imsunprincess54- Glad you liked it, and thanks for reviewing!
i-am-a-coffe-crazy-writer- That is a good idea, I'll see what I can do.
PinkPanther123 – Thank you for reading as well!
Eikyuu the Jellykage- I always appreciate moral boosting reviews!
A loud yawn entered his ears, and Cyborg knew it as his own. He opened his eyes to the sight of the inside of a barn. Then he began to laugh. He was laughing at the absurdity of it. The thought that he, Cyborg, of the Teen Titans would be traveling the world in search of his friends, sleeping in haystacks inside of barns every night he could find one. Then he raised himself off the small cot that had been set up for him, courtesy of the owners of the barn themselves.
"Well, I better get started." Cyborg sighed as he pushed open the large doors leading into the barn. He was supposed to be joining the family for breakfast, but he'd decided to help them fix their roof before finishing. The family consisted of a husband, a wife, and a young boy. There was another boy in the family who was almost an adult. But he'd recently been captured in this war Cyborg kept hearing about, and the father was getting ready to go and find him.
Cyborg climbed up the ladder leading up to the roof knowing from the previous night that a hammer and some nails would already occupy one of the shingles already placed. He kneeled down and picked up a shingle and then slipped it carefully into placed. He reached for the hammer until a voice stopped him.
"You're gonna be late for breakfast." The young boy, whose name was apparently Lee, stood on the winding path leading up to their house.
"Hold on a moment." Cyborg nailed the shingle into place with just four blows from the hammer, and jumped off the roof, forgetting to use the ladder.
"Why do you always wear that armor all the time?" Lee asked suddenly.
"It doesn't come off." Cyborg replied.
"Why not?" He asked again.
"It just doesn't." Cyborg said gravely.
"Does it ever annoy you to have to always be in your armor?" Lee seemed to be eager to shower him with questions regarding his appearance.
"Sometimes." Cyborg looked down at his feet, thinking back to the time where he'd infiltrated the HIVE to learn more on their project they'd been building. During that time Brother Blood had somehow morphed his metal hands back into real ones. But only temporarily.
"Come on, I'm getting hungry." Cyborg smiled and walked back up the path.
"You're just making this harder on yourself you know." Azula spoke quietly as she walked around a very chained up Raven. "A man was here earlier asking about you. Said he'd pay a rather large amount of money to the Fire Nation if you were to be moved to a maximum security prison. My proposal is simple: Tell us where your friends are and we set you free."
Raven simply stared at the princess unwaveringly. She'd already told her she had no idea where her friends were, which was true. Her powers had a limited range, and she couldn't use them even if she wanted to.
"Not going to answer hmm?" Azula turned away for a moment, but Raven knew what was going to happen. Azula spun on her heel and smacked the empathy across the face for the third time.
"You'll be leaving tomorrow then. Have you ever heard of the Boiling Rock?" Azula stalked out of the room with a smirk on her face, but stopped at the door. "On second thought who needs rest? You'll leave tonight."
"…Hiding in cave… after cave…" Sokka droned on and on. They'd found a place to land for the day and were currently deciding on the route to take to meet up with the invasion force. Sokka had finished explaining how their lives would be until they reached their destination.
"Sokka, we don't need to become cave people." Katara reminded him with a teasing tone.
"We just need some new clothes." Robin was standing at the top of a small hill, pointing at what seemed to be five or six clotheslines hanging by a shack. An old man was sitting in a rocking chair obviously asleep.
"I don't know about this, these belong to someone." Aang stood staring at the clothes for a moment with an unsure expression plastered over his face. Katara however, had other ideas. "I call the silk robe!" She shouted as she leapt from their vantage point. She ran forward and grabbed a robe from a clothesline.
"Well, it is life or death I guess…" Aang said slowly. He followed Katara's example and jumped down after her.
"I think I'll keep what I have, but some backup clothing might not be a bad idea." Robin thought for a moment before joining Katara and Aang. The others followed suit. Robin found a red and black waistcoat and yanked it off the line.
Starfire and Beast Boy both opted to keep what they had on. Their uniforms were passably Fire Nation, or at least circus performer. Robin's cape would have attracted a bit too much attention.
