It was a somber group of teenagers that rushed hurriedly to their infirmary. Robin peeled off and went to his room and equipment vault. Cyborg flipped the viewscreen on as he strode towards Raven's room, the activation of the screen more a reflexive action than a conscious decision. Starfire and Beast Boy ended up being the only Titans to actually make it to the infirmary. Beast Boy had sustained an injury during the last moments of the retreat, and now that the adrenaline was wearing off it was beginning to make itself known.
Starfire was helping the changeling along as the pain and shock of the injury started to set in. It was an ugly wound, but not the worst she'd seen. It wouldn't even be fatal, barring infection or transmission of the undead condition. She settled Beast Boy into a chair not unlike a dentist's and reclined it about halfway. With a stern admonition against probing the wound (what she actually said was, "Friend Beast Boy, do your best to refrain from touching yourself right now," drawing a weak giggle from the injured teen) she proceeded to procure the items necessary for first aid.
Now, usually Cyborg or Raven would take care of medical needs for the team, but all of the Titans were versed in first aid. Robin often cared for his own injuries that he received from training, and Beast Boy even worked a community outreach program for elementary school kids teaching basic first aid and emergency response procedures. A five year old may not be able to do much more than call 911 when they figured out something was wrong, but sometimes that was the difference between life and death. Starfire, on the other hand, was a warrior princess from a militant people. She had seen a fair number of her people injured on the battlefield, and was trained as a field medic. Her methods were, much like her people, efficient and utilitarian, and were not usually called upon when the services of Raven or Cyborg were available.
They were not, however, currently available.
As Starfire went about cleaning the wound, she winced and hoped that Cyborg was able to get Raven to come down and take care of it. Unlike the burns or clean cuts caused by energy weapons and blades, this was jagged and uneven, a ruin of flesh where an ear used to be.
A monitor flickered on and revealed Cyborg's face. A brief conversation and a nod from Beast Boy.
With a sigh and a tremulous smile, Starfire started to work on the wound.
"Robin, she's not here. Her communicator is in her bedroom, but she's nowhere in or around the tower."
"This is unlike her. She's never been irresponsible, and she's never out without her communicator."
"Yeah, you're really not going to like this. Usually, Raven's room smells like sage. Now? Smoke and sulfur."
Robin was silent for a moment as they continued to walk towards the Ops Room. "Do you think the Nephilim got to her?"
A shrug from Cyborg accentuated his reply. "Maybe, but she was acting strange all morning. She's been acting strange ever since..." he trailed off as his mind began to assemble his thoughts into a disturbing pattern.
Robin's eyes were narrowed as he finished Cyborg's unspoken observation. "Ever since Jon arrived."
They entered the Ops Room and were about to cross it to take the elevator down when the screen caught their eye. Cyborg numbly brought his communicator to his face and called the infirmary. "Starfire, something came up, and Raven's not here. BB, is it alright if Star takes care of you?" A nod was his response. "Ok. Get it done and get up here ASAP. We've got problems."
On the viewscreen, the junkyard scene was replaced with Jump City General Hospital, the terror of the patients, and the damning self-incrimination of their teammate.
Beast Boy whimpered, growled, moaned, and generally made soft noises of discontent as he held motionless and allowed Starfire to finish working his wound.
Starfire was impressed. She had, like most of the team, fallen into the habit of viewing her green teammate as the comedian, the one who was rarely serious and always had a joke (no matter how bad) on his lips. They all preferred to forget the incidents surrounding the Brotherhood of Evil, but Beast Boy was the only Titan to avoid capture. He gathered a team, executed a counterstrike, and retained leadership until Robin was able to resume command. It was easy to forget the fact that Beast Boy had been working in the hero business for years before coming to the Titans. He had been working in the field for most of his life.
"It's fine to make noise," she had said when she began. "On Tamaran, wounded warriors usually bellow themselves hoarse. However, you must not move. I will not think anything less of you if you cry or scream, but you must not move, Friend Beast Boy."
He had remained perfectly still. He started off silent, with only his breathing to indicate his discomfort as she cleaned the wound. It was worse than she had first thought. After cleaning the blood and shaving the hair and fur away, she realized what had happened.
"Beast Boy..." she had said hesitantly, "your ear..."
"Is gone. I know." He said this tightly. "I need you to fix me up so I can go out there again."
"If Raven were here-"
"Well she's NOT!" Beast Boy growled. "We can't wait for her, and without her healing abilities the best Cyborg could do is a sew job and a bandage." His voice got quieter. "I remember seeing healers on Tamaran. Your soldiers were back in action in no time. You said you were trained as a field medic. Patch me up, and get me back into the fight."
