Titans West

"Yes!" Bette Kane admired herself in the mirror and slid her hands down the tight dress, smoothing out the wrinkles. "Come in!" she called as she heard a knocking on the door.

Gar Logan walked in. "Bette, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Absolutely," Bette said, quickly applying a red lipstick.

"I mean, I don't want to put a damper on the evening, but this team's pretty prone to disasters. We can't even go to an amusement park without all hell breaking loose."

"Hey, you're forgetting something," Bette said. "That was Flamebird and Titans West. This is Bette Kane and some friends out for a night on the town!"

"I just don't have a good feeling about this," Gar said.

Bette clamped her hands onto his shoulders. "Listen, it's my birthday and for my birthday I'm declaring this a girls' night out!" She moved Gar out of the door and walked past. "And turn the lights out when you leave!" Gar rubbed his forehead, already feeling the migraine coming on.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it," Karen said.

Mal smiled. "I know you will. Try and give me a call later on if you get a chance and we'll test it out."

"Whatcha got?" Terra asked as she walked into the room.

"Just a little something we've been working on." Karen showed the small device to Terra before she snapped it onto her wrist. "It's a new mini-cam. STAR's been working on it. We're hoping to be able to sell it to police forces for undercover agents to use."

"Cool," Terra said. "Are you going to try and tie it all together?"

"That's where Mal comes in," Karen explained. "Oracle's shared some of her pictures of criminals, and he's working to compile a database."

"Wow, small world." Terra was impressed. They looked up as Bette bounced into the room.

"Are we ready to paint the town red?" Bette asked. "Sorry, Mal. You can't come."

"Just as well," Mal said. "I've still got some more data entry to do on this database. Just try to keep Karen in line."

"You!" Karen playfully punched her laughing husband on the shoulder.

"Come on! The men are waiting!" Bette led Terra and Karen out, Karen pausing to give Mal a kiss on the cheek.

"Are they gone?" Gar asked as he walked in.

"They're gone," Mal said. "I'm just hoping that they don't wind up arrested."

"I'm sure they'll be arrested. I just hope that they don't wind up dead."

Across town, Sarah Simms walked toward her apartment's balcony when she heard a tapping on the glass. She opened the curtains and saw Jason standing there in the Golden Eagle armor. Sarah quickly opened the doors and brought him in.

"These are for you," he said as he handed Sarah a bouquet of roses.

"They're beautiful!" Sarah said as she hurried toward the kitchen to put the flowers in water. In the living room, Jason pulled off his helmet and gauntlets, laying them on the coffee table.

"I'm glad you like them," Jason said as he ran his hand through his hair. "I wasn't too sure of which color was your favorite."

Sarah kissed him on the cheek. "You can't go wrong with red." She looked him over. "I hope you're not planning to go out to dinner wearing that."

Jason showed her the duffel bag he'd been carrying. "Got some clothes in here if I can borrow your bathroom for a second."

"Sure, unless you'd rather change out here." Jason shrugged and pulled off his boots, then his chest armor. When he started getting ready to pull down his pants, a laughing Sarah pushed him into the bathroom and threw the duffel in after him. Even with the door closed, she could still hear him laughing as she walked back to the living room.

Risk was walking down the hall of Titans West headquarters when he heard an odd beeping coming from Vibe's room. He knocked and pushed the door open. Vibe was seated in front of his television, his face locked in complete concentration. Risk's eyes shot open when he saw what he was doing.

"Dude, you've got an Atari!" Risk yelled. Vibe turned around as his last ship crashed and burned on the screen.

"Yeah. Hey, got Donkey Kong and an extra controller if you're up for it."

A split second later, Risk was sitting on the floor, controller in hand. "Let's rock," he said. Vibe smiled and popped the cartridge in.

Red Star closed his eyes as he rubbed the box he'd hidden in his closet. Inside were the drawings and letters from Baby and Pantha. Tears began to roll down his face as he opened the box for the first time since learning of their deaths. On top was a picture Baby had drawn of him with purple hair and a blue uniform. "I miss you," he whispered. "I miss you."

Inside a bar called the Manly Thang, two women were seated at the bar. One was blond, and the other had long red hair. The blond sighed as she took a sip of her Shirley Temple.

The redhead shook her head as she sipped her ice water. "You've got to lighten up," Pamela Isley said.

"You don't understand," Harleen Quinzel replied. "I really wanted to get those Harlequin glasses for Mr. J! They would have made a perfect Valentines day gift."

Pamela took another sip of her water. "I really don't see what you see in him."

"Deep down, he's a cuddly widdle teddy bear!" Harleen replied.

Deep down, he's a twisted, evil, perverse psychotic who should be dropped in a pit, Pamela thought to herself. "I don't see it," she finally said out loud.

"Well, it takes a while to get to that side of him."

"That's why. I thought he usually killed everyone who was around him for any length of time."

"He does! That's how I know he loves me!" Harleen clenched her hands together over her heart and smiled widely.

"He loves you because he hasn't killed you yet," Pamela summarized. "I think you're just a little obsessed."

Harleen kept smiling as she thought of her love. "It's just that smile. He always smiles when he sees me."

"He smiles when he sees everybody," Pamela said. "His face is locked like that!"

