I haven't written anything in AGES, I know...but hey, I'm going through a Titans phase. Let me know what you think, maybe I'll continue...

"Titans! Go!"

It was incredible how ingrained the response to those words were in all five of them. Raven tensed and shot forward in a whirl of blue cloak; Cyborg's circuits went to full capacity and his muscles started pumping like crazy; Beast Boy doubled over into a crouch and leapt across the ground, already going to all fours before transforming; and Starfire's eyes glowed green as she pulled on the sun out in space, harnessing its power to bring the familiar tingle of energy to her fingertips. Robin, of course, was ahead of all of them, charging into whatever the breach du jour was. He wasn't the strongest or the fastest of the Titans—but no matter what the problem was, he'd fight it with everything he had, for as long as it took. It was hard to figure out whether this made him a leader, or being a leader made him that way; but whatever it was, Robin was always the one who brought the team of heroes to peak form with the rallying call.

This time around, Johnny Rancid was the mook who had called them out of the Tower. He'd been roaring around a park, shooting benches and trying to run down dogs and little kids. The screams had reached the Titans' ears long before they saw Rancid in his standard black, riding the edge of a fountain, laughing like a maniac and firing into the treetops. Robin ground his teeth as they approached, and waited until the last second to call his team together: no reason to give Johnny a heads up and risk him trying to find a way out of the park.

"Aw, look! My fan club's showed up! Wha's a matter, Robin, you miss me?" Johnny shouted, firing off another shot. It came within spitting distance of Starfire, who veered left and sent back a barrage of green starbolts in response. Johnny laughed wildly and popped a wheelie as he dodged, heading for a stony footpath. Unfortunately for him, there was a large blockade of cybernetics and angry Titan in his way. A burst of blue from Cyborg's sonic cannon sent Johnny spinning backwards, snarling.

"Hey, Rancid, watch your step!" Beast Boy's husky voice sounded from behind the fountain, and Johnny was suddenly airborne, courtesy of a vicious kick from a gigantic green T-Rex. Starbolts and exploding boomerangs connected with him in midair, and he crashed to the ground, smoking.

"You punks think you're so tough!" he shouted, twisting out of the mangled mess that had been his motorcycle. "I'll teach you snot-noses what tough is! I'm Johnny Rancid!"

"We've heard," said Raven dryly. A wave of her hands and two pipes from the junk pile flew up and twisted themselves around Johnny, squeezing his arms tight against his torso. He grunted and struggled, cursing violently, but the dark energy held the pipes together until he fell to his knees, overbalanced and defeated.

"Punks! Whiny little punks, you can't beat Johnny Rancid! No one can!" he shouted, spit frothing at his lips. Starfire scrunched up her face in distaste as she landed by Robin.

"The Johnny Rancid is quite loud and unpleasant; may we not quiet him somehow, please?"

"Sure thing, Star," Cyborg said cheerfully. He pulled a roll of tape out of a compartment in his arm and ripped off a strip; Johnny was cut off in the middle of his hysterics as Cyborg spread the tape over his lips with relish.

"Dude—why are you carrying duct tape around?" Beast Boy asked, raising an eyebrow. Cyborg shrugged.

"Just because I have infinite technological marvels at my fingertips doesn't mean I can't appreciate the tried-and-true method. Duct tape always comes in handy."

"That's not creepy at all," Raven mumbled, waving away smoke from Johnny's smoldering ex-bike. Robin surveyed the damage while Cyborg shot Raven a nasty look.

"Everything looks good…the cops'll be here soon to pick up the garbage." He smiled at Johnny, who was still trying to swear through adhesive-sealed lips. "I gotta say, Johnny, I expected a little more from you. Maybe you'll actually stay in jail now."

"Robin, don't tease the caged animal," Beast Boy said, grinning. "It's just gonna get even uglier next time."

"Well, until next time rolls around, I say we head back home and get us some lunch. I can feel my bolts rattling around inside, I need some food!"

