Chapter 3.
Raven landed in the parking lot of the factory. Why is it always a factory? She thought to herself as Starfire joined her shortly before Robin pulled up with Annie in tow.
"So this is the place?" Starfire asked.
"Yeah, Slade will have to come here if he wants to raise the army he wants to build." Robin answered.
"I'm already here Robin." A voice called to them over the intercom system. All of them looked up in surprise at the speaker. Slade had beaten them there.
"Everyone be ready." Robin commanded.
"Welcome to my future Robin. I'll be waiting for you in the center of this little workshop of wonders. Bring all the friends you want, you can't stop me now, you're too late." The voice of Slade said before one of Robin's explosives silenced the speaker.
"Can he still hear us?" Annie asked.
"Everyone get in a circle and hold hands." Raven ordered. She grimaced a little at how quickly Annie got Robin's hand and she got the other. Starfire said nothing as she was stuck between the two girls.
Now we can discuss this without him hearing anything. Raven thought to her friends. Don't use your mouth just think of what you want to say.
We have to get to my father. Annie replied in her mind. He'll be the one controlling the army Slade is making. If we can stop my father, the rest of the army will be powerless.
Sounds like a plan. How do we get to him though? Raven asked.
He'll be with Slade. If we find Slade, we'll find him. Robin thought with absolute certainty. Above all else Annie, stay away from your father.
Annie nodded and Raven watched in shock as Annie's clothing wavered before turning into a uniform identical to Robin's with the exception of a large 'A' where Robin's 'R' usually went. Starfire looked ready to cry. Raven couldn't blame her really, she knew the tall alien slept in the uniform she'd swiped from Robin just like Raven did on occasion. They were comfortable after all.
The band of girls plus one set out to infiltrate the factory. They crept in through a service entrance and quietly walked around trying to find some clue as to the whereabouts of Slade in the large edifice. That was when the welcoming party arrived.
Robots poured from their surroundings as Slade's henchmen attacked the intruders into their domain. Raven lashed out with her powers and she noticed an unusually large barrage of star bolts from her kundogi. Robin himself flipped and dodged in his usual fashion landing devastating blows on his opponents and sending them flying. His staff quickly came into action as well as he pounded robots to greasy scrap metal.
"ANNIE!" Raven heard him yell and Raven turned to see one of the robots barreling down on the timid girl.
Robin moved to intercept it, but was too slow as it threw a punch at the girl. Raven felt her stomach churn as the fist punctured the girls skull and came out on the other side. Instead of blood however, nothing came out from what should have been a fatal wound.
Raven and Starfire watched in horrified awe as Annie's body seemed to turn into liquid mud and morphed; where before the robot had been standing there with its fist in Annie's head, it now found itself in a wicked arm lock by the same girl that it had intended to kill.
Annie pulled back one of her small ineffectual fists to strike the intrusive machine, and as the rest of them watched, her fist became a solid sphere of steel which quickly rendered the robot's head a reasonable facsimile to the state the her own had only recently been in. This time however, Raven was reasonably sure that there wasn't going to be any shape shifting.
"THAT'S your power?!" Starfire asked in disbelief.
"I've been practicing." Annie said sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
Raven just shook her had and turned back to the fight. Her dark magic ripped a few more robots in half as star bolts continued their barrage. She knew they were going to win. It was Slade's usual tactics. Wear down the opponent so that he'd have an easier time of it when the final confrontation came.
Raven had to admit though that it did hurt watching Annie fight back to back with Robin. The two of them were quite similar in their fighting styles. Robin was obviously more skilled than the girl since he could easily take out four to five robots in the time it took her to finish one, but they were both close in fighters. Annie's metamorphic abilities made her practically indestructible to the robot henchmen, while being able to harden her body made her strikes as deadly as those from one of Beast Boy's dinosaur forms.
The four heroes quickly finished off the rest of the robots and headed deeper into the bowels of the chemical factory. Raven tried to listen as Robin and Annie were talking.
"So you can do the same things as your dad?" Robin was asking as they ran.
"Almost, he's still a lot better than I am at manipulating his body, but I can do a lot of the same things. I can make myself as hard as steel, and as soft as liquid. That's how I escaped to get a message to you. Neither my father nor Slade realized I'd learned to use my powers." Annie said keeping pace with the athletic boy wonder as Raven and Starfire flew along behind.
"So why did your father let you go anyway?" Robin was asking.
"I… was an experiment. Slade wanted someone to experiment on, and my father didn't want to go through the process. Since he and I have the same composition… they used me." Annie said with pain still evident in her voice.
Raven heard Starfire gasp in horror, and she could feel the anger pouring into her from her shared bond with Robin. For her to feel this much intense emotion off of him must mean that he was indeed seething inside. Raven was sure of thing as they flew. Slade had been killed before, and if Robin got the chance he'd probably try to make it stick this time.