Thank you so much to @-GoldenxAngel for helping out, particularly with the final chapter!
A whirlwind of pink smoke erupts from the small lorry truck up ahead and wafts towards us. My eyes turn white, and I hold my hand out to part the mist to see what's going on; a masked man dressed in pink and blue runs through the middle of the road, an assortment of explosive shurikens in his hand.
The criminal's gaze locks on an occupied bus, and my eyes flicker red. From beside me, Robin pulls a birdarang from his utility belt and throws it in the masked man's direction; his deadeye accuracy knocks the shuriken out of his hands. Beast Boy attempts to swoop him in falcon form, but he dodges both the shapeshifter's attack and all impending energy blasts, including my own.
Robin's birdarang returns to him and he catches it in the air. "Since you're new in town, we're going to make this very simple."
"Stop now!" Starfire spells out.
"Yeah, man," Cyborg says. "The locals don't like it when you blow up their stuff."
Robin's gaze narrows at the criminal as he prepares a fighting stance. "Put your hands in the air and—"
Ignoring the Boy Wonder's command, the masked man jumps into the air, in the opposing direction to where we stand. A pink trail of smoke follows his retreating figure, making our imminent job of finding him much easier.
"—ignore everything we said," I finish, sighing tiredly. "Great."
"Hands in the air, dude," Beast Boy whines, "not your whole body!"
Raven, who had taken to the skies to follow the criminal and now floats above all of us, turns back to the shapeshifter in agreement. "Tourists," she grumbles, before continuing on her path.
"Titans! Go!"
By the time the words have left the Boy Wonder's mouth, Starfire and I have both lifted into the air alongside Raven. Robin and Cyborg board the R-Cycle and T-Car—their respective vehicles—and Beast Boy transforms into a cheetah behind them.
"Anybody got a clue what this genius is after?" Raven questions from beside me.
Cyborg rolls the driver's window down and pokes his head out. "Who cares what he wants? What he's getting is a helping of Grade-A-butt-whoop!"
"All right, team. Let's see what he's made of!"
True to his word, Robin releases two missiles from the sides of his motorcycle. The masked man lags in the air, falling back slightly before arming himself with two shurikens and destroying the projectiles. He stops in the air, and the three of us airborne are forced to avoid him.
Raven and Starfire loosely follow Robin and Cyborg, but my gaze turns to tunnel vision and all I can see is the criminal's bright pink and blue accessories. I round the corner to the side street only to watch Beast Boy turn into a turtle below me—two shurikens are thrown at him with incredible pace.
My hands fly out and my eyes turn white; they are stopped before hitting the Titan, and are harshly returned to their owner. The shots miss, however, and the criminal flies back onto the main road unscathed.
"Update:" —I pull my communicator out and speak into it— "he's made of a lot."
As I fly Beast Boy into the air, he grumbles, "I hate this."
"You signed up for this. And besides, it's not anything new."
"You're telling me you've seen these explodey things before?!"
I raise an eyebrow at Beast Boy's amusing antics before flying away. My eyes revert to their usual colours, trusting the green teen's shapeshifting abilities to enable him to land on his feet, and I return to the fight at hand.
"Ember! Wait up!"
I find Raven and Starfire just as the criminal speeds up, flying ahead of them once more. Beast Boy ambushes him in falcon form, only to be met with a flashing shuriken. Right before it explodes in his face, a ball of water surrounds it and hugs the weapon tight, absorbing the blow for him.
"Okay. Am I the only one who's sick of these explodey things?"
Beast Boy—in human form—sits on Raven's platform, dangling his feet over the edge and staring down at the city like he's never seen it before. The vein in the cloaked girl's forehead throbs and her eyes turn to slits.
"Does this look like a taxi to you?" she barks.
"N-n-no. It's way too flat and circley."
Raven wastes no time in creating a hole in the platform; Beast Boy falls right through. He's almost hit by the T-Car, but turns into a pterodactyl in the nick of time and avoids the blow. From inside the land vehicle, Cyborg leans out at the sight of the pink and blue man, who has two shuriken-balls aimed at him.
