Two Years, Nine Months and Four Days
Instead of the outburst that Robin expected from the changeling, he felt a chill run down his spine as Beast Boy's eyes turned glacial cold.
"You didn't just call me that."
"What, so your stupid pointy ears can't hear me?"
"No, I'm saying that I hope that you didn't just say that."
"Say what, calling you a freak? Think about it – you are. I mean, you've got pointy ears, fangs, and you're green, for godsakes! The only other green superhero is J'onn, and he's got the excuse of coming from another planet!"
Beast Boy couldn't old himself back any longer. With an animalistic roar ripping its way free from his throat, he pounced on Robin like a lion pounces an impala. Robin barely managed to deflect the blow off to the side with his bo staff. The blast from Cyborg's sonic cannon, however, he couldn't deflect.
Argent watched in shock as the team started to tear itself apart. She knew this moment had been coming for months, now, but it surprised her that Robin would do it in public. With a sigh, she encased Beast Boy and Cyborg in an opaque vermillion sphere and lifted them into the air, ignoring the muffled cries of anger coming from its contents.
"Thanks Argent."
"Don't be thanking me, bro. This is only so you don't get your ass handed to you in public.
"...What? Don't be ridiculous. I can take anyone on this team. It's the reason I'm the leader."
"You can, can you?"
"Without a dou-" Robin suddenly found himself suspended in the same bubble that the others had been encased in. "Dammit Argent, I order you to let me out of this damn thing!"
"Not until we've hit the Tower. There, you can tear each other to pieces where the public doesn't have to watch."
Stafire slowly walked over to where Argent was trying to simultaneously suspend the two spheres.
"May I accompany you back to the Tower, Friend Argent? I'm afraid I am not sufficiently happy to summon the power of flight..."
With a sympathetic nod, Argent managed to fuse the two spheres with one hand while keeping the contents separate. With her other hand, she summoned a crimson platform for her and Starfire to ride on.
Coming around the corner, Speedy announced to his companions that Mumbo was now in JCPD custody. As he saw his teammates fly away, one thought struck him.
Hells. Now I have to walk back to the Tower.
- - - oOo - - -
Argent dropped the boys off in the Training Room before taking shelter in a red bunker-like structure, prepared to step in if things got too far out of hand. Starfire was sitting despondent in a corner, mulling over possible futures.
"Is it possible that the future truly is unalterable? Even though I returned to my proper time, Rekma is still occurring..."
"It ain't your fault, bro. By the look and sounds of it, this has been a long time brewing..." The girls looked over at the boys, seeing a caped figure squaring off against the large and smaller figures.
"Cyborg, admit it – Beast Boy has become a danger to this team! He's not following orders, he's not dispatching the villains as fast as he's able... hell, I'm even starting to question his dedication to the team!"
"Robin, leave Cyborg out of this. This is between you and me. "
"B, did you hear what he call-"
"Shut up, Cyborg. He's right, for once. This is between us."
"Don't tell him to shut up!"
"Thanks B."
"This still isn't your fight. And I'm not going to involve you. This is something that me and Bird Brain over here need to get out."
"Bird Brain? Very creative."
"Whatever. So what's the great truth, O Mighty Leader?"
"I was trying to spare your feelings, Beast Boy, but not it looks like I shouldn't have. We don't need you, at least not anymore, Beast Boy. Hells, we may never have needed you"
Even though Beast Boy had had a sneaking suspicion about what he'd say, the words still struck him to his core. "Wh- What? How can you say that!" Feeling his anger surge anew at the other's sheer gall, Beast Boy valiantly tried to defend himself. "That's bullshit! You guys need me around, I'm a Titan! Who else helps Starfire understand English? Kicks Cyborg's butt in Mega Monkeys? Provides plucky comic relief? I mean Jesus, I even saved your butts and led the remaining Titans to save you from the Brotherhood after we followed your plan to separate, against my direct advice? Me, who's spent years fighting them?"
Robin's face had darkened considerably. Even Cyborg was getting a little nervous, slowly stepping back from the duelling opponents.
"You really want to know, Beast Boy? Both Argent and Cheshire take time out of their days to spend time with Star. I'm a better Mega Monkeys player than you are, and Speedy's as good as Cyborg is. You don't even have a high score! And we both know that the Justice League showed up in Paris twenty minutes after we froze the Brain, so we would have been rescued anyways. Face it, we don't need you." Robin flicked his cape over his shoulder and began to walk away. He paused for a second before a sardonic grin passed over his face. "Oh, and Beast Boy? You're not funny."
"Rob, man... you don't mean all that."
"Oh, Cyborg, I do." Robin stopped walking away and leaned on a nearby pillar. "And here's the best part – it's all true. And I'm not even counting the worst incident, yet."
