Chapter 7: No Leaf Clover by Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
The Titans stared at Rose for a second, before returning to their previous activities. Or in two cases, Gar returning to staring at the screen and Raven pulling a book out of nowhere and beginning to read. Jinx was the only one who continued to acknowledge her.
"Been a while, Rose, thought you forgot how to find the tower." Jinx grinned.
"Yes, because it is incredibly difficult to find a giant T-shaped building in the middle of a busy port city's bay. Damn near impossible." Rose said sarcastically, dropping her swords and gear, and wandering over to the fridge. She grumbled at the lack of beer, grabbing a soda and preceded to sit on the empty side of the couch on the other side of Raven. "If I really didn't know any better, I would've thought Vic set this place up to be found and attacked regularly."
"Knowin' Cy, it was floating in his circuits somewhere in there. Probably planted by Robin as a battle tactic. I don't try to think about it too much." Gar said with a small frown, continuing to look at the screen.
"You think?" Rose asked quickly after a sip of soda. Gar's ears went down. She smiled wide, holding her fist up for a bump from Raven, who simply looked at her from the page she was on, and shook her had softly. Rose frowned and took another sip of her soda while taking off her mask, letting her white hair flow out around her. "So, have I missed anything interesting?"
"No." The others synchronized.
Rose looked around the room suspiciously as Raven and Jinx had kept themselves glued to their books, Gar to his game, Wally to Gar's game and Donna to her tablet. Her eyes flicked to the crack in the window, the spot in the middle, then to Gar's shirt and the bandages underneath. "Mmm...hmm...right."
"Find something interesting I take it?" Donna asked quickly, looking up from her notes. Rose had been doing stealth runs in and around the city for her, trying to scrounge up the barest hints of what's going on with the underworld. Her history with said underbelly was very useful. And Rose was still looking for as many chances to prove herself to the Titans as she could find.
"Sort of. This gang popped up in the old district, keeps going from abandoned building to abandoned building. Wouldn't have given them a second thought if they didn't seem to be lugging some serious tech with them around." Rose replied, deciding to take up the full end of the U shaped couch she was one by resting her feet off the edge and laying back, putting her soda on the ground. "And when I say lug, I mean one of the bastards carried something the size of a truck engine on one shoulder, like it was nothing. So, metas, definitely, with tech that I wasn't able to identify."
"Any pictures?" Donna's face was calm but hints of excitement for having a lead entered her tones.
"No, I'm a complete noob." Rose held up a camera, casually tossing it over to Donna.
"Technically, you are." Gar said quickly with a smirk as Donna caught the camera, taking out the memory card and loading it into the tablet.
"Bite me, greeny."
"No thanks, don't like the taste of crazy." Gar said simply.
"Then why are ya-" Rose started, beginning to gesture at Raven before Jinx and Wally looked up, both rapidly shaking their heads, Wally making a throat cutting gesture at super speed repeatedly. "-Nevermind." Rose finished blandly as Gar continued to stare at his screen, Raven not looking up from her book.
Donna examined the pictures carefully, frowning to herself. She also had no idea what the tech was, it was familiar but off. It had bits of alien tech, almost Apokolips level but it was flattened out, redesigned. She further frowned at the gangs get up. They were uniformed, but not in any recognizable manner. Cheap jeans, cheap white hooded sweatshirts, but with near skull faced demonic looking masks. They had to be organized bigger than what they were trying to hide as but there was only one way to figure out. As for the tech, she decided to send an email of the pics off to Diana, hopefully get it through the league faster than using normal protocols.
"Rose, do you know if they're still at this particular building?" Donna looked up from the tablet at Rose's end of the couch.
"Far as I know, their pattern is to jump base every two to three days, and they just settled there last night." Rose replied, as she watched Beast Boy run away from a very angry set of five bears in the game.
"So if we want to make a move, today would be the best plan?" Donna frowned.
"You got it." Rose smirked, continuing to watch Gar fumble. "C'mon, man, just kill 'em."
"Give me a goddamn sec." Gar grumbled. He had lead the bears to chase him up an incline, before using a spell to knock them all the way back down. "There, bear threat, gone."
"Clever." Rose complimented. "So did you hear all of this, or do we have to go over it again?"
"I heard ya, and it's a good plan. Catch 'em now, figure out if they know anything, and hopefully avert what ever they're up to in the meantime." Gar stated in a near business tone as he saved the game, turned it off then stood up and stretched with a wince. "I guess we should get ready. Rose, you can get us there unnoticed right?"
"Duh."
"Alright, that settles it. Let's get movin, guys an' girls." Gar said before wandering his way towards his room to change into his uniform. Wally and Jinx sat up and did the same, Wally hobbling a little as they did. "Foot asleep, foot asleep!" Wally grumbled to himself. Raven continued to sit there, reading her book.
"...Raven, ya gonna go get ready or something? Don't you usually meditate before these things?" Rose eyed her suspiciously.
"What?" Raven looked up, blank expression on her face.
"Mission, get prepared for, leaving soon." Rose filled in flatly.
"Oh, right. Yeah. Probably should." Raven responded simply, folding her book and walking slowly back towards her room.
As soon as she was out of sight, Rose looked at Donna. "What the fuck's goin' on with her?"
Donna sighed. "Bad day."
"What, she and the greenskin get into a spat again?" Rose asked, almost jokingly. She watched Donna frown, her eyes flickering to the crack in the window, before nodding slowly. Rose titled her head. "That bad, huh?"
"How'd you figure out it?"
"You guys weren't here last summer, I was. Lacked a place of my own at the time. Anyways, they were damn near all over each other. Almost as bad as Dick and Star, without the blatant turning into the halls and running into a make out session or worse. That was always awkward." Rose frowned then shook the memory out. "But yeah, it was obvious then. I didn't even know them that long and it was. Might help that I was trained by a clinical psychopathic father to analyze people rapidly but I feel that's aside from the point."
Donna mulled it over. "Did they fight often then?"
"Sorta. I don't think it ever lead to, well..." Rose looked at the window, "That. But they could go on for a bit. Didn't get bad until the winter. Stopped by during the holidays and they were colder than Finland's left nut to each other. Something happened, but no one pried. And then a few months ago it kinda was like it was a few minutes ago, tension, closeness, but apparent nada."
Donna's ears perked at the wording. "Apparent?"
