2426/Return to Base

Return to Base
Date of Scene:	12 July 2020
Location:	Main Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Nobody told Nadia not to get into a stranger's jet, but luckily the strangers were the Titans. She comes to the tower to find the Titans gathering together after victory over Brainiac. Once the adrenaline come-down passes, the Titans start to party.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Caitlin Fairchild, Samuel Morgan, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Dick Grayson, Terry O'Neil, Victor Stone, Gar Logan, Kian, Kate Bishop

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    The last time the Titans had faced against a truly world-ending threat, it had not gone well. Three years ago, the fight with Doomsday left the team shattered and two members dead. This time had gone differently.

    Perhaps it's the larger team, the wider range of skills, or perhaps it was lessons learned, but the Titans' part in the Brainiac assault had worked very well indeed. Nobody was dead, or even seriously injured. All objectives were achieved. The three weeks of hard science, hard training, planning and preparation had paid off.

    As soon as the return of Brainiac's ship had been detected, the Titans were on the move, though not entirely together. Splitting into smaller groups, members of the ever-growing team scattered across New York to fullfil their appointed tasks. With the advanced knowledge of the drones the Titans had and the drone-specific training program, the skill groups of Titans showed in combating the invasion force at hotpoints around the city was vital. Smaller groups had been involved in the assault on the ship too - some joining the Avengers and Justice League in the head on assault, while others took the T-Jet to infiltrate the ship on a rescue mission.

    It's over, and slowly Titans are returning to the tower bruised, exhausted, but with the slowly dawning realization that /they had won/.

    The infiltration team on the T-Jet was amongst the first arrivals. As soon as it had landed in the hangar below the roof, Donna had left to check on the rest of the team, leaving Caitlin and Sam in the T-Jet to deal with the hurried assortment of gear that had been taken from Brainiac's ship. Chunks of equipment that would be required to return the stolen cities to their former size, and the vital software codes to operate them. Assorted bits of Brainiac's technology. Everything they could grab really.

    Oh, and Nadia. She'd met them on the skull ship and come back with the Titans on the T-Jet as the alien vessel crashed into the Atlantic. It all happened so quickly they haven't even had time to exchange names yet.

    The captured equipment has been unloaded - there will be time for a full inventory later. Donna's voice comes over the T-Com: "Anyone in the Tower, the pizzas are here. Come down to the main room. Cait, Techno, bring our guest with you."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
<Thank goodness, I don't have to cook,> comes Caitlin's voice over the channel.

She beckons Nadia along with an affable smile; the spectacular shrinking superhuman had definitely earned some goodwill with her spectacular performance earlier in the day. Caitlin's looking a little frazzled, but exultance in victory overcomes exhaustion. A crispy spot on the side of her head shows where a laser burned off some of her hair, and her leotard is pinpricked with thumb-sized holes from taking so many hits in such a short order.

"C'mon, uh... y'know, I dind't get your name," Caitlin tells Nadia. "I'm Caitlin; that's Sam," she tells Nadia, and gestures at the technopath. "Welcome to Titan's Tower. You like pizza?"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    Usually, the plan does not survive contact with the enemy. If it does, that's usually a sign that an ambush is being prepared, and the plan should be ditched anyway. It turns out, this can be circumvented by having multiple plans, and knowing all of them simultaneously.

    The amount of training the Titans had dedicated themselves to had been ridiculous.

    But you can't argue with results. Far more tired than he'd want to ever admit, Sam remains in the T-Jet for a while longer to help spool down the engines, safe the systems and generally run through the touchdown checklist with Caitlyn before even thinking of doing anything else. Everything has gone as well as could be expected, so he's not going to play fast and loose now and risk it all at the eleventh hour.

    Which is why he has a discreet eye on Nadia via the onboard cameras, visible only to himself on the HUD of his suit, making sure nothing they liberated gets... purloined.

    "The name is Techno", Sam corrects, but with no urgency in his slightly distorted voice. His identity is still a secret, after all. "But it would be great to have something to call you rather than 'hey you' or 'you with the wings'. Which are pretty cool, by the way."

    Now he stands, disengaging the harness and rising with a slight whine of servos and actuators, a sure sign that the batteries in GAUSS are starting to run low, offering a hand to Nadia. Well, a gauntlet, but presumably there's a hand inside there somewhere.

    "Pizza will be in the main room, if you'd care to join?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia has spent most of the flight back to the tower enthralled with examining the various bits and pieces of Brainiac's technology that have been recovered from Brainiac's ship on the T-Jet. It is only when they actually touch down that she seems to remember where she is or rather that she has no idea where she is other than the inside of a jet. If she had grown up with parents or after school specials Nadia might have learned not to get into random vehicles with strangers, but she didn't and they seemed really cool.

Still clad in her Wasp armor, Nadia pulls off her helmet and shakes out her chin length brown hair proving once and for all it really isn't Janet under there performing one of her myriad costume changes, but a sixteen year old girl. "I'm Nadia!" she smiles brightly at Caitlin and Sam," holding her helmet under one arm as she jogs over to catch up, falling into step with them. "It's nice to meet you! That was so cool! You all were so cool! Do you do this often?" a pause, perhaps for air, but then pizza is mentioned. "Pizza?! Like authentic American Junk Food real pizza?! I've read about it! I always wanted to try it!"

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing was in the tower, still all kitted out, though sitting at a monitor with a comm set on his head. He had noted being unable to do the mission in the field due to an injury, underscoring his position as one of the original team's most physically fragile members. He had been helping coordinate team efforts during the situation. He gets the notification of the T-Jet arriving and makes his way down to check on the team.

On seeing the others, Nightwing says, "Good to see you all made it back all right. Seems everything went mostly well, though not a total success." There were casualties, so no flawless victory, today. He catches a few comments of "pizza" which causes him to raise a brow, "Food is certainly in order."

Donna Troy has posed:
    The elevator is slow arriving at the hangar bay for the three to come down to the main room, because Donna was already taking it down to the lobby to pick up the pizzas. She steps out of the elevator with a tall stack of pizza boxes, and it carries on up to the hangar above to let Sam, Caitlin and Nadia join them.

    She puts the boxes down on the table and goes over to Dick to give him a quick hug. She's known him long enough to know how much he must have been hurting to be sitting this one out and running comms from the tower; it probably hurt him more than the crossbow bolt that had put him out of the running for a field role.

    "Nightwing," she says - there are still plenty of people around the tower who don't know his identity - "Not a single member of the team was injured enough that they are not now standing. I would call that a pretty solid success given the threat we were facing. Supergirl was... poisoned... " - the original Titans might have /some/ idea what that means - "...but she's recovered now and resting up. Hawkeye took a nasty hit to the arm, and I've sent her down to the medical bay to get a proper dressing on it, but the only thing she broke is her bow. There are a lot of bruises and scrapes, and Vorpal passed out after pulling his mind-link trick on a bunch of drones, but that's it. This was a major victory and we played a major part in it."

    Donna grins wide at her old friend. "Everyone's checked in. We can celebrate. Let's eat pizza, huh?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin joins Donna to meet Nightwing; she offers a sisterly hug after Donna does. For a moment, it's the three of them again, just like old times. It's not meant to be exclusionary, and no one lets it last long enough to make the others uncomfortable.

