((AN: Dearest Readers I Apologize; the chapter that I had here previously has been changed. I had to replace portions of the history information, as what I had written before was incorrect. The information is now corrected and I apologize sincerely to those who used the wrong information I provided in passing conversation...-JoW))
Celebrate the Independence You Enjoy
The next day, and basically late afternoon found Robin fixing Beast Boy's window himself. A fact that surprised his teammates minus Miko.
"Dude? Why are you replacing my window?" Beast Boy asked as he used a putty knife to remove the slashed wallpaper. The large holes had been plastered and they were now waiting for dryness in order to receive a new coat of paint.
"I screwed up BB…" Robin said as the window was levered into place by a crane outside the window operated by Cyborg. "We- I mean, I should have realized that you would never have attacked our team like that, and well- I mean…"
BB removed the final strip of torn wallpaper and threw it in a garbage bag. "They do say that hindsight is 20-20…" BB said, giving his team leader an out.
Robin gave him a strained "smile".
Miko streaked into the room. "Guys! It's today!"
The present Titans in the room looked surprised. "Um… What's today Miko?" Robin asked, looking slightly confused and concerned.
Miko shook her head in shocked amazement. "Wow… How Americans became a world power is beyond me…"
"Huh?" Robin and Beast Boy looked to each other in confusion.
Raven and Youkai walked into the room. "It's July the fourth…" Raven said.
"So…" Robin asked.
"Wow… Seriously?" Cyborg asked as he walked into the room. "You never-" He shook his head, and looked in question to Miko who shrugged in response. "Wow Rob… It's only the 4th of July…"
"So?" Robin asked his teammates clearly not getting it.
"Oh!" Beast Boy exclaimed totally getting his cousin's drift.
"What?" Robin asked looking at Beast Boy still in confusion.
"Fourth of July?" Miko enunciated.
Robin shook his head at Miko's question. "Independence Day?" Miko asked astounded at the lack of recognition of her team leader.
"4th of July?" Robin asked them…
His present teammates nodded their head slowly waiting for recognition to strike.
"Oh! Wow! 4th of July! Geeze!" Robin said smacking himself upside the head.
"Uh-huh… Now he gets it!" Cyborg said. They left it unsaid that Robin had more detective training to go through with his Mentor.
"Come on!" Miko said grabbing her cousin and Robin by their arms and tugging them towards the door.
"Where are we going Miko?" Robin asked.
"Oh, come on Rob! It's the annual 4th of July fireworks extravaganza!" Cyborg declared.
"And we're minutes from kick-off!" Beast Boy said realizing why his cousin was in such a hurry.
He then dragged Robin and Miko out the door, along with Raven and Cyborg. They stopped briefly outside Star-Fire's room to knock frantically on her door. When she opened, she was yanked out with a yelp. Beast Boy rushed them to the multi-purpose room where they gathered on the couch to watch the fireworks.
All the monitors had the US Flag on them kids ran around with sparklers and pinwheels. Cyborg finished putting the last of their dinner on a serving plate, as the others waited for the show to begin.
'"The burgers are cheesed, the dogs are hot and the fireworks are about to begin!"
'"Please, this is a celebration of the month July or the number '4'?"' Star-Fire asked her teammates as Cyborg set down the platter.
'"Neither."' Robin said, a grin stretched comfortably across his face. '"It's Independence Day… Sorta like America's Birthday."'
'"Oh. Should we then, bake the America a cake?"'
Robin was about to answer Star-Fire when Beast Boy interrupted the start of his explanation.
'"No cake, and no tea!"' Robin, Miko and Youkai all had similar question-marks "written across their faces."
Beast Boy continued. '"See, it all started 1492 with this tea-party, in Boston. King George, or maybe it was King Norman… Anyway, the British were trying to make the colonists drink all this tea. But they were like 'Dude, No way! We're sick of your nasty old tea and your crummy English muffins!' So they decided: Revolution!"'
'"Where'd you learn History?"' Raven asked, '"A cereal box?"'
'"What's your point?"' Beast Boy asked her seriously. Raven sighed in disbelief.
"You know, times like these make me realize that it's amazing, just how many kids believe that Joan of Arc was married to Noah." Miko said to Youkai.
He gave her a 'believe-me-I-know' look. "Before the accident, did your cousin used to be blond?" (A/N: No offence to all blonds out there!)
"Think of it this way… He's the more civilized version of Inuyasha…" Miko said.
