A/N: I was at Six Flags and they kept playing the Teen Titans theme song, so I'm seriously thinking about murdering the next one who sings it. It is only because my loyal readers are still reading that makes me drag myself back to the computer instead of destroying the entire Teen Titans series. Sorry about the language in this chapter, but, hey it is rated teen. Cookies for whoever reviews!
Disclaimer: dude, I don't even own a car! How the hell am I supposed to own an entire series?
Cyborg drove along the road, his eyes unfocused (though still his electronic eye was on the look out for danger). He had made up his mind, he was going to go back to the East Side and get some answers. He made the left turn smoothly and started to drive a little more slowly now that the cops had come back from wherever they had been before.
He stopped at a light and turned up the music, barely looking at his surroundings. Just as he started to move his car, something jumped out in front of him.
The person was wearing dark jeans and a deep gold shirt, the first and last two buttons undone. He saw the person had long black hair and instantly looked at her eyes, ridiculously hoping that the person was the girl he was searching for.
It was Kale! She was waving her arms wildly to get his attention. He jumped out of the car, barely waiting for it to stop completely, and ignored the honking horns around him.
"Kale! What are you doing girl? Are you alright?" Cyborg grabbed her shoulders frantically, his red eye widening and contracting erratically in its search for danger or injury.
"Cybog, get back in the car and let me explain," Kale said with such seriousness in her voice that Cyborg obeyed instantly.
As she ran around the side of the car and got in, Cyborg buckled his seat belt. He drove down the road a block or two and pulled over to the side of the street. When the cars that had been behind them were moving again, Cyborg turned his attention back to Kale.
She was rubbing her face, though her eyes were closed. She sighed heavily. Cyborg noticed that she was disheveled (of course, he could not help but notice she still was pretty… wait, where had that thought come from?). Her gold shirt sleeves, though normally rolled to the shoulders, were still smudged by grass stains, and he could see her flat stomach from where her shirt's two bottom buttons were torn away.
Finally, Kale seemed to gather her thoughts about her enough to being talking. "Cy, listen to me. I'm sorry about last night…"
Cyborg was immensely relieved. He beamed as he began to say, "Kale, it's okay. I know you were trying to help and I've been looking for you all morning to apologize and to…"
"Cyborg, shut up!" Kale looked at him sharply. "I need to say sorry, but I also wanted to tell you why it happened." She sighed and leaned back in the seat. "A lot of people in the East Side have been talking lately. They've been mad because when your team trashes the city getting at the 'bad guys', the rubble is moved to our side of town, like it is being swept to some unused corner. Besides that, the city enforces new taxes that you guys don't have t pay because you're 'heroes' and apparently one of you have a good relationship with the mayor." She looked at him. "The rest of us do have to pay. The orphanage gets a little bit off but they are still in debt. Others in the East Side are struggling as well. Some manage to get by, but others…" she waved her hand, "you know." Kale closed her eyes; the words were evidently hard to get out. "I had a friend when I first came to the city; his name was Jonathan Q. Rancrid." The name set off a bell in Cyborg's head. "He, too, struggled with money. We helped him in anyone we could for a few months, but eventually it got to be too much. He… disappeared for a month. Next time I saw him; you, Cyborg, were chasing him down. By then he was…."
"Johnny Rancid." Cyborg finished for her.
"Yes." Kale's purple eyes met Cyborg's for the first time since she entered to car. "He and Control freak have been a whisper on the wind for a few months now; a rebellious thought in a jumbled mind. In other words, they are the un-struck match of an uprising."
"How very poetic," Cyborg murmured.
"Anyway, they've… gotten to two of the boys at my orphanage. Hal and Jack. They keep sneaking out. Jack, he has always been upset that the city and the Teen Titans have been messing with orphanage. He loves the little kids so much. And Hal, well, Hal had always been inspired by Jack and has basically adopted him as his big brother. Hal is smart, but he's very easily influenced. I'm sure that the group they've joined is responsible for last night. I took them out this afternoon to talk to them about what they've been doing, but they snuck out. I followed, and now I need your help." Kale said the last part so softly, Cyborg could only hear the word 'help', but he knew what she was asking.
"What do you want me to do?" Cyborg asked leaning forward.
