Drunken Dilemma

A BB/Rae Fic


Midnight


It was midnight at Titans Tower, and Robin had abruptly called a team meeting. Cyborg had gone to wake up Raven and Beast Boy for the briefing, and a lot of weird revelations had occurred.

Even so, Beast Boy helped Raven up and they went to meet in the Comms room.

"So, we know where the weather machine is, we just don't know who's operating it," Robin began, as he hadn't seen Raven's change in attire yet.

"Uh… Robin…" Cyborg mumbled, pointing to Raven.

"Yeah?" Robin asked and turned to him, then saw Raven. His eyes widened a bit as he saw the obvious change in Raven's uniform.

"Uh… when did that happen?" Robin managed to say, as Raven looked a bit uneasy.

"Dude… she kinda…" Beast Boy began, but couldn't find a way to say it. But Raven decided she'd explain it herself.

"Trigon came back," she began, as both Robin and Starfire's eyes widened dramatically, at the fact Trigon was back… but more so at the fact Raven's voice sounded… less monotonic, "He said he's… under someone's control. I don't know who… but… he took the demon part of my soul out of me…"

"What? Then… what does that mean?" Robin continued, as Raven sighed.

"It means I might lose my powers."

Silence filled the room for a moment, then Robin decided to get back to the mission at hand. Sure, the sudden change and Trigon still existing after what happened was very surprising, but Robin knew that while they were sitting around with personal dilemmas, the villain with this weather machine had more time to do as they pleased. And Robin couldn't let that happen.

"Ok, listen up. We've got a location on the weather machine. It's in an abandoned indoor pool area on the upper east side of the city. We're going in the T-Ship to save some time, but it'll still be a good 30 minutes before we reach the building," Robin explained, as the team listened closely, "Now, we're going to be near a residential area, so watch out for civilians. We don't want anyone getting in the crossfire during this. Not only that, but there is the fact that the way the building is designed, the villains have the tactical advantage. Though… ironically enough, wind damage tore a whole in the roof so we can drop down in the second floor. We'll be landing on the roof, and it'll definitely be cold."

"Yeah, let's hope none of them are up getting a midnight snack," Cyborg added, as Robin nodded.

"Let's do this," he said, as all the others nodded and began to gear up… but as Raven was gearing up too, Robin walked over narrowing his eyes at her.

"You… really shouldn't be on this mission with us." Robin told her a bit condescendingly, giving her a 'you should know better' look.

"Look, I know what the danger is. It comes with the territory. Besides… I have someone looking out for me," Raven said softly, and looked towards Beast Boy.

"Yes, but he can't always do that, Raven. You need to stay here, conserve your energy," Robin continued to assert, as Raven shook her head.

"No, I'm going, and that's the end of it," Raven finally said, and made it clear she wasn't changing her mind. Robin simply shook his head subtly and walked back to gear up himself.

They took the elevator up to the T-Ship's giant room, and proceeded to take off. They went up vertically first, and then horizontally. Though the ship wasn't rumbling as much.

The fact was, Cyborg and Robin decided to remove the engine nearest to Raven so she wouldn't get shaken around as much as usual during the trip. Sure, the rumble was about as bad as if you were to sit on the hood of a small hybrid car, but nobody wanted to take any chances.

After about 45 minutes, they reached the surburban area. A police chase could be seen way off far in the distance about a dozen blocks away, but that wasn't the Titans' concerns right now. They went into their newly added 'cloak mode' and landed on the roof of the building, only they stayed in hover mode in order to not make any noise or risk the roof collapsing.

They got out one by one, Beast Boy helping Raven all the way there, though Raven asserted she could at least step down by herself, which proved to be off the mark.

They all gathered around the hole in the roof, and Robin looked around silently. He then began his hand gestures. First, he pointed to himself, then Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg. What that meant was the order of who was to drop in.

And they did. First Robin, then Beast Boy. Beast Boy turned into an ape as Raven dropped down, and her caught her and gently set her down. She remained sitting there, and right before Starfire was coming down, things began to heat up, action-wise.

Several men armed with the same laser-guns the Jump City Swat used to use against Cinderblock came out from the pillars on the giant balcony across the huge gap in the second floor. The pool waters could be seen, dirty, but sloshing around with a giant machine inside them.

The men opened fire, and one man came from out of a hallway less than a foot away from where Robin landed. Beast Boy quickly pounced forward, still as a gorilla, and slammed the man with his fists before he could shoot. Cyborg dropped down next, as Starfire leapt in front of Raven to fill the gap in protection that Beast Boy's sudden charge left open. Cyborg and Robin slammed their backs against two separate pillars. Robin got out one of his explosive discs, and Cyborg held his arm upwards and primed his cannon, as it made that charging-up sound it always did.

Robin and Cyborg nodded at each other, as Beast Boy ran back around to help Raven up, as Starfire tossed a few aimless starbolts in the general direction of the enemy, her eyes flaring her emerald green like usual in combat.

Cyborg reached out his arm and shot out a beam of blue light, hitting one of the enemies.

