Aliens for Pizza! {Brainiac 5.0, Robin}

[Beast Boy]

“And there it is! Slice of Life.” Beast Boy rounded a corner and pointed up at the pizza place’s sign down the street. He didn’t know what kind of transportation Brainiac had, but he hadn’t asked. Brainiac was new, so why not just walk and point out popular places or interesting ones for his new friend to hear about. He’d also been sort of keeping an eye out for the other Titans, as this would be a really easy way to introduce Brainiac without bringing him to the Tower. Robin would have kittens, most likely, he thought, rolling his eyes. Normally, the idea inspired in him more desire to do whatever it was, but when Robin would have kittens over the danger and security breach ... not so much fun.

He snagged a menu on the way out to the patio--his favorite spot to eat here, at least when the weather was nice and it wouldn’t rain on the pizza. “Here ya go, then, Brainy!” he said cheerfully, opening up the menu. After recalling Starfire’s mistakes with it, and then Brainiac’s question earlier about a peanut butter and jelly pizza, Beast Boy pointed to the section of the menu that contained pizza toppings. “Pick from these.”

[Brainiac 5]

The travel there had been informative, to say the least, and Beast Boy was very much a good source of data. He had pointed out multiple places, some that the robot had found interesting and thus filed away, and others that while the older boy seemed to like him, did not intrigue him in any way, and thus he threw those out, letting them drift back to the farthest part of his databanks. Though there were a few that he held on to, mainly because of a purpose they could serve. He had no wish to play ‘video games’ at the Arcade, for an example, but if he ever needed components for rebuilding the Time Bubble (72.4% chance), one of the options would be to retrieve them from that location.

It was always better to have more than one option.

But it had not been able to last forever, as it was wont, and so the Coluan gazed curiously, not that many would be able to tell, around the ‘pizza place’, entitled ‘Slice of Life’, taking in the sights. His sensors helpfully informed him that it was an appealing smell, and he could pick out plentiful foods in it. Interesting…

Sitting down at the table next to Beast Boy, he scanned the list of ingredients that the other pointed out for him, his databanks providing him with information whenever there was one that he could not recognize immediately. Most of those, however, he had never had, and a frown touched at his expression as he contemplated, before he turned slightly to Beast Boy. “Might you have data on an accurate choice? Most of these are unfamiliar to me…”

In taste, that was. Woe to him if he did not recognize basic sustenance within a few moments. He would not be deserving of the twelfth level of intelligence.

[Robin]

A sight of content filled the Boy Wonder from head to toe as he reached one of his favorite pizza shops in the city. There was no crime in the city (for once) and it would do the sixteen year old justice to treat himself to a nice slice of life, or in this case, a slice of pizza. Walking into the crowded establishment Robin scoped out a possible seat, or people that he might know, which was fairly common since everyone likes pizza.

Waking around carefully he allowed himself to inhale the familiar scents belonging to varying pizza toppings and melted cheese. It was only moments later when he spotted a shade of green amongst the crowds. Beast Boy had always managed to stand out, in more ways than one with his vivacious personality. Taking tentative steps he reached the shape shifter, stopping in front of his vision to give a brief nod accompanied with a smile. "Hey Beast Boy," he said before eyeing an available seat across from him and quickly brought his legs up and over the furniture, almost leaping into the comfortable seat with relative ease thanks in part to the litheness granted from years of training.

Without even looking at the people surrounding him Robin picked up the menu, reacquainting himself with the many topping and ingredients that graced the folded paper. He closed the menu only minutes later, setting it back down on the table before glancing at his pea colored friend. "Beast Boy," he said, his voice soft yet endowed with a tone of commandment, "You got combat practice in three hours." A presence at the table reminded him that someone else was sitting close by. Gazing past Beast Boy, his eyes wondered over to what resembled a robot? One half of his mask widened in surprise while the other half narrowed in the direction of the mechanical being. "...Beast Boy, what is that," he mouthed with a twinge of annoyance for having not been informed of this strange machine, raising a gloved index finger to point at the source of his question, his glare unabated despite the many passerby's who may have eyed the Titan leader curiously.

[Beast Boy]

Beast Boy actually managed to keep his mouth shut while Brainiac examined the menu. Crouched on the seat, the menu already memorized after all his time coming here, his eyes wandered around the other customers until Brainiac spoke up. “Sure! I got all the data you could need!” Except about the meat options, that would be Cyborg’s turf, but since he wasn’t here, they’d be going vegetarian! “So, since you like peanut butter and jelly, we should probably go with something classic. Black olives and peppers are both standard choices on pizza. So are tomatoes, but since they’re in the sauce already, that’s—Robin!”