"Robin, don't say it..."
"Hey Beast Boy, how are you holding up? Getting a little angry? I know what'll cheer you right up: maybe Adonis will escape again and you two can go and screw like the monkeys you ar-"
Robin found himself pushed up against the pillar by his throat, a furious Beat Boy holding his feet a good three inches above the ground. Holy shit, Batman. Where the hell did he come from? I didn't even see him move...
"You're bringing that up now? The time that you not only showed how little you actually trust me, but then hunted me down like some sort of wild animal?"
"Who's saying you're not?" Robin managed to gasp out.
A cold silence descended onto the room. Starfire and Argent both held their hands over their mouths, shocked at what they had just heard. Cyborg's systems had momentarily stalled as he tried to process what had just been said. I mean, I know that there was bad blood between the two of them... but this is so much worse than I ever thought possible.
Beast Boy glared at Robin for a long, hard moment before tossing him aside like a ragdoll. Robin flew a full twenty feet before he hit a wall and slumped over, hold his right side. "You know what, Bird Brain?"
Robin managed to bark out a harsh "what". It was obvious that he was in a great deal of pain.
"You might be right." With a final rumbling growl, he threw his Titans communicator onto the ground and watched it smash on the ground. As soon as the final piece stopped rolling, he turned away from the group. "Don't look for me" he called right before he shifted into a rhinoceros and bulled through the window. Cyborg and the girls ran to the shattered pane, only to recoil in surprise a scaly winged form rushed straight up in front of the window. They stood in shock as the green pterosaur flew off into the sunset.
They heard the doors hiss open and saw Speedy holding Cheshire close, whispering something into her ear. Noticing the condition of the room, he looked at the assembled Titans and asked the question that was on both his and his girlfriends' minds.
"Okay, what the HELL happened here?"
- - - oOo - - -
Starfire's story was interrupted by the warning klaxon. Cyborg's voice crackled out over the tower intercom.
"Titans, Ops!"
A scarce minute or two later, Raven found herself in the Operations Room again, this time accompanied by Cyborg, Arsenal, Cheshire, Starfire, Red Star and the pregnant Jinx. Raven shot Cyborg an odd look as he waved his hand over the table, but was shocked when a glowing blue three dimensional representation of the city hovered a mere inch above the table surface.
"JARVIS, report."
"Master Stone, the Fukimishi Advanced Electronics warehouse is under attack. Their security forces are holding the line for now, but they are being pushed steadily back."
"Fukimishi... They specialize in nanotechnology. More specifically, in military stealth operation capabilities."
"Thanks Cheshire. Any idea what we're up against, JARVIS?"
"Unfortunately not, sir. They appear to be jamming me using a rotating frequency EM device. It doesn't stay on a single frequency long enough for me to compensate."
"Alright, we're heading into this one blind, then. Cheshire, Star, Raven; you're with me. We'll head straight to the warehouses and protect those components. Arsenal, take Red and go to the Administrative Offices in Downtown. See if you can get any intel on what's in there, and keep an eye on everyone there. My gut's telling me that this is an inside job. Jinx..."
"I know. They'll be safe."
"Thanks." Cyborg's hands graze over his wife's, momentarily gripping her delicate hand before releasing her and running off to the garage to his precious T-Car, Cheshire following close behind. Raven started towards the window behind Starfire, before reconsidering and teleporting to the garage.
Cyborg was momentarily surprised in seeing her there, but he shook it off as he climbed into the driver's seat. Raven made to enter the passenger seat, but the back door flew open and Cheshire dragged her into the back.
"I can tell that you're curious about what Jinx is doing, Raven."
"I'll admit that I am, Cheshire. If we're going into this blind, shouldn't we bring every available Titan?"
"That's an excellent point... except for two details."
"Oh?"
"Well, the first being obvious. Raven, Jinx is his wife, who's pregnant. Do you honestly think that Cyborg would want her facing an unknown enemy? She argues, of course, but she'll almost always give in. The second is, unfortunately, a much sadder one."
"What happened?"
Raven was surprised to hear a sniffle coming from beside her. Raven couldn't see anything because of the mask covering her face, but Raven could sense the emotions coming off of the slight Vietnamese woman. A mix of turmoil, pain, sadness and anger.
"...Cyborg?"
"About six months ago, we responded to three distress calls at the same time. Me and Jinx went to Jump City Memorial Bridge to fight Cinderblock, Arsenal went to the First National Bank to fight off Dr. Light while Cheshire went to deal with Johnny Rancid, who had been terrorising the Zoo. As we were all out fighting... Brother Blood came to the Tower and kidnapped the twins."
