Author's Notes
Okay, welcome to my first collaboration story. JP-Rider (Beast Boy and the Titans North Girls, The Dangerous Premolition) and myself, storytell18 have joined forces to bring you The Caged Bird Sings.
One of JP's Adoptable Story Ideas, I have adopted it and we have decided to co-write it, alternating scenes. For this chapter, the first, third, and fifth scenes are mine while the second and fourth were JP-Rider's.
The story definitely earns its M rating for violence, yuri/rape scenes, nudity, and language, so reader discretion is advised, primarily for later chapters.
Now, let's begin the story.
Belle Reve. The most notorious prison in all of the United States, far surpassing the notoriety of Gotham's own Arkham Asylum and Blackgate, a Midwestern prison designed to hold in America's criminal element.
Belle Reve, however, was considerably worse as it had the fortune of holding the country's super-powered detainees, the super-villain rogues of such heroes as Batman, Flash, and Superman. Men and women were held in this Louisiana prison, which has been certified to be fully escape-proof, not that the inmates haven't tried to break out of their cells. Every breakout attempt has failed, which pleased the notorious hard-nosed Warden of the prison, whose experience with metahumans was unmatched.
It was late at night as the swamps surrounding Belle Reve misted up, revealing bogs of fog that surrounded the penitentiary, making it nigh impossible to see with the exception of the blinding lights that cut through the fog like a knife cut through butter.
Guards were always present in every corridor and hallway, with no place the prisoners could be that the guards were not. That's part of the reason nobody has successfully broken out, as every prisoner, especially those with meta-human abilities, are fitted with a power nullification collar that can restrict an inmate's access to them, rendering the inmates no more human than the armed guards that roamed the prison.
Every prisoner was locked away in their cells, with the doors not set to open until shortly after dawn, which would be 7:30 in the morning local time. Each door was controlled by a computer inside the control room, which was manned by the Warden and a select group of the Warden's close associates. They were the ones who kept the prisoners in their cells at night, watched to see if there was any funny business going on around Belle Reve.
Cameras lined the hallways, with each camera positioned so that every inch of Belle Reve was covered in surveillance and designed so they could not be hacked - every measure to prevent a jailbreak was being taken.
The inmates were divided into wards, one for the men and one for the women, and despite what statistics may tell you, the number of women wasn't that much different from the men. From there, they were blocked off into sections and their cells prevented them from having any contact with the cells around them.
In the female ward, many of the female prisoners slept with nary a problem, whereas others weren't quite so able to sleep, with their eyes open as they pondered what was next for them. Would they get lucky and get early release (or escape), will the next day bring the same iron bars that held them? Or will they find themselves being killed by another inmate?
While many were kept awake by their uncertainty regarding the future, others remained awake as they plotted their next move, what they planned to do to torment the most hated prisoner in Belle Reve, of both the men and the women.
In one cell on the bottom floor of the ward laid one of the many bunk-beds that enabled two prisoners to sleep in a cell. On the bottom cell laid a female in her orange jumpsuit, with short-sleeve shirt and white undershirt as well as long baggy orange pants and socks, with her black sneakers laying beneath the bed. Her long white hair covered the back of her collar-fitted neck so her pillow would not get worn out from the hard metal, as she slept, one eye closed while an eyepatch covered the area where her eye no longer existed.
On the upper bunk laid her cell-mate, another female, a teenager and slightly younger than her cellmate, wearing a similar orange jumpsuit, but with longer sleeves instead of short sleeves, and she remained awake. As she stared at the ceiling, waiting for what would happen next, she dreaded the past few years she had been inside of Belle Reve, her new home, her own hell.
She was the most hated prisoner in Belle Reve, not because of the crime she committed (multiple counts of manslaughter), but because of who she was - she was no criminal, but rather a hero that put them away.
The dark sorceress of the Teen Titans.
Raven. The girl in question may confuse you. How on Earth did she ends up in a prison like Belle Reve? Well, let's time go backwards and go to the beginning.
Four years earlier, just before everything changed, the turn of events starts in a place called Jump City. Jump has a history of its own crime, but not as big as Gotham or Bludhaven. It has its common thieves and villains like the HIVE Five, Mumbo Jumbo, Mad Mod, and Doctor Light. But the city also has a notorious A-list criminal name Slade, or Deathstroke in his mercenary business. But despite the crime rate, evil has been always prevailed by five unlikely adolescent heroes. They are known as the Teen Titans.
