A/N: Hey guys, like I said, I'm glad I have some free time to write. Thanks to all of you guys who reviewed, you guys rock!
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In this chapter we see just how tough this battle will be for our heroes...and we're introduced to a mystery hero...
With that said,
Read! Review! Enjoy!
Cheers,
Franshes
Ravenie was in her bedroom, staring out the window with her hand in her baby bump. She felt a small kick and smiled weakly. The baby had begun to move a couple of weeks ago and it felt very strange, but nice.
She was thinking, sadly, about her son, and what his life would be like without his father in it.
A knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts.
"Come in!" she called.
Summer entered the room, smiling weakly.
Ravenie looked at her friend and felt sadder than ever in the expression on Summer's face. Ravenie knew that Summer, as well as the rest of her family, were trying their very best to be happy about all this, but, like her, the fact that she was having a boy made them all sad...knowing he was the son Jake had always wanted and would never have.
"Hey," Summer said softly "What were you doing?"
Ravenie shrugged.
"Just thinking," she said.
"About?" Summer asked her.
Ravenie sighed.
"I was thinking about Alex," she said " And how his life will be without Jake in it..."
"He'll be fine," Summer said, swallowing the lump in her throat that arose at hearing her brother's name "He's got a wonderful mother to look after him, loving aunts and uncles who'll play with him, and grandparents who will care for him and adore him- this boy will be the most spoiled kid in the world."
Ravenie smiled but her eyes were watery.
"What will I tell him when he grows up and asks about his dad?" she said, her voice thick with unshed tears.
"He'll grow up in a family of superheroes," Summer said "Even if YOU decide to give up crime-fighting...that won't make mom, dad, Nightwing, Starfire, and the rest of us stop crime fighting so he'll know about it. You'll tell him exactly the truth- that his daddy died trying to make the world a safer place for him to live in..."
Ravenie nodded and hastily wiped away some tears which had fallen down her cheeks.
"Come on, girl!" Summer said, trying the cheer Ravenie up "Everybody's downstairs, waiting to celebrate, we bought a cake with blue icing and have some light blue balloons and some cookies and juices- it'll be fun!"
"I don't want to!" Ravenie moaned "I don't want to go downstairs and see all of you guys pretending to be happy when I KNOW you're not!"
"We are happy, Ravenie..." Summer said softly "Okay so we all miss Jake, and we wish he was here but he can't be! And we have to learn to accept that! With or without his father, this boy is our family and we love him so much already, we're happy that he's coming to us in four months' time!"
"You are?" Ravenie said "But then he'll remind you guys of Jake and that'll make you sad and-"
"That won't make us sad," Summer said "It will be...sort of like having Jake back- not quite, of course, but something like it..."
Ravenie smiled, wiped away her tears and went with Summer downstairs to where her family was waiting for her.
Downstairs...
"SURPRISE!" Everybody shouted when Ravenie came down. She smiled at all of them with all the happiness she could.
"Aww... thanks, you guys, you didn't have to do this!" she said.
"We know that..." said Changeling, hugging her "But we wanted to do it."
"And this is just the beginning, Ravenie dear." Raven said "You just wait and see how grand your babyshower will be!"
"Aunt Raven, you shouldn't be doing this!" Ravenie said "You're pregnant, you'll be tired, you don't-"
"Nonsense, honey." Raven said "This isn't my first child, Ravenie, I know what I'm doing. I know what I can and can't do..."
Ravenie had fun that day, with her family and friends, but in the back of her mind she was still sad. She wished, more than anything, that Jake were here- enjoying this with her.
Besides, although all of this was very nice on the titans' side, it was really starting to tire her out. She was, after all, seventeen, and five months pregnant with her first child.
Finally, it was time to open the presents.
Ravenie received baby clothes from Argent and Hot Spot, baby monitors from Cyborg as well as a promise to make the T tower baby-friendly. She also got the changing table and other necessary furniture from her parents and the Wests, but the gift that affected her the most was the Logans'.
"Is that-?" she asked upon seeing it "No it can't be...is that Jake's crib?"
It was.
She had seen it countless times in photos from when Jake was a baby, and later when Scott was a baby since the Logans hd used the same furniture for both their sons.
"It is, honey." Raven said softly "We thought the baby needed something of his father's. You'll also get all of Jake's toys and stuff from when he was young if you want..."
Ravenie could only nod, as she was now crying.
