Chapter 1: Spread Thin

Disclaimer: I'm not making money off this so I don't need a disclaimer.

...

Raven did her best not to stumble into the main room of Titans Tower, after having to take on Adonis by herself she was nursing a blow to the head and her left leg. Robin was the only other one in the room as she walked in holding her head.

"Raven! Perfect timing, I need you to go take care of Doctor Light, he's attacking the power plant on the east side of town."

"You've got to be kidding! I just had to fight Adonis all by myself, you go do it!" She scolded.

"I'm going to help Cyborg with Cinderblock, Beast Boy and Starfire are both on solo missions as well and I just got back myself... Come on Raven it's Doctor Light! He'll surrender as soon as he sees you, you won't even have to lift a finger!" Robin explained.

Raven growled, today has been nonstop since breakfast. It's as if every villain in Jump City picked today to start a new evil plan. "You do realize if this chaos doesn't end REAL soon then I'm going to just wipe this planet clean of every villain right?"

Robin put his hands on Raven's shoulders. "Believe me... I wish you could sometimes."

Raven took a deep breath and pulled her hood over her head, the physical contact working to calm her. Robin pulled away. "Fine."

...

Beast Boy, as a hummingbird, dodged Mammoth's charge, turned, morphed into an elephant and slammed Mammoth into a wall as he turned.

Reverting to his human form, Beast Boy asked his adversary; "So, where are your HIVE friends? Or did they kick you out for being too dumb?"

Mammoth shook his head, clearing the slight daze. He roared and charged again. Beast Boy transformed into a gorilla and locked fists with Mammoth in a grappling match. Mammoth pushed his head as close to Beast Boy's as he could and said; "so, where are your Titans friends? Or did they kick you out for being too weak!" He lurched forward, overcoming Beast Boy's enhanced strength and forcing the changeling to one knee. Feeling overpowered, he transformed into an oversized Brontosaurus and crushed Mammoth under his right foot.

Back to human form, Beast Boy stood over the defeated and barely-conscious giant, taking a breath as he did. Like the rest of the Titans, he had been going nonstop for the entire day, and his stamina was suffering for it. As Mammoth was being hauled to jail, the communicator on Beast Boys belt started to chirp. "Oh for the love of..." He groaned as he answered, "What now?!"

"Beast Boy, I just got a distress call from Starfire, she needs help at the docks!" Robin informed.

"No way dude you go help her! I've been going from one call to another all day!"

"We all have! I just had to send Raven to another call and I just arrived on scene to assist Cyborg..." Robin was cut off by an explosion in the background, causing him to drop his communicator. Beast Boy watched as he picked it back up. "Go! Call Raven if you need more help!" And that ended the transmission.

"Uuugghhh!" Beast Boy exclaimed in frustration before morphing into an eagle and flying toward the docks.

...

Raven arrived on scene, floating sixty feet above where Doctor Light was fiddling with a control panel. She saw a wrench laying on a table twenty feet behind him, possessed it, and hurled it at him. Upon being hit in the back of the head with the wrench, Doctor Light winced and recoiled in pain, after composing himself, he turned to where the object came from, infuriated; "Who threw that?!"

Raven landed right behind him "I did." Doctor Light stiffened in his stance upon hearing the voice he knew all too well, he slowly turned around, trembling violently in fear. "So... We going to do this the easy way?"

As the pathetic Doctor was being arrested, Ravens communicator started chirping. She screamed out in frustration, nearly crushing the device in her hand. "WHAT?!" She yelled, it was Beast Boy.

"Raven... We need help..." He was badly injured with blood running from his nose and mouth, Raven's mood changed drastically. "The docks... We..." The signal went to static. Raven's eyes glowed white as her body was engulfed in her black energy, taking shape of a large Raven and swiftly flying towards the docks at top speed.

...

Robin exhaled heavily, the battle with Cinderblock having taken its toll along with the half dozen other battles before it. He turned to Cyborg, who was using a welding type tool on his damaged right arm. "How is it?" Robin asked of Cyborg's appendage.

"Broken..." Cyborg replied as he put the tool away, "but nothing a couple hours at the workbench can't fix... If I ever get a couple hours." Both of their communicators came to life. "Oh for the love of... If my right arm wasn't busted I'd blast my left arm with it!"

Sighing in frustration, Robin answered, it was Raven. "Go ahead Raven."

"You need to come down to the docks... We have a situation" she was calm, as was the background, adding to Robin's unease.

"We're on our way" Robin replied, concerned.

"That was cryptic" Cyborg quipped.

"Yeah... Something isn't right, let's go" The dread was evident in both their voices.

...

