Random alien refugees aside, Jump City's Titans weren't officially open for business yet. Nightwing and Witch Girl had until the end of the month, in thirteen days, to instill some level of teamwork and coordination into the other three Titans, so that they'll be able to compete with the local, established, authority, the San Francisco Titans.
Why did Nightwing start a branch in a small outlying city instead of a proper metropolitan area? Several reasons.
First, Jump City had S.T.A.R. laboratories, the local government two administrations ago giving the corporation a better deal for their new facility on taxes than San Francisco proper. While prudent at the time, the rise of metahuman crime and alien technology means that the security concerns are substantial. As such, S.T.A.R. is subsidizing the city's budget to afford the rapid response force the Titans represent. It's more fiscally efficient that way than just amping their own security.
Second, Jump University has the best criminology program on the West Coast. Not the best in the country, mind you, but Richard Grayson is present in the city to attend, and the distance would substantially reduce the amount of mother henning Bruce would do in comparison to attending Gotham University, Bruce's alma mater.
Finally, and most importantly, it would defeat the point of striking out on his own if he was immediately made lackey to Josiah Power and the rest of his "Power Company" as he tries to push his brand. Tanya could respect the gumption, to try to make his Titans branch even more like a city sports team, with their own name and everything, but he really needs to do market research: a name like that, faux-military, would play much better in any state that wasn't California.
So instead, Richard jumped on the chance to lead a small team in a small city to prove to everyone, especially himself, his leadership skills, and in time, he wishes to be respected as his own hero, and not simply as Batman's protege.
"The first thing we must discuss, if we're to work together, live together, is ourselves." Richard said, pacing in the meeting room. Around the round conference table, modeled after the one the Justice League founders use, there were eight chairs, only three of which were labeled. "It's important that we understand each other well enough that there won't be any surprises in the field, as poorly understanding each other's limitations and weaknesses can lead to tragedy."
Tanya nodded in approval as the actual members of the Titans listened attentively. This talk had been hotly argued about in the trip over, but she thinks they threaded the needle appropriately.
"This is the third most secure room in the Tower, as it is where we expect critical classified information to be shared." Nightwing continued, "As such, anything discussed in here is always on a need to know basis: if you can get away with not sharing the information, do not share it." He slammed his hand on the table. "Even if Superman himself asks nicely, if he doesn't need to know, you do not tell him. Understood?"
"Gotcha." Beast Boy said easily.
"Won't tell a soul." Cyborg swore, holding up two fingers like a boy scout.
Starfire gave a thumbs up; Cyborg had taught her the gesture a few hours ago and she now used it at every opportunity.
"Now, currently, none of you have seen me without the mask, and there's a reason for that: I'm somewhat famous, if my mask was to be torn off in the field, odds aren't terrible that I'd be recognized, so you all should know." Nightwing sighed, and took off his mask, as well as the choker that made his hair longer; he was growing it out still.
Beast Boy didn't recognize him, but Cyborg did, his organic eye widening. The real surprise, however, was Starfire. Gasping, she pointed at him. "I know that face!" She declared. "You are the cute boy on that magazine cover!" Tanya thought back to when they made a midnight snack run to test Tamaranean taste buds. Apparently, Starfire loved vinegar. Guess she noticed Tanya's other purchase.
Wasn't quite the cue she was waiting for, but she'll take it. "Correct!" Tanya said, waving her hand and depositing a trio of this quarter's Teen Vogue magazine, where Richard was front and center, holding up a bicep that Tanya was hanging from. Both of them had their graduation caps on. The cover story's headline was "Beauty, Brains, Brawn, and Bank: Richard Grayson, the world's most eligible teenager". It was a puff piece, of course. With a gesture, one of the magazines slid across the table to each of the other occupants.
After a moment to digest the information, Cyborg spoke first: "Wait, does that mean-" he asked, turning to Tanya.
"Do NOT tell our dad." Tanya said, glaring as she removed the cowl/hat part of her uniform, taking a moment to put her hair to rights. She couldn't see it, of course, but she knew that her skin tone suddenly shifting back to the ashen tone that marked her demonic heritage could be jarring. "I'm meeting him on the Pacific yacht" because of course Bruce has multiple yachts. This one was usually docked in LA in a yacht club's care, though. "-once you guys become operational, and I don't want him to catch a hint of what I've been doing while I'm under my big brother's watch."
This was the story they had planned. By implying that they were running around without Bruce's approval, they distanced Batman's identity, creating a metaphorical firebreak if word gets out.
