A/N: I'm sorry for taking so long on this chapter. It is long because it is with Robin and the Teen Titans. Next chapter you get into the game John was talking about in the last chapter. Then this fic will take off. But please give a review! That would be nice. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Teen Titans. I only own John Thatch.
Chapter 3 Mysterious Note
Robin was thrown into a room in John Thatch's house that was more along the lines of a mansion. The house was huge and was built around a waterfall in the middle of the island. Thick green jungle plants surrounded the house so it blended into its surroundings. The mansion was made out of metal and had around three floors. It circled around the waterfall almost like a giant doughnut placed in the middle of a tropical paradise. It even went into the rock around the waterfall.
Robin quickly turned around after being thrown into the room to face the door. The metal door slid closed right before Robin slammed into it with a yell of frustration. He waited at the door with his ear against it to catch a little bit of what John said to his two robots. His door was to be guarded by the two. Escaping through the door was now off the possible list in Robin's head.
"Great!" Robin said to himself and turned around to see what kind of room he was in. "Some prison cell," he said sarcastically while looking around. The room was big and almost half the size of the living room at Titans Tower. A king sized canopy bed was against the left wall. On the far wall was a balcony to look at the beautiful waterfall at the center of the house. The right wall was filled from top to bottom with animal heads.
"This is very reassuring," Robin muttered to himself when he noticed the animal heads. "I might be the next one. The guy sure knows how to creep a person out to no end." He glanced back at the heads, and the teen felt like all of the plastic eyes were watching him. He gave a shudder and pushed the idea out of his head.
Robin spotted a door leading to a bathroom. He glanced to a clock and saw that it was around eleven at night. None of his friends would be up by now. It might be around nine to noon back at Jump City. If he ever got his hands on a phone they might not even answer. So he would have to kill some time till it was midnight. A shower would be good.
Boy Wonder quickly jumped into the warm water with his dirty clothes still on. He would have had a cold shower, but he wanted to warm up his body from walking through a cold and dark jungle for nearly two hours nonstop. His feet were killing him as well. He really missed his shoes.
Robin found some towels and dried himself off. The teen found himself staring at himself in a full-length mirror in the brightness of the bathroom. He looked different without his costume. He quickly wished that he had his belt with him. He needed a weapon. Then the idea hit him.
Robin grabbed a towel and wound it up around his knuckles tightly. He then threw his arm back and punched the mirror. It gave a soft crack and shattered into a million different pieces. Robin carefully sorted through a few till he found one that was of his liking. It had three razor sharp edges and was pretty big. The teen tore up the towel and wound a piece of towel around the mirror piece. Not the best weapon, but it was still good.
By now it was around eleven thirty. Robin walked out onto the balcony with a cool and collected air about him. He was on the third floor of the building and looking out at the waterfall. The cascading water sparkled in the light of the moon and the sound soothed his nerves. He looked left and right and saw other balconies just like the one he was on where on both sides of him. Getting out of the room was going to be easy.
Robin jumped onto the railing of his balcony. In his head he quickly estimated the distance he had to jump. In only a few seconds Robin was air borne. He landed lightly on the railing of the next balcony like a cat would have. He peeked into the next room and saw that it looked very similar to the one he had just been in. On to the next room!
In a flash the teen was at the next balcony. He checked this room and saw that it was a study of some kind. Robin sneaked into the room while quickly looking for any cameras. He found none and walked up to the desk. Something on the desk caught his eye and he frowned.
It was folder with his name and picture on it. He opened it to see a lot of newspaper stuff about him and other bits and pieces of information about the Boy Wonder. John had studied Robin. No wonder the man seemed to know so much about him. The teen gave a disgusted look and put the folder down on something.
Robin quickly picked the folder back up and saw that under it was his belt. What luck! The teen grabbed a bird-a-rang and three disks and shoved them into his pockets for later use. His Bo Staff would not fit even if it was retracted. He then grabbed his communicator. Some wires were cut, but the smart teen quickly put them back together to make the thing work.
