Chapter Two: Absolute Genius
Part One
"Someone's infiltrated the Tower!" Cyborg informed them as his fingers flew across the keys. "From the scanners it looks like…"
Before Cyborg could finish his sentence an explosion rocked the room. The emergency sprinklers went off, spraying the Titans. Raven was not pleased.
"Can't we have just one birthday party without a building being blown up?"
Before Raven could strangle Beast Boy, the lights flickered off and on then finally off. Cyborg gritted and gave one last look to the monitor before it too failed. "It's the HIVE, Jinx, Muscle Head and the half pint. They're messing with our networking system."
"And anything else they can get their hands on. Let's get these party crashers out of our tower. We're not going to let them ruin Star's day. Titans Go!"
Raven fazed through the floor, crossing level by level trying to pick up the sight of whatever criminal was stupid enough to invade her home. It would be the stampeding green rhino that alerted her to the presence of someone. When the charging stopped and after recognizing the undeniable sound of heavy feet running in place Raven knew just who he was up against. Mammoth… and where Mammoth was, Jinx was bound to be close.
A solid boot connected with Robin's chest as Jinx continued her assault on Robin and Speedy. It seemed the acrobatic hex-weaver was too graceful in her movements to be pinned down by Speedy's arrows and could keep Robin far away enough that they would probably never learn whom was the better martial artist. Jinx hurled a purple energy blast, knocking dust at the masked pair. Robin drew his bo-staff but never got to use it as Jinx's thunderous punch was interrupted by a drop kick from Raven. Jinx recovered quickly and charged back into the fight with a grin.
"I was wondering when the fun would begin. Raven, it's going to be a pleasure ripping you apart!" Jinx threw a hex, which Raven reflected. Jinx's grin intensified, This is going to be too easy… Jinx took advantage of Raven's slow recover and hurled another energy bolt, knocking Raven's legs from under her. Speedy quickly unleashed several gold arrows, some bouncing off the walls and missing Jinx as she continued her running approach on Raven. Speedy's ricocheting "knock-out" arrow¹ slammed ruthlessly into Jinx's back, knocking her off balance. Robin grabbed one of Jinx's flailing limbs and spun her in a half circle, throwing her into the air, destined to strike the corridor wall. Instead of a solid thud, Jinx fazed right through it. Speedy looked to Robin as he helped Raven up.
"Could she always do that?" Speedy asked.
"Jinx has new tricks… that probably means the others do too." Robin deduced.
"I haven't seen Gizmo yet, but Beast Boy and Bumble Bee are fighting Mammoth a floor above us. I'll find Jinx." Raven stated. Without another word she fazed through the wall that Jinx had moments before.
It was Starfire and Aqualad that found Gizmo hacking into the central computers in Cyborg's control room. Starfire's hands and eyes fluoresced with her righteous fury.
"I request that you desist in whatever criminal actions you are attempting. Please come quietly."
"Snot chewing Crud sniffer!² I'll come quietly… you won't here a sound from me!"
Aqualad charged the half pint criminal who slid smoothly under the punch. Aqualad bumped into the control panel and realized what Gizmo had done.
"Hey! You twerp! You hacked into our computers! He's erasing our files!"
Gizmo's laugh was swallowed in a blaring siren erupting behind Aqualad's head. Aqualad and Starfire collapsed to the floor clutching their ears.
"This Flochort is not turning out as I had hoped!" Starfire shot her eye beams, toppling Gizmo. It would be Cyborg who entered the room a few moments later, trampling Gizmo to turn off the horrible siren. Aqualad climbed to his feet and shook the ringing from his head.
"Oh man, are these guys always this annoying?" Aqualad asked.
"Yes. But this time they look like they've got a new objective." Cyborg's fingers slid along the keys successfully terminating the system deletion.
"This time they do not seem to want to defeat us…" Starfire began.
