"I can't believe we're already back in the sewers," Superboy complained over the mind link as they made their way down through the tunnels once again. Robin had to sympathize, he hated the sewers.
"Hey, it could be worse," Miss Martian said chipperly, floating above the mess that was the sewers.
"How?" Superboy asked bitterly, wading shin-deep in sewer water.
"We could be in a garbage dump," M'gann replied, continuing to float above it all.
"How is that worse than this?" Superboy questioned, his boot made a squelching noise as he pulled it out of the muck to take a step. Robin couldn't help but chuckle in agreement, the sewers were about a thousand times more disgusting than any trash dump.
"Whatever," MM said shaking her head in disagreement, when she stopped dead in the air, "Guys, look!"
"What is it?" Superboy asked, and at first Robin couldn't blame him, the tunnel went on for ages and there was no sign of anything in it other than sewer muck for ages, nothing that is, except…
"Zatanna's communicator!" Robin exclaimed, hurrying over and picking up the small Bluetooth like device up and out of the muck. It was badly damaged, smashed so that it was completely useless. But it proved that they were on the right track, Zatanna had gone this way. They'd been following what they hoped were Zatanna's foot prints, but they could never be sure. Despite the fact that the prints clearly belonged to someone with serious heels, one could never be sure, Robin had in the past accidently found himself chasing down an overdressed sewer maintenance crew woman. But the communicator confirmed everything. These were Zatanna's footprints, and she needed help. She'd been running and then… stopped here to rest? There was a second pair of tracks… male? She'd been attacked?!
"If that's her communicator then where's Zatanna?" Superboy wondered grimly, looking up and down the sewer line.
"And who attacked her?" M'gann asked, reading Robin's mind, much to his annoyance. "Sorry- again, Robin, I can't help it-"
"I'm such an open book." Robin finished.
"Wait- someone attacked her?" Superboy asked, eyes widening. "How do you know?"
"I'm not positive," Robin began, "But see this second set of tracks? Someone else was here- based on the size I'm guessing a man, about twice my height and-"
"Who isn't twice your height?" KF slipped in across the mindlink. Robin ignored him.
"And I can tell that because of the size and spacing of his footprints." Robin explained.
"Oh, wow, Robin your detective process is just so aster, I'm without words," Kid Flash said sarcastically. Robin frowned; Wally was starting to get real darned annoying.
"Of course you know, our Robin's got pretty good skills too you know." Wally added, Robin's frown evolved into a scowl.
"Wally, please" M'gann said, softly.
"Please what? I'm not doing anything. I'm just pointing out how great his detective skills are," Wally said in a mock defensive manner.
"You could do a better job of making it sound like a compliment," Robin growled, crouching down low and examining the path for any more clues to Zatanna's location.
"I don't know, maybe I just think that-" Kid Flash began, only to be interrupted by Robin,
"We don't have time for this. We have to find Zatanna and the others."
"What-" Kid Flash began, this time to be cut off by Aqualad.
"He is right. We must focus."
"Exactly." Robin said, stupid speedster, why doesn't he trust me? "Now M'gann, Superboy, obviously Zatanna went on ahead based on her footprints. So let's go,"
"What about the guy who attacked her? What happened to him?" Superboy asked.
"I don't know. He just sort of… disappears." Robin placed his hand on the sewer wall, thoughtfully, hand absentmindedly tracing a crack on its surface. "Maybe he floats like you Miss M."
"It's a thought," She agreed, "Now let's keep going."
They continued down the tunnel in silence, the only break being when Aqualad announced that they had found Artemis and Red Arrow and that they were in good health, but Clayface was still at large, thankfully though, they had a good idea of which direction he'd taken. Good. Robin thought to what he hoped was himself, the sooner this whole mess is over with the better. Now we just have to find Zatanna, and fast. The fact that some other person had attacked left him feeling unsettled. Who? And why? And what were the chances that someone else was running around in the sewers down here? Was it the person who had released Clayface from prison in the first place? They'd just have to ask Zatanna and find out… when they found her. That and about a thousand other questions, like, 'hey, Zatanna- can you get me back in my own body?' but that of course would have to come after the incredibly awkward, 'Sorry for being a jerk about the kiss, but see, I'm from another universe!' and for some reason he just did not see that going over well.
"It'll be all right Robin," M'gann said glancing over at him with her big amber eyes. Reading my mind again. Great.
"Zatanna may be upset now, but she's actually a really great person. Trust me," She insisted, floating alongside Robin now.
"I'll take your word for it. Kid Flash isn't exactly forgiving, so I don't see why your Robin's girlfriend should be any better." Robin muttered, scowling. They'd come to a fork in the tunnel. It spanned off in two different directions, and here the muck was relatively low so it was hard to gage for footprints.
"Great. Hey Sherlock, which way did she go?" Superboy asked arms crossed.
"Not sure." Robin admitted, "M'gann; scan that tunnel for brainwaves, Superboy; listen to that one for her heartbeat. I'll see if I can make any sense out of these footprints."
