Summary: Ripple effects from Starfire's jaunt through the future come back to haunt the Teen Titans.
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.
Ripples
By Hikako
Prologue - Chimera
Robin felt the vibration run up his arm and numb his shoulder slightly. Before the monster could swipe at the Boy Wonder with its massive claws, he spring boarded off its shoulder to the other side of the warehouse.
For the last few weeks several dockside warehouses had been hit, mostly chemicals and strange bits of machinery were taken. At first the Titans couldn't figure it out, why someone would want industrial amounts of harmless chemicals and some computer parts. At least they were until tonight.
An alarm in one of the warehouses alerted the Titans to another robbery, or so they thought. It turned out that the perpetrator was a crazy scientist bent on making an army of mutated animals. The chemicals, mixed together, made a powerful mutagen that could only be activated when several bursts of low-volt electric charges were applied, hence the computer equipment.
When the Titans arrived the scientist, some guy named Lontel, was about to apply the mutagen to several animals: a bear, a lion, and an eagle. Before the Titans could stop him, however, the animals began to mutate, but not in the way Lontel expected. The three animals began to merge together, becoming an extremely powerful monster that had the body of a bear, the head of a lion, and the wings of an eagle.
Lontel, in his crazed trance, thought he could control the monster, but instead the creature turned on its creator, absorbing Lontel into itself. Once it had Lontel's brains it began to absorb more of the mutagen, becoming more powerful and larger.
It was there that Robin found himself on a Friday night.
The monster ran, going at an incredibly speed, right for Raven, who quickly levitated up out of its arm range. Even though it couldn't fly it could jump quite high. The massive claw wrapped around Raven's ankle and slammed her down into an empty crate. Robin felt his blood boil; his palm actually hurt because he was clenching his fist so hard, and pulled out a few disks and hurled them at Lontel's creature.
The disk landed on the creature's shoulder, clamping down hard, and sending massive electrical charges through the monster's body. For a minute it seemed like the monster was growing stronger, until the eagle suddenly sprang out of the monster's back, trailing some green mutagen and shrinking to normal size.
All the Titans began looking for something electric to strike at the monster with. Beast Boy and Starfire were using animal prods, Cyborg rewired his hand to deliver an electric shock, and Robin kept throwing his disks. Soon the monster, irritated by so many attacks from different places, became enraged and actually grew bigger.
Right before it exploded in a big, messy, gooey combustion.
When the dust, or mutagen, settled, the Titans found the bear and lion lying on the floor, looking quite contended, and Lontel curled up in a ball and unconscious.
"Alright y'all!" Cyborg shouted at the top of his lungs, "Who's bad?" He asked no one in particular. "We're bad!" Beast Boy shouted as he gave Cyborg a high-five. "Truly we are particularly awful!" Starfire said giddily as she soared past. But they all stopped when saw Robin, kneeling in front of a smashed crate.
Starfire gasped loudly as she and other Titans ran to Robin and Raven's still form. "Is Friend Raven… well?" Starfire asked solemnly. "Dude." Beast Boy said quietly with his traditional eloquence.
"She's fine." Robin said as he stood up, taking Raven's prone form in his arms, looking every inch of the superhero he was. "Take her back to the Tower, I'll take Lontel to the jailhouse." Robin said as he handed the telekinetic girl to Cyborg, not taking his eyes off her still face.
Cyborg immediately ran out of the warehouse, Starfire and Beast Boy in tow, leaving Robin alone with the crazed scientist. Robin, his cape flapping slightly, walked to the trembling man, who had awoken a few moments ago.
The teenager reached down, grabbed Lontel by his collar, and pulled the scientist to face level. Staring at the weak man in his grasp Robin clenched his fists tighter around the man's collar and pulled him within an inch of Robin's face.
"If anything happens to her…" the Boy Wonder said, in a voice that sounded remarkably like Batman's, "There will be no end to the pain you will feel." Lontel felt Robin's knee connect with his groin as one of his fists met Lontel's stomach, causing Lontel to faint from pain.
Robin dropped the scientist as he called a white and blue unit on his communicator. He waited a few minutes, until he saw the car pull up in front of the warehouse, and then he left, making all speed towards Titans' Tower.
When he was halfway to the Tower, Robin suddenly stopped and pulled his bike over into a dark alley. A gloved fist went to the Boy Wonder's chest as felt the panic ease out of his body, compliments of breathing exercises from the True Master, and turned his mind to the telekinetic girl with which he shared a mental link.
What he encountered both crushed Robin and lifted a weight off his shoulders. Raven's mind was aware, if not completely conscious, and she had only a few injuries. But somewhere in the dark recesses of her mind Robin could hear her voice faintly calling his name.
Robin knew that there could be nothing between them, they were too different. Any lose of control from Raven could cause damage to the room she was in, and Batman had always told Robin of the dangers of loving a teammate too much.
Finally Robin shook the thoughts from his head and got back on his bike, riding towards the Tower and his beloved, his own personnel Nut to his Geb…
To be continued…
AN: Egyptian mythology tells of a story of Nut, the sky goddess, and Geb, the earth. According to legend the two were so in love that they embraced each other tightly, so tightly that nothing could grow between them. So their father, the god of air, forced them apart. There they remained for all eternity, always seeing and loving the other, but never touching. I thought it was perfect for Robin and Raven.