A/N: God, I love italics.
JANUARY 1st, 2008: NEW YEAR'S DAY, PART 2
Tonight really could have gone a lot better.
"Where could he have taken her?" Cyborg asked the room, typing rapidly at a nearby computer console. Nobody answered him, but I was wondering about the answer to his question. I had been asking it to myself constantly since Beast Boy had told us the unwelcome news of Starfire's capture. I assumed we all were.
Raven meditated in a shadowed corner of the room, murmuring her mantra over and over as she ostensibly searched for Starfire's mental presence. Beast Boy paced around the dining table looking surprisingly pensive, while I lounged on the couch, my hand over my eyes as I nursed my resurgent headache and tried to ignore the pain of the blows Katarou had inflicted upon me. The cold chill where the pendant had hit my chest still remained, although it was less jarringly cold than it had been before. Argent was in the gym working off some aggression, as far as I knew.
Starfire's location was unknown, which was the source of our current problem.
Robin's location was also a mystery. After a brief but intense questioning of Beast Boy, Robin had gone curiously silent. He had hopped on his dust-covered R-Cycle and motored off into the city, leaving the rest of us staring at his departing form. He hadn't been at the Tower when we got there, but to be honest, I hadn't expected him to be. I had my suspicions as to why he had left, and judging by overheard whispered conversations between the other members, I wasn't alone in my guess.
The lights of the police cars were still plainly visible in the distance, but the familiar structure of Jump City Hall had vanished from the landscape. The sound of dozens of sirens wafted through the open window, along with the occasional flake or two of snow.
"I don't understand this!" Beast Boy yelled, gripping his head with his hands. "Why would he take Starfire? How could he just vanish into thin air like that?" Beast Boy seemed to be asking the room, but none of us had any answers for him.
I recalled what Beast Boy had told us about Starfire's capture before; apparently, he had been flying over to try and help with the fight when Katarou had made his request to his "dread lord", and had seen Katarou – apparently glowing bright green at the time – knock Robin flying a hundred feet into the air with a single blow. He'd then grabbed Starfire by the shoulders, spun in place, and vanished in a cloud of green mist just before City Hall collapsed into a pile of rubble.
"Okay." Cyborg muttered, standing up from the console. I glanced over at him as he moved to the front of the room. His normally-gleaming titanium body was covered in dust. It reflected on how worried Cyborg was about Starfire that he hadn't immediately gone to polish his metal parts upon arrival at the tower.
"Okay." Cyborg repeated, coming a stop before the main screen. "Here's the situation, Titans. Katarou vanished with Starfire approximately twenty-two minutes ago. Her communicator isn't responding to any of our tracking mechanisms. Our teammate and friend is in the hands of a madman, and we need to find her before he hurts her. We don't know where he's gone, but we do have one lead."
"The pendant." Raven stated, still hovering in the corner, her eyes shut. Cyborg nodded, and pressed a button on his wrist. An image of the familiar golden pendant appeared up on the screen.
"Dude..." Beast Boy breathed, moving up behind the couch. "That's creepy."
I had to agree. Considering the conditions I had been under when we engaged Katarou, I had not had the opportunity to inspect the pendant around the man's neck, but having it up on the screen brought the details of the pendant into sharp focus. There were disconcerting etchings ringing the hexagonal green emerald that was embedded in the front of the dull golden neckpiece. From what I could see, they all depicted grotesque tortures and human suffering.
Most off-putting of all was the emerald, however. It was colored a noxious shade of green that made me sick just looking at it, and clearly visible within the emerald lay a human eyeball. I couldn't tell what color the eye was, but it seemed to be staring directly at me. I shuddered, looking away.
"This pendant has been known by various names; it is one of the oldest known artifacts in existence, originally having been found in a pharaoh's tomb in the early twentieth century. It has traveled across the world, and left ruins in its wake. Every person that has ever tried it on has immediately gone completely insane; every person that's tried it on died shortly afterwards. Even touching it is rumored to be enough to transfer the 'curse' of this pendant." Cyborg looked around the group. "It is called the Eye of La'gohl, and it is the true enemy we face."
"How did Katarou get it?" Raven asked quietly. We were all paying rapt attention.
"It was reported stolen from Jump City Museum about three hours before the bombing of Jump City Hall. Katarou was witnessed taking the object on several security cameras, but he didn't show up again until we encountered him in the mayor's office."
I swallowed discreetly. Remembering the tortured body of the mayor was not something I ever wanted to do.
"Why was this thing even in the city?" Beast Boy burst out, waving his hands in the air. "And why would Katarou even want to steal the thing, if it drives everyone who touches it crazy!?"
Cyborg frowned. "As far as I can tell, a citizen in the city inherited the Eye from a relative in Europe who suffered an untimely death. This citizen wanted nothing to do with the pendant, and donated it to the museum. The museum was happy to accept such a storied artifact, even knowing how dangerous it could be." Cyborg's face twisted. "It was going to be the centerpiece of a new exhibit. Obviously, Katarou heard about it and decided to steal it. At some point he tried it on, which leads us to our current situation."
