Not Your Average Tour (Ninja/Kardus/Titans)

JaK Sage was laying in the grass - Chillin. As one would say. He had his hands behind his head and his eyes closed. Why was he doing this outside the Tower one might ask, well it was the middle of the day, the sun was out, and there were some new recruits coming by today. New talent to help boister the ranks against villains like the H.I.V.E. and whatever else the team came across. One he knew for sure and the other he had read the file Rico had made. An interesting girl to say the least. JaK sighed. "Really need more dudes around here," JaK said under his breath.

JaK loved women and respected them for their dexterity, beauty, power, and all that jazz. But man he wanted some bros to hang with too! Taz was cool, but being able to give a legitimate high-five would also be just as cool, which was hard to manage with the runt. JaK smirked as the shade of the giant tree he was under shifted and blocked the sunlight from his face, as well as providing a cooling sensation, coupled with the light breeze that made it's way in from the bay. What a beautiful day it was, and surprisingly no crime had taken place today. "Guess evil needs a break too sometimes."

JaK's attire today consisted of black ripped shants, a Gotham Knights gray baseball T, and black and white converse with low ankle socks that couldn't be seen. He waited patiently for the two arrivals, and whoever else had been recruited. It wasn't quite time yet - but it was getting close to the meet up. Hopefully their communicators were working properly and had texted the participants the time, location, and instructions on how to get here. Although, the instructions may have been unnecessary - it's the GIANT fricken T in the bay after all.

Oh my god there it was. Eunji stood at the start of the long bridge up to the tower. She had seen this tower plenty of times from the distance....but she couldn’t believe she’d ever be invited to it. In fact she always believed it to be abandoned. “...wow”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out her communicator...her...a teen titan. She inhaled and then shrugged her shoulders as she breathed out. Did she really have what it took to be called that...her, a hero.
“Now, how do you work this thing..” she muttered to herself as she wondered how to use the walkie-talkie function and announce her arrival, but as she flipped it open it fumbled and bounced in her hands and she stumbled forward, barely catching it in time from the inevitable drop. “Phew..”
Maybe her best approach was just walking up and knocking on the door. “Raaugh!” She gripped the sides of her hair before drooping her head and sighing, why was she overthinking this, she was the type to act and then think. But for some reason she just kept wondering if she truly belonged among them being from the slums, was she dressed right for the occasion, underdressed? She looked down at her tennis shoes and short shorts and maybe a bit too baggy hoodie. “Screw it! Here i go!” she began to make her way up to the tower.

The day after Charlotte received the invitation to join the Titans she realized something fairly important. The range of her spells was NOT far enough. She had heard of the Titans tower and seen of it in the distance, but from where she lived in the city it was outside the range of her clairvoyance. What a shame, she would have liked to take a look at the place before having visited it. But now she was, having been invited by Rico. She was able to get a proper look with her spell today from the shore of the mainland, standing in a pink t-shirt, jeans, her hair tied back in a ponytail. She'd learned her lesson and was prepared to do all the cartwheels in the world if she needed. She had a feeling maneuverability was going to be important.

There seemed to be some others already down there. Perfect time to head out then, she supposed. With another last check to make sure the communicator worked and was on, she decided to take the plunge and see if a portal opening up in the front courtyard would set off any kind of security systems. If they even had those in place.

A few seconds later a sphere of warped space appeared in front of the tower, and shortly afterwards Charlotte stepped through it. She half expected to be greeted by turrets aiming at her from every angle, but assuming nothing happened she would be happy just to greet people safely. Today seemed like an important day.

JaK freaked out in chibi form as a girl appeared out of a literal dimensional gateway. "Holy #^$&!" JaK had read her file but that was still wild to see happen in person. "Uhhh, Charlotte?" JaK said as he returned to normal and took deep breaths. "Hey, I'm Sage, You can also call me JaK and---- YO WAS THAT A PORTAL?....Ehem, also, you'll need a code nam--- LIKE AN ACTUAL LIKE, LIKE, PORTAL? Sorry I'm kinda new to this too, and where I'm from you just don't see, erm, stuff like....uhhh ya...Nice horns." And that's how you blundered a first impression.