"I wanna take a look at that dressing later and make sure it's holding," Caitlin advises Nightwing. She shares Donna's obvious pride in the Titans, particularly the newer generation who are so ably showing their own capability in the face of a significant threat. With the task of mothering at Richard taken care of, Caitlin turns back to the others and moves to stand next to Nadia. "Everyone, this is Nadia," she tells them. "Nadia, this is everyone. I don't know if you caught Troia's name. And that's our resident ninja, Nightwing," she says, gesturing at the former Boy Wonder.

Others will be coming and going in the hour to come, certainly, but for now with that done, Caitlin moves to the counter to start setting out paper plates, napkins, and soft drinks. The expression of victorious confidence melts into domestic relaxation; she's even humming a bit, relishing the safety and security of the familiar and brainless task of feeding the family.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "No fatalities is a rousing success in a situation like this." Techno intones to Nightwing, although the blank faceplate robs it of any kind of emotive cue he might have been presenting. "My AAR will be ready in a short while."

    As Nadia gets introduced, Sam continues, getting the impression that their guest isn't entirely up to speed as to who she's fallen in with. "Ever seen that large skyscraper outside of Metropolis shaped like a giant T? The headquarters of the Titans, one of the leading hero teams of this age? That's where you are, and we are the Titans. Pizza?"

    PR material he's not.

    "I'm glad to hear everyone else has gotten off relatively lightly injured. Considering how laughably out-matched we were a few weeks ago, hopefully that'll stop the next alien warlord from coming down here with a city ship to take potshots at the planet. I mean, seriously? Is there a queue or something?"

    Ah, dilemma. He can't actually eat with the helmet on. Hmmm. A glance around the room, and with a shrug (a motion very few power armors are designed for), GAUSS starts to clank open. The helmet retracts, arms and legs hinge open and the cuirass lifts to allow the pilot/wearer to step out of the shell, before clanking shut again. Where before there stood an imposing armored figure, now stands a blonde haired, blue eyed teenager that's clearly eager for pizza.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Bright smiles for everyone! Nadia is possessed of an almost infectious perky optimism as she stands next to Caitlin getting introduced. "Hi, I'm Nadia, nice to meet you all! Your tower is really great, how did you manage to get something like this? It's amazing!" she nods her head making a mental note of Troia's name when Caitlin points out Troia's name and then makes a 'oooh' expression when Nightwing is said to be a ninja, "Wow! A real ninja? That's so cool! Can you teach me ninja tricks?!"

Her eyes trail after Caitlin for a moment when she goes off to take care of getting the food set up. At Sam's explanation of where she is and who she's with though, Nadia is just left blinking a few times in apparent confusion and non-comprehension. "I've never been to Metropolis before, I guess this is my first time." a pause, maybe it's because she deals with size tech a lot, "Titans?" she peers around for a moment, "Aren't titans supposed to be really big?"

Dick Grayson has posed:
Nightwing winces when he is hugged, "The shoulder," he says quietly to Donna and Caitlin, though he does hug back. "You're right," Nightwing nods to Donna, "Regarding the Titans, about as good as we could have hoped. Was looking at what results we could catch on the monitor for the other teams," he sighs, "Also the injury is making me a little irritable, so I apologize for the previous and in advance."

For those who know him, he appears to be avoiding using his right shoulder as much as possible, despite being right-handed. "I hope Supergirl recovers quickly, and basic injuries can be dealt with easily enough. Also I'm sure a new bow can be arranged easily enough." Nadia gets a nod, "Not entirely, but close enogh" he grins at being called a ninja, "Nightwing, glad to meet ya. Welcome to Titan's Tower" He then chuckles, "Each of us are different, some are big and strong, others can fly, I hit people with sticks."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna reaches out a hand to scruff Dick's hair like he was her kid brother. This is grossly unfair - he's actually older than she is. There had been a time, years ago when they first met, when those eight months difference had seemed like they actually meant something. He had been almost an adult at seventeen, while she was just a mere child of sixteen. It had been something of a joke between them.

    "She just needed a bit of sunlight and some rest. She'll be good as new in a day or two. As for a new bow, it has already been arranged." Donna gives a wink to Caitlin, who knows about that arrangement. Caitlin has already been volunteered to strip down the Themysciran bow and make it more suitable for Hawkeye to handle.

    "Troia," Donna repeats to Nadia, offering her a handshake. "Or Donna, if you prefer. If you were wondering about the accent, I'm Themysciran. Welcome to Titans Tower, Nadia. And thank you for the help back there. You handled yourself well. How did you come by that fancy suit? You must have a story to tell. And don't listen to Nightwing, he's one of the most talented fighters and best tacticians you'll ever meet. Just hits people with sticks indeed."

    Donna goes to the kitchen area to help Caitlin with carrying over drinks and food, stopping for just a moment on the way to rest a hand on Sam's arm, and give him a slow nod. She suspects he'll prefer the more simple acknowledgement of his efforts today, though there will be much to talk about later.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I think we showed the Avengers how it's done," Caitlin agrees with Sam. "Buncha newbies THEY are."

"And what's with all the size jokes?" Caitlin inquires of the crowd. "Golly, you people are mean. See if I make you pizza again. I slaved over a hot oven for *hours*," she complains. Her tone is one of vast insincerity; once the people present have dished theirs up, Caitlin takes a whole box for herself and finds a chair to sit into. It's hugely oversized, almost excluisively used by herself, and it looks incredibly comfortable.

"Hooooh my gosh that feels better," she mumbles with lidded eyes. Caitlin puts a soda on the table near her elbow and starts stacking slices of pizza to form a sandwich.

"Y'know, Troia's the one who came up with our name," Caitlin says to Nadia. She lifts an elbow, pointing it at Donna. "You'd have to ask her why she pitched Titans. I, for one, still think the Incredibles would have been a great name, but--" she shrugs, pausing mid-bite. "I got outvoted.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "You hit them pretty well though. They sure know they've been hit when you hit them." Sam adds loyally to Nightwing's self deprecating statement, punctuating it with a wink. It's followed by a nod in response to Donna's gesture, and /that/ gets punctuated with a smile. He's just about to help himself to a slice of pizza when he frowns. "Has anyone seen...."

    "Whurf!"

    An excitable streak of fur jumps into Sam's arms, and the Titan that had been walking through the drones, the gas, the gun turrets and all the other madness without breaking stride, is bowled over bodily by a young German Shepherd. A few seconds later the canine stands four-square on top of the teenager's chest, licking Sam's cheek and getting some very enthusiastic fur ruffles in return. A boy and his dog... "'s is Bear..." Sam manages to say as introduction, between getting his face licked off and dealing with the dog sitting down across his chest and looking pretty smug about it... in so far as Bear can look smug, the tail-wagging and tongue lolling imp. But he's also not getting up, a signal his human understands.

    "Look, I need to..." 'Whurf' "It's just for a..." 'Whurf!' "Okay, let's compromise." 'Whurf?' "How about the couch? Will you let me get to the couch at least?" 'Whu-hurf!'

    And so it came to be that Bear stood up, licked Sam once again, and then graciously allowed his human to get up and plonk himself down in the couch, upon which the Shepherd colonizes the teen's lap. And all was well with the world.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Sticks are cool! Dr. Morse fights with sticks." A pause, "She is kind of like my 'parole officer' from SHIELD, but also a really Lady Science Adventurer! She's so cool." Mild hero worship, did she say parole officer?