"So how does it work?" Argent asked, leaping over the back of the couch and landing beside me with a dull thump. I blinked in surprise, having missed the silver-skinned girl coming into the room.
Cyborg shrugged. "I'm not one to believe in curses, but-"
"Dude, you live in a gigantic T with a bunch of superheroes." Beast Boy interjected. "I don't think a curse is that unbelievable."
Cyborg glared at Beast Boy for a second before turning to Argent. "How exactly the pendant does what it does is unknown; the thing's been studied by hundreds of people, and they've all came up with the same result – squat." Cyborg clicked another button on his wrist, and several blocks of text showed up on the screen. "The thing seems to resist everyone that studies it, as everyone comes up with different answers. There's only been one consistent trend."
He clicked another button on his wrist, and several sections of text were highlighted.My eyes flickered over each one:
... it feels as though the pendant is studying me more than I'm studying it ...
... a definite "presence" follows this object, and when I am alone in the room with it, it seems as though there is someone standing in there with me, just hiding out of sight ...
... a consistent sensation of being watched and observed whenever I am near the artifact ...
"The one consistent aspect of this pendant that everyone – without exception – has reported is that it seems to have some sort of awareness about it's situation." Cyborg summarized, clicking his wrist to bring the image of the pendant back up onto the screen. "There's some quality about this pendant that unnerves everyone that approaches it."
Beast Boy shuddered. "It freaks me out just looking at it."
Argent lifted her hand. "Why would the Egyptians make this bloody thing?" she asked, leaning forward.
"They didn't make it." Cyborg replied.
I blinked. "Didn't you say that it was found in a pharaoh's tomb?" I asked, curious.
"I did, but this thing doesn't match anything else made by the Egyptians in the time the pharaoh was buried. It was made by someone else, but nobody knows who for sure." Cyborg clarified, clicking another button on his wrist. An image of a nearly-featureless stone box appeared on the screen; there was a lone hieroglyphic written on the lid. "This is the box the Eye was found in. The thing was hidden in its own private room." The image flickered, and the hieroglyph was suddenly huge upon the screen. "This hieroglyph was the only thing written within ten feet of the box."
"What does it mean?" Beast Boy asked. Raven made a noise in the corner, and we all turned to look, but she kept her eyes shut and didn't do anything more.
Our gazes flicked back to Cyborg, who looked grim as he pulled his gaze away from Raven. "As far as anyone can tell, all it says is cursed."
"So they knew it was cursed, but they still threw it in there with the pharaoh?" I asked, confused. "I thought the Egyptians believed that everything buried with the pharaoh went with him to the afterlife."
"I guess they really didn't like the guy." Beast Boy muttered. "Anyways, Cyborg... I appreciate the history lesson and all, but can you tell us exactly how this all helps us find Starfire?"
"I'm getting to that, Beast Boy." Cyborg uttered wearily. "We've got one point in our favor. The pendant actually emits a unique type of radiation, but it does so in exceedingly small amounts. It's possible to track Katarou's movements through scanning for this radiation." Cyborg clicked a button, and an overhead map of the city popped up. Four pulsating red dots appeared on the screen. "Unfortunately, it only works if there's enough of a concentration of the radiation for the Tower's sensors to pick it up. It means Katarou has to stay in one place for at least three minutes for him to show up on the map.
"He's exceedingly dangerous, and obviously has no problem with killing, so if any of you come in contact with him, be careful." Cyborg's voice was quiet, and I nodded in agreement. He crossed his arms. "This is an unusual situation, but I know we can handle it."
"You said 'any of you'." Raven muttered, settling down on the ground. "What are you going to be doing instead?" she asked as she stood, raising her hood over her head and turning away from the group.
"I'll stay at the Tower to coordinate the search, and so I can tell you if he pops up again." Cyborg replied, looking over at the hooded empath. "The rest of you will go to these three locations. I've already sent the data to your communicators, so we'll need to get a move on. It's been half an hour since Katarou took Starfire, and we can't let her get hurt because we were too late to save her.
"So, Argent – you'll take the docks. Katarou spent about seven minutes at a warehouse there, approximately two hours ago. Beast Boy, you've got an apartment block on the South Side. He spent about twenty minutes there, right before he went to City Hall. The last dot is Jump City Central Museum, and that's you, Raven." Cyborg paused briefly, and looked at the blue-cloaked witch before glancing over at me. "Shock, go with her."
I saw Raven stiffen slightly out of the corner of my eye, but I nodded at Cyborg anyway. Beast Boy pointed up at the map. "What about the fourth dot?" the green skinned animorph asked curiously.
"You don't recognize it, Beast Boy?" Argent asked from behind him. "That was City Hall."
