14712/Don't Press the Red Button!

Don't Press the Red Button!
Date of Scene:	18 April 2023
Location:	Main Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Jon Kent gets a more detailed tour of Titans Tower, where he learns how superhero teams work. He also learns Donna's mom was a superhero thousands of years ago, learns that Bart's friends in the far future have as much problem picking superhero names as people do these days, and learns what exactly the Cat dragged in.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Bart Allen, Jon Kent, Terry O'Neil

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    It's two years now since Jon Kent, the newer of the two Superboys on the scene, met the Titans during a fire at a shipyard that involved rather more than just putting a fire out. Jon has been in and out of the tower a few times since, one of the not insignificant number of young heroes the Titans seem eager to help out and generally keep in their orbit whether or not they're actually a part of the team. It's not surprising -- the OG Titans went through figuring out how to become heroes at a young age without much of a pre-existing support structure for those on that path, and now the team is a whole lot more established they're eager to ensure that other young heroes have an easier time of it.

    Having a guest pass to the tower is good for a bit of social interaction, and useful for being able to find backup when you need it. It gives people an idea of what it's like doing the supehero thing as part of a group. There's more to it than just hanging out and eating pizzas though, so today Donna has been giving Jon a somewhat more in-depth tour of the tower. From the evidence lockers and secure temporary sells down in the Tower's basement to the labs and crime rooms, from the gym and Danger Room for training to the central hub of operations that the main room doubles as. It's here that the pair are currently in conversation.

    It's a comfortable sort of operations room, and Donna's demonstrating this by the way she's lounging on the sofa while running Jon through the operations of the Tower's main computer via the huge wall-filling monitor, on which a number of windows show various types of data regarding a recent case the Titans solved. Video from a bank security feed fills one window; in another the computer is building up a picture of one of the robbers visible in the footage, isolating his image frame by frame and building up a detailed 3D model. "Basically, the more footage we have, the more accurate the final image we get out of it. Each frame has a tiny amount of data that wasn't in the last, so when the computer adds that data together, it can get a much better result than a still image. That's one reason why we have a bodycam feature in the T-Coms too."

    There's a ping from the monitor and the image building up in the secondary window freezes for a moment, then starts rotating in place. Another window pops open with biographical data for the suspect. "As you can see, as it builds up the image it goes through our database, narrowing down possibilities as the data increases. Here it's got enough to give us a suspect with a high degree of confidence. It's not a guarantee, and it's not admissible as evidence, but it's enough for an investigation. Now normally we might just send this to the police, but in this case you notice the red warning triangle on the biographical data -- that means someone's suspected or known to have metahuman powers. So we did the stakeout, quickly discovered that he had two and a half million dollars in cash in his living room, and went in..."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen comes zooming into the room and towards the kitchen. But unlike normal where he is here to clean it out he is bringing groceries. Seems Bart has been on a bit of a trip, and is bringing some fresh veggies and fruits that are either out of season here or just don't grow around here. He blurs around the kitchen putting things in baskets, and in the fridge and such.

Jon Kent has posed:
It changed his life.

Back then, Jon didn't have a whole lot of friends. Now, he has a small group of friends he can rely on with the Shazams, but there's another group of people he's been meaning to get in touch with for a while: The Titans. One of the premier groups of heroes in the world, Jon's been in and out of the headquarters enough times that he should /really/ find some time to just sit down and go through the tour.

He has a little lanyard around his neck over the Super suit that he wears: the S on his chest proclaiming his identity and who he represents before he could even say a word, a long red cape comes down and touches the floor and a red and blue bodysuit fills out the rest of him. A black toussle of black hair covers his head, but he's smiling as he listens to Donna as she's giving him the rundown.

It's....extensive, to say the least!

"So if I have to do anything for a better picture, it's keep the bad guys talking. Got it." Because bad guys /love/ to rant. "But seriously, that's cool. Who built this?" He asks Donna curiously. "Cyborg?"

He turns to look at the monitor when it pings, a big look of wonder on his face. The biographical data opens and the full file starts running. "Wow. That's cool."

He turns his head to Bart when he zooms in. "Hey Flash!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
There are two truths that are held as universals by children: The first, that there is usually a monster in the basement; The second, that there is a wicked witch in the attic.

