This story is currently in an active Beta stage. I'm looking for Beta readers to help me polish this story. It can use the help, and I want this to be the best it can be, because the inspiration for the story is very close and dear to me. PM me if you want to help me.

Author's notes and Dedication

On December 22nd, 2004, I joined an RP a dear friend of mine, Lomesir22, started on an then-popular message board. It was the successor to her very first RP, which was wildly successful, and closed at 138 pages.

Dark Victories 2 was almost as successful, reaching 94 pages before it was closed. It, unfortunately, did not have an ending. I was not able to participate in this RP anywhere near as much as I would have liked, as domestic problems at home, internet problems, a fried modem at one point, and even being forced to sneak onto the forums a couple times to participate, severely limited me.

I had big plans for the RP and my at-the-time very young RP character, a fledgeling ninja-type named Argon. It was his first appearance anywhere, and I had prepared him for this. I spoke at Lomesir about him over time, and spoke with a couple of the other players about interesting plot-points that could created involving him. There was even once scene, long since forgotten, that another player, 'Naruto Junkie', and myself had prepared together. Unknown problems forced his long-term departure from the RP before it could be played out.

The gist of the first RP, started October 22nd, 2004, was the adventures of a group of meta-human teenagers from bad backgrounds combining their power to pillage and steal, and do what they please, along the way, giving the Teen Titans a hard time as they did, the setting being initially the city from the Teen Titans animated series that started airing in 2003. Their travels took them all over the world, from America, to a hospital in Switzerland, capture at a paramilitary camp, and back again, only to face more trouble at home, as Slade himself decided to try and shut down the group, setting an army of robotic minions geared towards taking them down, as well as turning them in to the police. The emergency signal, a grand fireworks display, was set off on the roof of the group's hangout, signaling them all to scatter.

Enter the second RP, started December 20th, 2004. It took place two years after the first RP, with the characters in it scattered by the winds of fate. Two were languishing in prison, one was in a Russian gulag, and another was working for the Yakuza, where he received a special surgical procedure enhancing his abilities and placing him under direct mental control of the Yakuza boss, and the others remaining managed to remain at large, operating alone.

Argon joins the group rescuing a character in the Russian gulag, and stays with the team from that point forward. His outward appearance largely human, but in time the group find out he's not. He's an alien from a distant world, young, inexperienced, his talent still rough, but with it, a unique skillset all his own. Initially arrogant, unflappable and almost insensitive, he grows partial to the group over time, despite the completely different backstory. As a hint, he was once a child film and TV star back home.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to post often enough to properly establish him or really participate in what happened during the RP, by the time I was able to post more, I was struggling to find a way to include him, with the group, and the RP had grown largely forgotten, much to the dismay of myself, Lomesir, and one or two other remaining players.

Despite all the obstacles I faced to posting and establishing my character, I had a wonderful time reading and participating in an RP with, at the time, one of my best friends, Lomesir, and my girlfriend, Phantom Junkie.

Many years have passed since then, and I participated in a few other RPs, even managing to drag Lomesir and Phantom Junkie to another Teen Titans fan forum, for an attempted 3rd iteration of the Dark Victories RP series, this one set up as an alternate universe, with Lomesir, Phantom Junkie, and myself reprising our roles as Night; the leader, Kathryn; the voluptuous circus performer pyromorph, and Argon; the mysterious alien pyromorph, respectively. (And for the record, the family of characters Argon hails from have had command over fire for years before hand, before I knew Lomesir or PJ. I can cite various sources and friends to support this claim. It was mere coincidence that our characters possessed a similar power, and would have made for an interesting plot-point in the future, as PJ and I had discussed our RP characters entering a relationship, mirroring our own already going.)

It however did not last as long as Dark Victories 2, disappointing the three of us greatly. To this day, however, I still consider DV2 my favorite RP of any I had ever participated in, and never quite stopped thinking about it, a small part of me that never can escape the past always wishing it could have lasted longer, always wondering what could have happened. Lomesir had at one point started a novelization of the first Dark Victories RP, but only wrote to the point of establishing the main characters' back stories and never started the actual storyline.

I had little story ideas from time to time over the years, and seriously contemplated writing my own DV storyline, but never had the opportunity to sit down and spend time writing it, as I never had my own working computer, and the computer I did have access to, my parents never would let me spend much time on it for personal reasons between us.

