III

Infiltration

The tunnels weren't as endless as they'd first seemed. While there were many wide corridors, there was only one hangar. Everything under the mountain lead straight to it, or at least, everything else branched off from it. Most of the corridors lead to training areas or recharge alcoves. Others lead to maintenance bays. One lead to a heavily locked-down room or area even Raven's mind couldn't penetrate.

And so, here was Beast Boy, making his way through the cracks and crevices to get there. His small mouse form found every hole and burrowed-out pipe paths in the rock that followed the layout Raven was leaving in Beast Boy's head. It boggled his mind how she was doing it—putting the thoughts in his head of where to go without using so many words. He didn't take long finding the last ventilation opening that would lead him through to the other side of that locked-down area. A simple matter of becoming a fly, entering the vent shaft, and morphing back into a mouse, and Beast Boy was on his way.

"Good," Raven thought to Beast Boy. "Follow this to the next vent and find a way to the doorlock controls. We're almost done."

"Great," Beast Boy answered in his head. "The sooner we find a way in, the sooner you get outta my mind. Nothing personal, but I'm not too comfortable with you floating around in my head."

"I'm not too comfortable floating around in your head." Raven echoed in Beast Boy's mind. "You have so many stray thoughts running around, I can't ignore them. How can you concentrate with this mental mess?"

"Lots of practice," Beast Boy thought back.

"Practice would prevent this disaster. I'm starting to know things about you I'm really wishing I didn't."

"Yeah, about that," Beast Boy started, "let's, uh, keep that thought about Cyborg's missing jumboshock controller just between us?"

There was a pause. Beast Boy could almost imagine Raven sighing back with the rest of the group while levitating in place. "You aren't far off with that thought, Beast Boy."

Beast Boy shuttered. "Dude, you gotta stop that."

-

-

"Okay, Beast Boy is on his way," Raven said, keeping her eyes closed. It was enough of a distraction that she started to feel herself mentally drawing back into her own body. She didn't fight it much as Beast Boy was already on his way. Anything on the other side of the big door would be new to either of them anyway. Raven finally settled to the ground and opened her eyes. "Everyone else in position?"

Starfire nodded an affirmative. Cyborg and Robin were to make their way around to the other side of the hangar and grab attention from the drones through some of the corridors when the time was right. It was Raven and Starfire's job to fly to the main room once Beast Boy had the doors open. Raven would concentrate on defensive fields while Starfire played offense from above her. Fighting through all of these drones, even with some distracted, wasn't going to work. They just needed to fend off enough of them to make it through.

Suddenly, an alarm filled the underground base. Red lights flashed everywhere, and the drones stopped in place. Beast Boy must have gotten to the controls. Or he'd been caught.

That's when the corridors started sealing off all at the same time down the long hangar stretch. Raven looked out past the guardrail and confirmed that the hangar was sealed from every point except a few open caverns.

"I do not believe this was supposed to happen," Starfire voiced from behind Raven.

Raven turned around. "Wait a minute. The boys…"

"Are in position to distract the drones…inside the corridors," Starfire confirmed, worriedly. "Our friends are trapped!"

The entire section of drones, as if on instruction, turned their heads up towards the top of the stairway attached to the cavern Raven and Starfire were huddled in. "Uh-oh. Not good." Raven was quick to put up a defensive field to block the incoming laserblasts from now-visible laser points on each of the drones' shoulders. "Fly with me, we're moving!"

Starfire lifted off the ground behind Raven. "What about..."

"First priority is to get to that room," Raven stated. "Keep them off us. We're heading for our target."

Stafire's eyes and hands began glowing. The Tamaranian girl blasted what drones she could as she peeked over the sides of Raven's defensive field. As the girls made their way down towards one of the corridors, Starfire began gathering as much energy as she could. When they were close enough, she blasted open the security door. Shrapnel rained inward at the group of drones on the other side, and the girls flew in unison through the opening Starfire had made.

"Oh, I do hope Beast Boy has found a way to open that door!" Starfire exclaimed as she blasted what drones she could.