Robin, the heroic leader and former partner of Batman; known to carry many gadgets and acrobatic stunts. He can be of a bit aggressive due to his obsessiveness of finding Slade, and wanting to know everything, he is a good leader.
Starfire, the heart of the team. She is what you would call a warrior alien princess from the planet Tamaran who can shoot starbolts. She is kind, sweet, and emotional, so if you get in her bad side, you better sign your wavers.
Cyborg, the second-in-command and occasional meat-lover. Known to be an expert on technology due to his half-human, half-robot nature, and despite being half-robot he enjoys life. He is considered the big brother of the Titans.
Beast Boy, the joking changeling who is green. He maybe a short funny guy who lightens up the team, but he knows when a situation is serious and knows the time isn't for laughs. He is a vegetarian and you shouldn't underestimate him, he is a tricky fellow.
And then there's Raven, the dark Titan. She is calm, quiet, deadpan, and occasionally sarcastic. She is what others think of her as the little sister of the group. She would shut herself inside her room for peace and quiet.
Whenever her friends, mostly Beast Boy and Starfire, would get her out of her room, she would always say no. Due to her emotions connecting to her powers and her half demon blood, she is afraid of hurting her friends and is afraid of getting attached to them. But throughout all the hardship she's pulled through, she deeply cares about her friends and even after the end of the world, she considers them her new family. She couldn't wish to have friends like them.
As of now Raven is in her room, meditating with her crossed legs, her elbows on her knees as she has her finger tips pressed on her thumbs while her other fingers rise up as she is now in a meditating stance. She wasn't wearing her cloak and she was barefooted in her meditating stance. She surrounds herself with lavender scented candles around for her to be calm. She creep a small, peaceful smile on her face as her eyes were shut, as she feels relaxed.
For a few more minutes she starts to have a bad feeling. Something big is going to happen and her gut is telling her that she's going to play a role in this that will take her away from her surrogate family. Was it Trigon? No it wasn't her father, but something else more sinister.
It was then the klaxon alarm went off as she groans when she has to interrupt her meditation and go out and see who's robbing the Bank of Perez again. She gets up from her bed as she uses her powers to bring her cloak and wear it on her back. She then levitates her blue booties to slip them on into her feet. She is now prepared to go meet up at the common room to meet her friends.
"So, what's the trouble this time?" Raven asked in a deadpan manner.
"There's been a bank heist happening at the Bank of Perez." Robin responded to the empath.
"Who's robbing the banks?" Beast Boy asked.
"That's where we're gonna find out." Robin said as he pounded his hand with his fist. "Titans, GO!" he shouted as he and the Titans ran towards the garage as Raven felt that same bad feeling in her gut.
The Titans quickly arrived at the Bank of Perez, where there were four thugs all wearing biker helmets with face-covering visors currently robbing the Bank. The three thugs holding the hostages were armed with submachine guns whilst the fourth, holding a handgun, was forcing the clerks to hand over all the money in the bank.
One of the thugs whispered to a hostage, "Don't worry, deary. It'll be over soon. Just relax to face the inevitable." The thug pushed the barrel of his submachine gun at the hostage's head, as if he was preparing to shoot him.
Robin shouted, "What's inevitable is you failing in your heist. Drop the weapons now."
The three submachine gun-equipped thugs quickly opened fire on the Titans. Raven put up a quick shield to block the stream of bullets that poured out from the weapons.
Within a few seconds, the thugs discovered that their guns were empty, having spent the rest of their massive clip sizes trying to down the Titans.
The Titans quickly moved in on the thugs. Two quick punches from Robin downed the first thug, and removed his helmet, showing him to be a simple street thug.
Starfire downed the second thug by kicking him square in the chest, sending him into a nearby wall, and also breaking the visor to see another simple thug.
The third thug met his defeat at the hands of the changeling, prouncing on the thug as a lion and removing his helmet, expectedly revealing a simple thug. This was starting to look like just an ordinary bank robbery - simple thugs with simple weapons, but they were about to see just what made this robbery special.
Noticing that his thugs were down, the fourth guard switched his weapon to aim at Cyborg and placed two shots on Cyborg's armor, which hurt a bit, but weren't fatal as they impacted in heavy armor, not hitting any internal organs.
