Chapter 2 – Ghost upon the Floor
Raven was lost. Surrounding her was nothing more than darkness as far as the eye could see. She began to wander, aimlessly, across the blackened plain, but it appeared she was getting nowhere. Then again, was there any place to be in this barren land of pitch back? She felt as if she was trapped. The darkness served as her prison, where she had no cellmates.
But the walls began to fall apart. As each piece fell to the black ground, her area seemed to grow. Her surroundings were opening up to a spacious world of white. The black of the floor quickly grouped to nothing but a circle of shadow under Raven's feet.
All of the black had dissolved into this small shadow, with the exception of the darkness that formed another circle of tiny size. For one reason or another, it lay before Raven with no object to make sense of its existence. After staring at it with a bit of confusion for a brief moment, it shot off across the floor.
Wondering where it could be going, Raven chased after the shadow. She ran as quickly as she could, as to not loose sight of it. Finally it stopped under the feet of another person. Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet with his. She recognized him immediately. Surprisingly, she was happy to meet him there. Happy to the point she leaned forward and extended her arms to embrace him.
But before she could, the shadow started to slide across the floor, again. It took along with it the person. She tried to chase after it, once more, but its speed far exceeded her own. As it became a dot on the horizon, the backdrop behind it spread from the boy to bring forth blackness. Then her own shadow expanded, but the darkness now symbolized a hole. She was falling back into it. The darkness consumed her as she fell into her own little underworld.
When it seemed as if everything was gone, when it seemed as if nothing or anyone was there, she heard the blood draining scream of the companion she had been happy to see, followed up by several others. Then just as an image began to come into focus, she woke up, finding herself in her room.
When her heart finally stopped racing, she could hear someone calling from outside her door. It was Starfire, and it sounded as if she were looking for Beast Boy.
"Beast Boy! Beast Boy!" She heard the muffled cries as she sat up in bed. The door opened a crack as Starfire whispered, "Beast Boy? Are you present?"
"This is my room, Starfire."
The Tamaranean let out a shriek as she jumped in surprise of Raven's voice, "Oh! Raven! I did not know you were awake!"
"Why would Beast Boy be in my room?" she inquired.
Starfire blushed as if she, too, recognized how strange such an occurrence would be. "Yes, well, when he could not be located anywhere else I did not know where else to look!"
"What?" she questioned, "What happened to him?"
Robin, who had come running when he heard Starfire's shriek, stated, "Beast Boy's gone missing. His communicator's been deactivated and we can't find him anywhere."
A sense of worry suddenly overcame Raven's emotions. Blood rushed from her face, making her already fair skin paler. To hurriedly extinguish such emotion she normally would not have shown in the first place, she suddenly became hostile.
"Well, he's not in here," she snapped, as she raised an arm and shut the door with her powers.
o-o-o
But her worry could not be denied. After leaving her room, despite her exhaustion Raven joined the others in their search of every nook and cranny of the Tower. Though it wouldn't make much sense for Beast Boy to become some small creature and hide, they had nothing else to go on. Just as Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven were thoroughly searching the lounge together, the alarm sounded. Robin entered with some bad news.
"Check it out, y'all," Cyborg called after looking beneath the couch, "I found the remote."
Robin ignored him. "There's been a jailbreak."
Starfire pondered, "Who's escaped?"
"Just about everyone."
It had happened the night before, but no one had been aware until the morning security shift came in. The night shift had mysteriously disappeared.
In his frustration, Robin had exaggerated, although it was large scale. Only those on the first level of the southern block had escaped; apparently the walls had openings crashed into them leading to the secondary grounds. There was no telling where most of the common criminals were by this point, but there were reports on Cinderblock's whereabouts.
Cinderblock, who had been a common pawn of Slade's, had undergone a fusion at one point with two other monsters, Plasmas and Overload. Since then, they had defused. Now he tore through city streets in his personal destructive manor. Utterly lost, the Jump City Police Department was forced to call, once again, on the Teen Titans. But they'd have to manage one Titan short.