Luckily, Titans Isle was also approached by someone he knew pretty well. "Um er, one moment! Ayeeee Silent-But-Deadly! Over here." Eunji had made it. JaK's bandmate, and the girl he had personally recruited for this. JaK was unaware however that Charlotte knew Eunji's brother. "How's your bro doing?" As she drew near JaK initiated their secret handshake that they had came up with after their first performance together.

"Alright well, let's try that again from the top since I royally #&$%ed it up the first time," JaK said and shook the nerves out by wriggling his fingers and cracking his neck on both sides. "I'm JaK Sage, codename; Sage -  in the field we use codenames just to be safe with our identities around civilians. Anyway, welcome to Titans Tower." JaK stepped aside and put his hands in his pockets allowing them to get a good view of what they signed up for and the monument/statues of gold featuring the original Titans right in front of the tower in the courtyard. "You guys were chosen by me and Rico because you both helped out in an extreme situation and displayed your heroism. Now just because we chose you that doesn't mean you're inferior in anyway or that there's any type of hierarchy or contract with this offer. Were all equal here, you can come and go as you please. And you can choose to drop out whenever you want, but you can keep the communicator. We gave you that to show you're worthy to be called a hero like everyone else here. And who knows, maybe you'll need a hand one day." JaK smiled big and wide at both girls. "Now, any questions before I show you around?"

Eunji slowed her sprint as she approached the group and cocked her head slightly at the sight of...was that a portal? Like an actual portal?....dope. “Yo!” She raised her hand and waved, then blinked at the mention of her brother. “Oh, he’s doing good.” She replied as she drew her hand in to initiate their handshake.

Had she missed something she wondered as he started his introduction over. “Codenames?” She murmured back at herself, wondering what hers would be....the silent but deadly nickname was kinda growing on her, but it was a bit long wasn’t it?
When he stepped aside her eyes looked on in awe at the sight before her. This is the closest she’s ever been to the tower and the statues, could she really live up to that? She swallowed, as she felt the insecurity creeping up, but then shook the feeling off and a determined look replaced the thought. She clenched her fists and smiled, she was a hero, a teen titan. “I have a queston...” She began as she pulled out the communicator and held it out. “How do these work?”

Okay, so no guns blazing and turrets aiming at her face upon entrance; instead just a surprised boy.  All things considered, a pretty good outcome!  Charlotte did seem to have a puzzled look on her face at the reaction Sage gave, indicating that she wasn't used to that kind of reaction.  She'd hardly ever used that kind of power around anyone here in Jump, and didn't seem to realize that it was an impressive feat.  

Codenames, right.  Hearing Sage talk about them, the back of Charlotte's mind started to think on what kind of name she could pick out for herself.  Maybe someone else would have an idea or two.  Her pink eyes lifted up the length of the tower and she stepped forwards closer to Sage, wondering if this was really the kind of path she should be walking down.  Her?  A hero?

...

Trial by fire?  Was that really the best way?

...

That wasn't a comforting thought, but she couldn't disagree.  This was a very valuable opportunity, and her best option was to jump on it.  Charlotte shook her head no to the question Sage asked.  No she didn't have any questions yet, but that was likely to change soon.

JaK signaled for them to walk and talk. He flashed his communicator at the  Tower front panel scanner. Once the doors unlocked themselves and opened after recognizing Sage's key-code access he made his way inside with the other two in tow. "Ok, so as you can see the T-Com kinda works like a key and a badge to get around or inside the Tower to use it's facilities. It's kinda like a cellphone, a flip one, ya know from back in the day. Flip the lid with the T, and you use it like a touch screen or speak into it like a walkie talkie to find information on the tower, villains in our database, other team members, communicate, etcetera.

