Chapter 9

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to just immediately pop back at the Teen Titan’s tower. Instead, the majority of us were escorted back to the Hall of Justice. Not for any sort of punishment, but just to get a complete picture of the situation.

Flash interviewed Kid Flash.

Aquaman interviewed Aqualad.

Superman interviewed Galatea.

Batman interviewed Robin.

And I was interviewed by a random justice league member. Preferably Wonder Woman. Or so I expected. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that lucky. See, Robin wasn’t interviewed by Batman. He was interviewed by Green Arrow. Why?

Because Batman was going to interview me.

Being interviewed by Batman himself wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. He chose a room that didn’t have windows. Sure, someone could argue that most of the rooms in the Hall of Justice don’t have windows leading outside. But come on. This was Batman.

He knew what he was doing. The room was also rather quiet. It seemed to have been sound proof, as no noise could be heard from the outside once the door closed. Leaving only me, two chairs, a table, and Batman in the room.

Which was quite obviously nerve-wracking.

“Talk.”

I immediately downed a mint before going over the entire Cadmus situation. As well as my curiosity in exploring it. To which Batman was immediately interested in why I was curious about exploring it. To which I completely confessed how I knew of Cadmus prior to entering Cadmus. That is, I told him about the deal I had made with the government.

Could I have lied? Perhaps, but I like my teeth being in my mouth, thank you very much. And I wasn’t going to risk a six-month hospital stay for getting caught on a lie. Hell, with the history I had, I fully suspected him to just sock me in the fucking throat for not talking quick enough.

Without needing Batman to tell to me continue, I did so. Continuing on with Cadmus, as well as my conversation with Galatea, what I had saw, and everything in between.

There were only two things I didn’t tell him. The first thing was anything about my friends in Juvie. Even if it meant getting rocked by Batman, I wasn’t going to sellout my friends. Not even the smallest of information about them.

The second thing was the Blockbuster vial. The same one that was securely in one of the capsules connected to my belt. Which one I didn’t know, but I wasn’t exactly going to check.

To be quite honest with the second one, if Batman had even hinted that he was interested in the vial that the scientist had consumed to become that monster, or he alluded to wondering where it was, I’d have come clean. Playing it off like I totally wasn’t trying to hide it or anything.

Though I doubt if I had even revealed it that there would be any consequences for it. Sure, it might get taken away, but it was also possible the Justice League would let me keep it to study. It wasn’t as if it was forbidden or something.

But Batman didn’t bring up the vial, nor the chemical that made the scientist a raging monster. He seemed more interested about Galatea, and the device he had used on her that seemed to weaken her. Even now she was weakened from her former self.

Though thankfully it seemed that while under the sun’s rays she could gradually recover her strength. But even then, it wasn’t back to full. The scientist had taken something from her. Possibly rupturing an organ or something inside of her.

Then finally I got to the end of the story about Cadmus. I thought that would have been it, but then Batman started to talk and ask about the Titan’s. Inquiring as to how decisions were made, who the leader was, and what the other Titan’s were like.

What really surprised me was when Batman asked how I was fitting in. For a second, I had thought he was actually showing some sort of compassion before I realized he was probably making sure they were safe from me.

After that, the conversation was still not done. As Batman pulled out some sort of see through glass cylinder and slid it across the table. Inside was some sort of silvery liquid that reminded me of mercury. But it was also incredibly thick, as turning it to its side saw it move very slowly. The silver liquid seemed to almost have a striped like pattern as it settled in its container.

I looked up at Batman in confusion.

“This is a healing substance the Justice League uses on occasion. Putting it directly onto wounds helps speed up the natural healing process. Even in the case of severe injuries, but not fatal ones. I’m giving it to you so that you may later potentially replicate it. If you can, that is.”

I highly doubt that I’ll have trouble being able to replicate it. It’s a pretty sizable amount. A lot more than I was usually given by the government before they…well, I know how that story ends. Still, I was pretty curious about this liquid.

“What is it? What’s the name for it?”

“A chemical compound made from S.T.A.R. Labs. It doesn’t have a name yet.”

“…Oh, alright.”

I pretended to accept that pretty fishy answer. Who the hell makes a drug that is so fucking good that it could even heal severe wounds and doesn’t name it? Still, if Batman didn’t want me to know the truth, then I wasn’t going to know the truth. It was as simple as that.

This time as the conversation seemed to start winding down and ending, I spoke up.

“Uh, do you maybe think that I could get some sort of chemistry equipment in order to better understand and analyze this?”

Of course, that wasn’t all I would be doing with the equipment. I also needed to understand the Blockbuster formula, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to be putting that shit in my mouth anytime soon. Not after what happened to the last person who took it.

The Batman paused for a second before slowly nodding. He didn’t say anything else before promptly leaving the room.

I breathed a sigh of relief as an unseen weight slid off of my shoulders. Talking to Batman was…draining.

After the others finished up, we finally headed back to the Titan’s tower.

And while I’d love to sit here and say everything was all sunshine and rainbows after the fact, that would be a lie. As not only did me and Robin need to go over everything that happened to the Titan’s, the new Titan’s were there as well.

The sudden appearance of not one, not two, but three new members into the Titan’s was a pretty big shock to them. Not only that, but it made things a bit tense and awkward. See, the original titans didn’t exactly have a say on whether or not the new titans could join. Which made them feel as if they had less say and power.

And it definitely didn’t help that the Justice League had considered putting a leash on everyone to control their actions. Because if they considered it once, who’s to say they won’t consider it again?

And then the old and new Titan’s started to clash

. See, Aqualad and Kid Flash had been at the superhero game longer than the rest of us. Besides Robin, that is.

