Chapter 2 – Who's That Girl?
The other four Titans watched this exchange, a wide smile spreading across Robin and Cyborg's faces. After grinning at each other for a few seconds, Cyborg detached a small, metallic ring from one of his side panels and wore it like a monocle.
Cyborg then said (in a sad British accent), "Robin, old chap, what do you suppose is the matter with those two?"
Robin replied (in an even worse British accent), "Unknown, old bean. However, I do seem to remember reading somewhere that only people who are, eh, what's the term again? Oh, yes, 'seriously crushing on each other' could ever get that angry!"
Cyborg replied, "Oh, I see. You believe it to be a simple lovers' quarrel then, eh?"
Robin answered, "Yes. Quite."
They both then started snickering, then shuddering, then outright laughing so hard, they were slightly bent over, holding their sides.
Until they heard a low rumbling sound.
They both stopped and looked at each other, eyes widening because of the single acidic drop of fear that splashed on their hearts.
The sound grew louder.
Their eyes darted around the room, searching for some type of shelter from certain doom. Just as they found something to dive behind, there was a loud 'CRACK'.
First he smelt it, then he felt it. As Robin started running around the room in a screaming panic, beating out the flames that erupted on his butt from the lightning strike, Cyborg tried to dive behind the nearest pillar.
He didn't make it. He was paralyzed by the bolt in mid-air, frozen in such a position that when he fell to the ground, he rocked a little, back and forth, creaking like a rocking chair leg, before finally falling over on his side.
Starfire ran to Robin, helping him put out the flames. Once they were out, she examined his bare butt for injury while he laid face down on the ground. Raising his cape to get a better view, she was pleased that 'friend Robin' was not seriously injured. She was also happy that their cheeks were now more similar in color. Robin, feeling an unnerving draft, turned and caught Starfire staring at his butt.
Indignant, Robin said, "What the.. HEY! Star! What's the big idea?"
As her cheeks started to burn, Starfire blurted, "I…I was checking you for damage, friend Robin!" As she reluctantly lowered Robin's cape, she looked to Raven for support.
Raven snorted, "Sh' yeah right. Get a room." And promptly pulled up her hood, amused just enough to blow a small hole in the rock wall a few feet from Beast Boy.
Beast Boy sighed and grumbled, "She's still tryin' to hurt me."
Bumblebee, meanwhile, was using one of her electromagnetic stingers to draw excess static electricity from Cyborg to allow him to move. He was highly embarrassed. He wasn't angry because he thought he probably deserved it. Playing with Raven was like poking a stick at a caged lion and not noticing when the cage door swung open. But sometimes, he felt he just had to do it. However, Cyborg did not believe he deserved the excessive amount of derisive laughter coming from Bumblebee.
So when she succeeded in returning his freedom of movement, he got up and said, in a cold and polite tone, "Thank you, ma'am." And moved towards his best friend to apologize.
A subdued Bumblebee hugged herself and shivered just a bit.
Meanwhile, Robin, using one of the aforementioned pillars as strategic cover, removed his leotard and used it as a makeshift diaper, covering the hole in his pants.
Cyborg walked over to Beast Boy and said, "Sorry, BB. I just thought it would be a good way to ease some of the tension in here. And," he continued, "If Raven had a hint that you liked her, she may see through to ease up on you a bit."
Beast Boy turned to glare at Cyborg, but couldn't maintain the look. "Its ok, Cy. With all the prankin' that goes back and forth between us, this is just normal. I get you, you get Robin, and Robin gets me, its all good.
It's Raven that bothers me.
I know that messin' with her is like walkin' thru a minefield blindfolded, but all the ones I step on blow up and throw nails. But I used to think it'd all be worth it if I could just get her to see somethin' other than an idiot when she looks at me.
She frowns when she has to heal me.
Its like I cause her pain just by walking towards her.
And I'm tired of it.
I won't cause her any… more… pain."
And before Cyborg could reply, Beast Boy turned on his heel and headed for the door that Landon passed through a few minutes before.
