Teen Titans: Next Gen IC

Mallory (Stat)

"No bleeding your sibling, understood? It brings out my bad side. Blood tends to bring my kind to a darker place than we are usually in. And Alice, I would appreciate it if you fixed his door. One doesn't break in uninvited, it's rude. And you Stat will replace the remote you broke."

The redheaded teen's jaw nearly dropped as he watched Phantasm departing from the room. It wasn't as if the remote wasn't already heavily damaged, if not outright ruined, by whatever trickery Ravenor had performed prior to his sudden exit from the leisure room. Not that it was so expensive of an item in the first place, but it was a considerable source of annoyance to have the blame squarely shifted his way. Frankly, considering what the guy had done to his friend, Ravenor was perhaps fortunate that Mallory hadn't attempted to use a larger object for getting his point across.

“there are spare remotes in storage room on the same level as the one you came in on”

This was a bit of a surprise. One instant the guy's strangling his brother without provocation, and then several minutes later he's offering one of Jullian's friends assistance on replacing an item they both played a respective part in destroying. Glancing at Alice, whom seemed a little unsure about his actions herself, Mallory simply watched with a curious expression as Ravenor seemed to decide upon leaving his own room.

“don’t wreck anything”

And just like that, he was gone for whatever other part of the Tower he decided upon lurking about. Making a scoffing sound as the last remnants of his presence faded away from view, the speedster gave a simple shake of his head before returning his attention to an approaching Alice. A smile slowly spread across his features as she giggled, moving past him for the damaged door as she spoke.

“That was so cool, just now! With the remote and the energy. Oh the look on his face when it exploded! Tch all I did was be all brawn about it. Then again, you do have more practice with flare than I do.”

His smile grew wider until it threatened to turn into a silly grin, watching his friend continuing to put those final touches on fixing the door as he responded with a clear hint of amusement in his voice, "Thanks! I've been practicing with this stuff off and on for years now. Much to my parents chagrin, I'd imagine."

And how! Since his early teens, Mallory had attempted countless times to master his use of kinetic energy as a weapon he could channel into solid objects. This resulted in a number of destroyed objects around their home and a couple of holes in the wall. The worst was when he accidentally channeled said energy into their big screen television and blew out half of their living room area. Of course, his friends were also witness to a couple of these mistakes, though he made a more conscious effort of not trying stuff which may backfire when around them. By now, however, he had a near masterful level of control over the ability. And his inheritance of his father's hex bolt powers gave this ability the added bonus of being capable to launch larger objects which would be impossible for him to lift by hand.

“There. Almost as good as new.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, the young hero tilted his head to the side as if trying to study her handiwork, when he added in a slightly teasing tone, "Never would have guessed it was torn of the hinges by a pissed off amazon."

There was a time, long ago, when the abilities of his friends would almost threaten the young man. For all of these powers inherited from both of his parents, Alice and Jullian could easily outclass him when it came to reaching their full potential. Now, he simply found it amusing when watching both of them doing their respective thing; either for pleasure or as part of preparing for the whole super heroics game. Besides, it ultimately gave him even more incentive for trying his hardest in not letting others down.

As she linked her arm into one of his own, he eagerly followed along, wanting to put this business with Ravenor behind them for now. In a short while, however, he could tell just by looking at her changing expression that thoughts of the incident remained fresh on her mind. More then thoughts, regrets over how things should have played out during the start of their first day in the Tower as an official team.

“I wonder if Jules is ok. He’s always so sensitive about these things when people get offended like that. I knew Ravenor was an ass, but this! Ugh, should’ve stopped it before it got that far.”

Frowning slightly as he watched Alice kicking herself over her own inaction, Mallory shifted one hand in order to take the back of her own hand within his grasp, squeezing it briefly as he stated, "I don't think anyone saw this coming. If anything, I should have done something before Jullian arrived in the area and made himself a target for his brother."

Looking back on it, he could kick himself over his near dismissive approach when he first stumbled upon Ravenor in the Tower, yet realized how the best either of them could do was try to learn from their bouts of sloppiness. That was a big part of being a Titan, after all. Learning more about your powers and your character as both a hero and person as you work toward a better cause as a group. Sorta like a super powered cub scouts; only with more latex and larger breasts.

"But I'm sure Jules will be fine. He has a honkin' big headquarters full of heroes to turn toward if needed. And, more importantly, he's got us." The young hero added as he glance in Alice's direction once more, the hint of a smile on his face as he watched his friend musing over the days events and lord only knows what else with all of those past memories which made up her subconscious.

“Anyways, how was your trip? Did Hex give you that speech again about how this isn’t a game and we should look after our fellow teammates?”

Letting out a chuckling sound, Mallory smirked as he stared at the blond walking beside him, perhaps giving a hint of his answer before the words even escaped his lips, "Well, you know my father. For all of his quirks, he's always been one for trying to hammer in the importance of responsibility and teamwork. According to my Mom, it goes back to his days as a HIVE student and trying to run the Hive Five prior to joining the Titans."

Another part of it, he always figured since childhood, was a strong desire from the former villain to make certain his only son didn't repeat the mistakes he'd made in the past. This was confirmed during a couple of talks in the past couple of years where he went over greater details about his life prior to the Titans. Mallory could respect that, but he also felt Hex would at times not give him enough credit in recognizing the dangers involved in super heroics. Not that his odd sense of humor and often overzealous behavior was doing the speedster any favors in driving this point home for the veteran hero.

"Other then that, it was pretty uneventful. At least until landing, anyway." The redhead pointed out as he finished answering her question, giving a roll of his eyes through the mask which was currently wrapped around his head as he added, "Now I just need to find my dad and convince him that we're not going to blow up sections of the Tower if he leaves us alone with the place. Or at least not anymore then the previous factions of the team often did."

Not that they were exactly off to a great start, thanks in no small part to Ravenor getting several members of the teams roster worked up only minutes after their initial arrival. Eh, but at least the worst they seemed to have under their belts thus far was a broken remote and a backwards working door. It wasn't so bad as some of the damage done by several members whom were on the team in his fathers days. Speaking of which.

“Eddie!”

Maybe it was the fact that he hadn't seen the former Titans in a long while, or the fact that he no longer needed to feel embarrassed over his parent being the only one which followed him into the Tower; but Mallory was about as grateful to see the pair as Alice had been. Despite his increased speed, Stat was beaten to the punch in greeting them as he simply stood by and watched his friend go about greeting Eddie in her own affectionate manner; before doing much of the same with Beast Girl. Mallory used to always like them while growing up, especially when they would act playful toward each other and those around them. It reminded him of his own parents when they weren't being....well, parents. Particularly his mother, whom back in her day was apparently amongst one of the bigger playful flirts out there.

Despite his desire for being taken more serious by those around him, and the team mates in the room who were more or less strangers, the speedster decided on playing around once Alice's outburst of affection had started settling down. Besides, much to his amusement, it seemed she'd moved on from the older pair to having a bit of fun with their son/daughter at the moment. Thus, in the blink of an eye, Mallory was able to close the gap between himself and the Red Devil, as he instantly jumped into the older males arms like a toddler trying to latch onto a long unseen family member.

Keeping his arms wrapped around the man's neck, Mallory stared up into his face as he fired off a series of comments, moving at a speed which others could barely keep up with hearing, "Uncle Eddie! I missed you! Did you miss me? How are you doing? I'm doing fine! And I've been a good boy, too! Did you bring me anything? Why didn't you bring me anything? Don't you love me anymore? Where's the five dollars you owe me?"

Holding onto the man for a few seconds longer, the redhead finally let go with a snickering sound of amusement escaping his lips. Grinning at the red skinned male for a short while longer, he then shifted his attention toward Jullian's mother. Mallory was preparing to go over and greet her in a considerably less over the top manner, when his attention shifted toward the direction of the most recent arrival to this section of the Tower.

“What in creation is this…. this…. THING?!”

The young Titan blinked several times as he gazed upon what, on first glance, would appear to be the remains of a former member of the team they were meant to pick up the legacy for. By the time he heard Alice's laughter, however, it slowly started to dawn on him just what this thing might have been. He'd heard the stories from his father about its pass use during the period in which Cyber was working undercover in the Hive Academy. The robot actually did have a good likeness to her appearance, which was evident by the shocked expression on Ronan's features as he glanced over at the kitchenette area. It took every last bit of self control for Mallory to relegate his reaction to a simple snickering.

"Holy crap, talk about a blast from the past. It continues to amaze me when I think about just how lifelike in appearance you were able to make this robot double-ganger, BG."

Even without superspeed at his availability, Mallory's head likely would have shot over in the direction of his fathers voice just as quickly. When Hex came strolling out from the entrance X'Hal had previously used, his gaze was primarily focused upon the damaged robot which kept repeating its 'classic' catch phrase. There were a lot of mixed emotions and confusing feelings after the events of the real Cyber's undercover mission; which he wasn't able to truly reconcile with until years later. At least now he was capable of looking back on those events and recognize them as an important changing point in his life.

"Unfortunately, it's also about as annoying when compared to how the real Cyber often acted."

Hex followed up these words by delivering a halfhearted kick to the robots shin, though he mostly spoke in jest when speaking ill of Cyber. There was a time, even after turning to the side of 'good', that he wasn't capable of putting aside his hurt feelings after the female cyborg had broken his heart. But these bitter emotions were ultimately a thing of the past by the time Match and himself had moved onto an actual relationship. Didn't mean he couldn't take an occasional joy out of ribbing the gal, of course.

"Geraldine. Eddie." The former Titan stated simply as he addressed his former team mate and her companion, a genuine smile showing at the corner of his mouth at seeing old friends, before gesturing toward the robot double while adding, "Hope you don't mind me turning this thing off before we're hearing that word in our sleep tonight?"

Without waiting for a response, Hex turned and started searching around the back of the robot, until his fingers came upon the small switch on the back which worked as an emergency means of powering down the machine. The robotic double-ganger of Cyber started to let out one last booyah, before its voice grew lower and deeper, until any sign of artificial life in its features were extinguished for now. Having taken care of that for now, the former member glanced around at the mixture of new recruits, 'guests', and former Titans whom were in this section. His eyes eventually fell upon Mallory, with whom he steadily closed the gap which remained between them.

"And, you?" The older male stated in a deceptively firm voice, glaring intently at his son as he stood directly in front of the speedster, glaring at the new Titan as he let a smirk slip through his seemingly angered demeanor, "You would be so much easier to keep track of if your mothers hair color was the only thing you inherited from the woman."

The veteran Titan raised a hand and firmly patted his sons shoulder, aiding the formally nervous teen in catching onto his fathers facade. Which came as a great relief to Mallory, since having one alumni of the team scolding him was enough for one day. Not to mention the added embarrassment which would come from said Titan being the very parent whom 'drove' you to your first day. Oh well, at least his parents didn't go through with their farce of a demand that he should bring along a bagged lunch. Or at least he could only prey they were simply joking with him at the time.

[size=-2]Good cripes, Eazy.[/size]


Kestrel gave a quick glance in Arsenal's direction as the guy before them explained his reasons in searching her out in this rather haphazard gathering of hero offspring, running a hand against her cheek as she turned to look back at him. *What, did someone put up a frickin' Craigslist posting or somethin'?!*

Short... Green one.
Julian.

So now he was telling people she was in charge? Agh. She wondered what color he would turn if she strangled him. Still, if she was following in mom's footsteps, she was being viewed as wearing those same clunky boots that came with the title. Damn. That meant taking on this whole authoritative side a lot more than she would have liked. Maybe she could break out of the mold a bit more than what mom had created, though. The city had changed; the Titans may as well do the same.

"So, in other words, you want to be a Titan," Jessi said flatly, raising an eyebrow. "And you got in here with Julian being overly-friendly, if he was being anything like what he was earlier. Thank god you didn't meet his brother..." She trailed off with that, shaking her head before sighing, glancing back at him with the offered help on the electrical system. She smirked slightly with that, stepping aside and gesturing towards it. "Have at it, my friend. I'd much rather let someone who knows what the hell they're doing play with that than me frying myself."

Leaning against the wall beside the unit, she glanced him over, considering his rather vague offer that he had introduced himself with. "Listen, if ahhh... what I said came off as harsh, I was just... The wires and everything, kinda wearing on my nerves. Call it first day jitters."

Jitters? What the hell? Had she actually said that?

"Anyway, these services you have to offer- Just what are they, anyway? If you haven't noticed, heroic deeds aren't exactly smiled on in Jump City anymore. What makes you want to join up with the naughty kids?"

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to balance on one foot, while angry and trying to bandage an ice pack to your now broken and bleeding foot, oh, and you’re only allowed to use one hand, and you cant use the other to balance yourself, because that would ruin whatever it touched. Well Ravenor had done it before, and sadly, it never got any easier.

He ignored all the sounds around him as he worked, he did finally realize that there were two other people in the kitchenette with him though, not that he did anything to acknowledge their presence, the job was hard enough already without making Smalltalk at the same time.

A minute or two and a good deal of mumbled swearing later, he was finished, it wasn’t pretty, and the icepack was making the ground under him a little wet, but it was good enough, he healed fast and by morning you wouldn’t even know anything had happened, he even smiled at his handywork.

He turned to see what was going on just as X’hal entered the room with the strange cyborg thing that he recognized, he had stumbled across it once, he didn’t know what it was or how it worked, so he completely ignored it at the time, but then he noticed that there were people there that hadn’t been present when he and his brother had a little ‘talk’.

The first looked familiar, red and shirtless, as apposed to his grey and shoeless, he didn’t know why, but he just didn’t like him for some reason, every second he spent looking at him he got more and more on edge, like he was about to steal something, he didn’t know what it was, but he know he didn’t want to loose it.

He saw Jules and instantly knew it was him, barely noticed her[i/] appearance at first, but it sunk in, kinda weird, but he had seen weirder, so he ignored it, but when he came to the next oddity on the list, he froze up, his eyes locked on her like a normal mortal would be transfixed by seeing death herself, only it wasn’t a look of fear that was on Ravenors face.

He was blushing.

“I should go” he mumbled to himself, then quickly turned to leave, only to slip and fall like an idiot, clearly the ice pack was melting faster than he thought, luckily the metal contraption has most everyone enthralled, so it went mostly unnoticed. He slowly pulled himself up and glared at the water underneath his foot before turning his attention to the gathering by the robot, it sounded like it was off now “why would you make something like that?” he asked no one in particular, he was still getting used to actually having anyone around to hear him, so he didn’t expect an answer from anyone.

