The sun finally rose over Jump City after the storm. It was 9:00AM and Robin had called the Titans into the living area to go over his plan for the day.
"The city still thinks were no longer Trust worthy. So today we are going to earn back the people's trust back," he sounded confident like he knew this would work, "it doesn't matter how small the task is if there's someone you can help, help them."
"Hold up," Cyborg said frustrated, "you mean we're gonna run around the city doing charity work?"
"Exactly," Robin respond immediately, "trust is something that takes a long time to build and only a fraction of a second to destroy. We lost their trust. So until we earn it back we have to take it slow. One step at a time."
Cyborg was unhappy with this plan. He and the others have saved the city and even the world. They are superheroes. Not errand boys.
The team all shared his disagreement but what Robin said was true and they had no other choice except to follow his plan and hope for the best.
"Then... how do we accomplish this?" Starfire said encouraging Robin to continue.
"We split up," Robin answered, "we'll separate the city into sections. One of us will monitor and patrol each section. Help who ever you can, however you can. Anything you can find. No job is too small."
"So... what? We're supposed to be helping old ladies cross the street now?" Beastboy said expressing his frustration as well.
"If it comes to that, yes," Robin said getting irritated. He knew how the others felt. He too, felt that way... but what else could they do? No one would call them because of the fear from their last mission at the school and how the media had portrayed them. He looked down and his face had look of defeat, "listen, I know this might seem hopeless but if we want to get back to where we were... we have no choice."
The rest of the team saw his pain. They knew Robin felt just like they did about this plan. It wasn't a plan he had ever wanted to make but it was the best one any of them could think of.
"Alright," Cyborg said with a heavy heart, "so who's going where?"
Robin looked up. He was thankful Cyborg could be open minded and help him out by agreeing to his plan. He pulled out a remote and turned on the main screen that covered the widows in the living area. It showed a massive map of the city. Robin pushed a second button and an X crossed through the city separating the city into four sections.
"We'll split the city into four sections. North, south, east and west," Robin said continuing his brief, "Starfire you'll take the north. Cyborg, south. Raven, east and I'll take the west."
The whole team noticed that there were four sections but there's five members of the team. Beastboy had been left out.
"What about Beastboy?" Raven asked. She didn't want Besstboy to be left out of this trust building exercise. Especially when he needed it the most.
Robin pushed another button on the remote he held and widened the view of the map, showing the outer reaches of the city and beyond. The new area became highlighted by a red shaded circle that surrounded the previously designated sections of the city.
"Beastboy will patrol the outskirts of the city," Robin said having already thought the whole thing through, "until we have a little bit more trust on our side its best he helps from a distance."
"Uh... dude?" Beastboy said confused. He pointed to the rural areas on the map that barely had any signs of human population, "what am I supposed to do out there? Plant some trees?" He sounded disappointed and was trying to make fun of his job to help himself accept it.
"That's not a bad idea," Robin said trying to humor his bad attempt at a joke, "but you'll also be standing by in the event someone on the team needs help in their section," he looked up at the others, "but that is a last resort situation, understood?"
The team nod their heads understanding that Robin really did think this through very carefully.
"Any questions?" Robin asked concluding his brief.
The Titans looked around to each other seeing no one had any questions. They all looked back at Robin waiting for what he'd say next.
"Alright everyone has their assignments. Remember this is about building trust. Avoid injuring any civilians and damaging the city at all costs," Robin sounded serious. Like this was life or death.
The rest of the team was getting nervous from the seriousness coming from him. It finally dawned on them how important this was to Robin. All he knew was the hero life. Anything before that was just a nightmare to him. Protecting people gave him purpose. It kept him going. It was possible that being a hero is the only thing that kept him alive. If he lost that... they couldn't imagine what would happen to him.
"Titans, move!" Robin yelled.
Cyborg was in the T-Car, driving on patrols through the south side of the city, while Starfire was flying slowly above the north side of the city moving along the streets while Raven hovered above the east side doing the same. Robin rode through the streets of the west side of the city on his R-Cycle. They were all diligent and looking for any signs of trouble and even normal evey day tasks that could prove they were still the good guys.
