Chapter five: Dance secret
(Author's note: Before you start asking, no this isn't Part three to "Robin cray cray". This is a chapter before the "Robin cray cray" one. There's gonna be a lot like this so it's kinda like a flashback of a sort. All episodes in the present will be indicated with "Robin cray cray part *" till that plot is over.)
Crystal opened the fridge and took one of her cans of Pepsi out. She stopped then, realizing how empty it was getting, not to mention she had only five cans of Pepsi left.
"Um guys, we're running low on food," she stated when she entered the living room.
"You know what that means..." Cyborg began and she raised an eyebrow.
"Shopping day!" Beast Boy, Robin and Cyborg said in unison.
"Oh no," Raven said and rolled her eyes.
"How much I adore the day of the shopping!" Starfire squealed delightedly.
"You don't seem very excited, Raven," Crystal said to the half demon. "Yeah... Off course I want to be dragged out of the house when Starfire will take me to buy clothes I'll probably never need or use," Raven stated sarcastically.
Crystal watched as the Tamerenean alien princess rolled her eyes. She chuckled.
They headed to the elevator but Crystal remained where she was. "What are you doing?" Robin asked.
"Staying home," she replied.
"Give us one reason we should let you stay home on Shopping day," Cyborg inquired.
"Fine, I'll do everyone's chores for today," Crystal offered.
"We don't have chores," Cyborg said.
"We've done them," Raven added and Beast Boy nervously scratched the back of his head.
"More or less," Raven said.
"Alright, I'll prepare my special spaghetti so we don't have to sit through Beast Boy's tofu dinner," she stated and they all cheered.
"Wait, what?" Beast Boy queried in realization.
"Let's go Beastie," Cyborg said, pulling the shapeshifter away.
"Oh and guys..." Crystal started.
"Four whole packs of canned Pepsi, we know," Cyborg cut in.
"And Raven..." she began again but the half demon cut her off.
"Always cotton soft, medium. I know," Raven stated.
"What, what?" Robin asked. "Always cotton soft, medium?" Cyborg inquired. "I don'ts understand them words," Beast Boy added, confused.
Starfire laughed.
"Don't stress your little boy brains about it, it's a girl thing," Crystal said.
"Let's go, then," Robin said and the Titans sans Crystal left the tower.
Crystal had a big sigh of relief. Finally, some peace and quiet. It seemed surreal to her that she was the only person in the tower at the moment.
'What to do now?' she thought as she downed the remaining contents of her Pepsi can. She connected her phone to the big new sound system that Cyborg had tweaked and improved but had never got the chance to test.
The first song that came on was "Cool" by Alesso ft Roy English.
She started by simply singing along at first then stood up and got to dancing after the beat dropped.
Next song was "Masquerade" by Nicki Minaj. Her dance playlist was long and extensive and she soon got lost in dancing.
Later, at the mall, Raven was in a bit of a fix. She and Starfire had a couple more things to get but they couldn't find Always cotton soft in medium, only large and small and they knew she hated ultra pads of any sort.
The boys had finished shopping and had come to meet them. Raven was getting annoyed with their incessant grumbling about "girls tho" and "time was against them" and "I Don'ts gets why y'all haves to takes so much time."
Finally, she snapped.
She opened a portal, tossed Robin into it and barked, "tell her there aren't any cotton softs in medium, only in large and small!"
Robin saw himself outside the tower. He didn't understand the content of the message Raven had asked him to deliver, he only remembered the words.
He stepped into the elevator. As he got closer to the living room, he heard loud music blasting. 'Had Raven teleported Cyborg and Beast Boy to the tower as well?' he thought.
When the elevator opened, his jaw dropped. Mabel's "god is a dancer" was blasting from the sound system and Crystal was dancing.
No wonder she was so fit even though she hardly worked out with them, unless he deemed it mandatory or it was a training session.
The music stopped and she collapsed to the floor and gulped down a can of Pepsi.
No wonder her blood sugar was always borderline low...
