Chapter 2: Dry Ice

(Robin's POV)

"It just doesn't make sense!" I yelled banging my fist on the wall. "What would've drove him to do this?!" "And then, if I tried to follow him I would've gotten myself killed! I mean fire is his element! He could've taken me out in one swipe...there was no way I could've no would've won...." I slowly started calming down. "It just doesn't add up...I just need to rest and let it all sink in...then it might start making sense." I sighed and looked around.

All these newspaper clippings, magazine pictures, and questions were hanging on my wall...questions that I had no answers to. That's what I needed...answers. But where, and how could I get them? Maybe it all has a connection, Slade, Malcolm, the burning buildings maybe Malcolm didn't do this on his own...maybe Slade---no...he couldn't he doesn't have the technology, the power, at least not yet.... All these thoughts whirled in my head...then I had a flashback to when Slade blackmailed me, he injected the other Titans secretly and if I didn't do what he said, he could've killed them...and I'd have to watch...watch them die.... "No...I won't let it happen again.... I will stop Slade and get answers no matter what...." I said muttering under my breath. I thought I told myself I wasn't going to worry about this.... I slowly got up and sighed, "Why was this group organized anyway...what Batman couldn't handle the crime waves on his own?" I laughed to myself and then my stomach growled. "Man...I'm hungry. Wonder what's left here to eat. And I need to get myself some new shoes, these boots are killing my feet." I got up and walked out towards the kitchen. "Wait a sec' where are Beast Boy and Raven?" I looked around seemingly confused, just then I heard voices coming from Raven's room. "And when did she get a 'Do Not Disturb' sign?" I sighed and shrugged. "Guess that life for you." I got to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of chips and a soda and headed for Starfire's room. I slowly opened the door and she was knocked out on her bed. "She must be really tired, I wonder what got her so tired." I took my head out of the doorway and closed the door. "I really wanted to talk to her." I went back down the hallway, and walked into my room set my food down and grabbed the remote and turned on the T.V.

(Starfire's POV)

I woke up a few hours later and saw someone sitting on the ledge of my window staring at the sky. "So your awake." The person said. The person turned around and I noticed it was Malcolm. "H-How did you get here?" I asked confused. "Long story...I'll tell you in the morning." He sighed and got up and slung his jacket over his shoulder. "I guess I better be going then...." "How are you going to get home?" I asked. "I guess I can't make a fire here so I better start walking." He turned the doorknob and started to leave when I spoke up. "I guess you could stay here tonight since you said you were going to tell me how you got here in the first place. So you might as well stay here...." He shrugged and sighed. Just then she started to do something to the bed and about 15 minutes later it was a twin-sized bed. "Okay then...where do I sleep?" He asked. "On the bed." I replied. "Then where do you sleep?" He asked again. This time I laughed. "On the bed silly." I sighed. "This is gonna be complicated." He said folding his arms.

(Robin's POV)

"When will the madness end?" Then the commercial ended. "You are watching MAD TV." "This is so boring." In my frustration I banged on the remote. "Hey a black screen...I always wondered what would happen if I stared at this for a while. Just then the TV clicked. "Telletubbies Telletubies!" I screamed. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

(Cyborg's POV)

I'm having that dream again. I'm driving in my car down a road and pass a gas station just then everything started going slow-motion...just then Beast Boy turned around and spoke "Zoom Zoom...." Just then I reversed. "Zoom Zoom." "Hey that's kinda fun." I did that like 10 times then the 11th time Beast Boy spoke. "Zoom Zoo—Hey this is getting annoying can I go home now?"

(Robin's POV)

"Ah...another black screen." I said. "We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...I love you, you love me...." "NOOOOOOOO...WHEN WILL IT END?"

(Beast Boy's POV)

"Its so dark...wait I cant hear my voice...I cant hear my voice...wait that's it...Im thinking about hearing my voice...yeah that's it. Wait ahhh!!! I can't see!" Just then a raven crowed. "Oh...Raven you almost scared me." I said. "I'm tired lets go to sleep." Raven said. "Huh?" I said confused. " Oh...you mean sleep." "Yeah...sleeeeeep." She repeated. " Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep...." I had a dazed look on my face and I was drooling. (Authors Note: When Beast Boy gets excited about something –sleeping with raven in the other term of the word- He goes into SLEEPING PARALYSIS. Now back to your regularly scheduled program) She sighed and kissed me. "Wha- huh? What am I doing?" "We we're just about to go to sleep." She said. "Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep...." I got that dazed look on my face again. This time she slapped me. "What?!" I yelled confused. She sighed and shook her head. Out of nowhere she had put on black lingerie. "Oooh...black lingerie, that's new." I said smirking. "Lets go to sleep...oops, I did it again." She said smacking herself on the head. "Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep...." She undressed herself and sighed. "Im goin' to bed let him sit there all night." She climbed in bed and waited. "Wha-huh? Oh...not again." I said feeling stupid. "Come on Beast Boy lets go to sleep...." "Slee—wait no must fight it...Sl—No must fight it!" I stopped and sighed. "Finally...thank god." I looked at Raven and smirked. "Now...where were we...." "Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep...." She had gotten my dazed look on her face. "This...is gonna take a while."