"Nice disguises. Robin, good choice hiding your cape under the waistcoat." Sokka nodded slowly as he evaluated the group. "And you two would pass as circus performers. Alright. Let's go into town. We can test out our new disguises, and see if we can buy Katara a necklace there."
"We are also in need of the food." Starfire reminded him.
"And meat. We do need meat." Sokka said.
"So… you'll be leaving then?" Lee's father (who's name is Gansu apparently) stood in the entrance to the barn with his hand crossed over his chest. At first Cyborg assumed that he wanted him gone, but the man's expression was anything but hopeful.
"Yeah. Sorry I can't stay longer but I need to get going." Cyborg shouldered his bag of some things he had collected during his journey, mostly food and money.
"Listen, you seem like a good person to me. I'm leaving to go find my son, who was recently captured in the war." Gansu said..
"There it is again. This war I keep hearing about." Cyborg thought to himself.
"My family… I need someone to watch over them while I'm gone. Would you…" Cyborg cut the man off before he could finish. "Stop. Stop right there. I can't stay, as much as I'd like to. But… I can try and find your son."
"I'm heading that way anyway, my friends are traveling to this Fire Nation anyway. I'll be heading right through the hills where your boy went missing. I promise I'll find him and send him back." Cyborg's voice was firm, and the man in front of him saw this and nodded.
"You'll need a picture and the name of who you're looking for."
By the end of the day Cyborg had already waved goodbye to the family who'd graciously taken him in for two days. But this meant that once again he was traveling the world alone in search of his friends. He gave another sigh as he walked, and then mentally kicked himself in the back. After all, there was no excuse for being lame. (1)
"Wow, this place is weird." Beast Boy noted. They walked down a street without homes and stores on both sides. There were quite a few places selling meat, and almost everything seemed to be red. Then at the very end of the street there was a single cabbage merchant, who was receiving almost no business. Dejected the cabbage merchant seized his goods and wheeled them off the street.
"Hmm… let's go get some meat. This place seems nice." Sokka pointed out an outdoor café where some steaks were cooking on a grill. Both Beast Boy and Aang cringed at the sight of it.
"No thanks." Aang said. "I'm a vegetarian." Beast Boy and Aang both said in unison.
"Oh come on, everything here eats meat." Sokka pointed over at an animal that seemed to be a cow and a hippo at the same time. It opened its enormous mouth and chomped down on a flayed steak on the ground, swallowing it in a single gulp.
"No thanks. I think I'll stay outside." Aang replied.
"I'm with you." Beast Boy said.
"Suit yourselves." Robin said. The others walked inside, as Beast Boy and Aang stood out on the street. Aang was continuously greeting the citizens of the town, referring to them as hotmen. Beast Boy was receiving looks that obviously were directed at his green skin and hair. One guard stopped and confronted him about, and he was ready for it. He'd said that his parents and he were taking part in a play, and that he was playing one of the earth benders. To get used to his role he was going to wear his costume for a week.
They lounged around waiting for the others to return when suddenly three fire benders walked up behind them.
"Hey you, it's over." The man in the lead said.
"Huh?" Aang asked.
"Its obvious you and your friend don't belong here." The second fire bender, a girl, spoke this time.
"The next time you want to play hooky you might want to learn a lesson from the green guy: take off your uniform first." The first man grabbed the two before they could move, and yanked them off the street. Two minutes later a confused Sokka stepped outside of the café.
"Where's Aang?"
"Where are we going?" Aang asked as he was dragged through the halls of a building. They rounded another corner to reveal another hall with many doors on each side.
"Your new classroom. You said you didn't go to school? Well now you do."
"Aww man." Beast Boy sighed. They stopped at yet another sliding door near the end of the hall. The walls were adorned with a couple of posters outside of the classroom, but most were either maps or pictures of the current Firelord, Firelord Ozai. Aang only was able to catch some of this as he stumbled as he was shoved into the classroom in front of them. Inside the room there was a desk by the door with someone who was most likely the teacher occupying the chair. The teacher was a woman, no younger than fifty years old. She looked strict and by the posture of the students she was strict. The students were all wearing clothing almost exactly identical to Aang's, save the headband. They sat in rows of desks with their hands politely folded and intently staring at the new arrivals.
