The New Recruit
Disclaimer: This thing is really annoying me, I don't own the Teen Titans. Never have. Never will.
Special thanks to my reviewers: Goth Jedi, midnightdragoness, Nightlark, Confuzzle333, Midnight Blue Raven, robin and raven 4 ever, Haruka-Clone and raex18.
You guys rock! Chapter 5 is here for your enjoyment- Dark Shadows 01
Chapter 5
"Excellent Jinx, you've done well," came the bone chilling voice of Slade as he looked at the unconscious form of Raven, lying lifeless on the cold hard floor of his underground base. Raven didn't even seem to be breathing.
"Thank you master," replied Jinx automatically. It sounded as if she had been programmed to say it whenever her master said something.
"Jinx," said Slade seriously, "I need Raven to be healed for the next part of my plan, so remove your curse."
"But?... but sir!" Jinx was confused. 'What the? He said he wanted her unconscious one moment and now he says he wants her healed. He has got to be crazy.' Jinx thought.
"Don't question my commands just do it," spoke Slade angrily.
"Yes master," Jinx said again, she knew she had angered Slade. And there was nothing in it for her except for punishment if she kept arguing with him.
Reluctantly Jinx walked over to where Raven was lying, and raised her right hand over Raven' chest. She seemed to be concentrating. Then pink like steam evaporated out of Raven and into the palm of Jinx's out stretched hand, where it collected into a small swirling pink ball, hovering over Jinx's palm. Jinx closed her hand into a fist; the pink ball returned into the steam like form and disappeared into the air around her.
As soon as the pink energy returned to Jinx, Raven started to levitate a few inches off the ground. There was a blue light around Raven's body. She was healing and Slade smirked. According to his plan, everything was going well. Satisfied Slade continued his clever plan that was nicely unfolding before him.
The Titans were still crowded around the empty bed in the med lab, standing in silence still in shock. Slowly Robin picked up the circular emblem and stared at it, his hand shook slightly.
"Aaagh!" screamed Robin as he threw the emblem at the wall, where it embedded itself firmly. "Why did I let it happen? Why? It's all my fault that she's gone."
"Hey man no one could have stopped this," came the calm voice of Cyborg.
"Yes. I could have and I didn't. And now, he's taken her. She isn't even well yet!" roared Robin.
"Dude it's okay we're going to get Raven back," added Beast Boy.
"Yes friend Robin we can not leave friend Raven in the clutches of Slade," said Starfire placing a hand on Robin's shoulder.
Mercury had gathered that the emblem stood for Slade, but she had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, that there was much more than just a simple kidnapping. She got this feeling whenever something bad was going to happen. Mercury started thinking of the possible theories why Slade had kidnapped Raven, but none came to her as she did not know what Slade was capable of. But she did know one thing. And that was, Slade was bad, very bad. Cyborg noticed that Mercury was deep in thought.
"Hey Mercury you okay?" asked Cyborg.
Cyborg' s brotherly voice brought Mercury out of her thoughts. "Yeah, I was just thinking," answered Mercury, "So I'm guessing you and Slade don't like each other."
"Ha! That's the understatement of the year," replied Beast Boy.
Robin cut in, "I'm going to find Raven and I'm going now!" he said marching out of the room.
Cyborg acted fast. "Hold on," said Cyborg pulling Robin back, "How are you going to find Raven if her locator is here?"
Sure enough, the yellow circular communicator was on the bed. Robin stopped Cyborg was right, he was letting his emotions get in the way of logic. He needed to stay calm and think of possible ways to rescue Raven.
"You're right, Cyborg," stated Robin, "But does anyone have any ideas on how to find Raven?"
"We will if we start researching right now," announced Beast Boy.
Cyborg and Robin stared at Beast Boy; it was the most intelligent answer they had received from their green friend in a long time. Actually, they had never gotten this kind of answer from him ever before. Beast Boy noticed that Cyborg and Robin were staring at him.
"What?" Beast Boy asked.
"You said something intelligent," confirmed Cyborg.
"SO!" defended Beast Boy getting really uncomfortable under their gaze. "I'm really worried about Raven!"