"Yes, Cyborg!" Starfire cried, clapping her hands. "I too am filled with empty hunger feelings. Let us return to our home and procure some victuals!"

"I don't know what victuals are, but I'll eat anything at this point!" Beast Boy laughed, jumping up on Cyborg's back. "Giddyup, back to Titans Tower!"

"Not until you get down off me and walk."

"But I'm easy to carry!" Beast Boy whined, morphing into a squirrel. Cyborg tried to swat him, but he scurried across the computer-plated shoulders and down Cyborg's back. Starfire giggled as Cyborg danced around, trying frantically to lay a hand on the blur of green fur that climbed on him like he was a jungle gym.

"Just let him ride on you. I need to get home and meditate," Raven said quietly, drifting off towards the park exit. Robin followed her, beckoning to the others. As the Titans left the park, the sound of approaching sirens and Johnny Rancid's muffled ranting made the cool afternoon all the more pleasant.

The T-Car and R-Cycle were parked by the park entrance: a couple kids were clustered around them, oohing and ahhing. Robin shooed them off silently and mounted his bike, while Cyborg, Raven, and the green squirrel on Cyborg's shoulder got into the T-Car. Starfire hovered nearby and then flew low overhead as the Titans began a leisurely ride back home, enjoying the recent victory and looking forward to a big lunch that was, hopefully, free of tofu. There were few clouds overhead in the sunny sky, and pedestrians strolled past, laughing and talking. It was a good day.

Until the street exploded in front of them.

The explosion came out of nowhere, and narrowly missed blowing the front half of the T-Car away. Robin only avoided it by breaking so suddenly that he pitched forward, knocking the front of his helmet against his handlebars. Screams and cries echoed through the air while the smoke cleared from the gaping hole that was once a four-way intersection. Starfire gasped as she found herself looking down into an open sewer tunnel; the blast must have reached all the way down through the asphalt to blow open a pipeline.

The Titans were ready for action moments after the explosion: Cyborg and Raven leapt out of the T-Car, followed by a transformed Beast Boy. Robin vaulted off the R-Cycle and landed in a crouch, squinting through the smoke as Starfire arched over their heads.

"Dude, what just happened?" Beast Boy shouted, straining to be heard over the noise in the street. Raven's eyes glowed as she stared into the charred pit.

"Some kind of mine, I think. Probably remote-triggered, or maybe a timing mechanism."

"Who would put such a thing in the middle of a roadway?" Starfire wondered, her eyes widening as she continued to survey the damage. Robin frowned, scanning the street.

"I don't know, Star…but keep a look out. I'm guessing someone wanted to make a big boom as a distraction—I want to find out what for."

But the distraction seemed to have done its job well. No one had a mind to do anything but get to safer ground. Chaos reigned: people were shouting and flailing and running in all directions, down side streets, into restaurants, up and down the sidewalks.

Only one person ran straight for the crater.

It was a man in a brown jacket, hunched over, carrying what looked like a canvas satchel. He ran to the lip of the hole and jumped in, though the fall to the bottom was many times larger than any normal human could hope to come out of safely. This ceased to matter when the man's form changed as he tumbled through the smoke. Long arms seemed to sprout from his shoulders, and his legs grew down towards the ground faster than he fell. Before the Titans could see anything more, he vanished into the smoky inside of the crater, disappearing completely from sight. The team knew it was coming before Robin said it, but they held back that split second until it echoed through the screams and honking horns and screeching tires around them:

"Titans! Go!"

"I always forget how much I hate the sewers," Beast Boy grumbled as he and Cyborg charged down one end of the cement passageway. There were three possible tunnels branching from the open pit: Starfire had gone down one alone, and Raven and Robin had taken the other. He and Cyborg were heading down the largest tunnel, which led downtown. They moved at a run, leaving the noise and light of the crater as the tunnel lengthened out behind them. Soon the only sound to be heard was the clank of Cyborg's footsteps and the squish of Beast Boy's own as they kept on running, guided only by Cyborg's shoulder-lamp.

