Raven was a hard person to impress. She had spent her entire life up until around the age of fifteen, training to to not feel emotion. The monks of Azarth were the best teachers one could find in this dimension, or any other. She spent her time after Azarath proving she didn't show emotion, almost to a point that she almost destroyed her team to prove so. Underneath it all, she was still Raven, and Raven was a teenage girl. That is why she couldn't help but smile when she saw that Aqualad had brought a school of dolphins right in front of their tower. The entire group watched them dive up and out of the water and glide through the air. Even when you're heroes that travel the world, you still can see knew things that you've never seen before. They looked so graceful as they cut through the water, and the Titans couldn't help but to just stand and watch.
Eventually Aqualad spoke up and yelled at them, "Do you just want to stand there and watch, or come out here and swim with them?"
Cyborg yelled back, "Wait, it's not just a show?"
Aqualad shook his head and loudly responded, "Have you never heard of people swimming with dolphins?"
Cyborg paused for a moment to think and then sprinted into the water. He had no super suit to worry about, and he had recently upgraded his system to be more buoyant in water. The dolphins immediately swam towards him and brushed up against him.
Cyborg laughed and said to Aqualad, "Either you gave these guys a pep talk about what to do, or these are the friendliest dolphins I've ever seen."
After a short chuckle, Aqualad replied, "I'd say it's a little bit of both!"
He turned to see the rest of the team still standing on the beach and shouted, "What are you waiting for?"
The Titans glanced between each other and took off towards the water. Mas y Menos were the first two in, unsurprisingly, and Speedy came in behind them. He only had to ditch his shoes compared to Robin who had to lose his gloves and cape as well. Soon, only Raven stood on the beach. She was perfectly content with watching her friends swim with the dolphins because it was such a beautiful sight to see. Her friends weren't just going to let that slide though.
Aqualad was the first to encourage her to join them, with it being his idea and all. "Come on Raven! Don't you want to swim with dolphins? When are you gonna get another opportunity like that?"
Raven just decided to politely decline, "Thanks for the offer, but I'll stick with watching."
Robin was the second to try. "I have to admit, this is pretty cool, Raven. You have to at least try it!"
Raven didn't feel like repeating herself. "Pass."
Cyborg was the third and was hoping he was the charm. "We both know that you really want to try, so just get in here already!"
Raven knew he was right. She did really want to try it, and could at least join them for a little while. She unclasped her cloak and let it drop to the ground, and along with it, all the gems that were on her costume. Speedy made the unwise decision of whistling a cat call while she got ready to enter the water. She pretended not to notice, but once she drew near to the water, a dark tendril reached up and grabbed Speedy by the foot, dragging him underwater. The team looked where Speedy was a second ago, but he was nowhere where to be seen. He resurfaced almost twenty seconds later, gasping for breath. By that time, Raven was already in the water, already stroking a dolphin that swam in circles around her. Speedy knew that he probably deserved that and decided to give the empath a little space for a while.
Aqualad saw that everyone was still a little bit timid around his aquatics friends, so he decided to give them some helpful advice.
"Who wants to to try something really fun?" he asked his teammates.
Everyone was wary of Aqualad's sudden question, and they didn't really believe it would actually be fun. All suspected foul play, so no one stepped (or I should say swam) up.
Aqualad continued to try to prove he had no intentions of playing a joke on them. "Seriously. I talked to them before I called you guys out," He ignored Speedy's stifled laugh, "And if you guys place one arm around them, put one hand one hand on their dorsal fin, and tap them there, they'll take off swimming with you holding on!"
He was met with blank stares.
"No really, it is fun!" He exclaimed in frustration.
To everyone's surprise, Raven shot past them, holding on to a dolphin as it glided through the water. They watched her and all wondered how it felt. She wasn't making a sound, which could mean a multitude of things ranging from complete terror to it just not being exciting at all. What they all couldn't see was Raven's gigantic smile spread across her face. The dolphin took her in a large circle and brought her back to the team. They all swam towards her, asking how the trip was.
