Chapter 12
Breakfast the next morning was rough. Beast Boy sat at a table in the motel lobby like a zombie. Thank God they have breakfast, he thought while lazily stuffing fork-fulls of waffle into his mouth.
Robin, despite the fact that he arrived in the middle of the night, was energized by his determination and currently had a map of Nevada spread across his portion of the table. He had woken them all up this morning at five to get going. The rest of the team ignored him as he planned.
"So it is as I told Cyborg, one must always be prepared. We have an adequate room of bathing, no?" Starfire beamed.
"Yeah," Cyborg huffed. "She spent all morning in it."
Beast Boy chuckled as Starfire blushed. He turned to look at Raven and found her staring blankly down at the napkin dispenser.
"Uh, earth to Raven," he said hesitantly, waving a hand before her eyes. She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him crossly.
Thoughts from yesterday came floating back into his head. Raven is... kinda cute when she's glaring.
Beast Boy caught himself. Seriously dude? I sound like a bad romance novel. He continued to study her as she returned her attention to her tea. There was no denying it, Raven was beautiful. She had smooth, milky skin, a slender but shapely figure, and mysterious, heavily lashed eyes that Beast Boy caught himself staring into often. It's not just me, he reasoned. He knew for a fact that there was a very large group of men in Jump City that agreed. He'd been online. He watched TV. He read a magazine here and there. Both Raven and Starfire were considered Jump City's babes.
But physical attraction aside, did he really like her? He thought of how quick he was to spend time with her, of how much he liked being around her, even despite her insults. Of how even now, when he looked at her small hands wrapped around her mug, he thought of how nice it would be to take one of them in his. Of how he had vowed to protect her from Slade today, and would stop at nothing to make sure he kept that promise.
Beast Boy smiled to himself lightly. He had a crush on Raven. Well shit. I like Raven. Raven! This was a revelation. This was groundbreaking. The more he allowed himself to think about it, the more he realized it was true. Very, very true. He admired her, he was friends with her, he was attracted to her... How am I just figuring this out now? You've known her for like, five years.
Beast Boy tried to keep his face calm as he watched Raven return her mug to the table. She caught his stare out of the corner of her eye.
"What?"
"Oh, you know... nothing." He tried to act cool and prayed his cheeks weren't red. She rolled her eyes, but turned her attention back to the group's conversation.
Suddenly, Robin stood from his chair and started walking towards the sliding exit doors. The rest of the team fell silent and looked at each other with confusion.
"Raven," he called, not even turning to look at her. "We're going back to the battle site." She pursed her lips for a moment, then opened them.
"Excuse me, boss, but what exactly are we doing? What's your plan?" She stared intently at him with narrowed eyes.
He stopped walking, sighed, then turned around. "Sorry. I'm just a little on edge. Didn't get much sleep." Yeah, blame it on lack of sleep. "The two of us are going to find out as much as we can about what went down yesterday. The rest of you can start tracking Plasmus again. We'll give you any info we dig up. Hopefully we'll get a lead on where both of them went."
Beast Boy watched as Raven rose to meet Robin. He was glad they would get some time apart. He needed time to sort through the feelings he just discovered he actually had. It would be weird enough without her spending the rest of the day next to him. Besides, he felt nervous around her now. Like he would let something slip or make an idiot of himself.
"Alright, Robin, we shall use the map you have left us to try and locate the villain Plasmus. I wish you most luck in your pursuit of clues!" Starfire called, her usually cheery self despite the lack of sleep.
The doors slid shut behind them as the two left the motel. Beast Boy turned back to the group. "Ok... now what?"
Though she was embarrassed to admit she didn't know for sure, Raven thought it was a weekday, which would help explain why the city center felt abandoned. That, or they're still scared that a goo monster will attack them out of nowhere. Either way, it only made things easier for the two as Raven led him through exactly what had happened during the battle.
"So you're not sure how Beast Boy took down Plasmus?"
"No, I had my back to him. I was fighting Slade at the time."
"But when you turned around..."
"Plasmus was there. He was asleep. I don't know what Beast Boy did, but it must have been impressive to knock him out that quickly." Raven gave a small smile as Robin looked around the area. She was proud of her teammate.
"So then the two of you engaged Slade together. Raven, what did he say to you two? What did he want?"
She knew the question would come eventually, but she still stiffened as it left his lips. "He said he sent Plasmus to lure us out of the tower and separate us. I'm assuming that means Plasmus is under his control and probably still is. They're likely still together."
Robin nodded. "That's why I sent the others after Plasmus. They'll track him and we'll track Slade. One of us should find them. But Raven, why did he come after the two of you?" He seemed genuinely confused.