"One down!" Cyborg told Robin, and then ducked and twisted to his right, cannon held out as he began to 'run and gun'. He fired a steady beam out across the balcony, right as Robin threw an exploding device to the side of the enemies, knocking them towards Cyborg's beam of fire.

Cyborg shouted out in excitement and adrenaline, and hurried back to where Robin was, putting his back to that same pillar.

He took a deep breath and said a bit loudly, "Man, I think that's the most I've ever got with one shot!"

"How many did you get?" Robin asked.

"About 7," Cyborg replied, as Robin smirked.

Robin reached out and patted Cyborg on the shoulder, and said, "Good job, Cyborg."

He then turned towards where Starfire was now. She was in a particularly awkward position from defending Raven, and had little to no cover at her disposal. She looked towards Robin, just seeing what he was doing and where he was.

Robin began to quickly walk over to her, and in an instant, was hit by one of the enemy's laser fires, hitting his left middle back.

"Robin!" Cyborg shouted, as he ran over to the downed leader. Robin was fine, just a bit… 'steamed', in more than one way.

"I'm alright," Robin said, as Cyborg and Starfire helped him up. Right then, another laser went an inch from Cyborg's forehead and hit the wall, causing Cyborg to lurch up and fire a shot out in retaliation. It only hit the pillar in front of a guy taking cover.

The cannon fire was close enough to where the man could feel the vibrations, and the man shouted, "Does anyone have any flash-bangs?"

One guy near him replied, "I'm out, I don't have any!"

Suddenly, a familiar voice snickered.

"I have some," the older man said, and walked out of the nearby hallway, right in the open.

"Everyone, cover him!" one of the soldiers commanded, as they all began giving suppressing fire on the Titans.

It was Doctor Light. It seemed his plans were finally going… well… according to plan. And this time he had backup.

"Azarath…" Raven began, as her eyes glaring with white," Metrion… Zinthos!"

Suddenly, the soldiers' eyes bugged out as every single one of their weapons were tugged out of their hands by a white aura, and tossed into the pool a floor below.

They simply looked around in astonishment, as Dr. Light didn't even make the connection to Raven, since his knowledge of her was… well… anything but 'white'.

As that happened, Cyborg and Robin had sneaked their way around the balcony to the side with the soldiers. Cyborg came out first, cannon armed and pointing their way, and Robin next, staff at ready.

"Stop right there!" Cyborg demanded, as the soldiers, or rather, army for hire, weren't sure what to do.

Dr. Light simply grinned, and tossed a 'flash disc' towards Robin and Cyborg. The flash caught them in its glare, but it also caught nearby soldiers in its glare too.

Starfire and Beast Boy peeked around the corner, down the hallway that Cyborg and Robin had used to flank the enemies. Suddenly, Cyborg got blasted back into the hallway with a beam of light, and then Robin next. Both of them were out for the count.

Starfire and Beast Boy looked at each other, and Starfire was to first to say something, "Stay with Raven, I shall handle this."

Starfire then walked to about the middle of the hallway, and looked at the wall, as if looking at where Dr. Light would be if the wall wasn't there. And sure enough, Starfire was about to make sure it wasn't. She held both hands out and delivered a blast through the wall and into Dr. Light's area, but nobody got hit. Starfire looked down the balcony, and right as she saw Dr Light… several pillars to her left, away from where she fired, Dr Light's grin was the first thing she saw. Then a bright flash, and then a beam of light hit her, sending her back ways into the hallway that Beast Boy first charged when they dropped in.

Dr. Light then walked over Cyborg and Robin, as the two began to moan and wake up. Just as Dr. Light was getting ready to blast Raven, who was sitting there, with all the power in his suit, Starfire pounced like a cougar, doing a flying tackle into Dr Light's side. It caused the fire to miss Raven by about a foot higher and to the left, also causing Beast Boy to have the 'duck' the shot.

Both Starfire and Dr. Light landed in the pool, and Starfire pulled the power cell out of Dr. Light's suit, causing what the water didn't short out to power down.

She then tossed him out onto the side of the pool, which Dr. Light reacted to with a loud and startled 'Ahhhh!'.

All the others then gathered at the balcony, staring down to see what happened.

Starfire was gasping for breath, kneeling beside the pool, and said loudly to them, "We have won…"

But suddenly, she was blasted in the back, which sent her down to the floor in a painful groan.

"Not quite" someone said, as they lowered their wrist blaster.

"Give me a break…" Raven grumbled.

No it wasn't Slade. It was Warp, the person that had stolen the antique clock from the Jump City Historical Museum a few years ago and caused Starfire to take a futuristically journey to an alternate future.

"Titans, Go!" Robin shouted, as he, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all jumped down to the tile floor surrounding the pool area. Raven simply stayed up there.

"Not coming down, Deary?" Warp taunted, causing Raven to glare and shake her head.

"Well, allow me," Warp began, and suddenly teleported up on the balcony with her, causing the remaining Titans to twist around in surprise.

"Stay back," Raven began, casting her hand out. But again, just like before, nothing happened, causing her eyes to widened.