One day in late 2012, I did a search for something, stumbling across the long-abandoned message board that I had been an active member on for several years, the same message board I had met Lomesir and Phantom Junkie on, and there the old RPs remained, after doing some digging. I found Lomesir's abandoned story again, and between reading it and the old RP posts, it brought a tear to my eye, reminding me of some of the best days of my life, admittedly, all spent behind a computer screen, with a social and love life far, far greater than the one I held in real life.

Shortly after the nostalgia trip, I borrowed a close real-life friend's laptop for a while, and I set in motion plans for writing a story of my own, a tribute to my favorite RP series and my old friends. I downloaded both Dark Victories 1 & 2, saving each page at a time. I organized character profiles pulled from posts and set in separate Word files, and reread both RPs, to get a better sense of events, and to attempt to get a better grasp of the personalities of the characters in the story.

On Monday, December 3rd, 2012, I transferred a post on a message board I co-run, where I initially began writing my story on August 20 2012, but was not able to spend much time on it. From that point, I began spending a lot of free time writing, spending many nights up until 4 A.M., regretfully saving my progress and shutting down the borrowed laptop.

Fast forward to Sunday, February 10th, 2013. After several months of writing, and several hundred edits during re-readings, I completed my tribute story's initial primary draft, with two endings. As of the writing of this note, I'm only posting the good (read: Happy) ending of my story, as I'm considering re-writing the other ending. The word count of the story and the good ending is at roughly 73,000 words.

I want to thank Nevermore and Killer Moth, along with Nether Phoenix, all three of the 'Forbidden Love' Robin/Raven shrine. Nev and Moth, for their work as my partial inspiration during hard times and general assistance in characterization, and NP for his work as a secondary partial beta and character personality adviser. I also want to thank Ravager4(Now Nico4Ever) of Comic Vine, for his assistance as a secondary partial beta and character adviser as well.

Without you all, your critique, and your dearly needed advice, this story wouldn't have been nearly as good as I feel it is now. Your help was invaluable, and means so much to me. This story was years in the making, and you helped make it the best it could be. I hope you enjoyed reading it and pointing out my mistakes as much as I did writing it. I can't thank you enough.

I also want to thank the Dark Victories players of the past, of both the Robin and Starfire shrine, and my old place, Forbidden Love, for your participation, and apologize belatedly for my lack of it.

Special thanks to Lomesir22, the girl who started it all, and to whom this story owes its primary dedication. None of this would have been possible without you. I don't know if you'll ever see this, but if you do, and have the time to spare to read my story, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it makes up for what a lousy player I was. Perhaps you'll enjoy seeing a few moments from your first RP make an appearance in the story…

What follows is not something that is necessarily set in stone as the future of the DV team. Having lost touch with the original players years ago, I took creative liberties to write a new possible future. Also, liberties were taken to combine comic canon with animated, to add a depth to DC characters that previously had little to none in the animated series.

This story takes place around 20 years after the events of DV2, and time has not been very kind to anyone except the heroes. Time is never kind to the bad guys. Not even Argon, who walks the twilight in between, could escape. As you will soon see, Argon comes back to Jump City a changed man, but his dedication to his old friends is fiercer than ever.

One last note: To any of the past DV Players that read this work, forgive me if I didn't write your characters properly, I did the best I could after studying the old RP threads. Please bear with me.

And thus begins the third chapter in the Dark Victories series.

Enjoy.
Andy C.
"Rage"

This note originally written on 04/29/2013 0310AM Central Time

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End.

In the murk of his dreams, he heard names being called amidst the distant sounds of battle. He felt that this battle was not going well. All of a sudden, he heard a familiar voice call out a name he barely remembered, loud enough to awaken him with a start. Argon's eyes snapped open, and he shot up in his bed with a grunt.

