9/30/05 2:55 A.M. Rusty here! You all better be greatful for this, I stayed up till 2:50 A.M. typing it up, even though I didn't lose the bet! -tries to make Dusty feel supremely guilty- hm . . . this was definately an odd end to an odd birthday but I decided to keep my promises to Dusty for once . .. Anyway, enjoy it while it lasts, if our homework keeps up it will be harder than impossible to write the next chapter, so send us slaves to do our howework for us!

Dusty: Mach Schnel! Or...w/e weird thing our precalc teacher shouted at us the other day.

Robin sped into the Titan's garage, stopping so closely to the wall, Raven closed her eyes preparing for impact. He wrenched his helmet off and threw it to the ground. " . . . Absolute waste of time . . . surprised he wasn't in his underwear . . . stinking bats . . . " Robin mumbled on.

It took him a moment to realize that Raven was not sympathetic, as he expected her to be, but was instead laughing her butt off. "What's so freakin' funny?"

She took off her helmet. As she handed it to him, she hiccupped violently. "Sorry, it seems I've got the hiccups."

Robin glared. "That was the first hiccup I heard."

"Well, why do you have such a violent attitude towards bats? It's not like they're going to change into a vampire and bite you."

He opened his mouth to argue, then shut it with a snap, a determined look on his masked face. "I just don't like them. Besides, I'm in more danger from you in that way. That would explain your unnatural pallor." Ah, diversionary tactics.

Raven's smile faded as she decided if Robin was teasing her or if he was mad. She preferred to believe the first. "If you'll step over here I'll show you just how much danger you're in."

Robin choked on his witty reply, steadily turning red as his eyes got wider and wider. Bruce's words flashed in his mind-No! Defiance flared inside him, and suddenly, he would have liked nothing more than to do exactly what Bruce didn't want him to do. "Danger?" His voice was surprisingly calm, relaxed. "What kind?"

Raven hesitated for a moment, the possibility that she could lose control frightened her, but she was also scared that if she let this opportunity go by then she would never get it again. She took a step, closing the gap between them. Before anymore thoughts could affect her decision, she pressed her lips against his.

Robin's eyes closed behind the mask, his hands moved of their own accord, snaking around her waist and pulling her against him. Exhilaration tingled through him as he deepened the kiss, enjoying the feeling of her fingers in his hair and oblivious to the explosions all around them. He resisted with all his might when she pulled away.

The half-demon had enjoyed the moment tremendously, but she didn't know how much more the tower could take. How could she ever have been mad at Robin? He was so kind, thoughtful . . . he even trusted her enough to introduce her to Batman. It was just a prank, and well she was just a little upset about it, and it was understandable-he was pretending to be dead. Sure it was rude, evil, and absolutely HORRID! Oh, she wanted to slap him-but no. Raven had a plan, and she'd stick to it. Star was surely doing her part, and from Robin's facial expression, he clearly would tell Raven just about anything, so now was the best time for her to do her part. Yet, what should she ask him about? It would be so much simpler if he had parents that she could get information from... That was it! "So, Robin," she started sweetly, "how do you get a hold of Batman?"

"Batman?" His head was buzzing pleasantly, his breathing fast and hard. Robin couldn't see why she was asking about him now, all he wanted was Raven. "Phone . . . " He leaned in to recapture her lips . . .

She allowed him to kiss her briefly, he had to stay happy through this. "Would you mind giving me the number?"

Robin nodded absently, trying to clear his head enough to remember it . . . there were a lot of sevens . . . "934-787-1749." There, he couldn't think of why it mattered, but the important thing was she had what she wanted and they could get back to what he wanted. The kiss from Raven was unlike anything he had ever felt before, and all he wanted was for it to never end.

As Robin leaned in again Raven stepped aside, making him fall awkwardly. "Well, thank you for the lovely evening, Robin. See you in the morning."

For a moment, he just stared after her, utterly bewildered. Why did she leave? She must have been enjoying it, too . . . but what if she wasn't? His stomach lurched unpleasantly, then he considered going after her . . . until his eyes met the utter destruction all around him. He cursed loudly as his eyes fell on a twisted smoking mass with a red and a purple helmet lying on the ground beside it. "MY BIKE!" he yelled, gripping his head in anguish.

And that's when it hit him. What had he done? What was he thinking? Had he lost his mind? This was bad . . . this was very bad. Bruce was right, he couldn't control himself! What if—

Robin staggered to his room , locking the door and taking a very long shower.

