"This is your big hideout?" Cyborg asked dubiously as the group walked into
the large, yet abandoned building. There were a few rats running around
here and there, but tat was it.
"Best I could do on short term, kid. I didn't exactly have time to get you guys a five star hotel."
"It's defensible enough," Raven mused, looking around. The old movie theater was located in a dark back alley, and had several makeshift escape routes if necessary, she'd observed. What worried her most was Starfire and Robin, they had yet to report in, and she was unable to get a signal through, which either meant that the two were outside the seventy-mile range, or their communicator had somehow been damaged. Neither prospect was a good one.
Beast Boy flew in, he'd just been scouting out the area in his osprey form. He perched on what had used to be a concessions stand and promptly changed back into his regular self. "Coast is clear," he said, "No cops or anything for a good couple of miles. Funny though there's some huge accident scene or something on the freeway-I don't know what it is, but its causing almost all f the available police and stuff to go over there. Hope there weren't any deaths or anything." The instant that Beast Boy stopped talking, a low, but loud rumble came from his stomach.
"I take it you are hungry," said Raven.
"Starving."
"Yeah, me too," said Cyborg. "Why don't you turn into some fried chicken or something. I sure could go for some right about now."
"Not funny dude, not funny."
Nightwing cleared his throat. "Raven, you said you were going to try to contact Starfire and Robin. Any luck?"
Raven shook hr head. "No they must be-"
The communicator went off just then, and Raven turned to the concession stand where she'd left it. Beast Boy, who was already there, picked the comm device up. "Got it." He flipped it on. "Robin?"
"Starfire," said the Tamaranian girl on the other end. She sounded very weary, and had possibly been crying.
"Yo Star, is everything cool over there?" asked Cyborg.
"He's asking if things are all right," supplied Raven, knowing that starfire was no expert on human slang."
"No, they are not. Robin has been shot and I-"
"Wait, back up. You say Robin as shot?" asked Beast Boy.
"Yes."
"How? Where'd he get shot? "
"It is a long story. Right now I just need to know where you guys are. The Tower has aircraft and boats buzzing around it like Fagorian red bees around a hive."
"That too is a long story," said Raven. She took the communicator from Beast Boy and flicked up a switch with her thumb, revealing a keypad. She spoke while pressing buttons. "I'm sending our coordinates over a secure connection. You do know how read 'em, right."
"Yeah."
***
Starfire frowned when she felt a drop of rain strike her on the back as she zoomed high above the city. A second drop hit her forehead and ran down to her left. Robin too had been hit by the raindrops, but he of course could not notice it being unconscious and possibly about to die.
Suddenly, a torrent of rain came slamming down onto the city, drenching both Star and Robin. To clear her vision somewhat, Starfire generated a crackling field of energy around herself and her passenger, Robin. It wasn't as spectacular as it could have been since a great deal of he energy had to be diverted to keep both her and the limp teammate in her arms in the air. She looked again at the screen of her Teen Titans official communicator. She was getting close, although she could not imagine what had led the other Titans to wander into this part of town. She looked down at Robin. "Hold on," she whispered even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "We're almost there."
Two and a half minutes later, a blur of green energy burst through the door of the abandoned theater. Starfire stopped abruptly, crouching as beads of sweat mixed with rainwater poured down her face. She was thoroughly chilled and equally drenched. Exhaustion was also settling in, much to her displeasure. Her main concern though was Robin. He was growing paler and paler and she could barely get a pulse.
She barely registered the other titans plus nightwing rushing over. "Robin, is he OK?" she asked weakly.
Raven telekinetically lifted the Boy Wonder into the air. "Where as he hit? Wait, never mind." She fought back a gasp when she saw the unsightly hole in the center of Robin's R insignia.
He let Robin float down in front of her at about waist level so it was like he was lying on an invisible bed. It was hard to get a good psychokinetic grasp on the bullet, but the grim-faced young Titan, managed, gently easing the bullet out of the wound. Beast Boy, who was watching winced as the nasty little projectile floated in the air, trailing blood (among other things) out of the wound. Raven dropped it onto the concession stand and peered at the wound. She could telekinetically aid the healing, but even now Robin might be near brain death. They would need a miracle.
"Cyborg," she called.
"Yeah."
"What do you know about medical procedures?"
"A lot, I picked up a ton of medical information when I was first getting my cybernetic augmentations. Why, is Robin hurt bad?"
"Very bad. Take a look at him." Raven stepped aside so that her huge fellow titan could have room to operate. Cyborg held up his right and suddenly, the fist transformed into the Swiss Army knife of medical tools. Scalpels, needles, tubes, etc.
Starfire's eyes went wide. "Don't hurt him," she nearly yelled. Cyborg looked at her confused until he realized that to her, his array of medical instruments must look like weapons.
"Relax," he said, 'these are for patching him up.
Starfire let out a deep breath. "Yes, of course, um, sorry."
"So Star, feel like telling us what happened?" asked Raven.
***
Sgt. Morris was glad that that the police were able to keep the media relatively at bay-for now. The scene was a disaster, with several homes without water or electricity resulting from the brief skirmish they'd had with Starfire and Robin.
