Not Part of the Job [ORIGINAL]

6. Broken Bones

Starfire, Raven, Blue Beetle, and Beast Boy hid at a distance while Redbird snuck toward the doctor to scout out the strange corridor under the sewers. Redbird put on special gloves to help him crawl upside down the sewer tunnels until he was right on top of the muttering doctor. Little hair remained on his head and a ungroomed beard rested of his chin, white as snow. He wore a tattered, white doctors coat, covered in strange colors and sewage remnants, and his skin looked deathly pale.

"T-This is going to work... T-This is going to work," Redbird heard the mad man stutter and repeat to himself while scavenging his work station. Vials of various liquid laid on a lab table and large alligators surrounded him, hidden under the sewage water.

"There's at least twelve ridiculously huge alligators. Probably more I can't see," Redbird whispered on the comms.

"We need to defeat everything at once. Let Raven pull down the ceiling," Blue Beetle suggested in a low voice.

"We might hurt a lot of people that way. I sense a building over us," Raven replied.

They all looked looked to their leader Starfire and waited for her to give the final plan. "We should not rush into battle hastily." She finally announced. "There is a high probability that this place is trapped..."

"I might be able to communicate with the Alligators and see what's up." Beast Boy suggested, "But I have my doubts about doing that."

The doctor stopped playing with his potions and leaned over to an alligator. "W-What's that? Someone's watching us?"

"I think he noticed us!" Beast Boy said into the comms louder than intended. The giant alligators noticed the group hiding behind the corridor and quickly began to close the distance.

"We are out of time. Defeat the gators first. Titans go!" Starfire shouted.

The Titan's scattered to overwhelm the pursuing gators. Redbird however immediately pulled out his ecrisma sticks and attempted a plunging attack onto the doctor from the ceiling.

"What?" Redbird asked in surprise after landing.

The doctor turned his head and gave Redbird a sinister smile. "O-Oh, I-I didn't see you there." His muscles flexed and suddenly grew twice the size, tearing apart his clothing, then took a swift swing a Redbird.

Redbird dodged backward. He could now see the doctors scaly skin where his clothes ripped. I would have gone for his fleshy neck if we didn't have to catch him alive, redbird thought to himself.

Without hesitation, Redbird charged the doctor again. Redbird still attempted to attack the doctor, but made little progress. Redbird often came too close with his slashes, where the doctor nearly caught hold of him several times. Redbird eventually retreated to regain his breath.

"W-Why do you keep trying. M-My skin is too hard for you to ever hurt," The scaly doctor said with a wicked smile.

"Bet," Redbird simply replied, as he pressed a button in his hand. The doctor heard a beeping then looked down to see several small red blinking lights on him. Before he could react, an explosion erupted from him and filled the air with smoke.

Redbird looked to see how is allies were doing. He saw Beast Boy taking out the last alligator as a T-Rex.

"Redbird, I said to attack the alligators first, then we could have subdued the doctor together," Starfire said. The smoke was still subsiding.

"Yeah man, we work best as a team," Beast Boy said.

Redbird shrugged. "Relax, it's not lethal-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a giant, scaly hand emerged from the smoke and grabbed Redbird's entire body then through him into a wall. As the smoke dissipated, the vials of liquids on the table were all gone and a huge, lizard like man could be seen.

"Ow- fuck!" Redbird cried out in pain as he was harshly thrown against the wall by the alligator man. The impact had surely broken his right arm. He slid down the murky brick wall while grabbing his wounded arm, shocked that he had actually let himself get hurt on this mission.

"Who's next!?" The monster screamed. His voice had an animalistic growl in it.

"Titans, go!" Starfire shouted.

While the other Titans went to defeat the alligator man, Raven rushed to her injured teammate's side. "Hang on, I'll heal you-" Raven informed softly as she reached out towards him but Redbird quickly scooted back from her touch.

"No!" Redbird quickly responded, "Don't waste your energy on me, I can take care of myself."

"Just let me-" Raven started but Redbird cut her off again.

"I said leave me alone!"

Raven finally gave up and returned to the battle, leaving Redbird who just sat there in pain. Her healing power would be helpful to him but it would be too risky. He couldn't give her the slightest chance of seeing into his mind and finding out his true intentions.

Once the Titans had successfully captured the scaly criminal and turned him in to the police they headed back to the tower. Starfire gave Redbird another lecture that if he did what he was told and followed orders on the spot, he wouldn't have been injured and no surprises like that would have occured. He didn't care though, he was just annoyed that he was not able to defeat the monster by himself. Maybe he was letting a little too loose.

However Redbird, or rather Damian, was correct; he could take care of his injuries. He surprised his other teammates when he managed to treat his broken arm all by himself. One of Damian's many skills was being medically smart.

But Raven was more troubled than impressed by this. She couldn't tell if Damian was just being his arrogant self or if he was hiding something from everyone.

For the next few weeks Damian would have to keep his injured arm in a sling and ice it every couple of hours. Not only that, but he would most likely have to depend on others for a few things, which he was definitely not looking forward to.