2
"Who is it?" Robin asked when he heard Raven's footsteps outside his door.
"It's me." Raven said through the door. Robin pressed the button that opened it and the Sorceress walked in.
"I didn't knock, how did you-?"
"It's the training, I could hear you halfway down the hallway... Funny thing about training with the best, the training never goes away. Not that I'd want it to."
"Yeah... I wouldn't know. Look, I know you're apprehensive about this ordeal, getting a wake-up call from your old life isn't at all what you want right now... But someone needs our help, and lets face it... That someone has been like a father to you your whole life." It was at this point that Raven realized Robin had taken his mask off.
"I know... But I... "
"You're having trouble coping, you shouldn't be angry at him anymore, it's been years since..."
"I'm not... I just..."
Raven stared at him for a minute, then spoke, "You're afraid he's mad at you..."
Robin acted surprised at first, but then remembered how she knew.
"Sometimes I forget you've been in my head."
"Understandable... Robin, we need to go to Gotham, because whether you want to or not, someone needs us... And that person is Batman."
Robin clenched his fists, then stopped moving altogether, picking up his mask and sticking it on the bridge of his nose.
"You're right, lets go."
As the two walked up the stairs, Raven smiled a little, "Guess I can finally tell her."
"What? Who?" Robin asked.
"Starfire, she asked me a few months ago what color eyes you had."
"Oh..."
Robin looked down, he had just barely realized that Starfire, his girlfriend, didn't even know his real first name... and for the first time, he felt guilty about it.
A bit later, the team made their way out to the t-car for their road trip to Gotham.
As they sped down the highway, music blasted through the speakers of the car, Cyborg somehow always knew what music everyone felt like listening to. They arrived in Gotham that night, though they had left that morning. Gotham was quite a distance from Jump City, and by that time, everyone was asleep, Cyborg had turned on the T-Car's auto-drive and was snoozing, Raven and Starfire both leaned on Robin's shoulders, he was fully unaware of this of course, as he had fallen asleep first. Beast Boy had somehow managed to call shotgun and was curled up in the front seat as a dog.
THUD.
Something made a loud noise which snapped them all awake as Cyborg swerved the car to a stop. The Titans quickly exited the car, to see what had happened.
"Look!" Beast Boy pointed to the roof of the T-Car, which now had a sizable dent in it.
"Oh man! Why?" Cyborg lamented over his damaged vehicle.
Starfire flew up to the top of the car and gasped, "Robin! Come quickly!"
Robin obeyed and jumped on top of the car, much to the chagrin of Cyborg, who simply protested to scratching the paint.
Robin couldn't believe his eyes, rubbing the lenses on his mask, he realized he was standing over the unconscious body of Batgirl, Barbara Gordon. Easily recognized by the black cowl she wore that allowed her fiery red hair to free fall out the back of it.
"Get her into the car, we gotta get outta here..." Robin ordered, to which Cyborg and Beast Boy obeyed and lifted the unmoving girl into the back of the car. Robin jumped into the driver's seat, Cyborg was a bit apprehensive to this at first, but then he realized that Robin knew this city like the back of his hand while Cyborg had never been there before. They all piled back in and Robin made for the nearest exit, slamming on the gas.
"Robin where are we going?" Asked Starfire, who held the girl's feet in her lap, as beast boy held the body and Raven focused on trying to read her unconscious mind.
"We need to get away from here, this is Crime Alley..."
"Is its nature as foreboding as its name?"
"You have no idea..."
The car ride while Robin was at the wheel was a bit uneventful, with the only speaking being Robin checking with Raven to see if she could see anything. And he always got the same answer.
"No, it's a blank..."
"Well keep trying, she's got to wake up so she can tell us what happened..."
Cyborg looked over to Robin, "You alright dude?"
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
"Just askin'."
Robin was most definitely not fine, but all the Titans knew that when Robin said he was fine, he was really saying 'Leave me alone, I'm trying to focus.'
After about an hour of driving, Robin truned a corner and started driving offroad istaright toward a cliff.
The other Titans freaked,.
Robin just tuned their screams and protests and pulled a small, black, bat-shaped device from his utility belt, and pressed the red button on it. At that point, the T-Car drove straight into the wall, they all braced for impact, but it never came, insted, it just got really dark.
"Uh... What just happened?" Beast Boy asked as he looked around in the headlight-lit cave they were now driving through.
"Just pulled into the garage."
Robin said as they pulled to a stop in the dimly-lit cave.
"Everyone out."
The Titans stepped out of the car,
"Robin, where are we? I cannot see a- EEK!"
