8. Lions' Den
The bunker's interior was dimly lit, primitive in construction, and only slightly less musty than the cave in which the Titans and Slade had spent the past hour. While just as old, it had clearly seen more use in recent times than had the maintenance tunnel.
Starfire perceived that Robin was still extremely angry at Slade for his casual execution of the H.I.V.E. trooper outside, yet he said nothing further about it after Slade voluntarily relinquished the dead guard's IFF transponder to him. She hoped that the anger he still held would not manifest itself in any other ways. This mission had already proven to be unpleasant enough, otherwise…
In a storage room toward the back, they found a large, hexagonal hatch built into the floor which obviously did not fit the motif of the original architecture. Below that, there was a thankfully unmanned security checkpoint, and that, in turn, opened to a large chamber. At the center was an open pit about forty feet in diameter, also hexagonal in shape. The walls, floor and ceiling were painted with the H.I.V.E.'s distinctively garish choice of yellow, and there was an access ladder built into the wall to the left of the door through which they'd entered, leading down to the next floor below. As she took in their surroundings, Starfire also noticed another such ladder, similarly placed, on each of the room's six walls.
"Well, at least we're finally out of the rain," Raven muttered, dropping her damp hood as they cautiously moved into the large chamber.
"This must be the central shaft Sebastian described," Robin observed, as they cautiously peered over the edge. The pit descended a very significant distance below them, with another landing, like the one they now stood on, approximately every two hundred feet by Starfire's estimation. It reminded her somewhat of the grand conservatory in the palace on Tamaran; except, of course, for the access ladders. She could not see the bottom of the shaft from where they stood, and it seemed unwise to fly out over it merely for the sake of curiosity. There was also a substantial updraft due to the sheer size of the place, and a faint, salty smell on the breeze suggested that the shaft went all the way down to sea level.
Cyborg touched the side of his head as he looked down over the shaft. "Yeah, there's a laser grid up, just like he said," he reported, and produced the transponders. "Alright, let's divvy these things up. We've got four total, so…one for me, one for Robin, one for Starfire, and one for Wonder Girl," he narrated as he handed out the devices.
"Dude, what about me an'—?"
"I can teleport, and you can shrink down small enough to pass between the beams undetected," Raven interrupted Beast Boy.
Cyborg blinked. "Er…yeah, what she said."
"Oh…uh, I mean, I knew that," Beast Boy mumbled.
"Well, we might as well take the most direct way down," Robin said, turning to head back toward the entrance.
As the group gathered at the ladder, Robin held his transponder over the hole which granted access through the floor and down the shaft. "Well, is it working?" he asked, looking up at Cyborg.
Cyborg peered down the ladder, and nodded. "Yep. Looks like the transponders send out a frequency that deactivates all the lasers that cross within…I'd say about eight feet of the signal. We should all be able to get past the security grid this way, if we stack up on the ladder and stick close together."
Robin nodded. "Okay then, let's pair up. Beast Boy, stick close to Cyborg. Raven, you're with…Wonder Girl. And Starfire…"
She watched him attentively.
"…I'm counting on you to guard Slade. Any questions?"
Beast Boy's hand shot up. "Yeah, why are we even bringing this psycho along with us? I mean, it's not like we still need him to show us the way, now that we're here."
Slade leaned against the wall and stifled a yawn.
Robin scowled. "I don't trust him to stay here by himself. Do you?"
Beast Boy hesitated, then lowered his hand.
"I'm touched that you care," Slade commented.
"Save it," Robin spat. "Let's move out."
They descended the ladder, Robin leading the way. Cyborg followed next, with Beast Boy clinging to his back as the sloth of three toes, and Raven and Wonder Girl followed close behind. Starfire and Slade followed last; instead of climbing, she simply allowed herself to float downward along the ladder's path. This allowed her to more easily keep a vigilant eye on Slade all the way down, both to ensure that he remained within range of the transponder she was carrying, and to preclude any possibility of treachery on his part.
They reached the next floor down without incident, and were about to proceed down the next ladder when Cyborg called for them to wait.
"My sensors are showing a lot of magnetic interference from the rock down here," he reported, examining a panel on his forearm. "As a result, I can't get a fix on Jericho's communicator…in fact, it also means that none of our communicators will work down here, at all."
"So, that could be the reason we haven't heard back from him yet?" Wonder Girl asked.
"Imagine that," Slade chuckled, indifferent to the venomous glares he received in response.
"Does this mean that he may not be in danger?" Starfire asked, her spirits rising. What a relief that would be!
