The Young and the Hopeless
Chapter 3: Disoriented
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Raven had finally managed to open her eyes, a soft groan escaping from her lips as she desperately fought the urge to tuck herself neatly back under the covers. The dip in the bed where Beast Boy had been was still warm and she had no doubt in her mind that he was in the kitchen, in an unobserved competition with a certain Tamaranean princess, to see who could cook the worst. Pushing out dreamy thoughts from the night before, not wanting to short out any light bulbs, Raven hoisted herself out of bed. Reaching for a clean uniform, she quickly donned it and roughly ran a brush through her purple locks. Her relationship with everyone's favorite green teenager had caused her to change many of her habits, antagonizing over her appearance was not one of them.
All but levitating down the hall, a self-satisfied smirk still pasted on her lips, Raven forced herself to take a deep breath and took a quick moment to meditate. Once she was successfully calmed down and the light fixtures in the hall had stopped flickering, the half demon was able to enter the kitchen. Had her and her lover not been interrupted in the living room the day before, the others would still have no idea what was going on between the two. Perhaps, she mused, it was all for the best anyway.
The scene she was greeting with in the kitchen was all but new. Beast Boy was running around in the kitchen, frantically attempting to put the last finishing touches on his 'vegan breakfast.' Starfire was relatively calm, for her anyway, about the whole process. And although she was burning her fingers on the toast as it popped from the toaster and unsuccessfully making orange juice from concentrate, she seemed to be in full control of the kitchen, for once. Raising an eyebrow in Robin's direction to indicate that she realized his hovering beside the Tamaranean was much more phobic than usual, Raven's morning pattern was nothing out of the ordinary. Her greeting was her customary grunt and then she reached for the hot water and a bag of herbal tea.
Robin, on the other hand, seemed to be on the verge of mental breakdown and all noticed his erratic behavior, except of course for the one it was directed towards. Seemingly oblivious, as usual, Starfire hummed under her breath alternating between buttering the too hot toast, shaking out her fingers to relieve the burn, and getting 'her' Robin to explain the orange juice instructions. And while the redhead had made it apparent that she saw no good reason why they could just eat the 'glorious orange slush' straight from the can, she was doing her best to please the lanky, extremely attractive masked wonder that not only refused to leave her side but was attempting to put himself in between her and her toast and was, in fact, failing miserably. With Cyborg indulging himself with his morning cup of coffee and the sports section of the Jump City Times, everything about the morning routine fell into place.
That was, until of course, the morning tradition was broken by the sound of sirens and the sharp retort from the computer system that downtown was under attack, again. And while no one wanted to say it, the only coherent thought that crossed anyone's mind as Robin shouted the customary 'Titans Go!', was that Slade had somehow managed a glorious return. It was a thought that no one wished to utter, primarily because there wasn't enough time to knock on wood.
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Orange tinted arms stretched out, hands with green energy, as narrowed eyes scanned the rubble that had once been the Jump City Shopping Center. The alien princess whimpered slightly, for the first time wishing that perhaps it had been a tremor of the earth, but knew the team was moments from proving that theory wrong. Robin was jumping across all the big pieces, a quick scan of the damage, hoping to prove the impossible. Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were attempting to move the majority of the pieces of steel and concrete out of the way, as to provide the Earthling emergency officers a chance to sift through the already barricaded site. But with no sign of any fissures in the ground, it soon became obvious this was no tremor, natural or otherwise. The warm feeling that had risen momentarily from the pit of Starfire's stomach at the idea of 'her' Robin playing hero, was soon dashed as her mechanically engineered friend presented the Titans' leader with the charred remains of what must have been the dais in the center of the mall. Closing her eyes and flying up higher, the redheaded alien hoped for a better look.
She wasn't, as was her nature, completely focusing because, all things considered, there wasn't something big and bad trying to pound away at her entrails. No, for the simple reason that she was Princess Koriand'r, the young heroine had other thoughts on her mind. The main one, simply stated, was the change in relationship between her and the 'Boy of Wonder.' There wasn't simple Tamaranean 'playing,' as she'd put it so mildly the night before, going on between the two; nor was it impulse, or, she shuddered at the thought, marriage. Apparently, on this strange blue planet, there was many more levels between 'playing,' courtship, and marriage. Had he simply wanted to take her, she would have been more than obliging, but it was more than that. Because Robin had bruised her lips with a fleeting kiss, restrained himself from maiming Cyborg, hugged her gently and then left her room, both quite unfulfilled. It was obvious that he had wanted her and she wanted him, and Starefire had been perplexed by the situation. Enough so, that if Robin's, strangely sharp sounding, voice hadn't cut through her thoughts, she would have surely flown straight into one of the many half destroyed buildings.
