In a very futile fashion, Sam brushed her long bangs out of her face as she stared up at the newest obstacle in her path. Robin, standing beside her with a seemingly ever present scowl on his face, muttered darkly under his breath. They glared at the shear wall of pale grey concrete that dared to stand in their way. The wall of course did not glare back as it was inanimate, and could not feel or express human emotion. Such was the existence of a wall.
"Well that's a dead-end alright." Sam said her hand falling limping falling away from her head as she turned to Robin, "Do you have any other sure-fire hunches to where Slade or our teams are?"
"It wasn't a hunch. It was a gut-feeling."
"…You do know that's the same thing right?" Sam said her face creased in a way that directly challenged Robin's intelligence.
"No, it's not. A hunch would be going back the way we came because there could be another way." Robin explained pointing to an area behind Sam's head, "A gut-feeling is knowing opening that door over there is better than standing here."
Sam followed where Robin pointed to see an unassuming metal door further down the wall just out of sight. "You know," She said looking pointedly at Robin, "It would be great if you could tell me stuff like this before I make a fool out of myself."
"Are you going to hit me again?" Robin said tensing. For all the time they spent stuck together Sam could see that even though he wanted to help her he still thought of her as an unpredictable and dangerous criminal. His actions were of course justified, but she couldn't but help feel annoyed.
"I would, but right now I just want out of this cavern." Sam said lightly tugging on her side on the handcuff as she started toward the door. "Seriously, it feels like we have been here for hours, days, weeks even!"
Robin's eyebrow raised at her exclamation, "Don't you think you're being a little dramatic?"
"Please, like you're not tired of grey walls, a darker grey ceiling and an even darker grey floor." Sam said placing a hand on the door knob and smiling widely as it clicked open. "Like any good Goth I live and breathe the motionless dark, but even I want to have a little excitement. And," Sam smile faded into something more subdued, "I don't know why but I feel like I missed a lot. Like a crazy amount of things happened while we were down here. As if we were knocked out for longer than we thought."
Robin glanced at her his eyes shifting over to the door in the next heartbeat, "It's not impossible. Slade has done worst when trying to convince people to his side. Who knows what he is thinking, or what he really wants with you and your friends."
"You're right we don't know what he wants." Sam said her smile coming back, "But I do know how to find out. So! Let's see what's behind door number one!"
The first thing she saw when she opened the door was a large, almost impossibly large cavern lit up brighter than anything she saw in the past few hours. The light burned her unused eyes causing them to blink painfully. Through stagnant light she began to see shapes distinct from the constant beige walls she was starting to hate. The second thing she saw was very animated specks of colour standing on a ledge on the opposite side of the cavern. Said specks jumped up and down trying to get her attention. One particular speck stood out more to her, dirty black cloak and braided back hair swaying with his erratic movements.
Tucker shouted waving to her while pointing down into the cavern that separated them to the third thing she noticed. Something that she heard before she actually saw. A black tidal wave of technology chasing after a desperately flying glowing white and a desperately blasting purple speck. The final thing she saw was that the glowing white, bright green eyed speck was slowly losing altitude as the deadly tide closed in on him.
"Danny!"
For the briefest of moments Danny looked her way. His ghostly green eyes staring into her purple panicked ones. Pure relief reflect in his eyes as fear clutched her heart, and the black tide violently surged forward. Swallowing both him and Raven within its relentless waves.
Her body moved on its own. Barely months ago she would have collapsed at seeing Danny's being attacked in such a way. Hiding from the truth behind her hands and knees pulled toward her face. Now after so many close calls she ran towards Danny. Towards the edge of the cliff as she prepared herself for the inevitable jump into the metallic tide. Preparing for that moment of weightlessness before she entered the fray.
She would have fought for Danny with her bare hands if something didn't keep her rooted on the edge.
"What do you think you're doing?" Robin shouted steading his stance against Sam's charge.
"I have to save Danny!" She angrily replied clutching at the chain keeping her from helping Danny. No matter she will get there even if she had to drag Robing over the edge.
