A/N Hey everybody, thanks to all who reviewed. Rereading this now (I wrote it a long time ago), I don't particularly think its good anymore, butI started posting it, so I'll finish. Enjoy chapter 2!
Recap:
'You know,' said a little voice in his head, 'you could just leave her, she is fuzz after all.' 'What, go find the rest and bring 'em back here? Good plan except I've no idea where this is remember?' The little voice dropped its forehead into its palm, or the metaphysical parallel. 'No' it explained as if to a small child and not a very intelligent and crafty eighteen year old, 'you leave, and go meet Willy on time and then get on with your life.' 'No! I can't just leave someone to die! Besides, this one's too much fun to torment.' 'Sigh, suite yourself, but don't blame me when you're being slowly boiled in hot oil and the one that caused it is right outside ready to slap the cuffs on.' and the voice was gone. 'Not to mention that you think she's attractive' 'hey, I thought you 'were gone''
Walk in the Woods 2
"Okay" he said out loud this time, shaking it off, "plan B. I hope you trust me." He carefully slung her over his shoulder face down as to place as little stress as possible on her back. The man in black was too disconcerted with his extremely sensitive awareness as to exactly where they touched to notice that she almost inaudibly murmured "I do" in response. He began running as fast as he could back to the clearing. Unfortunately, that was not very fast in the forest, especially for a city boy, and especially not in a straight line. Red X's cursing increased steadily every time he stumbled or jolted Raven or had to detour around briar patches and gullies to the point of constancy when he finally admitted that he had no idea where he was going. Raven had long since fallen unconscious again and her cloak long since soaked through with blood more than rain.
Finally, he stopped; he thought he heard running water nearby over the lessening pattern of the drizzle on the trees. He made for that sound, more just to have a destination than anything else. They reached a small clear stream. Red X sank down on a stone gratefully for a moment, setting his burden down. She wasn't heavy at all, but he had been running and fighting etc. all pretty much all day. He pulled back his hood and ran his fingers through his hair; a nervous habit seriously hindered by a specific costume flaw. There was no one to see him out here anyway. The water tasted clear enough, so he decided he wasn't going to keel over, and submerged his whole head for a second, and sprayed Raven as he swung back up and shook the excess water off; they were both soaked anyway. As an afterthought, he brought her closer to the water's edge and spritzed her face with droplets from his fingertips. After a few moments, he was about to give up, she was struck by lightning after all. But her eyes finally did flutter open, still dazed and dilated. X smiled down at her, "It lives" no response. "Here drink something" he propped her up against him and brought a large hand full of water to her mouth, which he basically poured down her throat. She blinked a few times and seemed to revive a bit after a few handfuls.
"So this is quite a fix we find ourselves in isn't it?" He checked her back, it was still bleeding sluggishly. "Such a small person, you can't have much left. I don't think I've even bled this much before, and I've been hurt pretty badly." Raven just continued to silently observe him, it was kind of unnerving. Uncomfortably, he just kept talking. "Well, you've effectively screwed over my current transaction, that should make you happy." he said ruefully checking the time; there was no way he'd make it on time. "I'll talk Willy around though, so you won't be rid of me that easily. The black market alone needs me too much, and my higher paying customers need me more." She continued to stare at him intensely. He met her gaze before looking away after a terrible second; she seemed to see directly into his soul.
"Christ, no wonder the green one talks so much, silence around you is unbearable." He fidgeted and ran a hand through his wet hair again and froze once it reached the back of his head. He cursed abruptly and jerked on his masked hood. Her eyes at once opened wide encasing a seed of panic. "Fine, fine, it's too late now anyway." He took it back off and she relaxed again. "But I'll need to wear it when we reach your team mates." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "So, the way I see it" trying to focus on the problem at hand and finding it very difficult. "You're our only way back there, cuz, I hate to break it to ya kid, but I have no idea where we are." A wry smile slid across his face. "I can't teleport any more than myself, but I know you can, I've seen you. I know how weak you must be, but if you can just get us to that clearing by the cave where you all followed me to, I think I can find your friends and they can get you to a hospital... okay blink twice if you actually retained any of that." Raven closed her eyes and furrowed her brows. She drew a long quivering breath and let it go opening her eyes again. They flashed white and a sweeping sheet of darkness swirled around to cover the two of them.