She reaches out and shakes Donna's hand. "Troia." she repeats, and then "Donna. Which do you like better? What about TroiaDonna?" she pronounces it like one might say Belladonna.

When Donna inquires about her suit she look down at it for a moment and points to her chest as she looks up at Donna again, "What, this? I made it. I made it out of a few spare things I found in my father's house along with a few improvements of my own. His name is Hank Pym." she pauses, "He doesn't know I exist though and he's also missing. So I made this to help me find him and also to help stop Brainiac because the Avengers kept saying he was an Extinction Level Crisis and I really didn't want to go extinct when I just got free..."

Her head suddenly turns in Caitlin direction when she makes her Avengers jab, "Hey! My father is an Avenger!" she makes a face of the most mild annoyance at Caitlin but it is quickly consumed by her bubbly enthusiasm again.

"Why did you choose the name Titans?" she asks Donna looking back in her direction again at Caitlin's prompting, talking about her personal history all but forgotten.

And then there is a puppy, oh my god puppy, "Wow he's so cute!" her eyes light and she quickly moves over to give the good boy the pettings that he deserves.

Dick Grayson has posed:
"Good on all counts," Nightwing says as the details are read out on the injured party members. He chuckles at his hair being ruffled, and is certainly not in a position to stop Donna. "I /tactically/ hit people with sticks!" He laughs, and looks to Nadia, "SHIELD, eh?" Duly noted. "And Titans definitely was the best pick. I recall some of the options being... doozies to say the least."

He would haev more to say, but the smell of pizza hits his nose, though and his attention shifts, though briefly interrupted by the arrival of Bear, though Dick refocuses on the food. "And thank you for the pizza!" Dick grins at Caitlin, "As long as pizza keeps coming, I shan't make another joke," his tone's insincerity matching hers, soon moving to get some pizza for himself.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Bear's antics set Donna off laughing - she watches the display of canine affection with great amusement and gives a small shake of her head. The dog has more sense than the rest of them - the adrenaline come-down may be an excuse for the Titan's varying degrees of post-battle funk, but Bear has the right idea. They're back, they survived, they won. It's time to be happy. "Hi Bear," she says. "Yes, I brought him back in one piece, as I promised." Did she? It's possible.

    "Troia or Donna, not both," She tells Nadia with a grin. "My real name is Troia, but that kind of confuses people in America, and they always ask me what my second name is. It was just easier to tell people my name was Donna Troy, and it kind of stuck." Not quite the real story, but close enough. "You built your own suit? Cool. Techno built his own suit too, you two should share notes."

    "The idea Titans means big is a misunderstanding," Donna lectures as she opens pizza boxes and starts distributing food. "They got confused by some of the later... uh... classical Greek writers with the /Gigantes/, who were related. But not the same. Long story."

    "/Titanes/ means something more like... 'those who strive mightily'. Nightwing and a few of the others had been working together for a few years before, but after Caitlin and I met up with them during the Alien Alliance invasion in '12, we decided to make an official team. So many arguments about the name. The idea for calling us the Titans just kind of popped into my head. Felt /right/, you know? Most people seemed to agree. Apart from Cait, obviously." Donna sticks her tongue out at Caitlin and slides another pizza box over towards her. Caitlin eats a lot.

    Donna takes some pizza for herself and goes to the sofa to sit with it and eat. "The Incredibles indeed!" she snorts with amusement, and winks at Dick. That wasn't even the worse suggestion that was made.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
'A lot' is an understatement. Caitlin's already demolished one whole box on her own and accepts the second from Donna readily. But she does pull a face back at Donna in the process, and Nightwing too! "/Slaved/ over it," she repeats, and takes a big honkin' bite of a pizza slice sandwich.

Cait's grinning a moment later at Bear's enthusiastic greeting for his human, and she looks over at Nadia with a surprised expression at her exposition. "Wait, your dad is Dr. Hank Pym?" she inquires, goggling. She looks a little awestruck.

"Ant-Man," she tells the others in the room. "I mean, the OG Ant-Man. He's a brilliant scientist and a great engineer. The Pym Particle is his invention, it's what allows him and the Wasp to shrink."

She looks back at Nadia. "So you're... their kid?" she hazards. "I don't know them very well. Dr. Pym's kind of reclusive. I've only ever talked to your mom in passing."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    Bear gives Donna a happy grin, even while he's tilting his head into the fussing he's getting from Nadia. Clearly this good boye is happy that his human arrived back in one piece, with no major issues that seem to need attention. Now all Sam had to do was keep his promise to Bear that, after it was all over, he was going to relax. Clearly, it is /now/ over and so /now/ Sam has to relax. Thus Bear hath spoken.

    Having Bear on his lap does give Sam the opportunity to listen with attention to Nadia without making it look too obvious that he's paying attention. The smile on his face seems genuine enough, but it falters a bit when Donna makes her suggestion. "If Agent Morse is Nadia's parole officer, it's very important we don't share notes. Some things SHIELD does not need to know, and Mockingbird would connect the dots without even trying. Best ehmm... best you don't mention you met someone called Techno either. But we should talk, absolutely."

    Something seems to change between Sam and Bear, because the Shepherd suddenly pulls his head away from Nadia's hand and leans it firmly against Sam's chest, who gives Bear's neck an instinctive hug. And thence there was silence from the two, although undoubtedly one or the other is listening intently to what is being said.

    Always hard to tell who, between Sam and Bear, is the more intelligent...

Terry O'Neil has posed:
There's something to be said for being used as a weapon of psychic warfare: it's not pleasant. Before he could partake in any celebrations, he first had to have a check-up to make sure everything was where it should be, both physically and psychologically. The first part was easy, the second? A little more difficult, considering the nature of the patient. Finally, he is deemed functional enough, and he didn't seem to be exhibiting any 'kill all humans' psychic memes that might have snuck aboard his psyche in the process.

Vorpal makes it into the main room, clad in the same hoodie that has been his placeholder uniform for several months now, and which probably cause Donna's soul to shrink every time she sees it. The Cheshire cat smiles, looking decidedly tired, but hungry. "I have been promised pizza. I have come to stake my clain. I hope I'm not too late?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia finally remembers the pizza. The elusive American junk food that she has dreamed about for years and seizes a slice. First she smells it, and then takes a moment to examine it from every angle. It really does seem like she's never encountered pizza in person before. Finally she takes a bite and her eyes go wide as her face makes an expression of pure bliss, "Oh wow this delicious!!!" Many more bites follow as the slice is rapidly consumed and she reaches for a second, "All sources always said American junk food was delicious if terrible for your body, but this is amazing!"

    She nods to Donna making an 'oh I see' face at the explanation of one name or the other, while her mouth remains full of pizza.

"Oh! So the English language just misincorporated the word based on erroneous mythology?" she asks after swallowing a large mouthful of her pizza, "That's really interesting!"

    Caitlin manages to get her back on track though, "Yeah, he's my father. But she's not my mom, Ex-Step-Mom I guess you could say. My mother was his first wife, Maria Trovaya, way before Janet. She was abducted by Soviet agents on their honeymoon though and died in captivity not long after giving birth to me. Then I got handed off to a place called the Red Room where they train little girls to be assassins under the rationale that adults won't take us seriously and will let their guard down. They started a Science Program and tried to get me to reverse engineer my father's technology, which I did and then I escaped with it rather than let them have it! Now I'm trying to find my Dad."

