The Silver Lining
Koriand'r had bid Bart go on ahead and that she would meet with him once they had reassembled with the others. She needed a small amount of time for herself, for the act of regaining calm and poise. To know what their errant friends had accomplished during their time away was important, and she did not wish to be distracted by her recriminations.
The Tamaranean needed the time to strengthen the hope that they would indeed rescue their captive friend before something of horrendous magnitude occurred. Her time with the Gordanians and their Psion scientists provided the motivation for a swift recovery.
There were occasions when she glided down the hallways, her feet mere increments off the floor. Flight was always a joy, even in the smallest of demonstrations. To be in the air, unbound by gravity and free to move in any direction that captured your spontaneity, it was a joyous feeling.
Identical to her mood, her feet remained on the floor, her gait slow as she traversed the hallways of the Tower. Humans seemed to be comfortable when one stood on ground for whatever reason. Her friends did not seem to mind, but as Garfield would say, they were conditioned to her. Or perhaps the word was used.
Nevertheless, walking would afford her more time to restore her mental and psychological barriers and resume a more neutral state of mind. Even with the assurances of Bart, doubt and blame continued to afflict her. The act of "psyching" was needed, though she did not understand what it meant or entailed. It was a word she had heard from the others from time to time, but she never voiced her confusion and inquired for an explanation.
The quiet of the Tower surrounded her, her footsteps muffled by the soft surface of the carpeting. In the quiet, one could think, could ponder, and could reflect. Not all reflections and ponderings were of the positive nature. Failure could sow its harvest within the fertile fields of responsibility. The Tamaranean still felt responsible for the current predicament and was still struggling to rise above it.
Lost within her efforts of mental defense repair, she nearly intercepted her body with that of another. This near physical contact broke through the fog of negativity attempting to conquer her by providing a much needed distraction.
"My apologies. I am lost in my head and was not observant of my surroundings," Koriand'r said as she faced the one she had almost engaged in a collision with.
"It's no problem," Miguel dismissed the near accident, gesturing with hand to emphasize his acceptance of the apology.
Koriand'r tilted her head, considered the meaning of what was occurring. "I see you returned with Red Robin and Cyborg. I did not know if you would."
"Unfinished business," the human male answered easily. "I think Red Robin and Cyborg figured something out, and I want to know what it is. I've come this far, right? I want to be there when it ends, and I'm not going to be left behind, you know?"
The Tamaranean nodded her head, the human gesture for understanding. "I too am curious of their findings. The goals of our enemies remain unknown and if we are to defeat them, we must know what they hope to accomplish."
"Because that means we get to ruin it all in their faces." Miguel softly punched his hand into the palm of the other hand. "That'll make everything in the last couple of weeks worth it."
She regarded the human, questions rising in her head. "Do you mean to join forces with us for our next confrontation?"
This would have to be a matter to be brought up with Red Robin. To include a new individual with their own abilities and skills and enmesh them into the team dynamic was an issue that needed to be addressed. The team had learned each other's powers and skills and were incorporating them together, but that had taken time, effort, and training to accomplish. One might say the training was not yet complete.
Though he had demonstrated his abilities during the night of nocturnal female equines, Miguel had not been through the same training or had practiced with the team to maximize his effectiveness. What combat skills did he have that would allow him a place on the team? Would he be an asset or a liability?
These were the thoughts that a leader needed to consider. She knew this. The last thing she wanted was for anyone else to be hurt, and this including the charming human male. There was still much to learn about him, including if he too enjoyed the taste of mustard and if he would be willing to try any of the traditional Tamaranean dishes she was able to prepare. Should he be fatally injured before these answers could be found produced a trace amount of distress.
"Well, I do, but I've been thinking," Miguel spoke, interrupting her thoughts again, though with his voice and not a physical collision. "I don't really look the part. I need some new threads, something I can wear in a fight that looks cool but let's me be awesome at the same time. Gotta be sturdy if I take a hit but I can move as much as I want. Since you're the first one I've run into, gotta ask, do you know who I need to talk to or is there some room in here with uniforms or costumes that I can rummage through? I won't be picky, but I have to have the last say on the style."