"No..."
"Yeah. Something about the superior physical states of the parents making them the perfect bases for his new clone army. Suffice to say, we took him down. But ever since then, we've always left at least a single Titan behind to defend the Tower, just in case."
A moment more was spent in silence as Cyborg drew closer to their destination. A heartbeat later, Starfire flew across their field of vision and collided with a nearby warehouse, crumbling the wall and falling inside. As Raven rushed to her side, she could hear Cyborg's voice calling out behind her.
"Titans, move!"
Raven crouched near the downed princess and concentrated on the healing light emanating from her hands. "Starfire! Can you hear me?"
"Friend Raven... I believe that I should not have tried to defeat Chargestone by myself."
"Chargestone?"
Starfire weakly raised her arm and pointed towards the direction that she'd originated. Raven swung her face around and the sight that met her eyes shocked even her. "Is that Cinderblock's... progeny?"
The figure must have been nearly twelve feet tall. It seemed to be made of stone, with bright, nearly blue-white markings etched onto its surface. Sizzling bolts of lightning jumped between the traceries as it flexed its arms. As it turned, Raven could see that where its eyes should be, there were instead twin pools of the same blue-white light. It opened its mouth to issue a roar of challenge at her, and she was surprised to see a build-up of light in its open mouth.
"Raven! Move!" Cyborg's voice blew through her interest and she grabbed Starfire and teleported them back to behind the T-Car. Peeking out from behind the vehicle, she was shocked to see a massive blast of lightning burst from the construct's mouth and blow a smoking crater into the space that she had previously occupied, along with Starfire.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Raven muttered under her breath as she flew over to Cyborg's side.
"Cheshire! You get his attention; I'll blast him from here!" Cyborg yelled an order at the younger woman, before she gave him a single nod. Chargestone took a swing at the clever cat before she slipped beneath his arm and gave a short laugh as he got his hand stuck in a wall. Running up the wall for a handful of steps, she leapt from the wall onto his arm. Dropping her claws into her hands, she ran up his arm, claws trailing sparks as they scraped along its stone-like hide. With a quick flip, she landed on his shoulders, head between her legs, and tried to slash at its eyes. The monolithic villain raised his arms, trying to swat her away, but the nimble assassin proved to be far too agile. She cocked her head for a second, and leapt onto the room of a nearby building.
A second later, a beam of blue shattered the tense air as it ploughed into Chargestone, literally lifting it off its feet and sending it crashing through the wall of a nearby warehouse.
"Titans! Let's go!" Cyborg cried as he charged straight into the warehouse, jumping over the scattered blocks of cement and drywall. Cheshire beckoned to her as she nimbly leapt from piece to piece, never hesitating even when a piece collapsed beneath her. Raven gathered her cloak and flew in behind them, not wanting to be caught unawares if it breathed another fork of lightning.
She arrived on the scene to see Cyborg pummelling it with his fists, not even bothering with his sonic cannon. Tiny arcs of sparks connected the two fighters as Cyborg's systems channelled the extra power into his drive systems, giving his punches more power. Cheshire ran distraction, cutting support beams overhead to fall on top of it. Raven decided that she had had enough of sitting docile.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" With a surge of dark energy, a host of tentacles appeared from Chargestone's shadow and completely trapped it. "If you want to finish it, Cyborg, now would be the time. I can't exactly hold it forever..."
With a nod, Cyborg shifted his hand into a modified sonic cannon. With a slight jerk of his arm, a small module shot from the cannon and embedded itself in the ground. A long cable ran from it back into Cyborg's body, and Cyborg slammed the construct with all his strength with the other. Chargestone teetered on its feet for a second before it fell flat on its back. Raven recited her mantra, adjusting the tentacles to hold it in its new position firmly while Cyborg jumped onto its chest. Cyborg's other hand seemed to open slightly, with a glowing blue circle in the middle of his palm. Chargestone seemed to grow frantic at the sight of it, struggling harder against its bonds.
Allowing a smirk to grow on his face, Cyborg crouched on one knee on the heaving stone. "Lights out, Chargestone." With that, he slammed his palm down into the middle of its chest. An almost unholy scream wrenched its way free of the golem's throat as the light pouring from its eyes, mouth and traceries tripled instantaneously. Blue tongues of electricity raced their way up Cyborg's arm, past the grimace on his face and travelled down his cabled arm, grounding itself in the earth. After a few heartbeats, the glow on both combatants faded until only the barest hint of blue could be seen along its body.
Cyborg lifted his smoking hand as he retracted the grounding cable and looked down at the defeated villain. With a smirk on his face, he hefted his hand, converting it to a sonic cannon before restoring it to its default hand configuration.
"Booyah."