"Follow me." Kale's hands clenched and she got out of the car.
Cyborg did as he was bid, and walked behind her until they were almost level with the stoplight that he had picked Kale up at. She walked slower and eyed the building before her without noticeably looking at it. Cyborg glanced at it a few times. It was a pale yellow house, the kind you might expect to see out in the country, but not in a bustling city. It had overgrown grass and weeds were everywhere. The brown picket fence was broken and rotted from years of exposure to the weather. The trashcans were toppled over in a lonely heap next to a cement porch. All in all, it looked like the house had been abandoned for years.
Kale stepped onto the grass. She walked slowly and softly. She motioned for Cyborg to do the same. He walked as quietly as he could, his jaw set in a grim, tight line. Eventually, Kale bent down to a small window at the side of the house. She lay on her stomach. Cyborg walked over and silently did the same.
It was momentarily hard to see through the dirt and grime, but Cyborg's red eye focused and he saw all that Kale said in one room. There was a crowd of people-- of teenagers, mostly-- around a throne-like chair.
Upon it, sat the all too familiar silhouette of Johnny Rancid. Control Freak stood, like a servant, next to him. Johnny seemed to be talking to the group about something, but then stopped. His ugly face turned even uglier as he scowled. He looked up to the window.
Cyborg's heart dropped. In trying to see, his eye had glowed into the room. He jumped up. "Run!" he shouted to Kale.
Kale, needing no second bidding, jumped and leapt the two feet to the fence. She kicked the rotting planks and they gave easily. She stepped through the hole as a bunch of teenagers scrambled through the front door. Cyborg raised his cannon to hold them off. He felt Kale's hand on his shoulder.
"Not now," She whispered urgently into his ear. "Call your friends, come back. Right now we have to get out of here." He heard her squeak as a bullet missed her face by inches.
"Those little fucks have guns?!" Cyborg shouted.
He turned, but found himself stuck between two of the sturdier boards. Kale's eyes widened, but he saw a determined light there. She pushed him back through and jumped in after him, back into the yard and into danger.
"Kale, go!" he yelled, just as she pushed him into the hole again.
He was stuck again. He heard another shot and another one of Kale's little screams, this time it was a bit louder. Then he felt her entire bodyweight against him. The entire side of the picket fence fell under them. Kale hauled him up from his arm and dragged him, sprinting away at a speed that rivaled and even surpassed Robin's.
They ran until the shouts faded. They caught their breath and then Kale started climbing up a fire escape. Cyborg followed her. The rusty thing creaked ominously under his weight, but he didn't stop. Kale was two ladders ahead of him at all times. When he reached the top, he saw her lying down at the edge of the building. He approached her, hoping she had not passed out, but when he got close enough, she stuck a leg out and neatly tripped him.
"Ow, what'cha do that for?" Cyborg asked indignantly.
"Shush, look," Kale motioned below her. Teenagers were covering the city block, evidently looking for them. There were even two or three at Cyborg's car. "Call your friends, Cyborg."
Cyborg flipped his communicator open. "Robin… yo, you there Rob?"
"What? Cyborg where have you been?" Robin's voice crackled, annoyed, over the communicator.
Cyborg ignored his friend's rude tone. "Listen, you guys gotta come get us. Don't let yourselves get seen, though."
"Us? Cyborg what's going on?" Robin asked, confused and the worry in his tone more evident now that he was not trying to cover it with anger.
"I'll tell you when you get here. We're on the East Side, on top of…" Cyborg looked at the sign below him, "the Arms Apartments near the stoplight. Don't get seen. Over and out." He put the communicator away.
"Um, Cyborg?" Kale said weakly.
"Yeah?" said Cyborg, not looking up from the scene before him, amazed and incongruously interested in the people who were searching to find him and do who-knew-what once they found him.
"The room's spinning," Cyborg looked up sharply.
Kale groaned softly and clutched her shoulder. Cyborg's mechanical stomach churned. Trying to be gentle, he moved her hair way from her shoulder. He saw blood-drenched fingers and felt his worry move quickly into panic as he saw the crimson liquid pouring forth and spreading over her back. Hurry Robin!
A/N: oh… slight cliffy. Will Kale get better? Will Johnny's minions find them before the team does? All of this would be answered when you review!