Back at the Tower, the rest of the team were falling victim to their lack of arsenal.
With only 3 members there to fight, their coordination was lost, and the team could not move as one entity.
At least there was an even 3v3 playing field.
Mammoth went after Robin, serving as a great much of Speed vs Strength.
"Come here, little birdy!" Mammoth teased, chasing the boy wonder up the Titans Tower staircase.
"Gotta catch me first. A bit of cardio ought to do you some good." Robin said, throwing a fire extinguisher down at Mammoth, before leaping further up the staircase.
• • • • • • • •
Jinx went after Beast Boy. Her powers of bad luck came in very handy due to the surrounding electrical components of Titans Tower's systems.
Beast Boy leaped and scattered down the basement hallway as a monkey, while Jinx exploded the fuse boxes that lined the walls.
"What's the matter? Afraid of a little bad luck? Scared that you're little friend Y/N isn't here to save you?" She sinisterly spoke.
• • • • • • • •
On the other hand, Gizmo had taken Cyborg. This was not good news. On a physical scale, Cyborg beat Gizmo out of the park, no question. However, what put Gizmo ahead was his technical genius. A genius that arguably outweighed Cyborg's.
"Show your face, you rusty kluz-bucket!" Gizmo called out, walking on 4 robotic spider legs as he scouted for the cybernetic teen down the hallway.
As he proceeded down a specific doorway, Cyborg steadily began to creep up behind him, attempting to disrupt the boy-genius' systems.
Suddenly, the door closed behind him, and Gizmo's face appeared on several monitors that lined the walls of the room.
"Hey, tin man, got a heart under all that crud-wear? Guess I gotta take you apart and find out!" The boy's voice spoke from the various monitors.
Cyborg looked up, to see Gizmo hurtling down toward him. "Oh, shoot."
• • • • • • • •
Robin and Mammoth had taken their brawl into the gym, where Robin's combat abilities struggled to match Mammoth's mass and strength.
Robin hurled a flash bomb towards Mammoth, the dispensement of tear gas blinding him upon impact. Mammoth yelped in extreme discomfort.
As his eyes quickly cleared up, he looked in front of him, and Robin was gone.
"What the-" Before Mammoth could finish, he felt the Boy Wonder grasp onto his neck from behind, landing several punches to his face.
Mammoth began to attempt to thrash Robin away, as the effects of the flash bomb had not entirely worn off.
"Thrashing only makes me hold tighter," Robin grunted.
Mammoth snickered, "Tight enough for this?"
He swiftly grabbed Robin by the arms and launched him towards the barbell racks.
His impact had knocked some of the plates off of their racks, as one landed on Robin's ankle, rendering him unable to get up to defend himself.
He screamed in pain, "You're not gonna get away with this!"
Mammoth laughed as he approached Robin, "Oh, is that right?"
• • • • • • • •
On Beast Boy's end, Jinx had proved to be quite a difficult target to confront. The abundance of technological components inlaying the Towers walls left plenty of opportunities for Jinx's bad omen to break them loose, posing great threats of electrocution.
"Phew, lost her." Beast Boy sighed and he bent over in exhaustion.
Then, a ceiling panel fell loose above him, knocking him to the ground as it impacted his head.
"This just isn't your lucky day," she taunted.
Without saying a word, the changeling morphed into a T-Rex, letting out a mighty roar, the projection of which Jinx stabilized herself.
She then cast her back luck on the ground below the dinosaur to weaken it. Beast Boy's weight on top of the unstable caused it to collapse, as the changeling fell through.
• • • • • • • •
Cyborg ran through two sliding doors leading to Titans Tower's storage area.
He had managed to swiftly dodge Gizmo's pounce from earlier, but he knew that the boys' surplus of weaponry would render him superior in the battle.
"Damn kids," Cyborg grunted.
Gizmo soon followed in from the sliding doors, swinging two of his mechanical spider legs toward Cyborg.
Thankfully, he caught both of them, before throwing Gizmo down to the ground and disabling his machine-pack.
"Hey! Let go of me you skuz-munchin' zit!" Gizmo exclaimed as he ran away behind a set of wooden crates.
"How're you gonna fight me without your tech?" Cyborg taunted the boy.
Eventually, Cyborg lifted up a crate, to find Gizmo hiding behind it, staring up at Cyborg in shock.
"Ah ha-! Huh? What?!", Looking down, Cyborg found he had stepped on an active holographic projector.
He heard Gizmo giggle, as he saw the projection in front of him disappear.
"Where did you- Hey!" Cyborg scanned his surroundings for Gizmo before he felt the small boy jump on his back, wriggling a hand through his system compartments.
"Yo, what are you-"
"Woah, ejector arm. Cool!" Gizmo gawked, taking control of Cyborg's hardware components.
Cyborg's arm popped off, as Gizmo continued to fool with his circuits.
"Get off! Get off me! Stop! AHHH!" Gizmo triggered Cyborg's circuits to overload his sonic canon, sending him flying through the roof of the Tower, landing in the ocean off Titan Island.
• • • • • • • •
As he landed, Robin and Beast Boy accompanied him, crashing down into the water on either side of him.