Starfire screamed as the lights flipped on to reveal she had nearly walked right into a giant fake Dinosaur, which she nearly incinerated before Robin grabbed her hands.
"Ya don't wanna break anything here babe..."
Starfire gave a relieved sigh and kissed Robin on the cheek.
"Thank you Robin, I'm sorry I was frightened."
"It's not like it's your fault."
The two were suddenly interrupted by Cyborg calling them over, "Yo love birds! Help me get Batgirl outta the car!"
The Titans put the unconscious Batgirl on the Bat's recovery table under Robin's direction. Meanwhile Beast Boy stood dumbstruck at the amazing museum that was the Batcave.
"Oh man, this is better than I ever dreamed! Giant Dinosaur statue! Huge Penny! Tons of stuff from Batman's rogues gallery! I'm in comic-book heaven!"
His nerding was met with a slap in the back of the head from Raven.
"Hey! What was that for?" He cursed.
"Breaking the fourth wall." She replied as she led him over to where Robin, Cyborg and Starfire were.
"You know how to work this stuff Rob?" Asked Cyborg as Robin sat down in front of the Bat Computer.
"I've used it before, but only once or twice, he may have changed the software... But I doubt it."
"Dang, this thing's a thousand times faster than the Titans Computer, what does this thing run on?"
"The Maximum 11 processing chip." Robin said as he opened a program that showed how the unconscious patient's body was working in entirety.
"What? You're kidding! The max-8 hasn't even been out for a week! How did he get an 11?"
"What company manufactures the Maximum processing chips?"
"Waynetech eterpri-... Oh."
Robin grinned smugly as Cyborg walked back over to the recovery table.
"Great... She's in a coma..." Robin said, gritting his teeth.
"How long is she gonna be out?"
"Batcomp says a week, looks like we're on our own..." Robin stood up, and walked over to the table with the others.
"Robin, is this girl the one from the tower?" Asked Starfire, pulling Batgirl's cowl off her head.
"Yeah, she and I were partners before... Never mind."
Starfire was going to ask what, but something in the way the other Titans, especially Raven, looked at her, told her to drop it.
And without warning she sneezed, launchIng snotbolts in all directions.
"Hit the dirt!" Beast boy yelled as they all ducked.
"*Sniff* I'm sorry friends... But I- Achoo!" Sneezing again, the heat from her Snotbolt singed Robin's hair.
"Metallic Chromium?" Asked Robin, Starfire covered her mouth and nose.
"I believe so, yes..."
"I may not be the world's greatest detective... But I don't think there's any Metallic Chromium in this cave." Raven said, looking around.
"Wait a minute..." Robin grabbed the mask from Starfire's hands as she prepared to sneeze again, and was luckily contained by a force field produced by Raven.
"Bless you."
"Thank you Raven... *Sniff*"
Robin tore a piece of Barbara's cape off her suit, and threw the mask and fabric into the computer's analysis tray.
"Computer, analyze atomic makeup." He said, immediately the computer laser scanned it and the screen showed all the contained atoms.
"As I thought... There are remote traces of Metallic Chromium on her costume, but it looks focused, like blunt force striking certain parts of the head and her back through her cape... Like a baseball bat. I'm guessing whoever did this gave her a chemical compound injection first to put her in a coma, but she kept fighting, so he then beat her into unconsciousness. We found her once the chemical coma took effect."
"Wow, ya figure that all by yourself?" Cyborg questioned as the other Titans looked at the boy wonder as if he had grown pointy ears and had begun wearing a cowl.
"Yeah... " Robin grinned slightly nostalgically, "Batman would have my head for not figuring it out sooner."
"So how did she wind up on the top of the T-car?" Beast Beast boy inquired. Robin stood up and walked over to the rest of the Titans and the unconscious victim. He silently turned her head around and confirmed his suspicion, pointing out a large, round bruise on the back of Barbara's head, just between where her neck and head connected.
"Poor girl..." Cyborg lamented.
"She put up a fight, she's as good at martial arts as me, maybe better, but as far as I can tell, she'll be out for a week and we have no way of finding Batman... No leads, except for
this ultra rare metal which my girlfriend happens to be allergic to."
Starfire smiled when Robin called her his girlfriend, though she knew that now was not the time for such frivolity. She didn't care.
"Would it be so hard for you to use the front door Master Dick?"
An old man's British accent came from the Batcave's main door.
"Alfred!" Robin smiled, as did Alfred who calmly walked down the stairs toward his surrogate-grandson and his friends.
"I assume the guest beds will be being used tonight. " Alfred smiled as Robin gave the old man a light hug.
"Yeah, nice to see you again old man..."
"Good to have you back, son."