Lonely Paths Come Together

Chapter Eight

Raven's P.O.V

I'm so tired of being here,

Suppressed by my own childish fears,

And if you have to leave,

I wish that you would just leave,

Your presence still lingers here,

I wake up to a light flashing in my face, going back and forth, making my headache even worse. I shut my eyes tightly trying to block out the pain in my head and I try to move my body, but I'm strapped down to a very uncomfortable bed. I think back to what happened, and I remember calling Robin's name, and the masked man laughing at me, before something was put into me and darkness over took me. There are foot steps coming toward me. Great, like I don't have enough problems already. I hear a door slide open, and I do my best to pretend I am asleep.

"Are you awake my child? Open you eyes my dear."

Like I would wake up for you dumb ass. What is it with that child and dear thing, just great I just had to be the target of a pervert. That is just my luck. I wish you were here Robin. I sigh mentally, and try not to shiver. I can here him chuckling now. I so hate that, it is creepy beyond belief.

"I bet your thinking that your hero Robin will be coming to save you am I right?" I don't reply to this. "Silence won't help you in this situation. But just to take away that little hope that you have in your heart about your hero coming, my servants have done a good job in getting read of your friend."

I decide to break my silence, "I don't believe you." I say, I open my eyes and look directly at the man.

And it won't leave me alone,

These wounds won't seem to heal,

This pain is just too real,

There's just too much that time can not erase,

"Now have I ever lied to you before? If you need proof, I have it if you would like to see it."

"I still wouldn't believe you. What do you want with me?"

"My plans for you will be revealed so enough. As for right now, I wouldn't want to lose you again."

"What's the matter, aren't your plans going as you want them or are you afraid Robin will come for me?"

"Not at all, on the contrary my plans are ahead of schedule despite the one bump in the road. Now my dear, so you won't be any trouble to me, I hope you have a good rest, and no need to worry about anything." The man said as he came over to me with a needle in his hand.

"I won't be the one worrying, when Robin gets here; he's going to kick your ass."

"You always did have courage, and I do admire that quality in you, but of course that won't help you now." He said to me, and then I feel the needle being placed in my arm, the next thing I know my eyes are closing and my vision fades to darkness again.

Different section of the city: In the sewers

Robin's P.O.V

I can't believe I was so blind as to not see that all that was a trap. I left Raven alone, to fend for herself, I knew he would come after her again, yet I still left. How could I get myself into such a mess? She trusted me and I let her down. That masked man is behind this, if I want to get Raven back then I will have to find him. Of course I'm sure he won't make it easy, especially with those three that call themselves the High Five. I will have to get them out of the way first; hopefully they will shed some light on the where-a bout's of this man. It's my responsibility to protect Raven and that is exactly what I am going to do.

When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears,

When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears,

I held your hand through all of these years,

But you still have,

All of me,

I have another place that I built for emergencies. Although I never thought I would have to use it. I'm pretty sure no one knows about, I never did tell Raven about it. A small device on my belt starts to beep red, and I know I am getting close. I come to a place that has dirt, tall trees with vines hanging from them, and dark green ivy growing over the entrance of the door. This place is a lot smaller than the last one but it has just as good machines as the last one. In my first base I placed and hid security cameras everywhere and I connected them to here, so I should be able to see what's happening.

I have just disconnected the radar that would alert anyone from seeing that I am here, with one of my many passwords. I activate the security cameras to my other place, and I turn on every camera and begin to search the place, starting with the front. I can see that the door that had obviously been blown apart had been pathetically patched together. The High Five members are touching everything there hands come in contact with. The one called Gizmo is searching through my data-banks, looking at every possible file he can find, which is annoying me greatly, I turn to another camera and see the one called Mammoth is eating everything in sight, and I see the one called Jinx just come out of my library, walks into Raven's room, and moves everything, searching through all the draws and the closet for nothing in particular, before she leaves and walks around for 2 minutes before she just happens to stumble upon my room and decides to go in, she looks in my closet after searching through everything else.

