Chapter 36 - Small Miracles, Big Mystery

With the moon and the stars watching down, four Teen Titans (five if you count their slightly unwanted but slowly improving guest, Gizmo) sat on the top of their T-shaped home and base, exhausted, eyes sagging, legs sore, and armpits of some smelling rather foul after almost three break-free days straight of chasing endless peculiarities that made no sense, left seemingly no trail, and only contributed to frustration. Cyborg was thankful that showering was not a necessity for him. Still, he found his armor plated mechanical body almost unwilling to move and heavily drained from the constant effort.

"So..." Robin began, stifling a yawn that was long overdue and would have to wait a brief while longer. "What did everyone find?"

Gizmo jumped in first with his scratchy, loud voice, but only so he could go to bed sooner. "Petty crook chased by cops tried to jump across a gap between buildings. He coulda put the Olympics' long jumpers to shame. Even weirder was that one of the other cops managed to do the same thing. I had to save the other one's butt from becoming pavement paste."

"Cyborg?" Robin said, taking control of the order.

"Was at a rave," he groggily gave his report. "At the climax of the last song, the lead singer's voice let out some kinda shockwave. Blew all the speakers, shattered every bit of glass in about a fifty foot radius. Half the people there almost had their eardrums blown out. Some of them had to get hospitalized. I'm glad I wasn't there when it actually happened, but that was the story I got after questioning a dozen deaf people."

"Wonderful," Robin managed a tiny chuckle. "Beast Boy?"

The green changeling made no attempt to hold back the wide yawn that took over his face the instant he tried to speak. After a long wait of Titans staring dreary eyed at him, he finished and told them what he had found. "Well, not sure if mine counts..."

"Just go ahead, B.B."

"Ok..." he groaned on, "well, I was at a hospital, and this old lady was dying of cancer. And I mean, like... they didn't expect her to make it another hour. Her family came to be with her for the end, and then..."

"Then what?" snapped Gizmo. He tugged uncomfortably at the green jumpsuit and goggles that covered his tiny frame. He clearly wasn't happy with its smell or the feel of it on a body that hadn't felt a shower's relieving touch in almost half a week.

Beast Boy scratched his head. "I dunno... she somehow got... better. Like, totally better."

"What do you mean?" Robin pressed.

"Well, I stuck around," said the befuddled changeling, "and I guess they did some tests, and she doesn't have cancer anymore. She's totally healthy."

A culmination of impressed but tired whistles and other soft sounds responded to how impressive that tale was.

Robin glanced at Starfire. She nodded but spoke hesitantly. "Mine is... rather confusing," she blushed innocently. "Perhaps we should just finish our tales of strangeness in the morning after we have slept, yes?"

"I'd really rather hear it all right now, Star. I plan to update everything we've collected so far once we're done here."

"Oh... I see," said Starfire. It was clear to the rest that it was one of those situations that she didn't quite know how to verbalize. After living together with the other Titans for a few years, she had grown accustomed to holidays, food, the unending list of what she called "peculiar grooming rituals," and most other things human, and so when it seldom did still occur that she was confused, the Titans all knew to listen for an exciting story.

She cleared her throat. "I had gone into a dark alley to precisely the coordinates that I was given, and I discovered a vehicle shaking madly with all of the windows covered in fog. I thought perhaps a fire blaarg from the Gorthon province of my home world somehow made its way here and was attacking some helpless person inside their car, but when I got closer and rubbed the fog free from the front window, I saw something that..." she trailed of and blushed. "I... uh... do not quite know how to explain it."

"Try Starfire, this is important," Robin insisted, but then affixed his statement with, "well… it might be, anyway."

She sighed heavily, recognizing that even the deep breath strained her chest as a pop of something falling back into place audibly resounded from her back. She ignored it and sought to explain further against her desires. "Very well. I had realized that there were two voices coming from inside the car, and they were moaning constantly; I was so sure they were injured… and I thought it was very strange how they kept saying, or rather dropping the… F-bomb, I believe you call it, and it was frequently followed by the words 'yeah' and 'me'."

Cyborg's organic eyed widened, almost painfully with a sting of exhaustion and surprise. "Uh… Starfire…"

"…And then when I rubbed the fog away from one of the windows, I found that a man appeared to be stuck to a woman's back, and they were stuck without any clothes on! They were jerking madly, pulling back and forth, trying to get unstuck from each other but to no avail. It was very awkward to try and help them while they were not wearing clothes, but I forced myself to rip off the door but when they saw me, both of them screamed quite loudly and separated from each other, hiding themselves in clothing.

"Oh geez..." Cyborg whimpered squeamishly. Beast Boy could be seen in the dim light of Cyborg's machine body and the moon's with his mouth hanging open and his slightly pointed ears drooped in shock and disturbance that made his stomach splash with illness. Robin was staring with wide eyes that stretched the thin black strip mask covering them to its limit. Gizmo suddenly stormed off, and the other Titans swore they saw steam jettison off his spherical bald head.

