A Friend in Need

Brothers' Mountain

"Haha! That homing signal for the T-ship came in handy," Cyborg rejoiced. The team flew across the plains to Brothers' Mountain. The mountain's gray craggy jagged peak punctured the sky. The clouds surrounding it grew dark and hungry, like a fluffy monster with gray eyes. Beast Boy glared at the mountain, never flinching for a moment. "So what's the plan now?" Cyborg asked. "Toros knows we're on to him."

"We get to the mountain, stop the processing plant, and stop the Alpha terrorists," Robin said.

"What about Toros?" Starfire asked.

"Leave him to me," Beast Boy answered grimly. Raven looked at him through the ship's window hub.

"Be careful," she said.

"Don't worry. Toros won't beat me this time."

"I meant you. Remember, at the core, Toros is doing the same thing you would be doing. Like Robin did when he was Slade's apprentice."

"Don't remind me," Robin slowly rumbled through clenched teeth.

"What does that have to do with Toros and me?" Beast Boy asked.

"Because he is still your friend," Starfire said. The green teen absentmindedly looked at his control panel and grunted. He hated it when they were right.

Suddenly, a beeping noise rattled the T-ship. "Cyborg! What's wrong?"

"Someone's trying to jam our electronics! We should be fine, but it's coming from somewhere below." Beast Boy looked down on the receding plains. As the grass changed to dirt and dust on a rocky stretch of land, dark green Jeeps roared across the plain with a sprinting cheetah leading them.

"It's Toros. I'll take care of them."

"No, we need you here, Beast Boy."

"Robin-"

"I said no. Let them find us at the processing plant. We can fight them there and dispose of the whole operation with one shot," Robin replied. Beast Boy huffed, crossing his arms. He was right, but he didn't like it. As the T-Ship zoomed faster out of the jamming range, they closed in on the mountain. The clouds grew dark and angry, but the incoming storm made something stand out. Zooming past the tall cloud-clothed peak, a massive yard of trucks and even trains were sprawled out on a flat circular enclosure like hungry ants behind the mountain guarded by a sharp rock border. "There it is. Land over there by the trees."

"Wait!" Garfield shouted. "Starfire, make sure you have something around your nose."

"Why?"

"Because I don't need your Snotbolts blowing something up."

Sniff "I will not." Her voice was already stuffy. All the Titans grimaced. "Perhaps you are right."

As the team landed, Garfield jumped out, leering at the uranium site. "Let's finish this, Toros."

The Titans crept over to the yard. With the great big mountain at its back, the dark clouds overhead rumbled softly with distant thunder, adding to the yard's noisy trucks and freight cars. The team crouched behind some piping equipment as the animal-masked henchmen packaged and shipped the uranium. The ore came in long tubes through a conveyor belt embedded in the mountain. The tubes were carefully handled by the henchmen and placed into the trucks. Garfield squatted with Cyborg and peeked around the corner. "Something's not right. If they don't have a reactor, what are they using the stuff for?" Beast Boy asked. "Maybe they're just using weapons."

"No, my sensors are still picking up the uranium, but it's already been processed."

"Huh?"

"Uranium isn't useful when it's pumped straight out of the ground," Cyborg explained to BB. "They have to purify it. But if it's already coming out in those tubes, then it's already processed."