Raven, sensing a sudden troubling mood shift in Beast Boy, started towards him, but stopped when Beast Boy screamed, "Trouble!" and ran through the door.
Everything seemed to happen at once. A few seconds after Beast Boy passed through the door and out of sight, there was a flash of light, a high-pitched scream and the unmistakable sound of metal on metal. The Titans rushed forward, but before they could get to the door, a green lion hurtled through the doorway, changing back to Beast Boy as it sailed through the air.
He hit the ground, slid backwards a few feet and rolled another few feet, before slamming into the far wall.
The Titans could see large bleeding cuts on his upper arm and side.
Raven ran to help him, but before she could get close enough to check him over, Beast Boy put his hand up and said, "No."
Raven, wide eyed, said, "What do you mean, 'No'?"
Beast Boy stood up slowly, taking off his shirt and tearing it to make bandages.
While tying strips of cloth around his wounds, he growled and said, in a soft voice only Raven could hear, "Go help the people you'd rather help. This is my pain. You don't believe in wantin' to share any of your precious time with me, so I don't want you to be forced to share my pain with you. I will help you if you are in trouble. I won't let anyone hurt you, because it is part of my job and because I… I really like you. And from now on, I'll do what you want. I will… stay… away… from… you."
Before the shocked Raven could reply, Beast Boy had changed to a velociraptor and ran back through the open door.
Robin screamed for the Titans to follow Beast Boy and ran towards the door. He stopped next to Raven as the others ran past and asked, "Is BB alright?"
Raven blinked and said, "I don't know."
Robin then asked, "Are you alright?"
As Raven turned her head to answer, Robin saw a single tear forming in the corner of her eye. She whispered, "No."
Robin started to say something, remembered the lightning bolt and said instead, "Lets go. The others need our help." He then grabbed Raven's arm and pulled her through the doorway.
Cyborg yelled, "Incoming!"
Robin and Raven dropped to one knee just in time to remain untouched as a large, green, screaming lizard sailed gracefully overhead. The screaming stopped when Beast Boy landed in an undignified heap a few feet away.
While Robin checked on Beast Boy, Raven took the opportunity to assess the situation.
She saw Cyborg pulse-firing his sonic cannon at what appeared to be smaller versions of the first insectoid they saw in the previous room. But there were a lot more of them.
Starfire and Bumblebee were also doing a fair amount of damage, green and silver bio-static energy pulses shattering each creature struck.
More muffled sounds of struggle were coming from a writhing mass in a darkened corner of the room. Beast Boy and Robin had moved to either side of Raven, starting towards the far corner, where they assumed Landon was being overwhelmed.
Before the trio had taken more than a few steps, sections of the pile shattered, and through the resulting spaces Landon could be seen fighting for his life with what appeared to be some sort of sword. But as other creatures moved to fill in the spaces, a mace-wielding female could be seen!
Beast Boy shifted to a roaring grizzly and waded in, shattering an insect with each swipe.
Raven gathered several up in with her dark energy, smashing them against the walls and each other.
Robin hit one with a birdarang, drawing a small group away from the others. He then froze them in place with an ice grenade and reduced them to icy rubble with his bo-staff.
Beast Boy, sensing something, looked around for more of the insectoid creatures. He saw two rearing up behind Raven and Robin. Snarling, he charged. Leaping over the surprised pair, he grappled with the two monsters, getting raked across his legs and arms with razor sharp talons for his trouble.
Raven pulled one off of Beast Boy with her dark powers, flinging it away and against a wall. Beast Boy knelt on the remaining creature and started to rake and pound it with his massive paws. It broke into shards, and he beat the shards. It crumbled to dust, and he pounded the dust.
He stopped when he realized that he was the only one still fighting. All the other creatures had been destroyed. He got up and walked toward the nearest wall, shifting back to humanoid form as he went. After transforming, he staggered the last few steps to the wall, leaned his back against it, and slid to a sitting position.
