Disclaimer: This is a fan work created at no profit and for entertainment purposes only. The author acknowledges that Teen Titans and related characters are property of Warner Entertainment.
Teen Titans: Menace in Mexico City
Chapter 4 – The Show is on the Road
The hum of a generator vied with the sound of picks and shovels as she followed the long, stone ramp downward. Weaker lights lit the way, and not far below, portable flood lights sent up a much brighter glow.
She emerged at the end of the ramp; dark hair tied back in a ponytail stuck through a baseball cap, light, white cotton blouse and khaki shorts. Her skin, already deeply tan, was even darker from working outside. No one looked up from their work, if they noticed her at all.
The team from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México worked feverishly at the edges of the room, carefully clearing branches and dirt from in front of two of the three doors leading out of the chamber and using ultrasound equipment to map out what was beyond. They conspicuously ignored the one door they'd already cleared, but failed to explore.
The newcomer frowned at their haggard appearances. They hadn't taken a break since she last saw them almost eight hours earlier, and they worked in eerie silence, not even complaining despite looking as if they were going to fall over where they stood.
After a moment, she reached up, touched her hand to her forehead, and her eyes glowed green.
Go home. She told them. Forget all about this place until you're fed and rested. Then come back to work.
With odd, haunted looked, the archeology students and professors stopped what they were doing and still silent, began to file out.
Once they were gone, the girl's form and clothing changed. Dark skin turned green, khakis swirled up into a blue pleated skirt, and her blouse became a tight shit with two red bands forming an X on her chest. M'gann's hair changed last, blending from brown to red.
For a long moment, she stared up the ramp after the group held in her thrall and sighed. Then she took to the air and flew down the hall beyond the open door.
There was another chamber there, and two doors splitting off from it, but she paid them no mind. Instead, she made a small effort of telekinesis to sweep the dust off the floor, revealing one stone that was a slightly lighter shade than the others. It took a considerably larger effort to lift said stone, so much in fact that M'gann was breathing hard by the time it was finally extracted from the hole it was plugging and laid off to the side.
"I really need to learn how to go intangible." she wheezed to herself as she collected herself. Technically, she knew how, just not well enough for it to be reliable. Or safe.
After a few minutes, she remembered that she was expected and took to the air again, lowering herself down the long shaft that stone had been blocking. Down what had to be five stories, she found herself in a room shaped like an egg standing on its end.
Unlike the ancient and overgrown complex above, this one wasn't made of stone, but dull metal, etched with angular lines and polygonal shapes. The closest thing to furniture was a platform in the center whose surface was actually a large, curved lens.
M'gann landed on that, and the room whirred to life. Pulses of blue light began to scurry along the lines and tracing the shapes, a soft vibration began to fill the air. Just like every time she'd been here before, M'gann had to force herself not to bolt and never look back. No matter how fierce a sense of foreboding, there was too much at stake for her to let her fears get the best of her.
The lens beneath her feet flashed once, then emitted a soft, blue light that washed over her. The ansible was active.
"You sent the workers home." A harsh voice snapped at her without warning or greeting. Or possibly, voices; M'gann always felt like she was talking to more than one person who just happened to say the same words at the same time.
"They've worked all day without food or water." she protested.
"They could have worked longer."
She scowled. "Sure, if you want them dead. Then who would open up the other rooms for you without breaking anything? There aren't infinite archeologists on this planet, you know?"
There was a pause as whoever was on the other end considered. "We wish we were certain that this was an act of pragmatism and not compassion."
"Can't it be both? You know I'm right about letting them rest: they'll work better and faster this way." M'gann put her hands on her hips in defiance.
"We prefer that you not grow attached to them. You know what we have in store for this world."
She raised her chin. "And I also know that the choice is between these people and my people. Why are you suddenly so suspicious of me? Haven't I done everything you asked? Ahead of schedule, I might add?" She held up a finger as she made her point, then lowered it. Another gesture she learned from TV. She needed to stop watching cartoons; their gestures just weren't normal for humans.
"And you have also done things we did not ask you too."