"We'll find out when we get there!" Raven shouted back.

-

-

Robin ducked with plenty of room to spare as a drone slashed at where his throat had been. There were nearly a dozen drones in the sealed-off corridor with him, with three others already disabled on the ground next to him. Robin pulled out his bo-staff and let it extend out between the drone's legs. Kicking off the wall behind him, Robin used the momentum to wrench the drone to the ground. Once knocked down, Robin pulled away with the bo and spun around quick enough to bash the drone's head in and roll away from a new attacker.

The boy wonder held his bo in one hand as he fished out his concussion discs with the other. Rolling into a crouched position, he threw them at the legs of two drones. He didn't wait for the impacts as he stood with his bo overhead, parrying a slash move by another attacker. Robin jammed the closest end into the drone's right eye as the corridor exploded behind him. He spun the opposite end around into the same drone's neck, bashing the robotic head off in a mess of sparks and wiring. The upgraded armor seemed to concentrate mostly in the body and limbs, but not so much in the connections.

Robin flung his bo out and behind him at a new attacker. The staff flew straight through the air, striking it in the throat and knocking it down. With two free hands, Robin pulled out two birdarangs and flicked them to his sides before ducking another slash from yet another drone. He turned his body sideways to dodge a follow-up slash from the drone's other set of blades. There was a clang from the drone on Robin's left as it went down from one of the birdarangs striking it in the faceplate.

Robin grabbed the top of the head belonging to the drone in front of him as it attempted to recover from its last slash, and the Titan flipped himself up and over it with ease. On the way down its back, he slapped two charges on the back of the drone's knees and ran. He made it to the drone with the birdarang imbedded in its face and pulled the weapon out as the charges exploded. Timing his throw, Robin let the birdarang go towards the falling drone. Its faceplate barely fell out of the weapon's trajectory, and the birdarang sailed past it into the neck of the drone behind it.

As the rear one fell over in a shower of sparks, another attacker leaped over the mess in front of it right for Robin. This one had another birdarang, the other of the two Robin originally had thrown, imbedded in its shoulder armor just shy of its neck joint. Damn it…missed with that one. The Teen Titan jumped for the wall to his right, using it to climb higher into the air as the drone landed where he'd been crouched. As soon as Robin's feet were planted on the ground, he was in a sprint.

Red beams started tearing up the floor and walls around Robin. This was the first time these drones had opened fire. It made sense; now that most of the drones had been deactivated, the survivors were risking laser fire in the narrow surroundings. Robin flipped through the air and landed with his hands surrounding the loose head of one of the monsters. On a recovery roll, Robin tossed the head underhanded at the firing drone. The head took two hits and sprayed metal fragments as it spun messily to the ground, never making it to the humanoid robot.

However, it did buy Robin enough time to get to his other birdarang. He jumped towards and behind one of the other drones still standing, using it as protection. As the drone turned around to slash at Robin, it took a perfect hit from friendly fire in the back of its torso-plate. When it fell backwards, Robin let his birdarang fly through the air and strike the laser point on the far drone's left shoulder. The entire limb exploded, throwing the robot into the closest wall.

Robin continued to run for the far part of the corridor where the last drone stood its ground. Its laser points opened fire, and Robin found himself twisting and dodging the robot's aim. He made a dash for the dead drone with Robin's staff still stuck in its neck. Getting a firm grip and wrenching the staff free, Robin leaped up towards the last of the mechanical monsters. He tucked into a ball and rolled under, building momentum as he flew into his target.

As he completed his roll in the air, the boy wonder opened up his body with his staff over his head. As the final laser burned through his cape on his left, Robin slammed home. The drone's face cracked open, revealing its internal workings. As Robin's feet touched ground, he spun around with his staff and slammed the robot at its knees. Once it was down, he wasted no time jamming his staff end into its face for the kill.

Then, all was eerily quiet, save for the few random sparks of electricity from loose robot wires.

I've got to find a way out of here...

