MC: Thanks to: St. Jack of randomness and Queen of the Elementals 09 for reviewing Chapter 3, you're support is appreciated. A second thanks to: FelynxTiger, The Cretan, crazynerd, LemonVron, and WobblyJelly for continuing to review. You're support helps me know people are following the story, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. A special shout out to LemonVron, whose review made me laugh. Thank You. Here's Chapter four, it's pretty long.
BB: That's what she said!
Rae: That joke is extremely immature, even for you.
BB: Nu-uh, it's funny.
MC: Stop it! Let the readers enjoy the story. Quit interrupting.
BB and Rae: Sorry
MC: That's better. Now, please enjoy the chapter. (God, I can't believe I just wrote that dialogue.)
The sun was now high in the noontime sky, and Beast Boy, Robin, and Cyborg all sat on the couch, locked in an epic racing contest against each other on the Gamestation. Starfire sat beside Robin, cheering him on, while Raven sat at the end of the couch, her nose stuck in a large, thick, leather-bound book.
"I know y'all aren't thinking of passing me," said Cyborg to Beast Boy, his attention divided between the screen and his green friend beside him. Both boys screwed up their faces in concentration, but to his dismay, Beast Boy couldn't compete with Cyborg's video game skills.
"Aw, man!" cried Beast Boy, upset that his attempt to take the lead had been thwarted. "How do you do that?" he asked exasperatedly, staring at the metal Titan.
"Maybe someday I'll teach you my secrets," said Cyborg smugly, reaching over to ruffle Beast Boy's hair. Beast Boy threw Cyborg's hand off, a scowl on his face, when the tower's emergency lights began to flash.
"Titans, Trouble!" said Robin, jumping up from the couch and switching off the video game.
"Man, and I was just about to win..." grumbled Cyborg, looking dejected.
"What's up?" asked Raven blandly, staring up from her book at the oversized monitor in apparent boredom.
"It's Overload," said Robin, pulling up a map of the city on the big screen. He pointed to a region near the outskirts of town. "He must have broken out of prison, and now he's attacking the city's power plant."
"If he takes it out, the whole city could loose power," added Cyborg, looking worried.
"Not to mention that if he gets access to that much power, he'll be nearly unstoppable," continued Robin.
"It's no biggie, we've taken Overload down 'overloads' of times," said Beast Boy confidently, laughing at his own joke.
"Azar," groaned Raven, appalled at the stupidity of the joke. Beast Boy winked at her, grinning.
"Yes, I agree with Beast Boy, it is certainly not a 'biggie'," commented Starfire.
"Let's just go," finished Raven impatiently, sounding annoyed and heading for the door.
By the time they reached the massive power plant Overload had already begun tearing the place apart. Downed power lines sparked dangerously all around, electricity arcing off them in every direction. Several of the buildings around the plant had been reduced to rubble, which littered the surrounding area with chunks of crumbling debris. The afternoon sun shined brightly from a cloudless sky. Overload himself stood at the center of the ravaged plant, his electric blue arms outstretched towards a power conduit.
"Titans, Go!" shouted Robin, leaping high into the air, straight towards Overload, one leg extended in a high kick. Starfire flew left, and Raven right, while Beast Boy and Cyborg charged straight up the middle. Robin's kick landed, the force of his strike sending Overload toppling over. One heart beat later, a barrage of star bolts impacted, exploding on top of Overload.
Suddenly, two great arcs of electricity shot from Overload, one towards Robin, the other Starfire. Robin leap into the air, narrowly managing to dodge the lightning. Starfire wasn't so lucky. The bolt hit her in the shoulder, and with a cry she was sent spiraling towards the ground. At the last moment, Robin slid beneath her, catching her before she hit the ground. She was up in a second, however, her alien body shaking off the high voltage as if it had been a static shock.
Beast Boy, in bull form, charged down Overload, with Cyborg standing upon his back like he was riding a surfboard. "Booyah!" cried Cyborg, firing his sonic cannon, which caused Overload to stumble slightly just as Beast Boy rammed him. The giant electric creature went tumbling through the air before landing on the ground with a crash.
"Nice one" called Beast Boy and Cyborg together, high fiving each other in triumph. Without warning, another bolt of lightning shot from Overload, arcing straight towards the pair.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" shouted Raven, her hands outstretched towards Cyborg and Beast Boy. A beam of darkness shot from her hands, intercepting the lightning and saving the two boys.
"Thanks Raven," the two called out before returning to the fight.