The first person to call that came to his mind was Raven. It was Sunday back at the Tower, and at noon only Raven would be up if there was no alert. The others would have slept in or were maybe just now waking up. Robin quickly pressed a button to call her and hoped with all his heart that he would get to her.
"Robin!" Raven said with much surprise.
"Listen, Raven!" Robin said quickly and cut her off. The dark girl did not ask questions. She only grabbed some paper and pen. "I've been kidnapped. I'm stuck on some island with this insane guy who wants to hunt me down! Don't ask why. Just call up Batman. Tell him that a John Thatch has me on an island. If it might help, he was a general one time or another. Can you do that?"
"Yes, Robin," Raven said quickly while writing every single word he had just said just incase they could not replay this message. "We've been searching all over the city for you. We almost thought Slade had you again or something similar to that. Are you alright?"
"He's fine," came a voice from the door of the room. It was John Thatch. He stood at the door with a frown set on his face. His gray eyes bore down on Robin. If looks could kill, Robin would be dead in a heartbeat. "Hang up, Robin."
"I…um," Robin tried to buy time. He sure was in trouble. John had his pistol out in a flash. He fired one shot. Robin gave a wince then realized that the man had only shot the communicator in his hands. The thing laid on the floor in sparking bits. Raven must have freaked out. He knew the message was sent, though. Maybe help would come in time for him.
"You're testing me a lot today, Robin," John said while walking up to him. The teen backed up till his back was up against the wall of the room. "Give me the weapons!"
Robin looked like he was going to put a fight, but again he knew it was useless to fight against a gun. Robin slowly took out the bird-a-rang and the disks. He kept the mirror in his pants because he knew that the General did not know he had it. John came up to Robin so that they were only inches apart. He rested the pistol on Robin's forehead and saw the boy give a small shudder that was barely visible.
"Hand them over," John said while holding out his other hand. Robin hesitated then finally gave the weapons back to the man in silence. So much for his luck. Things were just not going his way. "Come on," John said with some anger in his voice. He grabbed Robin's shoulder and started to drag him to the door with the pistol still at his head.
"Where are we going?" Robin asked the man. His eyes were wide with fear of the unknown. The General's grip on his shoulder was going to leave a red mark afterwards. John was taking long strides down the hall, and Robin had to quickly keep in stride with him.
"Back to your room," John said while opening up the door to Robin's room. The teen was quickly shoved up against a wall and had his wrists tied behind his back. The end of the green wire was now tied to the leg of the canopy bed.
John started to pace the room with his hands behind his back. His face was set into a deep frown of worry of something. Robin watched him with dread. The guy was thinking over what to do with Robin's life.
"What did you tell them?" John finally asked him. He stopped pacing and looked at Robin with stern, gray eyes. Robin said nothing. He was weighing the idea of telling the General what he had said to Raven. "Tell me!" John yelled loudly.
"I told them your name," Robin answered quickly.
"What else?" John asked him.
"That was it," Robin said knowing that if he told John he had told Raven to call Batman everything would be over right then and there. The man looked at Robin for a long time while thinking hard. It looked like Robin was telling the truth, but John could not fully trust the teen.
"I've under estimated you, Robin," John said while backing away from the teen. "Sooner or later you're friends might find you, but they will only find your dead body."
"It will not take them long to find me," Robin said while struggling in his binds. "They are smart and will not give up on finding me. They did it once when I was taken away by Slade. They can do it again now. If I were you I would give up now. My team will not be as forgiving as I would be on you."
John threw his head up and laughed loudly at what Robin had said. The teen frowned and wondered what the guy had up his sleeve. When your enemy laughs at you it means he is one step ahead. So far it seemed that the guy was always one step ahead of Robin.
"Well, Robin," John said with a smile. "You might think you have a long time, but we are cutting it short now. Because of your little mistake with the communicator back there, I'm going to start my game now."
"Now?" Robin yelled in surprise. "But you said you would start it tomorrow!"
