Hello to the Night
Chapter Three
1
October 5th, 2:00 AM
Cyborg sighed in relief as the haunted house program powered down. He took the elevator with the six of the last fifteen people down to the entrance hall.
"Did you like it?" He queried. "Were you scared?"
"Yeah! The couch thing was REALLY cool!" A boy told him, pumping his fist in the air.
"Yeah, dude, the couch was wicked cool." Another boy, this one a teenager, agreed. "But I really like when Mom got dragged off down that corridor by that tentacle-thing!"
"I liked the black water in the elevator!" A teenaged girl said. "And then the doors open and it WHOOOSHES out! It's like a waterslide!"
"Yeah! Just like a water slide!" Chorused a woman who might have been in her thirties. "But the evil toaster in the kitchen! If I hadn't been so scared, I would have laughed myself into a fit! You ought to market those! I'd buy it as a gag gift any day!"
Cyborg laughed with them as the elevator stopped. Robin and a small family stepped on.
"Are we at occupancy yet?" Robin asked.
"Not unless somebody who weighs, like, seven hundred and forty pounds just stepped on. This elevator was built to accommodate two Beast Boys in tiger form."
"Which means it can accommodate sixteen hundred pounds, roughly?"
"Yep."
"Well, that aside," Robin turned to the other passengers. "Did you like it? How badly did it scare you?"
"I was REALLY scared," said the boy in the new family. "Especially when you came in out of nowhere. And Cyborg was really scary too!"
"When I saw Beast Boy as the T-Rex…" The new woman began.
"Yeah, Beast Boy as the T-Rex!" Said the first woman. "I screamed so loud they probably heard me in Gotham!"
"Starfire was cool!" The teenaged boy laughed. "But where was Raven?"
Cyborg grinned. "She was in charge of the freaky black stuff. If it was black and dragged somebody away, she probably made it."
"You know, last week, we had the JLA in here and they were scared too," Robin chuckled. "Especially when Raven made Wonder Woman disappear."
"Raven made Wonder Woman slap Flash, too. It was pretty funny."
.
.
.
October 5th, 12:03 PM
The Titans began to wake and head to the kitchen, with various groans and mumbles.
"I don't want to be awake!" Beast Boy yawned.
Cyborg and Starfire seconded that opinion, and even Robin seemed tired.
"Who'd have thought scaring people could take so much out of you?" The question was rhetorical.
"Ugh…" Raven told him. "Why did I ever agree to this?"
"Tired?"
"I don't do tired. I don't do fear, and I don't do tired." It was a lie, and they all knew it. She had ceased to be some sort of inhuman emotionless thing and become someone who merely controlled their emotions to the point of almost not having them.
Well, her pain was none of their business. So she would just let them all think she was lying through her teeth on this one.
Even if she had the migraine of the century.
.
.
.
October 10th, 1:34 PM
"Ugh," she groaned. Her migraine had gotten steadily worse, and she had been inhaling steadily larger amounts of ibuprofen.
It. Wasn't. Working.
Robin looked over at her. "Tired? We could probably take the night off…"
"'Closed for technical difficulties' would probably cover it," Beast Boy agreed.
"I'm. Not. Tired." My head just feels like somebody tried to break it open, my father is laughing at me in my head, and I think I'm losing my grip on my emotions.
.
.
.
October 11, 4:32 PM
Robin looked around. He'd only been awake for two hours, so maybe his head was still fuzzy… but was somebody missing?
He looked around, counted the other Titans. I'm one… Beast Boy is two, the other Beast Boy is three— wait a minute, there's only ONE BB…whoa, I'm so tired, I'm seeing double… so Cyborg is three, and Starfire makes four.
His head paused for a minute. Oh. Where's Raven? She'd be up by now, wouldn't she?
He blinked. "Hey, has anybody seen Raven?"
"As I think of it, I have not," Starfire said, wide-eyed.
"Nope, not yet." Beast Boy called from the living room.
Cyborg echoed his friend's sentiments.
Robin stopped, thought, and weighed ideas versus consequences. After a moment, he decided. "I'm going to go see what's wrong with her."