"Oh." Beast Boy wilted. The room was silent for a moment.
"Starfire needs our help,and Robin's run off somewhere and won't answer his communicator. We're all she's got." Cyborg uttered quietly, breaking the silence.. The rest of us nodded solemnly. "Let's go, Titans. Let's save our friend."
I saluted, moving towards the elevator. Beast Boy ran across the room and leaped out the window, transforming into a green eagle and flapping out of sight. Argent waved at me and followed the changeling out into the night. Raven moved as well, but towards Cyborg, who bravely stood his ground as the empath stormed towards him.
I raised an eyebrow as I moved into the elevator. Pressing the button for the ground floor, I heard Raven begin to speak. "I told you that I don't need-" was all I managed to catch before the doors closed and the elevator began to fall. I glanced at my watch.
1:09.
Whatever's going on with Cyborg and Raven isn't your business,I thought to myself, leaning back against the steel gray walls of the elevator and crossing my arms. I listened to the clanking of the cables as the elevator descended, as it was all I could hear. All the same, the silence of the elevator bothered me, and I wasn't sure why until I was running through the wide atrium towards the huge doors out of the tower.
It all just seemed to be so empty.
.oOo.
Raven had met up with me at the end of the land bridge, where I had been waiting for her at the top of a telephone pole, trying to ignore the descending chill in the air. She ignored my wave entirely, flying off in the direction of the museum. I stared after her blue-cloaked form, suppressed a twinge of irritation, and jolted after her. I quickly caught up with her and slowed down to her speed as we sped through the dimly lit city streets between gray and silver skyscrapers, tiny snowflakes slowly falling all around us.
Looking up at her, I opened my mouth to ask her a question, but the expression on her face did not appear to be particularly inviting. I shut my mouth again, looking ahead for the grand stone front of the Jump City Central Museum, one of the few buildings that had managed to retain its place in the downtown core of the city while everything else was built around it.
We came to an intersection; I charged my legs and flipped across the street, landing on another power wire as snow gusted about in my wake. As I jolted along, I returned to my thoughts.
Katarou had captured Starfire, but why? He had to know that doing that would only make sure that every Teen Titan would work as hard as possible to find him and throw him into prison. He mentioned sacrifices in the mayor's office, I reminded myself, and immediately felt nauseous at the prospect of Starfire being as horribly torn apart as the late mayor.
We'll find you, Starfire, I vowed silently. The alien girl had done nothing to deserve a fate that horrible.
Up ahead, I spotted the great stone gryphon that rested atop a podium in front of the museum. Jolting ahead of Raven, I leaped off the power lines and landed on the sidewalk in front of the museum with a blast of sparks, evaporating the light dusting of snow that had covered the concrete. Raven landed with a swoosh beside me a moment later, her cloak fluttering around her. "Let's get this over with." she droned, pulling her hood down as she walked up the wide stone staircase towards the entrance. As I walked up the steps beside her, I pulled out my communicator.
1:15.
The pulsating red dot was nearby, according to the map on the round screen. We came up onto the plateau before the doors, through which I could see that the museum was closed and apparently empty. I walked up to them and pulled the snow-dusted brass door handle. "Locked," I muttered, glancing at the dark Titan. The door handle was immediately encased in black; it twisted, and with a click it opened easily.
"Unlocked." Raven muttered, sweeping into the wide, empty entrance hall beyond. I shrugged and followed her, glancing around the room. Sweeping arches went high into the air, where the roof was unseen in the shadows. There was practically no light in the massive room, save for the eerie orange glow emitted by the exit sign above the entrance. We walked deeper into the dark, our footsteps loudly echoing between the stone walls.
"Creepy place at night." I muttered, looking up at a stone gargoyle, the horrid face barely visible in the orange light. I took out one of the pipes sheathed on my lower leg with my spare hand and charged energy into it – the run over here had left me filled with juice from the power wires – and held it up once it began to glow. White light cast around the room, allowing us to actually see where we were going, but I still couldn't see the roof above me.
Raven made a disappointed sound. I looked at her quizzically. "I didn't mind the dark." she uttered in explanation, pulling out her own communicator and walking in the direction the map indicated. I chuckled quietly and kept up with her, holding the pipe aloft.
As we passed through a narrow hallway, my communicator began to beep. I opened it up, blinking as Cyborg's face appeared on the screen.
"Shock, you got anything to report?" asked the metallic Titan. I shook my head.
"We just got here, Cyborg. All I can tell you is this place is pretty damn dark at night." We climbed another staircase, and I spotted the first advertisements on the wall for the new exhibit that the museum had planned. The pendant was front and center on all of them. "What exactly are we looking for here?"
"Do I have to spell it out for you? You're looking for any indication of Katarou's presence, or any information that could lead us to where he's taken Starfire. If we study where he's been, we'll find out where he's going."
