Sorry this chapter is late people. But I was having issues, and a lot of school work, plus a thousand other things. In any case, I changed up the style I was writing with a little bit… (Yes, I have multiple writing styles as well as drawing styles) Um.. It's more.. On the fence as far as their emotions and thoughts. It makes it easier for me to write rapidly. The next chapter might be in the old style if you don't like this style.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Titans. Yet. However, after extensive investments in Microsoft, and Sony, and becoming rich, I will.
"Cyborg…" Raven started. Her voice was soft, even more so than usual. The chocolate skinned Titan looked up from his perch on the ledge of the roof. He looked like he was about to say something when the familiar, most irritating whine began. The Titans siren had awakened. Raven counted down the time until Robin appeared on the roof-top.
"Titans, trouble!"
"Damn." Raven said as she quickly teleported herself, Robin and Cy down to the garage, where Beast Boy and Starfire were already strapping themselves into their own seats.
Cyborg smiled at her apologetically.
"Um.. we can talk about it later.." Raven said, not wanting Cy to believe it was some great big deal that she was gonna bring up. She sighed as the mighty engines of the T-car revved and flew out into the city night. 'It'll have to wait…'
The dark girl walked down one of the many barren hallways of the Titans tower. Halogen lamps gently 'buzzed' as electricity flowed through them, lighting her path with a lazy off-white color. The gray- paneled walls of the hallway gleamed dimly and her wavering reflection mimicked her slow gait. She smiled mirthlessly as she turned the corner that led to her room. The night had not gone well. They came under attack from an as yet unknown assailant, whose pattern greatly mirrored Slade's except for a few things. One, this new opponent did not leave empty dramatic clues and thinly veiled taunts to torture Robin. Two, this enemy appeared to only be interested in one thing- Money. The only reason this person's would-be cronies attacked is because the Titans and herself had interrupted their transfer of money from the bank.
This led full-circle to why it hadn't been such a great night. The purple clad warrior grimaced as she slowly rolled down the top if her leotard and removed the padding to inspect her wounds from said thugs- A light plasma burn on the side of her right breast, another just below her left breast, and yet another on her left side as well as a cut on her stomach, a jagged, angry red slash on her abdomen. She was bruised in various other places as well, but they could be ignored; Possible infection could not.
Carefully, She disengaged from her leotard the rest of the way, clad only in a pair of plain white panties after it's full removal. The girl sighed as she got up from the comfortable plush bed and went to rummage around in her closet for a moment. Frowning, she carried the small container of medical supplies back to her bed, where she quickly found and removed the antiseptic cream, as well as some bandages. She'd be able to heal some of the wounds herself, but the others, she didn't have enough energy to deal with at the moment. Raven winced as the cold cream came in contact with the cut. It didn't hurt so much as it stung. Slowly, and methodically, she tended to her wounds, using what little energy she had left to prevent scarring. She had just begun wrapping her chest with gauze when her door slid open. She turned around and there stood Cyborg, holding a first aid kit, his eyes wide and his mouth doing it's best to imitate them. Quickly, the other Teen did an about face, attempting to give the girl her modesty back.
"I'm sorry Raven. I'll come back later…" he said, sounding thoroughly embarrassed. Raven smiled to herself as she continued to wrap the bandages around her pectoral area.
" It's alright, Cy. What did you need?" She asked, turning in the boy's direction.
" I was just checkin' up on ya, to see if you needed any help." he answered, firmly planted in the direction of the door. Raven's eyebrow quirked ever so slightly as a smirk came across her lips.
"Um Cy? I'm decent. Or at least, fairly so." she said, before inspecting the burn on her side. It was considerably less damage than the other two, so she could heal it easily without wasting too much energy. Cy turned away from the doorway and sat on the edge of the bed, still looking flustered and embarrassed. Raven only shook her head in response, finding his reaction somewhat entertaining.
