"Spooky? And here I was thinking I'd been nothing but polite." The voice seemed to surround the new arrivals to the basement, the shadows which blanketed the secluded basement. Despite the voice clearly replying to the words spoken just before, it was distinctly female in tone. While some might consider it monotone, there was a hint of sarcatic enjoyment even as the menacing shapes in the darkness continued to shift and broil, as if tossed by a storm.

Then, in the next moment, there was a 'click' and suddenly the darkness eased, lights across the basement's ceiling flaring into life as the switch was found and pressed. Standing a little to the side of the pair, a short distance from the elevator's entrance, was the robed figure of Raven, her hooded cowl pulled down to reveal the ruby-like gem set into her forehead, and something that could almost be a grin at her little stunt.

"Heard we might have a lot of visitors today so I thought I'd escape down here to meditate, but it seems the visitors have still found me." Raven sighed as she lent back off the wall, her fingers tracing away from the light switch. "Care to introduce me, Alrick?" While she addressed her fellow Titan, Raven's eyes settled on the newcomer she didn't recognise, in what was meant to be one of the most secure parts of Titan Tower.

"Oh, hey Raven!" Alrick chirped, assuming her presence meant that Ghost wasn't lurking around. "I wasn't calling you spooky." The display in the shadows was obviously lost on him. Alrick much preferred her company anyway. It wasn't that he disliked Ghost per se...He was just kind of hard for Alrick to get a feel for. Although, now he had to come up with an excuse for them to be going through boxes to find that dang watch.

"Yeah, I should probably do a little inventory while I'm here. I think some of my stuff got misplaced last week."

This wasn't looking good.

Before the sun could even rise, he had awoken to a spirit floating at the foot of his bed. At one point, in another life, this sort of thing might have disturbed him. The supernatural was nothing new to Ghost now. The dead, and death, wasn't something he feared. He had learned, over time, that spirits were merely restless souls with a job left unfinished. This particular soul's mission was to deliver a message: It was happening again.

Ghost had left the tower on his own. This business hit close to home for him and it only felt right to take care of it personally. There was once a madman that took it upon himself to cross the ethical lines of science and experiment on human subjects. That man was rotting in prison, but hadn't worked alone. Now, apparently, one of his old colleagues was at it again. He was picking victims and ruining lives right here on their home turf.

With the spirit's guidance, finding the hidden facility had been the easy part. The spirit could go no further once they reached the inside. Ghost was okay with that; the soul deserved rest now that their unfinished business was done. Now alone, he was left to slither through the shadows and see exactly how big this operation was.

The facility was hidden under an old factory. It went down for miles underground. He wasn't sure just how far from the surface he was when he stumbled onto the horrors that now rooted him in place. A large atrium opened up a floor below him. From the catwalk, Ghost watched in silence as massive, grotesque creatures were chained up, some kind of device strapped to their heads. Mind control? And what were these things? They looked vaguely human, but distinctly alien as well. Hybrids? Whatever they were, there was an army of them. Who exactly was their creator planning on waging war against?

That was a question for later. It was clear that Ghost was out of his league now. He had to call in the team. Quietly, he tapped the comm link on his wrist awake and called the tower.

"Titans, I've made a disturbing discovery. This is a request for backup. My coordinates are incoming."

The transmission was cut short by a piercing, animalistic screech and a curse, followed by static.

For the record, Alrick did not think Soleil tagging along was a good idea. The opportunity for further time shenanigans was way too high. What if she went out there, got hurt, and that lead to catastrophic consequences for the furture? She needed to get back into her own time period ASAP!

But then again, he hardly had time to argue his point with the others around. If he went and blabbed about time travel crap now, it would only serve to distract from Ghost being in danger. Could he actually be in danger if he was immortal? Alrick pushed that thought aside. Just because he can die and come back an apparently infinite number of times doesn't mean he should have to, he reminded himself.

"Right, on it," Alrick said as he headed back towards the elevator. Finding the meeting room wasn't an issue. Alrick had most of the tower memorized by now. He found himself a chair and sat, trying his best to pay attention while also silently worrying about timeline nonsense.

Raven had already been moving before the others around her could react, the shadows lingering at the edge of the light in the basement swirling to swallow her form once more, despite the presence of the lightbulbs which should have prevented the gloom. The shadows ran along the walls, back up the shaft of the elevator, clawing across cables and panels before exciting at the other end, spilling out into the meeting room through the cracks in doorways. A few moments later, and the shadows coalesced, forming back into the young woman, the hood of her attire now up, and concealing the blazing gem set into her forehead.

She had little interest in interrupting the further conversations of her peers, if not for the fact one of their own was in danger enough for an alarm to have been sounded, and so she spoke aloud and clearly, at least, as clearly as she ever did, once the Titans began gathering and already fragmenting into other conversations.

"Can we talk about how we may, or may not, know each other 'after' we have resolved this situation with Ghost."

Bob didn't like the teleporter.