"And how do you think you're going to do that without your weapons? Do you really believe that you can win an unarmed fight against that?" Robin snapped pointing towards the tide. "You'll just get the both of us killed. Do you really want to die doing something this stupid?"
Sam held fast, holding tight on the chain but no longer pulling them both to an obvious suicidal jump. Not quite wanting to admit that what she wanted to do was beyond stupid, and angry that Danny was still in danger and she had yet to do anything, she snapped back at Robin, "Look across the divide at your team! They saw Danny and Raven go under, but they're just standing there. Slade must have done something to them," Sam said narrowing her eyes, "Or are you guys not as close as you thought?"
Sam knew she over stepped as the darkest look that she had ever seen twisted Robin's face.
Robin roughly dragged the chain toward himself, as a result Sam was pulled inches away from his face, "You're treading on thin ice Samantha Mansion." Robin muttered his words coming out as a taunt hiss, "My team would never betray each other. Are you sure you can say the same of yours? Tucker seems to be standing very still."
Sam forced herself to meet Robin's glare with one her own, even as her knees started to shake and palms started to sweat.
So this was the infamous Bat Family Glare. Why the hell did she provoke it out of him? She remembered Batman glaring at them. It was scary but it wasn't terrifying. Briefly she wondered if Batman had been actually glaring at them or just looking at them. If so she never wanted to be on the other side of that glare. The glare Robin was giving her was starting to make her shake...
Forcefully, Sam pushed him away. She couldn't bend to his anger not if she wanted help Danny, but she should probably refrain from staring Robing in the eyes. "Tucker isn't a traitor, but assuming Slade did the same thing to him that he did to us he's powerless. Without his tech Tucker can't fight. None of us can fight." Sam said looking over at the insect-like tech swarming in a tight sphere around where she knew Danny and Raven where.
Some of the tension in her chest lessened as she saw a mix of green and black blasts emerge from the buzzing mass. They were still fighting. Good, but how long could they hold out? Danny and Raven were strong but not that strong. One of them was going to collapse, and when that happened-
No! Think! Just go at it like it was any other time the Guys in White attacked them. Danny took out the heavy artillery, she went after the agents and Tucker took down the droids. Okay, how was Tucker going to do take down these bots without a shield to hide behind? The droids were going to swarm them any moment now! She could hear the turning, scraping, and metallic-
Silence.
Why weren't the droids attacking them?
Sam walked to the edge, pulling Robin with her.
"I thought you told you rushing into this would only kill us both-"
"Dude, shut up! I think I'm onto something here." Sam snapped back looking over the edge.
"…Dude?"
Sam peered over the edge in the full view of the robots beneath her ignoring how indignant he sounded. The robots hiss, squealed, sliced through the air with their sharp translucent wings, but not once did they acknowledged her or Robin.
For once Sam was happy that she forced to listen to Tucker's ramblings on technology. She knew exactly what she was seeing unfold. "Ants." She breathed her face contorting into a genuine smile.
Robin looked between her and the mosquito like robots. "What?"
"They're ants. Tucker told us about this." Her smile became more relaxed. Robin was starting to sound less pissed off and more along the lines of his normal amount of constant annoyance. This she could work with. "Mass produced technology based swarms like this cannot think for themselves. It's like quantity over quality. They get one message, one task, and are set free and as one. Theoretically they could destroy or do anything, but if something else that's not a pre-programed threat attacks them?" Sam trailed off to pick up a rather large stone and threw at the swarm against Robin's sudden protests.
The stone took a few of them down and in response ten or fifteen to them flew over the gorge's lip and surrounded them. Sam smiled widely as the bugs buzzed around them in confusion them, and immediately flew back into the gorge and re-joined their pre-programed attack patterns.
Sam turned her huge grin at Robin, "They can't change who they are program to attack or what they are programed to do. Like ants they cannot go against what they are made to do. No matter what the situation calls for."
Robin watched the 'ants' closely, "That's good to know, but how can this help us?"