"Incidentally, the mayor and everyone else who are read in to that stuff think my name is Gray Dickerson, so be warned." Richard said before putting his mask back on. "Whenever possible, call me Nightwing."
"Isn't that illegal?" Beast Boy asked.
Nightwing chuckled. "I spent seven years under Batman as a vigilante, I'm not going to be bothered by a little fraud in the name of OpSec."
"I'm just a vigilante." Tanya said bluntly. "Child labor laws do still technically apply, which of those gathered here only me and Beast Boy actually care about, as Nightwing has a high school diploma, which lets him basically ignore a lot of the more annoying limitations, such as distinctions between school days and non-school days." Cyborg was 18, and thus free and clear.
"Wait, you have one too, right?" Cyborg asked, pointing to the fact that she was also wearing a graduation cap on the magazine cover.
"I still fall under the general ban, no work until you're 14." Tanya explained, "There are carve-outs for chores, babysitting, family businesses, etcetera, so Daddy's been thinking of installing me as a VP in one of the Wayne Foundations to keep me out of trouble, because unlike Wayne Enterprises, he does actually own that completely." This was something they had actually considered as a route to have Tanya Wayne eventually take over ArcWayne from Tanya Degurechaff, phasing out the older identity as her primary one matured into the role. This was mostly stymied by the fact that New Jersey had stricter child labor laws than most states. She'd have to register as a volunteer, instead, which is a whole other set of laws. "The Titans initiative does benefit from certain advantages due to existing in something of a legal gray area, metahuman law is something of the wild west, in legislative circles." Briefly, Tanya considered trying to get the Justice League to create some model legal framework for such things, but that would absolutely not end well for the underage vigilantes. "But as the only one of you such matters would apply to is Beast Boy, details will be discussed more privately; just know that until he graduates high school, he'll have to obey certain limitations on his work hours."
"Lame." Beast Boy declared, and that was that.
"Moving on," Tanya continued, "Introductions: Callsigns are cool and all, but the only one of you guys with an actual secret identity was Nightwing, so we'll begin with him: Richard John Grayson, age sixteen, callsign Nightwing. He is not a metahuman, and merely brings his skills and experience to the table; having eight years experience as a vigilante as 'Robin, Boy Wonder'." This was nominally a secret, but it was important for them to respect the experience. "As you can imagine, it was prudent to take a new persona when separating from Batman."
"Excuse me," Starfire said, "-but do you mean he started training to be a warrior then? Is that not quite young for your people?"
"As he had previous experience as an acrobat, beginning his physical training before he could even fully walk, his formal combat training only lasted eight months before he was trusted in combat against grown men thrice his size." Tanya continued, shamelessly talking up her sibling. "...Under supervision, of course. And with magical support."
"From you?" Starfire asked.
"I was still in diapers at the time, so no." Tanya lied, "On a related note, Batman still considers his security of paramount importance, so forgive me if I remain vague on specifics or even lie outright when his secrets are concerned."
"I understand." Starfire said sympathetically. "I, too, possess secrets."
"What kind of secrets?" Cyborg asked, clearly just ribbing.
Tanya glared at him anyway, and continued. "Anyway, this means that all of Nightwing's exotic abilities are sourced from his equipment, and as a consequence he will be drastically less effective when out of uniform. Still a highly skilled fighter, and he would likely have a small amount of concealed equipment even in civilian garb, but it's an important consideration in the field. Trust his experience, and he will lead you well."
"I look forward to fighting by your side!" Starfire said to Nightwing, who promptly blushed at the enthusiastic proclamation. Maybe some of those socialite girls would have gotten somewhere if they tried to appeal to his battle lust instead of his normal lust. He definitely picked up his taste in women from Bruce.
Oh no, she was thinking about what Bruce and Diana would get up to now that the manor was child-free! Quick, think of money! Mmmm… yes, she could totally go for a nice nap on a pallet of hundred dollar bills, it was surprisingly comfortable.
With her thoughts now free of the sense of revulsion that somehow managed to sneak into her brain over the last ten years when the thought of Bruce having sex came up, Tanya continued on. "Garfield Mark Logan, age seventeen, callsign 'Beast Boy'." She looked at him: "You should update that soonish, incidentally."
"I was gonna when I got in the Justice League." Beast Boy said.
"Good time for it." Tanya acknowledged. "Anyway, he contracted some incredibly lethal disease as a child, and was then subject to an experimental therapy to be infused with Martian DNA, which normally would absolutely not work and instead kill someone horribly."
Starfire gasped. "Who could do such a horrible thing?"
"His parents." Tanya said bluntly, "They were trying to save his life. Fortunately, Beast Boy possesses a powerful innate affinity to channeling The Red, which allowed him to stabilize his martian hybridization, giving him abilities that are otherwise unique."
