Author's Note: This will be a SHORT story, two to three chapters max. Please keep it in mind if following.
I don't know if the idea is original or not. I did a quick search on the site and did not find anything quite like what I am thinking of doing, which frankly surprised me. If someone already has a story with the same plot posted let me know, please.
All Colors or One
The leopard padded on soundless paws down the gloomy corridor, sniffing the air silently, ears twitching at any sound. It was not used to the role it was in. It was not stalking, it was prey.
As it came to a bend in the hallway, it felt a whiff of its pursuer ahead. It knew it was being hunted, knew it should turn around and run, but the feline instinct for the hunt and the kill was too strong. It risked a look around the corner, only to see its enemy bearing down on it, arm arcing forward, an object flying towards its head.
"Gotcha, grass stain!" Cyborg shouted as he propelled the bunch of dirty socks and underwear, held together only by its own filth and horrible stench, towards the leopard's head peeking around the corner. The head disappeared, the smelly projectile missing it by a fraction of an inch. Cyborg ran towards the corner, picking up the stankball and following Beast Boy down the corridor.
Now transformed into a green ostrich, Beast Boy ran from him, his head turning forward and backward on his sinuous neck, trying both to see where he was going and to make sure the ball of filthy clothing wasn't sailing towards him. He finally saw the stankball appearing from the gloom, Cyborg's image-intensifying eye giving him an advantage in the dark corridor and his superior strength allowing him to throw the ball from a great distance. Beast Boy quickly turned into a chimp and used his long arms to catch it, then morphed into a gorilla and sent the unappealing bundle flying back at Cyborg.
The missile launched, Beast Boy turned into a bobcat and used his night vision to locate Cyborg, noticing that he dodged the projectile and was just picking it up. He bounded down a side hallway lined with doors, Cyborg in hot pursuit. He had already lost track of where he was. As he ran he saw that the hallway ended twenty feet ahead. Cyborg's heavy strides were getting nearer.
"You're mine, greenbean!"
Desperate now, Beast Boy transformed back into himself, palming the opening sensor on the closest door in a fit of exhilarating panic, not bothering to check the name stenciled on the door itself. He rushed in.
He ran almost to the middle of the room when two horrifying realizations brought him to a screeching halt. The first was that the room had no other exits, and Cyborg was already almost at the door. He was trapped. But it was the second one that made his blood run cold and made him shiver in fear.
The room was Raven's.
He was frozen to the spot, like a rabbit caught in the headlights, turning back and forth, trying to find a way out. Cyborg's massive bulk was silhouetted in the door frame, heightening his fear, but it was the sight of the fragile girl, floating in lotus position, just a few feet away from him that gripped his heart and mind with a cold, unreasoning terror. Raven slowly opened her eyes from her meditation to see what was going on. Cyborg shouted an "A-ha!" and threw the stankball at Beast Boy. Time started flowing like molasses.
As his body transformed with agonizing slowness into a small lizard, the ball of stinky underclothing floated over his head and continued towards Raven. It missed her face by less than an inch. Beast Boy started breathing again, time started flowing normally. He quickly turned back into his own form and allowed himself one thought.
We may still live through this night.
The ball sailed beside Raven, whose eyes were just starting to blaze white, and struck full force on the night table behind her. A curiously shaped hand mirror was thrown off the table to hit the wall and fall right beneath the hovering girl. A maelstrom of light erupted from it, engulfing Raven in a blinding white vortex. She disappeared.
Then again, we may not.
"Dude…" Cyborg said in an awed voice. "Did we just… disappear Raven?"
"Hey, none of that 'we' stuff, Chrome Dome! You were the one that threw the ball without looking!"
"And you were the one to run into her room!"
As they glared at each other, a commotion on the floor caught their attention. Another vortex of light appeared, spinning in a multicolored tornado above the mirror. As they both gaped at the spectacle, the vortex resolved itself into several Ravens, each wearing a cloak of a different color.
"Aw, crud!" Cyborg moaned. "Not the emoticlones again!"
As they stared, paralyzed by the realization of what they've done, Red Raven bore down on them, her four eyes blazing with red hellfire.
"You idiots again? The only reason I will let you live is because you have set me free!"
A huge, disembodied black hand slapped them out of her way. As they flew and smashed into the wall, she floated out of the room, created a portal and disappeared.
Pink Raven giggled. "I'm free!" as she also created a portal and vanished. Orange just belched loudly, picked her nose and fell on the bed, snoring.
Beast Boy picked himself up as the rest of the Ravens disappeared one by one. As he stood, checking himself for broken bones and cracked skull, he heard a sultry whisper in his ear.
"Hey, handsome, wanna play 'mistress and slave'?"
