A pair of boots landed on a rooftop, firmly but softly. This was followed seconds later by another set of boots landing, also soft. Lastly, feathers flapped in the breeze, descending to the roof. As the talons landed, they turned into bare green feet. Even softer. The three of them were deliberately being as quiet as possible, for there were many more boots on the ground below. The people in those boots wore body armor and carried guns. Red and blue lights flashed on the ground down below. The three uninvited guests looked down at the squadron of law enforcement beneath them.
The guards walked about, some looking around, and some talking to each other. But none of them were looking upward. Beast Boy, crouching, leaned over to look. The front entrance of the building was blocked off with multiple police cars, idle but with their lights flashing. There was yellow tape strung up as well. After a minute, one guard did look up. But by that point Beast Boy was no longer in sight. He and his friends had found another entrance. A skylight in the roof. But they did not enter immediately. First, they peered into the scene below. The entire area was dimly lit, making it hard to see. They all crouched at the open skylight. There was no breeze, or sounds of insects. Just the sounds of footsteps and radio chatter from the cops in the vicinity. The group made an effort to stay quiet. Nightwing turned to Raven. She was squatting with her hood up, and her elbows on her knees.
"Do you sense anything?" he said. She shook her head.
"No. As far as I can tell, no one is down there. No one living, anyway."
Nightwing looked down into the dark opening. "Well, we should know what we're jumping into first. There's one way to know…"
"On it." Beast Boy said. He changed into a dog. A bloodhound, to be exact. The others watched as he lowered his green snout and sniffed the air flowing upwards from the building's interior. After a second, Beast Boy recoiled and let out a canine whine.
"What is it?" Raven said.
Beast Boy changed back. He frowned. "Blood. And death. Whatever happened in there, its pretty bad. I wish there was another way we could have found that out." He wiped his nose.
"There is." Nightwing said. He pulled out a pair of night vision goggles.
"Now you tell me." Beast Boy said. Nightwing put the goggles on, and peered inside. Now it was Beast Boy's turn to watch as Nightwing examined things. He also frowned.
"Does it look as bad as it smelled?" Beast Boy said. He made a face.
"Definitely." Nightwing said.
"Are we still going in?" Raven said.
"Yeah. Right now, in fact." Nightwing, still wearing the goggles, climbed down through the skylight. As he descended, he said, "Be careful." He then disappeared below. Beast Boy and Raven exchanged a quick glance.
"Ladies first." Beast Boy said. Raven said nothing, and used her magic to get down. Beast Boy changed into a bat and flew down after them. Once inside, Beast Boy used his wings to descend slowly. He used a bat's echolocation to see more easily in the dark room. He didn't like what he was seeing. On the ground, there were several bodies. He was pretty sure they weren't just sleeping. He knew that people had died here, but he was a little surprised that the police hadn't cleaned up the corpses yet. He knew about crime scene investigators, partially from personal experience and partially from tv. So, he knew that they might still be investigating here. But he didn't detect anyone else alive here other than his friends. Maybe they were running late?
Beast Boy landed on the floor, changing back to his normal form for the moment, but while being prepared to change again if he needed to. Raven and Nightwing were nearby. They had already begun looking through the area. Beast Boy started slowly walking around too. It was hard to see, but it wasn't pitch black, so he could still make most things out. On the floor, he saw the bodies. Some were more messed up than others. One man, who looked like a worker in Gizmo's operation, had a bullet hole through his head. There was another bigger corpse nearby. This one was probably a guard. His chest had been sliced open, multiple times, leaving raw and bloody tatters. A moment ago he had been wishing for more light in the room, but now he was thankful for the lack of it. Beast Boy started to take another step when he heard Nightwing call out from somewhere.
"Guys, come here." Nightwing said further away. Beast Boy paused and put his foot down into something that made a squishy sound. He quickly stepped back and said, "Ewww, for once I hope that was dog poop I stepped in."
"Beast Boy." He heard Nightwing say. "I'm coming." Beast Boy responded.