As one grows up, certain delusions pass away and are replaced by hard facts. One learns, for example, that no- there is no monster in the basement. It is merely the latest four-armed monstrosity of a Spider-clone currently held in the containment unit the Titans had to finagle to contain Kara at one point (long story). And there is, in fact, no wicked witch- Raven is a sorceress, and she really isn't wicked as much as one to have very little patience for tomfoolery.

The Tom that is, often, foolish? Well, that's Terry, who is often in tomcat shape as the Cheshire Cat- one of those characters that children often believe is real.

And, wouldn't you know it? This time, they're right!

"Hey!" Vorpal emerges from the elevator, wearing half his bodysuit. The /pants/ part, to be precise. The top? Well, it has either been ruined or the cat is deciding to go the Punk aesthetic and slashed several holes across the chest. "Donna, do you know if we have any spar-" he stops, and his eyebrows shoot up in recognition. "Heey! We have a Superboy in the building! And a speedster. Hey, Bart, c'mere and give me five!" He holds one hand up. And with the other, he holds up the ruined top. "Hey, Donna, do you know if my replacement order arrived? The dude in the 'basement' did a number on several buildings. And my uniform." And his chest, as there are several fresh wounds that have been freshly bandaged- they're flesh wounds caused by debris and nothing serious, but you want to be thorough and clean, and avoid infections, right?

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Initially the system was made for us by S.T.A.R. Labs," Donna replies to Jon. "After we'd been going a few years and were starting to make a real impact, we started getting backers. S.T.A.R Labs was one of the main ones, particularly because Cyborg's father is a lead engineer there. The Tower was built for us by them and Wayne Industries Engineering. However it's pretty heavily modified since then. Nightwing tied in a bunch of stuff that the Bats have developed over the years. And yes, Cyborg has modified it heavily too. He's constantly working on the Tower systems. Sometimes something goes wrong and they become sentient and attack us, but he has managed not to do that for a while."

    It's very possible Donna's joking, but she's giving nothing away in her delivery.

    "Hey Bart," she greets the speedster as he appears. Bart dropping groceries at the tower is a pretty common occurrence. If you haven't seen it before it's a sight to behold, but it's one of those wonders that has become commonplace at the Tower. "Don't forget to bill us for that stuff, okay?" That's another thing that's different about working with a team apparently; Donna tries to make sure nobody's out of pocket for working with the Titans.

    "Hey Terry." Donna grins at Jon. "That's another thing you need to know about Titans Tower. It gets busy fast. There are quite a lot of us these days, people come, people go. But usually at some point they end up in this room."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen will zoom over and give Terry a high five, but he also pauses to look at the other man, and his bandages "You ok? He will ask of him. He looks over and to the others "Hey SB 2.0." He says in a friendly manner. Conner is SB, so Jon needs something to be different. He looks over to Donna, and says "I will, some of it, I got in trade though, so no big deal for it."

Jon Kent has posed:
"S.T.A.R Labs? That tracks. They're just /too good/ at their jobs." He crosses his arms over his chest, liftng a hand to his chin as if to ponder. "Wow. I'm not a brainiac by /any/ means, but...I dunno, it's always really interested me to try and figure out how all of this stuff works." Jon turns his head to Donna. "Cyborg's dad works at S.T.A.R Labs?!" He seems genuinely shocked by that information, humming.

"Man, that sounds awesome. Doesn't surprise me the Bats are involved in the tech too. I feel like they're the most talented people in the world. Ever feel like they can do anything? No powers needed? I feel like that's amazing."

Jon's just over here singing /everyone/'s praises! Don't let Damian hear him. He turns his eyes to Bart with a big smile on his face. He shrugs. "Yep, 2.0. I should come up with my own supername, or....nah, I think people know me as Superboy the best, so I'll stick with that I think." He starts to smile.

He turns his head, looking at Terry. "Oh hi." He waves at him. Superboy in the house1! He notices the numerous bandages on his person and he frowns. "Who'd you tick off, man? Are you okay?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just flesh wounds. Scratches. Turns out that when Spider-clone monsters impact buildings, stuff flies around. Who knew, 'right?" He shrugs and, after being high-fived, he drapes the ruined top around his neck like a towel and heads over for the couch. "Incidentally, there may be either one of the many Spider-Men or a tall and statuesque redhead wielding a broadsword who might come to check on the clone in the basement. You might like her, Donna, she seems to have the same eagerness for punching things as you do."