"It's a nice enough place to visit, though I've never stayed there more then a day or two for diplomatic reasons. My family actually resides outside of Atlantis itself, within the Iddylist Colonies in the Hidden Valley. Pretty far away from Atlantis, nowhere near as popular a subject in your literary works or motion pictures, but it's a beautiful place and I call it home."

Harvey nodded politely as the prince replied, and began to look through the cuboards, easily finding the stuff he needed to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and smiled as Ronan looked around the kitchen.

"Anyway, I suppose you're right about having much to learn. This is all just strange for me, and the disorderly conduct of earlier hasn't done any wonders in helping me feel prepared for adjusting to your ways."

He watched as the prince created a strange concotion before looking at his own sandwich and deciding to make an old favourite, Salami, Ham, Cheese, Lettuce, Gherkin, Red Onion and Mayo. He would have answered, if it wasn't for the fact that his mouth was full of the other sandwich he'd prevously made.

God, he was hungry.

"Perhaps it may be best if I were to try maintaining a lower profile and only speaking up when needed for now? Although doing both of these traits certainly go against my very nature."

It was then that the one who had hurt Julian entered and Harvey registed a slight bit of alarm in the atlantean at the sight.

"If anything, this trip should make me all the more appreciative for my own family and it's relatively low amount of issues."

“Eddie!”

"Uncle Eddie! I missed you! Did you miss me? How are you doing? I'm doing fine! And I've been a good boy, too! Did you bring me anything? Why didn't you bring me anything? Don't you love me anymore? Where's the five dollars you owe me?"

Harvey watched as the two figures from earlier entered the room at leapt at Julians family. Again he wondered what it would have being like if he had had a proper family.

“What in creation is this…. this…. THING?!”

Yet another intrusion occurred as Harvey went to bite his sandwich and he slowly began to wonder if he'd ever get to eat it. The alien princess had flown back in, this time carry what appeared to somekind of robot...or cyborg.

"Holy crap, talk about a blast from the past. It continues to amaze me when I think about just how lifelike in appearance you were able to make this robot double-ganger, BG. Unfortunately, it's also about as annoying when compared to how the real Cyber often acted."

Harvey simply grinned at this as he realised what the robot was and shook his head toying between speaking or eating, though ended up simply watching the Man jokingly kick the machine.

"Geraldine. Eddie. Hope you don't mind me turning this thing off before we're hearing that word in our sleep tonight? And, you? You would be so much easier to keep track of if your mothers hair color was the only thing you inherited from the woman."

Harvey smiled longingly once again at the group, thinking back to his own childhood. The training from his mother, the watching people enjoy christmas while they were forced to commit crimes.

He so wished it had being different.

Some muttering from the other side of kitchen caught his attention and Harvey remembered that he and Ronan weren't alone in the kitchen, and turned, wondering if he should indeed say something.

Neh....

Instead he went to finally take a bit of his sandwich...

Jullian’s head immediately turned when she sensed others were entering the room. Her eyes were drawn to the entrance, which then her friends appeared and came in. She threw them a simpered* expression.

Then the sun came back out again and the sky cleared.

“Eddie!” Alice cried out when she spotted the older male demon, then squealed and ran towards him after she released the redheaded speedster.

Jules, knowing full well what was coming next, decided to slither out of the taller man’s grasp and pop up several yards away from him. She had used her powers to phase through the grip of his tail, grinning slyly back at him as she did. She wiggled her fingers innocently at him as a teasing gesture.

The red demon looked at her as if what she had done was unwarranted. His pouts were immediately cut short, however, when he soon found himself being embraced by the hyper blonde Kryptonian, whom then he received a big smooch on the cheek from. Eddie’s eyes grew wide as he pursed his lips in surprise, but only because he was caught off guard. And before he could embrace her in return, the girl moved onto hug Beast Girl, only then to be latched onto by Mallory!

"Uncle Eddie! I missed you! Did you miss me? How are you doing? I'm doing fine! And I've been a good boy, too! Did you bring me anything? Why didn't you bring me anything? Don't you love me anymore? Where's the five dollars you owe me?" Stat said all at once, weaving his words together quickly.

Edward simply grinned in response, all the while snickering, patting the redhead on the back when the boy let him go. Beast Girl returned Alice’s embrace, forgetting the conflict building up inside of her as she did. Her friends were fundamentally part of the eccentric family of her’s, having known each other since Jules was eleven.

Jullian chuckled at the sight of her friends and family, beaming profoundly. She was proud of her loved ones and held no shame when it came to their childish antics. Sure, she would tease them in a mocked chastisement, but she rarely ever meant any of it. She would do anything for them, in fact, just as she knew that they would no doubt do anything for her. She was just as or all the more protective of them. And God help anyone who decides to hurt them, her scorn was worst than hell itself. Thankfully, she was never the one to hold a grudge, though if she did, it would be best for the one held responsible to disappear completely off the face of the planet.

She closed her eyes and then giggled merrily all the more. Then her eyes snapped instantly open when she felt and heard X’Hal grace them with her presence, having heard the crash prior to her flying into the room. What caught her attention the most, though, was the word “Booyah!” spoken in a voice that was quite unfamiliar to her.

And at that same time, Alice had came up to her and taken the liberty to play with her hair. The blonde had braided it at such a speed that when she had tossed the young demon‘s hat up off her head and by the time it had landed back down upon her head, she was already finished.

Jullian blinked at her friend as she stood back and marveled at her masterpiece. Jules took one of her braids, delicately holding it with her fingers as she held it up in front of her eyes, inspecting it in a state of awe. She then beamed at her friend.

“What in creation is this…. this…. THING?!” The Tameranian Princess inquired, capturing everyone’s attention after placing down what happened to be an mechanical humanoid of some sort, the very thing that was uttering that word incessantly.

“Booyah!” Seemed to be the automaton’s only articulation.

Alice could not help but laugh, apparently having came across the creation herself. Mallory soon joined her, snickering to himself, obviously finding hilarity somewhere, but for a different reason unknown to the green demon princess. Then Eddie started laughing as well, chortling like the red devil he was. Even her mother doubled up in hysterics. Jullian blinked curiously at them all, wondering to herself as she tried to figure out where the inside joke lied in all of this.

“Cyber!” Her mother chirped merrily as she hastily tiptoed over to the android, still laughing as she did. “I can’t believe she’s still here after all this time!”

“So, this was Cyber?” The dark princess thought to herself, recalling how her mother spoke so fondly of her friend of the past. Her mother did not contain any photographs of her teammates, having done lost them after the former Titans had broken up. So, she had no choice but to go by spoken details from the stories she had heard. “Well, the remnants of a facsimile.” She noted silently to herself.

"Holy crap, talk about a blast from the past. It continues to amaze me when I think about just how lifelike in appearance you were able to make this robot double-ganger, BG." Spoke Hex as he came in, addressing the former Titan. "Unfortunately, it's also about as annoying when compared to how the real Cyber often acted."

“Aww, c’mon!” Beast Girl whined. “You know how fantastically awesome she is!” She let out a long sigh, engrossed by the elated expression upon the copy of her best friend. “Heaven knows how much I miss her.” She stated in a rather mournful tone.

"Geraldine. Eddie." Hex addressed them both, smiling as he did. "Hope you don't mind me turning this thing off before we're hearing that word in our sleep tonight?"

The older She-demon pouted as she watched her former teammate searched the robot for an “off”-switch. She could only cry when successfully done so. The last words of the robotic replica echoing in her mind, Cyber’s voice winding down would perhaps haunt her for the rest of the day, if not the rest of her time. She honestly needed to find that fem-bot, that is, if she was still around alive and well.

When the pink haired man went over to confront his son, without haste, Beast Girl knelt down next to the machine and clung onto it for dear life. “Why?” She cried histrionically, tears swelling up in her eyes, all the while looking up at the ceiling as if she could get a definite answer. “WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?”

Sensing her mother’s apparent grief, Jullian had appeared beside her, placing a hand gently upon her shoulder in hopes of comforting her. It pained her always to see her mother like this, as a matter of fact, in any other state other than being content. The older woman looked up at her daughter and smiled in return, reassuring her progeny that she was, in fact, fine.

“Isn’t it about time that you became properly well situated?” Her mother said to her, then stood up. “I’ll be retrieving your belongings, while Eddie presents you to your room.” She paused and looked at the robot, studying it for a moment, then picked it up. “And I’ll be taking this, thank you very much!” She began to move towards the exit. “Oh, and by the way, you’ll be lodging in my room!” She called out.

The young demon blinked as she watched her mother made her way out. Knowing her mother well, she will drive the occupants, which were her servants, nuts with that contraption. Indisputably, that travesty will give everyone nightmares, let alone “the willies”. Her mother, after all, did have a sick sense of humor.

The red demon bumped into her, swinging his hip into her own to capture her attention, which really was not successful. He crossed his arms and grinned impishly at her, narrowing his eyes in a provocative manner when he whipped his tail around before using it to spank her on the rear. She immediately snapped at of her daze and looked at him. She blinked at him reactively, her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed.

“Come with me, Princess.” He said as he reeled her in close, considerably illegally close, after lassoing her with his forked tail. The girl’s head rested on his chest, as well as her hands, which pressed gently against him as she gazed sheepishly up at him. He then quickly picked her up, wrapping her arms around his neck as he then situated her to ride upon his back, holding onto her as well, gripping her thighs. “Hang on.” He informed, looking over his shoulder at her, even though she knew better not to.

Jullian gave him a dazzling smile, her eyes fluttering a bit as she looked him in the eye. “Really, dear Edward?” She spoke rather lasciviously, not minding that she came off to be coquettish in front of all and sundry. She placed her hat on top of his head, then rested her head upon his shoulder. She mused to herself about how "mighty fine" he looked in that hat.

He grinned cheekily.

“Yip yip!” She spoke the magic word for him to go.

Eddie zipped out the room and passed everyone with such incomprehensible speed, leaving behind him a trail of red smoke as the only evidence that he had been there.

Yes, it's in a new post, so you won't miss it!

As he ran, Eddie literally bounced off of the walls, leaping over and around all obstacles in his path, crawling on both the walls and ceiling a few times as he did. Once they reached the room Jules would be staying in, he came to a quick halt and placed the girl down before him. He then reached over and pressed the key button beside the entrance, right on the right side wall, which enabled the door to slide open.

He bowed and gestured her to enter. “Right after you, Princess.”

Jullian smiled at him, then casually strolled in, that is after she took back her top hat and placed it right back onto her cranium. He trailed right behind her.

Once inside, she gave the room a good scan, her eyes wandering as she stood in the center of her new rather large living quarters. She noted that the walls were a light green, like the color of jade pearls. Oh, yes, she was no doubt going to be teased for this one. Heck, the carpet itself was jade! …Though it was incredibly soft, so much you could perhaps lay on it.

There was a television set, a dresser, a rather large chest, and a bed as far as furniture went. The TV was on the side of the room where the closet was, it was a flat screen and a product of Sony, and it hung on the wall, to which Jules did not know if that was a wise choice concerning her and her abilities. As for her bed, well, it was a bunk bed, meaning she had two instead of one. She guessed the meaning for this was because Eddie was living with her mother in her room at the time, that way they would not have to share beds. The bed was on the opposite wall, facing the window. Correction. Two windows, and they were rather large windows at that, almost the length and the width of the walls themselves. The windows were had long white Victorian styled curtains, embroidered with patterns and made out of lace, and had been pulled shut. The dresser was against the same wall as the beds.

She gave out a loud gasp when she saw it, it was actually a vanity set. Her eyes went wide with horror, having to gaze at a dark and sinister figure, who had eyes like infernos, two pairs to be exact, sharp teeth like razors and long fangs, a long forked tail and a pair of long horns upon her head. It was a creature that looked like death and hell combined. The ominous figure stood where she stood, the very place she should be standing. Then inside the mirrors, the room caught ablaze, the flames spilling like spilt wine into a goblet, spreading out and blanketing the room. Hell itself had entered the room and then became it. A cryptic symbol appeared on the mirror itself, a letter "S" or a lightning bolt incased inside a circle, then quickly replaced by the Udjat, also known as the "All Seeing Eye". The previous symbol bore a resemblance to incomplete the Mark of Scath upon her upper right cheek, incomplete because the seal was slowly breaking.

Jullian clutched her chest as her heart pounded mercilessly against her ribcage. The sky outside again darkened, only this time it appeared foreboding as then wind outside picked up. Her shadow twitched and became alive again, reeling back with fingers curled upward as it gave out a silent, yet, evil laugh. Only she could hear it, though, unfortunately.

The red demon, after noticing her dismay, rushed over and folded the mirrors shut. He looked over at her, concern written all over his face. “It’s okay. These can be shut closed. See?” He assured her, then smiled. “So, what do you think, my Princess?” He inquired as he strode over to her.

She thought for a moment. “It’s not the crème de le crème, at least. But it could do some sprucing.” She stated, then noticed the scratch marks on the walls, though they were painted over. In a split second, the room’s past came to her. Apparently her mother suffered a great deal, enough to cause her to drag her nails into the walls themselves. “Okay. Maybe giving it a renovation would be sufficient to say. But it will do.”

“Hey, at least you’ve got one of the rooms on the top floor!” Eddie enlightened, trying to be optimistic so as to lighten up the mood for her. He walked over to one of the windows and pulled back one of the curtains. “And might I say, you’ve got one heck of a swell--” He looked out the window, noticing how dark and dismal the view was. “…view…of…the city.” He quickly closed back the curtains. “Eh. Who needs to look at the city, anyway?” He then spotted the chest. “…Hot damn! That relic still here?” He went over to the old chest and knelt down before it.

Jules came up behind him, smirking. “Tell me, love, she did not keep Captain Jack Sparrow in that bloody thing, did she?” She quipped.

He snickered. “No, something better." He told, then opened it. “Souvenirs of the past, to be exact.”

She blinked, bent over and looked down into the chest. “Mother’s?”

“No, not really.” He said, pulling out a photograph. “More like mine. Well, our’s technically. A lot of it is mine, though.”

