Chapter 2 - Noise
Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy arrived back at the Tower. There was no sign of Star or Robin. It was late and they figured they didn't want to wait up for them to return.
"Good night." Raven said walking toward the hall on her left.
"Good night." Beast Boy returned as he and Cyborg watched the girl exit.
Beast Boy plopped over onto the couch. "Up for a quick game?" he asked while reaching for the GameStation controller.
"Nah. It's late, BB, maybe in the morning." Cyborg said walking away.
"Okay, yeah." Beast Boy agreed, letting the controller fall to the floor. Then he rose up off of the couch and headed for his room just as his friends had.
(Two hours later)
Thump!
Raven sat up immediately. Something had woken her, but what? It sounded as if it came from the room below hers, which disappointingly(to her), was Beast Boy's.
'He probably just fell off his top bunk.'
But, since she was in a pretty good mood, she decided to go check, just to make sure it wasn't anything else. She rose up out of her bed, grabbed her cape, and ran out into the hall.
When she reached Beast Boy's room, she drew up her hand to knock.
Inside, Beast Boy was hastily trying to find his uniform. He thought the noise came from Terra's old room. No one but him had gone in there since ... well, you know ...
He grabbed his belt and ran to the door.
Just as Raven was about to knock the door slid open. She lowered her arm and watched Beast Boy concentrate on hooking his belt.
Click.
"There we go." Beast boy whispered to himself.
He glanced up expecting to see a dark and empty hall. But instead, he found Raven standing there watching him!
"Aah!" he yelped falling back in a pile of clothes. "Jeez, Rae! What are you doing here?"
"I heard a noise, thought it might have had something to do with you."
"You heard it, too?" his eyes widened.
"Yeah," she said watching him stand up and shove the clothes out of the way.
The situation was getting undoubtedly peculiar. If it wasn't Beast Boy then who or what was it? She had to find out. She turned and walked down the hall. Beast Boy noticed she was ready to further investigate, so, he quickly followed.
"Rae, where are you going?"
"Shut up." she whispered back to him.
They were coming upon the door closest to Beast Boy's.
"Here." he whispered. "I heard the noise coming from in here."
"Okay." she nodded.
Raven walked closer to the door and slowly leaned her head against it. Beast Boy did the same and they listened in the silence for any sort of noise.
Nothing.
"Who would be in Terra's room in the middle of the night?" Beast Boy whispered.
"Shh." Raven said with her eyes widening. She thought she heard something but wasn't sure because Beast Boy had been conversing at the same time. She leaned even closer to the door.
She gasped. There it was. Someone was in there. But who?
"You hear that?" Beast Boy asked.
"Kinda hard to miss." she replied.
"Yeah. Should we go get the others?"
"No. We can handle it." she said backing away from the door.
"Umm ... what are you doing?"
"This." Raven said bringing her hands up into fists.
Before Beast Boy could stop her she had kicked down the door. Their eyes widened. The room was dark. They slowly walked in. They looked in the closet, under the bed, and every other place they thought someone might hide.
"Weird." Raven whispered.
"Yeah." Beast Boy agreed. "I wonder where the noise came from then."
"I don't know. But I'm not going back to bed till I find out."
"Me too." he whispered as the headed for the door.
Just as they reached the door ...
Whoosh.
They gasped and jumped back. Beast Boy grabbed Raven's cape and held it ever so tightly.
(Early morning)
Robin had slept on a chair near Starfire's bed all night.
He slowly rose up out of the chair and walked over to her bedside. Then he knelt down with his eyes studying her face as she slept(so he thought). He placed his hand on her cheek and was so busy daydreaming he didn't notice her hand start to reach up towards him. She didn't open her eyes, but gently placed her hand on top of his. He immediately blushed and pulled his hand away. Starfire's eyes shot wide-open.
"Star, you okay?"
She gasped. "Where did—But we were just—Please, Robin. I am afraid I do not understand. What has happened? And why does my head feel of the aching?"
"It's okay, Star. Calm down. Your were knocked unconscious ... for a long time." he explained. "Your head should feel better in a bit. You hungry?"
"Yes, very." she said as everything around her stopped spinning.
So, Robin helped her up and they headed for the kitchen.
(Hallway)
"Feeling better?" Robin asked as they neared the Ops. Room.
"Yes, Robin, I am feeling much better." she replied as they entered.
As usual, Cyborg and Beast Boy were fighting over what to make for breakfast while Raven sat at the table reading a book. Wait, who was—
"They know." Robin whispered to himself.