"You may have gotten a lot of special treatment from other villains, Raven…" Warp began, as he readied his wrist blaster and aimed for Raven's stomach.

Cyborg and Robin were down there, and began rushing towards the nearby hall, near the bottom floor entrance, where the 2 sets of concrete stairs were.

But Beast Boy stared, glaring, and then turned into a hummingbird, quickly flying back up.

"But I won't show any mercy… despite your…" Warp taunted, narrowing his eyes, as he was about to fire after the next few words.

"Drunken Dilemma," Warp snarled, and activated his blaster.

Right then, Beast Boy morphed back to human, and actually grabbed and tossed Warp over and out of the hole in the wall Starfire made, down towards the floor. Warp didn't get the chance to fire, and he yelled out before hitting the tile floor head-first, and then went motionless.

Raven let out a very short laugh of relief with a slight smile, as Beast Boy helped her up.

"Are you ok?" Beast Boy asked, as her held her to her side.

"Yeah…" Raven whispered, and then glared down at Warp, laying motionless on his side. Robin and Cyborg rushed back to where Warp landed after hearing the impact.

Raven's eyes narrowed, and she muttered hatefully…

"Bastard."


2 AM Pacific

September 21st


Outside, police, firemen, and ambulances with highly trained medical personnel all arrived. They took Warp into the ambulance, as the paramedic talked to Robin.

"There's nothing we can do for him. He broke his neck on the fall, died instantly." The paramedic calmly told him, and proceeded to load Warp's lifeless body up and back to the morgue

"Well… I hate to say he deserved it, but… after what he did…" Raven began, but suddenly shouted out.

Beast Boy's eyes widened, and he went up to a policemen and grabbed his arm. "What time is it?" he hastily asked, and the policemen looked at the firemen. The fireman got out a watch on a chain and said, "13 after 2."

"Wait- wh- what's going on?" The same paramedic from before asked, who noticed Raven gasping for air right before he was about to get in the driver's seat.

The policemen and firemen simply stared, not knowing what to make of it. But the paramedic noticed the signs.

"She's going into labor!" the paramedic demanded, as the surrounding crew look dumbstruck. The media had just arrived on scene, which prompted the policemen to talk to each other and then quickly decide to hold off the media.

"Ok, help me get her loaded up," he said to the passenger-side medic, who had hurried back around to the back of the ambulance.

They opened the back end, as the two paramedics inside looked surprised.

"What've we got?" one of them asked, as the lead medic looked at him, taking a breath from loading Raven up into the ambulance.

"She's going into labor, we need to get her there ASAP," the paramedic said, as Beast Boy hurried up the back end.

"I need to go with her," Beast Boy said softly, as the paramedics looked at each other and then him.

The lead paramedic asked, "Are you the father?"

Beast Boy hesitated, and then replied, "Yeah…"

They looked around, and one of them shrugged with an 'Oooookay…' expression, and replied, "Ok, sure, get in."

The lead paramedic then told the one man that helped him load up Raven to get in the front seat and drive back.

"She's not going to make it, we're going to have to do it here," one of them said, as Raven looked up at him.

"What?" Raven groaned, as Beast Boy clasped her hand tightly.

"You can do it, just deep breaths."

"Agh, how did this even happen?" Raven exclaimed, as Beast Boy continued to try to comfort her.

Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire all stood behind, having no idea what was going on.

"Should we give them time alone during their… 'labor'?" Starfire asked, as Robin smirked a bit.

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea," Robin replied, as they Cyborg used an external remote to guide the T-Ship back to the ground, as everyone nearby backed up, and the emergency responders got back into their vehicles to leave the scene and let the secondary responders take the rest of it.

They walked through the crowd of emergency personnel, onlookers, and media, all the way back to the T-Ship. They got in their separate seats, and took off back towards the tower, which looked like a tiny spec all the way in the distance.

"So, did you guys notice Raven being a lot more badass than normal?" Cyborg asked, as they took off over the dim lights towards the city.

Starfire sighed, and softly said, "I suppose I shall have to get used to the swearing…"

"Well, we can tone it down if you want, Star." Robin replied, as Cyborg began to object.

"Aw come on, but-… Oh, ok, fine fine," Cyborg conceded, and then changed the subject.

"Well, now that B and Raven are going to be parents, are we going to be two down or something?" he added, as Robin had a chuckle.

"Well… either that or if you're into babysitting…" Robin told Cyborg, as Cyborg smirked.

"Naw… I think we'll be fine two down…… you know, you won't believe what happened this morning." Cyborg continued.

"What?" Robin replied.

"… I actually thought Raven was Terra when I first heard her," Cyborg said holding in a bit of laughter.

"Er… Cyborg…" Starfire began, "Are you… trying to get killed by Raven?"

Cyborg and Robin then burst out laughing, as that same casual yet not-so-casual conversation continued for the 40 minutes of travel back home.

Soon, Raven would get her powers back, and the Teen Titans would be in another tight situation, one which they'd also get out of… and that tight situation was…

What's the price of diapers these days?