"Oh- now it all makes sense." Youkai said leaning back into the couch, his arm around Miko's shoulders.
'"Okay- the Fireworks should be starting in: 5, 4, 3, 2-"' Robin began the count-off with the rest of the Titans joining in on the count-down.
'"Hello my Duckies…"'
Star-Fire stood and gasped with the rest of the Titans following her example.
'"Mad Mod!"' Robin declared, as he slammed his palms on the coffee table.
'"So sorry to interrupt; but your revolution will not be televised. As a matter of fact, it's been outright canceled. As in: It Never Happened!"' Mad Mod said twirling his cane before one of his hypno-screens swirled into focus across their entire screen.
'"Don't Look!"' Robin told his team, and they all covered their eyes. Not accounting for the entire city.
"Wait-" Miko whispered to Youkai. "We're not looking, but what about the civilians?"
'"You American colonies, have been rebellious long enough!"' Mad Mod's voice declared over 4the city-wide monitors. '"I'm reclaiming this city in the name of Jolly Old England! And you lot had best bow down to your new ruler: King Moddy the First."' Mad Mod declared as a 'Royal' ensemble including crown, ascot and…
The Titans decided to turn off the TV and go after Mod. Wasn't that hard of a decision… Cancel the Anniversary of the United States' Independence? Not Happening.
Mod continued to taunt/brain-wash the populace of Jump City. But he looked behind him when he heard an explosion, in the car behind him on his personal subway train.
"Class dismissed Mod. Your twisted History Lesson is Over!"' Robin and the original Titans had come to save the day.
Before they left Titan's Tower, Robin sent Miko and Youkai out to see if there was anything they could do to break the brainwashing effect Mad Mod had cast over almost the entire Jump population.
'"Oh is it now my little snot?"' Mad Mod asked pressing a button on the consol in front of him.
Noticing his actions, Robin somersaulted closer just as a Plexiglas partition slid down to close off the section, leaving Star-Fire, Beast Boy, Raven and Cyborg behind it.
Mad Mod swung his can at Robin who stopped it by grabbing the cane.
'"Aren't you getting a little old for this?"' Robin demanded of Mod; then they cast hand over hand on the cane until-
'"On the contrary laddie, I'm feeling younger by the tick."' Mad Mod said as he pressed the red "gem" at the top of the cane, casting a red electric surge throughout the bodies of both Robin and Mad Mod. Robin looked incredibly electrocuted, while it seemed that Mad Mod merely enjoyed the sensation, with a sadistic grin on his face.
'"Robin!"' Star-Fire yelled in concern.
Cyborg took a step back so he could blast the Plexiglas as Beast Boy pounded uselessly on it, and fired, only for it to ricochet at a 45 degree angle to hit the ceiling.
It was then obvious to Raven that Mad Mod had planned this entire thing out. This was what Mad Mod had counted on: Them coming to stop his demented broadcast, Robin leaping forward to try to stop Mad Mod, and then the culmination… With what was probably a gem form of xenothium, and an electric current, added with the activator's will, (something they'd seen when Robin was 'Red X', and what Robin had later explained) Robin and Mad Mod seemed to switch ages. Robin ageing rapidly till he was at least eighty, and Mad Mod- were those uniform shorts? Gross. Mad Mod turning into the tender age of fourteen.
Robin collapsed to the ground, eighty years old- he was definitely going to appreciate being a kid when this whole thing was taken care of courtesy of his teammates.
'"Hah! That'll put the peas back in your porridge!"' The teenaged Mad Mod declared sitting down in his chair.
'"You will change him back!"' Star-Fire demanded, as she pounded on the Plexiglas, which refused to bend to her will.
'"Sorry love, but like I've always said: Youth is wasted on the young! Ta-ta Duckies!"' Mad Mod said as he swiveled his chair around the press a lever forward. Suddenly the front part of the train accelerated with a blast of speed and separated from the main body of the train.
The Titans (still youthful as ever) were blasted into the main of Jump City where they viewed what looked like a cut-and-paste over of old (blown to city-size) black and white aspects of London. Even the sky was changed, to look like the flag of England…
They saw a few of the well known populace (society matrons, trouble-makers, their pizza waiter) all talking with bad English accents.
'"Hey! We've been Union Jack'd!"' Cyborg yelled as they stared into the page of the Newspaper; changed from 'The Jump Tribune' to 'The Moddy Times'… It's headlines: Robin Captured and King Mod Saves the Day!