"They're trying to erase us." Cyborg finished. Another explosion rocked the tower. Cyborg then noticed that Gizmo was no longer laid out on the floor. "The HIVE is trying to topple the tower. Those explosions are bombs going off. That was the third one so far." Cyborg punched his communicator. "Cyborg to Robin and Raven! The HIVE is planting bombs all over the Tower, I think Mammoth is a distraction. Keep your eyes open for Jinx and Gizmo!"
"Gotcha Cyborg!" Robin replied. Finding Gizmo and Jinx were his top priority but ignoring Mammoth was much harder a task than Cyborg could have guessed. Robin ducked under the body of Speedy as the other masked hero soared down the corridor. He couldn't avoid Bumble Bee and the two rolled down the hall joining Speedy. Mammoth roared and grabbed Beast Boy by the shoulders.
"Let me go!" Beast Boy morphed into a T-Rex and freed himself from Mammoth's grasp. This time Mammoth didn't flee at the sight of the T-Rex. He drew his fist back and delivered a punch that hurled the green changeling out the window and into the surrounding night.
"Beast Boy!" Bumble Bee called out before taking flight to rescue him. She didn't make it to the window. Mammoth grabbed her securely pinning her arms to her sides.
"You'd better worry about yourself." Mammoth sneered.
Bumble Bee's call was what turned Raven's head towards her room. She watched for a moment as Beast Boy's image fell back towards the earth but was stopped from her rescue when she heard a gasp from her room. The door slid open and Jinx exited, to be greeted with a straight jab to the face. The stunned Jinx was helpless as Raven grabbed her arm and tossed her over her shoulder in a Judo throw. Jinx's stun didn't seem to affect her reflexes, in midair she turned so her feet were planted on the wall. She looked up and down Raven as if looking for something she hadn't noticed before.
"You were in my room… nobody goes in my room."³
Jinx's pretty face registered surprise for a moment before being conquered with cool hate. "Yours? I should have figured; even aliens don't have such bad taste." Jinx's retaliation was quick, burying a flipping heel into Raven's shoulder before Raven unleashed an energy claw, dark and as terrible as the night, which clutched Jinx swiftly with every intention of hurling her into the wall. Jinx's eyes gained their feral pink as she fazed through Raven's dark energy. Raven's eyes glowed to match and the two drew their arms back to start an all out war.
As Raven prepared to purge another blast, Jinx turned to her. "Why do you have an Azar Mirror?"
"What? How do you know about---" Raven's question was interrupted by a high, annoying voice.
"Hey sludge brain! Think fast… if you can!"
A jagged black sphere bounced from a quick throw, landing a few feet from where Raven was standing. Jinx smirked and tumbled out of danger, knowing Raven's plan as her pale grey hands were engulfed in back.
Raven's eyebrow ticked. You think you know me so well…
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" A bubble wrapped itself around the bomb; Raven levitated it smoothly before turning an eye to the two HIVE members. They had expected her to protect herself and let the bomb go off damaging the tower like they had planned. I don't think so. Raven hurled the ticking grenade back at the pair, enjoying the horrified look on Gizmo's face. The small and painfully annoying HIVE graduate cowered behind Jinx's leg as the pink-haired hex-weaver steadied her feet. Her arms waved elegantly in a curse that Raven didn't recognize. The bomb bounced off an invisible shield and returned to Raven as quickly as it had left. Something Jinx had done altered the barrier, warping it, wrapping itself around Raven's body, tapping her against the bomb.
The explosion hurled Raven down the hall and crashing through a window. Her wail echoed into the night air as she plummeted towards the ground. Beast Boy's quick thinking allowed his Beast Within to catch the unconscious sorceress. The green beast turned his eye to the window to see where Raven had fallen from; he watched Cyborg leap into the window where Beast Boy was sure Cyborg caught who ever had hurt Raven by surprise.
