5.

Happy Harbor Sewers.

October 02, 20:28 UTC

Loud, concentrated explosions filled the sewer tunnel Garfield and Raven were in. Blue energy impacted on the concrete, shattering the brick and mortar like it were nothing as the cyborg stomped after the two teens. Even though the tunnel was a tight squeeze for him, the machine was still fast as he kept up with them. With their pursuer not letting them out of his sights, Garfield morphed into a cheetah as raven flew just ahead of him to lead the green shifter to the junction.

"If you can understand me, there will be three tunnels coming up. All lead to the junction so pick one and stay on the main path." Banking to the left quickly, Raven managed to avoid taking a direct hit from the cyborg's arm cannon. A bright blue light filled the tunnel from the energy striking the wall.

Letting out a growl, the green cheetah took the tunnel on the left as Raven continued down the middle. Coming to where the two split up, the cyborg came to a stop and popped open a compartment where his belt would be if he had one. He took out a black, crescent shaped device about the size of his hand, and pressed a red button on top. It flipped open, taking the shape of a sharpened edge saucer as he flung it down the tunnel Raven chose. He then formed his arm cannon again and resumed his chase after Garfield.

Thinking he had lost the robotic pursuer, Garfield chanced a look back before returning to his humanoid shape, although he still looked like a normal teen to everyone else. He needed to catch his breath as running through calf-high water was tiring even in animal form. Cracking one of his last remaining glow sticks, he searched through the pouches of his belt for anything of use but found nothing.

"Yeah, if I were Robin I would have something to fight a cyborg with a B.F.G." Garfield muttered. "Since when did the bad guys get a weapon from DOOM?"

Slinging the belt over a shoulder, the shape shifter leaned against a wall as his breathing calmed. "M'gann, please hear me!" he thought. "I need your help! I don't know how to fight a terminator!"

Soft thuds sounded around the tunnel, drawing Garfield's attention down the way he came. Twin dots of white bounced quickly towards him, slowly growing larger until a light shone on him. Plates illuminated as a red light came into view with the water rippling from the source of the pursuing cyborg.

"Oh man, here we go again." Tossing the belt in the air, Garfield morphed into a pelican and caught the leather utility carrier in his mouth as he took off flying down the tunnel.

Over in the second passageway, Raven was flying as fast as she could. Her purple cloak had her resembling a streamlined bird with the way it fluttered about. With the shape of her hood ending in a point, she did indeed resemble the bird she was named after. Her eyes flashed white, giving her the ability to see in the dark since the glowsticks faded out a few minutes ago. Being down this way before, she knew exactly how far she was from the junction and a way out of the sewers. If the half man-half robot followed her, she would have time and room enough to use her powers once there. As it was, the tunnel wasn't large enough to tap into her abilities and defend herself, annoying her to no end as she hated running from a confrontation. It just wasn't in her nature to do so.

Mentally keeping track of the distance yet to cover, the hooded Goth girl's attention was drawn to a swirling, high pitched whirl. Chancing a glance behind her, she saw a rotating disk-like object rapidly make its way to her. Turning over but still continuing on her course, she brought a hand up and formed an aura of black energy as the object sped up. She reached out and summoned the brick to intercept the disc. Several of the clay blocks shot from the walls, each surrounded by a black aura, as they attempted to strike down the pursuing object. None hit it as the thing maneuvered around them like a miniature jet. It then separated in two with each piece moving faster as they made a beeline for her and forcing her to turn back around to concentrate on out flying it.

"Just fifty more yards till the junction," she muttered. "Then I'll show not to mess with me."

It was then when the two devices let out a whining beep as a red light came to life on them. They began to rotate faster as well as gain speed.

"Great, as if they weren't fast enough."

Several feet to her left, through some ten feet of brick and mortar, Garfield banked left and right to avoid being hit by the cyborg's energy blasts. Blue energy destroyed the tunnel walls, sending debris around the fast flying green pelican. Keeping as far ahead of his pursuer as he could, it wasn't long until he saw a door at the end of the tunnel. Timing it where he was ten feet away, the green bird morphed into a rhino and charged ahead, busting the heavy steel door open as he came to a stop on a grated catwalk as he morphed back.