"So..." Cyborg asked her after a while "We can't call him 'baby' or 'boy' or 'kid' forever, Ravenie. Already thought of how you're going to name your child?"
Everybody tensed up. Everybody knew, although they didn't want to admit it, that Ravenie was, most likely, going to name her son Jake. They also knew how unwise that would be. Both for Ravenie's sake, and for the Logans' sake.
So it came as a surprise to everyone when she answered
"Alex, I'll name my son Alex."
"Alex..." Raven said with a smile "I remember that name...Jake made a huge fuss when he was about seven or eight over wanting to change his name to Alex- remember Changeling?"
Changeling chuckled.
"Hell yeah- made huge tantrums as to why he couldn't change his name. He even used to write in all his things and school-papers 'Alex' or 'Alexander' it made the teacher so mad!"
"That's why..." Ravenie said "When we were fourteen he told me that if he ever had a son he'd name him Alex, well, this is not exactly as planned but- Jake will get his wish."
"So...Alexander, huh?" Nightwing asked his daughter.
She nodded.
"Yep." she said "Alexander Jacob Logan..."
There it was. What everybody had expected to hear in the first place.
Raven and Changeling cringed internally but did their best to hide it.
Nightwing, however, made NO attempt whatsoever, to hide his dislike for the name.
"Honey," he said "I don't think that's a good idea-"
"I know what you think, dad." Ravenie said firmly "I know what everyone in this room thinks but this is MY son dad, and I'll name him like I want to..."
Nightwing sighed, like Summer, he realized there was no changing his daughter's mind.
"But," Ravenie continued "I also know it would be painful for most of us if I constantly called him Jake so...he'll go by his first name- Alex."
Everyone smiled, relieved.
Just then the alarm went off.
Nightwing groaned.
"What now?" he asked Cyborg who was closest to the monitors.
"You won't like this," said Cyborg "It's Creak and Allison again...although I can't see Dikos ANYWHERE in the monitors..."
"Okay, then, kids- you'll stay here. Prepare for battle got it? We'll handle it in the city..." Nightwing said.
The children all nodded.
"Titans GO!" Nightwing shouted and the adult titans sprang into action...
Meanwhile, at the T tower...
"Okay everybody we have to get ready in case they come after us again..." Summer said loudly.
"Same plan as the last, boss?" Kyle asked her jokingly.
Summer rolled her eyes and smiled but answered
"No, we can't have the same as last. Otherwise it'll become too repetitive and easy to overcome. We have to think of new strategies. Here's what we'll do...I'll keep a shield around all of us that should protect us initially. After that, I want Speranza,Lise, Dylan, Rainbow and myself to shoot at them- all at once. While we're on that, Ken you'll have to keep shield around us so that we don't get hurt- got it?"
Ken nodded.
"Next we'll split up- Lise, I want you to create a tornado- like last time, close in on him- I'll keep a shield around you so you don't get hurt but you HAVE to shoot him while he's trapped in there- got it?"
Lise nodded.
"Liam- after he's had all this- you'll have to shoot at him to make him get out of here okay? Like I did with Allison last time..."
Liam nodded.
"What about me?" Scott whined "Don't I get to do anything today?"
"For today you'll be our bodyguard." Summer said "Meaning I don't wat our enemy anywhere close to Rebecca, Michael, Jade, Ben, Daniel, Valerie and especially Ravenie- understand?"
Scott nodded.
With the Titans...
The battle with the titans was not going well.
Creak and Allison had brought with them an army of robots which were hard to cntrol and made it impossible to concentrate on the two of them.
"Nightwing there's too many of them!" Cyborg shoutd as he blasted with his canyon a dozen of them.
"Where did they get the technology to do these things?" Changeling asked as he morphed into a T-Rex and swept a bunch of the robots with his enormous green tail.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven said, a ball of black energy encasing on more robots and blasting them away.
"What's the matter titans?" Allison jeered "Can't handle our new toys?"
Starfire's eyes glowed green and she sent a bunch of starbolts in Allison's direction. Allison dodged them swiftly but her eyes glowed dark blue and she sent a shower of rays in every direction.
One of them hit Starfire's chest and she fell to the ground, injured.
She tried to pick herself up but the pain was too great. With dread, she realized that she was surrounded by robots which were closing in on her, aiming their canyons at her.
She feebly attempted to defend herself but knew it was useless- they had her trapped.