"How was it?" Cyborg practically yelled in excitement.
Raven just looked at them, the smile now gone from her face. She shrugged and took off again. The Titans looked at each each other.
"Good enough for me." Cyborg said with a shrug and took off towards the nearest dolphin.
He held the dolphin just as Aqualad instructed and after giving it a tap, it took off at a breakneck speed.
"Boooyaaahhh!" Cyborg yelled as he went by the group of Titans treading water.
They all began diving towards the dolphin nearest to them, and soon, they were all getting pulled around by Aqualad's guests. They spent the next three or four hours getting towed by them and were having the time of their life. They didn't tire of the exhilarating feeling the entire time, but were getting completely exhausted by it. Eventually, one by one they swam back to shore to watch the others, too tired to ride the dolphins themselves. Now, only Raven was the one left as she cruised around on the same dolphin she had first gone to. When the others were out swimming with her, they liked to try different ones to see if one was faster than another, but Raven had stayed with the same dolphin the entire time. Soon, she too had the dolphin drop her off near the shore. All Titans were now back on solid ground and they watched the dolphins swim about for a while before Aqualad mentally dismissed the pod of dolphins. The entire team waved as they swam away, and the dolphins shot out of the water in response.
The team went back inside the tower after gathering all of their discarded articles of clothing. Completely exhausted, they all spread out onto the pieces of furniture in the main room.
Robin turned and smirked at Speedy. "So what's your plan? I don't know if it's gonna beat that." Robin said, egging on his teammate.
Speedy wasn't going to back down from his challenge. "Oh it will, don't even worry Bird Boy. We just gotta wait till it gets dark first. You guys are gonna love it, trust me." He said with a cocky smile.
"Can't wait." Raven said with words dripping in sarcasm.
Cyborg was sincerely excited to see what the archer had in store. "Alright my man! I'm pumped to see whatcha got up your sleeve, Speedy!" He energetically told his friend.
"¿Qué vamos a hacer hasta noche?" Mas asked as Menos nodded in agreement.
"We can do whatever you guys want to." Robin said with a smile/
Across town, the rogue Titans were gathered around Cass's dinner table playing a game of poker, Texas hold 'em to be exact. For the past few days, those who were on the run had not left the apartment once. Well, both Beast Boy and Starfire left in the dead of night on more than one occasion to fly around and release some pent up energy. Sometimes they left together, but for the most part they flew separately. Being cooped up in the house for the entire first day was the absolute worst of them all. They had Control Freak's remote with them, and they were all itching to get work and find the explosives. Beast Boy had even left for a reconnaissance run, but quickly returned seeing that the other Titans had the area covered. After he returned and gave his team the news, they were glad that they were waiting to search for the explosives. The team sat around for hours, mostly keeping to themselves, until Beast Boy had the idea to play a board game. That suggestion turned into the sole existence of their entertainment over the next four days.
The classics were of course the first played, but they also caused huge division between players. Monopoly almost caused the table to be thrown through the wall and Uno almost got Control Freak punched in the teeth. Moving into the more creative games, the team tried their hand at Scrabble and Pictionary. Both Bumble and Cass were fairly good at both, Beast Boy carried his own in Pictionary but was rather terrible at scrabble, Control Freak was the opposite of him, and Starfire was having trouble picking up each game so far. Starfire tried to be the best sport she could be about it, but was indeed struggling. After those, someone mentioned the idea of Risk and the group began playing. Once understanding the basics of the game, Starfire quickly took control of the game. After she single handedly took out Beast Boy and then Cass, Bumble Bee and Control Freak drew a pact to take Starfire down. Once the pact was drawn, Starfire withdrew most of her forces to her country furthest away from the other players. The other two attempted to wipe her off the map, but instead completely thinned out their forces trying to do so. When it was Starfires turn again, she cashed in all of her cards, added to the already large army in her furthest country, and marched across the entire world in one turn. Everyone's respect for Starfire increased greatly, showing that she could not only hold her own on board game nights, but completely wipe the floor with them all. She just needed the right game.
