CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Batman was silent as the Titans quickly conveyed the story of their battle with the psychotic telepath, Rancor. Numara had to admit he was impressed with the quick wit and demanding presence of the Dark Knight. He knew by the gleam in his eyes that the mysterious man caught not only every word, but also the complexities of the emotions in the teenagers' voices. They truly believed they had been drawn into the toughest battle of their young lives.
When Batman knew the whole story, he activated a communicator tucked into the ear of his mask and briefly spoke with someone on the other end.
Numara couldn't help but feel guilty. After all, his mistakes had led to Rancor's escape into the Void. That escape had allowed him to slip into this dimension. His vow to avenge his own people had become a vow to protect the people of Earth.
While they waited for a response to Batman's call, the Nasserian slipped to the edge of the rooftop and peered down onto the streets below. The Titans talked to the Bat as Numara considered his next move. He wondered if perhaps these people were holding him back, keeping him from the task at hand. The truth was, he felt they deserved him to be at their side. He was at fault, in all truth, and he should be forced to accept the consequences, just as they would. What right did he have to leave now?
"Tea?"
Numara glanced at Raven and sighed. "Sounds great." She had shown him how to make some of her herbal tea the night before and had enjoyed it. Now, he took a cup from the thermos she had brought along.
"You shouldn't blame yourself. Rancor is obviously good at what he does."
Numara closed his eyes as she slipped to the edge of the roof, standing next to him. Together, they shared their tea. He wondered what he could tell her to convince her he was indeed at fault. He couldn't think of an easy way to say it.
"He is here because of me. A blind man can see the truth of that."
"I am not blind," Raven said, and turned to him. "Yet I see your heart is pure."
"Purity of heart has nothing to do with it. He altered my mind, just as he altered the minds of your friends."
The girl looked to him and sighed. She leaned against the banister, peering down to the streets below. "The jewel is what keeps him from your mind?"
"Yes."
"Then what keeps him out of my mind?" Raven asked.
He looked to her. "You control your emotions so well. I imagine discipline has something to do with it."
"What about Robin and Cyborg?"
"Hard to say. Cyborg is obviously not normal for the human species. On the other hand, Robin is no more than human. As disciplined as he is, that should not affect Rancor's power." Numara sighed and turned to her. There was a flash of anger in his eyes. "I do not like not understanding. It leaves me with a sick feeling."
Raven lay a hand on his shoulder. "We will help you to understand."
"Raven, Numara." They turned to the sound of Robin's voice. "We've got a response from the Watchtower."
* * *
"I have a fix on the changeling's location, Batman," J'Onn reported as gazed to the viewscreen, presently revealing a giant map of Gotham City. The Watchtower's database contained a vast source of knowledge about the planet Earth, including limitless maps. J'Onn, still an alien in a world he barely understood, was grateful for that. "He is within Gotham City, as you say. I am trying to determine the name of the area now."
"Good." Batman's voice was deep, resonating over the intercom.
J'Onn's eyes raced over the map until he was certain he found the right place. "I have it. He's in Devil's Doorstop, approximately three miles from your present location, on the west side of Gotham. He's in some kind of apartment building."
* * *
Apartment building? Batman's eyes rose at that. He glanced at Robin.
"What?" the Boy Wonder asked.
"Thanks J'Onn. We'll be in touch."
"Shall I send reinforcements?"
His eyes still fixed on his apprentice, Batman made a decision. "Not yet. We'll keep in touch." Deactivating his communicator, Batman turned to the Titans. "Let's get moving. I know where your friend is."
He pulled his grappling gun from his belt and headed for the edge of the rooftop. As he disappeared into the darkness, the Titans followed. This time, Raven joined Numara at the end of the pack.
* * *
Atop of Labrador Apartments, Rancor struggled to regain command of Beast Boy. Something—he was not sure what—had snatched the shape-shifter's attention, had pulled him free of the link. The Dreamwalker was none too thrilled with the turn of events. What good did his grasp of reality do him if he could not even control such a frail mind as the changeling's? Batman would certainly not be a possibility. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. Just what was he going to do?
As he stewed over the turn of events, he felt the presence of another approaching. The Titans were coming to reclaim their friend. Apparently, the Bat had joined them. With a smirk, Rancor turned to the shadows. At least he could have a little more fun. If Numara was with them, and Rancor assumed he was, then the Gem of Ages would arrive in very short order. The first piece of the puzzle for a trip home would be his.
The Dreamwalker drew a deep breath and prepared for his fresh challenge. He was eager to face Batman, to see what sort of a challenge the man represented. Surely he couldn't be too much. Rancor had seen pretty stiff competition in the past. Numara was one he considered to be stiff competition, and now he had the Gem of Ages.
