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Anubis walked carefully behind Aaron, his measured steps shorter than he preferred. Aaron wasn’t moving slow, but Anubis had long legs. However, he did not attempt to pass or crowd the other, keeping an exact distance between them. He paused when Aaron stopped and dutifully looked at anything the other boy pointed out. With a complete lack of response from Anubis, yet obviously having his full focus, Aaron had turned into a tour guide. He had started talking almost nonstop about different features of the tower, the different rooms and their purposes, or pointing out something interesting Cyborg had done. Anubis didn’t understand a large portion of what Aaron was saying but he kept silent and nodded occasionally anyways. All the information was stored away in his mind. Though he didn’t necessarily understand what it mean, Anubis had an excellent memory and could likely regurgitate everything Aaron said. Maybe, sometime in the future, he could ask for some clarification.

Of course, Aaron was delighted to have someone’s unwavering attention. It did not even occur to him that he had long lost Anubis in his waves of technical talk. He was probably fangirling a bit over Cyborg’s work. Aaron had gotten the specs and layout of North Fort, but this was the first time he was seeing it in person. With Anubis dutifully looking at everything Aaron pointed out, he couldn’t help but point out…well everything. It didn’t really bother him that Anubis wasn’t speaking. In fact, lost in his excitement about how well North Forst was put together, he didn’t even notice.

Aaron would have likely shown, and talked about, every last corner of the base to Anubis if strange words hadn’t suddenly drifted across his mind. In the midst of talking about one of their training rooms (they had five), the words “is there anyone here” were definitely different. Anubis stiffened suddenly, his body becoming even more rigid. His fingers clenched together and he tightened his jaw. He recognized the words as coming from someone else. Anubis knew what his teammates looked like, and their names, but he had not been informed about their powers. One of them was obviously telepathic, however, which he wasn’t sure he liked at all. He did not like it when people got into his head. Not anymore.

“Ah, looks like someone else has shown up. Great!” Aaron said enthusiastically, unperturbed by the voice. “Off to the main room then. I was going to save that for last, but we better go meet her.” Anubis nodded and followed once again. They were a few floors away from the main room, which occupied the exact center of North Fort, so by the time the two boys entered Aqua and Stardust had arrived as well.

Anubis stopped just inside the door. His eyes flickered to the moving furniture then onto the three girls who were gathered inside. He wasn’t certain, but he thought the green-haired one was the one moving things. She was certainly moving her hands like she was directing furniture around. However, his attention switched to the girl with the blue hair instead: Aqua. She was the leader of this new team. Anubis turned and walked towards her.

Meanwhile, Aaron was smiling. “Doing some feng-shui, huh?” he said cheerfully. “I like everyone’s hair colors.” He pointed to Celeste, Aqua and Stardust all in general. “Feel like I should dye mine pink now.” He pushed a hand through his short, dirty blond hair.

Anubis paused a short distance away from Aqua. He drew his feet together and let his arms rest stiffly at his sides, standing in the attention-position. “Hello,” he greeted her, rather formally. “I am Anubis. I’m looking forward to serving you.” Anubis bowed his head deeply then returned his formed position. He could still see everyone else as well as most of the moving furniture, which he was keeping a careful eye on.

“Anubis and I were taking a tour around the place,” Aaron chipped in. “I’m Aaron by the way. I didn’t think everyone would show up so early. That’s cool that we’re all here now.”

Ren shoved a few stray locks of her ebony hair behind her ear out of nerves. What had she gotten herself into? Running away from home? Getting caught up with teenaged superheroes... emphasis on the teenaged. Ren felt way out of her league. What did she know about anything? A soft sigh escaped her lips as she hefted her backpack higher onto her shoulder and stepped off the subway that had brought her to Core City. She took a tentative step out of the terminal and onto the city streets of what would be here new home. She drank in the sights and smells. Skyscrapers reached high-up in the air, cars zipped around the streets barely heading the pedestrians that roamed the sidewalks. Loud honks could be heard as morning traffic began and all of the employed citizens tried to vie for lanes to bring them to their destinations.

