AUTHOR'S NOTES: These are complicated times indeed. This chapter is fucking short, and nothing happens whatsoever other than some shenanigans.

I have graduated from high school, the prom has finished, and now University is rearing its ugly head(going for that CIS Major). I apologize for not updating more frequently. I shall be more free to do so when summer hits.

Also, on a sadder note, my dog Vader has passed away. He used to practically inhale his food whenever he liked something, and this caused his stomach to get really twisted and messed up in his older age. It has been confirmed that his passing was quick and he did not suffer. This chapter is dedicated to the little guy. Love you, you little furball.

Leave a review please, otherwise I will eat your liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

Cheers.

~HolyMaryMotherofGawd

Chapter 14-Metropolis

The mansion was about 15,000 square feet, which essentially means it was absolutely massive. There was an abundance of rooms, bathrooms, and two kitchens. It was the kind of house everybody dreamed of.

It was also abandoned. There was not a soul in the house. There was barely a noise in this house for a span of nearly five years.

That's when the floor in the middle of the entrance hall opened, and from within came a platform carrying the Titans, Titans East, and the Honorary Titans. They all stepped out and began to examine their surroundings.

"Well." Raven said flatly, looking up at the sparkling chandelier. "This is nice."

"Forget nice." Machina stated, standing beside the demoness. "This house is drop dead sexy."

Cyborg stared down at the floor, which was now back in one piece after opening up for them. "I'm still not over the fact that we came in through the floor."

Robin smirked at his robotic friend's disbelief. "What do you expect from a house built by the man who has the Batcave?"

Cyborg maintained a blank stare at his leader and friend. "So you're saying that Batman built this place?"

"Yep. He's made safehouses for the Titans as soon as he was aware of our formation."

"And now I'm slightly afraid. Thanks Robin." Cyborg said as he walked off to check out the other parts of the house, mumbling something about hidden cameras.

After everybody was satisfied after scoping the area out, Robin addressed the group of teenagers.

"Alright, there are a total of six rooms and 14 of you, so that means that there has to be atleast two to every room, and four of you have to share one."

Starfire raised her hand.

"Yes, Starfire?"

"May the girls and I do the sharing of the room?" Starfire exclaimed, waving her hand excitedly.

Robin shrugged. "If you want."

"Glorious! I, Raven, Jinx, and Bumblebee can do the room-sharing, and we can indulge in many hours of the 'girl-talk'!" Starfire levitated in pure excitement.

Raven audibly groaned.

"Hey!" Terra piped up. "What about me?"

Starfire narrowed her eyes at the blonde geomancer. "You can stay with Beast Boy."

"On a more serious note." Robin continued. "We will have to stay here for an undisclosed period of time. As you probably know by now, Machina is being hunted by this entity known as The Diale-"

Silkie, Starfire's pet worm-thing, decided to let out a loud gurgle at this very moment, effectively ruining the tension set in the room. Robin cleared his throat and continued.

"Machina is being hunted by an entity known as The Dialect, who is the creator of these Mechinoderm creatures." Robin's eyes narrowed. "That is why at least one person must be with Machina at all times. I don't care who it is, take shifts if you have to, as long as somebody is there with him." Robin paused. "Any volunteers?"

Raven stepped forward. "I'll do it."

Terra scoffed from the other side of the room. "Of course."

"Alright, so it seems as if this has been settled. I suppose now we should-"

"Hit the town? Way ahead of you, boss!" Beast Boy yelled, drawing the attention to him. "Who's coming with me?"

The entire crowd of superpowered teens expressed their agreement, and soon Robin was the only one left standing in the room.

"Good talk, team."

Cyborg, Machina, and Raven were casually traversing the streets of Metropolis. They received a few stares, being superheroes and all, yet the number of looks they got were greatly smaller than Jump City. This was Superman's city, after all.

Machina was dressed in a plain white t-shirt and jeans. Cyborg couldn't actually put on clothes, and Raven didn't like to go anywhere without her cloak. Machina was the only relatively normal looking guy.

Well, as normal as you can get when you have a metallica spine sticking out of your neck.

"Okay." Cyborg started, a look of extreme excitement on his features. "First thing I'm gonna do is get some of those Metropolis style ribs down at Greg's! It's been forever since I've had those!" Cyborg's tongue lolled out of his mouth, leaving a dripping trail of saliva down the sidewalk.

"Then we should check out the amusement park they've got here." Machina said in a much more calm tone, looking at a tourist map of the city. "It looks absolutely nuts!"

The two boys were so busy looking at maps and daydreaming of ribs that they walked right into Raven, who had stepped out in front of them and was giving them both a glare.

"Machina's being hunted and you're acting like a couple of tourists!" Raven raised her voice considerably. "This is the last thing we should be worrying about. The Dialect can find Machina almost instantly with their telepathic link. We should be hiding, setting up defences! Something that doesn't involve ribs or roller coasters!"

"Rae-" Machina stepped forward.

"RaVEN!" Machina would swear on his life that he heard a snarl.

"Rae." A vein bulged on the purple haired girl's forehead. "Chill out, alright? Something tells me The Dialect can't pinpoint my location via the link we share through our helmet." He smiled. "I think he can just talk to me and stuff."

"Then how did he find you the first time?" Cyborg asked, genuinely curious.

"I think that he knew that somebody had taken the helmet and the other stuff." Machina continued, gesturing to the metallic spine on his neck. "He didn't actually know where I was. He probably spent the year I had this thing looking for me."

"That" Raven blinked. "actually makes sense."

"Doesn't it?" Machina suddenly sprouted a shit-eating grin. "There. Now that that's out of the way, LET'S GO EAT SOME RIBS YO!"

Cyborg leapt into the air. "AW YEAH! BOOYAH!"

They then ran off instantly, leaving Raven enveloped in a cloud of dust. She coughed twice.

"Boys." She said, walking in the direction she saw them run off to.

There was rib sauce everywhere.

Everywhere.

And Raven was furious.

Yet every time she tried to talk about Machina and Cyborg's horrific mutilation of rib-kind, her words would go unyielded.

And even more rib sauce would splatter her face violently.

Raven had what appeared to be gallons of rib sauce on her face, and the loud chewing noises that came from the boys were really starting to piss her off.

Then, it ended.

There was no noise.

Finally. Peace and tranquility. Raven closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

Then they started talking again.

"Oh, MAN! That was delicious!" Cyborg said, loudly slapping his metal stomach.

"Amazing!" Machina replied, raising his hands in the air.

"Meat-tastic!"

"Ribalicious!"

Raven stepped in with her monotone. "Okay. It was good. We get it. Can we go, now?"

"Yeah, I guess we can. We gotta wait for the bill though." Cyborg said, having calmed down.

"Oh joy." Raven rolled her eyes.

Machina inspected his hands. "Man those ribs were messy. I'm actually proud of myself that I didn't manage to get any sauce on my shirt."

Machina then instinctively rubbed his hands on his white t-shirt.

Machina looked down.

"Shit."