8
Two weeks after her fight with Cyborg, she'd laughed when Slade told her that was his name, Raven was out again, this time completing a drop off and pick up. She thought about what had happened to Cyborg and remembered the news the next day that he had been found unmoving with internal damage. It seemed his own attack had affected his systems when she hit it back at him. Still apparently he had been revived and repaired. Now she was on the East Side, and knew what to watch out for.
She and Slade had kept an ear to the ground and found out everything they could. Slade had caught an image of something green on this side and after a rather expensive investigation had learned he was called Beast Boy and transformed into animals. Tonight she wished she could be so lucky. Winter was approaching and it was getting cold. She thought she'd do anything to be able to transform into an animal with a thick coat. Still the internal heating unit built into her suit combined with the cloak that swirled around her kept the worst of the cold away.
She made her way to City Hall and phased onto the roof. Floating down she opened a window and made her way silently to an office at the end of the hall. Creating a hole to view through she saw the mayor behind his desk staring out the window. Phasing into the room she reached out and used her power to immobilize him and keep him from turning. Another one of Slade's minions, he was nothing more than a pawn in their game. He would fall along with the rest of the city.
Moving to stand only inches behind him she whispered in his ear. "Where is it? I don't have time for games so answer my question or I won't be happy." All she knew was that she was looking for a floppy disk. It seemed a little out dated to her, but hey whatever works.
Apparently the mayor didn't trust her and decided to be brave. "I don't know what you're talking about." He still couldn't see her.
She used her mind to slam him onto the desk hard enough to collapse it, but darkened the room so he couldn't see. Nothing scared people more than being confused in the dark. Like she said she didn't like games. Fortunately it seemed to get his attention.
"Alright it's in a CD case in my top drawer." She hesitated at first but he wasn't stupid enough to lie. Rifling through the top drawer she found the case and checked it to be sure it was in there. Knowing that Slade would want to honor the deal she dropped an envelope into his desk that contained an unknown amount of money. Releasing her hold she phased back through the wall. Not five seconds had passed when an alarm rang.
"You've got to be kidding me." She thought to herself. This guy truly was an idiot. She ended up back on the roof but paused just before leaving. Crouching behind and air conditioning unit she pulled out a communicator and called Slade. He answered after less than a second. "Hey, what does this disk thing look like?"
"What do you mean what does it look like?"
"Well the mayor tried to get brave and I wonder if he gave me the right thing."
"Interesting. Tell me what it looks like."
Popping open the case Raven described it, "It's definitely a floppy disk and it's black like a normal one."
Her heart dropped as Slade sighed, then, grew angry. "He gave you a wrong one, go back and find it. I trust an alarm won't stop you?"
Raven grew angry as well, since she hated to redo things. "Absolutely not."
Slade nodded his head. "Did you pay him?"
"Yeah, the envelope's in his drawer. I put it where I got the disk from."
She saw him bow his head and think for a moment. She was almost nervous, at this point. Minutes had passed and she knew eventually they'd come up here. "Get the money back. Check the floor underneath his desk. He's not stupid enough to not make the disk, even if he is dumb enough to try to pass off a fake."
She nodded with her eyes flashing red. "Consider it done." She went to close the communicator when he stopped her.
"And Raven, once you have what you need, make the good mayor have an accident. It's time we struck a little fear into this city." Slade's image disappeared as the screen went blank. She didn't even think about what he said. The guy had tried to trick her and she wanted vengeance. She figured killing him would be more than justified. Besides who needed a corrupt politician? True he had helped them out but they were going to get rid of him eventually so why not now?
Once again appearing outside his office door she could sense him hiding inside, with the alarm blaring. She cursed the speedy response as she heard police outside. Trying the knob she noted he had locked and barricaded it. She sneered at his stupidity. Using her powers she burst the lock apart and sent a wave of energy at the door, blasting it off its hinges and across the room, and shattering the window. "Well that's going to draw attention." She decided to make it fast.
With a simple hand gesture the desk flew to the side and revealed a small door in the floor. "Clever boy," she thought. Kicking the door open she pulled out a small box. Taking the top off she saw it was filled with random things. Picking through it she found the disk Slade had described and took the other one out of its CD case and placed it in. Putting the new case into her pocket she took the money out of his desk and stashed it away as well.
Still she had one job to do. Turning toward the cowering man she levitated him over to the broken window and dangled him out of it. "I warned you not to play games." As she was about to let him fall someone crashed into the room. Turning she saw it was the little green guy who like Cyborg, looked around her age.
The kid drew up short as he saw the mayor's predicament. Holding up his hands he spoke slowly. "Take it easy, now. Don't do something you'll regret." Raven couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and smirk. She couldn't think of a single thing she had ever done or had yet to do that she would regret. The humans would get what they deserved.
The green one apparently took her lack of action as a good sign and took a step forward. That was a mistake. She let the old man drop about ten feet out the window before the "hero" jumped back. "Okay lady, calm down. Why don't you just let him go?"
Now she couldn't help but smile. "Very poor choice of words." Beast Boy realized his mistake as she did what he said and the mayor began to plummet 300 yards to the street below. Raven watched as he dove out the window and transformed into a rather large bird and caught the mayor.
"Damn, he caught him." Slade had told her what to do and she wasn't about to fail him. Jumping out the window after them she felt her eyes change as they flashed to a pure white color. Reaching out she wrapped her mind around a police car and sent it hurtling at the green bird.
Unable to dodge it due to the extra weight he instinctively released the mayor still 150 yards up. The police car flew through the air and struck a building across the street disappearing in a ball of fire. She saw the man hit the concrete and watched as a splash of red appeared around him at the same time he hit. Stretching out with her mind she sensed that his own mind was no longer active. She achieved her goal. Mr. Mayor was now dead.
She turned around and flew back into the air and saw Beast Boy standing on the road staring down at the street in horror. She couldn't resist getting one last shot in. "You should really watch what you say. You're the one who told me to drop him. His death is on your hands."
He finally lifted his gaze to hers and his green face colored in anger, something she hadn't expected it to be able to do. "You're a monster!" He spat out, but still too stunned to attack.
Again she cracked a grin, "You have no idea." Then her face grew serious. "And let this be a message to you and your little friends."
Beast Boy continued to watch as she suddenly took the shape of her namesake and vanished. Then he came back to his senses and cursed himself for letting her get away. Now he had no idea what to do, no clue where she would go. He heard what had happened to Cyborg and now knew who was responsible. Next time he would be ready.