Suddenly they heard marching and turned to see robotic versions of the British Royal Guards armed with rifles marching towards them!
'"Hit 'em hard, hit 'em fast and whatever you do- Don't look at the-"' Cyborg ordered the team just as the guards' chests opened up to reveal- '"Hypno-screens."' Cyborg then belatedly realized that Beast Boy was ridiculously easy to hypnotize.
Suddenly the guards aimed and shot at the team, their energy shots hitting the area around them as they dodged.
'"Quick! Make him laugh!"' Raven ordered. Cyborg remembered that Raven did say the last session with Mad Mod, that Raven 'doesn't do funny.'
Star-Fire grabbed Beast Boy and flew over to the side of the road, coming to a halt when she tried to think of something that would make her green teammate understand and laugh at.
It took a second, but then she made farting noises with her hand and armpit. It brought Beast Boy out of drooling-hypno-mode easily.
Beast Boy laughed coming to zoom beside her. '"Smashing Love! Jolly good-"' Beast Boy said standing properly arranging his hair into a parted style. Suddenly he froze, realizing what he was saying and doing before screaming. (A/N: Please read the a/n: at the end of the chapter… this authoress needs your help!)
Miko and Youkai were across town trying to get the civilians that hadn't been hypnotized into the Jump-bunkers. (Where all civilians went to avoid getting caught up in an evil scheme.) They'd just come above-ground when they heard Beast Boy's scream.
"At least he doesn't sound like a girl…" Youkai said with a shrug.
"So mean…" Miko said, let's find out what's going on and how far wrong it's gone."
"It's Mad Mod… I can guarantee that it has something to do with British Rule and tormenting the Teen Titans."
"Besides that I mean…" Miko said as she and Youkai raced down the streets avoiding the guards.
'"Oh dear! I'm a Tommy, a Limey, a Brit!"' Beast Boy bemoaned to Star-Fire, before hearing an explosion behind them caused by a fallen car.
'"Yo Brit-boy! We could use a hand!"' Cyborg said as he tried to force back one of the guards and Raven, levitating, avoided being shot by one of the guards' energy blasts.
'"Right then! Have at you!"' Beast Boy said, putting up his dukes.
Cyborg's blasts could shove the guards backwards, but not damage them, so could be said for his fists. He couldn't make even a dent in the guard he was fighting before he was tossed back on his can from a right hook from the guard he was fighting.
Star-Fire then flew in and aimed her energy blast at the guard, but it too had no effect. In fact the guard just looked up at her and extended its' arms and captured her, before an explosion at its back forced it to release her, and in releasing her basically threw her half-way down the street.
The blast was caused by Raven, who drew its' attention toward her only to be hit in the back by an energy blast from yet another guard who had just fired his rifle. He was quickly shoved into the buildings by a Tyrannosaurus-Beast Boy. Cyborg helped Star-Fire up and Raven looked up to see Beast Boy lend her a hand to aid her in standing, which after looking at his hair in disbelief, she took.
From the rubble of the building and from the double-decker bus the robot royal guards excavated themselves and though sparking and some parts showing, went after the Titans again.
'"They are… Quite durable!"' Star-Fire exclaimed.
'"British Engineering love- Finest in the World!"' Beast Boy declared.
'"Will you please stop talking like that?"' Raven asked her green teammate.
'"You're just jealous because I sound like a rock-star."' Beast Boy said crossing his arms, with a give-me-a-break look.
'"Stand your ground! We can take 'em!"' Cyborg told his teammates.
'"We can't take all of them…"' Raven said, ever the realist.
'"Run away!" Beast Boy yelled as they ran down an alleyway.
"Where are Youkai and Miko?" Cyborg demanded as they continued to run from the guards.
Miko and Youkai were avoiding the guards' energy blasts that followed them throughout most of downtown and almost ran into the rest of the Titans.
"I've found them!" BB declared, his British accent really annoying his teammates…
"Great, now that you've found them, let's get lost!" Raven said with urgency. Raven gathered them into her black soul energy and teleported them away from their pursuers.
Throughout the course of the day, or was it night? The clocks were screwy and with the sky 'covered' with the British flag, they couldn't even tell if time was passing the way it should.
Miko had consulted with Youkai, and both had slipped out during the fighting(A/N: cough-losing!-cough) against Mad Mod's guards. Raven and Cyborg weren't holding their breath, but they hoped that their teammates had a more effective plan.