"So uh.. Do you need anything?" he asked. He was obviously uncomfortable with the Idea of being so close a half naked girl who was younger than him, but Raven paid that no mind. She wanted to speak with him about something. Raven moved slightly and winced as another plasma burn she hadn't noticed throbbed angrily at being forgotten.
"Actually Cy, I could use your help." She said, her voice still neutral.
"Yeah?" he asked, looking doubtful.
" There's a plasma burn on my lower back. Would you mind spreading the analgesic cream on it?"
Cyborg's eyes widened to the size of saucers again. The idea of touching a half naked girl younger than him didn't sit so well either. Raven sighed in exasperation.
"Cy, all you have to do is put the cream on the burn. It's not like your molesting an eleven year old or something, I'm sixteen for God's sake." She said, snapping at him. This seemed to slap Cy out of his stupor as he took the tube of cream and slowly slathered it onto the burn, careful not to press hard enough to make the pain worse. It was obvious he could see Raven's logic as he started chuckling to himself.
" Yeah, I guess I was bein' pretty stupid." he said, more to himself than to her as he squeezed another portion of the cream into his hand.
"So how are things for you Cyborg?" she asked, her soft monotone greatly contrasting his deep baritone.
"Um… I guess you could say they are going okay…" He said, his voice betraying the fact that things were definitely not okay with him. Raven collected the fact that he was lying about something in the back of her mind as she spoke. She'd pry into it a little later.
"That's good. How's your baby?" she asked, referring to the T-car. Cyborg frowned. "She aint so good anymore. I'm starting to think I'm gonna have to redesign the old girl." he muttered, sighing. Raven bit back a chuckle. He always seemed to find something wrong with his inventions, even when they were perfectly fine.
'The life of a perfectionist…' she thought, smiling dryly.
"We've rebuilt the old girl so many times that her data doesn't even fit the overall structure flaws in the frame." He said. Raven could feel his frown on her back as he continued to apply treatment to the wounded area. His powerful hands had somehow managed to begin a healing process in her back. She could feel the healing energy pool on the scar and begin removing it. 'He could be a powerful Reiki master if he were to study.' She thought, surprised at how thoroughly he managed to soothe the plasma burn.
"You know, you should probably study Reiki" She said, feeling the last traces of he burn being removed. Cyborg made a slightly confused noise as he removed his hand from the area he'd been massaging the salve into.
"Hey, the burn is gone! How'd ya do that?" He asked, apparently oblivious to the fact that she'd even said anything. She sighed slightly, both from the loss of the admittedly comforting back massage and his lack of attention. " I didn't. You did." She said, wondering how the teen had managed to tap into universal life energy without attunement. She pondered it for a moment in the back of her mind as she answered Cyborg's unanswered question.
"Somehow, you tapped into universal life energy, ULE for short. No I don't know how… But in any case, thanks." She summarized quickly, then turned to him and gave him a hug. Cyborg stiffened slightly then chided himself for his own stupidity before hugging the girl back.
"So what are you going to do about the car then?" She asked, getting back on subject. After the first time she'd helped with the T-car, she found that she liked working with the typically expensive machines, a surprising development indeed. She certainly wouldn't mind working on another one.
"Nothing yet. But if she gets messed up again, I'm just going to trash the current one and redesign her from the top." He said, his blue eye seemingly dulling at the thought of destroying his baby. Raven chuckled.
"You know, I'm glad we had this little chat. For a while I was kind of worried that we were kind of drifting." She said, her sentence ending softly. His eyebrow rose in surprise.
"Say what?" he drawled, looking every bit the fool at the moment. Raven chuckled again.
"We used to hang out a little more is. I started worrying that you didn't like me anymore."
"No, I could never stop liking you Raven…" he sputtered, saying it entirely to quickly for his liking. He gulped slightly and hoped she hadn't caught how quickly he reacted. She didn't seem to have noticed anything and just smiled a little.