If there's an emergency going on you can see where it's happening via satellite mapping if our database has pin pointed the crisis and which Titans may already be responding to the call. On top of that you can get real-time updates on what's happening and the description of the crime being committed. This is thanks to our joint agreement with JCPD and JC News Station sharing information with us from their servers. Although, the goal is for us to be there and solving the problem before it even hits the news, annnnd sadly to say before the police even get there. Save as many officers from messing it up--- I mean, getting possibly injured as possible."


They walked inside the lobby, which had an entire other bolt locked set of huge doors. This is where they held guests most likely until they were sure they could be trusted to enter the rest of the compound. "Ok, so now if you guys pull out your intercoms you should be able to pull up a holographic schematic of the structure and it's facilities, like this."


JaK opened his own communicator and revealed a giant holographic T shaped model with each layer of the building labeled and there was even little red dots showing where they were and their names appeared over the dot that represented each of them. Then as JaK zoomed out he revealed there was much more to this island and the facility then what meets the eye. JaK's red dot was labeled Sage, while the girl's dots just showed their names due to them not having codenames yet. "So, where do you guys wanna go first?"

Rico had spent quite a while down in the hangar, upgrading and modifying, sometimes even creating vehicles for them to take around when they needed to deploy quickly. Not everyone was as fast as Taz, after all! She did all of her own work on her Dodge Demon as well, so she found herself spending a lot of time in the hangar, or up in the ops room, augmenting and modifying their tech and computer and security systems. There was always plenty of work for her to do, but she thrived in environments that allowed her to be as much of a workaholic as she wanted. As long as she could spend time with Suzuki, at least.

Either way, after she had finished her work in the vehicle bay, she needed to head up to her and Suzuki's room for a shower. She exited her room and would appear as a red dot under the name "KARMA" on JaK's communicator as she exited the room. She felt it was a bit of a breach of privacy to show if one of their communicators were in their own rooms. Or at the very least, it would stop anyone from complaining about it if she had allowed it in the first place. They would be able to see her head down in the elevator towards the lobby before the elevator dinged and she stepped out. She was pulling her long snow-white hair into a bun when she stepped out before she noticed their guests. She was wearing a tank top and some black cargo pants, sure she would need to return to the hangar later. Though she had on some casual shoes instead of her boots for the moment.

Her face lit up with a grin as she saw the new recruits. She was always happy to see Charlotte. "Hey! Welcome." She approached the three, nodding to JaK. "I'm Karma, but you can call me Rico here." she introduced herself to Eunji, oblivious that she might have already seen that on JaK's communicator prior to her stepping out of the elevator. She was sure her demonic arm was very obvious but opted to shake her hand with her left hand instead. She wasn't ashamed of it, but she didn't like copying people's powers unless there was a good reason to, and they were generally okay with it. Outside of villains, at least. "You must be Eunji. I look forward to working with you." She pronounced the name flawlessly, being well-acquainted with many languages.

She turned to Charlotte when she was done with introductions and smiled, giving her a shake or a hug if she wanted. "Welcome to the team Charlotte! Thanks for coming." She finally straightened. "Mind if I tag along for the tour, JaK?"

Eunji looked at the layout of the tower on her communicator, so many places to explore, the layout was so huge. She already thought the tower itself was spacious and then to find out there was a whole infrastructure below was crazy. She then noticed the red dot approaching and lifted her gaze in time to see the elevator open. Out stepped one of the titans, and she was kind of intimidating looking, was it the arm? Would Eunji eventually get the chance to spar with this person? She sure hoped so, and she hoped sometime during this tour shed get the chance to ask. “Nice to meet you Rico.” She gave a genuine smile and her arm. She then brought her attention back to the tour, “What about the roof and work our way down? I feel like we’d get a cool outer view of the layout from up there no?” She suggested it seemed like a good place to start since the majority or everything else was below ground.

