Chapter 16

Starfire made a ‘squee’ like noise as she hung onto her sister and swung her around. Much to her sister’s apparent confusion and shock. Something that showed that she was rather uncomfortable with the action, but was currently allowing it to happen anyway. After several minutes of Starfire not saying anything, Beast Boy decided to speak up.

“Uh, Star? Are you going to just keep doing this or…?”

Starfire immediately dropped her sister in shock. Which forced the black haired girl to fall on her butt with a frown, but quickly picked herself back up. Starfire then turned to the rest of the Titans with her sister following in tow.

“Friends, I’m happy to introduce you to my sister! In your tongue her name is…Blackfire!”

Blackfire smiled and nodded at the Titans with crossed arms. She examined each one of us for a long moment before finally speaking up.

“Yes. Starfire has…told me so much about all of you. It’s nice to finally meet the people who helped my sister.”

Starfire seemed ecstatic before suddenly turning and tilting her head at Blackfire inquisitively.

“Oh! So mom and dad are receiving my transmissions back home. I’m happy to hear that.”

Starfire stated before doing a double take at Blackfire and then grimacing in a guilty sort of way.

“And I promise to start sending transmissions to you in the future. I apologize for not doing so previously, I had assumed that you wouldn’t have welcomed-“

Blackfire interrupted her and wave her response off.

“It’s fine, sister. What matters is that I’m here now…and I’ve come bearing a gift.”

Starfire gasped as Blackfire pulled out a necklace with a giant emerald looking gem at the front. As Starfire seemed to continue to be drawn into the necklace, Blackfire then turned to the Titans.

She introduced herself to everyone, but not in a normal way. No, she was much more socially aware and likely used whatever information Starfire gave her, as well as visual cues in order to discern what we liked. And then she used it in her greeting to give her a much more pleasant greeting than normal.

Something that worked dramatically well for the vast majority of Titans. She talked about how interested in meditation she was with Raven, she talked about alien tech with Cyborg, she changed how she talked in order to better connect with Beast Boy, she immediately took note of how obviously military Aqualad and admired his devotion to his nation, she complimented Galatea’s muscles, she laughed and seemed very accepting of Kid Flash’s awful flirting skills, and then she in turned flirted with Robin. Getting him to blush before giving off a smile.

This was manipulation, pure and simple. Not that there was anything wrong with it. There was no maliciousness behind it and it only served the purpose to further endear herself into the group. Honestly, I respected how socially aware she was, and how she used that ability to her advantage.

There was only just one problem.

I knew only one other person that could do something similar. That’s the reason I knew how to even identify and see through the bullshit.

And I couldn’t fucking stand them.

“Law, right? I’ve always been interested in chemistry. Maybe I could give you some information on Tamaranean elements, and you could tell me about some of earths?”

“Thanks, but I’m not interested.”

Her eyes flickered for a moment before continuing to grin. She didn’t give any indication that she took it the wrong way, which allowed Kid Flash to immediately travel to her side using his super speed.

“You know, I’m a bit of a chemist myself. In fact, I’m pretty sure I can identify some chemistry between you and me…”

Blackfire laughed at Kid flash’s flirting in an amused and flirty manner.

“Oh stop…you’re hilarious.”

From then on, Blackfire proceeded to stay with the Titans. Due to her status as a guest, she was excluded from any chores or patrols around the city. Even still, that didn’t stop her from accompanying people doing either. Cyborg, Beast Boy, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Galatea, Raven, and especially Robin. She seemed to almost be completely inseparable from him at times.

Which definitely helped in pulling him out of the Man-Bat creature case. Which was good, as he seemed to have been on the rails to crash at some point. Meaning he wouldn’t have been at 100%.

There was only two people she didn’t constantly hang out with. The first was me, but not due to a lack of trying. I had to constantly shut down her attempts to do so, and even escort her out of the Laboratory floor that I used for experiments. I hadn’t cared at first, but then she seemed to become incessant, which was…very annoying.

The second person was her own sister, funnily enough. Actually, now that I think about it, it seemed like Starfire was the main one trying to initiate conversations and events with her sister, while her sister did the same to everyone else.

