Chapter 23
Slade had been telling the truth, the building Starfire exited had been empty. Which meant that there probably wasn't any reason for their meeting tonight other than a test. Cyborg checked his sensors and had headed back to the Tower in the T-Car to see if he could track Starfire's energy. Robin had also mentioned it would be a good idea to get the camera footage from the subway and Main Street. Raven had dragged Beast Boy back into the subway station so they could asses the damage, they'd have to call the relative authority to get them down there to repair it. Then they would have to stay until someone came to take over from them.
Flash was sat on the curb, stretching out his shoulder. Starfire had bent it far further than he thought it could go. He felt it click and cringed as it sent a shock down his arm. Sighing, he turned to see Robin sat next to him, turning the metal ball round in his hands. Flash scooted over, moving closer to Robin, before he took the ball out of Robin's hand. Robin didn't protest, just dropped his hands to his lap and stared out into the road. "Well, what now Dick?" Robin didn't respond, Flash regarded him out of the corner of his eye. He looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Do you think we could get any info out of this?" Flash held the ball up to him.
Robin regraded it, and sighed. "Nah, last time we tracked the location from one of these it was a dead end." He took the ball back in his own hand. "Plus, Starfire was the only one who managed to decode it."
Flash raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I didn't know she was tech savvy."
"Neither did we." Robin's voice was small, and low. Flash decided not to push. Robin sat up straight his expression turning thoughtful. "She grabbed that birdarang out of the air, without looking." He sounded shocked, despite having seen it happen.
"She's definitely gotten faster." Flash absently rubbed his shoulder. "I went to grab her wrist, I was going to pull her along with me and figure the rest out from there, but she grabbed me as I went for her and the next thing I knew I was on the floor."
Robin turned his head to Flash. "I knew she could fly fast, but I don't know how she's managed what she did tonight. I've never seen her do anything like this. Not even last time Slade had her."
"Surely though, Slade hasn't had the time for her to recover from her injuries and train her in the last, how many weeks. Two? Three? It's not possible... is it?"
"I doubt it. Unless she already could do this and we just didn't know it. I know she spoke a lot about her training on Okaara. It's a planet that's sole purpose is to train warriors from other planets. As princess, Starfire was required to complete three years of training there. I don't know what exactly she was taught though. Maybe I should speak to Galfore and ask him about it."
Flash was about to respond when he noticed Raven stepping up behind them. She held out her hand, and Robin took from her the birdarang that had been embedded in the wall of the subway station. "The workers are on their way here to repair the walls, there's no structural damage that we can see but they need to do a formal assessment. They suspect that they'll have it done before morning rush hour."
"Thanks Raven, are you and Beast Boy alright to wait for them?"
"Sure." Raven quickly waved her hand over Flash's shoulder. She'd spotted him rolling his arm slightly.
He gave her a grateful smile. "Thanks. Is Beast Boy okay?"
"He's fine. A bit shaken, but he's still trying to crack jokes so..." She looked over at Robin. "Did that birdarang hit you?"
Robin brought his hand up to his ear, running his finger over it. "Just a scratch." The memory of it flashed before his eyes. He'd barely had chance to stand up straight before the weapon had flown past his ear and into the wall. If he'd been any further over to his right... well. She had either missed by an inch, or she had planned it that way.
"Alright. I'll head back down. Beast Boy and I will meet you back at the Tower after." She turned and headed back down the steps. Robin looked at the birdarang in his hand.
"I don't mean to be blunt, but that could have done some serious damage." Flash pulled the birdarang out of his hand and inspected it. "It's not even that sharp and she managed to embed it in the wall without hardly moving."
Robin suppressed an annoyed sigh. Flash was just saying what he was thinking, but Robin was already aware of what had happened. He was there. Luckily, Cyborg called at that moment to distract him. Robin pulled his communicator from his belt, leaving Flash to look over the birdarang. "What's up, Cy?"
"Scanner tracked her energy to the marina. It just stops there, so she must have landed or gone under the scanners altitude."
"Flash and I will head over and have a look. Thanks Cy. Let us know if the scanner picks up anything else,"
"Will do." Cyborg signed off, and Robin heaved himself to his feet. He placed the metal ball in his belt and looked down at Flash.
"Come on. Let's go." He pulled Flash to his feet.
Flash handed Robin the birdarang and turned around. He held his arms behind him and wiggled his butt. "All aboard the Flash Train. Choo choo!"
