Cyborg squinted at the screen as he tried to make out the figures, numbers, whatever had just come up on the search engine, that blurred in front of him.
"Vic" Robin's bare hand rested on his shoulder "Leave it - for now"
Cyborg looked up from where he was sitting, well, slouching, over the main room computer. His leader was just over the recovery process, but still had a tired demeanour as he stood watching him concernedly.
The team were all out of uniform, and dotted around the living room - Starfire lay on the couch in her pink fluffy pyjamas (including matching slippers - she looked like a very attractive pink yeti) clutching a cushion and smiling to herself at a classic episode of 'Friends', that everyone from planet earth had seen a million times - for a Tamaranian, it was brand new comedy. Raven floated over one of the raised platforms near the windows, dressed in a long blue skirt with delicate silver flats, her black hoodie yanked over her face. Cyborg knew that B was unconscious somewhere - maybe in cat form on the top shelf of a bookcase in a ball, or in a wardrobe, or as a Great Dane sprawled across a bed. As if the headache from the morning hadn't thrown him out of sorts enough, the resulting headache that everyone got from the flash bomb had floored him - Cyborg had found the strongest painkillers he could, gave him two, and told him to just sleep it off for the day.
And what a headache it was.
Think of the most horrific migraine you've ever had - dark spots in the corners of your eyes, sharp throbbing pains at your temples, a band of tension across your forehead, dizziness, chills, weakness - then multiply it by twenty - that was what fucked the entire team up. The bright flash of light seemed to have hit the back of their brains, they all agreed on that sensation. They all suddenly blacked out straight after, that was clear to see. The aftermath was horrific - everyone could feel that. But worst of all, and what bugged Cyborg the most, was that everyone was still too sensitive to bright light after it to get stuck into some computer work to figure out what exactly that little shit had used. Well, except Adam - but the constant drilling sensation in Cyborg's head made it torture for him to talk through the various stages of the battle in any scientific detail, and it just frustrated him to a point where he forced himself to grit his teeth and take on the glare of the screen.
"Cyborg" he frowned as Robin resorted to using his authoritative 'don't push this' tone of voice. He sighed and let his hand drop from the keyboard.
"I just don't know what that was" He said dejectedly, more to himself than Robin.
"No one does" Robin's hand left the shoulder. "But there's no point pushing yourself to find out right now, you're only making the effects worse, and it won't benefit any of the team if you don't recover properly to find out"
Cyborg's shoulders sagged.
"Yeah, you're right" He pulled himself up from the swivel chair and grimaced at the resulting throb at the back of his head "Man, when I've worked this off, I am gonna find that fucker!"
Robin smirked, proud that Cyborg could always keep up his aggressive mindset - even when he was injured.
Starfire's big eyes swivelled up at Robin and Cyborg and she patted the couch for them to join. Robin looked at Cyborg and nodded towards the couch. The tank of a Titan smiled and shrugged -
"I'd love to, but I gotta go and reboot ma system, see if it helps"
Robin nodded understandingly, and watched Cyborg drag his feet out through the sliding doors, then he fell into the couch beside Starfire and confidently draped his arm around her. She buried her pink head of long hair under his arm and closed her eyes. He began absent-mindedly playing with strands as he took the remote and began flicking.
"Robin?" Her big bright pupils blinked up at him.
"Yeah?" He rested his chin on top of her pink head as he looked at her.
"What was that strange flash?" She broke the gaze, lowered her eyes and began picking at her pyjama bottoms. Before Robin could answer, she continued -
"I just feel that it was strange…not good…not safe" his heart broke at her little worried voice, and he cupped her face to bring it up to his, she twisted herself around to face him. Her sad expression made his heart dissolve altogether.
"I'm not sure" He began, then kicked himself mentally for being a shitty consoler "I - I don't know, but we are going tofind out what that was Star, don't worry - it might have just been a very high-dosage flash bomb that he had been developing - or they" He broke off into thought as Starfire eyed him, confused.
"They?" she sat up properly.
"Hmmm…" Robin scratched his chin as he looked past Star and into the distance. She tried to not show her exasperation at his musings.
"You think that he is working with someone?" she blocked his stare. He blinked, suddenly coming back to reality.
"Um, yes - it seems that…" He frowned again and got up from the couch. Starfire flopped back into her seat and sighed - she had lost him. He began strolling towards the doors, still scratching his chin, one hand behind his back.
"I have to…" he barely glanced back at her as he continued to meditate and walk away.
"Tell Cyborg…yes, go ahead" the Tameranian sarcastically growled as she brought her knees up to her chest and turned back to the TV just in time to see Ross getting attacked by the spray tan machine.
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"Azarath….metrion….zinthos…"
Breathe, let the air come into your lungs, healing.
"Azarath…metrion….zinthos…"
The air is good, it is refreshing, powerful, healing.
"Azarath…metrion…."
"I'm bored!"
Raven opened her eyes - and glared at Rude Raven, who stood indignant in front of her in her orange robe, hands on hips.
"Can we do something else besides 'azarath, metrion, mentos?'" she flapped her arms and sighed.