"Look at the clock, kid," John said. Robin looked up to it with a grim look on his face. It was 12:01. "It is tomorrow!" Robin knew this was just not his day.
Batman walked up the long pathway to Titans Tower with quick steps. He wondered why the team wanted him. Cyborg had called him only an hour ago to tell him that the team wanted the Dark Knight to come to the tower. He was limited with details, so Batman was worried.
It was dark outside. The day was quickly ending at a fast pace. It was the only time Batman came out. He did not like being there in the daytime. He glanced up at the big tower with mystery on his face. He was almost dreading to go in there because he knew the news would not be good, but seeing Robin again would be nice. He missed the kid around the house back in Gotham.
When he got to the big door to Titans Tower it opened for him. He hesitated for only a few seconds while preparing for anything. For all he knew it could be a trap. He walked swiftly down the small hallway to another set of doors. His long cape flittered a little in the air as he walked quickly.
Another set of doors opened, and he was suddenly in the big living room with the other Titans. A huge screen was up in front of the clear windows that looked over the busy city. It showed different Internet sites that the Titans had been searching through. A few boxes were at the side of the screen that showed colored camera clips of outside the tower. They must have known he was coming.
"Thanks for coming," someone said from beside him. He looked down a little to see the dark girl levitating next to him with her hood up to keep her face in shadows. Her beautiful violet eyes made contact with his and there was deep mystery in them. She held onto a small white coffee cup with some hot tea in it. It was to sooth her nerves. Something was up.
"Why did you call me?" he asked her. He just wanted to get to the point then help them any way he could. After that he could go back to saving Gotham.
"We need to talk," Cyborg said while looking up from some papers. He was sitting on a red couch with papers on the coffee table in front of him. There was a lot of research there. The alien girl was sitting next to him staring at Batman with her wide green eyes.
"Who wants soda?" Beast Boy shouted while suddenly popping up from behind the counter next to the living room. "The caffeine will keep us up all night." He spotted Batman and gave a small squeak while fumbling with the few soda cans in his hands. Batman raised an eyebrow at the green teen and was returned with a nervous smile.
"Sit down," Raven said to him while levitating to the red couch in one swift movement with her long cape slightly moving behind her. Batman followed behind her in silence. He noticed that Robin was no where to be seen, and he started to get very worried. Was this another Slade kidnap or something? He hoped not.
"BB!" Cyborg called over his shoulder. "Get over here, and bring me a soda while you're at it."
"Now I'm your slave?" Beast Boy asked him while putting some of the cans down.
"You asked," Cyborg answered.
"You could say please," Beast Boy said with a smile. He was about to shake up Cyborg's soda can to make it spray all over his half robot friend, but he thought better of it. Maybe if Batman were not here he would have done it with no second thoughts. He sat down next to Raven and slid Cyborg's soda across the coffee table.
"Where is Robin?" Batman asked to finally get it out of his system. He was returned with grim faces of worry and nervousness.
"That is kind of why we brought you here," Cyborg said. He was automatically leader when Robin was gone. It was natural for him to take over. He had been leader for Titans East for a little while. So being leader was second nature for him. The others did not seem to mind him taking control.
"You see, we woke up this morning and could not find Robin," Cyborg explained quickly. "We searched for him all morning long till Raven got a call on her communicator at around noon. It was Robin. We could not track the call, but he left us a message before his own communicator broke. In his message he asked us to talk to you. Do you know anyone by the name of John Thatch?"
John Thatch. The name bounced around in Batman's head as he thought deeply on it. He never forgot a face, but for some reason nothing could come to mind for the name. But somehow he knew the name very well. He finally shook his head and said, "I don't know anyone by that name."
All the faces around him showed much disappointment. They had expected more from the man. Robin had been so sure in his message to get a hold of Batman. Maybe the teen was just going insane or something, but they knew better than to speak it out loud. Yes, the teen would not stop in a million years to go after Slade, but he could never truly go inane. Could he?
