Author's note: Hello, hello! Once again, I wish to honor Metal Dragoon for his characters and for his guidance. He helped me in this chapter as much as he did in the last one. It's been a joy collaborating with such a great writer.
This chapter is very mature. But no, not because there's a lemon! Lol! But the concepts are very adult. Let me warn you about it in advance. It's nothing very graphic, but it can be a little disturbing if you're sensitive.
Standard disclaimers apply.
THE MIGHTY TITAN
Chapter Twelve – Vanilla and Vice
There was absolutely nothing giddy about Robin. He never, in his life, woke up, unreasonably excited about anything. While at times, he could be high-strung, it was never for anything positive. Even as a child, he hadn't jumped out of bed on Christmas morning and ran to the gifts under the tree. He recalled smiling some, yes. After all, those were very happy times, but even then, he had calmly had breakfast with his parents, talked about the plans for the day and then opened the gifts. The only time he was ever unfettered was when he was swinging on the trapeze, gripping the railing for dear life and then releasing it to completely trust his life with someone else. But giddy? Not even after his first kiss. Not even after Babs "gave him an education".
So he wasn't giddy the morning after his very significant encounter with Starfire. In fact, he looked like his normal self: Drinking coffee, being grouchy and barking out routine orders to his crew while he had his breakfast of sugar-packed granola bar.
It didn't mean he was completely indifferent, though.
He could tell Raven was feeling something. The empath had said nothing apart from her muttered "good morning", but the intensity of her gaze was telling enough. If she didn't know for sure, she suspected something. In a way, he didn't care. Raven wasn't prone to making a big deal about such things; still, he was obsessive enough to wonder whether it made her think negatively about him… not that it mattered what her opinion was.
When Starfire walked through the mess hall doors, it only confirmed how affected he really was. He found himself fighting the urge to stop all conversation to go to her.
There was nothing particularly wrong about letting the rest of the crew know captain-passenger relations had "improved", but he didn't like it when his crew tried to zero in on his love life. It was just plain annoying.
So as she passed the table to head for the kitchen, he allowed himself the briefest pause in his speech to look up at her and meet her gaze. She smiled, and though she could only spare him a glance, it was enough to make him feel warm and wanted. It was greeting enough.
He had just finished his routine reminders to his crew when Starfire re-emerged from the kitchen, coffee and breakfast in hand. She smoothly took her seat beside him; something he was glad for. When she smiled again, he didn't smile back, but he kept his gaze on her a heartbeat or two longer than he realized. He hoped he wasn't too obvious.
"We'll be contacting the Cannon this morning just before rendezvous, Starfire," he said, picking some dates off his granola bar. He looked up at her. "I'd like you to be at the bridge when we do."
"Of course I will be there, Robin," she replied with just a tinge more warmth to her tone. She ran her hand on his knee reassuringly to punctuate it.
Robin felt the heat rise in his cheeks, but he pretended there was nothing unusual about any of it. If any of the crew noticed, they made no mention of it either.
It would be easy enough to pull her into some secret corner to steal a few more moments before they got back to work. He wanted to, badly, especially after he had caught a whiff of her berry-scented skin at breakfast; felt the warm brush of her arm against his; caught her looking when she thought he hadn't noticed. It was almost criminal not to have given her the attention she deserved, but there simply wasn't time.
After breakfast, they all went straight to the bridge.
The crew settled in their places and Robin had Starfire and Raven take the guest seats on both sides of his chair.
He conducted the procedures to exit the gate and they immediately jumped to warp speed, course set for the Eisenach nebula clusters. It would take them another thirty minutes to get there.
"Cy."
"Aye, champ?"
"Prep the hailing systems for in-transit communication. I want our signals clear when I talk to the captain of the Cannon."
"You got it."
Fifteen minutes later, just when Robin was asking Terra to contact the Cannon, the Cannon hailed them.
Shawn's face appeared on screen once more. His smile was as bright and accommodating as ever. "Good morning, Captain Chuckles! We're nice and early today, aren't we? Heya, Star."
She grinned and waved at him.
Robin was in just enough of a good mood to let Shawn be as flippant as he wanted. "We're on course to Eisenach right now. We'll get there in fifteen minutes."
"Great! Right on schedule. Could always count on gaters to be on time. We'll be right there for you, but we should swap ship signatures before we get there. Eisenach's hell on transmissions like that."
Robin looked to Terra who was waiting for his instructions. He nodded and she sent the signature. Signatures were particularly important if it was necessary for parties to identify each other's ships in open space. It was easy enough to eye-ball a ship when the passengers of it could disembark and meet each other face to face, but in a place like Eisenach, where the nebulae offered very little solid ground like space stations and docking ports, it was better to meet-up in suspension. Ship signatures were the only way to electronically say, "Hey, this is our ship!" and confirm it.
"So," said Robin. "Got something for us?"
Shawn grinned. "Lawd, you don't waste time, do you? No wonder Slash thinks you're 'alright'. And I'm telling you, that guy barely likes anybody. You're special, Robin."
"I feel special," said Robin in a tone that implied he felt anything but. "What do you have?"
Shawn chuckled, shaking his head as he looked over his shoulder. "Hack, transmit the data we compiled and link for a little show and tell."
"Coding a Show and Tell," came Hack's voice from the side. "So long as Earthshaker lets me…"
Robin smirked. "Terra, patch 'em through."
Terra gave a disdainful sniff. "Alright, but tell him I'll be watching!"
"Did you hear that, Shawn?"
"Loud and clear. Take the window, Hack. And supersize me, sweetheart. I'm going to need a bit of space."
The monitor on the bridge widened and suddenly, they can see most of the Cannon's bridge, including Hack and Slash who were seated in their respective stations.
Terra growled. "How the hell did he do that?"
Hack laughed.
"Why you—"
The ship jerked ever so slightly, inducing soft complaints from the women. Robin was about to chastise Beast Boy for it, but the shapechanger was grumbling something about "cyber flirting". Robin decided to let the lapse pass.
Robin straightened his stance with renewed poise. "Can we start now?"
"Anything for you, captain."
A laser image was projected on the Mighty Titan bridge, showing what looked like the blueprints of vast grounds. To the East and North, just past the property borders, was a running river. They would later learn it was affectionately known as La Pacifica, meaning "The Peacemaker". It was half a pun to the galactic law enforcement agency and half a dark truth of Quintis Prime society. The bodies found beached on the banks of La Pacifica turned up either because their death was necessary to stop a gang war or because he lived such a messed-up life that he was better off resting in peace.
The river ran just a bit off Primehattan, like a parallel road, but it curved snuggly around the Northern side of Villa de Heliodoro before it rerouted sharply, outwards to the Eastern shores of the main continent.
"Ladies and gentlemen: Villa de Heliodoro, home and central operations facility of the rich, the ruthless, the bitch-goddess, the mob boss-ette Alejandra Desiderio. She retains more than a third of the planet's best murderers for hire, collectively. The remaining seventy percent of hired hitmen are scattered among the bosses. In other words, she has the most solid muscle-gun base in the long-table. The only reason she isn't Hermana Grande is because the current head honcho has her on his payroll and hayroll."
Robin couldn't help but smirk. "Sex and money. Power at its sleaziest."
Shawn cocked a grin. "Welcome to Quintis Prime. The villa is pretty big, on its own. To get around it in good time, you'll need land speeders. Your best bet is to steal the standard issue ones Alejandra gives her guards and rangers. Knock a few of them out, secure them and take their rides. It's easy to get on the grounds; what's difficult is getting into the building itself. Everyone, from her hitmen down to the housekeepers, have to go through a series of security checks: I.D. swipe, face recognition, eye scan and voice-print. And on top of all that, there's a video surveillance and digital counter at almost every entry point, manned 24-7 from the control center to make sure that no more than one person at a time gets through."
Robin nodded. "The face recognition and the surveillance is an easy enough obstacle to get through. A good holo-disguise can fool the most sensitive computer and the surveillance cameras are easy to loop from inside. The I.D., eyes scan and voice-print's going to be a problem."