"You see anything?" the robotic Titan asked, craning his head over his shoulder to check that they weren't being followed. Beast Boy ground his teeth, trying to avoid being blinded by the beam of light from Cyborg.

"Nothing. Why'd Mystery Guy have to come down here? It stinks and everything is sticky."

"I'm wondering what Mystery Guy had to blow up the whole street for. Maybe he's hiding something in the sewer tunnels."

"If he was, don't you think there'd be an easier way of getting it fr—"

Beast Boy's voice choked off mid-word, at the same time that something smashed into Cyborg's light from behind. Darkness flooded the passage, and for a moment it was filled with sound: a shout, the thud of something heavy, a tiger's roar, concrete crumbling from a tremendous blow, and then a bang and a loud clang. That sound echoed off the rounded concrete walls, growing softer with each repetition: it masked the soft moaning and splashing footsteps as someone walked away down the tunnel.

"Cyborg…Cyborg…come in, Cyborg! Cyborg, respond! Are you injured? Cyborg!"

Robin's voice, ragged with impatience and anxiety, brought Cyborg back to consciousness. He felt his hardware rebooting, coming up to full speed; immediately after, he felt a throbbing pain at the back of his head. The blackness returned for a second, but fled again at the sound of Robin calling his communicator.

"Cyborg! Cyborg, do you copy? Are you there? Answer me!"

"Ohhh…chill, Robin, chill…" Cyborg muttered to himself, gingerly sitting up. The pain in his head pulsed strongly and then faded as his gears crunched. Reflexively, he tried to turn on his lamp, but there was only a small glow that quickly died. Oh yeah. Someone broke the bulb from behind me. Someone—just now—

"Beast Boy!" Cyborg called as the last few moments rushed back to him. The ambush had left him surrounded in darkness and with a sizable lump on his skull—but where was BB? Was he still passed out? The call gave rise to no answer: only a mocking echo that continued down the tunnel, sending shivers through Cyborg's circuits.

"Cyborg? Do you copy?" pressed Robin from the little screen flickering on Cyborg's arm. He stood and pressed the microphone button, trying to adjust both eyes to the bright light of the screen.

"Yeah, Robin, I'm here. Me and BB were just jumped from behind, and I got a whallop on the head. They took my light out too. I haven't found BB yet."

"What do you mean you haven't found him?" Robin said loudly; Cyborg could picture the Boy Wonder's puckered brow and clenched fists as he bent over his communicator.

"It's dark here, man, I can't see nothing. BB probably hasn't woken up, I bet he got whacked too."

"Star found a dead end; she's on her way to you right now. Raven and I are turning around too; don't move until we get there. Find Beast Boy and make sure he's okay!"

"Don't have to tell me twice, man," Cyborg muttered as he signed off. The darkness of the tunnel closed in on him again, and he shivered a second time. He'd thought the tunnel was empty when he'd checked over his shoulder; but it seemed like he'd been wrong. Now, without his lamp to at least find the way forward, the blackness seemed to hold an invisible enemy in every direction.

"Beast Boy! BB, you there? Can you hear me, man?" Cyborg called, if only to hear the sound of a voice. There was no answer; the echo bounced around and died away. Cyborg's heart beat faster and his hardware whirred; a growing concern for Beast Boy made his paranoia even more unbearable. He began to shuffle forward, hoping to touch a warm, skinny body with his feet. Yet the tunnel seemed empty in front of him, and no way was he turning around.

But he did turn around, moments later, when a dull green light spilled over his shoulder and illuminated the first couple feet in front of him. Cyborg whirled around to see Starfire cruising down the passageway, a glowing sphere in one hand. She gasped and put a hand to her mouth as he loomed up in front of her, squinting in the light.

"Cyborg! You are…okay?" she asked with concern, floating over to him. He rubbed his head again and blinked as his eyes adjusted.

