Chapter 4
"Well first thing, is that we start on this quest tomorrow," Mathias replied. "for starters, Raven, and I, still have a little recovering to do, and I have some defensive spells I want to make sure she knows." he explained. "That, and I want to make sure you are all, rested up, and ready."
"To say the least, the last twenty four hours have been somewhat. . . stressful." Raven added with a smirk.
Robin nodded his agreement. "So lets try to get some normalcy, by sticking to our usual routine,' he said. "Titans to the obstacle course!"
A few minutes later, the six of them were outside, at the obstacle course that Cyborg, and Robin, had designed, to keep the teams reactions sharp in combat.
"Okay Star you're up first." Robin said, as he took his position behind the control console, then counted down the seconds for her to start. "3. . . 2. . . . 1. . . GO!"
Mathias watched in fascination, as the slim redhead launched herself from the ground, at the far end of the course.
"Laser cannon online." the console's computer voice said. "Target acquired."
Suddenly Mathias saw several, what he thought were rocks, split open, revealing laser turrets which began firing at Starfire.
"Erraaahh! Rahh! Rahh!" he heard the Tamaranean princess shout, as she loosed her star bolts, destroying the turrets in rapid fashion.
"Pop up mine activated." the computer intoned.
Suddenly a gray ball sprang up from the ground, in front of Starfire.
Mathias watched as she quickly crossed her arms in front of her face, then was surprised, as she twisted her body, and kicked the object away, so that it exploded several feet to her right..
"Arial attack drones launched." the computer announced. "Target locked, commencing attack run."
Starfire had been in continuous motion, from the start of her run, and Mathias no longer had to use the binoculars he had been given to watch.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a bright red flash narrowly missed the slender woman, and she flipped over, so that she was flying along on her back.
Mathias watched, stunned, as Starfire came to an instant stop, and the four drones shot by her, at just under supersonic speed. He watched, as she held her hands in front of her stomach, and built a sphere of green energy about the size of a beach ball.
"Aaarrrraaaahhh!" Star shouted, giving her battle cry, as she launched the sphere at the formation of attack drones, which exploded with a very satisfying ball of fire, and smoke.
"Drones destroyed, course complete." the computer said. "Time, two minutes, zero, point zero seconds.
"Holy cow Star, two minutes flat!" Beast Boy shouted in excitement.
"That smoked Terra record by fifteen seconds." Cyborg cried, to caught up in the excitement, to realized what he just said.
"Way to go tin man." Raven said caustically, as she saw the changeling's shoulders droop.
"Did I do something wrong?" Star asked, when she saw the downcast expression on Cyborg, and Beast Boy's faces.
Robin motioned her over to his side, and showed her the readout.
"A new course record!" Star said joyfully. "Oh my." she said softly, when she saw where Robin was pointing.
"Friend Beast Boy, I am sorry that my actions have caused you pain." she said after flying over to him.
Beast Boy stopped for a moment then turned and faced her.
Star saw the pained look on the changelings face, and her heart went out to him. "I miss her too, but never as much as you." she said, and was surprised by him throwing his arms around her, in a fierce hug.
"What am I missing here?" Mathias whispered to Raven.
Raven looked, to make sure Beast Boy was out of earshot, then started explaining about Terra.
"I see." Mathias said about five minutes later. Just then a loud buzzer sounded.
"Course ready." the computer announced.
"Beast Boy, you up for it?" Robin called.
"Give 'em hell friend." Star said to the person sitting next to her on a rock. "Let's go pilgrim." she added, when Beast Boy simply stared at her in surprise.
Whether she meant it to, or not, her comments made the green titan break into a smile as he walked away, toward the starting line.
"That's the last time I let you watch a John Wayne movie marathon." he chuckled, shaking his head.
"How do you do that Star." Cyborg asked softly, watching his best friend walk away, his head up, shoulders squared.
"Do what my friend?"
The half man, half machine, titan put his hands on Starfire's shoulders, turning her to face him.
"Put your own feelings on hold to cheer someone else up?"
Star looked over her shoulder, as Beast Boy took his place at the starting line.
"He is my friend, his pain is mine, and I will not let myself cause him more," she answered softly. "but I did kick the butt on the course didn't I" she asked with a mischievous grin.
"You sure did girl." Cyborg agreed, with a small chuckle. "You sure did."
"Course activated!" Robin shouted, then counted down to Beast Boys start.
Staying in human form, Beast Boy entered the course, then quickly changed into a cheetah, when he saw the laser turrets open up and start firing. He quickly got between two of them, and they kept firing, destroying each other. The next pair were staggered, so the same trick wouldn't work, and he quickly changed into a gorilla, and heaved a huge chunk of rock, from one of the destroyed turrets, at the nearest one, which brought the count down to one remaining.
"I see he has a wide variety of creatures to change into." Mathias commented, in a stage whisper to Raven, as Beast Boy changed into a fox, that quickly leapt from rock to rock, as he approached the last turret.
"That was close." he added, when the rock Beast Boy was on shattered, just as he jumped from it.
"Watch." Raven said, and Mathias noticed a small smile of pride on her face.
"Impressive." Mathias said, as he watched the changeling morph into a brontosaur, and land on the remaining turret.
"Popup mine ineffective." the computer intoned, as Beast Boy changed back into a cheetah, and raced past the device. "Electo net launchers activated." it added.
