The Boys

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

Right, so they'd found out the deal from that...really weird stuttery kid. Blah blah sentient spaceship blah blah abducted from different worlds, and then the important part: No aliens. That made the whole...superheroing, defeating them, and getting home thing a lot harder. (And Kon, in particular, REALLY needed to get home. Actually, so did Bart. World-saving things had been going on).

In the meantime, there were other people here, and it'd be good to meet them. So Superboy, Impulse, and Robin were in Obs Deck, mingling with the other people there and whatnot.

Come on, come all, and get one, two, or all three while they're hot. (Which was always, in Kon's case, as far as he was concerned).

"Any other superheroes up in this ugly mother--" Wait, that AI thingy might get pissed off. "--ship? Mothership?" he called out as soon as they entered.

Comments

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Alright!

"Robin! Hey!" Wow, he was still wearing his mask. That was...either frightening or horribly hilarious but then Jaime had still never yet seen Robin out of his mask, and to be fair, none of the Titans had seen him out of the armor.

Now who was that guy calling out to--oh.

Oh no.

[mrsarcastic003]

Tim turned toward the voice that had called his name... and saw a young man he didn't recognize. Hmm. "Hi," he said with a bemused smile. "Have we met?"

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Uh."

He looked up. "Stacy, are these guys from the same 'verse as me?"

||Yes.|| was her answer.

Oh boy.

"We will in the future, I think?" Jaime said, with another glance at Superboy, who'd floated off to go talk to a pretty girl.

"What's the current lineup of the Titans, for you? There's been weird time thingies going on..."

[mrsarcastic003]

"Uh, okay," Tim said, giving him a funny look. The idea of time travel here wasn't a complete shock, after all. Bart was still Impulse, and Kon had moved beyond angsting in solitude to doing something useful to--apparently--save the world. Which--cool.

"Titans right now? Me, Superboy, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg. I'm guessing it changes in the future? Where I know who you are?"

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Oh no.

Did he tell them? He couldn't tell them. He'd lectured Terry about the dangers of passing on information from the future and all that he'd warned him about was true. You could change everything.

Considering one of the things involved here was Superboy saving the world as they knew it, that was one thing that couldn't change.

"Speedy's here, and--she's not a Titan anymore, from when we're both from. I am." He held out a hand. "I'm Jaime. The Blue Beetle."

Who, for this Robin, had only recently died, but that didn't register at first.

[mrsarcastic003]

Tim stared at Jaime, feeling himself tense up inside. That wasn't possible. He shook his head, frowning. "No, you're not." He had known Ted Kord. They'd worked together--been friends. No one could fill his shoes.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Oooow.

Jaime cringed, one eye half-shutting in a wince.

"He just died for you, didn't he. Timewise. It's been over a year, for me. Almost two, since he died." A deep breath. "I have his notes--he wrote down stuff about fights he'd been in, so it was like a journal, too. I read the bit with the Condiment King--he joked about stealing you away from Batman to be his sidekick. He liked you a lot--"

[mrsarcastic003]

"Stop," Tim interrupted, wincing a little. That still hurt. There was no way he was going to leave Batman, of course, but if anyone might have been able to convince him... "Yes--it just happened. Can we... not talk about it?" There had been way too much death lately in Tim's life. He was trying not to dwell on it.

Much.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

And there'd be more. Could he let there be more?

"Uh. Sorry. I--" A deep breath. "We're team-mates, when I come from. Me and you. Maybe not friends, but friendly at least."

And he kept glancing over at Kon, despite himself.

[mrsarcastic003]

"Huh, really?" He looked at Jaime curiously. Now that the shock had had a chance to sink in a bit... "So, in a couple of years, we're... I'm going to assume Titans together? So--what? Is the team huge? I mean--we lose Speedy, but there are still seven more of us. You make eight. That's a lot of Titans." He followed Jaime's glance to Kon. "What--is something wrong?"

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Nothing. I, uh--"

Moment of truth. Did he tell the truth or lie? Did he risk changing time, changing his present--the very existence of their world, or...say nothing, try to convince Speedy to say nothing, and let Robin's best friend die?

Like he was supposed to.

Ted had written quite a bit in his notes about time travel...

Jaime was a horrible liar, but when it was part of a plan, like to defeat the Reach, he could do it. Perhaps a little too easily.

It sprang into his head almost fully formed.

This Plan was "Operation: Make Sure the World Doesn't Explode." It had multiple tangents and sub-plans, some of which involved trying to find a way to save Superboy if they could do it without wrecking the timeline.