It was manageable when Robin started to give orders or helpful sounding advice, but when it was three people all giving different advice? It was stressful and confusing. Especially when the commands would counteract what we were already doing. Which made it seem like they were undermining us.

It also didn’t help that they regularly would flaunt their experience. Not in a overdramatic bragging fashion, well not Aqualad or Robin at least. They simply stated it as a fact. And when Beast Boy, the only one who also had prior experience, started to explain his experience, they…didn’t really seem to take the Doom Patrol seriously.

Again, it wasn’t in a malicious way. Though I’m not sure that made it really any better when they dismissed it out of hand. Serving to harden his feelings against them.

Their…personalities also took some getting used to. Kid Flash had hit on Starfire for a solid week before switching to hit on Raven. Something that didn’t seem very reciprocated by either of them. Personally, I think he could have seen more success if he hadn’t been so heavy handed and annoying about it. He had decent enough looks, he just pushed too hard too quickly.

Aqualad was…different. He was a very serious sort of person. At first Cyborg approached him rather friendly like. Likely due to them being both the only two black people on the team. But of course, that connection like sharing the same skin color meant absolutely nothing when the guy was from the sea. His serious demeanor also didn’t mesh well with Beast Boy’s carefree attitude and funny nature.

At times he honestly seemed more like a solider than a hero.

There was a bright and shining silver lining in all of this. That being all of the growing tension and animosity weren’t directed at me at all. Well, they also weren’t directed to Galatea either, but that’s because she kept to herself mostly. Which was something Raven liked. She would also occasionally spar with Starfire, and I think she showed interest in exercising with Cyborg. Oh, and she laughs at Beast Boy’s jokes.

All of that probably did her a pretty big favor.

Oh right. There was a second silver lining. That being my influence and power in the Titan’s was growing. With more people in the Titan’s that meant more hands on deck to do chores. It also helped that everyone was at least neutral when it came to me.

And because infighting in the Titan’s was bad, I decided to step in and mediate the problem before it got any worse.

How?

With the power of democracy of course. Robin was the leader, but as he was obviously much more friendly and in line with the new Titan members than the old ones, he started to fall out of favor with the original Titan’s. Not that anyone hated him or anything, it was a small thing. Just a bit of chaffing for now.

But it was obviously growing.

So I decided to have a full Titan’s meeting where we would vote on a few rules. One of which being new Titan members. See, this was a bit of a sore topic for the old Titan’s. Not that they disliked the new Titan’s enough to not want them be Titan’s, but they still at least wanted some say on their inclusion. Instead of the decision being made regardless of what they thought.

I decided on a compromise that made mostly everyone happy. Any new Titan’s member had to be approved by every current member of the Titans. If even one rejected them, then they could not join the Titans.

This of course was a very popular idea to the old Titans, as now they had more say and a voice to these matters, and it was also popular to the new Titans. As they had more power given to them.

The only person who wasn’t happy with this, was Robin. Likely due to him seeing it as a loss of power on his side. Still, he didn’t argue with the overwhelming vote against him.

Aqualad and Kid Flash showed their unity by having their rooms both be on the same floor as each other. The empty fourth floor. Galatea on the other hand went with the third floor. Yeah, that’s right. She went on the same floor as me.

Nice, right? Except not really. As that left me in charge to acclimate her better to society and social situations. As well as how to live as a woman. Did that sound fun? Because it shouldn’t, and it really wasn’t.

The only reason I put up with it was due to the debt I owed her. As well as my status as her…sidekick.

Jesus, I was starting to get the same chip on my shoulder as the other sidekicks of the Justice League.

Oh right, and the Justice League…somehow transported a fully functioning chem lab into an empty room on one of the other floors that weren’t the ones marked as living areas. Which also meant that that floor…was now my floor. The Laboratory.

I made some headway in the strange healing substance Batman gave me. From what I could break down and deduce, the main ingredients in it pointed to it being…tree sap. Though there were some elements in it that I wasn’t familiar with. Which forced me to give them made up names as I registered and wrote them down in my own handy dandy notebook.

While I could have also just tasted a bit of it to get a slightly better picture of things…I didn’t really want to stick strange liquids and substances in my mouth. I think that’s a pretty common desire amongst most people.

And with Blockbuster, I couldn’t even due that, or I’d lose my humanity. Hell, apparently the scientist who created Blockbuster and turned into that monster regained his sanity, but the physiological change on his body was permanent.

That wasn’t something I intended to even risk slightly. So, I was forced to simply analyze the compound and makeup of the drug. That process was also made even slower due to experimentation with the compound being non-existent.

Testing an experimental healing compound that the Justice League gave the green light for? Every Titan could accept me testing it out on their wounds. Testing an experimental drug that could change them permanently into a monster and lead to temporary insanity? That was a much harder ask.

If I was going to make my own strain of Blockbuster, I needed something to experiment on. Rats maybe? But then Beast Boy would obviously be very against testing drugs on animals. Besides, it’d also be seen as pretty creepy to everyone else…

That is, if they knew about it. The only ones I physically couldn’t fool would be Robin, who had access to all the cameras in the tower, and Galatea, who had super hearing. Apparently, she had X-ray and heat vision too, but whatever the Blockbuster scientist had did to her had weakened her to the point where she could barely do anything with that.

Which is why she’s so focused on sun bathing and training when she can. She apparently wants to simply train her power up to what it was before. I wasn’t sure if she could do it in that manner, but I would definitely cheer her on.

…Because of the debt I owed her, of course.

My testing in the lab was interrupted by a loud and annoying alarm overhead. The exact alarm sound signaled that it wasn’t an emergency, but that everyone did need to meet up top in the living room ASAP.

I better go see what’s going on.