{(Chapter 11: Old Geezers)}
Sayuri sighed.
"May I please have the radio?" she asked Robin.
He nodded. "Uh… sure."
Sayuri reached back, and took the radio from Robin. She clicked the talk button.
"Who is it I'm talking to?"
Silence for a few moments.
"Who's asking?"
"Nice move. Defensive. My name's Sayuri."
Another pause. Now the voice sounded angry.
"And what d'you want?"
Sayuri thought a moment, her mind reeling from the weeks of research information she'd had to do on these Titans… What I need to do is talk to someone who'll keep a cool head and believe me… Robin and Starfire are here. That leaves Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven. Cyborg was that loud, simple-ish one… he won't listen to me… Beast Boy was the joker guy… no…
"What I want is to speak to Raven."
Back at the Titan Tower…Beast Boy and Cyborg were hunched over the table - where Cyborg's com radio was laying. Cyborg was currently the one doing the talking, but Beast Boy was listening intensely. Raven was sitting –indifferently- on the couch.
The radio's settings had been set to auto, so that any voice in the room was picked up by the radio, and sent over the transmission.
"Who is it I'm talking to?"
Beast Boy's ears perked upon hearing the familiar female voice. It was the same he'd heard when Slade had contacted Robin.
"The enemy!" Beast Boy silently mouthed to Cyborg.
Cyborg nodded.
"Who's asking?"
"Nice move. Defensive. My name's Sayuri."
Cyborg looked at Beast Boy for confirmation. The boy nodded his head vigorously. That's definitely the same girl… same voice, and her name's Sayu--… whatever. Wait! If the enemy has Robin, he's in trouble!!!
It seemed Cyborg might have been thinking along the same thought line. He voice was unnaturally cold.
"And what d'you want?"
"…………… What I want is to speak to Raven."
Raven's suddenly sat up strait from her slumped over position. "Excuse me?"
"Is that her?"
Beast Boy looked wearily at Raven. "Why do you need to talk to her?"
"Because she's the most sensible person in your group, I think."
Beast Boy wrinkled his nose. "You mean you want to make her your next hostage."
"No. And why's she stopped talking?"
Raven rolled her eyes. "Because Beast Boy wanted to say something, and it's rude to interrupt."
There was a pause on the other end. Beast Boy thought he heard laughter.
"My apologies. Beast Boy, are you through?"
Beast Boy remained silent.
"I suppose that's a yes. Now, Raven, would you please listen to me? I have a feeling that neither Cyborg nor Beast Boy will trust me at all…"
Raven briefly rolled her eyes. "What kind of logic is that? There's not much chance I'll believe you either. I have very good reason to believe you're the girl we should be fighting right now."
Beast Boy, who'd been pointing to the radio and mouthing things like 'evil' and 'DANGER', grinned. Yes! She read my lips!
"That's a very good point. But if you want to help Robin at all, you'll have to at least listen…"
Raven said nothing. She looked over at Cyborg and Beast Boy. Beast Boy let out a resigned sigh, and Cyborg gave her a hesitant nod.
"Alright then."
"Okay. Long story short, Robin sacrificed himself for Starfire's safety, and has lost his memory in the process. He's safe, though, and we're currently traveling to see a guy who can restore his memory… But, even when the guy gets everything fixed up… Robin's still going to need some things from his past to help him remember everything again. I'm afraid that seeing just Starfire won't be enough. So, I need all of you to meet up with us somehow… and bring some old photos with you, if you can. The more old memories the better."
Raven groaned. "Memory loss? You gave him a concussion?"
"Not exactly…"
"Then what? You have mind controlling powers too?"
"No…"
Cyborg sighed. "Whateva. We'll trust you, for now. But when we see you… if Robin and Starfire aren't both unharmed, you'll be paying for it."
"Right."
"Also… where do you want us to meet you?"
"……… Well…. You can meet us outside the hospital. I need to stop by there again, anyway… I'll see you then."
The line went dead. Only static crackled from the radio's speakers. Beast Boy quickly reached over and shut off the irritating noise.
"Well…" Raven said, standing up. "Shall we go, then?"
Cyborg and Beast Boy both nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Less then an hour later…Two shadowed figures walked down the path from the Titan Tower. One was rather tall and bulky. The other was smaller, with a thin frame hidden in very baggy clothes.
As the sun peeked out from behind a mass of clouds, the two figures were illuminated and shown much more clearly. The first was a black man with a huge black afro. His clothing was a baggy, white jacket, with matching pants and jogger shoes. The second figure was a young, pale girl with long, dark brown hair, and a curious red gem on her forehead. She was wearing extremely large black pants, with an equally big, dark shirt, and black skater shoes. A green parrot rested happily on her shoulder.
As the two people walked down the sidewalk…
"I love the hair, Rae. Why don't you wear wigs more often?"
Raven glanced at Cyborg's large afro. "You're one to talk. This isn't the 70s."
"Hey! Afros will never go out of style! I'd grow my own, if I could."
Raven rolled her eyes, but said nothing. The parrot on her shoulder seemed to snicker.
And so, the three of them continued on for a few minutes, in silence. Each was rather unnerved about the fact that Slade could be watching them. But, Cyborg did eventually break their uncomfortable silence.
