Authors Note: Chapter 4, people. What's up? I'm loving this story so far, and a small thanks to pathfinder for reminding me about some of the villains I'd forgotten about. Now I have more stuff to write!
Chapter 4
The fact that Stray was currently threatening his team left Robin with a good indication of what the environment was capable of, as well as a small scope on the abilities of it's controller. Watch an inorganic metal extend as if it's wielder was growing them himself only served to increase his apprehension at the capabilities of their enemies. Even the fact that Stray was threatening the girl that he had a small crush on (though would never admit to such), Robin attributed to Caroline's influence.
The walls bleeding as Stray passed them, though, was one step too far. "Titans, be ready," he hissed under his breath, the few members without powers taking point in front of the fallen Beast Boy and injured Mimic. Starfire moved forward, a pleading look on her face.
"Please, Stray, we do not wish to hurt you. Surely you are just, 'joking around'?" She asked in a small voice.
Stray paused. For a split second, a smile crossed Starfire's face, as she believed she had gotten through to her teammate with such ease. That smile soon evaporated, though, as Stray's vicious grin grew wider, and he leapt forward, lashing out his claws at the alien girl.
She reacted on instinct, releasing a large star bolt directly in front of her, which met it's mark mid-leap, the resulting explosion from which launched them both backwards. Robin rushed to Star's side as she hit the ground, helping her into a sitting position. No sooner had she opened her eyes again than Stray came tearing through the cloud of dust her attack had caused, baring his claws, and growling furiously. "You BITCH!" the feral boy growled, tearing his claws down upon her.
Robin had just enough time to react to throw her further back down the hallway in the direction they had come, as Stray's weapon tore through the tissue in Robin's arms. He let out a sharp yell, and in one fluid motion, was wielding a Birdirang as a dagger. Stray blinked at the sudden relocation of his prey, which paused him long enough for Robin to slash his weapon across the tabby's cheek.
Stray roared in pain, a deep, primal sound, and lashed out with his other hand, clawing Robin across the chest, and flinging him down the hall, into Starfire's arms. Regaining his stance, Stray lunged forward again, only to be caught full force in the stomach by Cyborg's sonic cannon. He flew several feet backwards, back threw the door he had come from, and Cyborg gave chase. Pausing in the doorway, he leveled his sonic cannon at Stray, now poised on top of a wooden desk halfway down the hall, hissing, and arching his back.
"Don't make me do this man, I don't like fighting my friends," Cyborg's voice rang commandingly down the corridor, and Stray flinched as his sensitive ears caught the echoes of his baritone. Out of anger, and instinct, Stray leapt forward again, twisting in midair to bring his foot across the fleshy part of Cyborg's face. The tin man slammed against the wall, and fell to the ground with a moan, unconscious. Stray turned to evaluate the rest of his opponents, as a large burst of green light, followed by a few small metal spheres, met and detonated inches from his face.
Robin and Starfire ran forward into the dust of the impact, as Raven dragged a now-waking Beast Boy towards the group, Mimic walking the length of the hall. The smoke cleared, however, there was no sign of Stray. Simply a large splash of blood in a neat circle in the middle of the floor that steadily shrank to nothingness, leaving the only clean patch of carpet in the corridor.
Mimic gave Beast Boy a once over. "What happened to you?"
"I don't remember, dude. All I saw was a couple of bright lights on the other side of a door, then BANG! I was out," Beast Boy muttered, regaining his footing. He looked around at his teammates, who all shared mixed expressions of sorrow and anger, including Cyborg, who, Beast Boy noticed, was just getting to his feet. "Ok, what did I miss?"
Mimic gave an empty laugh. Just another of our teammates turning on us. Stray's gone psycho. What were you saying, Robin? That he was the best guy for the job?
Robin rounded on Mimic. "I didn't think he'd be so weak as to turn rogue so early in the game!"
"He's not weak! No weaker than you, at least," Mimic rose to his brother's defense. "He's just… more susceptible to the environment than we first thought. And speaking of first thoughts, wasn't it your brilliant idea to bring him into an open warfare site in the first place?! You were the only one who knew, or ad least had ANY idea, what we'd be getting into here! What made youthink taking someone like Stray into a bloody battlefield would be any kind of a good idea?!"