"You're right, Titans start researching NOW!" declared Robin as he left the destroyed med lab and went to the main computer situated in the main room and he started typing ferociously.
The group followed Robin out of the lab and went their own separate ways for researching. Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire decided to scan the city for anything suspicious.
Before Robin disappeared into the evidence room Mercury spoke, "Uh… Robin I was wondering if I could get any information on Slade and The HIVE to help with my research."
"Sure, follow me," replied Robin as he punched in the security code for the evidence room. As the steel door opened with the familiar whooshing sound, Robin and Mercury stepped into a fairly big room plastered with news clippings of various criminals, mainly of Slade. The room's only light came from a small chrome desk lamp on a wooden desk littered with more pictures and news clipping of Slade.
Mercury followed Robin to the desk, where he opened a drawer labelled "Slade" and withdrew a massive folder packed with all the encounters the Titans ever had with the masked villain. Robin deposited the folder to Mercury, who slightly buckled under the sheer weight of it. Robin took no notice as he went to another drawer this time labelled "The HIVE" and took out another folder and plopped it on the previous one that Mercury was holding.
The added weight almost made Mercury's legs give way if it wasn't for Robin's hand placed firmly under the files, and kept it there until Mercury was balance again.
"Thanks," said Mercury smiling while keeping a firm hold on the files.
"Need a hand?" grinned Robin.
"Nope," answered Mercury, with that the two heavy files were surrounded in an ice blue aura and floated out of Mercury's arms.
"I know when I'm not needed," complied Robin as he started to look over some old files of Slade. Mercury walked to the steel door with the two folders floating behind her smoothly, and left Robin to his thoughts. As soon as the door closed behind Mercury, Robin immediately went over to a drawer hidden right at the back of the room, where the light barely reached the dusty files, and retrieved a photo.
In the photo, it was Raven and Robin they were both smiling, looking at each other. One could clearly see that it was taken during the sunset. Both Titans were engulfed in beautiful shades of orange and pink. Robin thought back to the moment.
Flashback
Raven was on the roof alone watching the sun set over the ocean. A slight breeze played with her violet hair and cloak. Raven was enjoying the sight, until she felt the presence of another. Raven knew it was Robin because of the special bond they both shared.
"Wow, the sunset is really beautiful," said Robin walking to where she was standing and admiring how the sunset made Raven look stunning. Sure, she looked stunning most of the time but right now during the sunset, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever laid his eyes upon. He was pretty sure of that.
"There's not much that's more beautiful," replied Raven as she continued to watch the sun disappear behind the ever moving waves.
"I can think of something," Robin spoke before his mind could register what he had said.
"What?" Raven asked. She was fully facing him now with a quizzed look.
"You," Robin whispered.
Before Raven could answer, Beast Boy jumped out from behind a ventilator with a camera and shouted, "Aw ain't that cute!" He then took a photo and took off laughing his head off.
"BEAST BOY! I AM SO GOING TO KILL YOU!" yelled Raven as she chased after the green changeling. Robin just smiled as he watched them chase one another.
Raven thought she had destroyed every piece of evidence of that picture. What she didn't know was that Robin had kept a copy hidden right at the back of the evidence room. As Robin continued to stare at the photo, he whispered, "Raven please be safe."
Slade was running over the last details of his cunning plan, only to be disturbed by Jinx.
"What is it?" barked Slade.
"Master, Raven has almost finished healing herself," announced Jinx.
Slade pressed a key on his wireless keyboard, one of Slade's monitor switched on to reveal Raven. Sure enough, the blue light was dimming and Raven was slowly returning to the floor.
"Jinx secure Raven's arms, legs and neck with the specially built chains," commanded Slade.
"Yes master," answered Jinx, it was as if phrase was programmed into her brain. It was one of the reasons Jinx hated working for Slade. Yet she did as she was told and set off to do the allocated task.
Slade watched Jinx bind Raven to the wall carefully making sure everything went according to plan. Jinx had successfully completed her task with no problems.
'Excellent, I wonder if the Titans are worried for their little friend?' thought Slade.