"Yep! But we got most of that covered. We've already marked a kitchen staffer whom we could use to get all that. Serves a double purpose: Not only do we get the security clearance we need, but kitchen staffers can go virtually anywhere on the property without being questioned why. So long as the staffer's carrying around a tray of food, we'll be good." A pathway at the back of the house blinked and Shawn continued to explain. "Kitchen staffers go through here. This entry point wouldn't have been a problem if it only had video surveillance. As you've said, they're easy enough to loop, but the sensors have counters, too, so if you let yourself in, or out, with three others, the counters will pick it up and the surveillance team will know you're up to something. You couldn't bring in anything suspicious, either. They check bags and back-packs, so carry-on equipment isn't advisable. But there's another entrance; video surveillance only: Delivery zone. And of course, since life is such, the delivery doors can only be opened from the inside." Another portion of the blueprint, a bigger one not too far from the kitchen staff entrance, blinked in response. "No counters or sensors, though, so anyone in any number or anything in any form can get through so long as they aren't seen. There are several deliveries made through it, from food supplies to drugs to slaves. It's a pretty busy area during the day, from within and without. At night, it's more manageable. There's a day staff and there's a night staff. Our kitchen staffer's in the day shift, but that's not going to be a problem. Security has better things to do than question a kitchen guy about his work hours. If we time your entry and exit between scheduled deliveries, you should be able to do all this undetected, but I'm telling you now… have back-up ready to haul your asses out of there in case something goes wrong, and chances are something will go wrong."
Robin processed this information and nodded. "Where are our prisoners being held?"
"They're in the lower levels of the house." The projection of the house shifted, showing a three-dimensional cross-section. Beneath the main floor was a larger expanse of facilities. At the other end of the property from the kitchen were the detainment cells, highlighted on the diagram. It was going to be a long walk. "The guards would let kitchen staffers through there, too, so getting in won't be a problem. Getting out might be. There are guards situated outside the main detainment doors. The rest of the guards are scattered throughout the lower facilities. There's video surveillance all over the cell-section. Rig them and maybe you can do whatever you want without anyone being the wiser, but you still gotta get out without setting the whole place on alarm."
"Got that covered," said Robin. "All we need is for one of us to get in and we're good to go. You said we've got a kitchen staffer to use? He's willing to give us his identity?"
Shawn bit his lip and grinned. "About that… we know who to get and basically, we have the means planned out. It just has to get done..."
Robin eyed him suspiciously. He had a feeling that all was not as clear-cut as he thought. "What has to get done? What aren't you telling me?"
Shawn cleared his throat. "Um… Slash? You got Bun-bun's package?"
"Yes."
"Be a sweetie and bring it here."
Slash did not like being called "sweetie" as evidenced by the low growl that rolled from his throat, but he did as his captain requested anyway. By the time Shawn got hold of the box, there were claw marks indented into the sides.
Shawn looked them over with a comical grimace.
The box was all in black and it had the words "Vanilla and Vice" printed on it in elegant script and punk-graffiti, respectively. Shawn spoke as he opened it. "This is a waitresses' uniform from the local sleazy bar that our kitchen staffer regularly goes to. He likes watching the dirty shows, but… he's more of a waitress-phile. Since the waitresses at this bar are always willing to earn an extra-buck, most of them would gladly give sex for money. I guess the tips they get don't quite cut it. They give a percentage of their earnings to the bar's owner, which is only fair, I guess. Fortunately, Kitchen Staffer's tastes are consistent. He likes them tall, exotic, and most of all, vicious." He lifted a skimpy leather-set French-maid's uniform (on steroids). "Starfire… correct me if I'm wrong, but… I believe you're a size two."
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Robin walked through his office door, Starfire following behind him. He shut both of them in and he turned to look at her.
Starfire was about to say something when Robin lifted a finger to signal for her to shut up. She did.
He collected himself, breathing deeply. "You're not doing this. Uh-uh!"
She frowned. "And who will do it? Raven has adamantly declared she will not. Terra? We will not even go into that. I am the only one and I can play the role."
It was so outrageous he wanted to shout, but he didn't. "Play the—are you shitting me? No. You're just not doing this. We'll knock him out and we'll get what we need from him that way."
"Look Robin, even if we do knock him out and thereby have to resort to gouging both his eyes out to get a proper duplicate of his eye-prints, we still need his voice print, and he has to give us that willingly, or else the sensors will detect the stress levels in his tone and it will be all over. Besides… it is not as if I really have to do anything with him. We can get all we need from him without me having to remove a stitch of clothing or without him having to touch me. That is a fact."
He didn't care what was fact and what wasn't. All he could think about right now was her in that skimpy, degrading little dress with a bar full of dirty old men trying to cop a feel from her and him being unable to do anything about it.
"No."
She stepped back, her face set. "Robin, I did not want to use this tactic but you leave me no choice: I do not need your permission to do this. I can and will do this without your support, if I have to. I want to save Galfore and Roy, and if I have to strip on stage to do that, I will. As it is, I am glad all I have to do is waitress and tease. Getting our subject this way is the best plan there is. It is sound and reasonable. You are letting your personal feelings for me taint your good judgment."
He narrowed his gaze at her. "Just how used to this are you, hmm?"
Starfire's rage made her eyes glow green. "You did not just say that. Tell me you did not just say that. Or I will walk out of here and it will be over between us, do you hear me, Robin?"
That was enough to get him in a panic. He cursed under his breath. "Easy! No need to go that far!" He blew a breath to calm himself. "Okay… I didn't mean what I said. I'm just—I'm upset! I'm not exactly used to my girlfriend strutting her stuff in front of ogling, sleazy men who have only one thing on their minds when they look at you. It's not right. Not to me." He sighed. "And that's not even what's getting me so upset. I'm supposed to be looking out for you, and if I let you do this… it's like you're back out there, doing things you don't want to be doing because you have to. I don't want you to have to resort to that. Not anymore. Not on my watch."
The anger from her face melted and she went to him, putting her arms around him in an embrace. He was momentarily surprised before he embraced her back.
"It is not a short-coming on your part if I do this," she said, nestling her cheek against his chest. She stayed that way a moment before she looked up and grinned. "The main reason I am willing to do this at all is because I know I will be safe from having to do the most unsavory things. You will be there to keep me safe, yes?"
He stared down at her upturned face, her eyes conveying perfect trust. Her gaze could have made him do anything, at that moment. "O-Of course."
"And even if I have to 'strut my stuff' as you have called it, all they can really do is look. Cheap thrills for them." She tiptoed, putting her lips to his ear. "You, on the other hand, have more intimate privileges than that."
Robin shuddered. She had raised more than his interest saying the things she did with her breath brushing the sensitive skin beneath his ear. How he managed to regain control of himself was a mystery, but her seductive words concerned him.
"Oh, is that right?" His concern must have reflected in his voice, or the look in his eyes, because she responded with a strange smile, as if she were suddenly apologetic for something.
She had nothing to apologize for. It was a fact he wanted her, in more ways than was appropriate to mention, but he knew, deep down, that his desire for her came from an emotion beyond reproach. It was important that this was clear between them. He needed her to understand that he wasn't like every other guy she met in the course of her adventurous life. Maybe she already knew, but he wasn't willing to risk a misunderstanding.
He had said things the night before; things he never would have dreamed he would tell another woman. And perhaps she, in her life of "moments", had never heard such things from another man.
For the life of him, he couldn't understand how the other men could do that; how they could look at Starfire, hold her, kiss her and then let her go, regardless of whether or not they felt something deeper for her.
After last night; after the things she told him, he certainly wasn't about to let her go so easily.
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her lips. It was a kiss relatively quicker than the ones they had so-far shared. It lasted no more than a few heartbeats. But it was warm and special by itself. It said something in ways his words never could. When they separated, her cheeks were flushed.
He took her hand. "Fine. Let's go and do this before I change my mind."
He led them out of his office.
Shawn was still up on screen, conversing with the rest of the crew in his laid back, comical way. He arched an eyebrow when he saw them emerge. His grin remained in place. "So… do we have our Delilah?"
Robin tried not to be pissed off about the nickname. He looked at Starfire. This question was for her to answer.