"I thought he might be able to handle it, if he's so in control of himself! He's never had a problem before, with all the fight's we've been in!" Robin shouted.
"That we use NONLETHAL FORCE AGAINST ENEMIES WHO DON"T MAKE THE WALLS BLEED!" Mimic's voice stressed to a breaking point, and he let go, falling to his knees. "I just, this was such a bad idea, I knew we should have let him leave when he wanted to." Mimic balled his hands into fists, then stood up again, with some difficulty. "I hate this Caroline bitch, whatever she is. I say we go straight for her, and take her out. Kill the beast by removing it's head." His hands shook as he spoke, his anger welled up within him.
Robin laid a sympathetic hand on Mimic's shoulder. "We will, Mimic, we will, but for now, I think we should focus on tracking down Stray, and putting him somewhere safe-" Robin's hand was knocked aside with a swing of Mimic's good arm.
"Somewhere safe? Are you stupid? Nowhere is safe for him here. He's become this Caroline chick's plaything, she's dangling the bloody carrot on the stick in front of his face, and putting thoughts in his head. She should be our first priority," Mimic all but yelled at Robin. It was clear Mimic's points of view on this subject would not be easily swayed. He stomped off down the stretch of hall he had come from, kicking open the other double door that hadn't been unlocked. From what the rest of the group could see, it was yet another hallway, but of a different fashion.
Raven took a few steps after Mimic, then turned and faced the team. "I'm going with him. He's right, we need to be taking out the biggest threat right now, and that's the little girl. Plus, I'm not exactly keen on seeking out my new stalker."
Robin just huffed and walked the other way, down the hallway Stray disappeared to, opening a pair of double doors into a large board room. He noted a severe lack of blood or any signs of life. Sighing heavily, and muttering under his breath, he pressed forward. Starfire soon followed.
Beast Boy and Cyborg looked at each other, , then at the two teams walking away. "Never split up in a horror movie, guys," Beast Boy mumbled. He gave Cyborg a nod of the head, then ran after Robin and Starfire.
Cyborg took his cue, and ran to join up with Mimic and Raven. It was going to be a long night.
*--*
Stray awoke to find himself in the den of what seemed to be a middle-class home, stretched out on the couch, staring at a television showing nothing but static. He stared at it for a few seconds, as he tried to stabilize himself mentally. The last thing he remembered was the distinct smell of rust, and a surge of anger. Yet for some reason, he felt quite content in this room. Taking another look around, the room itself was quite comforting. A medium sized tv, some small tables in the corner with vases and flowers in them, a small woven rug on the floor between his couch and the entertainment center, and, turning around, he noticed a large bay window, out of which he could see a large corn field. He shrugged, assuming he had passed out somewhere, and some good-natured individual had taken him in to rest.
At least, he did, until he turned around again, and saw a small blonde girl in a white dress sitting on the rug and watching the static tv. He couldn't see her face, as her back was turned to him, but he had a good idea of what, or who, she was.
His next few actions, if you asked him, he wouldn't be able to tell you why he did them. Only that he thought it the best thing to do in his given scenario. He knew he should be freaked out. That this place was most likely another illusion, or some kind of trap, but he felt… at peace. And so, he scooted himself off the couch, took a few steps up to the child, and sat down next to her. Staring at the screen, without turning his head, he asked simply, "Caroline?"
*--*
"I can't believe Robin sometimes," Mimic grumbled. He was talking to fill the silence, to have something to do, and Cyborg and Raven both knew it, so they let him be. "What in god's name made him think this mission was a good idea? 'Oh, Batman asked me to do it.' He' probably suck off the Dark Knight for a Scooby Snack."
Raven just glared at him, and Cyborg whispered, "Hey guys, in here." He had pointedly been ignoring Mimic's rantings, keeping an eye out for subtle details, and potential attacks. He led the team into what appeared to be a small office, their latest environment being some corporate headquarters, or a branch thereof. He pointed quietly at a small, red, blinking light on the desk. Shining his shoulder light, he discovered it to be an answering machine, with 2 messages on it. "What do you think?"
"Can't hurt to listen, can it?" Mimic asked. With something to distract him, he decided to keep his ranting to a minimum.
Raven shook her head. "Think about where we are. The environment. Anything could be a trap. I say we leave it alone."