Due to the events awhile ago with the Man-Bat creature and Aqualad, Beast Boy, and me, we all decided to start having team training sessions. Not that we didn’t already train, but this time we would train to fight not only as a group and individually, but in pairs and occasionally in groups of three.

This was of course to stop any further future complications that might arise when fighting an enemy. Friendly fire is the worst kind after all.

This led to the entire team taking time out of their weekend to group up and practice with each other. Making combination moves and the like. Usually with another Titan being the practice dummy they’re fighting against. Which of course meant my healing sap was in constant demand.

As everyone was getting ready for another training session, we all noticed that Starfire was not among us. Instead after a few minutes, it was Blackfire who did. She explained that Starfire was allowing her to take her place in the exercise in order to get closer to the Titans as Starfire was currently taking a shower.

We all simply shrugged and went along with it. Spending the next hour and a half working with each other and feeling out our different combat styles. Of course, there were a lot of mishaps. Aqualad and Beast Boy’s combat styles didn’t seem to mesh well, but they were trying. Cyborg and Kid Flash didn’t do very well simply because Kid Flash had a habit of charging into Cyborg’s ranged sonic attacks.

And usually, Starfire and Raven wouldn’t be able to synergize well. As Raven would take over objects around the field to use in a fight, and Starfire would accidently destroy them due to their closeness to the enemy. This time however it seemed Blackfire and Raven did rather decently together. With Blackfire being rather mindful of what Raven was doing while also attempting to do her own thing. Which usually meant fighting up close and personal, instead of firing attacks at range as Starfire tended to do.

After arriving back at the Tower, we were greeted with Starfire who seemed somewhat surprised that the practice had already ended, and frowned when Robin revealed Blackfire took her place. Blackfire then commented that it was fun, and gave a round of compliments for everyone. Which lead to Starfire looking at Blackfire before widening her eyes.

“Are…are you wearing my clothes?”

“Oh, yeah. Mine already needed a bit of cleaning and I knew I was about to work up a sweat, so I just used some of yours. And wow, did you guys really make me work for a win. Especially you Cyborg.”

Blackfire stated, Causing Cyborg to grin before rubbing the back of head and thanking her. Most of the other Titans weren’t as interested in this conversation, so they started to retire to their rooms. Including Galatea, Aqualad, Raven, and Beast Boy who made Blackfire promise to play with him later.

Leaving Kid Flash, Robin, Starfire, Blackfire, and me in the living room. Which wasn’t to say that the guys were interested in the conversation. Kid Flash and Robin were just talking about further training in gym, and I was just grabbing a soda from the fridge.

Ugh. Who the hell was buying all this Canada Dry shit? What piece of shit enjoys drinking ginger ale?

“-not a big deal. I’d let you borrow some of my clothes if we were back home. Besides, you might look alright in it, but I actually make it look sexy. Right Wally?”

Kid Flash immediately pivoted and shot her finger guns.

“You got it babe. Super sexy.”

…Wally? What, was that…his actual name? Huh. I didn’t know that. Heh, ‘Wally’. Definitely an interesting choice. I’ll have to thank his parents for that one.

After taking a swig of the piss in my hand, I closed the fridge door and looked back to the remaining four people in the living room. Robin was looking at Kid Flash, Kid Flash was looking-sorry, ogling Blackfire, Blackfire was smiling at KF but was turning her gaze to Robin, and Starfire was rubbing her arm and looking at the ground.

“Oh…alright…uh, if you’re talking about training, would-“

“Hey Robin, I can train with you if you want. I can teach you a trick or two of some Tamaranean martial arts.”

Robin’s eyes lit up at that. Almost immediately accepting Blackfire’s request. Kid Flash shrugged and simply said he’d see Blackfire later before speeding off. But not before running into the kitchen to grab something. My eyes weren’t good enough to see what though.

…Wait, where was my drink?

That son of a bitch. No wonder he was named Wally. This shit was Karma. Considering Robin and Blackfire had left, that made me the last one in the area. Well, there was also Starfire who was just awkwardly standing around watching Robin and Blackfire leave. But she seemed uh…preoccupied.