-

-

Cyborg grabbed hold of the drone in front of him by the face. His massive fingers grappled around the robot's head, and he picked it up with ease. Barely even trying, he slung it around and smashed it into the last two drones in the room. He let go, and the whole mess of bodies and limbs slammed into the corridor wall before slumping to the ground in a shower of sparks. Cyborg shook his head.

"Brand-new armor," he started, "same sorry-ass 'bots."

Cyborg surveyed the corridor for the first time. The way he'd come in had been sealed off. As well, the entryway into the hangar that the drones were coming in from was shut tight. The good news was that no more attackers would be coming in. Unless more were now piling up where he'd come from. Cyborg activated his motion tracker. Most movement was coming from the hangar, with very little—if any—movement behind him.

"That settles it," Cyborg said out loud. "Back the way I came." He converted his right arm to blaster mode and let a beam of sonic energy decimate the blast door ahead of him.

-

-

It took more effort than Raven was used to keeping her defensive walls constantly up as she held off attacks throughout the long corridor. Luckily, the groups of drones here were interspersed along the way, leaving moments of down time for Raven to rest in the air. Starfire was holding well against the attacks, firing over Raven's fields to take out the drones in front of them and turning to keep the same group occupied as they flew past.

The metallic corridor walls began joining with the cavern rock, and Raven knew they were close. There was a jammer of some kind preventing their communicators from working. She couldn't in any way concentrate hard enough to get in Beast Boy's head to know what was going on, but she could barely sense his presence on one effort during this last stretch. At least he wasn't dead.

As the corridor, now mostly rock, began turning Raven put more concentration in her flight. Her fields were down as there was nothing to attack them. The corridor straightened out, and Raven could finally see the end of it. There were two problems. The first was the cluster of drones blocking the passageway. The second was the giant door. It was still sealed.

"Shit," Raven cursed as her eyes turned white. It took her a bit more effort this time to get the fields up. It was just in time as the humanoid machines opened fire. "If Beast Boy can't open those doors, we're going to be trapped."

"Let us first clear away the menace in front of us!" Starfire answered, her eyes glowing in fury. Her balled fists lit up and unleashed volley after volley of green energy. Some drones took direct hits, while others ducked and dodged out of the way. Both girls settled to the ground and took cover behind some of the rock jutting out of the wall. Finally Raven was able to go on offense. Her eyes glowed even brighter as she spread her fingers out wide.

"Azarath, Metrion..." Raven began, gliding out into the center of the corridor. Landing half-crouched, she spread her hands in front of her.

"…ZINTHOS!"

Raven let two bolts of black energy fly from her hands and strike two of the drones. She began levitating up and to her right as the return-fire began. Starfire took the opportunity to take down more of the drones. Raven redirected her fire at new targets, quickly gliding in closer. She ceased her attack after they went down and returned her protective barrier in front of her.

Laser fire from the last of the drones deflected off the field, but the closer Raven got, the weaker the field seemed to be getting. Raven tensed a bit more, focusing just a little more energy into her approach. Then, at the right moment, Raven pushed the field forward. The energy enveloped the last three drones, wrapped around them and squeezed.

"Now, Starfire, Hit them HARD!" Raven yelled.

Starfire gathered her energy and unleashed it in a final blow. Just before the green ball of fire made it across the room, Raven let go of the black field. There was now nothing in between the drones and the final attack.

As the smoke cleared and debris stopped sizzling and sparking, Raven and Starfire gathered at the door. Starfire started searching up and down for a possible way to open it from their side. Raven already knew it was useless. She was just drained enough to know she wasn't going to be able to mentally talk to Beast Boy from here.

"More soldiers will be here soon," Raven voiced.

"We may have to blast our way through, then," Starfire answered.

Raven shook her head. "It's much thicker than the other blast doors. Besides, we'd need to be able to close it behind us." Even with that bit of logic, the girls' options were few. Still, for all they knew, it was a trap on the other side as well, and Beast Boy was already captured. "We're just going to have to hope Beast Boy can still open this thing up..."