Nightwing saw from a distance the current situation of his wife and with an enraged yell kicked and punched the robots near him and ran as fast as he could towars her, blasting his way though the robots with his disks.
"STARFIRE!" he yelled as he continued to punch and kick at the robots, trying to get to her.
Suddenly a ball of black energy encased the robots that surrounded Starfire and sent them flying in the other direction.
Nightwing looked up and gave Raven a grateful smile, which she returned, before she continued to fight.
Meanwhile, Nightwing helped Starfire into a sitting position and stood ther, protecting her.
However, that wasn't the only bad thing going on right now.
Dikos entered the fighting scene, two laser guns in his hands, and began to shoot those near him. Jericho watched, with horror, as Dikos aimed his gun at Kole and fired.
Blasting the robots away from himself, Jericho ran at Kole and pushed her our of the way, just on time, but got shot himself.
"Jericho!" Kole cried as she froze the robots surrounding them "No!"
Dikos then began to shoot and Kid Flash who, enraged, dashed at him at an amazing speed, hitting him once, twice, three times as he ran back and forth.
Dikos, badly hurt from Kid Flash's punches but still strong, punched and kicked back at him, Kid Flash swiftly dodging some of his blows, but receiving others.
Then Dikos grabbed Jinx, who had been distracted by hexing Allison who was fighting her and held her close to him- putting a gun to her head.
Kid Flash froze.
"One more move, Flash, and she's dead." Dikos said, Jinx attempted to free her hands in order to hex him but he had her in a death grip.
"So, Jinx baby..." he whispered in her ear "I heard you and I will have a beautiful baby together- isn't that nice?"
Jinx felt like she was about to puke but managed to jam her elbow into his stomach. He roared with pain and let her go.
She immediately backed away from him and resumed fighting off the robots and Allison. Kid Flash, meanwhile, having heard what Dikos had said to Jinx rushed to him and punched his jaw hard as he growled
"You will never touch her again, son of a bitch, I'll make you sorry you ever touched her in the first place!" and he began to run around Dikos, creating a tornado. Dikos fell to the ground, the pressure from the tornado was taking away all his oxygen (A/N: Yep. Got my idea from Sky High- don't criticize) as Kid Fash began to run faster, Dikos began turning blue from the lack of oxygen.
Suddenly a black cable-like ray entered the tornado and Kid Flash fell to the ground, writhing in pain, Creak above him, his eyes glowing black.
Jinx aimed a hex at Creak which he dodged easily. Cyborg blasted his sonic canyon from behind Creak. This caught Creak off guard and he fell to the ground. Kid Flash stopped writhing in pain and stood up, sore as hell but more furious than ever.
As the battle raged on, however, nobody noticed the disappearance of one of the major villains...
At the T tower...
"Um...guys?" Michael called as he saw something out the window "Get ready...they're coming."
Everybody tensed up, ready to fight.
"Okay...listen, everyone." Summer said "We're invisible for now but we won't be for long so be careful."
Everybody nodded.
A red light was briefly reflected on the windows before the door was blasted open.
All of the children had to suppress gasps.
"It's Creak!" Dylan whispered to Summer "How are we supposed to fight HIM?"
"The same way we fought his girlfriend..." Summer answered back in a whisper.
Creak entered the T tower smiling cruelly.
"I know you're in here..." he said, his voice dangerous "Now why don't you make my job easier and just surrender? I'll fight you guys and capture you either way..."
"3, 2,1..." Summer counted softly.
BAM!
Creak was hit at once with Starbolts from Rainbow and Dylan, as well as a couple of Nightwing's disks from Dylan, at the same time Lise and Speranza were shooting painful jinxes and hexes at Creak while Summer herself shot ball after ball of black energy.
Creak was thrown back with a roar of pain.
His eyes glowed black and his black cable shot at every direction but Ken and Mikayla's shield protected them from feeling his powers.
Creak's eyes shone a deeper shade of black and the cable intensified. Ken and Mikayla, weary from having stopped Creak's previous attacks collapsed and everybody in the room felt Creak's powers for the first time.
The children, including Summer, all fell to the ground, some merely writhing in pain, other's screaming.
Creak smiled darkly.
"And you thought you could defeat me..." he said. He raised his left hand and a black cage-like thing appeared in the walls of the the tower. The cage began to shrink, enclosing all the titan children.
