It won't be long now. We're nearing a chapter I've been want write since I started this whole fic. It won't take three weeks this time though.

Chapter 26: Urban Lunch

Shocked and horrified were the only words to describe how the Gothic Titan felt as she stared through the gaping hole in the Common Room. The fearless leader stood next to her with a similar expression for a moment before facing her.

"Raven?! Raven what happened?! why did you hold back?!" He stared at her and quickly noticed her lips were trembling.

"I-I... s-saw Cyborg... a-and Starfire... and Gar-B-Beast Boy inside it!"

She shook her head to correct herself.

"WHAT?! It was them?! and they were here?! but how?!" The Boy wonder couldn't believe what had just accrued.

"I don't know. But what ever that thing they were in was, it has them as it's passengers."

As she looked back through the shattered window a large breeze of wind swept through into the Common Room causing something small and thin to land on Raven's foot. She glanced down and was surprised to discover it was a photograph. She quickly bent down and picked it up, only for her to stare slack jawed at it's continence.

"Uh... what is it Raven? did you find a clue?" Robin raised an eyebrow at her reaction.

She looked over at him and without saying a word marched up to him and held the photo up to his masked face.

"More like I've found out who Beast Boy and Starfire have been hanging out with." She stated emotionlessly.

Robin studied the picture which consisted of the two missing Titans and a third unknown teenager sitting on the hood of a car. They all looked happy in the picture and as he looked closer his mask widened as he noticed another familiar face behind them at the end of the hallway in the background.

Yep, as it turned out the masked detective had spotted that Cyborg had inadvertently photo bombed the picture.

"Soooo... any idea of who that mystery person is? because I certainly don't recognize him." Robin sighed.

"No. But from the looks of whoever it is, the others must have formed some sort of friendship with it. I've never seen them this friendly with a complete stranger before."

Raven looked back at the photo only to feel an emotion she hadn't felt since she secretly witnessed Starfire hugging Beast Boy before he left the team.

"I'm going to my room to get another cloak." She swiftly turned around and left the Common Room.

Robin glanced back at the the large hole again and covered his face in frustration.

"Ughhh... why is this happening?"

When Raven reached her room she closed the door behind her and advanced to her closet. She opened it only to stare bug eyed at the the empty wall inside.

"Oh no... don't tell me that was my last cloak!"

Sure enough the closet was bare. It soon dawned on her that she went through a lot of cloaks during battles, particularly when it was Plasmus where it was near impossible to get his stains out to the point where she has no option but to burn them.

Sighing in annoyance she turned around and she instantly set her sights on the discarded book that she had found under her bed yesterday, she then took another glance at the photograph of her missing friends. She narrowed her eyes at the stripy colored teenager who sat next to them, it's oversized ear-flap hat casting a shadow over the top half of it's face and the incredibly long selves that covered it's hands just shrouded it in mystery.

Just who was it or more more importantly what was it.

Looking back at the book it was then she had a theory, she went over and picked it up and flicked through the pages until she reached the page that was burnt. She frowned at the fact that she couldn't make out anything that was written on the page as it was to badly burnt. She turned to the next page which she new didn't have much information, however as she did she noticed something that she had overlooked on the fist time.

There was another page stuck behind the burnt page.

Her breath caught in her throat at her discover and immediately started to pry the pages apart, it took a few attempts of peeling and blowing between the pages but after a tense moment the pages separated. The left page fortunately wasn't badly burnt and the writing was still legible, mentally scolding herself for not seeing this sooner she sat on her bed and began to read. As her eyes scanned each sentence it soon dawned on her that whatever had escaped from the book was connected to a cult that she was unfortunately familiar with.

"The resistance cult were Trigon worshipers! why didn't I realize this before?!" She chocked out and quickly continued reading.

As she reached the end of the page she slammed the book shut.

"They summoned a type of entity that was to be used as a weapon for when Trigon would rise up. I have to find wherever this thing is and somehow find a way to seal it back into the book before it causes harm."

She glanced back at the photo with a troubled look.

"They probably have no idea just how much power that thing is capable of." She narrowed her eyes at the smiling mystery youth before swiftly leaving her room.

Robin who had remained in the Common Room was surprised to see Raven return without a cloak.

"Um... Raven? why aren't you wearing a cloak?" His question was ignored as she showed him the book.