Sam's smile faltered a bit. Now came the hard part, "I have an idea. It's a terrible idea, and can only work if we work together. Like, no distrust, full cooperation."
Immediately Robin's smile turned into a frown.
"I know, I know. Believe me if our positions we flipped I wouldn't trust me either. Heck I told you that I was planning an escape behind your back and insulted you and your team." Sam said finding that despite her best efforts she was once again staring down Robin. "That doesn't matter because my plan, as flawed as it is, may be our only chance to save Danny, and Raven before they succumb to exhaustion."
Sam tensed as Robin looked past her to the sphere where the green and black lights were getting weaker and weaker.
The wary, regretful, yet accepting look that Robin gave her caused a new larger smile to bloom across her face.
"What do you need me to do?" He asked.
"First, you're need help me rip my cloak off I need to make a cheap bag. Secondly, we have to gather as much stones we can get. Not too heavy." Sam paused a wide and purely wicked grin twisting her features just so," Thirdly… I need you need to take off your cape."
Before grade nine Tucker thought that the world was reasonable. He either walked with his friends to school or met with them at the school. Maybe he will hit on some girls and definitely later get rejected. Maybe he would pass a test with an A+ or maybe he would barely pass with a C-. Would he take the chicken soup or the roast beef sandwich? Did it matter really matter as long as it wasn't what Sam was having. Honestly, feeding kids mud and grass had to be a form of child abuse. Anyways, whatever he took would just be another tick in a day of his boring, exceptionally normal, monotonous life.
Then Danny died.
They never had really spoken about Danny's death, even if he would make jokes every now and then. Trying to mask his concern with tasteless jokes was long ago accepted as the norm. 'Hey buddy you look like you have the other foot in the grave' 'Dude, you okay? You look half dead. Or you know three quarters dead'. But to actually address the fact that Danny was a little less alive? Pointing out that even if it was just for a second Danny really did die? No way. Not now, not ever.
So, he tried to forget the horrible scream Danny made when he was zapped. He ignored his nightmares and the bags under Sam's eyes. He ignored the times he saw Danny walking around Amity's cemetery looking at his family's empty plot. He ignored everything and put on smile because life or what was left of it was fine. They all could live simple lives even if Danny wasn't technically completely there.
Then the first ghost attacked, and the second, and the third and suddenly he couldn't ignore what was happening around him. He quickly learned to keep his head calm after he was turned into an envious rampaging monster. Soon after he pushed himself to fight against the ghosts, monsters and whatever else plagued their small town. Thankfully, after grade ten things got easier. The ghost attacks got more and more spread apart. Their grades rose higher and higher. And against all odds they got early acceptance letters to the universities and colleges they wanted to go to. Studying normal topics that didn't mean the difference between life and death was all too easy. Life was good again.
He should have known that nothing stayed that good for them. That life would ever be so fulfilling. Especially after he and Valeria surprized each other with promise rings.
Before he could get down from his high and wonder what he a Valeria would do with four rings. He, Danny and Sam were thrown back into long forgotten uncertainty and constant fear when Guys in White came after then in their own homes. It was like they were terrified ninth graders standing in front of the smoking ghost portal again.
Well it wasn't completely like grade nine. This time they had been ready. How could they not be? They held the fear of being outed for most of their teenage lives. After all was said and done, even as his heart ache for home in the early hours of the morning he knew that he could survive this. After years of fighting the paranormal and normal, even when they were attack by the League themselves he couldn't be shocked into silence or paralyzed by fear.
Yet there were times when he could feel his brain shut down. When he could do nothing but gape at the impossibility of the world and all that existed within it.
Like right now seeing Sam and Robin run across the backs of the swarming mosquito bots to reach them.
No. That was wrong. What he saw couldn't be describe as running. It was too off-balanced, too frantic, too clumsy.
What they were doing was pure madness.
He and the Titans around him could only gape and watch as Sam and Robin ran towards them.
