A light flickered to life, and a single hand reached out to spin the leather office chair around. As it stopped, the single masked figure sat down and relaxed with a deep sigh. Sure, the three of them had won the fight today, but it was only because he couldn't handle the problem himself. Manic Mod, he called himself. He was even more trouble than the villain he modeled himself after. both of them were stripped of everything and put behind bars, so now he didn't have to worry about them for at least a little while.

Before he could take his thoughts further, the computer behind him flashed. An alert. The lone figure spun around to face the computer. A soft smile made it's way to his features. It was a main line alert, meaning that his old friend was at one of the other towers now.

The same hand that reached to the chair touched a single button on the keyboard. The computer opened up another window to show his green skinned friend on the other end.

"Talk to me Beast Boy." He spoke. From the corner of the screen, he could see the image of himself that was being broadcast to Beast Boy.

Man, had he changed. A black and blue jumpsuit with a blue bird over his chest, a more pointed mask, and long slicked back hair. He had even gone so far to change his name to Nightwing. Robin was now another kid under Batman's wing.

However, Garfield hadn't changed one bit. Still rocking the black and purple suit from his Doom Patrol days without any mask or headgear. Of course he wasn't a kid any more, but it was still obvious to Nightwing that it was the same person on the inside.

"Straight to the point? Rae said that you called her and Cyborg in. You sure you don't want me to head back? It'd only be a few days." Beast Boy's concern for his old team leader could be seen etched into his face. It wasn't a business call like Nightwing had expected, but still he refused to drop the call.

Nightwing shook his head. BB was doing his part by helping out and recruiting new heroes, he couldn't afford to call him back to the tower. "I'm fine Gar. Just a little trouble with the legacy of our british invader."

Beast Boy stopped. The words he was about to speak froze in his mouth. Mad Mod had some sort of legacy? Was he being serious? Of course he was being serious, he was Robin. That must have been quite the handful.

Nightwing could see Beast Boy getting up out of the chair he was in. "I'm heading back. If you've got that kind of trouble, you need some help."

"No." Was his quick response. "You have your hands full. I'll have to find a way to get past this."

Beast Boy sat back down. He didn't expect anything less from Nightwing. He'd probably just kick his training up another few notches. He had to stop at some point. With Slade making rounds again, Robin wasn't going to stop any time soon. New thing you know, the RedX was appear again and Robin was take another dip into insanity.

Beast boy was silent for a moment. He had to think up a way to get his old leader to settle down. From the image he got from Nightwing, he could see the door opening behind him. Two figures appeared and walked up behind Nightwing. He could instantly recognize the single red eye and purple cloak.

"We think you need to relax, Robin." A quiet and gravely voice spoke to him, causing Nightwing to turn around in his chair again.

Garfield smiled. "Raven! What's up babe?" He saw her once or twice a week due to the fact that she could technically teleport using her shadows, but that still didn't stop him from being excited whenever he saw her.

Raven pulled off the hood to her cloak, smiling at the green man. "I'm doing well, but we need to focus on Nightwing."

Cyborg nodded beside her. It was an impromptu intervention of sorts, decided just after the most recent fight. "Yeah man, we need to talk."

Nightwing sighed. He should have seen this coming.

However, what had surprised him was the file that Cyborg pulled out from behind him. Once handed the file, Nightwing could see four profiles of possible candidates. Two of them were lacking in comparison to the others, but there was at least some information on them.

Nightwing took a long look at them. Perhaps it was time to bring in new recruits.

By the time the cab finally slowed down and pulled up before her new home, Rune Langley was already very exhausted from the long ride. She stepped out of the car wobbling slightly, her legs numb from being cramped in the seat for hours. After she picked up her duffel bag from the trunk and sent the driver off with a tired wave, she glanced down at the crumpled paper in her right hand: a printed map of Jump City, and a scrawny note from Beast Boy.

She smiled to herself, recalling her first encounter with the strange hero.


The siren blared furiously throughout the underground lab, hammering against Rune's ear with waves after waves of deafening wail. She swore under her breath. Talk about bad timing. Her fingers picked up speed as they danced across the holographic keyboard; with each tap the neon light was changing from red to green. Almost there.The last bolt retrenched with a low rumble and the reinforced metallic door hissed, slowly sliding open to reveal the very thing that she had been searching for.

It was quite a sight for the teenage girl: in the middle laid a huge, transparent cylindrical tube filled with water-like liquid; thick, heavy pipes sprouted out from both ends of it, connecting to a monstrous machine behind, which seemed to be built into the wall. She couldn't help shivering at the cold air blasting at her slim frame from within the room.

It wasn't the kind of time machine that she had expected, but she didn't have much time left to ponder about such trivial matters. She slammed her fist against the emergency lockdown button and the sliding doors closed in, waving smugly at the angry soldiers thundering towards her from far ahead. Once she was safely cut off from the chaos outside, she turned her attention to the complicated panels on the enormous device.

