The Titans couldn't believe their eyes. Did Control Freak just murder someone? The Titans stared down their enemy, but both sides were too stunned to move. Robin was the first to snap out of it and confronted the evil-doer shouting, "Control Freak! Your under arrest!" No puns, no one liner, this seemed too real for such things.
Control turned around slowly shaking his head to take him out of the shell shocked state he was in and sullenly responded "Under arrest? I just saved you and a whole lot of people lives just now! In fact, I-" but he was suddenly cut off by Robin's fist hitting him in the mouth, and everything went black.
The crowd was just beginning to respond. Maybe it was the absurdity of the situation that made everyone pause. It isn't every day that they witness a man's torso disappear. Maybe it was the lack of blood flowing from the pieces of man that were on the ground. Somehow, however the remote works, it made clean cuts that left no blood flowing from the ends. Maybe it was the fact that the man passed so wordlessly into the afterlife, but now, the crowds finally began to realize they just witnessed a murder, and began to panic. There were shouts here and there, and everyone began running towards a way out of the nightmarish building. The Titans usually would be right on top of things, and would make sure that the crowd left in an orderly way to avoid unnecessary injury. Today they saw something they'd never witnessed before.
As the crowd began to disperse, the entire team just stood still, staring at the remains of an unknown civilian. Robin was the first to bring himself out of his stupor, and he slowly turned to look at his team. It was moments like these that Robin cursed his training under Batman as he looked back at his team after silencing the geek turned evil-doer. The endless hours of training that forced him to see every clue now made him taken every detail, subconsciously branding them into his head that he won't soon be forgetting.
He looked at Starfire. Her bright features no longer shining. Her little eyebrows that he'd so fallen in lov-appreciates, he appreciates them, and they now hang low on her face instead of their usual, much higher, spot. They would almost always be held high in awe or wonder as she took in her surroundings, always finding the most beautiful things in life. Her posture had drooped significantly: shoulders rolled forward, head slightly lowered, and her arms wrapped around her thin frame. It was all so far from her usual upright position that was instilled into her after years of living as Tamaranean royalty.
He shifted his view to Beast Boy standing next to the alien princess. Robin first noticed his ears droop, and then his nose wrinkle in disgust. Beast Boy watched his fair share of violence in movies and played a large amount of violent video games (he was a teenager, and we all do), but there's a big difference when it's on a screen verses when it's lying on the ground in front of you. He saw him turn his gaze away from the sight and begin watching the crowd instead, as they were fleeing the building, but not before casting a quick glance at Raven. Robin couldn't blame him for being so sickened by the sight. He new the shape shifter was heavily affected because even with his friend already completely green, Robin could still see the slight shift to a slightly more intense green when he looked at the mangled body in front of him.
Next to him stood Raven, with her entire body completely concealed except the bottom half of her face. Even with her covering and extensive practice in keeping any sign of emotion off her face, Robin could still see pain in her eyes. They were squinting slightly, showing obvious distraught, intense concentration, or a combination of both in the girl that was suppose to show no emotion. Along with her creased eyes, Robin noted her jaw was flexed, meaning she was clenching her teeth rather intensely as well. Instead of looking away she surprised Robin (which is quite a difficult thing to do) and she instead chose to close her eyes and pull her hood further over her head.
Moving next to Cyborg, he was filled with some much needed hope. After a brief shake of the head to snap himself out of his funk, he put one hand on Beast Boy's shoulder and the other on Raven's. They both leaned into his touch, and Raven went the extra step and placed her hand over his. He turned and softly called out to Starfire, who looked up at him and after a small smile, walked up and laid her head upon his shoulder. There were a lot of memories that Robin wished he could forget, but this specific snapshot of his team consoling each other, that was a memory that Robin did not regret having.
At that moment, the police spilled into the building, quickly putting the unconscious Control Freak in handcuffs. Robin stepped forward and joined his team placing his hand on Starfire's back. Noticing his touch, she transferred her head off Cyborg and laid it softly against the side of Robin's head. On the other side of Cyborg, Beast Boy noticed a cop step past them holding a bag and said to the rest of the team, "Does that cop hafta' pick up the rest of that guy with that bag? I'm not complaining about chores for the rest of my life." With the team so worn out from the prior events, they could only smile softly back at him, but Beast Boy appreciated it just the same. Especially Raven's, in which he mentally noted that that was the third time he'd made her smile this month, thirty-seventh over-all. The team slowly made their way out of the building and away from the terrible things they saw.
Half an hour later, Control Freak woke up in a cell across from the Titan's talking to the police, giving them a run down of the situation they just witnessed back at the art museum. Shaking off the grogginess of being out cold and rotating his sore chin, he tried to take in his surroundings. Seeing that he was behind bars, he realized the full extent of his current predicament and quickly jumped towards the bars causing a loud clang and gaining everyone's attention by his sudden and loud movement. "Hold on everyone! Why am I in here! I should be given a medal for what I just did!" he shouted at a volume much louder than necessary.
