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Ren nodded, thankful that her story had some how been validated. Her sigh of relief had come too soon, as moments later, a giant mushroom could be seen spewing some sort of acidic content all over the fort. She couldn't believe her eyes. Mushrooms?! How the hell did they grow to be that size? And just... There were no words to describe the situation.

To make matters worst, another burly member of the team- she hoped- came bumbling out of the door tripping and stumbling, shouting about frogs and the poison being like a hallucinogen. Why couldn't she have been eased into the whole super hero thing? Why did everything have to get so chaotic now? Even as her mind reeled, and tried to shut her down mentally, she forced the adrenaline through her veins. There had to be something she could do to help, even if her combat skills were sorely lacking at this moment.

"How do we stop it?"

It seemed like a valid question. She had no idea if they dealt with things like this on a daily basis, but she knew she had never com across a giant mushroom or legions of poisonous frogs that wanted to infiltrate an entire building.

Aqua stumbled outside, falling to her knees and barely noticing Celeste’s shield over her head or even the enormous golems beginning their assault on the building. All she knew was the that the world pulsated around her and that her father lingered somewhere nearby. She could hear him so clearly—Aqua felt certain that he was right in front of her, somewhere, but she just hadn’t noticed him yet.

“So you let someone recruit you, did you?” She knew he would be shaking his head, even if his tone was more lighthearted than not. “And as a leader, too. Don’t get anyone killed, or you’ll always regret it.”

His words dissipated as some massive weight tumbled over her, knocking her further onto the ground. Aqua groaned, then forced herself to look up, and for the first time she noticed the mushroom monsters headed their way. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to focus on breathing, on regaining her sense of reality, on sifting through the situation.

Some leader she was turning out to be.

Their first day on the job and things were already turning out quite chaotically.

Aqua staggered through her memory, searching for any spell that might weaken the effects of whatever drug or poison this was. She wasn’t a healer, though; Aqua had always loved spells related to water and ice, and although she’d learned a handful of other spells for special occasions, she doubted that her weak healing spell would have much of an impact on the drug coursing through her system.

Still, it was worth a try.

“I know, Anubis,” she managed.

Crawling onto her knees, Aqua held one hand out in front of her, concentrating all of her energy on this single spell. A silvery glyph appeared parallel to her hand, and within seconds, a warm light appeared over her head and fell over her body. All signs of the magic disappeared within seconds, and Aqua remained still for a moment longer, trying to determine if she’d met any manner of success.

Aqua slowly managed to stand, still keeping her eyes closed. Well, it at least seemed like the vertigo had faded a little bit, even if everything around her continued to do that weird pulsating thing and Anubis looked like his body had been twisted around like a pretzel. Aqua could tell that if she tried to aim any kind of magic at the monsters, she probably would end up hitting one of her own teammates.

The young woman pushed her hair out of her face, exhaling deeply and trying to focus on the monsters approaching them. Whoever was controlling them had certainly selected an advantageous day for an attack.

“Anubis, Celeste, can you fight?”

She wasn’t sure what had happened to Aaron or Stardust, but she assumed they were both somewhere in the air. And then there was this new girl, the one she hadn’t been informed of. Maybe there was some kind of message waiting on one of the computers for her, but Aqua hardly had time to go check.

“And you, can we count on you? What are your powers?”

Anubis was blissfully unaware of Aqua casting magic only a few feet away from him. As the magic was cast over herself and his eyes were shut, he sensed nothing, which was well since Anubis did not like magic. Nonetheless, he had his head cocked towards Aqua, waiting to see what her plan was. She would obviously have some sort of plan. Anubis did not doubt that. He could hear things thudding, the hissing of stuff dissolving. Without sight, he could not be entirely certain what was happening, but he knew enough to realize they were being attacked, and it was bad. As best as he was able, Anubis moved forward in front of the various women. That spraying and hissing sound was ominously close. He didn’t know what it was, but he also knew he had a better chance of being okay from it than his teammates.

“Yes, I can fight. Direct me where to go,” Anubis answered quickly, voice tenser than before. His metal claws scraped together as he shifted his fingers. He wanted to run out there immediately and fight off whatever invaders had dared to attack them. Anubis cracked his eyes open a little but then immediately shut them again. His vision had gotten worse. Even that brief look had been terrible – like the entire world had twisted around. He instinctively braced his legs but the ground did not move at all. He couldn’t fight, not well anyways, with his eyes shut. While Anubis had good senses, they were not heightened. He could run forward blindly and try to attack, but it wouldn’t be particularly good.

Up in the air, Aaron glanced back briefly when Stardust called him. She used his code name, something he hadn’t heard in a while, but he didn’t have time to wonder if she knew it was all right to simply call him ‘Aaron.’ The mushrooms were the current problem. “Mushrooms, not frogs, Stardust,” he said, unaware that she was talking about something completely different. How someone, even an alien, could confuse ten-foot tall mushrooms were frogs was beyond him. But as for the problem with everyone else, Aaron had already noticed that. But he figured he should stop them from getting melted with acid first.

