-Emergency Healing.
The wild man's head became visible, while Raven's eyes grew wider than ever, and she felt like falling in shock.
"No… he didn't…" Raven said in a murmur, fearing the worst. Starfire covered her mouth, trying to suppress a scream, while Robin, Jinx, and KF got battle stances.
"Wait, look!" Cyborg exclaimed, making everyone to give a second look at the man. Thanks to his bionic eye, Cyborg was the first to realize their enemy wasn't conscious, and that a green large tentacle was holding him; it was Beast Boy, turned into a giant squid.
"Kid Flash!" Robin directed to his speedy companion, who understood immediately, and zoomed on the man's direction, using his speed to run on the water's surface. He grabbed him by the shoulders, and returned to the shore with his fallen prey less than two seconds after he left. The man was severely hurt, and was hardly breathing; even with his healing powers, he would be out of action for a while.
"I can't pick up Beast Boy until he changes back to his regular size. He is way too large to do it right now." Kid Flash told his friends, concerned.
"You can't, but I do." Starfire said, and, before anyone could stop her, she flew as fast as she could. When she was right over the squid, the girl took a large breath, and dived; a few moments later, the alien princess emerged, carrying the gigantic green creature. When feeling himself out from the water, Beast Boy changed back to human by mere instinct, allowing Star to transport him more easily, something she was glad for, since the effort of carrying the squid caused her abdomen to hurt even more.
Star deposited BB on the beach, and everybody gasped when looking at him. His uniform was almost totally destroyed, revealing a series of deep and large wounds all over his body. Half of his left ear was gone, as well as a good section of his trademark fang; his face was badly cut, and his right arm was in an unnatural position, almost totally separated from his body. And, every time he breathed, a large amount of blood poured from his chest's wounds.
"STAND BACK!" Raven suddenly yelled, and kneeled next to Beast Boy, placing her hands on the boy's chest. She concentrated as hard as she could, but without success; she had nothing left to heal him. The girl couldn't resist any more, and a few tears rolled down her cheeks.
"I can take him to the hospital!" Kid Flash proposed.
"At this condition he wouldn't be able to survive traveling at super speed!" Robin groaned in frustration while taking all his tranquilizer darts out from his belt and using them against the unconscious wild man; even if he wasn't in fighting conditions, Robin had no idea about how fast he would heal, and decided to take no risks by giving him a dosage strong enough to knock out Mammoth for a week.
"Star, help me! We can carry him to the infirmary, and maybe stabilize him enough until we can ask for a helicopter or something." Cyborg told the alien girl; it was risky, but that was their best option at the moment, especially since they had no vehicles at the moment.
"Do that. Kid Flash, you go to the city hospital, and bring a doctor to help Cyborg attend BB." Robin said to the speedster. He was about to do it, when Jinx cut them all,
"NOBODY MOVE!" Jinx exclaimed while kneeling next to Raven and offering her a hand.
"Raven, do you know how to perform a magical transfusion?" Jinx asked the Goth, who immediately got a surprised expression.
"What is that transfusion of magic you are talking about?" Starfire asked.
"I can't heal people, and Raven doesn't have the strength to do it, but she might be able to help Beast Boy if I allow her to take the energy she needs from me. Wanna try?" Jinx explained to the other Titans while looking at Raven.
The Goth hesitated for a moment. That procedure was extremely risky, both for the donor and the receptor. Just like blood types, there are several kinds of magic, and, if they aren't 100 percent compatible, it might as well kill one of them. Raven didn't really cared about her own safety at that moment, and surely would offer every drop of her blood and magic to save BB's life, but wasn't eager to kill Jinx by accident if doing it wrong.
"He's worthy of the risk, right?" Jinx said to Raven, guessing the reason Raven was hesitating. The Goth changed her worried expression for a stern one.
"You're right. Let's do it." Raven said, grabbing Jinx's hand and placing her free one on BB's chest. Then, she took a deep breath, and started chanting a spell, while both girls' eyes glowed. The other Titans stayed on their places, almost breathless.
Raven's body started glowing with a blue aura, yet, a moment after, it changed to a slightly purple one while Jinx's pink energy flowed inside her. Slowly, some of that aura passed through her arm to Beast Boy's body, until covering him completely. Right then, in front of the surprised eyes of the other Titans, his wounds started closing, and the bleeding stopped. His arm returned to its regular position, and some of his face's wounds disappeared, as Raven's magic healed his body from the inside out, starting with the more severe injuries and then moving to the fractures and minor damages. The whole procedure lasted almost ten minutes, when both Raven and Jinx fell to the ground, exhausted.
"Jinx? Hey, Jinxie, come on, answer me!" Kid Flash said while leaning to support Jinx's head, while Cyborg checked on Beast Boy, and Star and Robin attended Raven.
"Is he okay?" Both Jinx and Raven said at the same time.
"He still is in a delicate condition, but is fine enough to be attended at the infirmary." Cyborg said with a little hint of hope on his voice, making everyone else (especially Raven) to sigh in relief.
"And you said your powers were only good to hurt people, uh?" Kid Flash said to Jinx in his usual cocky tone, making her to smile, and then he softly kissed her for a few seconds.
"R-Raven?" Everybody turned when hearing BB's pained voice. Star helped Raven move next to Beast Boy, who now was opening his eyes.
"I stopped him?" Beast Boy asked the Goth, who couldn't hide her happiness and gave him an uncharacteristic large smile.
"Yes. You did. Good job; now, take a rest. You need it." Raven said while softly rubbing his still injured cheek. The green teen smiled weakly, and then closed his eyes, while Cyborg gently carried him inside the Tower.
