Teen Titans: Return of the Joker
Chapter 25: And Yet…
Author's Note
Sorry I haven't been around much, guys! End of the semester = lots of finals = crushed brain = no motivation to think. XD I also had a bit of writer's block…
But then, dum da dum! Boyfriend to the rescue with my xmas present – get this – ALL FIVE SEASONS OF TEEN TITANS ON DVD! :D Now I've got all the fodder I need to get going on this! :P I also watched Fight Club today, which TOTALLY put me in the mood to write this! ;)
Beast Boy clung to Mammoth's long wooly hair, a tiny flea, completely hidden from sight. He peeked through the unruly strands of thick brown hair, seeing the humongous forms of Gizmo, See-More and Kyd Wykkid before him. They were all standing in a large, empty room, as though waiting for something. He narrowed his eyes. Where were they? The hideout?
Then, suddenly, a voice spoke out that didn't belong to any of the young villains.
"Okay, guys, time for the usual check-over."
"Ah, ratfarts," grumbled Gizmo beside Mammoth. "I didn't see them throw any homing devices on us. Can't we just—"
"The Headmaster said we need to be sure the Titans aren't tracking us. Now hold still!"
Beast Boy moved through Mammoth's hair, trying to find a better viewpoint to see what was happening.
Suddenly, a huge female face appeared, partially concealed beneath a green HIVE cloak. Beast Boy gasped internally, shying away from the face. He gathered his wits, trying to think of the best course of action. What if this person caught him? He'd be toast. An idea struck him. He took a deep breath and leapt, away from Mammoth's matted hair and onto the cloaked figure, hoping no one saw him as he did. He quickly morphed, turning into the tiniest mosquito and ducking beneath the folds of the cloak's hood. The person he was clinging to waved a big metal detector over Mammoth.
"You're clean," she said after a moment, turning to See-More. Beast Boy shied away a little, wary of See-More's huge eye. But the cycloptic HIVE member didn't seem to notice him as the girl waved the detector over him as well.
She stepped around behind See-More to get to Billy Numerous, and Beast Boy took the opportunity to fly over onto See-More's back.
"You hear something?" asked See-More, and Beast Boy silently cursed himself for not being something quieter. Mammoth shrugged his shoulders dimly, and See-More followed suit before looking down into his stolen purses for his finds.
"Alright, you guys are all good," said the girl. "You can proceed to the hideout, now."
"Thank ya kindly, little missy!" drawled Billy Numerous with a flirtatious smile, leaning closely towards the cloaked girl. "Say, you like them monster trucks? Cuz I can sneak us in if you—HAY!" Gizmo grabbed the southern villain violently by the elbow with a loud, rasping gag, dragging him to Kyd Wykkid as the dark HIVE member swept open a teleportation portal. The wind whipping around all of them drowned out Billy's protests as Gizmo pulled him after the other two HIVE students, traveling through the dark portal and appearing suddenly in a wide entryway.
Beast Boy looked around at the new location from the back of See-More's jumpsuit. It was the hideout, but it looked a lot different from HIVE hideouts in the past: the walls were dark, dank gray concrete, not the bright yellow hexagonal pattern that was their trademark. The place looked partially dilapidated, like it had been abandoned and the HIVE had taken it up as their own. There was evidence that they were slowly renovating it, though, with boards and construction equipment everywhere. There were even yellow hexagon-shaped tiles lying around, waiting to be put on the walls.
"When did the headmaster give you that fancy button?" See-More asked Gizmo, leaning towards the smaller HIVE student. Beast Boy crawled carefully across See-More's shoulder, focusing his attention on the group now as they walked through the large corridor.
"Just today," the young criminal said proudly, drawing himself up as tall as he could, as though very important. "He told me if the Titan brats gave us too much trouble, to use it."
"And what does it do?" asked Mammoth dumbly, leaning over as well, scratching his head.
"You know how we're keeping Robin all locked up downstairs? It gives him a strong, crippling shock of electricity! And that booger-colored phlegm-bag Beast Boy made me press it. Probably knocked him out cold."
