Lunatic: Ok here's the part where I do that gushy thing and thank my reviewers.
Bubblebean022: Why thank you very much for being open-minded. I always respect that in someone. I look forward to completing this story if for your benefit alone
Mew-Xena: I do apologize for the cliff hangers, but they keep readers coming back, or so they say. I'm glad you enjoy and hope to see you back again.
I had Robin over my shoulder in a potato sack and was just making a break for it, when suddenly he cut free and handed me a note. It was a copy of the copyright laws. So unfortunately after that event, I resigned from trying to steal the Teen Titans. They are not mine.
The darkness of the water surrounding them grew deeper as the T-Sub followed their opponents. The cloaking technology appeared, for the most part, to be working. No alarms were sounding and the other boat had yet to wheel around and aim torpedoes at the small invisible vessel. Cyborg was proud.
"I told y'all this would work! Boo yah!" He punched the air in triumph.
"Argh are we there yet?" Beast boy was going stir crazy in the small compartment. They'd been following Slade's minions for more than an hour, and he was starting to get claustrophobic. He decided to complain about this out loud.
"Dude, shut it. I have no idea how much longer we're going to-" He stopped and stared at the sonar screen that glowed merrily in front of him. There were now more than one blip on the screen. "Uh-Oh.
"What is Ôuh-oh'?" Starfire inquired.
"That!" BB pointed at the approaching black vessels, all of which had small glowing red breams aimed in their direction.
"Why have they seen us?" The alien's voice rose a notch or two in alarm.
Cyborg was furiously checking systems, pressing buttons and whatnot. "I don't know! The cloaking systems are online!" The black vessels had enclosed them in a circle. The Titans' target continued freely onwards.
The intercom buzzed briefly as a transmission came in. If it hadn't been for the silver face and steely hair, Cyborg would have sworn that Robin the Apprentice was staring back at him from the little screen.
"Shut off your defensive systems. We will escort you to Base." The voice was bland and mechanical, obviously a dutiful recording.
"Shut this!" Cyborg cried angrily. "Beast Boy! Hit Ôem!
The little green changeling pressed a red button marked Ôtorpedo' (haha he needs labels). A jet of hot air followed the missile as it flew through the water, curving to hit one of the black ships square in the center. It exploded in a hail of steaming water. The intercom went blank.
Cyborg grabbed the controls and in the midst of the chaos, made for an escape. The other five vessels were not phased, however, by the destruction of a comrade. Obviously their instructions were to escort or kill.
"Three bogies starboard, BB." Cyborg instructed mechanically. Beast Boy, trained from years of video games and computer graphics, aimed carefully before pressing the button that would launch their defensive missiles. Two more of the mechanical guardians went down.
The remaining three began hailing them with red lasers, one of them bounced off the left of the ship and the Titans cried out in surprise as the sub jerked from impact. Cyborg, gritting his teeth angrily, righted his ship.
"No one shoots my sub!" He yelled. "Starfire! There are lasers in your part of the T-Sub, start using them!
The green eyed girl nodded, searching for the button labeled "lasers". "Cyborg where do I find these weapons?" She asked sweetly. Meanwhile another red bolt hit them squarely in the nose, sending them on a crash course with the murky bottom.
Cyborg roared as he tried to level out their velocity. When they were no longer headed to certain death, he addressed Star a little sharper than he meant to. "On the left! The control stick, grab it and use it to aim, the green button fires!
Starfire made a small noise of comprehension as she noticed the lever beside her. A moment of tinkering and she discovered that upwards aimed the laser down and downwards aimed it up. "I do not understand, why are the directions backwards?
"Just shoot it Star!" She made a small Ôeep' as his voice blared in her ear. Grumbling slightly about raging blornacks, she aimed at the nearest black, shadowy opponent. She pressed the green button and a luminous green bolt spread through the water, hitting one of the engines on the dark ship.
"Nice one Star." Beast Boy commented. He seemed much happier now that they were doing something more than secretive stalking. He aimed his own cannon at a bogey that was hovering over their engine, aiming its laser at the sensitive propeller.
"Oh no you don't." He pressed the button that would launch the missile. The black shape made to evade it but was caught in the momentum of the T-Sub and the missile hit its mark. Showers of metal and displaced water rained down on them in a shadowy cloud. They and their opponent vanished in the ensuing steam.
Suddenly Cyborg cut the engines. "Dude what are you doing!" Beast Boy cried frantically.
