes scalded open soon enough. Even the most experienced amongst them who thought they'd seen everything this morbid world had to offer.
SHIELD's form of hyper accelerated learning had that effect on people.
Even those who'd gone through it before.
With a final press of a button, Nick transitioned the screen to a slide that read, 'Briefing End.'
"That concludes the first part of today's briefing. Onto the first Q&A. So, any questions?"