A rush of guilt and anger shot through Beast Boy. But his heart rejoiced with the new information. Downstairs. Robin was locked up downstairs….
The four HIVE boys began talking about their stolen finds, walking by a large staircase that lead downwards. Beast Boy took a deep breath and leapt off of See-More's back, becoming a small beetle and scurrying along the ground towards the dark stairwell. He paused at the top, glancing around him, then moving to look down between the banisters. It was a long way down. He hopped a moment where he stood, then leapt out between the bars, flapping his tiny beetle wings, slowly descending between the floors. He dropped perhaps three or four stories. It felt dark and cold at the bottom, like a world devoid of life. He scattered towards the doorway, peering down the long, dark hallway. The few lights that weren't burnt out along the walls flickered and buzzed with a ghostly hiss, accompanied by a dripping metronome of water. It was completely abandoned. Even the dust that had settled on the dank floor seemed undisturbed for years. He backed up a little, craning his insect head back upwards. Perhaps Robin was on another floor?
But what better place to hide a prisoner than in a murky, dilapidated basement?
He decided to take a chance, morphing into a mouse and bounding forward, sniffing at doors, seeing if he could grab a whiff of Robin. His heart was beating rapidly in his chest. Here he was, in the HIVE hideout, on a highly important secret mission. He would find Robin. He would. And the others wouldn't see him as so useless…
I'm not useless, he thought to himself.
The bottom floor expanded further than he could ever have anticipated. After a good fifteen minutes of scurrying around and not running into even a footprint, let alone a HIVE member, Beast Boy knew it was safe to return to normal. He brushed the dust off his uniform, shaking his head, causing a river of dirt cascading from his hair back to the floor. He snapped a hand to his mouth after accidentally inhaling a breath, smothering his coughs, peering through watering eyes down the dark corridors. There were so many doors, so many places to go. He lifted his communicator to his lips, paused a moment to think, and then thought better of it.
"I can do this myself," he muttered, returning the communicator to his belt and walking on.
He opened door after door, squeezing under those that were locked by becoming an insect of some sort. Each room he entered was either empty, or filled with old pieces of furniture or boxes of paperwork. "What is this place?" he wondered out loud in one of these rooms, running his fingers over a broken-down desk. "An old office building?" He lifted the lid of one of the boxes and took out a paper inside. It looked like the cover page of an essay, something entitled "Question Phrasing Influence on Survey Response." The page was moldy, water-stained, and though stapled, was unaccompanied by the remainder of the essay.
"Must've been a school or something—wait, what are you doing, Beast Boy? You're wasting your time here." He tossed the paper over his shoulder and shut the lid on the box, stepping backwards out of the room and heading back into the hall.
The dust was giving him a headache. He rubbed his forehead and glanced around. Which way had he come from? He glanced at the ground below him. The dust he had kicked up had settled, and he couldn't make out his old footprints in the dim light. What he wouldn't have given for Cyborg and his built-in flashlight.
An idea popped up, and he pulled his communicator from his belt, snapping it open and allowing the light from it to pour into the room. He shone it downwards, but was disappointed to discover he couldn't find his old footprints in the thick layer of dust that had settled once again on the ground. He swung the open device around, looking around the hallway a little better. There were little bronze plaques with names on them beside the doors. He leaned in and threw a breath of air on one of them, blowing away the dust to reveal the name "Dr. H. Quinn." He blinked at it a moment, then shrugged before walking off, shining his communicator around.
And then a voice startled him in the darkness.
"Beast Boy, man, what are you doing?"
He fell backwards on the floor, practically frame-for-frame like an anime cartoon character. He swung the communicator around towards where he lay, smacking his other hand to his forehead.
"I hit a button on accident, didn't I?"
The others gathered around Cyborg, who looked down at Beast Boy's face, which was barely visible from the light of his communicator. The two Teen Titans teams had returned to Titan's Tower East, waiting impatiently for Beast Boy to check in. Raven had joined them, recovered and alert.
