Chapter 5: Pizza World Continued
The wheel vibrated violently in Robin's hands as he careened wildly into the wall. "Hey Cyborg, you cut me off!" Robin protested. Cyborg's car quickly pulled away on the screen as he extended his lead over the field.
"Hey, that's life in the big city Robin." Cyborg replied. It was just a game and Robin was taking this video race much too seriously. Cyborg smiled. It was worth the price of three quarters to see Robin blow his lid.
"No biggy, I'll catch you on the next turn. I'm the racing expert here." Robin confidently replied as he straightened out his car and stomped down on the gas.
"You're running out of track Robin" Cyborg taunted as the finish line appeared in the distance.
"It's turbo time!" Beast Boy cried out. He had saved his turbo for the end hoping to blow by Robin and Cyborg and steal the race at the last moment. Robin and Cyborg were jockeying for position. They quickly closed on each other and eliminated Beast Boy's chosen path. All three cars collided and spun out of control each coming to rest short of the finish line. The boys stared in shock at the screen. Before any of them could recover Starfire's car plodded across the finish line in first place.
"Starfire is the winner!" she proclaimed as her hands shot up in triumph. Beast Boy sat dumbfounded staring at the screen surveying the carnage. He soon felt the icy stares of Robin and Cyborg creep over his shoulders.
"Um, sorry?" was all he could offer.
Cyborg placed a hand on Beast Boys shoulder causing him to wince slightly. "Dude, they should never issue you a driver's license after that pitiful display."
Robin vaulted over the booth and landed next to Raven. Raven bounded upwards in her seat and quickly grabbed the table to steady herself. Once composed she shot an angry stare at Robin who returned a slight smirk.
"Does this look like the bat mobile?" she remarked still trying her best to shoot an icy stare at her partner. "Well you do have a cape" Robin replied. Raven frowned and looked away.
"What's up with you tonight?" Robin inquired. He decided to push his luck and see if he could get her to talk.
"You know I hate video games," Raven coolly replied.
"No there's something else, you've hardly eaten anything." Robin knew he was pushing his luck, but he figured it was worth a couple of days of icy stares to figure out what was wrong.
Raven looked down at the table at her unfinished meal. "Well it's hard to eat with Beast Boy and Cyborg the Barbarian at the table." She turned her head towards the other table where Beast Boy and Cyborg had moved on to a soda-drinking contest. Starfire was keeping count as the boys passed the twenty-soda mark.
Robin smiled briefly at his other partners antics then returned his attention to Raven. "Come on Raven, they're in public. This is pretty tame for them. Do you remember last week when Beast Boy substituted tofu in Cyborg's tacos?"
"Don't' remind me," Raven mildly protested. She looked up and fixed her eyes on Robin trying to gauge his level of concern. Her dark eyes focused on his for a moment. Somewhere in those dark calm eyes Robin knew there was a tempest of emotion. To contain her emotions, Raven built a thick wall of stoicism. This wall was generally impenetrable. Robin knew that no amount of pushing or prodding could move it. At that moment Robin thought he could see that wall melt in her eyes. A rush of emotion was poised to break free. Raven's eyes fell back to the table. She gathered herself and raised her head and focused her eyes back on Robin's. Her mouth cracked slightly as she struggled to form the words that had been trapped in her mind.
Robin's alarm pin interrupted them. There was trouble in the city.