I love my teammates, really I do. They're my best friends, my third family, they can draw me out of myself when I get too dark and broody, when I get like 'him'. Beastboy's like a childish little brother, Cyborg's like a childish big brother, Raven's the level headed sister that lets them know when they're being too childish and Starfire's one of the kindest people I've ever met.
At breakfast time though, I can often find myself wanting to strangle half of them half to death. Breakfast at the Titans tower can best be described as a mixture of heated debates, weird smells, and general unpleasantness. I usually tried to get out of attending by claiming I'd been working late into the night.
The past few days that had actually been the case, but only because it would have been hard to sleep otherwise. Sitting alone in my room with cold Chinese food was even less appealing than making an appearance at the breakfast table. So I clamed a bowl of sugary cereal and tried to ignore them without being too obvious about it.
There were three rules to enjoying breakfast with the team. Don't get involved in the tofu vs. meat debate, don't accept any food from Starfire, and don't tick Raven off. Easy to remember, right? Well, I'd mistakenly broken one of them and was well on my way to breaking a second.
Those weird smells I mentioned earlier? Well they're the results of Starfire's cooking. That particular morning she'd attempted to singlehandedly put an end to the whole tofu vs. meat thing by mixing both items into a foul smelling bowl of... something. Beastboy refused to eat meat, and Cyborg refused to eat tofu, Raven was happy with her tea. That left only me to taste Starfire's creation.
"Please Robin?" She asked sweetly. "It would make the start of this day ever so pleasant."
There was just something about crushing the hope in those innocent eyes, I couldn't do it.
"Sure Starfire." I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth and took the offered spoon, dipping it slowly into the bowl of mush, then even slower up to my mouth. An alarm sounded at the computer. "I have to get that." I said hurriedly and dropped the spoon, running oy of the kitchen. "Put it in the fridge for later!"
I hit a few buttons on the console and looked up at the display. The source of the disturbance was at the docks. A small carrier that had docked for refueling, the 'Cornelius' was under attack.
"Breakfasts over." I said to the Titans who'd all assembled behind me. I added a silent thank you to whoever the perpetrator was fro getting me away from that food.
I lead the way on my R-cycle while the others followed in the car. We sped towards the docks while I got some more information on the cargo of the 'Cornelius', it was an international specialty carrier that shipped mainly chemicals for large companies. The most high profile chemicals on its ledger were stirkonite, rubegen and xenothium. The first two, as far as I knew, were used mostly in medicines, but it was the last one that had caught my eye.
Xenothium is incredibly unstable, so it's shipment is tightly controlled and very well documented. There were only two people I knew of who'd go through the trouble of stealing such a volatile chemical. Red X hadn't been seen for going on a year, he'd be running dry by now unless he'd found some new source.
We got to the docks, and at my cry of, "Titans, go!" my team sprang into action.
Starfire screamed out an alien battle cry and charged right into the thick of it, eyes and hands blazing green. Cyborg shouted out in glee, blasting the masked men aside with his concussion cannon while Raven hovered above the others chanting. One of the men raised a wooden crate in the air and aimed it at the girl; before he could let it go a green rhino tackled him into the water.
I made my way through the masked men to the small carrier, incase this was Red X's doing, I wanted to make sure we got a few words in before the rest of my team showed up. He knew things few people were supposed to know about me, and at the time I'd been too distraught to question him about it, but now I had to make sure he wouldn't be using that information against me. Granted, this wasn't exactly the best time either, but I needed those answers.
One of the men swung at me and I ducked, pivoting on my staff to deliver a kick to his chest that should have knocked the breath out of him and kept him down for at least a few minutes. This guy got back to his feet pretty quick though, and it took another higher kick that knocked him into the ocean to get him out of my way. This really wasn't Red X's style though, when he went for xenothium he went for it stealthily.
Two men blocked my path on the ship's boarding ramp. Staff at the ready I charged both turned to get me and I ducked low, slipping between and behind them. They tripped each other up when they spun around to chase after me. A few sharp jabs from my staff were all it took to knock one away, and right into the path of Cyborg's cannon. The other watched me closely, then made a move to grab me, a leaped onto the ships railing, spinning around to kick him in the face as I landed.
Instead of the muffled thud I had expected, a hollow clang rang out.
"What the?" I knocked the guy over and pulled of his mask. Underneath was the pitch-black face of a robot commando, the orange circle dented where my kick had made contact. Unless someone had found a stash of these things that he'd somehow left behind, things were going to get complicated.
I finished the robot off with a batarang and pulled out my communicator.
"They're robot commandoes." I said. "Be extra careful, I'm investigating now." There were calls for me to wait, but if this really was him I had to nip whatever he was planning in the bud. A two toned mask appeared in the window of the captains booth.
I kicked myself for believing, even for a little while, that he'd been gone for good. That he'd chosen now of all times to make a comeback was making me paranoid, almost as if he knew, when there was no way he should have. All the way up I was hoping that it was all in my head – it wouldn't have been the first time – but as soon as I threw open the door those hopes were dashed.