"I hit a button on accident, didn't I?" asked Beast Boy with a hand to his forehead with a resounding smack.
"Yes, you did," muttered Cyborg with a raised eyebrow. "You at the HIVE Headquarters, then?"
"Yeah. I hid on Mammoth before they ran off."
"That was very intelligent of you, Beast Boy" Starfire said proudly over Cyborg's shoulder. Beast Boy gave a small smile.
"And Robin is here," he continued, sitting upright. "I heard the HIVE talking about him, that he's somewhere on the bottom floor here. I've been searching awhile though, and haven't-"
"Got a lock, here," spoke up Bumblebee from the mainframe Titans East computer. A map was sprawled across the screen, a red light flashing showing Beast Boy's location. Cyborg glanced up at it. It was near the ocean, the outskirts of the industrial part of town. Bumblebee's long fingers danced on the keyboard, bringing up information on the place.
"What is it?" asked Speedy, leaning against Bumblebee's chair.
"An old psychiatry research building," said Bumblebee matter-of-factly, leaning in to read the file. "They built a new building years ago over at the college campus, and never fully demolished this one, partially because it's part of the historic district."
"El distrito histórico? Se realizaron búsquedas en ese lugar a fondo! ¿Cómo les ha olvidado?"
"I don't know…" muttered Bumblebee. "Well, it looks like the building is mostly underground. They kept patients there, did treatments, stuff like that."
"An odd place for a HIVE hideout…" muttered Speedy.
Raven furrowed her eyebrows up at the screen, mind churning with the information. Speedy glanced over at her. "You sense anything?" he asked.
"Not really," she said with a bewildered look. She could sense Beast Boy, but not Robin. Yet, that didn't surprise her too much. "But that doesn't mean he's not—wait a minute…" Her eyes widened, and she leaned forward, her mind reaching out even further… could it be...? She leaned back towards Cyborg. "Beast Boy, did they say exactly that Robin was on the bottom floor?"
"No, they said—crap, he's on another floor, isn't he?" Beast Boy smacked his hand to his forehead again.
Raven gave a small inkling of a smile. "It happens."
"Do you mean, you can feel him?" asked Cyborg, his voice rising with excitement. Raven nodded, still smiling.
"Can you direct Beast Boy towards him?"
"Yes, I can."
"Then we may want to head on over there soon," Aqualad spoke up from where he sat on the table. "There's probably pretty heavy security on the room Robin's in. Beast Boy may be able to get in, but might get into some pretty big trouble if he does."
"Hey, come on. Do I ever get into trouble?"
"Yes," answered a long chorus of voices. Beast Boy drew up his bottom lip in a pout.
"You guys are jerks," he muttered glumly.
"You know we love ya," Cyborg chuckled, then grew serious again, looking around at the two girls from his team. "We're going to take the jet over. Raven, you can lead Beast Boy to Robin on the way. He can let us know what kind of security is set up, and how we can get around it. We'll try and make this as quiet of a job as we can."
"And we're coming, too," said Bee, straightening and placing a hand on her hip. "You ain't going anywhere without some extra backup."
"The HIVE have gotten pretty ruthless," added Speedy seriously. "And if the Joker is the one behind this, then there are bound to be a few tricks up his sleeve."
"Alright. Team, to the jet!" announced Bumblebee, pointing towards the door.
Cyborg looked up with wide eyes. "Wait, how do you guys expect to fit in our jet?!"
"We don't," chuckled Aqualad.
"Tenemos nuestro propio jet ahora!" chattered the tiny twins simultaneously.
"Wait, you guys have a jet now?"
"You're not the only one with slick mechanics skills," said Bumblebee with a smile, crossing her arms. Cyborg raised his eyebrows at her, a little intrigued.
"Alright, we're on our way, then, Beast Boy."
"Right. I won't let you down. I promise."
"Around the next corner," Raven's voice echoed in his ear. Beast Boy nodded as he rounded the corner, then halted, finding himself staring at a concrete door.