"Strange... Not very clear this time..." he mumbled to himself. He had been having occasional flashbacks and dreams, relating events he had no memory of being present of in his past, but they felt real. Like a part of him that didn't belong to him. In an attempt to bring them further from the depths of his mind, he began sleeping more, a lot more than normal for him. More events had come to him, but he only recognized a few people in the dreams and flashbacks. The events he had no recollection of at all. He remembered, deep in his past, nearly a hundred years ago, he used to be with a small group of people. He wasn't the most active participant in events at the time, as he was new to the world, and very, very young. There was a pyromorph, named Katy. Someone he found an interest in, a girl with a power similar to what he himself inherited through his family line. Someone he had chased in the past, a soldier named Raze. But since the beginning of the strange memories, he became more familiar. Yet there we others, where his own memory at times failed him. A girl named Aine, another teen named Andrew. Argon looked out the window next to his bed. Outside, he could see the gentle rotation of a planet.

It was Earth. Earth #38, to be precise, by the reckoning and starmaps of the multiverse made by his people. It was the important one. He remembered where he needed to go, to begin understanding why he was having these dreams and flashbacks. Argon shifted himself to the side of the bed and stood up. He began gathering some clothes and his things. It was nighttime at the location he wanted to go to. He could see the lights of the city twinkling up at him faintly through the clear atmosphere. He stopped for a moment, adjusting a few things he was wearing as he took in the sight before him. The clouds had seemingly started to open up for him in anticipation.

All was quiet in the park, the occasional small animal scurried by, the lights illuminating the streets around it, yet leaving the area in the park in the shadows. A squirrel, asleep in a tree, awoke suddenly. Something spooked the creature, and it quickly scurried to another tree, further away from the center of the park. A faint electric sizzle started to sound, seemingly out of nowhere. The air in a particular spot seemed to waver, distorting the view of the bench behind it. A bolt of crimson energy seemed to shoot down from the sky high above, in a split second's time, a sharp, resounding 'CRACK!' striking the area around it. As quickly as the bright red lightning strike appeared, it faded. In its place, a crouched figure.
He was difficult to see in the shadows of the park, dressed in a black outfit. He sensed he was alone, as planned, and took in the sights around him. He faintly remembered the park, but one sight he could not forget. In the distance, a massive T shaped building sitting on an island, illuminated by the moon, the windows dark.
"Damn. After a hundred years, I didn't think that tower would still be standing. I believe we'll be meeting soon then, whoever you may be now."

..

..

Inside that tower, a reunion was starting. A figure stood by in a room dimly lit by a massive glass window, the strange lightning strike having caught his attention, driving him out of a reverie. After a few moments of observation, the door behind him opened.

"Victor, welcome back."

"You ain't missed a beat yet, Robbie. Yeah yeah, I know, it's Nightwing now. You can put up with it for old times' sake." Victor responded with a chuckle.

The figure by the window turned to greet the visitor. After a moment, his face softened, a large grin spread across his face, and the two approached each other, shaking hands warmly.

"What do ya think? It took a while, but I finally did it!" Victor said, flexing his arms.

"It doesn't seem the same without your cybernetic enhancements anymore, Cy."

"Are you kidding? I ain't giving up my sonic cannons!" As he finished, the dark brown skin of Victor's arms separated and shifted around, revealing polished chrome sections, small screens, and artificial muscle beneath, with each arm now ending in a large barrel.

"This is the newest of the new, Rob. Maybe it ain't real skin, but it sure feels like it. I perfected this only a year ago at S.T.A.R.. All the benefits of my old armor, and all the benefits of feeling human again. I've even got muscles I can build again."

"You used to tower over me, and look at us now. I got taller, but you made yourself bigger."

"Heh heh, wait til Kory gets here. She'll be in for the surprise of her life." The anticipation in the new Cyborg's voice was plain. Having been shown up by the girl once known as Starfire in friendly weightlifting competitions in the past, he was eager to test his new strength against her.

"Raven should be here later in the morning. Gar didn't give me a definite time when we last spoke, but he said he was aiming for today. Star said she had a photo shoot to do later, but she would rush here as soon as she could. So why did you come so early?"
"Same reason you did, Dick. Wanted to look around, see what was different, and what's still the same. Being here sure takes me back," A mischievous look came across Victor's face. "Wanna go raid the fridge?"

..

..

Argon took in the sights of the city as he walked down the sidewalk, finding it odd that having been gone as long as he had been, the changes to the city appeared minimal. As he walked, he noticed a couple of people step out of an alleyway in front of him and walk, staying several feet ahead of him in the same direction he was heading. He heard faint footfalls behind him as well. The ones ahead kept a slower pace, and around the middle of the block, Argon caught up with them. At that moment, they whirled to face him. He took a step back, only to find his way blocked by a second pair.