Koriand'r blinked at the request. Then she considered it. It was distracting enough that it kept the recriminations and doubt from returning.
The very uniform that she now donned was one of her own making. At the request of Beast Boy, she had helped develop one for him. That question was now being asked of her again.
She found it was difficult to say no.
"Do you have a preference for color schemes and materials?"
It had been a gamble to go to El Chilar. Red Robin had been hoping nothing would have happened, but he could not say he was disheartened. There was no telling when the next strike would have happened. Odds are it could have been happening right when they were coming back, or tomorrow, or even right as they were leaving.
Starfire, he had heard, had been devastated that Raven had been captured. Right now, there was no proof she was dead, and in an attempt to be optimistic, he was going to operate that she wasn't dead, and could still be rescued. If there wasn't a body, then there was still room for hope.
Right now, it was assessing the team and what resources they could draw upon. He was in the med bay, Cyborg keeping an eye on both Beast Boy and Terra mainly because he was the one who could plug in to all the tech and let his software handle the rest. Based on observation and later confirmed with the medical machines, the two Titans were physically okay, just unconscious. No internal damage or anything.
But they were dealing with metahumans. Not all attacks were physical. From Raven's powers alone, there was a way to hurt someone without punching them, a psychic attack if you will. Who knows what those could do and who was to say there weren't individuals like that among the ranks of this secret organization? There had been new faces to add in this latest attack, so what all powers were involved were still being identified.
It meant that they would have to wait for their teammates to wake up on their own, according to Cyborg.
"No matter how many times I scan them, nothing," Cyborg muttered under his breath. Then louder, "Looks like those guys have been hiding some heavy hitters. Knocked these two out without laying a finger. I'm wondering how they did it and how we can prevent it from happening again."
Not a bad idea. If it was a psychic attack like he expected, then they had a handicap. As far as the teen vigilante could tell, no one here had a natural immunity to psychic powers. Raven was the closest, and that was because she was able to manipulate those demonic powers of hers to do some impressive things. She could have protected their minds. She was gone now.
Now that he was thinking about it, there was a big lack of psychics on their team. Might want to recruit someone else to be on the same side, but that would have to come later.
"Any real briefing we do will have to wait until those two come to," Red Robin said. "We'll need full power for what we do next, and minus Raven, we're going to be just under that."
"Give it to me straight, you have a plan, right?" the cybernetic teen asked, looking over his shoulder at the shorter teen. "There's no way we're leaving Raven to the wolves out there, right?"
This was predictable; Cyborg and Raven had a close friendship, though the latter would contest using that word for it. There was a camaraderie between the two, so when one tended to find themselves in a pinch, the other was quick to call for action to help the other. Cyborg might have his bromance with Beast Boy, and could sometimes share a brain with Kid Flash, and act in a big brother role for whoever needed it at the time, but Raven was a soft spot for him.
"We won't. Already have an idea on how we can track her down. We find her, we find them." No specifics yet, but that didn't mean he was completely clueless. He did have an idea, and it was a simple one. Sure, there was the caveat that the bad guys here didn't interfere with it, so it was going to be a gamble.
"And when we find them, we give them a good reason not to mess with us or our town," Cyborg finished. "This better be one hell of a doozy."
Had to agree there. These seemingly random attacks were getting way too old, and with each new one there was escalation. The next fight had to be on the Titans' terms and no one else's.
"You seem very sure," Wonder Girl remarked, arms crossed. "That doesn't happen often. What's the plan?"
Ever since they had gotten back, Wonder Girl had been all business, but there had been a minute where she had told him that she wanted some time alone between the two of them. Believe it or not, she was the one to insist it come later, but right now they needed to make the world right again.
One of his hands placed itself on his belt, but did nothing further. "I want to wait until the others show up. I want to explain this once and not over and over. Trust me, I've given it a lot of thought. It's our best shot."