Nightwing frowned. This was the first time Tanya had gone into so much detail about his new subordinates. "Unique? He just turns into animals, right?"
"Hey…" Beast Boy said, offended at Nightwing's tone.
"He does." Tanya confirmed, "But the minutiae are important. Someone who channels The Red alone does not change shape except in small ways: biological optimizations instead of true shapeshifting, your nails can become claws, for instance, but you could not grow antlers or a tail. Instead, it allows you to channel the spirits of animals, which is useful but rarely as useful as Beast Boy's powers."
"But with the martian DNA…" Nightwing said, understanding.
"Conversely," Tanya continued, "-a martian who wishes to use their shapeshifting as a weapon needs to manually learn the shapes they turn into, which is why J'onn usually transforms into that serpent-legged four-armed form whenever he needs to engage in close combat, he's trained and practiced fighting in that form specifically."
"So the martian DNA gives him the forms, while the Red gives him the instincts." Cyborg said, sounding impressed.
"Question!" Starfire interrupted; "What is this, The Red?"
"It's the afterlife for animals." Nightwing summarized, "So using it is like drinking animal ghosts and letting them possess you for extra strength and reflexes and stuff."
"It's a popular guiding framework for magic." Tanya added, "Mostly because it's a very easy kind of magic to abuse if you're not on the Parliament of Limbs' shitlist." As John Constantine would say, 'any cunt could draw blood runes on their skin while naked and channel a fair bit of The Red via eating the heart of a sacrificial monkey stolen from the zoo' to gain the strength of a silverback gorilla and the agility of a chimpanzee, becoming more dangerous than any venom junkie short of Bane himself for about ten hours, with very few side effects assuming you didn't get yourself shot full of bullets. It was actually a real problem, the Gotham zoo closed the monkey exhibit over that particular ritual getting leaked all over the internet, and it was not the only one to do so. Did it make sense that you had to eat a monkey's heart to channel the power of apes? Absolutely, it was about asserting dominance over a rival evolutionary branch. "Also, it's the afterlife for specifically terrestrial animals. Birds, fish, and bugs have their own." The Parliament of Decay was naturally mortal enemies with the Parliament of Limbs, but the Parliaments of Vapors and Waves were allies, which meant Beast Boy could draw from them as well through the Red rather than needing to tap them directly.
"I see… I am not sure how I can use this information, but I will remember it." Starfire said firmly.
"It matters because of what these facts mean." Tanya said, "Beast Boy's shapeshifting heals his wounds, but fire will not be so easily ignored. If you face, say, an Avatar of the Green such as the supervillain Poison Ivy, they will instinctively loathe him. He can assume the form of any alien animal, not just Earth animals, but not anything with sapience." She tapped the table. "Understanding the underlying logic behind your abilities will allow you to predict what will happen if something strange occurs. I could, for example, seal away his connection to The Red, in theory, as he is not a recognized Avatar to my knowledge. This means he would no longer move as easily in whatever form he has, but he would still be able to turn human again and he would not be forced into being a human, because it is his martian DNA that allows him the shape, not The Red."
"You can!?" Beast Boy asked, alarmed.
"I've a spell that can be used to cut off extradimensional connections like that, yes. Temporarily only, unfortunately." Tanya said idly, waving him off. "Now, moving on: Beast Boy has four years experience as a member of The Doom Patrol, a now-defunct heroic group. So know that he's no amateur at field work."
"I look forward to learning… the ropes?" Starfire asked, stumbling over the idiom. "-from you."
"Yes, that's the ticket." Tanya said, which made Starfire light up at learning yet another idiom. "Now, Cyborg: Victor Payton Stone, age eighteen. Meta-wise, what you see is what you get: He's heavily cybernetically augmented, with technology using alien salvage from that Almeran invasion eight years ago. His primary armament is a sonic weapon that is, surprisingly, not alien technology, although the distinction is academic given the power source is."
"Your middle name is Payton?" Beast Boy asked.
"Dad was a Bears fan." Victor explained, "It's one of the reasons I played football before, well." He grimaced.
"Victor's cybernetic augmentations are medically necessary; while his vital systems have additional protections so things like simple EMPs won't take out his life support, if his mechanical systems suffer enough damage his organic half will go with it." Tanya explained somberly. "It still lends him resilience beyond unaugmented humanity, but do not mistake his resilience for invincibility."
"It's not that bad…" Cyborg protested.