Mimic gave her a look. "We're here to track down Caroline, right? What if it's a clue about the project she was in? Somebody might say something to give us some kind of direction."
The two Titans looked ready to argue toe-to-toe about it, and Cyborg waved his hands in front of them. "Whoa, guys, let's all just calm down and-" BEEP. The sound made the three of them jump away from the desk by a foot, as Cyborg's hand had grazed the play button. At first, all they heard was static.
Then a cool, soft female voice stated: "You have two new messages."
BEEP
"Hey, Rick, it's John. Listen, I got your labs back on the Caroline girl, and I think she's going to be a good subject. She has all the same markers as Alma, but if she doesn't know anything about her abilities, then maybe we could avoid another incident like Armacham Headquarter's Origin Facility Reactor. We want to make sure that she doesn't go over the deep end before we finish the procedures, so we're sending over a large supply of sedatives. Should be there within the week." BEEP The female voice said again: "Message received June sixth, two thousand ten.
Mimic glanced at the other two. "That was over a week ago. Didn't this shit start yester-" BEEP
"Second new message."
BEEP
"RICK! RICK! Don't use the sedative! We tested it on some of our subjects before we sent it over! It didn't do anything other than what it was supposed to at first, that's why I recommended it. But either we got the formula wrong, or someone tampered with it, or something, but all the subjects we used them on woke up again, only a couple of days later. And they were… different, some how. More powerful. Some of them turned into puppet masters, and one or two just starting using psychic abilities, but we couldn't control them, there's still one or two more, I don't know if-" he was cut off by a banging sound somewhere in the background. A sound like an impact on wood. The next time he spoke, it was in whispers. "-I think they found me, but don't use it on Caroline, who knows what might-" BANG. The audio cut off.
BEEP "You have no more messages."
*--*
"Hey Robin, what happened? What's going on? What did Stray do?" Beast Boy peppered their leader with questions, filling the silence much like Mimic had, trying to put together the pieces of what had happened after he was knocked out. Robin simply chose to ignore him, making their way down hallway after hallway of blood and rust and double doors, when suddenly Robin held up a hand for them to stop. "What's going on man? I-"
"Beast Boy, shut up for a minute. Look," he added, pointing at the doors in front of them. As opposed to the Old Victorian double doors that they had seen and gone through, they had come upon a single wooden door at the end of the hallway, with a staple metal doorknob. There was no indicator of a lock on the door. Robin took his ear to the door, and listened for a moment, then waved for Starfire and Beast Boy to move next to him. "I don't hear anything, we should be ok," he whispered. He turned the knob and pulled the door open-
And all three of them heard their T-Coms crackle. "…movement…..door on far end….take point…." Robin glanced at his communicator, and opened his mouth to say something, when they heard a clunk at their feet. They glanced down, and Robin yelled out "Grenade!" before either Beast Boy or Starfire had realized what it was.
Beast Boy's next movements were purely on instinct. He took a running step forward, and, rearing one leg back, gave the explosive a heavy kick back through the door.
They heard a deep male voice scream "What the fu-" before the explosion cut him off completely. Following Beast Boy's initiative, Robin pulled out the two handguns clipped to his belt, and leapt through the door, hiding behind what appeared to be an oil drum on the other side. Starfire flew headlong through the door, and straight up. Beast Boy heard gunfire pepper the walls after her, then stop.
Beast Boy himself took the form of a small rat, and scurried through the door. He glanced up while on the other side, and saw Starfire taking cover behind a metal overhang. He had just enough time to realize they were now outside, before he heard another loud clunk nest to him. He turned his head in time to see a large metal disk with a glowing red light spin what looked to be a barrel in a few dirrections, before settling on a position just above him. Turning his head slightly, he noticed the turret was pointed at Robin.
The turret started to whir.
*--*
Stray just sat in place for a little while. The girl hadn't answered him, so he figured either she couldn't hear him, or-
He figured it better just to stare at the tv. At least for the first few minutes. Then he tried again. "Caroline?"
He heard a small whimper next to him. Turning his head only, he looked down at the young girl, who was curled into a ball, squeezing a small white rabbit. The same rabbit, he noticed, that had been in the elevator and exploded into a sea of blood. The girl seemed to be crying into her stuffed animal, her eyes scrunched closed. This is who we're supposed to be taking down? A scared little girl? Stray thought to himself. It didn't sit right with him. He turned the rest of him, and draped an arm over her shoulders. "Caroline? Is that you?"
