Raven sighed as she sat down, relieved but guilty. The barista acknowledged her familiar face as she hurried to make a cup of the usual for Raven, herbal tea with a slice of lemon and a splash of honey. The sorceress supposed she had overreacted back there with Beast Boy, but the thought of having to apologize to him made her cringe. She could already picture his whiny tantrum, complete with flailing arms and high-pitched squeals of pathetic anger.
He'll be fine. He's like Rubberband Man. Flatten him and he'll just pop back into shape.
Rubbing her temples, she slowed her breathing down while chanting her mantra. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos… Gradually the familiar words grew until they drowned out the noise of emotions that threatened to strangle her back there in the crowd. Even in the very rear of the bookstore, as far as she could get from the mob, she couldn't banish them completely. But she could at least regain her center. With her composure thus restored, she opened her eyes.
Only to have them nearly bug out of her skull at what she saw. There was Garfield, amicably chatting with what appeared to be a beautiful young woman.
She quickly turned her head so that Garfield wouldn't see her looking. She immediately scolded herself for doing so. Oh come on Raven, it's just Beast Boy! Oddly though, she couldn't bring herself to turn her head. So instead she removed one of the ruby gems from her belt (they weren't just for decoration) and used its reflective surface to spy – err, observe – her emerald teammate.
Her eyes narrowed. From what she could tell the women was a redhead with pale skin, though not as corpse-like as Raven's own pallor, a body that was shaped to a geometric scale of Euclidean perfection, and flashing green eyes that held a seductive gleam which even Raven could see in her blood-toned reflection. The empath had to admit, with a certain amount of bitterness, that she was attractive in every sense of the word.
Beast Boy couldn't have agreed more. Although at the moment the poppy-haired woman could have told him he was a robot from Mars and he would have only nodded his head in agreement. Like he was doing right now. What was she even saying? Weirdly, despite his superhuman senses he couldn't really hear anything. He couldn't smell anything either. Both of these senses were being muted by a sort of pleasant buzzing sensation in the back of his brain. Something in his psyche growled.
This isn't right.
Oh, shut up. We're having an actual conversation with an actual woman who'll actually talk with us. What could go wrong?
In the deepest recess of his mind the Beast rolled its eyes in a decidedly human way.
Suddenly Beast Boy felt himself holding something soft and gentle through the fabric of his gloves. He glanced down and realized that Pam had slipped one of her delicately manicured hands into one of his own.
Holy shit!
On the other side of the room the gem Raven was using glowed black and cracked. As her emotions once more threatened to burst out she put the ruby down and tried to calm herself. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…
Pam's finger drew little circles on his hand, languidly making its way towards his exposed forearm. She kept talking, but Beast Boy couldn't really pay attention. He found that he could only make out every few words. His vision blurred and his senses dulled. It was like there was a mist in his eyes, clouds in his ears, and a fog in his brain. But he just couldn't bring himself to fight it. It was like trying to resist sleep after a long day. The more he attempted the more he found he couldn't, and honestly he wasn't even trying that much. So… perfect…
Suddenly a new scent drifted into his conscience. It smelled of lilacs and old books. Raven?! Something in him panicked, though he didn't know why. He turned around and, sure enough, there she was, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples like she always did when something annoyed her (Beast Boy knew because she was often doing it in response to something he did). Obviously something was bothering her right now.
But sexy redhead!
Shut up!
As he turned to apologize to the aforementioned sexy redhead, he froze.
And just like that, the illusion was shattered. He knew it as soon as he looked at her. The prey in him told him he was in danger. The predator told him to get ready to fight. Now that he paid attention, something in her scent was foreign, dangerous, and… plant-like?!
He grabbed her hand, as if to pin her in place.
"Who are you?" his voice was something between a bark and a growl.
Wordlessly, she produced from her purse a small rock, a pebble really. No, that wasn't it. Garfield realized it looked like some sort of seed.
"I suppose you won't come quietly?" Her voice was almost pouty.
He looked around the store. His hawk-like eyes narrowed. In several places around the store, on shelves, under tables, and on chairs, were at least a dozen of these seeds. This was planned…
His grip tightened on her hand, but it wasn't comforting or loving.
Pam sighed. And it was going so well…
With a sound like an explosion each of the seeds exploded into a mass of writhing, green vines, shooting out like shrapnel. Beast Boy, guided by his animal instincts, dodged the first few plant tentacles before transforming into a Silverback Gorilla and throwing himself at the woman he know recognized as Poison Ivy. Raven was quickly bludgeoned by one of the vines in the back of the head before she could summon her magic. She struggled to overcome the vegetation before she was encased in a thick coffin of wood. The plants continued to wrap themselves around furniture, pets, and even people, as they terraformed the quaint little shop into a verdant jungle, complete with solid tree trunks, vines like snakes, and blood-red flowers. Guided by Poison Ivy's will, the plants quickly assembled themselves into barriers at all the doors and windows, trapping both of the heroes and all of the civilians, who were left to run around like headless chickens.
Outside the remaining Titans could hear the pandemonium.
"Titans, go!" cried Robin, failing to notice the pale women standing behind them with her arms raised, or the man in the window across the street with his rifle in hand and a smile on his face.
In a flash of blue light, Killer Frost froze the metal man in his tracks. Before he could fight back, the ice had already overgrown his body like a crystal fungus. The red light of his eye blinked and fizzled out as the ice caused his electronics to short circuit. He fell over, stiff as a titanium corpse.
"Cyborg!" Kori rushed to her friends side, starbolts in hand.
A crack like thunder roared as a depleted Promethium bullet flew straight and true to its target. Starfire gasped, her back arched, before slumping over her fallen Titan. Between her shoulder blades, inside a pool of green Tamaranean blood, was a single bullet hole.
"KORI!"