Awesome, she thought sarcastically. Her contact only divulged the existence and location of this thing, but didn't mention anything on how to operate it. The muffled ruckus from beyond the door made her breath quicken - she had made it this far after losing almost everything, and she's definitely not going back to square one. Without a second thought she flicked on the switches to maximum output and the whole room rumbled, the machine humming to life. The liquid in the tube began to bubble, and for a split second Rune thought she saw flashes of images of a warless past swirling in the murky-white mixture.

As she was about to insert herself into the tube, the door suddenly groaned and caved inwards. The soldiers seemed to be setting off explosives to blow the door apart, to get in here. In that moment of distraction she lost her footing, falling head-first into the liquid. She struggled blindly for a short while before she realized she could actually breathe in this strange water. Once she calmed down, she felt the liquid swallowing her whole, a torrent of blurred colors and intelligible whispers bombarded against her head, the molecules of her body screaming to break apart...

She was vaguely aware of the door being blasted apart and the soldiers charging into the room, before she disappeared in a flash of blinding light.


Rune couldn't remember what happened after the soldiers barged into the lab. Her head felt heavy like lead, her body felt sore and numb - she shuddered at the sudden thought that she was being torn apart by the liquid in the time machine. She took in a deep breath and opened her eyes.

The smell that filled her nose was different from the stench of blood mixed with gunpowder and rust she grew up in; the things that filled her vision seemed ancient, almost foreign to her. She sat up, amused that she was lying on a wooden makeshift table, and a quick glance around her told her that she was probably in some sort of abandoned building, noting the odd screws and broken glass shards littered on the concrete floor. Her eyes zoomed in onto something ahead that was fluttering in the light breeze.

Isn't that...a newspaper?

She slid off the table and walked towards the yellowed paper, picking it up gingerly. Her mouth curled into a grin at the date.

"Feeling better?"

Startled by a voice behind her, she spun around, the barrel of a submachine gun ejected from her prosthetic arm pointing at the green figure before her.

"Whoa, whoa," the figure raised up his gloved hands. "That's really some nasty thing you've got there." His wide, dark eyes fixed on the gun.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Uh, yeah, introductions." His lips twitched into a lopsided smile, accented by the little jut-out lower tooth. "I'm Beast Boy. I happened to pass by when you suddenly fell down from the sky and landed in front of me. I tried to wake you up, but you just kept thrashing around mumbling about things I couldn't understand. So I carried you here."

The girl lowered her arm, the barrel sliding back beneath the pale, porcelain skin. "Runé," she said, unconsciously emphasizing the last syllabus. She then let out a loud sigh. "Jeez, please don't scare me like this. There are a lot of things I want to ask you..."

Nightwing's hands shuffled the papers so that Rune's was the one on top.

Name - Runé

Age - I would I ask that? That's weird man.

Powers - Can summon giant weaponry (BB had drawn a small and crude image of her with the giant sub-machine gun)

Discovery - She fell from the sky unconscious and landed in front of me, so I carried her to one of my safehouses and waited until the woke up.

There was more information on the paper about the woman, but those were the things that Grayson had put the most focus into. Beast Boy certainly had a way with words.

"Technically, this is kidnapping." Nightwing stated flatly, the man on the other side sighing. He couldn't really defend himself there. "Anyways, this Rune-"

"Runé." Beast Boy corrected him.

"Runé." Nightwing repeated him almost exactly, to which Raven smiled and Cyborg almost snickered. "Did you check out the nearby area afterwards? Any idea where she came from?"

Beast boy nodded. He had done his best to search the area for any place that Runé could have exploded from, and came up with an interesting discovery. There was absolutely nothing. Not signs to a fight, no soldiers of any kind. It was like she had just appeared from nowhere. "I know for a fact that she dropped out of the air. No signs of any sort of battle or anything nearby, just her falling from the sky. No nearby planes in any direction that could be pinned to her fall. It's a real mystery." The green man scratched his head.

While Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy conversed, Nightwing looked to the two lesser filled sheets, looking at the one that had a photo attached to it.

---

She had no real idea of how much time had passed. She was sure that it was more than a few weeks since she had been on American soil. It felt wrong though. It was much more than just a few weeks.

What she didn't realize was that she had spent four years traveling and learning. Four whole years had passed since she first traveled north into Canada, then east to Alaska, Japan, Asia, and Russia. They were places that she felt connected to. She didn't question the winds that she followed, she obeyed them and learned what she could in those areas that she traveled too.

Now, she sat by herself in the pacific northwest Santiam forest of Oregon. Birds of similar shapes and sizes gathered around her as she meditated. Little did she know, one of the bird around her was of a different feather. All of them gathered around her as she sat upon a large tree stump.

The world around her faded away, her mind retreating into the confines of the subconscious. As she did so, her body began to take a more avian appearance. Wings began to sprout from her back, her normally sharp nails transformed into claws, and her body shifted ever so slightly.