The blonde girl turned her head up at him, and stared at him with startling blue eyes. They were deep and sorrowful, as only a child's could be, and it hurt to stare into them. He couldn't help himself, pulling her into a big hug, he started to cry along with her, his tears dripping over her shoulder. He didn't know if it was his own emotions, or the environment itself, but he wanted nothing more than to comfort her, and protect her. I can't let the others get to this girl, she's all alone and afraid here. She probably doesn't know what she'd doing, anyway. Hell, we don't even know if she's doing it. Stray's thoughts raced through his head, as he held Caroline close, and silently, he made himself a vow that nothing would happen to her.
Beneath his arms, the young girl's eyes turned from a stark blue to a devilish red, yet her expression didn't change. Still crying, more openly now that someone was holding her, and trying to comfort her, her tears soon turned from a crystal clear to small streams of blood.
The static in the TV above them turned from a snowy white and black to a red haze, as blood seeped from beneath the system, followed soon by blood out of the vents, the rug, between the floorboards and even the walls themselves.
Stray opened his eyes as he felt the warm liquid seep into his cargos, and saw the bloody scene before him. At first, he showed no reaction, but his normally blue eyes turned into the dark red and black pattern they had taken on earlier. Slowly, his expression turned from a deep sadness, to a comforting smile, as he patted the young girls back. "It's ok Caroline. I won't leave you alone with these bad people. You've got a new big brother now, and ol' Stray's not going to let anything happen to you. I promise," he pulled away from her, keeping his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him again, her eyes returning to their normal crystal blue, her tears clear as they dripped down her face. She gave a deep sniff, and asked in a small, sweet voice, "Really?"
"Of course. You've been here all by yourself, haven't you?" His voice was slightly higher, with a small rasp to it, but it could still be said to be his voice. "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Come on, let's try to find a way out. Then I can take you somewhere safe."
She paused for a bit, then nodded. Standing up, she looked down at him, he still on his knees. She only stood over him by a few inches. "You'll take care of me, no matter what happens? Mommy and Daddy left. You aren't going to leave too, are you?"
He stood up, still smiling warmly, and held out a clawed hand. She reached for his, hesitated a second, then placed her small hand in his large "paw". "Of course not. I'm here now, and I'll make sure no one makes you cry ever again. Now come with me, and we'll go find my friends. I'll get them to leave you alone."
Caroline looked almost hesitant for a few seconds, then smiled warmly at him. "Ok, big brother."
*--*
Mimic and Cyborg traded worried glances with each other, and Raven just stared at the machine. "That can't be good. Whatever they gave this Caroline chick, it must have amped whatever abilities she had, even if she didn't know she had the," Cyborg estimated. He gave the rest of the room a once over, and found some medical supplies. Storing them in a small compartment in his arm, he asked, "What do you think, guys? Should we try to find more about this drug? Like a way to neutralize it, make her weaker?"
"That wouldn't work, Cyborg," said Raven. "Even if she didn't know about her abilities before the drug, we don't necessarily know if they amplified powers, gave them to people who didn't have them… or if they awoke abilities the person already had. Neutralizing the drug, if she's already awake, may prove to do nothing at all. It might have already cleared her system by now. And who knows what tampering with her mind now would achieve? It's best if we just try to find a way to eliminate her as a threat entirely."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mimic started, waving his hands in front of him. "You can't be serious. Eliminate? You don't mean kill her, do you? She's just a little girl."
Raven glared daggers at him. "We don't know that, not anymore. Whatever they did to her, she may not be just a sweet and innocent child anymore. Hell, with some of the things Robin told us, a girl like that may be begging for death by now. All of these random phenomena may be her cry for help."
Mimic scowled at her. "Or she could be just plain terrified of the military personnel and troop of met humans traipsing up and down this place. Hell, we don't even know if it is only her doing all this crap. You heard the guy on the tape, that compound did a lot of different shit to a lot of different people. We may be dealing with multiple threats here."
"Weren't you just a few minutes ago shouting at Robin that we needed to hunt her down?" Cyborg cut in.