As the day went on the sun peaked in the sky and noon had arrived with little for them to do.
Cyborg was driving through his side of the city when he noticed an old woman who appeared to be in her late 80s walking very slow to a street corner. She had a cane in one hand with a mid-sized purse on the opposite shoulder. She had huge glasses that could cover half her face and wore grey sweat pants with a blue v-neck t-shirt.
Cyborg was beyond bored. For the past few ours he hadn't run into a single whiff of trouble. He sighed and remembered what Robin said. No job is too small. He pulled over to a meter and hopped out of the T-Car. As he started to approach the old woman he started to get nervous.
Come on man! You take down super villains and really bad dudes all the time and you're scared to help a little old lady?! He thought to himself. He took a deep breath and put a big smile on his face as he got closer to her.
"Excuse me ma'am!" Cyborg said as enthusiastically as he could, "could I help you cross this street?" He smiled hoping that this woman never watched the news.
The old woman had a gentle voice and before she looked up at Cyborg she spoke.
"Why thank you young man!" She said happy to get the attention, "you're so thoughtful-" She stopped mid sentence as she looked behind her at the half robot half man humanoid, "oh... well thank you, but I think I can manage."
Cyborgs heart sank. He thought his appearance had terrified the woman and he tried to explain.
"Don't worry ma'am," he said respectfully, "I just had an accident when I was younger and my father built this to save me. Nothing to be scared of."
"You're that Teen-Whatser-Fighter aren't ya?" She said recognizing him.
"Yes ma'am. I'm a Teen Titan," Cyborg was filled with hope that not everyone thought they were bad, "we're out here today trying to help the community however we can," he said proudly.
"I thought so," the woman's voice grew nasty like she despised him. She swung her cane over the top of Cyborgs head hitting his metallic side with a loud knock, "shame on you! How dare you kidnap that poor girl last night!"
Immediately following her outburst, the light changed and the old woman slowly began crossing the street.
Cyborg stood frozen on the corner of the street with his jaw dropped along with a blank dumbfounded expression on his face. His were eyes open wide, staring straight forward into space. He continued to stand there frozen solid trying to comprehend what just happened. The woman walked further and futher away until she was out of sight. Cyborg must have stood there for at least 10 mintues before his brain finally decided to react.
"SAY WHAT?!" Cyborg screamed with a mixture of anger, frustration and confusion.
Starfire was flying above her side of the city when she came to the park. This was the city's central park. It was massive. About 3 miles long and 1 mile wide. Big enough to hold a quarter of the city's population. It was a nice day and tons of families were there with picnic blankets and their pets.
A little girl could be heard crying in the park not too far from where Starfire was flying. She sprung into action and quickly flew over to the child. She wore a yellow summer dress with a pink rose in the center of the chest. Her hair was lifted into two separate ponytails one on each side of the back of her head. She couldn't have been more than 5 years old.
"Hello, small child!" she said with all her kindness. She bent down on her right knee to be at eye level with the frightened child, "may I be of help?"
The little girl looked up at Starfire hoping she knew what to do. No one else had come to help her and she was getting scared and started to panic.
"Might you know where your parents are?" Starfire asked, looking around for the childs parents.
The little girl shook her head and it became apparent that she was lost and couldn't find her parents. She started to tremble at thought of them and began to cry again.
"It is ok my little bumgorf," she said trying to comfort her, "we shall search for them."
Starfire stood up and offered her hand to the child. The little girl reached up to take her hand and they began walking around to find the missing parents.
"What are the names of your parents?" Starfire asked trying to make it easier to find them.
The child remained silent. It was entirely possible she only knew them as mommy and daddy.
"HEY!" A man in the distance to Starfire's right began sprinting towards them with panic in his eyes, "get your hands off my child!"