"Are these new minds ready for molding?" The woman asked with an inquiring tone.
"Yep. Let the molding begin." Aang forced a smile and Beast Boy followed his lead as they tried to take in what was happening.
"Wait a minute… you're not from the Fire Nation are you?" She stood up and began to walk around them as the guards exited the room. Her eyes widened even more as she spotted Beast Boy's skin tone. "You're from the Fire Nation Colonies in the Earth Kingdom, aren't you?"
Aang, who had been holding his breath when she began, let out his breath and quickly nodded. "Yep, the Colonies in the Earth Kingdom."
"Hmm…" She nodded thoughtfully and paused before continuing. "That still does not explain why your friend here is green, and definitely does not account for your crude manners. Here in the homeland we don't paint ourselves red because we were born here now do we? Here in the homeland we also bow to our elders like so." She demonstrated, and then stood expectantly for a moment.
Aang tilted his head and attempted to copy the gesture. A girl sitting in the front row caught his eye and provided the correct way to complete the gesture.
"Good. Now, would you explain to me why you have painted yourself green?" Beast Boy sighed at her demand. "This is gonna be a long day…"
"Okay, they're not back yet. Something's wrong." Sokka rolled over on his back in the large cave they had lodged in for the day.
"Sokka, you're overacting." Katara rolled her eyes as she sat on the small earth stump Toph had created for them. The entire cave was like a miniature version of a medium sized house, with chairs, tables, and other various items composed of rock being the furniture. The space was wide and tall, with more than enough room for Appa to hide in the back.
"If the Avatar is as powerful as you say, he should not have a problem with the kicking of the butt." Starfire said. She didn't need to reassure herself that Beast Boy was stronger than most of the adversaries they had seen. A tyrannosaurus would probably scare them off before they stood their ground.
"What's that noise?" Toph asked suddenly. "It sounds like someone's sharpening a sword or something."
"That would be me. My grappling hook is going blunt. I need it to be sharp for a quick escape, or else it won't be able to hook onto a ledge and be able to support my weight." Robin was leaned up against the wall as the day slowly faded away. He was using one of his birdarangs to sharpen his grappling hook.
About an hour later Sokka spoke up again. "If Aang and Beast Boy aren't back by tomorrow morning we're going to search for them."
"Actually, I think we should go right-" Katara was cut off as Toph suddenly leapt for her feet, mouth open wide. "Aang! Beast Boy!"
"Aang!" Katara and Sokka shouted in unison.
"Beast Boy?" Robin called. Two silhouetted figures stepped out of the shadows and into the flickering candlelight of the cave.
"Aang, where have you been?!" Sokka shouted.
Aang smiled sheepishly. "I…"
"We kind of went to a Fire Nation school." Beast Boy interjected.
"You what!?" Sokka shouted.
"We enrolled in a Fire Nation school." Aang replied.
"You what!?!" Sokka shouted, this time even louder.
"And we're going back tomorrow. Er… well he is." Beast Boy scratched his head.
"What!?" Sokka fell backwards onto the ground.
"Look, we learned a lot of information about the Fire Nation that could prove useful in the war. I even got a picture of Firelord Ozai." Aang held up a black, white, and red poster of a man with a thin slick beard. "And here's one I made out of noodles."
"Beast Boy I am most intrigued, did you partake in an interesting experience today?"
"Well I got a detention. And apparently I have to do some community service." The Changeling smiled sheepishly again.
"How'd you get a detention?" Katara asked, vaguely interested.
"I kind of caused a chain reaction. The music room pretty much disintegrated. So they had to slate it for repairs. I'm definitely not going back tomorrow."
"Listen, I know this sounds crazy but like I said, we're learning a lot of useful information." Aang continued talking with Sokka. "We're even going to learn about a secret river tomorrow that leads straight to the royal palace."
"Oh really…" Sokka placed a hand on his chin as he thought for a moment. "Alright. We'll stay for a few more days. But that's it." His voice was firm.