"We've got a lead on Cinderblock. We have to lock him up as soon as possible."
"Can't that wait?" Raven questioned orders.
Raising an eyebrow, Robin stated plainly, "No, it can't. People's lives are in danger."
Not being able to ignore the feeling deep within her, Raven spurted, "What if Beast Boy's in danger?"
"Well, hopelessly searching the Tower won't help. We can take it to the streets after Cinderblock is taken care of."
And so the Titans were on their way.
o-o-o
After flipping a car, Cinderblock felt something hit his back. Before he could figure out what it was, it exploded, knocking him to his knees. He looked over his shoulder to see the Teen Titans.
Robin, who had thrown the bomb, told him, "Sorry for not giving you a warning line. We're on a bit of a tight schedule."
Cinderblock merely growled and charged towards them as Cyborg charged his blaster, Starfire gathered energy, Robin got into his stance, and Raven prepared her mind.
First up was Cyborg, blasting the enemy about fifteen feet backwards. Before he could stand back up, Starfire swooped down with her raging starbolts. Quickly following Starfire's barrage, Robin flew through the air to land a kick clear in his face. After Robin jumped off, however, Cinderblock sat up straight and let out a roar.
In the middle of his cry, he was muted by a black atmosphere, while a nearby fire hydrant exploded creating a fountain. Within a second, Cinderblock shot into the air where he could not be seen.
Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin simply stared at Raven in awe. Starfire attempted to ask, "Where did he—?" until she was cut off with Cinderblock's abrupt landing to the ground.
It was such an intense blow, the tyrant was out cold.
The three were surprised by Raven's outburst. "We are victorious?" asked Starfire, staggered by how quickly Raven defeated the enemy.
Not even thinking about how they had versed Cinderblock in the past and he had broken out, Robin simply responded, "Yeah; looks like it."
Trying to change the subject, Cyborg intervened, "So we should start looking for Beast Boy, now?"
"Right," agreed Robin, "I'll wait here for the police. Titans, split and search."
"Gotcha," Cyborg replied.
o-o-o
Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg began scouring the city for Beast Boy, but no matter where they looked they turned up empty handed.
o-o-o
Upon entering a gaming store, Cyborg shouted, "Yo, B! You in here?" But there was no reply. He continued his search checking other places of Beast Boy's interests the city had to offer; all of his attempts were fruitless.
o-o-o
Meanwhile, Starfire searched just about every inch she came across. She didn't know any specific places he might be. When she met with a stray cat she hoped for a moment she had found the lost Titan. "But you are not green," she observed, gloomily. "Perhaps you may lead me in Beast Boy's direction?"
The cat simply stared coldly at Starfire until it turned away down the alley. Not knowing what else to do, Starfire hovered behind. Eventually, the cat realized it had been being followed. Stopping in mid step, it turned its head back to acknowledge Starfire's presence with a meow.
After first jumping atop a box, the stray leapt into a garbage can. Starfire slowly peered inside, "Beast Boy? Are you in the foul smelling container of waste?" Unfortunately, she turned away with a sigh, "No, you are not."
o-o-o
Now desperate, Raven attempted meditating in all of the corners of the city to try and sense his presence. Putting forth all of the concentration that she could, there was no trace she could find.
As hours passed and morning became afternoon which just began to turn to night, Raven found herself simply looking towards the ocean from Pier 41. But a feeling she had made her turn around to look within a warehouse. Whatever she had noticed ran back into the warehouse, and she cased after it.
o-o-o
Robin had been there to monitor Cinderblock's apprehension. Throughout the course of the day, the walls were being fixed and Cinderblock would return to his top security room. But the Boy Wonder still persisted he get some answers, "Tell me how all of this happened! How in the world would walls just tumble down? There's got to be a flaw in your system! Please, I can help!"
The officer scowled at him, "How can we be so sure about that?"