Raven responded by surrounding an empty planting pot in her signature black energy before shouting, "Azarath metrion zinthos" and threw it at the thug, smashing the visor of the fourth thug only to reveal just who was responsible.
Immediately afterwards, the thug began laughing uncontrollably, almost disturbingly so as his cherry red lips and chalk white skin showed from the remains of the visor. He removed the helmet as his identity was now revealed and Robin gasped, "Joker."
The Clown Prince of Crime immediately replied, "Oh Boy Wonder, long time no see. Now, if I'll be on my way..."
However, just as he grabbed the money and prepared to make his getaway, Raven stripped the bag from the Joker's hand before bashing him in the side of the head with it, causing him to stumble onto a nearby register.
As Robin came in to finally capture the Joker, he threw out a laughing gas grenade to stun Robin as he fled, grabbing his pistol and aiming it at anybody in his way so he could get away. Raven moved Robin away from the laughing gas as Cyborg prepared to administer an antidote.
With a quick injection of the antidote he had on him (they had to be prepared for anything, including a Joker attack), Cyborg kept Robin from succumbing to the poison. When Robin was cleared of the Joker venom, he asked, "Why the heck is the Joker in Jump? As much as I don't want to do this, we're going to need to contact Batman about this. Maybe he can tell us something useful."
Returning to the Tower, Robin began connecting to the Batcave so he could speak with his enstranged mentor about the Joker's emergence in Jump City. He wanted the Joker out of his city as soon as possible - that madman could mean nothing good for everybody.
Once the connection was up, Batman appeared on the screen and asked, "What is it, Robin? I haven't heard from you in a while."
Robin responded, "The Joker just committed a bank robbery here. He hired three thugs, common street thugs and armed them with automatic weapons. He got away, but he didn't get away with anything."
"Thanks for the notification. He hasn't been seen in over two months. Honestly, I was starting to think he was dead. Harley hasn't popped up on the radar since a bit after Joker's disappearance. Run all crime scenes in the past two months to see if any of the signs match those of his modus operandi. He is more dangerous than anybody you have faced so far in the city. Contact me if things get much worse. I'll keep you posted when I acquire new information. Be on your guard. He may even try to break into the Tower."
"Understood." The feed was cut and Robin walked away from the screen, trying to see just how long the Joker had been active, or also if Harley had popped up there. The two of them together equaled unrivaled, destructive chaos.
Meanwhile, at the port of Jump City's old warehouses, one particular warehouse just so suddenly occupies two certain Gotham's psychopathic criminals. There stood Joker, sitting on a chair as he laments on his failure during the heist. The clown prince of crime and his partner, Harley Quinn, came to Jump so they can spread chaos and make the bird boy's life complicated. But now Joker's latest heist was foiled by some gloomy, pale-faced teenage demoness.
"I can't believe I was beaten by some teenage punks" Joker roared as he picks up a hand made voodoo doll of Robin as he sticks pins and needles into the heart. If Joker knew how real voodoo works, he would actually hurt Robin "If my buddies from Arkham heard about this, I'll be humiliated throughout Gotham!" he complains as he shoots his hands up in the air and throws the doll away.
"Aw cheer up, Mistah J." Harley Quinn replied as she tries to calm her insane boyfriend/partner down "We'll get the Titans next time. If there is someone to blame it's that freaky goth girl with magic powers. Without her interfering, you would've made the crime of the century."
When Harley told him that, Joker got an evil thought in his mind "Of course, Harley. If it's to blame, it's all that demon punk girl's fault!" he exclaims as he walks forward to a table as he observes a pile of newspapers that shows the Teen Titans. "I need dirt on her. I need something to get that pale faced demon tramp out of the picture!" he shouts as he brings out a jack knife and stab the picture of Raven on the table.
"Don't worry, Mistah J, I'll find some dirt on that goth girl. I've always had a distaste in her choice of fashion." Harley said as she brings out her red Apple notebook as she browse through the internet on magical artifacts.
It took her two hours to find what she was looking for. During those hours Joker has been doing nothing but watch and complains on the stand up comedians on the Comedy Channel. Though he does laugh up a bit when South Park was on, Joker's known to love some dark humor.