Blue eyes regarded him, silently judging his words. Maybe there would always be some skepticism there, but there was something healthy to having a little of it around. To be de facto leader of this team came with so many responsibilities and it was nice to have someone to bring him back down to earth if it became too much.
There would be time later. He'd make sure there was. Raven's absence needed to be resolved first and they both knew it.
However, before Wonder Girl could give a response, a groan interrupted and Cyborg was very active all of a sudden. The groan was found to be coming from Beast Boy, the shapeshifter shifting on his bed with a hand pressed against his face. His body began to squirm on the mattress he rested on, disturbing the thin sheet underneath him.
"Take it easy, man," Cyborg soothed. "I don't know what happened but you got knocked out. What're you feeling?"
Another groan. "Somebody get the number on that truck? Think the guy driving it was Simon."
Red Robin found himself sharing a look with Wonder Girl. "Sounds like he's going to be just fine," the armored blonde remarked.
"Talk to me," Cyborg continued, checking the shapeshifter over. "What's your name, what day is it, and who's president?"
The way Beast Boy's fingers tensed and loosened implied he was rubbing his face. "Uhhg. No one needs to know, I don't remember any days of the week, and some old white guy."
Okay, couldn't argue that last one.
"You remember what happened before you took a trip to LaLa land?" Cyborg hadn't yet given up.
After a moment, "Kinda. No wait, I was kicking some bad guy butt. Definitely remember that." Of course he would. "Knocked that prick around a bit. Then I hear someone else and then it's all black. I think that was Simon. Why am I thinking about Simon Says?"
Finally, Cyborg tore his eyes away from his bro. "Scans coming in. Physically, nothing wrong." Just like the previous scans, only this time with a conscious subject. "Nothing picking up in the head though, but that's nothing new. I think you might be onto something with it being psychic based. Well, since Terra was close by when we found her, she might be able to tell us more. Gotta wait for her to wake up first."
As if that pushed some kind of button, Beast Boy pulled his hand away from his head, exposing his face and wide eyes. "Terra's not awake? Is she hurt? What happened?!"
Judging by the sound of that, Beast Boy had been knocked out first. At least the order had confirmation.
"Relax, she's just like you. Nothing physically wrong so we're thinking some kind of psychic attack," Cyborg tried to explain, the shapeshifter pushing himself up into a sitting position and quickly searching for the geokinetic. He didn't have far to look.
"She's gonna be alright, right? Who did this?" Beast Boy demanded, attempting to get off his bed to go to Terra's side. Cyborg was quick to put a titanium hand on the smaller teen's shoulder and hold him back.
"We need you to relax, BB. It had to be someone at that rumble you all came back from. Sounds like there were some newbies too. Try and see if you can remember anything else. We're gonna find these guys and show them they messed with the wrong people," the cybernetic teen explained, issuing a promise while he was at it.
Red Robin backed away a little. It was only a matter of time until Beast Boy got himself to Terra's side and frankly, he didn't want to be in the way when that happened. However, now that they had one up, it would be only a matter of time until the other woke up too. They'd be able to get the show on the road soon enough.
From his belt, he removed his comm device, the standard issue one for the whole team. For a few seconds, he regarded the device, his thoughts racing in that short time, before he opened it up and sent out the call for the others to assemble in the med bay. After seeing Beast Boy trying to unsuccessfully shrug off Cyborg's unyielding grip, he added the condition that they'd be meeting in half an hour. Hopefully that would be enough time for Terra to come to.
In the meantime, he'd wait with Wonder Girl and watch the show.
There was a lot of activity over where the labs were. It was one of the few places Jinx deliberately avoided; there was stuff that happened in those rooms that were the stuff of nightmares. It was bad luck that the Titan was taken into one.
There weren't any screams, and it was by chance that Jinx caught sight of her—the Queen—and while freezing up was her first course of action, noticing that the glorious leader herself didn't have her, let us call it a royal, composure made her more curious than paralyzed with fear.
What had gone on in there? Could it have been the Titan? She couldn't be that much trouble…could she?