"Yeah." Rose looked at the doors, in thought. "Something's still goin down they're just...I dunno, not acknowledging it?" She then shrugged, going back to laying on the couch. "Just an outsider's perspective, don't think too hard on it, Donna. Even amazon's have to have stress limits."
Donna nodded, standing up and putting the tablet on the side table near her chair and beginning to walk out of the room. "You're incredibly perspective, have you gone over this with anyone else?"
"Naw, I'd prefer no one figure that out yet. They don't trust me as it is, telling them 'Oh, by the way, I'm pretty sure I can figure out what you had for lunch by watching you walk' might put them more on edge. 'Sides, this way, I stay outta the drama loop." Rose said calmly, making a lazy circle motion with her finger in the air.
"You can tell what we had for lunch by how we walk?" Donna quirked an eyebrow.
"Chipotle." Rose stated simply. Donna blinked, then walked out of the room quickly, causing Rose to smirk, resting her hands behind her head. "Still got it."
Gotham:
Dick had returned to the cave in the early evening, using the drive back to prepare himself. As he slowed the bike down in the cave, he looked over to see that Bruce had passed out on the control panel of the computer, cowl off and from what Dick could tell, at least seven windows open. Dick shook his head as he walked over to softly tap Bruce on the shoulder. When his hand got within an inch of him, it was stopped roughly at the wrist by Bruce, whose eyes blinked open slowly. He looked up, and noticed who it was and let go.
"Reflex." He said simply.
"I'm aware." Dick replied rubbing his wrist slightly. A pause entered the conversation, both men looking mildly uncomfortable.
"I'm...well, I'm not sorry I snapped." Dick started.
"Figured as much."
"Besides, I have a feeling that was the desired result." Dick raised his eyebrows at his mentor.
"That is true." Bruce said calmly. Another pause entered the conversation.
"...Are...you going to...?" Dick began to ask.
"No. You know why I did it, well mostly, so I'm not apologizing for my actions." Bruce said simply. Dick's face began to scrunch up, looking as if he was getting ready to start yelling again when Bruce put up his hands. "I will, however, apologize for it getting as bad as it did. I just wanted to stress you, not hurt you."
Dick stared blankly at Bruce, still slightly in a pose prepped for an argument, finger slightly raised in an accusatory fashion. "I...uhm. Thank you." His stance relaxed, and he scratched the back of his head.
"I take it your talk with Clark went well?" Bruce stood up and stretched lightly, various popping noised from his back being heard. He tapped a button on his computer, and the screen went to a blank, light blue background with the Bat symbol on it.
"Yeah, he gave me a lot to go over. Told me a story that gave me an idea." Dick's eyes flickered to the now blank screen curiously.
"Did he now?" Bruce had the barest hints of amusement in his tones.
Dick sighed "Well, I figured that honestly, I'm a bit to old to be 'Robin', I've been kinda wanting to move on from it, especially after you had Jason over here. But I kept it, just as a reminder of where I came from. And you made the good point that it'd confuse the hell out of people with there being two Robins." Bruce nodded. "Then Mr. Kent told me a story about a Kryptonian hero named 'Nightwing', forced to give up his family name and fight on his own. Admittedly, I like the idea."
"Nightwing..." Bruce said in the same manner someone does when their trying to find a place for a puzzle piece. He motioned for Dick to follow him as they went across the cave towards the armory area.
"Yeah, I figured it fits, it's not too flashy and...I'm not gonna lie, sounds pretty damn cool." Dick finished.
"My ability to take that from you is dampened by the name 'Robin' being your idea." Bruce smirked.
"You didn't argue and I was eight." Dick rebutted.
"True enough." Bruce replied. They moved past the normal armory and stopped at what looked like a bulked up shipping container. "So you really want to go through with working on your own?"
"...I would like to keep working with Star, but mostly yeah. Would miss the connections though." Dick frowned.
"Who said you would lose them?" Bruce asked calmly, pressing a button on the front of the container. The door opened and revealed what initially looked like a secondary armory, but the weaponry was different. Everything appeared to be more curved, an in between for the Robin and Batman gear, with a simple set of jumpsuits in the center. Everything was a plain black, no colors added.
Dick stared. "You clever bastard."
"I've been brainstoming with Lucius for a while about upgrades for you. Something more suited to how you move and fight. Also with a few different weapon variations; figure you could trade in the staff for something quicker." Bruce tossed a pair of what looked like long batons at Dick, who caught them almost without thinking.
"Eskrima Sticks?" Dick tested the weight of them, spinning them in his hands. "I'm a little rusty at it, but..." He swung them in front of himself as best he could in the small environment. "I think I'll make do." He tossed them back over to Bruce, who put them back on the rack he pulled them from.
"I figured you would." Bruce had his ever so small smile.
"Why the lack of color?" Dick asked as he walked in, examining the gear like a kid on Christmas.
"I'd let that be up to you, it's your gear. I figured this would be enough to get you started. Any adjustments you can make yourself. For the color patterns though, I kept flipping between these." Bruce tapped at a monitor that had been placed inside the container, it flicking to life with two separate patterns, one with simple blue lines on the gear and a stylized bird motif on the suit in blue, the other the same in red.
"I like the blue more, the red just looks weird." Dick frowned, tapping at the screen.
"Automanufacturing adjustments acknowledged, please step out of the unit so adjustments can be made." A computerized voice responded.
"You really do think of everything." Dick grinned as they stepped out of the container unit, the doors hissing closed behind them and a digital counter appearing on the front of the doors as a hologram with a twelve hour countdown.
"I try." Bruce replied. "There is one string attached, though."
Dick frowned. "And that is?"
"I'd like you to settle in Bludhaven for a while." Bruce walked over to the computer and put the windows back on, revealing maps of Bludhaven and criminal traffic patterns to and from.
"Something's happening there, it's become a training ground for criminals. Everything from the various mafia groups to meta-humans trying to get a start. I need someone ground level, to try and dig in and figure out what's going on." Bruce turned to Dick, frowning slightly. "And I don't trust anyone else to do this, Dick."
Dick stared at the screen, thinking it over, wide eyed a little. "But...the Titans..." Dick started.
"Are in good hands." Bruce said smoothly. "You've got your choice of leaders, but the reports I've seen filtering out of Jump over the past while indicate Beast Boy actually doing a good job of it."
"He's smarter than he'll admit." Dick replied, sighing. "I don't know how to break it to Kory."
