Footsteps sounded like a bass drum to her, waking her with a shock. Green eyes burst open to stare at the blank ceiling. She lay on her back in the middle of her sterile white bed, her single black pillow under her head. Groaning, Alice realized her sound canceling head phones must have fallen off while she slept. She sat up in the bed and glared at the black-and-white checker boarded wall across from her. Finally she raised her left arm and swept her right hand across the pale skin. Blue, white, and red lights flickered to life beneath the surface, showing data and statistics only she could understand. She dragged a finger over her arm, turning down the volume. Normally she didnâ€™t have to do this manually, usually she only had to think of it, but she hadnâ€™t recharged long enough last night and didnâ€™t want to waste energy.<br/>Â<br/>Sighing, she unplugged a wire attached to her neck, tossing it to the side. Capping the hole closed, she threw her legs over the side of the bed and threw the covers to the side. Her feet hit her plush black carpet and she wiggled her toes, artificial nerves sending the sensations to her automated brain slowly. She dressed swiftly, throwing on a short black skirt and zipping a long hoodie over a black camisol. In stocking feet, she left the room and ghosted through the halls like a spector.<br/>Â<br/>She heard the usual sounds of waking from the other Titans. Shuffling feet, the turning on of the television, the crunch of an apple. And soon there was another accompanying sound: the strumming on an instrument. A guitar to be exact.<br/>Â<br/>Alice couldnâ€™t recall who the guitar belonged to, or if it was one of the previous occupantsâ€™. She didnâ€™t know if anyone currently residing in the tower played it. Alice mildly wondered about the newest member, Bluefire. She had searched through the Towerâ€™s files and gathered information on the last Teen Titan like Bluefire. The Tamaraneans were an emotional race of alien lifeforms. In fact, it's their emotions that fuel their natural abilities of flight and â€˜starboltâ€™ power. They also learn language through touch, an interesting and useful quality.<br/>Â<br/>As Alice neared the door to the computer room, she decided she didnâ€™t want to join the other titans just yet. Instead she slid inside. Monitors glowed upon her entry, all humming to life as she neared them. She thunked down in the rotating computer chair and turned to the nearest keyboard. It felt like ages as she checked on everything she could think of. She checked news feeds and recent headlines for crime, alarms set about the city that went off when it detects magic or alien activity. She maneuvered a street camera around, amused when she caught a red light runner on film, and scrolled through all other readings the computer automatically catalogued. This was probably the second most efficient computer in the world, the first being Alice herself. It was so intimately connected with Jump City, no one would sneeze within the city limits without the computer noting it.Â<br/><br/>Suddenly she noticed with curiosity that there was a strange reading that occurred...just now. It wasn't alien or magical exactly, the computer couldn't identify it. Perturbed, Alice enlarged the data the exact moment a warning beep went off. There was something wrong in the city.Â<br/><br/>Alice quickly checked the camera feeds, telling the computer to show her where the threat was. But there seemed to be something blocking the feed. Urgently she tapped in commands on the keyboard, immensely grateful she had been in the computer room to do it manually. The titans would have spent their entire day not knowing something was wrong if she hadn't.Â<br/><br/>As soon as she reconnected to the camera feed, she put it on the screens throughout the tower. Red lights flashed and an alarm sounded as the feed played.<br/><br/>Alice sprung from the chair. She needed to get Arsenal 2.0v and meet the titans. But first she glanced at the monitor. She saw dark, malformed looking animals attacking citizens, and a lone boy fighting them.Â<br/><br/>Her mouth set grimly, Alice dashed out of the room and retrieved Arsenal 2.0v from her bedroom, then raced out into the common room.Â<br/><br/>"Good morning, titans!" she murmured breathlessly as she shot into the room, Arsenal 2.0v strapped across her back. "The hounds are currently on the corner of Justice Street and about to split up." she informed them as she watched updates from the computer scroll over the vision on her right eye.Â<br/><br/>She looked around the room with calculating eyes, composed now. She tended to be rather emotionless and dispassionate around the others. It came more naturally to her than emotions did. She counted all the members present, but noticed a few were absent. Her green eyes fell on their newest member. "Will you be accompanying us?" she asked in a soft, monotone voice.Â