"Hey Robin?"
"What?"
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
Beast Boy was bored. They'd been heading for New Zealand for several hours now, and he hadn't thought to bring anything to do. Raven had a book, naturally, and Cyborg was still fiddling with his tracker. Starfire had dozed off a while ago. Robin was steering, and truth be told was only marginally less bored than Beast Boy, but focusing on defeating Slade helped. Beast Boy had completely forgotten about finding the game he was looking for after Terra had kissed him. Man, I still can't believe that happened! She kissed me! I am gonna take her on the best date ever when we get back.
"Hey, Raven." Beast Boy pressed his face to the glass windshield of his pod.
Raven glanced back at him. "I'm trying to read."
"Wanna play I Spy?"
She sighed. "Let me save you the trouble. It's either water, clouds, sky, or the sun. I win."
Beast Boy sat back in his seat. "How about the Liscence Plate Game?"
"If you can find a liscence plate in the middle of the ocean, I'd be glad to play. Otherwise, be quiet. Take a nap or something."
The green shapeshifter slouched in his seat, arms crossed. This is the boringest trip ever. I almost wish we had taken a plane, then at least there'd be a movie.
---
The T-Sub floated towards the docks of Moon City, New Zealand. Robin spotted Argent waving on the end of a pier and angled the vessel towards her. The Titans popped their pods open as they approached.
Beast Boy stood up in his seat. "Yo Argent! What's up!"
"Hey there, green dude." She tossed a rope to him, and he tied it firmly to the ship. "So, welcome t' Moon City, chaps. Now," she pouded her fists together. "tell me where the blighter's hidin' so we can kick th' ever-luvin' shit outta 'im."
"I like this girl," Beast Boy whispered to Starfire.
"Yes, she is most enthusiastic over the prospect of opening cans of the whoop-ass."
"Slow down, Argent." Robin chuckled. "We have to find him first. Cyborg, is your tracker ready yet?"
"Almost. Gimme...I don't know, half an hour?"
"I'm afraid your little toy won't help you even if I decide to let you finish it," an irritatingly familiar voice said. A Slade robot stood atop a nearby building.
"How did he know we were coming?" Raven sounded shocked.
"You are more clever than I gave you credit for, but still fools. Using parts of one of my robots to build your tracker? I knew you were coming the moment you left." It jumped off the roof, landing at the other end of the pier. "And now the game is over." The robot slammed its fist into the wooden structure, sending it crumpling into the water. Caught by surprise, all the Titans ended up in the water, but the setback was only momentary.
"Titans, GO!"
Starfire dove for it, eyes glowing dangerously. The robot managed to sidestep at the last second, avoiding certain destruction at the hands of the angry alien. Unfortunately, it had stepped straight into a blast of plasma, courtesy of Argent. It collapsed, most of its upper torso now a smoking ruin.
"That was anticlimactic," Raven remarked, wringing out her sodden cloak.
"Yeah. Too anticlimactic." Beast Boy agreed.
Raven rolled her eyes. "That doesn't make sense."
"He's right, though." Robin knelt to examine the remains. "Why would Slade throw away a robot like this? Just to let us know he knows we're here?"
"I think he was just messing with us, dude." Cyborg hefted his tracking device. "But next time, could we not destroy it so fast? I almost had a lock on the signal."
"Sorry, mate." Argent shrugged. "I was still in attack mode."
"Okay, team." Robin stood up. "We need to get situated at Argent's place, then head out and look for clues. Argent?" He gestured for her to lead the way.
---
"Wow, it looks like Beast Boy's room." Raven studied Argent's apartment. It was an unholy mess, with clothes and soda cans and pizza boxes everywhere. Fortunately, it didn't smell much like Beast Boy's room, as in it was bearable.
"Thanks. This's the cleanest it's been in a coupla weeks." Argent said proudly. "So, oo's sleepin' where? I've got a double in the guest room, and there's the couch, and..." She bent and pulled a sheet off of a lumpy pile of beanbag chairs and spare couch cushions. "...there's this loverly pile of stuff."