    She looks over at Sam, "Parole officer might not be the right word? I was under House Arrest at Avengers Mansion for awhile while they were verifying who I am since it apparently freaked out their AI when it couldn't match me to any facial recognition databases. They called in SHIELD, SHIELD did some genetic testing that verified I am Hank Pym's daughter. I helped them restore a Bus that got affected by Brainiac's shrink beam but evaded the spatial transportation beam and now she just kind of checks in on me every so often while my Ausylum and Citizenship cases are pending ...sort of like a parole officer?" She snags another piece of pizza and drinks some cola because that was a lot of talking.

Dick Grayson has posed:
"Big difference between Gigantes and Titans," Nightwing nods, not the first time he's heard it. Caitlin gets a nod, though, after he takes a few bites of pizza, "And it is wonderful. Your efforts were not wasted by any measurement." Vorpal's arrival also warrants a nod, but his focus is on Nadia's explanation of herself. He listens quietly and ponderes things, "Well, that is a unique set of circumstances. Hopefully things level out pretty well, or at least that you get situated enough to figure out what the way forward is for ya."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "History, not mythology," Donna corrects Nadia gently. She's not about to start preaching the Olympian faith or anything like that, but she does feel those gentle reminders that it's all largely real are needed from time to time.

    "Ahhhh, first you got to meet a dog and now you're getting to meet a cat, Nadia. Say hi to Vorpal. Vorpal, this is Nadia Pym. She's the daughter of the original Ant Man, apparently. We ran into her on Brainiac's ship and gave her a ride back to civilization. Nadia, this is Vorpal. He's the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. Don't ask for explanations, they won't make sense."

    Sam gets a glance from Donna that is more checking on him than trying to convey any message - clearly there are messages to be conveyed there, but that can wait.

    "There is pizza enough for everyone," she confirms to Vorpal. "I hear your madness trick worked quite well. Meanwhile, Brainiac's ship is on the bottom of the Atlantic and we have recovered the equipment needed to restore the cities to size. The team is in good shape, a few small wounds but nothing too huge. We won, Vorpal. It's time to celebrate."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin just blinks at Nadia's exposition. "That's... a lot to take in," she agrees. "But help yourself to as much pizza as you like; you burned enough carbs to earn a treat today," she assures the younger girl.

She perks when Terry enters. "Oh hey, T- Vorpal. I see you passed the 'I'm not crazy, this is normal for me' tests," she tells him with a cheeky grin. "Help yourself, there's plenty of it." Indeed, there are at least thirty boxes of pizza on the counter. By the looks of it, Caitlin's eaten at least two, and is eyeballing a third.

"Mm, backtracking a bit," Caitlin tells Donna, and curls her bare legs under her in the chair. She winces and thinks better of that motion; pockmarked laser blasts on her thighs and calves look like they're starting to hurt. "I think I've got Hawkeye's bow figured out. I wanna talk to Cyborg about it and get his take on things, 'cause I got an idea for adding in some tensor motors. She can't exactly nock and draw an ironwood bow--" few people outside the Amazons have the strength-- "but I've got an idea or two about the arrowheads and the bowstring that I think would work well for her."

Victor Stone has posed:
Speak of the devil and he will slouch toward the pizza party to be fed. Cyborg heaves his way toward the smell of food, his human eye looking nearly as red as the artificial one. "I am never using my brain again," he moans dramatically. "Never let me do it." He waves a finger particularly at Donna and Caitlin, as Dick has never once encouraged him to use his brain. "No computers, either, except for video games."

He flops into a chair, not one of the specially reinforced ones, and the legs bow outward as he nearly crushes it with his partly artificial bulk. "No brain, only food." He reaches out to drag an entire pizza box toward himself, forgoing the plate, and digs in. "'M never trying to hack an adaptive alien intelligence's starship ever again. If one attacks, just throw me at it like a brick. From a gun. That shoots bricks." He's started on the no-brain rule already, it seems.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Nadia, what a pleasure it is to meet you. So they found you up in that metallic rabbithole, eh? What a ride that must have been!" He ambles towards the pizza boxes, grinning at the invitation. "Plenty of it indeed. There's probably just enough to feed you, Kori and Gar and leave a few crumbs for me." He winks and gives Cait a playful nudge, which of course has the full effect of an inchworm trying to nudge a mighty sequoia tree. He brightens when he sees Vic arrive, and adds "That sounds fine by me, Vic. I just had a Vulcan Mind Meld with a bunch of brainiacklings and apparently my beautiful inner world caused them to B.S.O.D. Do you know how judged I feel? No brain, only food, that works for me."

As he helps himself to some cheesy slices, he adds to Nightwing, "We didn't do poorly, though, all things considered. Or at least I assume so, since I apparently bravely fainted for the entire thing after that. I have no evidence that we didn't lose and this isn't some Matrix-like simulation we're all trapped in."

He takes a bite out of his pizza.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan turns up in costume, a little late whether anything was announced or not. He'd been off in New York City doing some publicity thing, which he's usually a natural at. In hand is..a slice of pizza.

"Well, this is a little awkward," he says, mid-bite. "I guess you never can have too much pizza. Uh, hey everyone."

Kian has posed:
    Kían wanders out from the dormitory wing, looking... abstracted.  Maybe it says something that he's walking out rather than flying out.
    Also, the pizza smells good, and that seems to have cut through his mental fog.
    "Iss... par-ty?" he asks mildly, making his way to the fridge.  Everything is better with purple Kool-Ade.  "Par-ty mean fight iss /real-ly/ done?  No more d'rone ever?"  That would be an excellent reason to celebrate, to Kian's mind, and he perches himself on the back of a couch.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia makes a shrugging motion towards Dick while chewing a mouthful of pizza, like she can't really help the circumstances of her life that got set into motion before she was born. "I hope so, too. That's what I'm trying to do. Now that I'm free there's so much to see and experience, so much time to make up for, things that I missed out on."

    Donna earns a curious look with her correction, "History? Like Titans and Gigantes are real and I could study them?" her eyes positively light up at this prospect, new information, new SCIENCE!, she seems positively delighted at the idea.

    She makes a slightly wide eyed open mouthed expression when she sees Vorpal and his red and pink fur, "Hi, I'm Nadia! ...an I... pet you?"

    At Caitlin's urging she does help herself to more pizza, "This is delicious, I can't believe this is so delicious, changing sizes does burn a lot of calories. I could eat this forever!" That first time pizza enthusiasm.

    Her attention is drawn to Caitlin and Donna's conversation as they begin discussing an undrawable bow, "Like a compound bow pulley system with a motorized mechanical assist? Though if it's that powerful a small enough power source for the motors might present some difficulties." she comments offhandedly before taking another bite of pizza.