"Is this all this guy wears? Talk about no fashion." She walks out of my room, leaving everything shoved around and a mess.

It appears that someone disabled the security system from the outside, most likely the one that is running this show. Thankfully he didn't lock the codes with a password, giving me full access to what is mine. I am re-doing all the security there, entering new passwords and placing in new firewalls. I shut down the entire system, taking Gizmo by surprise when all the screens go black. I lock everything down, and re-boot the system, bringing it back in my control.

You use to captivate me,

By your resonating light,

Now I'm bound by the life you left behind,

"What is going on here?" I hear Jinx say.

"I don't know, the entire system just crashed on me, I can't get it back up. Someone locked me out!"

"Something's wrong, maybe we should call the boss."

"No, we can't disappoint him, we can handle this ourselves."

"Okay if you're sure."

"So what do we do Jinx?"

"Gizmo try and . . ." I cut her off when I activate my security system. Laser guns shoot out from the ceiling and target the three, once aimed, they open fire. Thick metal doors slam down, cutting off access to any of the tunnels, and cutting of the front entrance. The lasers have aimed correctly and are pounding the three with red laser fire. I see Gizmo jump behind the chair, and the other two were jumping around trying to dodge the in-coming fire. If this situation wasn't serous I would most likely be laughing at the scene before me. I activate the next level of the security system, and doors that were camouflaged by the walls, slid open, letting numerous amounts of robots step out, they are armed with large laser guns that they immediately raise and start firing upon the three before them.

Jinx tries to fire her pink energy at the wall lasers and the robots, but this was deflected by the shields that activated. Now I am extremely glad that I had spent the extra time to put in this extra security for my mechanical 'friends.' Two shots hit there mark at Mammoth making him stumble backward and fall on his ass with a grunt, he raises his arms to block the shots, but to no effect. Gizmo is trying to fire back, but laser fire, hit his pack and made it sputter and die. Now I get ready to activate my third level of security. Underneath the floor I had installed long steel chains, with an electrical designed system. I stop my robots from firing and shut down the lasers, leaving the three stunned to the spot, now knowing what will happen next.

Your face it haunts,

My once pleasant dreams,

Your voice it chased away,

All the sanity in me,

These wounds won't seem to heal,

This pain is just too real,

There's just to much that time cannot erase,

I enter the passwords, and the third security level activates different spots on the floor which open, close to the three teens. The chains shoot out and clamp around the there arms and legs stopping them from moving, and jerking Jinx and Gizmo to the ground, seeing as Mammoth is already there. I boost the electrical system with energy, and start the volts at low, and send the electrical currents through the chains, shocking the three High Five members. I raise the level one notch higher, and shock them again. Gizmo is the first to black out so I shut down the current flowing through his chains. Mammoth is trying to break the chains, by pulling them from the floor. Jinx has had enough and has blacked out and I stop the flow of electricity from going to her.

As for Mammoth I send two more metal chains out, and wrap them around his neck and waist, pulling him flat on his back. Eventually he gets tired of fighting and stops moving, his head rolling to the side and eyes closing, and I stop the electricity from going through his body. I leave the chains on all three of them and keep the robots and lasers active in case they try to do anything, while I make my way there. I lock my second base down, and get on my red bike that had fallen with me on my last defeat. I had managed to fix it, which was easy. I take different routes, where I know no cameras have been placed, so no one knows that I am coming.

First base

Before Robin arrives

Jinx's P.O.V

When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears,

When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears,

I held your hand through all of these years,

But you still have,

All of me,

I can't believe we got beat so badly and easily. I use my power to break the chains around my limbs. I see that the robots are prepared to attack me at any moment, and the lasers aim toward my direction. I slowly make my way to Gizmo, when I get to him; I shake him, trying to wake him up.

"Gizmo wake up." A moan escapes his lips, "O come on, now is not the time for a nap, wake up damn-it." I shake him harder, until his eyes slowly open.