Her head snapped up then she saw him. Her eyes widened, she looked embarrassed. "How long have you been standing there?" she asked loudly.
She had not meant to shout but her emotions had gotten the better of her. Robin, on the other hand, was completely speechless and dumbfounded.
"Rae... Raven t... Told me to... Tell you... that there were... I mean weren't any... Cotton... Medium Cotton softs in the store... Only small and... And large," he stuttered.
Crystal regained herself then and raised an eyebrow, "she asked YOU to deliver this information."
Robin ran his hand through his hair, "Cyborg, Beast Boy and I were bothering her too much and she got mad."
Crystal laughed, "classic Raven. Tell her to check if there are classic thicks in medium, if not, she should buy the large cotton softs."
He grimaced, "more things I don't understand," he mumbled and she giggled and opened a portal for him. He stepped in and saw himself back at the store, right next to Raven.
He relayed the message to the half demon and watched her walk to the other end of the shelf she was looking at. "Fuck there aren't any classic thicks at all. What kinda store is this?" she turned to Robin but he was no longer there.
She reached for two of the large cotton softs. Then, her communicator went off. "Are you kidding me right now?" she said and accidentally grabbed an Always ultra pad off the shelf in hurry.
Robin, that disappeared earlier, seemed to reappear with Beast Boy, Cyborg and Starfire. "Brother Blood is attacking the Jump City subway," Robin announced.
"Jump City has a subway?" Crystal asked, suddenly appearing by them causing them to jump in fright.
"Sorry," she said with a grin. "You know you're still making dinner, right?" Cyborg asked.
"Fine, I'll teleport the things y'all bought to the house and meet you up there," she stated. "You don't know where the subway is... How do you want to meet us there?" Raven inquired.
"Don't worry, I'll meet you up," Crystal answered then winked at Raven. "You can't just GET INTO MY MIND WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!" Raven yelled after her as she teleported with the things they'd bought.
They arrived at almost the same time with each other.
"Wait a minute, the crime alert said the Jump City subway station, this location on the communicator is different," Robin stated.
Different lights came on chronologically. They intersected at right angles thus creating an effect of squares on the floor. It looked like the setting of a video game.
The floor was royal purple and the lights were nude pink.
"Cool," Beast Boy said in awe. "I'm glad you think so," Brother Blood said but he was a hologram.
"What's your game NOW?!" Robin asked impatiently.
"Funny you should mention 'game' Boy Wonder, you're actually in my game simulation, win the game and get your dad and his friends back," he informed.
Brother Blood showed that he had the members of the Justice League in custody and the Titans gasped.
"LET THEM GO YOU EGOTISTIC MEGALOMANIAC," Robin snapped in anger.
"I will, if you win the game. Which I doubt," Brother Blood stated.
"We are the Kings of games!" Cyborg said.
"Yeah boyyy, you challenge us to a game, you best prepares to go down fool," Beast Boy boasted.
"Ok it's quite simple, really. It's a dance game, a song will play and the dancer will attempt to get the most points per level. If you win a level, a door will open to take you to the next level. You lose a level, a member of the Justice league goes bye bye. The more levels you lose, the more members of the Justice league you lose," Brother Blood elucidated.
"This will be a piece of cake," Cyborg said in a flippant tone.
"Everyone knows we're the best dancers around," Raven stated.
"That's what's up Mama!" Beast Boy said enthusiastically.
Brother Blood smirked, "only the best dancer is allowed to play the game. If you step on the tiles and you aren't worthy, you will be painfully electrocuted and captured in one of the floating boxes up there," he paused pointing up to the said boxes that were transparent and cubic in shape, "and you'd be in the same position as the Justice league."
"He wasn't the kidding when he said he wasn't doing the small scale crimes the any longer," Starfire stated, still awe struck.
"Tell me about it," Crystal quipped.
"Well if you're talking about the best dancer," Cyborg paused and hopped on the tiles doing the Running Man. A red light flashed and a buzzer bleeped, Cyborg was electrocuted and his circuits shorted out.