Despite the bad rep they were getting, Morris had to admire the fact that even when in battle, the titans had spared the lives of numerous officers time and time again, eve when those same officers were shooting at them. They hadn't seemed to be willing to kill anyone either at the attack on their headquarters or the clash with police forces on the freeway. There were no police casualties as of yet, and he could only hope that that remained the case throughout the whole affair.
"Hey Mo."
Morris turned around to see fellow officer Richard Weston approaching him. He gave the best semblance of a grin that he could manage in his present mood. "Hey Rick."
Richard walked over. He was a large man, dwarfing even Morris, who was no shorty himself. Richard had been a Navy SEAL until an injury to his chest had hampered his breathing, severely cutting down his lung capacity. He could barely run a mile without having to stop for breath. Not to say that the guy was unfit to be a policeman or anything-he could hold his own with the best of them. "You're lucky man," he said. "My squad car got totaled. Yours came out pretty good except for these stains."
"Yeah. We're all lucky."
"How do you mean?"
"I mean, the whole force came out without any deaths."
"Larry's arm is broken pretty bad."
"But that's nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Like I said, we're just lucky that they decided to hold back."
"The Titans?" Richard snorted. "They're still bad enough in my book. And don't forget about Robin, he was perfectly willing to kill those bankers for a little money. Heck, a lady died in there."
Morris sighed. "Well how's the sniper?"
Starfire took one parting shot at him before she flew off. The guy's banged up pretty bad, and I hear he suffered some damage in his uh, groin. The guy's gonna need a special kind of operation for that."
A young policeman ran up to Morris just then. "Sergeant," he said, "One of the EMS workers sent me to tell you that they can't get the driver's door open."
"Driver's door?"
"To the PTV sir. The windows are unbreakable and opaque, so we don't even know if he's alive since we can't see in"
Morris suddenly remembered the driver, who for some reason had not responded to specific radio request to stop the vehicle.
The explosion knocked everyone within a good twenty-yard radius to the ground. Morris barely had time to register that something had gone BOOM when a flash of heat engulfed him. A piece of broken glass fell on the ground next to his face. It wasn't hard to figure that the windows had been blown out.
The magnitude hit him just then as he saw the bodies of several emergency workers sprawled over the pavement. The fire on the PTV lit up the scene brighter than day. Bright enough to tell that everyone close to the PTV when the bomb went off had died a horrible death. It made no sense. Why would there be a bomb in there? Unless the Teen Titans had put it there.
Coughing, Morris rose to his feet, helped up by Richard. The young officer who had been there was unconscious. The PTV itself was a total wreck.
Richard looked at him. "Decided to hold back huh."
"Best I could do on short term, kid. I didn't exactly have time to get you guys a five star hotel."
"It's defensible enough," Raven mused, looking around. The old movie theater was located in a dark back alley, and had several makeshift escape routes if necessary, she'd observed. What worried her most was Starfire and Robin, they had yet to report in, and she was unable to get a signal through, which either meant that the two were outside the seventy-mile range, or their communicator had somehow been damaged. Neither prospect was a good one.
Beast Boy flew in, he'd just been scouting out the area in his osprey form. He perched on what had used to be a concessions stand and promptly changed back into his regular self. "Coast is clear," he said, "No cops or anything for a good couple of miles. Funny though there's some huge accident scene or something on the freeway-I don't know what it is, but its causing almost all f the available police and stuff to go over there. Hope there weren't any deaths or anything." The instant that Beast Boy stopped talking, a low, but loud rumble came from his stomach.
"I take it you are hungry," said Raven.
"Starving."
"Yeah, me too," said Cyborg. "Why don't you turn into some fried chicken or something. I sure could go for some right about now."
"Not funny dude, not funny."
Nightwing cleared his throat. "Raven, you said you were going to try to contact Starfire and Robin. Any luck?"
Raven shook hr head. "No they must be-"
The communicator went off just then, and Raven turned to the concession stand where she'd left it. Beast Boy, who was already there, picked the comm device up. "Got it." He flipped it on. "Robin?"
"Starfire," said the Tamaranian girl on the other end. She sounded very weary, and had possibly been crying.
"Yo Star, is everything cool over there?" asked Cyborg.
"He's asking if things are all right," supplied Raven, knowing that starfire was no expert on human slang."
"No, they are not. Robin has been shot and I-"
"Wait, back up. You say Robin as shot?" asked Beast Boy.
"Yes."
"How? Where'd he get shot? "
"It is a long story. Right now I just need to know where you guys are. The Tower has aircraft and boats buzzing around it like Fagorian red bees around a hive."
"That too is a long story," said Raven. She took the communicator from Beast Boy and flicked up a switch with her thumb, revealing a keypad. She spoke while pressing buttons. "I'm sending our coordinates over a secure connection. You do know how read 'em, right."
"Yeah."
***
Starfire frowned when she felt a drop of rain strike her on the back as she zoomed high above the city. A second drop hit her forehead and ran down to her left. Robin too had been hit by the raindrops, but he of course could not notice it being unconscious and possibly about to die.