Almost as if Beast Boy had been listening, the doors hissed at the seam. The circular hatch split down the middle and began sliding sideways. From inside the room beyond, peaking out from a set of control panels, was Beast Boy.

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late!"

Both girls ran inside just as the clanking of running footfalls began to echo behind them. "Beast Boy..."

"Close the door," Beast Boy finished. "Yeah, I know." He jammed his palm down on the console, and the doors began closing behind them. When they sealed, Beast Boy pushed a large lever on the console all the way to the top of the board.

"Nice timing," Raven smirked. She looked around. A few drone bodies—the workers—littered the floor. Beast Boy had done a number on them. There was no telling which of his forms he'd taken to pull this off. "Though next time, I'd prefer not to cut it so close."

"Dude, my computer skills are kinda limited to video games, okay? When Cyborg can turn into a mouse, he can do this next time. Yer lucky I figured out how to open the door at all!"

"How did you figure it out, anyway?"

"Oh, it was the second big red button. After you pull the big lever thing next to it all the way down."

Raven cocked her head, slightly. "Second button?"

"Um…" Beast Boy started, scratching his head, "yeah, the first big red button sorta triggered the alarms. Sorry."

"Ugh…" Raven groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Hey!" Beast Boy started. "These panel buttons all look alike! I mean, who puts TWO big red buttons on their computer stations? And there's, like, no labels!"

Raven shook her head and walked past Beast Boy. She looked around at the consoles. The one immediately to her left held a series of switches and buttons, one of them large and red. None of the switches had any markings at all. Raven assumed the systems were designed that way to prevent sabotage or capture of the base. Across from that set of panels was another. It also carried a large red button. This is rather confusing. Can't really blame Beast Boy this time.

"We have to find Robin and Cyborg."

"There's a panel with monitors on it in the back," Beast Boy chimed in. "Check on 'em there."

As Raven made her way to the back of the large room, a series of dull 'thoom' sounds started coming from the main door. Raven started looking at all the small monitors now in front of her, spotting the camera view outside the corridor. The drones had arrived and were firing their shoulder weapons at the large steel door.

"That should hold them for a while. They aren't making much progress." Raven started glancing at the rest of the monitors. Below the monitors was a grid map of the underground base. It indicated camera locations, main pathways, various power sources and conduit channels, everything Raven needed to know.

A blur of motion from one of the monitors caught Raven's attention. "I see Robin coming through one of the corridors." She identified the camera on the map and traced Robin's heading. "He's going to hit a dead-end. Beast Boy, have you figured out how to open the corridors manually?"

"No," Beast Boy answered. "Unless you want me to keep hitting buttons blindly…"

"Forget it. Robin's planting a charge on the door. Hope he has more of those. I don't see Cyborg yet…"

A flash from another monitor alerted Raven, and she watched as the smoke cleared. Cyborg walked through what had been a sealed door and made his way down another corridor.

"Never mind, I see him now." Raven tracked where Cyborg and Robin were heading. "They don't know where to go. We have to find a way to lead them here. And warn them about the mess outside…"

It was at this point that Starfire floated off to Raven's right. Raven turned around as she caught the motion out of the corner of her eye. Before she could ask anything, Raven noticed the small door on the other far wall. Raven turned back to the grid map and looked for their position. She traced her finger across to the door Starfire was walking towards and examined the map. Then, she looked back over at Starfire as she opened the door.

Knowing Raven could do little more at the monitor station, she followed behind Starfire. "Beast Boy, keep trying those controls. Figure out what you can."

"You actually want me to blindly press buttons?" Beast Boy asked, rather shocked.

"Considering the only button I'd be afraid of is the one we already know, the one that opens and closes that big door, I'm not too worried."

Beast Boy blinked. "Well, since you put it that way…"

Raven was close behind Starfire as she entered the room. The map layout had shown this room to be huge, and it was. At least three times the size of the computer room behind her, this room was built for storage. Transparent cylindrical containment systems lined both walls along each side. Small computer terminals and their mess of wires stopped short in front of each one. But the containment systems were empty. What were they meant to store?