She smiled, squeezing his hand to reassure him. She looked up at Shawn. "Yes, I will do what is necessary."
Shawn nodded. "Good. We'll meet up, I'll get Harrison on our ship and Robin and I will plot the final details of our plan. Cool?"
Robin agreed. "Cool. Meet you in three, Shawn."
"Over and out."
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The Dragonfire Cannon and the Mighty Titan made contact in one of the more isolated corners of Eisenach. Many ships in the galaxy conducted trade in Eisenach's tariff-free territory. It was too far from regular ship routes to make it a Federation Sanctioned area and it was too near Quintis Prime for the Federation to be so eager about being there. Eisenach was a free-zone, and the only reason gangsters weren't overrunning it was because the traders themselves, mostly seasoned and hardened gaters, would have eaten them alive. Gaters, for all their cynicism and care-worn attitudes, stuck together during the worse of times. That included fending off greedy roughies.
Robin couldn't help but be impressed by Shawn's ship. It was shaped like the head of a dragon, vicious and frightening. Robin could even make out the shape of a maw, like it could bite its way into another ship's guts, but it was likelier that they had something hiding in its jaws. Probably a powerful weapon.
Shawn and Slash boarded the Mighty Titan by molecular transport. Robin met them with Starfire, Raven and Cyborg in tow. He could tell that even Shawn and Slash were not immune to Raven's dark aura, but they made little comment about her. The closest thing to a wisecrack Shawn made about her was, "You the ship's Vulcan counselor?"
Without blinking, Raven replied with eyes glowing black. "No, I'm the ship's demon witch."
That seemed to have shut Shawn up considerably well. Even Slash's finger twitched on the hilt of his sword.
The meeting between Shawn and Harrison was strangely entertaining. Shawn was all smiles and greetings. Slash's fangs and claws elongated in turn. And while Harrison put up a brave front, it was obvious that he was less enthusiastic about being turned over to the Cannon than he was to the Federal Peacekeepers. Perhaps he realized that with the Federal Peacekeepers, he could escape. With the Cannon, he was done for.
"Friends of yours?" Harrison asked Starfire, Gordanian-teeth a-grit as Slash manhandled him.
Starfire smiled beatifically, raising her hand to show two twined fingers. "We are like this. Oh, and I told them how you shot my friend's face off. You will have to account for that as well. Say hello to Uncle Tom for me, will you?"
Harrison's eyes rolled as he got his face shoved to the hard metal floor.
Slash said, "Oops."
It didn't look like much of an accident.
Slash took Harrison back to the Cannon while Shawn remained to make final plans with the Mighty Titan crew.
They discussed everything on the bridge, carefully emphasizing the importance of timing and location. When Shawn got to Starfire's part, he grinned, as if terribly amused.
"The owner of Vanilla and Vice, Gordok, owes a friend of mine a favor, and now I owe my friend a favor." He laughed. "But it's all good. Gordok has agreed to give Kitchen Staff's favorite waitress a day off. So that means Kitchen Staff will be looking to other girls, and you're going to have to get his attention. The other girls might try for him themselves, so you gotta be more aggressive than they are. Think you can manage that, Starfire?"
"I will have to," she muttered.
"Don't forget, Kitchen Staff has a BDSM lifestyle. You do know what that means, don't you?"
"What's that mean?" asked Terra.
For a moment, no one was sure how to answer her.
It was Raven who stepped up. "BD means Bondage Discipline. DS means Domination and Submission and SM means Sadomasochism. In short, Kitchen Staffer likes his pleasure with pain."
Terra absorbed it for a moment before she replied. "Oh."
Shawn resumed. "He has his own dungeon at home, so you don't have to worry about that."
Beast Boy's eyes widened. "Dungeon?"
"Don't ask. Starfire, he's mostly a subbie, but he likes being dominant every once in a while. Make sure he's subservient with you. That way, you'll have him completely under your control. Play it right and he wouldn't even be able to lay a hand on you."
Starfire's cheeks reddened. "Where do you get this information?"
Shawn chuckled. "Whores don't just accept money for sex, you know. They're pretty darn good at giving information too."
"Wonderful. I suppose I will have to read up on this so-called lifestyle. I do not think I know enough about it to pretend I am a professional."
"I'll help," said Raven, straight faced.
Everyone looked at her questioningly.
Raven did not flinch in the least. "I'm half-demon. What sort of things did you think I was interested in? Ponies and rainbows?"
Starfire was the first to relax. "Thank you, Raven. Your help would be appreciated."
Robin's jaw tightened. "You don't have to do this, Starfire."
"Yes, I do. But do not worry. I will be fine."
Shawn nodded. "Yeah, she will be. Besides, you and the entire crew will be around for back-up, right? She'll never be completely alone."
That was Robin's only comfort.
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Cloaking systems in ships, as a rule, were very expensive and not as advanced as they should be. The most expensive, or perhaps the most tricked out ships would have excellent cloaking devices that could only last between twenty to thirty minutes, mainly because it was a drain on a ship's power supply.
The Dragonfire Cannon had one of the best cloaking devices ever manufactured in the galaxy, but like any good cloaking device, it sucked plasma cells dry if left on too long. Using a cloaking system to smuggle the Mighty Titan in and out of Quintis Prime space was not a sensible idea, but the system itself did have another use, and the power it would take to use it would be no more draining than keeping all of the lights in a ship on. The cloaking system could be used as laser projector. Unlike a cloaking system that made a ship completely invisible, a laser projector kept a ship in plain sight, but in disguise, and while the Dragonfire Cannon had very little to be afraid of going into Quintis Prime space, the Mighty Titan simply could not risk being recognized, at least not until they could get away by hyper-speed.
Solution: Create an illusion. Instead of having two ships enter Quintis Prime, let there be one. It was easy to say that the Dragonfire Cannon had opted to remodel its ship to make it bigger, or stronger. Using the laser projector, they could make it look like the Mighty Titan was the newly installed extension of the Cannon.
It was easy enough to install the projected image. With some creative imaging, the illusion was ready for use in four hours.
They were ready to move forward in their plans.
"We'll meet up in Fardoos and proceed to Quintis Prime together, from there," said Shawn from the Cannon.
Robin nodded at the communication screen. "Fardoos. See you in an hour."
They cut communication and headed off.
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When they arrived at Fardoos, the Mighty Titan linked with the Cannon using simple tractor beams. With Terra's permission, Hack linked their systems to mask their cyber presence from possible scanning devices. When, hours later, Terra and Hack's combined efforts had the image perfected, the projector was applied.
The Cannon's dragon-head design looked captivating with its newly "installed" neck ridges, making the ship look like an even more magnificent monster.
They headed to Quintis Prime shortly after.
Robin and the rest of his crew remained in the Mighty Titan, but through their interlinked system with the Cannon, Robin was able to monitor what was going on from Shawn's end of the ship.
They coasted by roughie space, Shawn having to get a little aggressive with the locals when they tried to intimidate him, but being a bounty hunting ship, the Cannon managed to talk its way out of attacks from the worse hostiles.
It helped, too, that the Cannon seemed to have a reputation for carrying a high-powered, massively destructive weapon. Shawn didn't allude to it much, but the Cannon's A.I., whom they called Biker, kept begging Shawn to allow the use of it, like a devil trying to tempt a soul to turn to evil. For the most part, Shawn ignored him.
Soon, Shawn addressed the Mighty Titan again. "We're coming up on Gangster-Sanctioned space. We're almost in the free-zone. Just let me bribe our way through and we'll be left alone for at least the next thirty-six hours. That's enough time to let you do your thing and have us smuggle you back out again. Okay, here comes the cavalry. Stay put."
Robin had nothing to do but that.
The "cavalry", which were the gangsters in charge of the sector the Cannon had led them through, hailed them.
Shawn was quick to respond. As was his wont, Shawn was cool and charming, but unlike his easy banter with the Mighty Titan, speaking with the local "authorities" required an edge to it. He was funny, and casual, but he also hinted that he was tough enough not to get pushed around. When the preamble was over, Shawn smoothly introduced the bribe to the presiding officer.
