Nearly an hour later,
as a couple of EMTs were patching up the various cuts and bruises
obtained by the Titans, and another
pair were bandaging
Starfire's burned hands, Robin filled the police chief in on what
had happened at the top of the tower, and Capt.
Roberts filled Robin in
on what had happened on the ground since his departure.
The captain pointed to
the pile of rubble that now lay at street level; dozens of workers in
white chemical-protection suits with
the Morgen Lyn logo on
back crawled all over it, probing and taking small samples. He then
said, "The same law that allowed the
company to store all
those toxic chemicals also means that they have to assume full
responsibility for all the consequences."
"So, that's a good thing, right?" asked Robin.
The captain frowned.
"Yes and no. As their Harvard-educated, overpriced lawyer has just
informed me, they'll 'take care of it,
and there will be no
more questions'. So we'll never really know everything they were
doing in there. That, and if there was any
trace of Aaron left
you'll never get to look for it."
"There's nothing we can do?" Robin asked.
The captain shook his
head. "No, and if you try and interfere I'll reluctantly have to
arrest you for trespassing. That pile of
rubble is technically
still their property."
Robin wasn't used to taking no for an answer. "But what about going to judge? He could order an injunction or subpoena or-"
Capt. Roberts shook
his head again, more emphatically this time. "No, everything they
did was legal. Even if you found a
sympathetic judge
they've got enough legal muscle to keep us running around long
enough to clean this mess up." Seeing a dark-
suited elderly man
heading towards them, he murmured, "And here comes corporate leech
number 1."
The man walked right
up to the two of them and announced haughtily. "You people are
within the minimum distance required
from the building.
Move back across the street."
Robin held his temper
in check, just barely. The Captain looked right back at the lawyer
and said in a dead even voice, "Your
boss is a bright-red
pancake baking under a hundred tons of steel. Keep up that attitude
and I'll see that you get all the detailed police
pictures." The man
turned a rather pale shade of green, and hurried away. Roberts
headed in the other direction, and Robin followed
seeing that more
discussion would be pointless. As they drew near the other Titans,
Roberts spoke once more. "Why don't you go
home and get some rest,
you all look like you could use it. If we find any zombies or aliens
walking around, we'll give you a call.
Present company
excluded, of course." He tipped his hat to Starfire, and walked
off to arrange for several units to maintain a constant
watch on the building
from as close a spot as possible.
The rest of the Titans looked at Robin, who turned and said, "Let's go home and rest, we've earned it."
BeastBoy perked up at that. "I think I'm gonna sleep for a week." He sneezed violently. "That is, if I don't catch a cold first."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite their injuries
and tiredness, by the next morning (provided you define morning as
anything before noon) most of the
Titans were up and
about, working on various projects or going about daily tasks. When
BeastBoy finally wandered into the kitchen
around 12:30, his hair
still messy from protracted sleep, the rest of the team decided it
was time to break for lunch. Cyborg started
fixing sandwiches, and
Starfire bewailing the fact that she wouldn't be able to cook for
several days because of the bandages on her
hands. BeastBoy came
over to her and said, in his most sincere voice, "That's really
a terrible shame. But if you want I'll bake you a
dairy-free tofu cake
later." Predictably, this caused Starfire to sweep BeastBoy up in
a bone-crushing hug and extol at length about
what a great friend he
was. Raven just rolled her eyes and went to speak to Robin, who had
been noticeably absent all morning. He
was sitting on the
couch, staring out the windows, but when Raven approached, she saw
him try to slip a manila folder behind his
back. Raven had a fair
idea on what was in it, and wasn't about to waste time arguing, so
she simply pulled the folder out of Robin's
hands with a quick tug
of energy. When Raven opened the folder, she saw it was filled with
the police reports from the recent
robberies, snapshots
from security cameras, and Robin's own handwritten notes on their
fights with Volt. She glared at Robin.
"You're not going to start obsessing over yet another villain, are you?"
Robin glared back at her. "I'm just trying to do what I have to keep this city and my team safe."
Raven's anger
subsided a little, and she tried reasoning with Robin. "I know
you're just trying to be cautious, but Volt's
injuries last night
were real enough. He'll be out of commission for awhile, if he's
alive at alive at all."
Suddenly Cyborg popped
over, holding a sandwich that appeared to contain most of the
contents of the fridge and a good
portion of the
cabinets, and said, "If! There's no 'if' about it; the guy
probably hit the ground so hard he dug himself a ten-foot
grave."
Raven disliked being
directly contradicted, and rounded on Cyborg. "While I don't
agree with Robin's methods, I do agree
with his caution and-"
she was cut off by a loud, metallic sounding chime that went
'DING—DONG'. "What was that?" she asked.
Cyborg answered, "Just
the doorbell." At this, Beastboy, who had extracted himself from
Starfire's embrace, sped towards the
door shouting,
"ItsfinallyherNoonemoveIllgetit!"
"Since when do we have a doorbell?"
"Well, I had some extra parts after I got done modifying the T-sub, and I though it be appropriate in case we ever had visitors."
Raven waved her hand in a gesture of dismissal. "Fine, whatever. Now back to Volt"
"Why do we have to
go back to it at all, the guys dead, kaput, finished, and probably
molecularly bonded to the asphalt in the
street!"
Robin took the
opportunity while Raven and Cyborg argued, and Starfire tried to calm
them down, to slip his file out of
Raven's hands and
store it safely behind the CD rack. As he turned back to help
diffuse the rapidly escalating argument, BeastBoy
zipped into the
room, momentarily distracting everyone with his squeals of, "Its
here, its here!"
"Alright," growled Cyborg, "What's here?"
BeastBoy leapt up onto
the coach, triumphantly onto the coach, holding a small cardboard
box. "Only my very own copy of
the latest video-game
to hit the shelves! Biker Zombies
from Mars 9000: The Return of LoneSkull" He dropped back onto the couch
and slammed
the cartridge into the video-game system.
Not even turning
around, he called out, "Oh, yeah, there's also a package for you,
Robin." He tossed the package backwards over his
head.
Cyborg, mildly
interested in BeastBoy's new game, tried to end his argument with
Raven. "Alright, I'll go along with
whatever you say, if
you can just prove Volt is still alive."
Raven didn't really have an answer for this, but Robin did. "He's definitely alive, alright."
Cyborg's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What! How can you be so sure?"
Instead of answering,
Robin passed Cyborg the box. Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire all leaned
over to see what was inside. It
contained a single pair
of cracked and broken, silver mirrored sunglasses. One lens was
shattered, the other gone entirely. Wires
poked out of holes in
the frames. There were patches of a brown, sticky substance, which
was almost certainly dried blood. There was also
a small note, penciled
in on the box lid. It read, "Since I know you like souvenirs, keep
these. I'll get myself another pair."
>
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------THE END…for now------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
So, what do you think?
This is the first story I've completed, and I'm happy with the
way it turned out. I'd really appreciate outside input, though;
any and all review welcome. You can even send a blank message,
just so I know someone read this.
Anyway, next on my list of projects is to finish, Lightning's Haste, my first story that I started and never completed. It's a JCA story, so start checking next week sometime for new chapters. I've also been working through all the already posted chapters to fix typos and whatnot, which will make the whole thing easier to read. After that I plan to get back to the story of Volt. T he Titans have only seen the opening shots in their battle against this elusive new foe. Wait until the next story to see what Volt does to even the score.