"What are you saying? I'm a Teen Titan! Protecting the innocent, imprisoning evil; that's my duty!"
Another officer held an item in his hand, "You tell me how this ended up here, Bird Boy."
Robin took it, with a look of shock and worry overwhelming his face.
o-o-o
Elsewhere, Mike Hinderson and Bill Smith were prepared to rob the bank. They had escaped from prison earlier during the massive jailbreak and were already up to no good as Bill fired his handgun towards the ceiling. Despite some screams, everyone fell silent and attentive.
"Alright, everyone, listen up," cried Mike, "All we's need is some cash to get us on our feet! Start a new life the heck away from this city and those Teen Titans! Bill's gonna make sure none of yous tries leavin! And you! Fill up this bag with five thousand! C'mon; hurry up!"
The man at the desk did as he was told, taking the bag and filling it while at gunpoint.
About to enter the bank was Cyborg. He had exhausted his knowledge of the logical places Beast Boy might have gone and just started turning into every building and asking every person if they had seen him. Though trying to keep his cool, the worry started to grow.
Behind Bill's back, Cyborg opened the door. Noticing immediately that this was a robbery, Cyborg knocked Bill out with one blow.
The man handed Mike the bag, "See that? No one's got to get hurt!"
Emotionlessly, Cyborg knocked him to the other end of the room. He turned to the thoroughly terrified and confused man at the counter and asked, "Yo, you seen my friend, Beast Boy? Teen Titan, kinda short, green skin, turns into green animals…"
He simply shook his head.
"A'right; thanks anyway." Cyborg left the bank.
o-o-o
Starfire rested atop the tallest skyscraper, sitting hunched over and hugging her knees. She gazed up into the stars and moon, not knowing where else to look.
"Friend, where have you gone missing to? We are all worried about you… I do not understand how one can simply vanish as you did. What happened to you? Where have you gone, and why have you gone there?" She became teary eyed.
"Was it something I have done? Was there an Earth custom I did not execute properly that offended you? Oh, I am sorry I did not always find humor in your jokes! I am sorry I did not join you in playing the video games! I am sure the others are sorry for any offense they may have caused; we all care about you!
"You are not a klor-bag varblernelk… You are a friend. Beast Boy, please come home…"
o-o-o
Raven stared blankly at the empty warehouse. If she had seen a figure, it was gone, now.
"Beast Boy," she called, "are you in here? Answer me!"
She was met with no reply. Heart-pounding and worry rising, Raven stepped back out onto the pier.
o-o-o
Outside the streetlights shined brighter than usual. Smiling beneath a lamppost was Dr. Light, "Let the light shine! It won't be long until I reach the heart of the city!"
An explosion from Pier 41 caught his attention. Raven, having overwhelming emotion, had unintentionally destroyed a light. Seeing her robe flowing in the breeze sent chills up Dr. Light's spine.
Suddenly an image flashed in his mind. It was an experience he had blocked from his memory, but jolted back when he saw her. She had put him in the dark. It was utter darkness, as far as the eye could see. Terrible thoughts of his past deeds had played before his eyes; every sin he had ever committed. He faced it all in that short moment in her boundless darkness, a moment that had seemed an eternity.
He turned around, "Maybe I'll just turn myself back in."
o-o-o
Raven paid no mind to the things around her that were being affected by her worry. She simply attempted to clear her mind and meditate. As she began to calm down, her communicator rang.
Upon answering it she heard Robin's voice, "Titans. I've got some…news."
o-o-o
Cyborg wandered the streets as Robin spoke his message, "Cyborg, Raven. Head back to the Tower. Star, do you think you could give me a lift? I'm at the prison."
o-o-o
Leaping from the skyscraper and souring through the air, Starfire responded, "Of course."
"Thanks. Cyborg and Raven, wait for us in the lounge. You're going to want to hear this."
The three Titans wondered what this nameless news Robin had gathered could be.
Nameless here for evermore.