He was right. Jinx could barely spin herself out of danger as the blue energy beam tore down the corridor, knocking a cursing Gizmo down the hall. Cyborg continued his charge with his cannon trained on Gizmo. As he passes Jinx he calls back to her "Stay where you are! I'll be back for you later!"
Jinx smirked. "You may be cute, but you're not the boss of me." She waved her arms in another spell and vanished through the floor.
It would be a tackle from Starfire, knocking Jinx down; a Bee Sting from Bumble Bee, overloading Gizmo's system; and a tag team knock out from Robin and Speedy, laying out Mammoth that ended the HIVE strike. After turning the teen anti-heroes over to the authorities, the group assessed the damage.
Every floor was wrecked in someway, whether from Gizmo's bombs or the fighting to bring the HIVE down.
"Man, these guys weren't playing. You said they were tough… you didn't say they were this tough." Aqualad said as he cleared some of the wreckage in the common room.
"They aren't. Or at least they weren't. These guys are different, they're better." Cyborg replied as he continued his diagnostic scan.
"I guess we shouldn't have expected them to sit around and not improving when they weren't fighting us… We… I put them too far in the back of my mind." Robin stated, if it weren't so unlike the leader of the Titans, it might have seemed, from the look on his face, that he was unsure of himself.
Just then, Speedy and Beast Boy returned to the common room.
"It's a big mess; we'll be cleaning for days. Not only did they damage the tower, they ruined Star's party." Beast Boy stated.
"I'm sure she isn't even thinking about that now. Starfire's a smart girl. Fixing the tower takes priority."
"How is Raven?" Bumble Bee asked, turning her hips to face the new comers.
"That last explosion did a number on her. Star's keeping a cool towel on her head. Outside of the fever, Raven has been able to heal herself. She'll be weak as a kitten for the next couple of days." Speedy replied, planting himself on the steps, his chin palmed in one hand.
"She'll have to relax on duty the next few days, though word will spread about the partial success of the attack on the tower. The rest of us will have to keep on our toes." Aqualad supplied, dumping the last of the wreckage in the trash pile.
"I've already made the repairs that needed to be done immediately. The system repairs will take a little longer, but I'm pretty sure I can handle it with enough time."
"Alright Cyborg, team we know the plan. Let's get some rest so we can start fixing the damage first thing in the morning." Robin said, not registering who made groans or sighs of agreement and who stayed silent. It didn't matter: he was tired, he was worried and he was irritated. He hadn't decided what combinations were results of the time of day, or from the attack or from the fact that Raven was hurt. His head tightened and a tired sob wracked his body. The Titans' leader exited the common room without another word. He walked down the hall, down a flight of stairs and to the first door on his left. The door slid only halfway open at his touch. Robin inhaled deeply, giving him the will to force the door open the rest of the way instead of collapsing to the floor with a scream like he wanted to. He just felt so tired all of the sudden, heavier now in his room than he had been just minutes ago with his team.
Robin remembered only by luck that he had received a letter that day. He was relieved to find the letter was unscathed after today's events. He grabbed it, holding it in his teeth as he removed his gloves. It rested by his side as he stretched to pull off his boots. Finally comfortable, the Boy Wonder laid back and removed his mask from his tired face. He slipped the letter from the envelope:
貴重なロビン、それはそれらが互いの前に再度立つ私達のための呼出しであるので私達にずっと最後の話されているがあるが、時であるので非常に長い時間。私 はこの手紙を受け取っているあなたの幾日の内に、やがて着く。私は、その時まで会うことを、注意する非常に、風再度変わっている楽しみにしている。⁴
Robin sat up with a start. Now how was he supposed to sleep?
…
Speedy saw Bumble Bee off that night as he and Aqualad returned to their rooms. He hadn't noticed before, but his room had been a victim to one of the blasts. He sighed, considering sleeping on the floor of Aqualad's room but then remembered the awful noise the waterbed made no matter how still Aqualad slept. He took a look at the caved in door before snapping his fingers and heading back to the common room to sleep on the couch.