"And the great detective sets to work again," Wally, again.
"Kid Flash shut up!" Robin shouted across the mindlink, trying to keep his attention on the footprints, but failing.
"Or what? The others will start to wonder why the heck they trust you? I mean, seriously. You just pop up and say 'oh look at me! I'm Robin from another universe- I may have body snatched your best friends body but it's all right, you can trust me!'" Kid said in a mockery of Robin's voice. Robin furrowed his brow.
"Shut up KF I'm warning you!" Robin insisted, what was with this kid? I'm trying to help them save Zatanna! Why would he think anything else?
"Maybe I'm thinking that your stories fishy and I don't buy it!" Kid shouted back over the mind link. "And what'cha gonna do? Body snatch me? Cause frankly that would just prove my point."
"Wally! Stop this now!" Artemis ordered her boyfriend; Robin could imagine her crossing her arms and yelling a lot.
"No- I won't. Why don't any of you guys get this? He's not our Rob, he's an imposter and-"
"M'gann," Aqualad said suddenly, "Will you please speak to me in a private link? Cut off the connection between the others too please."
"Um, all right Aqualad." M'gann said awkwardly, and then suddenly Robin's mind became much quieter. He and Superboy exchanged glances, and Robin could guess at his thoughts without hearing them: you screwed up big time Robin.
The next few minutes were held in incredibly awkward silence. Superboy didn't speak, he was too busy listening to both tunnel entrances, and M'gann was in deep mental conversation with Aqualad. Really deep. It was kinda entertaining to watch, because she made all of the hand motions and expressions that she normally would if Aqualad were just standing right in front of her, she just didn't actually open her mouth or anything. The conversation must have been pretty intense because she kept on waving her arms about angrily or putting her hand son her hips defiantly, and at one point she even rolled her eyes. All Robin could think was that on Mars it must be hard to decide if a person is a frootloop or just having a conversation. Finally, M'gann slapped her forehead in what could only be an exclamation of 'Hello Megan!' and her body motion became a lot less intense, in fact a few minutes later and she had reopened the mindlink to everyone else.
"All right everyone, let's get back to finding Zatanna!" She beamed an incredibly fake, awkward smile at both Superboy and Robin.
"What was all that about?" Robin asked, raising a brow, which considering the fact that he was wearing a mask, really meant nothing.
"It was nothing. Really. Aqualad just had me clarify some… stuff." M'gann explained weakly.
"It was about me wasn't it?" Robin said, crossing his arms bitterly.
"Yes.. but-" M'gann began.
"Don't worry about it. KF is right, you can't be too sure if you can trust me. Now come on, let's get back to work. Superboy, have you heard Zatanna yet?"
"Yea, she's down this way," Superboy said pointing down the left tunnel, "And I think she's hurt, her heart rates low."
"Then come on- Titans- Team, go!" Robin shouted, correcting himself midsentence and then leading the others further into the sewers.
They didn't have to run very far before they found Zatanna. Oh no. Robin thought to himself as she saw her. She lay, apparently unconscious, up against the sewer wall. Her coat was torn, she was missing one of her gloves, and her face had a nasty blue bruise on it.
"Zatanna!" All three of the heroes said at once before hurrying to aid their fallen ally. Robin promptly checked her pulse and heart rate. "She's fine," He murmured aloud, relieved.
"Zatanna, are you all right?" M'gann asked carefully, and for a few hairsplitting seconds there was no reply, until,
"I'm fine.." Zatanna said softly, fluttering her eyelashes and siting up.
"What happened? Were you attacked?" Robin demanded, looking her straight in the eyes.
"I was running from Clayface and got separated from the others… guess I just keeled over.." Zatanna replied, taking him by the hand. Heat rose in his cheeks, I'm not her boyfriend.
"Are you sure?" He asked seriously, "Because we saw some footprints earlier- it looked like you were attacked by someone,"
"No. No one, really," Zatanna insisted, "Come on, help me up- Clayface, he's still around here isn't he?"
"The others have got him under control," M'gann replied, concern growing on her face. Then suddenly a thought entered Robin's head.
"Robin! Look out- she's lying! She was attacked by some man- I've never seen him before!" M'gann thought to him privately. Knew it. He braced himself, helping the other girl up.
"Are you sure your all right?" He asked again, furrowing his brow.
"Oh, I'm great. Espeically now that you're here," Zatanna replied, lifting up her hands.
"No! Look out!" Robin shouted, but it was too late.
"Peels!" Zatanna shouted, and instantly M'gann and Superboy collapsed; they'd fallen asleep.
"What are you doing? Why did you knock out Miss Martian and Superboy?" Robin demanded, drawing his metal staff.
"I had to!" Zatanna cried out, pointing both her hands directly at him. Robin had a feeling that were she to fire a spell of any kind, it would hit him point blank. Gotta keep her distracted, find out what her deal is.
"Why?" He asked, not taking his eyes off of the ends of her fingers.