Jullian narrowed her eyes and looked at it, it was a rather large group photo of the former Teen Titans. There had to have been at least over thirty members, Eddie and her mother being two of them. She also spotted Hex, or at least how Hex used to look like. Nothing much had changed, except now he was older and he dressed differently than he did back then. Even Kid Flash was there, yet she was oddly not standing beside him, instead it was another woman. She blinked. She looked a lot like Alice, only her hair was shorter and a few shades lighter in color. She then drew her attention back to Kid Devil and Beast Girl, the two having an arm wrapped around each other as they gave a silly pose. Cyber was right behind them, embracing the two as she gave a cheesy grin. The trio stood in the right corner of the photograph, right around where Kid Flash, Hex, Alice’s look alike, and an orange skinned, redheaded, green eyed alien. In the middle, she saw Robyn, and a few other girls she had a chance of meeting in the past, like Zatara. In fact, Zatara her cousin Zatanna, helped her receive the help she needed way back in when she had her “sickness”, going undercover as doctors. Everyone else, though, she did not know, but she was not about to dwell upon such things to find out, for now. After all, she could read photographs, but she would have to touch them to get a better reading.

Eddie placed the photo back down and began further dig through the rest of the contents of the chest.

She stood back up straight, thinking about the photo a bit. She silently mused over how her mother did not hide her horns or her prehensile tail. She had them, too, yes. But like her mother, she had learned to hide from the rest of the world. She had to, otherwise she would look all the more like “the devil in the midnight mass”, like Eddie only green. She wondered how she turned out to be that color, considering how Trigon was red. Then again, how could she know if she always had been this color, having no recollection whatsoever about those moments when the supposed “devil” came out of her. And it was not like her mother would tell her, being that the woman was always in a state of constant denial over who her child was, is, and expected to be.

Just then, speaking of the devil, Beast Girl came in, carrying in her arms boxes of some of Jules’s belongings.

“I’m going to set up your room.” She informed, being the mother that she is. “It’s going to be a surprise, so I need you out immediately!” She placed the boxes down, then pointed to the room’s exit and demanded; “Out! Out! OUT!”

The two of them skedaddled out of there like their rears has been set on fire. The two stood outside the room, looking at each other, knowing better than to mess with the woman when she meant serious business.

“Eddie!” Beast Girl called after him. “I’ll need your help getting the rest of the stuff!”

“Right-o!” He said wittedly. “Pip pip and a cheerio to you, too!” And with that, he teleported out of sight.

Jules blinked, shifting her eyes about as she stood there awkwardly. Her mother stuck her head out and looked at her. The young girl tittered nervously at the former Titan. Beast Girl blinked, not appearing intimidating in the least, but the girl knew how quickly that could change. Her mother was not only a demon, but also a Gemini, giving all the more validation on how quickly her personality changes.

“I’ll be spit-spotting out of here!” Jullian squeaked, inching away from her mother. "Like in a jiffy!"

“Actually,” Beast Girl said. “I need to give you something. Here, hold out your hand.”

The demon princess blinked at her curiously, then complied. Her mother handed her two bank account cards, one that was red and the other blue.

“You see those,” Beast Girl spoke informatively. “The red one is your’s to spend on anything you desire, use it in however you fancy. Just be wise with it. The blue, however, is to be used for the team, like buying food for instance. After all, I am responsible for the occupants here, being that I am one of the recruiters. And being my child, that means you are just as or even more responsible for watching over them. Even if Phantasm takes care of the place, you will have to do everything else she doesn’t.” She smiled, playfully raising a brow at her. “Got that, your Majesty? Just think of it, one day you’ll be doing the same exact thing as me, if not more.”

Jullian nodded at her mother. “Right, ma’am.” She saluted like a soldier, also standing in the correct posture of one. “It is a privilege! I will do my best to see to that I bring nothing but honor to your name! As the blood that flows through your veins, it also does through mine!”

Geraldine snickered. “Okay, you’ve proved your point.” She said while laughing, then quickly became serious once again. “Now go! Hang out with your friends! Prepare something to eat for lunch! I don’t know. Just do something else to preoccupy your time other than hanging about in this vicinity.”

Jullian squealed, then magically changed her style of clothes in a single "poof!", now sporting a maid’s outfit. She then pranced off, chirping merrily about the joys of “Cooking!”

Beast Girl shook her head and laughed. “Sometimes I really do wonder about that child of mine.” Like she had any room to talk, after all, she was just as bad. Well, almost. Correction, possibly worse. It honestly just depended upon her mood.

Following the sudden and somewhat showy departure of Beastgirl, Eddie and Julian, or Juliet as the case may be, things became far less interesting in the leisure room, not to mention crowded, then again, by Ravenors view, any more than two or three people was so crowded that he normally avoided such situations like the plague, a deadly viral plague which would kill him in the most violent and painful way possible… he doesn’t like crowds much, or at all.

He moved past Joker to get at the fridge and pulled out a coke, then silently slipped away without drawing attention to himself, walking from the room and inadvertently shaking once he was finally out the door and out of sight, almost like a dog coming in out of the rain, only he was shaking off all of them, the infuriation, the headache of blocking out their emotions, the urge to walk back in there and slaughter a few before they killed him.

He was not looking forward to any of what was to come from all the new house guests, he had been dreading this since Alice had informed him (rather rudely at the time) that she wasn’t to only one that was going to turn up uninvited.

He walked aimlessly for a bit, slowly making his way through the massive building, which he had to admit, was mostly going to waste with him as the only inhabitant. He sipped his drink and scowled, it wasn’t like it was going to be put to any good use, he knew all to well the hell that was the city not a stones throw away, he had even been a major part of that hell for a time, not that he had been for a while.

Then it hit him, if they were going to go out a’heroing, then eventually the higher ups in the criminal world would figure out that titans tower was the base of operations, his residence here was no secret to many of those who would be at the forefront of resistance to any kinds of heroic action, and they would throw him in the same boat as them, so even if he didn’t help, he would be subject to the penalties for doing so anyway.

“Perfect, now I’m going to have to kill some people” he grumbled in-between sips from his coke. He stopped when he heard noise coming from up ahead, somehow he had ended up near Beast girls old room, and apparently Julian’s new one. He stood still as they talked, he couldn’t make it out, but he could still hear it.

Part of him wanted to go and talk, he had things he wanted to say to two of them, and other things he wanted to do to Eddie, not that he knew why, but he knew that Eddie wasn’t to be trusted for whatever reason. The others however, he couldn’t really think of anything bad to pin on them, sure Julian was host to some kind of darkness, but it wasn’t his fault, if anything he was ridiculously nice, and Beastgirl… well he didn’t really know why he felt so well towards her, kinda reminded him of before, when he…

He snapped out of his chain of thought when he notice that the door was opening a few meters away from him, Jules coming out of it in yet another guise, this one stranger than the last if that were possible. He quickly turned and started walking off, trying to make it look like he hadn’t been standing there, not that he was succeeding very well.

Ollie, shadowing Kestrel.

Ollie had let Kestrel have her meltdown with some dignity. She understood the stress of being a third generation hero, but Ollie also knew she'd had it easier than Kestrel. Oliie's mom and Gran were much more mellow than the Bat or Nightbird, so she'd kept quit while the poor girl had a blow out.

But now she was curious how Kes would handle this newest issue. The two girls exchanged a look.

"So, in other words, you want to be a Titan," Jessi said flatly, raising an eyebrow. "And you got in here with Julian being overly-friendly, if he was being anything like what he was earlier. Thank god you didn't meet his brother..." She trailed off with that, shaking her head before sighing, glancing back at him with the offered help on the electrical system. She smirked slightly with that, stepping aside and gesturing towards it. "Have at it, my friend. I'd much rather let someone who knows what the hell they're doing play with that than me frying myself."

Leaning against the wall beside the unit, she glanced him over, considering his rather vague offer that he had introduced himself with. "Listen, if ahhh... what I said came off as harsh, I was just... The wires and everything, kinda wearing on my nerves. Call it first day jitters."

"Anyway, these services you have to offer- Just what are they, anyway? If you haven't noticed, heroic deeds aren't exactly smiled on in Jump City anymore. What makes you want to join up with the naughty kids?"

"Ah Kestrel, your question is just a bit silly," Ollie said taking just a bit of a vampish pose, "Look between us. What guy wouldn't wanna be in our club?"

Ollie leaned to see what the guy was doing. Kestrel might not know much about wiring but Ollie knew enough. "Mind if I give you a hand with this stuff guy? Two heads working on it will get it done faster than one."

She peeked back at Kes and gave her a wink. "Besides, it'll give boss lady more time to get the hang of her new job and those first day jitters."

Jules' lament

Jullian had appeared in the kitchenette, using her teleportation to pop in unexpectedly. Mind you, it was something she did quite often, no matter where she was, having grown to liking the ability to do so. She used her abilities to search through the cabinets, looking for particular items. After having spotted them, she used her telekinetic powers to bring them out and placed them onto the kitchen counter.

“Would anyone like a spot of tea?” She inquired as she then took out the tea kettle she had found in the cabinets underneath counters. She continued to brew the refreshment after she had received her answer, thinking to herself as she did so.

The Demon Princess had not paid much mind to her older half-sibling. The girl knew full well where he was and could sense his emotions, in fact, she could feel and hear everything that walked and moved within the Tower, and her senses reached as far as the entire islet itself. The vision she perceived was similar to radar, only a lot stronger, and the walls, the floors, everything was translucent as glass.

Anyhow, it came of no surprise to her in the least, having been acquainted with others who carried or had developed the same sentiments towards her mother, who had more than her share of it for a life time. The young demon had long since became adapted to such notions, writing them off as nothing more than wishful thinking on the behalf of those who were entranced by her mother’s appearance. Some had their feelings strewn, however, most even had them dashed away, their reasons why were implicit, and all because of a matter of the most simplicity--she was the mother of the devil.

Jullian paused for a moment and touched her face were the breaking seal was. She remembered it well, the Mark of Scath had been placed there by Zatanna in order to help conceal the “Beast Within”. The process itself had been tremendously insufferable, yet, all together mind-blowing, for so much evil and power had been forced back, locked away deep inside of her. Zatanna had forewarned that the seal he had placed would not last forever, that in time it would crumble away, and that no magic in this world or otherwise could prevent the tragic future. Nevertheless, it would be the best endeavor to do so as long as she had the will to fight back the darkness.

The other marks, on the other hand, she had received in a different way. They served as a constant reminder of what had happened years ago when she had been abducted by the vile clutches of another sinister fiend who was similar to that of her own past self, the Lord of this word’s Hell-- Neron. She could not recall how it had happened, only knowing the hellish torment he had put her through in hopes of trying to break her will, making her his personal slave for his own sick amusement, keeping her for the purposes of lust and unquenchable greed for more power.

She continuously fought hard against the memory, the pain unbearable as he tore into her. To put it lightly, before that, she did not even consider what sodomy would be like, feel like, the very same regarding slavery. What is worse is that he had used Eddie, turning him against the Justice League, and tried to destroy her mother, who was trying desperately to set her free, but Lord Satanus prevented her, wanting the young demon for his own. Blinded by her rage, she had snapped, which then everything had then been swallowed by the impending dark.

She then finally awakened, only then to find herself at the League’s main headquarters, her friends, Eddie, and her mother . J’onn J’onzz was there, too, vigilantly monitoring her recovery process. She had learned shortly afterwards that not only was Neron and Lord Satanus defeated, but she had also absorbed them both into her own being. She had hoped that the story was merely pulp fiction, but it was no further from the truth as she had realized that they had, in fact, became a part of her. She could no longer deny it, especially when Etrigan the Demon, assisted in revealing it to her.

“Neron does not die. For once he has been defeated, but he is not dead. The Lord of Lies lives on, but within you.” He informed, his words spoken with her in private. “His spirit has been bonded with your own, making you as one. Though, considering how well you are functioning, it appears your ego had surmounted his. The very same goes for Lord Satanus.”

As true as it were, though, she still had to cope with the negative aspect of their “union”. Now that they were a part of her, she had all of their memories, the horrid recollections of their past transgressions. To make matters worse, her negative emotions--Wrath, Greed, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, and Pride--had taken on those Dark Lords’ forms for themselves. Not only that, but she had to deal with Lilith on numerous occasions, the Mother of all Atrocities insisting upon her to come back to Hell with her so they could continue their dreams, Lady Blaze was no different either. The two, having overcome their spite of her, made the girl their leader. Her life, indeed, was a “never ending nightmare”, and just like those words defined, it promised no ending.

Many heroes had shunned her because of this, giving her an seemingly continuous list of names. Out of all of the names given, the one that struck the girl the most was the fact that Wonderman had given her the title “The Great Caldron of Evil”. It was a malicious remark, the words were spoken with such coldness that hell itself must have possibly frozen over. Not that she could blame the man, even though she had defeated his greatest of enemies, those enemies now resided within her.

Jullian wondered if everyone here would feel the same way about her, seeing her nothing more than just a monster. A tear trailed down her face, the color of it was crimson.

Just then, lightning flashed followed by a rolling roar of thunder.

She immediately turned her attention towards the window, finally realizing it was pouring outside. She shook her head and immediately wiped the tear away, hoping to herself that no one had seen it. She pushed back those negative thoughts, knowing she needed to get a grips on herself. Although, she could not help but wonder to herself as to why or what reason she had for being here. Perhaps it was for a shot of redemption? She just hoped it would not be her last.

Nevertheless, she was not supposed to feel sad under any circumstance. The rain was an effect brought on by these depressing emotions. Demons, especially devils, were not supposed to be feel sad. And being that she was also a god, well, that explained it all together as to why it did rain.

She forced a smile as she turned back to the tea, humming a merry tune while she patiently waited.

The rain ceased and the sky, this time, gradually began to clear.

"So, in other words, you want to be a Titan," Jessi said flatly, raising an eyebrow. "And you got in here with Julian being overly-friendly, if he was being anything like what he was earlier. Thank god you didn't meet his brother..."

The girl's initial response was a bit peculiar, almost as if she didn't believe him. Well, that was understandable, seeing that Michael wasn't sure if he believed it himself. He was a bit thankful that she seemed to adhere to common sense, seemingly confused that he had just been let in without any real proof that he wasn't an enemy. The last part of her sentence was probably the most disturbing of all, however.

"Brother... Oh god, there's more than one?" He finally replied with a bit of a frown. It was going to be hard enough to put up with Julian alone, let alone siblings. "And uh... Yeah, I guess you could say I want to be a Titan." He added, glancing over to the wiring that she had been working on.

"Have at it, my friend. I'd much rather let someone who knows what the hell they're doing play with that than me frying myself."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I didn't say I knew what I was doing." He added with a smirk, kneeling down at the wires and beginning to fiddle a bit. Occasionally a few sparks would fly due to his lack of understanding of such a computer system, but it didn't seem to affect him at all. Not even a flinch.