"I've just found out what escaped from the book I discovered." Robin gasped as he had forgotten all about that other issue.

"Oh you have? well that's go to hear, so uh what is it we're dealing with?" He quickly tried to sound serious.

"Well for one thing, I know what it looks like." She then showed him the photo again which Robin took into his hands.

"Are you say that it's-" She cut him of with her answer.

"Yes. Whoever Beast Boy, Starfire and Cyborg are with that's what escaped from my book. It also transpires that it is very powerful and pretentiously dangerous."

Robin scratched his head as he pondered on what to do.

"Okay. We better start searching for it, I know we've only just returned but if our friends are in danger we better start moving."

"Agreed. For all we now is it could be leading our friends into a trap, I don't know what it's motives are so we don't have time to lose."

"I'm glad to to see that we're talking again." Robin smiled at the dark girl.

"Don't think I'm going to let you off easy for using me like that." She glared at him.

The bird boy sweat-dropped before clearing his throat.

"Alright but your going to half to teleport us to the city, we have no vehicles left."

Raven groaned as she realized that little dilemma.

"OK, just let me get something from my room, I'm still not quite up to full power." She turned and left the Common Room.

Robin folded his arms and looked out of the large hole at the city.

"Please be safe... Starfire." He sighed.

Raven entered her room again and rushed over to her dresser only to be unfortunately reminded that her mirror was missing. She instantly paled as a horrifying though appeared in her head.

"Oh no... oh DEAR AZERATH NO!"

Somewhere in the center of the city a distinctive rocket powered muscle car descended slowly towards the ground in a hovering style formation. It landed perfectly in a parking space right outside the Titans favorite wedge shaped pizza parlor. The Wildcards climbed out only to noticed that Cyborg was still sitting in the passenger side with his human eye snapped open and his jaw nearly in his lap.

"Em... Cyborg buddy? were here." Beast Boy tapped his friend on his metal shoulder.

"Huh?! wha?! oh I um... sorry it's just... I can't believe you own a rocket car of all things." The robotic man rubbed his neck in embarrassment.

"Heh, well it was on a special offer, I didn't even have ta' pay a penny for it." Arny chuckled.

"Say what?! Ya'll make it sound like ya stole it!" He stared at Arny who just smirked.

"Well it's more like I gained from what the world of yesteryear lost."

Cyborg paused and as he tried to analyses just what the strange teenager was referring to. Unable to debunk the meaning he exited the car with a raise an eyebrow.

"Err... oh kay, so lets head on up there and get us some pizza." He smiled.

"Sweet, you gonna love this place Arn, Pan serves the best pizza's in the city." The green bean exclaimed.

"Well let's get up there then, I await your pizza's."

He smirked slyly as Beast Boy grabbed his arm and lead him up the stairs.

"I do hope friend Arny likes our place of the eating., he has given us so much of the needed good times that we have yet to thank him." Starfire mentioned.

"Well if ya ask me, the kid's got great tastes, so he should fit right in here." Cyborg grinned at the tanned alien who let out a giggle.

Back at the tower things for the for masked detective had suddenly become even more complicated as when Raven returned to the Common Room in a rather determined yet frantic manor. She demanded that they headed into the city without question and she was still without a cloak. Robin agreed and she grabbed hold of him before they teleported through one of her portals, they reappeared on the city's coast line and the empath declared to the Boy Wonder that the only way they could track down their target was to locate Cyborg.

"He has to still have his communicator, he wouldn't abandon his own technology just like that." Raven explained.

"That I can believe, let's just hope we're able to pinpoint his whereabouts." He opened his tracker and called for bionic man.

Then to the two Titans amazement they received a response.

"Yo what's happenin' Rob?" Cybrorg answered cheerfully.

"Uh... where about's are you Cyborg?! are you alright?!" He asked urgently.

"Oh I'm a okay, just havin' some lunch at the Pizza Parlor."

The two Titans were taken back by his response.

"Your what?!" Robin gawped at the Tin Man while Raven glared suspiciously.

"Yeah, would you believe that I got invited out to lunch by a new team of superheros?" He joked and Robin could hear a low snicker from someone near Cyborg.

"A new team of superheros?" Raven raised and eyebrow.

"And just who might they be?" She folded her arms.

