I do not own Teen Titans...
And so, they crawl.
And they crawl.
And crawl and crawl.
And crawl some more.
Finally, Robin stops, and motions to a grate below them. He can hear voices. Male voices.
They're arguing about something. He can't quite make it out. He motions to Mary to keep quiet, and prays that she can. The men below no doubt have guns, and if they hear them, then Robin, and poor Mary will wind up Swiss cheesed.
Robin pulls a chord with a lens on each end from his belt, then drops the smaller end down the vest while peering through the other side. He sees men standing directly beneath the vents, talking about something. Robin adjusts the chord's position, getting him a better view of the hallway.
The men nod in agreement, then walk on.
Robin waits an excruciatingly long time, then pulls the chord back up, winds it, and puts it back in his belt. Carefully, he works the grate open, then drops down, whirling around 360. No one left in the corridor.
"Okay, Mary," he says. "Come on."
He waits, and her face appears, sticking just out of the vent.
"Are you sure it's safe?" she says.
"Yes, Mary, now come on."
She bites her lip, and doesn't move.
"Very little time to waste," he says. "Come on."
"I..." she trails off.
"What?"
He throws his arms to the side, becoming very annoyed.
"I can't." she says.
"Can't what?"
"I'm afraid," she says.
He rolls his eyes, thankful that his mask is one, and that she can't see him do it.
"I promise, I will catch you," he says. "Now, come on."
She disappears in the vent, then her legs appear. She drops down a little, now hanging by her waist. Long seconds go by, and she just hangs there. Finally, she drops, and sure enough, he catches her.
He sets her down, then turns down the corridor. They move in silence, backs sliding against the wall on the right, moving from shadow to shadow.
(******)
Raven
She focuses on the warm feeling in her chest, reassuring herself that Robin's still alive. She's sure that she would feel it- if something were to happen to him- if he were to die- she's sure that she would feel it. She releases slight sigh from the passenger side of the Batmobile as the Dark Knight speeds down the grungy streets of Gotham.
She peers over at the Batman.
He is the picture of steely determination, and focus as the city lights blur past the canopy's glass.
"This will not be easy," he says.
"What?"
"It's the Joker," he says. "Nothing is ever simple."
She nods behind her cowl. "I understand."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever worked a Joker case before?"
"No."
"Then you can't know."
She turns away from him, and looks down at her hands.
"Keep your eyes open," he says. "Nothing is as it appears to be. Do exactly as I tell you, when I tell you, and if anything goes bad, keep your calm. Think," he pauses. "Panic will kill you faster than a bullet."
"Robin's told that to us before," she says. "Many times."
The Batman spins the wheel, angling the vehicle around a curve. "And if things go very bad-"
"Never give up," she cuts him off. "Never, never, never, never, never give up... Robin's told us that one too."
The Batman smirks, then rams his foot down on the accelerator.
(******)
Robin
"Where are we going?" Mary says.
"Just trust me," Robin says.
They walk down a winding corridor.
"Where are we going?" she says again.
"The tower."
"The tower?" she says. "But the stairs collapsed last month. It's unreachable."
He nods. "Which makes it the perfect place to hide."
"Oh," she says, then goes silent.
After a few minutes, he starts noticing holes in the walls, then larger holes, then mounds of rubble where an entire wall once stood, then a great pile of rubble where a staircase once stood.
He peers up, and fires his grapple.
"Hold on tight," he says, then grabs her, pulling her to him.
He feels her grip tighten, then they fly into the air, going straight up.
Moments later, he sets her down where the floor is stable.
"You'll be safe here," he says.
"Okay," she says. "Wait a minute. What do you mean, 'I'll be safe here? You're not staying?"
He shakes his head no, then leaps into the hole that was once a staircase. The wind rushes through his hair, and whips against his face, and for a second, he revels in it, then his grapples slows his descent, and lands safely on the ground, the grapple already coiling inside the shooter. He imagines that she had more to say, be he didn't have time, and frankly, he is glad to have her off his back. Now, he's free to do what he needs to do. First things first: Hostages.
He has to find the hostages, and set them free. And he has a pretty good idea where to start, though it will not be easy.
(******)
Raven
The Batman winds the car around a winding mountain road. The address on the driver's license lead to an old estate on the outskirts of Gotham, up in the hills, near the water. They reach a large Deco style house on a cliff-side, overlooking the water. The red sunrise coming up over the water.