Beast Boy watched in wonder. The voice in his head that called him to this location revealed to him this young woman. It had never happened to him before. He never had that strange notion to follow that voice like the wind. He didn't want to disturb her, though, and remained silent as the wings that she had grown wrapped around her body as if acting like a shield.

Thirty minutes passed without a word from either of them. Beast boy continued to wonder what she was doing before flinching at her voice.

"You aren't one of my corvids, you're much more. Who are you?" Her wings moved only so much to reveal her crimson red eyes.

Cautiously, Beast Boy reverted back into his human form, walked to face the opening in her eyes.

Her eyes narrowed. The winds were silent, but she had a bad feeling about him. She couldn't describe it, but the winds were never so quiet. Perhaps they were allowing her to chose for herself? It hardly ever happened.

"Who are you?" She repeated, her voice now more aggressive.

Beast Boy raised his hands in defense. "Easy, easy." He warned her. "I'm Beast Boy. I was just flying to my next stop, and I got this weird feeling. I followed it, now I'm here." He couldn't help but avoid her eyes, instead looking at her wings. He wanted to reach out and feel them, but he felt that it would be weird. "What's your name?"

"Dreda." Was her only reply.

Before she was able to react, Beast Boy took a picture of her with her reveled face. This caused the woman to cover her face with her wings once more.

It was obvious that she didn't want to be disturbed, and even Beast Boy could understand that. Slowly, he set down a small circular device on the ground before the tree stump she sat on. It was similar to his T-com, but was reserved specifically for possible recruits.

"Well, uh... Just pick that up and feel free to call. I might send a call as well, so beware." He tried to lighten the mood, but without a response from her, he simply walked off back to his original destination.

Beast Boy had always been the chatty type, but he felt this time was probably the longest conversation he ever sat through in. This strange girl who popped out of nowhere - Runé, he mentally accented the last syllabus - pelted him with questions after questions about the current world and era. And she was sitting too close to him for comfort. I've got Rae, he told himself sternly. It didn't help that both their names started with an 'R'.

It wasn't hard for him to gather enough information to make a good guess that Rune was definitely not someone from the same universe. She probably came from somewhere far away, from a world not under the watchful eyes of the Justice League. This perked his interest in her. "So, uh, where were you from?" he asked finally, feeling a little worn out after he managed to satisfy her burning curiosity.

He was greeted by a sudden silence as Rune stopped talking. She seemed to be lost in thought before she replied, "I know what you're thinking. Since you've been so kind to teach me about your world, I shall educate you on the horrors of my world."


Rune told the green guy - who introduced himself as Beast Boy - everything she knew about her own universe: the decade-long war between the three powerhouse nations, how she was experimented on and acquired her synthetical body, how she tried to escape from hell with the other children but were brutally massacred by the underground android soldiers, how she used the prototype time machine in order to get out of the nightmare for good...

"What? Time machine?" Beast Boy raised his eyebrows. "But even so, it's odd how you popped into my world out of thin air."

She shrugged. "I don't understand either. Well, don't ask me about that kind of complicated stuff - I only learned how to fight, not crackpot science." She flexed her fingers and stood up. "It's nice talking to you. I think I should be leaving."

"Where are you going to?"

"No idea - we'll see where the wind takes me, I guess?"

"You're in luck," the green man grinned at her with an outstretched hand - she looked down to see a circular device sitting on his palm. "Consider yourself a potential candidate."

Rune eyed it suspiciously. "What's this? For what?"

"This is given to all recruits of Teen Titans. It's a communication device we use to keep in touch with each other. Keep it safe - we might contact you when the time comes." After passing the gadget to the girl, he added, "Anyway, you're really a weird person - most normal girls wouldn't talk to a random guy like you did. At least not someone like me?" He was hinting at his greenish skin.

"Oh please, if there's a need to I'll just feed a bullet through his head, no probs."


She had shamelessly demanded Beast Boy to write some letters to her, so that she could experience the feeling of the 'ancient' ways (okay, maybe that wasn't the right word). She looked up at the T-shaped building before her and took in a deep breath.

About time.

---

Kenji Shihouin thought he was used to having intruders in his apartment - mostly his female clients who refused to let him off even after their time was over - but today was different.

One, it was a male, not a lady.
Two, this person had a green complexion, and he's obviously not someone normal.

Maybe someone just like himself.

"How did you get in here?" he asked the stranger - there wasn't any hostility in his voice, just a hint of amusement.

"How did I get in here? I flew in here." The stranger then transformed into a hummingbird and circled around the blond teen before he shapeshifted back to human form. "It wasn't that hard - man, you didn't even install a single security babies in your house."

"...Um, what's that?"

The green man dropped his jaw in shock, not quite believing what he had just heard. "Wait, you don't even know what security is?" He sucked his breath. "You're almost as bad as Star."

Kenji tilted his head in confusion. "Star?"

"Not what you're thinking. Starfire's a good friend of mine - she's the same as you, aliens from other planets beyond Earth."