"That's just freaking fabulous," he whined, not having the energy to be his usual hostile self. "Now none of us are gonna sleep with that image in our heads."

"I do not quite understand," Starfire said. "While I have learned that naked people sometimes have ways of disturbing the human mind, what is it about being forcibly joined that makes it so disturbing?"

Robin slapped his forehead and almost felt the unclean, greasy film through his glove as he struggled to get the horrid picture out of his mind, but the more he focused on trying to rid himself of it, the more pungent it became. "Star, they weren't stuck together. They were… oh, never mind."

Cyborg had already left, wanting to purge the embarrassing thoughts of Starfire's intrusion while Robin looked for Beast Boy, who seemed to have vanished. He saw a greenish bat flying around erratically as though it were in considerable pain.

"Beast Boy, bats are blind, not deaf. But nice try."

A strange sound that could only be described as Beast Boy transforming (or possibly sliding the material of a windbreaker across a wall) indicated that he had shed the bat and he exchanged it for a small, hairless rodent.

"Naked mole rats are blind too. Not deaf," said Robin with a swift shudder. "Crap, I just said naked. Now it's even worse."

The tiny mole rat screeched as it scurried around and thumped feebly into Robin's leg.

"Beast Boy, either transform into a snake or leave."

He did both, slithering through a ventilation duct on the rooftop as fast as his scales allowed him to.

Robin glanced at Starfire, whose fingers acted as though bugs were tickling her skin. The thought of the whole event made her stretch down her purple miniskirt to try and cover more; any amount more that she possibly could.

"Uh... Star?"

The Tamaranian's hand almost convulsed as her face moved to inches within his and she made a feeble attempt to express her revulsion and embarrassment.

"EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!" she squealed, flailing her arms with her green eyes bulging. "I feel as though a million showers of flesh ripping hotness could not save me from the nastiness I have intruded upon!"

"Star..."

"Then all the moaning and screaming of the F-bomb was all... Oh, yuck!"

"Starfire..."

"The sex is not supposed to go in from the back side, so what were they..."

"STARFIRE!" Robin drowned out her panic with raw volume. It worked, luckily for him. It wasn't a conversation he wanted to have.

They waited for several minutes silently, the only two left to listen.

Starfire was trying to think about something less embarrassing that the way she had intruded on the couple, and Robin was considering all that had happened.

"Um…"

Robin almost missed it, enjoying the embrace as the wind ruffled his hair, and with the utmost normalcy he switched gears mentally to a more inquisitive stature. "What's that?" he asked.

She shook her head curiously in thought. "Do you... do you think that friends Raven and X… that they could...?"

"I... uh," Robin stumbled, trying to make sure that didn't become a disturbing mental image either, "I don't know Starfire. They've grown really close, and I know I shouldn't underestimate Mega Man, but I honestly don't know if he's capable. I'm pretty sure Cyborg isn't. Why do you ask?"

"I just thought that it would be wonderful for Raven. She's always kept to herself. Only once has she had romance with another, and as you know..."

"I know, Starfire. That didn't turn out so well for her. But I'm glad she's found X, and that he found her. As different as they are, I think they make a fantastic couple, and what's more important is that Raven seems happy."

Starfire hummed approvingly, and she looked over the edge at the earth of their little island. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I almost forgot. During the interruption of the sex," (Robin's eye twitched), "the tar beneath them had begun to split open, threatening to swallow their car and them along with it before I had the terrible misfortune of invading their sex privacy." (Another twitch).

Robin rubbed the rogue eyeball. "Now that is interesting, but it's not really getting us any closer to figuring out what's causing all these little miracles and supernatural events." He sighed and then slapped his palm on the concrete and steel of the rooftop. "I swear, Starfire, I don't know how much longer I can stand to search without getting at least one step closer to finding out the cause of all this. The public's starting to notice, too. Saw on a tabloid, front cover had that eighty-something grandma who tossed a car aside to save her grandkid. They were selling a lot better than usual. Damn it! This is so aggravating."

"I agree, Robin," she said to him. "Every time we think we have... triangulated is the word?" Robin nodded, and she continued. "Every time we have searched these locations we come up empty, and I must admit that although you regard me as the most optimistic and cheerful of us all, I am finding it quite frustrating."

"It's not just that, either," he admitted, and he took off the veil over his eyes; a thing he rarely ever did. His eyes were pale blue. They clashed with almost everything else on his outfit; the greens and reds of most of his suit, the yellow on the inside of his cape. "I don't like feeling so... so small," he said. "X was counting on us to try to find this, and we've been searching for over a week without a single legitimate clue to lead us while they're out there having an adventure that feels so grand compared to almost anything we've ever done. The Triforce, the sages, the Master Sword..." he trailed off before grinning as he watched Starfire watching him. "I guess I'm a bit jealous."