(Robin's POV)

I finally got the hint and decided to go to bed. But first I was going to go check on Starfire. I turned off the TV and headed to Starfire's room. She had set up her Door Lock Machine she got from Cyborg last year. "Robin." I said, speaking to the machine ACCESS DENIED. "Im the leader!" ACCESS DENIED. "Grrr...don't tell me she accidentally put on her Auto Lock...stupid Cyborg." "Robin!" I repeated. ACCESS DENIED "Look you dumb machine if you don't let me in Im going to rip you off this wall!" I slowly hacked into the system of the lock machine and the door finally opened. I peered in and could hear sounds of people kissing. "Wait...that's her twin-sized bed. I'm the only one who can use that bed! Someone else is in there with her...but who? Maybe its Cyborg...if it is IM GONNA SHORT-CIRCUIT THAT ROBOT!" I walked down the hallway into Cyborg's room to get his toolbox. Cyborg was in his bed sleeping. "Well if that's him...then who's in there?" I walked down the hallway again and heard moaning coming from Raven's room. "Guess that rules them out. Then who else is there?" I sighed and decided to go to bed...I'd worry about that later.

The Next Morning

(Still Robin's POV)

I woke up the next day smelling something. It was Sunday and I think today was the day we suggested that we would go shopping. I got off the bed and the mattress springs groaned. I walked outside and noticed that Cyborg was cooking. "Is that non-bacon bacon I smell?" I said. "Yeah." I sat down at the table across from the stove and Raven and Starfire came out of their rooms. They spoke in unison, "Is that non-bacon bacon?" Now Cyborg was getting annoyed with this and instead of answering, he just motioned them to the table where I was sitting. Next Beast Boy came out of Raven's room. He sat down next to everyone else and Cyborg spoke. "Okay everyone, your food is on that table over there." He pointed to the one next to the window. "Beast Boy...." He continued. "Your food is over there." He pointed to a dark corner at the edge of the room. Beast Boy sighed. Everyone walked to their tables and began to eat. Soon, Starfire's room door creaked open again. Malcolm walked out of her room. Everyone but Starfire gasped and I spit orange juice on Raven. "Everyone slowly got up and walked towards him. I stood back and waited. When everyone went back to eating I walked up to him. "What are you doing here, and how did you get here?" I asked quietly. He spoke up but his voice seemed unusually calm. "I was passing by and decided to visit, and I drove." I sighed. For some reason that still didn't explain why he came out of Starfire's room, but I guess I'd have to buy it for now. After breakfast, Malcolm asked if he could stay with us for the day since he really had nothing to do. Everyone accepted, although it took me some time to say yes. I didn't know why but for some reason I felt odd when he was around, something wasn't right about him. Raven had noticed it too I saw it in the way she looked at me when Malcolm wasn't around. We decided we would get the shopping thing done early so we wouldn't have to worry about it later. We all left the house and packed into Cyborg's car...everyone but Malcolm, Starfire said he said something about meeting us at the mall. So, with that out of the way, we left. It didn't take very long to get there, seeing as how Cyborg's car had a built in map of the city. But when we pulled up at the mall, Malcolm was standing next to what looked like a brand new motorcycle. He had a McDonald's bag, and was munching on french fries. "I was wondering what took you so long to get here." He said in his unusually calm voice.
After that, we all walked inside the mall, everyone in the mall gave us some sort of glance, after all, its kind of odd to see a teen in a mask. A girl wearing a purple jumpsuit, a green guy, a girl in a dark cloak, and a guy that is half machine. But for some reason, most of the girls we passed in the mall were admiring Malcolm, I couldn't see why but every time he looked at one, they seemed to get scared and ran. Something else I'd have to figure out later.
We decided to split up, everyone went into different stores. Malcolm went into one on the other end of the mall, Beast Boy took one upstairs, Raven followed him, Cyborg went downstairs and I took the ones on the main hallway since the clothes there were middle price. About an hour later, we all met back at the food court, we didn't look at anyone else's clothes until we got back. Beast Boy had gotten a new pairs of shoes, a white cap, 2 pairs of jeans, and a white shirt that said 'Dragonfly' in big shiny gold letters. Cyborg got a blue shirt that said 'Gotham City' on it, in white letters. Raven got a plain black shirt and 2 pairs of jeans. Starfire had gotten a white shirt that said 'Flirt' another shirt that said 'Keep Dreamin' a new pair of shoes and 3 pairs of jeans. I got myself 2 pairs of shoes, a pair of black jeans and a red shirt that said 'Don't Mess With Me' and Malcolm had gotten a white cap that said 'NY' stuck together vertically, a brown jacket made of something that felt like silk, a gray shirt that said 'Can't Touch This' and 2 blue jeans. Just as everyone finished putting their stuff away, and Malcolm strapped his things to his motorcycle an alert was sent to their house. "Titans! We've got a problem. Apparently Slade, sent a couple of his cronies to steal something in the Tech Sector of the town." I shouted. Everyone scrambled. I grabbed my motorcycle, Cyborg and Beastboy hopped into Cyborg's car. Starfire and Raven flew off. Malcolm stood on the sidewalk watching them. As Cyborg's car drove by, Beast Boy shouted. "C'mon! We could use your help!" He shouted. At that exact moment, he leapt onto his motorcycle and drove off.