"I know you're not throwing that in my car!"
A blast from Cyborg's sonic cannon annihilates the masked man's left arm, and my eyes widen at the sight of a weakness. It immediately dissipates, however, as the arm regenerates before our eyes—its colour changes a few times to fit his outfit.
"How did he do that?!?"
"I don't know," I mumble to myself.
My state of shock is so paralysing that I'm unable to stop the ball in the criminal's hand from turning into an all too familiar shuriken and lodging itself in the passenger seat of the T-Car. I'm lucky I had fallen to the car's roof, or I would've fallen miles behind.
Cyborg looks down at it in disdain. "Aw, man..."
I jump off the vehicle just as Beast Boy—still in pterodactyl form—picks Cyborg up. The T-Car explodes and is reduced to a large flame and blue smoke, and the robotic teen can barely afford to look at it.
"Uh, excuse me, but I did not wish to do this when you were not looking."
Starfire's hand curls into a fist and she swings at the criminal. Her previous words—spawned from confidence or an alien custom, I don't know—have cost her the element of surprise, and the masked man swerves out of the way before grabbing her by the arm and flinging her back. Two shurikens explode in her face and she's sent flying back further before being caught by Robin.
I fly down to them, hovering at their altitude. The three of us chase after the pink and blue criminal, only for the two Titans in the R-Cycle to continue straight when he veers left.
"But he went—"
"—down a dead end," I finish, cutting Robin off. "We'll meet him out here."
The second the words leave my mouth, the villain blasts through the building to my immediate left before accelerating beyond belief. Robin readies a laser blaster attached to his front wheel, but none of the shots land, and my fire blasts all miss, too.
Suddenly, we're cut off by a train speeding across the train tracks. At first, I think it's hit the criminal, but short glances of him running away tell me otherwise.
My body reclines to a vertical position and white energy pools in the palms of my hands. I open my closed eyes to reveal a blinding light, as the R-Cycle hovers over the train. Small grunts leave my lips as I slowly lower the vehicle to the ground, and it immediately takes off.
"Starfire! Fly!"
The alien princess obliges, and she pulls Robin into her arms. The Boy Wonder begins to swing his body in my direction as I catch up, and the redhead catches on enough to let go of him, allowing me to catch the boy.
"Think we scared him off?"
Robin shakes his head at Raven's query. "No. He's headed straight for..."
"Titans Tower!"
At Cyborg's words, I turn my attention to our long-time home. The colourful criminal circulates the Tower, leaving behind a trail of pink and blue—the two colours alternate with each blast. Behind the smoke lies desolation, coming in the form of cracked windows and dented steel.
"What's his problem with us?" I question softly.
Momentarily, I had forgotten about the Boy Wonder in my grip. My hold on him loosens before quickly tightening once more, and I offer a reassuring squeeze both at the sight of our destroyed home and the silent promise that I won't actually drop him, despite it not having happened before.
"I don't know," he says firmly, "but it ends now."
"You're gonna lose a lot more than an arm this time!" Cyborg snarls.
Beast Boy's still carrying Cyborg in his claws, and the latter shoots his sonic cannon at the criminal several times. Similar to previous times, all shots are avoided expertly before two shurikens are thrown at the two boys.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
Raven's incantation results in two exceptionally large boulders lifting up under her influence; they crush the criminal with one swift blow. It's only after she releases the rocks that he flies forward, kicking her in the face and sending her flying back into the Tower.
Frowning, I drop Robin off at the roof and launch myself blindly at the masked man. As I free fall, my body's temperature drastically increases and a red flame surrounds me. My outstretched hands are ready to take the criminal's weight down with me, but he sees me in time and moves out of the way.
My eyes turn white to soften the blow, and I roll onto my stomach. I hold my fisted hands in front of me, and a few bolts of fire leave them. One of them lands, and the pain of the impact distracts the criminal enough for Robin to latch on.