'"The sky looks like a giant British flag!"' Cyborg complained as they sat in the bottom of one of the holes the tanks had kindly produced for them. '"The whole city's gone haywire!"'
'"Dude! Tell me about it: Bangers and Mash, Bubble and Squeak, Toad in the hole… Don't British people speak English?" Beast Boy demanded of his teammates. Beast Boy was obviously VERY put out over the whole British take-over thing.
'"Well- that's two plans down…"' Cyborg said with his arms braced across his knees.
'"And two to go…"'
Beast Boy got excited and started telling his odd-ball plan, before Star-Fire stopped his outlandish plan with a hand across his mouth.
They eagerly listened to Raven's plan.
Everything was going well until they tried to open a pair of double doors and a spot-light was shined intensely on them.
A Hologram of Mad Mod in 'M.P.'s Holy Grail' form appeared in the sky pulling clouds apart.
Miko and Youkai looked up from what they were doing and ignored the first part of his speech until they heard:
'"There's on old British saying: Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it!"'
They finished up what they were doing, and since Mad Mod had blown up Robin's communicator, Miko conveyed that they were going to be at City Hall where a replica of the building where the Declaration of Independence was signed with a replica of the Declaration was seated behind a glass case.
'"City Hall. We should be able to hide here."' Cyborg said, before depressively saying '"Till Mad Mod's tanks come to tear it down."'
'"Whoa…" Raven said as she pulled back her hood. '"That was actually more depressing than what I was going to say."'
'"Do not despair. We will rescue Robin and save the city and stop the Mad Mod!"' Star-Fire said cheerful and hopeful even when her teammates were not. '"Somehow…"'
Then Miko and Youkai walked in.
'"Well face it: My gerbil commando plan was just Lame."' Beast Boy said as he leaned against the table.
'"It's not any worse than my plan…"' Raven said looking down at the paper littered ground.
'"Or mine…"' Cyborg said as he slouched over holding his face in his propped up hand.
'"Or mine…"' Star-Fire said.
"Does that mean that you don't want to hear our plan?" Miko asked her teammates.
'"Now I know how George Washington felt when Napoleon beat him at Pearl Harbor…"' Beast Boy said depressed; even his ears were drooping.
Youkai looked at him, shook his head in disbelief then shook his head again as he looked at his green teammate.
'"We're dealing with a scrawny little stick man with a tricked out cane- Why can't we bring him down?"' Cyborg demanded coming to a stand.
'"Because the Mad Mod was right."' Star-Fire said from where she stood against the wall.
'"The American Revolution really was a hoax?"' Beast Boy demanded incredulous.
'"No… Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."' she said as she turned to face the case that held the copy of the Declaration of Independence. '"We have failed to learn from the history that Mad Mod is attempting to rewrite. Your democracy is not merely about voting; it is about compromise, out of many different people you make one country, out of many broad ideas you create one that works…"'
'"We don't need four different plans…"' Cyborg started.
'"We just need one."' Raven said her spirits slightly lifted.
"So now do you want to hear our plan?" Youkai asked his teammates.
"What plan is that?"
"We've already organized a rebel team against Mad Mod… They're 'top of their game' people…"
"Civilians?"
"Nearly all of our Revolutionary fighting force were civilians until they decided to join in the campaign against the crown…" Miko said logically.
"We've organized them into sectors. Sector one is manipulating Mad Mod into creating a parade for himself. Sector two is working on disabling all media-screens and blasting our chosen music from the speakers, that'll break those under mind-control out from their funk. Sector three is working on the mechanisms supporting the black and white buildings, as well as removing all British flags from the posts. We're not British, we're American... We only formed this country because England and every other European Power didn't want our ideals polluting theirs…"
"What will we be doing?" Star-Fire asked the two teammates whom had been absent most of their battles.
"A combination of what you four did earlier… Plus some of our own…" Youkai said.
"And don't discount Robin." Miko said. "He'll pull through for us in the end… Mad Mod will not succeed in this battle."
A parade show of military force was marching down Main street with the brain-washed populace attending the sideline, minus the cheering. There was a British Marching song playing, and Mad Mod attended in his floating air-balloon carried "carriage".
'"That's right me Duckies. You love King Moddy, you love bein' Brits… Silly old America's a thing of the past!" Mad Mod declared as he was dressed in a crown, robe, ascot and cane.