"Where do ya think you're going in such a hurry?" one in front spoke.

"It's rude to bump into people like that, pal." one behind added.

"You should apologize to my friend. And we don't want no silly words. You bump into my friends, you pay the price." The first one gestured with his hands after he finished speaking. Argon wondered about the wisdom of wearing such a large coat at this hour of the morning. It was far too early to need to worry about scaring innocents, and he didn't take into account the possibility of being accosted by bored thugs. The one in front pulled out a large shiny knife.

"I suggest emptying your wallet before I have to do somethin', well, unpleasant."

Argon took in his surroundings in a quick moment of observation, and then considered his options. It had been a long time since he had been here, and he hadn't been around quite long enough to build a reputation, so there was no sense in running away and making a bad start. He also knew these men would talk, and there could be future repercussions for what he did here, so he decided he wanted these guys out of action for a while. Knife man was going first.

"Time's up, buddy. Looks like you're giving a forced apology." And with that, the knife lashed out.

Argon caught the knife bearing forearm with his left hand, and in one smooth motion, he stepped into the assailant and brought his right arm up into the now-straightened elbow, and smashed into it hard. The resulting snap was followed by a shriek. Argon quickly looked behind at one of the men behind him, and in a split second, judged his aim and snapped his right elbow back and into the guy's face. Then, on instinct, Argon ducked, barely missing being struck by a collapsible baton. Argon swung his right arm like a bat, connecting right between the man's legs. The blow bowed him over, and as Argon rose, he brought his knee into the man's face, hard enough to knock him over in the other direction. Shifting his attention back to the last untouched mugger, he deflected a blow from a sap the man tried to use. Now that the man was a bit off balance, Argon smashed his foot into one of the mugger's knees, forcing his leg to bend the wrong way.

'Two out of four taken down, two left that could recover,' Argon thought. He shifted his focus to the man whose arm he broke. He had started to recover, and now held the knife in his left hand. Clearly not having had much practice, he awkwardly tried to stab at Argon, who in turn easily deflected the attack and disarmed him. He then reversed the knife he held, pulled the man closer with his free hand, and then struck his nose with the pommel, breaking it. Argon reversed the knife again, and while still holding on to the man's arm with his other hand, he brought the pommel of the knife into the man's elbow, shattering it. Again on a feeling, he let go of the man and the knife, and dropped into a crouch. He felt the tip of something tap his head, hard enough to make his vision flare brightly for a split second. Argon rocked onto his hands to catch himself, then pushed himself off and mule-kicked the man behind him. He then heard a metallic crash, and when he stood up, he found the man had been knocked into a newspaper dispenser. He approached the man, who in a last ditch effort pulled out a gun. Argon could see the man wasn't in well enough shape to hit much of anything accurately, his jaw and shirt were covered in blood from the blow to his mouth, and the mule-kick had winded him. Argon quickly dodged to the side and closed the distance between them just as the man pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash lighting up both for just a moment, fear on the man's face, and Argon's face betraying nothing. He shifted his stance, and then snap kicked the pistol out of the man's hand, and in a smooth motion brought the same foot around and brought the heel down onto the man's hand, smashing it into the ground, making him howl in pain.

"Y-y-you don't know wh-who you're m-messing with! W-we're gonna find you, and we're g-g-gonna come for y-you hard!" the man threatened.

"That's good. I needed to make a statement here. Go ahead," Argon started, then shrugged his jacket off, and tightened up some of his gear, revealing that he was ready for a serious fight. Light body armor, a large pistol, the handle of a combat knife just showing from one side above his hips, and the handle of a straight sword behind each shoulder, the sheathes crossed behind his back.
"You tell your friends and your bosses what happened. Tell them that Argon came back. I'm still alive, and I'm here to see what happened to my friends."

..

..

Later that morning, the sun has risen, and some small amount of life has returned to the tower after the current group of Teen Titans had left it for the original owners to enjoy. Dick Grayson was staring down Victor, as he tried to get used to seeing two normal looking eyes on his old friend, as Victor bounced a basketball in one hand. Suddenly Victor moved, barreling down the court from the far end. He whipped an arm out, flinging the basketball across the court, bouncing it off the ground in front of the post holding up the hoop, then the hoop itself. He leapt into the air to catch the ball, Dick jumping up to counter. Victor extended his reach, lengthening an arm, caught the ball, and then hit the ground running. Dick started to catch up to Victor, just in time for him to throw the ball at the backboard, jump into the air, catch the ball on the rebound, then slam dunk it. Dick brought himself to a stop, and put a palm to his forehead in frustration.