Starfire gasped."Robin, who is that?" she asked motioning to the man sitting opposite of Raven. The man was holding the newspaper in front of himself and didn't even bother to look up as they entered the room.
"Just an old friend, Star. Don't worry."
"Does your friend have a name?" she asked as everyone looked up at them.
"Yeah. His name is—
"Hey, Rob! Thanks for telling us you had a friend over!" Cyborg interrupted.
"Yeah, he scared the crap out of Beast Boy last night." Raven teased.
"HEY! He scared you too, Raven!" Beast Boy protested.
"Not as much as he did you." Raven said rolling her eyes.
Starfire looked at Robin, confused. He glanced at her and then looked back at the others, trying to take it all in.
The man set the newspaper down on the table. "Good morning, Robin, Starfire." he said nodding to each of them.
"Morning." Robin muttered.
"Good Morning, old friend of Robin's!" Starfire said, no longer confused.
Raven went back to reading her book as Beast Boy and Cyborg decided to make a combined meat and tofu breakfast.
The man came over to Starfire. "I'm Batman." he said shaking her hand.
The others gasped.
"Wait, as in 'The Batman'?" Cyborg asked.
"Yes." the man said turning to Cyborg.
"Hence the cape and bat icon on his shirt." Raven distinguished.
"Robin! How come you never told us you knew Batman?" Beast Boy asked waving his arms in the air. "He's like a ... legend!"
"Heh. Must of slip my mind." Robin said rubbing the back of his neck.
Wait, so how do you know him?" Raven had lost her concentration on her book.
"Why I taught Robin everything he knows." Batman said proudly putting an arm around Robin's shoulder. He looked at Robin. "You never mentioned me? Not even once?"
Robin blushed. "Umm ... No." He had a lot of explaining to do.
Batman stepped away from him. "Wow, guess you really don't like to talk about your past."
"No, not really." Robin said looking at the floor.
"Come on ya'll, Robin can explain everything after breakfast." Cyborg said, finishing up what he had been cooking before the conversation was started.
(After breakfast)
"I gotta get a good seat for this." Beast Boy said plopping down on the couch beside Raven. She was busy reading her book ... again.
"Do you ever stop reading?" he asked her. "Like, ever?"
"Only when you're bugging me!" she returned.
"Heh. Besides that?"
"Umm ... when we're out fighting crime." she said rolling her eyes. "And why do you care?"
"Somebody has to ... right?"
"Wrong." she corrected. "Nobody has to, especially not you."
"Why not me?" he said seriously. He truly cared for Raven. He cared for all the Titans, but for some weird reason, especially her.
She sighed. "Do you ever stop?"
"Ever stop what?"
"Bugging people!" she snapped getting up and then taking a seat on the opposite side of the couch.
Batman was still sitting at the table. He never knew five teenagers could be so entertaining. Starfire and Cyborg were just taking their seats on the couch. Robin walked over and took his seat in the middle. He put his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, then sighed.
"Okay. Long story, short." he started. "My parents died when I was nine. So I went to live at Wayne Manor. Then I became Robin and—
"Woah, Woah, Woah! Hold up." Beast boy interrupted. "Seriously dude, we need more details."
"Yeah, a lot more details." Cyborg added.
Robin sat up. "Okay... Well, my parents were acrobats in a circus and one day the high wire snapped, with them on it. So, I watched them plunge to their death. After that, I was sent to Wayne Manor and one day I stumbled along the Batcave. So, Batman revealed his secret to me and then trained me to be his side-kick. Then when he didn't need me anymore, I left. And blah, blah, blah, I became the leader of the Teen Titans."
The Titans sat there for a moment, trying to think everything though. Robin really didn't like telling stories about his past... or just plain 'telling stories'.
"Okay, now can we get on with the mission?" Robin asked turning to Batman.
"Wait a minute. What does Wayne Manor have to do with him?" Beast Boy asked motioning to Batman.
"Its where I live." Batman said rising from his seat.
"Oh." Beast Boy said sinking back down onto the couch.
"And yes, we can get on with the mission, Robin." Batman walked over to the Titans. "Hmm." he rubbed his chin. "Alright, here it is. There is a mad-man threatening Gotham. We have to stop him before he tries to destroy the city. He has a very large army of robots and it would be extremely hard to defeat them if I do this alone. I need you all to come with me to Gotham." No one responded. "Well, can I count you all in?"
All the Titans looked at Robin. He was their leader. So, it was him who called the shots.