The two wrestle in the air, both landing a few punches, before Robin kicks the pink and blue man away and grapples onto the Tower. A well placed birdarang entangles the villain a breath away from me just as he's halted in the air under my influence.
The other Titans land on the ground beside me, and Starfire helps me up. I grin at her and am about to offer my thanks before someone cuts me off.
"Our house!" Cyborg moans, arms outstretched. He looks up at the damage done with wide, almost teary eyes. "Look what he did to our house!"
"Dude, I need a vacation."
I walk up to Robin and kneel down before the criminal as the Boy Wonder tightens the rope binding him. "Who are you? What do you want?"
The colourful criminal looks around desperately, shouting something that appears to be either gibberish or in a foreign language. I glance at Raven curiously, but she shakes her head—it's not a dialect she's familiar with.
"Um, either that wasn't English, or I think I have a concussion," Beast Boy says.
"Could be both," I say offhandedly. "You got hit on the head a few times."
As I turn to look back at the masked man, my gaze locks on the shuriken stuck into the ground in front of us. It reverts its form—changing from a pink shuriken to an innocent ball—and as my eyes turn white, it moves to my hand seamlessly. My expression pulls into a frown as I stare at it, and it doesn't change form as I throw it in my hand.
Robin's features sour as he stands up and looks over my shoulder. I feel his eyes drift to me, and look up at him—only to find us both silently asking each other the same question:
What the hell?
~~~
The desolated tower lies in ruins after the fight with the mysterious criminal whose name is still unknown to us. My eyes flit between the broken windows, dirtied floor, and destroyed furniture in disdain. I sit crosslegged on the floor and my hands, illuminated with a brown hue, part the dust aimlessly.
"What a mess," Raven mutters.
Beast Boy sighs from beside the couch. "I really need a vacation."
"I can rebuild my car, I can repair my Tower," Cyborg wails, "but my sofa? I can't even look."
Unsure of what to do, Starfire flies over to the boy and taps him on the shoulder reassuringly. "Here, here, Cyborg."
A broom and bucket float in the air towards the pair, highlighted black to signify Raven's influence on the items. Cyborg wipes a tear, still upset over the sofa, and smiles at Starfire; both of them then turn to glance at the cleaning devices with confused hums.
"Well," the half-demon says, "this place isn't gonna clean itself."
I stand up slowly and turn to face the majority of the damage. The dust on my body is lifted into the air, alongside any other debris in the room, and it all begins to orbit me. I turn my head to the side, staring out the window, and that's exactly where the rocks go.
"You weren't wrong about this place being a mess, Rae," I remark. My foot snags another rock, kicked up by another Titan, and I throw it out of the window with my hand. "Jesus."
"Tell me about it."
"Dudes, seriously!" the shapeshifter exclaims. "When was the last time we took a vacation?"
"Never."
The five of us turn to Robin, who hasn't said a word throughout this entire process—until now. He's focused on pulling the systems online, a job I thought Cyborg would've taken over by now. One glance at the boy tells me he's still mourning the loss of the couch.
"We're heroes, Beast Boy," the Boy Wonder elaborates. "We don't take vacations." A painful silence fills the room, and Robin breaks it once more. "Basic systems are back online. If anybody needs me, you know where to look."
The Boy Wonder stands up, pushing his chair out, and walks out of the room briskly. The sliding doors slam shut behind him and I stare at them for a few moments before making my decision.
"I'd better go after him," I state, staring after him. "He tends to get a bit... angry during interrogations. Someone should be there to stop him."
No one protests. As I near the doors, I stare back at the Titans I'm leaving behind. All of them but Raven have returned to the cleaning of the Tower. I raise my eyebrows at the half-demon, silently asking her for advice, and it's not long before I hear her voice in my head.
Be careful.
My eyes widen and my jaw drops, unsure if my mind is playing a trick on me. Is it possible for Raven to enter my mind and converse with me like that? I shake my head, collecting myself and my thoughts, and I walk through the doors with my back turned to the girl, pursuing Robin and his subject of interrogation.