"It means we still don't know," Robin answered in a low voice. "Raven, can you get a fix on him?"
She shook her head. "I haven't been able to sense him at all since he possessed Sebastian. Whatever shields him from Brother Blood and Psimon also hides him from me. I do sense a lot of other people down here, but the layout of this place makes it hard to tell exactly who, or where they are."
An anxious silence settled over the team.
"Well…now what do we do?" Beast Boy asked after a moment. "Should we go back and wait to hear from Jericho, after all?"
Robin shook his head firmly. "No. We've already come this far; we stick to the plan. Find Rose, get her out, find Jericho, stop Brother Blood. Okay?" He looked at each of them in turn.
"Agreed," Starfire confirmed, nodding.
As the others also indicated their assent, Robin nodded in return.
"Okay then…let's move out."
The group descended to the next level without incident. As Starfire's feet touched the floor, Cyborg spoke up.
"Yo, hold up a second. Didn't Sebastian say they were keeping the girl 'about halfway down'? Maybe we should take a look around before we go down any further. If we can find a computer terminal, I might be able to access their network and get a better idea of the place's layout."
Robin nodded in agreement. "Good idea. But I think we should just send one or two people to scout the floor; that way, it'll reduce the chances of all of us getting spotted or captured. I'll go, and…"
"Ooh! Me!" Beast Boy's hand went up again. "I am totally down for another sneaking mission."
"He does probably stand the best chance out of all of us to avoid being spotted," Wonder Girl pointed out, when Robin paused. "Better than you, in fact."
"Well…all right," the Titans' leader allowed. "Just remember, we do not want to be detected, at least not until we've gotten the hostage out of here safely. We need to be silent, and invisible."
"No sweat. Just call me Solid Bea—" Beast Boy stopped abruptly, his eyes lighting up as though he had just received some profound revelation. "—no. No. Call me…Green Fox!"
"I'll call you Decoy Octopus, if you don't get it in gear!" Cyborg retorted.
Starfire was about to ask them to explain the significance of a small canine which shared Beast Boy's pigmentation, and how an aquatic cephalopod could be used in diversionary tactics, but Raven spoke first.
"Well, that's still an improvement on Garfield."
Beast Boy physically flinched at her utterance of the name by which the Patrol of Doom had addressed him. "Dude, that is so not fair!" he protested.
"What, that your parents named you Garfield?" Raven responded, unfazed. "For once, we agree."
"No, not that!" He jabbed an accusing finger at her. "The fact that you know my name, but I don't know yours!"
"Yes you do," she replied, frowning.
"No, I—wait, what?" Beast Boy stared at Raven in disbelief. "You mean…all this time, you've been using your real name as your—?"
"Beast Boy," Robin interrupted, glaring at him. "Let's go, already."
"Okay, okay, coming. Geez…"
"Exercise caution, please!" Starfire called to them, as they headed down one of the hallways leading away from the main shaft. Robin nodded back to her just before they turned a corner and disappeared from view.
Starfire bit her lip, feelings of anxiety and doubt beginning to well up within her once again. If her other friends felt the same way, they were not displaying it outwardly. Raven withdrew into her cloak, probably attempting a form of light meditation. Meanwhile, Cyborg and Wonder Girl took up positions on either side of the corridor Robin and Beast Boy had taken, assuming a posture of silent vigilance.
While her friends' outward demeanor was somewhat reassuring, Starfire nevertheless felt a need to speak with someone, if only to distract herself from inner, nameless fears. And, as distasteful as she found it, the nearest conversational prospect was…Slade, who was leaning against the wall next to the ladder.
Besides, Robin had specifically assigned her to watch him.
"You seem quite relaxed," she observed, "considering that we are presently in enemy territory."
He regarded her for a moment in silence, before responding. "That's a fairly relative term, if you think about it…but, to address your larger point. To master one's emotions is one of the first and most important lessons every soldier must learn…and one that was imparted to me many years before you were born."
"I have heard Raven say that most of your emotions are dead."
"Has she, now…?" Something, some emotion the Tamaranean princess couldn't identify, briefly flickered in Slade's eye. "Well…perhaps she's right about that."
Starfire frowned. "I do not understand how a person's emotions could 'die'. But I will not ask you to elaborate, as I suspect your explanation would…not be helpful to me."
He chuckled at that. "Are all Tamaraneans as refreshingly honest and forthright as you are?"
"They are not," she told him, "just as all humans are not as manipulative and deceitful as you are."