Dick Grayson has posed:
"Work smarter, not harder," Nightwing says to Cyborg, and nods to the other arrivals. Though he winces again, "Blasted shoulder." He grumbles and feels around the bandage, "Yeah, this is probably going to need dealt with." The eldest Robin alumnus looks to the others, "Enjoy your pizza, I should be back in a bit." As he needs to take care of the wound in privacy, Nightwing slips out of the room.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Victor!" Donna calls out, wagging a finger towards him. "I'm sorry, but we need your brain! Your decompilation of the Brainiac code was the key to this victory. Once Sam got into the systems and injected your code... well that was pretty much it. We were able to get the software to run the gizmos we need to restore the cities, and Stark took the opportunity to join in the virus-downloading party. For a while the fiercest conflict was between Sam's attempts to get every speaker in the lab blasting rock, while Tony was trying to Rickroll Brainiac. "

    "I suggested tearing down the compound layers and replacing the ironwood with carbon fibre, Cait. Keep the horn, bone and sinew layers in there. It'll make it light enough and reduce the tension, and give you the opportunity to change the recurve to suit her arms. She's got the heart of a purist, I'm not sure she'd want it mechanized too much."

    As the others start arriving, Donna's grin goes wider and wider. It really is beginning to feel like victory, a point she makes to Kian. "Yes, Kian. It really is over. We won. Drones all gone. The city that Brainiac stole has been recovered. He shrank it down to a tiny size and we still need to do the science to restore it, but we captured enough of his technology that it's just a matter of time. Join us for pizza. And yes Gar, there is plenty, don't worry!"

    Donna gives Nightwing a pat on the shoulder - taking care this time to avoid the injured one, now she knows which it is, and gives him a wink on his way out. No doubt he'll want to talk strategy with her later, but right now it's party time.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Hey, I don't tell you how to Amazon, you don't tell me how to engineer," Caitlin scolds Donna. "We'll figure it out."

She wiggles fingers in greeting to Vic and farewell to Nightwing as the two Titans swap out; with Kian and Terry joining, it's starting to feel like a full house. She comically 'oofs' for Terry in an obligatory way and leans sideways in her chair. "Hey, easy, don't hurt me," she whines at him, and rubs her shoulder like she got punched. "I'm very fragile. There's cold soda on the counter if you two want some," she offers to Terry and Kian. "And yes, it is a party."

She finishes off the last pizza sandwich and gets to her feet to swap out the two empty boxes for a third-- fingerguns are made at the others, offering refills while she's up. "We've still got a way to go on it, Nadia," Caitlin tells the earnest young scientist. "It's complicated because we're working with exotic materials and a really picky end user who's all of a hundred and twenty pounds with boots on. Ironwood bows have an obscene draw weight, there aren't a lot of people outside of the Amazons who can draw them."

Victor Stone has posed:
His face already chipmunk-cheeked with 'za, Vic suddenly notices a new face and stares at Nadia for a long second, bleary-eyed. He's about to be the 90th person to ask who she is when his traitorous brain does a thing, even though he specifically told it not to. He even made a rule!

"You're the new Wasp who showed up to help on the Brainmobile," he says, inclining one index finger toward her. "I heard about you over comms. Sorry I couldn't be there -- like Donna said, I was here, using the Brain++ programming language I decompiled to break everything. Including several noise ordinances."

And because he apparently has no control over his own faculties, her discussion of a motorized bow system, even though he missed the start of that conversational thread, immediately sends his brain off on another mess of accursed THINKING. "If we do use a motorized assist, I'll have to get some really precise measures of resistance and response from her current bow before calibrating it. With a marksman as accurate as she is, using a mechanism that hands-on, you've got to make sure you're giving her a realistic emulation of tension, pull, and release or you'll foul her aim and completely defeat the purpose. STOP, BRAIN. Eat pizza!"

He grabs another slice, folds it lengthwise, and introduces himself without missing a beat: "Vic Stone, Cyborg, either works. Everyone can tell who I am, I have a robot face. Sorry, I'm normally better to talk to, but right now I'm running on caffeine, adrenaline, and fumes. Oh, and polymer electrolyte membrance fuel cells, too."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal looks at Nadia and blinks for a few seconds, and then chuckles. "Oh, I'm sorry, but I don't let myself get petted. It's horribly embarrassing when strangers do it because it's terribly undignified when you just start /leaning/ into it because it's what we cats do... I appreciate you asking for permission, though."

When Kian enters, he gives him a thumbs-up (has he introduced him to this gesture? Is it something offensive back in Birdland?) "That does mean the fight is over. For now. Until someone else wants to take over the world and we try to stop them. It's a thing that tends to happen... so, Ergo Bibamus!" he pats Kian on the shoulder as he walks over to Gar. Finishing off his slice of pizza, he grins and raises his eyebrows, "Hello there. I didn't get hurt. This time."

He did lose consciousness. But that doesn't count.

Gar Logan has posed:
"Don't listen to him. He loves it," Gar says after Vorpal expresses his opinion about petting. "At least, he does when I do it," he adds between bites of pizza...prior to coming over to get /more/ pizza.

He explains, "I just got back from this place in NYC called Angelo's. It's pretty good, and they make tasty garlic knots too. Oh, uh, Donna? I bumped into this, ah, guy who wanted your number. He's sort of been following us as a group. He knew who I am, and he's some kind of mutant turtle dude. He was picking up a bunch of pizzas for him and his brothers."

Then he adds to Cyborg, "Vic, dude, you sound tired as hell. You're doing that thing again." Of course, all of them have reason to be weary. He doesn't bring up anything from what they'd had to do except to mutter, "Gonna need more pizza to get rid of that taste..blech."

Kian has posed:
    Kían settles on a piece of cheese pizza -- that way he doesn't have to ask if there's any bird in it -- and seems to relax a bit at Donna's pronouncement that it really /is/ all over.  "Good," he says, and takes a good bite of his slice.  He hasn't been a Titan long, but certainly long enough to both learn and appreciate the importance of pizza to life, the universe and everything.
    He tilts his head inquisitively at Donna as she describes the technical challenges of restoring the shrunken city.  "I am won-der," he says, trying to sort out the right words from his still-limited choices, "City iss make small, iss mean room for more city, more peop-le, use less... nnh.  Use less ener-gy.  Iss may-be not bad idea?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia frowns for a moment at Terry's refusal to let her run her hands through that soft colorful fur, but shrugs it off and eats more pizza. "Okay maybe another time when I'm not so strange to you then!"

    She nods a few times as she listens to both Donna and Caitlin talking about the bow, naturally gravitating towards an engineering tech challenge within earshot, pizza in hand, "I could help you reduce some motors in size while preserving their output, then you wouldn't need to strip anything and the visibility of the technology could be minimized while maintaining the power and effectiveness of the ironwood."

    And then there is a Cyborg talking to her. A CYBORG. The pizza almost falls out of Nadia's mouth in surprise but a quick hand pushes her jaw back up and closed so she can swallow it down, "You're a cyborg!" she declares stating the obvious as she begins examining him from all angles, "The integration looks so seemless, how did you?" a pause as his words to her actually register, "Oh yes! That's me! New Wasp! Miniturized mechanical parts would help with the finer calibrations to ensure her accuracy." Easily distracted by Science and Engineering challenges is an understatement.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "He's not A Cyborg, Nadia. He's THE Cyborg. You know, like THE Batman." Donna smirks wide. "Oh, which reminds me. Nadia, meet Gar and Kian. Gar you might recongize due to being green and a movie star, he's Beast Boy. Kian's an alien who has joined us recently. His wings are more a kind of natural feature."

    "Look guys, Hawkeye will be back up from getting her dressing fixed up any time now, you can ask /her/ what she wants with her bow, hmm? I mean it is her bow. I suspect she won't won't motors. I certainly wouldn't. Pulleys are bad enough. You have to /feel/ the string."