Aaron dove forward smoothly towards one of the mushrooms. Grabbing an acid-spewing tentacle without melting his flesh was going to be tricky but perhaps….Unfortunately, there was no ‘perhaps’ at all as the mushroom lashed out shockingly quick. Aaron grunted as he was grabbed and flung towards the ground. Instinct kicked in and he twisted his body. There was too much momentum for his levi-boots to stop him completely, but he was able to use them to slow his fall so he hit the ground at a tumble instead of a bone-breaking slam.

He landed only a short distance away from Aqua and the others. Anubis whipped around to the noise. “Damnit,” Aaron groaned as he clambered to his feet. Anubis relaxed at the familiar sound of Aaron’s voice. “Okay, need different plan. Preferably before the entire tower gets melted…”

It was at that moment one of the mushrooms suddenly disintegrated into a giant puddle of mush and acid, killing all the grass in the yard instantly. “Oh…” Aaron said rather stupidly. He was just on the ball today.

“Anubis, can you get that other mushroom back?” he demanded. Anubis nodded but didn’t move. Aaron glanced at him and finally noticed the other boy’s eyes were shut behind his helmet. “Err, five feet ahead, two feet to the left?” The words were hardly out of his mouth when Anubis charged forward.

Anubis didn’t know how tall the mushrooms were, so he decided to go overboard. He lowered his shoulder, turning his body slightly, and ran unerringly at the mushroom, mind counting down the distance automatically. With all his power singled into a narrow point, Anubis smashed into the mushroom, using all of his considerable strength into pushing the mutation back. His claws dug into the soft flesh of the mushroom to enhance his grip.

“Stardust, make it go boom!” Aaron yelled. Hey, if it worked once… “Aqua, are you guys okay?”

And now she was confused. Did Raze not see the frogs, or were they mushroom frogs? Was that a new name for them or a different species? Goodness, Aaron seemed very smart, so she was a little confused. Though, there was the chance he didn't see the frogs.

While she pondered one of the mushrooms knocked her back. "Eeeeee!" she screamed, half joyfully, the other half scared. Stardust twisted and spun until she was upright again, hovering in the air. She shook her head to steady herself. The alien glanced down at the skin on her arm where it was burning. Her eyes wided. "Ah! Get it off, get it off!" She squealed. She shook around like crazy, trying to salvage her skin that had gotten dotted with acid.

It was at that moment she heard Aaron yell. "Make it go boom." Stardust looked at the monster, her expression going from positive to pissed off. She also took note of the green glow. Now that she was fully pissed that her teammates had been injured as well as herself, she was ready to get rid of this monster. Stardust flew forward, glitter sparkling everywhere. She swirled around the head of the mushroom monster, then in an X formation around it's torso, and even circled one of the legs that Anubis didn't run into. Explosions boomed as she swirled her dust around the monster. The female was going to extra lengths by flailing.

Later that day…

The outside control panel on the Tower beeped and Aaron tapped a few buttons. He read the information scrolling across it. “Good news everyone, the Tower’s been completely purged and swept clean. No more mind-altering chemicals inside,” he announced to the others, pulling on a grin. He double-checked the information on the screen, but there was no mistaking it. The Tower was safe to reenter again. After the last of the mushrooms had been disintegrated to sludge, it had taken a little bit to piece together what had happened to the others inside the building. Since no one knew where the strange spore-emitting frogs had gotten to, Aaron had done a complete purge of the Tower, keying in sequences to clean the air and scan for any other frogs or other things that shouldn’t be in there. While that had been running (it was a big building and wasn’t going to get done fast), he and the rest of the Titans had worked on cleaning up Northfort’s yard. There was only such much they could do about the damaged outer walls at the moment, but at least they didn’t have a sludge-pond feature anymore. Anubis, Aqua and Celeste had all gotten the drugs out of their system so they could operate properly without being assaulted by strange visions.

“I say we grab something to eat,” Aaron invited cheerfully. The doors of the Tower opened, expelling air that smelled overwhelmingly of air freshener. He gagged and stepped back. “Maybe open some windows too,” he added. Though it was an overpowering aroma of Ocean Breeze, at least the air was breathable. He stepped inside and pressed another button on the inside panel. A few windows along the length Northfort cracked open to properly aerate the building.

Anubis tilted his head up to look at the large T hovering high over their head, watching a few of the windows. He then glanced over at the still-ruined walls. He had helped carry and replace several of the stones, but the walls needed proper maintenance. They would have to work on that at some point. While Anubis didn’t like leaving jobs half-done, he recognized they didn’t really have the tools to go about fixing it. Also, it looked like the others were all ready for a break. It had been quite the busy first day for them, though not in the way they had probably imagined it.

“Is the food safe to eat?” Anubis questioned as he walked after the others into the Tower. Despite the open windows, he still wrinkled his nose and stifled a cough at the smell. It was definitely better than the mind-twisting spores but still…Though Anubis didn’t like questioning others, particularly not someone like Aaron, who had a lot of experience, or Aqua, their leader; he didn’t think it would be good for them to eat infected food.