"Because! They wouldn't believe me right away, clearly they've decided to trust you- so I had to knock them out!" She replied, clearly gaming up to fire some spell or another.
"Is this about the kiss earlier? Because I'm sorry about that" Robin asked awkwardly, keep her distracted Robin… slowly and carefully, so as to not catch her attention, he moved towards M'gann, who lay sleeping peacefully. She followed him with the tips of her fingers, blue eyes narrowed with determination.
"No, this has nothing to do with that Robin!" She replied, finally firing a spell, "Nip mih ot eht llaw!" He went flying and found himself trapped against the wall, unable to move.
"Then what does it have to do with Zatanna?" He said through gritted teeth, trying to force himself away from the wall but having no luck in doing so.
"It has to do with the safety of my team!" She replied, walking towards him, glaring up at him.
"Safety of your team? I'm part of the team now! Let me down!" He protested, again struggling uselessly against the force of her spell.
"No you're not. You're an imposter. Your just pretending to be our friend when in all reality your one of the worst types of people," She replied, hands on her hips. Oh great, back to the evil mole thing again? Why didn't these guys just use common sense? He managed to force one of his hands to his belt… if I can just get a bomb, I can break her concentration…
"Worst types of people? What would make you think that?" He questioned, trying to grab a bomb.
"Not what. Who. And I think you know full well Robin!" She replied angrily, turning her back to him. "I just can't believe any of this. You've come in and tricked the whole team! Batman even!"
"No, I really don't know who." He said, managing to wrap his fingers around one of the bombs. Would he be able to throw it? Probably not. But as long as he kept her talking…
"You don't know who? Really? He said you'd try tricking me, and I won't fall for it."
"Who said?" Robin pressed again, clearly whoever this guy was… was bad news. Finally he managed to move his arm just enough- the bomb flew through the air.
"Dliehs!" A force field went up around her, protecting her from the force of the bomb. Robin dropped down from the wall. Yes! While she'd been completely unharmed (which was a good thing), it had made her lose concentration enough to drop him. Now to call for help. His hand went to the communicator at his ear.
"Aqualad- come in Aqualad!"
"Robin? Is that you? We were just about to call in, the mental link has broken," Aqualad's concerned voice came in from the other side. "What's happened?"
"We found Zatanna-" Robin was forced to pause in midsentence as Zatanna fired some sort of an explosive spell at him, hastily he dodged out of the way, swinging his staff at her only to have it knocked back. "-And she's gone crazy," he ducked again as a wall of sewage water flew up at him, apparently trying to choke him.
"What exactly do you mean?" Aqualad asked from the other side.
"I mean she's trying to kill me! She's-" He slid behind her, staff at the ready, only to have the ground move out from under him and slam him into the wall. "-already knocked out Superboy and MM,"
"Why would she try to kill you?" Aqualad asked, making Robin cringe inwardly. The problem with Aqualad was that he asked way too many questions.
"I don't know-" He landed a blow to her side, which was returned with another water blast sending him skidding down the tunnel. "-She seems to think I'm evil or something-" She pounded him repeatedly with bits and pieces of the tunnel wall, broken off and sent flying at him in rock form. He knocked back as many as he could with his staff, but it was hard.
"-Someone told her this stuff, but I don't know who!"
"I will send Kid Flash to help you, hang in there." Aqualad said firmly. Kid Flash? Seriously? That guy probably hates me just as much as Zatanna does- and he didn't even try to kiss me!
"KF are you-" This time he wasn't cut off by the basic trials battle. This time Zatanna had literally blown up the communicator in his ear. "Ow!" He cried out, clutching the side of his head, his hand came away with the broken communicator and blood. She wanted him dead all right.
"Zatanna stop this!" He shouted, staff at the ready.
"No! Ffats eit pu Nibor!" Zatanna cried out, and suddenly his staff came to life in his hand, wrapping about him until he was tied up by the thing. And pinned to the wall to boot.
"Ugh! Zatanna please- you aren't like this, I'm sure of it!" He protested, unable to move.
"How would you know? You only met me for about four minutes. And if I recall, you didn't like me very much" She replied, summoning a very large, very pointy looking piece of sewer tunnel wall, it floated eerily beside her. This is it Robin, he thought to himself, bracing himself for the impact. It never came. Instead there was a flash of yellow as KF stampeded between the two of them, knocking the rock to the ground and coming to a wobbly stop. The fastest boy alive turned around and looked at the scene before him, and Robin could only guess at what he was thinking. After all, here was Robin pinned to the wall with some sort of metal pole/brace thing, Zatanna with a big scary looking floaty rock (now off target, granted), and an unconscious Miss Martian and Superboy. It had to look bad. But it also had to look like Robin was the good guy, right?
"KF! Quick- Zatanna's lost her mind- she's trying to kill me! She knocked out M'gann and Superboy!" Robin shouted at the red haired boy.
