Chapter 4 – The Offer
July 31st 2004, Beast Boy's bedroom, 11:15 am
Beast Boy had wake up some time ago, but remained lying in bed. The sunlight was on his face, making him cover his eyes with his arm, and he could hear the waves crashing against the rocks of the little island. This was the day.
Terra was in the team for six months already. At first, she got a little shy, not totally certain of what was happening, kind of expecting to wake up at any moment, still alone at some dark cave. But after she was sure, she finally relaxed and went back to her true self: noisy, messy, oblivious, hungry, and more importantly, fun. Even if at the end of the day she was exhausted, because Robin trained her daily, so she could control her powers completely.
After one month of Terra's arrival, Beast Boy decided to ask her out, and for his surprised, she accepted. Little by little, they ended up going out every weekend and spending a large amount of time together, just the two of them. They discovered a lot of things they had in common.
So, about two weeks ago, Beast Boy decided to ask Terra to be his girlfriend. At first he went to Cyborg.
July 18th 2004, Titan Tower's workshop, 1:44 pm
"Girlfriend? Like seriously?" asked Cyborg, chocked.
"Well, yeah" Beast Boy raised his hands "What do you think?"
"I don't know, BB" said the robot man, scratching the back of his neck "Isn't it a little too soon?"
"Too soon? Man, we've been going out for like five months!" said Beast Boy, gesturing.
"But BB, you guys are too young! You're what? Like thirteen?"
"Thirteen?! Man, I'm fifteen!" yelled Beast Boy, angry.
"Fifteen?" asked Cyborg, skeptical, looking his friend up and down.
"…"
"…"
"Fourteen and a half, okay" said Beast Boy, looking away.
Cyborg lifted his eyebrows.
"Fine, fourteen!" the changeling yelled, pulling his ears down "That's not important!"
"Okay, BB, fine" laughed Cyborg, turning back to his car "Well, if you really like her, and it seems like you do, I say: go ahead"
"So, you think she's gonna say yes?" Beast Boy's eyes sparkled.
"I didn't say that. I just said that you should give it a try. She's the one deciding in the end"
"Okay, thanks, Cyborg" said Beast Boy smiling "I'm gonna do it!"
"Hey BB, one more thing"
"Yeah?"
"I kinda like that girl too" he said, serious, pointing a wrench to his friend's face "So you better think twice before doing something that may hurt her"
"… Okay, Cy" answered Beast Boy, staring at the heavy tool.
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July 31st 2004, Terra's bedroom, 2:20 pm
Terra was at the same position for about half an hour, lying on her belly in bed, one leg hanging in the air and one arm twisted on her back, sleeping with her mouth open. Robin made her get up at six o'clock every morning every day of the week. They trained until nine, then had breakfast, went back to train at ten thirty and only stopped at noon for lunch. The blonde always ate a lot and slept until three, when the boy wonder called her again to train until five. Today, however, he had a steal to investigate, so she could take the afternoon off.
Terra was getting a lot better with fights and skills, but honestly, the control of her powers wasn't improving too much.
Knocks on the door. Terra moved. The knocks kept coming. She sat on the bed, sleepy.
"Is that you, Robin?" she asked, fearful of her leader had finished the task before expected.
"No, Terra, it's me. Beast Boy"
Terra jumped off bed and ran to the bathroom. She washed her face and brushed her hair. Then she walked casually to the door.
"What's up, BB" she greeted him smiling. The green boy also smiled and blushed. He still hadn't got used to her super hero costume: a black cropped top shirt with a yellow T in a yellow circle, a yellow short, gloves and boots.
"Hi, Terra" he mumbled, looking down. The blonde realized he was holding something on his back "I… Came to ask you something"
"What do you have back there?" she asked curiously, tilting her head.
"Well…" Beast Boy tried to hide it, but gave up "Okay, I made this for you. I was gonna give it to you on the weekend, but since you had the day off…"
The changeling brought his hands from the back, revealing a package, which Terra took carefully.
"Wow, Beast Boy, that's awesome!" she said, eyes sparkling. It was a metal box heart shaped, with a mirror inside "Thank you so much!"