Beast Boy found that Raven was already there. They were at a workstation of some kind, almost like an office cubicle. Raven and Nightwing were staring at something. Nightwing had taken his goggles off. Beast Boy walked over, and the other two glanced at him without saying a word. Beast Boy got closer with some apprehension. He stepped between them, and saw what they had seen. Sitting in a chair, with an office light shining down on him, was Gizmo. He wasn't moving, or breathing. One half of Gizmo's face was completely blackened, as if it had been burned. The other half was normal. Except for his expression. His mouth hung open, and his non-burned eye was wide, and frozen in an expression of pain, or fear, or both. Beast Boy never liked Gizmo, but seeing him like this made Beast Boy's stomach turn.
As Beast Boy was thinking this, Nightwing stepped close and reached out a hand towards Gizmo's face. He touched both halves of his head. "The burned half is still warm." Nightwing said. "This was just a short time ago."
"Good to know…" Beast Boy said. Nightwing closed Gizmo's open eye.
"If this happened a short time ago, then maybe they're still close by." Nightwing said.
"Its strange." Raven said. "It feels like the police should be all over this place, but they're still outside, and all these bodies are just laying around."
"You know, I did think it was funny how easily we were able to get into this place, with everything going on." Beast Boy said. Nightwing turned to face them both.
"Yeah…" Nightwing said. Just then, the lights suddenly turned way brighter, with a loud sound indicating that a switch had been hit. Within seconds the whole building was brightly illuminated, leaving the three heroes in a much more conspicuous position.
"And there it is." Beast Boy said.
"Titans…" Nightwing began to say. Before he could say another word, the large windows around the place shattered, several figures jumping through them. In seconds about a dozen familiar figures had entered the room. Beast Boy instantly recognized Slade's robot henchmen. The three of them were quickly surrounded.
"I knew you'd come." A masculine voiced called out from somewhere. Silver Ravager stepped from around a corner, holding a submachine gun. Out of the corner of his eye, Beast Boy then saw the other Ravager step out from behind a large crate, holding her swords. Beast Boy didn't smell them earlier, and Raven didn't sense them. Had they camouflaged themselves somehow? Or did they leave earlier and then sneak back in? It didn't really matter. Everything was about to go to hell. Again.
"Why did you-" Nightwing started to say.
"No more talking." Bronze Ravager quickly cut off Nightwing's question. She raised her sword and aimed it at the Titans. The robots aimed their guns and opened fire. Raven raised her magic shields, but the bullets came from all around. With the bright lights there was no where to hide, and being encircled left them no where to run. Raven's shield wouldn't hold out indefinitely. The robots advanced closer, firing their guns. Silver Ravager fired his sub machine gun at them, the bullets bouncing off of Raven's magic. Nightwing turned to Raven and Beast Boy and said, "I have a plan."
"Say it fast, I'm using a lot of power." Raven said, her voice straining. Nightwing explained what he wanted them to do in just a few sentences. Beast Boy thought it was risky, but it was all they had. Nightwing pulled out his escrima sticks and screamed something at the enemies, but it was hard to hear over the gunfire. Beast Boy pulled out his communicator, but with all the noise there was no telling if he could be heard either.
"Now!" Nightwing shouted. Beast Boy heard that. Raven took the cue and pushed her magic outward all at once, knocking all the robots back. Before the enemies could recover, Nightwing and Raven both headed for the skylight above, Raven flying and Nightwing using his grappling hook. The enemies started to regroup and take aim. That's when Beast Boy changed. He rapidly grew larger, much larger. This time he did not transform into a wolf, or a bird, or even a bear. He became a dinosaur. He grew tall, taller than the building. His huge reptilian head burst through the roof. Most of his body was still within the structure though. The bad guys had started shooting at him now, which was the idea. It definitely hurt, but he had felt worse. He pivoted and swept the floor with his massive tail, his head breaking apart more of the roof in the process. By this point, Raven and Nightwing had made it safely to the roof. Beast Boy intended to join them, but the robots started to jump onto him. And the Ravagers had now followed onto the roof, deciding to bypass Beast Boy. As he felt knives and gunshots pierce his hide, he thought to himself that this was turning out to be another "fun" night.