"That was to keep him from going after my brother like a common criminal! And if you didn't notice, it didn't work. SO I'm a little freaked out here, and the thought of killing a small child, let alone a girl, is not one that sits well with me!" Mimic shouted at Cyborg. His glare flickered back and forth from one to the other, then he sighed, his shoulders slumping and his gaze hitting the floor. "Look, I just. We don't need to be rushing into this on half-cocked assumptions. I just want to get out of this hell hole, with everyone that came in with me. I thought that maybe if I'd split off of Robin, instead of following his commando lead and ripping everything a new one, I could get some answers, maybe find a way to save everyone at once. I… I don't think I'm ready to kill anyone. And I didn't want to be the kind of person whose hesitation got his teammates killed. Look, you should go back. Team up with Robin and them. I don't want to be a problem for you, too." He sat down in the swivel chair behind the desk, solemn and quiet.
Raven considered him for a moment, then dropped her glare. Cyborg followed suit. "Look, Mimic, we don't want to kill anyone here, either. But we need to be ready for the fact that that may be our only option. Look, I came with you because I thought cutting the problem off at the source would be the best approach. I want to save as many people as I can, too. So let me help. We need to work together on this. This place has already split us up twice in a few hours. Let's try to stay together a little better than that."
Cyborg just shrugged, and gave him a goofy smile. "Yeah, man. We all know you couldn't do this by yourself. And I'm not really big on the whole killing people either. A hero doesn't kill."
Mimic just looked up at both of them, and gave them a weak grin. "You guys are such softies."
*--*
On the other side of the halls, Robin and his cell were having a much less heartwarming experience. Robin had noticed just as fast the turret that had landed next to Beast Boy, and BB sitting next to it. "Beast Boy, armor! He shouted, depinning a grenade, and throwing it at the turret. Where the rat once stood, a Galapagos turtle now sat, which Robin levered upright, as a bulwark for the blast. Even with the extra protection, the explosion sent them both flying.
Right into enemy range. Robin sprung to his feet, leaping onto a balcony, and kicked the rifle out of the hands of a sniper that had poised himself above them. A few well-placed blows knocked him to the ground, as he rounded the rifle on two more men coming up the stairs, He shot a few rounds at their feet, giving them pause, and hurled the rifle at their heads. One ducked, while the other was knocked over the railing, falling unconscious to the concrete below. The first man stood back up, and turned from facing his fallen comrade in time to see a bo staff crack him in the face. He, too, hit the ground unconscious.
From behind him, Robin heard another explosion. Fearing the worst, he whirled around-
And ducked, as a grenade came whirring past the top of his head. Peeking over the railing, he saw a large barrel that had been blown in half, a few soldiers scattered around it, unmoving. Green smoke pouring from the barrel led Robin to believe that Starfire must have shot something highly flammable. He was about to glance up, as shotgun fire ricocheted off the side of the metal railing of the stairs. He ducked down, and glanced at where he thought the shot was coming from, in time to see something large and green drop onto the soldier holding the shotgun. Robin blinked, and saw a large black-and green panda bear crawling away from the impact, which in turn changed into Beast Boy, rubbing his backside.
Before he could ask his teammate if he was ok, Robin heard more static over his com, and in a much clearer voice this time: "We can't hold them off! I've lost most of my men! Don't let them get to the loading dock! They can get into the entire facility from there!" Robin glanced around the edge of the railing, and saw a small group of men, one of which had his hand on his radio, running up to a pair of garage doors he hadn't noticed before. He looked around for his team, and saw Starfire hovering behind a steel shipping container. He tore off a small button on his collar, and threw it at her, hitting her square in the back of the head. She whirled around, ready to blast whatever had attacked her, and Robin waved her down. She gave him a curious look, and he pointed at the doors. Edging around the crate, she, too, saw the men, and signaled to Beast Boy, who had been hiding under the stairs. Robin saw him stalk out from under him in a wolf form, and Robin leapt down to meet them.