Ren found the city to be chaotic, in a way. Nothing she was used to. After staring at her surroundings for what seemed to be hours, she shook her head and began walking again, trying to figure out where the heck she was supposed to go. Robin hadn't been very clear as to where she was going, just to look for the tallest building on the outskirts of town called Northfort. She trudged forward, stepping out into the middle of the street. The cars were all stationary and unmoving, so she didn't see anything wrong with it, until, of course, halfway through the intersection the light turned green again, and she received angry blasts and rude words as she made a mad dash to safety. Panting slightly, and scared out of her mind, she looked up.

"What's wrong with you people...." She muttered.

After catching her breath Ren began again, this time, keeping to the sidewalks where she saw people standing, and not crossing the roads. She could find where she was going couldn't she? A few minutes later, she glanced through the window of a shop and paused. Delicious smelling scents drifted out, making her mouth water, and her stomach growl. She pushed the door open, a tiny bell ringing to signify her presence.

"What can I do for you ma'am."

The voice was nice, but the look the woman gave her said differently. It was a cautious look. Ren didn't know that her shaggy hair and dirty clothing made her look like a homeless person. Well, she was homeless, but she didn't understand the concept of paying for things.

"Yes, hi, may I have one of those?"

She pointed to a small sliver of pie off to the side. The gooey insides were seeping out, and the golden brown crust was just the most beautiful concoction she had ever seen. She wasn't allowed sugary anything at her house, so this was a new experience. The woman gave her a wary look.

"Can you pay for it?"

Ren didn't understand. All of the shows she watched, nice grandmotherly ladies ran the sweet shop, and usually gave away free samples to the children.

"No-"

"Then get out, you have no business here you street urchin!"

Her words frightened Ren, and she quickly scurried out, her dream of pie crushed. Ren had to focus, and stop getting side tracked by the new town. She needed a map. Near a small park a few yards away, she saw a tourist map that told her where she was, and scanning the map she found where the fort was. North of her position, a few miles. Buildings blocked the view, but he thought she could see the top of a giant building, and so she took off once more.

About an hour later she reached the giant T shaped building. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach and she began thinking of all the reasons why she shouldn't knock on the door. Would they like her? Would they think she was a freak? Would she be accepted? She had to block the negative thoughts from her mind. She couldn't let Robin down, not after she had come this far already. She approached the door, not finding a door knob, and rapped her knuckles against the solid metal frame.

“No, no, Stardust,” Aaron said as he shook his head, a smile still on his face. He had immediately identified each girl from their picture. It wasn’t like he could go about mistaking any of them what with their vastly different hair…Stardust also looked like she was glowing somewhat and there was a sparkly haze about her. “Not ‘fun way’ feng-shui,” he enunciated clearly. Aaron’s instinctive love of explaining everything had kicked in. “It’s a Chinese art of rearranging furniture or landscape to help balance the energies of an area. In this case – the common room. It’s supposed to be pretty relaxing. Course, I never saw what was relaxing about dragging a heavy couch halfway across the room…but if Celeste can just levitate stuff, that makes it a lot easier.” He chuckled a little.

It was at this point, Celeste started making the furniture fly around the room. Anubis turned his head to watch the pieces. Anytime something came too close, he would bend out of the way or take a step to the side. Normally, he wouldn’t even be able to feel something hitting him but he had no idea how Celeste was making the room fly about. To be on the safe side, he decided avoidance was the best tactic rather than letting anything smash into his body. Besides, he had already been told about how he should try to avoid breaking Titan property. Some things were, apparently, excusable in the training room but as this was the common area, Anubis knew it didn’t apply. He needed black and white rules like that.

Aaron continued to smile but a slight frown had appeared across his forehead. He watched the flying furniture only for a second before a beeping computer caught his attention. Turning away, Aaron walked over to the computer set in the wall and tapped on the keyboard. It brought up a security video outside the front door, showing another girl standing there. Aaron’s smile vanished into a puzzled frown. Who was she? All the teammates he had been informed about were already here…Well, he might as well go check.

“Hey, be back in a sec, guys!” Aaron called over his shoulder as he jogged out of the main room, just missing seeing Celeste smack Stardust with a chair.