Recalling Shimmer, and that Shimmer had been the one to…you know, maybe there really was more to that Titan than what their first encounters hinted out. A lot of questions there, but how relevant could they be right now and would they cause her even more problems? She needed to get in there, and to find out more.
Well, once the Queen was back to her lair, the activity began in earnest. People were going in and out, armed guards were taking up posts they normally didn't, but what caught her eye were the techies. Every super secret organization needed them, and H.I.V.E. was no different. Why she was drawn to them was that they were wearing their uniforms, part of which came with a hood, one that was almost airtight against the skin.
To make a long story short, Jinx withdrew for a bit, managed to catch a techie all on their lonesome, and oh, such a shame, but this particular drone had a very horrible case of bad luck. For shame, for shame.
Relieving the poor guy—no wait, it was a girl underneath it all. Sweet. A bit loose in the chest area, though. Anyway, the hexer had herself new duds, the original owner was in a closet, and with her disguise hiding away her distinctive hair and eyes thanks to the goggles, she slipped her way into the traffic to see what she could find out.
There was one room in particular that had the highest level of security and traffic, so it was natural to start looking in there. Making sure to tagalong with a small group, Jinx continued with her infiltration, and did her best to hide a grimace that threatened to expose her.
Well, there was the Titan—the goth one specifically. She never really had any big confrontations with her, though Mammoth had an opinion or two to share. Shimmer, who knew? She was laying on a bed, one situated in the middle of the room, and no, this one did not have a mattress. This was a bed specifically to restrain the unfortunate soul restrained to it because who cared about a guinea pig's comfort. Lucky for the Titan, there was no surgery or science happening, at least for now.
What really sparked the almost grimace was that Psimon was here, practically standing over the girl. Psychics, ugh. You needed to be very careful, especially with the telepathic ones. They could read your mind and it was over. Jinx had spent years gaining control over her mind, keeping her thoughts as quiet as she possibly could, and with more failures than she could count. All it took was an errant thought. That was it.
But through her many, many failures, she had been able to identify certain circumstances when it was easier to keep under the psychic radar. Psimon was distracted, all of his attention on the Titan. Yeah, he gave orders here and there, but she had quickly noted how someone would have to speak up and direct their words to the freak before they got an answer. A distracted psychic was easier to protect yourself against.
But as a precaution, she deliberately kept her thoughts on the Queen, how to serve her, how her next task would advance her agenda, the current orders whatever they might be, and complete the main objective here as quickly as possible to meet her approval.
It was the best mental defense she could use.
She always made sure there was at least one body between herself and Psimon, and slowly she moved about, looking over everything while pretending to be busy. Soon enough, she came across two techies who were busy…frisking the Titan.
By this, she meant they were searching for anything of value that the Titan might keep on her person. There was a tray nearby that held their recoveries, and Jinx took a quick glance at it before getting closer. There wasn't a lot on this goth chick, but then again when you wear that dull cape and a legless leotard, where else did you keep your junk? There wasn't any noticeable pockets, yet the techies were subtly jostling her body to see if something would shake loose.
Her eye caught onto something, an object in the basket. Its coloring was what made it stand out, along with that T on it. She looked away, then glanced at everyone around. No one was paying attention, everyone was hard at work, and she slipped the object out and tucked it away.
Minutes later, she was out of there and heading back to that piss poor room that was allegedly her new quarters. She shed her borrowed duds while she was at it, and when she arrived back, she presented her find to the rest of her team.
"Where'd you get that?" Gizmo snorted.
"Captured Titan. They're trying to see what they can find under something skintight," Jinx replied, shrugging.
"What a piece of crap," the tech genius snorted. "Why that shade of yellow? We're surrounded by it as it is. I bet that cyborg made it."
From where he stood, Mammoth physically turned his head as he followed the conversation. "What is that?"
"I figure it's a communicator," the team leader remarked. Kyd Wykkyd approached from her side, studying the device.
Mammoth tilted his head to a side. "What's so important about it?"
Gizmo was about to open his mouth, but Jinx decided to beat him to the punch. "I'm thinking it's our ticket out of here."