"She knows." Bruce added, causing Dick to look up at him quickly. Bruce sighed. "Kory and I had a...discussion after you left the cave. I mentioned to her my plans and she, after much internal deliberation, left it up to you. You can talk to her yourself if you want."
"I think I might, I...I need to think this over Bruce." Dick said wearily.
"That's fine, take as much time as you need." Bruce nodded. Dick walked up to the mansion, head swimming with what he had to consider.
Jump City:
Jump City is a fairly large, old trading city. It's full of many wonderful, historical sights and sections. Unfortunately this was not one of them. The area was run down, half of it slated to be demolished for either expanded warehouses and storage for the docks a few blocks over or cheap apartments. The building that the Titans were currently perched across from was one such example. Old, five story apartment building, surprising that it had lasted into the twentieth century let alone the twenty-first. It made a decent hiding place though, in between two larger buildings, creating narrow alleys on either side, it's back blocked off by another large building.
A green mouse scurried away from the building, shifting to a cat then a pigeon, fluttering up to the remainder of the group before shifting back into the familiar form of Beast Boy.
"It's got a fairly open interior, and it looks like they're not planning to settle. No equipment, a few cots and some canned foods still boxed up. What ever the tech is, they ain't using it." BB said, looking over at the building, brows furrowed in thought.
"They have the entrances covered too, 'cept one from the alley to our right." Kid Flash had dashed up the side of the building a second ago.
"They have a choke point at the front, and no one to come in from the back." Wonder Girl thought out loud.
"Or from the upstairs windows." Ravager added, slight grin on her face along with a look of cold calculation.
"Anything on numbers?" Beast Boy looked at Raven.
Raven's face contorted with concentration. "It's weird...I can tell where people are because they leave an imprint but something's making it fuzzy. Harder to pinpoint. I have to guess somewhere between eight and ten, though."
"I don't like the feel of what they're using to block themselves out." Jinx said, her usual pre-fight grin absent. "What ever it is, it...shouldn't be here."
"Well that's always comforting." Beast Boy said with a slight frown. He finally sighed as he finished his plan up in his head. "The best I got is this; Wonder Girl, fly Ravager over, and drop her near the alley door, and her and Flash will bust in from down there. Then you and Jinx start working your way down from the top and Raven and I will go in from the third floor windows. It doesn't have to be all at once, the more random it is, the more it should throw 'em off. Hopefully."
Everyone nodded.
"Alright, Titans, well. Go." Beast Boy resisted the temptation to shout, stealth op and all. As everyone departed, it just left him and Raven on the roof.
"...Are you okay with working with me on this?" Beast Boy asked nervously.
"Of course. You think you'll be able to keep up?" Raven smirked slightly.
"Oh, oh. It's on." BB grinned quickly, then face went back down. "...And hey...about earlier..."
"We'll talk about this afterward, okay?" Raven said quickly.
"...Okay." Beast Boy agreed. 'Better not cloud things up before a mission. Things go wrong that way.'
Gotham:
Dick's plan to talk to Star when he got to the room got thrown out of whack a little when she had pounced him. Apparently, she had missed him greatly in his few hours of running off...
About an hour later, he was still awake, somehow, staring at the ceiling in thought as she was curled up next to/around him. It was a lot to take in admittedly. Bruce was willing to give him his start, and independence. Sort of. He would work his own way, with his own methods, but still in a way reported to Bruce. At the same time, he understood why; everything he had read up on Bludhaven in the past and recently since he's been in town indicated that it needed a good clean sweep. Dick wished he could bring the Titans in but he didn't think it would be fair. Raven and Gar had really settled in Jump, to the point that he wasn't sure they'd be entirely willing to leave, even to help. Cyborg was, in more ways than one, attached to the Tower. Starfire...well he wasn't sure. She wouldn't want to leave her friends, but he sure as hell knew she wouldn't want to leave him either.
"You are still awake?" Kory said softly, eyes still closed.
"No."
"You are a terrible liar, Boyfriend-Richard." Her eyes were still closed, but a smile formed on her face.
"Only when I want to be." Dick smiled as well.
"The decision is a most difficult one, is it not?" Kory asked solemnly.
"I know the right choice, but it's the hardest one to go with." Dick sighed.
"I believe that is how it always works." Kory replied sadly.
"And you'll support whatever I go with?"
Kory sat up, allowing the sheets to fall off her naked form, and leaning on his so they were face to face. "I will support you with whatever you do, Richard Grayson. Just remember that no matter what, you are 'the stuck with me'"
Dick did his best to keep his eyes on her, and failed momentarily to look down at her chest pressed into his then back up. "I think I'll be able to live with that." He pushed his head up to kiss her deeply, before catching her off guard to flip her onto her back, earning a pleasing yelp.
Jump City:
Beast Boy crashed through the window from the left side of the building and looked around the room. It was an odd apartment building, each floor seemed to be one unit to itself, almost completely open. There was hardly any lights in the place, almost perfectly dark. Which would be a problem if he really needed to see. He smelled the air, catching hints of mold, asbestos, various forms pest droppings and little else. 'Odd,' he thought, 'should be able to smell the members of the gang.'
Raven had a similar feeling when she had phased through the wall. The fuzzy feeling had hung in the air. It was like...being blinded by radio static, her sense both overwhelmed and deadened at the same time. She looked across the room to see Beast Boy having a similar expression of confusion. They walked over to each other.
"This really is too damn weird. Do you think they already jumped sites?"
Beast Boy asked, eyeing the hardly lit room with suspicion.
"Don't think so. If they had they would've not left some sort of filter up to block my senses." Raven responded. She saw a slight shift in movement behind Beast Boy, her eyes flickering to it.
Luckily, Beast Boy's hearing had caught the sound of the person moving behind him and turned in just enough time to catch a black baseball bat coming towards his head. Admittedly, it hurt like hell to catch but he wasn't going to show it beyond a twitch.
"Fuck!" The man said. He was tall, about equal with Beast Boy, above average build, that BB could see, and was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, and a silver colored mask that seemed to have some form of demonic face on it. It was kind of generic but at the same time gave Beast Boy an unconscious feeling of discomfort. Hard to place what was wrong, but something was wrong.
Raven sent a quick blast of energy at the goon, and he was thrown back, but only in a manner that seemed like he had been lightly shoved instead of thrown. Raven was about to send another but was almost caught off guard by another man, a bit shorter, but same style mask and white hoodie. She redirected it and ended up blasting him directly in the face, which created a wave of energy in the room, throwing everyone back and down.