Summer was in more pain than she'd ever been in her life, but when she saw what was happening, she made an effort to shake off the pain- to prevent them from all being taken as prisoners.
'Okay, focus Summer,' she thought to herself 'This guy's powers work based on emotions, if I don't feel anything towards him, then I shouldn't feel his powers, meditate Summer, meditate...azarath metrion zinthos...azarath metrion zinthos...'
She felt the pain fade away and then shouted
"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!" her black shield encasing on all the titan children, who all stopped feeling Creak's powers and shakily got up. Her shield threw off the black cage.
Creak huffed in frustration but his eyes glowed black once again.
"So Summer..." he said, his voice dangerous "I see you've taken over what used to be litttle Jakie's job... too bad he was such a weak person. I don't know...maybe you'll be more of a challenge, because killing your brother and sister was such a piece of cake!"
Summer was angered at the way Creak spoke about her siblings. As soon as she felt anger though, Creak's black cable broke through her shield and the kids all began to experience the pain once more.
Scott, who had heard all this and hated to be out of the action told Michael, Rebecca, Ben, Jade, Valerie and Ravenie that he'd be right back.
Seeing what was happening to his friends and sister, Scott sent a ball of black energy that hit Creak right in the chest, throwing him on the ground.
The kids stopped feeling the pain.
"What are you doing here?" Summer cried "You're supposed to be protecting them!"
"I'm helping you, sis." Scott said firmly.
However, Creak's eyes glowed red and the children experienced another type of pain. It felt as if they were being shocked over and over again...they all fell to the ground, their bodies would spasm every other second.
Creak went up the stairs.
"He's coming..." Ben said, afraid.
"I'll try to hold him off, you guys just run..." Jade said.
"How CAN you hold him off?" Michael asked "Your powers aren't working yet and you're in a wheelchair!"
Ben held on the Daniel very tightly.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rebecca saw something that might perhaps, be their only salvation.
The door to Summer's room burst open and Creak stood by the doorway.
"Hello kiddies," he said "Happy to see me?"
"I wouldn't say that..." Michael muttered.
"Now, you'll either be good kids and come with me or we'll have to do this the hard way, you decide..." Creak said.
"Please," Ben begged "Take me, kill me, do whatever you want with me, but don't hurt my son- he's just a baby"
"We'll never surrender!" Jade said.
Rebecca swiftly grabbed the gun that lay in Summer's bedside table and pointed it at Creak with shaky hands.
"Leave us alone!" she said "Or-"
"Or what?" said Creak mockingly "You're gonna shoot me with the gun? Please, you don't have what it takes to do it."
Closing her eyes, Rebecca pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
Creak backed a few steps clutching his left arm, where Rebecca's bullet had hit him.
"Bitch!" he shouted at her "You'll pay for that!"
He blasted the gun away from her hands easily and his eyes glowed black.
Ravenie saw this and quickly pushed her friend out of the way.
A surprising thing happened...Creak's eyes stopped glowing black- he seemed disappointed.
"Stand aside girl," he told her "You needn't get hurt protecting the fool!"
"What?" Ravenie asked him "Like you haven't hurt me enough already? You hurt my family, you killed my baby's father, now you want to hurt my friends! I won't let you do it! You won't touch them! Over my dead body!"
Ravenie kept waiting to feel Creak's powers on her, like she had in the vacant lot, but Creak looked at her blankly and, instead, tried to force her away from Rebecca and the rest of the kids behind her.
Ravenie yanked herself free of his grasp and her eyes glowed green. She sent a showerof starbolts in Creak's direction.
Creak stepped back, shielding himself from them. Still nursing his left arm.
Now, Ravenie definitely expected him to torture her but he surprised her by saying to Rebecca behind her
"Your friend saved you bitch, but we'll see each other soon enough!" and he turned to leave.
Now Ravenie was seriously confused.
She ran downstairs with him, to make sure he wouldn't touch any of the kids who lay injured or hurting on the ground and was surprised when he didn't even try to touch that he COULD anyways because Summer had wearily put her shield around all of them again.
He left the T tower, slamming the door behind him, Ravenie still following him.
"Wait!" she called out to him, her curiosity getting the best of her.
"What?" he asked her, he seemed angry at her and yet made no attempt to fight her.
"Why didn't you attack me?" Ravenie asked "You've done it before so...why stop now?"