Still, Rancor didn't think he was prepared for a showdown. Not yet, and especially not here. A thought occurred to him; he smirked as he clasped his claws together.
At least he had thought to gather insurance for this go-around.
* * *
Four dark shapes dropped down onto the rooftop of Labrador Apartments, seven stories above Devil's Doorstop. The tallest figure, the man in the batsuit, quietly searched about for any sign of the enemy. Rancor was nowhere to be found.
"You know him," Batman said, approaching Numara. "How does he think?"
As Numara explained the thought process of Rancor the Terrible, the two Titans who joined them on the roof, Raven and Cyborg, went on their own to investigate. In silence they approached the door leading to the stairwell that would guide them downstairs, to the seventh floor of the building.
Raven looked to her metallic friend.
"You think he went down there?" Cyborg asked.
"Hard to say, but Batman did say Beast Boy is here somewhere." She tapped the communicator at her belt. "And this doesn't deny that. If he's got his communicator on him, and I doubt Rancor would take it from him, then the only logical conclusion is that he's hiding inside this building. Rancor is probably with him."
"Stands to reason that if Star and Robin go in from ground level, and we take the rooftop entrance, we can catch them somewhere in the middle."
Raven nodded. "Seems logical."
"Good. Let's do it."
He reached out and grabbed the doorknob.
The force of the explosion that followed threw him and Raven back. Caught in the sweltering heat of the backfire, the two Titans were still on fire as they flew through the air and crashed through the skylight and into the top floor penthouse. A billion tiny shards of glass came down on top of them. Numara gasped and dropped down through the shattered glass to reach them mere seconds later, followed momentarily by Batman.
The Caped Crusader watched in amazement as crimson light filled the room, touching Raven and Cyborg with its powers. It cut off the fire's energy and left the two broken Titans, injured but, at the present, safe from the heat.
From behind a closed door, leading into the owner's bedroom, someone stirred.
"I should have known. Rancor's the kind of guy who never makes the same mistake twice," the Nasserian whispered. "Of course he would have booby trapped the rooftop. Blast, I should have known!"
Batman walked over to investigate the two injured Titans. Cyborg was already coming back online, his human eye twitching and his robotic eye blinking on and off, trying to clear the effects of the heat. He seemed relatively unscathed, except that the flesh of his face was considerably more damaged than it had been in the last bout with Rancor. Before, when he had arrived to Gotham, Batman could still see the son of Silias Stone in the teen's human face, although scarred in the battle against the Dreamwalker. Now, all he could see was horribly burned flesh, similar to a hamburger patty that had sat too long on the grill, a bloodshot eye set deeply into the charred flesh. Other than that, Vic Stone's cybernetic self seemed unharmed.
Raven was another matter entirely. Batman longed to look away, to avoid the pain that he saw in those deep, violet eyes, but he could not be so cold-hearted. The girl was cut badly, head to toe, from her fall through the skylight. Burns ran up and down her left side, the side that had been nearest the explosion. Her right leg, however, had taken the worst of the damage. Somehow she had managed to land on it. The impact had shattered the bone. She was lying on her back, her leg jammed beneath her abdomen. Blood spilled out from under her where the bone had broken the skin. She looked up to him, saw him through the pain and tried to speak. He read her lips: Help me.
"I'm here, Raven," Batman whispered, and knelt at her side. He activated his communicator. "J'Onn, are you there?"
The answer was immediate: "Of course."
"Get me some help. This bastard knows how to prepare."
J'Onn was quiet for a moment. "Green Lantern and Flash are on the way. I am coming as well. The others are occupied."
Batman shut down his communicator and continued to watch over the girl. From behind, a door swung open. The Caped Crusader rose, a Batarang in hand, and let it loose. Before the gangster in the doorway could spray hot lead throughout the room, the weapon struck his hand. The little man squealed and dropped his Tommy gun. Batman recognized the hothead of Devil's Doorstop, and the head of the syndicate that ran the place.
"DeSoto," Batman muttered, eyes narrowed.
"Y-you," DeSoto stammered. The gangster took a few uneasy steps back. "But… but I…what've I done? Why'd you bust up my skylight?"
"I'm not after you," Batman said, turning back to the injured Titans. Numara held Raven's hand in his own.
"Then what're you here for?" No answer. DeSoto scratched his head. "Uh, Bats, you and I, I thought we had a little compromise goin'…"
"We never had a compromise."
"Bats, come on, you gotta be straight with me. What's goin' on?"
"Send a call into the police and get the fire department up here," Batman said.