Now Starfire had a look of panic on her face. She didn't know what she did wrong. Or why this person just started screaming at her. As the man drew closer there was a woman right behind him also panicking.
"What do you think you're doing?!" She angrily asked Starfire.
Starfire regained her composure and tried to explain, "oh... might you be this lost child's parents?"
"Yes!" They both said together catching their breath still angry.
The man wore a sleeveless tank top shirt and board shorts. He was athletic and toned and wore sunglasses over his eyes.
"Now let go of her and give her back before we call the police!" The father sounded serious like he already knew what Starfire was trying to do. But Starfire had only been trying to help and he misunderstood completely.
"But I... Only wished to help." Starfire said. She was hurt that they thought she had ill intentions.
"We know who you are," the mother said grabbing her daughter and pulling her away from Starfire. She wore a pair of jeans short-shorts and a sleeveless tank top as well. She also looked very athletic like her husband. She stood in between her daughter and Starfire as if protecting her child, "and you're not going to steal her too!"
"Steal?" Starfire asked softly still confused.
"Mommy, the nice lady was helping me look for you," the little girl said from behind her mothers leg. She spoke like she was still leanring how to pronouce her words but was still able to get the message across, "I was so scared when I got lost but she made me feel better as we looked for you."
The parents both looked at her then back at Starfire. They didn't trust Starfire but their daughter seemed to be perfectly fine and even relieved that Starfire had found her.
"Come on sweetie," the mother said picking her up and walking away without another word.
The father continued to stare at Starfire unsure what to think. He backed away slowly and said a single word as he did.
"Thanks."
It sounded completley insincere. He didn't mean it at all. But something told him that Starfire really was trying to help. He just had conflicting opinions on the Titans at the moment and that was the only thing he could make himself say.
Starfire held back her sadness and stood up straight. She wasn't gonna let this stop her from making a positive difference. She floated into the air and began flying around her section of the city once again.
Raven flew above the her side of the city as well. However, her mind was elsewhere. She would continuously look up from the streets out at the horizon hoping to see a green bird flying not too far off in the distance. She felt bad for Beastboy. He was a valuable asset to the team and his abilities were being wasted on meaningless matters far away from the real problems.
Things were relatively peaceful on her side of the city. Not much that she considered to actually involve herself in. After all... she isn't exactly a "people person." If she tried to help with small things she might come off as a rude and self-centered person and it might make things worse for the team so she decided to only get involved with more serious matters.
The day continued to drone on. She couldn't help but wonder what Beastboy was doing on the outskirts. She would give anything to see him again. But she knew it would be better for both of them if they could get back on the city's good side.
Beastboy took the shape of an eagle flying through the sky with a small bag clutched in his talons. He found a baron patch of the nearby forest and flew down to it. He morphed into his normal form before landing and looked around at the area. It was where the forest had been burned down years ago by their friends Thunder and Lightning.
It wasn't their fault though. Someone had manipulated them into summoning an evil fire spirit that destroyed anything in its path. They were manipulated just like Terra was.
He let out a heavy sigh and raised the bag slightly in front of him and reached in with the other hand. He pulled out a single seed. It was the seed of a pine tree. At first he was just kidding when he asked if he should plant trees... but now he didn't know what else to do. He had been Flying around the outskirts for hours with absolutely nothing to do and no one to help. So he decided to take Robins advice. After all... it wasn't a bad idea.
He placed the seed back in the bag and walked to the center of the barren patch of forest and knelt down, putting the bag next to him. He morphed into a common household dog and started digging into the earth beneath him. Once he had a decent hole fit for a seed to spring to life, he returned to his normal form and picked up the bag once more.
"I don't know how... but hopefully this is a good start to something better for both of us," he spoke as if the seed were a person. He placed it gently in the hole and covered it with the dirt he had dug up, "I hope the others are ok," he said to himself outloud, "the sooner we go back to hero work the better," Beastboy looked to the city to see Raven floating over the east side closest to him. A smile crossed his face and he felt that it really could be a good start to something better.