"Don't listen to him- he's trying to mess with you- he's evil! Megan may have checked him over for Cadmus programming but what's wrong with him is too deeply imbedded into him- no one can help him! He's just going to try and kill us all!" Zatanna said very firmly, and much to Robin's dismay, very sanely to KF.
"What exactly is going on here?" Kid asked looking back and forth from the boy wonder to the magic girl.
"He's an evil weapon created to destroy us all and we have to stop him Kid! He can't be cleansed of any programming like Red Arrow either- he's just plain programmed to destroy us, with any means possible!" Zatanna explained to Wally, hand redirecting the large floaty rock so that it was back to facing Robin's face.
"She isn't in the right mind- someone's told her this, it isn't true KF! Come on, you know that! I'm just another Robin from another universe, all right?" Robin said, straining against the metal holdings. Kid Flash looked from person to person, clearly growing more and more concerned. Come on! Trust me! Robin thought desperately to himself, come on!
"Pots gniklat!" Zatanna chanted, and suddenly Robin's mouth slammed shut. And he couldn't get it open again. Stop talking? No! He had to get KF to listen to him! Had too!
"Slade told me he'd try and trick us." Wait. Slade? Slade?! SLADE!? You have got to be kidding me! He's dead! He died! Unless… of course! He must have escaped at the last minute… but how is he here?! Why?! Grr…. SLADE! His brain started running at about 500 miles a minute, with about every other sentence starting with 'Slade'.
"SLADE! What are you crazy! He's evil!" He tried to shout at Zatanna, however, through his slammed shut mouth it came out as: "MMM! MMMMMM! MMMM!"
KF glanced over at Robin, who was acting suitably insane at the mention of Slade.
"He dosen't look to happy." Kid Flash commented, "And who is this 'Slade' guy anyway?"
"He's a totally evil psychopath who tried to destroy jump city and brainwashed Terra and used a mad blood poison thing and hes evil!" Robin cried out, but again it came out merely as a very long: "MMMMMMMM!"
Zatanna glanced at Robin darkly before saying, "Slade is a man who found Robin after Cadmus created him- he tried to erase the Cadmus programming in him that made him evil. Unfortunately, it couldn't be done. And Robin escaped from his custody."
What is she crazy? Slades trying to turn her against me! Against everyone! I thought we'd established I'm not a clone?! He cried out in protest again, only for it to be another long chain of: "MMmmmmmMm!"
"I thought we'd decided that Robins not a clone?" Kid Flash said awkwardly, arms crossed.
"Robin lied to you- he just doesn't want you to think he's a clone!" Zatanna said getting a little more desperate in her tone.
"But MM couldn't find any Cadmus Programming in him, and we ran like a thousand tests on him-"
"Cadmus had him well made. I don't know. The point is, he lied. And if we destroy him, we get our Robin back." She raised her hand clearly about to fire the large pointy rock and smash Robin's face in, when Kid Flash made a request.
"Why don't we hear his side of the story first?"
"Why? He'll just like to trick you some more," Zatanna replied, the rock wavering in the air. She was losing control, clearly emotion was running wild in her head.
"Well, maybe I want to hear just how he'd try to trick me." Kid Flash said, scratching his head thoughtfully.
"Fine." Zatanna pointed a finger at Robin's mouth and it promptly regained the ability to move again. He made use of this fact immediately.
"Zatanna- you can't trust Slade! He's evil, twisted and sick! He brainwashed our friend Terra into working with him and she wound up hurting her friends and dying in the end! He tried to sink the Titan Tower into the ground with a pair of giant earthquake machines! He blackmailed me into working for him and threatened to kill my friends with nano-bots implanted in their blood streams!"
"Nanobots?" Kid Flash sad, eyes widening. "Zatanna- did you know any of this?"
"No! He's lying- don't listen to him! He- he's lying..." Her words were started to become choked up with sobs.
"He doesn't sound like he's lying to me Z, sounds to me like he knows what he's talking about." Kid Flash said carefully. Holy waterfall of tears Kid Flash, Robin thought to himself, she's crying. Why is she crying? What's going on..?
"It's…it's all lies. Lies made up to confuse us, fake memories implanted in his head…" Zatanna said through sniffles, Kid Flash walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her in a sympathetic hug.
"Batman trusts him Z," He told her, "And that's enough for me."
"And Slade never tells the truth, ever. He twists things around for his own motives." Robin said from his spot on the wall.
"But.. but… if Slade was lying then, then… that means that Robin… my Robin.. is dead!" She wailed, burying her face into Kid Flash's arms. The giant pointy rock fell to the ground beside them.
"He's isn't dead. Trust me. He's in my body, in my world. And if he's anything like me, he should be fine," Robin said confidently.
"But how can you be sure…?" She asked, looking up at him, detaching herself from Kid Flash, rubbing at her eyes.
"I can't be sure. But I just think that I'd know. All right?" Robin said, trying to sound helpful.
