Chapter 2
The Beginning
As the alarm clock began its blaring Raven woke up with a gentle groan. She felt the familiar satin sheets running along her bare body, and a familiar arm wrapped tightly around her. She smiled and turned onto her other side to see her lover still wrapped in Morpheus' tight embrace. He had a trail of drool dripping out of his lip gently pooling next to his mouth and running down towards his neck.
She groaned in annoyance, "I wish he wouldn't drool all over my pillows when he stays over. I'm tired of rewashing the damned things 3 times a week. I suppose I've got to make up for those hickeys I keep leaving him. The guys keep mocking him for them."
She remembered the last time she left bite marks on his neck, and all the harassment he received for it from the guys. She couldn't help but blush as they made poor innuendoes and Starfire kept asking how it was. "Why is she so insistent on knowing how our sex life is? I don't ask about hers' and Robins, even though I can hear it through all hours of the night. It sounds like he's slowly skinning her."
Beast Boy slowly began to stir next to her with a loud groan. He pulled away from her and changed into a cat to do his morning stretching. With a lot more claw use that Raven appreciated as he slowly tore into her sheets. He began to stretch and twist at angles contortionists would be jealous of, all the while yowling and moving along the length of her bed. "Would you mind not doing that on the bed Garfield sweetheart? You're damaging my sheets."
He resumed his human form sheepishly with an apologetic grin and a small blush. "Sorry Rae, I kinda forgot this isn't my bed. I'll try and remember next time."
"That's what you said the last 3 times. We're going to start spending the nights at your room if you don't stop. I'm going to have to go get new sheets today now. These ones are shredded." She said with extreme annoyance. She loved Garfield, but he refused to try and adhere to the only three rules she had set for him.
He seemed to get a kick out of wrecking her bed sheets. This had happened three times prior and showed no signs of stopping. She had to get new bed sheets two times and this would make three. Her first rule was to help her keep her bed decent after their sleep over's. They hadn't had sex in her bed yet, as her need to keep things immaculate included her bed above all else, much to his disappointment.
The 2nd rule was not bothering her meditations unless it was an emergency; as it was her only way to keep full control of her emotions. Despite his knowledge of what has happened every time she lost control he still insisted on bothering her. She appreciated the sweet gestures; a little kiss on the cheek, or getting her food and tugging her out of the meditation for breakfast, he did it without regard to her constantly telling him not to disrupt her meditations.
She still shuddered at what happened the last time she lost full control. She had attempted to kill someone. She didn't believe that an individual had the right to kill another person. Even though Terra had betrayed her team and was systematically eliminating them, she didn't feel she had the right to lose control like that. She didn't want that to ever happen again. So she had increased her usual meditation times from her normal hour a day to two a day. Since she had, she had been doing better at developing control of her powers and her emotions were kept in better in check. Her meager yet comfortable social life had improved a good deal because of it. That progress would reverse if he didn't learn not to interrupt her sessions.
The final and most important rule for her was that he needed to give her some space. She loved spending time with him, but not every second of every day like he seemed to desire. He would often follow him around like a lost puppy, sometimes literally. It was adorable, but ultimately caused some slight anger.
"I'm sorry Rae. I promise to do better. Please forgive me?" He said it with a truly sad expression that they both new made her feel slightly guilty, even if she wouldn't admit it.
She rolled her eyes and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "I forgive you. Now, go get showered. You smell like you haven't in a week. I love you."
He smiled whole heartedly and ran for her shower with a wave, "love you too babe!"
Once she heard the shower turn on she hopped out of bed and got dressed as quick as she could to go begin her morning meditations. A half hour of peace while he was in the shower would be a nice chance to begin her hour of meditation.
She had discovered that quiet music to drown out the background noises going on through the tower often helped her meditation. She turned on her favorite group. She began to enjoy the gentle piano playing and gentle baritone of the lead singer as she assumed her position and began her mantra.
"Azaroth & Metrion & Zinthos. Azaroth & Metrion & Zinthos. Azaroth & Metr…"
Her meditation was cut off by a loud screeching of the alarm indicating an emergency had begun and required everyone's full attention. She groaned in annoyance as she stood up preparing to head to the briefing room. As she began to run out of her room she heard Garfield crash onto the floor of the bathroom in his haste to exit along with a small stream of obscenities. Usually vulgar language annoyed her, but something about karmic payback from him wrecking her sheets made her chuckle as she left the room.