~~~
I sigh before pushing the button to open the door to the viewing room, and the whirr of the mechanism fills the silent void created by Robin's thoughts. His figure stiffens; the only indication that he knows I'm here as he keeps his eyes locked on the criminal.
"What are you doing here?"
"Same thing you are," I muse softly. I pick up the villain's nunchucks off the table and flick them between my hands curiously. "Trying to find answers."
I look past the Boy Wonder and through the one-sided window, where I can see the criminal sitting. He's still speaking in another language, but his voice has grown more urgent and demanding—he must think we can understand him.
Luckily for us, there's a way we can do so. I lean forward, accidentally brushing Robin's shoulder with my arm in the process, and push one of the many buttons on the panel. One of the screen's visuals changes, revealing the language of the masked man to be Japanese.
"Translation computer on."
"It might be useful," I remark, and Robin scoffs in amusement.
"Really?"
"You must let me go! I am Saico-Tek!" the criminal—now with a name to his face—exclaims.
Robin huffs. "I'm going in."
I get the feeling that it's not up for debate as he steps through the door—not that I would argue with him about it. Despite knowing he can handle himself, I keep a close eye on the boy in case he gets overwhelmingly agitated and loses control, which is a distinct possibility.
"You are not to stop me! Only he may stop me! I belong in Tokyo!"
"Then why are you here?" Robin seethes, slamming his palms down on the metal table. "You attacked my home, endangered my friends, and if you want to see tomorrow, you're going to tell me why!"
From behind the window, I frown, and my eyebrows knit themselves together. I don't think I'll ever get used to the shift in Robin's demeanour during interrogations like this; I have Batman and his teachings to thank for that. Though it succeeds in draining information out of the subject, I can't help but wonder at what cost in terms of the reputation and mental toll on both the interrogator and the poor soul that they're interrogating.
"I was sent," Saico-Tek musters. "My mission, he made me do it. This Tower, no choice!"
"Who sent you?"
"No! No! I am not supposed to speak!" the Japanese criminal cries. "You are not supposed to catch me! He is worse than any criminal! Angry! Cruel! He will erase me!"
As Saico-Tek speaks, Robin moves over to his side. The criminal stands up and tries valiantly to break free, but the Boy Wonder forces him down with a stern expression that deepens my expression.
"Who sent you to attack our Tower?"
Saico-Tek loses all urgency; his shoulders slouch and he dips his head in resignation before uttering one simple word: "Brushogun."
My eyes turn to slits but widen as the criminal flips on the table, hands still bound. The sprinklers turn on and I race to the door, obscuring my vision of Saico-Tek for a few moments. I run into the room to find Robin soaked to the bone, staring at the empty restraints on the table.
"He got away?" I breathe. The water continues to shoot from the roof, and it drenches me in mere moments.
Robin nods. "He got away."
My body glows with blue energy and water stops coming out of the roof sprinkler. The water on the ground lifts into the air and recedes to the roof, before the liquid on our bodies does the same. I look up to Robin, who still stares at where Saico-Tek was, and watch helplessly as he blames himself for the villain's escape.
~~~
I walk into the living room to find Robin staring at the city through the hole in the wall, the pink ball still in his hands. The other Titans surround him like a crater, all staring at the Boy Wonder hesitantly. I get the feeling something's happened while I've been gone.
"This doesn't make any sense," Robin voices. "People don't just disappear."
Cyborg turns away from one of the scanners on the wall and looks at the Boy Wonder, sighing. "I don't know what to tell you, man. The crime scanner's one of the only things we got working in this place, and it can't find him anywhere."
Raven hovers in the air, eyes closed. After a few moments she sighs and opens them. "I can't make psychic contact either," she tells us.
"Perhaps this Saico-Tek possesses the power of teleportation?" Starfire questions, walking towards Robin.
"I don't think so," I say, making my way to the pair. "He wouldn't have waited so long before getting away."
"Oh! Oh!"