Mathias watched, as the green cheetah raced along the course, and suddenly a rock split, and a net, that crackled with electricity, was flung at the Titan, opening as it flew.
"What are you doing?" Mathias barely heard Raven ask. "Evade!"
At the last possible second, Beast Boy morphed into a humming bird, and flitted through the webbing of the net.
"He must have gotten something of a shock." Mathias commented, seeing the Titan change into human form, and tumble onto the ground.
"Azar no!" Raven gasped. "Robin?"
"Let's see what happens first Raven." Robin said.
"What is it?" Mathias asked. "I've never see a creature like that." he added.
"Some time ago, Beast Boy had some chemicals spilled on him, during battle," Raven explained. "and this creature manifested itself, as a form of the primal, animal, nature in his subconscious."
"A most impressive form." Mathias commented, as he watched the green creature tear the net launcher from the ground, and heave it at the approaching air attack drones."
"Arial attack drones destroyed, course cleared." the computer said. "Time one minute, fifty eight point two seconds."
"Friend Beast Boy you did it, you beat me!" Starfire gushed, as she quickly flew to his side, and put her hand on his shoulder. She quickly stepped back, when he turned on her, snarling, and still in the primal form.
"I am no threat to you friend," she added softly, her hands held out to her sides, palms up. "I only wish to congratulate you."
Suddenly Beast Boy morphed back into human form. "What did I do?" he asked, seeing the worried look on everyone's faces. Everyone's but Starfire's that is.
"Nothing my friend," she assured him. "I should have waited, for the passion of battle to drain from you, before I approached, that is all."
The rest of the Titans sighed with relief, when Star put her arm around Beast Boy's shoulders, as they walked over to a bench, so he could sit and rest.
"After the others are done, we shall sacrifice a pizza to your victory over the course record."
In turn, each of the other Titans took to the course, with Cyborg manning the controls, when it was Robin's turn, but none came near, either Starfire's, or Beast Boy's time, or score.
"Would you care to take a turn?" Robin asked Mathias.
"No, thank you," he replied. "for the same reasons I advised Raven not to," he added. "I still have to finish recovering from my previous battles."
Robin nodded in acknowledgement, then shut down the course.
"Who's up for pizza!" Cyborg shouted.
"Actually I am," Raven said drawing a momentarily stunned look from her team mates. "I want to spend as much time, with all of you, as possible before this big mission." she added.
"Glorious friend!" Starfire cried, snatching Raven into a hug, that threatened to crush her ribs.
"Breathing would be nice Star." the dark one managed to gasp. "I'm buying." she added when she got her breath back.
Robin held back as BB, Cy and Star headed back to the tower.
"You have a vision, or something, about this upcoming battle Rae?" he asked as he, Raven and Mathias walked along. "The last time you acted like this, was the day Trigon came."
"No, no vision," Raven replied. "I guess I'm just loosening up a little, now that I'm no longer under Trigon's control.
"Cool," Robin said with a wry grin. "we'd better catch up with the others." he added.
"That's easy for us." Mathias said with a chuckle. Suddenly he and Raven vanished.
"Blasted teleports!" Robin laughed, then ran into the tower..
About half an hour later, Mathias was sitting, not alone, but not part of the group either, and he watched the interaction between the five allies he had unexpectedly gotten.
From what he knew about Tamaraneans, he was surprised at how giving, and caring Starfire was. Being a warrior race, he knew that they valued friendships, but he also knew that their loyalty was not given easily. He also saw that Star was deeply devoted to Robin.
Beast Boy appeared to be the jester of the group. 'Except for when Terra is involved.' he thought to himself. Surprisingly he noticed that Raven, of all people, held him in very high regard. Not that she'd ever let the green titan know that of course.
Cyborg puzzled him the most though. He appeared to be older, witnessed by the fact that he had a license to drive, but yet he wasn't the leader. He obviously was stronger than Robin, but settled for second in command.
From discussions with Raven, he knew that Robin had some secrets in his past, and that he had worked with Batman, where he had learned, and mastered many martial arts, and fighting techniques. He also knew that the Boy Wonder had earned both the utmost respect, and trust from Raven.
'Now there was an interesting puzzle.' he thought. Even though they both were raised on the same planet, by the same monks, Mathias realized that he knew very little about the dark sorceress. He knew her father was Trigon, one of the forms of evil incarnate, and her mother, Arella Roth, from earth.
"Penny for your thoughts." Raven said, as she sat next to him.
"Just watching your team." Mathias replied. "I can see how they work so well together." he went on. "Your individual strengths off set your weaknesses."
"You know you should have gone through the obstacle course this morning," Raven said flatly. "you've seen how we all can fight, but have nothing to gauge you by."
"Or you for that matter." Mathias said flatly. "Don't tell me that you put all your power into that demonstration this morning." he added, in response to Raven's questioning eyebrow.
"No you're right," Raven admitted softly. "even as much as I trust them, they have no idea of what I'm capable of. Only what I've shown them I can do."
"And that's because you have to hold back, because you have some complicated code of honor you abide by." he said half mockingly.
"I'm only going to tell you this once." she hissed, turning to face him head on. "That code of honor, you despise, is what keeps me sane, helps keep me in control of my power."