Turning on his heels, the teen slammed the door shut and went to lock it by turning the locking wheel on his side. Unfortunately, he broke it then he rammed the barricade to get in. Looking around for a way out, he saw a service elevator on the other side of the large, circular junction room some sixty yards away with the catwalk leading over to it. The chamber descended around three stories below him with a number of unsealed tunnels for the water to flow through. At least seventy feet above him was the only exit he could see as the elevator's cables lead up to the street.

A second later, an explosion erupted from another door with Raven shooting out from it like a missile. She came to a stop in the middle of the room and spotted Garfield running for a control panel beside the elevator.

"Is he behind you?" Raven called out.

"Yeah," Garfield yelled over the sound of the rushing water below. "I'm gonna open the door to the surface and-"

The door Garfield left behind ripped open, sailing across the room and falling into the water below as the cyborg emerged from the opening. His red eye scanned the room, marking both Raven and Garfield. He then saw the elevator moving upwards before his internal systems informed him about the door opening above it once it drew closer to the surface. He fired a blast at the cables, destroying the drive system for the elevator before facing the two teenagers.

"Targets Beast Boy and Rachel Roth acquired," the cyborg said in monotone. "Awaiting additional orders." Less than a second later, his eye flashed red. "Acknowledged."

Raising his left hand, several compartments of the cyborg's forearm slid open to allow him to grab a few objects similar to the one in the apartment building the teens were in earlier. He activated a red light on each one and tossed them around the catwalks where they exploded, shattering the metal around them without a sound.

"Did you see that?!" Garfield yelled. "He can blow stuff up without making a sound! And your name's Rachel?"

"Unless you want to die the same way," Raven spoke, surprisingly evenly and with an annoyed look on her face. "I suggest you stop using my real name, stop being so excitable, and start coming up with a way to fight this thing."

Raising her hands above her head, Raven summoned several of the fallen pieces of catwalk and flung them at their attacker. The man-machine leapt out of the way as boosters in his boots ignited to give him a little extra push to the wall beside him where he gripped onto an indented edge. His right arm turned into its cannon form as he fired a blast at the airborne young woman, forcing her to dodge the stream of blue energy. He then leapt over to the other remaining catwalk and took a shot at Garfield who dropped his belt and changed into a bat.

"Rachel!" Garfield yelled as he landed on a ledge and dove around the energy blast.

"It's Raven!" the young girl retorted as she surrounded the structure the cyborg was on with black energy and forced it to collapse.

Releasing a grunt, the cyborg leapt off the black encased scaffold and fired a cable into the ceiling. As he swung across, he took aim at the hooded female and prepared to fire when a green eagle swept down on him. Razor sharp talons sliced at the flesh side of his face, cutting him and forcing the robotic human to detach the cable and crash onto the first section of catwalk.

"Hey, bird boy, wanna try and contact that sister of yours? That's not gonna keep him down for long."

Flying over and landing on a section of catwalk near Raven, Garfield shifted to his normal self and waited as the Goth came over to him. "How do we do this?"

"Just hold my hands and concentrate on her. I can use my powers to amplify the signal," Raven described as she wrapped the cyborg up with a large section of catwalk.

Garfield closed his eyes and focused on reaching out to M'gann as Raven held his hands and shut her eyes as well while muttering, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

Happy Harbor - Mount Justice

October 02, 20:39 UTC

"Wow." That was all M'gann could say once Conner told her everything that was found in the documents Artemis and the others of her team brought back months ago.

"Yeah. Too bad Barbra couldn't decipher them until recently." With his head down, Conner slowly made his way back to where the bike was parked with M'gann following him.

"So what are you going to do?"

Shaking his head, he released a sigh. "I don't know. It's not like I haven't been thinking this over. Luther said I would need the Cadmus pod to gain them…to mature."