"Perhaps this adventure is simply not a part of us, the Teen Titans," Starfire explained. She looked at her palms. "In my hands, I hold much more power to change things than most of the normal human inhabitants of this planet. I often have wondered if they feel the same way about us as you do about what X and Raven and possibly even Terra are being given the chance to do. But I have realized that all of us have different strengths and that everyone has power to change things. I know that I most certainly could not be one of the few gourmet chefs that we see on the television preparing food in front of a live audience."

Robin laughed warmly. "I don't think I could do that, either. I'm too goofy looking, and when I say 'Bam!' it just doesn't have the same effect."

Starfire giggled as her eyes fluttered. She stared at him as he stared at the stars. "I think that your 'Bam' is wonderful, and you are most certainly not too goofy looking. You are just goofy looking enough."

He smiled and wrapped his arms tenderly around her, feeling her burnt-orange hair tickle at the exposed skin above his arms as their warmth collided at the chest.

"Thanks, Star."

"You are quite welcome," she smiled.

They expanded with the deep breath of satiated stress that came from the most perfect of hugs. Each took turns closing their eyes to enjoy the moment. In perfect agreement, they wordlessly separated, same speed, same time.

"Let's go get some sleep."

"I agree," Starfire nodded, "but you have forgotten something."

Robin tilted to one side. "I did?"

"Yes, you did. You have not given your report yet. You went again to Terra's cave?"

The young leader stood and lifted Starfire up effortlessly as she assisted by allowing her ability to hover do half the work. He grinned with crossed arms. "You caught me then. Yeah, there was an energy reading at Terra's cave again. Same thing, again."

"The strange green streaking lights?" Starfire guessed, and Robin indicated that she was right with a bodily shrug.

"It hasn't changed at all. I ought to help you all out with the rest of the things going on in the city."

"No Robin," she said to her leader and friend. "You suspect she has something to do with this, and I believe that your assumption is a correct one. She does bear the mark of the Triforce."

The boy wonder gritted his teeth. "I know, but it can't just be that. It doesn't make sense. She's not even close to the places where we've picked up energy readings most frequently. She's almost outside of the range of everything else... which unfortunately seems to be slowly growing."

Her eyes, defiantly grappling against growing more tired, widened as much as the sagging dark areas under her lids would allow. "I was not aware of that."

"Neither was I, until I studied the readings earlier today. It's a tiny difference, but it's growing. Whatever's causing this is spreading, and though I think Terra's involved somehow, I don't see how she can be the cause."

"Stop brooding over this for now, Robin. We both... need..."

They yawned widely, neither one bothering to cover their mouths. It had gone past the point of caring about appearance some time ago.

"Ok. Sleep. Now," Robin gurgled as the last yawn left him debilitated. The trip to each of their rooms were nothing but blurs of stumbling, exhaustion and the clock-work snore of Beast Boy that penetrated steel plated and supposedly soundproof doors. They both giggled before splitting ways, and Robin muttered to himself something about having those doors improved, though he was sure not to remember as he reached his bed, sloppily struggled to pull off his hero outfit and collapsed belly down in a heap, falling asleep almost instantly.

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Even though necessity demanded it, sleeping for nearly a day straight after being up for three can have some fairly profound effects on the brain, Robin realized as a pinkish beam of light tinted his eyes. The ending of a fantastic sunset, he was sure, and then he corrected his own thoughts, changing 'a whole day of sleep' to 'three quarters of one.' Lifeless and starving for nourishment other than black coffee or Beast Boy's pixie sticks, Robin struggled to shove his body up from the face down poise that he had been in since he collapsed the previous night. Or had it been very early morning when they had...? Oh, it didn't really matter. No alarm was going off, beckoning him elsewhere to fight crime or some form of personal super villain lunacy. Patrolling for three days straight had a way of alerting whoever would call themselves enemies of the Titans to keep an exceptionally low profile until things were back to normal. Few were stupid enough to try something daring with all of them so active, and with Gizmo's presence as an ally (at least for the time), it was probably making former partners and other criminals who knew the bald whiz kid rather uneasy about their secrecy. All those who lacked the intellectual facilities to recognize that it wasn't a good time to stir up trouble were easily taken care of by the normal police force throughout the city.

Robin arched his back. It hurt, but it hurt great, and his muscles loosened up happily as he finished the stretch and flipped himself over onto the soft, cushioning feel of his bedding. Sucking a flow of somewhat stale but still refreshing air that had been composed of the haphazardly strewn clothing around his room, the young leader leapt up to a steel bar than hung from his ceiling and yanked himself up several times before allowing himself to stretch his spine and drop to his feet. A number of cracks signaled that his own self inflicted chiropractic work was suitable enough to move on through the rest of his day's routine. Well, his night's routine anyway. To hell with routine, it was almost 7 PM. He would do whatever he felt like as long as it was productive.

