Out of the Frying Pan
"Come on, come on, cumoncumoncumon!" Beast Boy hopped from foot to foot impatiently as a ten-foot robot bulleted towards him in a blur of silver. With a swift flip the green teen shifted into an elephant and stood his ground. The machine crushed into him like a soda can, spewing smoke; sea breezes carried it away quickly. Beast Boy stood unharmed. Physically, at least.
"Dudes!" he moaned, waving his arms at his teammates in mental torment. "The GameStop opens in ten minutes!"
"Relax, Beast Boy, that's the third T-Trainer you totaled this week," his friend grunted, cleanly slicing one in half.
"Are they not meant to be added?" Starfire stopped in midair, looking at Robin in confusion.
"Totaled, Star it's different—"
Beast Boy ducked a burst of flame. "Is not," he grumbled. "When we're not actually saving the city we're pretending to. I mean, really," he kicked the still smoking metal in frustration, "would it kill—" Kick. "anyone—" Kick. "if we took the day off?" The two other Titans stared, insofar as staring was possible while being bombarded with walking bombs.
"Actually, yes."
"Oh." The defeated sigh was punctuated with a halfhearted punch.
Up on the rocks sloping up toward the Tower, Raven and Cyborg were getting a workout of their own as they tried to keep the pressure on the other half steady but challenging. 'Gamestop... Ten minutes...' Scraps of conversation filtered through the speakers with a metallic edge. Raven sighed and twisted the changeling's knob with a vengence. It was particularly shiny; for some reason, it was handled less than the others' when Cyborg was at the controls. "Nice to see he's focused," she remarked dryly.
"BB's wrong— it's actually nine minutes—" said Cyborg, distracted. A robot started whistling madly and exploded like teapot left on the stove too long. Raven winced slightly.
"Pay attention."
It was too late. The robots powered down as the timer petered out with a sigh. The three sprinted up the rocks to the control station to check their results.
"Seven minutes," Beast Boy mimicked the hoarse whisper of the horror movie that had the team (sans Raven, probably) terrified for, well, seven days. Robin was standing slightly behind them with Starfire, dubious. Not saying go ahead, but not shoving us off to the gym, either, she noted in slight amusement. It appeared to be up to her, and she could do withoutany testosterone clogging up the air for a day. At least, that's what she told herself as she pretended to ignore the atomic bomb of BB enthusiasm, currently drowning out the other two's faintly interested rays of hope.
"Don't look at me," she seemingly acquiesed.
"BOOYA!" Something crashed.
She wrinkled her nose at the steaming controls and went on coolly. "But do not expect me to accompany you."
Cyborg grinned deviously. "Suit yourself, Rae. You can keep Star company."
Beast Boy bolted past them, dragging a bemused Robin by a bent wing. "Meet us at eight!" he managed to call. Raven managed to answer both scornfully and silently, a feat only she could accomplish; missing it entirely, Starfire squealed.
"Shall we journey to a parlor?"
"A… parlor?"
"One of beauties or ice cream or of decorating skin?"
"How about the mall?" offered Raven quickly.
The three boys stood standing at the window of the arcade. On the busy street they attracted more than a few curious glances. The rest of the crowd circled the heroes, giving them a wide berth. Were they on a stakeout for Control Freak? Overload? Maybe the new game was infected with a virus! A bomb! Maybe—a shudder went through the crowd—maybe the game was sold out. "You know," Cy said slowly, "a large shipment like this from Japan is pretty suspicious." Cyborg and Beast Boy looked sideways at each other.
"Yeah," added Beast Boy, "wouldn't want the spawn of Godzilla hitching a ride in these babies."
"Whaday'all think? Inspection?"
Robin hesitated, frowing, but was spared the decision by the cool effulgence of air conditioning as the glass doors slid open.
The other customers dismissed them with a glance as they walked in. Raven relaxed. No one was staring. No one looked guilty. It was kind of… well, nice to be out. Although she'd never admit it, she rather enjoyed Starfire's company. They sat down at the front counter. Somewhere in the background she heard Star order her a tea as she continued her inspection of the place. It was an eclectic crew, but then, weren't they? The tea arrived, and Raven sipped. Satisfied, she slipped it back on the counter. "This place isn't bad," she said grudgingly, eyeing an off-duty clown as he slumped into the stool next to Starfire. "How did you find it?"
She smiled sadly. "I assisted Beast Boy in finding a job last summer, but he did not wish to work here."
"Instead choosing to work for the lunatic," said Raven, skeptical.
"He said there were memories."
She winced imperceptibly. "Oh. Her."
"Yes," Starfire pondered over the menu, carefully not looking at her friend. "But he also said there was a killer pie. Perhaps we should check this out?"
The crowd surged.
"Come on— what are you waiting for?" Beast Boy yelped. He shrunk into a squirrel and hopped from shoulder to shoulder. The dark room came alive with alien beeps and flashes.
"Yo, Rob!" Cyborg waved to him from a corner. "You hafta check this out!"
"Well, that was a healthy lunch." Raven pushed the defeated killer pie towards Starfire. She giggled and shook her head. The pie tin was nudged towards the dejected clown. He brightened visibly.
"Are you an alien? Cos you're outta this world!"
"Indeed, I am! I am—"
"—leaving now." Raven pushed Star in front of her. The clown scrambled off the stool and tripped at their feet.
"Have you got a band-aid? Cos I just scraped my knee falling for you!"
They stared. "Would you like fries with your cheese?" Raven muttered as they left.
Outside, Starfire laughed. "I believe he has too much of the corn." Raven hid a smile.
A/N: First chapter! Plot will be introduced in the next one or so. This was just building up to it, because I hate jumping into the action.
Next Chapter: Little Shop of Horrors
To my one wonderful reviewer: THANKS!