How does Robin's mask make his eyes disappear?
The cold rain poured outside Titans Tower, casting the normal sunny Jump City in a dark and gray environment that matched Beast Boy's mood perfectly. For the past week he rarely left Raven's bed side in the medical room. He had removed her cloak which now hung on a nearby coat rack as she was just clad in a hospital gown, Starfire having removed Raven's leotard.
Raven had various wires connected to her, monitoring such things as her heart beat, blood pressure, oxygen levels and the like. Though in the entire week she had been comatose, her body never actually touched the bed. Instead she merely levitated off it by a foot or so, her arms nearly at her side. Cyborg would stop in every hour to check her vitals, which were odd to say the least. Her body was in perfect physical condition, but her vitals were slow and weak.
Beast Boy sighed to himself, running his hands through her silken violet hair. He'd just spend all day in there looking at her, never leaving, rarely eating, just watching her.
"I don't know if you can hear me Raven...but I miss you bad. It's lonely here without you. I...I try to keep myself busy with GameStation...Cyborg even let me win a couple of times, though he'll never admit it. I...I just wanted to let you know that I love you and I'm waiting for you..." his voice trailed off as he broke down and dissolved into tears, sobbing uncontrollably into his arms.
He sat there and cried his bitter tears, till he felt a hand on his shoulder. It wasn't the cold metal of Cyborg or the firm glove of Robin, but rather a soft, gentle feminine hand that he knew could only be Starfire's.
She sat down next to him, as she made her way up to the base of his neck, slowly massaging it. She knew it was pleasing to Robin when he was stressed and she hoped it would have the same effect for Beast Boy.
"How are you feeling?"
Beast Boy sniffed slightly and just shook his head, his vocal chords failing to function.
Starfire nodded her head in a gentle understanding."I can see you are still grieving for friend Raven." she spoke quietly, yet her voice tender and full of sympathy. Her soothing voice helped Beast Boy slowly compose himself, trying to dry his tears from his eyes.
"Yeah Star.." he said weakly. "I miss her."
Starfire nodded sympathetically, still massaging the base of his neck. She sat there in total silence for several minutes with him, the only sound being the soft beeping of the machines hooked up to the Azarathian girl. She didn't know if she could say anything to help Beast Boy with his suffering, but she hoped just having someone else in the room with him might help.
Eventually Robin made his way in and stood behind Starfire, placing his hands gently on her shoulders. She smiled up at him, as he leaned down to kiss her delicately on the top of her head. She stood up and hugged Robin tightly, with the Boy Wonder stroking her back whispering "She'll be ok..." to her. One more kiss later and she floated off for a shower.
Robin sat down next to Beast Boy where Starfire had once been. Again, Beast Boy said nothing, continuing to stare at Raven while holding her slender hand.
"I saw that you finally beat Cyborg in GameStation today, huh? Guess hell finally froze over..." Robin joked, trying to keep the mood light.
Beast Boy didn't respond.
"You hungry? I think there's some extra tofu sausage left in the fridge..."
Beast Boy just silently shook his head no, wishing Robin were gone and Starfire were back. It's not that he didn't care for Robin, but his attempts to keep the mood light were failing miserably and were cutting the changeling like a knife.
"So...how ya feeling? Any better?" he asked.
"How do you think?" the broken hearted young man replied, starting to get annoyed..
Robin cringed realizing his poor choice of words and scanned his brain to keep the conversation going at any level, but failing miserably. He was never good at this type of thing.
"Beast Boy...I...I understand what you're going through." he finally said, looking straight ahead at a blank wall. Beast Boy stroked Raven's hand and with his voice heavy with a bitter sarcasm spoke "Oh right, the heartache you had when Slade left?"
Robin's face stayed expressionless, though inside he felt like he had been stabbed straight in the heart.
"No..." he said quietly. "Beast Boy, I lost my parents in an accident when I was younger." he spoke softly with a blunt, unflinching delivery. "And...I wanted to let you know if you need anything, I'm here for you. I know the hurt you're feeling."
Beast Boy's ears sagged a bit as he realized what a jerk he had been to Robin. "Dude...I'm...sorry I said that. I've just been so whacked out lately..." Robin just shook his head merely raising his hand to silence Beast Boy.
"Beast Boy, it's ok...you're hurting. I understand."
"Thanks, dude..." the changeling said quietly, glad to have been forgiven. Robin gave a bit of a half smile finally getting that off his chest, when the all too familiar buzzing of the alert siren pierced the air. Robin's smile faded quickly into his normal stern look of determination and with a flip of his communicator, contacted Cyborg for the source of the alert.
"Cyborg, what's wrong?"