"Dammit, Vic…"

"Hah, how about best fifteen out of twenty?"

"Sure, when the rest of the team gets here." Dick grumped as he moved back into position.

"You mean the man trained by the man who took down Ras Al Ghul is giving up on a basketball game?" Victor taunted with a challenging smile.

"How about me?" a third voice asked. The two men looked over to see a girl leaning against the closest basketball hoop post. She was wearing a black tanktop with black pants, and she had a bag slung over one pale shoulder. Her shoulder length hair was loose on her head and parted sown the middle, covering her ears, and it was a color somewhere between blue and purple. The other two stared at her for a moment, somewhat shocked at not only who stood before them, but also what she said.

"Raven? Is that you?" Victor hadn't seen Raven in a long time, and last time he had, she had still been her usual humorless and sarcastic self. This Raven was different, she seemed more confident, in control, and, a bit lighter, in a way.
"Hey Raven, glad to finally see you again in person. The camera on those old communicators just doesn't do you any justice!" Dick greeted her, as they both walked over to her. Raven smiled a little at the compliment. Victor grew more wary with each step. He froze at her smile, putting a hand on his forearm as if he were readying one of his sonic cannons.

"Waitwaitwait. Who are you, and what have you done with Rae? You ain't the girl I used to know." Vic eyeballed her hard.

"Nice to see you too, Cy." She said, using her old trademark deadpan, taking all the emotion out of her face. Victor visibly relaxed.

"Now THAT'S The Raven I used to know! And call me Vic, we're all old friends here." He replied with a smile.

"I see we both have some catching up to do, Vic. So Dick, I see you need some help evening things out. Let me face him, one on one." Raven said, turning back to him.

"Are you sure? It pains me to admit this, but he's gotten pretty good, even with him cheating…"

"Hey! I-" Victor started before Raven cut him off.

"Trust me, I can handle him." She replied, setting down her bag. She walked over to one side of the center ring of the basketball court and waited for him. She crossed her arms over her chest as he approached her.

"Check the ball?" he asked her, tossing her the ball. She didn't move, but the ball did disappear into a suddenly generated black aura near her, and it shot back into Vic's hands just as quickly as the ball left his. The ball returning to him so fast caught him off guard.

"Ball's fine, Cyborg, let's go." Raven said when he caught the ball. Vic shrugged in response.

"You asked for it." He said, taking two steps back and shooting for the hoop. Halfway across to the hoop, it disappeared into another quickly generated dark aura, and then fell into Raven's waiting hand. She let the ball roll to the tip of her middle finger, and then balanced it there, holding it up. It started spinning on her finger by itself. She smirked at Vic, and then dropped the ball off her finger into another dark aura, where it next fell through the hoop at the other end.

"Aww, man, that ain't cool!" Vic moaned. Dick chuckled at him.

"Hey, that ain't funny! How am I supposed to block that?"

"Not my problem." Raven said flatly, taunting Vic.

"I'm too hungry to play anymore, let's go get breakfast!" Vic replied, leading the way out of the gym, Raven trying hard to stifle a laugh. The three arrived in the main living room of the Tower to find another person inside. All three recognized him immediately, because of the green skin, green hair, and pointed ears.

"Yo, BB!" Vic called out, happy to see him. Garfield, long ago known as Beast Boy, turned around, holding a tofu sandwich on a plate.

"Cy! …borg? Dude! Whoa! You're not mostly robot-ey anymore!"

"Yeah! Not on the outside, anyway!" He held up an arm. "Synthetic skin, just like the real thing, except…" He trailed off, showing off that same arm transforming into a sonic cannon. "I've had upgrades!"

"Duuude, sweet!"

Raven looked at Dick and rolled her eyes at the two.

"Starting to feel like old times." She said, using her deadpan again. Her voice caught BB's attention, and for a few moments, he stared at her.

"Raven…?" He started, not quite sure what to make of what he was seeing. She gave him a small smile in reply as she moved some of her hair behind an ear.