Because he had a heart. He did. Sometimes he was ruled by it more than anything else. But this wasn't a time that he could be. He had to balance his desire to help people with his desire to help a whole lot more people. If a compromise could be found, he would find it, but for now...

Part of this plan, at the start, at least, involved lying. Something he hated to do.

He did it anyway.

"Superboy's not on the team either. He's off doing his own thing." Rotting underground and his soul kicking it in heaven made that technically true. "I've never actually met him."

Some honesty was thrown in. "Team is a little small actually. Some new faces. Everyone went their own way for a while after, uh, after the Crisis. A big, really bad thing is going to happen--and get stopped--but it's gonna mess a lot of people up. That's when I come into the picture--and then disappear again for a year."

[mrsarcastic003]

Tim nodded, accepting this explanation... for now. He'd want more details later. He couldn't imagine Kon leaving the team, except for the big brood-fest, which he'd said was over now. "I've heard a little about the Crisis. Kon mentioned it. Something about how he and Nightwing and Cassie are off to save the world."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

He kept himself from wincing. Somehow. Miraculously.

"Yeah, it was kinda a mess, but ultimately, we won."

He was so going to hell.

[likeapoison.livejournal.com]

Toxin and Red had found themselves on the Obs Deck again-their continued hunting around the city had proven to be less than fruitful. The symbiote snorted as he entered the deck, sniffing briefly. he said to Red, then glanced up at Kon's call. he said, perking up and gesturing to Red to follow. Maybe some other super could make sense of what the hell Red had been babbling about.

[spaceraptor.livejournal.com]

Tracking proving futile as it was, Red still wasn't ready to give up- not on any of his plans. He gave the air a quick sniff, nodding to Toxin. They'd lost it some time ago, but maybe someone had seen it.

But wait, what was that new guy saying? Superheroes? Was that some kind of slang? Intruiged, he trotted after Toxin. "These Humans look awfully young..."

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"Aaah!"

That was at Toxin. Teeth! Teeth!

"Robin, Impulse--alien!"

Dinosaur dude...was a dinosaur dude. He'd seen weirder (like Animal People, for instance) and hell, he was possibly in danger right now. Toothy guy had to be their guy.

Kon flew at the alien to throw a punch. "This may sound a little familiar, but take us to your leader!"

[cityship]

Before he could throw the punch, an energy tentacle appeared from nowhere and slammed him into the wall. Hard. The force would've shattered the ribcage of an average person.

||Kon-El, cease and desist violent action towards your podmates immediately. This is your only warning. Further attempts will result in Violations. 15 Violations results in Punishment.||

[mrsarcastic003]

Tim rolled his eyes a little behind the mask and moved toward Kon. "That was stupid," he said flatly. "Didn't we already ascertain that the 'bad guys' aren't around?"

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"Teeth! No one with that many giant, pointy teeth is up to any good!"

Kon squirmed, but Stacy wasn't letting him go yet.

[likeapoison.livejournal.com]

Toxin automatically bared his teeth-more than they were already bared; at least-and got into a fighting position. But once he saw his attacker get smacked, he relaxed slightly and glanced to Robin.

Kon got a snarl in his direction.

[spaceraptor.livejournal.com]

Okay. A Human had just lifted and flown at Toxin, screaming something about evil aliens. A tentacle had formed from nothing in particular and was now pinning said human to the wall after knocking him aside with the force of a speeder.

This...this was a lot to take in, even for Red. But aside from the one screaming Human, everyone seemed remarkably calm about it all. Unfortunately, the calm did nothing to help form words.

"That...He-" A series of irritated clicks and chirps came from Red's throat. "Humans can not fly!"

[mrsarcastic003]

Tim gritted his teeth. "Just because he has a lot of teeth does not make him evil, Kon."

He turned toward the guy with all the teeth. "He can't help himself--" he shot another glare at Kon. "He's only six."

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"Yes they can," Kon shot back to the dino guy with an implied 'duh.'

Lots of people flew.

To Robin, he responded, "It probably makes him people-eating--" Then Robin said the rest. He bristled. "Six and a half!"

Wriggling some more, he said, grumpily, "And Stace? Dinner and a movie first, okay, babe?"

With that, his tactile telekineses enveloped the tentacle and shot up along it until it hit the projector, destroying it.

Kon dropped to the ground and dusted himself off.

[cityship]

Another tentacle shot out of another organic projector and slammed him into the wall, even harder this time. This time enough to rattle his brain in his noggin.

||Cease and desist destruction of the ship! You have acquired One Violation!||

[single-synapse.livejournal.com]

And that's about when Bart made the scene, barreling at a high speed straight at toxin, his fists a blazin as he launched himself forward to lance the guy and pound him.