Her room was so quiet, just what she needed to plan her evil deeds. Star was supposed to be joining her. They were going to compile their findings, seeing what they had, and planning for the next day. Raven knew she had to convince Batman to help her, but she was still working on how. Ah, a knock, Star was there. "Come in, Star."

Starfire beamed like a two year old asked to keep a secret yet dying to share. "Hello, Friend Raven. Have you had any success with our leader?" She was letting Raven go first, although it was clear that she was bursting to share her information.

"I'm beginning to get a lead, but I haven't made much progress." Raven glanced at Star, she clearly had gotten something, "Did you have any luck?"

Star grinned widely. "Friend Raven, I most certainly did experience luck! I now am quite certain what Friend Beast Boy feels the most terror for!"

"And what is that?"

"The men of the circus! They are called . . . " She let out a sigh of frustration, desperately searching for the word.

"Acrobats? Clowns? Dwarves? Contortionists?"

"Clowns! Yes, the men with happy faces!" She giggled quietly, hand pressed over her mouth. "I do not understand why he should fear something so cheerful, since he so enjoys making the jokes. This is . . . ironic?"

Raven was momentarily shocked. It seemed as though Star was adapting to Earth and the English language quite well. "Yeah, it is."

Starfire smiled, pleased that she had located the correct word. "I shall begin work on Friend Cyborg tomorrow, and I am hopeful that I shall be successful with him as well. Oh!" Star said, a look of curiosity on her face, "What did you discover about Robin?"

"Well, uhm-he seems to be uncomfortable around bats, but that's all really. I'm going to find out more tonight. Hm, we should probably keep a record of our findings, just to be sure we don't forget." Raven reached in her drawer until she found a lavender book with the word 'Journal' across it in cursive. "Here," she said throwing it to Starfire, "Write it down."

Starfire caught the book with surprising ease, taking the pen that Raven offered and jotting down their findings in neat, curly writing, tongue between her teeth in concentration.

"I am afraid I am feeling the call of the man of sand. I bid you goodnight, Friend Raven, and good luck with your studying of our Boy Wonder."

"Oh, well, sweet dreams, Star." Raven escorted Star to the door, closing it and locking it. She reached for her phone, but stopped, remembering that she hadn't meditated that day. Her prank was important, yet Raven would not let it blind her to what was truly important. She'd just have to call Batman afterwards, maybe if he was really tired he'd agree to get her to go away.

Raven settled into her famous cross-legged, hovering position and began chanting.

Titans Tower was quiet. Raven was meditating, Cyborg was recharging, Starfire was breathing evenly to the sound of her classical cd, Beast Boy was dreaming of tofu, and a certain Boy Wonder was tossing in his bed, visions of purple eyes swimming through his dreams.
Finished with her meditating, Raven glanced at the clock. Four o'clock, rats. She could call Batty, or get a few hours rest . . well, she could always sleep that afternoon. It was time to call the ol' Bat. She suspected that he didn't sleep, but secretly Raven hoped that she could disrupt his rest, his commments still fresh in her mind.

BRING! BRING!

Bruce was slightly surprised to have the phne ringing; after all, who would be calling him? Robin wouldn't be through with the silent treatment this soon, would he? Picking up the reciever, he said, in a neutral tone, "State your name and business."

"Your sidekick's pregnant girlfriend, and revenge."

Bruce blinked, slightly surprised. He had to admit, the girl was witty. "Raven, pleasure speaking to you again. I see I'm not the only night owl out there."

"You didn't seem that pleased earlier. Something change your mind in less than 12 hours? Because for a man I think that would set a record."

Ok, maybe biting would be a better word. "I thought my conduct was excellent, considering the short notice I recieved and the foul mood that my "sidekick" arrived in. However, if you called to tell me I'm a rude old man, I do have an appointment in-" he checked his watch, "two and a half hours."

"Well that's not much time but I'm sure I can manage to fit it all in. May I inquire as to what Robin has done in the past to deserve such behavior?"

"I could give you a list, but that would take much longer than two and a half hours." Bruce rubbed his temples with his free hand; something that not many people pushed him to do. He found himself wishing he had not incurred the wrath of Robin's ferociously fanatical minion. "Perhaps you could narrow it down a bit?"

"Why would you think I was pregnant, or even think we'd slept together at all?"

"Because I know what teenage boys are like, having been one."

Raven was speechless, or was she? "So you were a teenage boy? Wow, and now you just act like one?"

Bruce gritted his teeth : yet another extremely rare sign of anger. "Is there a point to this conversation?"

"Do you recall the opening of it?"