"Yeah, I think so. But I can't find Beast Boy, it's too dark…"

"What of your scanners, please? Can they also not locate him?"

"My…scanners…" Cyborg repeated slowly, feeling like a complete moron. That knock on the head must have been harder than he thought if it made him forget an impulse that was instinctive by now. He avoided Starfire's worried gaze as he turned on his scanners, data processing with a soft hum. She whimpered slightly, and drew a little closer to him; even with light, the tunnel felt eerie and oppressive.

Cyborg's scans were just finishing when Robin and Raven ran up, panting a little from their sprint. Cyborg cut off Robin's opening question with its answer: "I have his signal, but it's faint. I think his locator's been damaged, it's barely strong enough to show up on my scanners."

"Where is he?" asked Raven. Cyborg ran the coordinates off the LED screen on his arm.

"Not far. If we keep heading down here, we should be able to find him. And hopefully no one else."

"You can tell me what happened here after we find Beast Boy," said Robin sharply. "If we waste any more time, his locator might die and it'll be impossible to find him." With that, he sprang forward into the darkness, splashing off down the tunnel. Starfire followed, strengthening her sphere of light, and Cyborg and Raven brought up the rear as they headed into pitch blackness.

The tunnel ended not far ahead: it widened into a large domed room with waste-deep sewage. Several arches led off to other passages on the left and right: Cyborg pointed and the Titans kept moving, their footsteps and the rustle of Raven's cloak echoing through the cement hallways like whispers in the dark. Tunnel after tunnel, chamber after chamber, and all the while Beast Boy's signal grew weaker. By the time they came within a hundred feet of it, it had all but blinked out of existence. A strange feeling stole over the Titans. They had looked for Beast Boy in the sewers before, but then he'd been more than able to take care of himself. Now a sinking feeling was in the stomachs of the remaining four Titans: eyes seemed to be watch from the shadows, daring them to investigate the hopes of finding their friend.

"Beast Boy…Beast Boy, can you hear me?" Robin called as they moved more slowly down a large, square-walled passage. Starfire's light revealed nothing but a shallow level of water at their feet and occasional niches in the cement, probably for pressure control. Raven narrowed her eyes as she peered ahead, trying to discern shapes in the dimness.

"He should be right around here…" Cyborg muttered, his hand clamped tightly over his scanning arm. Starfire bit her lip as she strengthened the glow of her bolt.

"I do not see him anywhere!" she said, turning in all directions. "I wish that we could just find our friend and know that he is all right—then we could leave this place!"

"Beast Boy's a tough little dude. I'm sure he's okay," Cyborg said with a confidence he didn't feel. His scanners were cranked up to full sensitivity, and he stretched his arm into the air in a vain attempt to further strengthen the signal. Beside him, Robin tried to shake off his own apprehension and opened his mouth to call out again; but an exclamation from Raven stole the words from his throat.

"There!"

She pointed ahead and ran into the darkness, disappearing from the view of the other three Titans. They followed, splashing through slimy sewer water, until the light from Starfire's hand illuminated two figures on the tunnel floor: one sprawled across the ground, the other kneeling over it.

"Did you find him, Raven? Is this our fr—" Starfire cut herself off, her mouth falling slack in horror as she beheld the limp form that lay before Raven. Behind her, Cyborg and Robin were also silent, their mouths open; Robin even dropped the boomerang he'd pulled out when Raven had shouted. It clattered to the floor with a sharp sound that ricocheted off the walls and ceiling, many times louder than normal.