"Listen, if ahhh... what I said came off as harsh, I was just... The wires and everything, kinda wearing on my nerves. Call it first day jitters."

Jitters? What the hell? Had she actually said that?

"Harsh?" He glanced back, chuckling softly. "I'm just glad someone here seems... mostly normal. You have every right to be skeptical... Who am I, really? Even I'm not so sure..." He continued, his voice softening and smile fading near the end.

"Anyway, these services you have to offer- Just what are they, anyway? If you haven't noticed, heroic deeds aren't exactly smiled on in Jump City anymore. What makes you want to join up with the naughty kids?"

"Ah Kestrel, your question is just a bit silly," Ollie said taking just a bit of a vampish pose, "Look between us. What guy wouldn't wanna be in our club?"

Michael was about to answer the initial question when the dark haired woman interrupted, beginning by identifying the 'leader' as Kestrel. A rather nice name, he thought. His smirk returned upon hearing her comment, nodding slightly. "It's certainly solidifying my decision to stay. Assuming you'll have me. As far as my services... Well.. " He paused, holding up a hand as a pulsating blue energy formed in his palm. The sheer condensed energy radiated a surprising amount of heat, which he quickly snuffed out by closing his hand into a fist. "That, among other things." He smirked again, leaving it to the imagination. As Michael glanced between the two women once again, he knew it would become difficult to stay focused around such beauty, which quickly proved itself as another spark jumped from the cable in his hand.

"Sonofa..." He muttered, continuing his admittedly confusing work.

Ollie leaned to see what the guy was doing. Kestrel might not know much about wiring but Ollie knew enough. "Mind if I give you a hand with this stuff guy? Two heads working on it will get it done faster than one."

She peeked back at Kes and gave her a wink. "Besides, it'll give boss lady more time to get the hang of her new job and those first day jitters."

The blonde man smirked again, gesturing to the work at hand. "Please, by all means... Always enjoy seeing beautiful women at work. Oh and, I don't think I've caught your name yet, by the way..."

"Brother, tormentor, worser half... whatever you want to call him, Julian's got one haunting about in his own room right now. His introduction to the rest of the group wasn't exactly the most welcoming, and he certainly doesn't seem to have the greatest of relationships with his brother." Kestrel sighed, leaning her back against the wall as Michael took his own hand at the uncooperative electrical system. An eyebrow cricked slightly as he mentioned being unsure of who he was himself, a reply forming in her mouth-

Only to be cut off by the questionable words of Arsenal. Shooting a quick smirk and warning glance in the other girl's direction, she shook her head with a light chuckle. *Uhh...huh. Mom was right; some apples don't fall too far from the tree.*

Michael's response, however, was enough to get a surprised nod out of the suddenly-appointed leader, followed by another roll of her eyes with his follow up. "A building full of teen hormones. Yup... this'll be fun...," She mumbled to herself, laughing softly. "Really makes me wonder how mom kept that stick up her ass the whole time SHE was here."

Noticing how Arsenal and Michael were both starting to get into the wiring issues, she felt as though she were more a third wheel in the tight room than any help. "I'll take you up on that, Arsenal. If you guys want to try and get this up and working, we can see what else we can get back to life around here. I'm going to see about getting everyone gathered together; get a more organized meet-n-greet set up and get around to a game plan on cleaning both this building and city...." Running her finger under her eye a moment, she gave a soft sigh before opening the door. "Though I'm seriously starting to wonder which of those two is going to be easier..."

Heading for the kitchen area, she found Julian playing around at the stove with a tea kettle. The green skinned figure facing the opposite way, she called out to the fellow team member with a smile. "Ahhh, taking a shot already, Julian? Tea sounds like a great idea. Could I get a cup of that too?" Settling onto one of the stools before the small kitchen island, she seemed to lose herself in her thoughts at first-

Only to notice that the Julian before her was not the same guy she had been talking to earlier. In fact, this was not a guy at all. She stared at him/her blankly a moment, running her tongue against the inside of her cheek before looking back to the counter. *Nope. Not gonna say a damn thing.*

Ronan

Watching as the scene with Beast Girls unexpected response toward the robot doublegangers presence played out, Ronan was understandably confused due to his lack of knowledge about the older woman's history with the original Cyber, but picked up the gist of things. Despite his previous reservations about Jullian and his....her....whatever's family, he couldn't keep from feeling sympathetic for the veteran Titans plight, even if he tried. Fortunately, it seemed as if the situation with the woman was on the road to settling down once her brood stepped forward to check on the woman. Sure enough, her brief emotional outburst was a near thing of the past as she resumed to the more carefree (least in outward appearance) BG he'd heard about in past conversations with his parents.

The young Atlantean then relegated himself to watching the remainder of the drama as this strange little family shifted their attention toward working out the finer details of Jullian's living arrangements. A few exchanges of words later, and the next thing he knew Beast Girl was taking off with a robotic double in tow and the Red Devil was following in hot pursuit with the green drag queen on his back. It certainly seemed as if the longer he stayed here, the larger this already wide range of peculiar sights would grow to become. At least it his parents wishes for their lone heir to grow a greater familiarity with the various types which made up this world they shared was already paying off in spades. Thus far, however, it remained a question of whether or not the male should be grateful or cursing their name.

"Well.....that certainly was....interesting." The aquatic Prince noted with a strange mixture of sarcasm and dry humor, shaking his head as he attempted to push aside his previous concerns of Beast Girl now that it didn't appear as an urgent problem, even if he hoped for the best on whatever ailed the woman.

Finishing off his sandwich, the Atlantean decided to prepare a second one as he did his best to ignore the comings and goings of everyone else in the leisure room before eventually his way for the entertainment area. At least now that Ravenor was apparently gone, Ronan figured he could both pass the time and find out more about these people by watching their television programming. Plopping back onto one of the sofas, he grabbed a nearby remote (evidently several were kept lying around, due to past factions 'struggles' over deciding what to watch) and studied the numerous buttons for a couple minutes before trying a few of them out. Not exactly the most difficult of items to gain a basic understanding of, though he did wonder why those infernal numbers under the screen kept flashing 12:00 repeatedly. Probably a numeric code of some significant importance which was far beyond his present understanding of their culture.

Several minutes later, the second sandwich was gone and Ronan was already wondering why anyone would voluntarily watch or partake in the production of such drivel. Of course, he also wondered why he didn't simply turn the television back off, but simply chalked it up as either morbid curiosity or a strange hypnotizing effect caused by the blinking numbers underneath the set. Now he was understanding the sinister meaning behind that four digit code he'd first noticed only minutes ago. His attention did get diverted, however, when Jullian suddenly returned to the kitchenette section of the leisure room. Kinda hard to miss a green woman in a maid's costume, especially when she apparently poofs out of thin air in a mist of black smoke.

“Would anyone like a spot of tea?”

The Prince didn't say anything as he stared across the wide area while taking in the peculiar sight which greeted him and others from the kitchenette. The scary part was how he'd already come to almost grow accustomed to the unusual antics of the green skinned changeling. On the other hand, the truly frightening part was how Ronan noted that he/she actually didn't look half bad in the maid outfit. Shaking such thoughts off, the blond was about call out a response to her query when he noticed another sudden change in the weather from outside the window. While he wasn't one with great experience at sitting through surface world weather, the Atlantean couldn't keep from questioning if these changes had anything to do with their proximity to the city filled with superpowered villains. Or maybe someone in the Tower? Whatever the case, he was left further perplexed when it looked as if the change was going to clear up about as quickly as it arrived.

"What on Earth is with the weather around this place?" The half-breed muttered to himself as he stared out the nearest window, growing silent for a few seconds before he gave up on coming up with a reasonable explanation for the changes, only to return his attention to Jullian as he called out, "I'll take a cup myself. With a touch of lemon, if there is any in this place."

Noticing how his voice came out in a near commanding tone, an unfortunate side effect of often needing to present oneself as a firm figure to dissuade any doubts of leadership abilities due to his mixed heritage, the aquatic Prince shifted his tone to a considerably less demanding voice as he added, "If it's not too much trouble, of course?"

The Atlantean briefly offered up a slight, albeit genuine smile out of gratitude for the changeling taking the time to brew up a cup for herself and others. While Jullian may not exactly be his most favorite of people on the team, she also hadn't done anything directly to him since his arrival. Now that he wasn't as annoyed over her brothers previous antics, he could at least remain somewhat civil to the green skinned character. Or at least until she or someone else in her strange family did anything to tick off the stubborn Prince. Which caused him to remember a more recent incident, which drew Ronan to his feet as he gradually stepped around the couch and left the television on a local news channel while making his way for the kitchenette area.

"So, how's your Mother doing? She seemed pretty shaken up over seeing that robot X'Hal brought into the room earlier." The blond asked the young 'female' in a rather frank manner, though there was a clear hint of concern of the former Titans well being in his voice.

Moving toward the sink in order to wash up after his previous snacks, Ronan's attention again shifted as the formerly absent and apparent leader of the group entered the scene. At first, the Atlantean paid her little mind as he finished cleaning up and she inquired about receiving a cup of her own. After drying his hands he turned to face Kestrel, only to notice the look on her features as she appeared to be fighting back the natural temptation to question just how exactly one of their own had apparently swapped genders. Despite himself, the Prince felt his lips curling into an amused smile over the situation as he cupped a hand over his mouth. Of course, while this may have shielded said smile, it was less effective at stifling the chuckling noises he made as the half-breed moved to take a seat of his own in preparation for the tea.

Mallory (Stat)

The speedster watched as the brief whirlwind of emotions took place between the members of Jules family. Mallory knew about his friends Mother's past friendship with the cybernetic organism, but hadn't thought of how seeing the robotic double would affect Beast Girl. The young hero supposed he was sheltered in that there hadn't been any cases of permanently losing anyone close to him in the span of his short life. Nor had he seen his father display any outbursts similar of BG's when it came to any memories which Alice's presence may have invoked as she grew into the age where he'd originally gotten to know her predecessor. Although he did notice the way Hex occasionally looked at the girl whenever she did something which reminded him of Match. Which actually wasn't nearly as creepy as it may sound or even appear.

As the strange incident of family bonding finished, the participants leaving together to help get Jullian settled into the place, Mallory actually started to move as if he were about to follow in pursuit. Instead, he felt a firm hand on his shoulder, which stopped him in mid-step as he turned to see his father staring at the speedster and shaking his head.

"They'll be fine, Mal. Just give them a few minutes to themselves." Were his simple words of advice to the younger male, knowing from experience how resourceful Geraldine and, though he wasn't always as certain of him, Eddie can be in dealing with great distress.

Although the former Titans son looked as if he still wanted to see how his friend was doing, he did eventually nod his head in understanding. Besides, it wasn't like this had been an outburst which he could throw a remote at and issue a few brave words in hopes of dealing with it, anyway.

"Well.....that certainly was....interesting."

While he couldn't argue with that summary, it was the tone in which he used which caused Mallory to briefly narrow his eyes at the Atlantean as he watched the blond prepare another snack. Granted, he couldn't really blame the guy for being so flippant and annoyed over the amount of drama which had come up since their arrival in the Tower. Particularly since much of it seemed to focus around Jullian's family, which he could somewhat understand as painting a mixed picture of his friend for those who hadn't known him for years. As the half-breed Prince made his way for the entertainment area with his sandwich, Mallory could only hope that Ronan and any others who maintained reservations about the green teen would come to better understand and trust him in time.

"I need to get going, Mal. Even if it's for official business, the League doesn't usually enjoy having their weaponry loaned out to nonmembers for too long, and I don't want to risk getting your Mom into any trouble." The older man suddenly interjected to shake his son out of his apparent daydream, his words referring to the high tech jet which was needed for safely transporting Mallory to the Tower without detection when they passed over the city earlier.

The redhead paused for a moment before finally nodding his head in agreement, as he watched his father make an expected side trip from the way out by walking over to the Kryptonian. With everything going on since their arrival, Hex hadn't much of a chance to speak with the girl. And while he regretted not being able to say anything to Jullian before having to leave, he certainly wasn't going to head back without at least telling Alice good-bye.

Standing before the blond teenager, Hex smiled warmly as he gazed down at the clone; forever seeing a piece of Match in the girl but having long ago recognized the young heroine as her own person, "And you had better take care of yourself out there, as well. You hear me, sweetheart?"

It was difficult to explain exactly how Hex viewed his own friendly, almost guardian-like relationship with the girl. Perhaps the best comparison would be his seeing her as the child of a dearly departed friend or loved one; although even that didn't truly feel appropriate. Whatever the case, she was a person he cared about and wanted to see have a happy life, which he liked to believe he was capable of providing for Match until her own passing. It actually resulted in a couple of arguments with people within the Justice League, including going so far as to telling Batwoman exactly where she could shove her batarangs. The look Hex received in response was enough to give an average person nightmares for weeks.

"Try to avoid running into any glowing red or green rocks. That's about the best advice I can give someone who could probably knock me out with a flick of their finger." He joked with a smirk on his features before leaning in and placing an affectionate kiss on the top of her blonde head of hair, before glancing toward his son briefly, as he then whispered in a tone he knew her super hearing would pick up regardless of how far his lips were from her ear, "Look out for Mallory for me, will you? And, uh, try to make sure the doors are locked whenever you three are having your games?"

Granted, he already knew she'd keep an eye out for both of her friends, just like they were likely to always try and do for her. but he felt it needed to be said anyway. The part about the locked doors, on the other hand? Let's just say he'll never forget the day he first walked in on them playing dress up so many years ago. Either way, he then said the rest of his good-byes to the girl, before giving a brief farewell to those few who remained, though in at least Ronan's case he was rather occupied at the moment. As he passed by Mallory, he gestured for his son to escort him on the way out rather then saying their good-byes there. Which was fine for the young man, as he felt embarrassed enough about his father showing up on his first day, anyway.

As opposed to some of the stereotypes which were out there about speedsters being impatient when it came to moving at a 'regular' persons pace; Mal had little trouble when it came to walking along casually with those whom didn't share his gift for speed. The redhead did, however, feel rather anxious as he walked throughout the adjoining hallways of the Tower as they headed toward the entrance used earlier. Mostly because he had a feeling that his father was about to give him a speech or scolding about something he'd done during his brief time as a Titan. Much to his regret, it seemed the young speedster was right on the money.

"That was really foolish on your part, Mal." The veteran hero pointed out as he stared over at the young man at his side, not showing any anger in his voice or expression, but certainly coming across rather sternly as he elaborated, "Running off like that to pick up a fight after the situation had settled down. I know your heart was in the right place, but if you keep running off blindly into battle like that, then you're only making things more dangerous for yourself and those around you."