(Malcolm's POV)

I was going at least 90 miles per hour, because everything around me was a blur. We arrived at the crime and crept inside. Robin at the head, we moved around the corner and saw Slade's men, Robin spoke quietly, "On my signal, move ou---." "Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" I had charged out at them and I could hear Robin in the distance, "No wait!!!" But it was too late they spotted me and soon, I was surrouned by an army of his henchmen. They charged at me, and I slowly raised a hand and shocked on in the ribs. He was out cold, they charged at me and I knocked one out of the air, then I was grabbed by the neck and they started to choke me. Just then, I heard something. "Azrath—Metrion—Zinthos!" He was knocked into a wall. Then everyone joined the battle. I slipped away and saw a tall person running towards the back exit, I followed him. When he got out, he jumped to a roof and I followed pursuit. He stopped on the unfinished roof of a construction site. "Malcolm, I presume." He said in a deep, nonchalant voice. "Yes, and you must be Slade," I replied. He nodded and held out his hand, in it was what looked like a chip with the logo of a company on it. He set it down on the ground and I charged at him. I struck him one in the side of his head and he came at me. He tripped me, punched me in the stomach, and threw me against the ground. I wiped the gravel from my face and stood up. I clenched my fist and it began to glow with electricity, soon it surged around my whole body, I smirked as he backed away, I held out my left hand and something strange happened, ice shot out of it! It caused Slade to back away onto the metal structure for the rest of the building. I charged higher and soon my hair began to stand up, I shot it at the metal structure, making electricity surge throughout it. Slade looked at me and clapped. "Well, done." He said in his annoying calm voice. "I wouldn't be so happy, one false step and your going to get surged with 10,000 volts of electricity." He smirked. "You're a very strong opponent, and a quick thinker. Perhaps we'll fight again another day." And with that he vanished. I stood there, meditating on what just happened. I sighed and walked back to where Slade dropped the chip, picked it up and crammed it into my pocket. Then I returned to where the chip was originally placed and saw everyone standing around waiting for me. I was bruised a bit but overall I was fine. "Sorry, I went after Slade." I said apologetically. As we were leaving, I handed the gold chip to Robin. "Here, you may need this more than I do." I said softly. "Hmph...." Was his response. I hopped onto my motorcycle, and watched as everyone left, I went the opposite way. I don't know why, but I felt I needed to be alone.

(Robin's POV)

We arrived home, and it was about 9:00, we decided to get some sleep early. Besides tomorrow was a school day. So we all said our good nights and went to bed.

(Starfire's POV)

I sat down on my bed, a bit disappointed that Malcolm couldn't have stayed longer than he did. And he never did tell me how he ended up in my room in the first place. And with that I laid down to bed. About an hour later I heard a noise, it was coming from the corner of my room. I slowly got up and went to look at it, when I got there I noticed someone vaguely familiar. I touched the side of their face and noticed that it was bruised. Just then it spoke up. "Star...I have something to tell you."

Goten: So how did you all like the second chapter? Was it confusing, annoying? Long? Do you even care? Well anyway, stay tuned as the next chapter comes...until then, c ya later!