His frustration peaked. "Do YOU recall that I have an appointment in, now, 2 hours?"

"Do I care?"

Bruce sighed, wondering why on earth he was even bothering to talk to her for this long. "You know what? There's medication for this type of thing. I would suggest sleeping pills." He moved to hang up none too gently . . .

"DO NOT HANG UP ON ME!"

Bruce considered for a moment, then, against his better judgement, raised the phone to his ear again.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't."

"Because I know exactly where Robin is sleeping, and you don't want to know what will happen if I lose my temper. Once again, do you recall the beginning of the conversation?"

Bruce chuckled quietly. "And I'm suppose to believe you would hurt your precious boyfriend?"

"I didn't say I'd hurt him."

Seeing that this conversation was going nowhere until he answered her question, Bruce decided to give in, for sanity's sake. "I 'recall' some childish babble about revenge."

"And what did you assume I meant by that?"

He had officially decided that he did not like this girl in the least bit. "That you were going to attempt to make me 'suffer' for whatever wrong you feel I've commited against your significant other."

"I see you fail to mention me in that. Oh well, never mind your cruelty to us last night. You are vain aren't you? I was actually refering to Robin when I mentioned revenge, hoping you could help me."

This awakened his curiosity, and his interest, not to mention drowned out her insults. "Now isn't this interesting. What exactly did he do to deserve punishment, Raven?"

"I don't think the details matter very much," she had his attention, now if she could only get him totally interested, "I'm just wondering if you'd be willing to help me return a little prank he pulled about a year ago."

Bruce laughed a little at this, a small smile curving his lips. Ah, pranks. Robin had been full of them his entire stay at Wayne Manor. "That depends on how I would benefit from helping you. Last time I checked, it's best not to insult the person you need assistance from."

Oh no! Raven hadn't thought of this, what would Batman get? "Perhaps you didn't know this, but what you did last night wouldn't be considered very nice. You'd benefit because I wouldn't be angry at you, believe me, you wouldn't like me angry, just ask Robin what his bike looks like."

Bruce smiled, "You ruined the R-cycle? That would certainly go under the category of 'not very nice'. I helped him build that damn thing!" He stroked his chin, settling into an armchair with the reciever pressed to his ear. "Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll decide if I want to help after I know what the conditions are."

"Oh, it's nothing much really." Raven tried to sound innocent, "I was just wondering, well for starters, could you tell me why he's afraid of bats?"

An eyebrow quirked suspiciously. "Hmm . . . I don't know. That would be a breech of Robin's trust. What does that have to do with your plan anyway?" All right, so in his mind he had already decided to help her . . . but that didn't mean he had to make it easy for her.

"Well I'm just curious about that, I don't know that it has much to do with my plan." Raven prayed Batman would believe her, after this conversation she wasn't so sure that he'd help her.

"Do you want baby photos as well?" His amusement escaped into his tone, a sligtly mocking hint to the words.

"Well I have to admit I'm interested in seeing the photos, but they wouldn't help me exactly." She sighed. "I guess I'll let you know what is going on, but if you laugh at what he did I swear I'll find some way to torture you." Raven took a long breathe. "Last Halloween he trashed the tower to make Star and I think that someone had gotten in. The lights were out and everyting was a wreck. We tried to find the boys but they weren't answering us, and when we found them-" Raven paused here, the images of their mangled bodies flashing in her eyes, "Robin had made them all appear to be dead."

Bruce blinked, slightly surprised. "Well I'm not entirely surprised, though he's certainly gotten more creative since the salt in the sugar bowl days." Smiling shrewdly he said his next words in a thoughtful tone. "Slightly risky way to find out if you had feelings for him, or one of the other boys. So, now I suppose you want to get him back?"

"Well, it wouldn't have been so awful if he wouldn't have reminded us at least once a week ever since. He was covered in blood and . . . and--" the image was far too real, and far too painful, "I wouldn't do it, but he just doesn't seem to get why it was so awful! He's got to understand that I couldn't--er, we just couldn't stand seeing him--uh, them dead."

Bruce smiled at her stutters, vaguely recalling what his first crush had been like. He had done similar stupid things, though perhaps not as extravagent as Robin's prank. "Well, the answer to that question is fairly simple, Raven."

He paused letting her think it over for a moment. "He doesn't know how much you care about him. He's insecure, that much is obvious.. For one reason or another, he's looking for constant reassurance, in any form possible, from you. Now his methods--" he shook his head, "simply reflect his utter stupidity in this subject."

