Okay, update time. I was writing this story while taking an English class with heavy emphasis on written essays. Unfortunately, I couldn't juggle writing a big grade essay and this, so this story fell to the wayside. I'm back now, as the semester is finally over. So expect updates again every Sunday!
Nightshade
Danny sat in the medical wing of the tower on an observation table, wondering just how pissed he should be a Robin. At first glance, he thought the answer was completely livid, but after his anger simmered down a bit, he decided that Robin did present a problem that he wasn't aware of. Robin was in the other room talking with Cyborg and Raven, the two were displeased with how Robin was treating me, if their raised voices were anything to go by. He didn't really care about all that though. He put one hand on his gut when a tinge of pain shot through it.
Cyborg entered the room, but neither of the others dared to follow. He walked over to where Danny sat, and sighed. "Sorry about Robin, I've no idea what's gotten into him," Cy started.
Danny sighed and said, "I pissed him off this morning, but I didn't expect him to hold a grudge."
Cy nodded, before he said, "Normally he doesn't, but with how things went with our last prospect I wouldn't be too surprised. Anyway, take me through your morning. You never know what can be important from the insignificant details."
"I woke up, took a shower, then saw my eyes were completely bloodshot. They went back to normal, so Raven and I assumed that it was probably stress or something. We had tea to calm down, and I started to bare my soul on whether or not I'm going to stay. I guess I pissed Rob off when I was talking out loud, so he probably wanted to punish me. We went to the garage, only for him to speed off in a single person jet. I tried to follow him, only to fall from the sky. I think I may not be able to stay in ghost form for extended periods of time," Danny said, head firmly in his hands.
Cyborg nodded, and began to look at Danny's eyes. He looked for a couple moments, then stated, "We may need to bring you to a real hospital for an MRI."
A shot of panic tingled down Danny's spine.
NS-Fenton Works-NS
Maddie normally would have been waking up drunk around this time of the morning, but instead of spending her time in a bottle she decided to start packing a bag. In addition to packing, she wrote a note stating how she was going to go to Miami for a ghost convention. She placed it on Jack's side of the bed so that he would find it. She walked into their bathroom and stripped down. She washed and conditioned her hair before moving on to the rest of her body. For the first time in about a month, she enjoyed the feeling of the hot water rushing down her body. After getting out of the comfortably hot shower, she dried herself. After a few painful moments of avoiding eye contact with the mirror, she was dressed and ready to leave her home.
Picking her suitcase up from the bed, Maddie moved past her two children's rooms, before getting down to the ground floor. Once there, she looked back through the house and sighed. She didn't like the thought of leaving in the middle of this, but maybe if she cleared her head, she would be able to move past all this. She held back a tear, before walking out of the home.
NS-Titans Tower-NS
"Is this even necessary?!" Danny screamed in panic. He feared what the doctors would find out about him.
"It may be the only way Danny," Cyborg urged, hoping that Danny would seriously consider his options.
Danny would have been in complete turmoil, had it not been for Raven entering the room and stating, "I did a scan of his head this morning, and I can attest that whatever this is, it isn't in his brain."
"Okay, Ray, what would you suggest we do then?" Cyborg inquired, giving her a quizzical look.
"We have him transform, then we have him essentially do the same thing again, but on a much safer way," Raven monotoned.
"I don't think that we'll be able the same stimulus, but it's worth a shot…" Cyborg started, before looking over to the doorway sliding open to reveal a red and green costume. "I don't think it's a good…" Cyborg began, only to be cut off by Robin.
"I want to explain why I've been harder on him than he deserves. I want to tell him about her," Robin supplied.
Each of the titans looked on to Danny, who just nodded, but wondered who this her was he had stated. It couldn't be anyone on the team, could it? All but Danny and Robin fled from the room, as if upset by something Robin had stated.
"I want to apologies, after last night, I was curious about how fast you were. I put you in danger without realizing that you were even sick, but that isn't an excuse for my actions…" Robin began, but it was Danny's turn to speak.