"If you say so.." She said softly, lifting her hand and speaking a few magic words: "Ffats eitnu Nibor," the staff unwound itself from Robin and the wall, dropping him back to the floor. The staff itself clattered next to him. Picking up his staff, he collapsed it and returned it back to his utility belt, then he walked over to Zatanna and took her by the hand, planning on handling this whole thing as nonchalantly as possible, only to be caught in a bear hug. Zatanna may be small, but her hug was stronger than Starfires.
"Zatanna. Can't, breathe," He gasped.
"Sorry!" She released him. "It's just… I… I acted so crazy… that Slade guy and.. and.. the possibility of Robin being dead… and.. and"
"It's ok. Slade gets into everyone's head. And the fact that he's alive and running around here isn't good." Robin said seriously, and was only going to say that, but KF gave him such an intimidating stare that he also added, "I'm Sorry. About everything I mean."
"It's… all right. Really… I just, kinda recently lost my Dad and the thought of losing Robin too... well, I just kinda went crazy… you know?" Zatanna said between sniffles. No, I didn't know that girls would go so crazy that they'd listen to a creep like Slade, pin me to a wall, and then threaten to pummel me to death with a giant pointy rock. No, I really didn't know that. Why guys go through the trouble of dealing with girls was truly beyond him.
"We need to group back up with the others," Kid Flash said after a moment of silence. "And you need to wake Miss Martian and Superboy back up."
"Oh. Right, sorry." Zatanna waved her hand, murmuring, "Ekaw pu!" Instantly MM and Superboy woke up, glancing about themselves in a daze.
"What happened?" Miss Martian murmured, "Did I fall asleep?"
"And when did Wally get here?" Superboy added broodingly, pulling himself up to his feet.
"It's kind of a long story, we'll explain on the way." Robin said, a weak smile forming.
Riding a giant green pterodactyl was just a lose-lose situation for both the rider and the pterodactyl. Robin as it would happen had discovered that the one thing he feared without a doubt was riding a giant green pterodactyl; Beastboy had discovered that allowing someone with such fears to ride him only resulted in near-strangulation. Unfortunately, this time the flight was not short. But long.
"Beastboy! Can't you go any slower?!" Robin cried out, clutching the pterodactyl's throat even tighter. They began to lose altitude, and Beastboy made a slight gagging noise before Robin released him.
"Sorry BB, but...flying, you know?" Robin shouted over the winds. Beastboy gave a roar in response, quite sick of the whole ordeal. Before long Brother Blood's hiding place came into view. It was ironically an old abandoned private school, shut down when the city taxes got a little higher than the owners would like and with tuition already dangerously high, well, it was forced to close. Brother Blood was apparently currently using it as a make-shift hideout for the Hive school. It had all the perks of being an old closed down school; boarded up windows, ivy growing over the brick walls, and plenty of rooms to run illicit operations in.
"Well that place doesn't look good does it?" Robin commented, "Let's go in nice and steady yeaaaaaaaa!?" Beastboy had gone in for a dive, landing unceremoniously with Robin landing flat on his face, cape flying over his head. Ow. He had another bruise to add to his already plentiful collection.
"Dude! You all right?" Beastboy asked, pulling Robin up to his feet.
"Ow. No. And for the record, never flying. Again. Ever." Robin replied, holding his sides.
"Thank god! Dude you were practically strangling me to death all the way over here!" Beastboy exclaimed thankfully.
"Sorry," Robin said with a painful shrug. "Now where's Cyborg at?"
"Beats me." Beastboy said, when the doors to the abandoned school came flying open. Out of them came Cyborg with Raven, the Hive 3, and Starfire close behind.
"Found him!" Robin said pointing, "And looks like he needs help- come on!" The pair of them hurried over, leaping over abandoned playground equipment and across a cracked old parking lot.
"Man am I glad to see you guys!" Cyborg said hurrying to join them, sonic-cannon firing at the five individuals coming at them.
"Wait- what about Raven?" Beastboy asked suddenly realizing that she was not among their ranks.
"Rae got hit. She's been brainwashed just like Star." Cyborg said sadly.
"What!?" Beastboy exclaimed, "What do you mean she got hit?"
"I mean Brother Blood got her- we were surrounded at all sides man, I barely got out alive myself." Cyborg explained, firing a few more times.
"Yea but you can't be brainwashed!" Beastboy exploded, "You should have stayed to help! Maybe this wouldn't have happened if-"
"Guys! Focus- they're gaining on us!" Robin shouted at them, "Come on, we need a good place to hide!"
The three of them tore off, hiding behind a nearby rusted through dumpster.
"Get back here!" "Yes, come and join the Brother Blood!" "Snot faces!" "What losers!"
Eventually the Hive three, and their brain washed friends went back inside the school building. They must have figured that the Titans were too far away to hear, or they just didn't care.
"This is all my fault." Robin mumbled, watching them leave.
"It sure is!" Cyborg replied glaring at him. "If you hadn't acted so stupid from the beginning than Starfire wouldn't have been caught in the first place and then we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Oh and Raven disappearing isn't your fault?" Robin shot back, "Besides, who cares. What's happened has happened, we just have to deal with it."