The three of us turn our heads to see Cyborg and Raven next to each other, a green hand sticking over the former's shoulder and waving about enthusiastically. The two Titans near it part, revealing Beast Boy to be jumping up and down.
"Maybe he just wasn't waterproof."
Raven and Cyborg shift to face the shapeshifter and the half-demon's eyes flicker a dangerous red. Both bare their teeth at the youngest Titan and he shrinks in place.
I sigh, pinching the space between my eyes in exasperation. "Beast Boy..."
"I know," he says meekly, cutting me off. "Not helping."
Raven continues glaring at Beast Boy, but Cyborg turns his attention to the matter at hand. "So if the dude vanished into thin air, how are we supposed to find him?"
"By tracking down his boss," Robin replies. "This Brushogun ordered an attack on our headquarters. He nearly destroyed our home. He will be brought to justice."
Robin nods at me and I grin, happy to bear the news to the others. "The Teen Titans are heading to Tokyo!"
Everyone smiles, and Beast Boy jumps in the air. "SWEET!" he shouts. "We're going on vacation!"
Robin opens his mouth and steps forward—likely to clarify that it's not a vacation, but rather just another mission that we're going on—but I place my hand on his chest and stop him. The Boy Wonder looks at me curiously, but I shake my head at him.
"Let him have this."
Robin sighs, and I raise my eyebrows. He closes his mouth and walks away, and I follow him to his room quickly. Before the doors shut behind me, I wave at Beast Boy and his smile somehow broadens further.
~~~
The doors slide open to Robin's room, and I waltz in before collapsing on the bed. My boyfriend stands at his wardrobe, picking out a few suits to pack for Tokyo.
"Have you packed?"
I tilt my head up slightly to see Robin staring down at me with an amused expression. He miraculously folds one of his uniform in the air—it's one of the many things that I'm baffled by his ability to do—and places it on the floor, allowing Silkie to use it as a cushion for his nap.
"Nope." I pop the letters, enunciating the word, and can hear the smile in my voice as I crash my head back onto the pillow.
"Ember," Robin chastises, placing another costume change in his pack and lying it beside the door, "you need to pack, now."
I groan. "All of my stuff's in here, anyway."
It's true. Over the course of the time we've been together, my stuff has slowly migrated from my room to his. Though most of it consists of my clothes, when I look around I can see framed photographs and the like that originated in my bedroom. Robin and I basically share two rooms in the tower—if mine was neater, maybe we'd use them both more equally.
"I'll just pack it with your stuff."
Robin grabs my hand and pulls me off the bed. "Come on." He places a chaste kiss to the corner of my lip, spawning butterflies in my stomach. Every time, I think to myself. "I'll help you."
He walks towards the door, and I frown. "I have enough clothes in here."
"Yeah, but none of it's clean," Robin remarks, a soft chuckle causing his body to rock. "You're as bad as Beast Boy."
"Hey! "
"What?"
"I'll have you know I cleaned it this morning," I scold. "I was just rudely interrupted before I could finish folding it."
Robin walks back inside with me and shuts the door once more. He places his hands on my shoulders and walks beside me. "Well, I'll have to get Saico-Tek to apologise for that when we catch him."
I scowl, before singing, "Not what I was talking about."
The Boy Wonder tilts his head, feigning ignorance. "Oh?" he queries. "And what might you be talking about, exactly?"
I think back to early this morning with happiness as I kneel down to the bundle of clothing and pick up a pair of pants. I had been folding my clothes in the corner of Robin's room—exactly where they are now, beside the wardrobe—and he'd been asleep at the time. The first thing he did upon waking up turned the rest of the morning from something remotely productive into a war.
The sleek grey curtains, pulled across the window wall, let a slither of light through that increases in intensity as the sun rises over the horizon. My eyes, highlighted with a dull red, illuminate the pile of clothes ever so slightly for me to see as I try my best to maintain silence so the boy in the room can sleep—it proves to be increasingly hard as I fumble with the clothes in my hands.
