The sound of a familiar hum softly spread into the darkness as Raven's black hemisphere rose from the roof of an abandoned warehouse. It sublimated away, leaving two Titans behind. They quickly crouched and hid. Gar frowned as he looked over the street at Slade's lair.
"A dog food distributor? Do you know what they put in that stuff?" He groaned.
"Meat, I believe." She deadpanned as she looked through her binoculars.
"Yeah, meat."
"Dogs are carnivores. Or do you expect them to eat tofu?"
"They could get the protein for it from soy beans. Of course, they would all be GMO beans. It's criminal, Rave."
"Immoral? Perhaps, bu it isn't illegal. We don't make the laws, Gar, we enforce them."
He crossed his arms and frowned. "Figures Slade would have a dog food business as a cover for his real operations … so how are we gonna get in there? I'm sure that Slade has sensors that would detect one of your teleportations. … though I could sneak in as a bug."
"Too risky … you aren't going in there alone." She deadpanned.
"Then how do we get in? Do we ring the doorbell and ask them if they want to buy Teen Titans cookies?"
"Teen Titans Cookies?"
"You know, like the Girl Scouts."
"The Girl Scouts sell cookies?"
"You need to get out more … hey, look over there! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
A large truck with the logo of the "Healthy Puppy Dog Food" company on its side was coming down the street.
Without responding Raven raised her arms and the teleported aboard the truck. It was empty and they found a loose tarp and hid under it. The truck backed into the warehouse and came to a halt. A door in the truck's cab opened and slammed shut, followed by the sound of footsteps.
"Hey! Where's my load? I have a schedule to keep." An angry voice shouted.
"They had some trouble on the line, it won't be ready to ship for another hour."
"Well, that's just freaking great. What am I supposed to do in the meantime? I don't get paid for waiting."
"Chill out,man. You can wait for the roach coach with us. It'll be here any minute."
"Is it any good?"
"It's OK, I've seen worse. Try the carnitas burrito."
The driver continued to grumble about the tardiness of his cargo, but acquiesced and headed outside with the loading dock workers to wait for the late night lunch truck. Raven held her fingertips to her temples and closed her eyes.
"The loading dock is empty." She softly announced.
They threw off the tarp and cautiously exited the truck's cargo hold. They spotted a nearby closet and quickly hurried into it, leaving the door partially open.
"I'm gonna take a quick look." The changeling whispered.
"A very quick one … be careful."
He nodded before morphing into a small fly, and quickly flew away. She watched him until he vanished around a corner. He was gone for what felt like an eternity and the sorceress was beginning to feel anxious when he returned and resumed his default human form.
"I said 'quick', I was about to go look for you." She said as she glared at him.
"Sorry, I just wanted to check everything out."
Her expression relaxed. "So?"
"It's a pretty ordinary place. I found the canning line, something's broken as it was stopped, like the loading dock guy said. But I also found a large service elevator tucked away in a corner. There isn't a second floor here or any stairs, so I'm guessing the elevator goes down."
"Into Slade's lair." She added.
"Exactly."
"Where is it?"
"It's at the far end of the building, and there're workers everywhere. There's no way we could get to it without being seen. But I didn't see any cameras … I have an idea."
Before Raven could ask he became a fly and zoomed away.
"Would it kill him to tell me what he's going to do?" She growled to herself between clenched teeth. Within seconds she knew.
"There's a skunk in here!"
"Where, I don't see one … good Gotham I can smell it … my eyes are watering."
"Someone find it and catch it!"
"Find it yourself, I'm outta here. Someone call animal control!"
Even in the closet Raven could smell the stench. "Great, I'm gonna have to shower ten times to get this off me."
Soon the building was empty and Raven dashed out of the closet. Gar was back in his human form, waiting for her.
"Is this the best thing you could think of?" She snarled. "Have you forgotten the time when a real skunk sprayed me?"
He suppressed a chuckle, remembering well how angry she was with him when he burst out laughing after she was sprayed by a skunk when they were hiding in the bushes during another stakeout.
"Sorry, mama; but it worked."
They boarded the elevator, which had several buttons.
"Eenie, meenie miney moe." He chanted before pressing the button for the bottom level.
Raven sniffed her cape and grimaced. "Nice going, this cape is brand new. I'll never get the stench out of it."
The doors opened and they were greeted by the sound of gears and machinery. Again, Raven used her senses to scan the level.
"There's no one here." She whispered.
They egressed and explored the level as stealthily as they could, careful to not touch anything or make a sound. They both snapped pictures of what was clearly a Sladebot assembly line, which appeared to be completely automated. At the end of the line fully functional droids would stand up and walk to the exit, which had a staircase that led up to the next level.
The Sladebots appeared to ignore their presence, so they followed a freshly built one up the stairs. The next level was where the parts were kept. More pictures were taken.
"Have you seen any Xenothium?" She asked.
He shook his head. "Nope."
"Neither have I, let's go to the next floor."