Like a small animal testing the waters he gently brought up the courage to ask what should have been a simple question. But at the simple thought, his tongue seemed to have turned into a slug, slow and unyielding in it's lack of motivation.
Raven stared at Cyborg, wondering what was wrong with her elder friend, as he fidgeted uncomfortably. His mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water and he seemed to be at a loss for words. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he suddenly spoke, sounding as though he had run around the block forty or so times without rest.
"Do you wanna go ou- Crap! I mean.. Uh.. Do you wanna hang out later? Catch a movie.. or something? That new Knife after dark movie is out." he said quickly, despising the child-like foolishness of his sentence. Raven, however, did not seem to notice his plight as she smiled genuinely, a first in a while, and affirmed his wishes.
"Sure. What time do you wanna go?" She said, her voice still monotone, but with a perceptible edge of interest. Cyborg sighed an internal sigh of release. So she wasn't repulsed by the idea of hanging out with him. That was a good thing.
"Um… About eight sound good to you? I can go whenever, just gimme about 15 minutes to charge." He said, making it clear that he was available at anytime. Or so he hoped.
Raven considered asking him about why he was so hopped up all of a sudden but decided against it. She would need enough time to consult Starfire on what "normal kids" wore as casual wear as well as to borrow some of her clothes.
"Eight sounds good. See you then." She said, standing up. Cyborg followed suit, his heavy body leaving a light indent in her mattress. He smiled warmly at the girl before disappearing out of her room.
"Oh, yes! I would most enjoy the chance to help you dress coldly for your movie with friend Cyborg." Starfire gushed happily. Raven quirked an eyebrow at her younger friend as she chattered on about fashion and clothing. Despite the fact that Starfire had no clue as to the "language" of teens her age (Raven had considered interrupting Star to tell her that the word she was looking for was cool, but decided against it, lest she interrupt her friends steam), she knew fashion better than possibly anybody. The girl was already foraging through her closet, tossing outfit after outfit onto her bed. Raven strained to keep up with her highspeed chatter, but could not, so she stood in the corner, looking and feeling as dumb as a brick. After a moment of grabbing other random accessories, Star came back out of her closet, positively beaming.
"Friend Raven, I have long awaited the day I could 'over make' you. It will be glorious!" she said, giggling. Raven couldn't help but smile. The girl's happiness was almost disturbingly infectious. She briefly glanced over at the pile of clothing on the bed and her eyes widened to their extremes. T-shirts ranging from disgustingly cute, to tongue in cheek sexy to plain old black littered the bed space amongst skirts, jeans, and shorts of varying lengths and styles. Shoes of all sorts were laid out along the purple carpet of her floor, looking for all the world like some sort of bombing attempt was made on the worlds shoe factories and they wound up there.
"Shall we begin?" Star said, her bubbly voice bursting Raven's thoughts with the greatest of ease. Raven looked away from the clothing and shoes to the green stained eyes of her friend.
"Uh…. Sure?" she said before being dragged into a tornado of clothing changes.
Cyborg quickly dug through the top drawer of his desk. The silver-blue metallic finish of his desk reflected his worried face with ease as his hands danced through countless little doodads he'd never finished.
'I hope I didn't lose it… Oh, hey! There it is!' he thought, triumphantly pulling the small silver-ish object out of it's undisturbed corner of the drawer. Sliding it onto his metallic middle finger, his metallic body shimmered like a heat mirage for a moment before transforming into a fully clothed, normal human body. Cyborg smiled as he felt the familiar jolt of electricity that came from using his holo-ring. It used more of his power cell than he liked, but if things went well, he wouldn't have to worry about it at all. Taking the ring off, he laid on the top of the desk, closed the drawer and quickly dashed over to the table he slept/charged on. Using the cords, he quickly plugged himself in and powered down for the quickest possible and most effective charge.
'maybe I can tell her now…'
Robin groaned as the t.v. showed yet another commercial for some sort of Barbie doll thing. He was tired of people constantly trying to sell him crap. Flipping the channel quickly, he came across some old kung fu movie. He smiled as Bruce lee back kicked yet another dork through a plaster wall.