At that moment, the muscles on Kenji's body tensed. He frowned at the shapeshifter. "Who are you? How do you know who - what I am?"

The green man quickly raised up his hands and stepped back, but his hind legs hit the sofa and he fell clumsily onto it. He sat upright and grinned sheepishly. "Hey, relax! I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I'm Beast Boy."

"Kenji," the blond boy responded curtly, his heterochromatic eyes still fixed unblinkingly on the animorph.

"Y-Yeah, I'm here to pass this to you." He showed the communication device to Kenji, who snatched it away with lightning-quick speed too fast for Beast Boy's eyes to follow. "We'll get in touch again when the time comes, so keep it safe with you."

The teen wasn't listening to the green guy, focusing his attention on the gadget he was given. Beast Boy watched as Kenji's shoulders drooped, his pretty face broke into a warm smile. "I'm sorry about just now, and thank you for this. So, tea or coffee?"

Beast boy had given the team the rundown of his conversations with three of the four people he had encountered. When Beast Boy had mentioned Starfire in his story, Nightwing placed his left hand over his right subconsciously, saying nothing about it. Some cybernetic woman from an alternate Earth? An alien of sorts? A bird based mystic? It was a strange cast of characters, but it could work. After all, his own team consisted of members just as outlandish.

Raven had cast a small glare at Beast boy when he mentioned how close this Runé had been to him, but eased up when he quickly told her that nothing happened. She pressed a little more just to see how Beast Boy would react, and the fact that she was trying to be better as a person was showing through with her somewhat cruel joke on Beast Boy.

While the four conversed, the door opened once more behind them, revealing a tall figure in a long and flowing robe. Her hunched posture and slow movements suggested that she had woken up rather recently, but the sight of seeing all of her old friends energized her instantly.

"My friends!" Her voice instantly brought attention towards her.

As beautiful as ever, Starfire stood in the doorway with a million watt smile on her face. The smiles of her friends only made her own more intense. Beast Boy didn't come around to Jump city all that often when compared to his other destinations, so even though he was only seen through the computer screen, she was happy. Raven and Cyborg didn't come down all that often since they were fighting in the big leagues with Nightwing's old mentor and the man of steel.

"Mornin' sleepy head. It's noon." Cyborg laughed, watching Starfire contort her face in shock.

She could not believe that she had been up so late. It was that dastardly coffee, she was sure of it. Had she not had so much, she probably wouldn't have been up so late and passed out in a blink of an eye early into the morning.

From this day onward, she could scorn the hot caffeinated beverage!

After her rage settled, Starfire walked to meet the rest of the group. "So what are you all here for?" She asked them. Knowing Nightwing as well as she did, it was more likely business than pleasure. He wouldn't call them away from the watchtower to hang out for old time's sake. If he wanted to catch up, he'd just call them through video chat.

Before anyone could answer her question, Starfire saw the files in Nightwing's hand. Hesitantly, she reached out towards them. Nightwing could see her hand, and placed them within her grasp before letting go. He wasn't able to see the final file, but he was sure that Beast boy would tell him more about it.

---

For a young man who constantly cooled the air around him and had bright blue skin and elf ears, life was hard. The constant looks and questions had little effect on him now, but he still didn't like the treatment towards him. It was like he was an alien of something, which he absolutely wasn't.

He didn't even know where he was at the moment. Some little town in upstate New York, he believed. However, he had no real idea since he didn't know the area. He only knew because the sign entering the town stated the state it was in.

At the moment, young Ryan Pratt sat by himself in a little cafe. He liked cool and cold things, but sometimes a nice hot cup of coffee did the trick. He stirred his drink slowly, most of his focus being put to making sure he cooled the area as little as possible.

"Is this seat taken?"

Ryan turned his head to hear who the voice originated from. Where he had expected some resident of the town, or maybe even one of the cafe's employees, stood a young man with Green skin and pointed ears similar to his own.

It didn't take long for Ryan to figure out who he was. He might not have had luxuries like television all day and a cell phone connected to the internet, but he still saw the TV's in windows, diners, cafes. He knew who Beast Boy was, but he didn't know why he wanted him, or how he found him.

"Um, sure." He replied hesitantly.

Beast Boy took the seat across from Ryan, looking at him with relaxed eyes and a posture to match.

Ryan took a sip of his drink, waiting for Beast Boy to say something. After a moment of silence, Ryan spoke up. "Is there something you wanted from me?" He was curious to know.

"Oh!" Garfield's eyes widened as he snapped back into reality. It seemed that he zoned out thinking of other things. "Yeah, yeah." He nodded, but then stopped to shake his head. "Wait no." He corrected himself before shaking his ehad again. "Sorta."

As he tried to find the right words, Beast Boy became more impatient with himself. With a grunt, he placed a Communicator down on the table.

"Take that, dude." He told the cryomancer. "I think you could be a Titan."

Ryan's confusion only increased. At the moment, he was training himself to be a better hero without any more accidents, but being a Teen Titan was a bit of a large step. "Wait!" He almost shouted. "How did you find me?"