On the next floor they saw thousands of assembled Sladebots. The were hunched down, with their arms wrapped around their legs, loosely forming a cube. As they arrived the Sladebots hunched down and another droid, this one designed for warehouse work, would pick them up and store them on shelves that went all the way up to the high ceiling. Again, the robots seemed to take no notice of them. As they walked around, they make another discovery. There were several deactivated droids that looked like Slade. This of course was nothing new to them. Slade had been using decoys for years. What did surprise them were the other replica droids they saw: The Mayor, Bruce Wayne, Batman, Catwoman, The Joker, Penguin, Two Face, and others.
"What is Slade up to?" The changeling asked as they snapped more pictures.
"Nothing good." She replied. There was still no sign of the Xenothium. They were beginning to wonder if Slade had any at all. Nearby, another set of stairs beckoned them.
The next level was mostly empty, with just a few crates. Raven used her powers to open them, but they only contained more robot parts.
"Well, I guess that's it. Time to get out of here." She whispered to him. There were no more stairs, so they headed for the elevator. As they approached it a thick steel panel slid and blocked the lift's doors.
"We've been spotted!" She shouted as she adopted a fighting stance, with black balls of her Eldritch energy forming around her fists. A platoon of Sladebots came marching up the stairs, with their built in lasers ready to fire.
Raven and Beast Boy, who morphed into a tiger, didn't wait and began to engage the droids. The initial part of the battle, while fierce, was successful for the Chromatically Challenged Couple. Raven smashed droid after with her powers, while her spouse morphed into different creatures, each of which wreaked havoc on the seemingly never ending supply of Sladebots that kept marching up the stairs.
Raven tried to teleport them out, but as they expected there was a powerful dampening field that kept her from doing that. Slade knew them all to well. The battle continued and the floor was strewn with the ruin and wreckage of the destroyed robots. She was beginning to feel the fatigue sinking in and remembered that there were many more robots still below.
Exhaustion was beginning to set in for them when suddenly no more robots came up the stairs.
"Did we win?" The changeling, who was panting, asked.
"That can't be it. There are more Sladbots down there. We can't drop our guard now."
They both focused, using the fatigue suppression techniques that Robin taught them to recover. They both breathed slow and deeply, while focusing on the inevitable next wave of robots. They were separated by about 20 meters when suddenly gas was spewed into the room.
Raven instinctively raised a bubble around herself, but was too weak to extend it as far as her husband. As the gas thickened she could no longer see him. She then heard a sound that made her blood curdle. Beast Boy began to laugh, slowly at first then uncontrollably.
"Gar!" She shouted out to him, but he continued to laugh. Then the room fell silent.
The gas was still thick and she couldn't see anything beyond her bubble.
"Gar! Answer me!"
Raven then heard another laugh. She immediately recognized it. She had heard it on recordings before, but hearing it in person made her blood freeze.
The Joker continued his maniacal laughter. The gas began to clear and Raven was able to see two Sladebots carrying her unconscious husband into the elevator, which was now unblocked. The Joker, who appeared to be immune to the noxious fumes, tipped his hat to Raven before entering the elevator. Raven felt panic wash over her. If she dropped her shield there was still enough Joker gas to knock her out.
"If you harm him, you'll regret ever being born, clown!"
The Joker blew Raven a kiss, then said. "Don't worry, my little witch, Harley and I will take good care of him!" He resumed laughing as the elevator doors closed.
It wasn't safe for Raven to drop her bubble for five more minutes. She rode the elevator to the main level. All of the dog food production workers were gone, they probably were all henchmen, part of a carefully crafted deception. She clenched her fists as she fought back the tears, realizing that it had been a trap, and they fell for it. And to make matters even worse, Slade was now working with the Joker, and who knew who else.
She reached out with her senses, and was able to feel him. He was already over a mile away. She ran outside and found a large Jack in the Box waiting for her. It began to crank itself and she raised her shield again and not a moment too soon, as the box exploded.
She dropped her shield and her eyes had now split into two crimson pairs.
"You're a dead man."
She took to the sky, flying as fast as she could, following the changeling's psychic trail before it faded away. She then reached for her communicator and dialed up Nightwing. His masked face appeared on the screen.
"Raven, what's wrong? Is Beast Boy OK?"
"The Joker has him. I'm on my way to rescue him."
Dick's face paled when he heard the news.
"Raven, whatever you do, don't engage him on your own. Wait for us."
"I'll activate a transponder when I get there, but I'm not waiting. I'm not giving that monster a chance to hurt Gar."
"Raven, it's another trap. Wait for us. It's too dangerous to face him on your own."
She shut off her communicator and increased her speed. When she was done with The Joker, he wouldn't be laughing, not any more.
-(-)-
I think we were overdue for a cliffhanger.
Sorry for the delay in this update. I've been away on vacation and before that I was working on my BBRae week entries (first time for me). I promise not to keep you waiting this long again.