"I found somethin', Mistah J!" Harley shouts as Joker gets up and goes to what Harley has founded "It's called the Demon's Hand. It says here that whomever wears the gauntlet, can control demons. Villains who attempted to steal it were Klarion Bleak, Brother Blood, Felix Faust, and the Shadow Thief." she explained as Joker observes the information in his mind as he creeps up an evil smile. A smile that can rivals the Grinch's as Joker thought up a plan.
"Oh this is just too perfect, Harley. I think I've solved our little...bird problem." Joker stated as he laughed maniacally "And this time, it's not the boy blunder." he finished as he grins like the maniac he is.
The Joker and Harley Quinn approached the Jump City Museum of History. The Titans remained in their Tower, at least until they got the klaxon ringing to fight off Mumbo Jumbo, whom the Joker had strong armed (i.e. threatened to brutally torture and murder) into performing a heist at the other side of the city in order to distract the Titans long enough to steal the Demon's Hand and then take control over Raven.
While the Joker was normally very flamboyant, this operation required utmost stealth to ensure the Titans wouldn't figure out what he was up to. The Joker pulled the handgun he used at the bank, a very common nine millimeter pistol, making it harder to discern his weapon from everybody else within thirty miles who owned one. Attaching a silencer, he grinned greedily at Harley, who aimed a suppressed forty-caliber pistol. Wearing thick trenchcoats and large hats, it was tough to identify them from a distance as they covered their faces and bodies - one would have to be very close to them to try to ID them as who they were.
The two clown killers proceeded to walk up to the museum, which was preparing to close for the day. The security guard at the door immediately shouted, "Hey! We're closing. Come back tomorrow."
The Joker answered, "Come on! We traveled halfway across the country to come here. We want access now!"
"Well, I'm sorry, sir. Maybe if you started sooner you'd be here sooner."
"You are sorry. But I'm not!" The Joker raised his head to reveal his smiling, disturbing face and shot the guard right in the head, killing him before he had a chance to retaliate. Strolling into the museum, The Joker began gunning down guards as he saw them. Meanwhile, Harley shot out the cameras to ensure they couldn't report that the Joker was there.
Catching up to her puddin', Harley took down two more guards that tried to aim their weapons at the Joker. Within two minutes, the dozen or so guards at the museum were all dead and there was no evidence linking them to the theft.
Harley said, "Let's get the Demon's Hand and test it out on our demon bird."
Strolling up through the vacant museum, the two reached an elevator and a listing of the location of exhibits. Joker noted, "Harley, fifth floor. Magical artifacts and occult history."
Harley pressed the up button on the elevator and the doors opened so the two could get inside. Pressing the button that led to the fifth floor of the museum, the two soon arrived at their destination in order to acquire what they came for.
Once they got on the floor, they headed over to the permanent exhibit of objects of the occult and magical nature. Strolling through the exhibit, they passed by what appeared to be replicas of Pandora's Box and the Spear of Destiny. The Joker pouted, "They're just replicas! How do we know that the real deal is here?"
"They only have replicas of what they don't have. I checked and saw that they actually do have the Demon's Hand here. It's just in severe security, which should be no problem as every guard is dead."
The Joker and his girlfriend proceeded up to the case that held the Demon's Hand to see if they could get it, and if it was the real thing. Harley placed her handgun on the glass and squeezed the trigger, breaking the glass to reveal their latest toy.
Eagerly grabbing it, the Joker remarked, "Marvelous. Now, to see if it works. I imagine by now that the Titans have finished up against that magician, and they're back at the Tower."
Harley explained, "All you need to do is put on the Hand, concentrate to find the nearest demon, and command them to come to you."
The Joker put on the Demon's Hand and immediately yelled, "Raven! Come to your new master!"
And almost instantaneously, Raven materialized in front of the Joker and Harley, clad in her cloak and leotard, but not her boots - just after she had taken them off, the Joker rang for her. Her eyes were filled in completely blue, signaling that she was not in control of her body, but rather under the influence of the Hand.
Harley shrieked, "It worked! Now, she's all yours, Mistah J!"
The Joker grinned like a kid in a candy store as he thought of what he would command Raven to do first.
Okay, what do you think? I'll respond to all reviews for this chapter and chapter 2 in the author's notes of chapter 3. We're just getting started.