"Deal with it? I'll show you how to deal with it- you got Star in trouble and now Rae too!" Cyborg retorted.
"Yes. That happened. But what we do now is critical. We have to use our heads, or we may lose them forever." Robin said in a serious tone that surprised both Cyborg and Beastboy.
"Dude." Beastboy gasped.
"So what now?" Cyborg asked.
"Well, for starters, I get the feeling you guys have dealt with brainwashing before- am I right?" Robin asked, looking from BB to Cyborg.
"You bet. BB here once thought he was British for a whole day," Cyborg said waving a hand in Beastboy's direction.
"Thought he was British? Why would you hypnotize someone into thinking that?" Robin asked gawking.
"Well it was kinda done by this crazy racist British dude who wants to wipe out all Americans," Cyborg explained. Crazy British dude? What had these guys been fighting?
"Wouldn't that be Nationalist and not Racist?" Robin pointed out.
"Who cares. The point is, we made Beastboy here laugh and then he was all right," Cyborg said shrugging.
"Laugh?" Robin asked, making sure he heard right. Laughing didn't exactly sound like a normal cure for brainwashing.
"Yup. Laugh. It's different for everyone though." Beastboy chuckled, "Like for Robin you'd probably just have to say 'Slade' and for Cyborg you'd just have to mess with the T-car,"
"And for Raven and Starfire?" Robin asked.
"No idea. They tend to avoid getting brainwashed." Cyborg said leaning back up against the dumpster.
"So what do we do?" Robin asked. Cyborg and Beastboy exchanged glances.
"We don't…know. Robin usually has the best ideas for these sorts of problems." Beastboy admitted.
"Well then let's look at what we know. Brother Blood has brainwashed Star and Raven," Robin said, ticking it off with a finger.
"Yup," The other two agreed.
"And there is some way to wake them up, we just don't know what it is,"
"Yup."
"And Brother Blood is a really bad dude, so I've been told."
"Yup."
"So what if we wake up Star and Raven one at a time? Or even just take out Brother Blood? Would that work?" Robin asked looking from Titan to Titan.
"Maybe- but we still don't know how to wake them up- or how to get in for that matter!" Beastboy pointed out.
"Well, everyone has to start somewhere. BB, think you could find us a way in? Like turn into something small maybe and get a closer look?" Robin asked, glancing back at the school. He could make out the face of Mammoth glaring back at him through one of the windows.
"Sure! That should be easy- just how, how do I contact you guys?"
"What do you think our T-Communicators are for BB?" Cyborg asked, beginning to smile.
"Oh, yea. Right. Let's do this." Moments later BB had transformed into a mouse and had disappeared entirely from view.
"Stay whelmed Beastboy," Robin murmured watching him go.
"Listen," Cyborg said suddenly, "I've been pretty uncool. I didn't want to trust you or anything cause well, you're not Robin. Period. Plus, with no Robin around well, I figured I'd get to step up and be leader- something I don't get to do too often and well, I sure blew it." Robin sat in silence for a moment before replying, "I'm traught Cyborg, don't worry about it. Seriously. I mean, well, back on my team I messed up pretty bad when I led my first mission. A kid got hurt and almost died because of me."
"That's rough." Cyborg said glancing over at the younger boy.
"Yea. It was terrible, and none of us could really help him cause we didn't have the right blood type- believe or not we had to give him alien blood." Robin said thoughtfully, looking up at the cloudy sky.
"Alien blood? Seriously?" Cyborg said surprised. "How's that work?"
"Miss Martians a shapeshifter, she shifted her blood to match,"
"No kidding. Say, what's this kid's name? Just out of curiosity, in case we run into him or something here,"
"Garfield Logan."
"Seriously?!" Cyborg gawked, he would have pressed for more but then the T-communicator went off.
"It's Beastboy, let's see how he is," Cyborg flipped it open only to find that it was not Beastboy's face looking back at him, but Brother Bloods. Oh no! Robin thought to himself, Beastboy!
"Hello Titans," Brother Blood said, clearly channeling his inner evil villain, "Robin and Cyborg I presume? Yes, most likely considering the rest of your team has enrolled in my school"
"Enrolled? More like been hypnotized! Let them go Blood!" Cyborg roared into the communicator.
"Ha, ha, ha, Cyborg, my favorite student. Really now, do you think it will be that easy? No I'm afraid they aren't going to be leaving the school for quite a while now" Blood crooned from the other side. "Really, if I were you I would just enroll willingly- my students will find you and force you to take some private classes with me,"
"Does this guy ever stop with the school metaphors?" Robin asked.
"Hmm. Robin, interesting new do," Blood said referring to his hair, "I can't say I like it much."
"Stop talking and give us back our friends," Cyborg growled.
"Good bye Cyborg, I hope to see you in class soon," Blood said, hanging up on them.
"Ugh! Does he get on my nerves!" Cyborg roared.