He lit up and bounced a little in his seat, pleased to see the leader of his team showing up at such a great time! And Robin would totally be the one who could say it was okay to bring Brainiac back to the Tower to meet the rest of the group. “This is great, you can join us for pizza!” He was just about to introduce them, in fact, when Robin had to bring up combat practice. Beast Boy’s face fell. “Dude!” he whined, drawing the word out. “You’re acting like I’m late or something! Can’t a beast get a bite to eat in peace?” He shifted into a hound, putting his front paws on the table, and lolled his tongue out, giving great big hungry eyes at his leader before shifting back.

His ears perked up at Robin’s question, then he glowered. “Whoa, dude, rude much? He’s a him, not a that, and his name is Brainiac.” Rolling his eyes, he looked over at Brainiac and lifted a hand. “This is my esteemed, and USUALLY,” with an accusing glare at Robin, “polite leader, the Boy Wonder. Robin, meet my friend, Brainiac number five.” He leaned onto the table like he’d done earlier, but with his human hands this time, staring pointedly at Robin as if keeping a literally close eye on him would make sure he was polite.

[Brainiac 5]

…Beast Boy tended to rant quite a bit, Brainiac 5 noted, storing the data. It was actually fairly interesting, as it informed him that there were ‘tomatoes’ in the sauce that was in/part of the pizza, and seeing as Superman had once told him that his adopted mother grew them in her garden, he was sure to appreciate this example of Earth cuisine. Absentmindedly noting the odd figure, likely a superhero, in his peripheral vision as he listened to the other and mentally determined that he would have both ‘Black Olives’ and ‘Peppers’, when his fellow green lifeform noticed the other.

He turned slightly in his seat, and blinked at the appearance. Robin…? Ah, yes, the Boy Wonder, later Nightwing, and a host of other Personas, the original sidekick to the Dark Knight of Gotham. Not as good as Superman, of course, but impressive nonetheless. The mention of combat practice intriguied him, and he smiled slightly as Beast Boy protested, feeling empathy with the apparent leader despite the fact that they had not yet shared a word. After all, his team often reacted much the same way.

Hm, wonder if they had a simulation… He would like to use it, if so… Though it would not be as nice as his. He had spent much time on that.

The aggressive and rude statement made him blink, slightly surprised, but before he could even make an inquiry, Beast Boy stepped in to defend him. Well, that was nice. Listening to the other finish his statement, Brainiac 5.0 nodded at Robin, his statement bearing no ill will. “Greetings,” he told the other, before he shifted his gaze to Beast Boy. “The ‘classic’ is acceptable, Beast Boy. Black Olives and Peppers.”

With that, he curiously returned his gaze to the future Nightwing. Naturally, he had read nowhere near as much on Batman and his various accomplices as he had with Superman, but he was a standard part of any historical superhero readings. So it was intriguing to meet the original Robin.

[Robin]

Garfield had no idea what he's doing. His boast of defense to the eccentric robot had only begun to irritate the Boy Wonder further. A wave of fire washed over the male, his annoyance on the rise. Nonetheless the Titan leader breathed a sigh and allowed his craving for pizza to temporarily override his suspicions about the mechanical 'male'. "Robin. Nice to meet you," he said with an stiff tone, resisting every urge that fabricated in his body to strangle the green bodied titan that he oh so clashed with on a multitude of levels. "Beast Boy, three hours," he reiterated, eying the Titan, drilling the order into his feeble brain.

Diverting his attention elsewhere, his eyes fell upon a young server whose air matched the vibrant environment around her - perfect. "Hey," he called out into the crowds, sticking a hand straight into the air and waving it back and forth, beckoning the female towards the table. With ease she spotted the gloved hand and with a practiced hop in her step, she bounded over to the table, a welcoming smile gracing her features. "What can I get you guys?"

"I'll take three slices of pizza, top them with sausage, pepperoni, and anchovies." The girl held up a notepad and scribbled down the order, meanwhile directing her attention to the odd green looking male and robot beside him, her cheerful disposition projecting its aura to everyone and everything around them, despite the eccentric cast of people that was before her. "Alright! What can I get you two?" She said, sticking the head of her held pen towards both unattended individuals.

Taking his time now that he ordered, he surveyed Brainiac carefully, his expression plastered with forced stoicism. Robin couldn't help but think that this mechanical human-like person was an abomination built by Slade to collect data from inattentive persons - namely the Titans who were willing to depart with pertinent information freely, much like the rambunctious Beast Boy. There was one thing that was for sure: there was no way, no chance whatsoever that such an enigmatic robot was going to enter Titans Tower, deactivate security and allow hundreds, if not thousands of Slade's own creations to infiltrate the premises. No matter what, Robin was going to get down to the bottom of this 'Brainiac' business, whether Beast Boy liked it or not.