Anubis blinked when Stardust was struck. The fact she did not cry out in pain did not startle him. Though he knew most people hurt when they were hit with stuff, he was still in the habit of seeing others simply absorb any sort of injuries. When people reacted negatively, or in pain, to Anubis was when he became flustered and upset, realizing that he had gone too far again. His jackal helmet turned to Celeste, noting her apology was real. However, he didn’t understand why she had struck Stardust in the first place. The notion Celeste didn’t have complete control of her powers, even after such a display, did not occur to Anubis.

The tall boy became even more confused when Stardust simply chucked the chair right back at Celeste. The edges of his mouth turned down in a frown and he looked to Aqua again, automatically seeking out the opinion of the leader. “Are we doing a training exercise?” he asked cautiously. He was unsure how she felt about being questioned but at the same time, Anubis wanted to make sure he was doing things properly. If they were supposed to be training by throwing about furniture (strange, but he had seen odder techniques) then he wanted to make sure to be involved too. He could probably pick up that couch and toss it…

Meanwhile, Aaron headed back downstairs to the large front door where the unfamiliar girl was waiting. He typed the code quickly into the pad to open the door again. It slid open partially – only wide enough for a single person to go through at a time. This space Aaron stepped into as he looked quizzically at the girl. “Hi. What can I do for you?” he asked, his tone friendly though obviously puzzled. He kept one hand on the inside of the door, hidden behind the wall, his fingers within easy reach of the control pad. Long experience had taught Aaron caution, even with someone as normal looking at this gal.

Before Aylin—Celeste—could respond to her, the two boys appeared, one of whom immediately moved towards her. She tilted her head to the side at his greeting, then was filled with the conflicting desires to both sigh and laugh. Instead, she settled for shaking her head gently.

“You might want to loosen up a bit,” said Aqua, casually knocking her fingers against his chest. “You look a little creepy just standing there like that.” She paused a moment, then added, “And don’t be silly. You’re not serving anyone. I’m just an organizer.”

She glanced past him to notice that the furniture was moving again, and Aqua wondered just how much control Celeste would be able to muster. Or continue to muster. Her gaze drifted towards the pink haired girl. Stardust. Even if Aqua hadn’t known ahead of time, it would be easy to tell that the girl wasn’t human, not with the way she was leaving glitter all over the place. That would be…interesting to keep clean. Maybe she’d hand that task off to Anubis.

Unfortunately, it looked like Stardust’s appearance startled Celeste into loosing control, and the furniture moved more rapidly, glowing the same color as Celeste’s eyes. Although none of the pieces came quite close enough to Aqua to pose a threat, she saw—too late to stop it—one item thunk against Stardust. Celeste immediately started apologizing, and Aaron ran to go answer a knock at the door. Everything was happening so quickly, and although Aqua wasn’t having trouble keeping up, she was beginning to realize just how difficult the task of leading this group was going to be. Yet again, she found herself wondering how she’d let Robin convince her that she was suited for this responsibility.

And then Stardust tossed a chair back at Celeste. It was clearly apparent that the girl thought that throwing furniture was some weird kind of greeting.

So she had an inexperienced telekinetic, an overly stiff male thing, a clueless alien, and whatever Aaron was. And that was just the start.

What? Anubis thought this was training?

“No, we’re not,” Aqua answered. “Not yet.”

She decided to let the situation continue for a little bit longer; so long as no one actually got hurt, her intervention wasn’t exactly necessary.

The name the girl gave did not strike any bells with Aaron. He had already met all the members he had been informed about. They were currently inside, avoiding furniture, last he saw. However, he did not particularly think Ren was lying either. For one thing, she was stammering and stuttering so badly Aaron could instantly see it was real nerves rather than an act. “Yep, this is Northfort,” he agreed. “So you’re in the right spot. Gimme just a sec…” Aaron pulled back from the door in order to look at the computer set in the wall. If this girl really was supposed to be a member of their team, then it would say something in the computer. It wasn’t like Robin to not at least update that, even if he did forget to tell everyone else. Or Aaron anyways. Maybe Aqua knew.

Before Aaron could do little more than put his fingers to the keyboard, however, the girl suddenly collapsed on the ground. He blinked and looked back. Aaron stared at her for a moment, monitoring her breathing, then went back to the computer. She could stay passed out for a few moments while he looked up her information. Probably more convenient anyways. With a few quick strokes of his fingers, he brought up files upon the computer which he scanned through quickly. A couple more programs blinked onto the screen, Aaron browsing through everything. Then some more typing followed by him shutting it all down again.