"I'm awake, I'm awake. What's going on?" Gizmo asks, sitting up and rubbing his head.

"We got beat that's what." I reply and make my way over to Mammoth, while Gizmo releases the chains on him. I un-do the chains that bind Mammoth, and I see him also slowly wake. My body is still feeling the effects, and I'm sure the others are as well. I sit on my butt, trying to clear my head, as do the other two.

Robin's P.O.V

It takes me nearly 2 hours to get my first base. I take a back entrance inside, when I get inside; I shut my bike down and go to the door that is closest to the front room. I unlock the metal door and go through. I walk into the room and see the three just now regaining their senses, Jinx is the first to stand, she sees me and raises her hands, and my robots do the same.

I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone,

But though you're still with me,

I've been alone all along,

"Stand down." I give the order to them and they immediately lower their weapons, as do the laser guns on the ceiling. Jinx fires her pink energy at me, but she has gotten slow and I am able to dodge them easily. I run toward her and knock her down, just as Mammoth comes toward me. He puts his hands together in a fist and tries to crash them down on me, not succeeding though as I move out of the way. I slam my fist into his stomach, and throw two punches into his face, while Gizmo comes running at me, I do a round house kick at Mammoth's head sending him flying to the right and landing only inches from Jinx. Gizmo is trying to punch me, but only succeeds in throwing his fists around and grunting all the while. I do a few circles around him before kicking him square in the chest and sending him flying into Jinx, who was trying to stand up, but getting knocked down, when Gizmo crash lands into her.

10 seconds later, Gizmo pulls out something from his pocket and I get in my fighting stance again.

"Screw this, I'm calling Slade." I hear him say. I go over to him and grab the front of his jump-suit pulling him up to face me.

"Who is Slade?" I demand. "Is he your boss? Did he take Raven? Answer me damn-it!" I yell at him as I shake him, causing him to drop the communication device. I hear a voice from it as I look down and drop Gizmo back onto Jinx.

"Robin, how are you?" That too calm of a voice says to me.

"Slade." I reply as I pick up the small device.

"It's good to finally meet you Robin. I can't tell you how much I looked forward to this conversation." Slade said placing his hands behind his back. All I can see of him is part of his mask that reflects an orange color and only shows one eye, the rest of his body is hidden in the dark.

"Where is Raven? If you've hurt her I'll . . ."

"Now, now Robin, no need to threaten me, why would I hurt what is mine?"

"She's not yours!"

These wounds won't seem to heal,

This pain is just too real,

There's just too much that time cannot erase,

"On the contrary, yes she is. I must say, Robin, I am surprised to see you still alive. If I remember correctly, my servants were supposed to have killed you. Where are they anyway?"

"In-disposed at the moment, and you shouldn't underestimate me."

"I will keep that in mind from now on. As for Raven she is in good health." I see Slade turn his head in one direction, and gesture to something or someone off the screen. A few seconds later a robot appears and I can see it has Raven in its arms.

"You see Robin, I don't lie." Raven raises her head and looks at the screen. From what I can see her eyes look extremely blurry and her face is a deathly pale.

"What have you done to her?" I demand.

"She just woke up, she had a nice long nap, didn't you my dear? Why don't you say hello to your hero?"

"Robin." Raven whispers in a pained voice.

"Raven I'm coming don't . . ." I don't finish my sentence when Slade refocuses the screen to only his face and Raven disappears off the screen.

When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears,

When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears,

I held your hand through all of these years,

But you still have,

All of me,

"Put her back on."

"No, she's very tired, and needs her rest. And now Robin I must say good-bye, I have many things to do."

"Slade if you harm a hair on her head . . ."

"You'll what? Would you kill me Robin? No I don't think you would." Slade's picture cuts out as the screen goes black.

"You sick son of a bitch." I say to no one in-particular but I put the device in my belt, and order my robots to pick up the three defeated Hive members, lying on the floor. They hold them tightly as I lead them to where I have told the police to wait.

But you still have all of me,

All of me.