That didn't stop the little midget from protesting. "You're gonna call those losers in? Ask them for help? They're the reason we're in this mess in the first place!"
"Yeah, that's crazy," Mammoth agreed, cracking his knuckles. He paused, then voiced out the first thought that occurred to him. "Hey, why don't we use it to bring the Titans to us so we can ambush them? Take them out! Get our room back!"
Well, that had crossed her mind, but she was the team leader for a reason. "Actually, I think it's a bit of bad luck for it to slip past our oh so impressive security," she said, lazily opening the device. Oh, it flipped open, how retro. "I think it's even more bad luck that it's still on. I mean, someone could try and trace it to where it is. And if they find it constantly emitting a signal, all the more bad luck wouldn't you say?"
It finally clicked for Gizmo just as he was about to tear into her argument. You could see the lightbulb over his head too. Figuratively. "Yeah. Yeah. That would be some bad luck, right? What would be even worse is if someone just left it open and forgot about it."
Kyd Wykkyd looked like he'd be chuckling, but like always he was silent. The red eyes gave away his amusement, though. Unexpectedly, Shimmer did chuckle.
"Yeah, that would be a shame," the traumatized sister of Mammoth innocently said, her voice still quiet but the first subtle signs that her teammate was pulling it together all the more heartening.
"I don't get it," Mammoth stated.
"You trust me, right?" Jinx said. "Then follow my lead." With a casual jerk of her arm, she tossed the open communicator onto a crappy bed. "Oops. I seem to have forgotten where I misplaced it."
Shimmer tutted. "What a shame."
"Is this really necessary? Ow!"
Cyborg stopped shining the small light into Terra's eye. "Standard operating procedure, blondie. Gotta check vitals and everything. Just ask Green Bean, we went through the same thing."
The shapeshifter huffed in the affirmative.
"Now your other eye—dilating, good, good. Alright, give me your wrist."
"What, you want my blood now?"
"Pulse. Unless you think I should do a blood test. Say, that doesn't sound like a bad—"
"Pulse please, how are you going to do this? Is it like counting, but how are you going to do that with metal hands?"
"Got a lot of sensors and a lot of programs. Now let's see…61 BPM. A little low, but you just woke up and I think you're healthy unless you've been sneaking snacks behind everyone's backs."
Terra did not say anything to that.
While the cybernetic teen was finishing that up, Red Robin faced the rest of the assembled team, minus Raven. Kid Flash looked eager to get everything started, so his fidgeting wasn't surprising. Wonder Girl was standing by as well, but she hadn't left since he had put out the call. Beast Boy would have been clingier with Terra had Cyborg not threatened to have him go through another physical checkup that would include a prostate exam. Starfire was the last to arrive, apologetic but still subdued.
Notably, Miguel was absent. It was not such a problem for the moment. He was a guest here, officially and unofficially, and he didn't want to force him into their problems any further. Though, based on past experiences, Miguel would force his own way in somehow. While the Hispanic teen had provided some integral pieces to the mystery, who they were dealing with had put their crosshairs on the Teen Titans. Miguel still had a way out.
He wasn't going to make a mistake and inadvertently get someone else involved in the business.
Once Cyborg had given the all clear for Terra, Beast Boy quickly relocated to sitting on her bed. Red Robin pointedly did not focus on that, instead preferring to address the rest of the team. Well, actually, there was one piece of business that should be finished first.
Facing Starfire, "You were able to hold things together and fight off an attack when the numbers were against us. You did better than you think you did. If everything comes together, this might be more of a good thing than a bad thing. You did good, don't let anyone else tell you otherwise."
The Tamaranean frowned. "I…do not understand."
"We'll get to that in time. Right now, everyone needs to be caught up." The de facto leader of the Teen Titans turned to the rest of the team. There was a mix of looks, but the big one had confusion on multiple faces.
"Did you say that Raven being kidnapped was a good thing?" Beast Boy asked incredulously.
