Bird Brain Ch 4
A/N – Sorry this is just a little late. I hadn't written much of Chapter 4 until the 19th (today)…the day I was supposed to update. But here it is! I better go start writing Chapter 5! In the meantime, enjoy this chappie!
Disclaimer- Don't own any characters or anything other than the idea for the plot for any of my stories. Never have, never will.
In the near complete darkness, Slade sat comfortably in his chair, facing various screens that showed his detailed plans.
"I have a feeling that this plan just might work in my favor. With Robin at my command, I will have my prize soon enough." Slade reclined in his chair, a small smirk hidden beneath his bronze and black mask. He leaned forwards, picking up a small electronic chip. The chip had a light blue motherboard chip instead of a green one. Otherwise, it looked nearly identical to any other computer chip.
"So wonderful."
The sound of steady footsteps emanated from behind the master's seat. The metal on his shoes scuffed against the ground quietly.
"Back so soon, Robin?" Slade asked. "Did you not return with what I had asked of you?" Slade stood up and turned his body to face Robin. "I see, empty handed. Disappointing. I'll have to step in more. But listen to me. Tomorrow, you will bring me Cyborg, Robin. Understand?"
Robin nodded ever so slightly.
"Good boy." Slade put his hand on Robin's left shoulder for a moment, and then he removed it. "Things will go much more smoothly this time." Slade held up the small blue chip he still held in his left hand. He eyed it casually, his single eye glinting in the near darkness. "This will make sure of it."
The following day, back at Titans Tower, the Titans convened at the table around Cyborg's well-prepared lunch.
Cyborg walked to the table, wearing a white chef hat. He held out two bowls, one filled with cooked linguini pasta, the other with a thick, steaming garlic and mushroom and cream sauce.
"Alright, lunch is now served," Cyborg said, placing the two bowls delicately next to each other on the table. "Don't all go for it at once, now."
"Sweet." Beast Boy plopped down in a chair. "I assume this is a vegetarian pasta, Cyborg?" He eyed the cybernetic Titan.
"You can bet your green butt it is," Cyborg replied, smiling slightly. Directly after, the corners of Cyborg's mouth sank. He looked at the three other Titans settling down at the table. Only three.
"Thanks for preparing lunch today." Raven took a seat next to the redhead, Starfire, across from Beast Boy.
"Well, either you get some alien food or tofu for lunch, so I thought you guys as a whole would enjoy this pasta more than the other options."
Beast Boy pointed at Raven across the table. "Hey, why doesn't she ever do any of the cooking? She needs to participate in the culinary work."
Raven scowled at Beast Boy. "Wow, 'culinary'. That's a pretty big word for you, isn't it? Try these. 'I can't cook.' Remember the day my prophecy was completed? You all pretty much choked to death on my dry pancakes. I'll have you notice that I myself didn't eat any. There was a reason for that."
Beast Boy's finger crumpled as his brain processed Raven's words. "Oh, right." He suddenly shuddered.
"Beast Boy, is something the matter?" Starfire asked while heaping a good amount of pasta onto her white plate. "Raven, could you please pass the sauce?"
As Raven handed the alien the pasta sauce, Beast Boy responded. "Oh nothing's the matter, Starfire. My tongue just remembered how horrible Raven's pancakes tasted."
Starfire looked at him with a quizzical face. "I thought Raven's cooking was glorious! As I said then, it tasted like the incinerated glorka roaches of my home planet." She smiled, closing her eyes. "Yum…"
Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all glanced at her with weird expressions plastered onto their faces, but continued passing the food around.
There was a long silence, no words coming from any of the seated Titans. The only sounds present were those of metal forks on ceramic plates.
The heavy silence gave the Titans time to think about the sad truth. Robin was gone. Taken. Then he returned, not as a friend, but as a foe. He attacked them, and destroyed the part of their home where many memories were made.
A new memory had been created, but it was one every single Titan wanted to forget.
