Chapter 3

The fact that Slade was alive was scary. That meant that the freak could still be prowling the streets, searching for new minions. Davey placed his sniper rifle on the ground, and assembled a twelve-gauge shotgun. Davey pulled the shotgun up, and said aloud, "Slade, you're gettin' it now ya' li'l shitface!" Starfire turned to Davey, shocked ashe fired at nothing. "Didn't you guys see him? He's over there! Cyborg! To your left! Damn, Crocmon, right in front of you! Dad! Look right behind-" Davey halted mid-sentence as he realized everybody was staring at him. "What?"

Robin felt humiliated. Of all the things he passed on to his son, the regeant was one of them. The substance had made Robin see, hear, and feel Slade. Davey received it and it kicked in at the wrong time. Robin shouldered his sniper rifle, and emptied the four round magazine to take out Davey's shields, the whole time Davey shouting short, uncompleted phrases of confusion and anger. Then Robin filled the magazine with narq darts, and reluctantly, he shot his son twice in his armored chest. The first bullet pinged off the unshielded armor, and the other penetrated the armor. Davey's shields recharged as his unconcious body hit the ground, his shotgun firing a single shell as its bearer fell.

Crocmon looked at Robin with anger flowing through his blood back at the Titan Tower. "You turned upon your son and fired at him for what purpose, soldier?" Crocmon demanded with the harshness of a pissed Captain who had just found one of his most loyal troops commiting treason.

"Davey had inherited the regeant from me, and I had to decommission him so we could bring him back here without him throwing grenades in the dropship." Robin replied without any hint of a lie.

"Yes, he did inherit that. We could've restrained him, and knocked him out in the infirmary. But what you did was completely uncalled for, against what a good leader would've done, and worst of all, you could've killed your own son. If his shields hadn't recharged from Mumbo's attack, you could've commited murder. We already had to tie Starfire down, and use Mod's tech to make sure she didn't burn through the chains she was tied in. I'd take it that you just ruined fourteen years of a good marriage. It is 2022, isn't it? If I were you, I'd try and rehabitate the room that used to be yours and yours alone. She could demote you from first-in-command, to fifth-in-command as second-in-command."

"Yes sir." Robin replied, making sure he used the honorific. When Crocmon got this mad, it was best to call him 'sir'. If you didn't, he'd make one big deal about it.

"You're dismissed."

Davey was awaken by Freezefire's icy powers. Her hands froze the water vapor coming from Davey's face and the chill it produced washed in waves against his face. He tried to get up, but found that he was restrained. Freezefire held a finger to her lips and shushed Davey, and whispered into his ears that he shouldn't move much. Davey's eyes stung by the light the room was filled with, and his state of disorientation faded. He looked side to side, and realized he was in the infirmary, and wires were coming from his head. He had a severe itch on his nose, and he wished he could scratch it. It grew and brought pain onto the skin of his nose. He began wrinkling his nose, and Freezefire took care of that problem. He felt a needle penetrate his skin, and he saw Slade behind Cyborg as he injected the tranquilizer fluids into Davey's bloodstream. His world faded into the blackness of unconciousness.

Crocmon watched as Raven stood next to the monitors, and she and Beastboy switched places. Cyborg gave the thumbs up, and Crocmon understood. He walked to his wife's side, and placed his cold metal hand on Davey's cheeks. He awoke, and the belts unfastened as Davey's mind came back to normal. Davey held his head and asked, "Where am I?"

"You're at the Titan Tower." Freezefire replied calmly.

"Why did Dad shoot me?"

"He thought it was okay to empty one and one half clips of sniper rifle into you and take you into the infirmary knocked out like a bear going to sleep for the winter. He's been taken care of, and I'd suggest you try not to bring this matter up with your mother. She isn't exactly too happy with Robin for doing what he did. I'd just keep all thoughts of this matter to myself if I were you. But that might be just me." Crocmon explained.

"Oh, okay." Davey replied, shocked.

Freezefire had thought the day was bad enough when Paul shot his tongue out and licked a spoonful of baby food clean in one movement that Freezefire barely caught. Freezefire just stood there, hoping she was just seeing things. She wasn't. She held up another spoonful of the gooey food, and he licked it clean with lightning speed. "CROCMON! YOU MIGHT WANT TO SEE WHAT YOUR KID CAN DO!" Crocmon dashed into the room and tripped over his own feet and landed face first at the base of Paul's chair. He jumped up, and he looked at his son with eager eyes, and Paul licked a spoonful of baby food clean once more. Crocmon's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. He was amazed at how his son shot his tongue out like a chameleon. Crocmon fainted. This day was too much for him.

Crocmon awoke, with a blue boot in his stomach, and a large metal foot on his tail. "Get off of me." Was all Crocmon said, and Cyborg grinned as he stepped off Crocmon. Raven said "Oops" when she lifted her foot off Crocmon's stomach. When Crocmon got up, he saw Beastboy competeing in a tongue flicking contestwith Paul over a small grape. Paul won, and Beastboy's chameleon tongue was barely half way there when Paul gulped it down.. Beastboy stood there in amazement.

"Dude, how'd you do that?" Beastboy asked in vain. Paul just grinned, not knowing what Beastboy said. Cailey awoke from her nap and found that she wasn't being paid any attention, so she wailed. Crocmon went to get her, and picked her up. It would be scary to wake up and see nobody nearby, at least at her age. An explosion shook the tower, and Crocmon's HUDthat showedvital signs saidthere was nobody concious in the room Paul was in. He ran into the room, and saw all of the Titans on the ground, spitting blood, and a large hole that could've only been caused by the recent explosion. Paul was nowhere to be seen. The chair was tipped over, and the safety straps were undone. Crocmon knew what had happened, Paul had been kidnapped, and all of the others were severely injured by the explosion. Only Freezefire was concious, and she was barely concious. She said, "Paul, they took Paul." then looked at Crocmon with pain in her eyes. "You need to find him. The abductor was-" She fainted from blood loss.