Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, or any related material, although the story idea is mine.
Chapter 6
She awoke with her face pressed against the keyboard. A flashing red screen blinked the word "Error" over and over again. Startled, she pushed herself back up into a sitting position, realizing ruefully that she had fallen asleep while researching. With a quick stroke of the keyboard, she turned the laptop off and looked over to see her friend Cyborg also sleeping. Tired, she glanced at the clock: 6:30 in the morning. The screens of the medical ward showed scans of hers and Raven's bodies, but the scans had not been reduced to microscopic scans yet, they were supposed to start that today.
"About time you woke up, that computer voice has been annoying me for the past hour," Raven said when she sat up.
"My apologies, friend, I must have let myself drift into the sleep without realizing it," she replied, her cheeks flushing with embarassment. She started to rise, but remembered her promise to Cyborg to stay in the bed, so she settled back down again. "Raven, are you able to walk today?"
"Finally. I thought those two would never let me out of here, but even now, they won't let me get up until they run a few final tests. Looks like you and I are stuck here for the time being," her friend said, slightly smiling.
She reached into her pocket and brought out a communicator. "Terra? Are you awake?"
"I am now," answered a sleepy voice on the other end.
"My apologies, friend, but we wish for you to come down and assist us, for we are currently incapable of going anywhere," she replied.
"On my way," replied a tired Terra.
A few minutes later, the girl walked in, brushing her hair as she walked. Starfire felt a twinge of guilt for making her get up this early, but she really needed someone to help her out. "Thank you for coming here on such short notice, friend."
Terra shrugged sleepily, saying, "What are friends for?"
Smiling broadly, Starfire motioned Terra over to give her a huge hug, then set the gasping girl back down. She then proceeded to give orders, "getting down to business" as Cyborg said so often. "First, would you please wake up Cyborg? Tell him that you are here to assist him in the scans."
"No problem," Terra replied, but she soon found her task near impossible. She tried poking, prodding, screaming, banging, but nothing seemed to be working. Finally, Raven decided it was time to help.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven cried, allowing the magic to come into contact with Cyborg and enter his systems, waking him up with a jolt. Her eyes stopped glowing, and she bore a hint of a smile on her face at the look of shock the big man gave her.
"What's going on?" Cyborg asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
"You and I seem to have fallen asleep by accident, friend, and we wish to continue working before we are interrupted," Starfire answered, smiling broadly.
"Oh, right," he said, obviously embarassed at having fallen asleep while working. He got up quickly and turned to his computers, while Terra hovered behind him, wondering what she could do to help. "Terra, could you help me get these sensors onto Raven and Star?" he asked, noticing her behind him.
"Absolutely," she said grinning, happy to be needed. An unhappy Raven was then fitted with all sorts of metal wires and chips and such, as was Starfire. Terra stepped back, admiring her work.
"Way to go, rock-n-roller!" Cyborg said, glad that Terra was helping him instead of Beast Boy, for at least she was able to get things done right the first time. Happily, she slapped him a high-five.
"Can we get this over with?" Raven asked, obviously uncomfortable.
"No problem. I'm already running the scans. All we have to do now is wait for the information to reach the computers and then process it," Cyborg said, running about the ward, trying to manage all the technology. Finally, a picture of Raven's and Starfire's bloodstreams appeared in front of them.
"Can we take this off now, then?" Raven asked.
"Sure thing. The information is now stored in the computer's memory. Go ahead," Cyborg replied absentmindedly, trying to zoom in on some irregularities in the bloodstreams.
"Great," Raven said nonchalantly as the scanning equipment glowed black and floated away from her, landing easily on the table farthest away. Meanwhile, Terra helped Starfire to remove her equipment as well.
"I think I've got something!" Cyborg said finally, stepping back to let the computer show the image, but as he did so, a loud alarm went off and the screens started blinking, blocking whatever he was about to show them.
"Trouble!" Starfire cried out, opening her communicator to see who was the perpetrator this time. The sudden, downcast look in her eyes told them all who it was: Robin.
"I'm coming with you this time," Raven said, rising up from her bed, but Cyborg shook his head.
"We don't know if you've completely healed yet, and I swore I wouldn't let you out until then," he said.
"You're going to let me out of here and let me help you!" she said, letting her voice rise a bit and her eyes glow black, throwing Cyborg off for a moment.
"O..okay," he replied meekly.
"Thanks, you're so cooperative. Besides, I can levitate if I can't walk, and I promise if my leg starts hurting, I'll take a breather, okay?" Raven said, letting her voice return to its normal monotone.
With that, the other three Titans left, leaving Starfire alone in the medical ward. She could hear Terra dragging Beast Boy out of his bed and the sound of the T-car driving away, then nothing. Sighing, she opened her communicator so that she could monitor the mission. If only they would have let her go as well. She was perfectly capable of fighting!
Casually, she looked over at the computer screen and noticed that the picture Cyborg had been about to show them was now loading. Waiting patiently, she finally saw the image: her blood stream was crawling with those Slade-dots! Despite her promise to Cyborg to stay in the bed, she flew over to the screen, and with a few quick keystrokes, she magnified the image. Those dots were...probes.
Rushing back to her laptop, she uploaded the image from before onto the screen. They were identical. These nanoprobes were inside them, but what were they capable of? With newfound hope that this case might be solved, she decided to run a few tests and figure this mystery out. First, though, she would monitor the mission from here, perhaps there was something new to be learned.