    Donna settles back with her pizza and a beer. The Titans are all alive. The new guys did great. Brainiac has been defeated and the Titans played a HUGE part.

    Life is good.

    Wait. What? "A mutant... turtle?" Donna blinks a few times. "The one that tried to eat you?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
Speak of the devil. She had to go get showered. Cleaned. Rebandaged this way and that way.

TLDR: She has bruises on her bruises.

Still she is alive and she is very grateful, also she had a liberal dosing of caffeine before heading off to get cleaned up and medic'd up. So when she comes back she isn't in her torn up armor and gear and is just in some very expensive yoga pants and a tanktop, which does absolutely nothing to hide the bruises on her arms. Her left arm is sporting a medical bandage wrap and she has a contact bandage on her left cheek below her eye (but thank the gods missing it).

She looks absolutely beat to shit but no broken bones it seems.

"Gar better not have eaten all the pizza.. I am still absolutely starving .. but now clean.. also did I hear something about my bow .. wait what.. mutant monster turtles??"

Yeah Kate only caught the last bit.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin picks up a soft tangerine and whips it underhanded at Donna's head from the kitchen. "Nerds only!" she scolds the princess. "Or else I won't help you next time you clog your computer up with viruses." She plates up Kate a few slices of pizza without being prompted and offers them to the archeress. "Vic and I are kicking around some ideas for replacing your bow. The new face is Nadia--" she points at the newcomer-- "she helped out a ton with the Brainiac thing. She's got some ideas, too. But we dont' have to solve that *now*," she says, emphatically. "For now, eat, rest, and enjoy a little victory lap."

She rubs her arms with a wince; the painkillers are wearing off, and beneath her leotard are a lot of pockmarked laser burns that look almost like grease scars. "Gar, make sure to get some food. And Kian, eat up, also, you burned a lot of energy today," she bids them both.

She walks around the counter and hunkers down next to Cyborg's seat, resting a hand on his forearm and looking up at him consolingly. "You want me to downcycle your CPU for a little bit?" she offers, kindly, in a low voice. "I'll even play some Call of Duty or Madden with you if you want, later." The next best thing to a few stiff drinks, for cyborgs!

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic slams a hand over his mouth and tips his head back when Gar calls him out. "I'm trying not to, I swear!" he wails, voice muffled by his metal fingers. He doesn't stay in that position long, though -- it makes it hard to eat, and he is /really/ hungry.

"Wait -- a turtle mutant -- asked you -- for Donna's number -- at a pizza place?" he asks between mouthfuls of pizza. "That is /not/ how it works, man. You've got to build a connection. Find some common ground. Feel a spark. And you don't ask her /friend/! My God, what are they teaching these kids?"

Vic lets any comments about 'this means the fight is over' go without a comment. He might have his own feelings about that, but he's not going to rain on anybody's parade when they're celebrating.

Instead, he raises his eyebrows and smiles at Nadia. "Yeah, I'm Cyborg, capital C, and also a cyborg." He flashes Donna a smile at her specificity on this point, but he's okay with the description going either way. "I didn't really get creative with the name, but I can be pretty imaginative with the tech." A slight hint of tension appears at the corners of his eyes when he continues, "The integration is actually my dad's work -- I wasn't in any state to help that first time -- but the prosthetics I've built and rebuilt a lot over the years. I have whole different sets for different situations."

He waves Kate over to where he is powering through enough pizza for ten hungry men, gesturing to one of the boxes he hasn't demolished yet, then nods at Caitlin. "Yeah, get a bunch of tech geeks in one place with an engineering problem and it's off to the races."

"Speaking of which..." he looks over at Kian and tells him, "Problem is that the enormous amount of power you use to shrink them in the first place vastly exceeds any gains in efficiency over sensible timeframes. Overcrowding as a societal problem is also badly overstated and much more easily compensated for by technological improvements in food production and waste disposal than by oh God Gar I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

He turns back to Caitlin with a pained look. "Yeah...that's actually a really good idea," he answers her. Then, flashing a grateful smile, he adds, "And a video game night sounds amazing."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Oh no, Dondon, not the one that tried to eat Gar. In fact I think I know exactly who he's talking about." Terry looks at Gar, eyes a little wide, "You met one of the guys? Was it Donnie the tech-head, or was it," and here he adopts a flexing pose similar to that of one of Gaston's in Beauty and the Beast "Raphael, the haaaandsome one?" he chuckles. "I wish I'd been there. I haven't run into either for a few weeks. April apparently knew all about them long before I even met them. Sneaky journalist." As if he weren't one himself. "Vic, I think you'd love Donnie. He's all for tech, very bright. I could bring him over for a visit at some point and you and Cait can have a nerd-out with him and potentiall build a time machine that will cause the time-space continuum to collapse in on itself."

He goes to get himself another slice.

"Nadia, you are hanging out with this crowd. You will never /not/ be strange, because that's one of the necessary traits that is requird for you to be around us and not question your sanity. Although, if you ask me," he raises a hand to the side of his face in a conspiratorial manner, as if he were entrusting a sensitive secret, "We're all mad here. "

She gets a wink alongside his trademark catchphrase, and then he turns to Gar. "You shut your mouth Garfield Mark Logan. It's different when /you/ do it to me."

And then he pauses as Kate walks in. That's definitely a line for her to walk in on. "Heeeeey Hawky!- Vic is having a hard time not braining, any ideas on how we can all distract him with something? Maybe we can put on an impromptu Rocky Horror Picture Show performance. Dibs on Magenta. Vic's totally Rocky." He starts chomping on his pizza.

Kian has posed:
    "Don' need to eat," Kían says to Cait.  "Can if I wan' to."  He takes another bite of his slice.  Apparently he wants to.
    He listens to Vic's explanation, although it doesn't appear to be landing.  "But energy iss al-ready used, city iss al-ready s-mal.  Iss take as much to res-tore, yis?"
    Another bite.
    Chews thoughtfully.
    Drinks Kool-Ade
    "If they wan' be res-tore, may-be I can make the energy for that?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan puts his weight into trying to push Vic over toward the food. "Yes, you are. Eat. Now."

Brows scrunch together at Donna's question, but Vorpal covers the answer well enough. "What he said, and..yeah, he's actually this turtle guy. I guess they've known about us for a while, and at least he kinda looks up to us and that's pretty cool. I'm not sure he's used to some of the things we are."

Shaking his head, he adds, "Nah, Vorpal, I think he said his name was Mike and he was getting like fifty pizzas all at once." More like a dozen, but that's a lot of pizzas to count at once.

He gives Vorpal a very innocent look after the retort, then he says to Nadia, "Nice to meet you. We..we all did good."

Another slice is obtained, devoured.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia tilts her head slightly to one side as she looks at Beast Boy curiously but he doesn't seem to be ringing any bells, "We didn't really get to watch many movies in Soviet Gulag Assassin Kindergarden. But I'm Nadia! Pleased to meet you both!" she offers her hand to them for shaking just like Donna previously offered her hand to Nadia.

    She nods slowly at Cyborg's explanation, taking it all in, "That is so cool! Can I see some of your other prosthetics? If it's okay? Maybe I could help you design some new ones!" she just seems to bounce from technical challenge to technical challenge, an endless fount of ideas.

