Discliamer: Don't own Teen Titans or Justice League
From Friendship to Love
It was afternoon in Titans tower and things around the city had been quiet for days so the Titans were taking advantage of the silence to be normal teenagers, or as normal as they could possibly be.
Speedy, Aqualad, Bumblebee, Mas and Menos were there visiting from Steel City so they were giving them the grand tour of the city.
Robin and Speedy looked upon the city from the top of one of the buildings. Most of the titans were out doing whatever they did. Starfire and Bumblebee were out shopping. Raven had been meditating in the tower relishing the silence and as far as the two former sidekicks knew she was still there.
Raven walked towards the cafe that she came to so often and sighed inwardly. So much was going on in their lives ever since her birthday and her father's arrival and his death. Keeping her emotions in check had become more of a habit than a requirement she had on occasion experienced and expressed emotions of affection and happiness without anything going crazy. Then again she had been able to experience those emotions to some extent prior to that day but she wasn't sure about doing so. Plus before she bonded with Melvin, Timmy Tantrum and Tether she had found no reason to outwardly express these feelings, but they gave her reason to feel. Hugging those three in her arms had felt right to her like they were her children though none were actually hers.
She had gone back to visit them one day when she got a call that Melvin was sick. She had found that she had felt so very concerned about the girl that had been so helpful when she was learning to deal with Timmy and Tether.
Flashback
Raven had walked in and found Melvin in bed looking rather miserable and Raven's powers told her that was exactly how the little girl felt.
"Raven, you're here"
"Of course" Raven replied sitting on the edge of the bed and then taking the blonde little girl into her arms "I told you I'd come if you needed me"
Raven sat back from the hug
"But Raven we really didn't need you" Melvin pointed out
"You wanted me... that's close enough" Raven replied with a smile that the boys on her team would have found so out of character for her, but this was Melvin. She, Timmy, Tether and Bobby got to see a side of Raven none of the others got to see and they loved her dearly as she did them.
End Flashback
Raven smiled slightly at the memory of the smile she had gotten when she came for her trio when they knew for a fact she didn't have to come as they really didn't need her to be there.
"Raven... fancy seeing you around here" a voice said
Raven turned on her heel to see Cyborg standing at the corner without Beast boy who had left with him.
"I go to a cafe near here, why are you around here?" she asked
"I found a music store with a great selection around the corner over there" Cyborg replied with a grin pointing a thumb in the direction of the store
"Yeah I heard about that place, they have practically anything you could want" Raven replied.
They looked into the nearby parking area as they both heard something strange coming from within. Without thinking they ran inside to investigate.
"What was that?"
"Dunno... my sensors aren't picking anything up" Cyborg replied
"Great... that was a fine exercise in futility" Raven muttered
"Um Raven... I'm getting traces of seismic act..." just as Cyborg began to speak the ground began to shake and the structure around them began to cave in.
"RAVEN" Cyborg grabbed his teammate and used his cybernetic frame to shield her head and upper body from falling debris as he knew his cybernetic body could take the falling concrete her flesh and bone would not handle it at all. He heard her cry out in pain and he felt a twinge of fear in his body. What had happened? How had she gotten hurt? He would have to wait until things settled down to see exactly how she had been hurt.
Robin and Speedy had been caught off guard by the shaking but due to the fact that they were on a roof they had been spared any severe injury though they wondered if it was possible that in all the shaking Speedy had managed to sprain his ankle.
They looked over the edge of the roof top to see a bewildered looking teenaged girl with platinum blonde hair.
"What is Elizabeth Queen doing in Jump City?"
"Who?"
"Oliver Queen's younger cousin... last I heard she and her mom were staying with Ollie after her mother and father got a divorce... believe me that was messy in so many ways" Speedy said
"What happened?
"Her father lost his job. First he hit the bottle, then he started hitting them, believe me Ollie could have chewed nails when he heard."
"I'll bet, he doesn't seem the sort to condone hitting women and children"
"He isn't" Speedy replied "Took them into his home until her mom could get back on her feet"
Beast Boy looked over in shock as several league members teleported in.
"Wow!" he muttered as the league members scattered to find survivors and help out wherever they could
Beast Boy radioed the titans to let them know they had league backup just before Robin sent out the order to gather to form teams to help find the survivors of the quake.
