Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Back to the Present ❯ Who Are You? ( Chapter 3 )

BACK TO THE PRESENT
Chapter 3: Who the Hell AreYou?

By Jacque Nicole

“Umm... Starfire?”

For at least the fifth time in the past thirty seconds, the twenty six-year-old superhero tried to revert the attention of his young female companion back to himself. For fifteen minutes, she'd been staring at the Boy Wonder from across the deck, longing brimming in her breathtaking green eyes.

“Oh, I apologize for my lack of attention, Nightwing. I have been… preoccupied…” she replied, glancing once again at Robin.

Nightwing sighed. Was there nothing he could do to make Starfire notice him? “Would you like some punch?”

“Punch?” Starfire's brow furrowed in confusion. “You wish to hit me?” she asked, slightly offended.

“Oh, no, no, Star. I'd never ever hurt you. I love—” Nightwing began but quickly cut himself off. He shouldn't tell her how he felt just yet. “Punch is another name for juice,” he replied instead.

“Well then, I'd appreciate some `punch'. Thank you.”

Nightwing lethargically made his way over to the punch bowl, feeling rejected. `After all this time,' he thought to himself, `after all those years of waiting to be with her, all I can do is sit and watch her fall in love with another guy?' He clenched his jaw. `No way, especially since he looks like he's doing just fine without her.' Just across the room, Robin and Kitten were engaged in what looked like a riveting conversation.

The vigilante approached the punch bowl with newfound determination. A group of teenagers were giggling and pointing at him from across the room and whispering amongst themselves. Filling up a cup with punch, he gave the group a little wink, causing them to giggle even more. What would you expect from the son of a playboy?

“Here you go,” he flirtatiously said to Starfire, giving her the cup of punch.

Starfire smiled widely at him. “I am thankful.”

Making sure there were no moments of awkward silences, Nightwing initiated a conversation, knowing how much the Tamaranian girl loved to talk. “So,” he said. “What's Tamaran like?”

XOXOXOXOX

Poor Robin was struggling not to strangle his date. He could not get Kitten to shut up! Deciding to use her talkative nature to his advantage, Robin began to grill Kitten on her relations with Killer Moth.

“So... How does Killer Moth know you?” asked the Boy Wonder.

Raising and eyebrow, Kitten tentatively asked, “Why do you want to know?”

`Because my friends are fighting at a bridge, trying to keep this city safe from that fuckin' psycho,' Robin thought, but he replied, “I was just wondering. You know, making small talk.”

Slightly hesitant, she responded. “He's my father.”

This information surprised Robin, who was hardly ever shocked. He sat forward in his chair. “Really? You look nothing like him,” he said sarcastically

“He genetically mutated himself, duh!” Kitten replied, as if the information was already obvious. “His obsession with moths completely took over his life, ya know?”

Woah, this was way more information than Robin had bargained for. This was easy... maybe too easy. “Where did he get the equipment to conduct such complex experiments?” asked the Boy Wonder, falling into interrogation mode.

Shrugging, Kitten replied, “I don't fucking know where he got the machines and technology, and quite frankly, I don't give a damn. All I know is that he did it in our basement.”

“Your basement?”

“Sure, there's a lab down there.”

“Did your father want this kind of information to be known, especially by me?”

Kitten scoffed, once again reverting to her bratty personality. “Probably not, but I don't give two shits about what he thinks. I hate him!”

“Oh?”

“And here,” she said, tossing Robin a remote control. “Press the big red button in the center and every moth in the city will go fleeing back into the lab. Press the green button and they'll revert back into their larva form, making them entirely harmless.”

“Umm... thanks...” replied Robin, still wary of trusting her.

“And also, that girl over there has been staring at us for a while.”

Robin looked to where Kitten had pointed.

It was Starfire.

Robin cringed when he saw Nightwing approach her with a drink in his hand. His heart ached when Starfire gave her date a smile that she usually reserved for him. The Boy Wonder clutched the remote control so tightly that he knew that his knuckles were turning white. Trying to control his anger, Robin pushed the red button, all doubt of trusting Kitten temporarily forgotten. He had to deal with the Killer Moth issue first. When he was out of the way, he'd work on Nightwing.

XOXOXOXOX

A peculiar looking green flea jumped unnoticed thorough the green woolly mammoth's pelt. Cyborg began to slip again and the queer white light once again righted him on the beam. A blast that did not come from the teenage robot killed three more mutants. Cyborg was right, Raven realized. Something strange was going on.

Without warning, the remaining moths flew in one direction, seemingly regrouping elsewhere.

An agitated Cyborg climbed off of the bridge's supports. If he had any hair he probably would have been yanking it all out in frustration. Beast Boy de-transformed back into his normal form and flicked a bug off of his ear.

“What just happened?” Raven's monotonous voice rang out in the silence.

“You want to know what just happened? Somebody's playing with my fucking mind is what's happening,” Cyborg screamed. “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!”

Beast Boy nudged Raven. “I think Cy's finally lost it.”

“No,” replied Raven. “He has a point. Someone has been helping us.”

“Huh? I didn't see anything,” said the green changeling.

“That's because you've always been the dumb one,” a voice that sounded like Cyborg's ridiculed from the shadows.

“Hey!” two offended voices said simultaneously.

“Huh?” Beast Boy said. He was sure he had heard another voice from behind him.

“See! I told you something weird was going on! What the fuck!?”

“Did I really curse that much when I was a teenager?” Future Cyborg whispered to Raven.

“Yea,” the half demon answered her companion. “You still do. And I've always had to tell you to—”

“C'mon Cy. No need for that kind of language,” teenage Raven said.

“This is driving me crazy!” the teenage robot ranted. Finally he snapped. He powered up his energy cannon and aimed it into the darkness. “Show yourselves or I'll shoot!”

A voice chuckled mockingly. “No you won't.”

Cyborg's arm trembled before he lowered it once more. “Who are you? Why do you sound like me?”

The voice laughed a long and disturbingly familiar laugh. Cyborg stiffened. “Because,” said the voice. Future Cyborg stepped out of the darkness, Raven and Beast Boy at his side. “I am you.”

...End Chapter 3...

Length: 1,134

Posted: July 25, 2004
Last Edit: August 22, 2006