Eighty year old Robin struggled to lift himself from his chair and Mad Mod noticed.
'"I'd bet you'd like this, wouldn't you old chum?"' Mad Mod taunted the leader of the Teen Titans. '"Well, what's stoppin' you?"' Mad Mod asked Robin, putting the red gem handle of the cane within inches of Robin's hand. '"Go ahead and-"' Mad Mod didn't get to continue taunting Robin because Sector two in combination with the youthful Teen Titans caused some explosions.
'"Oi! Who told you lot to stop? Keep marching! My British subjects are in the middle of adoring me!"'
Sector one and Raven worked together and as Raven caused one of the Media screens, that Mad Mod had so thoughtfully provided, to blow up; Sector two started the media track: Semper Fidelis.
The people lining the parade came out of the brainwashing nicely and seeing who was being supported by an air balloon, quickly and quietly exited the scene.
A blast from Cyborg's cannon destroyed the balloon, causing the "carriage" to hit the ground very roughly, sending Mad Mod to his backside.
Raven was next, using her soul-magic to encompass the robot 'royal guards' and throw them into the distance, where prearranged members of sectors two and three waited to disassemble them. After the robots were thrown, Raven landed lightly on the ground beside her three teammates.
'"Man, I bet even real British people don't like you!"' Cyborg proclaimed.
'"A frontal assault?"' Mad Mod asked rising to his feet and dusting himself off. '"Haven't you sprogs tried that already?"' But he suddenly ducked to the ground as Cyborg shot his cannon at Mad Mod's head. '"Right. Destroy 'em!"' Mad Mod demanded of his 'Royal guards'.
A series of British planes numbering into the thirties came into view in the Flagged Sky, as more of the guards joined up with the main force. But with the song playing over the media screens, and their own hope, the Teen Titans leapt into action.
Youkai with the aid of a member of sector two and three had made an amplification to Cyborg's cannon. And it was used to great effect, as now Cyborg's energy beam did some real damage to the guards.
Miko and Raven took on the tanks some well placed energy slices and the tanks exploded. Star-Fire took to the skies and took out the British planes, Beast Boy was with her until, since he had been in monkey form, turned into a T-Rex to land heavily on another group of guards.
Star-Fire flew between buildings to try to get rid of some of the planes but most were still with her until Youkai used his whip to great effect and destroyed several.
Mad Mod watched as his guards were destroyed one by one and having a bazooka mysteriously on hand fired it at Raven and Cyborg who were surrounded by the guards. The guards were also blown to smithereens, and the only way Mad Mod and his "carriage" avoided being crushed was that he yanked a concealed lever which propelled the "carriage" backwards.
Star-Fire was on top Big Ben and pulled a "King Kong" with her energy blasts. The battle didn't last long, Mad Mod was so concentrated on the three captured Titans that he forgot about Miko, Youkai and Beast Boy. While Youkai sabotaged the "carriage's" controls, Miko sent some of her energy into Robin; giving him enough energy to get things done.
Robin sent Miko a thankful look and with another 'told' both she and Youkai to 'take down' the flag-sky.
'"What a surprise my Duckies!"' Mad Mod said leaping to the ground, as he observed the youthful Teen Titans being held by his guards. '"Your li'le plan didn't work…"'
Mad Mod turned back into his black and white suit and twirling his can around, noticed one thing. '"Say, where's the green one? Run away has he?"' Mad Mod taunted.
'"The green-one is our plan!"' Star-Fire declared, glaring at Mad Mod. '"Beast Boy! GO!"'
From the flag-sky came Beast Boy in the form of a flying squirrel, who landed on Mad Mod and climbed down his neck into his shirt, and crawled around, tickling Mad Mod into an odd dance, while Cyborg's arm, which Cyborg had separated from him when Mad Mod had fired the bazooka, grabbed the cane while flying around with its camera finger and arm-rockets. Mad Mod tried to hold onto it, but Cyborg's arm broke the cane free and Mad Mod fell to the ground with a grunt.
Cyborg's arm raced for the flag-sky, but one of the guards fired an energy blast that hit his arm which in turn, dropped the cane. Mad Mod ran wildly for it, and would have caught it had he not jumped short.
With the energy Miko had given him, Robin was able to catch the cane and have enough energy to stand.
'"Now, now, old bean…"' Mad Mod said with his hands raised in the 'easy-there' gesture, '"let's not do anything hasty."' He said rising to take the cane from Robin.