Everything was happening fast. Nightwing and Raven found themselves on the roof, now partially destroyed. The plan was a gambit, that depended on the Ravagers following them up. Fortunately, they followed. It only took a few seconds for the Ravagers to find their way up there too. Most of the robots were attacking Beast Boy. Which meant that they weren't able to come after Nightwing and Raven. But this also meant that Beast Boy couldn't help for the moment either.
As soon as the Ravagers made it up, they pulled out their weapons again. But Raven and Nightwing were ready for this. Nightwing threw a birdarang at Silver Ravager's gun. Or rather, the hand holding the gun. The birdarang connected, sticking into the back of Silver's hand, causing him to drop the gun. "Ah, damnit!" Silver Ravager said.
At the same time, Raven used her magic the lift a metal sheet from behind Bronze Ravager, and hurled it towards her. Maybe Raven's attack was more obvious than Nightwing's, or maybe Bronze Ravager just had better reflexes than her partner. Either way, she dropped to the ground face first onto her hands, so that the sheet flew by her harmlessly. A second later, Bronze jumped to her feet and started running towards Raven. Nightwing saw this and threw a bolas at her legs to disable her. But Bronze jumped before the bolas could catch. It might have been coincidence, or again it may have been her reflexes. As she jumped into the air, she flew towards Raven and outstretched her leg. Raven saw it coming, but unfortunately her reflexes were not as good. Raven was hit square in the chest by Bronze's foot. Raven staggered back a few steps, and reached the edge of the roof. She lost her balance, and fell backwards. Right before she fell, Nightwing had already started running towards her. Bronze Ravager slashed at him with a knife, but he did an acrobatic flip in midair to dodge it. Nightwing heard a gunshot from behind. Apparently, Silver had his gun again. Nightwing ignored it and dove after Raven.
He couldn't prevent her fall off the roof, and the ground approached fast. He shot a line, and reached for her. He only had seconds. He swooped down and hooked her waist just a few feet from the ground, and carried her up to a different roof, somewhat lower. As he caught her, they swung by right in front of the police. They all stood there and watched the two heroes swing by. Moments later, they both made it to the roof safely.
Once they made it to the roof, Nightwing stood facing Raven, her back to the officers below, who were looking up at them. They appeared to be saying something to each other, though it was hard to tell with their helmets on. Nightwing glanced over to the side, and saw the Ravagers on the other roof, watching them. As Nightwing took this all in, he felt Raven put her hands on his arms.
"Thank you." She said in a whisper.
"You would have done the same for me." He said.
"Yeah." She said. As she said this, Nightwing noticed something. One of the cops below was pointing something at them. It was a gun. A rifle to be exact. The cop was aiming it at Raven, and his finger was on the trigger. Nightwing had no time to think, only act. He grabbed Raven and spun her around, so that he was now in her place. Half a second later, the gunshot rang out. Nightwing grimaced as he felt the bullet penetrate.
"Nightwing!" Raven said. He fell to his knees as she held his sides. Before Raven could say anything else, further gunshots rang out from below. Raven pulled him down so they were both laying on the roof as the bullets and shells went over them, hitting signs and windows and other things. It was a cacophony of noise. A mixture of regular guns and laser guns.
"Are they insane?" Raven said as she lay next to Nightwing.
"We've butted heads a lot lately." He said. "We should have known they might escalate to this level. Maybe this will scare off the Ravagers."
Raven put a hand on his shoulder. "Where are you hit? I can heal you."
Nightwing grunted. "I think its the back of my shoulder. But let's get somewhere safer first." Raven nodded, but then paused. She looked around. The gunfire had stopped. Raven started to get up.
"Careful." Nightwing said. "They could start shooting again."