"Man, I've been walking for days and it still doesn't feel like I'm getting any closer." Cyborg sighed again as he adjusted the straw hat he'd recently purchased on his head. He'd saved an entire traveling circus from being crushed by a landslide just a couple of hours earlier. They paid him all of ten gold coins.
He glanced at his arm again and started up a scan to see how close he was getting. He sighed again and stopped to rest. He was walking along a dirt road by a stream. On the other side of the road was a never ending row of trees. It was obvious to him that he was still in Earth Kingdom territory, but slowly approaching Fire Nation territory. Sometimes he'd come across a small Fire Nation settlement, evidence of their gradual occupation of the Earth Kingdom. But sometimes he'd come across an Earth Kingdom town where the citizens were somewhat more hospitable.
He sat down on a rock by the stream as the sun beat down onto his head and raised his water canteen up to his mouth and then stopped himself. While Cyborg did need to drink water, he needed it a lot less than normal people would since most of his body didn't exactly need it.
"I'm not getting any closer. Maybe I'll contact Robin now." Cyborg raised his arm and changed the scanner to communicator mode. "Calling Robin. Robin, you there?"
The communicators were voice activated in a sense. While for the other titans they had to open it themselves, you still had to say the name of the person you were calling.
"Yeah. I'm here. What is it, Cyborg?" Robin's face appeared on the screen and Cyborg let out a breath of relief.
"It's been kind of lonely out here. Just needed some company, that's all." Cyborg replied.
"Cyborg we'll always be here if you need to talk." Robin reassured him. "Wait a minute. Cyborg, run a scan of the kinetic energy in the area."
"You thinking Brother Blood?" Cyborg thought for a moment, commanding his systems to start a scan. Some of his systems were linked directly to his brain, while others he had to access manually.
"I'm thinking Blood and Slade. Slade might have been working with us to prevent the unraveling of the space-time continuum, but I doubt he'd have any doubts about messing around with this universe."
"Everything seems normal in my general are- wait. What's that?" Cyborg concentrated for a moment.
"What?" Robin asked. "What's going on?"
"There's an energy spike smack dab in the middle of a landmass close to your position. Can't locate the exact location the spike came from cause' we don't exactly have satellite to make the best map. I can only get a general idea of the land's layout. Mainly, what's water and what's not." Cyborg said.
"Is it a natural spike?" Robin asked.
"No. You were right. Most likely Slade. You can tell by the nature of the energy spike. Slade's production of his robots are morphing this one."
"Sladebots? Here?" Robin narrowed his eyes.
"Don't know how he's doing it. But I do know he is." Cyborg confirmed.
"How close is it?" Robin demanded.
"Not close enough."
"What? We can't have a dance party here!" Sokka threw his hands up in distress.
"Listen. We're trying to change the Fire Nation right?" Aang asked. He started again without waiting for an answer. "Well we can start by helping to change the world before they get all bloodthirsty and everything."
"He has a point Sokka." Katara supported Aang albeit with an amused expression plastered over her face.
"I may not know much about the Fire Nation and all but I do know those kids didn't look all that creative. They all had their hands folded." Beast Boy stuck his tongue out to feign disgust.
"Fine. But the day after the party, we are leaving." Sokka said firmly.
"Glorious!" Starfire shouted as she raised herself off of her sleeping bag she'd spread out on the ground. "I must prepare my Zorkaberries immediately!"
"Uh Star, I'm not sure you'll be able to-" Before Robin could finished she'd already dashed out of the cave. "… find them here."
"Aren't you going to tell me who she is?" A voice came from the shadows, forcing the masked man to turn around.
"No. Just be glad I was able to neutralize her powers before she woke up. It would have been very unpleasant for you and your… guards." The man returned his stare to the door in front of him. It was the only thing in the entire prison that seemed like it was red. They were on the third floor of a prison somewhere in the middle of a volcano. The door in front of the man was entirely made of metal with a small slit to look inside near the top.
The girl stepped into his view and he wasn't shocked to see Azula, princess of the Fire Nation.
"If I were you I'd speak up now, while you are still an ally of my country. With just the flick of my hand I could have you ripped apart. Most of the guards here haven't seen any action in a long time. They wouldn't think twice about having a go." Azula threatened. For some reason the highest security prison in the Fire Nation didn't have any real information chambers. At least not like the ones back in Ba Sing Se.