Despite himself, Robin laughed. They'd come here via Raven, so Flash would have to get them to the Marina. Robin jumped on Flash's back, and they zipped off down the street. A piggyback really was an unorthodox way to travel, but needs must. It didn't take them long to get here, and by the end of it Robin was more than ready to disembark from the Flash Train. He hopped down and they headed off down the board walk. Robin pulled out his communicator to bring up the map Cyborg had sent that showed where the trail had ended.
"It says she came below altitude at the pier." They headed past the stalls and rides, heading out to the quieter part of the marina. Flash zipped to the end of the pier, looking out over the water. Robin looked around. There were a couple of cameras at the marina that might have picked her up. But she certainly didn't seem to be there now. Robin made a note of how many cameras were there, and went to the end of the pier to join Flash who was looking out over the water. "I doubt she would have landed where all the people are. She must have flown over."
"There's something down on the shore." Flash pointed down to the sand bank that ran under the pier. Robin spotted what he was looking at and hopped over the railing, onto the wet send below. Flash zipped up next to him as he bent down to pick up the item. It was a piece of black cloth. "Probably nothing."
"No." Robin twisted the fabric round and pulled it over his hand. "It's a ski mask." He pulled it so Flash could see the three distinct holes. Robin glanced over the sand below. "Look." He pointed just ahead of them. "Footprints, and they lead down the shore." Standing, he moved over to where the footprints were, and pulled his communicator out. It could have been a coincidence, but probably not. He called Cyborg.
"What's up, Rob?" Cy smiled at him wearily.
"I'm sending you a scan of some footprints. Can you compare them to the ones from STAR labs? I want to know if they match before we follow them."
"No problem. Just a sec." Cyborg went silent for a moment, and Robin could hear him tapping away at the keyboard. "Yeah, they match. Do you want me to come back down before you go?"
"No, you get that camera footage. Flash and I will follow these, but we won't engage. I'm just curious where they lead. I'll call you if we need you." Robin closed his communicator before Cyborg could argue. He turned to Flash. "Let's go." They set off down the shore, following the footprints. They walked in silence for a few minutes, until Robin noticed that the one set of footprints became two. He furrowed his brow and noticed, with disgust, that the new set was considerably larger than the other.
"It's gotta be him." Flash looked off, trying to see where the new footprints came from. They started from the rocks that acted as a tidal barrier, and met hers as she walked down the shore. "Why would he meet her here? It's not super out in the open but it's not like it's hidden. I mean, you can see this part of the shore from the Tower." Flash pointed to the giant structure to emphasises his point.
"Let's see where they lead, and we'll maybe find out." Robin carried on, he didn't understand either. "If there's one thing I know about Slade, everything he does has a purpose." Robin stopped, and Flash bumped into him as he was looking off over the water. "They stop here." Robin looked round. They must have flown, but under the altitude of the scanners."
"Where would they go?" Flash looked out over the water at the Tower, Robin following his gaze. Robin's stomach fell to his feet as his brain worked on overtime.
"I don't think they were bothered about this part of the shore being seen from the Tower. The point was that they can see the Tower from the shore!" Robin ripped his communicator out from his belt and called everyone. "Titans, get back to the Tower as soon as possible. Cy, lock it down! Now! And make sure that the perimeter sensors are on, I want to know the second anyone sets foot on that island."
Cyborg and Raven looked a bit confused. "What's going on, Rob?"
"I'll explain later! Just get it done. Raven, how long are you and Beast Boy off from being finished?"
She looked round before looking back at her communicator, "they've just arrived to start work so we could probably be back in fifteen minutes or so."
"Alright, just be as quick as you can. Flash and I will be back in five minutes."
Robin and Kid Flash actually arrived back at the Tower in three and a half minutes. Robin felt a little windswept as Flash had gone into overdrive. Flash ran in straight to Ops where Cyborg was hunched over the keyboard tapping away. He turned as he heard the door open and saw Robin hopping down from Flash's back, dropping the ski mask on the table as he went past. "Cy, report." Robin reached him and leant over his shoulder to see what the computer was doing.
"I've locked it down. I've only granted access to the five of us, via scans. If someone gets on this island, it should tell us. Now what's going on?" Cyborg turned to them as Robin explained. He frowned a bit as he listened, unsure that Robin's panic was justified. "Man, are you sure about this? Why would he leave clues to what his next target would be?"
Robin frowned back. "Because he's a psychopath. Cy, believe me, I've worked with him, I know what he's doing. He's giving us a chance to make it more interesting for him. If we know they're coming, we'll make it more of a challenge for them. He said he was going to test her, this is probably one of them."
Cyborg weighed the information up in his head, and well it was probably better to be safe than sorry. Robin wasn't often wrong. "Alright, let me set the system to scan the Tower. Just inc and they're already here. But I think the sensors would have picked them up."