"Do a quick sweep of the perimeter, then come back here," Batman says.
Raven nods as the canopy slides open. She floats out of the car, then flies around the perimeter, eying everything. The estate is surprisingly vast considering its location, the surrounding lawn and forest also much larger than she would have first guessed, but she sees nothing that gives her pause. No movement. Nothing.
She lowers herself next to the driver's side of the car.
"It's all quiet," she says.
Batman hops from the vehicle, then stalks his way up to the servants entrance of the house. They open the door. It's unlocked.
"They know we're here?" Raven says.
"They lead us here," Batman says. "Of course they know we're here."
"If they lead us here, then isn't this a trap?"
Batman smirks, then enters the shadows of the house.
The whole house is dark. They walk down one dark corridor after another, checking each room they pass until they come upon an atrium, a large open space with a glass roof. In the middle of the atrium is a large computer screen.
"Oh, hi'ya, Bman. Who's the toots with the blue hood?" Harley Quinn's voice garbles through speakers throughout the atrium.
Harley was once a promising young doctor at Arkham Asylum until she fell under the Joker's spell; somehow becoming as crazy as he is.
Raven approaches the screen
"Where's Robin?" she says before she can stop herself.
"Sorry, toots," Harley says. "But I can't hear ya unless you push the button."
Raven reaches for the button.
"NO!" Batman screams, but is too late.
Raven presses the button.
Batman leaps headlong, grabbing Raven to knock her out of the way just as the screen explodes with a deafening bang, and a hail of flying debris.
The shock-wave pounds into them, throwing them flying across the room, and knocking Batman unconscious.
She can hear Harley's muffled laughing through garbled speakers, then the room fills with green mist. Her eyes grow heavy, and her world goes black.
(******)
Robin
Inmates walk down a another poorly lit hallway with small circles of yellow light surrounded by thick black nothingness. An inmate steps into the black, then whimpers just before a loud thud echoes through the hallway. The three other inmates turn towards the whimper, their guns trembling in their hands. They freeze, trying to stare into the black. They call out to their friend, but get no answer. They step closer to the dark, then a slight glint of light flashes just before metal objects fly into their weapons, knocking them from their hands. They curse, and scramble for their weapons as Robin explodes from the darkness, flying through the air, slamming into two of them at once with his staff.
They both fall unconscious, and Robin turns towards the last inmate.
The inmate draws a long curved knife, his broken teeth glinting in the yellow light. He lunges at Robin, blade going right for the young hero's heart.
Robin twirls his staff into a block, slamming it against the attacker's wrist, knocking the blade away, then he steps up, slamming his boot into the attacker's torso.
The attacker doubles over, clutching his stomach.
Robin twirls his staff in his fingers, then takes it with both hands on one end, and slams it down on the back of the inmate's head, like a lumberjack chops wood.
The attacker crumples to the floor, out cold.
He hears the Joker's voice squawk through a radio on one of the inmate's.
"Report in. Have you found him?... Useless, good for nothing, moronic, fat- Oh, no, not you boys. I was talking about my mother."
Robin rolls his eyes, then presses on down the dark hallway, eyes scanning everything, ears on alert for any sound that doesn't belong, waiting for the doors to fly open, and inmate's to come pouring out. He comes to a large, double door, and pauses, listening. He hears movement inside, shouting, and whimpering.
He uses his optic-cable to spy under the door. The door is unguarded. He slowly, carefully, quietly opens the door just enough, then steps inside, slowly, carefully, quietly closes it behind him. It's the cafeteria. Rows upon rows of tables are lined up throughout the room. The inmates have ushered the hostages into the center of the room.
The cafeteria is a great place to keep the hostages, Robin thinks. It's large enough to hold them all, easy enough to keep them in line, and not lose anyone. And it is also an easy place to spring an ambush.
Yeah, the hostages are bait, and the cafeteria is a trap. Robin knows this. And yes, he came to the cafeteria anyway.
He crouches in the shadows, eying the room, watching the guards, running through all the possible scenarios, trying to choose wisely his next actions for the consequences might be lethal to himself, or to others. He spots stone gargoyles hung high above the room. The room used to be some lavish banquet hall, or ballroom, or something, but that all changed when the place was donated to the city.
His grapple makes a noise like a muted cough, then he soars through the air, and lands crouched on a gargoyle. He adjusts the lenses in his mask, zooming in and out, trying to identify the armed targets, and the weapons they are carrying. Most carry knives, some carry assault rifles.