"Slade." I growled.
The man turned calmly to face him and the door sealed shut "Why Robin, I was expecting to see you sooner, now you're too late for my surprise."
"You're supposed to be dead." I swung my staff at the man, who blocked and threw me back against the door I felt some sharp pieces of glass digging into the back of my suit, but they couldn't pierce the tough Kevlar.
"You're such a child." Slade laughed and rushed at me.
I ducked under Slade's swing and retaliated with one of my own, knocking the man into the helm. He was back on his feet quickly and struck again. I fended off the blows with my staff, dancing around in the small place.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, knocking aside another of Slade's strikes.
"Oh, you haven't figured it out yet?" Slade delivered a powerful blow, the force of blocking it reverberated through my staff, numbing my arms for a moment. "I merely came to offer my condolences. How old was he? Nine, ten?"
I growled and doubled my attack on the man who just kept talking as he blocked.
"Don't look so surprised, everyone knows about it by now. The other Robin, the one who died."
"Shut up!" I practically screamed. This man had no right to talk about that, that he knew about it at all was sickening, like he was polluting the boy's memory just by holding it in his mind.
Slade soon got the upper hand, he maneuvered me into a tight corner and boxed me in. I could barely keep up with the blows he rained down on me, my staff even beginning to bend with force he put into each strike.
"You need to get over it, Robin." Slade said. I was too slow and he managed to wrap a hand around my staff, he held on tightly and he lifted me with the weapon, slamming me into the control console. "It was over a year ago after all." Slade kept me pressed against the console with my own staff. My arms were too weak from all the blocking to push it away.
The glass behind me shattered, and a bright green blast knocked Slade away from me. I was lifted to my feet by a cushion of black energy. The Titans piled into the room and stared the man down.
"Talk big all you want." Cyborg said. "We beat you before and we'll do it again."
Slade laughed and pulled out a detonator.
"Move!" I ordered and he leaped out the shattered viewing screen with my team just as the carrier was blown apart.
I landed on solid ground and hurried to check on my friends. Cyborg was a little dented, by looked fine, Starfire was floating down from the height she'd take off to, Raven was with Beastboy who was…oh no. The youngest member of the team was crying out, one leg bent at an unnatural angle.
"It hurts." He whimpered as Raven got in close.
"Sit still so I can see." He girl ordered, reaching for the injury.
"No, don't touch it." He tried to pull away and cried out when he jolted the bone.
"I went easy on you before." Slade said, appearing atop a stack of metal shipping containers. "Holding out hope that you might see the error of your ways and agree to being my apprentice."
"You're delusional!" I yelled, Cyborg, Starfire and I moving to stand protectively in front of our injured teammate.
"No, Robin you'll find I'm quite sane, and I won't be playing nice anymore." He pointed at Beastboy. "Consider this your warning."
"Titans, go!" I ordered and the three of charged at him.
He merely chuckled and dropped a smoke grenade. He was gone before any of us reached him, his laughter echoing in our ears.
.
.
.
Beastboy was settled into a bed in the medical room, his leg suspended to make sure it healed right. Starfire literally hovered over him, trying to offer him some get well soon food. Beastboy even hopped up on pain meds turned greener at the smell.
"He can't eat those ingredients with the medicine he took." I said, gently pulling her away.
"But then what will his body use to be keeping his 'strengths up'?" She asked.
"Pizza." Beastboy moaned,
"That actually sounds really good right now." Cyborg said.
"Then I will go and order the pizza." Starfire said and sped out of the room.
"I'll go make sure she doesn't order anything inedible." Raven glided out after her excitable friend.
"Thanks man." Beastboy said, looking uneasily at the bowl faintly glowing sludge on his at his bedside table.
I nodded curtly and removed the 'food', dumping it into a wastebasket, knowing Starfire would have forgotten about it by the time she came back. "You just rest up until your leg heals up." I made my way to the door.
"Where are you going?" Cyborg asked.
"I think we all need some rest after today." I said.
On my way to my room, I caught some of the girls' conversation.
"I am worried about Friend Robin." Starfire said. "Whenever that man shows up, he does not behave like himself."
"He'll be fine." Raven replied. "He knows Slade can be beaten and we'll keep close a close eye on him in case he tries something stupid."
"How will the putting of eyes on him prevent the being stupid?" Starfire asked.
"I didn't mean we'll literally put eyes on him." Raven sighed.
My door slip closed, blocking out the rest of what they said. I wasn't the one they needed to worry about. Beastboy was he only one who'd gotten hurt. I sank into the chair on front of my computer and began working. Having to push away thoughts of a small boy in bright colors, this wasn't the time.
I had to catch Slade before he hurt any of the others. When there was a knock at my door, I forced myself away from the screen to accept a plate of pizza.
"Thank you Starfire." I put on a smile, getting a small one back from the alien princess.
I had to catch him before I hurt them myself in my haste to get the whole thing over with.