[Beast Boy]

Well, Brainiac didn’t seem very bothered, but then again, he was a robot who apparently didn’t have emotions, so that would probably put a damper on showing anything like annoyance. Not that that would stop Beast Boy from being annoyed on his behalf. He rolled his eyes again at Robin’s repeated reminder of fighting practice. It’s not like Beast Boy skipped fighting practice or something, but if he didn’t know better, he’d think that Robin had to chase him down every day to get him to go, the way his leader was acting right now.

And then Robin called a waitress over, so BB grinned to hide his impatience as he waited for Robin to order. Just because of how Robin was needling him, Beast Boy contorted his face in several different expressions of disgust and disapproval at the toppings Robin picked—a different one for each topping. He bounced right back to normal when she turned to look at them. “Four slices of green peppers and black olives, please! And hold the cheese on three of them.” He didn’t want to deny Brainiac the chance to experience cheesy pizza, but he couldn’t get non-dairy cheese here.

He grinned at the waitress until she’d left, then rounded on Robin again, glaring for a second before he hopped up from his seat, grabbed the Boy Wonder’s arm, and shot a grin at Brainiac as he pulled his leader from his seat. “We’ll be right back.” Dragging him off to a distance that was out of Beast Boy’s own impressive hearing range (easier with the chatter at the restaurant), he rounded on Robin and whispered, “Dude, what is your problem?”

[Brainiac 5]

It was very obvious to the Coluan that the Boy Wonder was still suspicious of him, and though he could understand why (after all, he was an alien that showed up out of nowhere), it was still a tad irritating, not that he let it show. After all, what on earth would he have to gain? It didn’t make sense, honestly, and it was probably something in the Teen Titan’s history that he was yet unaware of, but it was still irritating. If he had wanted to end them, after all, he would’ve already done it.

Oh, it was time to order? It had been awhile since he and his allies had gone out to eat together, but they hadn’t had to order like this, just verbalize their foods and wait for someone to bring them out. Interesting… The faces that Beast Boy was making distracted Brainy from listening to what the Boy Wonder was having on his pizza, and while it would’ve garnered a chuckle in most people, it simply made the Coluan smile slightly, watching the older boy. He did remind him quite a bit of his teammates…

He was going to order for himself, of course, but seeing as he was waiting for Beast Boy to go first, he was unable to. The other did it himself. Hm, why no cheese? “Thanks, Beast Boy,” he told the other, and even though he wanted to fight it, feeling his speech slip slightly, he found himself a bit more relaxed. Maybe it was the activity, something that he was so used to with his team, and the fact that the fellow green lifeform was actually nice to be around, but he was finding himself relax slightly.

At least, until he registered the feel of eyes boring into him, and turned to look at Robin. Of course, he was suspicious. That was kind of his role on the team, so he understood it, but he never acted like that…

Before he could possibly initiate a stare-down with the Titan (in truth, he didn’t have to blink for quite a bit of time, while the other could hide such an action behind his mask, so it would be an interesting contest), Beast Boy sprang up, speaking to him, and though Brainy blinked in surprise (ending the contest before it could begin), the emotion actually registering on his face, he nodded. “Of course. Take your time.”

He watched the two go, wondering what it was that Beast Boy was going to discuss with his leader (perhaps he was going to further stick up for him? But he had already done that in his presence, so what would be the difference this time?), before he fiddled slightly with his communicator belt, wishing that someone would speak up from the other side.

Brainy didn’t want to scan for data, despite having possibly enough time, because he didn’t want to be caught defenseless should Robin act on his suspicions, but he found himself sighing slightly, slumping a tad as he frowned slightly. He… missed his team. Now he was going all nostalgic for the future.

[Robin]

Robin continued scrutinizing the odd Robot even as Beast Boy ordered, despite the stare that was returned back at him. The Boy Wonder tried to put mentally place himself in the robot's head, in an vain attempt to figure out just what this futuristic being was doing here in Jump. The hyperactive sound of the teen waitress filled the area, a smile stretching from cheek to cheek. "Okay guys! Your order is coming right up!" She walked off quickly, blatantly ignoring what was imposed as a staring contest that was rudely interrupted by a hand grabbing his arm and pulling him up from his seat.

Robin jerked his head towards the hand, half knowing it was the infamous shape shifter. Hearing Beast Boy speak he looked towards the robot, and was met with a look of surprise on Brainiac's metallic face. "Yeah, we'll be back," he said, taking the opportunity to glare at Beast Boy as he allowed him to drag the Boy Wonder away from the table. As they maneuvered through waves of people, Robin easily figured out exactly what was going to come from Beast Boy's mouth due to sheer experience.

Minutes later, when they came to a stop, Robin looked down at the younger Titan, his expression completely and absolutely unreadable, as he listened to the complaint that came from Beast Boy's mouth. "Look, Beast Boy, you don't even know where Brainiac came from, do you," he asked in an barely contained whisper. While it was true that Robin unfairly refused to give the robot the benefit of the doubt, the well being of the team was his most important concern. For all he knew, Brainiac was a threat under a friendly guise.