"I… My mind is racing, dude. I don't even know what to say, or how to act around you right now! I'm mad that you're treating me like a guanine pig, but at the same time I'm glad you did," Danny said that last part just loud enough, but much quieter than the beginning. Taking a shaky breath, "It doesn't excuse you, but I am thankful you did what you did. Without your pushing and prodding, I might have collapsed at some other point."
"You're welcome?" Robin said confused. He expected the kid to react much more aggressively, or at least tell him to 'Fuck off.' He looked back to Danny, and said, "Transform, and attempt to stay in that form for as long as you can. I'll tell you all about Terra."
Danny, now curious about Terra, obliged Robin by transforming. "Will this be enough?" Danny asked.
Robin shook his head, and said, "We're going to have a sparing match. That should get your adrenaline going enough to match the circumstances that happened the first time."
Danny smiled, and cracked his knuckles.
NS-Training Floor-NS
Back in the room from the night before, Cyborg, Phantom, Raven, and Robin all stood getting ready. Danny was sure that he would enjoy the fight. He wasn't going to hold back on Robin for this, and he could tell Robin knew it.
"This is only until you collapse, Danny," Raven stated.
Danny and Robin both nodded, and with that the two dropped into fighting stances. The tension could be felt between the two, but dialed up higher than the night before.
Robin noticed that Danny was calm, and furthermore, had a much more serious defense. Robin grabbed his retractable bo-staff from his back, and extended it with a flick of his wrist. He gestured for Danny to attack.
Danny dug his heals into the ground, and shot from the spot he was in lightning fast. Turning intangible, he flew right through a calculated swing of the staff from Robin, and stopped with a small gust of wind continuing from his sudden velocity shift. Danny dropped his intangibility, and extended out his hand with an ecto-ray at the ready.
Robin turned quickly to see Danny, but caught the teen off guard when he moved his head and staff as one. Batting the teen's arm out of the way, a green blast whizzed past Robins head. The two started a close quarters brawl, and from what Robin could tell he was winning. It boiled down to Robin's skills with martial arts being better than Danny's brute force tactic.
'That's it!' Danny screamed in his head. He returned intangible, and with the staff going through his body, he jumped back to a safe distance. He turned invisible on landing, and began to formulate a plan. After a few moments, he decided on flying into the air, then strafe Robin with a few blasts. He levitated up, but when he went for the strafe, felt similar to how he felt before. He didn't say anything, but instead turned visible again, and slowly floated down.
'Is he trying to catch me off guard?' Robin thought, getting ready for an attack. Before Danny hit the ground, a hand shot up to his face as his entire body lurched. Robin dropped his staff as he rushed towards the teen. As he reached the ghostly teen, the kid hurled on the floor. All the titans in the room were now a few feet from the ghostly teen.
Danny looked down at the grotesque display of bile, however nothing concrete displayed itself. "Sorry guys," he apologized.
"It's alright dude. At least you are still in your ghost form," Cyborg stated.
"I think that whatever this is, it isn't entirely connected to your powers," Robin observed aloud.
Danny nodded, but didn't say anything as Raven moved forward. As she placed her hands on him, he felt calm flow through him. He also noticed that his gut now didn't feel as taxed, which made him sigh in relief.
She let go of him, then said, "I think this is a side effect of the poison. My guess is that you're still suffering from the blood blossom, however you should make a recovery seeing as you are still in your ghost form. My recommendation is that you avoid being in your ghost form for the time being."
Danny nodded, then transformed back to his human form. Robin put a hand on his shoulder, then said, "I'm still going to Amity. You don't have to go, but if you do then Raven is going with us."
Danny simply nodded again…
NS-A few hours later-NS
Danny shifted uncomfortably in the VTOL jet that the titans had. He didn't necessarily enjoy flying as much anymore, mostly because he was used to flying unaided in his ghost form. He looked back to see Raven sleeping, or perhaps meditating, while Robin flew the craft. It didn't surprise Danny that Robin knew how to fly, but he could tell the titan was on edge.
"So, how did you get into all of this?" Danny inquired.
"I was always interested in flying planes," Robin slyly avoided the context of the question.
"No, I mean the hero business," Danny narrowed his previous question.