Beast Boy looked up, wiping blood and dust from his eyes. He saw the others staring at him in wide-eyed shock and worry. He saw Raven moving toward him.
"I said NO!" he shouted. "My pain! MINE!"
He started to rip some more of his clothing to make more bandages, and promptly passed out.
Raven went to Beast Boy and started to heal him, but hesitated, noting that he had numerous old scars over most of his body.
Her eyes started to water a bit as she slowly realized that she had no idea. She had never seen him with any of his uniform off, not even his gloves and boots. His suit changed with him and the scars never carried to any of his animal forms.
She started to remember all the times she had called him everything but a child of God, thrown him through windows, slammed him into walls, ran away from him and just plain ignored him. But the little bonehead always came back. Always. She had believed that she did it for his own good, to keep her emotions in check, to prevent the destruction of things and people around her.
That reason was no longer good enough.
She shook these thoughts off and proceeded to heal him.
Robin asked, "What's that about?"
Raven replied, voice cracking, "I don't want to talk about it. I will heal him just enough to keep him going. Do not let him know that I did this. He doesn't want me to heal him at all. He said he doesn't want to share his pain with me. I'm not saying anything else about it."
Robin stared at Raven for a few moments and said, "AlrightBut remember, we are here with you. We are here for you. We will help you all we can. But in the end, you two must deal with this."
The Titans were distracted by two flashes of light just off to the side. They turned toward the source just in time to see Landon and his unknown companion pulling their hands out of their personal dimension portals.
This time, the boys were distracted. The woman was about a foot shorter than Landon, also olive skinned and fit. As far as facial features, as with Landon, the teens saw what they needed to see.
The fact that she was also, as we say in the 'Old Country', very healthy is what drove the males to distraction.
Her black uniform was emblazoned with a red crest that had what looked like a mongoose's silhouette in the center. The uniform fit loosely in some places and was stretched so taut in others it seemed as though if you listed really closely, you could hear it screaming for mercy.
Starfire brought her Robin back to reality by squeezing one of his still medium-rare butt cheeks, causing him to yelp in pain, blink and look at Starfire. Starfire smiled sweetly at him and wiped the drool from his mouth.
Bumblebee looked at her own chest, grimaced and stepped back into the shadows, but not before slapping some of the taste (and drool) from Cyborg's mouth.
The woman pointed at herself and said, "Oya."
Raven stood up and started to cast her language spell.
Landon raised his hand and said, "Unnecessary."
Raven raised an eyebrow and watched as Landon put two fingers together and placed them on his companion's temple. There was a small blue flash from his fingers.
Oya then smiled and said, "My name is Marsha. I already know who you are, Landon just told me all he knows about you." She looked at Beast Boy and her smile widened. Raven's eye twitched a bit, but she still watched as Marsha proceeded to heal Landon's cuts and bruises, using a technique similar to Raven's.
Raven stared, wide-eyed, at Marsha for a long moment before Marsha said, "I learned it from watching you." She then glanced at Beast Boy. "May I?"
Raven thought a moment. She did not like the idea of another person putting their hands on Beast Boy, especially this person. Even worse, she did not know why. But she relented. "Yes. Please."
Marsha knelt down in front of Beast Boy and proceeded to run her hands over the worst of his injuries. Raven hands clenched into fists, but she continued to stand and watch.
Slowly, Beast Boy woke up. The first thing he saw was a mass of purple hair.
He pushed Martha back and screamed, "I said N…", then grew silent when he saw Martha's face. He looked around and saw Raven standing behind the woman, trembling slightly. He frowned, then grinned.
He looked at the healer and asked, "What's your name?" After Martha's reply, he asked, "Why did you heal me?"
Martha said, "Because you are an ally. You fight with us and you don't even know who or what we are. And because she (nods toward Raven) needed you healed. But none of that really matters, because one doesn't need a reason to help another. Only to destroy another."
Beast Boy's eyes widened. He stood up and walked to Raven. They looked at each other and said, at the same time, "We need to talk."