That's how the rogue Titans spent their time the entire few days they spent camped out in Cass's apartment. The other highlight during the entire board game escapade, started out as a game of Trivial Pursuit. Bumble Bee noticed both Control Freak and Beast Boy's vast amounts of knowledge with anything nerd. She called an end to the game and ran out of the room, only to return shortly holding two large boxes about four feet in height. She set them next to each other and had the two boys stand behind them. Bumble Bee, Cass, and (every once in a while) Starfire spent the next few hours looking up, or coming up, with questions to see which guy could answer it faster. From an almost Jeopardy like game, it evolved into a game of one-up-manship, and then into full on debates. The three girls never bored of the game, because they laughed at how into it the two boys got.
Now they all were gathered around the table, after finishing every board game imaginable, playing a good game of poker. Only Bumble Bee knew how to play Texas hold 'em, so she taught every other person how. They all picked it up fairly quickly and were now halfway through a game. Sure Starfire had a terrible poker face and Beast Boy hadn't quite figured out if the Ace was higher than the King or the other way around, but they all managed and were having a good time.
Bumble Bee couldn't quite get into it because there really wasn't anything at stake. Having no poker chips, they had settle for playing with actual potato chips. There seemed to be getting a fewer and fewer amount of them as well, so somebody must have been eating some of them. In danger of losing interest, she spoke out too her teammates.
"Anyone else think this game needs a little more at stake?" She asked.
Her teammates looked back at her giving slight nods. As they did, an idea popped into Bumble Bee's head, and a wicked grin shot out across her face.
"So how about some strip poker?"
Everyone was stunned by the idea, well except for Starfire who asked, "What is this poker of strip?"
Cass clarified, "We pretty much use our clothing as poker chips. You lose in the game; you start losing clothes."
Starfire tapped her chin, saying, "That does sound interesting." As a Tamaranean, she was not completely thrown for a loop by the suggestion.
Beast Boy couldn't believe it. He was in the same room with three very attractive girls, he wasn't even the one to bring it up, and it hadn't been shot down already. He was about to show his approval, when he looked at Control Freak sitting next to him. Beast Boy almost threw up, as he realized what that entailed. He couldn't risk it. One scantily clad Control Freak outdid three pretty girls.
"How about some other time?" He said shakily, still traumatized from the mental pictures of Control Freak.
Bumble Bee was about to pounce on him for being scared, but before she did, she too saw who else was in their company.
"Yah, I think you're right, Beast Boy. Maybe another time." She said, also fighting the urge to vomit as well.
"So what are we gonna do now then?" Cass asked.
"We could watch a watch a movie." Control Freak volunteered.
"We could. I have a bunch of movies here that you guys could look through." Cass responded.
As she led Control Freak and Bumble Bee over to where she kept her movies, Starfire and Beast Boy hung back. The reason why a movie had not been suggested before was that the two Titans did not want to watch one. That was something that they did together as a team, and it didn't feel right to do it here. The entire time they had been here, they pushed to play more board games, because it wasn't an activity that they did as a team.
"You don't really wanna watch a movie too, huh?" Beast Boy asked his friend.
Starfire sighed and responded, "You are correct, friend Beast Boy. I do not wish to partake of the movie watching. It will only make me miss all of our friends back at the tower."
"Me too, Star. I was thinkin' the same thing, but maybe they'll pick somethin' to watch that we wouldn't back home." He said trying to be reassuring.
"You are right. Let us see their choice of movie." Starfire said as the two walked into the other room to see the others choice.
They found them clustered around the entertainment center that the t.v. rested on. As they entered the room, they picked up on the very end of the conversation.
"Wait, none of us have actually seen this?" Cass said rather loudly in surprise, "I heard so much about this one!"
"Well I guess that we gotta watch it then." Bumble Bee said with a smile.
She noticed the two that had just entered and turned to get their opinion.
"Hey you guys wanna watch this one?" Bumble Bee said, holding up the movie that she was holding.
Both of their faces paled as they saw that the other three had chosen to watch Wicked Scary.