Sam clutched her cloak closed to her body her face red, straining hard as she bit down hard on a corner of said cloak. One large purple sleeve hung precariously on her arm and threatened to slide across the chain of a single handcuff that connecting her to Robin. The praised leader of the Titans didn't look much better as his face held nothing but pure regret. He held his cape under his arm and like Sam was skipping across the bodies of the swarm towards them. Each powerful step they took had their knees brushing their stomachs while their bodies swayed back and forth in their effort to stay upright.
It was if the very essence of hopscotch did a line of coke and went on the most demented bender ever seen in the history of humankind.
And they were falling...
They were falling!
He could only watch in horror as they started to sink closer to the ground. The first scream hanged on the edge of his tongue. They could not survive a fall that far. He had to do something!
Sam twisted.
By the Tesla, Gates, and Jobs! How could she twist in such a way without hurting herself? With one foot balancing on a sinking drone she brought her other leg up against her chest and wrapped it across her stomach creating a platform. Setting her cloak on bended leg Sam's now free hand shot into the bag and she took out a stone. No, she took out a rock. In the most basic terms a hand boulder and hurled it. The hand boulder smashed a ridiculous amount of bots on the way down and in response waves of the swarm flew up to meet them. Sam quickly put her leg down, repositioned herself, and jumped.
The game of hopscotch resumed, and the straining faces came back full forced. Both of their eyes wide as saucers and one set of visual pupils as small as pin picks. Stressed out veins visible on taught necks and flailing bodies jumping expertly on barely there footholds. It was ugly as it was beautiful. Like a mother bird shakily throwing up into its young's mouth.
Awe-inspiring.
Dreadful.
Awful.
"Tucker, move!"
He snapped back to reality just fast enough to jump out of the way of Sam and Robin's entrance.
They did not land with any sort of grace, unless, you thought that a bowlingball thrown by a child was graceful. Head over head, body over body and finally a dusty skid to a rest, and enough bruises to last them both a lifetime.
"Sam!" He was by her side instantly. That landing looked like all kinds of painful. He could feel his worry spike. Oh god she could be-
"Oh mother of darkness I think I ingested non-organic dirt!"
She was fine. Oh thank goodness she wasn't hurt. Now he could properly kill her.
"Sam what the hell were you thinking!" He wanted to strangle her! This sort of idea had Sam written all over it. "What if you died?"
"Scold me later." Sam said pushing herself into a sitting position. Her eyes blinking away the pounding headache he knew she had. "Listen. Those bugs over there are Ants can you control them?"
He paused at her words worry and anger melting away. If they were really Ants that means-
"Yes! Of course I could, but I need something to work off of." He replied.
"Hey." Robin interjected twisting out of Starfire's frantic pat-down enough to pull out an angrily twitching palm size mosquito like robot from his cape. "Would this work?"
Tucker gaped at the bot and suddenly he got the point of Sam's plan. Her plan was ingenious and executed in the horribly perfect way that had her name written all over it. "Yes it would," he said, quickly taking the bot from Robin's out stretched hands, "but I need tools."
Robin nodded to himself as if he expected something like this would happen. "Right. Cyborg give Tucker your arm."
"Give him his (my) what?!" Well look at that Cyborg owed him a soda.
"You have tools he needs tools. We don't have much time." Robin said pointedly causing as Cyborg dislocated his arm and gave it to Tucker.
Robin ignored Cyborg as gave Tucker one of the dirtiest looks he could muster in favour of watching the gorge as bright spurts of light sparked over the cavern wall. "How is Raven still fighting?"
"It's because Raven's not fighting Danny is." Sam said standing up pulling Robin with her as Tucker fiddled with the bot, "He wouldn't let harm come to Raven. At least not without a fight." She frowned, a pensive look crossing her face, "Tucker how fast can you get it working?"
"I'm already done." Tucker replied holding the backless robot up before twisting two wires together. Oh how great it was to be holding technology again! "Let's hope this works."
Tucker held the robot toward the massing swarm, "It's time for you guys to get away from Danny and Raven." With that Tucker pulled a hissing dial back on the protesting bot. "So why don't y'all just chill!"
The robots froze. Hanging in the air like the direct reverse of the night sky, black shining spots against a near white background, the robots hovered in mid-air.
