"We are never going to have a free day again." Robin said, gritting his teeth.
"Relax Robin. If we die in ten minutes, you won't wanna die angry!" Beastboy said, trying to keep his voice steady.
"This is your fault!" Robin exclaimed, turning and glaring at him.
"Um, I don't mean to be a bother…" Beastboy and Robin turned to the third man in the room. "But could you two try and remove the bomb strapped to me?"
Robin sighed, wondering how they'd ended up in this situation.
~Four Hours Earlier~
The doors to the common room slid open, and Robin walked through. It was a usual morning in Titans Tower: Beastboy and Cyborg were arguing with each other over what to have for breakfast (tofu or eggs and sausage, with bacon and ham on the side), whilst Raven sat at the counter, tapping one finger against the smooth surface and waiting for the situation to resolve itself. Starfire was trying to interrupt their argument with an alternative solution that would ironically only work for her.
Walking over to the dishwasher and grabbing a clean glass, he grabbed the coffee pot and looked over to Raven. "Is this fresh?" He asked her, holding up the pot.
She nodded. "I made it earlier when I first came out here. Before this happened." She motioned to the two Titans arguing.
"We can't have meat for breakfast!" Beastboy said, trying to pull the skillet away from Cyborg.
"And I said you can eat after the regular people have eaten!" Cyborg was actually having trouble pulling Beastboy's hands off the handle, though that shouldn't have been possible. "Let me make breakfast!"
"No way dude!" Beastboy twisted his entire upper body, trying to make Cyborg lose his grip on the skillet. "I got here first, so I get to eat first!"
"Maybe you two should settle it in the gym." Robin said. Beastboy and Cyborg stopped struggling and looked over to him. "We can start off with one-on-one bouts. Whoever wins gets to make breakfast."
"You want to train before breakfast?" Raven asked.
Starfire walked around the counter to stand beside her. "That seems…" She trailed off, trying to think of a phrase to describe the situation.
"Like a drag." Beastboy finished for her. "Come on man, can't we relax for once?"
"Crime won't relax, and neither will we." Robin said sternly. "We have to keep ourselves in top condition at all times." He stopped when he saw everyone was giving him the look. "Besides, we didn't do anything yesterday." He tried reasoning with them.
"But all we did was stay in because it rained all day." Cyborg said. "But look!" He pointed to the window. "It's a bright, sunny day today! We should have some fun and relax."
"We can relax after-"
"Please Robin?" Starfire asked. "Truthfully I would like to partake in the "relaxing" today as well."
"Some of us have plans." Raven said. When Robin crossed his arms over his chest and didn't say anything, she continued. "There's this author I like appearing at a bookstore in town doing a signing." She explained. "I was gonna go."
"Plus there's a monster truck show going on in the town over." Cyborg chimed in after her. "I wanted to check it out."
Robin sighed. "Alright, alright." He held up his hands in surrender. "Since it's four against one, I give up. But tomorrow, we are going to train. Extra hard."
Everyone smiled and started walking out of the room.
After making himself breakfast and watching the news, Robin found himself… bored. He wasn't in the mood to play any video games and the TV wasn't keeping his attention; he was just sort staring at the screen blankly while passing the time. After the show he'd been "watching" ended, he stood up and sighed, walking downstairs and going to the crime room.
"Nothing. No new supervillain attacks in almost a month, and there's been a lull in regular criminal activity, too. The police haven't needed my help with anything out of the ordinary in a while, either." He thought to himself, looking over newspaper clippings and evidence reclaimed from past battles.
"Hey, Robin?"
Robin turned towards the door. He'd been lost in thought and hadn't heard it open. "Beastboy." He greeted, resting against the table in the center of the room.
"You wanna go into the city? I got no else to hang out with." He asked. "Cyborg went out of town, Raven's gone to her book club, and Starfire decided to nap."
"Hmm… Why not? I'm bored here anyways." Robin nodded and walked out.
"Awesome!" Beastboy exclaimed.
~Relaxing has High Stakes~
They'd journeyed to the mall, to a bowling alley, and finally stopped and found themselves in an arcade. "Check it out!" Beastboy pointed towards a cabinet on the far wall. "Mega Monkeys 7: Over Apes!" Robin watched as Beastboy rushed over to, taking his time to catch up. After pulling a roll of quarters out of… somewhere, Robin watched as Beastboy started to play.
And then, after moving between the different games, they heard a bloodcurdling scream.
"What was that?!" Robin asked, turning around and looking at the other patrons. They all seemed equally as confused as the two Titans were. "Who screamed?" He asked.
Everyone started looking around shrugging.
"I-I did." Beastboy and Robin turned to see a lady standing behind the prize counter. "Could you come with me for a moment? And everyone else needs to leave the building in a calm and orderly manner." The lady led them to the back of the building…
… To a room where a man had been tied to a chair, with a bomb strapped to his chest.
"Hello Titans."
Robin and Beastboy readied themselves for a fight when an all too familiar voice spoke up.
"Slade. Where are you?" Robin asked, looking around the room. There was no furniture, nowhere to hide.
"Nearby." His voice was coming from a speaker in front of the man.
"What do you want?" Beastboy asked.
"Me? Well, that would be spoiling the surprise. I just need the Titans in one place while I run some errands." Slade responded. "So you two are going to stay here and try to save this man's life, and your own."
Robin started reaching for his communicator, but stopped when Slade went, "It won't be that easy. I'm jamming your communicators If either of you try to run away, I'll detonate the bomb. No one goes anywhere. But since I'm in a good mood… There's a pair of wire cutters taped to the bottom of the chair. You have a chance to disarm the bomb. But if you fail, I'm sure I don't need to tell you what will happen."
