2854/When there's danger you know who to call

When there's danger you know who to call
Date of Scene:	15 October 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	If there's not trouble, though, the Titans are just a dysfunctional little family.
Cast of Characters:	Brick, Exo-Girl, 87, Raven, Robin (Wayne), Breath

---

Brick has posed:
A day before the Apokaliptian forces were summarily invited to leave Earth, there was a moment where Brick (skating on the waves on Hampton Beach) was suddenly being stalked by one of the Deep Six, the amphibious menaces of Darkseid's shocking shock troops. Kaldur and Vorpal had come by to see who was doing impossible things to the waves, and the alien enemies were defeated (off-panel, because that was part of a cross-over that somehow didn't actually see print, because mega-crossovers are really a pain to coordinate.) At the end of the action, Brick Marsten was invited to come by the Tower sometime.

He has finally gotten his courage up and decided that if sometime isn't now it won't ever be any time.

He enters, a bit cautiously. He's deactivated his gravity skates and is looking around with open (somewhat naive) eyes. This is nowhere as bad as the lobby of the Star Labs offices in Queens.

Exo-Girl has posed:
     After a skype call last night in which Starfire had spent the whole time entirely too close to the camera, Sev was returning to the tower for her second visit. And as someone who doesn't exactly own a car, or other methods of transportation, it was either jogging or public transportation. She'd chosen to run, since it avoided awkward conversations of "why the person in 'power armor' is on the bus," and the frame luckily takes most of the exertion out of it. As such, Exo-Girl arrives a few moments after Brick, tugging the door open and ducking quickly inside. Only one other guy here... But better safe than sorry. Visor stays down until she sees people she actually knows. She shifts on her feet, frame whirring softly as she moves, sizing him up. "Waiting for someone?" Her voice is slightly electronic, passing through her helmet speakers, but the tone to it suggests she finds something mildly funny.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Well, speak of the devil, we have visitors," Vorpal says, peering over a magazine he's currently reading. Or, rather, a magazine he is pretending to read while dozing off under a patch of sunlight that comes through the windows just *so* while he lounges on one of the chairs. He tends to spend time in the lobby because that is where you get to meet all the most interesting people... sometimes. Straightening up and setting the magazine aside onto one of the side tables, he stands up after a quick stretch and a yawn.

"Welcome to the Tower!" he sizes the Exo-Girl with a look and is rather glad that the architect of the Tower went for tall and wide for the doors. Super-people came in all shapes and sizes, which is why the lift was also spacious.

Compared to him, though, almost everyone was a giant. He taps his communicator, and says "Titans, we've got visitors!"

He then directs a grin to the two newcomers and says, "I'm Vorpal. I don't think we've been formally introduced."

Raven has posed:
    Whenever Raven arrives, it's always something of a Thing.

    From a direction that is not where Brick is likely to think people can come from, approaches the second occupant of the lobby. It's probably a surprise to Vorpal as well that she's even here. Whether she was already -there- or not, is the primary question. Did she teleport? Did she come down before everyone else and was just in the dark corner she wanders out from? Will anyone stop screaming in technically hilarious fright long enough to find out?

    Either way, she has the greatest greetings in the world, because as soon as Brick arrives, she raises a brow. "Oh good. The nineties are here."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Tell them to go away. I'm working." Pages Robin, as enthused as ever. He was working in the hangar on his Redbird, not that he was ever very enthused about meeting visitors.

Brick has posed:
"Nineties never left, babe," Brick replies to Raven, in that suave, cool, entirely irritating 1995 Bro voice. An almost scolding PING PING PING comes immediately from somewhere under his right arm, and he looks down and shrugs in a gallic sort of way rather than a dismissive way.

"Sorry, Maire Boit, you're right, that's presumptuous." He looks back up at Raven, face not lower, and says, "My apologies, Lady In Black, I shouldn't call you babe without permission."