Bumble Bee saw their reaction and said, "I guess you guys aren't a fan of scary movies. We'll look for another one."
As the other three began their search again, Beast Boy and Starfire thought back to the time they watched to movie. Peculiarly enough, neither thought of terrible memories. It was one of the most terrifying nights of their life, but neither thought of any of the frightening things they saw that night. They thought back to how close they sat to each other on the couch, how they moved around the tower, watching each others backs, and how they laughed about it after it all happened. Eventually the others decided on a movie, but the two Titans weren't even paying attention, even after the movie was started. They just sat and thought back to all of their previous movie nights as the movie played. When the movie finished, it was starting to grow dark outside, and they all decided that some food was in order.
Back at Titan's Tower, the group of heroes currently residing in it were all gathered in the main room.
"Yo, Speedy, it's pretty much dark now. Let's see what you got planned!" Cyborg happily yelled across the room to his teammate.
Speedy looked out the window and saw that he spoke correctly. "Give me five minutes to set everything up and then meet me outside."
Speedy turned to leave, but suddenly stopped. He snapped his fingers and added, "Better yet, meet on the roof." And with that, he took off to wherever he had his plans to set up.
"Ooh, the roof? That sounds interesting." Cyborg said to the rest in the room. "Do you think he can top your idea, Aqualad?"
Aqualad was usually a humble guy, but he had a rivalry with that archer that he didn't have with anyone else.
"Psh, he won't even come close to it." He replied with a smirk.
Robin spoke up saying, "Pride comes before the fall, Aqauald. Don't count him out yet."
Aqualad laughed. "The guy can shoot arrows, what's he gonna do? Put an apple on one of our heads and shoot it off?"
"He's smart with his arrows. I wouldn't put it past him to come up with a really good idea." Robin replied.
Cyborg was dying to see what he had plan, so he took off towards the roof. "Just debating it isn't gonna solve anything. Let's get up there and see what he's got planned."
The team took their time getting up on the roof, and eventually came to the door that led to it. Robin opened it and found some chairs set up and a blanket on the ground next to it.
"What's all this stuff?" Cyborg asked. His curiosity grew even more seeing what was outside.
They walked outside and began inspecting everything that Speedy had set up. Robin was intrigued as well, but then he recognized the blanket on the ground of their roof.
"Is that the blanket from my bed?" he asked to no one in particular.
"Yah, but they invented something called a washing machine. You'll be fine." A voice said from the door behind them.
Out walked Speedy with his bow and a quiver full of arrows.
"Come on, sit down, and make yourselves comfortable."
As everyone sat down in the chairs and on the blanket, Speedy stood off to the side. He drew an arrow, and faced everyone.
"Welcome to the Speedy show."
He pointed the arrow straight up and fired. There was a pause where nothing happened for a moment, and then a colorful explosion filled the sky above them.
"Firework arrows?!" Cyborg yelled out.
Speedy nodded. "And I've got a quiver full of them."
Everyone laughed and smile at him, and the twins even began clapping for him. Robin had to know how how it worked.
"Is it a timed explosion? I see that it's just the usual fireworks inside the arrow, so that would make sense." Robin asked Speedy.
After a chuckle, Speedy replied, "Actually it's set off once it reaches a certain altitude. It's pretty easy to calculate, since we're at sea level right now. That means that you can't just shoot them at someone, but it also means I can't take any of them back with me, so we're gonna have to use all of them tonight."
"Don't have to tell me twice. Let me shoot one!" Cyborg exclaimed as he rushed over to Speedy.
"Alright, just aim up and shoot." He said as he handed the bow and an arrow to his metallic friend.
Cyborg did as he was told and fired one into the air. After a moment, another colorful explosion went off in the night sky.
Everyone loved watching the fireworks, and they each took a turn firing one off at least once. Raven didn't even put up a fight this time, and took her turn early on. The rest of the time she sat back in the chair, enjoying the beautiful sight and the feeling of all her friends being happy again. Eventually Cyborg joined her, not wanting to be too selfish and firing all the arrows.