"Skills-wise," Tanya continued, "He has minimal experience on matters of vigilantism, but he has a high capability with technology, and will be maintaining the critical systems of the Tower and vehicles personally. Justice League technicians and janitorial staff will maintain the non-critical systems as well as the non-residential areas of the tower." More specifically, the technically-separate Wayne Enterprises subsidiary that manages the hiring and deployment of the technicians has a contract with the technically-independent (but not publicly traded) corporation that oversees the Titans Initiative to maintain their bases as well. This was mostly done for legal reasons, and to obfuscate how much of Bruce's money is tied up in the Justice League as a whole.
"Yeah, I've met 'em." Cyborg said, nodding firmly.
"Starfire, you should introduce yourself in a similar manner." Tanya said, gesturing for her to stand.
The alien did so, and stood firmly at attention, a clear sign of at least some military training. "I am Kori And'r, age…" She took a moment to remember the translation of her age. "Fourteen of your Earth years."
Nightwing, having not heard this yet, startled. "What? You're only fourteen?"
"As an alien, she doesn't fall under child labor laws." Tanya said, "She retains the status afforded to her via her homeworld's standards." A sizable portion of the immigration paperwork for a new species was asking questions about their cultures biology-related laws, and judgement calls had to be made on which standard to apply. Any of the dozens to hundreds of species that have the touch of Krypton in their lineage fortunately tends to have maturation timescales that aren't too far apart from each other, so using the immigrants benchmarks has yet to produce any problematic scenarios.
"Yes." Starfire said, "Tamaran has years that are shorter than yours, and we are considered adults at age twenty, which are sixteen of your years." It wasn't precisely 80%, of course, it was more like 82%, but Starfire agreed that most Tamaraneans would prefer mathematical simplicity over accuracy. "I am seventeen in Tamaranean years."
"Tamaran doesn't have public education like we do, by the way." Tanya added, "But she had a tutor." She actually had several tutors, because apparently she was some kind of nobility on Tamaran. Tanya was reasonably certain that Starfire was being deliberately obtuse as to her family's exact status, but if she was, she was doing a masterful job at pretending to just be a ditz. "She's not obligated to become educated, but she'll be taking a placement test to see where she stands anyway."
"I am a mighty warrior!" Starfire continued, flexing her muscles. They were actually reasonably large for her frame, but that frame would have normally made her look like a beanpole so she balanced out to be just tall. Briefly, Tanya wondered how accurate that strategy game was about Tamaranean culture and physiology. "I am also familiar with…" She looked at Tanya. "What did you call it? The showy fighting?"
"Gladiatorial combat." Tanya clarified, "She'll need a lot of work on the legal side of things."
"Right." Beast Boy said, clapping and rubbing his hands together. "Now…" He put his fingers together menacingly. "I believe we're missing someone in this introduction?" He said, giving Tanya what was probably supposed to be a meaningful look.
Tanya coughed. "Once more, I am not an official member of the Jump City Titans." Idly, she slipped the cowl back up, adjusting the hat sewn onto it to sit on her head just right.
"Yeah, yeah, we've heard it before… Rhine." Beast Boy declared, pointing dramatically while standing on his chair, one foot on the table.
Starfire looked confused, Nightwing laughed, while Cyborg just looked thoughtful for two seconds before his organic eye widened as he presumably put the data together.
"He caught you!" Nightwing shouted as he wheezed. "Just like Babs!" he snorted. "Oh nononono, not Babs." He corrected, "Barbie." Ugh, he knows her weaknesses! Damn brothers…
"There is no way there can be two people that boring!" Beast Boy shouted, slamming his fist on the table. "You're acting just like Rhine does when she's not rhyming all over the place, and your cowl thing's basically the same design plus a hat!"
"I could have salvaged that if you didn't give it away!" Tanya screeched at Dick, pulling out a squeaky hammer and bopping him on the head with it before putting it back.
A shadowy copy of her demon form emerged from behind her. "Our broken subterfuge, You foolish stooge!"
"So wait, how does that work?" Cyborg asked.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to juggle an identity as a child with my obligations to Batman?" Tanya asked rhetorically. "How hard it is to slip away from Bruce Wayne so he won't notice?"
"Actually that sounds like it'd be real easy." Beast Boy said
"Point." Tanya acknowledged, "But do you know how hard it is to elude the notice of Alfred Pennyworth?"
Nightwing looked thoughtful, presumably trying to figure out how it'd go if that was actually what was happening. "How do you manage it so often, anyway?" He asked.