The team stared back at him in confusion until, surprisingly, Raven was the first to respond in a voice as cold as ice, "You're here for one count of senseless murder, how in anyway could that be deserving a medal."
"Murder? It's not murder if it's self defense! I know my rights!" Control freak responded in an almost shocked voice.
"Self-Defense? Correcting some helpless bystander about some old comic, or whatever he did to piss you off, doesn't count as self-defense!" Shot back an outraged Cyborg.
"Watchmen is not some old comic! It's a timeless pi- wait no! I wasn't talking to him about that! I didn't kill that guy because... of that…" Control Freak started, but ended quietly because he realized what he just said really wasn't helping his side of the story. Control Freak sat in silence and looked up at the Titan's steady glare that only worsened after his attempt at explaining his innocence. Control Freak paused to gather his thoughts and began again in a shaky voice, "I didn't kill him over that. The guy had a bomb on him and I tried to zap the bomb off him to save everyone. I-"
"Shut up! This isn't some action movie! No one can actually believe that you were somehow being the hero! It's insane!" Robin cut him off.
"No! I-I'm telling the truth! He h-had a b-bomb!" Control Freak tried to continue, but he was beginning to break down in tears. "He had a bomb! I'm t-telling the t-t-truth!" He slumped forward against the bars of his cell, slowly sliding towards the ground. "Y-you guys have to b-believe m-me. Y-you're the good g-guys. Y-you always do the r-right thing."
They all stared back with cold eyes and cold hearts. Robin turned to the police commissioner and said, "I believe you have everything you need." and as one, the Titans turned to leave. Control Freak only bowed his head and let the tears come. As all the Titan's exited the door, Beast Boy paused and took one glance back just whispering, "Dude, I thought you weren't evil like that." He then joined his team and left the building to head back to the tower.
The drive back was completely silent. No jokes were cracked by Beast Boy. No witty comebacks from Raven. No shouts of joy and comradery from Starfire. No loud orders barked by Robin. No victorious shouts of "Booyah" from Cyborg. Silence. The sun was just beginning to set when they finally reached the tower, and it was unanimously, yet wordlessly, voted that everyone was going to bed early. To each their own room they went, thinking of all that unfolded that day. They wondered how such a petty criminal became so vicious. How had Control Freak fallen to such a low? Such thoughts plagued every member of the team, and kept them from reaching restful slumber.
The next day Robin awoke first as he always did, but with much less energy than usual. Just as he begun to make coffee, which before now, was only used as a last resort for late night searches when he was hot on the trail of a villain, he heard the door to the main room open. Turning around, he responded with a slight surprise in his voice, "You're up early Beast Boy."
"Nah, I'm up late… really late." Beast Boy corrected.
Robin arched his brow in confusion at first but soon realized what his green friend was saying and responded, "Ah, didn't sleep at all last night did you?" Beast Boy sat down at the table just as Robin finished his question, and nodded before letting his head fall forward and hit the table with a soft thud. Moving closer, Robin placed his hand on his shoulder, but before he could give any words of comfort the door opened up yet again. Both Starfire and Raven walked out of the door, one right after the other.
Answering the question that wasn't asked, Raven said, "We woke up at around the same time, and ran into each other on the way down." With that, the two girls joined the boys at the table and the two girls and Robing joined beast Boy sitting at the table.
"You two didn't sleep well either then?" Robin asked the girls. They both responded with slight shakes of the head.
"At least you guys got some sleep." Beast Boy said with his voice muffled from his head being pressed against the table and then added, "I wonder if Cyborg couldn't sleep too?" In response, the door opened yet again and out walked the half machine saying, "Man you guys too? I couldn't sleep and that's saying something, considering I don't even technically sleep any way."
Raven sat pondering his last statement trying to figure out how the Titan slept until her eyes narrowed in confusion and she finally turned and looked at him quizzically asking, "How do you sleep? Isn't it more like recharging?"
"Yah, usually I plug myself in and just blackout until I wake up at a preset time, but last night I was somehow still conscious. I don't even know how to describe it to you guys. Nothing like this has ever happened before, but then again, a seemingly harmless villain hasn't up and murdered someone before."
After Cyborg voiced the reason of everyone's lack of sleep, no one had anything else to add. They sat in an uncomfortable silence until the resident alien broke it.
"Friends, I am most distraught. Control Freak has never done something like that before, why would he do so now?"
"Sometimes people just snap, Star, and there's really no explaining it." Robin said trying to console her. He looked at her hand stretched out on the table and thought to place his hand over hers, but decided against it due to the fact that it might bring later teasing from the other resident males on the team.
"But did we not exclude him on our list of evil-doers when our friends, Titans East, came to protect Jump City for us?"