"I'd rather not get into that dude. Back then isn't good times," Robin dodged.
"How about a question for a question?" Danny goaded.
"It's not that I don't want to answer, but my life is intertwined with Batman from my early years, and before that my parents died when I was young. I'd rather not have to remember all that," Robin answered.
"How about that person you were going to tell me about?" Danny asked.
Robin nodded, and then said, "We had a friend called Terra. She said it was her name, but I assumed it was fake. She was a prospective titan that we took into our home; however, it didn't work out in the long run. She had teamed up with one of our enemies, and we had been tracking her down ever since."
"So, she broke your trust," Danny stated.
"You could say that. Anyway, we are about thirty minutes out from Amity," Robin informed the two teens.
Danny turned to see a completely alert Raven, who simply nodded to the two others. Danny leaned forward and said, "Land in the woods in about 5 minutes. We will have to walk the rest of the way to not arouse suspicion."
Robin nodded, then in five minutes the plane had vertically descended to the ground. As the three teens hit the ground, Robin and Danny exited the craft. A few moments later, Raven exited wearing a black hoodie, knee high black steel toe boots, and a skirt. Danny almost had to slap himself, thinking that she looked exactly like Sam.
Robin entered again, but his return wasn't as dramatic. He was wearing a green hoodie, blue jeans, and his mask. He also had a robin logo on the hoodie.
NS-One Hour Later-NS
It took the three almost forty minutes to make it to the city, then another twenty to make it all the way passed the gated community, which Sam lived in, until they reached Tuckers house.
Robin walked up to the door, and knocked. Danny hid behind the two titan, and pondered what he would say. Tuckers dad opened the door, and asked, "May I help you?"
"I'm Robin with the Teen Titans," Robin began, bringing out a JLA badge. "I'm here to discuss with your family about a data hack that happened earlier from this address. May we come in?" Robin spoke formally.
Mr. Foley opened the door wider, holding in his anger, as he spoke calmly, "Of course."
As the two walked into the home, Danny stood still. Robin turned around and said, "You coming?"
Danny shook the absurdity out of his head, and followed passed Mr. Foley, mouthing sorry to him.
After a few pleasantries, the two titans, the Foleys and Danny all were sitting in the living room. Tuckers eyes were wide at the sight of Danny with the Teen Titans, even if he was too awe inspired to speak.
Robin began the meeting with, "Mr. Foley, I would like a tour of the house, to see all the electronics in your home. If our monitor picked up the right address, whatever electronic component that attached itself to our network would be completely bricked."
Mr. Foley nodded, and said, "Tucker, give the man a tour of the house."
"Raven stay here, Danny with me," Robin ordered.
As the teens got away from the rest of the family, Danny asked to Tucker, "Did you hack the Titans?"
"What are you doing with them?" Tucker asked in a hushed, but excited manner.
"Later, just take us to your computer," Danny said.
Tucker led Danny and Robin upstairs, then straight to the computer. He said, "I just wanted to know where you were dude. You were gone for two days! Your family is completely worried about you!"
Danny nodded, and said, "I was attacked by my mom. She thinks that I'm possessing myself."
Tucker looked down and said, "Dude, that's rough. Are you going to…"
"How did you hack the titans?" Robin asked.
"I intercepted your guys IP address. I learned that Danny was on the west coast when my computer got bricked," Tucker answered.
Robin plugged in a flash drive, then booted the PC back up. No problems in booting, but Robin looked back to the teen. "I'm going to have to take the hard drive. It's unfortunately a matter of a breach of security. If we find nothing stolen from us, we will return the drive in forty-eight hours," Robin stated.
"Damn…" was all Tuck could say. That was when Danny saw a shimmer of green energy shift through the air. He looked out of the window, and noticed a pulse slowly shift from the direction of his home. The pulses quickened, until he saw a green flash. Danny was in panic mode as he transformed, and with all his might put up a ghost shield as wide as he could muster…
End of chapter.
So I've been sitting on this chapter for a while now. When I came back to it, I found it a bit bare bones, so I polished it up before sending it on its way. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and I'll write more for the next update this Sunday.