Just act cool. Pretend you're supposed to be here, and they will believe it. Danny thought to himself as he carefully made his way into the spacious living room.
In the kitchen was a grown woman, with orange skin and big curly hair that reached below the counter. Her cooking looked on par with his parents.
Across from the kitchen was a Foosball table and two arcade machines with their backs to each other. Four teens were playing Foosball and two at the video games. They were all dressed in normal clothes except one who was wearing a helmet.
Straight in front was a large TV setup, a long cressent shaped couch that looked like it could seat 20 people, and a high tech "coffee table". On the couch were three teens. A girl with blond unkempt hair in a brown and yellow costume. Next to her was a boy who looked almost exactly like Danny when he was younger. On one end of the couch, separated from the other two was Robin, just the Robin. Tapping away on a laptop.
He looked familiar. And the look he gave him made it clear they had met before.
"Everyone!" Gar addressed the whole room. "This is Danny. He's new. Danny, this is," he gestured to each person from right to left. "Starfire, Terra, Billy, Robin, Jamie, Bart, Guardian, Lilith, Gnarrk, and Roy. Don't worry about remembering all the names. All important information, like names, codenames, history, and powers, are on a tablet in your room." Gar leaned in and whispered. "It's ok if you don't wanna read the whole thing. No one does."
There were light snickers from some of the other people in the room.
"Who wants to show the new guy to his room, and then maybe some other places." Gar called, cheerfully.
Danny looked at Robin, who avoided eyecontact, but before he could say anything, someone else volunteered.
"I'll go." The black haired boy from the couch raised his hand and leapt into action.
"Love the attitude, Billy." Gar slightly nudged Danny as he said it. He was clearly only trying to remind him of the boys name.
"Your room is on the same floor as mine," Billy grabbed the tools that Gar was holding and lead Danny out of the room.
"Are you sure you can carry all that?" Danny asked the struggling boy. He was much younger than him. 9 or 10 at the most.
"Nah, I got it. SHAZAM!" The lights flickered off and the boy was replaced by a large muscular man in a tight costume and half a cape over one sholder.
Danny blinked. "Wow... Now THAT'S A COSTUME CHANGE!" Danny awed. "A proper magical girl transformation!"
"Ha-ha. Yeah." Billy giggled. "Everyone should do magical girl transformations."
"They're so effective!" They both said in unison.
"So, do you also have a magical transformation?"
"I-" Danny stopped himself. "No, I don't. I just make gadgets." He lied.
Billy stopped and pressed the button for the elevator. "As support, or do you have a suit or something, too?"
"Eh, I have a hazmatsuit." Danny placed his tool kits on the floor and pressed the lowest button. "I forgot the salvage I brought in the gear room."
Billy pressed the button for the 3rd floor. "Let's drop the tools off in your room first, so we won't have to carry as much." He smiled.
Was everyone here this friendly?
Being around Billy was different than Gar. They talked the whole time. Mostly about cartoons. But it was still comfortable. Even though Danny was lying, he never felt like he was in danger. It was kind of funny really. All these people had powers, and they clearly accepted each other. So, why couldn't he just tell them?
Once they reached the first floor, Billy detoured to some back room for a minute. There was a noise, and the lights came back on. Shortly after he came back out to help Danny with his scrap.
Danny stopped Billy outside the gear room. "You can't let me touch anything in there."
"What? Why?"
"It's, uh. Let's say, family curse, of sorts."
Billy blinked.
"Murphys law, ya'know?"
"Um, ok." Billy awkwardly took Danny's hand, who nodded in approval.
On the inside, right where he left the scrap, was the machine. Everything about it was alluring. From what little information he'd gotten about it before, to the label reading "???". It was truly the most beautiful thing to ever be held together with ductape.
"Ya'good?" Billy easily held all the scrap in one arm wile holding Danny hand with the other.
"Yeah," Danny squeaked. "Everything's great." He wanted it so bad. How could anyone not? "Do, do you know anything about that machine?"
"Uh, from what I heard, I think Arsenal, the old Arsenal, not the current one, either made for stole that device. He was crazy. Always trying to kill Beast Boy."
"Who's Beast Boy?"
Billy didn't even try to drag Danny out. Instead he just picked him up and carried him. "It's Gars codename." He put Danny back down inside the elevator. "Arsenal, or whatever his real name was, was either his foster dad, or his godfather. It's so hard to keep track of that guy's parents, he has, like, 7 of them, I think."
"Huh." Danny leaned back against a wall and looked up at Billy. "What about you? Did your parents send you here?"
"Nah. My parents are dead. It's either here, or on the streets. Not exactly a hard decision." Billy smiled.
"Oh," Danny grabbed his own arm. "Was it, recent?"
"No, I barely remember them. I'm not even sure i ever met my dad at all." He smirked, but it wasn't enough to hide the way he slumped his shoulders and avoided eyecontact. "I dod have a Foster family for a while, though. They were pretty nice, but then my poweres got all messed up. Sometimes I get all electric-" Billy shook his hands for emphasis. "when I'm not, in this form."
Danny considered for a moment. "So, then, your fosters. They didn't know?"
"No."
The elevator dinged and they were on the 3rd floor.
"My parents don't know either." Danny admitted. "They're already wiling to send me halfway across the country just to get rid of me." Danny hel up his fingers. "Twice, might i add. I don't wanna know what they would do if they found out what I am." He opened the door to his room, and put his bag of loose wires and miscellaneous screws on the floor as Billy carried in the rest.
"If they don't know about you, then how did they know to send you here?"
Finally got around to doing that Challengers homage I meant to do back when Challengers was a thing with Lilith Clay and her Silver Age Titans boyfriends.
Kole Weathers is a heroine, the daughter of a mad scientist obsessed w/ saving humanity from doomsday, whose inhumane experiments w/ promethium granted her the metahuman power to fly + generate & manipulate diamond-hard silicon crystals (through which she can phase at will); once, she was enslaved by a Greek Titan goddess, but was rescued by the Teen Titans; she died for a time, but at her best, she's aided the Titans & (in times of Crisis) even the Justice League!