He showered, but just quick enough to make himself smell fresh again. Once smelling awful was funny with Starfire. A second time would be distasteful, and although it could have been helpful, a long shower was too much of a waste of time even when rebelling against routine. After a quick toweling, he slid on a black sweater, matching pants and decided on skipping socks and shoes.

The hallways were void of Beast Boy's snoring, luckily, but the common room was vacant in spite of the changeling's absence of nostril noise. The kitchen, being separated from the rest of the common room only by a length of kitchen counter, was the picture perfect place to watch the sunset at a distance.

He flipped open the fridge, shuffled aside some of the sloppily uncovered food with its furry blue mold (shaking his head for a moment, never able to get used to the fact that Starfire could digest it) and found a clean red delicious apple that had clearly been bought during the most recent trip to get groceries. Otherwise it would have joined the collection of foreign life cultivating itself amongst take out Chinese and leftover spaghetti. Juicy and chilled, the fresh bites slid down happily into his stomach, satisfying the craving for something other than diuretic stimulants while he watched the water's surface blend with a setting mauve sun. Coffee be damned in comparison to this, he thought.

He yawned again as the star that greeted the world's morning said its goodbyes and slowly brought darkness, signaling the automatic lighting in their den to adjust subtly, but not nearly enough after several years for Robin to not notice. He looked around the common room. Still empty. He didn't blame them. Raven probably would be the only other one up, if she were here, but even she would most likely still be in her room.

He sat down at one of the work computers, twisting himself just so in the swiveling seat, remembering for a moment when he and X had sought answers about the Mavericks on their planet. They never had found any reason why the rouge machines had wanted in the first place, but with their base and all of them destroyed, in hardly mattered anymore.

Robin brought up the grid of the city where all of the strange events had occurred recently, disregarding some that were unsubstantiated or unconfirmed, and stared. He slid over a second screen next to the first, switched it on, and transferred the data on each incident to that one, and stared.

Unexplained natural phenomena, superhuman abilities, miracle healing, bullets suddenly having the power of cannons, strange activity in Terra's cave; what the hell was the correlation? He squinted more at the grid as his brain processed, trying to recognize something he hadn't before. The range was wide and circular, about thirty miles in diameter and less than half of that from the center to the coastline on any part of their peninsula. Much of the range therefore extended into the water, but nothing had happened out there aside from a beachgoer somehow snapping a half ton shark's skull when it tried to bite him. Lucky bastard. Less than a month ago that would have been cause for research, tests and a thorough questioning. Now it was just another blip on his screen and well within the radius of effect.

Out of the corner of his eye, a bright light pierced the main monitor with the image of Gizmo, looking tired and uptight.

"Hey bird boy! Got something you're gonna wanna take a look at."

"What's that, skullcap?" Robin candidly replied.

He tapped a few keys on his end. "Another energy reading. Out on the water on a battleship. I'm uploading it to you now."

It was good to know he wasn't the only one motivated to work. He waited a moment for his screen to update. It went black for a moment, and then reconstructed the area with each spot marked and a new one, far off the coast of the city. His eyes bored at the shinning red dot with stunned expression.

"Triangulate the new epicenter," Gizmo's rough voice suggested. "And try not to piss in your pants."

Holding his breath, Robin did so, watching the computer analyze the intensity and frequency of all the recorded events. It was a brief, but breathless few seconds, and Gizmo's remark was fully understood.

"Shit," Robin slurred under his breath. "Gizmo, that incident was over eighty miles off the coast. That means…"

"The area of effect we originally guessed just more than quadrupled."

"No, Gizmo… I know that. Yes, it blows, but… of course! I can't believe I didn't think of that before."

"What are you jabbering on about?" the whiz kid scowled. "What did you figure out?"

"That's it!" Robin exclaimed. "The Mavericks, don't you see? They were after this power source the whole time, and they were looking for it underwater because it is underwater. They were searching for exactly what we are now, and that's why they escaped by submarine when we first fought them!"

Robin rolled his chair hurriedly to the front control panel and shut off the oversize picture of Gizmo. "C'mon Aqualad, pick up!" he said to himself anxiously, finding it difficult to resist the urge to bounce in his seat. "C'mon!"

He took the brief moment's wait to yank a microphone from under the main computer console and summon the other Titans who would no doubt be irate. Aqualad's young, rigid face and jet black hair expanded on the main viewer.

"What's up Robin?" the dark eyed Titan asked. "Trouble?"

"Maybe," Robin answered. "There's a disturbance on a battleship a ways off the coast. I need you to check it out, pronto. In the meantime, I need you to have every fish and mammal with a half-decent memory in the area to search off the coast of the city for anything unusual. We're now very convinced that the energy source causing all the supernatural activity is somewhere out there and that it was the same thing the Mavericks wanted to get their hands on. I'm sending you the coordinates now."

"Roger," added Aqualad. "What about you guys?"

"I'm going to have Cyborg, Starfire and Gizmo keeping an eye on things on dry land to make sure there's no trouble and to keep track of the disturbances. Beast Boy and I will join the sea life in the hunt."