Beast Boy laughed. "Dude, you leave a trail of extra cold snow wherever you go, you know that right?"

Ryan sighed. He should have seen that, and was fairly embarassed that he was found like that. He then realized that he had yet to introduce himself. "I'm Ryan." He said to the famed superhero. "You can call me Tundra."

After being greeted by the automatic sliding doors that admitted her in silence, she glanced around - the tower appeared to be deserted, which was queer to Rune's sharp eyes: traces of fresh paint could be seen on the walls, and there wasn't so much of a speck of rust on any of the well-polished metallic surfaces. Signs that this place had frequent visitors dropping by.

A sudden rush of cold draft prickled her artificial skin dotted with microscopic chips to allow her experience the sense of touch like biological humans do - she balled her fists and took a defensive stance. Someone else is here. She couldn't help but shudder as the surrounding temperature dropped lower and lower. She let out an irritated 'tch' through her gritted teeth and raised the shotgun barrel on her arm at the ceiling. "Show. Yourself."

BANG.

All hell broke loose: water burst out of the sprinklers, showering the place with an angry roar; the sound of the alarm blasted throughout the building, which made Rune's ears ring to its steady beat. She shook her head, trying to refocus - she summoned the rest of her hidden armaments, feeling her body rising with excitement.

Maybe this could be a chance for her to show off her abilities to her recruiter, the Teen Titans.

---

The first time Beast Boy spotted Kenji was a random encounter along the streets of Harajuku - maybe due to his constant interaction with the ever-bizarre Starfire who tried to teach her alien customs to the team, he could read from that boy's awkward body language that he was definitely more that what he seemed. Curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to follow Kenji to find out more.

It didn't take him long to have his gut feeling answered.

Once Kenji closed his apartment door behind him, Beast Boy - who had transformed into a small rat and hid himself in the pocket of the teen's overcoat - watched in awe as the strange teen shedded his skin to reveal a silvery one underneath, his pretty face smoothed out into a plain metal mask. The boy turned his head and sighed at the faceless reflection on the mirror above the shoe-rack, then he changed back into the human appearance from before.

The Titan took his chance to slip away when Kenji removed the coat and threw it on the sofa - from the shadow of the space beneath the coffee table, Beast Boy took one final look at the tired expression on the boy's face before he snuck off silently, his mind lost in thought, leaving to his animal instinct to navigate out of the place.


"Are you sure? Really really sure about this?"

Kenji inched back as Lady Nana, the manager of the host club he had been working at, towered over him, her heavily penciled eyes scrutinizing him unblinkingly. He gave her a weak smile. "Y-Yes. It's...an urgent family thing that I cannot decline."

Lady Nana seemed to falter a little at his half-assed attempt to charm her, but she quickly collected herself and closed her eyes. "Well, it appears that none of us are able to stop you from leaving, but we're going to miss you a lot, honey."

Kenji gripped the communicator in his pocket. He had already made his choice. "I'm sorry about this too. Goodbye."

"Don't say that! Don't make it sound as if you're never coming back."

I'm sorry, he apologized quietly at the saddened look on her heavyset face. There's no turning back now.

He really did hope that they wouldn't mind too much of him arriving of his own accord. Jump City seemed to be a bit more welcoming to the strange, as none had treated him differently or acted as if he was some strange alien or monster. It was something he was thankful for. With all of the villain attacks in the city, one would be surprised how high the rent is and how many people live there. However, the world was a dangerous place. Villains littered every crack and every corner or the planet and beyond, and it was up to people like him to keep the people safe.

The automatic doors of the tower welcomed him. Nobody was there to greet him, however. He just assumed that they were still busy with superheroing or something similar. Maybe not, though. Maybe Robin had to pick up some eggs? What if Starfire wanted to rent a foreign movie that was only availble at a certain shop in the city? What if was just something completely normal and not superhero-y?

It didn't bother Ryan all that much. The comfy couches in what appeared to be a lobby of sorts provided him comfort until someone noticed his presence. Guilt began to enter his system. He just sort of appeared. While Beast Boy had sent him the alert a few days beforehand, they had not really spoken any more after that. Hopefully they would welcome him.

Be began to relax on the couch, taking in the comfy and soft fabrics. The deeper he got lost in his thoughts, the colder the air became.

"Just... Be careful, honey." The soothing and warm voice of his mother called out to him. She knew that it was only a matter of time before her little boy spread his figurative wings and flew off to protect his own city, she just wished that she had a little more time to help him out before he started to carry his own weight.

They had been talking about it for weeks. Ryan's plunge into guilt had scarred him for some time. His mother offered help, as well as his father, but neither could do anything truly helpful other than just offer their support. He felt the need to have to go out on his own to become stronger.

"I know mom. I'll make sure I'm okay. I'll send post cards when I can, and talk to you guys the first chance I get!" His smile brightened her day. She reminded him whenever they spoke that his smile that day always made her smile again. She longed to see her son again, but she would settle for calls and post cards for now.

