He groaned, his head throbbing with pain.
Barely awake, Robin unconsciously grabbed a handful of what seemed to be sand and let it fall through his fingers. Dirt got caught beneath his nails as he repeatedly ran his hand through the sandy earth again, and again, and again.
Finally he opened his eyes and watched a handful of sand slowly sift through his fingers, only a few stray grains were left, being stuck in the contours of his right hand. Sand. Sand… Why was there sand?
He pushed himself up from his stomach, feeling sore, and taking in his surroundings. This…this wasn't Jump. Oh, no… this was somewhere else. He could see tall trees overhead, surrounding the small valley Robin was kneeling in. Hills covered in sandy-dirt terrain stood around him, as if trapping him in this foreign place.
What… happened?
...
..
.
9:42 PM Thursday, August 22nd -somewhere in the southern area of the Pacific ocean-
Robin adjusted his headset for the third time, still uncomfortable, and checked the radar. But there was still nothing. Nothing.
Suddenly, Raven's voice crackled over the communication system. "See anything?" she asked.
"No, not a thing," he replied honestly and gave the horizon a quick scan with his eyes rather than the equipment. "Yeah. There's nothing out there," Robin confirmed.
A second voice came through the speakers. "Great! Then let's go home!" Beast Boy whined sounding impatient.
"We can't," Robin sighed. "We received a distress call, so it's our job to go and help," he explained, though truthfully he'd rather go back too. He'd had his doubts about this mission, it just didn't seem… right.
"You know what?" Raven began, and Robin couldn't help but think that it was strange how clearly the communication system projected her monotone as she said, "I think Beast Boy's right for once. The call didn't even have clear sign of where it came from, nor a message telling us where to go, we just got an alert that someone was in danger in this general area. We're practically blind when trying to find someone like this,"
Robin thought about. They had been circling this area for over three hours, and had found nothing. Perhaps she was right. "Alright then, enough searching. I'll report to the tower,"
Robin could hear Beast Boy cheering over the speaker as he turned the T-Ship onto autopilot and called Cyborg. "Cyborg. Robin calling," he said into the microphone and waited for the teen to pick-up.
After a few seconds, Cyborg replied, 'Cyborg here, I hear ya, how's the mission going?'
"Not good. We haven't found anyone, or anything," Robin reported. "We're coming home,"
He waited for a confirmation, but all Robin could hear was static. "Cyborg…" he mumbled to himself, "Why aren't you answering?"
Anxiously, he pulled the mike closer to his mouth, asking loudly, "Cyborg. Cyborg do you read me?"
Irritating white noise was all that came through the earpiece, so he began to fiddle with the communicator. "Cyborg. Do. You. Read?"
Seconds that felt like hours passed, and then finally a quiet voice managed to fizz through the silence. "I can't…you…break…ing… uh...pp. . ."
"Cyborg, Cyborg! Talk to me." Robin yelled into the headset, but to no avail.
Long grown worried, he ripped the headset off and asked again and again, "Cyborg. Cyborg. Report. Cyborg. Please report."
"No…" Robin whispered, clutching his forehead.
Then, almost giving him a heart attack, loud laughter boomed through the speakers.
Robin ground his teeth, seething with anger and his heart pumping a mile a minute, he hissed, "That was a sick, sick joke you just played there, Cy,"
The African-American's guffaws were uncontrollable. "Oh man! I just wish I could see your face right now!"
The titan's leader just shook his head at Cyborg's antics, and figured that Beast Boy had probably put him up to this. He focused back on the situation at hand.
"Cyborg, listen, is there anything else you can tell me about that distress call?" Robin asked, hoping for an answer that wasn't accompanied by laughter.
There was a brief silence, then, "No, there ain't anything else, but you seem to be in the right- … area. The alert's –origin… wasn't clear, just a general … spot," Cyborg paused and this time his voice came slightly unclear. "Are… -you using the coordinates I … gave," there was a loud hissing of static, "… you?"
"Yes, but we haven't found anything," Robin said and checked the radar as he waited for a response.
"Well," Cyborg began, "Why…don't…you try these… ones…" There was long period of silence. " fifty- … degrees…sou...th…. degrees…wes-" The communicator cut him out before he was done speaking.
Robin frowned. He must be joking around again. "Cyborg this is serious, no more joking around, repeat what you just said."
His response wasn't quick but it came eventually. "…not… joking -this … ti…-me," he tried to repeat the coordinates, but again they did not come through clear. "…did… get… -them…?" Cyborg asked afterwards, sounding choppy.
Robin shook his head, growing frustrated. "No, I didn't get them. Cyborg, I don't understand you, please repeat yourself." Robin ordered, growing doubtful. If he wasn't joking around, then there must be something interfering.
Suddenly, the T-Ship was hit with by large wind, knocking it off course. Robin grabbed ahold of the steering, and turned it back onto manual from autopilot.
Raven's voice came over the speaker, laced with static, "What was-… that?"
"Major wind turbulence, I think we'll be alright," Robin replied though sounding not very confident.
"All… right- then," Raven's answer cut away.
"Robin!" Beast Boy cried suddenly. "Robin… there's wicked-… bad… clouds out th-ere," He warned.
"That's not good," Robin said to himself after seeing the dark black mess on the horizon. He couldn't help but wonder if that was what was interrupting the transmission.
Then, Cyborg came back through the communicator very choppily. "…I … just lost… yo …ur… signal… anythi-…. wrong…?"
"There's some bad clouds, I can't hear you very well," Robin said into the mike quickly.