"And do you believe him?" Stopping a few feet from the Harley, M'gann watched as Conner climbed back on the machine. "I mean, look who Luther is. He always has a plan with several backup plans to several more backup plans. He could be lying-"

"But he's not," Conner said sternly. "I age one month per year on the inside. I've grown but won't ever look…I'll never look different. I'll always look like this with the same powers with the only difference is being stronger and smarter. The last five years, I managed to pass it off as good genes. Wendy noticed it, Marvin's caught on, but they don't know the truth…just how long can I be out in public without changing?"

Walking up to stand beside him, M'gann placed a hand on his shoulder. "A lot of people would kill to look young their whole lives, Conner. But I can understand not liking your situation. I can relate. I wasn't allowed to change the way I looked like on Mars when out in public so everyone knew I was a white Martian, other than taking on a more humanoid appearance."

Placing a hand on hers, Conner turned to face her. "But you see, here you can look however you want, any age you want. I can't. It may not seem like a big thing, but I guess that's the reason I don't shave too much. It kinda makes me look older."

"Well, like you said at one time, it doesn't matter to me what you look like." Seeing him give that almost invisible smile of his made her heart flutter like it always did. "Now, about the other half of your predicament." Placing the book of pictures she retrieved from the hole to Garfield's old room on the back of his bike, she slightly floated into the air and sat in front of him on the bike's gas tank.

She took his hands in hers and stared into his eyes. "I want you to listen very carefully to me. If you decide to find a way, other than going back to Luther for your powers, learn from my mistake and don't let it go to your head. It took me actually seeing what I was doing to others when I mind-ripped them after I wouldn't listen to you. I felt…well…ashamed and ugly when I saw Kaldur's mind and I can't believe I actually saw it as a good thing to use on anyone, regardless of the consequences. I…I don't want that to happen to you. Don't let whatever this TTK is get the best of you, please, learn from what happened to me. I don't want to see you go through what I did."

Looking down at his tan, calloused hands holding her smaller, smooth green ones, Conner ran his thumbs over her knuckles. He let her words resonate in his mind as he reflected on how she behaved when she first learned about ripping apart someone's mind, leaving them in a catatonic state, and not telling anyone about it until the team was in dire straits and used it as a last resort. She then began to rip out what information they needed without a second thought as to the consequences. Admittingly, they were at war and needed to save lives with her seeing only one half of the equation. He himself was able to see both sides and even though they were the enemy and wouldn't have any qualms to do that to them, each one was a living being and through his time with the team, he learned how precious life was. His bleeding heart was something he attributed to Clark who only saw the world as black and white. Conner on the other hand knew he was a shade of gray but knew what was necessary and what wasn't when it came down to it.

Looking back up into her eyes, he could feel his heart speed up slightly, as if it hadn't already increased being this close to her. The way the moonlight cascaded across her freckled face made her more beautiful to him and made her hazel eyes glisten even more. It was time for him to make his decision Jonathon Kent was telling him about on if the bridge of trust was fully repaired between them or not, and it actually scared him. He had already forgiven her for attempting to mess with his mind and now was the time for him to make up his mind to fully trust her again or not, to see if he truly could give her a second chance.

Inhaling deeply, the demi-Kryptonian raised a hand to the side of her face and gently stroked her cheek. He could hear her heart speed up as his enhanced hearing picked up on it and saw her blush, just like she used to when they were originally together. Moving his hand to the back of her neck, he drew her in as he moved forward. Both tilted their heads to the side as they closed the gap between them and closed their eyes. As the tips of their lips were just about to touch, a strong buzzing ripped through their minds, forcing them to back off and grab their heads in pain.

"Agh!" Conner grunted between clenched teeth. "What is this?"

"I…gah…I don't-" Before M'gann could answer, Garfield's voice echoed through their heads.

"M'gann! Conner! Help me! I'm at the sewer junction in Happy Harbor's sewers and there's a killer robot attacking u-"

"Gar!" M'gann yelled as the feeling subsided.

"Go, I'll meet you there." Conner started up his bike and got it ready to take off.

"There's three junctions." Phasing through Conner, and sending a chill though his body as she did so, M'gann wound up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Head to each one, I'll scan for Gar's mind."

"It'll take us a few minutes to go back through the forest."

