"Ah." Robin groaned, rubbing his head, feeling dust clinging to his freshly gelled hair and gritty dirt stick onto his classic suit. "Where are we?"
"Somewhere where my GPS can't track." Cyborg replied, tapping several screens on his right arm. "Strange. We're in the same time zone, and apparently we haven't left our city!" He seemed unfazed by their rough landing.
"What?" The boy stood up. "Then where the heck are we?" He gazed at his surroundings. There were tons of run-down buildings, old decaying foliage and plenty of rubbish in the streets, but strangely, or not so strangely, no people.
"Have we travelled dimensions or something?" Beast Boy asked, shaking a couple pebbles out of his pointy ears.
"Maybe." Cyborg wrinkled his human forehead. "But exactly where is the question…"
"Perhaps we were transported to a distant planet!" suggested Starfire, brushing dirt off her skirt. "Or maybe a prehistoric place, like where Kole and Gnaark live.
"Or maybe The Herald just messed up big time." Raven said coldly. Her dark eyes also surveyed their environment and noticed a rusted sign hanging dejectedly from a worn, wooden post. "The…Pavilion?"
"No people. We'd better keep walking." Robin decided in a leader-like fashion. The five hiked through the wrecked village.
"I believe this called 'devastating'." cried Star, clasping her hands and sadly looking upon the mass rubble.
"More like discouraging." Beast Boy said, sniffing the air carefully. "Looks like a bomb went off."
"Looks like one did." Robin held up some shrapnel shards and examined them closely. "I don't know, but looks like either a war or a major riot, or even terrorism. Team, I feel like we're going to figure out where we are shortly. Let's go."
After what seemed like hours of walking, which was made worst by Beast Boy, who complained that his legs hurt and why could he fly, they arrived at another small town. This village also had a sparing amount people, but people none the less.
As they walked through the streets, Robin noticed they were gathering the attention of the town folk. Groups of men and women stared, and some even cast sour glances at them. Then Robin realized it. Many of the people were wearing old, torn clothing and looked very poor. In their bright suits (except for Raven's which was naturally dark), they looked very eye-catching. "Rich kids." Snorted an old man disgustedly.
"Team, do you guys…" he paused awkwardly. "…have anything else to wear?"
"Look Robin." Raven said sarcastically. "Do you think we packed for this little excursion?"
Robin glared at her, and she just shrugged. "What I'm saying is, we don't have clothes except for our suits."
"How about money, then?"
"Nuh-uh," Beast Boy pulled the lining of his pockets outwards to accentuate his point. "Not a penny."
"How about these?" Starfire piped up, "I suppose these are called… hundred dollar bills?"
"Well, that's conveniant." Raven said dryly. "Like the Deus ex Machina trope."
"STARFIRE! Where did you get those!?" Robin shouted, ignoring Raven's words, grapping her shoulder and looking into her innocently green eyes.
Starfire was startled and retreated a little. "I went to the mall of shopping and entered one of those earthly contests called 'raffles'. I am sorry, was that a wrong thing to do?"
Robin's mask wiggled. "Uh no… I mean…uh..sorry. I thought you…uh…"
"Just admit it," Beast Boy grinned and elbowed the flustered boy in the ribs. "You totally thought she stole 'em!"
"No! I just…okay, yeah, I did. But not anymore."
"The truth comes clean." Cyborg laughed. "Robin, you want us to buy new clothes, right? There's a shop over there. I just hope they sell extra, extra, EXTRA large. The people here look small."
"And extra small for him…" Raven smiled drolly at Beast Boy. "Right BB?"
"Ha! Like I wear extra…Wait, how'd you know my shirt size!?"
"Intuition…And because you leave your clothes lying around everywhere."
"Whatever. Let's go." Inside the small shop, he exclaimed, "Wow, what is this, a thrift store?" There were racks and racks of musty clothes, along with boxes of old toys and gadgets.
"Let's not be choosy." Robin halted him. Picking carefully, the teen chose a red t-shirt and plain jeans. "Nice; simple, yet easy to move around in. Just my speed!"
The animal oriented boy enjoyed picking out a purple long-sleeve tee and dark grey pants. "Su-weet!"
"This is, in some ways, truly better than those stores in the mall of shopping," said Starfire, holding up a dark pink sweater covered with patches and hugging it to her chest.