"Hmm. A fair point," he replied in what, coming from anyone else, would have seemed like a pleasant tone of voice. If her assessment offended him, he gave no indication of it. "I imagine that often causes problems for you, living in such a…frequently dishonest world, as ours."
She paused, considering the idea. "I suppose that it does," she acknowledged, "though I do not often think about it. For me, it is the only way I know how to live, and I would not change that even if I could."
"Hm." His single, gray eye continued to study her. "Pray, then, that you never have to."
She could not think of an appropriate response for such a statement, so she chose instead to change topics. "Outside…why did you kill that man?"
He did not seem surprised by her sudden question. "As I told Robin: to prove a point."
She met his gaze defiantly. "What point could possibly be served by such an unnecessary act?"
"That some of his assumptions about me are dangerously flawed," Slade replied, steadily meeting her eye. "And that clinging to those beliefs can carry unexpected, and dire, consequences."
"You speak as though Robin could somehow be held responsible for your actions." At this thought, she felt herself becoming angry.
"Ah. And now, you begin to see my point," he answered, sounding pleased. "For Robin undoubtedly does hold himself at least partially responsible for what I did."
"How would you know such a thing?" she demanded.
"Because I have studied him, very carefully. Robin's greatest flaw is that he overestimates himself, and holds himself accountable for things which are far beyond his control…as I'm sure you must also be aware."
As fiercely as Starfire wanted to deny Slade's words…she suddenly found herself unable to honestly do so.
"In fact," Slade continued, "I would even say that Robin is…dangerously unaware of his own limitations. But, in any case. For you all to expect to be able to force your way into a mortal enemy's inner sanctum, foil their plans and emerge unscathed – without anyone on either side losing their life – is terribly naïve."
"It is not," she argued, "when we have successfully done so on numerous occasions, in the past."
"Hmmm." His eye narrowed. "And what makes you think this is anything like your past missions?"
She blinked, slightly confused by his question. "Because…I have no reason to think otherwise."
His eye narrowed further, and she somehow suspected he was smiling, though she could not see his mouth. "Are you sure…?"
Before she could answer, they were interrupted by Beast Boy's return.
"We found a computer room where Robin thinks Cyborg'll be able to plug 'n play," he reported, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "C'mon, follow me."
Beast Boy led the group through a series of winding corridors lined with empty, barred holding cells on either side, before finally arriving at the guard station where he'd left Robin. Who was still standing in the exact same place, trying to hack his way into one of the computer terminals, while the three unconscious H.I.V.E. troopers they'd gotten the drop on lay piled in the corner.
"Well, at least you guys were tidy," Raven commented.
"I wanted to build a pyramid or something out of 'em," Beast Boy told her, "but Robin thought that'd be a little over the top." Granted, Robin was smart and cool and brave and better than Beast Boy at pretty much everything, plus he got girls like Starfire without even really trying to. But the guy could seriously stand to lighten up a little bit, every now and then.
Raven didn't seem to think so, though, since she was giving Beast Boy a look that said she wanted to teleport him into an active volcano or something. He'd always been struck by her way of saying more with her eyes than she did with her mouth. It was creepy.
"Any luck with that?" Wonder Girl asked Robin as she stepped up next to him, nodding toward the computer.
He shook his head. "Not yet…"
"Well then, step aside and watch the master at work," Cyborg boasted as he joined them, cracking his knuckles for show.
Starfire lingered near the door. "This place reminds me of my time with the Gordanians," she murmured, rubbing her arm and looking really uncomfortable.
Beast Boy raised an eyebrow and glanced around, trying to draw a comparison with what he remembered of the alien ship Starfire had escaped from just before they all first met. "Well…this place is more yellow and hexagon-y, and smells less like lizard, but…I can kinda sorta see what you mean. I think."
Starfire didn't laugh. Aw, man, he'd gone and said something really stupid, again, hadn't he…why couldn't he ever keep his big mouth shut, when it really mattered?
Meanwhile, Cyborg had plugged a wire from his finger into a port on the computer. A rapid-fire torrent of images and information flashed across the screen as he interfaced with the system. It was way too fast for Beast Boy to follow, even if he'd been trying to, and it didn't look at all like any of the 'hacking' sequences in any of the video games he'd played.
"Alright…I'm in," he announced after a few seconds. "Downloading the base schematics now…looks like there's ten levels altogether, plus the old bunker topside, and some kinda sea level access point at the very bottom."
"That must be why we could smell the ocean earlier," Wonder Girl reasoned.