"We'll get to that," the masked teen promised, making eye contact with Cyborg. "We found some interesting things in Mexico. There was a lot more to Miguel's story than he thought, but we're still missing some pieces. The man that was assaulted, Abejas, had some kind of day job no one else in the village knew about. Whatever that job was, it paid well. He had things in his home that most people in El Chilar don't, and there's no way he could have made bank selling honey to his neighbors."
"So what was he doing?" Wonder Girl asked.
"He was working on a signal emitter, something that sends out preprogrammed frequencies. What he was doing making one, we didn't figure it out while we were there. On a hunch, I had Cyborg do a quick search, specifically for any reported stolen electronics and the like," Red Robin explained, moving his gaze from face to face and back again. He had their attention, and he could see multiple foreheads wrinkling.
Naturally, "Is this anything like the last time with that radiator machine?" the armored blonde asked.
"Oh please, we do not need Planet of the Apes II!" Beast Boy exclaimed.
"It was all stuff that someone could use to make a signal emitter," Cyborg spoke up. "I double checked too; nothing like that radiation emitter. Get this, when that little heist happened, we were fighting off Jinx and her goons during that police transport."
Some spines straightened. "But that was when we encountered Ravager," Starfire pointed out.
"You mean to say we were being distracted?!" Wonder Girl demanded.
"But why didn't the boys in blue tell us about this? What is wrong with police in this era?" Kid Flash added his two cents.
"Because the theft wasn't reported until the next morning, and JCPD doesn't like sharing information with us unless they have to, like with Highland Mall," Red Robin explained, bringing attention back to himself.
"That's not true! They called us to go to that construction site!" Kid Flash argued. "They had everything blocked off so we could do what we do best! Right guys?"
Red Robin narrowed his eyes. That didn't sound right. That didn't sound right at all. While those who had remained here were nodding and agreeing with the speedster, the teen vigilante was comparing details
Like with Gotham, the police didn't necessarily like having vigilantes, or in this case a Justice League-backed crimefighting team. More often than not, JCPD tried to resolve the situation themselves first, and when things didn't work out, then they called in for the Titans. Hold on a sec, he needed more details.
"Did they call you in before they tried going in themselves?" he asked.
Since Kid Flash had spoken up first, he was the one to start talking first. Or at least tried to. "Well yeah…I think. Um, I know everything was blocked off."
"I saw no evidence of fighting," Starfire offered. "Myself, Raven, and Terra were the ones to enter from the air. The location was not pristine, so I may have not noticed if there had been any combat."
Construction sites had an order to them, but clean they were not. If a group of metahumans backing Ravager had shown up out of the blue, of course there would have been a mess left behind with workers dropping what they were doing and running for the hills. That did not mean there wasn't any fighting per se, but those clues would have happened on top of the mess left behind.
But if there hadn't been any incursions by the JCPD to resolve the situation themselves, then the cops had called for the Titans first. If they had Ravager there, and since Ravager was the one responsible for attacking Alderman's Anti-Titan rally, the police would be more than motivated to apprehend him first.
"I have reason to believe there was a psychic there," he announced to the group. "It would explain why Beast Boy and Terra were knocked out without any signs of physical violence done to them. What if that psychic had taken over the police and forced them to call you guys in instead of the cops forcing the issue first?"
"But wouldn't that mean this was a trap?" Cyborg asked, his human side of his face frowning even more.
"Meaning Raven being abducted wasn't some accident or spontaneous event," Red Robin concluded. Suddenly there were so many other implications, all of them dark. Timing was something else, especially after getting the info dump of Raven's origin out of her. This abduction could not have come at a worse time, especially after that horror movie of a night. If Raven was still regaining control over her powers, these bad guys had no idea they were playing with fire.
"So they go from trying to kill us to capturing us? That makes no sense," Wonder Girl grumbled, arms crossed. Mystery was never her forte, and finding the right face to punch would always be her go to for fixing things. No, that was a disservice to her; he had been learning enough about her that there was more than violence to her.
"Well maybe since they can't kill us, they're trying something else?" Kid Flash suggested, looking around at the rest of them rapidly. "You know, can't beat them, join them?"
