"Titans, go!"
Their leader's battle cry always initiated the true start of the action: adrenaline coursing through each team member, practiced moves timed perfectly based on any enemy, new or old. If someone was struggling, another force was there to defend their friend and help them come back stronger then they were mere seconds ago. Enemies like Cinderblock and Plasmus used to be scary to face off against, but the Teen Titans learned who and what was good against such monstrous beings. Starfire's starbolts combined with Cyborg's energy blasts tended to do the trick with Plasmus. Raven's telekinetic powers and Beast Boy's transformation abilities worked wonders on Cinderblock.
Unfortunately, this was not one of those enemies. The Titans could not simply memorize his moves; they could barely even touch the man half the time, and the other half seemed to give away more information about the team than actually inflicting damage.
Adrenaline kicks into the body under many circumstances. This one was out of fear, slightly out of anger. That anger came from Robin.
The Teen Titans got word from a police unit that one of the warehouses off of the bay in Jump City was taken over. The workers at the warehouse assumed that these robots were after some of the goods inside, whatever that happened to be. From a quick examination of the warehouses surrounding the captured one, they all looked the same, and only slight variations on the interior. Each warehouse was just a large, grey rectangle with a flat roof. The whole building was practically a cement block painted a slightly darker shade of grey. Inside these warehouses would be large open spaces, only if there was no products to be found. There would be windows to let whatever natural light seep into the typically florescent-lit domain, with possible back rooms for "special" products that needed to be checked out for important buyers or government imports/exports.
Today's warehouse was empty and filled with nothing but bots.
Leader of the Teen Titans and leader of the charge straight into a trap, the Boy Wonder flipped and sprinted past all of the black and silver bots in the dimly lit warehouse to get to his main target: Slade.
I will pull you out of there, if you get out of hand. Raven's raspy voice came into the front of his mind. He hated the fact that the Empath had such a wide range of powers.
"Stay out of my head and stay out of my way," Robin responded audibly, distracting Beast Boy enough to get hit by one of the many bots in the side. Beast Boy stumbled before he quickly morphed into a bird and flew to a different area of Slade's lair, leaving Robin unguarded from at least a dozen other bots coming at him head-on.
Fine. Be stubborn. And don't say I didn't warn you.
Robin smashed in the bot's head with the end of his metal bo-staff, quickly turning and launching the broken bot into one charging at him from his left. He grabbed the arm of another bot close behind him, thrusting the machine over his small frame to propel himself into a front flip. This gave him enough time to pull out his pellet bombs from a pouch on his left side. The four bombs ignited once the teen leader landed, taking out five machines just as he threw four bird-a-rangs directly in the center of the chests of oncoming bots.
Sweat was building up in his bright green gloves as his heart slammed against his ribs. This was the easy work for him: plucking off the minions and gaining ground with his team. He looked back to see Raven and Starfire flying back-to-back, shattering enemies that came in their path. Raven used the shards of the fallen bots as extra ammunition in addition to Starfire's continuous stream of bolts. The bots shooting lasers from the rafters were no match for the duo. Cyborg and Beast Boy, situated on the opposing side of the room, combined their strengths together to rip apart the rest of the machines. Beast Boy chomped on nearby enemies as a lion while Cyborg shot at distant ones.
Wait for us. We are almost done.
Robin shook his head and ran towards the door that he saw Slade go through moments before.
"Robin!" Starfire cried out, flying towards him before the heavy set door shut her out and left Robin to run in the dark. He knew he should have waited, but this wasn't something his team needed to do. This was a task specifically for him, not anyone else. This was Robin's first challenging opponent, and he had waited a long time for this man to resurface.
Robin finally stopped running blindly to catch his breath. He took long, deep breaths to keep his heart rate steady while staying alert for any sound outside of his footsteps. In the distance, he could hear Starfire banging on the door, trying to break through one of Slade's clever designs to no avail. Somehow, Slade knew alien technology almost as well as the Justice League.
The Boy Wonder snapped his head to the right of him. A footstep. He debated running, but his gut told him that Slade would turn on the lights before that was to happen. Robin closed his eyes and prepared for the brightness.
Click. Buzz.
"Good timing, Robin…you're starting to surprise me more and more lately." Slade seemed to appear out of nowhere, revealing his large, muscular frame from within his black and silver armor. Robin could swear Slade was smirking under his half black and half orange mask, his one blue grey eye piercing through Robin's thoughts.
The room they were in was smaller than before and looked as if it was purposely cleared out, as if the whole warehouse was specifically made to be barren in all areas. Robin did not notice. Robin did not care.
"Slade," Robin growled, the malice in his voice known immediately, earning a chuckle from the man in front of him.