Robin failed to stay afloat, as he choked for air.
"Robin! You okay dude?" Beast Boy questioned.
"My- Ankle... Can't- tread water!" Robin spat out total mouthfuls of water as he spoke.
"Hey! Look out!" Beast Boy pointed ahead of them, as Jinx summoned a huge tidal wave towards the 3 Titans.
"Have a nice afterlife, you snot-eatin' losers!" Gizmo called, as the H.I.V.E turned away from the window, retreating into Titans Tower.
As the tidal wave swept the teens up, they crashed into the bay on the edge of the river, coming to their senses as they caught their breath, and cleared their sinuses from water and sediment from the riverbed.
It was very quiet.
"So, uh...who else never wants to go surfing again?", Beast Boy joked.
"Not now man." Cyborg spat out.
"I was just trying to-"
"Save it Beast Boy," the Boy Wonder chimed in, "We failed." He recklessly crawled up the slope of the hill on the bay, carefully ensuring his delicate ankle was not caught on any loose sediment on the shore.
Devastation filled Robin as he stared at the T-shaped tower on Titan Island in the middle of the river that ran through Jump City. The ruckus-filled ambiance of the cityscape immersed him in his failures, as here he was, back on the streets.
He had failed. Not only himself but his team. The ease with which Y/N annihilated Cinderblock played on repeat in his head. He had very briefly considered submitting the pardoned criminal to the team but quickly brushed off that thought.
He told himself it was because of his criminal record, which he had yet to delve into. But, deep down, he knew that it was his petty sense of pride, which felt threatened in Y/N's presence.
Needlessly to say, growing up in the watchful eye of the Bat definitely had its personal drawbacks.
"Robin, what happened?" Beast Boy took site of Robin's injured state.
"Mammoth happened. A 100-pound metal plate is more than enough to turn your joints to mush."
Beast Boy rushed over to his aid, hoisting him up by the underarms to a stable position on the edge of the bay.
"Thanks." The Boy Wonder expressed. "Cyborg, any word from Starfire or Raven on Y/N?"
"I got zilch. My systems are fried. I can't pick up a location on their Communicators. Let's just hope we have a good explanation as to why we're not in our own house." Cyborg grunted, "I knew I should've given Y/N a communicator."
"No point in repentance now, Cyborg." Robin attempted to stumble his way to his feet, relying on a nearby fence post for support.
"There's gotta be a way to get our home back. There has to be." The Boy Wonder said under his breath, loud enough for his teammates to hear.
"Of course there is. We'll find a way out of it... Like we always do. R- Right?" Beast Boy uttered. He didn't even believe his own words.
Cyborg huffed as he addressed his two teammates. "Don't you guys get it?"
He hastily stomped closer to Robin and Beast Boy, his face falling in despair. "See that?" He pointed over at the Tower. "That was our home. Notice how we're out here? In the low-life wasteland of Jump City? And not under our own roof? Yeah, that's right. We lost!".
"Cyborg-" Robin interjected, only to be very quickly cut off.
"Y/N's gone! Starfire and Raven are probably halfway across the country with no means of communication! We're washed up on the shore of Dump City! It's over!"
Suddenly, a voice spoke from behind them.
"Did I miss something?"
The three teens whipped their heads around.
"Y/N?", Robin spoke.
Y/N stood, illuminated by a street light, accompanied by Raven and Starfire on either side.
"Sorry we're a little late. We stopped for ice cream on the way back, which subsequently evolved into Starfire indulging in her obsession with 'Earth beauty accessories'. My apologies. I didn't realize what a show I was missing out on here."
he observed the Tower from a distance.
"Funny. It sounded like Cyborg said 'It's over'. Well, that's a shame. I was really starting to like this place. Also, what the heck to your arm?", Y/N gestured to Cyborg's missing right arm.
"Friends, what has occurred in our time of absence?" Starfire queried, absorbing the sight ahead of her.
"It was the H.I.V.E. They took us down and took our home as a trophy." Cyborg spoke in a low voice."
"And your arm," Y/N joked.
"And you allowed them to take it?" Raven interrupted, approaching Robin and Cyborg
"His arm or the Tower?" Y/N asked as he continued to observe the state of the tower.
No one responded, as expected
Starfire helped Robin to his feet.
"We didn't. We tried to stop them, but they swarmed us from every angle," the Boy Wonder said in response to Raven.
"They fried us like tofu bacon." Beast Boy exclaimed.
"Well, they do always say that the engine only works when all the parts are in order," Y/N stated.
"What engine?" Beast Boy scratched his head.
Raven slapped him over the head.
"Ohhhh. Okay, I get it." He smiled a toothy smile.
"But what's left for us to do?" Cyborg asked, to no one in particular.
Y/N addressed the team, "Don't worry, guys. I have a plan."
Consider it...
• • • • • • • •
Hey there guys! I apologize if this chapter felt a little underwhelming, considering the events of the last few chapters.
But don't abandon me just yet. There's some stuff planned that I think you oughta enjoy.
Anyway, stay tuned! I'll see you guys next time.