The door to Raven's room should not have been such an ominous thing. It was a door. With "Raven" written on it. That was it.
So why did the thought of touching that door make him want to run back to Gotham with his figurative tail between his legs?
He gritted his teeth. No. He was the leader of the Titans. He was Robin. He had taken down Zucco on his own… when he was nine years old. He was a Romany gypsy. He was NOT AFRAID OF RAVEN.
His fingers tapped on the door.
Nothing happened.
Emboldened, his knocked on the door several times. "Raven? Raven, are you in there?"
No response. Not even a 'go away.'
His gaze rested on the keypad beside the door. If he went in her room, she'd kill him. If he woke her, she'd do it slowly.
Well, he'd only open the door. Just poke his head in and see if she was in there or not.
The door slid open under the override code, and he poked his head in.
Raven knelt in the corner, with her blankets over her head.
"Raven?" He asked, making absolute certain that his body was on the other side of the threshold. "Are you all right?"
The kneeling figure stood and glared at him. "I'm. Fine." She bit off each word, obviously angry.
"No, you're not. You can tell me what's wrong, you know."
"I'm fine."
"I know you're not tired. And I've noticed the massive amounts of ibuprofen missing from the infirmary."
"And?"
"Tell me… are you suffering from migraines?"
"And if I am?"
"I'm sure we can find a way to help. As it is, we're taking the night off."
"You shouldn't have to!"
"Face it, Raven. We're all exhausted. You're suffering from migraines, which may come from repeated use of your powers in a really, really complicated way. Beast Boy's head has a rash from where his head has bumped up against the ceiling so much, Cyborg can't recharge past 82 percent, and Starfire is complaining of problems in a place I can't pronounce. Kahl-glorb-pahoot-something-or-other."
"And what about you, Boy Wonder?"
"Let's just say my muscles ache and my throat hurts from doing that maniacal laugh all the time. And I couldn't wash the fake blood off my chin this morning. There's still a pink stain."
"So…"
"So we're taking the night off. At seven, I'm going to go post a sign on the lawn. How does 'Haunted Tower closed due to technical difficulties' sound?"
She smiled. "Sounds fine."
2
October 12, 6:41 AM
Cyborg's cheerful voice came from the kitchen. "Okay, we're going to have eggs, rolls, bacon—"
"—BACON?! I've BEEN bacon! I can't believe you're going to eat that!"
"Bacon, and sausage—"
"—I've been that TOO!"
"Would you quit? If you don't want it, you don't have to eat it!"
"But! But! But you're eating SOMETHING THAT I'VE BEEN!"
"Beast Boy," Robin's voice warned from the living room, "we understand that you're a vegetarian. You have excellent reasons. But we aren't vegetarians. There is nothing you can do to change that fact. If Cyborg wants to eat bacon, that doesn't mean he wants to eat you."
"He just wants to eat bacon." Raven continued from the doorway to the living room.
"Friend Raven, you are awake!" Starfire smiled happily. "I must admit to being worried!"
Raven had to admit that the break had done her good. Her migraine hadn't gone, but it had definitely gotten better. She had a feeling that she could probably get rid of it with a normal dose of ibuprofen. "No need to worry about me."
11:13 AM
The training session ended, but Robin stopped her before she could leave.
"How are the migraines?" He asked, his hand on her wrist.
She twisted her wrist out of his grasp, but told him, "Much better."
"I'm glad. And not just glad to know that the haunted house can go on."
She raised an eyebrow.
"We've got other duties too. We've been pretty lucky as to crime rate so far, but this is Jump City… it's not going to be quiet forever."
3
10:04 PM
Robin was right, of course. Jump City was Jump City, and it had a high crime rate. Not as high as Gotham's, but still…
Jump City could never be 'quiet' for much more than a week.
A small gang, thinking that the Teen Titans wouldn't be able to perform their usual duties, what with the haunted house, had decided to rob the mayor's house.