Aqualad nodded and Robin noticed a strong look of admonishment on his face.

"What is it?" The boy wonder asked.

The aquatic Titan breathed out thinly. "Be careful. There've have been a couple of unusual disappearances of sea-life around her. Normally we all know when a whale, dolphin, or other large animal gets taken down by predators, but some of the incidents lately have come up empty."

"Come up empty?" Robin repeated. "You mean they're just missing?"

"Exactly," said Aqualad in a dark tone.

Robin scratched his chin feverishly. "I don't like the sound of that. It's possible that there are still Mavericks around who've been in hiding." He looked up. "We'll be cautious. Robin out."

The hydraulic swish of both entrances to the common room uncannily echoed behind Robin simultaneously, and three more Titans plus Gizmo filed out in a hurry, Beast Boy doing so while struggling with one of his shoes in a fast paced, one legged hop to keep up.

"What's up, Rob?" Cyborg rubbed both eyes. "You find something?"

"Sure did," he said back, briefly acknowledging that it was Gizmo's finding with a nod toward him. "Our target's been out in the water all along, and the area that's under the influence of it is a lot larger than we originally thought."

"Meaning," Starfire began, "that it has now become even more urgent to find it, yes?"

Robin shook his head and tossed his apple lightly in his hands as he headed toward his room. The Titans knew to follow instinctually.

"Not only that, Starfire, but there's a good chance the Mavericks were after whatever this thing is, and there might still be more of them out there searching."

A deep grunt turned their heads toward the metallic member. "Sounds like a perfect opportunity for some payback."

"I'd rather avoid a confrontation if possible," commanded Robin, particularly toward Cyborg." "It'll just be Beast Boy and I patrolling the seas with Aqualad and whatever equine life he can convince for the job. I don't want to rouse them into picking another fight with us unless absolutely necessary, got that everyone?"

"Understood," Starfire bowed lightly.

"Sure thing, Robin," Beast Boy agreed, too sleep to do otherwise.

"Meh," the whiz kid at least acknowledged what was being said, and Cyborg just snorted like a bull being told it's not allowed to charge.

"Alright then, Star, Cy, and Gizmo, you keep an eye on the activity up here in case anything happens. Beast Boy, come with me."

"Uh… into your room?"

"Yes, Beast Boy, I need to brief you on the rest of the plan," he said, somewhat falsely as he hadn't formulated the rest of it yet. "The rest of you, to your stations."

Three sets of feet shuffled away before Beast Boy reluctantly followed into Robin's room which was still somewhat scattered in reality, but clean as a whistle in his eyes. He plopped down on the corner of his leader's bed as clothes were picked up in pieces all around him to form the whole of Robin's outfit, and he waited for the one-on-one explanation that wasn't ordinary for the Boy Wonder to give to him.

"So… what's up?" Beast Boy said stupidly.

"Plenty," was Robin's aggravated response. "First off, I don't want Cy involved in this one. I'm sure you understand why."

"Yeah, of course," said the changeling.

"Also, since this may involve fighting the Mavericks again, I want as few people as possible to know about the little hunt we're going on. If you remember last time…"

"Trust me," Beast Boy assured him, "I remember the brain sucky devices of mondo weirdness. We don't want someone else's memories to get us in trouble, right?"

"Right, that's exactly it. The fewer people who know about it, the better chance we have of protecting the information. If the Mavericks came all the way to our world; a world much less technologically advanced than theirs, then it has to be important, and we can't risk helping them get closer to that power source. You've seen everything that's been happening around town lately. Just imagine…"

"Mavericks getting a hold of that? No way I'd want to be around for that disaster."

Robin hummed in agreement. Finished getting into his Titan outfit, he led the green skinned friend the long way around the tower toward the service stairwell so as not to provoke an interrogative argument with Cyborg about the importance of sticking together. There was a time and a place for that. This wasn't it. Many occasions had warranted the desire for Robin to shout out "Let's split up gang!" as though they were a bunch of Scooby fanatics. Then he was reminded of how Freddy was the good looking dolt of the gang. Images as frightening as him in Fred's outfit had an influential means of both terrifying the daylights out of someone and making them feel thankful that they aren't nearly that dull and dimwitted to begin with.

The mindless trudge down a poorly lit section of barren space and dull grays originally led as deep as the basement; a place of useless criminal junk in mounds of storage boxes that would most likely gather dust until the next time it became necessary to add a new container to the neglected collection. The last time anything was added was when the majority of the short circuited and destroyed Maverick technology had been confiscated from their base. Much of it was useless due to the security counter measures that fried the circuits once Vile was destroyed, but just to be safe, a brief and unspoken period of abstraction by Mega Man X took place before the rest of it was divvied up between the Titans and the government's lesser known, unnamed technological research departments.