"Hang on." With her eyes glowing, M'gann lifted the bike and levitated it to there the street began as Conner took over from there and drove as fast as he could with the Martian girl keeping the other cars safely at bay.

Happy Harbor – Sewer Junction

October 02, 20:48

"Crap!" Garfield yelled as was caught in an explosion form the machine's energy cannon.

A large chunk of concrete and catwalk crumbled to the rushing water below, talking the teen boy with it. He had no choice but to turn into an otter and dive into the water. After a few moments, the green animal's head appeared above water with its claws holding on tight to the side of a tunnel as he looked above him at the hooded girl who was forced to go on the defensive.

Dodging an incoming energy blast, Raven lifted the control panel for the elevator with her black energy and flung it at the cyborg. Another blast was fired, completely destroying the incoming panel with another one firing at Raven. Moving just in time, the hooded girl summoned several pieces of broken catwalk railing and launched them like javelins. Several of the iron projectiles struck the armored skin of the man machine with two skewering his arm cannon. A small explosion forced the cyborg back a few steps. Regaining his balance, he raised his left hand as a small barrage of missiles popped up from his forearm and fired them in retaliation as he looked over his destroyed arm.

With no time to move, Raven shielded herself with both hands as a black energy shield spread out in front of her. The explosions from the mini missiles knocked her backwards with the last of the missiles shattering her shield. She crashed into the concrete wall behind her and fell to the catwalk in a daze.

Making his way over to the fallen girl, the machine unsheathed a cable from the underside of his left arm as the small missile launcher retracted back into its hidden compartment. His red eye locked on the stirring girl with the words 'CAPTURE' appearing above her. Raising his arm ahead of him, the machine advanced on Raven with the full intent of ensnaring her when a roar erupted from his side.

The moment he turned his head, a green lion leapt at him and clamped its teeth down on his arm. It jerked its head violently from side to side, tearing off the appendage then taking a stance in front of Raven who was sitting up and rubbing the back of her head. Letting out another roar, the green lion leapt at the cyborg and morphed into a squid, attaching himself to the machine man's head with his tentacles and using his sharp beak to chip away at the facial armor.

With his right arm damaged and spewing oil and his left arm completely missing, the cyborg struggled to get the cephalopod off his face as he staggered around the catwalk. The beak continued to impact the metal portion of his head and succeeded in finding his robotic eye. A strong hit shattered the optical sensor with the beak pulling out the internal components.

"Beast Boy, down!" Raven yelled.

Responding to her order, Garfield morphed into squirrel and leapt clear of the damaged cyborg as Raven crossed her arms and tucked her legs against her chest as she floated into the air.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" A black energy surrounded the limbs of their attacker at Raven's words then ripped them off as she motioned for them to do so.

Letting out a yell of pain and a mechanical squeal, the cyborg's torso fell to the floor of the catwalk with its head jerking around in what appeared to be agony. Landing in front of what was left of the machine, Raven surrounded herself in her cloak but left her hood off. Garfield landed beside her in his squirrel form before morphing into his usual self.

"Um…good job," he said while grinning and rubbing the back of his head.

"Thanks." Looking the teen boy over, Raven rolled her eyes. "Seriously, drop the puppy dog feelings. Or I will destroy you."

"Oh, uh, right." After flashing her a smile, Garfield looked over the defeated cyborg. "Hey, are you in pain?"

A loud electrical pop sounded from the man machine's chest, causing his red lights to flicker and dim and voice to stutter incomprehensibly. A moment later, they turned on but were blue this time. "Whe…where…am I? Wha…what's hap, hap, happened to-to, to me, me, me?"

The human eye on the side of his dark skinned face widened when he saw he was missing his arms. "What…what did you do to me?"

"Calm down!" Garfield ordered.

"Who are you? Why did you do this to me?!"

"You're the one who chased and almost killed us," Raven informed him.

"But…but I-" Cutting off the cyborg, a bright light appeared above him, causing him to panic even more as Garfield pushed Raven out of the way. "No, not again! Don't let them take me agai-" A moment later, he was gone and so was the light.

"What was that?" Raven asked. She felt Garfield's arm holding her back and removed it from her stomach with a sneer. "I don't do touching."

