{(Chapter 15- Action Packed Sneezes)}
It was a few hours after Sayuri, Beast Boy, Raven and Cyborg had left, when Starfire finally began to wake up. She slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. I had such a wonderful dream last night… I wish I did not have to wake up from it…
Starfire glanced down the hallway, where Robin still lay fast asleep. I dreamt that Robin was holding me in his arms… and comforting me while I cried… She sighed. It had felt so… real. If she'd known any better, she would've sworn it wasn't a dream. But… Robin doesn't even remember me… why would he embrace me like that?
Starfire sighed, and then put on her characteristic, joyful smile. How wonderful it feels to be getting a good night's sleep again… She stood up from her make-shift bed, and folded up her blanket in the classic, Tamaranian way.
Across. Under. Over. Through.
By the time she was done, the blanket resembled a small triangle.
Starfire beamed, happy with her job well done. She picked up the pillow, and carried both that and the blanket with her into the Arai's living room. She was surprised to see that Seiku was still awake, and working at his kitchen table. But what really surprised her was that the woman sitting with him was not the red-haired, golden-eyed girl she'd been expecting to see. No, the lady with Seiku was far older, and had gray and white streaked hair. Starfire noticed that the woman's eyes were unusually wide, and colored a dark brown.
"Mr. Arai? Good morning."
Seiku turned around to look at Starfire. His weary expression quickly turned back to its usual pleasant, patient appearance. "Good morning, yourself, little miss. How are you feeling this morning? I thought I may have heard some sobbing from the hallway last night, but I wasn't sure if it was you."
Starfire gasped. He heard her?! I thought elderly earthlings had bad hearing… and needed hearing aids and machines like that…
She pushed aside her thoughts, and nodded. "Yes, I am feeling wonderful now, Mr. Arai."
Seiku smiled. "That's good to hear."
The woman sitting next to him cleared her throat. "Excuse me… I'm Seiku's wife. I don't believe we've met."
Starfire beamed. She loved meeting new people. "My name is Starfire. It is good to meet you, Mrs. Arai."
The woman grinned. Her voice was strangely loud compared to Seiku's quiet whisper of a voice. "Please, call me Azuka. And it's very nice to meet you, as well."
Starfire looked around the room, feeling as though something was missing. It was only a few seconds before it hit her what it was. "Where is Cyborg? And Beast Boy and Raven? And Sayuri?"
"They left a couple of hours ago." Azuka said, as her husband turned back around to face his worktable. "Seiku tells me that they went to save Mr. Kenohe from a man named Slade."
Starfire's mouth dropped open. "Slade? He is going after us again? Oh no… Now we won't have time to cure Robin!"
Azuka's already large eyes widened at the girl's obvious distress. "Starfire… calm down, now. Mrs. Kenohe said that she and your friends would be taking care of this Slade man. And while they do that you, Seiku, and I will be doing everything we can to help your boyfriend."
My boyfriend? But Starfire didn't bother correcting the woman. "You are… sure that they can handle Slade without myself and Robin aiding them?"
Azuka nodded, then went back to scanning through various papers on the table. "I'm reasonably positive."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside the city hospital…Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven and Sayuri were all sitting outside the hospital building, waiting for Slade to contact them somehow. They were also waiting there so they could stop him if he decided to attack. They'd already spent the last few hours searching the place for a bomb, but didn't have any more luck then the police had. So… they'd just had to play the waiting game.
"ACHOO!" Out of the blue, all four simultaneously sneezed.
"Bless you." They all sniffed.
After a moment of silence, Beast Boy spoke up. "Hey… what was with that?"
Sayuri shrugged. "The sneeze thing? I dunno… maybe it was just a coincidence. That, or maybe someone was thinking about us." She smiled. "You know how the old superstition goes."
Cyborg shook his head. "Nope. What superstition?"
"Me neither." Beast Boy joined in. "What superta… superto… supatee… er… What is it?"
Sayuri chuckled. "It's just an old Japanese belief. They say, if you sneeze, it means someone a ways a way is thinking about you."
The Titans were silent for a moment, thinking over the myth.
"So that's why I have so many allergies!" Beast Boy beamed, and broke the silence. "I have so many adoring fans. They must talk about me all the time!"
He elbowed Raven. She rolled her eyes.
Sayuri laughed.
Cyborg groaned. "….. overgrown ego….."
"Excuse me?" Beast Boy faked a sneeze. "I couldn't hear you over my popularity."