'That's the way fights were meant to be fought' he thought, eyes glued to the T.v. after watching Lee brutalize thirty or so more people, he got up to go get a bag of popcorn. He knew he'd be watching this for a while; These movies were his overall favorite. He was halfway to the cabinet when Cyborg came in.. Or Rather, Victor Stone walked in. Robin smiled.
"Hey Cy, looking good buddy. What's the occasion?" he said, stalling his footsteps. If Cy was willing to wear his holo-ring again, something interesting must have come up. Cyborg blushed slightly and smiled.
"I got around to asking Rae out… Kinda" he finished sheepishly, looking halfway between bliss and despair. Robin chuckled.
"Kinda? By kinda, you mean you chickened out, or what?" He prodded as Cyborg looked down at the floor, obviously embarrassed.
"Uh.. Well. I only asked her to hang out and see a movie… but I'm gonna ask her at the movie!" he said, grinning. Robin shook his head.
"I bet you didn't come out to ask me about that though, did you?" Robin said after a moment of silence. He wanted speed this along. He didn't mind speaking with his friend, but he wanted to see his movie.
"Uh.. Yeah. I need to borrow the R-cycle. The T-car needs an overhaul and I only have an hour before I go…" Cyborg didn't get to finish his sentence as a pair of keys came flying through the air.
Robin smirked.
"Have a good time. And wear protection." Cyborg stopped in his steps.
"Ay, man. That ain't funny." He said at Robin's receding back. "That ain't funny."
Meanwhile…
Beastboy stared at the television screen, looking for all the world like an invalid. His eyes were glazed, his expression blank, and drool dripped from the corner of his mouth. The only signs of life he exhibited were the occasional yelps of success, constantly twitching thumbs, and the occasional movement of his head. He was playing Halo 2 (A/N: yes, this was me ((kind of. My copy wasn't pirated, and was only a day early)). For about three days) and had instantly fallen in love with the game. He hadn't been out of his room since they got back from the last battle, and he could give less than a care as for what everyone else was up to. His was a pirated copy, and it had a lot of glitches that probably would never make it into the full game, but he didn't care. His copy wouldn't allow him to save, but he didn't care. He didn't even care that he could only play seven of the levels, or that the controller would sometimes spaz out and not work. All he needed was Halo 2. He would become one with Halo 2. He was Halo 2. The greenest titan stopped playing for a moment.
"Woah… I need to take a break.. My own thoughts are starting to freak me out!" he said, removing his death grip from the controller. His eyes widened as he realized there were finger shaped indents in the controller S. Quickly, he got up, and walked out of his room, turning off the X-box. He needed a shower. Then maybe he'd go gloat to Cyborg about his… advance copy of the game. Quickly, he ran to the bathroom and took a short shower, being sure to make himself at least presentable before dashing down into the front room. He was surprised to find Robin sitting on the edge of his seat, cheering on a forty inch tall Bruce Lee, who was currently pummeling a wanna be ninja with a block of wood. More to his surprise was the fact that the Boy wonder was watching the movie alone.
B.B. considered asking Robin where everyone had gone but quickly surmised from the scene that everyone was doing something else. He shrugged and went back to his room. He had an ultra level elite to school in the way of the shotgun.
Well. That's Chapter two. I know, I know. You probably expected a bit… more, but this is the eighth time I've re-written this damn thing! The first seven times were disasters. I have a plan and everything for how I want stuff to happen, but I was beaten, stabbed and shot by writers block, computer issues (the third time I wrote this chapter, it came out pretty good, but my computer's hard drive decided to die an irritatingly spectacular death), and a black out that lasted two days. Not to mention the three times my mom turned my computer off when I went to get something to drink and erased my work. So I dun wanna hear any bitchin' about how short this chapter is. Anyway… Read and Review. And tell me if you like this writing style or the other one better.