He smiles a little and sinks down on a vacant spot on the sofa. "So what do we owe the super-visit to?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I'm only eager to punch things that don't have the sense to surrender," Donna tells Terry with a grin. "And talking of the thing in the basement, is there any reason we we haven't handed it over to the DEO yet? I mean this is a bit out of our area, those are just meant to be temporary holding cells until we hand someone over to the police or DEO or whoever. Still, if there's a tall and statuesque redhead with a broadword, we can get her to fight our tall and statuesque redhead with a warhammer and sell it Pay-Per-View top help cover the costs of repairing the cell afterwards."

    Yeah, that one's definitely a joke, and she said it in the same flat tone. Clearly this is just the Themysciran style of Amazon delivery.

    "We can't call him Superboy 2.0," she objects to Bart. "We've already got a Hawkeye 2.0. People will think we're up to something. There are already at least a couple of dozen Robins, no reason why there can't be two Superboys."

    She flashes Jon a grin and gives him a short nod. "The Bats do know there stuff. When we first started out with the Titans, Nightwing was the one who brought us together and made everything happen. There we was with me, Caitlin, Raven, Cyborg, Hawk and Dove, some pretty solid powers. He had a mask and a pair of sticks. Didn't take long to see that was all he needed."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "NExt thing your going to say we have multiple Flashes and kid Flashes." He jokes with a smile and says "I'll call him, what ever he is cool with, but yea finding your own name can be a thing. I went as Kid Flash for a bit, but I find I still prefer Impulse, even if my costume is a bit more Flash inspired these days.

Jon Kent has posed:
A Raised brow immediately rises. "Just flesh wounds?" Jon asks Terry, arms fully crossed over his chest. "Donna likes punching things? But she's so nice..." Speaking of Donna, Jon is enthusiastically nodding. "Exactly! People can have legacy names!"

" Wait, what's in the basement?" Jon is tempted to use X-Ray vision and look down, but that's probably rude.

"Impulse is a pretty sweet name!" He turns to look at Donna, nodding. "It's pretty amazing, what 'normal' people can do.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Yeah. I've gotten shot before. Three times. Once by my doppelganger- this is just a love a tap," he taps his chest and smiles. "And Donna, don't forget Nightwing's other very important asset!" he raises a finger.

"His optimism. It's a very important quality in a team." He opens a tiny Rabbit Hole and withdraws a bottle of hard seltzer from the fridge. Well, /a/ fridge. It could be his. It could be his mom's. It could be Colette's. We will never know. Except that if it is Colette's, he may end up with more than scratches.

"This mutant clone of Spider-man got unleashed in the Bronx," he answers Donna and Jon, "And Scarlet Spider, Sonja -that's the sword lady- and I incapacitated it. Because of the fact that the creature is made from... you know, Spider-Man's DNA... warped though it may be, Sonja kindly requested that we contain it for the time being, because she didn't want SHIELD or any other department having access to a bit of info that might be able to point to a certain web-slinger's secret identity." He sips the seltzer. "... I thought it was the neighborly thing to do for the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man team, you know. Especially since /two/ of the spiders- Ghost and the other Scarlet - are part of our roster."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "See, there you go," Donna says. "I mean when Wally decided that he didn't want to be 'Kid Flash' any more, he just went ahead and became a second Flash. Nobody complains! Or at least if they do then they do it so fast none of the rest of us hear them." She gestures in Terry's direction. "And I have /no idea/ how many various spider-people there are. At some point there will be more Supers than there are usable code-names. We're just going to have to accept that they can't remain exclusive."

    "I mean what happens when you and Conner are a few years older?" she asks Jon. "Neither of you are going to want to be called 'Superboy' into your thirties. We'll just have to have three Supermen. I'm sure Kal won't mind."

    Donna grins and leans back into the sofa, powering down the display on the monitor. It seems that lessons in how Superteams handle the crime fighting thing are over for now. "As for what's in the basement... just something the Cat dragged in."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "Oh there are tons of names people have not used yet, some are new people with old names, some are mixes of other's names. It does get a bit out there. I mean there is one hero group that is like 90% kid this or lass that."