Cyborg found that he could sit up easily in the space left by the collapse which struck him as strange as he figured it would be his own frame keeping debris from crushing Raven turn out there was something bigger nearby that caught the falling debris. It was a lone truck that stood like a gift from above. It's sturdy work frame holding up the large piece of concrete and creating a tent effect around the two super heroes allowing Cyborg to sit back and survey the damage to his teammate.
"Raven... Rae you awake?" he asked leaning her up against the truck
"Yeah..." she replied flatly then winced and swore as the pain hit her once again
"What is it?" he asked
"My... My left leg, I... I think it's broken" She replied both hands reaching to that knee
Cyborg could see that the leg wasn't exactly sitting at a normal angle
"With my eye I can utilize X-ray technology so we can see exactly how bad it is" Cyborg said switching his cybernetic eye to x-ray vision
"Oh yeah... it's not pretty" he said switching the eye back to normal "Tibia's in at least three pieces, fibula is in at least two." He sighed "It's getting late temperatures dropping... weatherman forecast our first hard freeze of the season for tonight and you defiantly aren't dressed for sub-freezing temperatures"
"Can you get a signal out to the others?" Raven asked trying not to think about the pain that was radiating off her leg
"No, I've sent out a distress signal on several different emergency bands but I'm getting no replies" Cyborg sighed "I'm going to see if I can't use a little of whatever we have around to make a splint for your leg"
"That's useless and you know it, you can't line up the multiple pieces with a conventional splint"
"Yeah… guess I'm just looking for a way to make myself useful" Cyborg sighed as he leaned against the truck beside Raven
Cyborg looked around and toyed with the idea of using the truck to get out, but he figured the truck was pinned so tight that even if he could get the thing started it wouldn't be able to overcome the weight on top of it and get out. He wanted to just start digging his way out but at this point he wasn't sure which way was out and he didn't want to risk destabilizing the ceiling over Raven, whom was already injured, and crushing her in the process. That would likely kill her and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if his actions led to that.
Aqualad looked to those that stood around him and wondered where Cyborg and Raven were.
"Why aren't they answering?" Robin demanded
"Friend Robin... none of us were able to locate friend Raven or friend Cyborg" Starfire said
"Did you check the tower last I heard Raven was there"
"I did, she was not there" Starfire replied softly
"Great" Robin muttered "She could be anywhere"
"Maybe she went to her favorite depressing cafe" Starfire suggested
"Perhaps" Robin sighed "only problem is I have no idea where that is and I can't pick up her communicator signal"
"Do we have a problem here, Titans?" a deep voice asked
Robin turned to see Batman standing nearby
"Yeah… two of our own are among the missing" Robin droned in a monotone to rival Raven herself
"Who are we missing; I'll send a message out to the league members to keep an eye out for them"
"Raven and Cyborg" Robin replied
They watched as Batman placed a hand to the side of his cowl and sent the message out to his teammates and got replies from them that they would watch for the missing titans.
Raven lay her head against Cyborg, she had no way of knowing how late it was but she was getting sleepy.
"Rae, you need to stay awake!" Cyborg said as he noticed that Raven was dozing off against him
"But Cyborg it's late" she replied and if he didn't know any better he would have said she was whining.
"You're right, but it's also very cold. You're shivering like crazy; if anything I'd say you were hypothermic"
"No… I'm fine"
"Raven listen to me, your core body temperature is dropping you can't go to sleep because if you do you may NEVER wake up, is that what you want. Do you really want to abandon Melvin, Timmy and Tether now? They look at you like their big sister and they've lost too much already!"
Just mentioning those three little ones snapped the young witch to her senses
Hours passed and Cyborg's internal clock said it was nearly midnight and he knew for a fact that Raven was usually never up that late so he knew she was exhausted but the signs she was giving had him extremely scared.
She had begun to slur her words about ten minutes earlier and that terrified him. He did a thermal scan on her and found that her core temperature was several degrees below normal. He gently lifted her into his arms knowing that due to his cybernetics his body temperature was always somewhat high. He had also noticed that he too was having issues but not to the extent Raven was having. He sent another set of distress calls over the emergency bands and this time he included a desperate SOS on the Justice League frequency and a prayer that someone would get his call before Raven froze to death.
To Be Continued...