"Cyborg!" the others yelled and he was boosted up to one of the boxes.
"Well ifs it isn'ts him, it's obvs me," Beast Boy said confidently and moonwalked towards the tiles. When he got to the tiles, he fell on his butt. He got electrocuted and met the same fate with Cyborg.
"Amateurs," Raven said and walked towards the tiles, she removed her hood to reveal her leotard underneath. She attempted to do a little dance but immediately got electrocuted as she stepped on the tiles.
"If it's not the Raven or the Beast Boy or the Cyborg, it might be the me," Starfire stated.
"It is definitely not the you," the other Titans chorused sinulteanously and Brother Blood couldn't help laughing hysterically.
Starfire frowned.
Robin turned to Crystal, they made eye contact and he gestured towards the tiles. "No way, not taking the risk," she said aloud.
"I've seen you dance, there's no way you're not the best," Robin placated.
"Nope, who knows? It might be you," she said.
"Please, lives are at stake," he pleaded but the hybrid shook her head.
"I AM ORDERING YOU AS YOUR LEADER TO TAKE THE CHALLENGE RIGHT NOW!" Robin snapped.
Crystal was startled at first, then she narrowed her brows and walked reluctantly to the tiles. She stepped on them.
"Player recognized," a computer voice said.
"What?!" Beast Boy, Raven and Starfire cried in disbelief.
Crystal's outfit changed from her super hero outfit to a violet turtle neck sleeveless top, black high wasted sweat pants with black and white sneakers. "You're welcome by the way," Brother Blood smirked when he saw the impressed look on her face.
"The rule is quite simple, beat the high score and move on to the next level. Each level you win, one of your super heroes get released, lose one and one dies... You get the drift. One more thing, if you get to the last level, which I doubt you will, best dancer or not. You get to free your bipolar leader," he said and laughed maniacally revealing a captured Robin.
She looked like she wanted to say something but stopped and put her hair in a bun instead.
The first song that played was Selena Gomez "Come and get it", she beat the level, freeing Superman.
She made Brother Blood's game, which he spent several months creating to be as difficult as possible, look like child's play. Beating all the levels and dancing to songs of all the genres he had chosen.
Brother Blood was hardly impressed by anyone or anything but this seemingly multitalented teenager was changing that. She'd surprised him when she destroyed his robot in one swift motion, now she was doing it again and flawlessly too.
After what seemed like hours, an exhausted Crystal came to the final level. Her joints were crying in agony and all the heroes she'd freed cheered her on.
As she stepped into the last level, the sweat pants changed into tights and the top became a leotard, she was suddenly wearing ballet shoes... She had not danced ballet in years.
Lil Wayne's "mirror" started, she grimaced and looked up at Robin in the glass box. "You can do it, Crystal," he said to her. Brother Blood grinned widely, "give up?"
"Could you please restart the song?" she asked calmly. Brother Blood raised an eyebrow at her, "a do over won't help you, Crystal," he paused, "I'm feeling gracious today." He restarted the song.
She closed her eyes and followed the song. At the end, she did a split and the score counter glitched, she had passed the score. Brother Blood's jaw dropped as the words "Winner" flashed incessantly in his game.
Robin was released and he caught her in time from falling. She was short of breath but she stilled herself and shook free from him. They headed back to the tower.
"I still can't believe Crystal's the best dancer among us," Cyborg was saying.
The Titans were relaxing in front of the television. Crystal was lying on the floor with a can of Pepsi and the rest were on the sofa. "I'm right here Cyborg," she said with a short laugh.
"Well we can'ts believes it mama," Beast Boy said.
Crystal wanted to say something but she stopped abruptly, then she sat up. She dashed to her room and the boys watched her in shock.
"You don't look surprised?" Robin asked Raven. "Why should I be?" Raven paused and lowered her book from her face, "oh no."
"RAVEN, YOU GOT AN ULTRA PAD!"
Raven and Starfire grimaced. The boys looked on in confusion.