    But then there is yet another new face, "Hello! I'm Nadia!" she informs Kate and offers a hand for shaking, "You're an archer? That's really neat! We were just talking about some awesome things do for a bow, well they were and I just kind of just in because it sounded really interesting, but I think I can help!" She smiles brightly at Caitlin when the older young woman praises her for what she did during the Brainiac fight, "I just did what I could. I couldn't just sit idle with all of that happening."

    "That and you could get eaten by a bird, do you want to get eaten by a bird? Or a raccoon?" Nadia adds to Cyborg's rebuttal against the idea of shrinking cities to save resources.

    She makes a face at Terry, "Less strange? Not a stranger? I just want to touch your fur, I know that's probably weird but you're such a pretty kitty!"

Donna Troy has posed:
"Turtle. This is /chelon.../ with the shell on the back, right?" Donna shakes her head. "Okay, I mean I just spent the day fighting mutant zombie cyborgs, why should mutant turtles surprise me?"

    Her arm snaps up mid sentence to intercept the tangerine, and she puts it down on the couch beside her. She'll eat it after she's done with pizza, which may have secretly been Caitlin's intention all along.

    "Kate, tell them you don't want your bow to be motorized. It's a crazy idea, but they won't listen." The growing smirk doesn't mean she's trying not to laugh, but she's trying not to laugh. This is the life.

    Donna gives a shrug to Nadia. She may be making child-assassin revelations here, but honestly? The Titans have two of those already. It's not a shock to the Titans, though it's possible that the Titans are coming as something of a shock to Nadia. "It's not like this every day. Just... most days. Do you like computer games? Sounds like that's next on the menu."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin moves behind Victor and taps on one of his secondary access panels to get him to open it; once she does, she starts making some adjustments. It looks like a task with which she's familiar. Nadia's offer of technical help gets a quick headshake from the redhead, over Cyborg's shoulder. "Nadia, it's sweet to offer," she says, kindly. "But Vic's work is very proprietary and if it goes wrong, it goes way wrong. We messed up the power variances in his leg motors once and he was just... running in circles for half an hour." A white lie; the other Titans would recognize Caitlin trying to keep Victor from being put on-the-spot with regard to his cyberware.

She watches Vic's fleshy features carefully while making the adjustments. "Okay, tell me when Cheerios and Adventure Time sounds like the best idea ever," she advises her friend, and draws down the power until the mighty Brain of Vic is able to relax without the constant stimulation from his mechanical processors.

Kate Bishop has posed:
"Oh well ... Troia made a very convincing case that I need to let you both rework the bow with SCIENCE.. so I am game." she notes. "It .. is beautiful though but man it is a bitch to pull.... something about being made out of a maned bull horn and a unicorn sinew which honestly I have so many questions.. so so so many questions.. and um..." she racks her brain meats "hippogriff bone... " she trails off.

"I definitely need you all to make it a Wonder Bow though for me and my capabilities but the raw materials are nothing short of mythical and legendary..."

Which honestly probably doesn't help the geeks... not geek.

"Thank you." accepting the pizza plate from Caitlin then heading over to where Vic gestured and oading up like three more slices from the box Vic indicated. She is damn hungry after being on the streets of New York nearly dying.

"also what Donna said ... not motorized.. I mean... maybe something interesting like a bracer using the stolen shrinking technology that transforms into a regular bow I can draw without gyros and motors though. Like a blend of science and magic but still me feeling the string and all right. Happy for all the techies to tackle it.. especially since a drone snapped my current bow in half..."

She shoots a wave to the new girl. "Hey Nadia nice to meet you."

Victor Stone has posed:
When Donna mentions Brainiac's cyborg drones, Vic interjects with a quick, "No relation." He doesn't argue either way on the motorization question, letting Kate make up her mind about her own kit.

"Ah, now I get what you're saying," Vic tells Kian, holding still for several seconds, then mock-staggering with the force of Gar's nudge toward the pizza in spite of their lopsided weight differential. Flashing the green guy a smile, he consciously keeps his explanation as simple as possible, in deference to his buddy's advice. "Problem is, the bottled people are currently too small for hugs. War crime!" He punctuates the last two words by flicking on every red LED built into his body and playing a tinny alarm noise.

He gives Vorpal a look, half inquisitive, half concerned. "You sure you want this nerd-on-nerd feedback loop getting even bigger?" No wonder the cat's mindscape was considered mad enough to be used as a weapon.

He nods with an apologetic look when Caitlin waves down Nadia's suggestion of collaborating on new parts, but does say, "I'd be happy to let you have a look at some of the spares I've got in the armory, if you're interested, Nadia. They're" -- he glances down at Gar, stows the technical explanation, and goes with: "...Pretty cool." He lets the gulag assassin kindergarten comment pass without comment -- he thought about a laugh, but then realized she might be entirely serious.

As Cait goes to work on his processors, he takes a deep breath. Just a couple of seconds after she starts her tweaks, he snickers at the cartoon suggestion and lifts one finger. "Therrrrre we go." He glances over at Kate with a lazy smile and manages not to take the techie-bait. "It'll be" -- he holds up his hands by his head, then juts them forward and spreads his fingers -- "AWESOME! I'm hungry. Is there more pizza?" Wow. Cait knows what she's doing.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia's demeanor isn't one with dropping huge revelations with any of this, it's all very matter of fact for her, she hasn't exactly known any other life. Which is probably why the Avengers freaked out like they did when she just showed up at their mansion and began saying all of these things.

    She nods to Caitlin and Victor, "Oh, I see. Okay. Well if you want to show me sometime that would be great. No rush though."

    With the draw enhancement for the bow and advanced cybernetics discussions tabled for the time being, it seems all that remains is video games. She looks at Donna with big eyes, "I've never played video games before. Can I?"

Kian has posed:
    Kían finishes his pizza, and gets another slice -- sticking with cheese for safety's sake.  "If I can be hel-p," he says to Vic, "I will."
    He shakes his head, biting off the tip of his pizza.  "Am never haf done anythin' like this.  Never hap-pen.  An' I thin'k I feel okay about.  Iss hel'p, an' iss not hur't any-one.  Your p'lanet iss weir-d."  That, he adds like it's kindergarten-level obvious.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin pats Cyborg's shoulder and leans down to give his temple an affectionate and sisterly kiss. "I set the timer for an hour," she advises him, and moves back to her chair (via the route of the kitchen, and another full pizza for herself). She drops into the seat again with a grimace. "I might need to head to the medbay and put some gel on these burns, they're starting to hurt," she advises Donna. "After pizza."

Two more slices are stacked atop one another and Caitlin takes a few fast, hungry bites, like she hasn't already put three full pizza away.

"Kate, I wanna do composite materials. I've got some cool ideas I wanted to build for a bow for me someday, and I think you'd like the changes. Most Amazon bows have a draw weight of five hundred pounds and they'll destroy conventional arrows. I don't know about the shrinking tech," she concedes, and gestures at Nadia. "I know Pym Particles are ridiculously expensive, though." The corner of her mouth draws down in a frustrated moue. "I think we can make it collapsible, at least, but for properly shrinking it, that might be hard to sustain."

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic reaches up to give the hand Caitlin places on his shoulder an affectionate squeeze, and answers, "Gotcha."