Raven looked at Beast Boy, who was trying to sit up before the goon who had attacked him, "So I think I know the source of the odd feeling." she said flatly.
"Sources." BB corrected, to which Raven nodded.
"Hope the others notice."
Jinx had noticed on her first goon, and between her and Wonder Girl were able to easily take them out, well sort of. Jinx decided to cheat by weakening the floor in the center of the room, and simply lured her sparring partner there. The man yelped as he fell though, groaning when he hit the floor below. Wonder Girl had lifted one of her assailants and thrown him into the new hole while holding the other in a headlock. She reached for and tried to yank the mask off, but was stopped by a burning sensation. She hissed in pain and removed her hand, causing the goon to chuckle. Wonder Girl then punched the mask, hard, causing a minor ripple of energy but the goon went limp. Not dead, thankfully just unconscious. She let go of the head lock, and after he had dropped in the air enough, grabbed the back of his hoodie and thrown him into the hole on top of the other two.
"You good?" Jinx asked, looking at Wonder Girl's red hand.
"Just not used to it." Wonder Girl replied, also examining her own hand. "What ever those masks are, they're well designed."
Jinx nodded, then looked down the hole, gesturing with her arm, grinning. "Shall we?"
"I'm actually going to check the ground floor, have a bad feeling." Wonder Girl said, walking towards a window.
"Suit yourself." Jinx said cheerfully, jumping down the hole she had made, landing on one of the goons trying to stand up. Wonder Girl leapt out of the window, hitting the ally with a dull thunk, denting the pavement a little before diving into one of the ground floor windows and rolling to a stop. Sure enough, Ravager was being hassled by two goons, one of which was armed with a sword of his own, and being able to keep up with her, at least while she was distracted. Kid Flash was fighting an apparent meta-goon, he was large but faster than he should've been using his strength to brush off Flash's punches and his speed to try and catch him, which he almost did a few times.
Wonder Girl decided to give Ravager a hand, because it frankly looked like Flash was playing with his goon, leading him into something. She unhooked her lasso, and wrapped it around the non-sword wielding goon, yanking him over to her, causing him to cry out in surprise.
Ravager gave a quick, almost imperceptible curt nod at her before pulling out her second sword and went full offensive. The goon didn't have as much luck after that, though actually got a few more nicks on her, almost getting at her throat. She caught him with a stab in the shoulder, gaining a yelp before she used her other sword to brush his away and moving in to crack him upside the head with the hilt to knock him out. He slumped a little, still being held up by the sword in his shoulder, to which Ravager simply kicked him off, onto the ground with a thud. She twirled the blades to get the blood off then put them up. Noticing that Wonder Girl and Kid Flash had their goons under control, she went towards the stairs and up.
She found Gar and Raven on the second floor, their fight having moved them down through a hole and into another 7 guys which they were having a tad bit of trouble with. Well, sort of. Raven had fell back on her martial training, using bursts of energy to push people back, where Beast Boy had settled on his Sasquatch form, allowing him to hold off at least two and kick a third onto the ground. Ravager watched as the goon slid onto the ground, stopping in front of her. She saw his eyes behind the mask open from their apparent grimace of pain and have a shocked look when seeing her looming over, smiling.
"Mind if I join the party?" She asked before kicking him unconscious and leaping into the fray, jumping at a goon who had tried to grab Raven from behind.
"What took you so long?" Raven growled as she placed her palm on one of the goons and flung him back with a large burst of black energy.
"Got lost, you wouldn't believe the twists in this place." Ravager grinned as she decked a goon in the side of the head, gaining his head moving only a little and causing her to pull her hand back in pain. "Motherfucker, that hurt!" She then connected her knee to his crotch, causing him to drop like a sack of bricks. "These masks are weird."
"No shit." Raven added, jabbing her foot on a goon's and catching him in the shoulder with a burst of energy, giving a small cracking noise as his ankle gave out. She lifted her foot, letting him fall over, cursing at her in pain. One of the goons left standing ran for the stairs, going up.
"I got 'em." Beast Boy said as he shift back, running after the goon in his normal form. It was a two flight set, like the rest in the building, and he decided he'd just run it normal, as these guys hadn't shown themselves to be anything beyond brawlers with creepy masks. He caught up with the goon at the top of the stairs, towards the entrance to the next floor. As he almost had the leap on him, the guy turned, giving a solid punch that almost connected. 'Okay, maybe there is some skill here.' BB thought. He dropped into a loose boxing form and jabbed out at the goon, which was quickly deflected and responded with a quick uppercut, catching Beast Boy on his chin as he tried to back up. Unfortunately, there was no where to back up to and BB felt himself lift in the air as the punch connected, causing him to see stars. He regained enough sense to notice he was falling down the stairs, brain rapidly flipping between animal choices that'd take a fall well.
He had almost made up his mind when he felt and heard a loud cracking noise. Then, nothing.
Metropolis:
Vic was getting tired of everyone calling him randomly today. He actually told Dick to call him back after dinner, which caught his friend by surprise but he did so. There conversation had lead deep into the night.
"So...why are you hung up on this?" Cyborg asked, staring at the computer screen in his room that had Dick in a window over various others that had blueprints open.
"...You don't think I'd be abandoning the team?" Dick asked, blinking.
"Dick, we're all getting older, the fact that any of us haven't been picked up by the League is damn surprising. I'm just surprised ya haven't gone off on your own yet already." Vic said as he continued to do his usual conversation fidget of adjusting one of his hands with a screwdriver.
"Well, Star's been a boost for that and honestly? I like being on a team, I like having a family to lean on." Dick admitted.
"And I think we'll always be Titans, we'll always be a family. But you of all of us aren't going to grow continuing to lead the team. You know you've been wanting to go off solo, well if Star's with ya, solo-ish, for a while now. Hell, you've been doing that while part of the team. And if Batman, the freakin' Batman says you're the only one he trusts for this, you should take him up on it. That's a great deal coming from him. You know that more than anyone." Vic said the last part while pointing the screwdriver at Dick.
Dick sighed. "I know...and I know this is what I want to do, it's just..."
"A big step. That shit's always scary, man."
"Yeah."
There was a small lull in the conversation. Vic looked over at the screen at Dick for a moment, before smirking. "So if that hickey means anything, I'm guessin' Kory's gonna be with you over there?"