Aaron mumbled something under his breath and opened the door all of the way. Stepping outside, he bent down to shake Ren awake. She should at least get the opportunity to make a good impression on everyone else. “Hey, wake up,” he said as he shook her shoulder. “Don’t make me shock you. I will and it’s not very…” He trailed off at the sound of shattering glass.

The teen’s head snapped up in time to see Celeste toppling towards the ground. Aaron’s mouth opened in alarm and he actually got three steps across the grounds, his boots activating before he saw Celeste had somehow stopped herself. He paused and deactivated his boots, dropping back the few inches he had been hovering. “Celeste! Are you okay?” he called out in worry, watching as the green-haired girl drifted slowly to the ground. Aaron was glad to see she had enough control of her powers to stop herself from plummeting to the ground.

“What the hell happened?” Aaron demanded. He had been gone for three minutes! And they were already throwing one another out windows?! Unfortunately, Aaron’s question was destined to go unanswered as Celeste crumpled to the ground in a dead faint as well. He stared at the two unconscious women sprawled at his feet.

Aaron sighed heavily. “I feel like I should make a witty comment about this, but for the life of me, I can’t think of one right now.” Such a wasted opportunity too. He bent down between the two girls and shook them both by the shoulder. “Okay, ladies, I know I look strong but I can’t carry you both. One of you need to wake up; preferably both. Celeste….Ren…come on now.”

Upstairs in the main room, Anubis nodded at Aqua’s assertion that this was not, in fact, some sort of training exercise. Well, he didn’t know what it was then but he was going to take his cues from Aqua. Since she stood by and watched, so did Anubis. Even as Celeste was hurtled out of the window and tossed from sight. He glanced to Stardust, wondering if she had meant to do that, then padded over to the broken window. Oblivious to the glass on the floor and lintel, Anubis leaned on the bottom of the window and leaned out to see what was happening below.

“Aaron is down there. But there’s another girl besides Celeste,” he reported as he straightened back up and looked around to Aqua again. “Both appear to be unconscious.” Anubis had heard Aaron, but he hadn’t been able to distinguish the exact words. He didn’t like to see Celeste unconscious on the ground like that. Had she been hurt from the fall? He had no idea she had managed to levitate herself. As far as Anubis knew, Celeste had fallen on top of the other girl and that’s why they were both passed out. Either one of them could be injured. Then, of course, there was the question of the strange girl and why she was here in the first place. Anubis hoped it wasn’t some civilian. They were supposed to protect the people of Core City – not drop teammates on them.

It wasn’t in Anubis’ nature to question his leader but he did tilt his head questioningly. If the jackal helmet hadn’t been so fierce looking, it might have been a comical move. Like a confused dog.

A python silvered on dark wooden floor into a candle lighted room. This python wasn't like the heat loving, scaled reptiles that either people love or hate. No, this particular snake wasn't made from flesh and bones or even nature. Its skin was a mixture of dark greens and browns with specks of white, and it had the texture of fuzzy, withering plant. This mold snake silvered its way up a bronze candle stand next to a Victorian style leather chair until it came head level with its mistress. His mistress? A tall woman in a green and black dress, black gloves, and a green masquerade mask by the name of Octavia Williams, or better knew publicly in the the city as Mistress Fungus.

The mold python was hissing, but not in a threatening way, as Octavia gentle stroked its head with her gloved hand. "I know, my pet. We got some unwelcomed visitors in Core City. Don't you threat now, your beloved creator shall make quick work out of them real soon." As she calmed the snake down, Octavia stood and walked over to the large bookshelf that was covering one of the walls in the room. A finger scanned the books swiftly until it came across on the one it was looking for. Octavia pulled the book half-way out until a loud clank sounded. A section of the bookcase popped out a few feet and then slid back over to reveal a set of stone staircases leading downward. "Let's see if the newborns are ready to stretch out their legs. Those simple minded teenagers wouldn't know what hit them."