Downstairs in the briefing room Robin was already ready with Starfire standing next to him. Her hair was slightly disheveled. She clearly didn't get to finish brushing her hair when the alarm went off. Robin was immaculate as usual. How he got prepped so fast she would never know. Cyborg came up from the elevator. No doubt working on the T car all night.
Garfield came crashing down the stairs moments later still soaking wet and wearing his costume ready to go. As he got into postion around the briefing table, Beast Boy continued straightening his suit and drying his hair off.
Robin checked the table and began the briefing. "Titans, we have something going on at the museum. There was a large explosion located in the back followed by an unknown perp destroying sever exhibits. He immediately disabled all the guards. When the task force arrived to stop the perp he lit the squad cars on fire and didn't even flinch when the bullets from their assault rifles hit him. We have what appears to be a man who is capable of martial arts and is a Pyrokinetic. Pulling up the security footage."
The footage began to play revealing a man garbed in black armor with wavering lines of air seeming to burn around him. It began with him taking a basic fighting stance and with a strong rush of his arm he launched a fireball at the dinosaur display. People ran and managed to escape the blast as it hit the tyrannosaurus skeleton.
A pair of guards ran to tackle him. Neither guard was a small man. Between the two of them they must have weighed at least 500 pounds he merely stopped for a second seemingly conflicted then grabbed them both by their collars and tossed them thirty to forty feet to each side, knocking them out cold. He then proceeded to check his work and walk on, igniting an old model T exhibit as well as a suspended solar system exhibit. His next move was to walk over to a Japanese armor set, at least 600 years old, look at the camera and ignite it with a scream of rage. Once the armor was ignited he looked up at the security camera and winked.
He proceeded to walk out of the view of the cameras, but an officer could be heard.
"Put your hands in the air and drop to your knees! You are under arrest!"
"Bring me the Titans, and this senseless destruction will cease. Do not attempt to apprehend me yourselves. It will result in nothing except injured officers. If they do not reveal themselves soon, I will destroy the few real artifacts that this museum has on display."
As he finished his speech the camera cut out.
Robin stated, "This man knows who we are and is looking for us. This mean he is prepared for us and we need to be prepared for anything. He doesn't appear to be a member of HIVE or The Brotherhood of Evil. I ran a facial recognition scan, but the mask rendered that useless. Whoever this is, we must be on our guard. Titans! Go!"
They all began to move out. Starfire and Raven took to the air. BB changed in to a falcon and flew out the window. Robin and Cyborg immediately headed to the roof to get into the T jet.
Within mere minutes the women were hovering above the museum. Watching the scene unfolding as they waited for the men arrive. Their 10 years of experience in the Titans taught them that whenever someone is looking for the Titans, they should never tackle it alone.
Below, the police had all but vacated the area, partially because they knew the Titans were coming, and partially because the masked man was igniting cop cars one by one. He slowly lit on fire before each attack, as if summoning the energy. He would then take aim at a cop car and fire a blast a few seconds later. The police were hopelessly outmatched and abandoned the squad cars quickly.
Suddenly, the man ceased to burn and looked straight up and the two Titans hovering above him. He seemed to smirk and called up to them.
"Ladies, please feel free to join me on the ground. I will not attack until you all have assembled. You have my word. And don't worry, I haven't killed anyone yet."
Raven felt a chill run up her spine at the man's words. He seemed… jovial that they had arrived. He was so calm, and collected, as though the destruction he had just caused was a mere footnote in his day. His words weren't the only thing that shook her. He had a dark aura about him. She could see great darkness emanating from his core. This darkness was a large part of him, it may even have created him, but it strangely seemed to obey him. It wasn't controlling him as most would be from the power that just bled out of him.
The women slowly lowered themselves down to street level to face their foe. He merely stood there quietly and watched them both land. He bowed graciously to them both and examined them both for a few seconds before speaking again.
"Welcome Titans. I have read quite a bit about you. But it would seem the tabloids didn't do your beauty justice. Especially, you Raven."
As he finished his sentence BB landed next to raven and took the form of a gorilla. With a roar of engines the T jet flew over head and a 2 ton Cyborg crashed a few feet to the left of Starfire. Robin landed with perfect flair in the front and center of the group.
"Excellent entrance Titans. I must say quite impressive display. It was all for naught, but impressive none the less. I am quite acquainted with all of you and your powers. So, to be gracious I should introduce myself. I am known as Goryo (author's note. in Japanese it means the vengeful spirits of the dead.) and I am here for your destruction."