Inside her mind, she involuntarily thought 'Why stop now when I WANT to die so I can be with Jake?'
"You are a foolish girl," he told her, looking at her strangely "Most people who manage to escape a serial killer don't go after him later and ask him why he didn't kill them..."
"You killed Jake..." she told him "What's so different about me?"
"Here's the thing, princess," he said and Ravenie flinched at his old nickname for her "When I killed your precious boyfriend, he made one last request to me before I finished him off- he made me promise I wouldn't hurt you- and I, despite everything else, keep those kinds of promises..."
Ravenie was crying now.
"What did you do with his body?" she asked him, her voice shaking because of her crying.
He turned to look at her and smiled cruelly before saying
"Now...that's my secret isn't it? I'm not about to tell you...all I can say is that, I dumped him somewhere..."
"He's been dead for four months now!"Ravenie cried "Why can't you at least tell me where it is so he can get a decent burial!"
"Because," Creak said, turning to look at her one last time "I like to watch people suffer, particularly those I can't touch..."
And he left without saying another word.
Later that day...
"Well, the only good thing that came out of this battle is that you guys weren't taken." Cyborg was telling the kids.
"Yeah, but we're all badly hurt!" Scott said, wincing from the pain in his body.
"Well, so are we..." said Nightwing "Bee has her wrist broken, Jericho was shot, Star was shot and we're all pretty bruised."
"Hey, at least we're all alive." Changeling said "I'm actually very surprised that Creak took none of you guys as prisoners, especially you guys," he said, looking at Ben who was carrrying Daniel, Jade, Michael, Rebecca, and Ravenie.
"I honestly thought he was going to," Rebecca said "After I shot him-"
"You shot him?" Cyborg asked her incredulously "But you've never held a gun in your entire life! And you've never ever hurt someone!"
The kids briefly told of what had happened upstairs.
At the end of the story, the titans were confused.
"Why didn't he simply hurt Ravenie and then the rest of you guys?" Hot Spot asked.
"I know why..." Ravenie said "I asked him and, well, he told me..."
She briefly said what Creak had told her outside.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Summer said "You went OUTSIDE wih him alone, are you nuts?"
"I have to agree with her, Ravenie," Nightwing said "And with Creak. The next time you face a serial killer and escape- don't go after him to ask why he didn't kill you...no offense my dear but that's a very stupid thing to do..."
"Nightwing's right," Changeling said "But as it is, this shows that at least my son did not die in vain. He died to save you, Ravenie, and thank God Creak kept his promise to him..."
Ravenie nodded and excused herself.
She went up to her room and fell on her bed, crying.
'I miss you so much , Jake' she thought.
Downstairs...
"So how did you guys escape, dad?" Dylan asked Nighwing "You know, with all of those robots, and you guys hurt and all..."
"As a matter of fact, I don't know, son." Nightwing said"In the middle of the fight, there was a sudden blast which freed us of practically all the and Allison seemed furious and we looked up and this- person- I can't even tell you if it was a man or a woman- kept shooting down at got mad and went after this hooded person and they began fighting. Little by little they went farther and father away from until they were a good distance she realized that she was alone with all of us, Allison panicked and fled."
"And you could never see this person's face?" Summer asked, curious.
"Never," Changeling said.
"Who'd do such a thing?" Scott asked "To go against the most powerful villain, alone, and seemingly unprotected to rescue a bunch of strangers?"
Kid Flash shrugged.
"Some heroes are nomads. They wander from cty to ciy, never staying long enough to be noticed, but always fight crime."
"I used to be one," said Hot Spot "Until I joined the Teen Titans. If this person had stayed a while longer, I have no doubts that he or she would've been a valuable member of our team."
"Dad- what if it's Batman?" Kyle asked "What if he managed to escape?"
"I doubt that, son..." Kid Flash said "You see, this person's cloak was white..."
"So? He could be using it as a disguise to hide his true identity?" Kyle asked.
"I suppose anything's possible..." Nightwing said "But as it is, it is vry unlikely, I know my father...and that just isn't his style."
"Then...who could this mystery person be?" Bumblebee asked.
Nobody knew for sure...
A/N: And that's it guys.
I hope you liked it.
I tried to make this chapter long and with mixed emotions as a Christmas treat.
Merr X-mas everyone!
Hopefully I'll be able to upload one more chapter before New Year's.
Review! Those are the best Christmas presents you could give me!
Cheers,
Franshes