"For the LAST TIME, Beast Boy, I will NOT play GameStation with you, nor will I waste my time on television!" exclaimed Raven in a near-shout. The blue Titan's patience was receiving a severe pushing of buttons by the green that was Garfield Logan and she wasn't enjoying it… Or was she?
'Don't you DARE think about that, Raven!' she scolded herself. 'You can't feel or your powers go haywire, remember? And letting what's possibly the most powerful emotion ever to exist into your mind is extraordinarily dange-- oh . . .' She thought a word most inappropriate for young childrens' ears as the lighting above the pair exploded. "STOP IT!" she shrieked at herself and, by accident, aloud. She thought the curse word again. 'NOW he's going to start prying around where he's concerned in my thoughts! And don't kid yourself, Raven, you're DEFINITELY in love with him.' She willed herself not to look into his eyes; she held a soft spot there.
"Stop what, Rae?" Beast Boy asked, making his car on the GameStation veer dangerously to the left. "I know. You love me. Every girl in America does. What turned you on, the hair? The ladies love the hair." Raven reddened, thankful that her hood helped to hide her flaming cheeks. It didn't exactly help her that her skin was pale, either.
Starfire floated into her room, soaked in sweat and her long, ruby-red hair pulled back into a sloppy ponytail. Her eyes were tinted a strange pink, a closer look at the girl and Beast Boy realized she had hearts in them. As she sat down to watch him play the game, he paused it and tugged on her hair. "Ooh, Starfire's got a crush, ooh!" She, like Raven, went very scarlet. "I do not! I was merely expressing my pleasure after doing the training with Robin."
"So you like him?"
"I beg to differ!"
Raven blushed violently and distracted herself by turning to Beast Boy's and Starfire's argument. "Oh, come ON, Starfire; isn't it just plain painfully obvious! And not just to me, either," she added, flashing a look at Beast Boy before turning back to the Tamaranean. "You're totally in love with Robin!"
Starfire flushed deeply, and at a bad time, too; Robin chose that moment to enter the living room and collapse on the couch. "I've been working on an analysis of those weird attacks on local fruit stands-- I just don't get why the HIVE team keeps on trying to steal bananas, of all things. Of course, they probably have gone bananas themselves, but why do they need to prove that in a more literal manner?" He glanced to his left as Starfire gave a giggle from there. He felt sudden warmth all around him from her laughter, and tried his hardest not to blush (having noticed her gradually fading one at once). "Hey, Star!"
"Hello, Robin!" she exclaimed brightly. Raven and Beast Boy exchanged knowing looks, their most recent argument forgotten. 'I am not, friend Raven,' Starfire thought fiercely in her mind, knowing Raven would be lurking around in there.
'Yes, you are!'
'I do not feel any affection beyond ship friend for Robin. Perhaps I should question how you feel of Beast Boy?'
Raven immediately shut up, still trying to convince herself that she didn't love him. Beast Boy looked questionably at Robin. "Why would they steal bananas? Did one of those freaks turn into a gorilla?" He began to crack up, holding onto the couch for support. His video game was long finished, but he was still sitting cross-legged on the floor.
Robin stifled a chuckle. "Well, we'll find out soon enough, all right," he said, yawning slightly. "I'm thinking that it could be an ingredient to some kind of virus... but that's a pure guess, and what kind of virus would require bananas?"
Meanwhile, Raven lurched out of Starfire's mind in a split second. 'DO I love Beast Boy?' she asked herself for the millionth time today. 'I mean, he is annoying, and his idea of a joke drives me nuts... but it's kind of cute. And anyways, he does always have good intentions, so who am I to blame him?' She shook her head slightly and turned back to the mainstream. "In any case, I think we should investigate it," she stated simply. "Cyborg would usually know this kind of thing, but he's on his honeymoon and we shouldn't disturb him..."
Beast Boy frowned. "With that Stephanie, right? Bit of a shame she fell for Cyborg, of all people. Drop-dead gorgeous and has a great sense of humor... but then, Steph's not the only one around here that's desirable." Raven tugged her hood just a bit further up: she was pretty sure that Beast Boy had just winked in her direction.