He looks back at Sev, who apparently was coming in JUST behind him, but then he did Boom into the lobby's weather-airlock rather than actually crossing the beach. Perhaps that's why the girl who makes the next-door Goth Club seem populated with glowstick club kids has appeared from a non-standard direction. Ah well. He looks over at Vorpal. Weirdly, the guy seems much shorter than he did during the beach thing.

"Brick Marsten. B-Rick at Immagram.com, we met when the fish men were trying to eat my brain."

This is only partly true, they wanted to eat Maire Boit, and she's only his part-time brain.

Exo-Girl has posed:
     Oh hey, and now there's a talking cat. Well... kind of a cat. And then suddenly her helmet's thermal sensors register a person where there wasn't before, and there's also a Raven. ...Okay, that's seriously a cool trick, and this time Sev doesn't jump. "Exo-Girl." She extends a hand, looking between the others in the lobby. "Hey Raven. Good to see you again. Starfire said I have... 'Friend' access?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Angry bird, you get down here this instat or I'll tell Starfire it's your birthday tomorrow and that you love surprise parties. And clowns." The cat says and turns the comm off. Hopefully the impending doom of starfire cheerfulness being set in motion, as well as the very high probability of a mustard cake, might provide the teeny Titan with enough motivation.

"Yes, I rememer. You were the water-walker that wasn't looking for disciples," Vorpal nods at Brick, and then grins at Sev. "Exo Girl, cool armor. If Kory says you have 'Friend' access, then of course you can come in." That was very much a thing Kori would do. He hadn't asked Kori about what the other access levels were called. He was afraid that they might be something along the lines of 'Hugmuffin' and 'Bee-Eff-Effs'.

"And this is Raven, of course you have met her already," he nods to Exo-Girl. "And don't take offense at Robin. He's Bat-trained, so that means he is a crime-busting machine and has the social graces of a guinea pig with an anger management problem. But he's nice. Deep down."

"Very deep."

Raven has posed:
    After a moment, Raven's brow does not descend.

    "The nineties can leave now, then."

    So polite. Either way, that's her response to Brick until Damian pipes up on the intercomm. With a mild shrug, she gestures quietly to it. "That is Robin. If you hurry, you can head upstairs and push him into one of the tool lockers."

    Then her attention is on Sev. Her expression is incredibly neutral, which lends this incredible amount of sincerity to everything she says. "Yes, Starfire friend-zones just about anyone." she offers in response shifting over to VOrpal immediately afterwards. There is a pause. Might as well continue along teh line that Brick invites with all his Brickyness.

    "If you're on your way up to Robin, you can swirly the cat just after he's turned down by a cheerleader. You'd need Cassie, though."

    Apparently, Brick is jock tropes.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Vorpal do-" One can only imagine the string of threats and curses that followed Vorpal's communicator being turned off.

  A matter of minutes later the 'Angry Bird' stomps his way up from the elevator, right up to Vorpal, looking slightly up at the cat. "I swear to any of your gods, if you tell her when my birthday is I will fucking -destroy- anything you hold dear in this world." Dressed in his Robin uniform of course, his whited-out eyes look directly at Vorpal, pressing a finger to his chest. "All those damned boxes in your room...everything." He doesn't pay any mind to the others quite yet, he wanted to get his point across.

  Only after he huffs and puffs does he turn around and size up the visitors, looking over Sev and Brick.

Brick has posed:
Brick is actually a bit nonplussed. He hadn't expected being ... not so much attacked, as shoved back //hard// by the obviously most dangerous Titan, the Combat Poet. He reflexively taps a Zero Point to optimize himself, and Maire Boit PINGs questioningly. His emotions fade into processing mode and he considers the significance of the young woman's directive suggesting that he might want to bully Robin or Vorpal. And, Sev has provided a name for Combat Poet.

"I'm sorry, Raven," he says and smiles with a bit of world-weariness, "But you seem to have mistaken me for the Jerk Jock. I am too short to fill that trope effectively, nor would I desire to shove anyone into a locker or give anyone a swirly, absent their head being on fire. I'm the Nice Guy Jock, at best, or perhaps the Nerd Jock. I do have the PhD to prove that if you wish."