Raven nodded and stayed low. She started looking for a way to leave, but then froze. Standing several yards away were Silver and Bronze, now on the same roof as them. They both had their weapons again, and were standing out in the open, seemingly unconcerned about possibly getting shot. Silver Ravager held his gun, aiming it right at Raven's head. As powerful as Raven was, he could pull the trigger faster than she could perform a spell. Bronze stood a few feet behind him, off to the side. She held both her swords, but the swords were held downwards, pointing at the ground. Despite her posture, her muscles were tense, and her expression was hard. She glared at them, but held her ground as Silver spoke in an almost casual tone.
"I'd prefer to take you alive, so don't make any sudden moves." Silver Ravager said. He smirked. "And by you, I mean Nightwing."
Nightwing was still low on the ground, not moving at the moment. He looked at the gun trained on Raven. "So if I go with you, you'll let Raven go?"
Silver flashed his teeth. "Nah. Can't have that. But you're special, Nightwing. That's why we're taking you to see Slade." Nightwing was paying close attention to his movements, and saw his finger put pressure on the trigger. He knew that Silver was about to shoot Raven. He reached into his belt, but he knew he wouldn't make it in time. As if in slow motion, Nightwing saw Silver's finger press down on the trigger, as Nightwing reached for a weapon to throw. Nightwing heard a loud sound, and saw the impact. It was Silver Ravager who was hit. A beam shot down diagonally from above and hit Silver in the side of his face and upper torso. He fell to the side, and fired his gun as he did so, but the bullets shot wide of the mark, flying into the air. Bronze Ravager reacted instantly, lifting her swords and turning her head upwards. But as soon as she did, she immediately dove to the other side. A second later, Cyborg impacted onto the roof, leaving a small crater where Bronze had been standing. Hovering above him was Starfire, who had dropped him from above.
The tables had quickly turned. Nightwing got to his feet and pulled out his weapons. Raven readied herself. Starfire rained down bolts at Bronze Ravager, who deflected them with her swords. Cyborg felt Silver, still on the ground, attach something to his leg. Another explosive. It started beeping as Silver rolled out of the way. Cyborg pressed a button on his arm, and a current ran through his mechanical body. The bomb deactivated. Cyborg had anticipated it this time.
Nightwing swooped in with his sticks and went for Silver, still on the ground. Nightwing struck a stick into his back, producing a cracking sound. Silver Ravager dropped to one hand to support himself. Nightwing raised the other stick, but it was struck by a sword, barely missing his fingers. The stick flew out of his hand into the street below. Bronze Ravager had thrown her sword to save her partner, but the distraction left her open to an attack from Starfire, who blasted her shoulder. She fell over the roof. Silver scrambled and caught her arm, stopping her fall. For a moment, they just stayed liked that, looking at each other. Then, Cyborg aimed his cannon at Silver Ravager. The other Titans also gathered around, ready to attack.
"You should have let me fall." Bronze said through gritted teeth. Silver just blinked, saying nothing.
"Now its your turn to surrender." Nightwing said. "But we have no intention of-" as he was talking, a loud shot went off. Starfire was hit in midair, knocking her back. Fortunately, Starfire was durable enough that such an attack wouldn't hurt her much. But there wasn't just one shot. A few seconds later, seemingly all the cops below started blasting at them. Cyborg and Starfire could withstand this to an extant, but Nightwing had to quickly duck down. As he did, he remembered that Raven was vulnerable too. When he looked up to find her, she already had her magic shield up.
Then, just as suddenly, the shots stopped. The Titans didn't immediately move, in case the cops were waiting for an opening. But the Ravagers joined them on the roof again. Silver had used his one arm to swing Bronze onto the roof, and then jumped up with her. Silver now raised a gun, this time a laser gun, and fired it at Raven. Her shield held, but the force of the blast pushed her back. Starfire and Cyborg both fired blasts at them in return. Bronze Ravager did a quick run and dived beneath Cyborg. Cyborg had anticipated this and fired his cannon downward at her. But she was still a little too quick, and the blast missed her. Bronze, now behind Cyborg, pulled her sword back, aiming it at the center of his body. But before she could strike, she was blasted from above by Starfire. Bronze staggered, and Starfire's eyes and hands glowed green. But now it was Starfire who was surprised by an attack. Not from either of the Ravagers, and not from a mere bullet, but by an explosive launched from the air. The impact created a blast in midair, knocking Starfire down to the roof. With everything going on, the Titans hadn't noticed the helicopter that had flown over. It was a police helicopter, and someone on board had a rocket launcher.
