THE TRUENT OFFICER: INTERROGATION

A Teen Titans fan fiction mission. The team has been kidnapped, restrained in ways their powers/talents can't overcome, and interrogated by a man with a file. Timeline-wise, it takes place at some point after "Spellbound" and before "Titans East."

The lights flicked on, waking him with a jolt. Or, at least, half of him. His human half glared about the white room in which he was sitting, stainless steel table before him, two-way mirror on the opposite wall, small camera in the upper right corner of the same wall.

Cyborg didn't know where he was or how long he'd been out, but he knew for sure that something wasn't right. He was strapped to his chair, felt about two tons heavier than normal, and his vision was blurred. The camera watching him wasn't helping things, either. He decieded on trying to short it out with the new sonic transmitter he'd installed in his head the week before, but was met with a dull, unresponsive silence.

His mechanical half had been shut down, and was unable to reboot. He was a half-human attatched to a full ton of dead weight. He wasn't even sure how his human half had remained conscious, but he didn't like it.

A door off to the left opened and in walked a rough-looking man in a tan overcoat carrying a stack of files.

"Hello, Starfire" The man said as he walked into the room.

Though strapped to a the wall by energy beams that even her Tameranian streingth could not break, her distain for rudeness caused her to politely reply, "Hello, sir. May I ask, please, why I am entrapped here?"

"Trapped?" He sat at the table accross from her. "You're not trapped. You will be released, free as a bird, right after you answer a few questions for me."

"Questions? I'm afraid I do not understand."

"Understanding, that's a good word to start on. You're an Alien, correct?"

"As you may call it, yes. I come from the planet Tameran."

"How much do you understand about Earth's culture?"

She paused. "Well, I am still learning, though I believe I understand enough."

He rested his chin on laced fingers and reguarded the sweet, orange girl with a stern expression. "Do you know what people your age ususally do, instead of galavanting around, picking fights with criminals?"

She thought. She'd seen enough television to know that other teenagers constantly fell in and out of love, got prematurely pregnant, were often violent toward each other, and occasionally dealt with everyday life working around magical powers. However, she didn't believe that these were the answers this man was looking for. She thought harder. The thing that was always a constant in each of these shows was the setting of high school.

"They... go to school?"

"Very good, now answer me this; When was the last time you were in school?"

"Uh, never," Beast Boy said, both groggy and annoyed.

"Never? Not even studying with private tutors?"

"Does training with the Titans and Doom Patrol count?"

"No."

"Oh. Then, nope!" He scratched at the welt on his neck where the dart had hit him. "Now that's settled, can I go home, Dude?"

Ignoring Beast Boy's question, the man asked his own. "Do you realize that's a crime?"

Though his whole body felt awkward and tired, he was suddenly alert "It's a what, now?"

"It's called Truency, and it's against the law. You Titans are too young to be out on your own, facing so much danger. It's a bad example for the children who watch you. You kids really ought to be in school, under the care of responsible adults."

"I really doubt either school or responsibility will be able to do much good in my life," Raven replied in a monotone dripping in distain.

"And how can you be so sure of that?"

She glanced down at her clenched fists for just a second, then glared back out of the psychic bubble in which she was being held. "Just trust me on this."

"Well, whether it helps or not, it is the law. Isn't it a bad thing for a hero to break the law?"

"Who said I was a hero?"

"Who said it mattered? The bottom line is, you are going to school!"

"No."

The man's face turned red, but after a frustrated sigh, he calmed back down. "You see we have ways to hold you. We also have ways of making you do what needs to be done."

"I learn all I need to know from my friends, and the Monks of Azar. If you want to replace all that with logorithims and cheer squad, -"

"- you'll have to kill me, first," Robin finished, pulling hard as he could against the leather straps. Memories flashed of the prep school in Gotham, and trying to balance that with his night job, as well as attempting to have a personal life; It was one of the reasons he left for Jump City, and he wasn't about to do it all again.

The man shuffled the papers in his last file and smirked. "That can be arranged, you know."

"Alright, now I know somethin's up. Who are you working for?" Cyborg slumped forward in a position he intended to be intimidating, though mostly appeared rag-doll-like.

"The U.S. Government, of course."

"No, you're not! Regular truent officers don't just threaten your life! And I should know, I skipped pleanty before... Well, all of this." He gestured to himself with his chin. "There's gotta be someone else pulling your strings..."

"... Unless you're a spy! Are you a spy? 'Cause that would be awesome!... Well, not awesome for me, 'cause I'd probably get wacked... Wait, no, that's for industrial-age gangsters... Are you a gangster, like Babyface?"

The man glanced at the mirror behind him. "I'm going to need more tranquilizer." Then back to his subject, "Calm down, Green Boy, I ask the questions here."

"Uh, It's Beast Boy, and I'll never talk! Yeah, see, you can't make me!" He took on a twenties' gangster accent.

"I'm more worried about getting you to shut up."

"I am worried about my friends, please. Are they also being held in this torturous manner, being scolded with talk of the school?" Starfire's green eyes took on a slight glow of anticipation.

"I'll get to them in a bit. Now, you just stay put and answer a couple more questions like a good girl, and we can be done with this."

She winced at the condescending speech from her interrogator, but nodded, "Very well, you may continue."

"Good. Now, what do you like to do? What are your interests?"

"You're not seriously trying small-talk on me?" Raven groaned.

"My sources say you like reading. What do you read? Romance? Fairy Tales?"

"I've sworn off Fairy Tales. Bad experience with my last one."

"Too much of a happy ending?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Next question."

"What do you think of that Starfire? She's a pretty one, eh?"

Robin's eyes got wide behind his mask. He began to thrust around in his chair, resisting the straps that held him in. "What have you done with her? I swear, if you hurt her, I'll-"

"Yes? You'll what? Kill me? That'll give you a higher sentance than school, I'm afraid. Juvie. Jail, if they decide to try you as an adult. Or worse, depending on the city-state in which you are brought to justice."

"You're the one that should be brought to justice. Not me."

"I suppose it depends on how you define 'justice'. We all have a dark side, Robin." The man grinned. "Every one of us." As he grinned, Robin noticed the small dot of plastic inside the man's right ear. "Some, darker than others."

Robin narrowed his eyes. "Who do you work for?"

The man stood. "I believe I have all the information I need. We're done, for now. Take him back to his cell, boys."

The man left, and was replaced by two more in matching police uniforms. Robin ghasped at their outfits, then was silent as they rolled his strapped wheelchair from the room, down the corridor, into a small holding cell, separated by bulletproof glass from other cells - a total of five in the row. In each of the other four cells, he saw his teammates, restrained, but intact.

All were unconscious.

He was about to call out to them, when a voice came over a hidden intercom, "Nighty-night, Bird-Boy," as the room was filled with a thick, noxious gas. In moments, Robin was drifting into sleep, his last conscious thought resting on the police badges - and how they were on the wrong sides of their shirts.

To be continued...