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Underneath Northfort, a small army were on the move. Small as in every sense of the word, a few in number and small in size. Ten greenish grey frogs were hopping along in the base's sewer systems. Each frog looked like sharp tiny leaves for skin with four pipes on their backs. These spore frogs release black clouds of fungal spores and the spores would cause hallucinations to humans that breathed into it and unknown effects to aliens. When the sewer pipe started to break off into smaller pipes, the tiny army split into five groups of two and hopped on their way. Two managed to go though the kitchen sink, four others from different toilets, two emerged from the pool, and the last two came into the tower by a bathroom sink.

Some of the spore frogs hopped around into a couple of important looking rooms and began filling them with their black clouds. Others were on a teen-hunt, and once they came across members of the Teen Titans they crocked and looked innocent for a few moments. In hopes one or more would pick them up before they too release their welcome package of spores. Once the frogs were emptied out, the free or unnoticed ones escaped back into the sewers.

With phase one of her plans completed, Mistress Fungus wasted no time into executing phase two while the Titans were confused and possibly loosing grip on reality by senses effected by the spores. With a snap of her fingers, two giants stomped on their way to the tower. The giants fungal monstrosities were about ten feet tall each with a series of mushroom tops for their heads and torsos. Their arms and legs were made out of vine-like structures, but shot out an acid to dissolve the old military wall. As the two approached the tower, they began to shot more acid into the outer wall to create an entrance of their own. What didn't dissolve was pushed out of the way by their brute strength.

As the mycoloths, the two mushroom giants, entered the tower Mistress Fungus stood in wait. It was just not smart or fun to let those teenagers know who was about to make their first day on the job their last. There's no pleasure unless they squirm and scream a little first.

And then all of the sudden Celeste was falling out the window. Aqua darted towards the broken glass, sticking her head out the window. She didn’t bother about her own safety, realizing that her hands scraped across the shards of broken glass only after it was too late. Still, it looked like Celeste managed to control her fall, enough to prevent herself from splatting against the ground beside the tower.

That was a relief.

She turned away and took a few steps back towards the center of the room, nodding once when Anubis made his report. These people…how was she supposed to lead them when nothing they did made any sense?

“Wait, another girl?”

Aqua returned to the window, taking care to avoid the broken glass this time, and stared down at the ground where Aaron stood between the two unconscious girls. Well, at least that’s what it looked like. Her senses probably weren’t as sharp as Anubis’.

“Stardust, we don’t—”

Aqua couldn’t even finish her response before Stardust jumped out of the window, which honestly didn’t even surprise her. Even if she hadn’t known that the girl could fly, her nonreaction likely would’ve been the same—a simple sigh. She turned back towards Anubis, now that he was the only one left with her in the room and shook her head. Now that things were off to such a fantastic start, she supposed that the two of them should go ahead and join the others.

“I’ll meet you downstairs,” Aqua said. “I’m going to get something for my hands.”

She wasn’t exactly sure where she might find a few bandages, but Aqua opted to search in one of the bathrooms first. However, she never quite made it all the way there before the hallway started writhing around her, twisting and readjusting its position. She had to stop, noticing too late the faint black cloud lingering in the air. It faded almost as quickly as she’d seen it, and everything started changing.

Aqua started running down the corridor, trying not to let its constant movement make her too dizzy, even when it looked like she was walking on the ceiling or that it was about to drop off into nothing.

She finally made it to the front door, and that was when she started hearing her father’s voice.

That window was not going to be converted to a doorway. No matter how many girls went flying out of it. Aaron glanced up at Stardust. “No, I don’t think they’re hurt. Just fainted.” Of course, Celeste might have some injuries from the glass in the window, but she wasn’t in danger of bleeding out immediately. Aaron actually couldn’t see any wounds on her at all. “And of course not!” he added indignantly to Stardust’s question. What sort of sign of trust was that? Thinking he had incapacitated a civilian, really. Aaron knew his stuff more than that. “This is Ren, she’s one of our new team mates.”

Luckily, the sound of her name seemed to waken Ren up. Or else she just roused on her own. It didn’t matter. Aaaron was just relieved she was waking up. “Yeah, you did actually. It’s okay. Welcome to the team, Ren,” he said quite cheerfully like it was normal for women to pass out around his feet. Considering that Celeste was also unconscious nearby, there was some evidence to back that up.