The communicator was the key and badge; the write of passage into the stronghold. That's what she was betting on and would explain why no alarms were tripped at her entrance. Nice. Never come home without it.

Right away Charlotte looked back at the shore and wondered if she'd be able to use her powers as effectively as she wanted to. It was a long way to the edge of town and an even longer distance to the far sides of it. Her portals wouldn't reach that far. That was going to have to change, and fast. But introductions were needed first.

Then she heard Rico! Someone she knew! Charlotte seemed very down with the hug and honestly didn't even pay attention to the question, "Where do we start first?" Not that she really minded anyway.

"Sureee, the roof. I'm actually really glad the Queen is here now because she can explain to you what she's been working on up there." JaK said as a giant red question mark appeared over his head and he tapped his chin. JaK and the three females headed to the elevator and headed up to the roof hatch. "Charlotte, you already know Rico but I just want to make it clear to both of you, even though I'm giving you this esteemed tour and all. Rico here is our chosen leader - in technical know-how, experience as a hero, annnnd I gotta admit she does have a mean right and left hook. Yes, she does it all folks, and has years of experience in each area to share with you guys." It was very odd for JaK to hand out compliments like that. "So if you have any questions after this, feel free to give her a call." And there it was. His sinister reason for the accolades.

Moments later they had exited the elevator opened the roof hatch and gained the best view of the city that money couldn't buy. It was beautiful day outside still and from up here the city looked like a bustling metropolis. It was hard to believe that evil-doers that could melt your face off would be anywhere near here. And then of course there was the beauty next to them - on the launch pad was some contraption of sorts that Rico had been tinkering with. JaK would hang back a bit and let her explain how it worked. He placed his hands behind his head and took a step back to allow her a chance to speak.

Rico smiled brightly at Eunji. She didn't seem all too opposed at the sight of her arm, which was a good, pleasant start for any situation with her. "The pleasure's all mine!" she said. She was able to hug Charlotte and that kept a smile on her face for a little longer. Eunji recommended that they start at the roof of the tower and then work their way down. Rico nodded and JaK agreed. It seemed fine. Rico wasn't entirely sure how she felt about JaK calling her the Queen, but it could definitely be considered later. "Hm? Oh, well it's not really ready for a demonstration... but I could show a few things, yes."

JaK went ahead and started explaining to both of the recruits that Rico was the leader of the team, and started serving up compliments. She looked to JaK with a nonplussed expression, waiting for him to finish or for the elevator to let them out. Whichever came first. By the time he was done, Rico had a brow raised and her arms crossed, tapping her foot a bit. And there it was. He wanted to pass off his work onto her! She chuckled and grinned, rolling her eyes as the elevator reached their stop. "We're here." She got out and let the recruits take in the view. When they were ready to look, she took the tarp off of the T-Jet. "As Sage might have mentioned, I've been making some changes to our flight transport. Making it accommodating for a few more people, or some equipment and cargo. As well as updating some of the guidance and weapons systems. But something of my original work..." she replaced the tarp, and then opened a box next to the jet, bringing out a canister. She shook it a bit. It sounded like sand. "I've been rigging the tower with these. Micro RFID chips. Chips so small that they float in the air. I have it set so that if someone sets foot near or inside the tower, these will be released through the ventilation systems. Any unwanted guests will be tagged as these stick onto their clothes and their hair. And then, if for some reason we're unable to stop them here, we will be able to track them back to wherever they came from." She sounded very proud of herself. This method of anti-theft was a few years old now, but she had designed these RFIDs herself, as well as their transmission and hardware.

Woah they were high up, and why did the salty ocean breeze feel amazing up here, Eunji was thinking maybe she’d come visit just to hang up here. She looked over to where Rico was headed and saw the tarp covered object, and what was revealed was a jet! They had their own jet?! At everything Eunji was shown or demonstrated she was left awestruck and like a little kid going “ooh”. When Rico was done explaining about the RFID’s Eunji gave a small golf clap. Those sounded cool, and annoying to any intruder with hair.