"Yeah right." Robin said. "Why would you give us a chance to save ourselves?"
"Because if you survive, you get to see what I have in store for you later. Ta-ta."
A timer appeared on the top of the speaker, counting down from 10 minutes.
"We are never going to have a free day again." Robin said, gritting his teeth.
"Relax Robin. If we die in ten minutes, you won't wanna die angry!" Beastboy said, trying to keep his voice steady.
"This is your fault!" Robin exclaimed, turning and glaring at him.
"Um, I don't mean to be a bother…" Beastboy and Robin turned to the third man in the room. "But could you two try and remove the bomb strapped to me?"
"This one's all you." Beastboy said, taking a step back.
"What?" Robin asked in disbelief. "I don't know how to defuse a bomb!"
"You think I do?! Don't you have a bomb defusing manual in your utility belt?"
"Gee, I must've left it at the tower." Robin responded sarcastically. "I didn't plan on defusing any bombs today." He sighed, rubbing his temple. "We need Cyborg. He could scan the bomb and figure out which wire needs to be cut. Or Raven, she could teleport the bomb to the dark side of the moon." He muttered as he got on his hands and knees, grabbing the wire cutters and standing up.
"What are you going to do?" Beastboy asked.
"...Hope I get lucky." Robin admitted, looking over the bomb's wires and trying to remember what he'd been taught about bombs from his previous mentors. He gently touched the red wire, then the green wire, then the blue wire… then the red wire again. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly-
"WAIT!"
Robin jumped out of his skin when Beastboy shouted. "What?!" He asked, trying and failing not to sound angry.
"I can turn into an amoeba and go inside the bomb. I'll take a look around and tell you which wire you need to cut!" He grinned.
Robin smiled. "Good idea." He took a step back and watched as Beastboy transformed, disappearing from sight. As he waited for Beastboy to come back, he told the man, "Don't worry about anything. We're professionals."
Somehow, the man didn't look reassured.
Beastboy reappeared. "So… I have no idea." He smiled sheepishly, holding his hands out to the side.
"Oh god, I'm gonna die!" The man cried.
"No one's going to die." Robin said firmly. "At least, not for five and half more minutes." He knelt down and examined the bomb again. He wiped the sweat from his brow and held up the wire cutters with a shaky hand. The man closed his eyes and Beastboy backed up to the wall.
"I wouldn't cut that wire, if I were you."
"Ah!" Robin jumped out of his skin again when Slade's voice rang out from the box. With an annoyed grunt he said, "Why don't you tell me which wire to cut then?"
"Because that would be too easy." Slade responded. "I'd hurry and decide if I were you. Only two minutes left until the fireworks."
"Come on, Robin! I don't want to end up as roast beef!" Beastboy said.
"Please, someone help me!" The man cried.
"Enough!" Robin shouted. The other two quieted down immediately. "I can't concentrate."
30 seconds passed and Beastboy said, "You know, I wonder why bad guys never spray paint the wires black. It would make the good guys jobs waaay harder."
"Noted." Slade said.
Robin turned to glare at Beastboy, who had suddenly found an interest in the ceiling. Turning back to the bomb, he swallowed and bit his lip, trying to come up with a plan.
"30 seconds." Slade's voice came in.
"Shut up." Robin hissed between his teeth. "I can do this."
"Robin!" Beastboy grabbed him by the cape and threw him against the wall, turning into an elephant, hoping that it could tank the bomb and defend Robin at the same time.
5
4
3
2
1
Nothing. Robin looked up, and Beastboy transformed back to his human state. "A dud?" He asked. "Why would Slade leave us with a fake bomb?" He scratched the back of his head and frowned.
"Because." Robin said. "He said, I need the Titans in one place. He had to make sure we couldn't go anywhere. It was a bluff. He couldn't blow us up, and we couldn't leave. We were tricked." He growled and ripped the bomb off the man's chest, which caused both the man and Beastboy to shriek.
But nothing happened, and Robin crushed it beneath his foot. He pulled out his communicator and said, "Cyborg, Raven, come in. Are either of you two in trouble?"
Cyborg responded first. "I was. The monster truck show I went too? Slade's robots took over and started a riot. Luckily no one got hurt."
"I'm fine. The author who was supposed to show up turned out to be a Slade bot- It hit me with some sort of electric blast and knocked me out. I came too a minute ago." Raven said.
"Alright, let's regroup at the Tower. Starfire's still there, and she might be in trouble." Robin said.
~Relaxing has High Stakes~
After returning and finding out Starfire was fine (and well rested from her nap), they discovered what had happened.
While the Titans were preoccupied, Slade's bots had hit the largest bank in Jump City and the prison, freeing several supervillains before the police there got everything under control. The Mayor was furious when the Titans called him to tell him what happened, but was slightly more understanding upon realizing that Slade had played them all.
~Relaxing has High Stakes~
"All we can do is prepare for whatever Slade has coming." Robin said the next day. "And that means we have to be ready for anything." They were standing outside, behind the Tower in the small training area.
"Go on Beastboy!" Starfire shouted.
"You the man!" Cyborg added.
"Is that a real bomb?" Raven asked.
Robin shook his head. "No, of course not. It's completely harmless." He turned to look at Beastboy who was standing 20 feet away and wearing protective gear. "But this is revenge for what he did yesterday." Before Raven could ask what he meant by that, Robin shouted, "This one's you, Beastboy!"