This particular silence bothered Raven, although she was normally accustomed to the quietude. She picked at a few strands of pasta before placing her fork down next to her plate. She placed her hands in her lap and sighed.
She didn't catch him. She hadn't even tried. Sure, Raven had searched for him after he blasted through the building, but by then, it was too late. Slade was there. He was ready, more ready than both Robin and Raven. He jumped at the opportunity and made it across the crevice. Looks like the Titans didn't.
Suddenly, Cyborg slammed down his metal fork, just narrowly missing his ceramic plate. He looked directly at Raven.
"Alright. I'm sorry, Raven, but I'm not going to sit here any longer and just think about what to do. I'm going to do something." He stood up, walking way from the table. He looked back at the other Titans, pausing for a brief moment. "If any of you care to join me, feel free." He turned back, and then proceeded out of the room.
Raven heard Starfire sigh beside her.
"Raven," Starfire said, "I believe friend Cyborg is correct. We must save Robin, and thinking has yet to get us anywhere." Starfire also stood up from her seat and followed Cyborg, exiting the room.
Raven returned her gaze to the only remaining Titan in the room: Beast Boy.
"Well," she said sadly, "are you going with them too?"
Beast Boy leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, sighing. He looked into Raven's eyes. The lonely, cold sorrow was clearly present and emanated from her body. Even Beast Boy, who wasn't at all the most sentimental or sympathetic guy, he could tell how she felt without her saying a word.
"Why are you staring at me like that?"
"Oh sorry." He pulled his eyes away. "I was just thinking."
Expecting a sarcastic comment that would emotionally scar him for life, Beast Boy was surprised when Raven maintained her silence. "You're…not going to comment on that?" he asked tentatively.
"You're not going with Cyborg and Starfire? she returned.
Beast Boy smiled slightly. "I guess the answer to both of those questions is 'no'."
Raven returned the small smile, but the second Beast Boy saw it, it was gone.
The silence returned, although much lighter than before. This silence was like one at a school library, rather than at a funeral.
Raven shifted in her seat. "I just…I want to do something, very badly, even. I just don't know what." She closed her eyes, her head tilted down.
"I see your point that charging into Slade's lair wouldn't be effective and would put us all in danger, but at the same time, I understand Cyborg and Starfire's point. We need to do some searching."
"No."
Beast Boy looked at Raven with a confused face. "What? What do you mean 'no'?"
Raven glared, not necessarily at Beast Boy, but she was clearly upset.
"The question isn't 'Where's Robin?' We know where Robin is. He's wherever Slade wants or needs him to be. The real question is what Slade wants and what he's done to Robin."
Beast Boy looked at Raven, processing her words. "'What he's done to Robin'?" he finally asked.
"Didn't you notice Robin acting strangely when he attacked us here at the Tower?" she asked. "I certainly did."
"Um…wait I got this…" Beast boy looked up at the ceiling with his "thinking face", which happened to include a protruding tongue. "He kicked our butts like a normal Robin would, like how he did the last time he worked for Slade."
Raven shook her head. "It wasn't that."
"Then what was it? What was wrong with Robin? Other than the fact that he's working for Slade now," Beast Boy asked.
"Robin always makes a hell of a lot of noise when he fights, I'm sure you know."
Beast Boy nodded. "Yeah, you can hear him beating up the punching bag from the basement," he agreed.
"Good." Raven's faint smile returned. "But yesterday, Robin didn't make any noise. Not a sound."
"So he's mute?"
Raven's smile disappeared.
"Never mind. Let's just go tell the other two!" he said, jumping up from the table.
Raven also stood up. "Telling them what we've just discussed won't help anyone. If they want to look for Robin, let them look. We over here will figure out what Slade could want with Robin or with us. You in?" she asked, looking at Beast Boy.
"Two brains are better than one!"
"Don't you mean one and a little bit of brain dust?"
"Raven!" Beast Boy squealed, smiling hugely. "You're back!"
Raven stepped back a little, putting her arms up in mild defense. "Don't come hugging me now."