"I'm pretty sure that little strategy is more useful when applied to people who aren't completely insane." I muttered. We passed through a large doorway, finally spotting a small podium in the center of a wide room that was lit by a spotlight. Broken glass was littering the floor all around it. Numerous security cameras lined the walls, all oriented around the center podium.
"I agree with you there, but it's all we've got." Cyborg was silent for moment. "Hey, man, how's Raven doing?" I looked over at the empath, who looked rather aggrieved at hearing the question.
"I'm fine, Cyborg." Raven hissed, a vein throbbing in her forehead. I blinked at the vehemence in her voice, and looked at her a little more closely. Contrary to her words, she looked very strained. Sweat was actually beading on her forehead, the chakra gem on her forehead was gleaming, and she looked highly uncomfortable. She seemed to get only more so the closer we got to where the pendant had been.
"Sure you are." Cyborg replied, clearly not believing her. "Shock, keep her safe."
Raven looked somewhat insulted at the idea that Cyborg thought it was necessary for anyone to protect her. I raised an eyebrow, and glanced back down at the communicator. Cyborg was staring back at me, an unusually worried expression on his face. "I'll do what I can." I murmured, looking around the area. Nothing popped out at me as being a clue.
"Glad to hear it. Argent just reached the docks – she said there's evidence of some kind of meeting that occurred at the warehouse. She says there's traces of at least five people at that meeting, so it's possible that's where the bomb came from-"
"Cyborg." I interrupted, staring over at Raven. "Shut up for a minute. Something's wrong." The dark Titan's violet eyes were wide, fixated on the spot where the pendant had obviously once laid. She was breathing hard, apparently struggling to remain standing upright. Her mouth was working wordlessly, and I heard her whisper words of her mantra, but she apparently couldn't finish. The cold feeling left by the pendant on my chest had suddenly strengthened, and my mouth went dry.
"What do you mean something's wrong?! Is Raven okay?"
"No, she isn't, something's wrong, she looks sick, I'm getting her out of here." I said hurriedly, moving over to grab Raven by the shoulders. I turned her around and started moving towards the exit, but she stumbled and gripped my arm in a vice grip. I looked down at her face and paled when her eyes turned a bright green. "Oh, shit-"
I launched back into the air, thrown away forcefully from Raven by the same force that had stopped me from smashing the pendant around Katarou's neck. WHAM! I slammed into the stone wall, and all the air in my chest rushed out in a gasp. Gasping for breath, I collapsed to the floor.
"Shock! What the hell is going on there?"
Shakily, I pushed myself to my feet. Raven was standing there, surrounded by a familiar haze of green light. She had fallen to her knees, but there were flashes of green appearing in the air around her, and the expression on her face made it look as though she was being torn apart from the inside. A loud roaring sound was picking up, as suddenly there was a hugely powerful gust of wind blowing through the room.
"I don't know what the hell's going on!" I shouted so I could be heard over the wind, fumbling for the pipe that had fallen from my hand when I got knocked across the room. I held out the communicator towards Raven, so Cyborg could see what was going on. "It's almost like she's lost control of her powers-"
"Dammit, Raven – I warned you this might happen – I'm on my way, Shock, tell her to hold on!" Cyborg interrupted, and moved away from the visible area afforded by the communicator.
"Cyborg – Cyborg – dammit!" I cursed, putting the communicator away. Sure, knowing that Cyborg was coming to help was a comfort, but what the hell was I supposed to do now? Holding up my arm to block my eyes from the wind that seemed to be blowing intermittently to and away Raven, I moved closer to her. "Raven, hold on!" I shouted, remembering Cyborg's last words.
She immediately shot out her hand in my direction, blasting a gigantic green semicircle-shaped blade towards me. I automatically fell over onto my back, and the blade rocketed past me, demolished another part of the exhibit, and gouged a deep slash into the wall. WSSSSH! "Holy shit!" I yelled, rolling over onto all fours as chunks of rock flew through the room.
My shouting only seemed to be drawing Raven's attention. My feet sparked beneath me as I dove forwards, barely avoiding another two blades that cut a massive X into the wall. THKISSSH! I skidded to a stop behind the center podium, peeking over the side just in case Raven launched another blade.
Slowly, Raven was approaching me, and the green flashes around her were becoming more constant. One of them stayed in one place for a second, and I glimpsed a maze of writhing, gleaming tentacles. I blanched, looking back at Raven. Gleaming green eyes were staring right back at me. She raised her hand, and the podium exploded in a blast of green, launching me backwards across the room.
I rolled across the ground, and started coughing violently once I came to a stop, lying on my side. My chest was freezing cold, and the feeling seemed to be spreading across my entire upper body. I rolled onto my back, gasping for breath. My eyes widened when Raven appeared above me with a bang and a ballooning cloud of green.
"I have yearned to drink your blood, boy!" boomed an unfamiliar voice out of Raven's mouth. The voice was twisted and hellish, sounding as though it was numerous voices speaking just slightly out of sync with each other, and it was thoroughly disconcerting. I tried to scramble back, but Raven waved her hand and green shackles appeared and bound my limbs to the floor.