Dick's hand rapidly snapped to cover a spot on his neck.
"I'll take that as a yes. You think she'll be okay with that? I mean, Bludhaven's not Gotham, as far as I've heard, there's not really a nice part of the city." Vic had a look of concern.
"It'll be rough I think...but we'll hopefully be doing enough good that it'll off balance the crazy shit we're going to have to delve into." Dick said tentatively, hand not leaving the spot on his neck.
"Alright, if you say so. Just, keep an eye on her-" He was cut off as his communicator went off, he noticed Dick's did too, flashing the emergency red symbol. He flipped it open to look at the text, frowning. "Ah fuck."
Dick stared at his, looking at the same message. "Fuck indeed."
Jump City:
Raven had been in the thick of it when she heard the noise cut through the fighting, felt the change in Beast Boys energy. She flew up and pushed over to where he'd landed, immediately crouching over him, taking in his wounds. He was crumpled up on the ground, at least an arm was broken, one of his legs looked to be at an unusual angle as well, all of this accompanied by cuts and bruises that must've happened as he fell down the stairs. Several things flooded Raven's senses; Gar was blank. The goon upstairs was smug with his actions. Gar was blank. There was a small pool of blood coming out of Gar's head. He was still blank. That goon was actually looking down at Gar's broken form, trying to see the damage he caused one of the big heroes in town. Gar. Was. Still. Blank.
Raven's cape twisted and expanded to cover Gar, and then it stretched, snaking herself up to eye level with the masked goon. His sense of victory evaporated as he stared into the four red eyes and heard the low growl coming from this thing that is normally Raven. Right now, it was shadows, cloak, eyes and a dangerous amount of rage. The only thing causing a pause was the choice of how it wanted to punish this crudely enhanced mortal.
Jinx was running up on the goon standing in the stairwell when she felt and saw Raven's presence. "Shit, she's gonna kill 'em." She didn't know what had caused this, and figured while the guy deserved it, Raven didn't deserve the guilt. Jinx looked at the floor beneath the goon and thank god no one had the wherewithal to repair this place before squatting here. Jinx blasted the floor, and as before, the goon slid and fell through, hitting the floor below with a thump. It was followed by her hearing a cheerful "'Sup!" from Rose, and what she assumed to be a punch.
The growling Raven thing took in Jinx for a moment, before immediately retreating back down the stairs. The main thing Jinx took from the silent exchange filled her gut with discomfort. All four eyes were crying. She didn't know that could happen. She leapt over the hole she had made and started her way down the stairs, stopping when she turned to go down the second flight.
Raven had laid Gar onto his back, hold his head in her glowing white hand, beneath the energy, covered in blood, the other resting on his chest, trying to fix as much damage to his ribs and what lies beneath them. The others made there way to the scene one way or the other, the last being Wally.
"Hey guys, everyone should be mopped up and-Ah fuck." He didn't slow down in talking when he saw Raven and Gar. Wally dashed over, looking Gar up and down, grimacing. He looked busted up,broken in many, many places. Wally unfortunately knew what a bad fall does to ones bones, especially down concrete steps. Add in the bleeding that he saw, and the bleeding that he didn't... "Raven, can you get him back to the tower? You can get him there the fastest."
Raven didn't move, her back still to the assembled group.
"Raven, he's going to need a lot of work, and you're going to need a lot of help." Wally tried to reinforce. She still wasn't moving. Wally looked at the others, worried expression not leaving his face. Donna leaned down next to Raven.
"Raven?"
Raven finally looked up, tears still going down her face, she looked like she was trying to hold back sobs. And failing.
"Raven, we're going to need you to pull yourself together enough to get him home and get the help we need, okay?" Donna's tone was as comforting as she could make it while being firm.
Raven looked back down, her hand to his head no longer glowing, but it was unwilling to leave his hair. She took several shaky breaths, before finally nodding curtly. Within a moment, Gar and Raven were surrounded in a black bubble, disappearing as it faded. Donna stood up and exhaled the breath she had been holding in, her face settling into grim determination.
"Let's get this wrapped up, Flash, find the closest meta friendly hospital and try and get a doc to the tower; then get a hold of the others. Rose, you and I will get these idiots wrapped up for the police then go to the tower as soon as we can. Jinx, head to the Tower, get Raven anything she needs."
The other three looked around for a moment.
"...I should've grabbed that guy-" Rose started.
"We don't have time for that shit, get these fuckers wrapped up, and ready for the cops." Donna didn't yell it, per se, but it was damn stern.
"Yes'm" Rose immediately went to work gathering the goons on that floor. "Oh hey, they have the good zip ties!"
Wally picked up Jinx, "Sorry, but it's gonna be a rough ride."
"Like you haven't given me one before, c'mon let's get moving" Jinx raised an eyebrow at him. Wally raised his eyebrows, but they were gone in an instant.
Donna sighed. 'I'd almost suspect they're cursed at this point.' she reflected as she started grabbing members of the gang and taking them to Rose to be restrained.
Wally wasn't wrong about Jinx's ride to the Tower. But then again, she never quite liked being carried by him when he ran full tilt. By the time he set her down in front of the main doors of the tower, she was more than ready to hop out of his arm.
"You're giving me a different and better ride next time." She grumbled as she dusted herself off.
"You okay?" Wally titled his head. Jinx stepped back a bit.
"Yeah, why?"
"Jinx, I can tell the difference between your normal quips and 'I'm coping with rough shit' quips." He said flatly.
She looked down awkwardly, "It's...it's just shitty, y'know?"
"Yup." Wally breathed out. He looked at the city for a moment, his face settling into a similar determination that Donna had moments earlier. "I'll reflect on it after he's okay."
Jinx nodded, "Good-" He was already halfway across the water to the city. "-luck." she finished lamely, before sighing and turning to head into the tower.
By the time Donna and Rose had made it back to the tower, Jinx was sitting on the couch, a kettle heating up behind her.
"How're things going?" Donna asked as she looked around the common room, seeing a young woman in scrubs laying on one end the couch, blood partially smeared on her, eyes closed."
"Wally's taking a breather in our room, it took him almost six minutes of running to find a meta friendly hospital, and then an extra fifteen to get them to release a meta-qualified ER doc." Jinx rolled her eyes, then thumbed to the woman in scrubs. "The doc's taking a break herself, she got chased out of the room by Raven the second the equipment was set up and he was cleared as stable."
