Hello, Animercom! Yep, I am. :) Yeah, I like Robin, too, but Raven is my personal favorite. I might just add them! They were so much fun to watch during that episode. :)
~レイブン~
He stood in an alley surrounded by tall buildings and cluttered with large piles and mounds and clumps of garbage. Though the moon was out and full, thick, dark, lengthy shadows covered the ground and surrounded him entirely. No one else seemed to be around, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched by something... malevolent. Then, as if on cue, glowing red eye began appearing all around him, filling every dark crevice imaginable and staring unblinkingly at him in a decidedly wicked manner. Several pairs of eyes began moving forward and the bodies they were attached to stepped into a lone patch of moonlight. The owners of the eyes were hideous. They looked like black rat-like creatures, only these rats were much worse than the regular kind, proven by the fact that each individual head carried two sets of pure, bright red eyes, one pair resting directly above the other. As more and more of the rats began to edge toward him, he heard a frightening caw overhead. The ominous sound was quickly repeated and he risked a quick glance upward, only to see a large group of dark crow-like creature with those same horrible eyes circling overhead.
Heart pounding in his chest at the obvious threat these creatures represented, he began slowly backing away, his hands raised to his chest defensively with his palms facing out. The rats followed his slow migration step by step until he was forced to stop when his back hit the rim of an old dirty dumpster that sat amongst all the garbage with its lid shut securely. He whirled and watched helplessly as it began to rumble and shake violently as though it were experiencing its own private earthquake. Moments later, yet more rats burst from it as the lid shot open. They poured forth in thick impenetrable black waves and, with a cry of alarm, he he turned back around and began running for his life. Heedless of the small dark lifeforms he was undoubtedly trampling beneath his feet as he went, he raced to the open end of the alleyway he was trapped in. That single entrance was his only chance for escape. Normally he could have transformed and flown, probably even would have, but right now he didn't think he could. Not with those birds above him. For some reason, he just got the feeling that, no matter what he turned into, he'd get killed if he tried to fly away. For that matter, he felt certain that he would die if the rats trapped him here, as well. With that in mind, he tried turning into something else, anything else that could help him escape, but all his attempts were made in vain. He was as helpless as an ordinary human right now.
Finally pulling free from the tide of small, dark bodies, he burst from the alley at top speeds, moving so fast that he nearly fell and hit his face on the pavement. Stumbling forward several steps to regain his balance, he made a split-second decision and turned left before running out into the middle of the street. Save for the cars parked along the sides, the the street was empty, despite it being a four-lane road that he knew for a fact always had traffic. As he ran beneath one of the birds, which had just made a dive for his head with its wickedly sharp, oily black talons at the ready, he was conscious of the ocean of rats heading his way. Ducking to avoid another crow, he ran through the shadow of a tall stone building overlooking the street and the many stores and whatnot across the street from it. The full moon filled the sky above him, so large and close that he could hardly believe that it was real. Then, without any warning, a giant creature of pure, black energy exploded into the air from beneath the road, sending large chunks of asphalt flying everywhere and knocking him back on his rear. He watched in wide-eyed shock as, hovering before the moon, the massive creature unfurled its mighty wings and unleashed a terrible cry. It looked like... a raven.
~レイブン~
Beast Boy awoke with a cry and sat bolt upright in bed, panting heavily as he wiped his forehead with the backs of his hands. His heart pounded in his chest as he fought to catch his breath. Finally, still panting, his flopped backward onto his bed, bouncing a bit unintentionally as he did so, his arms spread out at his sides as his eyes closed. A raven... huh? His eyes slowly opened to stare at the ceiling, dull and uninteresting though it was. I haven't thought about her in two years, so why am I suddenly having nightmares about those creatures I saw in her mind once? Looking back over that thought, it occurred to him, perhaps for the first time, that it really had only been two years. It felt so much longer than that, really, though he wasn't sure why. It wasn't like he missed her. Far from it. He was happy she was gone. With her gone, he no longer had to deal with her sarcasm, her moodiness, her creepiness, her secrets, her lack of teamwork, her problems that he and the others were always dragged into... he no longer had to deal with any of it. It was wonderful not having her around. So... why the nightmare, then? Maybe I just ate something bad. It's not like I've had a dream like that before. ...Maybe some milk or something would help. His next course of action decided, Beas Boy rose and tossed his blankets aside before climbing out of bed and heading to his door. Having slept fully clothed, even going so far as to be too lazy to take his shoes off, Beast Boy spent no time dressing before exiting his room.
Entering the kitchen, Beast Boy was surprised to find Robin already there, rummaging through the fridge. Robin's head poked up at the sound of the door, and he blinked at Beast Boy. "Oh, Beast Boy. i didn't know you were awake."
"Uh... Couldn't sleep," Beast Boy lied, deciding after a moment's hesitation that he didn't feel like talking about his dream, unusual and unexpected as it was.
"Yeah, me either," Robin sighed, returning his attention to the fridge. "It's been too... quiet lately."
"I know what you mean," Beast Boy agreed as he claimed a seat at the counter. "I mean, I don't miss the Brotherhood of Evil or anything, but it would be nice to have some butt to kick once in a while."
"Guess those days are over for now," Robin replied as he finally settled on a snack of some kind and pulled it out into the open. "But evil will return eventually. We just have to be patient."
"But it's been two years," Beast Boy protested with a deep frown. "All we've had to deal with since then are petty robbers and wannabe super villains that can barely work a gun!"