It was indeed Beast Boy that Raven had found; yet if it hadn't been for his familiar green skin and pointed ears, even his friends would have been hard-pressed to recognize him. His purple-and-white uniform had been ripped nearly to shreds; it hung off his body, waterlogged and slimy. The bare skin beneath was mottled with bruises, some a murky green that glowed in the light from Starfire's hand, others a deep, thick black. Four long, deep scratches drew diagonal lines across his back, and blood spread in dark patches down to the sewer water he lay in, which it turned purple in the green glow. He lay in a pile on the ground, his back and shoulders square to the ceiling while his face was half-submerged in water; his legs were twisted at unnatural angles below, with both shoes missing. His arms were doubled up underneath him, and across the skin of his shoulders ran angry scrapes, grey with gravel, as if he had been dragged across the cement. The green hair at the back of his head was matted with water and blood. On the floor by his lower back, now completely dead, was his communicator, stomped nearly to pieces.

"Help me turn him over." Raven broke the silence with her flat, quiet tone. She gestured to Robin, who was still standing, frozen, over Beast Boy. He didn't seem to hear her.

"Robin. Help me turn him over so he can breathe." Still nothing from Robin, or from the other two. "Robin!"

This time he moved. Shaking himself, he went to his knees and cupped the back of Beast Boy's head as gently as he could with one hand. He used the other to lower Beast Boy's shoulders to the ground as Raven carefully raised their friend up and turned him onto his back. Starfire gasped and Cyborg took an involuntary step back as Beast Boy's face came into the light. It was a pulpy mess of bruised and swollen skin, broken teeth and bloody lips. The tip of one of his pointed ears had been torn off. Another set of scratches ran down his chest: they began to bleed anew as the pressure from his arms was relieved.

"Hold him carefully," Raven said, still maneuvering Beast Boy's chest and shoulders. Robin cradled the green changeling in his arms, trying to support his head and keep weight off the scratches on his back. Starfire's eyes grew bright with tears as she looked at the mess that was one of her closest friends, a member of her family.

"Oh Beast Boy…" she whispered without thinking; Raven held up a hand to quiet her, eyes still fixed on Beast Boy's face. She laid her other hand across his brow, her fingers seeking out the pressure points in his skull.

"Azarath metrion zinthos…" she murmured, and dark energy began to creep over Beast Boy's skin.

"What are you doing to him?" Cyborg asked, his voice so quiet it could barely be heard in the thick silence of the tunnel.

"She's healing him," Robin answered in a whisper. Raven took no notice of Cyborg: she closed her eyes and concentrated as the black light slowly enveloped Beast Boy head to toe. He glowed faintly with the strength of the power that was working on him, and a dull hum grew from the pulsating energy field. Yet Beast Boy never twitched an eyelid.

The energy finally dissipated, leaving no discernable change. Cyborg leaned forward and looked over his friend, searching for some evidence of healing. "He doesn't look any better. It didn't work."

"He was bleeding internally…there was some nerve damage around his spine. I did all I could." Raven's voice was still flat and measured, but her shoulders slumped wearily. "He'll stay alive now. At least long enough for us to get him to Titans Tower." She got to her feet and took a deep breath, focusing herself. "Azarath metrion zinthos…"

A ray of black light zigzagged down from her clasped hands and surrounded Beast Boy in another energy field; this one, however, grew into a large bubble which rose into the air, bringing Beast Boy with it. It hung at chest height, keeping him as still as possible, connected to Raven by a thin thread of energy. She took another deep breath and blinked hard. "The healing took something out of me…I might need help carrying him out of here."

"I have a better idea," said Cyborg, walking back the way they had come. He disappeared into darkness, and for a second all they heard were his footsteps; then a flash of blue light blinded them and a sudden boom knocked them backwards. Rubble rained down and cement clunked onto the tunnel floor. There was another blast and a new shower of debris flew everywhere. But this time there was real light: sunlight, making the Titans squint and hunch, but welcoming them back into the upper world.

"That'll make it easier," Raven said with a sigh, and walked towards the gaping hole in the ceiling, the bubble with Beast Boy in it bobbing gently ahead of her. Robin and Starfire followed, more than willing to get out of the sewer. The smell of blood and sewage clung to them as they hoisted themselves out into the blinding sunlight.