Robins True Allegiance 3

Stranded

It had been two weeks since Raven had told us everything, and the nightly meetups had been growing further. It wasn't like we slept in the same bed like we had done that night. But we found being in each others company helped up both sleep better. So when either of us were having a bad night, we'd set up camp on the sofa in the others room and sleep there. Luckily we were both the earliest risers so the others hadn't noticed. I could only imagine the teasing that would ensue if they did. But today we were off to space, the communications from our satellite relay hub had gone down, and we kinda needed them to do our work. So we were all geared up to head out. And it looked trashed when we got there.
"Looks like we found out why communication relays from this space station have stopped," I commented as we moved out of the T-Ship and into the station.
"Everything has been destroyed," Starfire added on as we continued to the main unit.
"I knew it. We've got a malfunctioning biroficating dialator," Cyborg announced once he'd checked it over.
"Yeah, that was my first guess," Raven said as she continued to look at the mess.
"Can you fix it?" I asked.
"No problem," He switched his arm to his tools and turned to get on with it, "I just gotta cross the conjoining wires with the transistor couplers connecting the oscillator to the main data point and we're good to go."
"Can't he ever just speak English?" BB asked and I just shrugged.
So long as he knew what he was doing I was fine. And five minutes later the power was back on.
"She'd purring like a kitten," Cyborg quipped as he turned back to us, "Let's go."
We followed him back towards to ship but one question was playing on my mind, "Why would somebody crash the communication station?"
"Not somebody," Raven answered and stopped, I followed her line of sight to see what looked like a supersized alien cockroach in the supports, "Something."
And the noise it emitted. I felt like I was going to pass out as I was thrown backwards and even when it stopped my ears were ringing. Even my vision had started to swim. Not a good start. And the station was destroyed again, great.
"What was that thing?" Beast Boy asked as he sat back up.
As if I know. But that wasn't going to stop us.
"Titans go," I heard them all coming to follow me as it landed down on the walkway and we began to run at each other. Raven and the boys overtook first, going in on her platforms which then turned to attack the creature as the boys leapt off of it, Cy launching BB at the creature as he turned to a variety of dinosaurs, only to be grabbed by the tail and launched at Cy, thankfully Raven moved him out the way in time, only for the monster to scream at them and send them flying when they appeared behind him. So that was it's primary attack then.
Star quickly drew it's attention with a few Starbolts and he stopped advancing on my friends to turn to us instead.
"We've gotta stop it before it screams again," I ordered, that was out best bet after all. I leapt into the air as Star shot a bolt at it and grabbed a chain, swinging around and pulling it down to the walkway with me. It was heavier than I thought it would be, not cheap metal then, but still useable. I built up speed spinning it and then threw it at the monster, smirking when it landed around it's mouth and kept spinning until it got stuck there.
Star instantly sent out a barrage of bolts only for it to leap up and over at her.
"Starfire, watch out," She moved out the way at the last second before turning and shooting her eye lasers at him.
But he curled up like an armadillo, and his back armour held against as he uncurled and came running back at her. I ran towards the support beam that was holding the walkway up, leaping up onto it and then pushing up and across towards the monster, landing on his back and jumping straight back up, turning to launch some explosives at it. But he was still unaffected as the smoke cleared and he just came running back at us. Time for a new idea.
I turned to run, Star catching on a moment later as she followed. And then I leapt over the railing at the end and down towards the fuel source, the creature crashing down after us. I held out my hand and Star grabbed it, changing us to fly back up as the Creature fell past us and into the liquid.
"Good job," Cy said as he came back to landing.
"Nice."
"Sweet."
"Great work, Starfire," I said as I playfully punched her on the arm, and it was.
We'd never practised that, but she picked it up. She really was getting good at this thing.
"I could not have done it without your assistance," She replied and her punch actually hurt, she didn't know her own strength sometimes.
"Nice arm," I commented as I shook it out a little.