Which left me with one other thing to do.

That’s right. Experimenting in the Lab.

One of the most recent things I’ve purchased was a label gun. Allowing me to type names and then shoot it off with a plastic label. This was how I started to label my various experiments in the Lab in order to tell them apart.

I also finally got around to labelling the various variants and strains I had created. Such as the waterdowned Blockbuster serum that I had ingested. I called it Smash-Hit Variant A.

Or SHVA for short.

It took me several weeks to come up with the name, but I was not disappointed by the outcome. It was amazing, and gave credit to the formula of which it was derived.

I was also attempting to make a better version of SHVA that I noted as Smash-Hit Variant B, but it hadn’t been working out very well. The solution would also dissipate, as well as the effects. Not only that, but occasional usage would also leave permanent damage.

Despite also starting work on a few side projects, the Man-Bat serum project was going swimmingly. I had finally identified everything in the original serum and I started to modify and tinker with it in unique ways. Especially in my attempts to take out the bat dna sample, and replacing it with another animal.

Which allowed me to see what exactly went wrong with Langstrom’s original serum. It would seem that although it allows a mutation to occur, the exact mutation was random. So he attempted to guide and target the specific mutation he wanted, I.E. echolocation.

Unfortunately, he failed quite horribly in targeting the specific mutation. Or rather, it succeeded, but then just moved onto a different mutation, and then another, and then another. It was actually quite genius how he targeted the specific mutation, unfortunately there wasn’t any sort of way to stop further mutations from occurring.

Which of course made me curious if I could stop the mutation problem.

I also delved further into replacing the bat dna sample with another animal. My first choice was a cat. Which is how I knew the mutation was random. Several rats had catlike slitted eyes now, and some others now had the same coat as a calico cat.

It would seem that as long as I replicated the serum near perfectly, I would get the same result in the mutation. Something exceedingly easy for me to do, as I could replicate it with 102% accuracy, with a 2% margin of error.

The only reason this didn’t apply to Langstrom’s serum was that he added an agent to target a specific mutation, which of course failed. Whereas I didn’t.

Even still, something would need to be added if I wanted a specific trait. Otherwise, it was up in the air if said trait was even possible to get. I think I had a pretty good idea of where to start in order to der-

“Hello, friend Law?”

My eyes immediately narrowed as I dropped much more liquid from the small eye dropper tool into the serum sample. Completely ruining the experiment altogether.

Which was…annoying.

“…Yes Starfire?”

I stated. Despite being a bit angry, I was still curious as to what she was doing on this floor. It was unlike any of the Titans to go to this floor specifically, which is how I preferred it. It’s also the reason why Blackfire bothered the shit out of me.

Starfire then proceeded to then float over to me while in the air. She seemed a bit…sad. Defeated, almost. But also, hopeful.

…I also couldn’t help but notice how dangerously her foot was to a beaker that held another one of my experiments. That one being my attempt at combining the healing agent and what I had hoped was the formula to making a symbiote from Plasmus.

It was pretty ingenious idea, I must admit. If it failed it failed. If it worked, it worked. And if it turned into a monster hell bent on growing bigger and bigger…well, I could think of worse things to fight than a monster made out of liquid that could heal my wounds.

“Well…I was wondering if you’d like to do the hanging of outs with me?”

The tip of her shoe hit the beaker, but thankfully I was able to catch and stabilize it in time before it hit the floor. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t have mattered either way, as the experiment seemed to have been a failure anyway.

Starfire grimaced and covered her mouth as I put the beaker back.

“Let me guess. You wanted to hang out with Robin as you normally do, but Blackfire’s hanging out with him currently. You tried to join it, but you just felt like a third wheel and not included. Discouraged, you then went to a few of the other Titans to hang out, but they also turned you down, until finally you came to me.”

Starfire’s eyes widened as she stared at me.

“How did you know!?”

“Because I’m not blind and I know who you hang out with the most? It’s not exactly rocket science.”

Starfire then rubbed her arm awkwardly again before giving a sad and pitiful pout.

“Oh, alright. Do you…not want to commence with the hanging of outs too?”