"Raven, what are you doing?" I shouted, struggling to pull my arms free. Raven just laughed, raising her hand and aiming it at my neck.
"This is the end, boy... you will trouble me no longer." Raven hissed, her eyes gleaming a bright green. "Feel the torment of – what?! YOU SHALL NOT RESIST ME, GIRL!" Abruptly, Raven gasped, and her eyes returned to the familiar violet. The shackles around my limbs vanished and I immediately scrambled back, rising to my feet and pressing against the wall, my eyes wide.
Raven had fallen to her knees. She struggled to pull her head up to stare at me, her eyes wider then my own. "S-S-Shock, run!" she said in a pained voice, her hands gripping her forehead.
I took a step towards her. "Raven... what...?" I asked stupidly, trailing off when Raven's eyes blinked green, then violet again.
"I said RUN!" Raven screamed, and that surprised me enough that I actually turned and scrambled towards the exit. I heard Raven scream at the same time as the room filled with green light. I turned around at the exit, and gaped as I saw Raven grow right before my eyes. She swelled up so that she was twelve feet tall, a gigantic blue-cloaked form, and turned towards me.
Her eyes were entirely green now – no whites, no pupil, just green. To my horror, I noticed a second pair of eyes opening where her eyebrows had been, and those eyes were a nauseating green as well. A green mist started to rise from her, filling the room with an eerie fogginess.
"I WILL CONSUME YOUR FLESH, BOY!" Raven roared, sweeping towards me. I swallowed, turning around and running towards the hallway we had passed through to get here. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to duck two massive blades; I think one may have sliced off a few of the hairs on the top of my head. The blades spun ahead of me and slammed into the walls of the hallway.
BOOOOM!
I saw the walls shaking and threatening to collapse, and focused on my legs. The stones were falling around me as I blurred through the hallway, and I dove through to the other side just before the roof collapsed. I covered my nose to keep from breathing in dust as I pushed my aching body to stand. For a second, the place was quiet.
KA-BLAM!
The rubble exploded outwards, chunks of rock launching towards me from. Cursing loudly, I rolled to the side, standing and backing away as Raven's upper body curved around the corner. "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!" Raven rumbled. I held out the pipe in front of me as I backed out of the room into a dinosaur exhibit. A massive green tentacle suddenly appeared from under Raven's cloak; slime dripped off it onto the floor, while a gleaming blade at the end of it slashed the air.
THWISSSH! The tentacle slashed at me, the blade whirring through the air.
C-CLANG! I deflected it away from my pipe, and leaped over the blade of a second tentacle. A third whipped down from above. I flipped backwards, landing on the tail of a mock-up stegosaurus as the tentacle slammed into the ground, sending chunks of stone flying. I scrambled up the back of the dinosaur, skidding to a stop when another tentacle flashed in front of me, slicing through the neck of the extinct beast.
WHUMP! The head slammed against the floor, chunks scattering about, as I leaped off the back of the body and rolled under a hanging pterodactyl. The stegosaurus body was thrown to the side as Raven lurched towards me. As I backed away, my hand bumped into something. I gripped the thing and whipped it at Raven, blinking when I noticed I'd apparently thrown some kind of skull. A tentacle blurred in front of her face, however, and powdered the skull with ease.
I continued backing up, throwing whatever came into reach at Raven, but every try was as effective as the first. My back slammed against the wall, and I looked up at Raven's demonic face, sweating.
"Nowhere to hide, boy..." Raven purred evilly, a dozen slime-dripping tentacles waving all around her. Three of them shot away, and I tensed, but they dug into the sides of a tyrannosaurus model and two smaller dinosaurs I dimly remembered as being titled "deinonychus",instead of going after me. My jaw dropped when the dinosaur models glowed green, and I damn near wet myself when the massive head of the tyrannosaur turned towards me.
"You have got to be kidding me." I muttered, eyes wide, sweat pouring down my face, as the gigantic dinosaur loomed above me. "Raven, it's me, what the hell is going on?" I said, hoping desperately that somewhere within the horror standing before me my teammate still remained.
"RAVEN IS NO MORE!" boomed the monstrosity, tentacles waving. "THERE IS NO FUTURE FOR YOU, OR THIS CURSED PLANET – THERE IS ONLY THE WRITHING EMBRACE OF DEATH THAT AWAITS YOU!"
I swallowed, gripping the silver pipe tightly in my right hand. As Raven – or whatever the hell she had become – described my imminent demise, I discreetly charged electricity into the pipe, holding it behind me as I did so. I kept an eye on the dinosaurs, which had started to circle around the tentacled Raven, cutting off any obvious avenue of escape.
