Chapter 15

The Man-Bat creatures transformed back into normal people. Once again, they were citizens of Jump City with no prior history of crime or drug use. And so far, that was the only connection we were able to draw. Though Robin was busting his ass trying to find more.

Now that there were a good number of Man-Bat serum users popping up, we had to start immediately giving these bodies to hospitals. Not only did they need help, but it was becoming evident that this was a growing problem.

And that wasn’t the only growing problem the Titans were facing.

There was one far, far worse and even more foreboding…

Job applications.

See, the Titans have been blowing up in popularity around the U.S. Of course, I read the news and had heard about it, but I hadn’t really internalized it until I went to the mall with Galatea. Finding store after store chockfull of overpriced Titan merchandise. As well as several people wearing Titan based clothing.

We were obviously becoming popular in the city.

Which…wasn’t much of a problem. Or at least it hadn’t been, until the Justice League decided to intervene on our behalf. Something that was very much unwanted or really necessary to begin with. As I’m pretty sure the Titans were satisfied with how many members there already was currently.

…Well, that’s how I feel anyway. I’m actually not sure how the others did. But I don’t doubt that most feel somewhat similar at least.

I wasn’t sure why the Justice League decided to quite vocally tell everyone that they could send a sort of ‘application’ to the Titans, but sure enough they did. Which meant the amount of mail that we got was…staggering.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to work 24/7 to beat people up with super powers and get paid for it?

Which is how we got flooded with applications and various fan mail from a few thousand hopeful applicants. Despite a lack of overall interest in having these applicants becoming new members, Robin felt as though we should still go through and review them at the very least.

Which was an opinion met with rather mixed responses until he added that he be reviewing them personally as the team leader. Which of course swayed votes into his favor.

Well, that ended well, right?

Wrong.

See, Robin said that, and tried to follow through. Emphasis on tried. He was unfortunately just so busy with everything else. Following up on leads on current missions, investigating some guy called Deathstroke, talking to Batman and the Justice League, making sure his equipment is clean and ready to use, training at the gym in order to not get rusty, crime fighting, his own chores, etc.

So it quickly became apparent to him that he could not actually follow through on his promise. This had to be brought up in multiple meetings as Robin stubbornly refused to admit as such, before finally caving in. And instead of simply accepting he was wrong and allowing the application process to die, he decided to instead ask someone else to ‘step up’.

Which was a rather crazy thing to ask, given he was the one who put us in this predicament in the first place. It wasn’t as if we were never going to let another person into the Titans, it’s just that we were already trying to get used to things as is before getting more people. And considering there was already a bit of infighting and factions forming, well…

Aqualad then attempted to step up and take the position of reviewing the job applications. Which saw Beast Boy attempting to step up and take the position. There was a bit of argument on both sides until they all came to an agreement.

That I, who had been against this idea from its inception in no uncertain terms, would take up the reviewing position.

I did not have a real say in this, though I accepted anyway. If only to mostly make sure people were kept out of it.

Besides, if someone got accepted, you can be damn sure it was going to be a hot and powerful woman. Though with how most of the applications went, that was not going to be a thing.

As the majority of ‘applications’ were from kids who didn’t know what the fuck they were doing and only wanted to join because it sounded cool. Hell, they didn’t even have any powers for the most part. Which was pretty much a requirement.

I mean, who ever heard of a superhero without powers?

…Ignoring Green Arrow and Batman of course. They had advanced technology. Same could be said with Robin.

Okay, so it could happen. It just wasn’t very likely.

And due to the Titans being seen as a junior Justice League, the majority of people trying to enter were actual children. I have no idea what their parents were thinking.

Thankfully I was able to go through most of the applications at a reasonable rate. I used a unique strategy called ‘set most of the applications on fire and read what little remains. It was pretty handy.

Progress in the Laboratory also quickened and was expediated due to having multiple samples to work with, as well as the actual Man-Bat formula from Batman. Allowing me to hit great strides in my studying of the formula.

…mostly. Sort of. Kind of. It’s…complicated.

Okay, so I might have gotten a little off task. See, when Robin gave me Batman’s astonishingly thorough notes on Kirk Langstrom’s Man-Bat serum, I couldn’t help but read them.

Oh, and I was also now certain that either Batman was either an unparalleled genius, or one of the most distinguished chemists of all time. But that was beside the point.

See, Batman mentioned in his notes that Langstrom had originally been trying to deafness. Which was absolutely crazy to me, considering his formula, but apparently, he had been trying to give some sort of echolocation ability to humans that most bats had.

It was a stretch and a half to say the least, but I couldn’t help but find myself curious. Theoretically it could work. But of course, theory wasn’t everything. A lot of work was missing that would need to be put in if it was to even have a chance at working. Which again, wasn’t likely.

Oh right, and then I became interested in the whole ‘turning into a bat monster hybrid’ bit of his formula. If it was possible with bats, what else could it be possible with? Rats? Cats? Bears?

Basically, I wanted to see if I could replace the bat gland with something else. And whether it could actually be usable this way.

And I think I made decent strides on these projects. Unfortunately, when it came to manufacturing a cure…well…that had taken a bit of a backseat. But I would of course be putting more focus on that in the future.

Eventually.

Right after I find out how to give the test rats claws…

I’ve also noticed lately that Galatea seems to be now going out of her way in order to drag me into the gym with her. Not to act as a sparring partner or someone to spot her, thank god, but as a glorified waterboy.

At the very least I had entertainment.

Starfire slamming her fist into Galatea’s face, knocking her back a step, before Galatea swings back. Slamming her left arm into Starfire’s stomach, and then as she bends over in pain, she drops her right arm onto her back. Causing her to quickly meet the ground.

