JLA Watchtower (Archive)

As Bette resolves, her eyes are closed. There are some days that teleportation is better than others. Today is not one of the better days. At some point, she'll do some experimentation to see what might help - hydration, full stomach, empty stomach. Today, though, she's just following Nightwing's lead.

A shower and a nap rank high on her list of desires after this is over.

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Donna's also given the situation some thought on the quick journey from the Compound to the Tower. Normally, she's all for giving any young hero that wants to be on the Titans a fair shot but the names Terra and Deathstroke don't exactly invoke warm memories.

A part of her is hoping that this is all a huge misunderstanding and these kids aren't really half that bad. But she can't help but hear the little alarm bells going off in her head.

She turns her head to give Nightwing and Flambird a weak smile, "Let's find Vic and Kory."

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Kory is not hard to find, flying into the teleport room to greet them. "Nightwing! Troia! Flamebird!" She gathers each of them into a warm hug. "It is good to see you."

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"Head to Conference Room 2," Vic's voice came over the loud speaker. One of the benefits of being plugged into the tower; he generally knew whether someone was coming or going. And it's not like it was terribly difficult to figure out why they were here.

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Kory rolls her eyes with an expressive lift of her hands, even as she turns to lead them from the teleport room.

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Hugs from Kory are never a bad thing and rarely to be turned down. Bette looks up to the speaker and almost makes faces at it before thinking better of it for a few reasons. At least he picked one of the ones with comfy chairs. They're all the same chairs, supposedly, but certain ones are more comfortable than others.

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Meanwhile, in conference room 2, Beast Boy is kicking back in the comfy chair, his sandaled feet up on the table(It's just the guys, so Beast Boy doesn't worry about showing the sharp little claws that have developed there. He isn't even wearing gloves, for once.). "You just love doing that to people, don't you." Gar directs towards Cyborg, smirking a bit.

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"It gives him meaning in his life," deadpans Nightwing, who has appeared at the entrance to the conference room. He moves into the room, but doesn't take a seat, opting instead to rest his hands on the back of his chair. He feels a little too restless to be entirely still at present.

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Donna's silent as she enters the conference room. She gives Beast Boy and Cyborg a warm, if somewhat forced smile.

She's not really looking forward to this.

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"And its fun watching the reactions."

Vic noticed that Nightwing was, well, standing there for a moment. He raised an eyebrow and motioned towards the chair casually.

"Make yourself at home...?" Not that he should have to say that.

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Bette ends up in a chair next to Gar, giving him a smile. She doesn't throw her feet up on the table but she thinks about it for a few moments. Reaching up, she rubs the back of her neck before looking around the room thoughtfully.

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He drums his fingers on the seat's back for a moment, with a barely-perceptible shake of his head. Ill-at-ease would be putting it mildly. "What's going on?" he asks. Might as well get right to it.

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Unsurprisingly, it is Starfire who speaks first: "A girl calling herself Terra arrived at the Tower the same day as Rose Wilson." She frowns. "Rose was wearing a costume very like her father's. I still do not understand why she would so honor his colors."

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Gar smiles up at Flamebird before returning to looking saucy. He does NOT scowl at a new Terra showing up at the tower, he is totally NOT upset about that, no sir not at all. Nope nope nope.

"There's got to be more good earth-power names." Beast Boy says instead of screaming and punching a hole through the table. "'Quake Queen' or 'Miss Mountain' or 'Lady Fissure' or something that isn't freaking Terra."

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"Bart was the one who let Rose in. He said she used to babysit Lian." There was a curious, but not at all accusatory look over at Donna.

"Terra, quite literally, popped up out of a hole in the ground."

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He frowns. This knowledge doesn't help. He well knows Slade isn't averse to manipulation or to subversive tactics. "'Used to' being the operative words, here. Who's Terra, beyond a name I was kind of hoping we'd never have to hear again?"

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Donna leans forward , holding her chin in her hands. She still isn't quite sure what to say in this situation.

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"No name on the new Terra, but she apparently isn't a relative of Tara Markov. According to her, she was supposed to share powers with Tara, but things didn't quite work out that way. She also said that she was sent from below to help us, but couldn't say against what.

"She's currently on the move, trying to track down Geo-Force."

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He frowns. "She knew who Tara was? Wait, where's she from, exactly? Is she a metahuman of some kind, or what?"

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Flamebird looks at Gar at all of this talk about Tara and then again at everyone else at the table.

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"She came from 'below,'" Starfire answers, pointing to the ground. "I would guess that she is indeed metahuman, if not another species altogether."

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"Well, as long as we're not going on really vague information or anything." Gar says, his smile a little too wide to be sincere. He's good at hiding his emotions under the smartass act, but Flamebird and Cyborg can see right through him most of the time, let alone now.

He sighs, then. "Look, as far as Ravager goes...better with us than against us, right? She wants to do something different than dear ol'dad, and tossing her out isn't going to be a great incentive to keep on the wagon."

"...as for 'Terra'." Beast Boy shrugs, again. "As far as I can tell, she doesn't smoke, so that's a leg up on Markov already."

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The information about this being Ravager is news to him. He folds his arms.

"Okay, hold up. Backtrack a second. Ravager is..." He pauses, thinking back. "...Rose? Rose Wilson?"

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Donna's also taken aback by this.

"Rose...that used to babsit for Lian?"

She blinks a couple of times.

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"The same," confirms Kory. "But where has she been? She has been spending time with Speedy, and they are of an age." She nibbles on her lower lip. "Speedy has not been sheltered, at least. She had to learn to fight the battles of the mind before she picked up a bow."