"I know it's frustrating, but we really do have to be patient," Robin said, fixing Beast Boy with a serious look. "There's nothing more we can do. But I can promise you this: evil will always return. As long as there's good in the world, evil will be there to counteract it. It'll be back. Just give it time."
Beast Boy sighed heavily and stood up. "I'm gonna go for a walk."
"Beast Boy, it's two in the morning. You sure you want to be out there right now?"
"I just need some fresh air, that's all."
"Okay. If you're sure."
Without another word, Beast Boy headed out into the night.
~レイブン~
The city streets were crowded and noisy, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. The familiarity was actually comforting, if he were being totally honest with himself. But he wasn't, so he chose to find the crowds and the noise annoying instead. He wasn't entirely sure why he was in such a bad mood. though he supposed that that could simply be attributed to the fact that he should have been sleeping right now, rather than wandering the streets all alone. Still, he couldn't deny that he always seemed to be in a bad mood whenever it concerned her, especially when they were actually near each other. Yet another reason to be glad she was gone. But, despite that, he couldn't help but wonder once in a while where she had gone, what she was doing, if she was okay... Shaking such thoughts from his mind, he weaved through yet another crowd and turned a corner, only to stop dead in his tracks as soon as he did so. No way.
Before him was the street from his dream, with the same alley and everything. Looking up into the sky, he quickly determined that the moon, while full as it had been in his dream, was completely normal in size, unlike how his dream had portrayed it. Swallowing hard, he risked a quick peek down the alleyway. There were no glowing red eyes, no heaps of garbage, no unusually dark shadows. There wasn't even a dumpster. Turning to the street, he soon located the building he had run beneath during his dream. It looked exactly the same. Was there some sort of significance to that? To any of this? Or am I just being paranoid? Uneasy, he decided to leave and walked quickly through the area and entered a nearby park. The park, much like the street from his dream, was located in the heart of the city. It wasn't one he'd been to before, but he didn't mind the unfamiliarity. The park was large and very nice. Much of it was covered in open stretches of lush, light green grass, but there were some trees here and there as well. There were quite a few rolling hills in the park, though there was also a great deal of flat land as well. On the far right side of the park was a large pond of sorts with crystal clear blue water. Various types of lily pads and water fowl floated lazily on its surface. Even better than that, save for a few benches here and there, there were no man-made structures here to mar the natural beauty of this place. And even better than that, there was no one else here but him. It was wonderful, truly.
Selecting a bench, he sat down and closed his eyes, savoring the cool air. It was nice out here, he decided. He remembered when the team used to go out to the park all the time to just hang out, or maybe have a picnic, or even to just play some Frisbee or something. Back then, they'd also gone out to pizza all the time, and gone to late-night parties once in a while, spent evenings together watching scary movies, challenged each other to stupid dares that resulted in numerous laughs, played pranks on each other, traveled together... His eyes opened and he gazed solemnly at the moon still hovering in the sky. Come to think of it... we used to have a lot of fun together. But that had all stopped after she had left. But why? We can still have fun without her, can't we? It was beginning to seem less and less likely that that was true, if he were being perfectly honest with himself. But he wasn't. So he refused to believe it. We haven't needed her all this time. We still don't. We never did.
Sighing softly, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes again. He didn't know how long he just sa there, savoring the cool early-morning breeze, but the tranquility was suddenly shattered by a massive, thunderous boom that seemed to come from below ground. The explosion (or at least what he assumed to be an explosion) was so fierce that the ground shook visibly. His eyes snapped open and he leapt out of his seat to whirl around and look at a large stretch of flat grassy park that really shouldn't have held his attention. But, for some reason, it did. There was nothing special about it at all, but for some reason- Then, suddenly, there was a second explosion, this one so massive that the ground he had just been staring at exploded as well, despite the explosion having come from far below ground. Alarmed, he ran over to the giant hole that now split the park. Ignoring the thick clouds of smoke billowing out of the hole as a result of the explosion, he peered down into the hole. As the smoke shifted and flowed upward, he was able to catch occasional brief glimpses of metal structured below him. His eyes grew wide. A... building?
Gritting his teeth tightly, he prepared to jump down inside and deal with whoever or whatever was doing all this damage, only to be cut short when a figure suddenly flew rapidly out of the smoke, cloak billowing as they went. His eyes, which had already been wide, widened further when the figure landed a short distance away. The figure wasn't wearing her hood like she normally would have been, though she was wearing the same cloak. Her hair, which used to be kept shirt, now flowed to the middle of her back. Other than that, she looked exactly as he remembered her. Seconds later, he was distracted when two more unexpected people emerged from the smoke. It was Jinx and Kid Flash, both Honorary Titans, not that they ever really communicated with any other Titans. As he watched, Jinx quickly approached the cloaked figure. From where he was standing, he could still make out her words, though they were a bit quiet.
"They're gone. After they set off those explosions, they left." The cloaked figure said something in response, but her words were too quiet for Beast Boy to hear. "We'll call you if we need you again. Thank you."
With a single nod, the cloaked figure took to the sky and began flying east. Startled into action by her movement, Beast Boy began running after her. "Raven!" She never stopped, never looked back. Never once did she look at him. And, in mere moments, she was gone.
~レイブン~
So... Sorry this is late. Also, "レイブン" literally means "Raven". Posted 06-07-15.