Beast Boy laughed and followed Raven to the couch to discuss Slade's intentions.
"Robin?" Cyborg wandered around near the piers from where Slade had taken Robin the first time. "You here?"
Cyborg walked down the edge of the pier and sat down, his feet dangling off the side. He looked at the screen on his left arm. 4:03 pm. He sighed and looked at his reflection in the clear blue water below.
After leaving the Tower at 1:30, Starfire and he had been searching opposite sides of the city. Cyborg didn't have any luck on his side of the town.
He raised his arm and paged Starfire's communicator.
"Cyborg to Starfire. You find Robin or Slade yet?"
"No, thus far my search has been unsuccessful. I assume you have had the same luck?" Starfire's voice responded.
"Unfortunately, you're right. You want to call it quits at five o'clock?"
"Yes, I am starting to feel a little of the tiredness."
"Alright," Cyborg sighed, "but don't let your guard down just yet in case you find Robin."
"Of course. Then I will see you at five!"
On the other side of Jump City, Starfire closed her eyes, sighing, and shut her communicator. "Oh Robin, where are you? We need you back." She opened her eyes and looked at her surroundings. She stood at the front of the Wayne Enterprises building, the place where she and the other Titans first fought Robin the apprentice.
Robin knew so much about each and every one of them, especially Starfire. As Red X, he knew how to disable and defeat each Titan with ease. If Slade had chosen Starfire to be his apprentice, she wouldn't really have any idea how to strategically take each of the Titans down. Luckily, she didn't need to.
Suddenly, Starfire heard noises around her. She gasped, stepping backward and tripping over the curb.
"Ooof!" she exclaimed, landing on her behind. She sat up only to see that she was surrounded by a dozen of Slade's drones.
"Cyborg!"
Meanwhile, back near the piers, Cyborg checked the time on his arm again. 4:36 pm. Cyborg sighed. "Only half an hour more of this." He groaned. "I probably won't find Robin or Slade here anyways."
"Think again."
Cyborg turned around to see a black fist coming straight at his face.
"Augh!" Cyborg took the hit and tumbled backwards into a wall. He looked at his attacker. Robin had punched him. But it wasn't Robin who had spoken.
"Cyborg, I trust that you have met my apprentice as he is now, hmm? Mine." Slade said in his dark, eerie voice. "Robin, attack!"
At Slade's command, Robin instantly leaped up and roundhouse kicked Cyborg across the chest. Cyborg instinctively raised his arms in a crossed formation to block the strike.
"I don't wanna hurt you, Robin."
"Oh how touching." Slade commented, amused. To Robin, Slade commanded, "Hit him harder."
Robin swung again at Cyborg, aiming at his gut.
"Oof!" Cyborg fell back again. "Ugh," he groaned from the ground. Robin's attack had been much stronger.
"Not tired from walking around all day, are you, Cyborg?" Slade taunted, "I guess I won't be watching an entertaining fight then. What a shame."
"Don't start with me, man!" Cyborg yelled angrily, rising to his feet. "You want a good fight," he said, readying his sonic cannon, "I'll give you one."
"Robin?" Slade gestured towards Cyborg.
Robin took out three S-embossed explosive disks and chucked them at Cyborg.
"Aaah!" They exploded around the cyborg, the multiple explosions knocking him in various directions. "Ugh!" Cyborg grunted as he finally skidded on the ground. Cyborg groaned, slowly meeting unconsciousness.
"Robin, finish him."
Without a sound, Robin walked over to Cyborg and flipped him over. With a simple motion, Robin opened Cyborg's control panel.
Slade handed a black device to Robin. Robin took it and pressed a red button on its side. Between two metal prongs, a brilliant spark of electricity burst, illuminating Robin's face. Not a drop of sweat or effort in fighting Cyborg was evident.
Robin brought the device close to Cyborg's circuitry, giving it a light shock.
"Good. Now, bring him back. Cyborg will be next to join us."
Awesome! Another chapter down! Now make me happy by submitting a review! :)