"I can sleep on the floor," Cyborg said, "and I bet Raven and Star will want the guest room." Raven nodded. Starfire looked excited at the prospect of getting to room with the dark Titan, no doubt already planning to do something like braid Raven's hair when she wasn't looking.
"So, do you want the couch?" Beast Boy asked Robin, skeptically eyeing the heap of cushions.
"Only if you don't."
Argent was kneeling by the pile of cushions and making strange cooing noises. "Actually, I think BB should sleep 'ere. Y'don't mind snakes, right?" As she said this, a long red snake slithered out of the pile and up Argent's arm. "Here, Mr. Fluffy, meet y'new bunkmate." She held the reptile's head up near Beast Boy. "He's a big sweety, but don't turn inta a mouse 'round 'im. I forgot this pile was 'is new house."
"Yeah, sure. No problem." The snake made its way onto Beast Boy, curling around his neck. "He's not poisonous, right?"
"Nah." Argent shook her head. "But don't be surprised if he's gettin' real cosy with yeh when ya wake up."
---
Floating over the outskirts of Moon City wasn't the most exciting thing to be doing. In fact, Raven was feeling a great deal of boredom in her assigned task. Robin had divided the city into sections with Argent's help, and they all had an area to patrol. Look for anything out of the ordinary, he'd said, but especially one of those Slade robots. The past several days had been almost suspiciously quiet, but doing this was preferable to listening to Beast Boy complain about how he had been violated by Mr. Fluffy the previous night.
Her communicator crackled at her side. "Raven, come in. What's your status?" Cyborg wanted to know.
"Still nothing. Have you picked up a signal yet?"
"Not ye--wait, got something!" A burst of static obscured his voice temporarily. "--sighted a Sladebot headed south on Fifth. Got a lock on the signal this time. Everyone get down here!" Apparently he'd switched to general broadcasting to alert all of the Titans.
Raven pressed one of the small buttons on the side of her comm, switching to an overhead map of the area. The locations of the other Titans were displayed as blinking dots on the map, and Raven veered towards the one indicating Cyborg. In minutes, she spotted the others converging on the same spot atop a five story building.
"It went in there," Cyborg indicated a massive silvery skyscraper with a conspicuous radar dish on top of it. "I'm getting a huge signal spike coming from both the top floor and underground."
Robin shook his head upon seeing the name displayed on the building itself. "Wilson International. How did we miss that?"
"I don't get it," said Beast Boy.
"Slade's last name is Wilson." Robin studied it momentarily. "Okay, I'm willing to bet the supercomputer itself is either on the top floor or in the basement, so we're going to split into two teams. Starfire, Argent, and I will take the top. Let's go!" Starfire obligingly grabbed the Boy Wonder under the arms and took off for the top of the building with Argent just behind her.
The remaining three Titans descended and headed across the street. "I'm not so sure about this," Beast Boy grumbled uncertainly. "Splitting up never works for Scooby and the gang."
"Beast Boy, that's just a cartoon." Raven replied.
"We probably shouldn't just barge in the front door," Cyborg mused as they stood in front of the entrance. "Let's see if there's a back door." The three trooped into an alley, circling the building. After several minutes, they did find a service door at the bottom of stairs leading down from ground level. Cyborg's metal limbs proved most effective in removing the locked door from its hinges, and they entered what looked to be a large storage room.
"Nothing so far," Cyborg scanned the room, both visually and with his internal sensors. "This room's empty."
"So let's take the elevator." Raven pointed at the doors on the other side of the room.
They piled into the freight elevator, heading for the bottom floor. It moved surprisingly quickly, depositing them in a long steel hallway that looked almost nothing like the large concrete room they had come from. At the other end was a pair of massive metal doors. The Titans approached, and the doors slid open smoothly before them, presenting a pitch dark room.
"Okay, I don't like this. Where's the security?" Cyborg stared into the blackness, attempting to make something out. The light from the previous room stopped abruptly at the doorway, as if cut by a knife. The same thing happened when Cyborg tried to shine his own light source into the room.
"I smell a trap," Beast Boy growled, changing into a wolf and sniffing at the doorway.