She handed to him a large back pack, filled with supplies, food, money, and a seemingly unreasonable amount of frozen water bottles. The weight of the back pack almost pulled him down as it fell onto his shoulders.

A single tear fell from her pale face, freezing just before it hit the ground. No words were spoken as he walked out the door for what she hoped was not the final time.

The sound of the door opening again jutted the young man out of his thoughts. Quickly, he scrambled for cover. He couldn't mask his presence for too long, the air was probably close to freezing from such a long time of daydreaming.

"Show. Yourself." The words echoed throughout the lobby.

Peeking out, Ryan took note of the shotgun barrel pointed towards the ceiling. Was this some new villain attacking the tower? His suspicions seemed to be confirmed with a loud bang, setting off the alarms and activating the sprinklers. How fortunate for him! He could not stop the alarm, but he could demonstrate his abilities to the Titans by defeating a villain in their own home.

He waited for the sprinklers to give him more water before revealing himself and dropping the air noticeably further in the immediate area. The woman was covered in arms! He had to be careful. Rushing at her, he continued to freeze the air, the pigment of his skin now a vibrant blue from the use of his powers. Maybe he could freeze all of the weapons and shatter them, but maybe not. They didn't seem normal. She didn't seem normal. Perhaps his enemy would me more of a challenge than he thought.

The temperature in the lobby continued to drop further, and frost began to cover the muzzle of her firearms. Rune let out a string of curses under her breath and tried to wipe them off with her free hand. Feeling someone approaching towards her, she perked up, her eyes widened at the sight of a humanoid silhouette through the freezing haze. She aimed the barrel on her right arm at him. "Finally decided to show yourself, eh, popsicle?" As the last word left her cold lips, she fired at the figure.

It stopped in its tracks; the mist thinned to reveal a young man with strange blueish skin who stared at her with narrowed eyes, apparently not pleased at the nickname. She watched as he thrusted out his palms, a shard of ice shot out from his hands at the bullet. He failed; the bullet hit into his side, and blood began to ooze out from the wound. He dropped to his knees and lowered his head, a hand placed over the gash. Steady, heavy breathing sound pulsed from the fallen man as he tried to numb the pain with his icy power.

Vaguely aware of the alarm that had stopped, the gunslinging girl clucked her tongue in annoyance at the anticlimax turn of the event. She glared at him, moving closer and waving her firearms at the teenage boy, taunting him in a harsh tone, "Oi, that's not even a fight! What's that supposed to be?" She positioned the guns at his head, a smirk crept across her face at the click of the locks being pulled back. "Now get up and fight back like a man."

She would come to regret those words she uttered.

The man stood up slowly, both his hands in the air, his crystal-like eyes fixed on her. In one swift motion, he suddenly grabbed the barrels of the guns on her arms and pulled her closer. Before she could react, he gave her a skull-cracking headbutt - the impact momentarily dazed her, the agony stunned all her senses and spread throughout her entire body. She stepped back unsteadily, trying to regain control, but she released a loose missile at the ceiling, showering the struggling pair with more than just water - with falling rubble.

---

"Okay, now who the heck is trying to destroy our home again? I patched up the garage only just yesterday!"

Beast Boy couldn't help agreeing with the irritated Cyborg - who was bringing up the rear - as the team raced down the stairs towards the source of commotion: the lobby. They were unable to see much from the surveillance footage as the site seemed to be fogged, only a gunshot that triggered the security system (which, thanks to Robin's - or rather, Nightwing's - quick reflex, bypassed the code before the whole place was locked down).

"Tell me about it," Raven's deadpan, snarky remark never failed to nail the mark. (That's what made Beast Boy heads over heels for the dark sorceress.) "It's what we get for being world-saving superheroes."

No comments were made after Raven's and they continued down in silence, only their thundering footsteps echoing off the walls. The moment they burst out to the lobby, they were immediately struck by a blast of cold air, in which Beat Boy let out an unceremonious sneeze. Nightwing wasn't reacting well to the freezing temperature either; he seemed to have frozen (quite literally, Beast Boy mused), gaping at the two shadows brawling ahead. The green teen followed the gaze of their leader, and gasped. He knew who these two were. "U-Uh, what just happened here?"

"Tell me about it." Beast Boy had to force down the urge to snicker at Cyborg mimicking Raven's phrase. "That lady over there sure has great taste like me." He waved his blaster hand, grinning from ear to ear.

Raven wasn't amused at Cyborg's mocking hint. "Let's not talk about fashion sense here." She sidestepped a falling chunk of concrete before turning her attention to Nightwing. "And do something about them, can't we?"

The Tamaran princess was even unhappier at the fighting pair, but for a different reason. Starfire did not like how this had unfolded. "Are they our new friends? It's not good for friends to fight each other!" Her green eyes lit up and she raised a balled fist, ready to unleash her starbolt at them. If one didn't know the alien well enough, her aggressive gesture contradicted with her words in a menacing way.