More importantly to Raven was what had been displayed on the grid map. The entire room had a multitude of buzzing noises. All the electrical power conduits, all the different supply lines either came from or came back to this room. It was more than just for storage. This was the nerve center of the underground base's power supply.

"Might we be able to shut anything down from here, if not from the control room?" Starfire suggested.

"It would take too long to figure out what power sources worked the doors off that map. And I don't think the drones operate from some single control box. Though, it would be nice."

"There must be something in here of value. Something that can help our friends."

In unison, the two girls eyed the largest of the power boxes in the room. Easily three times their height, it was also the loudest.

"We might be able to use this," Raven started. "We could possibly generate an electro-magnetic pulse and disable the drones."

"But…Cyborg…" Starfire started.

Raven cursed. Cyborg had built-in EMP dampers, but this was going to be one big field. It was hard to say what kind of effect it might have on him. This wasn't going to be so easy…

"Hello?" Beast Boy's voice echoed violently throughout the power room. "Can anyone hear me?"

Raven wiggled a finger in one ear. "He found the loudspeaker system. Of all things he could have found…"

...Of all the things to...find...

Raven turned back for the computer room and ran towards Beast Boy. "Hey, Guess what?" Beast Boy started.

"I heard," Raven said with less patience than she meant. "When I say, I need you to tell Cyborg to shut down his systems completely."

"Cyborg? But, what if they..."

"Trust me. Just get on that thing and let him know, then wait for my say and tell him when."

Raven did not wait for a response as she turned back for the room. She looked for Starfire, who was already tearing off panels from the larger power source. Raven set to work with what knowledge Cyborg had given her on electro-magnetic fields.

"I just need to bypass the breakers. The power box will overload on its own. I'll need to divert the right paths to get the right kind of reaction. I'm just afraid the connections will burn off before it can build up."

"Then, you will need extra energy to ignite the pulse properly," Starfire stated as she backed up slightly, prepping her hands to fire.

Raven looked at Starfire and nodded quickly as she set back to work. "I'll have to contain the explosion before it can kill us, but yeah, we'll need a starter." She successfully disconnected the power to the box so she could rewire it to the best of her ability. There was a low thrum of energy that died away after the disconnection.

"Um, Cyborg?" Beast Boy's voice boomed over the loudspeaker. There was a slight bit of feedback as he continued. "I'm gonna need you to shut down all your power when I tell you to. Like, everything." There was a pause, as Raven got halfway done with rewiring the power box.

"Raven said to," Beast Boy added.

-

-

"Say, what!" Cyborg's first reaction echoed down the corridor. When Beast Boy mentioned it was Raven's say, he took it a bit more seriously. Not that he wouldn't trust Beast Boy, but given the situation, it was a request out of the blue.

"Man, those kids better know what they're doing..."

Cyborg winced as a laser bolt smashed up against his right shoulder, cracking the armor. He turned and readied his sonic blaster, only to see a good dozen drones gunning for him. Quickly, he opened fire.

"That the best we got over there?" Cyborg taunted, when a blast from behind him slammed into the back of his left ankle. He dropped to one knee and looked down the opposite corridor. More drones.

"Aw, come on, now," Cyborg complained as he blasted the first drone. He turned back to the first group and continued blasting, alternating between both groups. They had ceased firing their laser bolts, as there were now two teams across from each other.

"Damn it, B! Whatever's going on up there, y'all better hurry it up!" The waves behind continued to get heavier, the numbers increasing faster than Cyborg could knock them down. Finally they were on him, clawing at him and trying to cut him to pieces. Cyborg punched in a faceplate here, ripped an arm there, tore off one drone's leg and slammed it into another behind him. It was almost too intense. Cyborg wasn't sure how long he could keep them at bay.

"Cyborg, NOW!" Beast Boy screamed over the loudspeaker.

"You better be right!" Cyborg shouted, more to himself. He began internally shutting down every major system he had. The last thing he saw before his vision cut out was a drone raising its claw high into the air...