Donna frowned. "Chased out, how?"
"Dunno, just know it wasn't pretty." Jinx shrugged. "She'll be fine in a bit, said she's dealt with angry magic users before."
Donna nodded, before going to the kitchen to finish setting up the tea tray. "I'll get the tea to Raven, if you guys don't mind."
"Knock yourself out." Jinx waved her hand. "She hasn't said more than two words since I got here."
"I don't do tea." Rose stated bluntly, crashing onto the couch and resting her boots on the coffee table.
"That was a clean table." Jinx half glared at Rose, who shrugged in response.
"And I'm sure it will be again."
The doctor jumped as the kettle went off, sitting up, looking around for a sec then laying back down. Donna finished prepping the tea and made her way to the infirmary. She knew it was a bad time; but she had questions to get settled from Raven. And hopefully distract her from some of the very shitty days events.
When the door opened, Raven initially gave a harsh glare, but softened it when she saw Donna. She turned back to look at the unconscious Gar. As Donna walked over, she noticed that the worst of the wounds appeared to either be gone or several stages further on the mend than natural. He still looked like hell, but nowhere near the broken thing he was when they left the building. Donna settled the tray on the small end table next to Raven, before pulling a chair up next to her. Raven barely acknowledged the motion, continuing to stare at Gar. Donna breathed in then started.
"So. I'm sure I figured it out."
"Someone was going to." Raven, voice a bit hoarse.
The silence was only broken by the heartbeat monitor, and other machines running in the background.
Donna finally broke it. "So, how long have you two actually been dating?"
Raven sighed. "Roughly three years, on and off."
A/N: Sooooo this was originally posted with a half chapter after, filling in the sections after the asterisks* in the earlier chapters; showing what Rae and Gar were doing 'behind the scenes' as it were. I decided to combine them in the rework; mostly because people always skip to the latest chapter with new updates and I just want to prevent...spoilers as it were? Anyways, here ya go. One and half chapters for the price of one. Which is...free. Hrm. ….I'll shut up now.
Chapter 7.5: El Manana by Gorillaz
Chapter 2:*
Gar nearly skidded into the hall, turning into a mouse as he did so, running quickly down the hall, stopping at Raven's door, then looking down the hall, sniffing and listening for anyone else in the hall before shifting back and knocking on her door.
"Hey Raven, it's me. And uhm...just me, y'know, so I was wondering if I could-" Before Beast Boy could finish the door opened and he was yanked inside by Raven, who pulled him into a tight hug.
"I didn't hurt you too badly this time, did I?" She worriedly looked up at him and waved her hand at the door's control panel, so it shut quickly.
"Not too bad, just knocked the wind out of me a bit and put a little bump of the back of my head, no biggee." Gar responded cheerfully, returning her hug warmly. Raven's hand went up to the back of his head, finding the bump when BB winced. She frowned slightly.
"Little bump, my ass. C'mon let's get that fixed up, sit next to the bed." Raven unwound herself from him and went to sit cross legged on the edge of the bed.
Gar shifted uncomfortably in his spot, rubbing the back of his head
"Rae, you really don't have to do this, I've gotten worse in training sessions, and I gotta te-"
Raven cut him off "My actions, my fault, I'll fix it. You can tell me what you need to while I'll heal you." She pointed at the spot in front her on the floor. "Now sit." She said sternly.
Gar knew better not to argue with her over these things, he just shook his head and grinned as he walked over and sat where she indicated that he should. Raven muttered some words to herself and her hand glowed with a white energy, which she then placed over the bump on his head, and held it there steadily.
Gar shifted a little, it always felt weird when she did this. Kinda like a cold burning sensation that swirled around the wounded area. He started talking to distract from it, "So, Robin, Star and Cyborg are going out of town. Bringing in Kid Flash, Jinx and Wonder Girl to help us cover the city."
"Where are they going?" Raven asked, not budging her hand from it's spot, voice in it's usual calm near monotone.
"Dick and Kory are going out to visit Batman in Gotham and Vic's going to visit his dad in Metropolis." BB replied,shifting again to the point where Raven sighed. Wordlessly, she unfolded her legs and used them to pin him in place, each knee resting on his shoulders, and her legs crossed over his chest. He instantly stilled and she smirked.
'Works every time.' She thought as she continued her work. To distract him, she began speaking, "I thought Vic and his dad were on the outs due to the entire "turning him into Cyborg" thing?"
"...Last I checked, I guess Batman brought it up in a way that got him to go, for some reason or other." Gar said calmly, still not moving but eyes slightly wide, flicking from one side of his head to the other to look at Raven's legs, face tinged a little red.
Raven finished, the energy slowly fading out as she healed the last little bit of the bump by pushing the energy into the spot, giving Gar a slight shiver. She then rubbed her hand through his hair, both to double check the bump being gone and taking advantage of the moment to do so.
Gar leaned his head into her hand slightly, sighing as she ruffled his hair. "Thanks, Rae."
"You know you don't have to thank me, it was my fau-" She started but he then kissed her leg softly which abruptly fizzled her brain and the overhead light in the room a little.
'Works every time.' Gar thought, "I know I don't have to, but I'm gonna anyways." He leaned his head back to look up at her, grinning that she was looking down at him, blushing.
Raven's brows furrowed in mock anger as she looked at him, still blushing. "I hate you when you're smug."
He just kept smiling up at her "Love you too, Rae." If possible her face turned a tad redder. Gar took the moment to push his luck "By the way, the entire sit thing could be very offensive as I, being all animals, am part dog. Not cool." He still maintained fanged grin.
Raven's eye brows raised slightly at this. "Bite me."
He sighed dramatically, still grinning "Well, if you're offering..."
"Nice try." Raven interjected smirking, before he could get ahead of himself.
Gar's face and ears fell, still leaning back to look up at her. "Damn."
Raven leaned down and kissed his forehead lightly. "We'll get there again, Gar."
He sighed. "I know."
The lull that entered the room was heavy with much unsaid conversation; mostly because they'd already been over it so many times that it just didn't need to be said anymore. Words like 'After what happened, I'm uncomfortable.' and 'My powers are being unstable as it is.'. Not quite excuses. Not really. But the reasons hadn't changed in a while.