Nightwing gave Starfire a curt nod. How long had it been since he last said this nostalgic command? "Titans, stop them!"

Just like the good ol' times, Beast Boy thought as the five snapped into action: Starfire flew towards the pair on the ground and threw a starbolt, sending the armed girl - Rune - flying backwards; Raven then pinned the thrashing gunner down with her dark astral projection. Nightwing and Cyborg rushed towards the cryokinetic boy, noticing that he was injured; however, the leader wasn't as sympathetic as his other partner - he pointed his reinforced staff at the blue man, Ryan.

Ryan threw up a free hand, shaking it along with his head. "No, no, no, no, no!" His frantic voice made Beast Boy wished that he could half of Nightwing's unparalleled charisma. "I was just waiting here because I got the signal! This lady burst in and shot me!"

"Hey!" Rune managed to shake off the dizziness and pointed a finger at Ryan, not caring that the gun on her was also directed dangerously at him. "How would I know you're not an enemy? Why would you be sneaking around like a thief if you already got the invitation? And he's trying to freeze my limbs!"

"Whoa, whoa." Beast Boy eyed at her armed arm cautiously. (This wasn't a time for pun!) "Chillax, girl! Like I said, that's some pretty nasty stuff."

"Nasty?" Cyborg growled at his gaming buddy. "They are awesome! Are you saying that I'm nasty too?"

"Boys." The underlying hint of annoyance in Raven's impassive tone did its job to shut the bickering Titans up. "Focus."

Starfire didn't like those guns as much as Beast Boy, but what she intended to do made the situation worse. "Friends do not fight with each other," she declared. "Robin, may I destroy those guns on her body?"

"Wha---?" Rune began to stood up, going into a defensive stance.

Nightwing retracted his staff and let out a sigh - now wasn't the time snowball this pointless fight into something worse. "That's enough! Now stand down!" He threw a look at Beast Boy and silence befell in the half-demolished lobby of the Titan Tower.

"Right, introductions." The awkwardness was suffocating the animorph that he had to break it. He should consider becoming a welcome boy for the Titans, seeing that he was always the one making the introductory talks. "So...Ryan. And Runé." The emphasis brought a weak smile onto the gun girl's face, but Raven's soft cough behind him prevented the green guy from returning the acknowledgement.

"You can call me Railgun."

Cyborg let out a whistle. "Now that's a cool name!"

"Not cool - it's a hot name!" she retorted back playfully, laughing along with the African-American Titan.

Raven rolled her eyes, resigning to the fact that she would have more than Cyborg's jokes to deal with; Starfire was somewhat confused at the ongoing exchange, but she started to brighten up, thinking that everyone was on good terms with each other now. Beast Boy allowed his tense shoulders to drop - he glanced at Rune, but gulped when he spotted Raven glaring at him from the corner of his eye.

"I'm Ryan. Also Tundra." The blue boy's breathing was becoming harsher; he grunted as he pushed himself off the wall towards the team. "Now can we please remove the bullet in my side?"

"I'll do that." Raven drifted closer to him and placed a palm over his wound; black mystical energy flowed out from her hand to the bullet wedged in his side. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she murmured, drawing out the tiny metallic piece carefully. Once she removed the bullet, she channeled a little more magic to close the wound.

Just then, the lobby door slid open to let in the hot air from outside - and also a newcomer. A teenage boy with an appearance too perfect for any normal human being. Kenji raised his eyebrows at the aftermath before him. "Um, so what did I miss?"

"Nothing," Beast Boy scratched his head and shrugged. "You've come just at the right time. Welcome to the party, Kenji."

Nightwing merely ran his fingers through his hair - it had been a really long day.

Ryan Pratt never got cold. There was never a time in his life where he needed any warm clothing whatsoever. He could wear what he wanted in any sort of weather without feeling any drawbacks. His abilities as a cryomancer came with a few other abilities to go with controlling ice. He was completely unfazed by any sort of cold or lack of heat, so the moment that Raven used her magic on him was quite startling.

She magic itself was dark, chilling to the bone, and filled with negative energy. He had never felt anything like it before, and if was going to be honest - which he wasn't at the time - it scared him.

But there was a silver lining to it.

Through the magic Raven cast, Ryan could feel her constant struggle against her inner literal demons. With this, he assured himself that her magic was not nearly as dark as it used to have been, but was surely as light and positive as it could be.

The removal of the bullet caused him to wince once more, as well as when she had patched him up, but all he could manage to say to her was a simple "Thanks." As he tried his best not to move.

Then another person appeared at the scene of the battle. The young man who entered through the automatic doors seemed too perfect in appearance. he was like a cookie cutter model to Ryan, and something about him didn't seem right. Beast Boy seemed to know who he was. Maybe he was another recruit? It seemed to be the most likely possibility.

He then cast a glance at Runé. It was nothing hateful or spiteful, but curious as to how she would react to the situation at hand.