"Shh, listen." A whirring noise parted the darkness. "Beast Boy, aim at it." The T-Sub was sustaining damage and they were running out of fuel. If BB could make the shot as the black shape searched for them in the debris and foaming water, then they would be able to return to the Tower intact.
Beast Boy struggled to see their enemy, aiming the cannon here and there with no luck. The smoky steam was fading, leaving them exposed and without power. If he didn't find it soon- there!
He pressed the button. They all watched in anticipation, hoping that the ship would be caught off guard. They were met with a satisfying, fiery explosion.
"All right! Go BB!" Cyborg's triumph mingled with Starfire's exclamations of, "Glorious friend! You have saved us all!
Beast Boy blushed and pulled at one of his ears. "Yeah, I guess I did." He stopped preening his ego for a minute to actually think. "But now what?
"Good question. We've lost our target and the sub is too damaged to look for it." He sighed sadly, looking down at the dashboard where the intercom sat black and leering. He wished Robin's face would appear there and tell him to return to the Tower, pizza's getting cold. But no such thing happened. "I guess we go home.
"Perhaps we should explore the tunnel in which Raven was ambushed?" Starfire put in helpfully as the engines of the T-Sub roared back into life. "There may be Ôclues'?
"You may be right Star. We didn't look too carefully when we were trying to find Raven, there might be things we missed." All of them hoped that there would be something hidden in the darkness of that tunnel, and all of them wondered what their friends were going through.
In fact, Robin and Raven had spent the last several hours ignoring each other as best as possible. At least Raven was. She spent her time sinking desperately into meditation, pounding on the door to Nevermore. The doorway to her mind was sealed to her.
Robin was staring blankly at a point on the wall, as if it contained all the answers he sought. He sighed angrily and made a wordless noise of frustration. "I'm sick of this!
Raven stared at him. "What?" Her voice was so toneless, that it didn't sound like a question at all.
"Sitting here! Waiting! We should be doing something, trying to escape. Something!" He pounded his fist on the wall and sank to the floor.
"Like what? My powers don't work here, and I don't see you with any bright ideas to break through solid steel." She said sarcastically.
He didn't answer her, just stared at the ceiling. His eyes widened suddenly and he leapt over to her. She tensed, expecting another kiss, but he just reached past her to the pillow where they had stored the extra bread.
He dug through it as if searching for something. She watched him until her curiosity got the better of her.
"ÉWhat?
"When was the last time they brought food?" He asked in reply.
"I don't know." She shrugged. "When I was brought in I suppose.
"Exactly." He said, and stood to look out the door. "That was almost twelve hours ago, more should be arriving soon.
Curious and fairly alarmed by the fact that he knew this, she levered herself off the floor and went to stand beside him. Raven was the only one shorter than Robin. "How do you know that?" She asked suspiciously.
"I've always been able to tell how much time has passed, it's only a rough guess." He was still staring eagerly through the bars. "I have a plan.
"Like what?" She watched him intently, watching the light flicker across his face as he looked up and down the empty hallway.
"When the guards come to bring the food, I'll knock them out." He pounded his hand into his fist. "We'll use their uniforms to sneak out unnoticed.
"I don't know Robin, it sounds too easy." She was expressionless as usual, though she was aware that she didn't have to fear her powers now that they weren't working. She stifled the worry that started in her abdomen and spread its cold fingers to her heart when she thought of his plan going awry.
He sobered a little as he looked at her. "I know." He grabbed her hand, and a chill went down her spine. "Raven, when we get out of here-
She pulled away from him. She knew what he was about to bring up. "When we get out of here, we're not going to talk about it." She said firmly. "Understand?
He shook his head. "No, I don't.
She sighed, adopting the usual glare that she saved for Beast Boy when he was being particularly dumb. "Even if I did return you feelings, whatever they might be, I wouldn't be able to. My powers would react too strongly and I would risk the safety of everyone around us. That's not a risk I'm willing to take.
He stopped her from walking away from him, grabbing onto her upper arm with his usual speed. She marveled at how tight his grip was. "Let go of me Robin." She didn't look at him.
"Your powers don't work here." He said very quietly. If the walls hadn't been metal, and therefore inclined to echo, she probably wouldn't have heard him.