It wasn't a particularly large bribe; something along the lines of four tickets to the biggest Battle-Game in the third quadrant, but the gangster was pleased, and he promised forty hours of un-molested docking time. The gangster uploaded something through the systems, like a pass. It was his personal seal, and if anyone bothered them within the promised time, those harassers would have to answer to him.
As they cruised through, Robin breathed easier. "Generous of him."
Shawn chuckled, reappearing on the monitor. "He says forty but what he really means is thirty-five; thirty-six. But it's good time. Enough time for you, at least. The pass will work for the Bronze Fang, too, so we can land you and your crew down there without any problems. Gordok will meet you with a surface craft. You can set up your shit in it and head on ahead to the 'Vanilla and Vice' to do your thing."
Robin nodded. "Beast Boy and Terra will stay with the ship for the meantime, but tomorrow, for the rescue, we're going to need more vehicles. Can you hook up our T-Craft with a pass?"
Hack's chuckle came through the speakers. "Of course I can hook you up." That also meant only he had the skill to do such a thing.
"Perfect. We're ready to go."
Shawn grinned. "Is our Mistress of Pain ready?"
Robin gritted his teeth. He looked at Raven questioningly. She was the last one to see Starfire since Starfire retired to prepare.
"She'll be ready in a few minutes," said Raven.
Robin stared at the witch unflinchingly. "Can she do this?"
Raven nodded. "Hell, yes… I think."
That wasn't exactly reassuring.
Minutes later, Starfire walked in. The long black coat she wore was wrapped securely around her, keeping her appearance modest, at least until she got to the bar, but her knee-high shiny stiletto boots, elbow length black leather and lace gloves and, most striking of all, her face, were plain to see.
Everyone gaped. She had made up her face to look nothing like the Starfire they knew. Her hair, for one, was flaming, much redder than her natural tones, and on it sat a pair of black, velvety cat ears. She wore thick and dark eye make-up, blood-red lipstick and a studded dog—or rather, cat-collar belted around her neck. They wouldn't recognize her if they passed her on the street, even if she did catch their attention.
Even Raven rose to her feet, aghast. Whatever she had helped Starfire with, it wasn't the look. "Holy crap. Starfire… you look—"
Starfire arched a well-sculpted eyebrow, hands to her hips. "Frightening?"
"Stunning," Raven supplemented.
Robin couldn't even find an adjective. To say she didn't look good would be preposterous, but to think that he'd ever want her to look that way was pushing his basest desires to the limit. He certainly didn't want her walking the streets in it, and it was killing him to think that it was exactly that which she had to do.
"Wait until I remove the coat," she muttered. "Let us go and get this over with."
Robin had to consciously pick up his jaw from where it fell. He kept telling himself that this was necessary; that it was important to the mission. It helped him a bit to focus, but not by a lot. Starfire was still distracting as hell.
He gathered some of the equipment they would need while he barked orders. "Terra, stay alert and keep constant communication with us. Do our channels check out? How about Starfire's channels? She can't afford to lose communication with us. She can't be alone out there."
At least not while she looks like that, he thought grimly.
They would be using radio earpieces instead of the regular comms. Comms were conspicuous and they didn't need to be noticed anymore than was necessary.
"Starfire's good to go with the rest of us, captain," she replied.
"Beast Boy, it's severely important that you back Terra up. Listen to her instructions very carefully."
Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "I know that already."
Cyborg grabbed more equipment to carry. "We're ready, champ."
Robin nodded. "Shawn, we'll be transporting to the Cannon in three minutes so we can board the Bronze Fang."
"Gotcha. Good luck boys and girls." He looked at Starfire, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "Play nice."
With a final broad grin, Shawn let them go their way.
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Slash drove the Bronze Fang, the Cannon's small landing craft. It looked like a motorcycle with a covered cockpit and could sit five people comfortably. With it, Slash drove the Mighty Titan crew swiftly to their destination.
The abandoned lot just a bit further downtown Primehatten was depressing with the lonely streets and silent buildings surrounding it. There were a few people walking the block, but they looked to be decrepit themselves, like they had no one who cared whether they were dead or alive.
In the middle of the lot was an unmarked land-craft, its exterior a mottle of white and scraped paint. Anyone who saw it wouldn't want to own it, but it would be their means of transportation for the night, and thankfully, it worked better than it looked.
Raven drove the craft and Starfire sat beside her up front. Robin and Cyborg set up the equipment in the back. They wouldn't need the equipment until later in the evening, but it was better to set it up now, having still the luxury of time.
As Robin worked, he listened to Raven and Starfire's conversation.
"Remember, Starfire, if you let Conrad get the upper hand, he'll begin to like the idea that he's dominating. We can't have that tonight, so you have to do everything you can to let him accept his role as subbie, got that?"
Starfire replied with a soft yes.
Conrad Prior, one of the many Sous Chefs in Alejandra Desiderio's kitchen, was a Nartusian, an alien species that looked mostly human except for their hairless bodies and the giraffe-like spots splattered from the back of their heads down the length of their spines. Conrad looked comely enough in his own right, but his sexual preferences had managed to run him out of his highly-puritanical planet. He probably would have stayed on Nartus just to spite everyone who was condemning him, but he got in trouble with the local (terribly under-aged) girls as well, impregnating two of them. He ended up in Quintis Prime, just like most of the scum of the galaxy.
Like everyone else on the planet, Conrad spoke the oddly twisted language that once was Spanish and something else. Micro-Translators were useful for bystanders like Robin and his crew, but for Starfire, it was important she spoke the language herself, which was fortunately not a problem for her.
"Starfire, if you get too freaked out, you know you can always bail," said Robin, trying to look casual about it as he plugged machines into their portable power-source.
"No, I will not bail," said Starfire resolutely. "I will see this through to the worse of it."
Robin tried not to let that upset him and he refrained from asking her how far she was willing to go, just because he was afraid of her answers. He caught Cyborg raising an eyebrow at him and he frowned, but said nothing.
A few minutes later they were all set up in the craft and Raven was parking it on the street just a few meters away from the entrance of "Vanilla and Vice." Starfire would have to go through the back to meet with Gordok himself.
The dirty, trash-strewn streets were alive with activity, from whores dressed in the most garish and provocative clothing to pimps and drug dealers in their tacky garb. There were no cops or federation agents to be afraid of. Oh, they were there. Federation had to have some kind of presence, even in Quintis Prime, but in Primehatten, the law was the mob.
The neon lights lit the streets bright with color, but they only made the shadows darker for the shadier dealings.
"Don't worry so much about Conrad. I'll walk you through it. Just relax and act natural," said Raven. "We'll be linked, remember? You'll be fine."
As if on cue, Cyborg brought out the miniscule ear-plugs from their casing. He handed one to each of them and gave Starfire's piece an extra-examination.
"Y' hearin' me, shorty?" Cyborg asked, smiling supportively. "Yours is an extra sensitive device, and everything will sound clearer in your piece than it does on ours."
Robin heard Cyborg's voice through his earpiece.
She smiled back appreciatively, nodding. Even with the thickness of her make-up, they can tell she was nervous.
"Press here to activate it. Press again to deactivate," said Cyborg, guiding her finger to the button. She deactivated her piece.
Robin came up beside her from the back of the craft. "Shawn said Gordok arranged for Conrad to sit in one of the quieter corners of the bar, so if possible, try to get his voice-print completed before you… leave with him. We'll have records of your conversation with him the entire time, and each time he says a voice-print word, I'll remind you what words are left… you alright?"
She blew a breath through her lips. "My breasts are in danger of popping out, my hot-pants feel like they are riding up my behind and I am wearing three-inch high 'whore boots', as Terra called it. Apart from all that and the fact that I have to pretend to be a prostitute, I am fine."
He cocked a smile, feeling less reassured than he cared to let on. "We'll be here for you."
She nodded again, pushing her craft door open. "Here I go. Please be inside in five minutes."
"We will be."
She stepped out of the craft and closed the door behind her. As she crossed the street, she tripped a bit on her sky-high stilettos. She struggled to regain her balance, fending off the men who had rushed to help her. She was strong, so she managed to push them away with little problem. No one bothered her again as she disappeared to the back-entrance alley of "Vanilla and Vice".