"Can you replay the message?" Batman asked them. "I would like to hear what Robin said for my own ears to hear."
"We have been trying to get the picture of Robin," Cyborg said while walking over the control table for the screen displaying the sites and video camera pictures. He pushed a few buttons and the screen turned into static. "Here it is," he said. They all leaned forward to hear the message louder.
"Robin!" That was Raven's voice. The monotone was gone and it had deep emotion in it. "Listen, Raven! I've been kidnapped. I'm stuck on some island with this insane guy who wants to hunt me down! Don't ask why. Just call up Batman. Tell him that a John Thatch has me on an island. If it might help, he was a general one time or another. Can you do that?" Robin's voice was steady at some times then a bit panicky at others. He said this so quickly Cyborg had to rewind to let them hear it another time to get it clear. He then let them hear the next part.
"Yes, Robin," This was Raven's voice once again. "We've been searching all over the city for you. We almost thought Slade had you again or something similar to that. Are you alright?"
Another voice cut into the conversation. "He's fine." The voice had to belong to John Thatch, and it sent a shiver up Batman's spine. He knew that voice from somewhere. "Hang up, Robin." The voice was dry and serious as if the owner was angry at Robin. In this case it had to be.
"I…um," was Robin's last words before they heard a big bang, and the message cut off. They had figured out that the communicator Robin was using had gotten shot and not Boy Wonder himself. Chances were that the teen was still alive on the island.
"I don't know," Batman finally said while rubbing his chin with his gloved hand in thought. His mind went over everything and could not place a finger on where he had heard that voice before. It could drive him insane.
"Please help us, Mr. Batman!" the alien girl pleaded with him. Her big eyes started to tear up as emotion swelled up in her body. "I know Robin is still alive! Please help us find him!"
"Whoa!" Cyborg said while putting a hand on the girl's shoulder as she tried to stand up. He forced her back down into her seat next to him. "Calm down there, Star. We have more information about the guy Robin is with." He nodded to Raven for her to pick up.
Starfire gave a loud sniff while rubbing a tear away that had ran down her cheek. Raven looked annoyed for a few seconds, but got over it. She would have felt just about the same as Starfire if she did not have to control all of her emotions to not blow everything up.
Raven pulled her hood down and Batman finally got a good look at her face. She was a steady, intelligent young lady but with a dark side to her. "I did some research on a General John Thatch. You would think it would be easy to get information about him because he is a general with a lot of background information for the army. Well, all I found was someone else. But this person was a general in World War 2."
"He must have lied to Robin then," Batman said. He was kind of disappointed with the girl. He was expecting such a good answer from her. "It is that simple." Raven had the guts to glare dangerously at the man with a look that could kill. Batman noticed that Beast Boy backed up a little from the look she gave him. She had to be moody and brave like this all the time.
"I thought that too," she said quickly as if she had been rudely interrupted in the middle of a speech. "But I looked into this man more and found something very interesting. He was captured by the Germans and was sent to Hitler to be experimented on. It says something about one day some chemicals they put in him were mixed up and, he kind of mutated. After this Hitler dropped him off on an island to fend for himself, because he did not know about the mutation and knew the head hunters on that island would have some fun with him."
"What happened to him?" Batman asked her. He leaned forward to hear more. He was wrapped up in the story with much interest. "Did he get off the island?"
"The story ends there," Raven said flatly. "They don't know what happened to him. But the mutation was that he was…well…how do I say this? He's immortal."
The white in Batman's mask got big to show them that his eyes were wide with surprise. His mind took a while to process the information and to think it through. "So you're telling me that this general from WW2 is hunting Robin today?" he asked them after a small silence.
"You are correct, dude!" Beast Boy said with a wide grin planted on his face. "It took us a longer time to get to that answer."
"You mean only you're mind took a long time," Raven corrected him while rolling her eyes. Cyborg gave a small chuckle at the rude joke. Beast Boy frowned and glared at Raven. Boy, these teens could still act like kids even with Batman there. It was almost funny. He quickly took note of all their personalities just incase something came up later. It was good to know the people you work with.