But Starfire quickly picked herself up with a grin before fighting on. It was mostly one sided true, but occasionally Starfire would win. Which would get Galatea extremely pumped up, challenging Starfire repeatedly until at the very least ending with a win streak.

Galatea was…competitive. To say the very least. Starfire took it all in stride. She even compared Galatea to her own sister, who was also rather competitive. Yeah, I remember Starfire mentioning her during her tales of her homeland.

Galatea usually took some sort of pride in her victory, but today for some reason, she just seemed…bothered. She balled her hand into a fist before finally deciding to stop sparring with Starfire, at just one win.

Which immediately had Starfire checking if she was alright.

“…I’ve stopped growing stronger.”

Ah. Well, I could see why that would cause her to be frustrated.

“But friend Galatea, you are already so strong…”

“…But I’m barely even a fraction of my original power. And if I’m barely a fraction of my original power…”

Galatea closed her eyes for a few moments, before opening them and looking at me with a serious expression.

“Supergirl is training, isn’t she?”

Huh? What? Why would I know-ooooh. Right. I did tell her I was supergirl’s friend or something along those lines. While I don’t think she’d kill me if I outright explained how that was all a lie, I knew that I wouldn’t like her response to that.

So instead, I decided to take different approach.

“She is.”

I nodded at her words. Completely bullshitting about something I had no idea about. Even so, Galatea nodded seriously at my words before looking out the window of the Gym. To the lake view and then the city beyond it.

“Then I need to catch up...”

Good luck with that. If it was that easy to catch up to the power of a kryptonian, well…I’m pretty sure someone would have already done it by now. But then again, she was kryptonian herself. So, she could probably do it.

Somehow.

Galatea continued to stare out of the window, ignoring both me and Starfire behind her. Which was fine. I knew this was rather important to her after all. It’s what I played on in order to get out of Cadmus alive. So, her being extremely broody about it was to be expected.

In the end, all me and Starfire could do was simply leave her to her thoughts.

And while she did that, I get started on my meditation lessons with Raven. I had already had a small few beforehand, but it was pretty eye opening. It felt dumb to say, but I did feel like meditating was helping me focus, and in turn get smarter.

Of course, logically I knew this was more of a placebo like feeling. I felt like I was getting better, so I would become better. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Even still, it felt right.

The lessons were also pretty relaxing. Which was a nice way to be after gym or a Laboratory experiment. Raven was a good teacher, if pretty consistently snarky. She was also rather short tempered, which was amusing considering how much she seemed to be about ‘controlling her own emotions’.

Nonetheless, her lessons tended to stick.

“…you’re breathing wrong.”

What the hell did that even mean? I gave her an incredulous look which she returned with Raven patented blank stare.

“You need to breath into your core, and then up and out.”

What?

“What?”

I asked to which she rolled her eyes before floating cross legged in front of me. Another thing about these lessons, was that I was getting to see a lot more of Raven pulling her hood back when meditating. As well as generally just showing off more skin. Both things that she didn’t normally do except on rare occasions.

…and honestly now that I had a consistent good look…

She was pretty good looking. Whenever she was hiding behind her cloak, at least.

She narrowed her eyes at me. Finally showing some semblance of emotion, unfortunately it seemed to be annoyance.

“Watch.”

Raven explained, closing her eyes before notably breathing in and out.

Uh…okay? That’s exactly what I was doing. Afterwards she opened her eyes  and then motioned for me to begin.

So…I breathed.

“Stop.”

Raven commanded before flying in front of me and putting her hand on my stomach.

“Breath in here first.”

She then extended her hand up my chest until she got to around my collarbone.

“And breathe out here.”

She looked at my face, to which I pretended to calmly nod. I understood what she had said but…having her feel up on my chest had given me a raging hard on. I mean, who wouldn’t have popped one with a girl feeling up on them?

Despite my seemingly calm expression, Raven seemed to narrow her eyes slowly before nodding.

“…Begin.”

I did so. Breathing down into my stomach region, before pushing it upwards and slowly letting it out. To help with this process, Raven’s hand was also helping guide the process.

Something that I attempted to ignore by closing my eyes.

So, I breathed in.

And then out.

And in, and out.

And in, and out.

And in, and out.

…God fucking damn it, what did I have to do to get a fucking hand job around here? I felt a strange disturbance, causing me to open my eyes. Only to see Raven floating several meters away from me, in what seemed like mid meditation.

Strange I could have sworn her hands had been on me like a second ago…perhaps I had simply gotten used to it?

Regardless, I attempted to get back into meditating again.

Or at least I had attempted to try to, until an alarm rung out in the Titans tower.

And if I wasn’t wrong this alert sound meant…

“WARNING: UNIDENTIFIED INTRUDER IS ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS THE TOWER VIA THE ROOF.”

Oh, that’s new. I didn’t realize Robin or Cyborg had added a vocal warning now. Me and Raven immediately nodded at each other before making our way out of the meditation chamber and upstairs. Something various other Titans were already doing.

Due to being able to fly, Raven easily cleared past me. Thankfully I was still one of the first to respond to the call.

Leaving me, Starfire, Raven. Robin, and Kid Flash on the top of the roof. Watching as someone almost effortlessly avoided the lasers being fired at them from the tower, in order to quickly make their landing on top of the roof, and in front of us.

It was a woman with long black hair. Her skin had a bit of a strange tint to it, and her clothing was oddly familiar looking, but I couldn’t quite place it.

At least not until Starfire properly pointed it out by immediately jumping on her with a large hug.

“Sister!”