Raven chuckled a bit, perhaps Batman wasn't so bad. "I know something's got to be done, so I'm ready to return the prank, even though it was horrid. The problem is, Robin doesn't scare easy, and he'll be expecting something on Halloween, so I thought I'd let it build up through the month. I just don't know of anything that he's afraid of, which is why I thought you could help me." Raven reprimanded herslf silently, she'd allowed herself too near sounding desperate.

Bruce almost laughed aloud at her utter lack of reponse to his undoubtedly brilliant revelation of Robin's quirks. Shaking it off, he said, "So I see you still want to torture him. Hm . . . he has a fear of broccoli, does that help?" The smirk spread across his face. Perhaps he was enjoying this a little too much.

"Hm, broccoli, yes, I'm sure that will do wonders to break his spirit, but I'm afraid if I gave him broccoli he'd eat it assuming I was trying to be kind." Raven couldn't believe him, in her opinion he was not only making fun of her plan, but he was trying to make her feel guilty about it. "Oh, why did you have to bring up that I actually care about the rude, little slug? Do you know how hard it is to plot against someone you care about!"

"Amazingly, yes. I certainly wasn't attempting to arouse your guilt, I think you did that yourself. Alright, alright, I'll stop playing with your mind. Besides, that's probably a dangerous activity to engage in with an empath, now that I think of it."

He thought for a moment, then said, slowly and thoughtfully, "Robin's fears . . . you're right in saying that he doesn't fear much, and what he does fear he works himself into the ground trying to hide." Bruce chuckled softly, losing himself in the irony of it all.

"So, do you have anyting that would help me? Anything at all?" She really wanted the information because the sooner she had it, the sooner she could make her plans.

"He's superstitious. So superstitious, in fact, that I sometimes wonder how he convinces himself to breathe." He laughed. "Oh, and bats aren't the worst of it. There's a certain way he has to sleep, which shoe he puts on first, how his clothes are before he puts them on, everything you could possibly imagine. If even the tiniest thing goes wrong, he comes unglued. Trust me, I speak from experience."

"Superstitious? You mean black cats for bad luck and that dumb stuff? You're not serious, are you?" Raven's hopes of finding Robin's fears rose, but it was so ridiculous that she was sure Batman was lying.

Bruce laughed softly, running a hand through his hair and checking the grandfather clock. 5:47. Just over an hour utnil he had to be in his seat at Wayne Enterprises. "I understand your skepticism. I sometimes find it hard to believe myself, but yes, I'm talking about black cats and ladders . . . though it's infinitely more intense than that. He once yelled at me for turning a loaf of bread upside down, said it would bring 'horrible bad luck'." Listening to her disbelieving silence for a moment, he said, "Ironic, I know, since he faces villains with hardly a flinch."

"That is actually insane enough that I almost believe it. Thankfully it's simple enough to test without doing much; I'll just put 13 slices of toast out for breakfast today and see if he notices, or something like that. Well, thank you for your help, if you think of anything else please let me know. Enjoy your seven o'clock meeting."

"I will. But one more question before you go." His voice grew stern now, amazed that she had distracted him for this long."How did you get Robin to give you this number? I made him swear on pain of death to keep it absolutely private."

Rave grew red, gaining a deeper appreciation for the privacy of her bedroom. "Uh . . . well he didn't exactly give it to me willingly . . . I may have tricked him slightly . . . or distracted him immensely . . ." she was certainly thankful for the lack of a video screen. "Anything else?"

Bruce grinned this time. Holding back all the creative little jabs that had come flooding to his mind, he settled for merely sounding supremely amused. "No, I think that's it. Just don't give it to the green elf, or the alien. Oh, and Raven?" Well . . . almost settled. "Don't distract him too much,or he could end up daydreaming when he should be fighting." With that he hung up the phone and had a good laugh. Oh what he would give to see Robin's face when all of this was through.

Raven set down the phone as soon as she heard the click on the other end. She was sure that she had a fever, her face had never felt so warm. Why did she even answer that last question? A noise from below indicated that Star was awake, but Raven saw her cheeks and ears flushed scarlet and decided she should wait a few minutes to share the findings. She settled instead, for sitting on her bed and recording Robin's fears and her ideas of torture in the "Journal".

Dusty: BWAHAHAHA! Now all the superstitions mentionedare genuine; Rusty and I did extensive research on the subject, and that was just a taste of our findings. Like the rusted one said, it will be darn near impossible to update quickly at all, but dont think we've given up until you see the little "Given UP!" flags posted all over the place. Review on pain of death!