When she leaves, he waves a hand toward Nadia's shoulder, missing the first couple of times at least, then holds up his opposite finger. "Hey. Listen. Nobody, and I mean nobody, who comes to this tower wanting to play video games leaves without playing some video games." He thinks for a second, then laughs and amends, "I mean, except for video-game-themed bad guys. And we do have some of those." He pauses again, squinting. "And now that I think about it, they usually end up playing video games too, just evil video games. So ignore me."

He shakes his head, then lurches forward, leaning his elbows on the table and propping his chin on his fists. "You know what, Kian? You're right. Our planet IS weird. I'm glad, though. Not about the weird planet, that you're feeling more confident about the whole superhero thing. That's good."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Magnetics!" Nadia suddenly exclaims with a mouth full of pizza before swallowing it down, "Of course, motors might interfere with your sense of the string, but if powerful enough magnetic components could be worked into your wristguard, versus the metalic elements within the rest of the bow frame, then you could theoretically draw a bow far beyond your normal strength without motors or even any pulleys." The excited outburst from her sudden inspiration passes quickly enough and she looks around a bit sheepishly, "Sorry."

    She nods to Caitlin, "Pym Particles would be difficult to use for something like that for a few reasons. I don't know how much they cost as I've only ever made my own or been given them, but the components to make them are not easy to come by." she agrees with Caitlin, "But like I ways saying, "Magnetics might be a way to go."

    Her expression lights up when she is informed by Victor that she /must/ play video games, "Then I guess it can't be helped I must play some video games! Please teach me how!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Vic, not only do I want to increase the feedback loop, I will offer to file the patent on whatever crazy invention comes from it and make us all a bundle." Decidedly insane. But harmless.

Maybe.

The Cheshire stretches and yawns as he puts away the last of his slice, and says "I wish I could stay to watch Nadia here be introduced to video games in the presence of the master, but my brain is starting to turn into syrup and my energy level is low. I think I'm going to check out for the day and sleep until the morning... buuuut first..."

He reaches into the air, and a tear in space and time appears in the shape of a hole. A bedroom is visible on the other side, and the Cheshire quickly retrieves his cell phone from the night stand, "I gotta tell my boss I am decidedly not dead and that I have scoops..." he glances at Donna, "You did wear the go-pro like I asked, right? 'cause I might actually get that promotion if I can get some POV footage up on the Planet in time for tomorrow's article." He pauses. "Yeah... I better go to sleep now so I have a brain to write the update tomorrow..."

He quickly fires a text to Lois: <<At the Titan's Tower. Celebration in progress. Will get you the stuff in the morning.>>

"If you guys can e-mail me quotes and pithy phrases related to what went down, it'll really help me pretend I am actually not a superhero and that I wasn't actually knocked out for a good chunk of it all. Aside from that... enjoy the gaming!"

He puts the phone back, and the hole closes, leaving no evidence that the fabric of reality is any less solid than it was a few seconds ago. He goes around saying his goodnights, and as he passes Gar he whispers something into his ear, and then heads up to his dormitory.

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic lifts the pizza box he's been working on and stands, rolling his head toward the couch and the screen on the southern wall. "Well, I'll be over here playing games and letting my processors cool, if anyone wants to join in. Been good catching up with everybody -- we did a great job today, and we should be proud of ourselves. Now let's rest up and recharge so we can come back even stronger for the next crisis." He raises a fist and shakes it. "Titans, to the loading screen!"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Caitlin a thin-lipped smile and a nod. She should have pushed Caitlin to get those laser burns seen to sooner. Caitlin's tough and hadn't been complaining, but Donna had seen her take the hits on her back. "I'll give you a hand," she whispers.

    "It's all on the system, Vorpal. The entire infiltration mission. However we'll extract still, not video footage. There were some... well it was a bit violent up there." Donna smirks at the cat. "And well, I may have composed a few more artful shots when I had a moment." The advantages of having a photojournalist Amazon on the team. "I'll go through the footage and pulls some things out for you tonight. See you later Vorpal."

    Donna shakes her head at Kate, and rolls her eyes. "Don't let them do it, Kate. They aren't archers, they don't understand." The Wonderbow is a thing of beauty. Sure it'll take some work to make it suitable for Kate, but there's a difference between remixing a work of art and tearing it apart for spares.

    "You absolutely can play video games, Nadia. How about you, Kian? Have you been dragged into gaming yet? If not you must. Unless Vic and Cait insist on Madden again, I hate that one." Of course Donna hates it. She's terrible at it. "Game night is on!"

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan's eyes widen at whatever Vorpal says to him, color showing in his cheeks, and he rushes through saying, "SorryguysjustrememberedIgottagodosomethingseeyoulaterdon'tworryaboutsavinganypizzaBYE!"

Zoom.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin shoots Donna a grateful look for volunteering, and packs the last two slices of her meal 'to go' atop one another. She grabs a napkin under it for tidiness sake. "I'll be up to play as soon as I get some medigel and a fast soak in the therapy tub," Caitlin advises the others. "Gimme like... half an hour. I've got winner," she advises, and gestures at the circle-shaped gaming center just around the corner from the kitchen's common area.

"Y'know, I should have brought my drone with me," Caitlin comments to Donna. "I could have gotten some great action shots for Terry. Remind me to get that project finished up soon, I'd really like to have a little airborne sidekick up and running soon." The amazonian and the Amazon head into the elevator and it hisses shut behind them, whisking both down to the lower levels and the medbay where a few members of the team are still recovering.

Kate Bishop has posed:
Kate settles into a chair near the science chatter. "Don't be sorry Nadia... I am going to turn a treasure.. a priceless mythical artifact made of mythical critters including a god be damned unicorn over to you lot to tinker with and make me a WonderBow...." she grins. "So yeah do what you need to do to make it super cool but it needs to be tailored to me and not interfere with the flow of the archery. No motors and stuff for sure.... Think of this as a pretty cool challenge to blend the mythic with science and all."

Kate is trying to be encouraging, and also you know, get a bow she can use out of this process.

"Collapsable sounds pretty cool Caitlin... so I can actually maybe hide it somehow and not need to run out to my motorcycle when villainy is afoot." okay yeah she is still a bit loopy talking like this as she starts to devour pizza. "I trust you guys." strategic pressure and guilt if they turn it into a monstrousity applied now.

Kate watches Vorpal with his trick with the rabbit hole "You are getting better at that Terry.." it is a compliment.


Lois texts back <<I'm surprised you didn't get shot. Try to get a few quotes from the Titans while you are there on the record to go with the footage you said you could get. Word on the ground is they played an instrumental part in the defeat of that space terrorist.>>

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia nods her head several times, "I have actually used a bow before, the Red Room liked them for some situations because they're much quieter than guns, it's not my specialty by any means but I will try to help make you something you can draw without interfering with the archery!" An engineering challenge! Kate gets a big grin because Nadia loves engineering challenges, encouraging her can be dangerous but will certainly achieve results!

    She listens attentively to Victor's explanations of 'Call of Duty' and at first as she begins playing she does indeed seem like a beginner. That doesn't last long though as she quickly figures out what does what and how things interact. Her attention has become laser focused on the game as she stares intently at the screen. Her speed and reflexes are really something else, she's fast and her reaction times and tactical sense ...well Assassin Kindergarden is seeming less and less far fetched with every moment. It's kind of sweet though, she's just so gosh darn friendly and the way she leans on Cyborg a bit while playing is adorable, even if the screen has become a sea of carnage as they continue playing together.