The next morning when an incoming transmission was received, it was only Speedy's inborn sense of shame that preventing him from screaming like a girl. Speedy groggily pulled himself from the couch and hit the accept communications key. His face turned three shades of red when he saw Cyborg's butt in the camera view.
"Cyborg! Your sense of humor is severely off base man!"
Cyborg registered Speedy's voice and turned to the source. "Whoa man! The wiring is still a bit messed up. I'm trying to reconfigure the motherboards to…"
"Yeah, whatever! Keep your techno-mumbo-jumbo to yourself! Let the rest of us sleep. Couldn't this wait until a reasonable hour?"
"Speedy, It's two o'clock in the afternoon." Speedy sweat dropped. He switched off the screen, shook his head and went to work.
For the next four days, the tower was under construction. The damage was extensive and repairing it all would take more time and more hands than the Titans had. With Raven injured and bedridden and one Titan monitoring her, the Titans were not at full strength. Cyborg forgot his birthday and never got around to talking to Robin about changing the Titans' handle. It didn't seem important.
Robin entered the medical wing and watched for a moment as Starfire changed the cloth on Raven's head. The pale girl's eyes were open, but weak. She noticed Robin before Starfire, the sweet alien had been running on autopilot since her Flochort had been ruined. Robin placing a hand on her shoulder barely registered with her.
"Hey Star, Aqualad and Speedy could use your help moving and securing some wall pieces on the third level. I'll take over from here."
Starfire nodded and floated ghostly out the door. Robin watched her go sadly, he wished he knew what to say to her, to convince her that things would be the same; back to their daily routines, instead of shaking in the memory of what happened less than a week ago. Robin sat down in the chair beside Raven's bed. His gloved fingers spread the cloth on Raven's forehead and winced as he watched a little of the water run into her hair. He hadn't noticed before, but it was long again.
Come on Robin… for your team… pull it together… A sharp warmth filled him as thoughts foreign to his mind spoke to him.
It's only natural to feel unease Robin… do not burden yourself anymore… you're strong enough for the both of us.
Robin said nothing for a moment. "We looked over your room briefly. There wasn't any damage done to the interior, when you're feeling better you can move back in. Speedy will be staying in either Beast Boy or Cyborg for a little while longer; his room was the only bedroom that took any real damage. A lot of the guest quarters are in shambles, nothing that can't be fixed."
There are few material things that, once broken, can not be fixed. It's the more delicate things that we need to be concerned with.
"Star" Robin whispered.
Yes.
Robin rolled his shoulders, loosening the tension in his back. He just had this crippling suspicion that things were going to change in the near future, delicate things were going to shatter, beautiful things would be borne and the Titans' place in the center of tragedy and joy would increase in magnitude.
…
Beast Boy continued his task without so much as a water break. He had to concentrate; he needed to do his part. The other Titans had left Beast Boy to finish clearing the entrance; a task that Beast Boy knew would take him the rest of the day. But when this was done, most of the damage would be cleared.
"I only wish I could erase all of it. How could they do this to our home?" Beast Boy doubled over and hefted another load of dry wall onto his shoulder. As he turned to toss it in the trash container, the huge threshold marking the entrance to Titans' Tower suddenly became filled with light. Someone was coming in…
End of Part One
A/N:
¹The "knock out" arrow is the one that has the boxer's glove on it.
²I hate Gizmo so much. I didn't want to type that sentence, but I couldn't have him not talk. Sigh
³I was both saddened and happy with Raven's role in "Final Exam". I didn't like that Raven really didn't do anything in the episode, but after watching the episode again yesterday I realized that I appreciated it because I realized that Raven's abilities were growing as the series progressed.
⁴Yeah, that's Japanese. Don't bother trying to translate it, it won't make sense. I'll translate it in chapter three when it will make another appearance.