Looking at his father as if he'd just blamed him for the actions of another 'kid', Mallory paused in his steps for the moment as he quickly countered with a rather bewildered tone, "Dad, you saw what that bastard was doing to Jules! And you said yourself that I needed to look after my friends! Are you really saying you wouldn't have done the same back in your day if somebody were threatening Mom? Or Match?"

The almost pained expression on Hex's face spoke volumes on how using the Kryptonian's name in such a comparison had bothered the former villain, and the younger hero lowered his head slightly; knowing immediately that he'd gone a step too far by using such a sensitive subject to try and win an ultimately insignificant debate.

Gazing up at the older man, the young Titan stood by his own stance toward his previous actions, but started off with an apologetic tone to his voice as he added, "Sorry, that was a low blow on my part. But I'm just saying...I care about them."

Letting a smile show at the corner of his lips, Hex placed an assuring hand on the speedsters shoulder, silently letting Mallory know that things were fine as he stated his case, "I understand that, kiddo. I truly do. But you need to be more careful when dealing with somebody you're uncertain about, and if that kid's really Jullian's half-brother, then there's no telling what could have happened if things went too far. Heck, it was bad enough when Alice charged in there, but if the situation took a turn for the worse, then at least she's able to take and deal out a lot more punishment."

Glancing toward what remained of the walk out of the Tower, the former Titan could tell his son wasn't exactly in the mood for hearing any more of his lectures, so decided on letting him go rather then forcing him to tag along any further, "Look, I really do need to go, but just keep in mind what I said, OK? You're a smart and talented young man, Mal. I know you're going to make us proud."

A few more words were exchanged between father and son as they said their good-byes before Hex resumed the remainder of the trek toward the burrowed League's jet. Mallory watched his father for a few seconds, until he turned a corner and wasn't within his range of sight any longer. His mind reflected upon what he said, and while his heart said he'd have done the same thing if placed back in the situation with Ravenor, he knew the older male had a point. Still, this little factoid didn't exactly make the lecture he received any more pleasant. Especially after the scolding he received from Phantasm when Alice and himself were in their uninvited guests bedroom. Being a hero really could be frustrating at times.

"'Going to make us proud.'" The young man repeated of his fathers earlier words as he started walking off on his own, making a brief scoffing sound as he mumbled to himself while deciding on walking things off for a while, "Could have fooled me...."

Finally taking her not-intending-to-stare gaze off of the now feminine form of Jullian before her, Kestrel gave a sidelong glance towards Ronan, catching the grin on his face he was trying to hide. A quick scowl crossed her face, rolling her eyes with a slight sigh as she turned about on the stool. Half the crew here already, it looked like... Maybe it was time to call for that more formal meeting. She'd give Arsenal and Michael a few more minutes to work the kinks out of that faulty electrical wiring, then see if the Tower's comm system was going to cooperate. As it was, she still needed to hunt down the personal comm's mom had been going on about for so long.

She should have been working on that now.

Should have, could have, didn't wanna.

Instead, she began rocking her head back and forth on her shoulders, working the tight knots in her neck built over the stress and pressure that had been coming at her from Robyn. That woman just... refused to let things go. Everything was supposed to be done to the book, every detail in place, and everything- everything- was going to be the same as when she was leader.

Why didn't she get that things changed? Jump City was not the same place she had left it. She was so trying so hard to create her life as Nightbird, trying to veer away from Batwoman's footsteps, that she was forcing Kestrel to walk in her own. She just couldn't do it. She appreciated everything that those two had taught her and shown her, given her to help this city... but she wanted to take her own route to do it, not be the apprentice standing in the shadows of another hero. After all, they both seemed to enjoy lingering in the darkness- just where exactly did that leave her?

The last pop seeming to make a huge difference, she let out a heavy sigh, her eyes falling on Harvey. He made her wonder what mom would have to say now... The worst of her and Gram's enemies' kids, sitting in the same kitchen and munching away at a sandwich. But really, did he seem as big a threat as what those two would make him out to be? The guy rarely seemed to talk, and looked to be as leery on her family lines as she was of his. How menacing was a dude with mustard on his chin?

"Joker." She hadn't meant to say his name with such a graveled voice, slipping off of the stool and starting towards him. "I want to talk to you a second. I.. I think there's a little- bad blood between our families, and before we can make an effective team, I think you and I need to deal with that."

Good God, Gram and Mom would've throttled her if they heard her now. Still, she had to prove to them- and herself- that things could change. This city was due for a complete overhaul, and one good way to start that was to at least have a truce with Harvey...

She'd just have to make sure to keep mom and Gram away from him if they ever stopped in.

Short... AUGH. But I worked with what I had.

"Ahhh, taking a shot already, Julian? Tea sounds like a great idea. Could I get a cup of that too?" Was Kestrel’s response in the background, hearing the girl taking a seat.

The Dark Princess heard her, but she was busy with her thoughts for the moment. Eventually, she had snapped out of her daze, realizing she should not be thinking so deeply. That, she felt the gaze of the other Titans upon her. She came back to planet earth, wiping the tears from her face and out of her eyes before anyone could see.

"What on Earth is with the weather around this place?" Ronan muttered to himself, pointing out the fact of how the weather kept mysteriously changing.

Jules honestly did not have the nerve to tell him as to why it did. Pointing herself out as the one to blame would only lead to suspicion, which then would lead to a full explanation why all of this was occurring. She was just not ready, nor did she ever believe she would be. It was already bad enough that they had their qualms and their unspoken inquiries as to what was going on, sensing their confusion as to why and how she could magically change her appearances, among many other things.

"I'll take a cup myself. With a touch of lemon, if there is any in this place." The Prince said, calling out to her in a bit of an authoritative tone. Jules did not mind it, however, knowing full well he did not intend to sound as such. Nevertheless, the Prince tried to sound more polite; "If it's not too much trouble, of course?"

The young demon changeling turned her head and gave them all an authentic smile of her own. It was a sweet, yet, happy and comforting smile. She watched as the blonde haired half-breed move from the sofa and made his way to join them in the kitchenette area.

"So, how's your Mother doing? She seemed pretty shaken up over seeing that robot X'Hal brought into the room earlier." He asked her bluntly, though the concern was there.

“Oh, she is positively fine now. Pay no mind to her eppy (epileptic fit/freak out), for such spells are quite common with the duchess. Naturally, she quickly holds it down (calms down), with hardly a problem at all. Rather spit spot, I do say!” She answered, smiling brightly as he then washed himself up and retrieved a cup.

Jules’s smile faded a bit, however, when she put more thought into the circumstances of when regarding her mother. “However, I am deeply concerned…” She spoke rather pensively as he had a seat at the table. “Though, pardon my loose expression of tongue, Sire, she is indeed an upright woman, far from being that of a slapper (loose woman) or a bimbo (pretty but unintelligent). Good heavens, no! Nevertheless, chaps and even gents suppose otherwise. A ‘stunner’ (a very, very good looking woman) is what they call her, and crikey, even deplorably refer her to as being a "Jane Shore" (whore). Though even I inquiry my mother’s choice of living, never to her face or from behind, mind you. One does not know what lies behind close doors, so it is to be expected from a commoners’ point of view of her. Though one would consider that she has been indeed shafted (troubled, receiving bad luck) most of her life, suffering from inner turmoils… Tis luvverly jubberly (it is all well) until she becomes legless (drunk), more still…blotto (very, very drunk). Quite frankly, she’s grown accustomed to booze up and visit Bo Peep (sleep), and quite seldom visited by pink elephants. And I must say, she certainly pulls a mean full Monty (whole lot) when smoking those fags (cigarettes), too. I am rather choked (overcome by emotion) by it.” She paused for a moment, chuckling a bit at how she said that. “But I must hand it to her, Sire, she does certainly have a lot of bottle (courage). Courage, I mean. She is a very strong woman, regardless of what she chooses to do with her spare time these days.” She blushed, believing she might have gone a bit too far in more ways than one.

Vladimir snickered at her discomfort.

“I beg your pardon, Prince Ronan, it seems I have rambled on too much. Dear me, my words spill out like a river gushing towards Niagara falls sometimes, if I don't pull the leash upon my lips, commanding it to zip it.” She said apologetically, curtsying respectfully. “And please do forgive me for my use of language, it was rather uncivil of me. Not proper for someone who knows a great deal better to, like myself, especially in the presence of royalty. I’m afraid a bit of the young less civilized me had came out.” She looked to the others, then bowed her head in shame. “And I ask for your forgiveness as well. All of you. Please accept my sincere apologies, for I am deeply sorry.”

She blinked as she then sensed and witnessed what was going on between Kestrel and Joker, sensing the concern, nervousness, and fear the two shared.

“Oh dear.” She muttered to herself, unintentionally speaking out the thought. She then noticed the mustard upon his chin, which perhaps gave her the best cover-up, so she went with it. “Dear chap, you’ve got a spot of…” She informed as she gestured to her own chin, hoping he would catch on.

Just then, the kettle blew it’s whistle.

“Ahh! Splendid!” Jullian exclaimed delightedly and then turned off the stove. “The tea, she is quite ready!”

She then rushed over and began to fill a cup with sugar and another with cream, which then she gracefully brought to the table, placing them perfectly in the center. “I would ask if you all wanted one lump or two, but I am afraid that all we have is loose granulated sugar. Not something I am accustomed to, I admit, but it will do for now.” She informed with a bright smile, then went back to the stove to fetch the kettle of tea.

She then came back over and skillfully poured them each an equal amount of the hot refreshment.

"And I shall retrieve the lemon!" She declared, carefully placing the kettle back down upon the stove before moving to the fridge. It was in her nature and in her upbringing that she was to serve around around her first. "AHA!" She uttered, finding some of the desired citrus fruit, located in the bottom. She then took one out, levitating it, only then to cut it magically in mid-air. She used her powers to place the slices on a clean plate, the plate hovering as much in the air as the fruit itself was. She gently closed the fridge and then took hold of the plate, returning back to the table and placed it down before her teammates.

"Joker. I want to talk to you a second. I.. I think there's a little- bad blood between our families, and before we can make an effective team, I think you and I need to deal with that."

Kestrel's words brought Harvey to the present, somehow he had drifted off, kinda sleeping on his feet with his eyes open. It was a trait that Jenny had always said he had excelled in.

Jenny...

He shook the thought from his mind and nodded to Kestrel, noticing as he did, that he had something on his chin. Feeling like an idiot he quickly wiped it off and walked over to the attractive girl, wondering about what may be said.

He understood and agreed with what she said, their two respective families did have bad blood.... very bad blood.

As he reached, he began to wonder what to say, but thought he'd leave it for her to start, as the chances were he'd say the wrong thing.

Nope your eyes deceive you

X’Hal (Bluefire)

The blond woman’s laughter did little to comfort her as she waited for an answer to her question. It was definitely mechanical in nature. That much X’Hal had already surmised, but why it was in this place and, more importantly, why it had chosen to view her as a threat, was still beyond her. She wasn’t the one who had attacked first, after all. Not that any of them were likely to know this now. She had acted rashly in her surprise, an exceedingly foolish gesture. A lifetime of training and she still slipped up as the half-breed she was and let her emotions rule her. As it was, only the looks on their faces let her know that her mistake was not half as grievous as it could have been.

“Cyber! I can’t believe she’s still here after all this time!”

"Holy crap, talk about a blast from the past. It continues to amaze me when I think about just how lifelike in appearance you were able to make this robot double-ganger, BG. Unfortunately, it's also about as annoying when compared to how the real Cyber often acted."

Ah, so the thing had a name. A name that she now recognized and mentally kicked herself for not doing so earlier. Hadn’t her father told her more times than she could count about all of his teammates, including one cybernetic companion and the malfunctioning double that had been made in her likeness for one particular undercover mission? If she had known better moments ago, she possibly would have been less likely to treat it like an enemy than she had. Still it wasn’t the actual Cyber and Beast Girl seemed to hold no malice to her for ruining the metal companion. Stepping away from the trio as Hex and Beast Girl bantered cheerfully back and forth, she instead took the time to observe the adults that had joined their midst in her absence.

It was a pity her father had not called upon her at a later time. He would have been overjoyed to see them all. He’d spoken of them so many times that it almost felt like she knew them as well, though they all seemed slightly different than what she had imagined. Beast Girl had been described as a light-hearted girl that held her sadness too close to her chest and harbored a love for their fellow teammate, Revan, that she had seemed to so often think wasn’t returned. Despite attire that made her think there was little time for joyous occasions now, X’Hal could clearly feel something of what her father had talked about, a dull pain throbbing in her chest. Hex, her father had spoken of always in careful tones, as if he was never quite sure how to approach the subject of him. A former foe, a good friend, and a man that had lost the woman he loved after her father had already left the planet. It was just now that she noticed the resemblance between him and his flame-haired son. Then there was the Red Devil, always amusing.

A frown lingered on her lips as she watched him with another green-skinned female. It took a few moments for her to fully realize that the woman had been a man when she had last seen him. Her surprise was evident on her features as she immediately wondered how such a thing was accomplished and what the point of such a talent really lay. She knew females were generally considered weak on this planet. Was it some form of defense to catch his enemies off guard as they underestimated his abilities because of the sex he appeared to be?

“WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?”

Her eyes widened as she looked at Beast Girl. Her sadness, despite the dramatic way in which it was shone was genuine. Had she really missed the mechanical copy so much? No, she supposed it made more sense to mourn for the genuine article. The robot seemed more of a shrine than anything now. It made her wonder where Cyber actually was. Her father had succeeded in calling upon the other living titans over the years, but had always been at a lose as to where his cybernetic friend had gone off to. Then all appearances of grief were gone and Beast Girl was looking at her child in a way that X’Hal knew well from her own father. It was a craftiness she had learned to distrust. However well meant it rarely boded well for her. Yet they left, along with Red Devil, in a fairly good mood. So she supposed that perhaps it was only her own parent that seemed to find a perverse joy in embarrassing her. Then, just like that, she was forgotten once more. Chagrin was the best she could muster for such an event happening twice, in one day no less.