"Thank you. Did you get the camera feeds?"
"Yeah, I've not been through them yet though."
Robin moved to take a seat next to him. "There's a few more at the marina I want to check. I'll get those and then we can have a look through them." Robin set to work getting access to the cameras. Flash looked round, knowing he would be of absolutely no help when it came to that sort of stuff. He also decided that now probably wasn't an appropriate to settle down playing video games.
Luckily, Raven and Beast Boy arrived in at that moment. Beast Boy went and sat down on the couch, Flash zipping over to join him. Raven went to stand behind Robin and Cyborg. "Construction workers say that the subway should be done within a few hours. No major damage, they just want to check the structure and fill in the holes."
Robin turned to her. "Thanks. The tower is on full lockdown, so no one leaves or comes in without us knowing about it. I think coming here could be part of Starfire's next test." He explained about what he'd seen on the shoreline, and Raven was slightly more willing to believe him than Cyborg was.
"Slade said himself, she won't do anything he hasn't told her to do. So I can't imagine she would leave the ski mask there unless he wanted her to. Meaning he probably wanted someone to find it." She moved over to the table where Robin had dropped the mask, and picked it up in her delicate hands. Drawing in a breath, her eyes went white as her magic seeped over the fabric.
There wasn't a lot to see, but the feeling was overwhelming. The anger, the fear, the unyielding need to please. All of the joy and happiness that Raven normally detected of Starfire were gone. Raven shuddered a bit as she was hit with a wave of longing. She could feel something that resembled anxiety along side it. With a shock of realisation, she opened her eyes. Robin was staring at her patiently. Raven had felt these before, herself. It felt like when a child wants to make a parent proud. When a person really wants to show you that they've done well. She realised, with a shock, that Starfire had a burning need to make Slade proud of her. She looked up at Robin with wide eyes.
"I..." she dropped the ski mask.
"Raven?" Robin got out of his seat and placed a delicate hand in her arm, coaxing her to sit down.
"She wants to make him proud." Raven couldn't quite believe it. Why? Why would Starfire give a damn what that manipulative psychopath thought of her?
Robin pulled a chair up next to her and sat facing her, his hands clasped together. "Yeah, he's very good at that."
Raven looked at him, her eyes wide. "Robin, you...?" She trailed off, and the rest of the team had gathered round to listen.
Robin sighed. "Yeah. When he tried to make me his apprentice, I wasn't even under his control, but he makes you want to please him. He has a way of drawing out your weaknesses and playing on them. I don't know if it's a subconscious thing with me, father figures haven't been the strongest in my life." He was not going to jump down that rabbit hole tonight. "But if she's under his control somehow, then he's the only authority she knows. I'm not actually that surprised."
He was surprised to admit it, but he wasn't surprised at how Starfire was feeling. He had felt it. He despised this man, with everything he had. Wanted nothing more than to end him. But Robin knew that deep down, what he really wanted to do was finally impress him. To finally beat him and get Slade to admit that he was worthy. Just like Batman he supposed. Robin shook his head, now wasn't the time for a self therapy session. He stood, looked at the clock and sighed. "You should all get some sleep." He wandered off without another word.
The remaining four watched him leave before the three boys looked at Raven. She stood. "He'll be fine. But he's right. We should go to bed. It's been a trying day."
Cyborg stretched, "Yeah Alright. Let me just finish this scan and I'll hop off." He went back to the computer, and was soon left alone as the other three filtered out of the room.
Robin didn't go to his room. He rarely had been over the past few weeks. Instead he stopped in front of the door next to his, and stepped inside. He wasn't sure why he had taken to sleeping in Starfire's room every night. The bed sheets had been washed a few times and they no longer smelt like her strawberry shampoo. Throwing off his cape and gloves, he kicked his boots off and fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. He pulled his mask off and let it drift into the floor. Starfire had looked right through him today. She had been instructed to hand him that ball, but there was no hint of recognition in her eyes at all. It was almost as if she hadn't heard him say her name. Sighing he rolled over pulling himself up to the pillows and he found sleep easier than he expected.
XXXXXX
Cyborg had taken longer to go to bed than he had anticipated. A few hours after compiling all of the camera feeds, he found his curiosity peaking, and he watched them a few times. Even slowed down, he couldn't quite understand how Starfire had managed to catch the birdarang. She didn't move her face away from Beast Boy to even see where it was going to hit. It was fascinating if not a little scary.