"See that?" He pointed a ways in front of them, where a shadowed form was coming down the sidewalk. "Those are people coming… Be careful. They could be Slade's spies…"
Raven and the parrot both nodded. Cyborg winced.
"And, BB… try to act more bird-like!"
The parrot blinked, but didn't nod again.
"Good."
By this time, the people Cyborg had spotted walking up the sidewalk had reached the three titans. There were only two of them. A man and a woman; both elderly. They were wearing old Georgian clothing, which looked a little out of place in the middle of the city.
"'ello, there." The old man said, looking at Cyborg and Raven. His voice sounded quiet and kind. "Fine day we're having, eh?"
Raven thought over the events of the past two days. Her friends had been trapped, kidnapped and endangered. And all by a villain that wasn't giving them the chance to fight back. Oh, yeah… really good day… Grimly, she gave the man a nod.
The old woman looked back and forth between Cyborg and Raven, then smiled at the old man. Her voice was surprisingly loud compared to his. "Oh, Seiku, aren't these two a cute couple?! They look just like we did when we were young'uns!"
Raven cocked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
Sitting on her shoulder, parrot-Beast Boy bristled.
Cyborg chuckled. Not wanting to waste any more time explaining things to the woman, he said, "Thank you, ma'am."
"Not really, Asuka…" the old man- Seiku smiled. "We didn't wear outrageous clothing like that."
"That's true." The woman, Asuka, said thoughtfully. The two had stopped walking a while ago. Raven and Cyborg had stopped as well, so as not to be rude.
Seiku glanced at an old wristwatch on his arm. "We'd better start going, Asuka… we'll be late if we don't."
Asuka nodded. "I suppose so. Would you two lovebirds do a quick kiss before we go? You are such a cute couple…"
Cyborg's face went beet red.
Parrot-form Beast Boy let out a squawk of dismay.
"My apologies." Raven said, her voice a cold monotone. "But we're on a time schedule as well, and we do not have time to go around entertaining elders who get kicks from watching kids make-out."
With that, she walked past the old couple and continued down the walkway. Wide-eyed, Cyborg followed quickly behind her.
"….you just disrespected an old woman…" he muttered. "Man, oh, man… isn't that supposed to be bad luck or something?"
"Spilling salt, crossing a black cat's path, walking under a ladder – those bring "bad luck"." Raven pointed out. "Putting a rude old geezer in her place… no."
Cyborg shook his head. "Whatever…"
The green parrot on Raven's shoulder seemed content that the telepath had refused to kiss Cyborg. He kept the same happy look as they continued walking. It only left him when they finally arrived at the city hospital.
(A/N- Yes, this chapter is short. Yes, it's rather boring and kinda sucks. But… I've been getting ready for a trip to GA this Wendsday… so I've been kinda busy, and not had time to find inspiration for this plot. Anyway, I'll be out of town Wendsday through Friday… so I'm sorry, but I won't be able to update. I'll make you a deal, though. While I'm away, I'll take my notebook and write the next chapter (or two), and update again as soon as I get back. Deal?
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, even though it's a little… dull. Also… thank you very much for the reviews, everyone! We've hit 150!!! Yay!! Actually, I'm REALLY close to hitting 175, now!! ^___^ YAY!! I can't believe how popular this story's gotten! Thank you so much everyone! Oh… and I have some responses to some reviews y'all sent in…
A.N.D.: You'll just have to wait and see how long it'll take Slade to figure it all out. ;) When he does, however, I can guarantee our heroes are in for some trouble. Also, no; Cy does not have the T-Car. I started writing this fic before the episode "Car Trouble" came out, therefore intended it to be before that time period. . Besides, I despise that episode. Raven&Cyborg?? *shudder* NOT my preference.
…: Well, alrighty… I do agree with you. Of course he's not stupid. But you really must take into account the fact that Sayuri IS "working for him". He trusts her based on what she's demonstrated thus far. He doesn't really completely trust her, though… But please don't make me give away my plot trying to explain myself. I've already done that once in this fic. @_@;;
Weirdo High Coffee Girl: *sigh* You're right. I really should have gone more in-depth with my description. And I did make a small typing mistake in it too. Anyway… please let me try and explain what I meant… In the Bible, the second coming of Christ (which is precluded by the many, many strange events and "tribulations") signals the end of the world (as you said). What I was trying to explain was, that's where the saying comes from.
All Flamers and Complainers: I don't want to seem like I'm making excuses, but… you really MUST keep in mind that -just like everyone else on this site- I AM ONLY HUMAN. And I'm not a very talented human at that. In addition to this, everything I post on ff.net is more or less my first draft. I run a spell check over my work, but I usually don't have the time to go back and check everything I've written, in addition to the time it takes to write it all in the first place (high school sucks). I know my works a bit of a disappointment, but I hope you'll try and tolerate it. Even though I'm trying desperately to improve, and learn from the advice and complaints you guys give me… this really is just about the best I can do, so I hope you'll forgive me if it's still not up to standards.
Anyway, thank you all again for reviewing! I appreciate it greatly! Please, please continue reviewing!!
^^; Even if you don't like this story… I'll be greatly obliged if you'd review anyway. Maybe you can tell me what all I'm doing wrong?
So, please! Review!)