It was hard to put into words, describing why he disliked the primary method in which the Justice League traveled between their station and Earth, but there was a primal, almost animal fear that whenever the bright light started that something would go horribly, terribly wrong between the moments of disappearing and reappearing on the other side. For those important moments, his life was in the hands of people who he didn't know using technology he didn't understand.

The fact that he wasn't teleporting alone did make him feel a bit better about the whole thing through. As the pair of them materialized on what seemed to be an island with a massive T rising up in the middle of it, Bob took a second to shake himself off before looking at his escort to meet the team he was told about and offered a smile as he started to relax and the worst had clearly passed. "T'anks for coming, Captain."

A strong hand reached out and smacked Bob on the back, force that would knock down a normal human simply causing a slight ruffle in Bob's shirt as Captain Marval answered "No problem Bob. Now come on, let's go and introduce you to your new friends."

Bob liked Captain Marval; While there had been a number of heroes that had spent time with him and his friends over the last two years, Captain Marval made a point of hanging out with them in a more informal way whenever he could. It was nice to have someone you could just sit and talk about cartoons with or who wasn't afraid of having an arm wrestle. It was nice to have an adult who wasn't afraid of being childish in an earnest way, rather then just pretending to humor them at times. The fact that the Captain had offered to be the one who tagged along to make the first direct introductions meant a lot too.

So it was that the pair walked towards the door of Titan Tower in order to announce their presence, completely ignorant of what was going on inside or in the greater Jump City area.

While in truth they weren't waiting all that long, Bob couldn't help but feel nervous. Excited. Both? Regardless, staying still was difficult, through he put the effort in to try and keep the worst of the fidgeting under control for appearances sake.

The door was soon opened and... they were told that the Titans were busy and to come back later. Even with a recommendation on where to spend the time while waiting. This... was not what Bob had been expecting and glancing at Captain Marvel, neither was he. As Bob started to nervously scratch at the back of his neck, it was Captain Marvel that spoke up "Look, I understand that sometimes things unexpectedly pop up but... I can't be in Jump City for several hours simply hanging around, eating pizza and enjoying an arcade today and leaving Bob alone in a city he has never been in before and where he doesn't know anyone when he has never been in a city in general simply isn't an option." He didn't sound upset or angry, just laying the cards on the table.

There was a brief pause, before it was a nervous Bob that spoke up as he asked "W'at's the situation? Maybe I can 'elp." It was hard to say if Bob spoke with an accent or if it was a bit of a speech impediment, but other way he turned to Captain Marvel and bashfully asked "...Mig't need a left. Is t'at okay?"

"Oh yeah Buddy, I can make sure you get there." Marvel offered with a grin and a friendly pat on the upper arm; He couldn't quite reach shoulder height without flying. "You okay with me just observing and seeing how you do? I trust you and the Titans will be fine, but I'll jump in if things start to go really bad."

With a smile and a nod from Bob, both Bob and Captain Marvel turned to look down at the smaller Lio, waiting to get updated on just what situation the Titans were dealing with and how aid might be provided.

Jump City had, in recent years, undergone a number of strange situations. The bizarre and alien had become somewhat mundane to witness on a day to day basis, in part due to the actual alien lifeforms that were showing up. Exactly where Captain Marvel flying through the sky while carrying what appeared to be a slightly misshapen giant of a man ranked on the number of weird and wacky sights was somewhat debatable.

Regardless, it was a scene that happened... and without much in the way of ceremony beyond making sure that Bob touched down on the roof nearby the T-Jet safely, Captain Marvel offered Robin, Lio and any other titan that happened to have left it a small salute before pulling back without a word; Clearly keeping his word in that he intended to observe the situation and be in a position to swoop in if need be, but otherwise leaving things to their own devices.

Bob for his part seemed to look between the various people that would make up the team that he was going to be on before offering a warm smile and a small wave... before remembering himself and clearing his throat as he went 'professional' mode. "'ello. I'm Bob. So w'o are we saving? Name isn't important, just a quick rundown of w'at t'ey look like." One could argue that it was a silly statement to make on a rescue mission, but Bob didn't have access to the full, updated roster of the Teen Titans; If there were several costumed people involved in the situation, knowing which costume is the one you're meant to be helping was a lot better then a name without a face.

Death was a strange thing to grow accustomed to. But yet, as the young man pealed himself off the floor, his cracked skull miraculously healed, he was no more shaken. It wasn't like falling asleep and waking up. It was cold and draining. Right now, it felt as though he had just swam upstream in an icy river. Still, Ghost came back to fight.

This was probably the worst place to have landed. He was standing square in the middle of the army of creatures, all of whom looked eager to put him back down. He could hold them off for a little, but the team had better get here fast.

He conjured up tendrils of inky black shadow and pushed back the first line of attackers. He wrapped the arms around the creatures, tossing them, shoving them aside, holding them off. But whatever these things were, they were strong. Throwing them into walls and into the ground didn't seem to have much effect.

Still weakened from his latest death, Ghost was losing ground fast.