The warmth on the shell

"CALCEY!" exclaimed a jubilant Starfire. She flew through the living room towards the small corner where Cyborg and Beast Boy set up their incubation system. The egg rested atop a thick, folded cloth in a small aquarium. A heat lamp was resting beside the aquarium with its head swivelled overtop the egg, casting light and heat on the center of attention. "How have you been? Are you feeling 'not bad' today? Is it… sufficiently roomy within your temporary home?"

"Calcey?" asked Raven aloud, trailing behind Starfire. She walked casually towards the incubator. "Did you name the egg or the duck?"

Beast Boy (in the form of a gorilla) and Cyborg were arm wrestling at the lunch table. They were locked in position, struggling against each others' might. Cyborg only used a fifth of his strength, and Beast Boy couldn't switch animals mid fight – those were the rules.

Noticing Starfire's interest in the egg, Beast Boy turned his attention towards Starfire and reverted to human form. This unexpected removal of resistance caused Cyborg to nearly slam his fist through the table. Beast Boy strutted towards his adopted, unborn pet, eager to discuss the subject with anyone willing to listen.

"That's okay, Raven. I haven't thought of a name for the little one yet, anyways."

"Oh man," said Cyborg, coming up towards the incubation corner, "don't suddenly leave off like that! I might smash the table in two next time."

"If only there were a room for exercising at full power!" said Raven sarcastically. "Oh, wait, we have one. It's called the exercise room." She levitated off the ground and sat down beside Starfire, who was gazing intently at the egg and smiling.

Cyborg muttered something and joined the other three in the corner. They all watched the egg silently for a moment, hoping to see signs of life. Perhaps they didn't know it, but the four of them shared that interest and anticipation in common.

On the opposite side of the room, Robin sat facing the computer. He tapped away on his keyboard, the gears in his head turning constantly like the earth itself. His search had yielded a few things so far, but not much. He assumed that the control panel he saw in his vision was to control the city's power grid, judging by the schematics that were present. Accordingly, he found the city's coal power plant's schematics through… dubious methods.

How about that. The control panel is in the basement.

This being the extent of his progress, Robin sighed heavily and buried his face in his hands. Robin wasn't the most patient person. But of greater concern was that the memory of the vision was fading slowly, like footsteps in the sand disappearing amidst a sandstorm.

And the other image…

He hadn't thought much of it, mostly because he didn't know what to make of it. A figure floating in a tube? It seemed like something out of a TV show or a comic book.

I've seen stranger things. Maybe I need to approach this from a different angle. Was it some kind of life form in development? That might explain the tubes and the liquid solution.

Robin was tending towards thinking that said life from was the originator of his vision. That gave it telepathic powers. Robin also assumed that it must be reasonably nearby. He had no choice – if someone was contacting him from across the globe, he wouldn't find out about it anyways.

The whole hi tech contraption needed to be kept somewhere – this was obviously not situated at the local meaty meat corner store. But he had no way of finding the laboratory (he assumed) that housed this creature. He remembered that the laboratory was dark, almost like it had lost power.

Wait a minute! It doesn't matter where it is. All I need to do is…

---

"Sneak into the power plant and activate the power grid for the abandoned fringes of town?" asked Beast Boy. "Alright! When do we leave, fearless leader?"

Robin nervously looked both ways, hoping no one else was within audible range. Further complications were the last thing he needed. Leave it to Cyborg's all-hearing ears to get a hold of something, or for Starfire's endless stream of repeated "why?" to drag out the truth. In this case, the truth was nothing more than a wild goose chase.

"Yes," said Robin, trying to be quiet. "Tonight. We leave at eleven o'clock. I'll come to your room. Be ready."

"Got it. See ya then," said Beast Boy, walking away from their corner in the hall.

---

They stood in front of the control panel in the cold, dark, damp basement of the coal power plant. All it took was a few picked locks and some fast, fancy footwork for Robin to stay unnoticed by the rotating cameras and the few patrolling guards on duty. Beast Boy had it easy – once the side door they picked was open, he just transformed into a hummingbird and flew through the corridors to the basement.

He did a good job memorizing the schematic I showed him, thought Robin.

Now, in the center of the plant, security was thinner. There was also no light as it was after hours. Thankfully, Robin always carried a small flashlight in his utility belt.

"Okay, make with the technological wizardry Robin."

Robin sighed heavily as he opened the door to the control panel in front of them. It was much like a large fuse box, and it looked just the way it did in his dream. There were 57 switches for the city's 57 zones. Four of them, corresponding to the abandoned areas of the city, were off.

Jump City had gone through a recession ten or twenty years ago. No one saw it coming, and expansion happened too quickly. Consequently, there were now numerous zones that consisted of nothing but abandoned buildings. Few new companies were interested in coming to Jump City due to the persistent crime problems it had. Therefore, the zones stayed abandoned. Wanting to save power whatever power possible, the electricity for those zones was cut.

Not for tonight, thought Robin. He assumed that this would eventually be noticed, possibly as early as tomorrow. Hence the reason he hoped that a few more hours of electricity was all it needed.

He reached out and flicked up the remaining switches.

No sooner had he done so, his vision became blurry once again. He dropped his flashlight and slumped onto the control panel. He heard Beast Boy's voice, but it was like someone was turning down the volume… only to turn it off entirely. Moreover, something else permeated Robin's ears.

Thumping. Endless, repetitive thumping.

He saw it again, but this time it was bright. It was the tube filled with a green liquid, and the being suspended within it. Its shape was that of a human, but its skin was hairy like that of a tarantula. And the hairs were each a tiny, miniscule thread of silver metal, giving the creature a kind of dull shine that came through the liquid. It had no mouth, no eyes, no ears, or anything distinguishable on its head. Its joints were small and free from the metallic hair that shrouded the rest of its body. It looked mechanical in nature, and yet, there was something living, something… organic about it. Maybe it was the way it squirmed slightly in its tube, like it was reaching out to see the world that it longed for.

Robin's view included other things. All around the tube, there were machines too complex to describe, and a source of lighting that produced no heat whatsoever. Robin wasn't sure how he knew this, but he did. He then knew where the thumping came from – it was the machines pumping streams of liquid into the creature. Robin also made out a small probe in the tube he hadn't noticed earlier. It seemed to float around the creature, making incisions and sending an arm within. It looked painful, but Robin felt none. Instead, it felt necessary.

Last, on the floor, Robin saw and smelled a rotting corpse. By some means, Robin felt the age and wisdom that it once had.

"What's wrong?" asked Beast Boy. Robin said nothing and slowly rose to his feet.