She ripped her arm from his grasp and spun around. "That doesn't mean I can just-" Footsteps pounded metallically down the hallway, announcing the arrival of two guards bearing food. Robin gave her one last lingering glance before vanishing into the shadow to the left of the doorway.
It opened with a soft shush, illuminating Raven as she stood blankly in the center of the room. The guards, sensing that they could not see one of their wards, paused. It was all that Robin needed.
Two minutes and the guards, who they were shocked to discover were human, were unconscious. Robin stripped them of their clothes and shoved them inside the cell that he and Raven had so recently occupied.
Nervously she flexed her powers, drawing the spandex shirt toward her, and smiled in relief to see that they worked. She noticed Robin watching her, and hastily snatched the garment from the air. She held it up in her hands to look at it.
"Do I have to-" She froze, seeing Robin in the full uniform. "Robin you-
He dropped his gaze. "I look like I did when I worked with Slade." He agreed. "I know.
Raven remembered sadly the sting of his seeming betrayal so long ago. Raven remembered how she had given up on him so quickly, simply assumed in a moment that he had betrayed them all. The guilt had kept her awake for weeks.
He was looking at himself with a pained expression. Slade's momentary control of him was something he would never be proud of.
She touched his hand. "Robin, you know that we've forgiven you?
He shook his head, but not in denial. "But I haven't forgiven myself. I should have done something, I should have fought harder." He clenched his other hand in a fist and envisioned Slade's face between his fingers.
"And you did, in the end." She said softly. "You never lost your loyalty to the Titans. In the end it was that loyalty that saved all of us and you.
He stared for a moment longer at his fist, then he let his fingers loosen and the scowl eased from his face. He squeezed her hand and smiled. "Thank you." He said gently. He frowned slightly as he looked at her, still in her usual uniform. "Are you going to put that on or what?
She let go of him and glared. "Fine." She started to undo the clasp on her hood until she noticed that Robin was watching with a smirk on his face. "Turn around please.
He smiled. "Have it your way." He was joking, but Raven still glared heatedly at his back.
The other Titans didn't rest that afternoon after the fiasco in the T-Sub. Cyborg stored the orange vessel in the underwater station and led them all back into the control room. There, they ate lunch and decided that they would rather not wait until tomorrow to explore the tunnel.
Cyborg, the flashlight on his shoulder causing the shadows to trip and jump, led the way. They shuffled past the debris at the entrance, glancing nervously at the cracks in the ceiling above them. Rats squeaked and jeered as they ran away from the light.
Cyborg ran his hand down the wall on one side. "This isn't the same as the rest of the sewer system. These rocks are older.
He forged ahead, cutting a path in the complete darkness. The walls around them were rough, as if they'd been forged by time and water, not man. It was dry, and the air felt stale.
Starfire gazed balefully at their dark surroundings. The place was ominous and oppressing, as if dark things gazed out from the cracks in the walls with vindication. She shuttered as something furry brushed past her leg, but did her best not to scream.
She felt as if they had been walking for hours before Cyborg suddenly stopped. Beast Boy, who had taken the dark creepiness of the tunnel as a cue to make frightening noises and silly jokes, wasn't paying attention and walked straight into the taller boy's back.
"Ouch." He rubbed his head where a bump was forming. "Hey tin man watch where you're-" He had glanced at where Cyborg was staring and found himself looking at a wide room, like an antechamber. It was filled with tunnels branching off in every direction.
In the center sat a bulk of metal and wires, glowing menacingly in the light shed from the lamps strung to the ceiling. It looked evil and stagnant, emanating darkness and foreboding.
It was the bomb.
Cyborg was the first to regain his senses. He dragged Beast Boy and Starfire into the shadows, away from the eyes of the swarming minions that crawled over the place like ants. Several were standing around the heavy nuke, guns in their arms.
"What shall we do?" Starfire queried. Her voice was small but fiercely determined. Cyborg was thinking furiously. If they could shut down that bomb then they would be able to rid the city of its parasites. On the other hand, Robin and Raven could be killed.
They didn't have many options, the nuclear weapon had to be disabled. He had to trust in Robin's ability to save himself from any tight place.
"You two," he said, pointing to his two friends, "distract them. I'm going to get me some private time with that bomb.
Lunatic: BWHAHAHA. Yeah. Of course I was going to leave it there! What else did you expect? And no, Robin and Raven are not going to get off that easy.
By the way, I apologize for the jumbled symbols and lack of some quotation marks. The uploading process does that. Ðbows-