Raven rolled her eyes at the emoticlone -
"I'm done now - I just had to use that to get here"
"Oh, well whoop-dee-fucking-doo, now lets go walkies or something - I wanna run at the birds again!"
Raven's eyes narrowed as she slowly floated to the ground to become face to face with the emoticlone.
"Why can't you EVER take our injury healing seriously?" she snarled, bringing her face right up to Rude Raven's, who sneered delightedly.
"Pfft – you think I give a shit in here?" She threw her arms up and spun around, barely missing Raven. Raven yanked her hood further over her face, turned sharply, and began walking towards the long winding path that would lead to her healing tree.
"You're not helping me heal at all" she muttered "Stay away from me until I get this sorted."
"Only if you pull that briar out of your ass, bro!" Rude Raven shrieked as her voice faded into the distance.
Raven huffed and stomped as she descended into an eerie forest, all the leaves and trees a dark purple, but motionless with no wind. A black bird with three burning red eyes along it's temple squawked at her. She threw it back into the shrubbery with a swift smack of the back of her hand.
"Nope. Not now."
"Aaaaaw – wook at de poor birdie!" a voice crooned behind her.
"No. Not now." Raven rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth as a Girly Raven, in her baby-pink robe, could be heard anxiously scooping up the bird, who in return screeched and flapped until it was released again.
"That was like, suuper mean Rae-babe!" she caught up to her and wiped her hands off her robe. "Like, even though he was totally gross, it's still, like, a bird? Ya know?"
"Fuck. Off."
"Babes!" Girly Raven gasped dramatically and her eyes widened "Are we angry today? Cus, believe me, I saw angry us today and she is TOTES on the rampage, ya know?"
"No."
"Oh, for real, like shouting and blowing up things and –"
"NO – I AM NOT TALKING TO YOU RIGHT NOW!"
"Oooh, you're angry!" Girly Raven swung in front of her and took her hands "What happened babes? Was it the flashy bomb thing?"
Raven released herself as gently as she could without dislocating a shoulder, and sighed.
"Yes. Now move."
"Okay!" Girly Raven settled behind her again "Let's talk about something else reaaal quick" she linked arms with her "Gar's. Abs. – I mean, what the fuck? Where did they come from! And he's clearly been moisturizing too, did you notice how soft his arm was –"
"NO! I DID NOT NOTICE! GOD!" Raven blew up into her demon form, black swirls of smoke protruded slowly around Girly Raven. She threw her hands up in surrender as it surrounded her shoulders.
"Alright, gurl, jeeez!"
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"Cy."
Beastboy's head lolled lazily around the doorway of the lab.
"Cyyyyyy…"
"Mmmm?"
"Take-out?"
"Mmmm"
"KFC?"
"Meh."
"Italian?"
"….and…Pizza Hut."
"Nice. K, I'll call em."
The scruffy green head disappeared. Silence. Cyborg slowly lifted his head from the metal table.
"B?"
Silence.
"Yeah?" his head popped around the doorway again.
"Any side-effects yet?"
"Nah, still head-achey. You?"
"Same."
"Dude." Beastboy whined and leaned against the wall. "The fuck was that anyway?" Cy borg sat up on the table, scratching his head.
"I really don't know, but I don't like the sounds of it."
"Yup." Gar frowned and stared back down the hallway. "Will I have a flick through the Doom books and see if there's anything?"
"Yeah, can't hurt. Doubt they've dealt with that kind of thing before though."
"Yeah…" he fluffed up his hair with his hand. "I'll see what's there, I'm running a few checks for that machine gun issue anyway."
"Oh, the one they used in that bank office?" Cybrog unplugged the wires from his shoulders.
"Yup."
"So it was stolen Doom Patrol property?"
"Yeah. They found a fragment after the explosion with the logo etched into it. We think it's an oldie villain with updated tech to be able to break in like that."
"Huh, shit." Cyborg disconnected the last wire "You'd think they'd have that place better guarded after they retired, right?"
"It's crazy!" Beastboy smirked and pushed himself off the wall "K, I'll order some food."
"Thanks man."
"No prob bro."
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Beastboy rounded the corner as his communicator bleeped.
"Yello?" he flipped the cover up as he slinked along the hallway toward the main room.
"B, hey! Listen, we just got a weird ass bomb attack in the city like, an hour ago."
"Hotspot? Hold on a sec, cus we got that this morning."
"Aw man - Gizmo?"
"Yeaah!" Beastboy's eyebrows shot up as he tapped on Robin's door. "Robin, c'mere, we got another bomb attack!"
One swoosh of the electric door opening and the communicator was snatched out of his hand.
"Hotspot, we need details – Cyborg! Get the computer ready!" Robin barked as he ran to the main room.
Beastboy looked at his empty hand where the communicator had been as Cyborg came up behind him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"I don't wanna do computer work" Cyborg announced, deadpan.
"I guess I should make that Pizza Hut, the local Italian AND Starbucks?"
Cyborg's head drooped.
"Double espresso."
The two whined in sync and they dragged themselves to the main room after the black cape.