Aaron paused and blinked. He hadn’t even considered that. The sweep and purge of the Tower would have cleaned out all the air completely, but what if something had settled on the food in the fridge? Could the spores have gotten in there? Probably, since it still had vents to run cool air and a fridge certainly wasn’t vacuum-sealed. “Ahh…well maybe we should go eat out instead?” he said slowly. He turned his head to glance over at Aqua, curious to see what she would think of that. She was the leader after all, and Aaron was perfectly comfortable doing whatever she thought it was best.

“I suppose if there’s anything fresh, washing it off would be okay. I dunno about you guys, but I’m not really a great cook though…”

“I know how to cook,” Anubis announced. It was hard to tell if the guy was offering or merely stating a talent. Aaron blinked at the other boy, trying to imagine him cooking something in his jackal helmet and claw gloves. He couldn’t see it. Anubis had also looked around to Aqua, instinctively searching out her opinion.

Aaron pointed. “There’s also a sushi bar not far up the road.” Absolutely no cooking required at all there, on anyone’s part.

She had blacked out. Again.

It wasn't really news to her, but still, she felt... embarrassed. Ashamed, almost.

Celeste vaguely remembered the conversation and the brief congratulations passed around as the team wearily tracked their way back into the tower. Alright, so she had helped Stardust and Anubis destroy the last mushroom, but at what cost? When she had finally managed to regain consciousness, she'd discovered Aaron staring at her worriedly. Blood had dried on the side of her face as well as her chin. Just thinking about it, feeling dread wash over her... She shook her head wearily, barely hearing what Stardust was mentioning about Anubis cooking.

Her face was buried in her hands, hiding her embarrassment. Not even she herself, knew just how far she had pushed her own limits. 'Blood.... bleeding; how could I have known?' Celeste supposed, at that moment in time, that at least she was still alive, and that was what mattered.

-----

When she had finally snapped out of her own thoughts, she couldn't help but form the ghost of a smile on her lips as she listened to the excitement in Stardust's voice. "I agree; sushi sounds delicious," she murmured, feeling... warmth, something, return as she stood up and stretched. She had long since washed the blood from her face, yet she still avoided looking Aaron in the eye as she turned to breathe in the fresh, outside air.

No one except Stardust seemed terribly excited about the idea of Anubis cooking. Did they not believe him? Anubis couldn’t tell. His eyes shifted around the group. He hadn’t been lying, that was for certain. He did know how to cook. And he had been told that he wasn’t bad at it. But Aaron sounded more interested in sushi and Celeste and Aqua agreed with him. They were going to go get sushi then since Aqua had obviously decided that was the best thing to do. He didn’t know what sushi was, but Anubis didn’t have a picky taste. He would eat just about anything, so long as it wasn’t lettuce.

Stardust didn’t so much ask Anubis to make food for them as demanded it. Of course, Anubis didn’t mind. He wasn’t entirely sure what she would consider as a ‘nice treat’ however. “All right. I will do that,” he agreed calmly. Already his mind was running over what sort of food he could cook, probably for breakfast. Unless Aqua wanted them to do something in the morning? He trusted she would let them know. Either way, Anubis would be up early.

“Can’t wait to see what you make,” Aaron spoke up with a grin, his words quite earnest. He really was interested in seeing what Anubis would make. “So sushi it is then!” He clapped his hands together eagerly. His eyes flickered over to Celeste. She hadn’t talked much while they had been cleaning up the yard. Aaron didn’t blame her. Passing out a few times, knocking her head like that…probably wasn’t the best day for Celeste.

Aqua’s request that he lead the way resulted in a nod from Aaron. “Sure, no problem. Lemme grab something real quick first.” He jogged into the tower, vanishing quickly down the hall. Those mushrooms had caught him unarmed and were quite the wakeup call that he was now back in the business. Aaron couldn’t afford to go unarmed anymore. He had been lucky this time – despite the fact they obviously weren’t quite on their feet as a team yet, the others had helped him. But who knew what could happen next time. He definitely needed his nightsticks, and his belt of fun gear.

All of his things were up in his room but it didn’t take long for Aaron to retrieve it. He was grateful that he had opened the windows, because the aroma of Ocean Breeze was overwhelming, even with the windows. He would check in the systems later and see about toning it down the next time they had to do some kind of Tower purge (which he hoped they wouldn’t). A few minutes later, Aaron returned with a heavy belt buckled snugly around his waist. The belt had several pouches attached to it, and two short metal rods on each side. It looked weird with his normal clothes but as they would have Anubis in his jackal helmet, Aaron wasn’t terribly concerned with how he looked.

Anubis looked back at Aaron when he returned. “Onto sushi!” Aaron said, grinning. The doors of the Tower slid shut behind him. He immediately set off across the yard for the sushi place. Though he could fly, he thought walking would be better so everyone would be able to keep up. Anubis couldn’t fly after all. The tall boy walked at the back of the group, his eyes turning about carefully and keeping everyone within his vision.

“You feeling all right Celeste?” Aaron asked. “Your head isn’t still hurting is it?”