"I too admire your abundant limb strength," Thanks, I guess?
"Let's go," Cyborg cut in before I could say anything else, "Unless you wanna stay here goofing around with your girlfriend."
What did he just say? I turned around to see a smirk on all three of their faces, but it was Raven I looked at. For some reason I wanted her to know the most, in case she ever needed me she knew she wasn't second place in my list of priorities.
"She's not my girlfriend."
"I am not your friend?" What? Not you are my friend Star, but not my girlfriend.
How was I going to explain this to her?
But thankfully I didn't have to as the station shook and I looked over the edge to see our screaming buddy climbing his way back up to us.
"I am not a girl?" Bigger issues Star.
"Maybe this isn't the best time," I replied as I heard the creature burst through the floor behind me.
"If I am not your girlfriend, then what am I?" I could hear the other three's quiet snickers as I turned to find her directly behind me.
But then I turned back to the monster as his scream began to shake the whole station.
"She's gonna blow," Cyborg called out as it started to fall apart around us.
And I didn't have my chip on me. I wouldn't survive if the vacuum of space got in here. The others would, but right now, I kinda didn't want to die, and to be fair, they wouldn't necessarily survive the explosion.
"Titan's run!"
I didn't have time to dodge around obstacles as I pulled ahead of the team and part of the support fell. Instead I just leapt up, calculating the rate of collapse slightly wrong, and so had to push off of it with my hand to clear and land the other side, not faltering a step. But then I was blown from my feet as the beast screamed at us again, I didn't have time for this.
"Robin," I looked over to see Star coming to help me up.
Just because I was badly injured and struggling myself doesn't mean you put yourself in danger, "Get out of here," And she headed back towards the ship herself.
Just ignore the pain, the way Bruce taught me to. I didn't have time to use Slade's technique to work with it, work around it. I just needed to get in that ship.
I was the last to jump in, not wasting a second as I set the plate to spin and put on my headset.
"Robin may I-" Star begun but I cut her off, "Give me space."
Right now, I just needed to get everyone out of here alive.
The ship took off, the engines taking as much power as I could divert to them but we weren't going to clear it.
"Brace yourselves!"
The ship began to spin as the knockout from the explosion hit it and I could hear Star scream through the comms. But it began to slow down after a couple minutes and I felt some of the others get back on the controls as they became easier to steer.
"Is everyone okay?" I asked once we'd fully righted.
"Define okay," Well, Raven was perfectly fine then.
But then something hit the back of the ship and rolled to the front on my window. The creature was back.
"This thing just won't take a hint," Beast Boy commented.
"I think we can shake it," I replied as it began to open it's mouth and I was staring at lines of teeth, "Don't separate. I repeat, don't separate."
And then the controls changed to individual wielders as they did exactly the opposite.
"NO," But it was too late, the engines didn't have enough fuel for all of us to fly separately, not after the escape.
I needed to get them back.
I put my thrusters on full, keeping half an eye on the tank. Not only had they gone, they'd left me with the thing. And I needed to burn him off. And it worked as he went flying over my head, but he'd blocked my view. I was headed straight towards some other planet. The controls were starting to fry from the power overload and the sky was just red clouds. This wasn't going to be a good landing. I diverted my attention for just a second to grab my space chip and place it on my throat, the technology covering me so that if I did crash, at least I wasn't instantly dead. But in that time the clouds had cleared and I was heading straight into a forest of what looked like thorns until I ended up stuck in one of them. The top instantly fell off and towards the ground as I hung upside down in the thorn tree and I was glad I had put the chip on. I pulled out my comms, don't worry about getting down yet, I needed to find the others.
"Titans, come in, are you alright? Titans?"
But it was just static back, comms were down. Shit.
I put it back in my pocket and unbuckled my belt, quickly grabbing onto the edge so I was right way up and then dropping onto the branch below me. Ignore the pain, ignore the pain. Bigger issues to deal with.