Soon, crackling came over the T-Com again. "They're behind the crates, flank 'em!" Robin heard the voice, both over the com and a few feet away, as he turned, he saw another soldier leaned against a railing. Robin didn't hesitate, simply chucked an explosive sphere at him, which went off in his face. The explosion hurled him against a wall, and he fell, silent. Robin didn't know if he was dead or not, but didn't, at this point, care. He peeked back around the crate, and saw a few men crawling around the edge. One of them noticed him, and they each took aim at him, but were soon interrupted by a flash of green at their feet. A star bolt blast going off right underneath them sent them flying into the wall of another container, and Robin glanced up to give Starfire a thumbs up. He edged around the side, with Starfire flying above him. "Keep an eye out, guys, there may be more-" WHAM! Robin's sentence was cut off by a large metallic clang on the other side of the crate Starfire had blown the troops into. Running around the edge, They turned the corner in time to see Beast Boy returning to normal from his rhinoceros form, and what appeared to be the last soldier now occupying a large whole in the crate. He groaned slightly, and passed out.
"These guys are pretty good, but we're still the best!" Beast Boy gave a cheesy thumbs up, and Robin just grinned at him.
"Alright, you guys. God work. Now, let's hit that cargo dock. If what I heard over the com is true, then we can get to the rest of the facility from there," Robin directed his team to a heavy security door between the two larger garage doors. Starfire spent no time prying it open.
"Thanks, Star. Ok, guys, keep an eye out. I don't want any unnecessary-" a bright flash of light cut him off as he walked through the door. When his vision cleared, he found himself blinking a few more times, just to be sure.
They were back in the hallway they had been in before Cyborg had blown the door. The Boy Wonder whirled around to make sure the rest of the team was with him, and in fact, nearly the whole team was standing beside him. Mimic, Raven and Cyborg were there, along with Beast Boy and Star.
"Dudes, what just happened?" Beast Boy asked no one in particular. The rest of the group looked just as confused as he did.
Robin made a decision at that point to get the hell out of there. "Ok, guys. We are not equipped to deal with this scenario. All we did was try to blow a door, and we nearly got ourselves killed. By militia, and each other."
"Nuh-uh," Mimic stopped him. "We aren't going anywhere without Stray-"
"Aw, it's so cute that you're worried about me," a snide voice said from behind him. Mimic spun around, and the rest of the group followed his gaze, to Stray turning a corner, rubbing his head and wincing.
Mimic moved to run up to him, but Robin stopped him. "What are you doing here, Stray?" He growled.
Stray looked up, and cocked an eyebrow at him. Mimic noticed that his eyes were their normal shade of blue. "We're just trying to get the hell out of here, man."
"We?" Robin asked, then traced his gaze down Stray's arm, and saw that he was holding hands with a dark haired, slightly tanned young girl in blue jeans and a tank top, maybe about seven or eight. "Stray, where'd you get the girl?"
"She was hiding under a desk in this stupid room I woke up in. Like, row after row of cubicles, man, it was annoying. I only found her cause I heard her crying."
Raven took a step forward. "What's her name?"
Stray shrugged, and walked up to the group. "I've got no idea. She won't talk, except a small word here or their. Took me like an hour to get her out from under the desk. I had to take my claws off, and fold them into my pockets. And she keeps calling my 'Kitty'." Raven glanced at his hands and feet, which no longer had his weapons, then at his cargo pockets, which seemed properly weighed down.
"Alright, let's get her out of here," Robin conceded.
"Whoa, man. Don't we need to make sure he's safe to travel with?" Cyborg asked, taking a step back.
Stray gave him a look. "What are you on about now, Toaster Boy? Ok, sure, the eating thing was weird, and I did almost get us blowed up, but still-"
"You also attacked us, and nearly tore Robin's chest open," Raven pointed a finger at their leader. Her eyes widened when she glanced over at Robin, however, and noticed that the scratches were gone. The only thing missing from his uniform was the button he had torn off himself.
Stray blinked. "Ok, I know you don't like me, which sucks, but you don't have to go that far."
Robin and Raven exchanged worried glances, then looked back at him. "You don't remember anything?" Robin asked carefully, raising an eyebrow.
"Dude, I remember plenty. I woke up on top of a goddamn fax machine, then walked around a few dozen boring as hell hallways, then opened this weird wooden door into some random dude's house, where, thank you very much, a freaking big-ass brute of a guy holding a minigun, and wearing freaking armor, nearly blasts me a new hole to breathe out of. I caught him with a grenade, and blasted his ass down the stairs into the basement, then ran for it. That's when I found myself in cubicle land, with little Miss Silence over here. Been calling her Alice," Stray punctuated his sentences with gestures here and there, and the little girl made no movements except to look up at him when he said 'Alice.' "She seems to respond to it, too, so I guess it works."