Shaking her head softly at what seemed an increasingly odd situation, she departed from the room as well. Her things were still in her ship, hopefully, so she made her sedate way down the many flights of stairs, eventually ending up where she had first entered in. Flying over the water, she slipped inside of the familiar vessel and navigated the thing so it no longer took up the watery entrance, letting it linger closer to the ceiling of the room as she parked her ship. Lights glowed faintly at her as she went about the process of readying it for prolonged storage. She did not distrust her fellow titans. She had no reason to as of yet, but neither had they earned her trust or respect. She didn’t want her vessel open to anyone but her for now. Those same lights faded into darkness now as she carried a box of her belongings in her hands and walked out of the ship, letting herself drift down towards the floor.

"Could have fooled me...."

It was her distinct surprise that made her pause in her footsteps as the voice of Hex’s son reached her ears. She knew he did not know she was there. His posture revealed that he was entirely engrossed in his own thoughts and by the feel of him, they were faintly morose and tinged with self pity. Raising her eyebrows, she looked beyond him to the pink-haired man in the distance before he disappeared all of a sudden. She was going to leave him alone. Weakness of heart was something she had little respect for and he was not her friend, so she had no responsibility to give him comfort even if she did not think him slightly pathetic right now. Then her father’s words came back to her and she sighed. If nothing else, she had to honor her promise and try to connect with her teammates.

“Your father…”

She waited for him to turn, to notice her, before continuing. Her words were slow and precise like her introduction, she didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding because of a botched translation.

“.. He has faith in you. My king has always spoken of him with high regard. I am sure his judgment is sound.”

She didn’t bother to explain. She didn’t see any need to. What she had wanted to say was said and that was all there was to it. Shifting her grip on the box in her hands, she resumed her journey back upstairs. Those quarters below ground offered a safety that she wasn’t quick to shun. The dark city that lay before them had her certain of attack after all. But, neither did she wish to be caught off guard. At least in what was once her father’s room, she would be able to see her enemies coming and meet them head on.

Alice (Knave)

Ok, so she was going to sober up. Really, she was. It was just every time she looked back at the princess’ befuddled look there, she couldn’t help the tittering that came out. Then X’Hal left and all of her laughter stopped. Sighing, she looked around the area aimlessly, at a lose as to what to do with herself. Jules was with his mum and Eddie. Mallory was talking to his dad. Actually she should probably go check on Kestrel and Arsenal in the control room to see how they were getting on and all, but she really, really didn’t want to. It wasn’t anything personal against them. She’d just been holed up in here for weeks and was going a little stir crazy. Socializing would happen sooner or later anyways and she wasn’t really in the mood to push it.

"And you had better take care of yourself out there, as well. You hear me, sweetheart?"

Blinking in surprise, she grinned at him. All sorts of confusion aside, she knew he worried about her just like did Mallory and she was genuinely thankful for that. His wide didn’t really like her too much, but such was the price to pay when everyone and their brother seemed to judge you by those you came from. At least there were still a few like Hex who thought that wasn’t exactly a bad thing and she knew Jullian and Mallory liked her for herself and not because of whose genes she shared. Nodding dutifully, she resisted the urge to tease him about calling her ‘sweetheart’. It was something that came up every now and then, but she usually let such urges pass.

"Try to avoid running into any glowing red or green rocks. That's about the best advice I can give someone who could probably knock me out with a flick of their finger."

On that, she was biting her tongue, because she happened to be defying that order and had been for some years. Of course she always made sure that she was in a safe environment and tended to bug J’onn into watching her whenever the kryptonite came about, but she kind of doubted Hex would have been ok with it anyways. It was just the radioactive rocks were one of the for sure things that could take her out of commission and, try as they might, the League couldn’t capture all of the specimens out there. So who could blame her for trying to build up an immunity to the stuff. Of course, all of her efforts had so far been largely unsuccessful, but she could have sworn that the last couple of times she had lasted about a minute or so longer against the green variety. It was a start.

"Look out for Mallory for me, will you? And, uh, try to make sure the doors are locked whenever you three are having your games?"

She’d kissed him once. A real kiss, not a peck on the forehead like he had just given her and not a memory of a time that happened before her creation. No, this one had been her and him. Though it wasn’t quite like that either. She’d been about thirteen or so, maybe, she’d always been fuzzy on how to judge her age, and more nervous than she could recall being about anything in her short life. The memory was still so clear in her head, just like everything was when you weren’t able to forget anything ever. It had been the middle of the night, one of the last few sleepovers she’d had with Mallory before it was silently deemed too awkward, and Hex had stayed unconscious throughout it all, his breathing never once changed. A bit of residual guilt made itself known as she thought about it again. It wasn’t like she’d molested him or anything. It was only a simple chaste kiss. She just had to make sure, had to see if those confusing feelings were hers or not. It had turned out not. The kiss hadn’t felt at all like she’d expected it to.

That was what she reminded herself of as she willed the blood out of her cheeks at his show of affection. Even if Hex wasn’t married to Sally, he still wasn’t hers and she completely accepted that. Match’s memories were part of her and she couldn’t help that, but that woman wasn’t her. Stepping back from him, she squared her shoulders and stood up straight before giving him a mock salute.

"Sir."

Giggling, she placed her hands on his shoulders, leaning forward so she could whisper in his ear without Mallory over hearing. He’d probably only get defensive and try to prove that he was fully capable of taking care of himself, which he was. But, Alice was still bulletproof last time she checked. Her invulnerability could come in handy and if the need should arise, she wouldn’t fail to use it.

"Don’t worry. I’ll protect him with my life."

Even if her abilities weren’t enough, she’d at least try. When Hex left with Mallory in tow, she waved goodbye as they disappeared through the doorway. Sighing, she thought back over her words. They were true of course, Mallory was her oldest friend, but they just seemed to bring it home that this mission of theirs was really starting. Turning to look out the large window behind her, Alice frowned at the city that lay beyond. Most of it was wasteland. Streets full of decimated buildings and wreckages of cars, remnants of a society that almost seemed to no longer exist there. Oh, of course she’d stayed in the tower like a good girl doing these weeks, but she’d been visiting the city off and on for years. Call it a weird sort of homesickness, but some of her genetic donors had known the place when it was normal and thriving. Now it.. well it sucked.

There was a really good chance that some of them weren’t going to make it out of this alive. Mallory had always been so into the image of a superhero. She’d watched him hone his skills and research like crazy to come up with these inventions to help him fight crime. Alice had never cared. She’d never had a choice. The League probably wouldn’t have even understood if she’d bothered asking for a normal life. Her kind were either heroes or villains sooner or later. So she’d chosen the lesser of two evils. Which meant that one of those casualties would be her. Heroics didn’t really give people a long life expectancy. Well, except for Batwoman. She chuckled at that. Ms. Wayne was old, wrinkled, and sharp as a tack. She almost pitied the villain that underestimated that human.

“Oh shit, that’s right!”

Turning on her heel, she almost seemed to disappear from the room. Super speed had its’ advantages. In the next moment she was standing in front of Ravenor, stopping him in his tracks. She knew it probably seemed, what with the hysterical laughter and all, that she hadn’t been paying attention, but she’d noticed his ghetto-fied attempt to fix up his foot. Standing in front of him now, her gaze flitted over to where she could distinctly hear Jules’ mom and Eddie talking as they did whatever in the room. A quick mental once over of the Tower layout confirmed it to be Beast Girl’s old room. It made an odd sort of sense that it was be Jules’ room as well. Couldn’t say she envied him the view though.

Pointing a finger at Ravenor, she gave him a look to try and make him stay there while she was gone. It was only about half a minute before she was back, not asking for his permission before she knelt down and took his injured foot in her hands. Personal space had never been something she’d observed very well. Even the scariness of Batwoman never completely dissuaded her all the time, not that the elderly woman was very happy about that at all. Frowning slightly to herself, her brow furrowed as her fingers worked at high speed, stripping the leaking ice pack from his foot and the bandages that she supposed he’d wrapped around his foot himself. By the time they fell into a haphazard heap on the floor next to her, she was already standing up and holding the baggie of crushed and melted ice out to him.

“What the hell did you do to your foot anyways? Cause I know I didn’t do it and it wasn’t there when I broke into your room.”

Most would be confused with her about now. It’d only been about fifteen-twenty minutes tops since the guy had just threatened her best friend and she’d stormed into his room and returned the favor. It wasn’t like she’d forgotten, or that she wouldn’t be watching him out of the corner of her eye from now on, just in case, but she didn’t hate him or even dislike him. So she was genuinely curious and even sort of concerned cause those cuts were nasty looking and she kind of doubted he got them by tripping on the stairs or something inane like that. Plus, his bandaging really was kind of shoddy. At least now it was wrapped up tight enough to stave off the bleeding.

Suddenly a loud peal of thunder could be heard, enough so that she was sure she’d have heard it even without being special, and Alice let out a low whistle as she looked up towards the ceiling. Odd, the sky was still pretty clear. That only left one option. Jules. Sighing, she lowered her gaze and shook her head. It had been a stressful day so far and she could understand why he'd still be upset, but that didn't mean she knew why he'd so suddenly gotten in a mood just now. It was one of the few things that genuinely and consistently annoyed her when it came to her green friend. He never actually said what was bothering him. Instead he'd either give her a half truth or shrug it off as unimportant and if she pressed him about it he would avoid her like the plague. She couldn't stand it. How was she supposed to help him and be a good friend if he kept himself all clammed up like that all the time. Giving another heavy sigh, she placed a finger on Ravenor's lips.

"Hold that thought."

Then she left him there, walking just a little faster than normal brisk jog through the hallways and into the lounge. It had been her first thought of where to look, since she'd already peeked at his room and had only spotted the two adults in there. Looking around, she spotted her target and immediately leapt over and pounced upon her, table be damned. Despite how awkward the position probably looked, she hadn't put much of any force behind it and was actually floating while holding onto her friend so she could remain that way without being a burden. Opening her mouth, she meant to ask what was wrong, but then noticed that they weren't exactly alone. Looking at them, she grinned and just nonchalantly started singing.

"O ho re chhabiilaa nashiilaa. Saawan biitaa jaaye."

Slipping away from her, Alice sat on the table next to her wagging a finger in front of Jules face. Despite the lighthearted tune, she was serious about her concern. If she wouldn't bother telling her what was wrong, she still shouldn't dwell so much on such troubling matters.

"Tuu naa jaane. naa naa naa tuu tuu tuu tuu. Tuu naa jaane. naa naa naa tuu tuu tuu tuu. Tuu naa jaane. Tuu naa jaane hai yah pyaar kyaa."

She smiled softly at that last bit. Jules knew a lot of things. She knew that, but there were some things out there that her friend couldn't know for certain until it happened. If it weren't for her memories, Alice probably wouldn't be able to make the comparison herself. Tucking her legs under her, she tugged one of Jules braids playfully.

"Kare beqadar tujhe naa khabar. Kare beqadar tujhe naa khabar haal dard-e-dil kaa."

With that said, she grinned and stood up, swaying slightly to the tune in her head. Her attention moved from Jules to the few others there. She didn't know any of them, but she wasn't embarrassed by the impromptu musical she was putting on. It wasn't like her voice made small animals cry in pain when she sang. Doing a little twirl, she easily stepped around the various items in her path, despite being in heels.

"Dono.n jahaa.n le chaahe to jaan le. Rab kaa hai waastaa kahanaa to maan le o o."

Then, just like that, she stopped and slipped off the edge of the table to land on the floor. Noticing the tea finally, she threw them a wink and took an empty seat. By the serene composure she suddenly adopted, it was almost as if the incident had never happened at all.

Ronan

The young Prince listened patiently as Jullian answered his query about 'her' mother's well being in the wake of her earlier emotional outburst. While Ronan wasn't exactly stressing out over whether or not Beast Girl would be fine, he did feel a sense of relief that she was recovered from her previous distress. If anything, he could understand and respect the bond which often formed between a child and one or both of their parents. Thus, despite his previous annoyance over the actions of certain members which made up the changelings unique family, he didn't wish for Jullian's visit from her mother (one which he assumed wasn't likely to last long or be repeated often) to be marred by such drama.

Unexpectedly, the green skinned female promptly followed her first reassurances by going into greater perspective about the emotional workings of her mother. Which the blond didn't particularly mind, of course, as he did ask Jullian about Beast Girl in the first place. On the other hand, the Atlantean steadily gained a somewhat 'deer caught in the headlights' expression on his features as he struggled in understanding certain terms and expressions which she was choosing to use in getting her point across. The Prince knew English as a native tongue thanks to his father, and had traveled to the surface a few times before, but was terribly out of his league when it came to deciphering the meaning of slang and expressions from different regions. Fortunately, he learned enough in preparation for his time as a Titan to make sense of the majority which she shared, with his mind doing its best to fill in what parts were a source of slight confusion.

When she started apologizing for going on longer then intended, the blond remained somewhat bewildered over certain choice in dialect, but gathered enough where he could offer up a slight smile in amusement when she brought up the very thing occupying his mind, "Thank you, Jullian, but there's really no need for apologies. Believe me, I wouldn't have bothered asking if I wasn't genuinely interested in hearing whatever you had to offer about your Mother's well being."

His words came out relatively calm, speaking in a cordial manner often expected of royalty, which mirrored his formal introduction from when he initially arrive; though with a more 'casual' slant such as when he spoke up in annoyance over others actions, "As for your 'rambling'? While I'll admit it was a bit more information then I needed to know, and some of your choice of words continue to confound me, it did give me a little more input on your family aside from the nuisance which is your half-brother."

There was a short break in his response as Ronan briefly second guessed his decision to bring up the currently female Titan's sibling. At least Jullian didn't seem as visibly shaken by the meeting when compared to her, or at the time 'his', earlier reaction to the apparent death threat. Still, Harvey's comments about digging a hole with his own words did spring to mind, which was enough to spur the next turn in conversation which the Atlantean decided on.

"Besides, it's not as if I have any ground for complaining over how another expresses themselves. Not after a few of my blunt, somewhat snarky comments since arriving here." The Prince explained as he gave a brief shrug of his shoulders, perhaps not so much coming off as apologetic for his actions, but at the same time openly admitting it to be a problem, "It's just in my nature to not hold my tongue when it comes to others, I suppose. Inherited it from my father, for better or worse."

Not that he was necessarily stupid or stubborn when it came to letting his words fly out of his mouth without a self censor. When it came to diplomatic or good will matters, he was often amongst the best in their underwater civilization at playing the role of a respectful guest. Unfortunately, as his mother would often point out, Ronan did need to work on maintaining such proper etiquette when a situation starts going awry. As was evident after the earlier fiasco upon first arriving at the Tower that day. As he sat quietly for a spell, he could only imagine what she'd think of his behavior toward the other Titans thus far.