"Now... "Shock"... I end your torment." I looked up at Raven, eyes wide, and saw that she had raised every tentacle above her head, deadly weapons gleaming in the green light she was emitting. Thinking fast, I swung my arm back, slammed the pipe against the wall and released the charge.
BOOOOOM!
As chunks of rock blasted into the room and the immediate area filled with clouds of dust, I ducked through the hole in the wall I had just created and ran through the next room. With Raven roaring in fury behind me, I ran through the medieval history section. I squeezed between two suits of armor, charging the pipe again as I ran, aiming for an exit door I had spotted in the distance.
I heard a thunderous stomping sound moving past me, and looked up just in time to skid to a stop.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" roared the tyrannosaur, directly into my face, which had evidently passed me to block the exit. I immediately skittered back, the fetid breath of the dinosaur nearly pushing me to vomit. Turning around, I glimpsed the green haze that announced Raven's presence in the distance and ducked into a small doorway.
Immediately after I did so, the tyrannosaur's snout rammed into the door, shaking the floor and knocking me to my feet. I scrambled back, barely avoiding the snapping jaws at my feet, and struck out reflexively. My foot smashed into the dinosaur's nose, and the huge beast made a strange keening noise and retreated from the doorway.
Check number four from the list of things I want to do before I die, I thought sarcastically.
I hurriedly rose to my feet, looking around at the room I had managed to enter. The light sparking from the pipe in my hand illuminated the innumerable swords lining the walls, some gleaming, some covered in rust. I felt a drop of sweat roll down my face. It was suddenly far too silent outside of the room. There was only one exit I could see, and it led straight to an angry formerly-extinct dinosaur and the possessed body of my teammate. The exit sign above the door was the only source of illumination in the room.
This is not good.
I heard a soft footfall at the door. I looked up and saw one of the deinonychus's eyes gleaming in the light as the huge beast prowled into the room. I swallowed as the second entered a moment later, both of them with their eyes firmly fixed upon me.
"Oh, shit..." I murmured, waving the pipe at one of the dinosaurs, then the other. I backed away from the beasts, and accidentally bumped into a small stand of scimitars. A single blade was jarred from it's mount, slowly falling to the ground. The sound of it clattering to the ground was enough to goad the deinonychuss to attack.
With a high wail, one leaped towards me, long teeth gnashing. I rolled under it, swinging the pipe to the side to knock the legs out from under the other one. It slammed to the ground with a loud thud, wailing to the other. I stood up and turned around just in time to get a faceful of teeth grinding together right in front of my face. Falling back, I slammed the second deinonychus across the face with the pipe, knocking it away to the side.
"Ryaaaaaaah!" screamed the one I had knocked to the ground, as it scrambled back to its feet. It dove at me, jaw wide open, and I dodged to the side, smashing the pipe into the dinosaur's mouth. The pipe connected solidly with the hinges of the dinosaur's jaw, and the beast flipped over entirely in the air, slamming into the stone floor with a solid THUD!
Spinning away, I noticed that the impact with the dinosaur's jaw had jarred the pipe loose from my hands. As I looked around for it, the second deinonychus slammed into my side, throwing me into the wall. Several swords tumbled to the ground around me, causing an echoing clatter, and as I fumbled around in the dark, I gripped the handle of a random blade.
I slowly pushed myself to my feet, looking around the room, and pulled the sword I was carrying up in front of me. The sharp edge of it glinted in the orange light from the exit sign. I spotted the deinonychuss prowling towards me in the dark again, their eyes glinting and their bodies tinted green by the – wait, green?
I looked over at the door, my eyes wide, and noticed a familiar green mist rolling into the room through the doorway. I heard the whsssh-whsssh of several blades whirring through the air as Raven apparently approached the doorway from the room beyond. The cold sensation on my chest returned in force.
...I can hear whispers...
The deinonychuss took advantage of my distraction to leap at me. I heard their talons scrape against the stone floor and turned just in time to roll to the side. The dinosaurs smashed against the wall, jarring more swords off the wall. As the blades clattered to the ground, the deinonychus closest to me turned, roared, and dove.
Time seemed to slow. Spinning the sword once in my hand, I fell to one knee as the dinosaur's jaws snapped shut where my head had just been. Gripping the hilt in both hands, I swung the blade upwards in an arc.
THWISSSH!
Blood splattered against my face. A moment later, the deinonychus's head slammed against the ground, with the rest of the body following it to the ground a couple seconds afterwards. The legs twitched, kicking briefly at the air as the body bled out. The second deinonychus, still with my silver pipe in its mouth, screeched an ear-piercing wail and leaped at me.
I rolled underneath the attack, but the deinonychus skidded to a stop and jumped at me again. I dodged to the side, barely avoiding the snapping teeth. I started to circle the dinosaur, but it mirrored my movements as it made angry-sounding snapping noises. Unfortunately, this resulted in my standing with my back towards the door.
"You have put up a valiant fight, but your pitiful life ends here." Raven snarled, tentacles sliding into the room and tearing at the stones, widening the hole so that the gigantic possessed witch could fit through the gap.