"It's Punk Rocket...he busted out of jail and is holding the entire Jump City Orchestra hostage down at Drake Theater. He's got a new guitar now, one that isn't powered by xenothium, but has more gadgets and doodads then you're utility belt."
Robin frowned..
"Hostages? How many? What are his demands?"
"About 13 or so of em' and you ain't never gonna believe this," said Cyborg "but the dude wants a 5 album contract, a personal jet, a deluxe tour bus AND a world tour..and something else..." he added his voice trailing off slightly.
"Something else? A merchandising deal?"
"Not exactly...he...uhhh...wants Starfire as one his groupies."
"WHAT! No way that's going to happen! Where are you at now?"
"Star and I are in the garage waiting for ya."
Robin nodded grimly and flipped his communicator shut, attempting to run out of the room. As he was going, though, Beast Boy stopped him by grabbing on to his cape.
"Robin, wait...I want to go too."
Drake Theater was in ruins. Half the seats were destroyed, the stage was smashed to splinters, the instruments had been thrashed and it looked like a war zone had torn through the area. Punk Rocket paced back and forth on what was left of the stage, clearly looking annoyed with the members of the Jump City Orchestra, who had been tied to their chairs with special adamantium laced guitar strings.
"Alright, now I'm only gonna ask ya bloody tossers once and once only, who is the greatest flippin' rocker in the entire world?" the rebel without a clue asked, having not even bothered to change out of his bright orange prison jump suit.
"P-Please...sir, I don't listen to the 'rock and roll' music..." the frightened conductor stammered "I just listen to classical, that's all." Punk Rocket scowled in obvious disapproval.
"Every single one of you tossers is starting to make me brain hurt..." he screamed, mockingly rubbing his temples.
"Funny, your music does the same thing to me." came the all too familiar voice of Robin.
"You again? Didn't learn ya lesson from last time? BUZZ OFF!"
"'Fraid that's not gonna happen, little man." Cyborg offered, his sonic cannon armed and ready. "This time we're shutting you down for good!"
"Yes," said Starfire joining in. "you are a terrible man and your music is the suck."
"Oh really now? Apparently you blokes didn't learn ya lesson with Lil' Blackbird did ya now?"
Beast Boy grit his teeth, his fists tightly clenched. "Her name is Raven..."
"Oh is that Lil' Blackbird's name? Raven, eh? Well lad, I gots a name for her real proper like...WORMFOOD!"
Beast Boy hollered in an intense rage, morphing into the beast he had become when he fought Adonis, and with a mighty roar swung his razor sharp claws. The knife like nails sliced through the hair, the tips tearing claw marks in Punk Rocket's jumpsuit as the criminal made a desperate lunge back.
"Blimey mate, she's just a girlie girl, ya know? No use losing your bloody head over it!" he sneered, getting the brand new Flying V II from behind his back. "Ya know, they say music soothes the savage beat, eh? Well let's test that theory out!"
Beast Boy roared loudly as he blindly charged towards the smirking rocker, who with a mere push of a button produced two adamantium guitar strings to fly out of the guitar, dancing and weaving in the air like a snake under hypnotic suggestion.
"You lil' snots feel like messing with me and me guitar, eh? WELL WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!" and suddenly the two guitar strings lashed out at Beast Boy as Punk Rocket controlled them with the whammy bar on his Flying V II ax. One of the strings shot forward and wrapped around Beast Boy's ankle, tripping the massive beast to the ground.
Beast Boy growled with irritation at the set back and attempted to cut through the thin string with his claws, but finding little success.
"Ha, feelin' a bit foot loose, eh? You can try and tear em' up if ya like, but you'll find that's adamantium and as any science nerd will tell ya, ya can't break the stuff!" the rocker taunted..
"TITANS GO!" and the remaining three Titans were off into battle. Seeing one of the guitar strings zooming for him, Robin somersaulted high into the air and at the peak of his jump hurled a birdarang at it, pinning it to the wooden floor.
"What's this all about then, eh? Nice try Bird Boy!" Punk Rocket said and with a flip of a switch, the string disconnected itself from the guitar, a new one now wildly swung in the air in it's place. Beast Boy meanwhile was struggling to get back to his feet, clawing viciously at the adamantium guitar string,
"Starfire! Help free Beast Boy!" Robin ordered, hoping that Punk Rocket was bluffing about the strings being adamantium.
The Tammaranian Princess flew towards her friend who had now morphed back into his human form to see if that would lessen the grip a bit, but as if it had a mind of it it's own the string merely tightened itself. "Fear not, friend." Starfire said sweetly "For I have to come to aid you."