“Oh dear.”

The words brought him out of his momentary stupor, causing his gaze to refocus itself on the changeling, before it briefly drifted in the direction which apparently captured her attention. Combined with the specific background information he'd gained during the weeks leading up to his joining the team, it only took the aquatic Prince one look at Kestrel and Harvey to make a vague guess at what was going through Jullian's mind.

“Dear chap, you’ve got a spot of…”

Giving her a confused look, he reached for his own chin and found the small trace of mustard which she was redirecting his attention toward. As he wiped it away with the side of a finger, Ronan slowly realized that her remarking on the slight mess was simply a diversionary tactic to cover her reaction toward the private conversation of their teammates. While he wasn't exactly the type to shy away from commenting on such potentially heated meetings, the half-breed respected Jullian's apparent wishes for leaving the topic be. Besides, judging by the sound the kettle had started emitting, it was time for their drink.

“Ahh! Splendid! The tea, she is quite ready!”

Pushing aside such trivial matters for now, Ronan watched his new team mate move to prepare serving as he took a seat at the table. Normally, if it were a female offering up a spot of tea, he'd be quick to action when it came to helping out with the serving. Due to his not being exactly sure of what Jullian could officially be considered, however, the young man figured it best if he simply let 'her' do as she wished.

“I would ask if you all wanted one lump or two, but I am afraid that all we have is loose granulated sugar. Not something I am accustomed to, I admit, but it will do for now.”

"No worries on this end. I don't find many chances to enjoy a cup of tea, so I don't have any specific preferences." The Atlantean explained as he sat back on his chair, knowing he could only speak for himself as he glanced in the direction of the others which were in the room to see if they were at blows yet.

It was rather amusing, actually. Here he was having general chit-chat with the child of a woman his father betrayed during a troubled period in his life many years ago, while the heirs of a great rivalry were talking about heavens knows what at the same time. Even though he truly didn't put much stock in the past relationships of their respective parents, he couldn't ignore the irony of the scene. Made him wonder if a prodigy of Luther would unexpectedly show up to ask Alice if she wished to catch a movie.

Watching with an understandable fascination as she used her unusual gifts to finish with her self appointed role as server for her team mates. Although Ronan wasn't exactly sheltered from seeing others with peculiar powers (it was a given, considering his parents), he didn't come across others gifted individuals often enough where such feats were anything resembling a normal occurrence. Odd as he may have found a few of her powers, however, he tried not to come off as intimidated or unsettled by them. The half-breed male had experienced enough of that in his own lifetime, whenever he displayed the Earth controlling abilities of his meta-human father. It was why he rarely used them around others, save for his training exercises with Terran to insure he gained a proper level of control over the potentially dangerous power. Some of the things his father told him about....well, Ronan wasn't exactly in a hurry to make any similar mistakes of his own.

Offering up a brief, albeit grateful smile; he picked out a cup and reached for the tea as he took it upon himself to at least handle his own serving as he spoke, "Thanks again. I haven't had a chance to familiarize myself with the kitchen, and I could definitely go for a cup to help me relax after everything which happened earlier."

The Atlantean had finished mixing his cup and added the citrus fruit when his attention was drawn toward the sudden return of Alice; whom eventually found herself keeping her gender swapping friend company. It was hard to keep track of people around here, seeing as how they were almost constantly coming and going from one room to another, shifting about as they continued settling into their new home and base of operations. Compared to other developments, though, he figured it wasn't the most difficult of things to grow used to living around. Alice herself didn't seem too bad, albeit her previous proclamation of killing Ravenor and rushing off to fulfill the deed had left him rather perplexed. Perhaps more so because of how the two were in the same area a while later without much in terms of aggravation over the others presence; at least on her part.


"O ho re chhabiilaa nashiilaa. Saawan biitaa jaaye. Tuu naa jaane. naa naa naa tuu tuu tuu tuu. Tuunaa jaane. naa naa naa tuu tuu tuu tuu. Tuu naa jaane. Tuu naa jaanehai yah pyaar kyaa. Kare beqadar tujhe naa khabar. Kare beqadar tujhe naa khabar haal dard-e-dil kaa."

And here Ronan thought Jullian was difficult to understand during her supposed ramblings. Although he at least knew enough about the dialect of different nations where, once he got over the initial confusion brought about by her switching languages, he was able to recognize the words as being Hindi in origin. Peculiar, he thought to himself as the Prince watched the cloned alien playing with her friend, apparently trying to lighten the mood while at the same time amusing herself with her earlier work on the girls hair. The young man simply watched them until Alice had taken a seat, at which point he again thought back on the earlier conversation with Jullian.

"About a while ago? There really wasn't any need for you to apologize. It's understandable that you'd worry about your mother, and there's little shame in expressing such concerns." The young Prince reiterated and explained as he stared over at Jullian, seemingly not giving a second thought to the lack of relative privacy they currently had, even as he decided on sharing a bit of his own fears, "I worry about my own mother at times. Well, both of my parents, but her especially. Her life was never going to be an easy one with the role fate had placed her in so long ago. But I can't imagine that her relationship with my father did the Queen any favors in making her position any easier."

For that matter, he can only wonder on how different her life would be if she didn't have him to worry about. Half-human, father whom wasn't royalty, these weren't precisely the type of lineage which endeared a person to their followers. He knew she worried, he remembered the talks with both of his parents in dealing with the prejudice, he could remember the tears. Ronan knew she'd argue it to her dying breath, but he often did question whether or not Ula's life would have been better off without him as a part of it.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, the aquatic Prince tried to ignore the rather depressing turn his thoughts had taken him as he started to lift the cup to his lips for a sip, "In either case, here's to hoping for the best out of the coming years for each of our respective loved ones."

Taking a refreshing drink of his tea, he savored the flavor for a few fleeting moments, before directing his attention toward the clone and growing curious over the apparent lack of a certain speedster as he spoke to both, "So where's your redheaded friend? Since my arrival here, I don't recall ever having seen him away from either of you for more then a couple of minutes. Was starting to believe you three were near inseparable."

So far, so good. At least he wasn't spitting out obscenities at her for even trying to offer out the olive branch. Trying to form the right words out in her head, she gave a hesitant glance over her shoulder, catching the look from both Jullian and Ronan, only to have another sour expression slide onto her own. Thankfully, Alice was quick to arrive and distract them once more... And returning Kestrel to her own conundrum with Joker.

"I know there's been some.. issues.. between our families for a long time. I don't want that to be anything between us. We both seemed to have the same thoughts when we heard the histories of each other- That there was going to be huge problems developing because of it. I'll admit it, my first thought was that you were here to simply blow the place up and laugh about it." She took a deep breath, running a hand along her own shoulder. "And I was wrong to think that. That's Batwoman's training welling up inside me, the whole 'a leopard never changes its spots' thing. Between her and mom..." She trailed off, giving a gentle sigh. "And that's wrong of me. You'd think with everything they've taught me, that the idea of tolerance and judgment would be something they instilled in themselves as well. You have skills that we all need here, and to spurn you because of your blood is not something that I should be doing."

Looking at him a moment, she bit down on the side of her cheek, finally giving her head a gentle shake. "I'm sorry we got off on such a bad foot. You are a Titan, and Titans are a family. That's one thing from Robyn that I will hold to. We all have our pasts, and we all have things that our parents do that we wish they wouldn't. It just seems ours have bigger problems than some... and are a direct relation to each other."

She hoped he accepted her words... She prayed that he would understand...

And if he didn't? She'd let out the side of her that would make the two women who raised her proud. Even now, with all the words of kindness she was trying to relay to him, that part deep down inside of her was screaming out that her intentions were wasted, that she should be attacking rather than speaking. Still, she fought it back, forcing the kind smile to her face and offering the son of her grandmother's enemies her own hand.

"What do you say, Joker? Let the issues between our folks be theirs alone?"

"I know there's been some.. issues.. between our families for a long time. I don't want that to be anything between us. We both seemed to have the same thoughts when we heard the histories of each other- That there was going to be huge problems developing because of it. I'll admit it, my first thought was that you were here to simply blow the place up and laugh about it. And I was wrong to think that. That's Batwoman's training welling up inside me, the whole 'a leopard never changes its spots' thing. Between her and mom... And that's wrong of me. You'd think with everything they've taught me, that the idea of tolerance and judgment would be something they instilled in themselves as well. You have skills that we all need here, and to spurn you because of your blood is not something that I should be doing. I'm sorry we got off on such a bad foot. You are a Titan, and Titans are a family. That's one thing from Robyn that I will hold to. We all have our pasts, and we all have things that our parents do that we wish they wouldn't. It just seems ours have bigger problems than some... and are a direct relation to each other. What do you say, Joker? Let the issues between our folks be theirs alone?"

Harvey nodded, thankful that she wasn't wanting to hurt him.

"Five months ago, myself and my sister met Harlequin for the first time, and when he found out that we were his children, he killed my sister. Growing up, I had no choice about what to do with my life, My mother forced myself and my sister to do the things we did, and we were stupid and niave enough to do it."

He paused and took a breath, wondering how to form his nest words, "I came here for a second chance, to clear my name, not my families, because there is no point in that, and to be honest, when I first found out who you were, I suddenly expected to beaten and tied up, and left outside a police department." He offered a smile, before continuing, "In all honesty, you seem like nice, and I'd be more than happy to follow you in your leadership of the team, wherever that may take us."

He stopped and ran a hand through his hair, wondering if maybe it was time he cut as he did, "What I'm trying to say is that, I agree, let our parents problems be their problems, and nothing to do with us.'

Feeling like a complete Idiot as he did, he stuck out his hand and smiled, "Friends?"

Then as an afterthought, he jokingly added, "Theres no electric buzzer on it, honest."

That certainly explained a lot, especially his reasons for being here. She was here to follow reluctantly in mom's footsteps... but he was looking to completely escape the path forged by his parents. To become the exact opposite of his parents certainly seemed the best freedom from someone who could so heartlessly kill their own child. She had seen her own family's death happen, but not in such a horrific manner as Harvey; not by someone of her own flesh and blood.

"Don't blame yourself for what you may have been forced to do in the past." Kestrel frowned solemnly at his self-degrading look on what took place with his mother. "You were willing to turn away from it, and see it as something that you knew wasn't right. That took courage and the ability to realize you have your own destiny- and its not as a criminal." She hesitated slightly with his mention of her leadership of the group, making a momentary grimace. Yup, that title was stuck on her shoulders now. Not that she truly minded it being passed down from her mother, but the possibility of not meeting her expectations loomed over her like Gram did to poor Brandon on her first date. And people thought that Batwoman was scary; try watching her in overly-protective Grandma mode.

Her mind was wandering again.

Glancing down, she found Joker's hand reaching for hers, giggling slightly at his comment on it being buzzer-free. "Well, that's good," She replied with a smile as she shook his hand in hers. "That means I won't have to hurt you any time soon." She continued to smile, even though the tone she used implied that she might not have been truly joking on her threat.

Sniffing at the air, she caught the smell of the tea Jullian had made. She had heard his call on it being ready a few minutes ago, but hadn't really had it sink in until now. "C'mon, Harvey. Let's grab a cup, get things set up around here with everyone else... Get about getting this team into some actual order."

Moving back to the stool, she took up her own cup of tea, stealing a glance at the others as she spooned sugar into the liquid. The whole conversation with Harvey had been a bit off to the side of the room, but she doubted it was too far out of earshot for them to not have heard most of it. Did she care? not particularly, but it was a bit- odd to have them all peeking in.

That spoon was still going.

Realizing that she had a developing goop in the cup, she hastily dropped the spoon and picked up the drink, wrapping both hands around it and staring at the cupboard doors instead. There was so much to do. Jump City was in need of some actual help here... And if she didn't get the ball rolling soon, that was jsut begging for a visit from one of the two women in her life; one of the last things she wanted happening right now. Patrols; that was one of the big things she'd need to set up. Split people into teams, get them out there. Couldn't do that without the proper communication systems, though. That was next on the agenda, right after getting everyone settled in and a briefing on what was going on here.

Good god, it was like drinking sludge. Incredibly thick, syrupy sludge.
She kept drinking it.

"Thank you, Jullian, but there's really no need for apologies. Believe me, I wouldn't have bothered asking if I wasn't genuinely interested in hearing whatever you had to offer about your Mother's well being. As for your 'rambling'? While I'll admit it was a bit more information then I needed to know, and some of your choice of words continue to confound me, it did give me a little more input on your family aside from the nuisance which is your half-brother. Besides, it's not as if I have any ground for complaining over how another expresses themselves. Not after a few of my blunt, somewhat snarky comments since arriving here. It's just in my nature to not hold my tongue when it comes to others, I suppose. Inherited it from my father, for better or worse."

Those were the half-blood’s words as he tried to better access the situation. She took his words to heart, knowing that they were true. After upon reading his aura, she did not sense him to be any sort of liar. She paid him every bit of mind, though she was busy tending in the kitchenette, preparing everyone a chance to have some of the brewed refreshment. There was plenty to go around, she made sure of that, though if needed be, she could always make more.

"No worries on this end. I don't find many chances to enjoy a cup of tea, so I don't have any specific preferences." He had said when she had placed the condiments upon the table for use.

After fetching the silverware and the napkins, she then replied; “We’ve all seem to have “inherited” some traits from our DNA donors, one way or another, Prince Ronan. That, or they have been learned.”

She spoke those words with much assurance, guaranteeing that she did not mind any of what he had mentioned earlier in his own regards to himself. She then fetched the kettle, placing it down upon the kettle’s coaster she had placed there in the center of the table a little while ago. That is, after she had poured some of the hot beverage into a few tea cups that were up for grabs.

He smiled briefly and said; "Thanks again. I haven't had a chance to familiarize myself with the kitchen, and I could definitely go for a cup to help me relax after everything which happened earlier." He then insisted upon serving himself, after having grabbed an empty clean cup.

She looked up at him and returned his smile. She silently admitted that she was not use to such customs, having been taught the technique of traditional hospitality. But it was something she could overlook, after all, she was a foreigner of this country. She made a mental note to keep that in mind. Besides, who was she to deny his right to do what he pleased?