A few moments later, a stream of star bolts collided with Overload just in time to meet another of Cyborg's sonic blasts, and the combined power of the two attacks was enough to bring Overload to his knees. Raven repeated her magic words, another black beam shooting from her hands and wrapping several times around the glowing criminal, holding him in place.
"You look a little thirsty," said Cyborg, one hand attached to a nearby fire hydrant, the other pointed at Overload, acting as a hose. "Have a drink!"
A high-powered stream of water shot from Cyborg's hand, straight towards Overload. But a moment before the liquid made contact, a final, immense bolt of electricity arced off of Overload, and headed straight towards Raven, who, in her concentration, did not see it.
"Raven!" cried Beast Boy, his shout shifting to a roar as he morphed into a giant gorilla. Using his large, muscular legs he leapt in between Raven and the lightning, taking the hit square in the chest. His body became silhouetted for a moment, outlined by the brilliant flash of white light as it struck his body. He seemed to hang there, suspended in mid-air for several seconds, the eyes of all the other Titans on him. Then he fell through the air, his smoldering body returning to its human form. He plummeted towards the earth, but was caught by Raven, who swooped beneath him and caught him.
She landed immediately, cradling Beast Boy's limp form in her arms. He seemed smaller than usual to her. His eyes were closed, his hair was fried, and his chest lacked its normal rhythmic rise and fall. She shook him slightly, but his eyes remained shut, his body still. Despite her best efforts to keep her voice emotionless, a hint of worry and frustration permeated her speech. "Come on Beast Boy, wake up!"
No response.
Her voice grew louder as she became angry. "Come on, you dummy!" she shouted, shaking him harder. "Wake up!" But still Beast Boy lay motionless in her arms.
She gave a scream of frustration, her raw emotion causing the ground around her to crack open with dark energy. How dare he play such a stupid joke on her? Obviously, she thought, he was just pretending to be injured, as a prank. A juvenile, idiotic joke. And any moment now he was going to open his eyes, smile up at her, and yell "gotcha!" He had to. He couldn't be... She banished those thought from her mind. Around her, she was dimly aware of the others, but she ignored them. Her face was wet; it must have started raining, which was odd, because the sky had seemed quite clear all day.
"Make a joke, tease me, laugh," she begged, her voice quiet and desperate. "Say something stupid or immature or, or something... anything!"
She looked down at Beast Boy's motionless, green face, with his one goofy tooth protruding from his closed mouth. It didn't look right closed; it should be opened, telling her a joke in a futile attempt to make her laugh. She had never told him how much she had actually enjoyed those jokes, even the one's that weren't funny, because it meant he had wanted to be around her. She had never told him any of the things she had meant to say. She closed her eyes, holding Beast Boy close, up against her chest, their heads resting next to each other's. "Come on Beast Boy," she whispered into his ear, her voice quivering. "You have to wake up..."
She imagined him saying something into her ear, a stupid joke, his response raspy and faint, "I'm a real live wire, huh Raven?"
It took a few moments for her to comprehend what she had just imagined. That seemed a strange thing for her to imagine Beast Boy saying. Curiously, she opened her eyes, rubbing the wetness from them with the back of her hand.
Beast Boy peered up at her through half opened eyes, and repeated, his voice distinctly un-imagined, "I'm a real live wire, huh Raven?"
Raven stared at him in disbelief, her mouth opened slightly, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. Behind her she could hear the joyful cries of her teammates, but they seemed strangely far away. The only thing she could focus on was the green boy in her arms, who had just returned to her, seemingly from the grave itself.
"What happened?" asked Beast Boy groggily, looking around. His voice was very weak. "Raven, were you crying?" he asked, his voice suddenly concerned
"What? Of course not." said Raven dismissively, struggling to return her voice to its normal, emotionless tone. "It was just the rain."
"It rained?" asked Beast Boy, obviously confused, as Raven helped him to his feet. "How long was I out?"
But before Raven could answer, Starfire yelled "Beast Boy!" and squeezed him in a crushing hug. "It is glorious to see that you are uninjured!" Raven could see Beast Boy wincing in pain as Starfire's hug squished him.
Just as Starfire released him, Cyborg came up beside her. "Jeez BB, you had us scared for a little while."
"Yeah Beast Boy, how are you feeling?" added Robin, walking up and putting a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder.
"Well," said Beast Boy, his voice still faint, "my um... everything hurts, so Star, uh... no more hugs please."
"Sorry friend..." said Star sheepishly, looking embarrassed.
"We should get you back to the tower," said Robin, thinking for a moment. "Star, you and I will take Overload back to Jail." The group all glanced over at Overload, who now was just a memory card sitting in a pool of water. "Raven, Cyborg, you get Beast boy back to the tower" he finished.