I spun around and stumbled back, reaching for the pipe at my leg before I remembered that the surviving deinonychus still had the thing clenched between its teeth. A green tentacle lashed out at me, and I rolled to the side to avoid it. A line of bastard swords was sliced in twain, chunks of metal tumbling to the floor with loud clatters.
"Why will you not DIE?!" Raven roared, throwing three tentacles towards me. I spun the sword in my hand in front of me, but one of the tentacles wrapped around the blade and jerked it out of my hands, tossing it across the room. The second tentacle smashed into my chest, knocking me against the far wall. The third pinned me to the wall by my neck, a thick writhing green rope that left a sickly sensation of slime sliding down my front.
My chest felt as though it was being consumed in a cold fire.
Grimacing, I kicked my legs, trying to pry the tentacle away from my neck. Raven only increased the pressure, and my vision started to go black.
"Watching the life vanish from your eyes will be a sight I shall treasure forever." Raven snarled, leaning her four-eyed face close to mine. I grimaced, gasping for air, when Raven leaned just a bit closer. I shot out an arm, pressed it up against her chest, and pulsed a blast of electricity directly into her.
KSSZZZZTTT!
"AAAAYAAAAUGH!" Raven shrieked, launching back through the door into the room beyond. I fell to the ground, gasping for air. The green mist left the room, curling unnaturally in the air and out of sight.
...skrrttt...
I looked up just in time to see the deinonychus running at me from across the room. I frowned and stood up, my lungs still searching for air. "I am seriously getting tired of this shit!" I roared, swinging a sparking fist into the deinonychus's snout. The dinosaur made a surprised noise as it launched backwards into the air, flying through a display of broadswords and sliding on its side along the stone ground beyond.
I followed the flying dinosaur, leaping through the blades flashing through the air from the raptor's passage, and bent down to grab the beast by the neck. "RAAAAUGGH!" I yelled, my arms sparking as energy coursed through them, and spun about in place, throwing the deinonychus into the far wall.
THWACK! It hit the wall with a meaty thud, and landed dazedly on the stone floor.
I looked down, noticing that the green mist was starting to creep back into the room. "Oh, come on..." I muttered, glancing over my shoulder at the door. I turned back to the deinonychus, which was slowly rising back to its feet. My pipe gleamed in the dim light, still tightly gripped within its jaw.
Grimacing, I focused on my legs, and charged at the dinosaur. It growled furiously at me the moment before I barreled into it, wrapping my arms around its neck and plowing into the wall.
PKKSSSH!
My momentum blasted us right through the stone wall, rocks and dust flying all around us as we flew into empty space beyond the wall. The deinonychus was beneath me as we started to fall; I dodged it twice as the jaws snapped towards my face, trying to focus on keeping the dinosaur beneath me as we fell.
Abruptly, we slammed down on solid ground. I heard a loud snap, and the deinonychus suddenly went still beneath me. I slowly pushed myself to my feet, trying to ignore my aching limbs, as I looked around where I had fallen. Rocks peppered the stone floor around me, remnants of my explosive escape from the room above.
Slowly turning around in place, I realized I was once again in the entrance hall of the museum. I spotted the off-putting gargoyle I had commented on before, and I blinked. Full circle, I guess.
A light blinked on behind me. I spun around, but relaxed when I saw it was Cyborg's shoulder-lamp. I held up my hand in front of my eyes, and noticed then the massive hulking shape lying still between us. The tyrannosaur's head was lying a couple feet in front of me, a perfectly spherical hole blasted right through the skull. Gleaming red blood splattered across the ground.
"Well." I uttered, stunned. "You look like you've been having fun."
The cyborg's stern expression didn't change. "It was slowing me down. Where's Raven?"
I opened my mouth to reply, but a booming voice from above me that shook the stones beneath my feet answered for me. "YOUR PALTRY EFFORTS ARE NOT NEARLY ENOUGH TO STOP ME! NO MORTAL CAN CEASE MY ENDLESS-" Raven abruptly stopped talking, and raised her hand to her neck. I blinked as I spotted the dart that had appeared in her neck. The tentacles vanished into the air, and Raven immediately shrunk back to her normal size. I saw the extra pair of green eyes disappear, and familiar violet eyes stared back at me for a brief moment before Raven fell sideways and out of sight with a barely audible thud.
I took a step forward, then blinked and looked down at my shirt. It had abruptly lightened on my body, and I noticed that the greenish slime from the tentacles had vanished as well. "What just...?" I started, then trailed off and turned around to face Cyborg.
"She's fine." Cyborg explained as a gun folded back up into his wrist, and stared up at the room where Raven had fallen. "It's just a tranquilizer. It's the plan we came up with for this kind of situation."
I did a double-take. "Wait, this has happened before? Did you know that was going to happen?"