Unfortunately for Starfire, there was no amount of pouting or cute looks that would be able to persuade my cold black heart. It’s a customary trait of any Gothamite.

…Although, now that I was brought forcefully out of the zone in regards to my work, I doubt I’ll be able to just dive back in…Eh, what the hell.

“Sure. I’m game.”

I shrugged before being pulled into a bear hug by Starfire, who proceeded to thank me numerous times as she attempted to squeeze out my internal organs with her arms. I was pretty certain something was damaged by the end of it.

After she set me down, she proceeded to fly circles around me while asking what we should do, before offering a large supply of suggestions. I thought for a bit before glancing at my phone. Oh right, It’s July the third today. And there’s going to be a fireworks festival in the city.

Well, might as well look around while they were setting up shop.

I informed Starfire of the upcoming festival to which she pulled me along in order to get there as fast as I could in the middle of my explanation. Specifically of how the festival wasn’t today, but tomorrow.

The festival was near the Harbor, so it was actually a bit close by to the Tower. As Starfire flew me down, I noticed the difference between her carrying style and Galatea’s. While Galatea tended to bridal carry, Starfire just let me dangle in the air with my only connection to her being our intertwined hands. It was like hanging on to a hang glider.

Neither way was perfect. Though I did have to admit that I was less tired physically when bridal carried by Galatea.

After Starfire dropped my off, we began to examine the festival. Most shops were already set up and were already deserted. Only a few people were still working about, and mostly to just put-up stock. We looked about the area, before examining a few booths that were still having the final touches put on them.

To which Starfire made her presence known, and proceeded to help several people with their booth. I on the other hand merely watched. I didn’t give two shits about the booth workers, and I certainly wasn’t going to get paid for it.

Starfire was quickly thanked and recognized as a member of the Titans. To which a lot of people asked for her autograph. I was too, but I simply declined politely. Well, it was polite in Gotham at least.

After traveling up a nearby hill that had a great view over the harbor, I noticed a lot seats, chairs, and even a few cool little courtyard-like areas. As there were names spread around a lot of them, it seemed like they could be purchased and reserved for someone else’s usage.

There were several guards around the place, and even a little man who seemed to be showing people to seats before obtaining their money and writing their name on it. After they left, the man turned towards us. His eyes widened as he immediately approached.

“As I live and breathe, if I’m not mistaken, you are members of the Titans, correct?”

I said nothing as Starfire’s head bobbed up and down eagerly. While I knew how to deal with Salesman like people, Starfire on the other hand was the type to be conned out of the clothes on her back.

…wait, that wasn’t a bad idea actually.

“I don’t suppose you two are purchasing seats for the rest of the Titans?”

He asked, the dollar signs practically jumping out of his eyes. Before Starfire could respond, I did.

“No.”

His eyes shifted, but he kept his smile. His hands still squirming about against each other. He hadn’t given up; he was scheming something.

“Of course, you aren’t! Heck for everything you’ve done for the city, you should get them for free! In fact, if you’re going to the festival tomorrow, I’d love to give you one of our best seats in the house, for all the Titans!”

Starfire’s eyes practically shone with…no wait, I think they were actually glowing slightly.

“R-really!?”

He nodded and Starfire then turned to me. Pulling my arm slightly into her.

“Oh Law, we absolutely must invite the others to this festival!”

Ah, so that was his game. I was wondering why he’d offer it for free. He likely had some connections with the festival itself and planned to bleed us that way. As well as use our publicity in order to upcharge last minute addition seats.

It was pretty smart. Nor could I really hate it, as I also benefited from it.

“It’s not a bad idea.”

I commented, to which Starfire made a strange high pitched excited noise as I brought out my phone. Sending every Titan a text about the fireworks festival tomorrow. If they didn’t check it, I’d just remind them at dinner tonight.

Hmm…now that I’ve also seen some of the booths here, as well as the tricks they employed in order to be unbeatable. While that was acceptable to most people, I didn’t like to gamble. If I paid money, I damn well better be getting something in return.

So now I had to consider how to cheat and go at these rides myself before tomorrow night. Who knows, I might even make a small profit by selling the toys to others who tried and failed to get them themselves...