– Swept away
The Doom Patrol arrived at the Arkham Bat Cave. Gar had been the lookout and he led them into the cave once they arrived. He introduced them to Batman, Nightwing and Robin, who at this point had chosen to keep their identities secret from Mento and his team.
"Mento." Batman started "Before we begin our cooperation discussions I think there is some unresolved business between the Doom Patrol and the Logans that needs closure. We will give you some privacy." He then turned and along with Nightwing and Robin retreated to the far end of the cave.
Mento stared at the couple, who returned the silent stare. Finally Negative Man spoke up.
"Steve, if you won't tell them the truth, I will."
"Larry, please don't." Rita implored.
Gar gave Mento a dirty look. Mento then tried to use his mental powers to mollify Gar but ran into an impervious barrier, which made him shudder.
"So that's the Force? I'm impressed, Garfield."
Gar stared blankly at him. "The truth?"
Mento hesitated, but Rita finally couldn't stand it any longer and blurted out.
"Garfield, I'm so sorry, but the real reason we didn't come was because…." She paused, unable to finish the sentence.
"Because I didn't approve of Raven." Mento muttered, with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Garfield, don't be angry. We didn't know her that well back then. We thought you were making a mistake." Rita apologized.
"I now know that I was wrong." Mento admitted. "You couldn't have made a better choice."
Gar was elated. Mento admitted he was wrong! He never does that!
Raven turned to face Rita, who in turn hugged her. "Please Raven, forgive us our stupidity. We now know that you are the best thing that ever happened to Garfield."
Raven returned her hug. "Thanks, you have no idea what that means to us."
Batman watched from a distance as the reconciliation was completed.
"Are you ever wrong about anything?" Nightwing asked Batman.
"Only once. There was a time I thought I was wrong, but it turns out I was right after all. But then I realized I was wrong when I thought I was wrong."
"Ha ha. Very funny. Not!" Robin moaned.
-( - )-
After discussing strategy with the Doom Patrol it was decided that the Bat clan would focus on the Gotham villains and the Doom Patrol would deal with the Brain, Mallah and Rouge. The first order of business was to get back to the dam and apprehend The Joker and Slade. The Doom Patrol was working on locating the villain's lair, and Batman provided them with a list of possible locations. Batman also gave Mento a Bat communicator while Mento gave Gar a Doom Patrol communicator. As soon as the Doom Patrol left the 5 Bat Clan members headed out to Roosevelt Dam.
From a safe distance they scoped out the dam. Robin was the first to find any sign of activity.
"Look, SladeBots in the overflow tunnel!"
"Rae and I can take care of those. You guys find the Joker and Slade!" Gar said as he and Raven flew off to the overflow tunnel. Batman, Robin and Nightwing continued to scan the site for any sign of the The Joker or Slade.
Raven and Gar entered the tunnel and were immediately attacked by a squad of blaster equipped SladeBots. Raven flew into the air, dodging the blaster fire while hurling boulders at the robots. Meanwhile Gar was taking the Sladebots out with his lightsaber as they retreated further into the tunnel.
"Gar, don't you think this is too easy?" Raven called from above as she demolished the last SladeBot at the end of the tunnel.
Suddenly a maniacal laugh rang out in the tunnel. "Joker!" Gar shouted out.
"I was hoping for Batsy and the Boy Blunder, but you will do just fine, Beast Boob!" the Joker laughed. "Ah, this must be the lovely Raven. So the beast tamed the beauty? You swept the pretty little witch off her feet, huh? Well how about if I sweep you away?" Again more maniacal laughter followed.
There was an explosion and a torrent of water began to flood the tunnel, sweeping Garfield away. Raven flew down to him; but by the time she reached him the tunnel was fully flooded and the torrent was stronger than before, knocking the couple against the tunnel walls. Raven formed a dark bubble around them to protect them from the flotsam and jetsam in the tunnel.
The surveying trio heard the explosion and watched in horror as a river of water gushed out of the tunnel. As the flow increased to a full torrent they saw a black bubble fly out of the tunnel and bounce down the canyon walls to the river below, which had become engorged and turbulent with the sudden flow from the tunnel. The dark bubble suddenly vanished and two limp forms fell from it into the turbulent river.
"It's them!" Nightwing shouted "We have to get to them or they'll drown!"
Two figures shot from the sky. It was the Tamaranians, who had heard the explosion from the nearby rendezvous point where they lingered with Cassie and Terra. They rushed to the dam when they heard the explosion, followed closely by Terra and Cassie who flew in on a boulder. Nightwing reached for his Titan's communicator.
"Star! Raven and Gar are in the river!" Dick shouted as he pointed into the raging flood.