"What? Cassandra?" M'gann crossed her arms. "That was an accident. Besides, you told me to get Jaime; I thought rounding out the team would be making the best of the situation."
"We had plans for the Infiltrator. He is an asset. One of the Batman's proteges is a complication. You should eliminate her."
M'gann raise an eyebrow. "You think having her alive is more of a complication than someone finding her body? I don't care how busy Batman is, he'd put all of his attention on us then! Plus, have you ever heard of Oracle? You do not want her attention on us if even half the rumors are true. Please trust me, Cassie is much better for us alive."
Another long pause. "You gave her a nickname?"
Using her shapeshifting to hide her embarrassed blush, she stood firm. "Appearing friendly with them makes it easier to maintain control. If it makes you feel any better, I can have her send fake reports to Batman."
"No." the voice said quickly. "No communications. We cannot risk exposing anything. This country is large, even if the Batman chooses to search for the girl, it will take weeks. And by then, it will be too late."
Unable to hold back a sigh of relief, M'gann relaxed a little. "So you agree, right? I'm being pragmatic."
"It is true that your actions seem to be maximizing our chances of achieving our goals." The voice conceded. "But we know of your kind; capricious and backbiting. There is a reason they are not well loved. You will continue to report each day on your progress. And you will make certain that the rest of the complex is in working order when the time comes."
M'gann nodded. "As long as you keep up your part of the deal, you don't have to worry about me."
TT^TT^TT
"And make sure to run the IDs of everyone on those construction teams before you let them on the island! For god's sake, we don't need nobody messin' with the tower again." Cyborg said.
"And do not forget my list!" Starfire added. Unable to contain her excitement, her feet hadn't touched the ground since she got up that morning.
"Whatever you do: don't go in my room." Raven added with a threatening edge in her voice.
"Or anywhere with a security lock." Robin admonished. "Even if it's an emergency. Especially if its an emergency."
"Oh, and don't beat any of our high scores on the game station." Beast Boy added. "That's our console. You wanna record high scores, you bring your own over."
"Oh yeah, and no illegal downloading." Cyborg said one more. "Especially not crazy alternate reality shows you find with that remote of yours." He paused to think, "Unless you can get a recording of the Tournament of Heroines."
Control Freak listened with heavy lidded eyes and ever decreasing ability to care. How did Star rope him into house sitting again?
"And please, do not forget to feed Silkie! My little bumgorf requires regular nourishment and if he does not get it regularly, he will begin to devour the furniture." The alien princess unconsciously fluttered her lashes and Control Freak swore he saw sparkles. Even looking like the Queen of the Damned thanks to her holoring, there is a sweet innocence that couldn't be denied, even when begging someone to feed the giant worm she kept as a pet.
Yeah, that'd be how he was saddled with the job. All he could do was nod as the Titans piled more and more caveats on him as they stood in the garage, ready to depart.
Finally, everyone ran out of things to tell Control Freak to do and Cyborg got the show on the road. "All right ya'll, the tower's in... mostly neutral hands, the route's programmed into the GPS, and we are just in time to hit optimal road trip traffic—Pile in!"
He hopped in the T-car, which had been painted pure white so as not to announce to the world that the Titans were on the town. The engine purred to life, and... he sat there, waiting for teenaged awkwardness to resolve itself.
Turning around, he saw what the problem was: when going to battles our just down the street, seating arrangements weren't a problem: Cyborg drove, because no one else was going to be allowed to drive his baby, someone called shotgun, and the other three sat in the back.
Now, however, they were going to be in the car for hours at a time on the trip down, and the math was looking bad: two couples, but only room for three people in the back.
Not that anyone was giving voice to that, but Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven were standing at the back doors awkwardly waiting for someone to relent and take shotgun.
"Aw for cryin' out..." Cyborg muttered. "Yo! We got a rest stop break in two hours. We can rotate then. Now somebody get their butt up front!"