It was uncomfortable knowing that much of the Maverick remnants, although the more impressive and clearly foreign items were taken by X, were in government hands. The technology that Vile had brought was for war. If advancements were to be made as a result of the interstellar machines, then clearly it would be in the same fields that Vile and the other Mavericks had been using it for. Robin briefly hoped that X's interjection and the Maverick base's own self-shorting sequence that occurred when Vile was destroyed was enough to keep things progressing at a regulated pace for their Earth.

The Titan leader breathed slow and deep, reminding himself that he wasn't entirely in control of it. It was the taxpayers and the government who provided much of the funding to rebuild Titan's Tower after its multiple incidents of near collapse and obliteration, and so the government demanded a portion at times. Using the argument that Cyborg had both cybernetics and engineering degrees (earned in spare time mainly through online courses) apparently was losing its effectiveness in keeping weapons out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them; a category that Robin believed should ideally include everyone, his own government particularly.

Beast Boy was quiet. Robin wondered what he was thinking as he listened to the soft clang of worn iron stairs that the green. The changeling, youngest of the Titans, had been less abused by the Maverick insurgence than anyone else. Cyborg had been manipulated, temporarily turned into a Maverick himself and nearly torn to pieces to rid him of the affliction. Raven was nothing short of mutilated and then brought to the border of full mental collapse. Starfire was stricken with a flu-like disease as a result of the Magna Centipede's sting that almost killed her, a fate apparently rare and considered terrifying on her home world. Robin reflected on himself and the body that was close to a hundred percent of what it had been. Paralysis was nearly his fate… stuck in Titan's Tower forever unless he opted for Cyborg to replace the dead limbs from the waist down with something cybernetic. But Beast Boy had taken merely a thorough beating. Robin smiled inwardly at how strange that sounded, but it was something that young changeling was well used to, like the rest of them. Even though he lacked the skills, powers, and wisdom of the rest of his partners, it seemed that circumstance left him the best person for the job.

"So…" Beast Boy desperately broke the silence that he didn't coexist well with, "what exactly are we looking for?"

Robin's thought had distracted the fact that they had descended the stairs deeper than their basement already to the hangar of their transportation pride and joy, aptly named the Sea Titan (destroyed twice previous to this model). Configured for air, sea, and even space, it was one of the devices that they were happy to test out for the generous people at Wayne Enterprises, particularly the billionaire president of the company who always spared no expense in contributing to the professional crime fighting hero groups throughout the country.

Painted black and orange, it stuck out like color in a 50's film, as did the smell of sea salt that permeated their noses from the fan-cooled room blowing off the surface of the water where the ship was partially submerged. Designed for five passengers in separate compartments, the Titan ship was normally conjoined as one, but it was capable of separating and reattaching parts effortlessly and each section had its own propulsion systems for the highest versatility. Tonight for Robin it would be a solo mission using the lead section with some form of green aquatic life form following at his side. He turned to answer the changeling as he operated a keypad that unlocked tight steel clamps on the ship's wings.

"We're looking for something weird. That's about the best I can give you. As we get closer to whatever it is we're looking for, I'm hoping that there will some sort of sign, even though the events have always been in places with people, I would think that there would be some sort of evidence at the source. It might even affect us when we get closer."

"Uh… what exactly is it gonna do to us?" Beast Boy asked tentatively.

Robin paused for a moment and tapped his foot on the edge of the Titan ship, glancing sideways and not wanting to contemplate the question he wished had not been asked, as he was trying to force the inevitable thought to the back of his brain. Beast Boy, young and still embraced by naivety should have known that answer. It was the same answer as it always was. But Robin lied to him just the same.

"I'm not sure."

With Robin underneath the bubble glass shielding of the center compartment, the ship was lowered into the water gently, and the four other sections were pulled apart with loud clanging, supported by the metal clamps while the middle leader's portion bobbed mildly in the sea water. Beast Boy popped up beside him in the unpleasant looking shape of a squid that had passed the threshold of normal size. Something of a mini kraken, really.

They dove into the darkness of the ocean cave beneath their proud tower before a moment later the moon's illumination gave shape and surface to the steady decline of soaked and submerged Earth leading out to the Atlantic. Soon, though, depth gave way to darkness. One short of a half dozen lights burst through the aquatic shadows from the single section of Robin's pod-like craft. Two pairs on the sides spread wide rays that gave dim but broad and ample vision for a fifty meter, half-circle radius while the center beam cast a mobile spotlight's force in any direction that Robin desired. Beast Boy kept a careful distance underneath the shadow of the sub so as to keep himself out of the sights of predators who would mistake the green fellow for a tasty meal, or better yet, to keep away from any Mavericks who might still be on their planet. If there were any, they both knew that it was likely that they were searching in the same place for the same thing.