"What do we do?" Starfire asked the team with worry. "We do not know where the island is."
"Good question, Star," Cyborg said. "If only we could get another call from Robin."
"Hey, someone's coming up to the tower," Beast Boy said with his elf like ears perking up. He pointed to the screen. Sure enough, someone was running up the hill at a quick pace heading for Titans Tower. All at once, the teens stood up and ran for the door. Batman followed closely behind.
The doors flew open, and the teens were ready for anything. All they saw was the person running the opposite way it had been heading. There was surprise for a few seconds. Raven suddenly flew ahead of them while shouting her chant. Batman saw her eyes turn all black. She stuck her hand out at the person running away while her hand turned black. The person suddenly stopped and flew back towards the Tower with Raven in control of him.
"Good job, Raven!" Cyborg said with a smile. Raven kept the person at the door with her eyes still black pools of unknown power.
"Correct me if I am wrong," Starfire said while flying up close to the person that was covered with a black liquid stuff. "But this does not look like a human."
"It is a robot!" Beast Boy said with his eyes wide. "What the heck is one of these things doing here?"
"Let him go for a sec, Rae," Cyborg said to Raven. She let her powers fade, and her eyes went back to normal. They circled the robot so it would not flee. It stood there for a while then opened his metal hand. It had a piece of paper in it. Raven used her powers once again to levitate it toward her.
"Task complete," the robot said suddenly. "Self destruct in five seconds."
"Move!" Cyborg yelled. Quickly everyone in that hallway tried to get out of the way of the explosion. Raven grabbed Beast Boy and melted into the floor with her dark powers. Starfire flew out of the Tower. Cyborg and Batman ran down the hall as the robot let little beeps to tell how many seconds had passed.
BOOM!
The explosion was big for a robot its' size. It left a big black spot on the red carpet and metal junk littered the floor in random places. Everyone came back to the site with caution in his or her steps. Raven and Beast Boy suddenly appeared from the shadows.
"I still have the note," Raven said. They all nodded for her to read it. She read it out loud. It said:
Dear Titans,
All your research is correct. Don't waist time.
Some advice from an unknown friend.
"Odd," Batman muttered to no one. They all nodded anyway. It was indeed odd. It was as if someone knew what they were doing. But could they trust this person?
"I'm going to go scan it for any fingerprints," Cyborg said while taking it from Raven. "Go relax for a while. This should only take a few minutes." They all followed Cyborg into the living room once again.
"Make yourself at home, Mr. Batman," Starfire said sweetly to Batman. He smiled at her weakly. His mind was still on the situation here. He could tell she was still worried too but was trying her best to keep it out of her mind for the time being.
"I'm on the PS2!" Beast Boy shouted across the living room. Batman knew he was going to be with this team for a while, and he wanted to get to know them. It was kind of funny to see all these personalities clash together right now. Beast Boy was playing the game station while Raven sat next to him with a horror book in her hands. Cyborg was gone. Starfire was cheering Beast Boy along with his game.
What did Robin see in these teens? They were so different! He personality did not like a team. He liked to work alone or with just another person. Maybe Robin just liked to be leader of something. Or maybe Robin just liked them. Batman had not really seen the teen side of Robin. The kid had always been serious and like a mini Batman. When had the kid Batman had known so well develop a goofy side?
"It's done," Cyborg said as he came into the room after a few minutes of nothing but the bleeping and whirling sounds of Beast Boy's game. Quickly the relaxed mood changed, and the teens were serious again. It had changed so fast. Batman was surprised. But now it was back to the search for Robin.
A/N: Long chapters. I love them. I'm moving really soon and I might have to get a different email address. I'm still going to be in Pennsylvania. I'm just happy I get my own room. But what really sucks is that we will be moving a day after my birthday. But I'm used to having my birthday pushed aside in this big family. I'm second born to a family of four kids. How fun? Anywho, please give a review! Thanks!