"Cyborg?" My voice just echoed into the night, "Beast Boy? Raven? Starfire?" But there was no reply apart from my own voice.
This was not good. Not good at all. But I had to find them. The ship had tracking on, maybe that was still operational. But no luck, I guess I was doing this the old fashioned way. At least I could still feel the bond with Raven, and there was no panic or pain. She was okay, I just had to find her.
I moved through the forest, using a birdarang to cut away the shrubs as they got in the way of my path. And as I cleared out the forest I saw smoke. Another part of the ship. In fact, three parts of the ship were here. Beast Boy's, Cyborg's and Star's. Where had Raven gotten to? Cyborg and Beast Boy's were already opened, they weren't there, but Star's was still closed.
"Starfire," Please tell me she was alright, she had to be alright. The top was harder to rip off than I thought it would be, but when it opened and I looked inside it wasn't Star. Instead I was hit back by some green gloopy six legged dog monster thing. I rolled down the hill and looked up in time to see it leaning over me. Well, let's get this over with, I have people to find. I brought myself into a crouch and propelled myself backwards as it leapt down where I had been moments before. It didn't hesitate as it continued to run at me, and I ran straight back towards it.
"What did you do to Starfire?" Maybe it understood English.
I launched myself at it, hands extended to push it down to the ground and kick it back up and over away. But that didn't work as my hands just stuck to it and I went rolling back and over a cliff with it, accidentally also attaching my head to it's body. Not my most graceful moment. We came to a flying stop against a piece of rock that stuck from the ground and were ripped from each other.
He continued to roll down the rest of the hill whilst I flipped to land on my feet and slide down behind it. It went flying over a little ledge at the bottom and I sent out my foot into his chest as I flew into the air. Only for it to get stuck as well. I tried to brace my hands against it's body to pull it through but they just got stuck as well and I was forced to contort in ways I hadn't since the circus to avoid it's mouth as it tried to bite my head off. Okay, so just avoid the body mass at all costs. I pulled my other foot up and through to go against his mouth, that shouldn't stick. And it didn't as I pulled away from him with all my strength, breaking free with a start and flipping over backwards to land on my feet facing him. And when I looked back over, where I had previously been stuck in him just healed over. Not good, not good at all. He went back down onto all six legs and came running at me, and I was stuck to the ground with his goop as I tried to leap out the way. New plan, need a new plan.
I grabbed an explosive and tried to throw it, but it got caught on enough of the goo on my hand that it stuck there, please say it wouldn't explode and kill me. I was pushed over onto my back, my hands now sticking themselves to the floor as I was made immobile and the thing loomed over me.
This couldn't be how I went out, it couldn't be. I wouldn't allow it to be, but what else could I do? I was in pain everywhere, stuck under this creature that seemed indestructible. It was almost embarrassing to admit this was how Robin would be taken down. And that no one would be able to find me. Maybe they'd die here looking for me, maybe they'd admit to themselves the truth and head back without me.
But I didn't have to think about that any longer as I was covered in the green goop and the weight removed from atop me. I had just enough freedom of movement left to look over to see Starfire stood atop an outlook, a bow in hand.
"Starfire," The joy that overtook me, both at the fact I'm still alive and that one of the others are at the very least too. And it would seem that now the creature is dead whatever had been activating in it's goo was down and I could escape.
I didn't waste a moment before I ran over to her, "You're alright."
But she didn't move, and she didn't smile as I came to a stop in front of her. In fact, her body language seemed almost hostile. Had something happened?
"Greetings to you fellow Titan, Robin. To see you unharmed is satisfying," Something had definitely happened then, but what?
"Starfire-" I didn't get a chance to ask as she cut me off, "We should make with the haste to find the others."
"What's wrong with you?" Probably could have put that nicer, but at the moment I'm just a little concerned but she didn't reply as she walked off, not turning to look back.
This was going to be a long walk if she was going to be like this the entire time.