Ahaha! I have finally updated! My Icicle story will update soon as well, and if you wish to read my original work, please check out my author page to find my homepage, because this stupid thing won't let me put the address of my journal on! And now...
Raven grumbled as Robin and Starfire struck up a conversation. They had been walking in silence for a few minutes, and Raven had preferred it that way. That girl was far too happy and naïve. She hated it. Every inch of Starfire's body just screamed 'cheerful!' She listened intently to Robin and gave eager responses to whatever he had said just moments before. So aggravating! Why couldn't the girl be less happy and more normal?
The conversation changed and Raven found herself listening. It was now about food, and what to trust. He said that fast food restaurants, for example, had horrible food. He hated them with a passion. Pizza, on the other hand, had an entire food group to itself. Most restaurants were all right, as long as they were sit down. As he prepared to move on to a different subject, Starfire interjected a question.
"What is 'pizza'? I can see the word in the eye of my mind, but I cannot see the object itself. It is an edible delight, yes?" Robin, not for the first time, was startled at the odd way that she phrased things.
"Yeah, close enough. Pizza is a round, flat bread covered with tomato sauce and various toppings. Want to go get some?" He asked the two girls. Starfire nodded, eager. Raven paused for a moment, but then followed the younger girl's example. Robin smiled broadly. "Right then. I know just the place!" With that, he strode off, exuberant for some reason. Raven wondered what was so wonderful about this particular pizza parlor when they arrived at it. It was virtually non-existent, and Raven quirked an eyebrow at it. It tried very hard to blend in with its surroundings, and it almost succeeded. There was a door in the wall and that was the only indication that a building was actually there. Robin practically wrenched the door handle off in his haste to get inside. The door opened.
Robin's face fell.
Raven peered over his shoulder and was slightly surprised to see that the room was completely bare of any people and the smell of baking pizza. The place was completely deserted. She entered and looked around; she like it how it was. Nothing could distract her here.
Two dozen robots came from nowhere, and she regretted thinking that. They were curious things, half black and half orange. She randomly wondered if it was October. She had no more time to think as they attacked without warning. They swarmed to capture Raven and her companions, but Robin had disabled three without seeming to think about it. She held back at first, but joined the boy in pulverizing the things as one launched itself at her. Starfire hung by the door, her eyes flicking back and forth between Robin and the robots he combated. Raven thought she was afraid, and snorted quietly to herself. Foolish girl.
Her opinion of her changed abruptly as the alien charged five of the robots with a yell and knocked them down like nine pins. She whipped around and smashed in the face of one sneaking up behind her. It fell with a crackle of electricity. The biggest surprise came when Starfire flew into the air and launched a barrage of what looked like green lights from her hands that blew up the robots upon contact. A cloud of dust arose as one of them was rammed up into the wall by the slender girl. When it had cleared, she stood amid a wreckage of broken robots, smashed like porcelain dolls. Robin knocked the head of the last one clear across the room and stared, stunned, at the alien girl who had defeated more than half of the electric machines.
He got over his shock and said to the girls, "That was too easy." Then he ran over to one of the robots whose face had not been destroyed. He took off the mask and looked grimly at a video screen. It flickered on to show a man with the same mask as the robots, but with an eye showing on the orange side. The black was in shadow. Before the figure could speak, Robin gave an angry question.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"I am Slade. Robin, remember this- do not underestimate me." The screen shut off. Robin swore colorfully and kicked the side of the robot. He glared at it, then whirled around and stomped out of the pizzeria. Starfire followed instantly, but, once again, Raven hesitated to go with them. How could she know whether to trust them or not? How could she know if they would leave her behind? She didn't like this feeling of indecision, so she, too, swore and followed the two of them out into the chilly night.
They were silent while walking the streets until Raven spoke for the first time.
"Where are we going?" This was greeted with a smile from Robin.
"To another pizza place. Where else?" She could find no suitable response. He struck up another topic and aimed it at her.
"Why are you so secretive, wearing that hood and hiding your face?"
She responded with another question. "Why do you wear a mask?" It was unexpected, and he blinked.
"To hide my identity."
"Does that answer your question?" she asked, before thinking of another topic. This was the most that she had spoken in years, other than her first argument with Robin. "Weren't you with Batman a while back? Why did you split?" he was once again startled.
"Well, I couldn't stand being a sidekick, and I wasn't very good at the hero thing. My solution?" and here he smiled, "I ran away. Simple as that. I wanted to see what the other side did for a change. He didn't approve, of course, but I changed cities. He couldn't do a thing to stop me." He grinned. "I'm a solitary bird."
She nodded and smiled at the pun, glad that he couldn't see it, for her hood concealed her face. They continued to walk along the dark street. Raven thought about the fact that so much could happen in one night.
Silence swathed the night once again, and Raven continued to think on how the night was going. She was concentrating so hard on the inside that Robin had to say, "We're here" three times before she noticed.
They stood before a small pizza place, and through the floor-to-ceiling windows they could see a fight going on between a short kid with major tech and a green, shapeshifting boy while a huge man waited right next to them. Nearby, a half man and half machine stood talking to a pink haired girl.
The three teens entered, and all inside stopped what they were doing to turn and look.