Cyborg looked down at me. "It's not my story to tell, but Raven's got a lot of history with her powers. It's not the first time she's lost control of them either, but I've never seen anything like that." He shook his large metallic head, red eye glowing in the dark. "I hoped it wouldn't happen, but it's been a rough couple of months for her. She isn't the kind of person to sit back and be protected, though." Silent, I watched as Cyborg stepped over the tyrannosaur's head and walked past me towards the staircase. "I'm going to go get Raven. Wait for us outside." he asked, glancing back at me.
I nodded, watching as the cyborg walked towards the upstairs staircase. "I'll want to hear an explanation for this." I called.
"You'll get one." Cyborg's voice echoed back as his light vanished from sight up the staircase. I stood alone in the silence for a moment before something gleaming in the dark caught my eye. I looked down to see my pipe still clenched in the teeth of the still deinonychus. I spotted gleaming white bones sticking out of the dinosaur's neck, explaining both the snapping sound I'd heard before as well as the sudden stillness of the beast.
Kneeling down, I gripped one end of the pipe, gritted my teeth, and pulled the gleaming pipe out from the jaw with a forceful tug. I spun it once in my hand, sending off a spray of deinonychus spit, and tucked it back into its sheath.
As I limped out of the building, I noticed that the freezing sensation on my chest from the pendant had reduced, back to the mild chill it had been before. I paused, looking up at the clouded night sky for a minute. Gusts of snow circled around me, the blizzard seemingly only increasing in strength, as the snow around my feet was already an inch deep.
.oOo.
I had chosen to wait against the T-Car, which was conveniently parked at the bottom of the large stone staircase in front of the museum. Beneath the looming figure of the stone gryphon, I waited for my teammates. I glanced at the watch on my wrist.
1:47.
I sighed quietly. The night was nowhere near done. The little adventure in the museum had given us absolutely nothing in terms of finding Starfire, and I had found myself facing my imminent demise twice in the past hour and a half. Robin had vanished somewhere into the city, and wasn't answering his communicator.
At the sound of familiar heavy footsteps, I looked up. Cyborg was descending the steps of the museum, cradling the cloaked form of Raven in his huge arms. I opened the back door, allowing Cyborg to lean over and deposit Raven into the back seat. He shut the door softly, and turned to face me. We stood there for a moment, just looking at each other, listening to the silence of the city.
"What are we going to do?" I asked, my voice quiet. The wind howled through the street.
Cyborg glanced over his shoulder at the supine Titan in his backseat. "I'm going to get Raven back to the tower, and get her set up in sickbay." He turned his gaze back towards me. "After that, I'll set up a grid search system. We'll comb the whole city. This was the only lead we had."
"How long will that take?" I persisted, pushing away the surge of hopelessness that had risen in me.
Cyborg closed his eyes. "With Robin AWOL, and Raven out of commission... four days at the least."
I shook my head. "That's too long. Who knows what Katarou might do to Starfire in the meantime?"
"You don't think I know that?" Cyborg snapped, his human eye bulging. He calmed down a moment later, raising his hands in an apologetic matter. "Sorry, man. I think we're all a little on edge."
I nodded silently. Cyborg still seemed to be struggling to restrain something, though. "Is there something you want to say?" I prompted, raising an eyebrow.
Cyborg didn't speak for a second. "I gotta ask..." he started slowly. "Why exactly were you grappling with a dinosaur in the air when I first met up with you?"
I opened my mouth to answer, then shut it again. Thinking back, it seemed like an utterly ridiculous idea to tackle a carnivorous dinosaur. "Um..." I stalled, glancing down at my leg. "It took my pipe." I muttered stupidly, gesturing at the silver pipe attached to my lower limb. Cyborg stared at me for a second, then chuckled. It was such a tired noise it pained me to hear it.
We were quiet for another moment before Cyborg moved to open the driver's side door on the T-Car. He slipped into the seat, doing up his seatbelt as he muttered, "I'll contact you when I get back to the Tower. Keep looking. We'll just have to hope for a break." I grimaced at that, slammed the door shut for him, and started up the street away from the museum. A couple seconds later, the T-Car started up and rumbled away down the street.
I paused beside a telephone pole, intending to climb up it to reach the power lines anchored at the top. I had just placed a hand on the cool concrete when my communicator beeped an unusual sequence of tones in my pocket. I pulled it out, curious, and turned it on to see... darkness. I blinked, staring at the featureless display. "Hello?" I asked tentatively, unsure of what was going on.
Silence. Then: "... somebody ... somebody help me ..."
My eyes widened. "Beast Boy?" I whispered, staring at the screen with surprise. "Beast Boy, what's wrong? What happened?"
"... Katarou ..." Beast Boy replied, his voice disturbingly weak. I squinted, trying to make out the green Titan in the darkness he was apparently hidden within. "... Katarou ... he found me ..."
What? "Hang on, Beast Boy, just hang on. I'm on my way."