If Raven could allow herself to laugh, she would have done so at blatant stupidity. Not having to worry about the Titans might have been a good reason for the criminals —MIGHT in another, dumber, universe— but what about the 'normal' law enforcement? How could anybody be so dumb as to rob the Mayor's house?
It stank, and the other Titans smelled it too.
"I don't like this," Robin sighed as he cuffed the leader of the gang. "They didn't have enough people for a venture like this, and they were just too dumb."
Starfire looked over at him, nodding. "So you think it is a… set-up, too?"
Cyborg called for the others. When they found him, he was pointing at the broken windows. "This wasn't a point of entry OR exit."
Robin's eyes narrowed. "How can you tell?"
"Because it wasn't smashed from either side."
"What are you talking about? The remaining glass is jagged!" Beast Boy liked his thumb. "And sharp, man."
Cyborg shrugged. "Maybe so, but it was cut, with a glass cutter, in a jagged pattern. Whoever did it knew their physics; they cut it just the way it would have fallen if somebody broke it. But they cut it…"
"…to give the appearance of using it as an entry or exit." Robin finished the sentence for the taller Titan.
"Plus, there isn't any blood or fabric on it. They would have left something if they'd used it, and they didn't."
Something clicked in Raven's mind. "There was nothing in the house that had been broken. Just that glass. Did they even go in at all, or did they just break that glass, grab that vase, and act like they were trying to escape when we got here?"
Beast Boy turned into a dog, and did a quick run through the halls from the front door to the bay windows. He returned less than a minute later. "The shortest one went in through the front door, grabbed that really, really expensive vase, and then ran back here."
"They wanted to be caught." This came from the Boy Wonder, who was staring at the broken glass.
A police officer moved towards them. "Look, kids, the apprehension's been made, the mystery's been solved. Now scram before the Mayor files trespassing charges."
"Grateful, isn't he?" The wry comment left Raven's lips before she could stop herself.
The other Titans could only agree.
10:11 PM
They arrived back at Titan Tower to see someone sitting on what was practically their front lawn.
"Didn't you see the sign?" Cyborg called. "The haunted house is closed, due to city emergency."
"I know," the figure called back. "Somebody tried to rob the Mayor's house."
"Look, there's a law against civilians coming around here. They suspend the law on haunted house nights, but we've already told you that this isn't one. Unless you're a meta-human, I suggest you leave." Robin told the figure.
The figure stood. "I just wanted to tell you what I know about that robbery. I saw the deal being made."
The figure was a teenaged boy, a little younger than Robin.
"Deal?" Robin asked.
"Yeah. Some guy in a mask paid those guys to rob the Mayor's house and get caught by the Titans. He said he wouldn't let them go to jail."
Robin lifted the teen up by his shirt, "Tell me more."
"He said something about 'neglecting duties' and 'want him sharp'. I didn't catch anything else."
Robin set him down and sighed.
"Hey, aren't you going to at least thank me? Be polite?"
Robin whirled back to face him, a little angry. He extended his right hand. "I'm Robin, thanks for the help."
The teen accepted it. "Tim Drake." He paused, looked straight into Robin's hidden eyes, and inquired, "Have you been practicing on the trapeze much?"
…
…
Hear the loud alarum bells-
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
— Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells
=====
Replies to reviews:
DarkXeno: This is really a non-pairing fic. If (BIG IF) there IS going to be a pairing, it will be Robin/Raven, for reasons I will not disclose. Thank you very much for reviewing,
Sulia Shincho: Thank you very much. And you're partly right. We'll see on Halloween…
Punk-God: The Lost Boys is a movie, not a band. But thanks for the compliments.
CoolMoDee: Thank you very much; I'm glad you thought it was funny. And, fortunately, it wasn't a REAL blow-up doll. It was an inflatable mannequin that was manufactured to look gutted. You'll find out where they got it in the next chapter.
And to everyone else, or anybody I missed, thank you very much. Reviews let me know that I'm reaching and pleasing my audience, and therefore motivate me to keep going. A prologue and two and a half chapters in one day (yesterday). We'll see if I can't keep the fast-updates streak going…