"If I do this," Starfire said seriously, "you will never have this ear again. There will be a large scar. It will be painful. Excruciating. Also, I don't know how your changes will affect the wound."
"Doesn't matter. Do it."
She did.
The ear had been ripped off, a few ribbons of flesh and cartilage all that remained. Fingernails had raked open the side of his head, and the removal of the ear had torn flaps of skin in all directions. She set about removing the extraneous remains of ear. It was far too little to reconstruct with, and far too much to leave attached. Her eyes spilled beryl light, and the eye beams did their work in removing the extra flesh.
She settled the remaining flaps of skin to cover as much of the wound as she could. There was good coverage, she was happy to see. Only the area around the ear canal itself was missing skin entirely. She could stretch the remaining skin to account for this deficiency. "Remain still," she reminded, and Beast Boy gave a grunt of assent.
Her eyes closed for a moment in concentration, and her index finger on her right hand began to glow a green so bright that it was bleaching into white. She brought the patches of skin together, and pressed her glowing finger to the seam. Immediately, a strong smell of burning flesh and hair filled the room. Smoke rose reluctantly, spiraling towards the ceiling and disappearing short of that goal.
When she had finished cauterizing, she wrapped a bandage about his head, covering the wound and leaving his other ear and eyes unobstructed. He sat up, reached for a nearby glass of water and took a sip. "Was anyone bitten?" he asked, no levity in his voice at all.
"No, you were the only serious injury."
"Good." A pause. "I knew her."
A confused expression crossed her face.
At her expression, Beast Boy expounded. "The one that got my ear. I knew her. Her name was Sally Jenkins. She was in Ms. Robertson's fourth grade class. Last week when I was doing the community outreach..." he choked up, the first tears of the day gathering in his eyes.
Starfire reached over and placed her hand over his.
"I know what it looks like. I'm telling you that it is under control. Raven is a Titan, and is working in that capacity. I'll get more details to your office when I have the time, Mr. Mayor. Right now, we need to save your city." Robin disconnected the call from his communicator. "Again," he added after the Mayor was no longer on the line.
Cyborg spoke tersely. "Robin, we've got every cop in the city out right now with orders to contain the zombie outbreak. We have hot spots at PS118, JCGH, and the warehouse district. It has been confirmed that bites are a transmission vector. Blood to blood transmission has not been ruled out, but initial reports make it seem unlikely. STAR Labs has managed to capture a few of the subjects and is running tests to see if they can reverse or inoculate against transmission."
During his debrief, Cyborg noted that Starfire and Beast Boy had returned from the infirmary. Starfire looked around questioningly, apparently searching for Raven. Beast Boy looked up at the news on the viewscreen and summed up the situation in a single word.
"Shit."
Robin looked over. "Are you good to go?"
Beast Boy tore his eyes from the chaos on the screen. "Good as can be without Raven here. I can fight."
A nod. "Good. We're short handed as it is with Raven gone AWOL, and we're in a time crunch. Here's the plan.
"One of us goes to each hotspot to assist the police with containment. Lethal force has been authorized for any subjects exiting the quarantine zone. Try to keep them cordoned off until we get final word from STAR Labs regarding a cure. First priority is containment. Do you understand?"
"Robin, what if a citizen or police officer is bitten?" asked Starfire with a blank look on her face.
"The first priority is containment," Robin repeated meaningfully.
Starfire nodded. "Understood." Robin turned to look at the others. They both nodded grimly.
"Ok. Starfire, you take the school. Beast Boy, take the warehouses. Cyborg, get to JCGH. I'm going after Raven." They all nodded, but then Beast Boy tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes.
"Uh, so I know I have a head injury and all, but does anyone else see Sergeant Rat and the Cockroach Contingent? Or is it just me?"
They all turned. Across the Ops Room and near the hallway stood a rat on its hind legs. Arrayed behind it were dozens of cockroaches, all standing neatly in a block formation. Once the rat realized that it had their attention, he turned his head over one shoulder and squeaked a command. Like a well-practiced military drill, the cockroaches rearranged themselves into an arrow formation, pointing down the hallway. The rat looked back at the heroes beseechingly.
Robin blinked behind his mask a couple of times and then shrugged. "Why not? Nothing else has made any sense today." He shook his head and pointed towards the oddly-behaving animals. "Titans go," he stated in a decidedly bemused tone.