Robin smirked at him and pressed the 'undo' button just below the xenothium gem and his youth was returned to him.
Once Mad Mod had regained his old-age, and Robin was once again a teenage superhero, Robin gave Mad Mod a 'are-you-ready-for-this?' look and snapped the cane in two.
'"Noooooo!'" Mad Mod yelled as his Robots were powered down.
Miko gave the signal, two pink flaming arrows into the sky, and everything thanks to sectors one, two and three, things were quickly returned to normal.
Youkai aimed a blast of Youki into the sky to reveal that it was night, and as in the distance, they could still see some of the large fireworks shows, it was still the 4th of July.
'"Heh! 'ello Guvnor…"' Mad Mod said, with Robin gripping Mad Mod by the front of his shirt.
'"Just like old times, huh?"' Robin smirked into Mad Mod's face.
'"Robin!"' Star-Fire shouted joyously, as she flew into Robin's chest, causing him to drop Mad Mod. '"You are unwrinkled!"'
'"What took you guys so long?"' Robin asked, teasing his teammates…
'"We just needed some time to brush up on our history…"' Beast Boy said with a shrug.
As Miko and Youkai landed next to Raven, Robin turned to face Miko. "Thanks for the energy boost."
"You would have found a way to stop Mad Mod even without it." Miko said brushing off Robin's thanks.
Speaking of Mad Mod… Star-Fire paused in her hugging of Robin to look down and draw back pointing to Robin's hand. '"Uh… Robin?"'
Robin looked down and was shocked to see that he was only holding Mad Mod's sweater.
'"Huh? Where did he go?"' All Teen Titans assumed ready stances for chase, when Miko spotted him behind the "carriage". She pointed for her teammates, who leaned over the top of the carriage to glare at him, as he tried to sneak away. He gave them the 'V' for Victory, when his pants hit his ankles, revealing his British Flag briefs.
'"O-okay, really not something I needed to see."' Raven said, grossed out even more than before.
Mad Mod took off running, with the Teen Titan's giving chase.
"Just because it isn't clear Miko, you seem to know a lot about American History- and yet you're Japanese… Mostly… What and how much do you really know of American History?" Cyborg asked a he and Miko ran side-by side chasing after Mad Mod.
They caught Mad Mod and handed him over to the police just as Semper Fidelis ended. Then the National Anthem, the Star Spangled Banner began to play, and they stopped with their hands over their hearts to listen to it. Never had the anthem sounded so… right.
Miko took a breath before turning to Cyborg with a grin. "I know that the Star Spangled Banner was created by F. S. Key, when he was interned in a Prison Ship in September of 1814 at the Battle of Fort McHenry and that the Treaty of Ghent in December of 1814 formally ended the War of 1812... I also know that the song Yankee Doodle was originally to the tune of an English drinking song… So that when the Colonists/Rebels played it, the British dreaded it and actually came to fear hearing it." Miko said to Cyborg with a smirk after the Anthem had finished playing and the Fireworks show slowly started.
"Really? Which?" The rest of the Titans now listening in on their conversation.
"Couldn't tell you… However, the Star Spangled Banner was originally a Poem titled "To Anacreon in Heaven" (though only the first stanza is sung) and later the poem was set to the music of a popular British song by a Men's Society Club and was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889. The U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, the name was changed to what we now know it by and it was made the National Anthem by a Congressional Resolution on March 3, 1931 and the United States Army for ceremonial purposes, then in 1931, it was made official by President H. Hoover…"
"Oh He started the FBI, right?" Beast Boy asked.
"That's J. Edgar Hoover…." Miko deadpanned.
"Then who invented the vacuum?" He asked frustrated.
The rest of the team shared a look and the two drivers of the group summoned their respective rides.
It was left unsaid that Miko knew a lot about American History.
"What?" Beast Boy asked perplexed.
When no one answered, he asked his query again. "What?"
"Come on BB, after the fireworks, I'll play a vid-game with you back at the Tower…" Robin offered, Miko jumped on the back of the R-Cycle, as the rest of the team piled into Cyborg's car.
"Really?" Beast Boy asked, the sudden change of subject blowing the previous one totally clear from his mind.
Robin gave his teammate a grin before pulling on his helmet and handing another to Miko.
Upon her questioning look, he offered her a grin. "You seem to like riding my bike more than riding in a car…"
"I've always been more of an 'open-air' girl…" Miko said pulling on the stylized red and white helmet.