Cyborg was in a shootout with Silver, and Bronze had recovered. She looked like she was deciding between Raven or Cyborg. Nightwing didn't wait to find out and threw an escrima stick at her head. The attack connected, hitting the side of her face. She staggered, but didn't fall. What might have happened next is unclear, because another rocket was launched. This time Raven saw it coming. She used her powers to lift a large sign and move it into the path of the missile just as it fired. The missile blew up the sign, scattering pieces about. Nightwing turned to check on Cyborg, but saw something unexpected. Silver Ravager was still at the edge of the roof, firing. The unexpected part was when a large muscular arm reached up from beneath the edge, and grabbed Silver from behind. Silver tried to turn, struggling, but the arm was very strong. It lifted him and threw him backwards off the roof. For a moment, everyone just stopped and watched. Just as the sound of an impact could be heard below, something jumped up onto the roof in the spot where Silver had been a moment earlier. It was Beast Boy, currently in gorilla form.
"Sorry I'm late." Beast Boy said. "Just had to-" As he was talking, Bronze Ravager started running towards him. Raven lifted a piece of debris and threw it at her, but Bronze flipped hover it, and sailed toward Beast Boy. Beast Boy looked up, and she was already above him. She had pulled something out of her armor. It was a black rope. As she jumped over Beast Boy, she threw the rope around his neck and allowed herself to fall, pulling him down with her. They both went over the edge. Nightwing rushed over, and found that Beast Boy had punched through the wall with his powerful fist and was holding on as Bronze held onto the rope, choking him. With his other hand Beast Boy grabbed the rope and pulled upwards, but Bronze simply let go and fell to the ground. The fall wasn't far at that point, so she landed safely.
Beast Boy made it back safely onto the roof, and changed back to normal. They all looked down at the scene below. Silver Ravager was sitting up, but appeared to have a broken leg. Bronze was standing near him, looking back up at the Titans. They were surrounded by police. But the police seemed much more concerned with the Titans on the roof. Some were already taking aim again. Not only that, but there were two more helicopters entering the scene, and they appeared to have weapons too. Another police truck pulled up as well. As soon as the first shot was fired, the Titans moved back. But the cops weren't going to just stay down there. Nightwing knew that. Which meant that they were going to have to fight the police, which he really didn't want to do. Especially when they were obviously using lethal force, which made it likely someone on one side or the other was going to get seriously hurt or killed. Not to mention the Ravagers, whom the police didn't seem to be in a hurry to arrest…
Nightwing decided that under the circumstances, there was only one real alternative. "Titans… retreat!" he yelled. He had to shout with the choppers around.
"Did you say retreat?" Cyborg said.
"We have no choice." Nightwing said. "Retreat, now!"
The gunfire resumed, even louder than before, and coming from more directions. Beast Boy changed into a bird, Starfire and Raven took flight. Within seconds, all five of them had made their escape, and headed back to the tower. The police pursued them for a short time, but the group had scattered and found their own ways back to the tower. Once they were all back, they were safe inside. Just like that, the ordeal was over.
An hour later, Nightwing looked out the window. He was in the ops room again, alone. The others had gone to bed early, tired and injured from the fight. In truth, Nightwing was tired and injured too, but he couldn't help thinking about the events of the evening. At the forefront of his thoughts was the undeniable evidence that the Ravagers, Slade's apprentices, were working with the cops. Or rather, the cops were working with them. Which meant that Nightwing needed to think of a new plan, and fast.
End Notes: This took a little longer than usual. As I said before, the holiday season was busy. And after that I got Covid. So, it's been hard to write anything these past few weeks. But I finally finished this chapter. Hopefully the next chapter can be done sooner.