Suddenly, a torrent of rain came slamming down onto the city, drenching both Star and Robin. To clear her vision somewhat, Starfire generated a crackling field of energy around herself and her passenger, Robin. It wasn't as spectacular as it could have been since a great deal of he energy had to be diverted to keep both her and the limp teammate in her arms in the air. She looked again at the screen of her Teen Titans official communicator. She was getting close, although she could not imagine what had led the other Titans to wander into this part of town. She looked down at Robin. "Hold on," she whispered even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "We're almost there."
Two and a half minutes later, a blur of green energy burst through the door of the abandoned theater. Starfire stopped abruptly, crouching as beads of sweat mixed with rainwater poured down her face. She was thoroughly chilled and equally drenched. Exhaustion was also settling in, much to her displeasure. Her main concern though was Robin. He was growing paler and paler and she could barely get a pulse.
She barely registered the other titans plus nightwing rushing over. "Robin, is he OK?" she asked weakly.
Raven telekinetically lifted the Boy Wonder into the air. "Where as he hit? Wait, never mind." She fought back a gasp when she saw the unsightly hole in the center of Robin's R insignia.
He let Robin float down in front of her at about waist level so it was like he was lying on an invisible bed. It was hard to get a good psychokinetic grasp on the bullet, but the grim-faced young Titan, managed, gently easing the bullet out of the wound. Beast Boy, who was watching winced as the nasty little projectile floated in the air, trailing blood (among other things) out of the wound. Raven dropped it onto the concession stand and peered at the wound. She could telekinetically aid the healing, but even now Robin might be near brain death. They would need a miracle.
"Cyborg," she called.
"Yeah."
"What do you know about medical procedures?"
"A lot, I picked up a ton of medical information when I was first getting my cybernetic augmentations. Why, is Robin hurt bad?"
"Very bad. Take a look at him." Raven stepped aside so that her huge fellow titan could have room to operate. Cyborg held up his right and suddenly, the fist transformed into the Swiss Army knife of medical tools. Scalpels, needles, tubes, etc.
Starfire's eyes went wide. "Don't hurt him," she nearly yelled. Cyborg looked at her confused until he realized that to her, his array of medical instruments must look like weapons.
"Relax," he said, 'these are for patching him up.
Starfire let out a deep breath. "Yes, of course, um, sorry."
"So Star, feel like telling us what happened?" asked Raven.
***
Sgt. Morris was glad that that the police were able to keep the media relatively at bay-for now. The scene was a disaster, with several homes without water or electricity resulting from the brief skirmish they'd had with Starfire and Robin.
Despite the bad rep they were getting, Morris had to admire the fact that even when in battle, the titans had spared the lives of numerous officers time and time again, eve when those same officers were shooting at them. They hadn't seemed to be willing to kill anyone either at the attack on their headquarters or the clash with police forces on the freeway. There were no police casualties as of yet, and he could only hope that that remained the case throughout the whole affair.
"Hey Mo."
Morris turned around to see fellow officer Richard Weston approaching him. He gave the best semblance of a grin that he could manage in his present mood. "Hey Rick."
Richard walked over. He was a large man, dwarfing even Morris, who was no shorty himself. Richard had been a Navy SEAL until an injury to his chest had hampered his breathing, severely cutting down his lung capacity. He could barely run a mile without having to stop for breath. Not to say that the guy was unfit to be a policeman or anything-he could hold his own with the best of them. "You're lucky man," he said. "My squad car got totaled. Yours came out pretty good except for these stains."
"Yeah. We're all lucky."
"How do you mean?"
"I mean, the whole force came out without any deaths."
"Larry's arm is broken pretty bad."
"But that's nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Like I said, we're just lucky that they decided to hold back."
"The Titans?" Richard snorted. "They're still bad enough in my book. And don't forget about Robin, he was perfectly willing to kill those bankers for a little money. Heck, a lady died in there."
Morris sighed. "Well how's the sniper?"
Starfire took one parting shot at him before she flew off. The guy's banged up pretty bad, and I hear he suffered some damage in his uh, groin. The guy's gonna need a special kind of operation for that."
A young policeman ran up to Morris just then. "Sergeant," he said, "One of the EMS workers sent me to tell you that they can't get the driver's door open."
"Driver's door?"
"To the PTV sir. The windows are unbreakable and opaque, so we don't even know if he's alive since we can't see in"
Morris suddenly remembered the driver, who for some reason had not responded to specific radio request to stop the vehicle.
The explosion knocked everyone within a good twenty-yard radius to the ground. Morris barely had time to register that something had gone BOOM when a flash of heat engulfed him. A piece of broken glass fell on the ground next to his face. It wasn't hard to figure that the windows had been blown out.
The magnitude hit him just then as he saw the bodies of several emergency workers sprawled over the pavement. The fire on the PTV lit up the scene brighter than day. Bright enough to tell that everyone close to the PTV when the bomb went off had died a horrible death. It made no sense. Why would there be a bomb in there? Unless the Teen Titans had put it there.
Coughing, Morris rose to his feet, helped up by Richard. The young officer who had been there was unconscious. The PTV itself was a total wreck.
Richard looked at him. "Decided to hold back huh."