Then an angry Robin appears, and he nods when the man looks at him.

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev rolls her eyes inside her helmet as Brick proceeds to act like he's from an eighties movie. "...Thanks, I guess." Not like she had much choice in it, but compliments are compliments. "I'm not really the best at social stuff myself, honestly. ...And I don't think I want to try to put someone Batman trained in a tool locker. Still new to all this." And if anything, this time Raven is even MORE of an enigma. ...Oh, hang on. Jock, Shorter guy, cheerleader, swirlying... That sounds like movie high schools. No idea if that's accurate at all but... Back to trying to get along with everyone.
     Oh hey, it actually /is/ Robin. Sev looks down at him, a good six inches taller, and clad in matte black power armor, the plates somewhat angular, her helmet's fairly narrow visor equally as expressionless as his deadpan. She offers a hand. "Exo-Girl. Fan of your mentor's work."

Raven has posed:
    Combat Poet is probably pretty apt, and never let it be said that a Combat Poet gave up ground.

    "You're making things up, but they hand out honorary PhDs to sports scholarship recipients all of the time." she notes, dismissing a great deal of Brick's character. "Your mastery of basic math won't necessarily be tested too much here, but I respect that you were good enough at sports to skip a few grades." THERE'S the joke about his height.

    She's pretty on the nose about a lot of things, because she's pretty good at finding the things people are sensitive about. In essence- she's mean. But also a little funny. But also -really- mean.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Since Sev had spoken to him, Robin moves in a bit closer, looking over the armor. "I'm sure he would be pleased to hear that." He quips at the mention of his father.

  He looks to Raven. "So why are people here?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"To feed innocent souls to Raven," the Cheshire cat says as an answer to Robin's reply, "But it looks like she's started ahead of the process and is helping herself to a few bites." Vorpal grins at Raven, all unconvincing innocense. Robin's threat washes off like water off a duck- because it's hard to be completely intimidated by Robin after you've seen him sugar-bombed and screaming in a roller-coaster.

Or was that Vorpal doing the screaming? It was all a blur, anyways.

"Actually, they have come to check us out, I think. Which is why I thought it was important that they meet you, too." Because if you could survive a meeting with Robin and Raven in the same room, few things would faze you. It was sort of the viking version of the welcoming wagon. Except with more arrows. On fire.

"Don't mind Raven's barbs, she means well. She's just trying to test your character." Hypothesis.

Brick has posed:
"Chemistry, Metropolis University, June 2025," Brick says blandly, sotto-voce to Raven, "But yes, I did skip a few grades."

PING PING comes from his right side.

"//Yeah, but you'd hope someone who manipulates shadows would be good at throwing shade,//" Brick mutters to his imaginary friend, half-silently.

Hmmm. Robin is also presenting a faint aura of being intruded on ... Perhaps it would be good to just retreat, if the Titans don't actually WANT visitors, but maybe it's some sort of a challenge.

"I did bring a visitor gift," Brick says in his public voice. "I wasn't sure what would be appropriate for a group of such different people, and a fruit basket would be bizarre, so I figured a case of Moxie, for symbolic reasons."

He taps his chest just above his sternum, where a faint bump shows under his tight-fitting "scuba hoodie" ... and a SCHOOMP sound happens as a circular portal comes into existence above a coffee table, and SCHOOMP as it drops down three feet and disappears. A 24-bottle shrink-wrapped case of cold Moxie Sodas in the glass bottles remains behind.

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev watches Raven and Brick snark it up. grinning a bit inside her helmet. It's actually kind of nice to not be the one everyone's focusing on and staring at. And Raven's not /that/ mean. Well, once you get to know her. Or at least don't annoy her. "Well, I'm here because Gwen said you guys were a team who might be able to help me figure out the whole hero thing." ...Huh. That... is also new. Teleporting Soda.

Raven has posed:
    Raven isn't harmless, necessarily, and probably doesn't mean well. Regardless, Vorpal is trying to socially disarm her and that means she should probably stop.