Robin sighed, shaking his head. "Let's get this over with."
Cyborg patted his shoulder. "She'll be fine. If he touches her, we'll kick his ass together, right?"
"Right."
"Careful," said Raven with a small sneer. "Conrad just might like it."
It made Robin's stomach turn. He wished he had never let Starfire do this.
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The joint wasn't as noisy as Robin expected. The only music there was came from the stage, and it was being played low enough for only those seated at the foot of it to hear. Strip club though "Vanilla and Vice" was, not everyone came there to see naked women dancing on stage. Well, it wasn't their primary purpose, at least.
There were both men and women of different races and cultures seated all over, mostly alone on their tables. The few groups that were there spewed smoke, drugs and alcohol; some customers had food. The general atmosphere in the place was contemplative; like it was time to appreciate the darker aspects of pleasure.
It was mostly too dark to see much of the club's interior, but in general, it looked like Dracula's bedroom, with red silk, black drapes, chains, whips and dark orange lighting in parts. The waitresses were wearing varied cuts of the uniform made of leather and lace, but they were all provocative, and they all flashed enticing smiles. It was no surprise that the general theme of the place catered to the leather and lace crowd. The name of the establishment, after all, described it perfectly.
There were three strippers on stage, each of them with their own pole. None of them were human, but they were all humanoid, and they were naked down to what could only be construed as their panties.
Raven sneered as they stood at the door. "Shouldn't you be closing your eyes, captain?"
"Nothing here I haven't seen," muttered Robin, searching discretely through the clientele.
Terra and Beast Boy were wired to hear, but they weren't wired for speaking. The only time they could speak with either Terra or Beast Boy would be through the equipment in the craft they parked outside, or through a comm, but Terra would be recording Starfire's feed, and later, she would be receiving important information that she needed to process right away.
Robin looked around, trying to spot Conrad.
"There he is," said Cyborg in a low voice, indicating the Nartusian's position with a tilt of his head.
Conrad was seated at a corner table far from the speakers. He was smoking a cigarette and judging by the mangled pack on his table, he had a habit. There were a couple of empty tables in his vicinity but they didn't take it. They sat a little farther, just near enough for them to see exactly what Starfire would be doing.
Something crackled in his earpiece. It was Starfire activating her radio.
He bent low on the table. "Star—"
"Starfire, are you set up?" Raven asked without further ado.
"Yes," came her soft voice that was just one notch lower than her usually chipper self.
"Shouldn't we order something?" said Cyborg.
Robin shot him a glare.
"Hey, I just don't want anyone getting suspicious!"
Robin gestured to the stage. "There are naked women on stage. Don't you think that's reason enough for a couple of guys like us to be here?"
Cyborg snorted. "Not from where I'm sitting. They're not exactly perky—"
"Cy," said Raven. "Just order a couple of sodas. And ask for peanuts."
"Pea—"
"Shush!" she hissed, then she cursed, her gaze on Conrad's general direction.
Robin looked and saw two waitresses standing over Conrad's table, giggling and letting him touch them. The waitresses looked like they were going to double-team him. If they offered a three-way, it was going to be tough to get him to take what Starfire supposedly had to offer him.
"Starfire, get out here," said Raven. "The other waitresses are zeroing in on him and he's liking it. Do something now."
"B-But—"
"No time to go all faint-hearted on me, girl!"
"Fine, fine! I am there!"
Robin expelled a breath, exchanging looks with Raven.
The lights on stage flashed and the music changed. They were switching strippers, but it wasn't the naked woman on stage that caught Robin's attention, it was the barely clothed woman who had emerged from the swinging doors of the employee backroom.
Starfire emerged into lighting, her cleavage a spectacular sight at the top of her black, lace-up bustier. Her legs stretched out from the tight, hot-pants she wore, and when she turned, there was a long, black, cat-like tail on her behind. A dainty apron was tied to her front, and it only added to the entire effect. She had an empty tray clutched in one hand and a horse-whip in another.
Robin's mouth dropped open at the sight of her. Gorgeous couldn't exactly describe her; scintillating, probably, and yes, she looked like a total slut in her provocative couture.
"Holy shit," said Cyborg and Robin together.
Raven was unfazed. "Now, do something about the waitresses."
"Like what?" hissed Starfire.
"Anything! Tell them they're bitches and that they're wandering from their tables, or something!"
Starfire hesitated for only a second before she sashayed by with definite purpose. She went to Conrad's table and promptly slid herself between Conrad and the waitresses. She put her hands on their chests and shoved them away, sending them sprawling to the floor. They were outraged and began to get up to attack her, but she fired bolts at their feet, sending them screaming to get away. The other patrons watched the scene with fascination, less surprised than they should be, but one luminous look from Starfire made them look away as if nothing had happened.
"Or you can do that…" muttered Raven.
Robin buried his gaze in his palm, pinching the bridge of his nose at the sudden migraine that had assaulted him. This was going to be a disaster.
Cyborg reacted with a wince.
Conrad rose from his seat, his face filled with shocked rage. "What the hell are you doing?"
Apparently, he thought Starfire had taken something from him, possibly a fun frolic with two girls, and he hadn't liked it.
"He sounds pissed," Raven said. "Say something to appease him."
Starfire squirmed on her feet. "I am sor—"
"Don't apologize!" hissed Raven. "If you apologize, then good luck dominating him! God! Didn't I teach you anything?"
Starfire's shoulders tensed at the scolding but it jerked her to attention. She promptly pulled back her foot and kicked Conrad's shin. The unwitting man doubled over in pain.
"Crap! What'd she do that for?" whispered Cyborg.
Robin moaned. "It's over."
Raven raised a hand. "Wait."
They watched as Starfire bent over the groaning man that was Conrad. She used the tip of her whip to coax him by the chin to look up at her. "I am in charge of you tonight, got that?"
Raven smiled. "That's more like it."
Robin didn't know what to say.
Conrad's shocked expression began to relax, clarity slowly drifting into his eyes. He began to smile as he rubbed the pain from his shin. "S-Sure." He chuckled. "Quite a foot you got there."
"It can do more than that. Now what can I get you?"
"Kula. On the rocks. You new here, honey?" He tried to touch her arm.
She flinched away but covered up her unease with a swing of her whip. It connected pertly with his hand and he jerked back, hissing with feral glee.
"Look, but do not touch!" she warned.
He smiled, rubbing his sore hand. "What's your name?"
Robin recognized a voice-imprint word. "'Name' confirmed. Remaining words: My, is, Conrad, Prior, Identify and Me."
"Salome," said Starfire. "Yours?"
Conrad chuckled. "Just get me my Kula, Salome."
"My" was easily scrapped off the list.
Getting him to say the remaining words wasn't going to be easy. If he said all the words in the list, they can splice the recordings and put the words together to complete the voice-print recording of, "My name is Conrad Prior. Identify me." Terra would have to work on the audio to smoothen the transitions between words, of course, but the sampled voice-print would be enough to make a near-perfect, if not perfect reproduction. They didn't know how sensitive the voice-print software was in Villa de Heliodoro, but they had to assume is could pick up anomalies.
Raven frowned. "You haven't won him over yet, Starfire, but at least he likes you. Try again later."
Starfire turned to leave Conrad, but his hand came up and slapped her ass soundly. She tensed, her eyes suddenly glowing with rage.
Robin's breath caught, his own anger rising within him. "That son of a—"
"Cool it!" Raven said.
Robin didn't know if Raven was directing her words at him or at Starfire.
"Starfire," she continued. "Walk away. Just smile at him and walk away. You're a prostitute, remember? You want him to like you like that."
Starfire's eyes glowed even brighter, but she did smile. However, when she turned around to face Conrad, she did the unthinkable: She swung her tray and made it connect with Conrad's jaw with a loud clang.
Conrad cried out as he fell to his side on the floor. He didn't look like he was that much hurt, because he quickly turned over on his back to give Starfire a shocked stare. But it seemed she wasn't completely done with him. She loomed over him and stepped firmly on his crotch.