"Sweet!" Tucker exclaimed a wide grin crossing his face. Finally he had technology in his hands again. No more running blind. Looking down at the docile robot in his hands he gave it an almost loving smile. "I think I'm going to call you Jessica. Yeah, that's a great name."
Easily, sweetly he tap a few more commands into the robot's back and the swarm rose away from the ground and towards them. In a few heart beats they had rearranged themselves into a staircase leading down to where Danny and Raven laid sprawled out on their backs. Tucker watched as Danny and Raven's chest rose and fell harshly, painfully, but not in a way that suggested that their lives were in danger.
"Well they might all be ants, but at least they a good for something." Tucker said before testing the bridge at smirking at it holding. "Ladies and gentlemen I have your transport."
"Alright, Tuck!" Sam shouted throwing her free hand up in a quick fist pump. "You're the man!"
"Yes, yes I am." He said smugly before lightly stepping on the bridge. It held fast and his spirits lifted as he made his way down the stairs.
"Dude how did you do that?" Beastboy asked following him down.
"Just some of the most basic reverse engineering by using an interconnected drone and turning it into singular patristic point to infect the other drones I-" Tucker paused, he could the TV static behind Beast Boy's eyes. "All I did was turn Jessica here from a drone into a Queen," He said smug smile still gracing his face as he altered his explanation. "It was nothing. I could have broken into buildings with higher security in my sleep."
"Marvelous not-villain Tucker!" Starfire exclaimed jumping into the air and for a split second she stayed there before landing on the steps, "Tell us, were was the place of highest security you have broken into? You must have help to stop many of the bad bugs." She said, skipping down the staircase her eyes wide filled with wonder and a child-like innocence.
Tucker blanched his smile awkwardly twitching as his mind simple said shit.
"Umm, well you see, ahh~" He floundered. Why the hell did his eloquence always leave him when he needed it the most?
"Don't worry about it Tucker, Robin knows about our little villain streak." Sam said nonchalantly waving any villainous past deed away as they walked down the steps.
"Villain streak?" Starfire asked the smallest hint of betrayal reflecting in her eyes, "I thought you were not of the villain?"
"I'm not, were not!" Tucker said wanting to turn around but not wanting to trip down a flight of metallic stairs. "Look, there was this guy, who asked us to do somethings in exchange for a couple of fake ID's. They were for medicine!" Tucker quickly replied at hearing Robin's rising protest. "We needed it. Soup and rest can only do so much. We already had a way too close call. So, we help him break into a place." He said as he finally step on the even cavern floor.
He barely got a few steps before he felt Robin's hand on his shoulder, "I understand and I don't fault you, but it would better for you to fess up." Robin reasoned, "What you stole could have been dangerous. Especially if a supervillain wanted it."
"You don't have to worry about that. We robbed a bank. It was mostly through online transactions so no priceless or magical artifacts got stolen. Made that mistake once, never again." Tucker said, before he looked away in thought, "Well maybe not never. That Ancient Egyptian staff was pretty powerful." He yelp at Robin sudden vice grip on his shoulder. "Kidding I was kidding!"
Robin released his shoulder and gave him a very pointed glare.
"I get it. I get it. Not funny." Tucker said quickly back tracking. Forgetting that Robin had been raise by Batman was one of the more stupid things he had done. "Anyways you shouldn't worry, the guy played us, didn't even get us our cheap ID's. So, I reversed the transaction and sent all the money back. All ten million of it. No harm no foul."
"Still that was a pretty crumby thing to do." Beast boy said.
"You act like it was my idea." Tucker said deliberately looking at Sam. He couldn't help but smirked when she paled.
'Not so fun when you're on the other side, eh Sam?'
Robin turned his glare from Tucker and onto Sam.
"In my defence we work on a democracy. We all agreed to help the guy rob a place. Don't blame me on that. I just chose which bank to rob." Sam said weakly an uneasy smile on her face.
"That doesn't matter. Someone would have missed that money." Robin said for his part looking like he wanted to arrest all three of them again.