    "I don't drink soda." she remarks, but his gift would be about as universal as it could be. Two refusals out of the gaggle of people present was still pretty good, and that's assuming Damian refuses. "The question remains as to why you're here. We were having a nice day but this is becoming a regular Breakfast Club."

    There is a pause, then. "If a somewhat... miniature one."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Fine, they want to meet me." Robin unsheathes his sword, flourishing it, approaching a nearby bowl of decorative fruit. Tossing an apple in the air, swipes later, the apple is throughly sliced in nice presentable slices.

  "Enjoy." He says, one last flick of juice off the sword before he sheathes it back, resting against the wall afterward.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The Cheshire cat looks between Raven and Robin, and then offers Brick a friendly smile and walks up to the young man and puts an arm around his shoulders. He would do the same to Exo-Girl, but he desn't think his arm could reach around the armor. "We can't be the breakfast club 'cause nobody has had actual breakfast yet. That's a neat trick there with the portal, I must say. I'm partial to those too. We'll have to talk."

He looks to Exo-Girl and adds "Trying to figure that out is one of the reasons the Titans came together, so you've come to the right place."

He then looks at Robin and doesn't know whether to upbraid him for his lack of social gracies or compliment him for his skill with fruit presentation. He makes a note of asking Robin if he knows anything about kado. The tower could use some tasteful flower arrangements.

"We could include you on some of our patrols here on out and see how you feel the group? Sort of see if you can get used to our crazy, or whether your crazy matches ours."

Brick has posed:
And, a short joke, but Vorpal and Damian are also bringing that in, and Rachel isn't super-tall herself, so that's cool. Breakfast club it is. Except it's more like 'Brunch' at the moment. Brick blows an errant lock of hair back out of his eyes.

"I thought it was more an invite to 'come hang out' and this was the best day to try," Brick says. "If I'm interrupting something I can head out. I mean, I don't want to intrude or interrupt. But since I'm apparently going to be running into weirdos who want to hurt people ... I figured I could pick up some clues on how to thwart that thing."

Robin's demonstration actually gets a smile from Brick. Overt applause would be over the top, right?

"That was gorgeous sword-work," he says. "Physics only whimpered a little bit."

Then Vorpal does the arm-around-shoulders thing ... oh right he's a cat ... and Brick smiles a bit.

"I was just thinking Brunch Club myself," he admits, letting himself be distracted. "Patrols ... sure, that'll work."

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev ...huh. Fruit Ninja. Probably best not to make a joke about it, this guy seems to lack a sense of humor. "Plus, I mean, none of us are forced to be here... It's not like detention. Plus I don't think I actually went to high school... I just got my GED." Vorpal's offer definitely shows promise. "Sounds good to me. I usually operate out of Mutant town, people don't..." She trails off. Can't really explain the real reason she lives there but... "Ask too many questions."

Raven has posed:
    Raven nods a few times. Now things made a little bit of sense.

    "There is safety in numbers, I guess." It's literally the nicest thing she can say, and sincerely the most she can offer. Raven is suspicious of new people, almost always, unless there's another element to the meeting. Frankly enough, Raven may have met Sev and Brick enough by now- and the others vouch, of course- but she's still apprehensive.

    She's -always- apprehensive.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Do yourselves a favor: don't get into heroing. We don't have time to train neophytes." Robin continues, if Raven was apprehensive, Robin was just as cautious.

  "By all means, join a patrol. I think Goliath could use a snack." He says, arching his eyebrow, toying with the skull whistle around his neck.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Mustard Cake." Vorpal says, giving Robin a meaningful glance. "And cupcakes. Maybe even... stuffed toys."

To those who aren't familiar with this particular subtext, Vorpal may seem to be uttering arcane and nonsensical phrases at Damian for no particular reason at all. But they do have a deeper meaning. The promise of a Dantesque hell full of happiness and sunshine and utter, irrepressible cheerfulness.

Perhaps even a puppy.