With a stretch and a yawn, he checked the lockdown before going to turn the computer off. He was stopped as a highlighted name caught his eye. With a raise of his eyebrow, he typed a little. Starfire's name was highlighted as one of people who were allowed access to the system. But Raven had locked her out of the system. He knew she had definitely done it, because he had double checked when he initiated the lockdown. Someone had reinstated her. With a frown he realised who it might have been, and got up to go and see him.
The rest of the Titans knew that Robin had been sleeping in Starfire's room, so Cyborg headed straight there and knocked on the door. Robin took a few minutes to answer, maskless and looking dishevelled in his uniform top and pants. "Cy, what's going on?"
"You tell me." He handed Robin a tablet. "Someone reinstated Starfire back into the system. Now I'm not saying it was you, I'm just saying..."
"It wasn't me." Robin looked at the information on the tablet. His brows knotting together. "I swear down, it wasn't me." He looked Cyborg in the eye, he was telling the truth Alright. It was rare to see Robin's eyes, and really when you did get to see it was clear why. They betrayed everything about him, and how he was feeling. At this moment, he was as confused as Cyborg was. Robin handed the tablet back to Cyborg and shook his head to rid it of its sleepy state. "We can find out who it was though." Putting his uniform together properly, Robin called Raven, Flash, and Beast Boy on the communicators as he fixed his mask to his face. Flash answered but didn't say anything as he didn't seem entirely awake.
Raven answered looking less than pleased. "What?"
"I know it's early but can you come into the hallway please?" Robin made a move for the door, Cyborg going with him. Flash was already there when they reached the door, leaning against it, his eyes fluttering shut a few times. Raven joined them outside Starfire's door, her blanket pulled round her shoulders.
"What's so important that it couldn't wait?" Really she was not the friendliest when she was tired.
"Cy can you go wake Beast Boy up? He's not answering." Robin turned to Raven, putting his communicator back on his belt. Cyborg went and knocked on Beast Boy's door before letting himself in. Robin ran a hand through his hair, "someone reinstated Starfire on the system. It wasn't either of you was it?"
Flash just shook his head, yawning as he nearly slipped from the doorframe and stood up straight. Raven raised an eyebrow at him, confusion on her face. "I took her off, but I didn't put her back on. Why would I?"
Before Robin got chance to answer, Beast Boy was lifted from Cyborg's shoulder and placed on his feet with a wobble. It was clear he had fallen asleep in his uniform as it was disheveled and wrinkled. "What's going on?" He yawned and leant against Flash, using him as an upright pillow.
"Beast Boy, did you reinstate Starfire into the system?" Robin glanced at him, really it was a stupid question.
"Me? Do I look like someone who knows how to do that?" He glanced at Flash who had opened his mouth to retort. "Do not answer that." He crossed his arms over his chest.
Robin frowned, "Why didn't you answer your communicator? It could have been an emergency!"
Beast Boy turned shifty, and Robin narrowed his eyes at him. "Um... we'll see the thing is... I didn't hear it go off... cause I kinda.. maybe... might have lost it..." he let out a nervous chuckle. Raven smacked him in the back of the head. "Hey!" He moved away from her, rubbing his head. "Look, I had it when Cy and I were out on patrol, cause I used it. But when Robin called to say we needed to come home, mine didn't go off. That's the first time I realised it was missing."
"Damn it!" Robin's outburst caused them all the jump. "Cy just check the system and see if it logged who authorised reinstating Starfire." He sent a small glare to Beast Boy but he realised that it probably wasn't entirely his fault.
Cyborg clicked away on the tablet. "Rob, the communicators aren't capable of doing..." he trailed off as he brought up the information. Robin pulled the tablet out of his hand.
"No, they're not, but they are still connected to the system. It says Beast Boy authorised it. Meaning they've managed to use the communicator to get into the system. It's not going to reject the signal from the communicator, it's the same software." Robin felt his panic rising.
Cyborg was about to respond when his arm console started beeping. He pulled it up and his face took a grim turn. They all turned to him, questioning. "The lockdowns just been shut down."
Robin moved beside him to look at his arm. "By who?"
Cyborg sighed, "Starfire."
Robin wanted to punch something, and the look on his face told them all that. He clenched his fists, unsure what to do. "Can you put it back under lockdown?"
"Not from here, I need to be on the main computer." He turned to go, time wasn't exactly on their side, but as he started walking another alarm beeped. He cursed as he looked at his arm. Slowly he turned to them. "Starfire's just been granted access to the garage." He dropped his arm.
Flash and Beast Boy stood up straight. Raven dropped her blanket, and Robin's expression turned grim. "She's in the Tower."