"Hey Garfield, been a while." She said. His answer was his plate and sandwich hitting the floor. "You too? Gar, it's been over 15 years. We've all changed. I'm in much better control of myself, Life is, …easier for me now. And you've changed too, it looks like you finally matured, a little, and grew into yourself."

"Not just that, Rae, you're gorgeous!" Garfield replied, then, realizing what he said, clapped his hands to his mouth and squeaked, his eyes wide in shock. Raven laughed quietly in response.

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I told you, I have much better control now. And thanks." She responded. Garfield looked to Vic.

"Don't look at me. I'm married. I can't say anything." He shifted his head slightly and winked at Raven. Gar heard the worried 'married', and looked horrified.

"What the hell, Cy? You get hitched, and you don't even invite me to the wedding?"

"Or the rest of us, as far as I can tell," Dick added, looking at him. Vic held up his hands in a defensive gesture.

"Guys, Sarah just wanted a small wedding. It wasn't much more than us, the reverend, her parents, and a video camera!"

"A belated congratulations to you, then." Dick replied.

"Likewise," Raven added.

"Cy, you married Sarah?! Sweet! Congrats!"

"Man, let's just get some breakfast. I'm makin' waffles." Vic said, staving off any further embarrassment as he dug around for his old waffle iron and checked for ingredients.

..

Something had felt off to Argon since shortly after he arrived. After spending some time reacquainting himself with a small part of Jump City, he stopped by a newspaper dispenser. He pulled a handful of change from a pocket and put the needed amount into the machine. Having had more of a life behind him since his last visit, he was fairly well stocked on earth currency. After taking his paper, he checked the date, and surprised himself. It turned out that the amount of time that had passed here since his last visit was far less than he had thought. According to the paper, it was the year 2026. Only twenty years had passed here, as opposed to a little over a hundred years in his travels. The way this particular stream of time flowed was to a degree beyond his understanding, but that fact it had progressed only twenty years gave him a needed advantage. Those who remembered him wouldn't expect his combat skill to have advanced as far as it had. He stuck the still-folded paper under his arm, and walked on until he found a bench, then sat down to read, and get himself current with the events of this world.

"Is he here?"

"Acquiring a visual on his ship is extremely difficult. The cloaking system on it is most effective in the visual spectrum. We have been checking with radar and other spaces based sensors, and have been picking something up in orbit sporadically, but we will need more time for a proper confirmation."

"He is the last one we need. If the memories of the rest were correct, he could very well be the most powerful of all of them."

"Now that it seems like he may be here, I will add another shift to expedite confirmation of the vessel's presence."

"Good. See it done."

Argon finished the paper and set it down next to him on the bench. Earlier in the morning, he felt a presence arrive in the town. One he couldn't pinpoint well, but he knew it was somewhere in the city. He thought that if he could feel that person's arrival, that same person could feel him. He could only hope that whomever it could be, they could help him get to the bottom of the strange dreams.

He felt better, knowing that only around twenty years had passed. The original five heroes that protected this city would still be alive, and they would be in their prime. They could provide an interesting challenge, and help further hone his own skills. Before his own thoughts could continue, he heard the distant sound of something flapping in the sky. He looked up and around to see what it was, and he noticed something small and wingless fly over nearby, with what appeared to be a large box beneath it. He watched it fly towards the tower in the distance. He then stood up and walked on, to learn a new area of the city, and wonder if his message to the criminal underworld would be received.

..

It was nearly lunchtime when something crashed into the roof of the tower. It had interrupted Raven telling how she had managed to get out from under the gum advertising situation in Japan. The four Titans rushed to the roof, to find that there had been no accident. Instead, next to a strikingly large suitcase, stood a girl, turned away and talking away on a cell phone.

"…and I am here, Donna. I will let you know if they agree to a photoshoot. I believe I hear a door opening, I shall call you back!" And just like that, she put the phone away, and turned to meet her greeters. A broad smile crossed her face as she recognized those who stood in front of her. "Friends!" she nearly yelled, quickly floating over to get a closer look at the rest of the team. "You have all changed so much!"

"We aren't the only ones, Star. Damn, look at you!" Garfield pointed out, finding it hard not to stare at her. She was wearing a tight button-up shirt, largely unbuttoned and flapping in the breeze, along with tight khaki Capri pants, showing off her almost muscular figure. She didn't seem to be wearing much else.