Robin and Cyborg whimpered with Conrad.
Starfire grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him to her as she bent over him. They were practically nose to nose, her foot still on him. "I said… no touching! Do I have to spell it out?"
"No…"
"Are you going to try that again?" She twisted her foot.
He groaned. Whether it was for pain or something else, they couldn't say. "N-No…."
"Good! Now, tip me! And maybe, I will come back to your table!"
"Y-Yes, mistress!" He fumbled clumsily in his pocket to bring out a Primehatten credit bill. She took it with her teeth and shoved him away as she stood, taking her foot off him.
She took the bill from her mouth, tucking it between her breasts. "Good slave." She turned and walked away.
Conrad began to laugh on the floor.
Raven smiled. "Good work, Starfire. He's yours."
"I do not want him," Starfire muttered, disappearing into the kitchen.
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From the moment Starfire stepped on Conrad's crotch, she had him by the balls.
He called her mistress all night, and he did anything she asked. He was more than willing to play. By the time most of the patrons had drifted out of the bar, she had most of the voice-print words said. The only word left to say was "Identify", but it didn't look like she would be able to get him to say it without taking her out first.
Sure enough, he was asking her back to his place before the word was said, and Starfire had no choice but to comply.
Gordok easily let her go for the night, telling her to give his regards to Bun-bun. Starfire did not know who Bun-bun was, but she assumed he was Shawn's friend and agreed to pass the message along.
She slithered to Conrad's side when she was set to go, her coat wrapped around her for the trip to his place. She had managed to keep the no-touching rule tight, but she let Conrad put his arm around her shoulders as they walked out of the bar. The hand wandered just before they disappeared through the doors.
Robin gritted his teeth, keeping his composure with monumental effort as he rose to his feet. He can daydream about—slowly—strangling Conrad with his bare hands later. Right now, they had work to do. "Let's go."
Raven and Cyborg followed close behind him.
Conrad's barely contained excitement could be heard through Starfire's end. He was still calling her mistress, and he was still taking orders from her, but she couldn't play it as thick as she did in the bar. The bar was supposed to be her turf, but out on the street, riding a cab to his place, they were on neutral ground, and he didn't have to play a complete subbie just yet.
Robin headed their procession to the craft. "Raven, give me the keys."
"But—"
"Give me the goddamn keys."
She handed the keys over to him. He got in the driver's seat and started the craft as Cyborg and Raven piled in.
Robin drove the craft with his gaze firmly pasted on the cab in front of them. He had to stay a certain distance away, just so Conrad wouldn't notice, but chances were Conrad was noticing nothing around him. He was too caught up on Starfire, and he was just the kind of guy who wouldn't think he had enough on him to be followed by anyone. He was complacent, laid-back and horny.
Along the way, Cyborg contacted Terra and Beast Boy with the bigger equipment.
"I feel dirty," were Terra's immediate words.
"Yeah, well, I'm sure Starfire isn't feeling very fresh either," he said. "Did you get all the words?"
"Yep. All but one."
Cyborg nodded. "Identify."
"How do you think she's gonna spin that?" asked Beast Boy.
"Starfire and I talked about this very situation," Raven said. "And she has a contingency plan. She'll get the word. I promise you that."
"I hope she gets it soon, for her sake," said Terra. "It will be great if we can wrap up tonight's operation."
Robin couldn't agree more.
Farther down town, the cab finally stopped in front of a run down apartment building. The streets around it were filled with late-night activity, and nearby, there was yelling and breaking glass. But Conrad's building was dead to life. It was either all its residents were asleep or they didn't want to be noticed. The building itself seemed ominous; dark with its heavy stone and smoked glass; it was made of a strange, deep-blue ore prevalent on the planet.
Robin parked the craft some distance away, just off a dimming streetlight.
Conrad went around the cab to open Starfire's door. She stepped out, giving him a deadly look. He smiled. "I won't touch you."
"You better not, slave."
Conrad paid the cabbie and he led her up the steps of the building. They didn't engage in conversation on the way to his apartment.
Robin listened with Raven and Cyborg as steps rang through their earpieces. The building must have no elevators, but it didn't seem that Conrad was that high up on the building, either.
Starfire said the number of the apartment casually. It was a third floor number.
Conrad keyed them in. After a moment, Robin could hear bolts being slid into place. Conrad's door was going to be a problem if they wanted in fast; then again, Cyborg had a sonic cannon.
Conrad began talking about a "dungeon" and Starfire ordered him to show it to her. He complied rather gleefully, asking her if she wanted him to take his clothes off.
"No!" Starfire cried, a bit too sharply.
There was a whap, probably her whip, scolding him for pre-empting her. He apologized profusely. There was a sound of something rolling on the ground, and then the clang of steel with chains.
Starfire was dead silent. Whatever it was Conrad had brought out, she didn't have much to say about it. They could only assume it wasn't a good thing.
Raven must have guessed Starfire's silence. "I know it can be shocking, Starfire, but that's only because you haven't seen another one like it. We talked about this, remember? Take it easy."
"Tell me where your bathroom is, slave!" said Starfire, an edge to her voice.
Conrad did, but he begged her not to take too long.
Her steps rang out then hollowed. There was a door slam and it sounded as if Starfire was running water in the sink. She began to whisper frantically. "Raven, he has this—this rack! It has belts and straps… and I will not even tell you what else is in that closet of his! I am a little freaked out! If he tells me to shove those things up his—"
Robin pulled his earpiece out. It wasn't something he wanted to hear at the moment. He watched Raven as she listened to whatever Starfire was lamenting about. Finally, Raven spoke.
"Calm down, Starfire," she said. "He's the subbie, remember? He can't tell you what to do. You're the master in this scene and he's going to take any kind of abuse you give him. The rack is a good thing. You can strap him to it nice and tight and he won't be able to hurt you, or give you problems. He'll be completely under your control and you don't have to do anything you don't want to do."
She listened again for Starfire's response. She nodded approvingly. Starfire's crisis seemed to be over.
Raven gave a mischievous grin to something Starfire said. "Two minutes? That has to be embarrassing for him." She chuckled. "Relax. I'm just kidding! Now go. Good luck."
Robin put his ear-piece back. If Starfire can do this, so can he.
He heard Starfire turn off the water and walk out of the bathroom. Moments later, she was ordering Conrad to put himself to the rack. He complied most willingly, letting her pull the belts and buckles around him by the sound of things.
He was liking it a bit too much, asking in a pleading tone for her to do with him as she willed.
"Alright, slave," said Starfire. "Here is what we are going to do. You do as I say and I will make an absolutely worthless man out of you."
It was amazing how positive his response to that was. "Anything!" he cried.
Starfire sniffed. "I want you to say one word for me, with perfect clarity."
"Tell me the word, mistress. I'll say it as much as you want!"
She was silent. She probably wrote it down, because her next words were, "Read it out loud."
"Identify!" he cried.
There was another silence before Starfire spoke rather calmly. "Thank you, Conrad. That will be all." She walked a bit, expelling a soft sigh of relief. They heard springs, like she had sat down on a couch, or maybe a bed. It was hard to tell.
"M-Mistress?" said Conrad uncertainly.
Robin was already moving to the back of the craft. "Let's go." He grabbed a bag and Cyborg grabbed one of his own. Raven followed behind them. Together, they moved out of the craft with a singular purpose.
Conrad was beginning to sound agitated, and by the time Robin got to the third floor with his entourage, Conrad was cursing so badly it was all they were hearing through their earpieces.
Starfire unlocked Conrad's apartment door and let them through.
She was back in her black coat, but she was still blushing a bright red.
Robin squeezed her shoulder gently. "You did good."
She flashed an embarrassed smile. "Well, as good as dirty could be."
He wished she hadn't had to go through with it.
Conrad erupted in brand new profanities, calling her all sorts of unsavory names. He began to curse at Raven, as well, especially when she went to him and began to force-scan his eyes with a hand-held device.
"What are you doing?" demanded Conrad, struggling.
Raven smirked. "What are you complaining about? She promised you she would make you feel worthless, didn't she? Aren't you feeling abused right about now?"