Sayuri laughed even harder.
Beast Boy turned to look at her. "Dude! What's so funny? It's true!"
She took a few moments to get over her laughter. "I'm sorry. It's just that, I've never seen a guy dressed in purple act so… big headed."
Beast Boy's mouth dropped open, as he looked down at his clothing. Is that an insult?
Cyborg smirked a little. "Well, I've seen a guy in purple act as arrogant as BB does. But, I'm not sure if he really counts. The guy was… well…" He made a hand gesture.
Sayuri's laughter started anew. Cyborg joined in with her this time.
Beast Boy's face went red. He lunged towards Cyborg, but Raven intercepted him before he got to him. Her hand pushed back on Beast Boy's chest as his arms continued to flail in an attempt to strangle Cyborg.
The four of them were still making quite a commotion, when they heard someone behind them loudly clear his throat.
They all immediately froze. Slowly, they turned around to face the man. He was clad in a long black trench coat, and had a matching hat tilted low, casting a dark shadow that hid his face.
(A/N- You guys may argue that Slade never wears anything like trench coats and the such, but in the Thunder & Lightning episode he disguises himself as an old mystic or whatever, to fit the role of the man deceiving Thunder and Lightning… So… I figure here, he might disguise himself so as not to stand out among the other people in the city.)
"Who--…" Beast Boy started to ask.
"After spending two days in his hideout, I'm afraid I could recognize that putrid odor anywhere." Sayuri said, disgusted. "It's Slade."
Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg instinctively dropped into battle-ready positions. They stiffened when that saw Slade slip a hand into his trench coat.
The Titans only relaxed slightly when they saw him pull out a bright white cloak.
"That's mine." Sayuri muttered to the three Titans.
"Nice observation." Slade scoffed and threw the bundled up cloak at Sayuri. It landed less then a yard in front of her feet.
Sayuri didn't move to pick it up. Instead, she looked down at it, cautiously.
"Well? Aren't you going to take it?"
Sayuri looked up from the cloak to glare at Slade. "Why are you returning it to me?"
"I finally found out about your betrayal. I'm surprised I hadn't noticed sooner - it was so obvious… But, I'm decided to return your little cape because I thought you might want to have it back, before I kill you."
Sayuri remained silent.
"Still not going to pick it up?"
"Well, would you? You could have easily put some deadly powder or something on it. Or a bomb, even."
Beast Boy's eyes widened a little. He hadn't considered that before. Subconsciously, he inched away from the cloak.
"Of course I didn't put any poison, bomb or acid on it. How would I have carried it around on my person, if it had either of the three?"
Sayuri inwardly groaned. In all her critical thinking, Slade still had her beat in wits. Most likely in strength, too. Thank goodness she wasn't in this alone anymore.
Keeping a careful eye on Slade, she bent down and picked up the cloak. She dusted it off, and pulled it on. Sayuri carefully buckled the top, and then raised a hand up towards Slade. Forming on her index finger was a glowing orange spirit bullet.
"What? Not even a "thank you"?"
"No one here owes you any thanks, man." Cyborg said, readying his plasma blaster for fire.
"After what you did to Robin and Starfire…" Beast Boy trailed off, morphing into a large green bear.
"We will make you pay." Raven nearly growled, her eyes glowing white.
Sayuri nodded. She thought back to what Slade had commanded her to do when she'd been so desperate for his money. How his only goal was to tear Robin away from his little family of friends. How he didn't care who he hurt or stepped on, as long as he got what he was aiming for.
Her eyes narrowed as she fired her spirit gun at the man. "Die, Slade."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in apartment 314…Starfire and Azuka Arai had officially decided that –since neither had any past experience with microcircuits or computer chips- they could do nothing to really help Seiku with his… task.
So, both ladies were seated on the Arai's living room couch, carefully watching the news for any sign of Sayuri and the three Titans.
In fact, both women had their eyes practically glued to the screen when Robin walked into the room yawning, with his pillow and blanket tucked under his arm. Seiku noticed him first.
"Good morning, Robin."
Starfire jerked her eyes from the screen and looked up at him. She beamed the moment she saw him. Robin could have sworn he saw her eyes dancing, as she got up from the couch and hovered over to him. "Robin! It is good to see you looking so refreshed. Did you slumber well?"
Robin nodded. Starfire's smile spread, and she hovered back over to the couch.
"It's nice to see you've slept in." Seiku commented as he went back to his papers. "At least one person did."