And with that said the team took off. Robin and Miko in the lead back to the T-Tower.
The Fireworks celebrating the culmination of their day of National Independence lighting the skyline behind them.
() * () * () * () * () * ()
The Next Day
() * () * () * () * () * ()
"Hey, what happened to Etrigan and Blood?" Beast Boy asked as Miko made him hold his hands still so she could create a banana basket between his hands, which were spread about a foot apart. She carefully wove her thread through his hands and created an intricate cat's cradle.
"I don't know- but I think we can assume that he has been thwarted from contacting us, and we have no way of contacting him without alerting the JLU that we're investigating the issue with Vault Tower further than we are." Miko said, moving another string into position.
"So- what's going on between you and Youkai, huh Miko?" Beast Boy questioned leadingly.
Miko frowned as Beast Boy transferred the cat's cradle gently to the gelled surface of the puzzle design she decided to paint over.
"…Huh?" she asked after a ten-second delay, as she had been entirely focused on getting the intricate cat's cradle to line up the way she wanted on the puzzle surface before applying a coat of quick drying lacquer. She looked up, her masked face showing her confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Come on, I ~know~ he's courting you…" He said stressing his words, with a wicked grin on his face.
Miko spared him a wry look, but when he continued to tease her, she bit her the corner of her lip and shook her head. "Don't start with me Beast Boy- I can take you both in sparring and at match of wits…" She said with a teasing yet, a specifically warning glance, aiming a paintbrush at his nose.
When he placed an elbow in a small bowl of paint, and grinned at her, in retaliation she dropped the paintbrush and quickly formed his hair into a crude mullet and took the lacquer-aerosol can and spraying it along his head like hair-spray.
"Hey!" He yelled in shock.
A snort of laughter drew Miko's and Beast Boy's attention to the entryway of the recreation room. Robin had entered the room just as Beast Boy teased Miko and got a threatening tease in return.
"You're wearing a mullet!" Robin snorted. Then he grabbed his communicator and was about to tell Cyborg, to come up to the Multipurpose Room when BB in desperation executed a flying leap and stopped Robin's hand movement.
"If you call someone, any person or being, I swear- I will paint the R-cycle pink with purple flowers and cutesy teddy bears!" He threatened.
At the very real threat, Robin glared at him, but nodded. Beast Boy then stomped to the table, and grabbed the can of paint thinner, stomped to the window, opened it, transformed and flew towards his room. No way was he going to let the rest of the Titans see him like this. He got enough ragging as it was.
"That was fun…" Miko said with a grin. "It'll take him at least half an hour to get that lacquer out…"
Robin shook his head with an outstanding grin and sat at the table next to Miko, nursing a glass of ice-water. "So… Seriously, what are you going to do about Youkai?"
"What do you know about him?"
"According to legends and actual accounts from a holy, and often misconstrued and maltreated monk, the Shikon Miko was bonded by blood to the house of the Crescent Moon, gaining their familial status, yet set apart… The small blue moon behind your left ear, which coincides with the scripts, is the marking of a blood-sister of the Crescent Moon; yet even with being a blood-sister, not being blood related."
"Robin…"
"Don't tell me I'm wrong Miko."
"Oh- I wasn't going to tell you that you were wrong…" Miko said, shaking her head, as she drew her green paintbrush over the cords. "I was going to say: You won't get any straight answers from me…" She chuckled, "I'm not allowed to give them." She dropped the paintbrush, and stalled Robin's concern "It's not- I was sworn to never allow anything about… you know… to go past neither my lips, or fingers… or anyone else's… So-"
"Miko spell thing…?" Robin queried, sighing.
"Something like that… Just… Stay calm, alright?"
"Any reason that I should freak out?"
"No…" She shrugged, wiping off her hands and tossing the rag on the bench. "Just a standard warning…" She paused, as if considering an idea. "Oh… This is going to hurt a little…"
"Wha-?" A flash of light exploded from Miko, sending the electronic equipment off like crazy, not to mention throwing Robin backward to land on his ear. Literally, his ear.
Miko exhibited a look of (for lack of better words) 'oops', and 'oh crud'; and moved towards her team leader.
"Miko?" Robin asked from his awkward position on the floor: right ear to the ground shoulders level with it, butt up in the air, arms and legs splayed in semi-painful positions.
"Yes Robin?" Miko said kneeling next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"What happened?"