"Star! Watch it! We've got enough casualties here without worrying about one of our own."
"Many apologies, friend Robin, I will quickly apply myself to the task at hand."
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Not that it did any good, Beast Boy thought, as he proceeded to mash down seemingly random keys in the proper order that would soon have him crowned king of all of Immortal Con II. With a wide mouth yawn he shook his head, completely unnerved by the recent turn of events. He'd simply wanted to take Raven on the very same couch Cyborg was bouncing on beside him; he hadn't expected it to render a lover's spat and a destroyed shopping center. The last two thoughts were vaguely his, most likely fashioned in one way or another by Raven's empathic powers. Of course, it would be just like the impassive goth to believe their bout of lovemaking resulted in so much destruction. But that would have been too simple. Granted it was destructive, messy, and had managed to rack up an impossibly high body count, but it wasn't like a t.v. blowout. The fact that the concrete remains had charred body outlines was proof enough as it was.
"Someone did that on purpose, and I'm not quite sure I like that purpose."
Cyborg was the first to speak, the first to address the issue inside of the tower. That would, of course, had been Robin's job, had the masked teen not been in the process of examining their own resident 'Miss Oblivion' for any damage. And as much as it had become part of normal after-battle routine, the boisterous young man believed that it had only become more sickeningly sweet with the discovery of Starfire's legs wrapped around Robin's body and the Boy Wonder all but pinned to her purple bed.
"But Robin I am, how to you say, a-oh-kay? I will not allow my mind to wander again."
"And what if there had been a battle, then what? You could have been seriously..."
"Oh freaking yeah! Kiss my ass, Bird Boy, I just beat your score on IC II! See that, do you see that? It says, in no uncertain terms, first place: Beast Boy, second place: Robin. So you can kiss my hairy green a..."
"Garfield Logan, I swear to Azarath, if you ever do that again I will give you nightmares for a week. And you, Dick Grayson, if you don't stop fawning over Starfire, I'm going to break your arm."
Her voice was low, her tone was level, but Raven was all but collected. This evidence was obtained by the fact that the t.v. screen blew out for the second time in less than twenty four hours. Which, she ascertained, to be a record. All activity in the room halted even though, the empath was sure that, Robin still wanted to check Starefire one more time for bruising, Cyborg wanted to scream about all his wasted work, and Beast Boy was just about to whimper about his game. Fortunately, the powers on high kept all of them silent in the time it took her bare legs to swing over the edge of the couch.
"Now, Cy's entirely right in the assumption that this was done for a reason. Villains, even Slade, do not blow up malls for simple jollies. The question then is why."
"My thoughts exactly and the sooner we can figure that out, the sooner we get this asshole behind bars. With that said, I do believe I'll see if there's anything to research. Damn it, they've never gone after innocents before...at least not like this."
It was no surprise that Robin left the living room in a flurry of movement, or that Starfire scampered after him with wide, worried eyes. Raven gracefully rose from her position on the couch, making her way up to the roof to begin some much needed meditation, rolling her eyes in the direction of the changeling and his metallic friend. Of course, it was also no surprise that Beast Boy continued to mash buttons, his eyes staring blankly at the gutted screen; while Cyborg busied himself with repairs.
"Ya know, BB, it's going to be lunchtime soon and no one's gonna get up and fix anything; might as well call in pizza."
"Dude, that is so not cool. Do you understand that I beat Bird Boy's score...I was king of IC II...and she...she...just...blew it up. She blew it up!!! And I sleep with her! She blew it up and I...I...I beat his score..."
"First off, that's too much info, keep that shit on the down low. Second, I'm calling in pizza."
The changeling whimpered and collapsed into a green, lifeless ball, controller still clutched in his white gloved hands. Quickly sweeping up the shards of shattered t.v. screen, Cyborg surveyed his handy work, hoping it could withstand at least two outbursts before shattering again, and, ignoring the puddle of green fur, walked out of the living room to find the nearest phone.
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Quick Note: Well? That a little better, plot-wise anyway? I do realize that the first two chapters were mostly romantic fluff (although I like to consider them sub-plot) but I am attempting to move the story forward. So, we've got some plot going...(dun dun dun)...who, what, where, and why? I do believe it's time to get this party started, you?