"Hurry and get this thing off of me, Star! I'm going to tear Punk Rocket apart!"
Starfire nodded eagerly and grabbing a hold of a section of string began to tug it, using all of her fierce alien strength she could muster, but it would not tear. She yanked and pulled, stretched it over her knee, even attempted to use her teeth, but the string would not budge the slightest. Punk Rocket saw this and with a leering eye, sent the second string towards Starfire. Sneaking up behind her, the string wrapped itself around her waist and arms and making the surprised crimson haired beauty "EEEK!" at being caught off guard.
"STARFIRE!" Beast Boy shouted, but to no avail. The string returned itself to it's master, it's green eyed prize struggling, but tightly wrapped in the guitar string. "Ah well now, we do we have here, eh?" he said with his voice a lecherous whisper. He stroked the back of his hand across her soft cheek, the tall alien girl wincing as if she had been struck hard. "Eh now luv, don't be shy...I don't bite...hard."
"You shall not get away with this! Robin and Cyborg shall come to my assistance!"
"Oh you mean these two little buggers?" he said with a sneer. Starfire glanced over and to her horror saw Robin pinned to the wall with razor sharp guitar picks, struggling in vain to free himself. Cyborg meanwhile had wound up with a digital guitar pick on his back that had hacked into his system, broadcasting Swedish death metal at ear piercing volumes. "Make...it...STOP!" he screamed, clutching his head in agony.
Starfire's jaw dropped with shock, returning her attentions to the leering Punk Rocket.
"And now luv, the moment I've been waitin' for...let's see what's under the outfit of yours, shall we?" and reached his hand towards Starfire, his eyes gleaming with perverse delight.
"The only thing you shall see is this!" the Tammaranian Princess shouted and blasted Punk Rocket dead on with her eyebolts, sending him through a flimsy wooden wall into the dressing room. As the punk rocker's body crashed through, he dropped the Flying V II, causing the strings wrapped around Starfire's body and Beast Boy's ankle to go limp.
"Dude, sweet! I'm free!" and Beast Boy was off to rescue Robin and get the hacking guitar pick off of Cyborg. Starfire meanwhile had charged two fully powered starbolts as she stood outside the wreckage of the dressing room, waiting for Punk Rocket to emerge. She didn't have to wait long, as the staggered punk stumbled over the wreckage, aiming his wrist mounted explosive guitar pick launcher at her.
"Alright you lil' wench, time for y'all to piss offugghhfffhhh..."
Punk Rocket had barely enough time to utter the phrase "piss off" before Red X returned, teleporting to the punk's left hand side and connecting with a vicious round house kick that left Punk Rock staggering back in a daze. Following his attack up, Red X teleported behind him with a leg sweep that sent the rocker crashing to the ground as the master thief teleported into thin air.
The rebel without a clue slowly made his way to his feet, dazed and sore. "C'MON THEN YOU BASTARD!" he hollered loudly, the Titans and the still captive orchestra watching.
"If you insist..." came Red X's voice before appearing out of thin air behind Punk Rocket and connecting with a spin kick that sent the rocker flying into what remained of the audience chairs.
"Damn that felt good." he said to himself.
"I see you got a fresh supply of xenothium. How'd you get it?" Robin asked, but already knowing the answer.
"Same way I always get things. You didn't think I was going to leave the xenothium alone, did you?" the thief replied bluntly.
Robin smirked slightly. "Playing the hero again, huh?"
"Don't get your hopes up, kid, I'm not joining the Teen Boy Scouts any time soon. What I just did was payback for stealing my belt. Now if you excuse me..." he said as he went to pick up the Flying V II to destroy it.
BZZZZZTTTTTTTT!
The guitar crackled electricity causing Red X to yelp as he instinctively jerked his hand back. Punk Rocket, bruised and battered, slowly stood up from where he was laying and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, grinning madly.
"Hehehe...surprised ya didn't it? It's programmed to recognize me fingerprints and no one else's!" before raising his arm, his palm open. The guitar shook slightly and then flew across the room at a blinding speed right into Punk Rocket's outstretched hand. "Ain't she a beaut?" he offered, barely able to stand on his feet.
"And now you wankers are gonna get my farewell tour performance!" he laughed insanely, adjusting a knob on the Flying V II all the way to the right. "THIS BABY GOES TO 11!" he wailed "You bastards ready to rock!"
"Not yet." came a voice cold enough to freeze out the sun.
It was Raven's voice.
Up from the floor in a sudden wave of black energy emerged Raven, clad in her leotard and cloak, her hood hiding most of her face with the exception for two glowing white eyes.
"You hurt me and you hurt my friends. No more."