"Thanks for the Moxie... and a patrol it is. I know some of you may be concerned about your identities, so we can figure out how best to contact you to let you know one is coming up that you can join without compromising your identities."

"You probably won't get Robin," he says to Exo-Girl and Brick, "We usually try to pair interested parties with someone who doesn't drink the tears of children as part of every breakfast." He grins.

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev isn't going to begrudge Raven taking a bit of time to know new people. That's perfectly normal. ...Robin, however, is a dick. She focuses her gaze on him, taking a few steps closer. "Just because you're trained by Batman doesn't mean that you're the master and the rest of us are useless. I've only been doing this for a couple of months, but I've made a difference. I've saved lives. I kept people from getting killed by parademons, and I even helped resuce what looked like another team from this crazy space arena thing. And when I'm doing all this is the only time I feel /normal/! When people are glad to see me! You can take off the mask and go live your life, but some of us... It's the only life we've got!" Her gloves whine softly as she tries to clench her fists tighter, staring down the Boy Wonder.

Breath has posed:
Breath wanders in idly, because of course no random cluster of houseguests is complete without EVEN MORE random houseguests showing up unexpectedly. She? (well, you can surmise from the skirt and the lipstick) stops at the crowd.. huh, no middle ground with this place, is there? And waves quietly from the door. She looks around.. hmm, Exo-Girl?, Robin, Raven?, some people she's less certain she knows..?

She frowns at Robin some. "I don't actually LIKE hearing about my friends getting hurt because of some crazies that are more socially acceptable than we are, you know?" She stretches some and ventures a step in. "What's up, is this a bad time? No freaky buggie girls trying to set off gas bombs in here again, are they?"

Brick has posed:
"Noted," Brick says to Robin. Apparently this is Batman's child. Any questions of child endangerment are now answered: it's intentional.

//What's a Goliath?// Brick asks Maire Boit, silently this time. She remains even more silent, having no answer, as she hasn't tried to actively scan. It would be rude, and as her species goes, she's rather shy. So she can't really say. Brick would be the one to actually do research, anyway.

"I don't have a secret identity. You can reach me at the Queens branch of Star Labs, the switchboard will route you to me."

He stops as Exo-Girl demonstrates a bunch of emotions, and another person comes in. Oh. Oh good. There goes the chance to just teleport out to Montauk and jump off cliffs for a while.

"Hello, person I haven't met," he says. At this point he's not sure which voice to use. When you go to someone's house and the sisters start fighting with the brothers ... so awkward.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Fuck it, I'll have mustard cake." Robin stomps up to the power suited female. "You think -he- trained me? You're sorely mistaken, I was assassinating targets since I was seven. As soon as I could walk I was wielding a sword." The fire was definitely ignited, but luckily he isn't brandishing any weapons.

  "And I didn't say you were useless. I said: neophyte. Noun, a person who has just started learning or doing something. Useless would imply you've never done it, or are so inept that you adversely effect your cause." Damian's eyes look up at whatever comes close to Sev's eyes, sneering. "If you're going to put words in my mouth you fucking -better- make sure you can back it up." With that, Robin starts heading for the elevator. "If they want to risk their lives, let them." He says to Vorpal. "I'm not going to be held responsible for their injuries or deaths." A quick draw of his grapnel and he ascends the elevator shaft, going back to his garage.

Exo-Girl has posed:
     Exo-Girl realizes she's about to punch Batman's sidekick in the face, in the lobby of his team, the team she's trying to JOIN, and everyone's staring at her. "...Crap." She sags, facepalming against her visor with a clonk. "Well... if I disappear under mysterious circumstances... he did it." It's not a very good joke, but hopefully it breaks the tension in the room. She looks over at Breath as the teen makes her entrance. "Ah, yeah... It's fine. Exo-Girl." She offers a hand again.