"Robin... he came for me," she admitted. "He said we had some business to discuss. I swear, Robin, I have no idea what he wants from me. I don't know what he wants to discuss."
"That's what you said the last time he had a message for you," Robin said softly. "Are you sure?"
She rushed to defend herself. "Yes! I promise you Robin, Trigon is gone." Lie. Raven told that part of her brain to zip it. Trigon couldn't hurt them, and that was close enough to the same.
"Then we've got a mystery on our hands." Robin looked around the square. "But first we need to find him. Raven, you said there were smoke bombs?"
"Yes. He detonated them using a hand-held controller."
"And they were just planted all over the square?"
"Yes. Where are you going with this?" Raven watched as he moved around the edge of the square, looking in every flower pot, mailbox, and trashcan. Finally, he stopped in front of a flower box.
"Just what I thought. Look." He pointed towards the remnants of the smoke bomb. "These would take about fifteen minutes to install, though he probably had help from his Slade-bots." His brows drew together in concentration as he thought aloud. "He couldn't have known where you would end up, so he probably had to see which direction you were going, then send Plasmus to a town along your path. These bombs prove that the encounter here was pre-meditated. He's around this town somewhere," he concluded, looking up at her.
"Okay, so where do we start?"
"Well, like I said, he hasn't had much time here, so it's probably somewhere easily accessible, like an abandoned warehouse or an empty building." He turned from the flower pot and stalked away towards the hotel. It was such a short distance that they had just walked there.
"Where are we headed now?"
Robin smirked. "Back to the hotel. His new hiding spot will either be an abandoned building that the staff will know about, or it will be in a classified ad for a property for lease. Either way, I just know Slade is hiding right under our noses."
"We are sooo lost," Beast Boy moaned, leaning against the brick wall of the pharmacy they had passed three times. Cyborg turned the map again and again, trying to figure out where they were.
"Don't you have a GPS somewhere on that arm of yours?" he asked.
"Yeah, but this town's so small it's not even in the system."
"Then no offense, but how are we lost?" The plan was to have the two of them search the city while Starfire flew a ten mile circumference looking for clues. So far, they were out of luck.
"Yeah, yeah, very funny. Wait, I think I have the map the right way now... and we're headed north when we should be headed south. Come on," Cyborg said, turning around and continuing down the sidewalk. They were trying to sweep all of the main common areas and major buildings in a grid-like pattern, but managed to get themselves turned around.
"So how was your little flight with Raven? I see you're still in one piece," Cyborg joked, nudging Beast Boy with his arm.
"You know, not so bad." Actually it was really not bad, at least after Raven decided to talk to him. "She's, um... interesting."
"So she didn't yell at you and ignore you the whole time?"
"Nope. She did at first, but let's just say with a little leverage I got her to talk," he said slyly. "We actually talked for like an hour, believe it or not."
"Seriously? You're making some progress with her. Even when she's happy she's not exactly a conversationalist."
Beast Boy beamed. He liked the thought that she was opening up to him. "Yeah. She's pretty amazing once you talk with her for a while though." ...Did that just come out of my mouth? Cyborg raised a brow.
The sound of their communicators saved him from having to elaborate. Cyborg held up his arm, the screen showing that it was Robin calling.
"What's up Rob? Found anything?"
"Yeah, we think Slade is hiding here in town still and has Plasmus with him. We have the address of an old library slated for demolition next month. I'd say that's our best bet."
Cyborg nodded. "So what's the plan?"
"I want you three to go to the building and check it out. I'm going to hang around near the front with Raven to try and lure him out. When I do, you guys can go inside and find Plasmus and anything else he's hiding. Raven and I will take care of Slade."
"All on your own?" Beast Boy asked nervously.
"We can handle him. I'm more interested in getting a look inside. That's were you'll come in. Any other questions?"
"No, Robin. I have received your coordinates and am going to the lair of Slade now!" Starfire's voice came through the transmission.
He nodded. "Good luck Titans. Robin out."
Cyborg tapped away on his arm, undoubtedly finding the coordinates of Slade's hide out. "Ok, that should be about ten blocks up and three over from here." He started moving in that direction, and Beast Boy followed wordlessly.
Okay, so Raven's essentially going to be bait. With only Robin to help her. That's cool, no biggie, Beast Boy tried to reassure himself. It was funny: now that he realized he had feelings for her, they just seemed to keep growing bit by bit. Like he was growing into them and finally exploring them. And right now his feelings were telling him that if Raven was going to be bait, he should be there with her.