Robin frowned. "I slept in? I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I only feel bad that the others didn't."
Robin yawned again, then glanced around the room. "Where are the others?"
"They left to search for Slade." She motioned towards an empty spot on the couch. "Come sit with Azuka and I, and we can watch for them on the television."
Robin smiled. "Okay."
He sat down on the couch between the two women. Starfire shot him a joyous look before turning her always-undivided attention back to the TV. Robin did the same.
The newscasters on air were the same that had been on when Azuka had first flipped on the TV. She guessed that they had 5-hour shifts, or something along those lines. After all, it was a 24/7 news station.
"…. And in other news, the fire department has finally managed to rescue 9 year-old Selina Dempsey off that garbage truck she was stuck on top of."
"Really, Brenda?"
"Yes, Jake. After being stuck on top of the truck for 8 strait hours, when she finally got down, the first thing little Selina asked for was a big bar of chocolate."
Both anchors chuckled. The sound was fake and hollow.
"And, we have more news on the action at the hospital. It seems that, in addition to a bomb threat, the city's Northside Hospital has become the battle arena for some very intense looking fighters. Here's our live feed."
The screen faded out from the anchors, to show a "Live Feed" of the action at the hospital. Starfire and Robin both gasped when they saw the cloaked man the three Titans and Sayuri were standing off against.
"It's Slade!"
Seiku turned around to look at the screen. "So that's the infamous Slade?"
Both nodded.
Azuka squinted at the screen. "How dull. I was expecting a giant robot or something, the way you were all going on about him."
Seiku chuckled and went back to his work.
Starfire and Robin sat stone still, eyes transfixed on the screen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back to the hospital… Now where was I….
"Die, Slade." Sayuri said, as she fired her spirit gun.
The orange blast left her finger, and sped towards Slade. It was mere inches away from his face when he… disappeared.
Bear-Beast Boy's mouth dropped open. People can't just disappear!
Cyborg blinked in disbelief. "W-What just happened?"
"How did he do that…?" Sayuri muttered in disbelief. That was one wasted spirit bullet down for the count. And if Slade could turn invisible, she feared her gun would be pretty useless anyway.
"That's a secret." Sayuri heard someone whisper into her ear, right before she felt a hard weight slam against the back of her head.
She cried out in hurt as she briefly felt a fiery hot pain run through her mind. She was a little relieved when the pain ceased, and she fell into a blanket of numb sleep.
(A/N- Chapter was originally intended to be longer, but I really just couldn't resist ending like that. I've always wanted to do that, you know… It's a terribly cliché way to end a chapter, but I just love all the suspense. ^_^ "Is Sayuri dead? If not, will Slade kill her now that she's unconscious? What about the other Titans? Will they be too engrossed in battling Slade to help her?"
Don't you just hate me? I think I end all my chapters with cliffhangers… Yet so few people complain.
Oh, yeah… I gotta post some review responses, too:
Toast: I'm very sorry you're feeling under the weather. And don't worry about your "odd ramblings". I'm not even sure I'd classify your help and kind words as "ramblings", anyway – but they are appreciated, none-the-less. Thank-you.
Holly: *is turning a deep shade of red* Thank you… Though I'm not quite sure why you like my fic so much (I'm not very talented at writing…), but it sends me on cloud nine, at the honor of getting such a nice review. You asked where I got my ideas. It's nothing special, really. They're mostly from things I've been dying to see happen since I first started watching Teen Titans. All the OC's are from character sketches I do during review lessons in History. ^^;
Fooble Bloop: You are not a moron! Don't even think that! You just don't like reading the fine print, is all. I don't either. I didn't notice the support services notice until about 2 months after joining, and only then because my sister pointed it out to me.
Mephistopheles-Hellfire-Master: Wow, you're right. That never occurred to me before. Might make a good fanfic twist…
Weirdo High Coffee Girl: *nods* I realize… a lot of the people reading my story haven't seen Yu Yu Hakusho… And it'd be kinda unfair to them if I made it a crossover so near to the end of the fic. So, I won't.
Ocdsugar: oo; I'm sorry!! I know I should have updated sooner. But I had/have three huge projects due real soon, and in addition to that have been studying for my mid-terms, and my piano concert. I know I shouldn't be making excuses… so, I'm very, very sorry. I'll put up the next chapter faster. ^^ 'Kay?
Wow, that's a lot of responses. Oh, well… I've done as many before… Nothing out of the ordinary…
Please review, everyone!!)