Cyborg nodded. "Yeah. Looks like this floor, and the next one down are the main holding areas, and the one below that is the main barracks…hm, interesting. Fifth floor down houses the main power grid…plus, they've got some sorta stasis chamber set up there, and it's suckin' up a whole lotta juice."
Robin rubbed his chin. "Well, that would be the halfway point, and it would make sense that they'd have a special containment area set up for their big prize…I think we should check there, first. Besides, marching into the detention area is not what I had in mind….what?" He frowned at Beast Boy and Cyborg, who were now both staring at him in amazement. There was no way he could've just said that, totally by accident. Could he…?
"Uh, nothing, never mind," Cyborg answered quickly. "Anyway, looks like we caught a lucky break. According to the duty roster, the majority of on-site personnel are supposed to be attending a 'service' down on level seven for at least the next hour, maybe longer…probably one of those power meetings Brother Blood likes to have, or some crazy thing like that. Guess that's why the place seems so empty."
"You don't say," Slade remarked. Everyone ignored him, 'cause he was a jerk.
"Well then, let's not waste any more time standing around here," Robin said, already on his way to the door.
"Well, it looks like we picked the right floor," Robin observed, as the team gathered around the stasis capsule.
They stood at the center of a large room which Cyborg had identified as housing the base's main power generators. It wasn't very well lit aside from their immediate area, and there were a large number of odd-looking pylons scattered all about the room at regular intervals, jutting up from beneath the floor, which was itself a raised metal grate. The pylons appeared to be constructed from a mixture of both ceramic and metal and terminated about a foot short of the ceiling, with an open vent aligned directly over each one. Cyborg had said these served to disperse heat from the generators, which were actually beneath their feet, functioning much like a giant heat sink. There was a high volume of ambient ventilation noise, probably from the central air conditioning system, and the air smelled heavily of ozone. A cool mist rose from the floor, creating a layer of fog at their feet which was chill to the touch. It raised gooseflesh up and down Raven's bare legs and led her to think, not for the first time today, that perhaps she should consider redesigning her costume.
The object of the group's attention was a transparent cylinder about six feet in length, elevated a foot off the ground and tilted back at a reclining angle, with a number of electronic monitors and displays along the sides. A large concentration of wires, tubes and hoses were connected to the back, and ran beneath the floor. Inside the cylinder was a young girl; the same one from the photograph Wintergreen had showed them. Her eyes were closed and she was so still that Raven might have thought she was dead, had her senses not told her otherwise.
They'd been able to reach this area with surprisingly little difficulty, having encountered no other guards or H.I.V.E. personnel on their way down from the detention level. And the only other automated security measures they'd had to contend with had been some additional laser grids and a couple of closed-circuit cameras, all of which had been easily circumvented.
In fact…it seemed far too easy, considering the supposed gravity of the situation and this girl's apparent value to her captors. But while she didn't consider herself superstitious, Raven still knew better than to tempt fate by actually saying this out loud.
Besides, she knew Beast Boy would beat her to it.
"Okay, seriously, you guys…doesn't this seem almost too easy…?"
Cyborg, who was intently studying one of the display panels on his forearm, suddenly bared his teeth in an expression of utter fury and raised a clutching hand toward his younger teammate. After an almost visible internal struggle, he evidently managed to convince himself that strangling the shape-shifter would not help matters, and forcibly lowered his arm again.
"What, what? C'mon, I'm just sayin'…"
"What's the problem?" Robin asked, trying to steer Cyborg's attention back to the situation at hand.
Cyborg cleared his throat, but continued to glower at Beast Boy out of the corner of his eye. "Well, I thought the wiring in here looked a little strange in the blueprints, but I didn't want to say anything 'till I got to see it up close…but now that I have…basically, this capsule's keeping her in a state of suspended animation. The problem is…uh, what's up, Starfire?"
All eyes turned to the alien princess, who suddenly looked inappropriately happy and was even bouncing up and down slightly. Noticing their stares, she quickly stopped and turned a deep shade of red.
"Oh…it is unimportant! I was merely reminded of the tale of fairies. Please, continue detailing the technological tribulation we face."
"Um…okay…" With some effort, Cyborg managed to get back on topic. "Anyway, our problem, in a nutshell, is that this thing can't be shut off from here. Which I realized right after somebody went and opened his big, green mouth."
"Hey, how is this my fault?!" Beast Boy protested, and was predictably ignored.
Wonder Girl frowned. "But then, what are all these controls for?" she asked, pointing to the display panels along the sides of the machine.
"These are just minor diagnostic tools," Cyborg explained. "The main controls for the revival process are clear on the other side of this floor. What's more, they're isolated from the network, so somebody's gonna have to physically go over there to run it." He held out his arm so the rest of them could see the diagram on his display panel.