He waited a minute,before inhaling slight before asking "So...I guess keep up the hiding everything from everyone going while they're here?" Beast Boy's face fell more, the heaviness overtaking the mood fully in the room.
Raven sighed, "I don't see why, I mean if the others that are here all the time don't know, why should we let people staying for a few weeks know?" She replied in a slightly exasperated tone.
"Well...it could be like a test run, see if you can handle it." Gar said sincerely, looking up at her with almost pleading eyes.
Raven looked at him, biting her lip slightly. She hated doing this to him but it was all she knew to do. To hide aspects of herself she couldn't control well, even if one of those aspects was her very loving relationship with her secret boyfriend.
"Garfield, if I can't handle telling friends who have known us for years, why do you think I'd be able to handle telling it to people we only see, maybe, five times a year?" She didn't intend for it to come out as harshly as it did, but irritation had sunk into the statement a bit.
Beast Boy winced at his full first name, knowing he had begun treading dangerous waters." I don't know...I figured that would make it easier, I guess. It was just an idea, Rae." He looked down towards the floor, ears drooping as he did so. This hiding thing was wearing on him. He didn't say anything, mostly because he knew that she knew. Dating an empath makes it hard to hide much of anything emotionally. But he did it because it made her comfortable, and he was willing to do that for her. 'Steve once said love can be harsh sometimes. Kinda understand that now.' Gar thought bitterly.
Raven sighed again, leaning forward to rest herself lightly on the back of his head, wrapping her arms in front of him loosely. "Look at it this way; we should have an easier time spending moments together. And I'll make it up to you, I promise. Just...let's at least wait a bit longer, okay?" She asked softly, her head resting on his hair.
Gar took his turn to sigh. "Okay..."
Raven kissed the top of his head, "Thank you...for being understanding."
'I don't understand but, I'll work with you regardless. Your love, your rules.' Gar thought to himself, sighing again, and just relaxing to enjoy her resting on him. Grumbling as he may currently be, he loves these little moments. He's beginning to think it's what's keeping him sane.
Chapter 4:*
Raven wordlessly prepped a cup of tea, then went to settle next to Gar on the couch. Almost with no thought, they leaned into each other, his arm wrapping around her shoulders as her head rested on his shoulder.
"So, how did the time-of-girls go with those two?" Gar asked casually.
"They actually bugged me about you of all people." She said, almost exhausted from the thought of the previous conversation she had.
"The entire time?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Just about." Raven grumbled.
"I'm so sorry."
"You should be."
"...So they've been here, what, a week and figured it out or something?" Gar looked nervous and...maybe a little hopeful?
Raven sighed. "No, they just figured out that I like you. As far as I can tell, that's it."
"Wally seems to be on that same track. He bugged me after you suffocated me with the couch cushions." Gar chuckled, even though Raven looked down guiltily at the mention of the attack via cushions.
"So the three of them are all on to an idea about us. This might be harder than I thought." Raven thought aloud.
"Well if it helps, I threw him off a bit." Gar brought up, hoping to shake any approaching bad mood.
"How?" She raised her eyebrows without turning to look at him.
"Told him the Mal-dragon story. And said that because I bugged you, the hall exploded." Gar smirking. Raven gave a small smile of her own.
"Did the same thing to the girls, actually."
The version that they had related was actually not entirely true...
After the Malchior incident:
The game ended with Raven winning, though really, Cyborg wasn't going to try and Beast Boy may have been helping her. Afterward, they filtered out of the hall, well Cy did, Raven and Beast Boy started wandering a bit farther down, towards the unoccupied rooms.
"...I'm still sorry about all of it, Rae." Beast Boy said suddenly, breaking the calm silence that had settled between them.
"Raven." She corrected before going on, "What do you have to be sorry about?"
"Well...I didn't help much with...you feeling...alone...and all..." Beast Boy stammered. To be honest, Gar had no idea where he was going with this, but he felt like he needed to say...something more. "And I just...I just feel like I could've done more to stop you from...hurting like that. I don't ever want to hurt you or let anyone else hurt you like that again; ever."
Raven stopped walking, face red, trying to think of a response. Beast Boy stopped too, turning to look at her. She felt something in his sincerity, something deeper that connected to something in her as well. She couldn't quite place it.
"I...that's...thank you." She said simply, hugging him again. He hesitated, then returned the hug softly.
"You're...welcome." was all he could manage. They looked at each other for a moment, and without thinking, Raven leaned in and kissed him, which he returned in earnest. It was soft, inexperienced on both ends, but mingled with that unknown connection, this thing neither could quite place. They leaned into each other as the kiss deepened before...
Reality shattered back to them quickly as lights popped above them, three nearby door panels fried themselves and various dents appeared in the hallways, creating a large banging noise as this happened at once. Instantly they separated, staring at the halls around them, then back at each other, faces red. They could hear the thumps of Cyborg's boots, and knew the other two would be right behind him.
"Okay, here's what happened." Raven said quickly as Beast Boy nodded frantically to everything she said.
Back to the present:
"So what do we do now? Full on, 'they suspect something so no contact mode' like a winter ago? Because honestly, that sucked." Gar did not remember that memory as fondly as the last.
"No, I just think it's more of the same being careful. Being mindful of whose around. Wait until everyone's asleep before doing this. During the day, keep up the appearances..." She trailed off.
"That you hate me." Gar sighed as she flinched at the word.
"They know that's not true. You know that's not true." Raven said, actively hugging him.
"I know it just...feels like it sometimes. Especially the past half a year or so since the...you just seem to be going a bit more...violent with it." He spoke calmly, but concern was dripping into his voice. She didn't say anything, but continued to hug him, so he decided it would be best to leave it alone for now.
They stared at the tv blankly, not really watching the movie, just enjoying each others company. Slowly, Raven drifted to sleep curled up next him, Gar having already passed out a few minutes earlier.
Theydidn't stir until the first few peaks of sunlight came across the bay and into the large windows of the common room. Gar's eyes opened reluctantly, looked around the room for a second, then down at Raven's sleeping figure, smiling to himself. 'Oh well, time to ruin the moment.' He thought as he started to shake her lightly.
"Rae? C'mon, we gotta get back to our rooms before the others get up." He said softly.
"Five more minutes." She grumbled as she pressed her face into his side.
"...Alright, but just five minutes." He said. 'Is marshmallow an animal?' he wondered to himself.