Suddenly, something soft hits me in the back of the head. I freeze, then turn around slowly and pick up the bundled socks, looking up to see Robin's head barely over his quilt. He squints his eyes and juts his head forward to make out the figure in his room, as if he doesn't already know who it is.
My eyes turn from red to white and the curtains slide open, revealing the sunlight and forcing the Boy Wonder awake. He groans and covers his sea-blue eyes with his forearm, hugging the quilt closer to his body, and I pull the socks into my hand before throwing them back at him with deadeye accuracy—not as good as his, though.
Robin sits up and moves his arm back to his side, trying to be subtle in his reach for the pillow behind him. I mimic his action, reaching for two or three pairs of my own socks to catapult at the boy, and his eyes widen in faux shock as my lips tug up.
"Oh, you're done now, babe."
My face contorts into a malicious grin as I stand up, folded socks circling me in the air. I must look like an idiot, I figure, but I don't really care as I begin to launch the clothes at Robin with my bare hands. He dodges the first few before pulling the pillow in front of his face, peeking over it every now and then to check his cover.
I reach behind me for more clothes to throw at him, but turn around when I find nothing. The clothes are soon returned to me as it's Robin's turn to throw them at me, and I pull my pillow from his side over to me—still leaving one for him. I fold it in half and wield it like a shield, even allowing some shots to ricochet off it and using the extra momentum of the wind to carry it over.
After a few more shots, I hold the pillow in front of me and charge at the Boy Wonder, tackling him into his bed. My laughs are muffled by either the quilt or his chest, but his sound throughout the room with no obstruction. The sounds die down after a few moments and we just lie on his bed together.
After a while, I turn my body and look up as much as I can, which doesn't prove to be much. My eyes lock on his and I don't hide it when I stare at them; a fond smile plays on Robin's lips and he begins to space out, almost as if he's contemplating something.
One of the very few downsides of living with the Titans is I barely see Robin out of his uniform, which includes a mask for his eyes. When we were in Gotham, I got to see them all the time, and I didn't realise how much I loved them until I couldn't look into them as often.
"You ruined my sleep in," Robin states.
"Did I?"
The Boy Wonder pretends to think, then shakes his head. "No."
"Thought so." A yawn escapes my lips and I pat Robin's chest tiredly, using it as a pillow. "I'm gonna go to sleep now."
"Oh no, you don't," Robin replies swiftly. "You didn't let me sleep, so you don't get to sleep either."
"That's not fair," I mumble.
"That's the definition of fair," Robin corrects. He sits up, my body still resting against him, and pats my back. "Come on. We've gotta clean my room now."
We had begun folding his clothes—much to my detriment—and had set to doing the same with mine, but the alarm had rung out with news of Saico-Tek's path of destruction. Now, I stare at the pile with distaste and reluctance to pack for Tokyo, despite my jubilance at the closest thing I've gotten to a holiday in a while.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about."
Robin kneels down beside me and picks up one of my shirts with the intention to start folding. "It's not my fault if I wake up, see someone in my room, and decide to defend myself."
"So your first instinct is to throw socks at them."
I can't help but snort at the thought of a criminal being in Robin's room while he's asleep and having an avalanche of socks thrown at them by the boy. It seems to ridiculous to me, but the thought is comforting in the strangest way—it reminds me that at the end of the day, he's just a boy and I'm just a girl.
"Well, maybe socks wasn't the best idea," Robin concedes. He picks up the last of the clothes and folds it briefly before adding it to the pile. "Are we taking these to your room?"
"No. They'll just end up here anyway."
Robin smiles; it's the smile he only shows in front of his friends, when something makes him immensely giddy with delight. He picks up the pile in front of him and offers me his other hand, which I take without hesitation.
"All right, then. Shall we, my fair lady?"
His poor British accent makes me laugh. "We shall, my good sir." I wiggle my eyebrow playfully as I stuff two spare uniforms into my bag, leaving the rest in my boyfriend's room. I sling the backpack over my shoulder and turn to the door, elbow intertwined with Robin's. "To Tokyo!"