Tucker snorted, "We stole from Wayne Corp. There's no way a guy like him would miss a couple mil."
Robin's made a peculiar face as if he had just found the final piece in a long standing puzzle. The shock on his face disappear into a certain scowl that made Tucker shrink, "You-"
"Um guys?" A certain unmistakable echoing voice spoke, "I don't want to intrude in whatever it is you're doing, but I'm kinda in pain here."
"Oh my gosh, Danny!" Sam said barreling past Tucker and dragging Robin away effectively ending the conversation.
"Hey Sam, how's it going?" Danny said looking at her through hazy eyes. "I can't move or feel anything right now so I have that going for me."
"Damn, Tucker look at his shackles on his leg." Sam said gesturing to the ominously glowing chain. "I think they're draining his powers."
"No wonder you couldn't get away from those small fries." Tucker said before turning to Cyborg, "I need to borrow the laser in your hand again. We need to get these things off him. If they're affecting Danny this much who knows what they're doing to Raven."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Cyborg said materializing a thin tongue of blue flame from his pointer. "Hold on Rae-Rae we're getting these off of you."
Tucker backed away from the commotion of the newest epicenter in favour of watching. With Sam cradling Danny's head on her lap, with Robin awkwardly sitting next to them, and Cyborg cutting through the glowing chain it was starting to get a little crowed. He was starting to feel like a fifth wheel.
Especially since he didn't have someone to hold.
Tucker shook his head.
No. Bad.
It was better this way. Valeria had the option to finish high school, he wasn't going to trample on chance for a future so that he could feel a little less lonely.
Yet still…
He was saved from his own thoughts by the grumble of the Titan's leader. "You're not off the hook. Burglary is still a felony even if you put the money back."
"Burglary?" Danny let off a painfully fake laugh, "No one here has done anything-"
"He knows." Huh. It seemed impossible that the last time he and Sam spoke in tangent was only a few days ago. Or weeks. He really didn't want to think of how long it's been. Looking at Sam, she didn't want to think about it either. She looked so worried the way she bit her lip and didn't quite look him and Danny in the eye.
Tucker froze. That fear was more than general uncertainty. What happened?
"Why do the Titans know we robbed a bank?" Danny said oblivious to interaction between Sam and himself. Danny sighed as Cyborg finally cut through the chain. Tucker could see why. As the chain went dark Danny's glow slowly came back.
"Guilty." Sam said her hands combing through Danny's hair, a weak smile on her face, "I felt it was important to tell them. Speaking up may help us, even if it's just a little bit."
"How could this help us in any way?" Danny asked not mad or even annoyed seeing by the way he leaned into her touch. "Isn't it kinda detrimental against our 'not-villain' case?"
"Look at you using big words." Tucker tensed at the weakness behind Sam's voice as she continued, something that Danny finally picked up on, "Listen we have to make sure there's nothing that can be used against us. No secrets, none at all. Not if we want to be taken in by the Titan's or the Justice League." She sighed, a gasping hesitant thing that had the sadness of the world behind it, before looking up at him, "We can't go home."
Tucker was paralyzed in place as Sam spoke. This was impossible. He knew it was.
Their luck was bad, but it was never this horrible. That was what he kept telling himself as Sam told them everything as Robin looked on, stoic. How could just watch silently as his world crumbled? Doesn't he care about what this means? They could never step foot in Amity park again, not with these accusations. These lies…
"We would never kill someone." Tucker couldn't help but interrupt.
"I know that." Robin said, "You have to understand. What I know doesn't matter. Not when it's my word against the government."
"Then what good are you?" He knew he was becoming irrational, but at that moment he didn't care.
"Tucker…" Sam started.
"No! Don't you get it? We can't go back." How he could feel so blisteringly hot and inhospitably cold at the same time? "We still had a chance, before all this happened, but now? We'll never seen the inside of Amity Park again. We'll never seen our houses again. Not our hangouts, or the park that we practically grew up in. Or anything!" He was eighteen old enough to start his first year of university. So, why did he feel like a child?