"Sounds like a plan," agreed Cyborg, and the group separated.
On the ride back to the tower, sitting in the backseat of the T-car with Raven, Beast Boy began to understand more of what had happened after he had been hit.
"You got hit, but Raven caught you before you hit the ground," explained Cyborg from the front seat. "I managed to spray Overload though, so he was down at just about the same time as you were. Anyway, Rae was tryin' to get you to wake up, and for a minute there, it didn't seem like you were gonna pull through." He looked back at Beast Boy, grimacing. "It was pretty grim."
"How long was I out?" asked Beast Boy curiously.
"A couple minutes, I dunno," said Cyborg, shrugging. "Anyway, you turned out OK. I knew you'd pull through though; you're one tough Green Bean."
The group drove in silence for a minute, Beast Boy watching Raven as she stared out the window. She had been even more silent than usual during their ride back to the tower, and had stared out the window the entire ride. Remembering something she had said earlier, he asked Cyborg a question. "Hey Cy, did it rain while I was out cold?"
"Rain?" said Cyborg, obviously confused. "Nah, it didn't rain. Why would you think it rained?"
"No reason" responded Beast Boy, looking at Raven. "So, it didn't rain..." he said quietly to her, causing her to look away from the window.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, her tone dismissive once again. "Let me help with that" she said a moment later, holding her hand up against his chest. It glowed white, and Beast Boy felt a soothing sensation spread across his entire body. He smiled, feeling much better.
"Thanks" he said gratefully, but Raven just nodded in acknowledgement. "I guess that makes us even," he continued, grinning slyly.
"Even?" asked Raven, incredulous. "How does me healing you make us even?"
"Well, you see..." responded Beast Boy, speaking slowly and smugly. "You may not have noticed, but I kinda, ya know, saved you back there."
"Saved me? Please, I was fine on my own. I didn't need your help at all," said Raven, scoffing.
"Keep telling yourself that Raven," replied Beast Boy, smiling. "Keep telling yourself that."
"I should have know that not even a near-death experience could keep you from being immature" finished Raven, returning to staring out the window.
The T-car shifted to a hovercraft a moment later, and then hovered across the water towards the large T that sat atop their island. They pulled into the tower's garage and Cyborg shut off the car. "Home sweet home," he said, stepping out of the car and walking over to the exit. "B, come up to the med bay in a minute. It'd probably be best to check you out, just in case that lightning fried your brain or something."
"What brain?" asked Raven, her voice deadpan but a small smile on her face.
"Hey!" cried Beast Boy, sounding upset. "I told you, I do have a brain. I just don't use it much."
"What ever you say BB," said Cyborg, laughing as he left the garage. Raven made to follow him, but Beast Boy stopped her.
"Hey Raven, wait up a minute" he said, causing her to look around.
"Yes, Beast Boy?" she asked, staring at him expectantly.
"Um, I was thinking..." he said, hesitating and thinking hard.
Raven fought the urge to say 'I doubt that,' instead waiting patiently for Beast Boy to finish his statement.
Finally, deciding to throw caution to the winds, Beast Boy tried again. "I was thinking, I'm still a little lightning-y, but maybe a little meditation would help me feel better." He smiled at her nervously. "Interested?"
"Yes," she said, flashing a small smile back at Beast Boy. "I'd like that."
"Great" said Beat Boy, his voice cracking. He blushed, embarrassed.
Raven fought to keep from smiling again, and continued, "Come to my room when you're ready."
"Y-your room?" asked Beast Boy, confused. "But you never let people in your room."
Raven just shrugged, heading for the door. "You should probably go see Cyborg, he's waiting for you." And without another word, she was gone.
"Raven's room..." said Beast Boy dreamily, his eyes out of focus. "Raven invited me to her room." He stood silently for a moment, smiling to himself. "She liiiiikes me." And, a stupid grin still on his face, he slowly made his way up to the med-bay.
MC: That chapter was longer than I had originally planned. At first, Beast Boy was gonna be just fine after he got hit by overload, but then I wondered what it would be like if he didn't just get up and walk it off. It felt kinda weird using the 'Beast Boy almost dies' card, but I liked it after I wrote it, so I decided to keep it. I hope you liked it. Finals are this week, so I'll probably be writing a lot. It's kinda like a biannual tradition that I procrastinate my studying for finals by writing fanfiction. Anyway, the second half of the next chapter is already finished, so I'll be posting that soon enough. See you. =)