Twenty or so miles off the coast was so much more of an exotic - and dangerous - trip when late at night underwater. Coral and other aquatic plants created three dimensional murals of artwork that moved as the ocean tides swayed, and smaller creatures that swam or slithered past made the masterpiece come to life underneath the focused light. Tiny bits of dust and bacteria were dusted up when the ship dropped lower, making crystal clear water look murky with plankton and krill.

Deeper.

Tiny squeaks of stress and counter-stress drew Robin's eyes around, allowing his periphery to focus on his craft for problems while his main focus stayed within the light gaze coming from it. Nothing out of the ordinary. But then, what was ordinary in an ecosystem still so foreign and unknown in many ways? Hundreds of new species discovered in the Antarctic oceans on recent expeditions and many depths too far for manned or even automated submersibles to handle had a way of unsettling the Titan Leader. Beast Boy thought nothing of it and kept the eyes of his squid wide open for anything that didn't belong.

A massive and deep moan rumbled across both Titans, halting them suddenly, sending shivers down Robin's spine and Beast Boy's tentacle arms. Eyes were useless for both of them. They saw nothing through the wide beams or even the spotlight that could have caused it. Just a humbling moan that must have gone through the ocean for miles. Beast Boy jutted up next to Robin and made the Boy Wonder clasp at his chest as he was thrown to the other side of the compartment, startled so badly that he gasped for breath. The changeling began to use one of his long, probing squid arms to do something to the glass of the ship.

"W... H...A...L... a whale," Robin understood. "But that didn't sound normal for a whale."

Beast Boy shook the body of the squid to imitate a gesture of 'No, it didn't.' He pointed the same tentacle in the direction that he thought it came from. His body began to shift again, silently from Robin's perspective, slowly growing with tentacles reverting to the long tail of a relatively large whale himself. Beast Boy moaned similarly, but far less frighteningly back at the first call and swam off ahead of the ship as he was now a much larger and mightier vessel himself, and he was nearing the end of the spotlight's range of vision before Robin locked onto him with radar and set a much faster pace to give chase. Robin figured to himself with hands tight on the controls that it might be some of Aqualad's help. But judging by the moan, he wished there had been some way to contact Beast Boy in his current form to warn that he may be running into a deadly situation.

The propulsion system ran loud as he pushed the engines to keep up with Beast Boy, but a sudden and gargantuan shape on radar dwarfed both his own ship and the size of the changeling, who had come to a halt and was now in Robin's clear line of sight. Beneath them was a narrow and jagged crevasse in the ocean that stretched the limit of Robin's sight in either direction, but he was too enthralled and terrified with what the shape beyond Beast Boy's. Another whale, easily matching his partner's size and weight five-fold and clearly mighty enough to use Robin's sub as a toothpick, floated in front of them majestically with an aura of age and wisdom great enough to penetrate the rift between it and the humanoid species and earn it respect. Barnacles had settled all across the beast in strangely particular locations, causing a striped design that may as well have been a crown of gold on the length of the whale's top and bottom, converging in both places to points near the slowly waving tale. It had to have been easily a century old.

The creature exchanged mild moans with Beast Boy's whale form. After a minute, watching in awe, Robin acknowledged as Beast Boy shrank to the much more comforting size of a standard bottle-nosed dolphin to play a grief game of charades. The dolphin flipped upside down and began to sink lifelessly with the current.

"Dead?" Robin said loudly, articulating the shape and sound of the word clearly through the glass once Beast Boy had finished. "Dead dolphins?"

The changeling nodded, and then used his fin to making an awkward jerking motion toward the fissure beneath them. Robin nodded.

Hesitantly and slowly, he strapped himself in and led the ship down through the narrow gap that barely accommodated the two of them while the ancient whale watched them closely. Robin felt the pressure of the descent as he aimed the craft downward; the tug of his body against the restraints that held him fast and the rush of blood that made his face feel swollen. But after a brief handful of seconds, instead of a crevassed that shrank in width with depth, it began to expand rapidly, growing unnaturally until it reached a smooth and uniform width that didn't change any longer throughout the descent, though water was growing darker and murkier every second that they did. The sub creaked again, nearing a distance underneath the water that was harvesting discomfort from the edges of Robin's mind. He knew something was there, and light touched down at last on the flat surface of a man-made ocean bed almost a quarter mile wide and more than a mile long. Tall poles with glowing orbs at their tops that resembled runway lights turned on in pairs as they neared the bottom, and Robin took a moment to exchange nervous glances with Beast Boy, realizing that sweat had begun trailing down his forehead and onto his uniform.

The globe light-tipped poles came to a halt, and the last two were flashing a bright red like the blinker of a car. There were also near one end of the crevasse, and nothing seemed to be there other than the lights. Robin sat with the ship upright, alleviating the awkward warmth of excess blood in his facial features as he thought and looked for something. The sensors picked up nothing but the poles, Beast Boy, and solid rock.

The dolphin form of the changeling suddenly swayed and flapped next to him, excited about something. Robin lifted up his arms and gave an exaggerate look of confusion, which earned an unusually human look of frustration out of a dolphin as he pointed toward the back wall beyond the blinking red orbs. Images suddenly registered on his sensors. Partial ones; incomplete ones, all at regular intervals.