Nightwing could only sigh. They had just defeated a monster earlier that morning, three of the four candidates that Beast Boy had told him about arrived, and the lobby of the Tower was in a little rough condition. Maybe Cyborg would have to stay in town a little longer to see the reconstruction through. Raven and Beast boy would be staying, he was sure of that. So, these three would have to move into the many rooms the Tower had since they most likely didn't have a place to stay on the mainland.

"Is there anyone else I should know about, Gar?" Nighting rested his face in the palm of his hand while trying to gather his thoughts.

[/hr]

While the Titans and Initiates were gathered in the lobby, a flock of Corvids descended from the skies and rested on the top of the tower. Among those Corvids was a young woman, who dissipated her wings and took the time to meditate on the highest point of the tower.

Rune raised her eyebrows at the sight of the newcomer, whom Beast Boy introduced as Kenji. Japanese? So Japan is still around in this era? Besides that, this guy doesn't even look remotely Japanese! She forced down her raging hormones - the urge to jump to her feet and approach him - and winced at her attempt to stand and sit and the same time, which resulted in her falling back onto the hard (not to mention, still freezing cold) concrete ground on her butt. Once she got past the initial attraction, she felt something was off about this flawlessly pretty boy, but she couldn't quite place where this funny feeling came from. Did he just spring out from some video game? He sure seemed like one of those action game heroes...minus the six packs.

"Is there anyone else I should know about, Gar?" Rune peeled her attention away from Kenji and stared at the masked figure clad in blue-black costume instead. She remembered Beast Boy briefly telling her about the Titans - this one was probably Robin, or known as Nightwing now.

"Oh yeah, there's one more." Beast Boy pounded a fist into his open palm. "Dreda. She can turn into birds."

"Is she around here too, by any chance?" Cyborg asked sourly, not quite taking in the current state of the tower with much grace. He didn't want another recruit to come crashing in and throw up more mess than it already was.

"I don't think so. She didn't respond to my call---"

"I don't know," Kenji interrupted uncertainly, standing near the sliding doors to keep them open, his eyes appeared to be looking upwards. Rune thought she heard a metallic undertone in his oddly accented voice. "Isn't it weird to see such a huge flock of black things circling the tower?"

"Wait, what?" Beast Boy dashed to his side, following the boy's gaze. "Of all places - the rooftop?"

"And quite an entrance," the Japanese added, still gaping at whatever's above. Curious, Rune stood up properly this time, going with he rest of the Titans to the door. Indeed, it was quite a sight: a murder of crows blocked the sky in a blur of black, cawing in chorus at something - or someone - at the top of the tower.

Nightwing let out a sigh, but he couldn't stop a small smile from breaking across his face. Trust the new recruits to create a commotion on their orientation day - just like how the original Teen Titans first met each other. He stole a quick glance at Starfire.

Dreda hadn't expected for more friends to come by while she was meditating. Here eyes did not open, but she would feel each and every individual presence around her in regards to her corvids. She could also faintly feel another familiar signature. It was hardly to be called a corvid, since he wasn't one, but he could become one. In a sense, she had tagged his presence when they met last time. She did not like being alerted of a strange person without the help of either her friends or the winds, so she had to make sure that she could keep a tab on him.

There was a rather large flock of birds of the same family all around the tower. Dreda could hear their voices talking to one another, but only she would hear them. To anyone else, the rooftop was silent. She and she alone could hear their thoughts. Their voices. The mind was not blocked by barriers of language.

[/hr]

Raven could easily see Cyborg's sour mood in regards to the Tower lobby being torn up. The most she could do was reach up and pat his large shoulder and give him some encouraging words.

"Now we have four sets of hands to help rebuild it." She spoke to him. Her hand retracted back into the confines of her cloak with little else to say.

Cyborg turned to look at Raven and got down on his knees. "My tower, my tower! My beautiful tower! Who knows what sort of aftershow could have happened with this stunt? Now I need to check the whole place and make sure that nothing else has suffered!"

Nighting scoffed. His friendship with Cyborg had gotten better over the years, but all he was able to hear was yammering over a simple problem.

Cyborg then stopped and stood up. He clearly heard Nightwing, and looked at him with narrowed eyes. In a sudden change of expression, a sickly sweet smile appeared on Victor's face. "What's that garden gnome? Feel bad because you still can't reach the top shelf?"

Nightwing grunted. "At least I don't leave motor oil all over the place after my visits."

"I'm not four and a half feet tall and smell like cheap hair gel!"

The two butted heads. Starfire knew that this was a fight that she did not want to get involved in, and was told by Raven to just let the two duke it out and get their resolve. Otherwise, the anger would fester over time and create another divide between them.

Beast Boy sighed and nudged Raven. "How about we go and see Dreda? Let those two fight it out."

Raven nodded. It was for the best to let the two just have their moment, and a nod from Starfire meant a positive and unanimous vote from all three of them.