"Oh Beast Boy!" she said, giggling, "I see you have taken up being a model as well?" She asked him in response, having noticed his stylish haircut, matured features and what seemed to be muscle tone hiding under his Hawaiian shirt and jeans.

"Naah, I've mainly been just workin' out and bombing around in my Bentley, but thanks for noticing!" Gar replied, wiggling his eyebrows at Starfire, inciting more giggles from her. When Garfield mentioned the word 'Bentley', it caught Vic's rapt attention.

"What Bentley?"

"Great to see you back, Kory, Glad you could make it!" Dick said

"It is wonderful to see you again! I see you have become Nightwing!"

"What Bentley?!" Vic interjected. Starfire gasped when she saw Raven.

"Raven! My friend! You have indeed changed so much too!" She said, grabbing her by the shoulders at first took look at her before pulling her into a hug. Tears nearly came to Star's eyes when she felt Rae squeeze back. "Oh, you have opened up so much! You must have obtained better control of your powers! I am proud for you! You look so good now, perhaps we will model together and Donna can take the pictures!"

"That's a maybe, Kory. I may not be ready to do that quite yet..."

"Oh but you must! We will look fantastic together!"

"Dammit, I wanna hear about this Bentley! Gaaaarfield…!" Vic's massive looming presence seemed to move everyone out of the way all of a sudden.

"Oh! Do tell! Is it a Continental GT? Donna says I should get one, that I would look good with it…" Kory inquired.
"Eugh, no. Those are fast, but they take forever to get there, and it handles like a bus. It doesn't have any character! What I have is a CAR, baby!"
"Allright, I'll bite. What do you have, Gar?" Dick asked. Garfield started beaming.

"It's a 1928 Six and a Half Litre Tourer! Wait till ya see it! Ooh, that reminds me, Cy, would you mind taking a look at the engine later? It hasn't been running as well as it used to lately." Victor looked like he's been given free reign to design a Moon Base when he heard Garfield's request.

"Well how about right now?! I wanna see that girl for myself!"

"Hee hee! Yes, Let's!" Kory added, clearly excited, as she grabbed her suitcase and casually flung it over her shoulder. Only Raven seemed to notice that the suitcase had left a slight impact crater, her delicate eyebrows lifting in surprise.

..

His headache was intensifying. He stopped to lean against a building and held a hand to his head and grit his teeth. Argon had been shot before, he'd been cut, caught some shrapnel, and had been stabbed. He didn't hold the talent for frontline battle his forefathers had, but he was no stranger to pain. Physical pain he could work with, but this, this was insane. In an effort to stave off the searing waves of burning pain, he tried to manage it with a trickle of crimson energy. It seemed to work, for a moment, but then he felt something in his head give.

..

Argon stood in the center of a large ring, and someone was introducing him to a large crowd. He wasn't fond of this life, but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. It did have fun moments though, even if some of the clowns had a thing for him.

'Wait… what? Why would the clowns…' Argon thought. Things didn't seem quite right, but a momentary glance down at himself seemed to explain it. He wasn't wearing much.

Having been introduced, he knew it was time to begin his show. He started simple, with small trails and bands of fire curling around his arms to his fingers, then around his body. He soon advanced to controlling streams of fire around, before conjuring smaller animals and working his way up to an elephant at one point, and then it transformed into a group of lions, prancing about and leaping through hoops. In a final flourish, he snapped his fingers, and the lions evaporated

"That's our beautiful fire girl, Pyra! Give her a big hand!" The Ringmaster said, ending the performance.

'What the flying fuck? My name isn't Pyra, and I'm sure as hell not a girl… What's going on…?' Argon thought to himself. Looking down again, he realized he didn't recognize his own body. Aside from the fact he was barely wearing anything, he had breasts. Looking back up, he found himself walking back to his tent, not quite knowing how he knew the way, and found himself confronted by some clowns.

"Hey Fire Kat, you look real pretty in your new costume!" One of the clowns spoke. The same clown raised his arm, and then everything went black for Argon.

Addendum: The final scene in this chapter is a modified version of one of the first scenes in the first Dark Victories RP, changed a bit to fit Argon's hallucination.