Raven took a step towards the door. "It's not as though we have a choice in the matter. Come on."
The doors slid shut again behinnd the trio, leaving them in total darkness for a second before the lights came on. The room was huge, but mostly empty except for the large computer console at the other end. The screen flickered into life as they approaced, filled with an image of Slade's orange and black mask.
"So predictable. You followed all the clues admirably, and it has led you here--to your deaths." Panels on the floor opened, and Sladebots began stepping into the room, surrounding them.
"It's gonna take more than your dumb robots to stop us!" Beast Boy shouted, hands balled into fists as he stood back to back with his teammates.
"Ah, but these are far superior to the pawns I've been using this whole time. Observe." The mechanized voice said smugly. The eyes of the robots all began glowing menacingly, hands wreathed in flame. The temperature in the room rose measureably. "I'm afraid your time is up..."
---
Robin landed lightly on the roof, searching it for some sort of entrance. Starfire landed next to him. "Robin, are you certain we should have separated from the others?"
"They can handle themselves, Star." He answered distractedly. "Help me find a way in."
"How 'bout this?" Argent blasted a nearby skylight and dropped through.
Robin ran after her. "Wait! We don't know what's in there!"
The room was an expensively decorated boardroom. The walls were covered in shiny chestnut paneling, except one which was taken up by a large computer display.
"Well, whaddya know? Found 'im." Argent said eagerly as the monitor activated, displaying Slade's face.
"Robin. You really do make things far too easy for me. Whatever possessed you to divide your strength?" The screen changed to reveal an image of Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy battling seemingly endless numbers of Sladebots spraying flames from their hands. The robots fell quickly, but they kept coming, and the three looked to be getting tired. The situation was looking increasingly hopeless.
"It doesn't matter. We're going to shut you down for good." Robin swore. Starfire and Argent floated behind him, hands and eyes both glowing.
"You don't get it, do you? The mainframe isn't here, and neither is it where your little friends are." Sladebots started to fill up the room. "It doesn't matter what you do. None of you will leave this building alive."
"Titans, GO!"
---
Terra lounged in the living room, channel surfing. Today had been frustrating, mostly because of Jinx. The two of them didn't dislike each other, exactly, but things were kind of akward between them since they didn't know each other that well. Hell, she thought, I don't know Kid Flash very well either, but at least he's not always moping about the fact that Raven's not here! Kid Flash's easygoing nature made it easy to feel fairly comfortable around him, but Jinx was getting to be very moody, alternating between locking herself in Raven's room for hours to fits of manic humor.
Come on, Terra thought. Get over it. Yeah, so Raven's been gone for awhile. You don't see me mooning over BB just cuz he's not here! She blushed involuntarily as she thought of the green shapeshifter she had such strong feelings for. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but she was slightly worried about her friends as well. She was just starting to have doubts about Jinx's sanity.
Something tickled in the back of her mind, like a half remembered thought. She stood up, looking for...something, although she wasn't sure what. The feeling sharpened into a sense of some sort of danger.
Terra caught Jinx's attention as she walked into the room. "Jinx, I know this sounds crazy, but I just got a feeling something bad's about to happen."
"Feeling of impending doom? Now that you mention it, I'm feeling kinda on edge, too." However irritating the girl can be, Terra thought, at least she takes stuff like this seriously. "Where the hell is Kid Flash? If something's about to happen, he should be here."
"In the gym, I think." Terra pulled her brand new communicator out of her pocket. "Hey, Flash, get up here. I think--"
A section of the roof smashed inward with absolutely no warning, scattering rubble all over the room. Alarms started blaring urgently. Terra and Jinx had to cover their eyes against the cloud of dust that had accompanied whatever had crashed through the roof. Before the dust settled, Kid Flash blazed into the room in workout clothes.
Fans kicked in, blowing air throughout the room. The dust gradually cleared, revealing demonic wings, claws, and a sinister mask. A satisfied chuckle resounded through the room.
Three scared voices breathed one name in unison.
"Slade..."
---
A/N: Three cliffhangers in one chapter? Am I a bastard or what?