"…Can't …. Hear …." Cyborg's voice died out and white noise took over.
"Cyborg? Cyborg, answer!" Robin was worried; this couldn't be a joke this time.
Rubbing his forehead and feeling stressed, he stared at the navigation system that was displaying their position; it was that wasn't what had caught his attention. He had spotted the icon that represented their ship, remembering their coordinates that they were supposed to be following he compared them to their current position and frowned. Are we off course…? Robin shook his head and tore his eyes away, remembering what he should be doing.
"Cyborg, Starfire? Report back. Please." Robin said, his thoughts of the ship's course pushed away.
Robin turned the dial on his communicator, trying to improve the connection but it only got worse, so he threw the device onto the dashboard in a fury. He sighed and tried one last time.
"Cyborg. Report." He tried to be as clear as he could when he spoke, but he could only do so much. The titan communicators were built to withstand tough conditions, this had to be a very strong interference to completely break the connection. Robin asked again. "Starfire? Cyborg? Please. Report."
After two more tries,Robin knew he wouldn't get anything back. He blamed the weather; the wind turbulence out there was pretty bad after all. It had to be a bad connection. He paged the two other titans in the T-Ship. "Raven, Beast Boy, I just lost communication with the tower, we have to turn back now,"
"…What? Only got… pieces, some-…thing about … tower? Couldn't…" Raven told him through the headset. "Repeat…"
"We. Lost. Communication. Turning. Back." He said slowly into the microphone.
All he got from Raven was static and "Lost…? Can't … hear…you…" He had gotten nothing from Beast Boy yet at all. Robin furrowed his brow, why had he thought he'd get no interference trying to talk with them? He might lose them any time now.
Robin fixed his headset firmly onto his head so he could drive while speaking with ease. That is if he could through at all to Raven or Beast Boy. He gripped the controls tight, and glanced at the navigation system. After seeing it once, he almost dropped what he was holding onto.
Their signal had completely disappeared from the board. Meaning he had no idea where they were. He slapped a hand to his forehead; he had just looked at their coordinates a minute ago! What were they? He racked his brain trying to remember.
"Raven, Beast Boy, did anyone happen to look at our coordinates recently?" He hoped and hoped that at least one of them would respond.
"Robin!" Beast Boy cried and Robin breathed in a sigh of relief. "Our- … signal's … -gone!"
"No… -way." Raven mocked.
"Listen, Raven, did you happen to see our coordinates?" Robin asked, trying to communicate while the signal was good.
"I- checked them… a few- min-… ago-… I –think… I remember-" Raven reported, her voice growing weaker as the signal faded. Robin's hope died, their connection was failing. "We- ….we were… farther west- than we… should…. Be-"
That wasn't much to build off of.
"Robin- …we- are about… to- fly into some- …clouds…" Beast Boy warned, but Robin was too focused on his worries and paid less attention than he should have.
We could go east, but that's incredibly risky because Raven just barely remembered… Robin let out a deep breath and glanced at the ship's compass. He closed his eyes.
"You've got to be kidding me," he hissed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He lost connection with the tower, the link between him and Raven and Beast Boy was just hanging on by a thread, the navigator was broken, and now the compass was having a seizure. Since it was electronic, it usually just had 'WEST', 'NORTH-EAST', 'SOUTH' –whatever direction they were in- displayed on the screen. But at the moment, the compass had decided to go AWOL and instead every split second there was a new direction shown.
Robin shook his head. This had to be a bad dream. He pinched his arm as hard as he could and winced. "Ow, okay, not a bad dream," he muttered to himself and rubbed his arm as if to rub away the pain.
Another large gust of wind, like the one earlier, suddenly hit the ship and Robin grabbed the controls. He looked out the front window, but couldn't see a thing. What…
"Robin-…" Raven's voice was barely audible, and not very easy to understand either. "We… -just-…. Fl-ew …into –cloud…"
"Raven?"
"…Ro-" Raven's voice fizzed out into static.
"Raven!" Robin cried. "Beast Boy!"
He didn't receive an answer from either of them. Robin was going to try and communicate again, but more winds made it harder for him to fly the T-Ship, Robin had to fight to try and stay straight.
In Robin's opinion, things couldn't get much worse. Boy, was he wrong.
Since he was so focused on not flying out of control, Robin didn't know until it was too late that the engine was having too strain put on it. There was a terrible ka-klunk, ka-klunk sound, then with an ear-shattering screech the overworked engine died 's breath caught in his throat, his eyes widened and he froze. This is not happening…
Then, in his shock, Robin was caught completely off guard when the ship was hit by the largest gust of wind yet. The force of it knocked him sideways, slamming his head into the wall.
In his last seconds of awareness, Robin felt his fingers slip from the controls as his body grew limp and he slumped in his seat. His world darkened and his eyes slid shut as he fell into the state of unconsciousness.
XxX
A/N: There's the start of a new fan fic, and I hope that it ends up going somewhere, I do have REALLY good feelings about it. I'm not sure if it'll be BB/Rae or Rob/Rae, it'll probably be a mix of Rob/Rae/BB in the end. I am a Rob/Rae author though, so it may stray towards Rob/Rae a lot, but I'll try and keep it even. I have tons of ideas for this one, so I don't think I'll have any writer's block for the next chapter, so hopefully (crossing my fingers), it'll be a quick update.
Speaking of updates, those of you who are waiting for the next chapter of Over Competitive Much?, it'll be up soon, I'm more than half done it, okay?
I'm doing mailbag (like you care). But anyway, please review, I'd love to hear what you have to say about this first chapter!