“Tis not a problem, Sire. I am here to serve.” She replied and then curtsied, always trying her best to be proper. “Though pardon my extreme cases of over enthusiasm, since I am indeed young and prone to still have spur of the moments, but I do see myself rather as a servant, a butler, as you will. Or in this case, at the very moment, a maid.” She paused for a moment, considering her words carefully. Not wanting anyone to drown in confusion, she then attempted to explain; “Perhaps it is my upbringing that is responsible for my peculiar standpoint. Nevertheless, it is my sworn duty, given to me by my mother, I divulge, to ensure that the Tower’s residence are well fed and properly taken care of. However, I am not the keeper of the Tower. That right alone is reserved for Miss Phantasm.” The name of the spirit had came to her as though it had been whispered in her ear, make that inner ear.

In all honesty, her choice of lifestyle was merely compensation for the past and what is to come. She certainly most dreaded that day, being that it was entirely inevitable. It haunted her both night in day, in her sleep and in her wake. Deep inside, she had so much fear and pain, but she was not about to let anyone know that. Her life had been pure hell, figuratively and literally, being that hell also somehow physically lied within herself. The best she could do was to press onward, to offer her best in the meantime, and keep on smiling regardless any situation or outcome. All in all, she just hoped her attempts were not fruitless, the key word being HOPE.

Her smile broadened as she then added, habitually summoning up an old adage; ““Eat well, drink in moderation, and sleep sound, in these three good health abound”.”

Immediately, sensing that her friend was approaching, then Jules moved to the side, enough to save the kettle and cups of tea from knocking over to spill. What a mess it would have been if she had not, especially when the blonde Kryptonian decided to pounce upon her. The demon princess reeled backwards a bit, the table almost catching her as she toppled over, however, her friend caught her in the nick of time before she even so much as tapped against it.

Jullian blinked up at her, her cheeks growing hot as the blood furiously rushed up into them. It was not just the fact that the situation appeared awkward, and significantly it was, but no, it was more than just that. Something more, deep down an undisturbed emotion was triggered, granted that she would never admit, let alone come to full realization of what was really the matter. And like all the rest of her sentiments, she pushed it back, not knowing what else to do with it, and promptly regained her resolve as she grinned albeit cheekily.

The blonde glowed radiantly with a golden sheen, like she had incased the very sun itself, and her night blue eyes shined as though they had stars. The concern written upon her face notified the green one what this was all about, not even having to use her sixth sense to guess at it, and this had caused her smile to falter a bit. She intuitively gulped, readying herself for the sermon she was about to receive. It was never a tongue lashing, but still. And if she was not ungodly uncomfortable before, she certainly was now. She was not fond of conditions as these, because such circumstances meant revealing what was needed to be kept concealed. She was solely grateful that the Kryptonian was not a mind reader.

Alice was about to speak, but halted immediately when she finally realized that they had an audience. Oh, how Jules hoped that the girl had decided to drop the issue, but alas, she knew her too well, it would be out of her nature to. The grin that formed on the clone’s face proved it, causing those hopes to crash and burn like a derailed train. She literally pictured the train in her mind, hearing the long and shrilling whistle as it wrecked, tumbling over. This only meant one thing-- She was up to something.

Oi, curses for being so respectful as to not meddle into other people’s minds!

“You know, you could.” Vlad spoke up, speaking rather nonchalantly. “…Not like she would ever know.”

“No, those such things are a matter of privacy, and minds are that of sacred sanctuaries!” Jullian chided, mentally shaking a fist.

The dark prince snorted, since it really did not matter with him one way or another. “Suit yourself.”

Jullian’s eyes widened when her childhood friend began to sing.

"O ho re chhabiilaa nashiilaa. Saawan biitaa jaaye." She sang and then moved to sit beside her.

The green demon instinctively stood back straight, her movements as graceful as a swan. She turned a looked at the girl, blushing a bit at the words. “So very dashing and charming. Let the monsoon pass away”? Jules smiled a faint yet sad smile. Leave it to Alice to express her concerns through song, especially in a language he basically understood as much as he did English. Curses for living nomadically in Asia Minor, the very same went for being kissed by the fawning girls (and boys), which had helped her acquire the language all the more faster. Kisses were instant gateways into the pools of others minds, sucking up information like a vacuum, a psychic ability she had no control over.

The blonde wiggled a finger at her, directly in her face so that she could see without fail.

"Tuu naa jaane. naa naa naa tuu tuu tuu tuu. Tuu naa jaane. naa naa naa tuu tuu tuu tuu. Tuu naa jaane. Tuu naa jaane hai yah pyaar kyaa." Alice continued and then smiled.

Jules flushed all the more. Love? What did any of this have to do with love? Though the topic itself was a bit touchy for her, being that she believed that love was not for her. Not that she did not want to love, it was just, who in their right mind could possibly ever feel that way towards her? Sure, she came across people who had grown quite fond of her, but that changed nothing since she knew those feelings were not to be expected from the likes of something such as her. Besides, who could honestly say that they solely desired to obtain her affections from her? Every Christian would undoubtedly agree with added objections to such an ideal as that, especially (Kid) Crusader.

The sky darkened a bit as she felt the sorrow tug at her heart, and her smile faded all the more. She stared downward in a poignant daze, then snapped out of it immediately when her friend playfully tugged her hair. Jullian looked back up at her, to which then forced a smile upon her face. Perhaps the blonde was making a comparison with someone else, which was believable enough, so the demon princess went with that. She pushed the negative thoughts back.

"Kare beqadar tujhe naa khabar. Kare beqadar tujhe naa khabar haal dard-e-dil kaa."

On contraire, she did know what love was like…or at least how it felt to love someone or think that perhaps you do. The heartache, however, she knew all the more. Though her psyche refused to acknowledge it for the better good or worse, her heart could tell otherwise. To love someone whom you had no chance in hell to be with and never having the courage to admit or accept them, trying desperately keep these emotions locked up inside of an iron cage so that they would never be free. If her heart was wrong, then she most certainly did not know what love meant.

She watched as her friend stood up and began to sway a bit to a silent tune. She continued to stare, trying her best to cheer for the sake of it all, since it was the blonde’s intentions. However, it would all seem null and void for the smile etched upon her face was tainted with much despair, enough to now be noticeable. And to make matters worse, it began to sprinkle outside. She quickly turned away from the sight, glad that no one even had the chance to notice since they were too preoccupied with either watching her friend’s performance or they were too busy dealing with other matters. She walked a few steps away as she heard her friend continue her gallant charade.

"Dono.n jahaa.n le chaahe to jaan le. Rab kaa hai waastaa kahanaa to maan le o o."

After shaking her head slightly, rubbing her forehead as she tried hard to regain her composure, she looked back over at the clone, prior gently dragging her hand gradually down and away from her face. Seeing that the girl had finished with addressing her, now sitting at the table and partaking in the tea with the rest of them, Jules sighed inwardly. And everything fell back into normalcy, including the weather. Again, she dawned a appreciative smile, only this time the intention was merely to please her friend and guarantee her that everything was A-okay.

"About a while ago?” The Atlantean Prince spoke up again, clearly putting aside the peculiar actions of his fellow teammate. “There really wasn't any need for you to apologize. It's understandable that you'd worry about your mother, and there's little shame in expressing such concerns."

Jullian slapped on a different smile as her attention was directed at him, gracefully turning back around by spinning on her feet in a half turn.

Ronan then decidedly confessed; "I worry about my own mother at times. Well, both of my parents, but her especially. Her life was never going to be an easy one with the role fate had placed her in so long ago. But I can't imagine that her relationship with my father did the Queen any favors in making her position any easier." He grew silent for a moment, thinking to himself.

Jules could sense the dismalness as he did so, and she could sympathize with him very well. After all, her own mother had her own grief as well. Not only having a terrible past, but also having to deal with having to give birth to and raise a reincarnated evil. Her mother had plenty of sorrow, and unfortunately, later on in the years it had lead her now to drinking. It was how her mother fought away the pain, but sadly had became her mother’s clutch. Not like she never tried to make her mother quite her dreadful habit, it was just that all attempts were to no avail.

"In either case,” The blonde teen spoke again, after taking a sip of his tea. “Here's to hoping for the best out of the coming years for each of our respective loved ones."

Jullian smile broadened, but this time it was for real.

"Here here! “Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow is but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to This Day.”" She said, his words striking her in such a way, another wise saying had came into mind. “Is an old adage. Just like, “A hard beginning maketh a good ending”.” She then added silently to herself; “To that, one would certainly hope so.” If her words of advice did not work for her, at least they could for someone else.

She then finally took upon the chance to fix her own cup of tea, which was still as hot as it was when it had been removed from the burner. She had acquired two teaspoons of sugar and a bit of cream, just the way she liked it. She stirred the concoction gently as so the spoon would not ting against the piece of fine china. Afterwards, once having done that, she took a seat beside her friend. She had properly unfolded a napkin to cover her lap, appropriately crossing her legs for modestly, and only then did she take a sip of her refreshment, pinky extended and all.

She smiled when the others had decided to rejoin them, her eyes seeming as if they were grinning as well. Apparently things were already turning out better and quicker, too, than they would have been expected.

The blonde man smirked again, gesturing to the work at hand. "Please, by all means... Always enjoy seeing beautiful women at work. Oh and, I don't think I've caught your name yet, by the way..."

Ollie bent to the work at hand as Kes left to do her own thing, "You can call me Arsenal, I'm the kid of Red Arrow."

She started following some of the wires from the newer systems. They were intact and fine but some of the systems led into older ones upstairs. She noticed that the main power had something from the old systems still working. "Wait a second here, this isn't right. Dude keep working what you were, I need to get to a computer."

She went over to the work station nearest the panel. Ollie went to work on schematics for the power supply. Sure enough (after only a small hack past someone's code) she found what was using the power. She began to open the files and they went off on their own! Shit, this wasn't right. Ollie keyed up the commsystem through the building. "Um guys I think I just messed up here! I found an old file and it's........"

That was the last thing she got out before the Comms were taken over by the program. "If this program is playing then something pretty messed up must have happened," a woman's voice said. It was a voice familiar to many of the Titans, the voice of Cyber. "It's been a while since I updated this message, but here it is. This is my good bye message to you guys."

Ollie just froze. It had been years since she'd last heard the voice of Victoria Stone. Auntie Vicky had vanished after that visit.

"I know this is sort of cheesy, but I got a bad feeling about what I'm about to do. I finally got a lead on Sister Blood and I'm gonna try to take the bitch down. Guess I failed," the voice cracked just a bit, "B.B. I love ya like a sister girl. If it's still alive you can have my car. I know you always wanted it."

Oh god no! Ollie realized she'd opened up Aunt Cyber's last will and testament!

"Robyn, you and me went round and round a few times, but you were the best leader the Titans could have ever had. You and Kor really should have hooked up you know."

The woman's voice broke again, the sound of tears. "Hex, I know I hurt you, and I wish there was some way I could have fixed things between us. I don't know if you care or not but the reason I was always such a bitch to you was that I kinda fell in love with you. It hurt me so bad when I had to go back to the team that first time."

After a short pause she continued. "Then you joined the Titans. You joined the team and made it very clear that I was your least favorite person in the world. That's the reason I joined the Titans East. I had to get away from you while I got over you. I never really did but I came back here anyways........"

The commsystem screeched and cut off.

What the hell? Ollie knew she didn't do that! She wished she could have. There were tears in her eyes. Vicky had sounded so sad. She keyed the system again and comms came back up. "Sorry about that guys, it went automatic when I unlocked the file. Any ideas of what happened to it? I think we should get this to our parents if any of them are still here."

~~~~~~~~~~

Phantasm slipped up to the top of the tower after she had disrupted that program. It wasn't for these children to hear. Danielle Chase went up to the roof and began mourning for the friend that she had been the last to see alive.

Michael sighed softly as Kestrel left the room to get started on her leadership duties, so he assumed. He hoped his somewhat flirtatious comments hadn't assisted in her decision to leave, but it truly did sound like she had a lot on her hands, especially after meeting certain other members of the team. As she left, only the dark haired girl remained, finally introducing herself as the daughter of Red Arrow. Michael could only nod slightly. Honestly, he had only heard the name before, but other than that he really didn't know anything else.

"Arsenal, well... nice meeting you." He smiled again, though it seemed a bit forced this time. He wasn't good at being polite and sociable around new people, especially in this completely different environment. So far, it seemed like he was being accepted, despite not having any relations to any heroes. Before he could speak up again, Arsenal preempted him.

"Wait a second here, this isn't right. Dude keep working what you were, I need to get to a computer."

'Dude?' He thought to himself, raising an eyebrow. After which he glanced back down at the electrical wiring in front of him. Who was he kidding? He really didn't know anything about this. He knew a bit about computers, but not necessarily electronics. Nonetheless, he'd keep at it until something happened. Every so often a spark would fly, causing him to jump slightly despite not really feeling any pain from it. Human reactions were always present, despite how different he was from most of them.

"So... What sort of things do you do? I mean, everyone here has powers or something, right?" Michael tried to revive the conversation, but Ollie had already been distracted, having located something in the nearby computer. Standing up from his spot, Michael moved next to her to observe. What came through the computer and subsequently the building's communication system sounded to be like a pre-recorded message from one of the past Titans.

As he listened, he didn't really know how to respond. He didn't really know anyone the woman on the message spoke about, not personally at least. Eventually the recording ended abruptly, and Michael's eyes moved back to Arsenal who appeared somewhat broken up from having heard it. What could he possibly say? He was beginning to feel like more of an outsider than ever.

"You okay? Who was that?" He eventually spoke up, trying to get a bit more information about what that message may have meant to her or anyone else on the team.

"Arsenal, well... nice meeting you." He smiled again, though it seemed a bit forced this time.

"So... What sort of things do you do? I mean, everyone here has powers or something, right?" Michael tried to revive the conversation, but Ollie had already been distracted, having located something in the nearby computer. Standing up from his spot, Michael moved next to her to observe. What came through the computer and subsequently the building's communication system sounded to be like a pre-recorded message from one of the past Titans.

As he listened, he didn't really know how to respond. He didn't really know anyone the woman on the message spoke about, not personally at least. Eventually the recording ended abruptly, and Michael's eyes moved back to Arsenal who appeared somewhat broken up from having heard it. What could he possibly say? He was beginning to feel like more of an outsider than ever.

"You okay? Who was that?" He eventually spoke up, trying to get a bit more information about what that message may have meant to her or anyone else on the team.

She looked up, the tears at only a light fond remembering level "That was Cyber from the original team. She was like an aunt to me. No one really knew whatever happened to her. Guess we do now huh?"

Oliie looked down at the keyboard then back up with a bit of her old smile on her face "I shoot trick arrows, use a magic soul eating sword, and am a very highly trained martial artist."

She sniffed ever so lightly and then asked "You?"