"Yes, but—"
Robin sneered at him. "Be careful what you wish for." He helped Cyborg assemble some computer-linking equipment.
Starfire knelt by Cyborg. "I will scan the rest of him. Give me the equipment."
Cyborg grinned. "You should just relax. You've done enough for tonight."
She shrugged. "I feel I must do something that does not involve… sex. I have had enough of that tonight."
Robin caught her gaze and the moment he did, he felt a painful blush rise up in his face. Her cheeks reddened as well.
Cyborg handed her the scanner.
Conrad was not pleased about being totally helpless as they did a bunch of non-sexual things to him.
Starfire and everyone else ignored him as they worked. When the scans were complete, Robin sent the information back to Terra so she can work on them immediately, as well as some of Conrad's vital statistics.
When the information was sent, Robin approached Conrad on the rack.
Conrad glared at him. Robin's glare was much fiercer. He began to pat Conrad down.
"What are you doing?" asked Conrad for the nth time that night. "I'm not into guys! Well, at least not most of the time…"
Robin rolled his eyes. "You should be so lucky." He found what he was looking for: Conrad's Villa de Heliodoro I.D. card.
"Fuck! No, don't!" cried Conrad. "Do you have any idea what they'll do to me if they found out my identity got jacked? They'll kill me!"
"Well," said Robin as-a-matter-of-factly. "We can always surrender you to the Feds. They've been looking for you. Got in trouble with some under-aged girls, didn't you?"
"They told me they were over 18!"
"All six of them?"
"As if you wouldn't go for a young honey yourself."
"Are you stupid or something? I'm nineteen going on twenty. All the women my age are young honeys."
Conrad blinked. "Well… when you get older then!"
"Whatever, dude. At any rate, I won't go impregnate a few along the way and abandon them on purpose. Cy, any news on how much we have to dose this guy?"
"Terra's just finishing with the computations from the scans."
"Dose?" asked Conrad. "What dose?"
"Dose to knock you out for a few hours, and to make you forget some."
"You can do that?"
"Sure. It's easy. You'll sleep like a baby."
"No, I mean make me forget—"
"Just in," said Cyborg. "Terra said three hundred fifty milligrams ought to do it."
Robin nodded, going to a small kit and opening it. Inside the kit were a needle and a syringe. He filled it up to three hundred fifty. There were other ways to inject medicine, of course, that didn't require a needle, but Robin thought the occasion called for it.
He popped the needle straight into Conrad's neck, and soon, Conrad's angry protests dwindled into a drooling, snoring litany.
"It would be funny to leave him like that," said Raven.
Robin nodded. "Hilarious. But we won't. Cy, help me out here, will you?"
Robin began pulling on the belts and buckles while Cyborg held Conrad up. After they peeled Conrad off the rack, they dumped him on his bed. He looked a little uncomfortable, but they didn't particularly care. He would be out for as long as they needed him to be out.
Cyborg set up the gassing machine with a video surveillance camera. Whenever Conrad stirred out of sleep, they would activate the gassing mechanism by remote control and he'd be knocked out instantly. The gas's potency worked hand-in-hand with the injected serum. Without the serum, the gas's effect would not be so quick, but with the serum circulating in Conrad's body in the next thirty hours, the gas could very well knock him out in two seconds.
They hooked Conrad's communication systems up to their network, just in case someone tried to contact him.
When they had all they needed, they headed on back to the craft. An hour later, they were on their way back to the Mighty Titan.
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Robin sat on his chair in the bridge, trying to relax his frayed nerves. It was four in the morning, Earth-time, and he wondered if he should still go to bed. He would be the primary operator in their mission to save Galfore and he had to be alert, but it wasn't as if lack-of-sleep had ever been a problem for him.
There was hardly anything he could see out of the bridge windows. His view was made up mostly of the back of the Cannon, but he could see some of space still, through a crack at the side, and he always liked new sights, even if it was infested with Gangsters. That was the thing he loved most about space; its ever-changing landscape, how there were a billion combinations of sights, sounds, civilizations and cultures.
There was a hiss at the bridge door. He turned and saw Beast Boy. His helmsman didn't look too happy.
Beast Boy looked angry and he strode over to Robin with purpose. His eyes blazed furious, but Robin could only wonder why.
"You knew, didn't you?" Beast Boy yelled. "You knew! She fucking told you first!"
Shit, thought Robin with a miserable sigh. "BB, calm—"
"Get up!" cried Beast Boy, stepping back. "Get up, dammit!"
Robin raised his hands in a calming gesture as he rose to his feet. "I'm up already, okay? Just take it eas—"
Beast Boy glared at him, breathing heavily with rage. "I'm gonna fight you! Do you hear me? I'm going to fight you and show her I'm better than you!"
"W-What?"
Beast Boy transformed into a tiger and lunged at him.
Robin jumped and tumbled out of the way, instinctively grabbing his bo-staff and extending it. "BB, what the hell are you—"
The tiger roared and leapt for him a second time.
Robin swung his bo-staff, aiming for Beast Boy's middle. Beast Boy transformed into an armadillo just before contact and Robin heard the dull thump of his weapon on a hard shell. Beast Boy careened to the side, but just before he hit wall, he turned into a monkey, grabbing the thick cables as he swung back at Robin, morphing into a gorilla along the way.
Robin cursed, levering himself on one of the bridge chairs and kicking off into the air. He cart-wheeled on Beast Boy's gorilla head and made a backhand slam to Beast Boy's nape. This time, it connected before Beast Boy could transform, and the gorilla tumbled across the bridge, a little dazed as he became Beast Boy again.
"It's your fault she's leaving!" cried Beast Boy in an accusatory tone. "Your fault! And just because you don't want to be with someone, it doesn't mean we all want to be alone, you son of a bitch!"
"Hey!" Robin yelled in a much louder, more forceful volume. "What the fuck, Beast Boy? Get a frickin' hold of yourself!"
Miraculously, his words, and possibly Robin's blow to the back of his head, seemed to have gotten through to Beast Boy. He stayed crouched in the corner of the room, breathing heavily and casting a feral glare, but he didn't move.
Robin stayed alert. He didn't want to hurt Beast Boy, so if the shape-changer chose to attack again, Robin would gas him.
He gave an inward moan. Why were all these things happening to him?
And then the fight was suddenly gone from Beast Boy's eyes. His shoulders slumped and his angry face became lined with misery. "Oh shit… I can't believe… shit! You're going to fire me, aren't you?"
Robin sighed with relief, rolling his eyes in the process. "No, you moron." He retracted his bo-staff, stuffing it back into its holster. Wearily, he returned to his chair and slumped into it, watching Beast Boy wind-down from his rage. "Now what's this about being my fault?"
Beast Boy grimaced, like he was going to cry, but he didn't. All he did was fall back on his seat on the floor so he could become an unhappy green pile of boy.
"She told me she was leaving. Honestly, I didn't see it coming. She's happy here, chief. She loves everyone and… and sometimes I think she loves you even more than she loves me."
Robin's eyebrow arched. "Excuse me?"
Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "I don't mean that she loves you romantically. I mean… you know how girls have boyfriends and they have big brothers? They love their boyfriend but they listen to their big brother like his word was gospel. That's how Terra sees you… that's how Terra sees you and me."
"BB—"
Beast Boy shook his head. "I can't help but think that you could've—I don't know. You could've told her not to go. She listens to you, you know? I thought I can convince her to stay, but my opinion only ever matters to her when you agree with it. I've accepted that for some time now, and I had hoped that in this, we agreed that she'd be better off staying with us. But you—what did you say to her?"
Robin sighed. There was an unusual amount of drama in his life, lately. This was all Raven's fault. "Beast Boy, Terra's—she always had a mind of her own. Being her guardian for the last three years, I learned that telling her not to do things is the worse thing I can do. With Terra, you have to let her do her own thing, with just enough of a push in one direction or another just so she doesn't stray too far away. And lately, she has been learning to figure it out by herself, more and more in the right direction. I've asked her to stay; don't think I haven't, but she decided to leave anyway, and I can't tell her no. She's happy here because I believe in her; we all do. Why should I stop believing in her now that she believes in herself?"