"Why can't we just unplug it, pull her out and make a run for the surface?" Beast Boy asked, his indignation already forgotten.
"It ain't that simple," Cyborg told him, shaking his head for emphasis. "Right now, this machine is maintaining the girl's circulatory system at an artificially decelerated rate. If we just unplug it or bust it open, we'll end up killing her in the process. We'll need to let it cycle through the entire revival program before we can safely get her out."
Raven sighed, growing impatient with the lingering spikes of trepidation he was continuing to throw off. "Why do I have the feeling that's not the worst of it?"
Cyborg cleared his throat again, obviously uncomfortable. "Well, uh…from what I can tell, the whole cycle's gonna take a good ten minutes or so…and, if I know Brother Blood, it's a sure bet he's got some mechanism set up to notify him personally the second it starts."
"Hmm. That's right, he modified himself with your technology, didn't he?" Slade noted, thwarting Raven's fervent efforts to forget that he was present.
Beast Boy, meanwhile, weighed his dislike for Slade against the opportunity to affect a cheesy British accent and recite movie dialogue, with predictable results. "He's more machine now than man. Twisted, and evil. –Uh, no offense," he added hastily, as Cyborg slowly turned to glare at him.
With another sigh, Raven gave the changeling an obligatory smack to the head.
"He already had a pretty good leg up on the twisted and evil parts to begin with, anyway," Cyborg muttered, while Beast Boy rubbed his head and scowled at Raven.
"Oww…! Just for that, I'm gonna turn into a mosquito and bite you when you're not expecting it! And then you'll be all…itchy, and stuff!"
"Consider me terrified," she deadpanned in response.
"Knock it off!" Robin snapped. "I guess we've got no choice, then: we'll have to split up. Someone will have to go and start the system, while the rest of us hold here, since this is probably where most of the guards will show up."
"That 'someone' should be me," Cyborg said, nodding agreeably and with enough confidence to effectively hide the dread he felt at the prospect from everyone present who wasn't supernaturally empathic. "I know exactly where to find the controls, and I'll have the easiest time activating the process, since I can probably interface with the computer directly."
Robin nodded in return. "Agreed. Take Raven with you, that way you can both teleport back here once the system is up and running."
Part of her wanted to seize the opportunity to rebuke him for the way he'd treated her that afternoon by sarcastically asking whether he trusted her enough for this job. But that wouldn't be appropriate, she told herself. They were in the middle of a mission, they were in the enemy's lair, and this was serious. This was life and death. Her petty, hurt feelings would have to wait.
So, she swallowed the emotional impulse and simply said nothing. Thinking about it later, though, she wasn't completely sure which part of her had made the decision…the rational part, or the part that was afraid of how Robin might have answered the question.
On top of that, she was beginning to realize that one of the reasons Robin's lack of trust was gnawing at her so fiercely was because…on some level, she had never believed that she'd ever truly deserved his trust, in the first place.
But in the meantime, he wasn't finished outlining the plan. "Starfire, Wonder Girl and I will stay here with Slade, and hold off the guards until the girl wakes up. They'll probably throw everything they have at us, too, so hurry back. Beast Boy, while Cyborg and Raven head for the control room, scout the rest of this floor and make sure there aren't any nasty surprises waiting to sneak up on us, then come back and help us hold the line. Everyone clear?"
They all nodded except for Slade, who was leaning against one of the temperature control pylons and generally looking bored. But as she still found herself unable to look at him without being reminded of how badly she wanted to disembowel him, Raven quickly turned her attention elsewhere, moving to follow Cyborg.
"Oh, hey, you guys! Wait a sec, I just remembered something important," Beast Boy said suddenly. They stopped, and looked back at him.
"If you run into Psimon," he told them urgently, "don't forget to plug the controller into the second port, so he can't read your minds."
They stood there staring at him for a few seconds longer, all rational thought processes having completely ground to a halt.
"Beast Boy! Go!" Robin barked.
"Alright already, sheesh!" He morphed into an emerald green dragonfly and buzzed away, dropping almost completely off of Raven's sensory 'radar' in the process. His emotional profile was practically invisible to her whenever he was an insect; something she'd never explicitly told him, but she thought he'd probably figured it out for himself since she'd been unaware of him spying on her as a literal fly on the wall during the Malchior incident.
"C'mon, we'd better go too," Cyborg tossed over his shoulder as he marched off in the opposite direction. Nodding, she fell into step behind him.