Logically, he knew Raven could take care of herself and would kick his butt for suggesting otherwise. He also knew that Robin, leader of the team and protégé of Batman would be there with her.
Logically, he knew she would be fine. But he still couldn't shake the desire to be with her.
He sighed as he shuffled down the sidewalk next to Cyborg.
"... so what do you think?" Cyborg asked. Beast Boy hadn't even realized he started talking.
"About what?"
"Were you really not listening? I said, how about we ask Star to scope out the place first and see how many entrances there are?" He pursed his lips at Beast Boy.
"Uh, yeah, sounds good."
When they finally arrived in an alley behind the library, Starfire was there waiting for them. "Friends," she whispered, "there is only one door in the back as well as the main entrance, where Robin and Raven are standing."
"What are they doing?" Cyborg asked. "Throwing rocks at the window?"
"They are pretending to do the search for Slade on the whole street."
"Hmph," was Cyborg's only reply.
"So what, we going in the back or what?" Beast Boy asked.
"I believe we should wait until Slade has emerged to enter," Starfire suggested. "But we cannot see friends Robin and Raven, so we would not know when this will happen."
"Do you think you can find a place to spy and come back when Slade leaves?" Cyborg directed towards her.
"I'll do it!" Beast Boy offered eagerly. "Who's gonna notice a little green lizard on the wall?" Here's my chance to check up on Rae.
"Okay, but come straight back when you see Slade and we'll go in."
"I'm on it!"
On it he was. Transforming into a small green bird, he flew up and over the library, searching for that unmistakable purple head. She and Robin were at a building across the street, pretending to check for any signs of Slade. Landing on the edge of the library's roof, Beast Boy settled in to watch the show unfold.
He studied Raven as she flew up to peer in a set of windows on the second floor. She returned to the ground, landing gracefully next to Robin. He turned and said something Beast Boy couldn't quite make out that made her smile. Beast Boy puffed up his feathers. What's so special about what Robin says? he thought spitefully, tempted to shift into an animal with better hearing. He decided against it.
What he did hear was Slade's chilling voice come from below him.
"Ah, Raven and Robin. We meet again. What are the odds that the girl I'm looking for just shows up on my doorstep?" He took a few steps into the empty street, giving Beast Boy a better view.
"Slade," Robin ground out. "Long time, no see."
"Yes, it has been quite some time. Have you missed me while I was away?" he called tauntingly. Beast Boy knew now was probably the time to return to Starfire and Cyborg, but he couldn't tear himself away.
"Cut to the chase, Slade. What do you want with us?"
"Oh, Robin, I don't want anything from you. I came for Raven." Raven stiffened, and so did Beast Boy.
"Well I guess that's too bad. Because you're not getting anywhere near her." Robin had a strong, hard look on his face. He was serious, and making sure Slade knew it.
"Hmm, I was afraid that would be the case. Which is why I brought some friends." Beast Boy didn't understand what he meant until he saw the Slade-bots march from the building. There had to have been at least thirty of them. Great, he moaned to himself.
"Yeah, well I've got some too, in case you forgot," Robin said with a smirk, slipping into a fighting stance. Ok, really time to go get the others, Beast Boy thought guiltily.
He took flight, swooping towards the back of the Library. The commotion behind him told him the fight had already begun. He spotted Starfire and Cyborg lurking in the alley, determination in their eyes. They were going to need that confidence.
"Guys!" he said, landing on his feet as he changed. "Slade's got an army of bots in the front. Robin and Raven need help!" He turned and changed again, this time into a cheetah, not waiting to see if the others would follow.
Dashing out into the street, his eyes immediately searched for his teammates. They were back-to-back, fending off the robots from all directions.
"Looks like they could use some help," Beast Boy said to himself with a smirk before shifting into a tiger. He felt like using his claws.
He leapt into the fray, swiping and slicing and crushing the robots around him. He was always fierce in battle, but today he had some personal motivation. Slade was going down and Raven wasn't going with him.
He heard the blast of Cyborg's cannon and the sound of starbolts around him and figured the others had finally arrived. He kept his focus on the adversary in front of him, occasionally checking in on Raven.
He took one last swipe at a robot's chest, sending sparks and circuitry flying and the robot itself to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move that wasn't one of Slade's minions. It was Slade himself. He stood on the steps of the library, aiming some kind of gun into the cluster of robots. What the...? Beast Boy looked around, following the gun's trajectory.
His heart stopped when he realized the target was Raven.
"Raven!" he shouted, but it was too late. A blue laser shot from the gun, striking Raven in the side as she turned to face Beast Boy.
Her eyes rolled back as she collapsed to the ground.