"Here?" he asked in a low voice, looking around nervously. He was on the next highest floor, which was not as deserted or fallen apart as the bottom floor. He had already had one very close encounter, and was not eager to get caught.
"Yes, yes, that's it. But you should wait for us."
"I don't see any sort of security," he muttered softly, looking around. He wasn't even sure how this door opened. He grappled at the wall beside him, feeling for controls to open the door with. His hand tripped something, and he had to suppress a surprised squeal as the door slid open.
"Well, heh, if they have security, they'll know I'm here now," he murmured darkly, peering around the doorframe.
"Be careful, Beast Boy."
And his breath caught in his chest as he stared in. It was a fair-sized room, and in the very middle was a platform which stood at a steep slant, with a figure strapped to it. Beast Boy's stomach twisted and curled as he gaped. It was a teenager. He was unconscious, badly beaten, his skin an unnatural, sickening shade of white. He was dressed in a strange set of purple clothes. Beast Boy shook his head.
"Dude…" he breathed, despite himself, stepping inward. He glanced around himself for any sign of security cameras or guards. He paused in his step as he glanced upwards. There was a flickering red light just above him.
"Okay, now I'm sure they know I'm here…" he muttered again, then growled silently at himself. Damnit, Beast Boy. Stop speaking out loud. You're only going to make it easier for them to figure out you're here.
His attention turned back to the unconscious boy. He hesitated a moment, but realized that if they already knew he was there, it didn't really matter.
"Robin?" he whispered carefully. The boy strapped to the platform did not respond. Beast Boy felt a strange prickling happen across his skin as he stepped closer.
"It's him…" Raven's voice murmured sullenly from the communicator, as though reading the doubts in Beast Boy's head. Beast Boy just couldn't believe it. He could not even recognize the boy, and yet it hadn't even been two weeks since Robin had vanished…
"How does he look?" asked Cyborg over the transmission.
"Awful…" muttered Beast Boy in a hushed voice, stepping closer to the injured Titan. He hesitated a moment, listening for a breath. He couldn't hear anything. Robin was still as a stone. The changeling's heart ran cold. Was he too late?
He inched closer, reaching out a hand, reaching for Robin's, to feel if he was still warm.
But the touch never happened….
His hand sailed right through him, through the platform. He gasped, eyes widening as he pulled his hand away. Robin, and the platform, flickered like static on a television before vanishing entirely.
Beast Boy stared agape at the empty space where Robin had just been, watching his fingers flex and straighten. His entire body grew numb with mounting horror.
"No…"
"Beast Boy, wha—"
The transmission cut out.
The door slammed shut behind him.
Beast Boy spun around, fear clutching him like a vice.
"Oh no…"
He was trapped….
Robin wasn't there…
The mission had failed…
…he had failed…
"No!"
Beast Boy felt anger replacing his fear as he sprinted forward, turning into a rhinoceros and charging for the door. There was no way in hell he was going to go down like this.
But something happened. He stumbled, his own human head slamming into the door with a resounding thud that echoed through the room. He cried out and teetered over to the floor, clutching his throbbing skull with his hands, blinking down at the ground in astonishment. What the hell had just happened? He… he had morphed back… his powers… He got to his feet, clenching his hands into fists before him as he stared at the door, willing himself to become an elephant, a mastodon, anything massive to break it down with.
But nothing happened.
"Oh, shit…" he mouthed, his heart pounding in his chest.
"Well, well, well… what have we here?" chimed a voice suddenly, causing Beast Boy to snap around, looking around at the empty room. A strange coldness swept over him as he realized….
He knew that voice…
…and it was not the Joker's…
A/N:
CLIFFHANGER MWAHAHAHAA!!!
Read and Review! I would appreciate it EVER so much!!
And in case you're thinking what I think you're thinking, the answer is: no. lol!
Also, have you ever heard of Dr. Henry Quinn? Quite an amazing psychiatrist. …Whom I made up. For the purpose of throwing off the people who know as much as I do. Tee hee!