Mercury had spent the rest of the day in her room looking over the files Robin had supplied her with. Mercury had learned of the time when Slade had made Robin his apprentice and the whole Terra betrayal. Mercury was shocked at how Terra could do such a thing after all the Titans did for her. Yet Mercury wondered why Raven had accepted her so easily, but that wasn't the main priority. Mercury needed to find out why Slade had captured Raven. She wasn't going to allow some mad man to hurt one of her friends.
After being in her room all afternoon, Mercury decided to do a little training to clear her head. Mercury changed into a blue Nike t-shirt and black tracksuit bottoms and headed to the gym, still with her sword and cloak. Mercury didn't get lost anymore now after the tour Robin had given her.
Mercury reached the gym and decided to go a few rounds with the punch bag. Mercury unclasped her cloak, removed her sword, and placed them in the corner.
"First, I need to stretch," thought Mercury as she placed her right arm across her chest and her left arm pushing her wrist. Feeling the stretch down her arm, she held it there for ten seconds and did the same with her other arm. Shaking her arms, Mercury rotated her wrists clockwise then anti-clockwise. Now that her muscles were tense, Mercury took her position in front of the punch bag.
It had been a long time since Mercury had practised so she decided to start with a simple routine. Mercury's routine consisted on well-placed punches following in the order: "left, double left, left right and left right left." Mercury had started slowly getting used to the punch bag as it swayed back and forth.
After five minutes, Mercury started punching faster and harder and slowly circling the punch bag as it continued swaying violently. Sweat beads formed on Mercury's forehead and slowly trickled down her face. She did not bother to wipe them away. Mercury had started attacking using full strength as she thrust her fists at the punch bag, which was threatening to break from the chain where it was suspended.
Mercury was too deep in thought to notice, and then the chain snapped causing the punch bag to be hurtled across the gym. The chain caught the edge of the giant weights causing the bag to rip, sending a huge puff of sand at Mercury who covered her face with her arms, standing in shock.
Mercury opened her grey eyes to find the entire gym looking like the Sahara desert. Mercury heard someone laughing and turned to see Robin leaning on the door of the gym laughing.
"Uh… sorry about the gym," said Mercury sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck.
"No problem I do it all the time," admitted Robin still chuckling.
"How come the chain isn't strong enough for a few good punches? And what you laughing at?" asked Mercury who was annoyed.
"You," spoke Robin before he broke into another fit of laughs.
Mercury looked at herself in the mirror to find that she was also cover head to toe in sand and joined Robin in laughing. When they both had finished Mercury said, "Well I'm going to take a shower and I'll be back to clean this up."
"Don't worry about it I'll clean it up," responded Robin.
"You sure?" asked Mercury cautiously.
"Yeah go take your shower," replied Robin.
"Thanks," answered Mercury as she quickly picked up her sword and cloak, then departed still embarrassed from the event.
Mercury teleported herself to her room as to not leave a trail of sand behind her around the tower. Mercury quickly removed her now sand coloured clothes and jumped into the shower, which took twice as long because of all sand that was in her hair. Finally, when she was sure every particle of sand was removed from her body, she got dressed into a new uniform and decided to have a snack. While she walked to the living room, she could hear shouts. When Mercury entered the room, she found that the shouts belonged to Beast Boy claiming that Cyborg was cheating.
Suddenly the screen switched to show a man wearing an orange and black mask and one grey eye staring at them. Mercury couldn't see his face but she was sure that he was smirking under the damn mask.
"Aaagghh!" shrieked Beast Boy as he fell off the couch.
Cyborg pressed a button on his arm to signal Robin to come.
"Hello there Titans," said Slade calmly as Robin dashed into the room.
"Slade, what have you done with Raven?" Robin shouted his anger rising.
"Well since you're so keen to know, I will show you your pathetic friend," replied Slade as he moved away from the screen to give the Titans a clear view of Raven hanging in chains against the wall. Only the quiet sounds of her breathing confirmed that Raven was still alive.
"What have you done to her?" yelled Cyborg.
"Nothing yet, but if you want to see your friend ever again meet me at the pier in exactly one hour," said Slade before the transmission was disconnected.
That's chapter 5 for you did you like it? Please leave me a review on your thoughts all comments are welcomed- Dark Shadows 01