Slade was about to say something else to the teen, but Robin left no room for conversation. He didn't want to hear anything this man had to say; he already knew that Slade talked in riddles and enjoyed messing with the younger man's head. Robin aimed for the left side of his enemy's ribs, but was easily avoided, forcing Robin to jump back before Slade would have a chance to counter with a violent, arm-fracturing move. Slade grabbed the end of robin's bo-staff. Robin refused to let Slade take his main weapon; close encounter moves the only way to go. Robin punched once and went in for a second punch, but let Slade grab his left wrist, giving him momentum to kick both his feet directly in the face of the man.
Propelling himself into a backflip, Robin took advantage of his mid-air suspension, pulling out three bird-a-rangs. Spinning his own bo-staff, Slade knocked the bird-a-rangs away with ease. Robin ran straight at Slade before he swung his staff to Slade's right shoulder, which only hit the metal portion of the grown man's armor. Slade shoved Robin back and used his bo-staff to trip Robin. Before the teen had time to catch himself, Slade kicked him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the Boy Wonder, as well as his bo-staff. Robin rolled, pulling himself back up while trying to breathe, but Slade did not allow him enough time. The grown man slammed the end of his bo-staff in between Robin's shoulder blades, earning a pain-filled shout from the young man.
Robin, stay with me.
"Pathetic, Robin," Slade murmured, "absolutely pathetic. Maybe next time, you'll do better."
Heat. Overwhelming heat coated his body. It hurt for the teen to breathe. through blurry eyes, He saw Slade leave him. Robin failed to beat his enemy, and Robin couldn't go after him anymore. He needed rest. His body hurt; his eyes began to shut.
Robin, do not close your eyes. Don't fall asleep. Robin, we're coming. Robin, we-
"What is all this?"
Robin looked around the room at all of his friends sitting in the living room of their giant home that looked over Jump City. Cyborg was the only one sitting down on the huge black U-shaped couch, while everyone else stood (or in Starfire's case, floated) nearby. Beast Boy was on Robin's left, closest to the yellow kitchen counter. Raven stood in front of the couch, thus making her perfectly symmetrical with the whole room; if the screen wasn't projecting a TV or a warning signal, it was the best view of Jump City. Starfire was on Robin's right, standing closest to him upon the entry through the kitchen, which was only one of the millions of ways to get to the living room.
"Well, here's the deal, Robin," Beast Boy piped up awkwardly, smiling and laughing a little before making eye contact with his leader, taking a step back, "as a group, we, uh, had a talk."
"We had a lot of talks, man." Cyborg added, shifting position so that he was fully facing Robin.
"We think that you have, the addiction," Starfire stated in her usual higher pitch tone, but this time it was not laced with very happy vibes. "the addiction to fighting…"
"Slade."
Robin's head snapped over to Raven.
"You are obsessed with fighting Slade, no matter what the cost." Raven spat, crossing her arms.
"I'm obsessed to fighting crime, which is my job, and all of yours, too." Robin began, fists clenched, "If this is such a big problem, why was this never brought up before? We are a team, and you all made me the leader, and yet all of you go behind my back about this? As if crime fighting is a problem, all of a sudden!"
"This is exactly why we talked it out beforehand! You're a hothead on the subject of Slade, which you're not even sticking to!" Cyborg countered, standing up and moving toward where Raven stood.
"The fighting of the crime is not the problem, Robin…it is the fighting of Slade. You…love it…" Starfire began to approach Robin, but stopped floating. She grabbed her right arm with her left and turned away from him.
"Look, you are a good leader, and with all the other baddies we kick major butt," Beast Boy jumped in, pretending to be punching bad guys, "but Slade…he's not like other bad guys. He's…he's evil."
"Beast Boy's right. Slade is the last villain you want to go in alone with. Last time you fought him-"
"The last time I fought him I wasn't ready!" Robin interrupted Raven, shouting a foot away from her face, "I know his moves and just how fast he is. I've studied files from the Justice League all on what they know about Slade. I've greatly improved my skills and weapons. I know I can do this, and I know I can do this-"
"Alone?" Cyborg laughed, "You think you can do it alone? Slade took down Batman, your own mentor, several times and traded blows with Superman and lived! He's beyond a one-man-job!"
"I have to do this! None of you get it!"
"So…wait a minute here…" Beast Boy responded from behind the kitchen counter, gaining Robin's attention, "you would rather face Slade alone then with us? Do you think that would, like, make you a better hero or something? It doesn't make sense at all."
"Robin," Starfire touched Robin's shoulder gently before allowing her other hand to hold his, "Slade does not want the money, or the jewels. Slade…he only wants to hurt."
"He only wants to hurt you. And you let him do this. You walk into his traps. One of these days, you're not going to make it out." Raven affirmed.
"You almost died last time, Robin." Starfire added, letting the tears spill down her cheeks. She squeezed his hand a little tighter, "Please, do not go after him without us. He…he will only hurt you more."
Robin stood there in the silent room amongst his friends. He looked at all of them, and tried his best not to cry as Starfire enveloped him in a hug. One by one, all his other teammates added themselves to the embrace.
Robin knew they loved him. Robin knew they were right.