"That's why you have to turn yourselves in." Robin explained, "If the world see's you cooperating with us, we could have a case."
At once his anger hit a boiling point, "Why the hell would any of us go with you to just have the slim chance of seeing our families again? What if your plan doesn't work? Then what? Are we just going to rot in some government base while our families our loved ones sit in the dark not knowing what's happening to us? I would rather-!"
"Tucker."
He protest died in his throat at Danny's voice. Strained as it was Danny's look still held the same weight that it always did when he pointed out to Tucker that he had his foot so far in his mouth that he could kick his own appendix.
Danny looked the same as he did during those times. Stern face, squared shoulders, and a warning glare that had the smallest almost unnoticeable hint of heat behind it. Same as always.
Except.
Except, his face had flushed green tint behind it. A green tint that if he was in human form would be a reddish tint around his eyes. An emphasis to the barely there liquid that hung but never feel off of the edge.
'You're not the only one who is effected by this doofus.' A childish swear for the childish way he was acting.
He didn't have a ghost signature. If push came to shove he could find a way back to Amity Park, a way back to his family, back to Valarie, even if it was just for a little while.
…but Danny?
How painful was it for him to never be able to return to the town of his obsession? Was his ghost-self tearing itself apart? Would he ever be able to talk to his parents again?
What about Sam? He remembered how anger, how scared she was when her grandma got ill. They all knew that if she passed away Sam wouldn't to go to her own grandma's funeral. Her grandma got better but she was old, and they all wondered how long until she had left.
He was an idiot. He swore he wouldn't be so selfish after that wish he made so many years ago.
"Danny, Sam. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. It's just that..." Tucker trailed off, one hand over the other brushing against a naked spot that should be covered by a thin band of silver.
"Don't worry about it." Sam said a wiry smile on her face, "Just don't forget we're all in this together."
"Right, even if you tend to have a terrible case of verbal diarrhea." Danny chimed in the green tint and water gone from his eyes. Replace by a smile that was pure mischief.
"Lovely mental picture." He snarked back, before turning to Cyborg. He still felt shitty for lashing out at them. If he was going to make it up to them he could start by removing the hazard he had blinking on his ankle, "Do you mind taking this tracker on my leg off? I would rather that Slade didn't know my every move."
That got Robin's attention. "You have a tracker?"
"Yeah, you don't?" Tucker replied wary of the hungry look Robin was giving his leg.
"No." Robin said curtly, "Let me see your leg."
"Can't you wait until I take it off?"
"It could be a bomb."
Tucker sighed, "Of course it could be." He said sitting down.
Robin's eyes narrowed at the device. His fingers lightly tapping the too hollow box. "It's not a bomb."
"Then what is it?" Raven asked finally sitting up with Beastboy's help.
Robin didn't answer in favour of snapping open the box. "It's a message." Robin removing a small slip of paper from the ankle monitor.
Starfire peered over Robin's shoulder, "What does it say?"
"We're out of time." Robin said crushing the note in his hand, "Cyborg what day is it, you have an internal clock right?"
Cyborg looked down at his arm. His eyes widen as he looked down, twisting apprehension in the hearts of Sam, Danny and Tucker, "It's the 25." Cyborg said causing them all to freeze, "We've been out for sixteen days."
"Two weeks. The league gave us two weeks." Danny said before pulling himself away from Sam and struggling to his feet. When he started to sway Sam quickly stood up and steadied him. Of course she ignored Robin's glare at being roughly pulled, "We have to contact them, or get out of here, or something."
"Dude. I agree, but we got to think about this." Tucker said putting up a placating hand, "Right now we're are public enemy number one. In America. With the government after us. And we're with the Titans who have been gone as long as we have, in a supervillain's lair. This isn't exactly an innocent looking situation."
"Should that really matter?" Starfire said, "As long as we speak for you…"
"People have been controlled by ghosts before. Why should now be any different?" Sam said dryly.
"There are people who can control minds on the League. They wouldn't attack outright. As long as you comply you have nothing to worry from the League." Raven interjected.