"You need to rest as well, Raven. Star, take her to the infirmary, and then allow Cyborg to give you a check up. I'll go in a moment." Robin said to both girls. Star nodded, and then allowed Raven to use her shoulder for support. Even if Jinx was tired as well because of the transfusion, it was nothing compared with Raven, who had absorbed a huge amount of BB's pain while healing him (something she didn't allow Jinx to feel), so she needed the rest more desperately than the former villainess.
"Thanks." Raven said to Star, and then turned to see Jinx, giving her a little smile. "I never thought I would say this, but I owe you the biggest one ever."
"Hey, you're welcome." Jinx replied with a little smile as well. When Star and Raven were out of sight, Robin, Jinx, and KF directed their attention to the wild man, whose injuries were healing as well, yet not as fast as Beast Boy's.
"I hate to give bad news, but I think this guy is going to wake up sooner than we think, and he'll be on a terrible mood." Kid Flash commented.
"We should call the authorities… wait, who said that?" Jinx said, shaking her head at the last part; some habits die hard.
"I have another idea. I don't like when someone attacks us, especially without knowing the reason." Robin said, scowling at the fallen attacker.
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Half an hour later, the attacker woke up. As Kid Flash guessed, his healing ability allowed him to eliminate the tranquilizer out from his system, and he wasn't in a good mood.
"What the…? Hey, where am I? And why I'm tied?" The wild man said in surprise. He was secured Hannibal Lecter-style, yet with special electronic shackles instead of just leather leashes. He looked around, and found himself inside a huge round room, with no way out.
"Had a good sleep?"
The wild man lifted his face, and looked at a window located several feet over the floor, and a couple of masked teenagers, a half-mechanic large Afro-American guy, and a pink haired girl looking at him with furious expressions.
"You are inside a special isolated chamber. I don't know what metal your claws are made off but the walls are thick enough to slow you down, and allow us to fill the room with tranquilizer gas, or electrocute the whole chamber, so don't try to escape." The robotic guy said in a stern tone through a specially built sound system. He had designed this chamber to protect Raven from Trigon, so it was, by far, one of the hardest places to break in or out.
"What do you punks want? Why I'm trapped here?" The man said, calm yet furious.
"You almost killed my team, and you are surprised to be trapped?" One of the masked boys snapped at him, showing a rage that rivaled a demon's.
The man got a shocked expression. Apparently, he had no idea about what he had done, yet he somehow knew the boy was telling the truth… and didn't like it.
"Wait… what do you mean? I hurt someone?" The man said, confused, and more than a little worried. The Titans got confused expressions as well.
"You mean you had no idea about what you did?" The pink-haired girl said, arching an eyebrow.
"Yes… I know you guys have no reason to believe me, but it's true. Look, the last thing I remember is this guy who approached me at a bar, and then… nothing." The man said, apparently honest.
"Who are you? And what's up with the claws, and that fast healing you have?" Kid Flash asked.
"My name is Logan, but my enemies know me as Wolverine." The man sighed. "I'm a mutant, and my power consists exactly on that, a fast healing factor. It also gives me a little extra strength and stamina, as well as enhancing my senses. And, even if I don't know why I attacked your friends, I know how it happened."
"Can you explain yourself?" Robin said, still angry, but a little more calm.
"Many years ago, a secret agency kidnapped me to use me as a living weapon. They gave me a metallic cover on my skeleton, and probably the claws as well… I can't remember if I had them before that, because they also messed with my head. Anyway, I escaped some time ago, but some of that psychological junk is still on my brain, so maybe someone could activate the programming I have to control me. It had happened before, and will not be the last time."
"How do we know you aren't under control right now?" Robin asked.
"When someone is controlling me, I can't talk as politely as this… okay, even when I'm normal, I'm usually far from being polite, but you get the idea." Wolverine said, looking at Robin at the eye. Even if the Boy Wonder wasn't the most trustful guy around, he had faced control experts before, and this guy reacted as if saying the truth.
"That agency you mentioned… you know the name?" Robin asked.
"Project Weapon X, in Canada." Wolverine replied, making Jinx to gasp in surprise.
"Robin, I think he's telling us the truth!" Jinx said in a hurry. The male Titans looked at her, noticing she got paler than usual.
"Can you enlighten us, please?" Kid Flash asked.
"Do you remember the Secret Agencies class at the HIVE Academy?" Jinx asked Cyborg, who just nodded, remembering his undercover job at Jinx's former school for young criminals. "Well, some time before you entered the school, we saw a little about that Project; it was part of the regular classes, you know, to be ready against any super-guy created by some government. Anyway, I remember that particular program finished when one of the subjects lost control, and escaped into the wilderness. There were rumors about this guy joining a Canadian super team later."
"Alpha Flight. I quit after a while." Wolverine said to the youngsters, surprised at this girl's knowledge about his past, something even him had problems remembering about.
"Mind control. The HIVE. A direct attack to the Tower, avoiding all my surveillance systems… Robin, I know who sent this guy!" Cyborg exclaimed.
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At the docks, a cloaked figure looked at the Titans' island, a huge evil grin on his face. A henchman, on white clothing, approached him.
"Sir, we are ready." The minion said, making his boss to chuckle slightly.
"Excellent. Maybe I lost contact with my little attack dog, but I know he did what I wanted. Weakening the Titans, and messing with their defense system." The figure said, taking down his hood.
"It's time to visit my favorite student. I hope Cyborg wasn't hurt… I want to do it myself." Brother Blood commented, the image of a badly injured mechanical teen popping on his mind.