Not a bad suggestion, but would that mean there was a change to the endgame. There were still so many pieces missing.
"Maybe we can find out from them personally," the masked teen suggested.
"How?" A pointed question from Wonder Girl, but if there was one thing that still remained true, it was that she preferred to cut through bullshit and pleasantries.
"Raven may keep to herself, but she is responsible. While she can track each of us by our emotions, she keeps her communicator on her person whenever we go out." To demonstrate, he slipped out the standard issue device in all of its faded yellow and black glory. "We keep it on our own separate frequency, no need for other people to get on our line by accident. It sends signals to the other communicators and receives them. So long as it's on, Cyborg can follow it, and lead us right to where they took her."
It was Wonder Girl who he was facing last, and he saw how her eyes lit up. She was anticipating some payback and he didn't blame her for that. Her eagerness was contagious because Kid Flash was starting to vibrate a little, Cyborg was smirking but already working to trace the current location of Raven's communicator. Starfire was livening up, obviously seeing a chance for her personal redemption; while they were forgiving of her, the Tamaranean was not as forgiving to herself, especially in recent months.
"Dude, you do have a plan!" Beast Boy cheered, punching a fist up into the air. "How long were you sitting on that? When do we go?" Loud as he was, beside the shapeshifter, Terra was quiet, her eyes zeroed in on the communicator in the teen vigilante's hand.
"As soon as Cyborg gets a lock on Raven's whereabouts. No matter what, we'll have to take the T-car if it's outside of the city," Red Robin said, feeling the anticipation in the air. It would also help to have some serious firepower because it was going to be a viper's nest they were heading towards and who knew what awaited them there?
"These guys finally made their biggest mistake," Wonder Girl stated as she punched a fist into her palm. "Get your excuse to the 'rents ready, Red, 'cause we're gonna—"
Without warning, Wonder Girl stopped talking, her face once alight with excitement and anticipation fading into alarm. Red Robin found himself on edge too, but could not explain why. Something was different. Something had changed. But what? Internal alarms were blaring, but a reason for it was not forthcoming.
Or perhaps that was too soon. The monitors and machines that had once kept vigil over Beast Boy and Terra's vital signs were starting to rapidly shake against the beds. Vibrations were starting to run up his legs, and he placed a hand on a nearby bed as if to steady himself. Now he was feeling the vibrations run up his arm. And now it was starting to get worse.
"You are so very resourceful, Teen Titans. Opponents almost worthy of being true adversaries. I had not thought you would divide yourselves to try and uncover secrets you are not allowed to know, but as you rise to your potential, so shall I."
It was a new voice, one that he had never heard before. Someone else was in the Tower, but how? When? How did they get through security and them? How did they get into this room? The vibrations were getting worse, and so was everything else.
Cabinets filled with all sorts of medical goodies had their contents banging against each other now. A couple had their doors open and small rolls of gauze falling out and onto the floor. Another had cotton balls, tongue depressors, and other swabbing instruments spilling out. At least no syringes so far.
Red Robin searched around, hoping to find whoever it was that was speaking. He saw the others doing the same, Beast Boy too, which was telling since the shapeshifter had some pretty good hearing himself. Something about those pointed ears of his gave him the advantage of hearing better than the rest of them.
Well, not everyone was looking. Terra was the sole exception, but her head was lifting up, and he caught sight of blank, blue eyes, ones that looked glazed over. She was calm, not even bothered by what was happening, whatever it could be.
Then the yellow glow that gave away her use of geokinesis filled her eyes, masking them. The thin girl began to speak, but it was not with the voice that he could associate with her. No, it was the one that had just spoken, the new one.
"It is appropriate that I bring your tower down with you all inside," the foreign voice spoke from out of Terra's mouth. "You shall no longer interfere in my endeavors, not that you ever posed a large enough threat to my ambitions."
There was only one thing he could do, and that was to ask a question, a simple one but endlessly speculative in its nature.
"Who are you?"
A sickly sweet smile spread on Terra's lips. "Why do you care? You'll be dead in mere moments."
