Mind Trap

Chapter 10

Beastboy's eyes widened, "Dying? Tell me how to save her, now." His voice trembled with barely restrained rage.

"Just remove her from the tank, that will..." Beastboy dropped him, allowing him to scurry after the others to the escape pods, and turned to the tank that held Raven. He threw all of his weight behind one fist and hit the glass door of the tank. A fine spider web of cracks appeared at the center of the tank. He swung again, despite the pain in his fist and shattered the glass, bathing himself in the thick clear liquid that Raven had been suspended in. He caught her as she fell out, and sank to the floor, cradling her. He held and rocked her as the liquid flowed off, leaving them dry.

Raven's eyes fluttered open, and focused on Beastboy. "What happened, Gar? Why are you green?"

"You- you don't remember anything?"

"I remember my father took us down to that cave and..." She gasped and her hand went to her unmarked stomach, "I don't... Wait, I remember." She stared down at herself for another moment, "Beastboy, why aren't we wearing anything?" Her voice was now tinged with anger.

Beastboy jumped, "I didn't, I mean, I..." He sat Raven up and stood, swiftly turning away, "Sorry, I was kinda frantic at first, it said you were dying and I didn't have time to notice. They must have put us in the tanks naked." He looked up at the wall across from the row of tanks that contained the remaining titans, "Hey, look at that."

Raven almost glanced back in his direction, but caught herself in time, "I'd rather not, if it's all the same to you. Why don't you just tell me?"

"Our uniforms are right here." He pulled open the glass display case that contained Raven's uniform on a mannequin. He tried to pull the uniform off the mannequin, but gave up. He pulled it out and tossed it behind himself, "Here. You get Starfire out, I'll take care of Robin."

"Deal."

Beastboy pulled his uniform off another mannequin, and quickly pulled it on, "You dressed?"

"Yes."

Beastboy turned back, "Well, I've had better dates."

"It wasn't real."

"It felt real." Raven tried hard to ignore the hurt sound to Beastboy's voice when he spoke, "You want to take care of Star, then I'll take care of Robin."

"Right, turn around so I can get her."

Before long the titans were all out of the tanks and dressed. "It must be something Slade worked up." Robin said confidently as he adjusted his mask.

Beastboy spoke up "Dude, There's lots of villains that wanted us out of the way, and could have come up with this tech."

"Yeah, man. This ain't exactly Slade's style." Cyborg cut in.

"Besides, the guy I grabbed wasn't human."

"Aliens? Starfire, have you ever seen anything like this?"

"The natives of Cori Celeste use such devices, but they are medical devices. Those inside the tanks are in a dreamlike state while they heal from severe injury."

"So why were we in them?" they all fell silent as a soft hum started, and soon built up. "What's that noise?" Robin asked.

Star supplied the answer, "I believe that a hyperspace engine is charging. I recommend that you brace..." They were all thrown to the floor as it bucked beneath them. From her spot on the floor, Starfire finished her truncated sentence, "yourselves."

"Is everyone okay?" Robin asked. The other titans quickly gave him positive answers.

"So, this means we're in a space ship?" Beastboy asked.

"Great job, Sherlock." Raven spoke in her familiar sarcastic drawl.

"So." Robin said, "We find the control deck, and we find whoever's behind this." He briefly scanned his team, "Alright then, lets go."

The titans moved down the hallway to a set of double doors at the end. Sensing their presence, the doors slid open, revealing what appeared to be an elevator. They stepped in and the doors immediately closed behind them. The titans stared at the buttons that covered most of one wall of the small cubicle. "How big is this ship?" Beastboy asked.

"It does seem quite large." Starfire said.

Robin's fingers hovered over the buttons, "So how do we know which one will take us to the command deck?"

"Perhaps, friend, it is the button that says 'bridge'"

Robin's gaze shifted down to Starfire, "Which one is that?"

Starfire studied the panel for a moment, before pressing one of the buttons. There was a brief pause, followed by a sensation of movement. The titans rode in silence for a moment, before Cyborg broke it, "So Star, what did those pods do to us?"

"They simply created a reality that would keep us calm, docile."

"I wasn't very calm." Beastboy said.

"Perhaps the system broke down. It is automatic."

"So if it broke down, anything could have happened."

"Correct."

The elevator came to a stop. After a brief pause the doors slid open, revealing a large floating egg. Whatever it was facing away from them. All they could see about it was that it had short, stubby arms, and wore a long green coat. "I know who that is!" Beastboy immediately said, excitedly and much to loud.

The egg spun, revealing an almost featureless face, a small lipless mouth and sad pure blue eyes. "How did you get out of the pods?"

Robin scowled, "I think the better question is, how do you like your eggs?" He withdrew his bo-staff and threw himself at it.

"Robin, don't!" Beastboy tried to stop him, but he continued to fly toward the alien heedlessly.

Robin's staff came down hard on the top of the egg, stopping on the apparently rock hard shell. A fine network of cracks spread from the impact site. "Friend Robin, I think you broke him."

When Beastboy spoke, his voice came out thin, sounding frightened, "Not quite, Star. That was really stupid Robin."

Robin stepped back as the crack started to split, revealing something red within. "What's happening?"

"I read Superman's report on this guy, he's um, kinda hatching."