She could tell the man in front of her wasn't afraid of what she could do, so scaring the information out of him by threatening with her fire bending was going to work either. The only option left was the somewhat wimpier threat of the numerous guards that were stationed at the Boiling Rock.
He paused for a moment before making his decision. "Her name is Raven."
"And yours?"
"Slade. Its all you need to know, my dear." With that Slade spun on his heel and stepped out into the courtyard. He walked with his hands folded behind his back and smirked inwardly as he approached the miniature airship he'd taken to the island. There was one other method of arriving there, but he trusted himself more than anyone.
Robin twirled Starfire again inside the candlelit cave. She giggled lightly as the two danced together. The guests had finally arrived; the music had begun playing, and after some coaxing Aang and Beast Boy had managed to convince the students to start dancing. The party began as soon as the evening would let them.
"This is most enjoyable!" Starfire exclaimed once they had stopped dancing. Robin smiled as they weaved their way through the crowd. He glanced up at the small band that Aang had put together. They were standing on small cylindrical platforms… made of rock. The cave hadn't changed by much, aside from the platforms and the hundreds of candles that dotted the walls.
"What's going on?" Robin asked. The crowd was tightening into a circle with something in the middle. Starfire glanced quickly around making sure everyone had their attention focused on whatever was happening in the circle. She breathed inwardly for a moment and allowed herself to levitate slightly off the ground, just high enough to view the center of attention.
"Aang and Katara have the feelings for one another!" Starfire giggled again as she lowered herself back down.
"Huh?"
"They are dancing." Starfire grabbed his hand ignoring his blush and pulled him through the crowd. When they had weaved their way through all the awestruck students they found Aang and Katara doing a variety of jumps and flips with twirls here and there. Robin remembered seeing the two using the same dance to practice their water bending.
"Wow." Robin ran his free hand through his hair.
"Sure wish Cyborg was here. He could show them the robot." A voice chuckled and he pair turned to see Beast Boy headed their way. "Hey, what's happening now?" Everybody around them had stopped dancing, and turned towards the cavern's entrance. Standing in the entrance were four soldiers, one student, and one seriously pissed headmaster.
"He's the one we want." The headmaster pointed directly at Aang. "The boy with the headband!" Aang spun on his heel and dashed into the crowd. A second later he popped out behind them.
"Head for the back of the cave. I'm going to get the others." He whispered in Robin's ear. Robin nodded slightly, as to not look suspicious. Everybody around them had begun to slip on their headbands, and the soldiers who'd come to break up the party and to arrest Aang found themselves surrounded by a sea of headbands. Robin guessed that since their orders were to apprehend a young boy with a headband, they'd have a pretty hard time finding out who was who. He motioned for his friends to follow him, and within a couple of minutes they'd loaded their gear onto Appa and were climbing onto his back for takeoff.
First thing's first. Originally I had another page of dialogue written out, But then I got lazy, didn't want to think of a way to tie it up, and brought it back here. Anyway if there are any references of Cyborg and/or Raven physically being in the same room with the other titans and the Gaang, then that's entirely accidental. I had to delete another page because it included a conversation between Cyborg, Sokka, and Beast Boy.
Also, the imagery at some points in this chapter was downright horrible (or at least to me). If you want to see more of the environment I'm talking about, go online to a site called toonsurfer. You can watch every episode of Teen Titans and Avatar: The Last Airbender there. Although beware of pop-ups every time you try and play a video.
I kind of forget why I put this in there exactly, but these numbers will be by any references to other things. Things as in it could be referencing to absolutely anything. There's more than just one reference but I don't read over my work twice unless I absolutely have to.
Another note is that for the next chapter I'll be straying away from the main line of episodes for Avatar: the Last Airbender. I want to focus more on getting the Gaang to bond with the titans, and maybe reveal Starfire's uber alien strength somewhere along the way. Originially I was just trying to rush the story along to the invasion plan.
Now that all is said and done, all I have to say is that I appreciate reviews, and thank you all for reading.