"He doesn't smile the way he does at me," Harleen grumbled.

Sensing she was getting nowhere, Pamela shrugged. "Hey, drink up. When you're done, we'll go see if we can't have some fun in this town. You got your working clothes?"

Harleen smiled and patted her bag. "You know it!"

Outside the bar, three friends got off a bus. "Are you sure about this?" one asked.

"Of course!" another replied. "Where else can you go to pick up chicks other than a women's bar?"

Sighing, the other two followed the enthusiastic one inside.

Bette, Karen and Terra climbed out of the cab. Terra checked her backside. "Did I sit in gum? I know that there was gum stuck on that seat."

"You're fine," Karen said. "Although I believe that we all need a little more perfume to cover up the wet goat smell from that thing."

"Will you two quit whining?" Bette asked. "We're here to have a good time."

"The Manly Thang," Karen read. "Sounds like a lot of fun to me."

"At least they won't smell the goat over the cigarette smoke," Terra said.

"Come on," Bette said, grabbing their arms and pulling them forward.

A few minutes later, they were seated at the table. Bette ordered margaritas for all of them, and pinched the waiter's butt as he left.

"You're in rare form tonight," Karen observed.

"You better believe it!" Bette said. "It's my birthday!"

"Is the music always this loud?" Tara yelled to ask.

"No! They've turned it down tonight!" Tara blinked once as the bass on the song set everything on the table to shaking.

Across the room, Harleen and Pamela were just starting on fresh drinks. "Feeling better yet?" Pamela asked.

Harleen shook her head. "No."

"Don't you want to go have some fun?"

Harleen let out a long breath and then pooched out her bottom lip. "No. I want to get a present for my special Valentine!"

On the other side of the dance floor, Karen was taking random shots with her bracelet camera as Bette polished off another margarita. Bette looked up as a young man walked up to her.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi, she replied.

"I'm Erik," he said.

"Good for you," Bette answered.

"I got to meet Shirtless Girl," he said.

"I'm sure your mother's very proud."

Erik thought a moment. "Wanna see my magic ring?" he asked as he reached for his crotch (and the pocket that was there). A second later, he was walking toward two of his laughing friends (who just happened to be named Kelen and Clayton), the remains of Bette's margarita covering his face.

"We can't take you anywhere," Clayton said.

"Yeah, first that mess in Vegas*, now this," Kelen added. Erik just stayed silent and started trying to mop the margarita off his face.

*Supergirl #2 – db

"Creep!" Bette yelled, throwing Tara's margarita after him for good measure.

"Hey!" Tara yelled. "I wasn't finished with that!"

"Yes, you were!" Bette said. "Come on! Let's hit the dance floor!"

Mal picked up the phone at Titans West HQ. "Hey, hon," he said as he recognized Karen. "Yeah, I'm ready. Go ahead and transmit." Mal scanned the data scrolling across his screen. "Looks like it's..." His voice trailed away as the names Pamela Isley and Harleen Quinzel showed up in red.

"What's wrong?" Karen asked. She paled when he told her. "We're on it. Love you." She quickly hung up and hurried onto the dance floor, looking for the others.

When Karen found them, she tried to tell something to Bette. Bette pointed at her ear, showing she couldn't hear her. Karen took a deep breath and screamed just as the music cut out...

"HARLEY QUINN AND POISON IVY ARE AT THE BAR!!"

Harley (Quinzell) and Ivy (Isley) spit out their drinks at the same time, covering the bartender in the spray. "Looks like we've been found out!" Ivy observed.

"Is there a goat in here?" Harley asked, sniffing the air.

"I told you it smelled like goat!" Terra yelled as she raised her hands.

"Settle down. These three aren't anything we can't handle," Ivy advised. At her command, the plants in the club went mad, sending the remaining patrons stampeding for the door, including the drenched Erik. His two friends, now totally drunk, slumped over the bar, unconscious.

"Civilians are clear!" Bumblebee yelled as she raised her sleeve, revealing her stinger launcher.

"Can somebody help me?" Terra asked. "I think I've got a ficus tree trying to strangle me."

"No problem," Flamebird said as she sliced through tendril after tendril with her throwing disk.

Harley raised a large mallet and squeezed a button on the handle. Bumblebee dove for cover as a boxing glove shot out and cracked the brick wall behind her. Karen looked up and fired three stingers, all of which nailed Harley.

"Oohh," Harley said, her eyes blanker than usual. "Pretty colors." She fell to the ground and started snoring.

"Time to go," Ivy said. She let out a cry as Flamebird's disk slammed into the back of her head.

"You're not going anywhere," Flamebird said, quickly cuffing Ivy to the bar.

"Looks like we made a little mess," Terra observed, looking around the destroyed club.

None of them were surprised when the police stormed in and arrested all of them.

"I'll send somebody right down," Mal said. He hung up the phone with a sigh.

"What is it?" Gar asked.

"That was Karen. They're in jail."

"Well, they made it longer than I expected. What happened?"

"Turns out they went to the same club that Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are drowning their sorrows in."

"Well, I guess we should look on the light side," Gar said. "At least they didn't trash the headquarters this time." He walked out, picked up his keys and started driving to the station.

Next Issue: It all begins here! ON THE RUN - PROLOGUE! Don't miss it!

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