One inmate walks beneath Robin's gargoyle. Robin drops down, grabbing him by the throat, so he can't scream, then they raise back up on top of the gargoyle. He keeps his hold until the inmate passes out, then Robin ties his ankles, and drops him to hang upside down on the gargoyle. One down.
He pulls his grapple, and fires, then swings to another gargoyle, this one a short ways from the group of enemies.
An inmate sees his comrade swinging from the gargoyle, and screams to the others.
Now is Robin's chance.
He leaps from his gargoyle, taking out two armed guards as he lands in the middle of the group, staff extended.
The inmates jump back, scared, hesitating.
Robin seizes the advantage, staff swinging wildly as he makes way through the crowd, ducking and dodging, spinning and slashing.
An inmate gets a bead on him, and fires.
Robin ducks as a bullet whizzes past his head, then throws a wing-ding as rises.
The wing-ding flips through the air, knocking the gun from the inmate's hand before he gets a second chance to fire.
A punch rocks Robin's senses, and he staggers back, blinking away stars. When his vision returns, all he sees is the glint of a blade, heading right for his face. He rips his staff up as fast as possible, knocking the blade safely over his head, then he slams the staff down with both hands, the point catching the top of the inmate's foot, sending him to the floor, grabbing his foot.
Robin jumps up, feet flying, catching two guys at once. He flips backwards through the air, lands on his feet, then rolls to the side, avoiding gunfire. He comes out of the roll, throwing two more wing-dings, disarming two more enemies.
Four men with knives charge at him from the front. He plants his staff in the ground, and leaps, letting the staff take him up high, over the enemies. He lands on the other side of them, kicking one near the kidney, while hammering another in the back of the head with his staff.
One of them lunges at him, blade swiping for his neck. He jumps away from the blade, and swings his staff.
The inmate ducks away, then lunges again.
Robin barely manages to avoid the blow, then throws his staff up, blocking a blow from another inmate, leaving him wide open. A boot connects to his midsection, and he staggers. He slams the point of his staff into the ground to steady him just as a fist glances off his jaw. He takes the blow without flinching, then connects his boot to the inmate's face.
Robin spins away, backpedaling, trying to get space.
Two inmate's remain on their feet, one of them grasping at his back, where Robin had kicked it.
Breathing hard, limbs heavy, Robin stares down the last standing inmates. Now, he notices the hostages in the distance behind them, some of them standing, raising guns, pointing them at him.
He rolls sideways, then bounds, and does a forward handspring as bullets fly past his ear, so close he can hear their song as they cut through the air, an oddly appealing sound.
He lands near the tables, and turns on over, taking cover behind it, cursing himself. How could I have been so stupid? Of course, some of the hostages weren't really hostages. Idiot!
Author's note
Well, that was it for Part Seven. What did you think? If you have questions, or comments, don't hesitate. I love reviews, so please leave me one. Alright, time for the thank you's...
Thank you The Samurai Prince for the review. That's exactly who I hear in my head while writing it. He was just awesome! Yeah, well, I want so badly to write well, so hearing that someone likes my actual prose, not just my ideas, or the story, but the actual writing... I struggle with that, so hearing that you liked it made my week.
Thanks. Yes, it was short, but after taking most the month off, I wanted to just kinda dip my toe back in the water so to speak; work myself, and the readers back in slowly.
Thanks, I will, and you too!
Thank you Jeenathespectrobeprincess for the review. Well, does it look like a wild goose chase? lol
Thank you The-Lithe for the review. You're awesome! Thank you so much!
Thank you Wolftaoist for the review. Thanks. I'll try to keep up the good work.
Thank You Emmi30307 for the review. Oh, wow, thank you!
Thank you Ahsokalo for the review. :) Thanks. I'll try to keep up the good work.
Thank You Monkeyfish for the review. Thanks, I appreciate that. Joker's tough to get right, so thanks for that.
Thanks N7-Disguise, EduTorressD, TuTsXxX, The-Lithe, Emmi30307, Jeenathespectrobeprincess for favoriting. Ya'll are awesome!
Thank you Emmi30307 for following.
And thank you everyone who has read the fic so far. Thank everyone who has even read a chapter. You are all so awesome :)
One more thing: what do you all think of length? Would like some shorter chapters for sooner updates?... Let me know...
Until next time. Hope life finds you all well.
mojo