Nightfire and her sister began to search but couldn't see them. Terra, however, did see them and leaped from her boulder with Cassie, reaching the Logans and keeping their unconscious forms above water. The princesses then swooped in, plucking the four from the raging waters, up to the top of the canyon where Batman, Robin and Nightwing had watched the disaster unfold.
After they landed Starfire performed CPR on Raven while Terra resuscitated Gar. After a few moments Raven coughed up some water and regained consciousness.
"Oooohh" Raven moaned holding her aching head "I can't believe we walked into that trap."
As she regained visual focus she saw Terra performing CPR on Gar and she appeared to be in a panic.
"Dammit BB! Breathe! Breathe!" she howled as she performed chest compressions, and then switched back to blowing into his now inactive lungs. Raven was frozen, too weak to help, reduced to a spectator in the tragedy happening before her. Finally after what seemed like an eternity Gar began to cough and ejected copious amounts of water before he resumed coughing. By this point Raven was fully lucid and had taken Gar into her arms.
Raven turned to Terra "Thanks" She whispered in a hoarse voice "Thanks for saving him."
Terra nodded in acknowledgment and stepped away, leaving the couple alone.
Gar finally opened his eyes, saw Raven, and smiled.
"What happened in the cave?" Batman asked.
"It was the Joker." Gar answered between coughs. "Why didn't I sense that trap?" He then felt around his belt. "Great! I lost my lightsaber."
Raven felt for her lightsaber and found it. "I still have the purple one." She told him.
"Good." Gar sounded relieved "I was afraid I would be stuck with one of those nasty SithSabers."
"Now what do we do?" Nightfire asked.
"We go home and recover." Batman ordered.
-( - )-
There were no other incidents that day and after a quiet late supper the clan members relaxed. Raven and Gar looked exhausted and somber after their near brush with drowning. The flood happened so quickly that Gar didn't have time to morph into a fish before hitting his head against a rock. They were about to excuse themselves and turn in early when Blackfire stood up.
"Friends, I know this has been a rough day for all of us, but I have some good news to share."
Everyone except for the Graysons turned to her with hopeful looks on their faces. After the day's fiascos any good news was welcome.
"Let's see, how can I explain this? Ok here goes! Vic and I we did something that on Tamaran would be the equivalent of eloping here on Earth!"
Everyone stared in stunned silence, until Jinx spoke up.
"You mean you're married now?" she asked, with a look of disbelief on her face.
"You bet!" Vic beamed, clearly pleased with his new marital status.
"Why didn't we think of that?" Raven whispered to Gar "It would have been so much easier."
"Shoulda, coulda, woulda." Gar whispered back.
"What about the wedding?" Terra said her voice tinged with disappointment.
"Oh, we'll still have one." Blackfire replied. "Vic's family wouldn't let us get away without one."
"Hey baby, they're your family now too!"
The announcement clearly changed the mood at the table. There were hugs and congratulations going around while Alfred carted in a small cake, apologizing that it was all he could get on short notice from the local bakery, and that had he sufficient advance notice he would have prepared a proper wedding cake for them.
-( - )-
A few hours later the Graysons were settling in for the night. Starfire had finished nursing Elizabeth, changed her diaper and tucked her in as Dick emerged from the bathroom. She was slipping on the Tinkerbell nightshirt that Dick got for her one of the times they went to Disneyland. They were regulars there, and Dick recently purchased annual passes for them, much to Starfire's delight.
As they settled in for the night Starfire gave Dick and extra tight hug and an unusually long good night kiss.
"Are you OK, Star?" he asked.
"We have all been in perilous situations before, but what happened today truly frightened me. For a moment I thought that we had lost two of our dearest friends."
"I know." He replied. "When Raven's bubble popped and I watched them fall unconscious into the river, I felt powerless to help them. It made me feel sick. It was a miracle you where still nearby. What happened?"
"We were about to head back to the Bat Cave when Terra asked Blackfire for advice on how to fit in with the team. We ended up staying and chatting until we heard the explosion."
"So Raven and Gar are alive because the four of you had a yak-fest?"
"Yes, Richard, because we women couldn't stop talking." She said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
He smiled at her before responding "I swear I'll never complain about that again."
She smirked "You forgot to say 'master'".
"Yes master." He replied, still smiling as he turned off the lights.
-( - )-
Raven was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, while Gar was plopped on the bed, exhausted both emotionally and physically from the day's events. He was still angry that he lost his lightsaber but hoped no one ever found it. He imagined some stupid kids finding it and hurting themselves while they played with it. As Raven emerged from the bathroom he noticed she was wearing a nightshirt with a huge Eeyore and a Disneyland logo on it. The caption read 'Mornings make me blue.' After reading the caption he burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"You are. Since when do you wear anything from Disneyland? Never!"
"Not true. I wear the Jack Skellington hoodie you brought back for me all the time."
"Ok, fair enough, but Eeyore? Where did you get that?"