"Relax, soon you'll be able to smash that smile off his face, for now though, I think we need to let the other students know that school's out." Robin said, cocky grin forming on his lips. This was what he loved, taking out freaks like Blood and getting back to the aster.
Robin fired his grappling hook up at the windowsill of a second story building. This was one of the only windows that wasn't boarded up or filled with shards of broken glass. Pulling himself up and over the sill, and ignoring the loud complaints of his still aching joints, Robin pushed open the window and made his way into what appeared to be an old algebra classroom. Cyborg joined him just a moment later, literally jumping up and into the room. Robin tried not to be jealous, but really, the guy could shoot a rocket from his shoe, but then, that's because he's Cyborg.
"Nice landing," Robin said, not jealous in the least, really, as Cyborg transformed his hand into the sonic cannon.
"Thanks. Now let's go kick some Hive butt." Cyborg said seriously as they made their way to the door of the classroom. They stopped as they heard voices. Female voices.
"It's so cool that there's another Goth girl in the Hive now- we can talk about how we hate everything together and paint each other's nails black and everything," Jinx was saying to Raven.
"Yea, it should be fun. I hate everything." Raven replied. Cyborg and Robin exchanged nervous glances. They'd been in the building for less than two minutes and already they'd spotted one of their teammates. And they had no idea how to return her to normal.
"What do we do?" Robin hissed to Cyborg, becoming more and more chalant by the minute.
"I don't know! This is Raven! With Beastboy you make him laugh, with Robin you make him mad- I don't know about Raven!" Cyborg hissed back. Robin went through his head everything he knew about Raven. Dark, quiet, creepy, unreasonably powerful… how would any of this help him? Hang on. She's the one who's kept her head through all of this. When I was an emotional wreck about 'leaving' Batman at the beginning, she stayed whelmed. So what I have to do is confuse her. An idea entered his head. A horrible, but brilliant idea, one that would go down in history as both glorious and awful at the same time.
"I have an idea!" He hissed to Cyborg.
"Great, what?" Cyborg asked only to find that Robin had, yet again, disappeared. Robin had gone on ahead, again. With any luck he was hoping he could complete his plan before Cyborg figured out where he had gone.
"Hello girls," Robin said stepping out in front of Raven and Jinx. "Nice school you got here, bit dusty though,"
"Robin!" Jinx seethed, hands glowing with pink energy.
"You're not going anywhere!" Raven added, hands raised, ready to cast a spell. "Azarath Metrion- mmpth!" Raven's eyes widened in first confusion, then shock and finally anger as Robin kissed her on the lips mid-sentence. Raven threw Robin backwards, knocking him off his feet and onto the floor.
"Robin! What the- What were you thinking- Why did you? Ew!" Raven exploded, with Jinx looking awkwardly back and forth, Cyborg looking on just as shocked as Raven from the doorway of the algebra classroom.
"Ew? What, was it really that bad?" Robin asked, looking up at her.
"We're discussing this later." Raven growled, her eyes flashing red for a moment. Oh crud. What did I do? Raven, thankfully, did not explode. Instead she took a deep breath and turned to face Jinx.
"We are not hanging out later." She said simply, lifting up her hands, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Jinx went flying into the Algebra classroom, past the still frozen in shock Cyborg and into one of the desks. The desk promptly wrapped itself around Jinx, successfully trapping her. Raven then walked over to Robin, who grinned at her sheepishly, taking him by the hand, she looked speculatively up at him for a moment, truly confusing him. She then snapped one of his gloves off his hand, and walking back to Jinx, used it as a gag.
"What just happened?" Cyborg asked, finally getting a hold back on reality.
"Raven returned to the aster," Robin said getting to his feet, "No hard feelings right Rae?"
"Aster is a type of flower. It is purple in color. It is not a state of being." Was all Raven had to say.
Cyborg glanced back and forth between the two before sighing and saying, "We need to find Beastboy and Starfire,"
"Your right," Robin said, "And I have an idea to make finding him easier," He beamed.
"What?" Cyborg asked, then frowned as he realized that Robin was typing away on the glove that hadn't been used as a gag.
"Is that the interfacing to my spare arm?" Cyborg demanded, agitated.
"Maybe," Robin admitted, frowning at it as he waited for it to download a file. "You really should update your software- it's super slow,"
"Man! You do not trash on my software- it's my software!" Cyborg roared furiously. "How are you using it anyways? It's password protected!"
"Password protected but still easy to hack," Robin shrugged, idly typing away into the thing.
"Grrg!" Cyborg was about to rip the thing off of Robin's arm when, "Aha! Got it!" Robin beamed, he had this mission in the bag.
"Got what?" Raven asked, peering over and looking at the small screen on Robin's forearm.
"Blueprints to this school of course. Assuming that the hive hasn't changed anything, which I really doubt they have, this is the entire school. Now if you were Beast Boy where would you go?"
"The cafeteria." Raven and Cyborg said in unison.
"Then to the cafeteria we go, down the stairs, forth door on the left," Robin said glancing at his blueprints.