"I'm just glad they sell my size." Cyborg called, pointing to an enormous shirt with ¾ sleeves. "Only problem is it won't cover my forearms."
"Say what you will." Raven pulled a dark hooded sweat shirt and dark leggings from the stack. "Let's just get out of here. It's hard to concentrate without my normal cloak."
"We will, Raven," promised Robin. "But first, I want to figure out what's with this place." They trooped to the front cashier, operated by an old man with baggy eyes.
"That will be six hundred dollars!" He yelled when he saw their load of clothes.
"Say what?" Robin said, pulling his arms instinctively in front of his face. "What did you say?"
"Nah, just kidding." The old man cackled huskily. "Gotcha. Only twenty dollars."
"Here." Starfire handed Robin some of the cash, which he then handed to the man. "Keep the change."
The man's eyes lit up and he smiled in a wrinkly way. "Thank you, son."
"Tell me: why's this place so wrecked? That village back there, there's nothing left except for dust and stone. What happened?"
"First of all, my name is Jethro. I've lived here for about six decades."
"Six…what?" Beast Boy's eyes bugged out. "Six hundred years?"
"No, Mr. Clorbag," Raven hissed in his ear, causing him to jump. "Sixty years."
"Ah ha, I knew that."
"And I've seen everything…" continued Jethro. "Everything!"
"Everything?" Cyborg queried. "Everything, like what?"
"The destruction of our government. The debt of our people. We've got no leader and too many laws, laws created by men who think they are the strongest. Some of them run wild, hungry for money or anxious to kill. Since our government went corrupt, there's nothing to prevent these criminal acts. Our children, our families are dying…only few actually fight back."
"That is awful!" Starfire cried, clasping her hands together in shock. "Why does this go on?"
"Everyone's too scared," Jethro confirmed sadly. "We're scared of being killed by the Gov. Men. We lack the necessities to defend ourselves."
"Who're the Gov. Men?" Raven question curiously. "Wait. Let me guess; the members of the corrupt government that seek out and destroy law-breakers."
"Correct."
"And so, there is not anywhere without Gov. Men?"
"There are. They're called Safe Zones, but are very hard to find and travel to…"
"I see." Robin nodded. "Thanks for the information, Gramps."
"No problem." Jethro bobbed his head at the bill he still clutched. "I really appreciate you dropping in."
"Pun unintended, I hope." The dark mage said dourly, pulling her hood over her head.
"We're going to find a way to put an end to this." Robin said with a determined look in his mask. "Let's go, team!" They left the shop, but as soon as they were out doors, Starfire said meekly, "I do not know, Robin. My powers feel weaker than before. Perhaps it is the new atmosphere?"
"I agree." Raven affirmed darkly. "I'm having trouble concentrating on my emotions. Something stronger here that's blocking out our true powers."
"Hm…nothing seems wrong with me…" Cyborg felt himself all over. "But then again, I'm a robot."
"Aw MAN!" The group stared at Beast Boy, who was in turn staring at his hands. "I can only transform into three things: Lion, Gorilla and Eagle and parasite."
"That sounds like four to me, BB."
"No! I mean, I don't count a parasite as a thing!"
"Alright guys, just hold it together. Look, there's a house over there, and I see some people. Let's see if we can find out anything else."
They walked across the broken road to where a young boy sat sitting on the porch of a very old-looking house. "Robin, I don't see any people." Beast Boy said, morphing into a lion again. "But I smell 'em!"
"I can sense them, too," Raven glanced around her. "Somewhere in this building, there are about ten to fifteen people."
"That many?"
"Yeah."
Robin knocked on the deteriorating front door and noticed as splinters and plumes of dust came swirling out of the cracks. When no answer came, he cautiously cracked open the rotting wood. "Uh…hello?" Still no answer.
"Dude, everything smells like dust!" Beast Boy complained, sneezing violently. "Aaaaaachooooo!"
"Who's there?" A boy came dashing around the corner of the hall. He had dark blonde hair and golden brown eyes. "Who are you?"
"Friends…" Robin assured him, putting his hands up in a sign of peace. "We won't harm you."
"Sure, frauds." Without further warning, he whipped out with his left leg, swinging it in a powerful kick aimed at Robin's head