"A dolphin's sonar... brilliant Beast Boy!" Robin said, giving his partner a thumbs up as he began to use the onboard computer to form a likely shape out of the sound wave reflections that were hitting the ship silently. Shapes began to form behind the rock - it was hollow! An underwater hangar, clearly man made rooms beneath them, natural underwater cave formations... it had to be the Maverick's underwater base. Robin pivoted the ship as more sonic waves kept making the picture beneath the innocent looking sea bed clearer. Then, his arms tightened, his teeth clenched, and panic captured his face. All of the glowing orbs were flashing red. Menacingly red.

A sharp clang and the swift tearing of metal was heard at his side, and the expanding details of the map being formed with Beast Boy's help stopped what it was doing and displayed two clear, dangerous words: Hull Breach. Robin forced himself to breathe as he aimed the craft upward, and then everything blackened. He felt around - he and the controls were both still there. The lights of his craft and the ones illuminating the deep sea path had shut down, as had the warning that compromised all feelings of safety for Robin. Nothing responded. He switched on a light at the wrist of his glove. He couldn't see anything outside.

A violent jolt, and his craft began to ascend erratically without warning, sending him forcefully into his seat, stricken with shock and the fear that his small vessel was about to be the only witness to his end. He reached with strain under the rapid acceleration to reach for his controls, to try to start the ship again, but nothing responded.

"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" he slammed his fists across the display in fear, anger, rage, and horror as sparks shot out and light somehow came from somewhere. The lights of the Titan ship flickered on and off, as did the displays and sensors, as if they were being completely overloaded. The center spotlight audibly surged and shattered, dying completely while the other four still flashed out of control. Robin finally realized that his fists had smashed into the center display and refused to budge. He pulled back, feeling uncontainable amounts of pain ripping through his arms and head, but his fists remained in place. In even greater panic, he screamed and screeched, spitting with twisted jaw as his muscles all refused to properly obey him, and his blurring eyes watched neon green vines of energy spark from the skin between the ends of his glove and the beginning of the rest of his uniform. His brain, in excruciating agony, fathomed what might be happening; what was happening. The source supplying energy to his ship... was him. It careened even faster, accelerating and forcing the looser skin on his face to pull backward toward the headrest of his chair.

A violent crash - Robin was released from the connection with the ship, and its systems normalized. It slowed and slowed, and he realized that he had just struck the edge of the narrow crevasse. His arms wouldn't lift. Smoke wafted from him. His body felt burnt and smelled that way, too. Only his heart, pumping through his chest more violently than a drummer's beat, told him that he was still alive. That and the warning light that had returned, suggesting a hasty return to the surface before the ship could not take the pressure from the hull damage. A second light he realized through the haze that was his vision had also shorted out on the way up. Then, his spirits, though numb with what had happened, lifted as his craft slowly tilted downward back toward the crevasse's edge and he saw Beast Boy, still a dolphin, but with something small and web-like embedded in his side. Then came something else emerged from the darkness beneath as the green dolphin's nose pressed hard on the ship from underneath. It was thin and long, and bubbles blew out from the back as it and a twin of the object fully came into view, both of them methodically moving toward Beast Boy and Robin's ship.

Robin couldn't lift his arms to move the ship faster. They were completely limp. He could only watch as the missiles closed in quickly. It would only be a few more moments until they collided, the Boy Wonder could see. They weren't going to make it. They were going to tear him and Beast Boy to pieces, and their bodies would be forever lost in the sea, eaten by all those who would smell the thick and sweet smell of food from miles away.

A crest of barnacles and reflective blubber flashed by, and a second later, in the time that Robin had to hold what little breath he could intake, the water was engulfed in a massive cloud of mutilated flesh, blood and bone, making the ancient whale's front half unrecognizable as it faded with distance. It was beyond lifeless, and the missiles had gone with it. He could not pull his eyes away from the blown apart fragments of the whale sinking into the deep until his eyes failed him and exhaustion gripped him to sleep.

The next sensation Robin felt was a fresh breeze blowing against his burnt body, filling his lungs with the strong scent of salty water. He could see Beast Boy clutching his side painfully in human form with a slow but contained flow of blood as he winced into a Titan communicator and groaned through pained speech as someone on the other end gave response. As Robin lay there barely able to do anything but watch the stars and the moon through his foggy sight, he coughed out a small sigh. He tried to perceive and replay the vision in his thoughts of his arms, his body, his mind; all of them somehow becoming for a brief moment connected with the ship. His body had released energies that should have been impossible to do, let alone survive, he knew. Fatigue garbled his thoughts, but the conclusion was clear. They had found what they were looking for, and the Mavericks were clearly well ahead of them in unearthing the source of the power that had coursed through Robin's veins just moments ago.