AN: On with the story!
Disclaimer: Teen Titans don't belong to me, and they never will.
STORYTIME!
She was nearly at the warehouse. She hadn't turned around since she had heard someone following her, she didn't want to admit it but she was too afraid to look. She had a general idea of who was following her. That could be good or bad news.
Annabel sighed in relief when she saw the large, abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Sherwood City. She pulled a hairpin out of her pocket and quietly picked the lock, checking first that no one was around.
She shut the door behind her and looked around the room. Nothing much. The room was much smaller than it looked from the outside. There were large cardboard boxes stacked against the walls, leaving little room to walk in.
Annabel walked over to the far right wall and pushed aside a tall stack of empty boxes. Hidden in a corner of the room and concealed by boxes, was a retinal scanner. She typed in a code and looked into the small laser.
'CONFIRMING…IDENTITY CONFIRMED. ROBIN HOOD.' The machine read. There was a soft click and a small section of the wall slid open. She pulled the boxes back over the scanner and stepped through the door, closing it from the other side.
Annabel gazed around the rest of the spacious warehouse. It had been converted into a huge gym, with punching bags, a boxing ring, mats, balance beams, a tightrope, racks filled with miscellaneous weapons, a trapeze, gymnastics bars, and an archery range. It was for the whole team to use, but since it was too suspicious to all go in one day, they went in sectors, with a free day every other week where anyone who wanted to go could go. And while she trained here every day, Annabel also came here to think.
She pulled off her hoodie and dropped it on the ground by the door, placing her shoes and knife on top of the pile. She tied up her hair and walked to the far side of the room, towards the tightrope.
She climbed the ladder about seven feet into the air. Normally, it would be higher, but she had been practicing a new trick and the team had convinced her it was safer to start at a lower height. The rope stretched across the entire length of the warehouse, so she had more than enough space.
She carefully walked halfway across the rope with her arms outstretched. As she neared the middle, she slowly lowered her arms, minding her footing. When she was about ten feet from the other side, she slowly bent her knees and quickly jumped into the air, landing on the rope on her hands and leaping into another flip.
When she landed on her feet on the fourth flip, her balance was off, and she crashed to the floor. Normally, she would tuck into a ball and land perfectly on her feet. But tonight, her nerves were so fried from her dream and the fear she had felt when she realized she was followed, that she panicked and her mind went blank.
She slammed into the ground on her back, wincing when she heard a small crack. She lay on the ground for a minute, debating whether or not to acknowledge the person she knew had followed her into the gym. She sat up, groaning from the bruises forming on her back. She cracked her neck. Without turning around, she quietly said, "I know you're there."
"That looked like it hurt." Raven stepped out of the shadows. Annabel smiled grimly as she rolled back her shoulders.
"Eh, well, we all make mistakes." She slowly stood up and walked to the other end of the warehouse, dragging over a mid-sized punching bag and hanging it on one of the chains dangling from the ceiling.
"Why'd you follow me?" she asked, not turning to look at the other girl.
"Not many people walk for a mile at twelve-thirty in the morning to go train. Besides, you kinda woke me up." Raven shot Annabel an annoyed look. She smiled apologetically as she wrapped tape around her hands.
"Sorry about that." She started throwing punches, not paying attention to anything but the punching bag. She was so absorbed in her task that she almost didn't notice the lights flashing red.
"What's that?" Raven asked. Annabel looked up and cursed in Spanish. "It's a silent alarm, in case something happens while we're training." She ran to the small screen beside the door and tapped on the globe-shaped icon. A map of Sherwood came up, with a flashing red dot on the street three blocks from the warehouse.
Without looking to see if Raven was following, she ran out the emergency door in the back of the warehouse. The door was camouflaged outside and could only be opened from the inside, but they still tended not to use it very often.
She took off down the street, hoping the police hadn't showed up yet. They had a habit of making her job harder (a good chunk of them were actually dirty cops).
She ran up to the burning apartment building, noticing that most of the tenants were already outside. She saw a man going from person to person, pleading with them.
"Someone, please, help, my daughter's still in there!"
She ran over to him. "Sir, which apartment is she in?" He looked at her incredulously.
"You're just a kid! I need the fire department, not teenagers!" she glared at him.
"Listen, sir, the fire department isn't gonna be here for AT LEAST another ten minutes. Now, we can either sit here and wait, or you can TELL ME THE ROOM NUMBER!" He looked at her fearfully.
Annabel turned to Raven, who had just appeared next to her. "I don't know where my team is, but I'm still going in. Are you with me?" Raven nodded.
Annabel took a deep breath and began climbing the fire escape ladder on the side of the building, with Raven following behind her. She reached the third floor window and took one last breath of air before sliding open the window and jumping into a burning building.
A few feet away, a boy was arguing with an older man.
"How could you?! There were people in there!"
"He said he wants Robin Hood recaptured by tonight. What better way than to have Robin come to us?" the man sneered.
"YOU CAPTURED THE SCOUTS. HOW IS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT PEOPLE ARE IN TROUBLE IF YOU CAPTURED THE SCOUTS?!"
The man shrugged. "Oh, well. I guess that plan failed."
"SOMEONE, PLEASE, HELP, MY DAUGHTER'S STILL IN THERE!" A distraught-looking man yelled in the distance.
The boy eyed the older man with disgust. "What if that kid dies? What then?" The man shrugged again. "Then I guess Robin Hood's perfect record isn't perfect anymore."
The boy turned to look at the building again in time to see two teenage girls open the window and slip inside. He turned to glare at the man again and suddenly took off towards the apartment building.
"HEY! COME BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"
The boy ignored him as he ran through the front door of the burning building.
"BENJAMIN, COME BACK HERE! BEN!"
AN: Ooh, plot twist. I have a big surprise coming up next chapter, so stay tuned :)