He quickly turned around, just to see two enormous, violet eyes staring at him hungrily. As he opened his mouth to protest, Purple closed it with her own.
Cyborg was getting to his feet, noticing what was happening to Beast Boy.
"Ewww, gross!" he commented, looking around. Besides Purple, he could see only one other Raven left in the room, her yellow cloak gathered around her, large magnification glasses giving her an insect-like look. He walked over to her.
"You're Wisdom, right?"
She nodded. "You did it again, you cretins. Luckily, I – we realized this was going to happen sooner or later. You'd better help me – us fix this. Get that wooden box from the nightstand while I find the spellbook."
Cyborg quickly grabbed the box, placed it on the table and opened it. Several colored crystals were placed inside on a velvet cushion.
"The crystals correspond to each one of me – us" Yellow said from behind Cyborg, startling him. "You must hold each crystal in your hand and chant the mantra. Once all crystals are filled, just put them all back and chant the mantra over the closed box."
"OK, that sounds simple enough. Who do I start with?"
"I would recommend Red, she's got the most potential for mischief."
Cyborg looked around the room, noticing that Purple had already overpowered Beast Boy.
"I think I'll start with Purple and give BB a chance to breathe."
Yellow shrugged, then quickly wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to Cyborg. "Here's the mantra, just in case you screw up and send me back before I can help you further."
Cyborg took the piece of paper, grabbed the purple crystal from the box and tried to read the convoluted words.
Aldruon… Metrion Enlenthranel… Azarath Vosolen… Lirus-nor Zinthos!
A small purple vortex appeared to form over the crystal, extending to where Purple Raven was still interfering in Beast Boy's efforts to breathe, absorbing her in, leaving the crystal softly glowing.
"That seemed to work!" Cyborg said, placing the glowing crystal into the box. "Time for Red. But don't we need to find her first?"
Yellow shook her head. "I – we realized it was difficult to run around looking for pieces of me – us so I – we made the spell work over any distance and regardless of obstacles. Just take the red crystal and speak the mantra and it should work."
As she spoke, Beast Boy approached them, still recovering from his dazed state, listening to their conversation.
Cyborg held the red crystal aloft and spoke the mantra haltingly. A red whirlpool extended from the crystal, disappearing through the ceiling, soon to return back. The red crystal was now also softly glowing.
"Another one down! This is a lot easier than before!"
Beast Boy stared at Cyborg, fascinated, as the metal man summoned in turn Pink, Grey, Green and Orange into their respective crystals.
Cyborg lifted the final, yellow crystal and looked at Yellow Raven quizzically. She nodded her head. "Go ahead, I'm ready."
Suddenly Beast Boy interrupted them. "Hey, just one second! Hold on a moment, Cy, willya?"
He turned to Yellow and asked "So what if I chant the mantra backwards?"
"Obviously, the appropriate facet of myself – ourselves would be removed from the whole and appear, depending on the crystal you hold at the time. But I don't see why you would want to do something like that."
Beast Boy put on his best innocent face and said "No, nothing, just wondering!"
Yellow frowned, then turned to Cyborg. "Well?" she asked.
Cyborg lifted the crystal again and chanted the mantra. Yellow disappeared into the crystal. Cyborg placed the last crystal into the box and closed it.
"Let's get Raven back."
"Uh… dude… You sure we want to do that?"
Cyborg frowned at Beast Boy. "We screwed up. We have to face the consequences."
Beast Boy's ears drooped. "I know. I'm just a bit scared of what Raven will do to us."
"How bad can it be?" asked Cyborg.
Beast Boy looked up at him, lifting an eyebrow.
"Don't you remember when…?"
"Ow. Yeah. You're right."
"Or that other time…"
"Ouch!"
"And let's not forget…"
"Yeah, I know, grass stain! But we have to get Raven back!"
"I guess you're right."
Cyborg sighed and placed his hands on the box. The paper fell from his hand to the floor. Beast Boy quickly bent and picked it up, stuffing it in his pocket.
Cyborg chanted the mantra, by now already knowing it by heart, not missing the scribbled paper. The box glowed briefly. Both looked at it, puzzled.
"Did it work?"
"It did!" a cold voice spoke behind them.
They both whirled around to see Raven standing there, scowling, eyes smoldering.
Beast Boy tried to stammer out an apology. "Heh… Hi, Rae! We were… playing Stankball, and…"
"I see" Raven said, the menace in those two words freezing Beast Boy's tongue in his mouth. She looked beside them at something at the far end of the room. Cyborg followed her gaze and realized the danger they were in.
"Oh, crud! Run, greenbean, run for your life!" he shouted as he reached the door in two giant strides of his metallic legs. A green cheetah zipped quickly behind him. The stankball, enveloped in a black nimbus, followed them relentlessly at an incredible speed.