Jon Kent has posed:
"I'd like to be Superman one day."

Jon admits it, a slow nod from the Boy of Steel. "But I don't want to just age into it. That's something I gotta earn." Jon remarks to the group. "I know my d-" Je stops himself. "That Kal would probably be okay with it either way, but...Well, I like to help where I can."

He raises a brow at Terry in what lies in the basement. "Wow. Thst sounds intense."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"You know..." Terry says quietly, "I rather envy you. There's a sort of lodestone- a template of the things to be and aspire to that comes with a legacy. That's something I don't quite have- there's no previous Vorpals looking over my shoulder glaring with disapproval or cheering me on." He takes a sip from his seltzer. "Unless you count my father, and I'd rather not, the rotter. And as I don't plan on having children, my legacy pretty much ends with me. I'm it. Kind of... don't really know how to feel about it."

He glances at Donna and raises an eyebrow, "Maybe in the future there'll be someone inspired to take up the mantle and there'll be a Vorpal Lad floating around. We should ask Bart," he turns to the speedster, clearly teasing in good nature.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna raises an eyebrow at Bart. "This hero group with 90% Kid this or Lass that... you wouldn't be telling us something about the future would you? Don't tell us anything more, especially anything involving Vorpal having a sidekick, which would be a terrible idea. Besides, you know he wouldn't listen if you told him something he doesn't want to hear." She grins and gestures in Terry's direction. "I mean listen to him telling us he doesn't plan on having any children, when you already told us that in the future he will have."

    Donna flashes Jon a wink. The poor boy doesn't need to be puzzling over that one, so best let him in on the fact that she's just teasing Terry.

    Or is she? Only Bart knows for sure...

    "This is why Caitlin has it right by not having a code name," she says. "I mean I kind of don't really. When I started out here I told everyone that Troia was my code name because it was convenient, but really it's my actual name. There may be a Wonder Girl in Cassie, but there could never be a Troia Lass. Doesn't make sense. I mean that would be like there being a Kid Terry or a Kid Bart. Just weird."

Bart Allen has posed:
Bart Allen looks over and says "Well technically I could be kid Bart, but thats a totally different story." He offers and says "The group I was mentioned has made a few appearances in our time so no biggie there." He offers and says "And then you get into the whole family lines of heroes, and villains as well."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Nah ah ah. Bart said /we/ had children, but nothing says that any of the children are mine biologically... which they couldn't be. On account that having a biological child would mean the end of my days as the Cheshire Cat, and I don't plan on /ever/ giving that up as long as Kian and Gar are active. If you think that after everything I've gone through, I could go back to staying behind while those two go out, and have my ass stay home worrying about them? No, siree. And Gar took almost three years to propose to me- he is not going to be ready for even the remotest /thought/ of children anytime soon..."

He suddenly chuckles, "Although Kian is probably getting pressured by the royal family to sire offspring because they are eager to have a divine family tree, since they believe Kian is a divine avatar..." He glances at Donna, "What would that make /me/?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You've got a point about the family business thing," Donna agrees with Bart. "I mean I of all people can't really argue with that, given my mom was fighting bad guys three and a half thousand years ago. But that doesn't mean that either Di or I thought for a moment that it would make sense to call ourselves 'Kid Hippolyta'. It's kind of..." she waves a hand in an expansive gesture. "Well, you can go into the family business, but that doesn't mean you have to keep the same names. It would be nice if in time people don't feel the need to protect their identities when they're protecting the world. Using someone else's name is more about the legacy of what the hero in question has achieved rather than a family thing. Sure, people often do follow that family connection. Supergirl borrowed her cousin's identity because she wanted to demonstrate that she was following in his footsteps. Kate borrowed Clint's name because he inspired her to get really good at shooting arrows. So on."

    "As for your question, Terry..." she raises an eyebrow and studies him for a few moments. "I guess I'd say it makes you sacrilegious, but maybe that doesn't apply to a Cheshire. I mean if a cat may look at a king, maybe it's okay for a cat to..." she glances at Jon a moment, then grins and shakes her head.

    "I'm not going to say it," she says. "You're not allowed to either," she warns Terry after a moment's thought.