"But she—she didn't even factor me into all this. I thought—" Beast Boy shook his head. "It's like she didn't even care about what I would feel about it."
Robin wanted to tell him Terra does care. She really does, but Robin had a sneaking suspicion that Terra thought it was Beast Boy who didn't care enough. She knew Beast Boy would be sad, but she also believed Beast Boy would get over it in a hurry.
"BB, have you even talked to her about what you felt?"
"Of course! I told her this sucked and—"
"No, I mean… really talked. No offense but, you're always clowning around, so it's hard to tell when you're actually being serious. Have you ever told Terra about how deeply you felt about her? Because…" Robin pulled back a bit, taking a deep breath. Beast Boy was looking up at him with an awed stare, as if suddenly, Robin's words were making all the sense in the galaxy. Robin went on. "I don't know a lot about women. Obviously… I can't even keep mine from stealing from me and if she wants to pretend to be a prostitute, I have no say in the matter, but… one thing I learned: If you're honest with 'em about your feelings, they actually listen. Believe me, they do. It might help if you… be honest, for once. I don't know what it'll do, but it can at least set things in the right direction."
Beast Boy eyed him suspiciously. "You've tried this, right? I mean, you're not just preaching and not practicing, are you?"
Robin shot him a glare.
Beast Boy's look of doubt withered. "Fine."
They sat in silence for several minutes.
Robin thought about their conversation and couldn't help going back to a trivial point. "And what did you mean when you said I didn't want to be with someone? How the hell did you figure that to be true about me?"
There was a tinge of red on Beast Boy's green cheeks. "Well, you're always being pissy about your love-life! And you're so mean to Starfire, sometimes!"
Robin laughed sardonically. "Ho man… you haven't the slightest clue! This is why I'm pissy about my love-life: guys like you come up with so much shit that's supposed to be none of your goddamn business!"
"Well, shees, bite me, why don't you? How the hell am I supposed to know—"
"You don't! It's no one's business but mine and Starfire's. You go concentrate on your girlfriend and I'll go concentrate on mine."
Beast Boy pouted but said nothing more after that.
After a long, comfortable silence, there was another sound at the door. There was a hopeful look on Beast Boy's face, as if he thought it might be Terra.
Robin turned on his seat to look. It was Starfire, and she looked her normal self again. Even her hair was back to its old color.
He smiled a bit. He liked her so much better being her natural, beautiful self.
She met eyes with him and smiled back before she spotted Beast Boy. "Am I interrupting?"
Robin was about to reluctantly tell her that he was in the middle of something important when Beast Boy cut in.
"No. I was just about to leave, actually." Beast Boy stood. "Chief, I gotta go, but I'll think about what you said."
Robin paused a second before nodding. "Do that."
Beast Boy headed for the doors, grinning at Starfire. "So are you gonna keep the whip?"
Starfire reddened. "No!"
Beast Boy's laughter faded at the close of the door.
Robin couldn't help rolling his eyes. He smiled at her apologetically as he tilted his head to coax her to sit beside him. "What's up?"
She drifted to her seat, sitting close enough for them to speak in soft tones. "I cannot sleep."
He indulged himself a moment to look at her. "Worried about Galfore?"
She chuckled. "That too, but mostly…"
He noticed her going tense and he moved closer to her on his seat, draping his arm on the back of hers so it was almost like he was holding her. It looked like she needed that kind of contact. "Mostly, what?"
"About what I had to do tonight, and about how before, when things got desperate, I contemplated doing that for real."
He made a soft sound of concern. "Star…"
She reddened. "When I thought about being a prostitute in the past, it honestly did not seem so bad. Men will do things. Might as well get paid for it."
He frowned, his hand coming up to grip her shoulder. "Starfire, have you ever been forced?" He didn't want to think about it; couldn't bear the thought that she had suffered something so traumatic, but the question tumbled out of him before he could stop himself.
"No," she replied unflinchingly. "They could not. I was always stronger than them. And they got hurt for their efforts, too."
It was still upsetting to hear that anyone had tried. "Lots of scum in the universe, Starfire, but a lot of us wouldn't ever think of doing that. I would never hurt you…"
She smiled broadly. "I know. But tonight… I am glad I did it, Robin. I realized, with utmost clarity, that I would never go down that way. I mean… I am not pretending that I have never used my feminine wiles to get men to do what I want them to do. In the past, I would flirt and tease, however I was conscious of the fact that the men were more entranced by the thought that could not have me. But tonight, all those people in the bar… I can feel them thinking that if they paid for me,they would get what they want. I was not a person to them. I was just a thing. Even if I knew I would never, ever have to sleep with any of them for money, I understood the jagged-pill a prostitute has to swallow each night she goes out there. And I suppose, in time, the pill is not so jagged anymore, but that is the biggest tragedy, is it not? When you have accepted that you are an object for nothing else but that."
He nodded. He felt a penetrating ache in his chest, and he wanted to tell her that she should never have to put up with any of that again if she stayed with him, but they had made a promise not to talk about that, and even she was keeping her word.
She looked at him shyly. "You saw me in my terrible costume and you looked for me. I saw it in your eyes, how you were searching to find me."
He stammered to say something, afraid that maybe he had offended her for doing that. He would never turn her away for anything; whether she was a thief, a pickpocket or even a whore, but he would always search beyond what was outside to find her. He hoped she wouldn't misunderstand.
She shushed him. "It is alright. I made myself up to look very different, mainly because I could not stand the thought that anyone would associate the real image of me with that infernal get-up. But I was glad you were searching, and how you keep searching still… I have put on layers of make-up over the years, you see. Sometimes I wonder if I still know myself. But I suppose I do. You make me remember."
He wasn't sure what to say about that, but he tried. "Starfire, you don't have to be what you were. Who you are now… well I've actually gotten attached to it." He kissed her lips lightly. "Really attached."
She smiled up at him, a smoky look in her eyes. She was going to say something, but she seemed to change her mind about it. She returned his kiss, this time not so lightly.
Robin couldn't help but respond with equal passion. He had already decided before that when it came to his desire for her, he was supremely easy to lead. He had little to no capacity to think for both of them when they got this way, and unconsciously, he always made her decide the outcome.
He half-wished she would put them both out of their misery and let it happen, because frankly, she didn't exactly need to twist his arm to get him into her bedroom, but the fact that he wasn't taking matters into his own hands was telling enough of his own hesitation.
She pulled away, out of breath.
He was a man full of conflict as he stared at her. On the one hand his thoughts were telling him that their previous topic of discussion and their adventure in "Vanilla and Vice" could twist anything intimate they might share that night into something callous, or casual, so they shouldn't, yet on the other hand, his eyes were pleading her to give in to the heat of the moment.
He remained silent, letting her decide. It was all he could do not to beg outright: Please, please don't say we shouldn't. I promise it would be awesome. I promise you'll love it.
She pulled away even further.
It was then his sense of reason took root. She was right. They shouldn't. He recalled her words in Conrad's flat: "I feel I must do something that does not involve… sex. I have had enough of that tonight."
He blew a breath through his lips.
"I must get some sleep," she said, smiling at him apologetically as she rose from her seat. She held his hand lightly.
He stayed in his chair and he managed to return her smile. There was no need for her to apologize. "Then sleep."
She tightened her grip briefly before she let go. "Until later, then."
"Yeah. Later."
She turned to leave and he watched her.
He wanted to follow so badly, though he didn't.
He could wait for just a bit more.
To be continued…
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Reflections of Beast Boy: I felt a great disturbance in the force… no, what happened, happened and couldn't have happened any other way… now it is such a bizarrely impossible coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God... wait, I think I'm mixing sci-fi quotes.
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Author's Note: Dolphingirl asked me about Slash and his Inuyasha looks. Lol. It was, in fact, deliberate on the part of Metal Dragoon to make him look like Inuyasha and be like Inuyasha. Who could blame him? Who doesn't love that hanyou?
In case you're wondering, Beast Boy's sci-fi quotes are from "Star Wars" (movie), "Matrix: Reloaded" (movie) and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (book), respectively.