"You experienced an energy feedback loop similar to getting electrocuted."
"Oh." Robin said trying to get his appendages to work properly. He didn't quite have the feeling back in his extremities.
"Want some help up?"
"Um-"
Miko didn't give him a chance to really answer; because in a move, she grabbed his left shoulder and spun him up, or tried to if it weren't for the fact that Robin overcompensated and he ended up spinning into Miko and smacking her lips with his.
The doors slid open to reveal Youkai and the rest of their team minus Beast Boy.
"I believe I made my position clear as to Miko, Robin…"
Robin and Miko, their masked faces, very alike in appearance, sharing a look of shock and humor; at being caught in a completely awkward and semi-delicate situation.
Then they burst out laughing at the very ridiculousness of the situation they found themselves in.
"Man! What is this?" Came a familiar voice from behind the main mass of Titans; "I leave for like, fifteen minutes and the place gets stuck in crazy world without me!" Beast Boy yelled in frustration, gripping his still wet hair. Luckily the smell of paint thinner had greatly diminished, due to the fact that BB had in desperation, sought some of Star-Fire's shampoo from Tamaran. Now he smelled like he had before his hair had be lacquered, like a super-powered teenager who only bathed on Saturday, or after a particularly messy battle.
"What was that light? And that energy?" Cyborg asked.
"I may make a supposition," Youkai said wryly; "Miko has initiated a mythic-contract with Robin…"
"Mythic-contract?"
"A binding in order to make a silence pact no doubt."
"But why?" Raven asked.
"Protection…" Youkai said, "It is a pact that goes back half a millennia between participants…"
"You people are weird." Cyborg said, shaking his head. He looked into the fridge where they'd stashed the leftover cheeseburgers and hotdogs (all of them).
"Man, we have all this food, it needs to find a home…" He pulled them from the fridge and with the help of one of his new inventions, had them all heated back to what they were last night in only a few minutes.
"Chow time!" Cyborg declared to his teammates, as he set them on the table… there were even a couple soy burgers and soy-dogs for Beast Boy.
After they had eaten, and all of the Mustard was once again gone, Miko spoke up. She and Youkai had agreed that the sooner they started the new perception mission, the better.
"Guys- Um, Cyborg mentioned it earlier…" Miko said, almost nervously. "I have to go home… Back to Japan, there's something that doesn't pan out…"
"What doesn't pan out Miko?" Robin asked placing a hand on her shoulder.
"That black energy from Japan… Remember? I told you that 'half of Kyushu got destroyed and there was no report, latent presence, no super powers; but there was a dark energy reported in the area by several psychics?'"
"That was kind of off the wall- but… yeah?" Cyborg queried.
"I need to go back."
"You need to-"
"Go back, yeah…"
"I do not understand, why is it you must leave Kikyo?"
Miko sighed; "Me go solve problem in Japan." She said badly imitating a Neanderthal.
"Oh, that makes sense…" Cyborg, Robin, and Beast Boy said in unison.
"Still, while you're there I'll look into the incident that happened back in Japan." Robin said.
Miko blinked and shrugged to Youkai, who merely smirked at her and with Cyborg's blessing, directed her to the T-Plane.
Apparently, Sesshoumaru wanted his son to be more world conscious, and Robin gave him the go-ahead to use the T-Plane, after Matsurokan promised to bring it back with nary a scratch and a full tank to Cyborg.
Little did the team know that when Miko grabbed her bag from her room she changed places with the Kagome-shikigami, but had controlled the shikigami through a headset and the aid of Kanna's mirror. Youkai was to fly to Japan, visit with her family for a couple hours and then return the T-Plane back to the Tower, Miko-less.
Once the T-Plane had taken off, Miko, who was now back to being regular Kagome, albeit 'sick', she quickly walked to the infirmary, took off the headset and for lack of something better to do, sat in the hospital bed and started to learn how to knit from a book.
What Kagome failed to take into account, was that Robin was trained by the greatest detective in this century, and he'd noted "Miko's" responses and facial expressions, being just slightly… Off. With that in mind, Robin resolved to confront the civilian Kagome about the situation that she was in.
~*~*~()*()
((A/N: Please to all my readers, I appreciate your following my story, but I've kinda hit a blockage. I know where I want the story to go but I need a chapter sub-plot… I'll only provide a hint as to my next chapter: "Jump Takeover"… Please, ideas have merit! Send me reviews and ideas! Thank You!))