Breath has posed:
Breath sighs. "Wow. What an ass. Too bad he's the guy I wanted to talk to in the first place... damn it." She hmmms and looks around, then shrugs some. "Heya, I'm the Breath. We're not quite neighbors, but I get around your part of town sometimes. Heya!" She shakes the hand daintily. "Wow, so like.. I hope they don't make a drinking game of this place. Him stomping off in a huff seems like it happens, like.. ALL the time. I wonder if he ever goes out of a room in a GOOD mood?"

Brick has posed:
And the wave crests, crashes down and the room is left tumbled like sand on the beach. Oh wait. Robin cut up fresh fruit. Probably didn't poison it, not that Brick cares about that at the moment. He picks up a slice, and eats it, then takes another because it was good. He's not sure what it is, because his highly creative parents only ever stock the lobby fruit bowls with red apples and yellow pears and very rarely strawberries, as those have corporate SKUs..

"Brick Marsten. You can find me on Immagram. B.Rick ... the guy who does dangerously stupid stunts so you don't have to. Because unlike most other people I don't break easily."

He looks over to Breath and smiles a bit to himself. Angry Robin is angry, it's there in the name. Anyone would be angry if they were forced to murder people since they were seven.

"Anyway. Vorpal, do you want to see me fall off a cliff for fun and profit?" he asks.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Do I? I'd love to!" the cheshir cat grins at Brick, and then smiles at Breath. "Hello, miss... don't mind our Robin. He's been in a completely foul mood since he found out Dazzler actually wants her hair to look that way." He extends a hand towards her to greet or shake as she prefers. "I'm Vorpal, local friendly neighborhood Cheshir cat. If you need to speak with Robin..." he pauses. "I can... page him for you again. Or I can take a message and he will get back to you after he's had a good cry on his Cosmic Unicorn pillow, whichever you would prefer."

Damian was going to get him, but he had no regrets. Speaking of which-

"Oh, he won't kill you, E.G. He just has... issues. Sad case, really. Raised by wolves. We had one heck of a time teaching him not to mark his territory- not even Beast Boy does that, and he's been an actual wolf."

No regrets. Whatsoever.

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev grins wryly inside her helmet, body language showing it a bit anyway. "...Yeah... Sure takes after the Bat, from what I've heard. And I'm not scared of him, unless he's got an armor disabler in his untility belt somewhere. And I'm pretty sure I'm swordproof, I've gotten shot at enough..." She shakes her head. "Nevermind. I'm fine. I... I guess I should probably go before I start any more fights, I've already pissed off one team member..."

Breath has posed:
Breath blinks at Brick, "Uhh, if you want? I mean, if that's your thing, you do you. I've had enough of falling for a few days, myself."
She shakes Vorpal's hand, nice and ladylike, "Thank you.. He was going to make me a glider that didn't pop as easy or fly slantways or whatever, sometime, but like.. no word. Maybe I just need to raid the closet and get really good balloon material though, iunno."

She uhms.. "Who? Other than Robin, because I think he's like, always pissed at everybody."

Brick has posed:
"You said THE Breath, right? As in The Shadow or The Spine?" Brick asks. He also offers a handshake, but not a grip because at the moment he's in Enhanced mode and everything might break because Brick hasn't really practiced it.

"I would stick around but I have to do this before we lose the light so I can put it up tonight. Maire Boit, please open a tube to Montauk to the cliffs we were looking at this morning."

There's a definite BOOM as a hole in the air opens in front of him, and he steps through it, waiting for anyone who wants to see him being a bad example to the children to come through before it closes.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The cat hmms at Breath, "Well, I'll go ahead and give him the message. In the meantime, feel free to mingle. I'm going to joint over with Brick to see him in action. But here... have a Moxie, have a seat and make yourself at home. I'll page Stardust and she should be around soon." Because Raven was here but... well. Rae had her own issues. Except that he couldn't make a joke abuot being raised by wolves because she would eat his soul. "I wouldn't let Robin chase me out, Exo... but I can understand if you need to stroll and a fresh of breath air. I'll be around later, if you need someone to chat..."

After wavig his goodbyes, he walks into the Boom to go ahead and encourage Brick being a bad example. Because... that's something he would do.