"Okay Terra, I did this for… A special occasion" said Beast Boy, and the blonde waited, looking at him with her blue eyes "I…"
And then the alarm started ringing. A red light blinked over them every two seconds. Beast Boy's expression didn't really change, he just got paralyzed. Terra ran to her room, saved the bow inside a drawer, got her pair of goggles on top of the table and went back to the hallway, where the changeling was standing still. She took him by the arm and dragged him to the common room.
When they arrived, the other three team members were already there, around the gigantic screen, showing numerous slabotes in white hallways, exploding walls.
"Slade" whispered Terra, frightened.
"He managed to break into a very important building, full of stuff to steal" said Robin, not turning to the group "Obviously, the slabotes are suppose to confuse us about his target"
"So what do we do?" asked Cyborg.
"I had a hint for this theft" answered Robin, turning, and changing the image on the screen to a plant of the building "There are three possible targets"
On the screen, three red dots blinked in different places of the building. Two at the last floor and one in the underground.
"Why is there a dot underground?" asked Starfire.
"It's one of the building's floors. The most protected places are the top and some secret rooms they built underground" explained Robin "It looks easy to get in, but it's a place full of tricks. Not even Slade is gonna be able to put his hands on his target in less than half an hour"
"So he sent the slabotes to get time" said Beast Boy, waking up.
"Exactly" Robin turned off the screen "Titans, divide! Starfire and I are going to attack the left half of the top of the building. Cyborg and Beast Boy, you go to the right half. Terra and Raven…"
"We go underground" completed Raven, serious.
"Robin, do you think I can…"
"No, Beast Boy" answered the leader before he could finish his request "Terra still can't fully control her powers, so Raven will go with her to help her if she needs it, something you cannot do"
"But what if I…" started Beast Boy again, but none of his colleagues gave him attention. Raven and Starfire flew through the window and Robin and Cyborg ran to the garage. Terra put her goggles on.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine" she said with a smile, jumping through the window, to land on a floating rock. Beast Boy sighed and followed her as an eagle.
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Raven assumed her spectral form as soon as she saw the building and went inside the ground, looking for the secret floor. She found a parking lot, and went deeper. At last, she crossed a wall and went back to her normal form, finding herself at a wide hallway with white walls and black marble floor. Everything was suspiciously quiet.
"Robin" she called, picking up her communicator "Everything calm at the underground. No slabote, nothing destroyed, and I can only feel some employee's presence, probably hiding"
"Well, that's weird" answered the leader, from a very agitated and noisy place "Up here is chaos. I doubt Slade don't know about the underground's existence."
"Do you want me to go up and help?"
"No. It's too suspicious. Stay there, help the employees out of the building and take a look around. Where's Terra?"
Before Raven could answer that, the whole place started shaking, a hole opened up on the ceiling, and Terra fell on her feet.
"Geez Raven, you could have waited for me" she said, as the hole closed up.
"Do as I say. I have to go now" said Robin, and the screen turned dark.
"What did he say?" asked the blonde.
"He told us to help the people down here and explore the place" Raven replied, emotionlessly.
"Okay… Where to now?"
"There're two people this way" she pointed left of the hallway "And one person that way" she pointed right "It's faster if we split, but you think you can handle that by yourself?"
"I can!" said Terra, excited. Raven never let her do anything by her own when she was on charge. The empath looked at her, insecure "Please, Rave! I've been in the team for six months. Is it still not enough for you to trust me?"
"It's not that I don't trust you, Terra, it's just that I know how hard keep control can be" said Raven, lowering her hood "It took me years to learn how to control my powers, and even today, if I don't meditate, they can go out"
Terra sighed, looking down, and muttered "You're right." Raven rolled her eyes up.
"Okay, Terra" she said, and the blonde stared at her with sparkling blue eyes "If you think you're ready, go on. It's your chance to prove me you can control yourself"
"Thank you so much, Raven!" yelled Terra, hugging her. Raven grimaced and departed her.
"Okay, so you go there" ordered Raven, pointing right "Find the employee, calm her down and take her to the surface in safety. We'll meet up there, so we can go back together to start searching for Slade"
"Yes, ma'am!" said Terra, saluting her and running right. Raven stared at her for a moment, wondering if she made the right decision, put her hood back on and flew at the opposite direction.
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