"Nice to see everyone enjoying themselves today, huh?" Cyborg asked the empath.
Raven gave a small smile and responded, "More than you know."
They sat in a comfortable silence for a while. They were both so happy to not be going day to day in complete silence. Cyborg knew it wouldn't be like this forever, even tomorrow in fact. He didn't know how to even face his other teammates. He didn't have a good track record already. His thoughts drifted away from the happiness of the moment, and focused on the darkness of tomorrow.
Raven felt her friend's shift in emotion and said to him, "What's on your mind?"
Cyborg knew he'd been caught and said bluntly, "This has all been great, but it's just puttin' off what we need to do later. At some point we're gonna hafta to fight the other Titans, and I have no idea how I'm gonna do that."
Raven nodded. He was right. "I feel the same way."
Cyborg snorted, "Well at least you could stop BB, when he came into the tower. I let Starfire walk right past me. I had the chance to stop her, but I couldn't do it."
"That's not entirely fair. I had the drop on Beast Boy and trapped him before he could even move." Raven said in response.
"You still did something at least." Cyborg muttered.
"I did, but it hurt a lot to do so. Don't beat yourself up over this, Cyborg." Raven said, trying to find words that would help.
After they sat in silence again, Raven thought of something to say again.
"Do you know why I swam with only one dolphin today?" Raven asked her friend.
Caught off guard by the random question, he just shook his head.
"I only swam with that one because he was the happiest out of all of them. I found comfort in his happiness because it reminded me of Starfire and Beast Boy. It was a very innocent joy, which reminded me Starfire, and the happiness was also wild and free, coming from an animal, which reminded me of Beast Boy. I spent the entire time riding with that dolphin pretending to be in the presence of those two." She said quietly to her friend.
Cyborg was surprised by the sudden and profound words that had just come out of her mouth. "Wow Raven, I didn't know."
She nodded back and said. "We're all having a tough time dealing with this. You're not the only one."
Aqualad had heard a small part of the conversation, walked over, and said, "It's okay Cyborg, none of us can do this easily. You're not the only one thinking that."
Cyborg's face brightened by the tiniest fraction. "Thanks guys. You're good teammates."
"That's what we're here for." Aqaulad said with a smile.
He was glad to have such good friends, and he began to feel better. Seeing an opportunity, Cyborg let a small smirk creep up on his face. "Still think your dolphins beat this?" He said right as another firework went off above them.
"It's close." Aqualad replied.
Speedy spoke up before any response could be given. "Last three arrows you guys. How do you guys want this done?"
Mas was the first to respond, "¡Uno explosion grande!" and Menos concurred, "¡Si, los tres a la vez!"
Robin agreed. "Yah, let's do a grand finale with them. That sound good?"
Everyone agreed completely.
Speedy laughed. "You guys are lucky I know how to shoot three at once! Alright, one grand finale coming up."
He notched all three arrows at once, and fired them all up in the air. After a moment, all three went off above them, causing the sky to light up with all sorts of colors. It was a perfect ending for the one perfect day they had since the Titans split. They all cheered and Speedy took a bow.
"Good show, Speedy, that was a brilliant idea." Robin said to his teammate.
"Yah, you made it a close second in today's events." Aqaulad added.
"In your dreams, fish boy, that was way better than your little dolphin friends!" Speedy quickly shot back with a smile.
"Is that so, Robin Hood? We've all seen fireworks before, I don't think any of you guys swam with dolphins before." Aqualad countered.
"Both of you shut up before you ruin the day. They were both okay." Raven said, keeping an argument from erupting.
The two muttered to each other.
"Okay? That's all we get?"
"It's Raven, I'll take it."
"Alright fine."
The entire group began gathering what was brought outside and took it all back in. After putting everything back in their respective places, they once again gathered in the main room. Robin thought it was a good time to address the group while they were all here.
"Today's been a great day, but I'm sad to say that tomorrow won't be the same. We are going to go back to patrolling in the morning, so I suggest we all get some sleep. If you want, you can still stay up, but I'm going to get the most sleep I can. You guys ok with that?"