"No..." Robin whispered as he approached Raven, who was standing over a body. The image became more clear as he got closer and was able to identify the body; Beast Boy. "Is he...?"

Her eyes closed, Raven nodded yes, "I tried to revive him... His injuries were too much" she said, the slightest hint of choking up evident in her voice. Cyborg fell to his knees next to his fallen teammate, his jaw slightly agape and an otherwise blank expression on his face, seemingly in a trance. "That's... Not all" Raven said, fighting the urge to let her emotions show.

Robin slowly lifted his head to look at Raven, "... Starfire?" He whispered. Raven closed her eyes and took a breath, then turned to her left, looking towards the shore. Robin looked in the same direction and started walking, thirty yards later, he found Starfire's remains. He began breathing heavily, his face demonstrating extreme anger and sorrow at the same time, unable to chose which to express.

"I feel sorry for whoever did this..." Cyborg said, his voice deadly serious.

...

Back at Titans Tower, Robin was typing furiously at one of the computer terminals while Raven and Cyborg discussed the teams next move. "We need to focus, we can't just run into whatever did this blind" Raven said.

"Oh I'm thinking clearly..." Cyborg began in a calm, but anxious tone. "We're going to find whoever did this and turn them inside out."

"There was nothing at the scene that pointed at any one villain, whoever did it covered their tracks..." Raven pondered.

"Or it's someone new" Cyborg suggested.

The pair thought for a short time before Raven spoke again; "Find anything Rob-" she stopped upon seeing Robin was no longer at the computer, nor anywhere within the room. Just as Cyborg began to walk towards the computer, the alarm sounded, he was unflinching, ignoring the alarm completely as he approached, Raven put a hand on his shoulder.

"We still have a duty here..." She said.

"We have a duty to our friends..."

"And we will fulfill it... I know I wouldn't want you neglecting the city for me, and I know Beast Boy and Starfire would feel the same way..." Raven lectured, Cyborg sighed deeply. "We will find who killed them and we will make them pay... But we need to deal with this first, people need our help."

After another sigh, Cyborg lifted his arm. "Cyborg to Robin... We have an alert, we need to regroup, over" there was no response. "Cyborg to Robin... Answer your communicator Robin."

Raven checked the alert to get more information, Overload was at it again. She shook her head and approached Cyborg, who was still trying to get a hold of Robin. "It's okay Cyborg, we can handle Overload ourselves."

He turned to look at Raven. "We can, but what about Robin? He might be in trouble."

"He's not... He's chasing a lead, we'll catch up to him" she said, walking to the door.

"You sure?"

"Raven stopped and turned her head back at Cyborg. "Robin and I have a bond remember? If anything happens to him I'll know... Come on, Overload needs to be stopped."

...

Enroute to the scene of Overload's crime in progress, Raven and Cyborg's communicators came alive. "Argent to the Teen Titans, can anyone hear me?"

"Go ahead Argent" Raven replied.

"I don't know who they were, but I got ambushed, barely managed to escape... I'm injured and on the run and need somewhere safe to lay low, can you help?"

"Come to Titans Tower" Cyborg suggested, "I'll give you a one-time use code to get in, use whatever facilities you need when you get there."

"Thank you!" Argent said, her face lighting up with relief.

"This day just keeps getting better and better" Raven mused.

...

Robin arrived at his destination; a half-collapsed warehouse. Standing in the middle of the structure on top of a pile of rubble, he called out; "Come out!... I know you're here and you're going to pay for what you did!"

From the shadows, a figure began to appear, Robin threw an explosive disk at it. The weapon detonated but the figure was gone after the dust settled. "Is that any way to greet an old friend?" A mechanized voice said.

Robin spun around in the direction the voice came from and saw Red X hanging upside down from the small part of ceiling that was still intact. "Red X..." Robin spat, being surprised. He knew this is where the lead was, but he didn't know who he would find here, Red X was not high on his list of suspects. "So you are a psychopath afterall..."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know damn well you bastard!" Robin yelled, pointing at the criminal. "You killed two of my friends... And for that you're going to suffer!"

"You always did have a wild imagination" Red X mocked as he dropped from his perch to attack.

...

The threat Overload posed, just like in the past, was somewhat minimal, Raven and Cyborg defeated him quickly and were now debating whether to return to the Tower to assist Argent or to rendezvous with Robin.

"She said she was injured" Raven said.

"Yeah, and we have a state of the art infirmary at the Tower that she can use, she might not even be there yet! We need to link up with Robin and-" He stopped talking as soon as Raven gasped and turned to her left, eyes wide as saucers. "Raven...?"

"Robin... No... Robin!" She blurted out as she ran, leapt into the air and became engulfed in her dark energy.

"Wait!" Cyborg yelled to no avail.