"Thank god waking up Beastboy is easy." Raven muttered as they headed off in that direction.
"Yea all we gotta do is make him laugh, easy," Cyborg agreed.
"How are we supposed to make him laugh?" Robin asked frowning, as he continued to type into his glove, looking up anything and everything he could on this old school.
"Seriously? Robin? The guy thinks you're hilarious. Just be yourself and we'll be fine," Cyborg said as they reached the cafeteria.
The cafeteria proved to be just the place to look, as they could see through the glass paned double-doorway the three faces of Mammoth, Gizmo and their friend Beastboy pigging out on all sorts of slop that was apparently food.
"Looks like they went out and got garbage plates," Cyborg commented. "Though BB went for the vegetarian edition,"
"At least he hasn't completely lost his mind." Raven muttered, "Now how are we going to get to him?"
"I have an idea!" Robin said perkily.
"No." Both Cyborg and Robin said firmly. They won't listen to me? Fine. Well, I guess I did go a little overboard with that last one. Just a little. Raven will probably never be able to look at other Robin the same way again, ever. Oh, and I really can't ever tell Zatanna about this, ever. In fact, I really can't tell anyone this, so much for it going down in history as the most brilliant horrible idea of all time…. Well, it was pretty traught while it lasted.
"I got it," Cyborg said suddenly, breaking Robin out of his thoughts, "Raven- you go in there and pretend to still be hypnotized and stuff and get BB to come out here kay? Then we'll get him to laugh out here, away from Gizmo and Mammoth, got it?"
"I think so. I'll be right back." In she went and Robin watched with growing excitement. Raven stepped up to the table where Mammoth was pigging down four garbage plates, Beastboy was chowing on one and a half garbage plates and Gizmo, the smallest, ate only a half a garbage plate.
"Hey guys, Brother Blood rocks yea?" Raven said with her usual disinterested tone. Gizmo rolled his eyes moaning, "All this snot-faced hypnotism is just plain creepy! What do you want Raven you crud master?"
"I was wondering if I could have a word with Beastboy," She replied, "In the hall. Alone." She added.
"Sure, no prob dude. And yea, Brother blood does rock!" Beastboy said getting up, leaving his empty garbage plate half-eaten. Following Raven, he made his way towards the hallway. Unfortunately though, once the door to the Cafeteria opened, Beast Boy tripped and fell flat on his face, and as he was getting up he saw Robin and Cyborg in their hiding places along the wall.
"Mammoth! Gizmo! Raven's turned against us- she's brought those Titans with her!" Beastboy shouted. Oh great. Robin thought to himself, drawing a pair of bombs from his belt. Just what we need, George and Lenny. As Gizmo and Mammoth came to the doorway, Robin threw in his two bombs; one for each crook. With an explosion they were knocked out.
"Hey!" Beastboy roared, transforming into a tiger and launching himself at Robin. Robin tried to get away, but his darn limp slowed him down and in a moment he was buried under a pile of green tiger fur.
"Seriously BB? We were just trying to get you back to the aster!" Robin complained, pretty sure no one could hear him through all the tiger. Suddenly the tiger was gone, instead there was a goofy teenage boy sitting on Robin's back laughing hysterically, "Aster! Oh man Robin, that's just hilarious! Aster!"
Irritation crept in. Why the heck did Beastboy think it was a joke? Whatever, he thought, relieved that BB was no longer a brainwashed Robin-eating tiger.
"Told ya you just need to be yourself!" Cyborg beamed, helping Robin up.
"Ow." Robin grumbled, "We should tie up Mammoth and Gizmo-"
"Already done so," Raven said darkly, pointing to where Mammoth and Gizmo sat subdued by cafeteria chairs and tables, napkins acting as gags.
"Nice one," He grinned, "Now we just have to get Star and we'll be super traught!"
"Traught isn't a word either." Raven muttered, "But your right."
"Any idea where she's at?" Cyborg wondered aloud.
"I know." Beastboy said darkly.
"You do?" The others said surprised.
"Yea. Blood's got her with him. Wants to use her as Robin bait while he's Cyborg bait."
"Robin bait?" Robin said surprised. He knew she was important to the other Robin, but that important? I mean sure, I like her… a bit. But still! To use her as bait? Why not the other Titans?
"Yea," Beastboy said quietly, "Their in the principal's office. I think."
"Then that's where we're headed." Robin said with a thoughtful nod. "Titans- go!"
End chapt 13.
Authors Note: HOLY LONGEST CHAPTER YET BATMAN!
Anyways, easily the hardest chapter yet to write, yet, the funnest. I mean, OMG RAVEN AND ROBIN KISSED. WHATS FUNNIER THAN THAT? RIGHT? RIGHT? I laughed all through writing that.
Also, I am doing a comic version of this piece of crazy and you can see it on my DA, I'm Swiftstart there too :3
TUNE IN NEXT TIME, SAME BATSITE, SAME BATAUTHOR.