Everyone nodded their heads.
"Okay, I'll see you guys down here, ready to leave, at 7:00 am. Sound like a plan?"
Again everyone nodded.
"Goodnight everyone, see you in the morning."
They all gave their goodnight wishes and thought that Robin had the right idea of heading to bed early. Soon, everyone was on their way to their own beds to do the same. On the way up to his room, Cyborg was thinking about what tomorrow held. Looking for his friends that had left the team and a chance at having to fight them. He thought back to all his past failures at doing so. He failed at taking on Starfire at the tower. He couldn't pull the trigger on Beast Boy when he turned into the Beast. He couldn't shoot Robin when Slade had him fight them. He couldn't fight his teammates in the past; he can't fight them in the future. He would be lying if he said anything else. Cyborg made a detour back to the Titans' main computer and turned it on.
The next morning, Robin was the first to awaken as usual. He got ready, and went to go down a little earlier than he told his team to meet. Before he did, he saw that there was a message on his computer. He decided that he'd check it before heading down. Clicking on it, he found that it was a video recording that was sent to him last night. Robin pressed play.
"Hey Robin."
Robin paused it, wondering why Cyborg had sent him this message last night. He didn't look too good on the screen, and Robin didn't want to know what this could possibly be about. He hit play again knowing that he had to finish it.
"Bet you're wondering why I sent you this. Well, truth is I couldn't tell you in person. I couldn't tell any of you guys in person. I've been thinking a lot about what's happened over the past few days. I know that things are bad and you need a whole team to fix it, but you also need it to be working team as well."
Cyborg paused and took a deep breath.
"I think I've shown that I was incapable of stopping Starfire at the tower the other day, and that's all I've been able to think about lately. I might not have been able to stop her successfully, but I didn't even put in effort. It was a good thing to give us all a break, because we all needed it badly. Today, or I guess yesterday for you, was awesome, but it just made me think about what was to come later. You need teammates that will be able to do the right thing when that time comes, and seeing how I couldn't do what was necessary..." Cyborg trailed off.
Robin knew what was coming next, but hoped that he was wrong.
"I am unfit for duty. This is my resignation. I hope you will be able to find a replacement quickly, and I know you will. I didn't take the T-Car with me so you guys can use it. Take care of my baby for me. Cyborg… signing off."
The screen went dark, and Robin sat there staring at it.
[End Chapter]
Nooo! How could he do that to the team? Would he even do that to the team? Let me know. How'd you guys like this chapter? I wanted to show how the teams would spend their time apart from each other. Don't worry about Cyborg disappearing from the story; he will still be in it a good amount.
Now time for some shoutouts, starting off with the identity of Cass.
Mr. Guest and RJay Fame, you were correct, but not the fastest. FanficFan920, I applaud you for thinking outside the box, but that is not quite right. Now, let's give a round of applause for the one who answered correctly and the fastest, JP-Ryder!
*Crowd explodes in thunderous applause*
You are awesome for knowing and reviewing so quickly. Cass is indeed Cassandra Sandsmark, aka Wonder Girl, and if you want to get technical, I used the New 52 version. Right now, she stands only as a cameo who is giving the rogue Titans a place to stay, but if you guys like her character, I'll gladly write her into more of the story.
Other reviews:
Dysfunctional-Nom-De-Plume, I like that idea, but I'm not sure if I can use it with the way I have the story going in my head. I'll keep it in mind though.
Apologetic, you are correct in that I depowered the remote, because I needed to make retrieval of the explosives complicated for them.
TheUltimateStar, thank you, you wonderful human being.
And finally, Randomcritic, I'm slightly confused about what exactly you are angry about with Teen Titans. Is it "Teen Titans GO!"? Because if it is, I agree. You also said my intro could be better, so I'd like to know how I could improve it.
One last thing: Did Aqualad or Speedy have the better idea to cheer everyone up? I want to know.
Was my newest chapter Above Average in your book?