"Didn't you even pay attention to who he was getting married to, Beast Boy? Of course it was Stephanie; he's been dating her for ages!"
Starfire scowled in Beast Boy's direction. "Friend Stephanie is a very pleasant person, you are merely resentful of her because she was victorious in the game videos." He opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by a death glare from Robin. 'Very overprotective of our princess, aren't we Robin?' Raven taunted knowingly in his mind. 'Get out, Raven,' he growled. A bit taken-aback, the Azarathian obeyed.
"So, Robin," Beast Boy asked casually, leaning back on the couch, "Got a girlfriend? The lovely Starfire, perhaps?"
Robin bit his lip and looked practically horrified. "She's not my girlfriend! And anyways, like you don't have one! You're practically drooling over Raven!"
Raven's face went red for the third time today. What was it with her today, anyways? It wasn't as though she and Beast Boy had ever been extremely close... but ever since that day when he and Cyborg had entered her mind through the mirror, he had begun to grow on her, and she found it harder and harder to keep herself for laughing at his losses on the GameStation against Cyborg and vain attempts to get the others to eat tofu.
'Control your emotions, control your emotions, CONTROL your EMOTIONS!' she shrieked at herself; she could sense that the GameStation would explode any second now if she didn't, and allowing that to happen would be exactly like committing suicide after Cyborg and Beast Boy realized it was her fault. Breathing in and out slowly and with effort, she managed to stop herself from causing the device any damage... but not before she accidentally shook her hood out of her face to reveal her completely scarlet complexion.
Robin stifled a snicker. "Something-- er-- embarrass you, Raven?" he said with heavy emphasis. No one could help but notice Beast Boy's hopeful face.
She fumed silently. "No, not at all," she snapped at him. "Just having a bit of trouble controlling my powers today, that's all." She made her way back into his mind and snapped, 'Now will you SHUT IT! I'm under quite enough stress as it is!'
He looked quite taken aback at her sudden annoyance, and blinked as Raven stood suddenly. "Now, if you'll please excuse me, I'll be in my room," she said heavily, storming out and down the hall.
Robin frowned. "What was that all about?" he managed. He and Starfire shared a confused look.
"What's up with her?" Beast Boy asked, pulling a comical face. "She's so dramatic. Drama, drama, drama. Drama this, drama that." 'And I totally love her for it,' he added mentally.
"I am worried for Friend Raven. Perhaps we should visit her?"
"Starfire, you know she hates people in her room. Leave her alone." Robin switched on the television.
'What on Azarath is going on!' Raven exclaimed inwardly. 'I'm exploding all over the place, can't control my emotions, and it's affecting my abilities to concentrate and meditate!' Indeed, she and tried in vain for the past ten minutes to calm herself and failed dismally. This caused quite a bit frustration on her part; her bookshelf exploded as she burst out, aggravated.
A soft knock at her door informed her that someone clearly hadn't followed Robin's directions. "What do you want?" she snapped, even angrier that she couldn't repair the damage done with witchcraft, which promptly caused her clothes armoire to blow up and shatter into a billion shards of wood.
She focused hard. 'When did this start happening! It's crazy... my actions are totally controlled by emotions, not my will, now!' Closing her eyes to concentrate, things stopped blowing up as she remembered...
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" shrieked Raven, shooting pure energy at Jinx with all her might. It was a dull, dark, and humid evening; the air felt so moist and stuffy that it was as though Raven was suffocating within it. Her opponent gasped as it hit her right in the face, staggering forward after wincing from the boils springing up on her pale skin, she whipped out something-- was it a needle? A syringe? -- and thrust it into Raven's arm.
Her mouth fell open as she suddenly felt a sudden burst within her; "AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!" she repeated, but the magic did not come. Feeling a sudden explosion of rage, the block of cement upon which Jinx was standing suddenly self-destructed; the pink-hairedwitch, caught off guard, received a full blast of cement to the stomach and collapsed.
Satisfaction ringing from head to toes, Raven bellowed to the others, "Take down Gizmo and Mammoth; my powers aren't working and I'm going home!" And with that, she turned and fled.