"That's right we shouldn't be worried about the League. We should worry about the Guys in White." Danny said the sickly looking haze on his face finally dissipating. "My parents spent their lives hunting ghosts. I know ghost research. And if what Batman told Robin is true then the League wasn't a part of the research on us." Danny said nearly spitting the word, "It's too much in too short of an amount of time on a subject they barely know. This has the G.I.W signature all over it. If the League is forced to work with the G.I.W…"
They stood in silence as the implication of that unfinished statement hung in the cold cavern air.
Sam sighed running her hand through her long hair, "Okay so we're screwed six ways from Sunday and over the long weekend too. Standing here moping isn't going to help us one bit. So what can we do?"
Robin stood straighter falling back into a leader position, "First, Cyborg remove the shackles from both Sam and I. We can't do anything if we are stuck together. Secondly," He said turning to and addressing Sam, and Tucker, "we need to get our weapons back. I rather be able to defend ourselves if Slade left anymore surprizes for us here."
"I admit the mosquito-bots wave was uncalled for. Just saying, Tucker, you're going have to get rid of that bot before I start feeling relaxed, but don't you think Slade putting down anymore traps is a little overkill?" Danny asked, "Like what else would he have?"
"First, Jessica is going nowhere." Tucker said clutching the bot a little closer to himself. As he spoke Cyborg began cutting through the Sam and Robin's chains, "And secondly, three words. Giant Demon Centipede."
Beastboy snorted, "Okay the centipede was bad, but I wouldn't call it a demon."
"The thing was four stories high, dark-red and black, and had a spiked mace tail it used against us. I'm calling it a demon until proven otherwise. So, yeah we need our stuff." Tucker deadpanned.
Danny looked at Tucker and when he saw that Tucker was not in lying he raised his hands exasperation, "You know what? I'm putting Slade on the major fruitloop list. There are now three people on that list. If someone else gets added I'm going to get mad."
"Seeing our luck someone else is going to be added by the end of the night." Sam said rubbing the sore part where the cuffs had dug into her wrist, "Or is it day? Well that doesn't matter now, what matters is which direction we take now. The way Robin and I came has nothing."
"There are very unfriendly monsters the way we came." Starfire said a little more lighthearted as she slowly rose into the air.
"I guess we take the way Danny and I was running to." Raven said looking down the cavern, "Maybe the bot's were trying to make us go somewhere."
"Alright left it is." Robin said walking in said direction, "While we walk you three can tell us more about you're adventures. It sounds like you have been hiding other things."
At once Tucker, Danny and Sam flinched.
With the experience that only came from years of making his case to his parents Danny spoke. Subsequently forgetting how many times he had fail and had been grounded, "We haven't done anything too illegal. Like as you know quite violently resisting arrest." Danny said before pausing, "Unless you count that joyride incident." At once Danny, Sam and Tucker flinched as they followed behind the Titan's. "It was kinda bad…"
"Can't be any worse than the situation you guys are in now." Cyborg said.
"That's true." Sam replied winching, "Somewhat."
"Somewhat? What did you guys do?" Beastboy asked both his eyebrows rising up. "You just stole a car right?"
"Yes, but uh, duh," Tucker said with the eloquence of a drunken walrus, "Look what happened was not our fault. We may have stolen the car, but destroying that Denny's, fighting a middle-aged Atlantin, and the thing with the hot air balloon was not our fault."
Robin turned back to them and they shrunk under his glare. "What. Did. You. Do?" He bit out. Thankfully it wasn't as harsh as it could have been. Robin was warming up to them, but they still had track records that went beyond ghostly affairs.
Danny held his hands up, "Okay, don't bite our heads off. Let me start at the beginning. It all started when we entered Central City and tried our hand at gambling." Danny despite himself smirked, "Apparently I'm a real good at it too-" He quickly continued at Robins resulting glare, "-It was going good and we were raking in some serious cash. Like piles of cash. But then the Pit boss came over with the owner of the place who apparently is also a Mob Boss, and boy was he mad…"