"Oh, sorry." He flashed her a nervous grin. "That was a Boom Tube. My sis and the others have said they've been appearing after beating the bad guys lately. Wherever they're coming from, it's obvious their being sent back."

"Against their will I presume."

"That's a new one on me. They never said anything about the bad guys not wanting to go back. Something's wrong here." Looking around the area, Garfield found a piece of the cyborg's arm. "Cool, souvenir."

Picking up the left over limb, Garfield looked it over carefully then noticed raven looking at him from the corner of his eye.

"Are you always like that?" she asked.

"Like what?"

"Like that. Annoying?"

"I'm not annoying."

"Says the kid with green furry skin and elf ears."

Struck with her words, Garfield's eyes widened as he stared at her dumbfounded. "How…how did…how can…"

"Relax," Raven told him. "I know a glamour charm when I see one and cheap parlor tricks won't work on me, although it is pretty good." She gave him a quick look over before donning her hood. "You should never hide what you are. You've got…interesting ears."

Without warning, the wide metal doors above the elevator street entrance were smashed open with Conner plummeting down to what was left of the catwalks as M'gann flew in behind him. The two young teens watched as Conner landed like a seventy foot fall was nothing and M'gann's skin turned green.

"Garfield," Conner said the moment he landed.

"Your name's Garfield? Like the cat?" Raven asked flatly as the green teen winced inwardly.

"What's wrong?" M'gann asked. "And who's this?"

"I'll uh, explain later." Rubbing the back of his neck, Garfield looked over at Raven. "These are the two I told you about, M'gann, my blood sister, and her boyfriend, Conner. Um, this here is, Rachel Roth."

Staring back at the teen, Raven's eyes flashed red. "Don't make me destroy you."

"Uh but, she likes to be called Raven. Just Raven. Only Raven."

"Why are you down here?" Conner demanded as he looked both teens over.

"I think this is my cue to go." Taking to the air, Raven flew over to the open doors when Garfield called out for her.

"Hey, Raven, wait. Is there any chance you would want to join the team I'm on? You won't have to be alone and I'll be there with my sis and Conner!"

Turning back to face him, Raven looked the three over. "I'm not really the team type. But I'll keep it in mind, after I find a new home."

"We've got room at our base. It's in space!" By then she was gone, flying away into the night sky.

Chicago

October 02, 21:37

"So you decided to tag along on our date and spy on us?" Standing before the couch in M'gann's apartment where Garfield sat without his glamour charm on, M'gann had her arms crossed as she stood beside Conner who had his hands on his hips.

Stepping forward, Conner took over. "Only to get into trouble and attacked by a…a…a-"

"Cyborg," M'gann helped him say.

"A cyborg. Then you go off with someone you don't know and put them in danger."

"Not to mention getting caught in an exploding building while you're at it and almost dying twice."

"More than twice," Connor corrected her. He then ran his hands through his hair and let out a huff. "Garfield, do you even understand what you did? What could have happened to you and all the trouble you caused?"

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going to wake you up bright and early to be debriefed at Watchtower, then afterwards, the three of us are going to have a serious talk about what you did. Well? What have you got to say for yourself?" M'gann asked. "And it better not be 'I don't know.'"

Sitting in the middle of the couch, Garfield simply stared ahead of him with a lidded expression and a crooked grin. He ignored the fact the two were acting like parents as his mind was on other things at the moment. "She likes my ears."

M'gann and Conner each raised an eyebrow and looked at each other with no idea what the boy was talking about.

AN: Due to my laptop dying (by this, I mean dead, deader than a goldfish won at the carnival after a few days dead) some of my chaps were "frazzled". I saved what I could but some have to be rewritten so the next parts may not be posted on Sundays and Thursdays like they have been. I'll try hard to stick to my schedule as best as I can until I have it all fixed though, so this is just a heads up in case that doesn't happen. At least the next one will be posted on Sunday, I guarantee at least that much.

Also if anyone is playing The Simpsons: Tapped Out, my Origin ID is MikeLara_16 if ya'll want to friend me for doughnuts and money in the game. It's addictive.