Raven spoke up this time and tried to respond in her classic monotone, but it came out less confidently than usual, "Even then, he came and almost killed Titans East during a handful of sick games." And after a short pause finished at a quieter level, "Maybe we should have taken him seriously after that."
"I'm with Star on this one" Beast boy said, finally raising his head from the table, "He'd always make things a game with us, and shout his whole, 'It is I, Control Freak' deal. Just killin' a guy like that without a show doesn't seem like somethin' he'd do."
"Well I hate to break it to you two, but he obviously did change and is now okay with killing people." Robin said.
Both Starfire and Beast Boy looked at Robin in his mask covered eyes and responded at the exact same time asking, "Did he?"
Raven looked at the pair incredulously and asked, "Wait, you two aren't believing his story right? It's way too far-fetched to actually be true."
Starfire decided to speak first, "He does not seem to be someone who would kill so easily, I am thinking that his story may be true." And Beast Boy nodded in agreement adding "Dude, did you see how freaked out he was when he tried telling us his side of the story?"
"Well yah, but the guy watches so much t.v. he's bound to pick up some acting skills from it." Robin replied and looked towards Cyborg adding "What do you think Cyborg?"
"Look man, I'm not here to pick sides. I'm just gonna wait till the hearing before I start saying why he killed a guy."
There wasn't much more to add with Cyborg refraining from giving an opinion, forcing a stalemate. The conversation ended, and the Titans got on with their day, or at least they attempted to. Robin decided that since they were all up, and in need of a distraction, that an early morning training session was due. Surprisingly, there were no complaints and everybody got up to get ready. They went up to their rooms so they would be able to change into clothes better fit for a workout.
On the way up, Raven walked up next to Beast Boy, "Are you sure you're thinking straight? You did just pull an all-nighter. You don't really think that his story was true?"
"Why can't it?" was all Beast Boy responded with, barely looking at Raven as he talked.
"Because that's a completely outrageous story. Only someone like Control Freak would come up with something stupid like that."
The two reached his door and he opened it, but before entering it, he paused and turned around saying, "Just cuz it's stupid doesn't mean it isn't true." and disappeared into his room.
Now standing alone, Raven scoffed at the idea, and just added it on to Beast Boy's list of outrageous ideas right next to gorilla warfare with trained gerbils and Red X being a robot monkey clone of Robin. She turned and went to her room to prepare for the early morning training session as well.
Five minutes later everyone was in the gym, and Robin began to explain what was on the agenda for today. "Since I think we need to blow off some steam we're all going to stick with weight lifting for the entire session."
Again, there was no complaint from his team from something that should have gotten at least an exasperated sigh from someone, most probably Beast Boy. Starfire and Cyborg both headed to the only machine that could test their super human strength, and the other three went to the normal weight racks and quietly began lifting. For the entire two-hour session, the only words exchanged were those asking if a machine was in use, warning someone they were coming behind them, and when Beast Boy dropped a weight on his foot. After the two hours were up, the heavily breathing team headed back up to the kitchen to get something to drink and maybe some food as well. Robin decided to head over to his laptop first to check if there were any knew updates. He saw that there was a message from the police and he opened it. After reading it, he quickly went back to his team to give them the news.
He walked in just passing the the threshold of the main room and saw his team eating a small breakfast, and decided to watch for a while as he leaned against the door frame. He watched as a typical Titan's breakfast unfolded. Beast Boy commented upon the disgusting amount of meat on Cyborg's plate. Cyborg of course commented upon it's amazing taste and scorned Beast Boy for living out a meatless life. Starfire laughed softly behind a hand placed over her smiling mouth, and Raven only responded with a roll of her eyes at the two exchanging insults. Hating to derail a perfectly happy moment, the first in over a day, but knowing the team would rather know the information, he stepped away from the door frame that supported his weight. As he approached the table, the Titans quieted down and gave Robin their full attention.
Knowing not how to segue into the information in which he now had, he just decided to jump right in, "They've identified the body as James McKinney son of Mary and John McKinney. They ran fingerprints and had his parents came in early this morning to identify him." Seeing smiles slowly vanish from his fellow teammates, he really began to debate whether they needed to know the other half of information he had during the silence that stood as his teammates processed what he just told them. Deciding it was something he shouldn't keep from them, he bit his lip lightly before saying, "Also" but again paused to give his team time to look at him again "Control Freak has asked to see us again."
[End Chapter]
Hello again! Are you enjoying it so far? Let me know, I'm curious and I always want to find ways to improve. I was surprised how fast I got this one done, so I might change from a weekly update to however fast I can get these out. I want to thank Dysfunctional-Nom-De-Plume, JP-Ryder, KOTG, and whoever you are guest (you're probably an amazing human being though) for your thoughts! You made me really think about who should be on which side. Also thanks to you, my new favorite human, that favorited my story! Hope you're liking how the situation is evolving as the sides might be becoming a little clearer now, and with any luck, I also hope chapter 2 is Above Average in your book!