Something stirred behind the gangster, and a woman's voice, sweet and curious at the same time. "Benny? What's goin' on, sugar-cakes?" She appeared behind him a moment later, a tall, buxom redhead wearing no more than a thong.
Batman stood there, scowling.
"Ack!" The woman sought shelter from the piercing glare behind her man, but no one could be shielded from those all-seeing eyes. A moment later, Benny shoved the naked girl back into the bedroom and slammed the door. "Sugar-cakes!"
"Just shut up and get dressed! I'm busy!" DeSoto shook his head and sighed, turning back to Batman. "Sorry about that. Tell me, Bats, is it a crime to fuck the brains out of a lovely young vixen in your own apartment?"
"I told you, I'm not here for you."
"Oh yes, I remember." The gangster glared at him for a moment and then headed for the phone. He rolled his eyes. "Oh, the irony. This must crack you up, Bats, that a hard-nosed crook like myself is dropping a line to the piggies."
Batman might have answered, but he was interrupted when a crimson streak burst through the door and raced to his side. He stared darkly at the Flash as he came to a stop. A moment later, John Stewart flew into the room from the hole in the skylight.
The Flash looked about in shock. "Holy shit. Bats, what happened in here?"
"Bomb," Batman said, and returned to Raven's side.
As he dialed 911, DeSoto glared at the two other superheroes who had invaded his apartment. This was going to be a hell of a long night.
* * *
When Raven came to hours later, she found herself lying on her back and staring up into a bright light. Instantly she sensed the presence at her side, knew that a friend had joined her. She tried to turn, to swing her feet over the side of the bed to sit up, but she found that she had been restrained. Where am I? A hand clutched hers tightly, almost painfully. She peered through the light as best she could, and realized that she was staring up into a green face. Her lips parted, and she tried to proclaim her shock, but her throat was dry and all that came through her lips was a raspy crack.
Beast Boy gave her a weary smile and moved closer. "Oh, Raven, you had us worried. You lost a lot of blood."
She wanted to ask what he was doing here, but she knew she couldn't.
Thankfully, Beast Boy somehow knew exactly what she was thinking. "He left me back at the apartment. He knew he didn't need me anymore…once he got Robin."
Once he got Robin…
Raven trembled at the thought of Rancor getting his hands on the Titans' leader. Here she was, stuck in a bed in God knew what hospital and nothing she could do to help. She moved her hands, clenching them into fists, testing them, relieved she could still feel her arms and legs after the explosion. My leg, she thought. She suddenly realized that she couldn't feel her right leg. She stretched her fingers out, groping empty air. She gasped. Had it been lost? Did they have to amputate? What if she could never walk again? She didn't think she could live with herself, if she didn't have a leg. She found herself longing to cry, something Raven had not done since she was very little.
"Just relax, Raven. I have repaired your leg. It will heal, in time."
The unexpected voice was deep, friendly, a caring, sincere voice that she recognized from her previous experience in the…for a moment, her thoughts froze, but the memory soon rushed back to her. She was in the Watchtower. It struck her as obvious the moment she realized where she was. They had brought her to the Watchtower infirmary to recuperate. She felt stupid for not having recognized where she was earlier. It made her laugh a little.
"Raven, what's so funny?" Beast Boy sounded almost resentful as he spoke to her. "That bastard has Robin, and you're laughing?"
Raven swallowed, and finally found her voice. "I am sorry," she murmured, her voice barely audible. "It was…a relief…to realize where I am."
Raven turned her head around as best she could, until she saw J'Onn standing at a terminal, his back to her. Unable to speak any more, she passed her message by thinking it directly to his back. [J'Onn, what time is it?]
The Martian's reply came instantly: [Daybreak on the east coast.]
[The others. Where are they?]
[They are on their way to Metropolis. Rancor's lust for challenge is taking him directly to the home of Superman.]
Raven closed her eyes. God. She looked at him again. [Is there anything I can do?]
[Yes, there is. You can rest and recover your strength. You will need it to heal fully. I have replaced the useless bone with a titanium implant, and you will be able to walk within the next few days. For now, the best help you can offer is to help yourself.]
"We can't let that bastard take Superman."
J'Onn closed his eyes. "No, we cannot." For Rancor to nab a nearly invincible man with incredible strength beyond the likes anyone had ever seen before…
The very thought was unbearable.
"Superman is waiting for them," Beast Boy said. "If anyone can overcome Rancor, it's him. Don't worry, Raven, that bastard doesn't stand a chance."
Raven sighed, closing her eyes to rest. "I…hope you're right, Beast Boy," she murmured.
In short order, she faded back into her dreams.