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"Has she mentioned what, like..." Gar considers how delicate the situation is and goes ahead anyway, because he's used 'hey I'm wiser now!' like three times in a row. "...convinced her that it was a good idea to lose an eye and go all ninja on us?"

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He rubs at his face. "She lost an eye?"

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"Her left eye."

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Flamebird stays quiet at the table, not having anything in the way of additional information to add at this point. Besides, she's trying to be supportive of Gar. This can't be pleasant for him. She offers him a sympathetic expression, as she listens to the discussion.

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Donna bites her lip, "....And has she told anyone why? What happened?"

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"Hell of a coincidence, and I don't believe in coincidences," he murmurs. "So let me get this straight-- and correct me on anything if I'm wrong-- but what we've got right now is a young lady who may or may not be a metahuman, who knows of Tara Markov, who's shown up out of the blue, right on the heels of Slade Wilson's daughter also showing up-- a girl we used to know, but who's now missing an eye and wearing his colors. Is that about where we're at?"

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"Basically. We don't know what they're planning, if they're planning anything at all.

"But they came to us, and we weren't going to turn them away based on a bad gut feeling. For the time being, they're in, even if only to keep an eye on them and so we can learn more and try to figure them out."

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His mouth flattens into a line. He understands Cyborg's logic, certainly, but as he glances to Gar, whose entire cheery demeanour throughout has seemed to be a little forced, he's not sure he's entirely at ease with the concept in practice. And the last time Slade paid them a visit, the Tower had been decimated. And Lian had been here at the time-- something that's always rankled with him.

No, there's absolutely nothing that could go wrong here, whatsoever.

"Friends close, enemies closer, and all that. Question is, is that what Slade's counting on?" He doesn't need to mention Jericho. "And even if he doesn't know his daughter's here... what about when he does? I'm not entirely prepared to put the younger Titans at risk here when it comes to someone like him. We had a hard enough time when he last came knocking, and that was for Joey's disk."

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"If you're not willing to risk them against someone like Slade, then they don't belong on the team at all. There is no doing this halfway." It's not an idea that sits well with him, but its an honest statement. "But that's an argument for another time.

"Right now, we don't know who is pulling their strings, or even if someone is. All we have to go on are some really bad memories of people they're associated with. I'm not saying anyone is wrong for thinking that this will come back to bite us in the ass; I think that. And if it does, that's what we have you around for."

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"Slade isn't someone I can deal with, Vic, much less these kids. And he doesn't act alone these days - that's what worries me. We're who they look to when the bad shit happens. We're supposed to learn from our mistakes, not repeat them. If we can stop it from happening in the first place, so much the better." He raises his hands, palms outward. "I'm not saying we shouldn't keep them where we can see them. But there's a lot of maybe's riding on this."

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Donna gives Nightwing a weak smile.

"I really don't know what to say in this situation, you've said you've been keeping an eye on them, which is a good step to take. Have any of the other Titans noticed anything out of the ordinary? Said that something seemed off?"

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Vic sighed a little.

"Look, I know we threw the long ball on this one. No one needs you to point that out. We--" He paused, trying to parse out the right words.

"I don't blame anyone for being uncomfortable with this, even if we are going into this eyes wide open. But with this risk we also have a chance to take two talented, powerful young women and help turn them in to heroes. Last I checked, that was part of the job description."

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Starfire looks perplexed. "What long ball? I did not hear Nightwing say anything about us throwing anything ... he merely wishes to understand."

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"So what are you saying, Dick?" Gar asks, pulling his gloves back on as he is abruptly horribly uncomfortable with anyone looking at his horrible, ugly green hands and terrible little claws. "I mean, I guess I don't see what else there is to understand. We're taking the dumb option because good is dumb."

"If we're worried about ol'Nobody and his funtime pals, let's do something about it. Do we know why he's suddenly a team player? Has he just gotten lonely in his old age and figured that C-list supervillains are less pathetic than getting a couple cats?"

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He shakes his head. "Dr. Light and the League had a lot to do with it. It's not like when we were kids, running around on the weekends without the older folks breathing down our necks. The stakes are a lot higher now. As far as Slade's concerned, we brainwashed his son. And then Joey died, and regardless of whether he's a decent parent or not, that's not something you tend to forget." And regardless of how the others feel, he's a parent these days, and that changes one's perspective.

"We were naiive, not dumb. But we've got more than just ourselves to worry about now." He looks to Donna. "I'd recommend not bringing Lian out here for a while. Not until we know, either way, what's going on with Rose. I don't know if he's using her to maybe get to Lian, and I'd rather not find out the hard way."

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Whether this was the smartest thing to do, he's not going to argue about. It wasn't. But whether it was the right thing to do? He can't say it's not.

"A reasonable precaution. I also want to keep them strictly on the west coast. The less access they have to the east, the less damage you'll sustain if this blows up on us."

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Bette reaches out to take one of Gar's hands if it doesn't end up being too awkward. She doesn't want to end up fighting him for it, after all. "It seems a good idea to limit the possible fallout. If there ends up being fallout."

Because you have to hope for the best, right?

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Donna nods, "I'll do that," she says, "I'll let Roy know what's going on well."

Rose did use to babysit for Lian after all.

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He nods. "Yeah. I'll brief the others when we get back. Not a bad time to go over the contingency plans with everyone, in any case." A brief pause. "I don't suppose we can talk this new Terra into maybe taking a name other than Terra, can we?"

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Gar does a little 'THANK you.' motion with his free hand, lightly squeezing Bettie's hand in appreciation.

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Vic quietly shrugged with his eyebrow.

"Couldn't hurt to ask her."

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