[Beast Boy]

Folding his arms, Beast Boy glared at Robin. “Come on, man, give me some credit! That’s, like, the first thing I asked him!” Although he was still keeping his voice to a whisper, as he started explaining, Beast Boy grew animated, flailing his arms and twisting his face in accordance with each thing he revealed. “He’s from the future, and he’s pals with Superman! He built this time thingie that let him meet Superman, and he’s training him or something in the future or whatever, or I guess he will since it hasn’t happened yet, but it kind of already has, but it blew up, and now he’s here!”

As usual, Beast Boy’s stories made perfect sense to him, despite the fact that he was leaving out several steps along the way which Brainiac had actually told him about. Somewhere, in the transition between memory to his mouth, these steps got lost and never actually came out, although it still sounded just fine to him. Probably since he knew the missing bits.

[Robin]

Robin titled his head to the side, listening to the green male as he spoke. However, a few seconds into his explanation, he started to run a hand through his spiky hair in slight confusion, exhaling a sigh. The way Beast Boy spoke was mostly filled with holes that lacked the right information to properly fill them. It was confusing, but there was something about Beast Boy that told the leader that Brainiac wasn't too much of a threat. It could be due to the fact that the shape shifter acted this way around everyone who proved to be okay individuals, with certain exceptions.

"So, this Brainiac came from the future or something," Robin stated in a dry six inch voice, notably in the same manner that Raven would commonly speak to the shorter male. And he's friends with Superman?" Robin added this question cocking an eye at Beast Boy, before walking away. "I'm gonna have a chat with him," he said, the pitch of his voice returning to its normal volume.

Traversing the crowds Robin made his way back to his seat, where his eyes fell on Brainiac once more. No, his eyes weren't topped with suspicion, though they could be considered inquisitive by the many people who knew the Boy Wonder. What brings you here?" While his mind was open for the many answers that could pool from Brainiac's mouth, Robin placed great measure on examining the robot's expressions, for he appeared to express emotion to some degree. Besides, no one could question the eyes that were concealed behind the infamous domino mask.

[Brainiac 5]

He was doing his best to keep his eyes averted from the two of them, considering that they wished to have privacy, and he was quite adept in reading lips, but Beast Boy’s movement was quite obvious, and it was impossible to avoid seeing how much he moved about. The Coluan was rather curious as to what they were talking about, and knew it was about him, perhaps an interrogation of what he had revealed about himself so far, which only furthered his curiosity, but he would not ask.

Deciding that simply poking around in his upper data levels would be fairly safe, Brainy closed his eyes, sifting through the strands of codes and data, looking for any relevant mention of the ‘Teen Titans’. Of course, he did not expect anything this close to the surface, but such searching would send ripples through his database, and when he stopped to look again, it would take less time.

However, even though he was on the light surface of his mind, he had still delved past his conscious one, and it was only the fact that he was able to distinguish footsteps that he realized someone was coming towards him. Snapping his purple eyes upon, a slight haze over his eyes as he looked up at the Boy Wonder before that disappeared as he left his subconscious mind, and he registered the question.

There were an infinite line of answers that he could use, each one as true as the next, and Brainiac 5 hesitated for a moment, unsure of what exactly the original Robin was looking for, before he gave his simple answer of how he came to this time. That was what he sought, right? “My teammates interrupted my work on the Time Bubble, and the instability of it has landed me back in this time period,” he stated simply. “My meeting of Beast Boy was not intentional, but I hope that you and your team will be considered an ally in this endeavor, and at minimum, will not halt my efforts?”

With that, he paused, running over his words, before he added on an additional statement, covering for the basic meanings of the question. “And Beast Boy does not like the fact that I have never tasted ‘pizza’.”

[Beast Boy]

Well, whatever. If Robin had questions, he could always ask Brainiac, in Beast Boy’s opinion. It wasn’t like it was hard; that was how Beast Boy had found out in the first place, after all. Robin would probably think to ask more questions than Beast Boy did, anyway, so it would be better if he did! So, giving the Boy Wonder his best flat look for the way he’d repeated the story, Beast Boy bounced back with him to the table and hopped into his seat, crouching on it instead of sitting.

He stepped back from the conversation a little, giving Robin the space to talk to Brainiac, and not trying to answer for the robot, since that would just be dumb. Beast Boy only just heard this story, after all, and Robin wasn’t being rude anymore, just serious. Which was normal for him, so whatever. Drumming his fingers idly on the table, Beast Boy tried to just listen, really he did, but he just couldn’t help but say, “See? That’s what I told you!” after Brainiac finished.

“Everyone should at least try pizza,” he said seriously, nodding.