The door slid open, revealing a worried Starfire. The alien gazed at Raven with large, concerned green eyes, and she stepped into the room, looking warily at the armoire and bookcase. "Are there any unsatisfactory feelings of which I would be able to assist in banishing?" she inquired, perching awkwardly on Raven's bed and waiting for her fellow female Titan to scream at her to leave.
But the scream never came. Feeling a sudden rush of compassion towards the Tamaranean, Raven smiled (a candle on the desk shook violently before spraying hot wax all over Raven's books, although this was unnoticed by them both for now) and said, "Thanks, Starfire... I'm just... really confused right now. I mean, my powers have been malfunctioning ever since Jinx put that thing in my arm, and I can't control what I say and do-- it's as though I'm acting on emotions, not what I do or don't want to do. It's-- I'm s-scared." Raven sighed and took a seat next to Starfire on the feather-light bed.
"As for unsatisfactory feelings that need banishing... the fear could use getting rid of. And there's a lot of it because-- get this strange epidemic-- I think I'm in lo-- AARGH! I did NOT just say that!" The entire desk shattered at this proclamation, it and its contents falling in a heap to the rubble-coated ground.
"And look at this mess! I can't use my spells, so how'm I supposed to repair anything! Okay, if my bed goes, am I going to get stuck in Terra's old room? I don't want ANY reminder of her-- it'll drive me nuts and I'll probably explode the whole place out of annoyance, too." But thinking about Terra was one emotional weakness too many; with Raven's cry of anguish and irk, the entire room crashed and burned-- well, smoked, to be literally accurate-- before their eyes, and they were suddenly sitting on the layers of trash upon the floor.
Beast Boy and Robin, engrossed in a mindless television program, heard the sounds of the smoking room and the cries of surprise from both Raven and Starfire.
"What the f--" Beast Boy started.
"Language," said Robin dully. "You know Star won't put up with it."
"I was going to say 'flip,' but I'll just skip the sentence, then," said Beast Boy with a grin. "And since when are you all obsessed with Starfire? Or called her Star, for that matter?"
Robin rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Come on, we'd better go check out what the girls have done..." They turned towards Raven's smoldering door, Beast Boy anxiously yet curiously, Robin trudging reluctantly as if to say, 'Well, the worst has finally come-- what now?'
Starfire heard a sharp rapping on the door before it was opened without further ado. "Rav-- what? What happened to your room?" said Beast Boy incredulously, looking from Raven to Starfire and back again. 'She wasn't going into emotional overdrive, was she? That's one change I'll never adapt to,' he thought with a shudder, but almost instantly added, 'But she IS cute when she's not wearing a blank expression. 'Specially right now,' he daydreamed, his eyes lingering on her for a second too long. Unluckily for him, she seemed to notice and a presence revealed itself in his mind: 'I heard that.'
"Sorry," he mumbled. "Didn't know you could still..."
Robin blinked. "Read thoughts? Yeah, she sort of unsettled me earlier today with that trick. Raven... Starfire... what happened in here?"
Raven rolled her eyes, regaining her usual deadpan once more. "I blew the lot up. Happy?" She fiddled with the remains of one of her spellbooks, looking slightly bored, though there was a hint of something else in her eyes-- what it was, Beast Boy couldn't figure out. But they had more pressing matters to deal with.
"Where will friend Raven be staying, now that she can no longer reside in her room of beds?" asked Starfire quietly, breaking the tense silence.
Robin opened his mouth to reply, but Raven cut him off with an impatient air about her. "I'll stay in Cyborg's room till he gets back, if that's okay. Or we can just drag a cot in here. Personally..." She flashed a dark look at them all as she finished, "I'd like very much to be alone."
Robin's jaw closed and he nodded briefly. "We'll bring in Te-- uh, the spare bed for you to use. Cyborg wouldn't be too happy if he came home to find his room in ruins. Will you-- um-- be able to... wreck anything not in the room?" he asked uneasily, failing to find a way to avoid the more unwelcome content of the brief, few sentences.
Raven felt rather stung; did the Titans not trust her? 'Distrust me? No way. We don't know if I can manage to trash stuff outside of the room or not. That's all. Just a formality-
A slight eruption from the hall cut off her thoughts. She smiled grimly. "Guess so."