"Kori gave it to me last month. I'll admit the design is childish, but it is comfy."
"So when will you come with me to Disneyland? I hate going alone with Star and Dick."
She sighed. He went with them every time, and always begged Raven to join them. She never did, usually offering excuses about crowds, headaches or something else. "Fine, I'll go with you next time if you just shut up and let me sleep. I'm tired in case you haven't noticed. We almost drowned today, remember?"
"Deal!" he said with child like excitement, the day's ordeals already forgotten.
She could feel the happiness flow from her boy toy. The things I do out of love for my green bean!
He kissed her goodnight and turned off the light.
-( - )-
A week passed with no further incidents. The Doom Patrol searched all over Gotham for the Brotherhood of Evil, but with no success. Batman would go out on solitary patrols every night, trying to find any clue that might help, but came home empty handed every time. There was simply no sign of them, anywhere. It was as if they had vanished into thin air.
To stave off boredom and restlessness the clan was doing double training shifts. Nightwing and Cassie spent time training the Titans on the fine points of using Bat weapons such as Batarangs and grappling hooks. They also drilled the team in sword fighting, using Gar as a sparring mate.
To make matters worse, there had been threats made against the Wayne household. There was concern for Alfred's safety when he would leave to run errands. Batman made a public announcement that the Bat clan would protect the Wayne household. It was decided that whenever Alfred had to leave the sanctuary of Wayne Manor that he would have two Bat clan guardians with him. The roster order was Nightwing & Nightfire, Batgirl & Garfield, Blackfire & Raven, Phoenix & Jinx, and Hotspot & Kid Flash. Vic was still benched and still unhappy, but he didn't complain while Robin was given a bye.
The first two days were uneventful as Alfred only had minor errands those days. On the third day he had several errands that meant he would be away most of the day, much to Blackfire and Raven's dismay.
It was late in the morning and they had stopped at the tailor's to pick up some new suits for Bruce. Raven was bored out of her mind and Blackfire was faring no better.
Three more hours, just three more hours and we're done. Raven thought to herself. As they headed back to the limo there was a commotion down the street, with screams and alarms filling the air.
"Blackfire, stay with Alfred while I see what's happening." Raven said as she flew away to investigate. Blackfire called Nightwing on her communicator to ask for reinforcements. Nightwing dispatched the entire Titan contingent except for Starfire who stayed behind with Lizzie.
As Raven reached the source of the commotion she saw its cause: CyBots. She scanned the area quickly, searching for Brother Blood, but could not find him. She then proceeded to demolish the CyBots as quickly as possible. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of Blood's droids snatch a small girl from her mother and run off. Raven immediately gave chase and several CyBots tried to block her, but she quickly demolished them and tossed them out of the way. Finally there was nothing between her and the kidnapping robot, which ran into a dead end alley. As Raven flew into the alley there was an explosion. Something hit her head and darkness engulfed her.
The other Titans arrived to help mop up the CyBot attack, which curiously was already retreating into the cities sewers.
"That's weird." Kid Flash remarked. "They didn't even try to fight us. They just ran away."
"Strange indeed." Nightwing agreed. "Well, the police seem to have everything under control. Let's head on back."
"Has anyone seen Raven?" Garfield asked in a worried voice.
No one had seen Raven since the beginning of the battle. Gar called her on both their Titans and Bat communicators, but there was no response. He then began to search the battle zone frantically, but found no trace of her. Finally he reached into the Force to find her. It was a vain hope, since as Jarvik Katarra had once remarked that the Force did not flow through Raven, but much to Gar's surprise she was leaving a small tremor in the Force.
Gar began to run as Nightwing told him to wait. They would regroup at the Bat Cave and from there launch a rescue with the help of the rest of the Bat Clan. Gar reluctantly agreed and headed back with the rest of the crew.
-( - )-
Raven woke up with a splitting head ache. She touched a sore spot on her head and felt a huge bump. She also noticed that she was wearing a metal collar around her neck. She tugged at it but it was locked tight. She tried to use her black energy to remove the collar, but she was unable to summon her powers.
"Raven dear, don't waste your efforts, we have your powers perfectly neutralized."
"Blood!" Raven snarled, her voice dripping with contempt. "What do you want?"
"What do I want? You mean you don't know? Why, I want to kill Beast Boy!" Blood laughed.
"You and what army Blood?" she hissed back "You can't touch him!"
"Quite true" Blood conceded. "But that's why I have you. You see Raven, you're going to kill Beast Boy for me!" Brother Blood emerged from the shadows with an evil grin on his face. "Yes, you will kill him while you watch helplessly. It will be so entertaining! And once you and Beast Boy are neutralized we will easily defeat the Bat Clan and the Doom Patrol."
Raven recoiled in fear for Gar. What is Blood going to do?
-( - )-