Another tense moment went by as every one of the four glanced at everyone else. Finally Robin groaned. He'd have to be the adult. Again. Any other time, he might have banked on Raven getting fed up and giving in first, but he could tell that she didn't want to hurt Beast Boy and Beast Boy was... whatever the diametric opposite of an adult was.
"Fine. I'll take the front seat first, then Raven, then Beast Boy, then Star." He turned to head for the front passenger door, hiding a smirk. That arrangement gave him and Starfire the most uninterrupted time to sit next to each other.
Being the adult didn't mean he couldn't be petty.
The others agreed and climbed in. Starfire sat behind Robin, easily able to lean over the seat and talk to him. Beast Boy say in the middle, with Raven on the other side.
As Cyborg pulled out of the garage, Starfire pulled out a brochure and leaned over the front seat to plan dates with Robin (both cover and real ones), while Beast Boy glanced over at Raven. It was still very weird seeing her in her tanned and almost sultry holoring form, but that was all a mask and a thin one at that for someone who knew her as well as he did.
Her coloration may have changed, but her expressions didn't, nor did her micro-expressions. Beneath her usual neutral and detached look, he could tell she was looking forward to the trip as well as a little nervous. After all, being n the car, they were, by necessity very close to each other.
Raven had a thing about touching: it had to be on her terms and even then, she had to be in a specific state of mind, or her powers might do something unpleasant to wither Beast Boy or the environment. So as much as he wanted to slide closer and close those few inches between them, he didn't. But he hoped she might.
Lost in thought, he didn't notice she was looking back at him until she spoke.
"So..."
"Ah!" Beat Boy jumped and nearly strangled himself with his seat belt. He was met with a raised eyebrow. "Um... sorry. I zoned out a little. You were saying?"
Raven's lips twitched, something close to a smile. He didn't care if it was based on him making a fool of himself, he took it as a win. "I was just thinking; it's a long trip, and you get bored pretty easily even just driving to the supermarket..."
He thought he already knew where this was going. "Don't worry, I'll be quiet and let you read." He pulled out a sleek black device from somewhere behind him. "See? Gamestation Portable Touch."
For a moment, Raven wondered where he'd been carrying it, considering that his uniform had no pockets, but Beast Boy did that sometimes and she learned not to ask how he did anything. "Actually—and I'm not saying there won't be any reading on this trip at all—but I bought the portable DVD player,"
She bought out that device from folded space beneath her cloak, along with a thick boxed set, "And I thought you might want to watch this with me."
Beast Boy read aloud, "Animals of the Prehistoric World? Dude! That's awesome! Put it in!"
This time Raven did smile, albeit a small one and used her powers to comply with his jubilant demands. "Educational for me, monsters and violence for you. Yeah, I think this can work."
"Rae, you're the best girlfriend ever!" Beat Boy beamed.
They were still several inches apart, but as the movie started, he decided that he didn't mind so much as long as they got closer in other ways.
Up front, Cyborg opened his mouth to tease them, only to be silenced by a sharp look from Starfire, who had, until that moment, been smiling brightly at hearing her two friends being cute together. Even with the green of her eyes covered by the holoring, he thought he saw the dangerous glow, so he clammed up.
There would plenty of time for giving Beast Boy a hard time once they were over the border.
TT^TT^TT
A/N: Hey all, I'm not dead, just had a terrible few months. Good thing I warned you this was going to update slower, huh?
This chapter was mostly designed to give M'gann some clear direction and since some people weren't sure she was one of the bad guys, show her with her Dark Masters. No prize for guessing who it is, because that whole scene was just full of tells.
This installment is going to be more of an ensemble piece than WGID. That served the purposed of getting BB and Rae together, this one will let their relationship establish, but won't be centered on it, focusing more on the whole team as friends and on M'gann's team as MC'd friends. Hopefully, everyone will get some character development out of the deal.
Because it's been a while, I'd like to once again plug my original superhero series The Descendants, linked from my profile. If you've enjoyed my writing here, I'm sure you'll enjoy it there too.
Next Chapter: M'gann talks to her team and Beast Boy and Robin discover the Rest Stop of Horrors.