Teen Titans In The Field (3)

Bio Lab

Tim Drake

We entered the building in stealth, splitting up. Since Lena had the least freedom of movement in her mech, she was going to take up position to block retreat while Starfire and I flushed the villains out of the lab. Prior to the start I got Starfire to get the radio channel the security team wanted to use. We communicated with them as we went, having doors unlocked and routes planned for us around the 'top secret' areas.

Using Lena's heat-goggles, I'd need to work some of these into my costume, I kept track of them through the floors as we centred in on the Bio-Lab.

On the map at each elevator a full map of the experiments was, sadly, not posted. It didn't even list departments other than to say 'Department D' or 'Section J' and while the sections in the  building were well lit, with keycard doors and nice painted walls, they were also epicly unhelpful.

Looking through the floor beneath me I could see a giant cold spot over part of the lab, likely lined with insulation that completely blotted out one of the two figures inside the lab. I did see another figure, clearly sneaking around outside the lab, standing in low squat positions and watching. Probably a hero trying to decide the best approach.

Starfire was unmissable, a glowing white figure in the heat-vision that casually walked through the halls below me, I quietly radioed in. our location and actions.

"Okay, so we agree not to abuse anything we see. The plan to is flush the villains back out the lab to our tech-expert." I reported to the guards, "We'll need you to open a door for one of our members, and I'm already in position!"

"Understood, you'll see a platoon of my guards arriving on the floor. You're okay to work with them!" I nodded, remembering they can't see that and called back "Affirmative!".

Seeing the guards on the move, I called back into the open channel on my phone, "Go, go, go!" and we dropped into the area in unison.

I entered near the cold spot, at the far exist of the spot on the other side of the lab, the door did not pop open. "Security, security, is there something wrong?"

No answer, just static. Pulling out a keycard from my utility belt, one with a small computer attached I slotted it through the reader on the door. Two attempts later and the door unlocked, this room was impressive and cluttered. Like a giant hydroponics lab, whole arrays of weird and unusual plants, including flowers, strange coloured fruits and super colourful mushrooms were set up in trays in cordoned off glass cages. Each cage was it's own hydroponics bay, with temperature control, lights and carefully controlled watering systems inside them, big enough that somebody could walk inside and analyse the plants.

Just inside the door was a rack of hazmat suits, the kind used when dealing with toxic substances. Which would explain the security, I entered anyhow.

"None of this looks anything like either brief! Mum said we'd be looking for giant rose-buds and Bad Penny was looking for..." A young voice appeared to be checking a list, co-ordinating with her counterpart, "Carnivorous Tomatoes?"

"Well there's plenty of carnivorous things, carnivorous daisies, carnivorous melons, carnivorous." The second voice stopped, using the heat vision I could identify the two girls walking down the rows of lab experiments. I could also see Starfire, on the other side of a wall waving at me. Because of course she could see me, I waved back and saw her brace.

Checking that Lena was in place I asked, "Ultragirl a go?" and got no response. Something was clearly jamming out signals.

"AAAH! I found it! Carnivorous Tomatoes! Says they eat bugs, and also wide range of EM frequencies. Oh, they're a security device!" I was slowly beginning to identify the two voices as 'Perky and excitable' vs 'dry and sarcastic'.

A second later, Starfire smashed down a door. I hesitated, then calmly went from my crouched hidden pose to a flat, disinterested walk with the two distracted. The idea was to try and leash the girls together with the carbon ties we used when arresting criminals. She moved through the air as though dancing, muttering to herself, no doubt listening to the music in her head. She moved smoothly though, catching the kids on opposite sides of the room to each other.

"I wanna kiss you but I ooh, so many new words!" Starfire muttered, focusing in on the closest to her. The costumes of these kids caught me off guard, they looked professionally made if childish. Closer to me, a girl with long blond hair and a knee-length dress squared up for fighting, she had leaves and flowers running down her arms and legs and did not look combat trained.

The other youth, girl? Boy? The one closer to Starfire did look trained, they wore a more practical outfit of boots, leggings, shorts and checker-board shirt!

As plant-girl turned back towards me, trying to track both my movement and Starfire's, I reached and caught one of her hands. Sliding into a movement that would pull her across me, a simple practiced twist would let me get at least one 'industry standard strap' in place putting the girl prone.

"STRIKE!" The other kid called out, and I reassessed my judgement. Leaping back I felt rather than saw the sudden change in scenery behind me, rapid growth as what (according to the sign) was a crop of 'Super fast Been-sprout, flowering experiment!' suddenly grew, pressing against their enclosure. Giving up on my earlier plan I strapped myself to the captured hand.

"Cease your antics foul villains!" I caught Starfire's monologue, she posed like Lena did for a moment, before flying trying to pluck the checker-board girl off the ground. "Not that I think you smell or anything!" she confirmed, before attempting a similar strap.

The kid's covered each other, both using plant magic. The one already sprouting flowers made her vines grow, attempting to wrap Starfire in a cocoon. Meanwhile I struggled to pull her away from the fight, and the massive tangle of vines that burst from the bean-plants. On the other side, checker-girl was clearly focusing her powers on the plants spread through the room. The lab quickly became over-run with sheer growth.

"QUIN!" the plant girl called, they lashed themselves together, trying to use each other for leverage. Big mistake!

"Mwa ha ha, oh, wait, no I don't want to burn plants!" I stared at Star incredulously as the fire she'd been building suddenly damped down. Instead she used the vines to pull both youths, and myself towards her.

"We need fire here!" I called out.

"No we don't!" a new voice interrupted the room, Lena stalked in with her power armor. In it's firm grip, struggling but not genuinely trying to escape was a much older woman, with a camera, a parabolic mic and a sheepish expression.

"Hi kiddo's! Now, I know how this looks, genuinely I'm not here to interfere!"

"MUUUUM!!"

"HARLEY!!!!" the two kids called out over-top each other, and for a moment the chaos ceased.