“She’ll be fine, I think,” Aaron reassured Ren. He was about to turn back to see if he could rouse Celeste when he paused. He lifted his head and narrowed his eyes. “You guys hear that?” Aaron asked, but didn’t really wait for an answer. It sounded like the thuds of heavy footsteps. He glanced behind him to make sure it wasn’t Anubis coming down the hall (that guy was tall) then over to the outer wall. “Just a sec…” Aaron said for the second time. Jumping over the two girls, he activated his boots and flew up into the air just in time to see two gigantic mushrooms smash through the outer wall of Northfort.

“Mushrooms!” Aaron yelped, which wasn’t really the most brilliant thing to say but in his long career as a hero, he had never been attacked by ten-foot-tall mushrooms which also seemed to be spraying acid if the melting stones were anything to go by. “Look out!” He roared at the top of his lungs as the mushrooms shot more acid towards the fort proper. Luckily, Celeste had woken up and seemed to make a shield to protect Aqua, who had just run out, from being hurt.

Upstairs, Anubis nodded curtly when Aqua announced she would meet him downstairs. Presumably with where the others had gone. As she had not specified, that’s what he was going with. He turned away from the broken window and trotted across the main room to the hallway. Anubis could have leapt out the window too, but Celeste and the other girl, as well as Aaron and now Stardust were almost directly beneath it. Anubis didn’t want to risk landing on their heads, which would have been a very bad thing.

Just as Anubis reached the door, a soft croak came from the kitchen sink. He paused, surprised, before shifting his destination to the kitchen instead. Upon approaching the sink he noticed two frogs crawling up out of it. Except they didn’t look like any sort of frogs he had seen before. More like living leaves…It was at that moment the frogs released a black cloud right at Anubis. With a grunt of surprise, the tall boy stumbled back. Unfortunately, his helmet did not include any sort of filtration system and the strange spores immediately set to work on his mind. The lights dimmed and went strange colors while black shadows pulsed on the wall and across the floor. Anubis’ eyes dilated and his breathing escalated as he whirled about.

He roared and lashed out, fingers in his gloves. The kitchen counter cracked and smashed into the ground as his brute strength hit it. The lights pulsed, but the ugly shadows did not change. And suddenly something clicked in Anubis’ mind. He had been trained against things like this, for when he couldn’t trust his own eyes. He immediately shut them, heart hammering. With his eyes tightly shut, Anubis bolted across the room. Going by memory only, he raced along Northfort’s hallways, occasionally clipping a corner or smashing a hole in the walls with his elbows, but never once slowing his pace.

Anubis made it to the front door. However, because his eyes were closed, he had no idea Aqua was standing there as well. He careened into the girl then stumbled over Celeste on the ground. He chanced opening his eyes. The light was even stranger outside and the shadows were still present and now everything seemed to be tilting and twisting strangely. But there was Aqua and the other girls (maybe) as well as huge mushroom-like things. Anubis didn’t know if those were any more real than the girls. He snapped his eyes shut again.

“Aqua!” he gasped. “Mushrooms. Leaf-frogs in the sink! Did something strange…a drug. It’s affecting my mind.” With his eyes closed, Anubis suddenly had no doubts those gigantic mushrooms were real. For one thing, he could hear their ponderous steps and the sound of something ominous spraying. He couldn’t trust his eyes, but his hearing seemed just fine. Weird smells were crossing his nose so Anubis decided not to make any judgments on whether those were real or not.

“I believe we’re under attack,” Anubis summed up the obvious.

Flying in the air, Aaron had not been touched by the hallucinatory spores, but he was mentally kicking himself all the same. He did not have his Shocksticks with him. They were in his room. Aaron hadn’t thought he would need them since he was going to be meeting everyone. What a stupid, rookie mistake to make. Of course he should have his weapons on him at all times – that year off must’ve gotten him a little more than he thought. He could never not expect trouble to happen, as it just had. Granted, Aaron wasn’t really sure what his Shocksticks would do against giant mushrooms, but they were better than nothing, which is what he currently had.

A quick glance at the ground showed that most everyone was still down there floundering around. Aaron had no idea what was going on, but he couldn’t let his friends get smashed by a giant mushroom. It would be a terrible thing to put on their grave. So he dove for the closest mushroom’s acid-spewing arm aiming to grab it and redirect it away from Northfort and the other Titans.