They stayed like that for another twenty, before starting to hear foot steps coming towards the common room. Instantly, Raven popped up and disappeared in a black orb as Gar became a green fly and buzzed out of sight towards the ceiling.
Donna walked into the room, groggily looking around, ignoring the fly buzzing over her head and past her through the open door to the hall.
Chapter 6:
Gar slowly made his way down to Raven's safe room, ignoring the searing pain in his back and the scent of blood with it. He'd deal with it after. The entire way, he was cursing himself out for the argument. He had lost his temper, he knew that, knew he had pushed too hard. Sure, she pushed first but he went across a line that he never, ever go across; the "Father" line. It was a low blow, stupid and not even fair. He knew it, Gar just wish he hadn't been so damn angry to think just a tad clearer.
He finally got to control area for the safe room, and noticed the elevator down to the room had the red "locked" hologram over the front. Gar sighed and walked to the window. He about to press the mic, but when he looked down in the room, halted. There were Ravens scattered in the room. All of them except the one hunched in the center were semi-transparent, each colored a different shade, fizzing in and out, apparently chattering. He couldn't hear what they were saying, it wasn't coming over the microphones. Gar had seen them before...it just seems like they finally seemed to break fully out of Raven's head, or were trying to...or something. She hadn't told him about this.
After a minute of watching the flickering Ravens, he finally pushed the mic button for the room. "...Raven?"
The other Raven's instantly disappeared, leaving the one solid one hunched over, but not looking up. "Go away, Garfield." Her voice was hoarse, worn out.
"Rae...I...I'm sorry-" Gar started to stumble out.
"I don't care." Raven said wearily.
"...That's a lie and you know it." Gar spoke into the mic softly.
"Then I need to not care." Raven replied bluntly, still not looking up.
"Rae, you can't just shut everything down. Hell, from what I saw, it looks like you can hardly control it all." Gar said, trying and failing to keep the annoyance out of his voice. There was long pause before he asked, "How long has this been going on, Rae?"
"Go away, Gar." Raven replied again, almost pleading.
"Rae, you can't just shut me out, maybe I can hel-" He started before being cut off by a large, shadowed version of Raven made of energy standing in front of the window of the control area slamming it's fist into the window, cracking it slightly while causing all of the runes on the sides of the room to glow brightly.
The voice was unnaturally deep and harsh "As this is entirely your fault, Garfield Mark Logan, I don't want your help..Just-" Raven's voice shifted back in as the image faded. "Please, just go away."
Gar stared and thought long and hard before pressing the button again, "If you need me, I'm here. Even if you don't want me, I'm here." With that, he began to walk out of the room, trying to ignore the Ravens beginning to flicker back into existence out of the corner of his eye.
Raven hadn't moved from her spot the entire time, keeping herself wrapped up in her cloak, crying softly, trying and failing to ignore the thoughts and emotions flickering around her wildly.
As Gar got into the elevator to get to ground level he thought of their first big fight. It had been before they even considered themselves a couple, hell he was sure Raven still didn't for some reason. It happened a few days after their first kiss.
A few years ago:
"What do you mean it meant nothing?!" Beast Boy asked, confused as hell. They had been assigned to do what patch jobs they could to the hall as punishment for their destruction of it
"Exactly what it sounds like, idiot. I...was emotional, and needed comfort and you were there. Simple as that." Raven said in an even tone.
Gar stopped what he was doing, and stared at her. "Really? That's how you're gonna play that?"
"No, that's how it is." Raven replied flatly. "I'm sorry for the confusion."
"Are you saying that to me or you?" BB asked bitterly.
"What?" Raven turned to look at him, annoyed that he was keeping this up.
"You heard me. You initiated the kiss, and now you're telling yourself it meant nothing. Why?" Beast Boy tilted his head, playful smile on his face.
Raven's face tinged red. "That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard."
"That's not an answer."
"For your question, yes it is." She turned her back to him to pretend to go back to working on the door in front of her.
"Not really, you're avoiding it. Why?"
"Get back to work Beast Boy."
"I might if you give me an answer." BB swiped.
"There's no answer to give." Raven deflected.
"If there wasn't an answer, you wouldn't be avoiding it." BB parried.
"There isn't an answer you want, how about that?" Raven side stepped.
"How do you know what kinda answer I want?" BB lunged.
"The answer you want is for me to say I like you. I don't. It was a mistake to kiss you, that's all there is to it." Raven stabbed.
Beast Boy's ears dropped, "Ouch, Rae."
"Raven." She corrected tersely.
They quietly began to actually get back to work before Beast Boy muttered "Still think you're lying to yourself."
"Are you talking to me or you?" Raven snipped back at him.
"Look, All I'm saying is, from what I know of you, Raven, is that you are rarely honest with yourself. If you feel something that you don't wanna admit is there, it's not as far as you're concerned. Think whatever you want about that." Beast Boy grumbled, before grabbing a pile of tools and trudging as far away from her as he could.
Raven just stood there speechless. He had just given a very clear analysis of her behavior when things go in a way she can't handle. And he was (she very begrudgingly admitted to herself) right. Yes, he was still an idiot, he was still this childish trickster who caused her no end of grief and annoyance at times. But he just proved he pays more attention to everyone than he probably lets on. She wasn't going to let him know she was impressed by this, of course...
Present:
Gar sat on his spot on the rocks, staring at the waves. A few days after that, the Beast got released and unleashed a whole host of new problems, for him, the team and worse Raven. Neither of them talked about what Adonis had tried to do but the shared hatred the both had of him lasted a long time for a reason.
That little episode had also done more to further them down the path of being together...probably more than Gar realized at the time. He wonders if that was thing that made her finally say yes to the first attempt of their relationship. He sighed, thinking to himself, 'Man, I really hope it doesn't take another traumatic incident to fix this one. Only thing that seems it would fix this is one of us dying and That'd just suck.'
A few years down the road, he would share that thought as a kinda round-about joke about him and Raven. Though it took a few years to be funny.
A/N: Hookay. So first off; Anyone who followed this originally may remember I initially had a bunch of responses to reviews that unfortunately have not made it into the repost; I'm so sorry about that. Just...couldn't really work out how to save 'em and...sorta kinda trying to get to Ch 11 asap, ya know? In any case, sorry to those who miss those responses. Let's see...after that? Uhm. Well. Thank you for reading, or re-reading, this far! Standard fair, review if you liked, or didn't even, won't learn otherwise. Peace - Tearlach