Beast Boy couldn't help himself. "Why Alice?"
"Cause I found her in one hell of a rabbit hole, now let's go home. I don't think she's had any food in awhile.
Robin gave Stray and Alice another glance each, then decided. "Al right. Let's just get out of here for now. We'll hit the tower, and call in some help. We're going to need much more than just us if we want to stand any chance against whatever this is."
The rest of the team seemed to agree, although a few were still hesitant about Stray. Raven, most of all.
*--*
Back at the tower, they had gathered around the living room, setting up battle plans, and making calls to some other heroes. Robin had already talked to Batman, and the Dark Knight had offered to come in himself. Robin had considered it, but decided against it. Their team dynamic was, according to Robin, what would get them through the night in one piece, and Batman operated very differently than they did.
The rest of the team knew the real reason: Robin didn't want Batman to think he couldn't handle a real mission with his own team without him.
As far as Alice went, the only person she would go near was Stray, as everyone else who had tried to approach her had been met with a small scream, or otherwise she would just shrink into herself, and scoot closer to her 'Kitty.' His tail flicked whenever she called him that, though.
After a few hours, Robin called the group to order. "Ok, you guys, according to Batman, the medical center we went into didn't have anyone else in it other than the team that had gone in. Eyewitness reports state that the only people that entered the building were the first team we came across, and us. Other than that, except during normal business hours, nobody remembers anyone else going in or out."
"And Alice?" Stray asked. Robin shook his head.
"No one recognized her. It's possible that she had been pulled into that strange nightmare from somewhere else, though, so I've put up a few 'Child Found' bulletins."
Stray nodded, then walked off with the girl. "Come on, let's find you a good place to sleep," he told her, using a soft voice and warm smile. He turned back to the team. "Look, you guys, someone has to look out for her, and I'm probably not the best bet to go back in. Aside from Raven's powers fluxing like bad electricity, I'm the only other one that had any kind of personal issues in there. And to be honest, Raven's issues don't worry me as much. Especially if this was just the tip of the iceberg."
Robin nodded, and Stray walked out of the room with Alice, the automatic doors closing behind them. "Ok. According to Batman, the company whose facility we just… experienced is called Regent Industries. Their project with Caroline had been dubbed the 'Regent Initiative', mainly due to the fact that, even though Armacham, the company doing the experimentation with Alma and Feddell, was the primary contractor, Regent was one of the larger chemical suppliers. Apparently, they also wanted a chunk of the contract, so they started working on their own project, with some of the shared information they had received from Armacham, who they were trading with. Mainly just for the chemicals. Apparently, they have an offshore facility farther up the coast, where Caroline was allegedly being held. So that's our next stop."
"And who is to meet us there?" Starfire asked.
"I've got calls out to The Herald, Kid Flash, and Argent. I think their abilities would be the better fit for this fight. And Stray's right. He's probably just going to be a liability. More so than he thinks, given what he remembers."
The rest of the group nodded their agreement, and suited up with the supplies they had come back with, as well as some equipment they had left behind. "Ok, team, move out," Robin commanded, and the team made for the front door. Cyborg took a step forward, and the front door slid open-
Only to slam shut again, nearly cleaving Cyborg's foot off, had he not taken a step back. The lights cut out soon after, leaving them entirely in the dark.
"Lights!" Robin barked. Cyborg turned on his shoulder light, and Starfire held up a star bolt to illuminate the room. They took a quick once over of the room, then heard Beast Boy.
"Um, guys? You may want to take a look at this," he said in a small voice. The others turned to where he was pointing, and Starfire's and Cyborgs light crossed the front door at the same time.
Upon the doors, scrawled crudely in blood was a simple message:
No one leaves. Not Now. Not Ever.
I'm home.
Mimic read over the scrawl a few times, then asked no one in particular, "How many of you want to bet that Stray didn't bring 'Alice' home."
"More like Caroline," Robin growled to himself.
Raven stared at the blood on the wall. "More like the Red Queen.:
A/N: Yay, scene changes. Looks like the story is coming along fine, which is always good. Tell me what you think.