"Illusions." Tanya said quickly before going back to the point at hand. "Look, I'm bound to this mortal shell pretty thoroughly, so I can't simply fake my death and never use it again, I need to actually stay alive." At least, according to the information she could get, which was not as reliable as she'd like. There was a decent chance that it was a lie designed to convince her not to try and break the blood binding that being born from Heather Graystone imposed upon her. "So I've spent the last ten years living in the lap of luxury, and I'd do it again if I had to."
"So you just magic yourself into an adult when you need to?" Beast Boy asked, curious. "Why did you do the whole Witch Girl thing?"
"More or less, and because Nightwing is supposed to be separate from Robin, unrelated to Batman." Tanya explained, "So I needed a new mask to go with his new mask. I thought about using a form closer to his age and tarting up the uniform to create the distinction, but then people will start saying we're dating or something." Tanya shuddered in revulsion. "Ew. No. He's my brother. Incest is not wincest, no matter what the internet says."
"I, too, would feel disgust at such a thing." Starfire agreed, "While I have not seen my brother in a long time, I would never wish to court him, no matter how handsome he becomes in our time apart."
"Exactly." Tanya said, her Rhine shadow stretching toward Starfire and giving her a high five. "So I figured I'd just use a disposable identity that doesn't really matter."
"That's smart, I guess." Cyborg said, "Why the skin tone, though?"
"My skin tone is very distinctive, it marks me as half demon." Tanya said, "I have a number of mutations derived from my demonic power, actually." She took off a glove, revealing her black unpainted nails. "This isn't nail polish, I just have obsidian fingernails." It isn't just a color, either: they were sharp. She kept them well trimmed, though, so they rarely cut things. "That's the big one, but my teeth are a little nonstandard and I have brimstone halitosis, but that's controlled." Speaking of which… She produced a vial of her breath spray and gave her throat a spritz. "My point is that someone my age, with that skin tone, and my magical studies are a matter of public record…" She trailed off.
"I get it, I get it." Cyborg said, "You have to keep your identity safe or Big Daddy Wayne's going to stop you from playing Office Lady so much, and it's your favorite game."
If he thought he was going to embarrass her by saying that… "Great!" Tanya chirped. "I'm glad we understand each other. Besides, there are advantages to staying encased in my mortal shell instead of hanging around in demon form." There were also advantages for not being in the form that shared blood with the Graystone clan, but that was a different matter entirely.
"Like what?" Starfire asked, curious.
"It's harder to summon me, mostly." Tanya explained, "If I'm wrapped up in a mortal body, I have substance that protects me from being pulled across reality just because someone's art project just so happens to have my d-mail address incorporated into it." Idly, Tanya's Rhine shadow brought out a soda can and cracked it open before passing it down to her. Oh, it's that delicious bubblegum flavored soda that she picked up when they stopped at that 'Texas Barbeque' place back in Colorado.
Nightwing looked at her. "Is that a problem?" He asked, "I've never seen you randomly summoned before, except when your mom does it."
"She's an exception to the rule, when she does it it's easier when I'm in this body, due to the blood link." Tanya clarified, "Attempts for Rhine are very common. Happens in Gotham all the time. I've learned to split off a tiny shard of my soul to send to a lot of those, they usually rejoin me a few minutes later and I have a tip to give to Batman about some abusive parent or boyfriend or something." It was the nature of domestic abuse that abusive girlfriends never get demons called on them. At least, it hadn't happened yet. "They're usually bad at it and weak to boot, I can't even hear the calls unless I'm in Gotham myself."
"That's a lot more innocent than I thought it'd be." Nightwing admitted, giving a small smile at the feel-good version of summoning.
"I get summoners who want me to murder their enemies, trap me in a box, or just attempt a booty call too." Tanya clarified, which brought that frown right back around. "The functional summoning circles that are floating around are not the kind that can really demand my presence, and even if they could compel my arrival with either the more secret circle or simply by having enough magical muscle to throw around, I'd need to be in demon form for it to work."
Beast Boy looked weirdly at her extruded Rhine body. "Hey, how hard is it to summon you when you have that thing out?" He asked.
Eh? Tanya and the Rhine puppet looked at each other. "I suppose this would lean more towards exposed…" She said, and on cue, Tanya's stomach lurched. "Oh no." She said, and the Rhine body was suddenly sucked into a black portal that opened up on the floor, dragging Tanya with it.
"Tanya!"
"Dude!"
"Oh hell naw!"
"Friend Tanya!"
Fortunately, Rhine was able to assume their full demon form in the transition. It would have been harder not to, to be frank. "Who dares this time to summon the Demon, Rhine?"
The figure in front of the shockingly slipshod summoning circle was wearing a full concealing purple cloak. "I need your help." They said immediately. Probably a girl.