This was a very different sensation for Red X. He seemed to feel wind pulling at him, pushing at him and twining around him from every direction at once. A silence so loud it physically hurt him filled his ears and mind, he saw only intense darkness whether his eyes were open or not. The only solid sensation he could latch onto was Raven's form in his hold. Impulsively, he pulled her tightly closer to him in his irrational fear. It could have been a millisecond or a millennium later for all X could tell when there was sort of a bump, like airplane turbulence. Raven's muscles hardened for a second and then turned slack.
"The mask doesn't do you justice." was breathed in his ear before her form fell completely limp as a rag doll in his arms. The next thing X knew was the unpleasant drop in his gut as trees appeared around him and they transitioned into freefall. Thanking the gods for his reflexes, X landed like a cat, only stumbling forward a step to compensate for Raven. "What a strong fledging to get so far" he murmured, then shook his head "Where the && did that come from?" He glanced around and glimpsed the green of grass about twenty yards away and made for it, yes, this was the clearing. Warily, he stepped beyond the tree line, first pulling on his mask. It was deserted. "Assorted profanities". He set Raven down tenderly, and caught himself as he straightened, let out a manly cough "Well" turned on his heel, rubbed the side of his nose with a fist and crossed his arms in front of him, carefully pushing certain thoughts to the southern most recesses of his mind. "God I gotta get out of here," he grumbled in response to his own stupidity, as he saw it anyway.
There was a strange thing in the center of the clearing that made him both smile at his good fortune and die a little inside at Robin's ...Robiness. It was a small pile of stones with an antenna sticking out of the top of it and four arrows formed of sticks strategically placed around it pointing in the cardinal directions. One was marked with a small pile of screws, one with a broken piece of pinkish rose quarts, one a paw print in a bit of exposed soil and the last with a bird-a-rang. 'Subtle'. A few delightful little prankish ideas, most involving the rearrangement of the design one way or another bounced happily through the criminal's mind as he knocked away a few stones and pulled out some sort of small transmitter. Obviously, the four remaining Titans had split up to search for he and/or Raven (depending on earlier made plans) and were using the transmitter signal as a base point. The arrows allowed them to more easily locate each other if need arose. Red X sat on the ground next to Raven, leaning against a large stone near the entrance to the cave and began flipping the switch on and off for a while. He looked at her as he flicked it (he didn't seem to notice how often he'd been doing that recently), and pondered her last comment; he was not sure how he should take it. He was quite sure how he wanted to take it, and that scared him more than all the boogiemen and prison cells on earth. There really wasn't time left, if someone didn't arrive soon, he didn't know what he could do.
Robin's communicator went off suddenly, making him jump and almost fall out of the tree from which he was looking over top of the forest canopy.
"What did you find!" he peered into the very serious face of Cyborg.
"Nothing man, I thought you did and maybe your communicator was broken."
Robin's face fell, he was a twig snap away from utter panic about Raven and even closer to full out homicidal tendency about his nemesis.
"What made you think that?" he snapped, but before Cyborg could answer the screen split in two and then quickly three.
"Dude! did you find em?" and "Have you located our misplaced comrade, friend Robin?" sounded at the same moment.
"The transmitter we left back there is goin' crazy man, I thought you were calling us back" Cyborg explained to his perplexed face. Robin ignored the other two for a moment and checked, yes, the signal was flickering on and off like a strobe light. A little frustrated at having to let down all of his friends he waspishly asked "Why did you all automatically assume it was me and not one of you?" They all seemed to share a look on the screen, Starfire answered for them: "Because you are Robin". He sighed irritatedly, "Just everybody get back to the clearing as fast as you can and we'll see what's going on." and shut it off.