"Hello friend Raven." Starfire's waving left hand appeared in shot.

Raven was stunned and Robin quickly started yelling into his tracker.

"Starfire! Starfire! are you OK?! are you hurt?!" Her hand instantly vanished at the sound of his voice.

"Nah She's fine man, in fact we're all fine and havin' a good time." He grinned and more snickering was heard.

"Is... is Beast Boy there?" The dark girl timidly asked.

Cyborg then looked beyond his communicator as if someone out of shot was signaling to him, he then turned back to the screen.

"Err he went to take a bathroom break, don't know how long he'll be though."

She eyed him in suspicion.

"RRRRight... then can I at least talk to Starfire?"

Cyborg looked to his left where the alien princess sat, she whispered something to him before he nodded and faced the screen.

"She say's she would like to talk but in private." He glanced at the spiky haired teen.

"Girl talk ya know."

Robin sighed in annoyance but agreed and let Raven go to a secluded alleyway while Starfire took hold of Cyborg's tracker.

"Soooo... how are thing's been working out for you?" She asked awkwardly.

"Oh thing's have been the most joyous friend, we've been on a most exciting journey." She smiled.

"Yeah, so I've heard." Raven mentally scoffed.

"Um... forgive me friend but... you do not appear to be wearing your usual attire."

The empath rolled her eyes.

"My cloak got misplaced and I didn't have time to change before you, Cyborg and Beast Boy made your grand exit."

Starfire leaned to her right as someone out of shot whispered to her.

"Oh, okay I will let her know." She then faces the screen.

"I am to tell you that your missing cloak was put to a great use." She stated happily.

Raven stared back at her, trying to make sense of what she was implying.

"What do you mean by 'it was put to a great use'?"

"What I mean is your cloak made the perfect seat cover for our mode of the transport."

"What?! A Seat Cover?! my cloak was Not designed for that sort of purpose!" Raven's left eye twitched.

"Oh but it was the most comfortable and the others agreed, it served us well." She nervelessly smiled.

"Alright, I have to know. Just who is with you and what are their intentions?" She demanded.

"Well if you must know me and friend Beast Boy have teamed up with a unique new friend who goes by the name of Arny. He took us on our long journey to the City of Keystone and has helped us regain trust and friendship. We our now doing the eating of the lunch and later we will be attending the Comic and Games convention to witness the Control of Freaks unveil his new console of the games as friend Arny had inspired him."

Raven let all that information set into her mind and for some reason she felt like she already new some of the things she'd just been informed, she rubbed her forehead and let out an annoyed sigh.

"This Arny you speak of, where is he now?" She noticed Starfire's glance beyond the communicator before quickly looking down at her.

"He is not with us at this moment, he went to join friend Beast Boy." Raven could tell she wasn't telling the whole truth but decide not to push the matter.

"OK, so what's this about Control freak unveiling a... games console?" She arched an eyebrow in confusion.

"Well it turned out that the Control of Freaks had organized the contest that friend Arny had entered us in, he was the most supersized when he discovered that we were the contest winners."

The empath stared blankly.

"You mean to tell me that Control Freak of all people had actually organized a legitimate contest and didn't commit any crimes? I find that hard to believe."

"I understand your skepticism as friend Cyborg and Beast Boy had their doubts."

There was a sudden gasp from Starfires right. She turned to see Cyborg waving his arms about, trying to shush the naive girl.

"Wait. Cyborg was with you?"

Her voice was now very low.

"Um... he err..."

She faced the Tin Man who face palmed and tried to shrink away.

"Well?!"

Raven growled but never got an answer as the screen suddenly went static.

"UGHH! Great!"

She stormed out the ally to find Robin who was sitting on the curb.

"We need to find them. Now!"

She declared and Robin jumped to his feet.

"So what did Starfire have to say?" He bravery asked.

"I'll spare you the suspense and say that she is fine. It also transpires that this thing has given itself an name. Arny."

"Arny?" The masked detective questioned.

"Yes, don't ask why. Apparently they've formed an alliance with him and they'll be attending a Comic and Games convention that will be featuring Control Freak as a guest."

Robin looked baffled at his dark teammate.

"Control Freak as a guest?!"

"Yeah, for reason's that are completely inexplicable this Arny somehow inspired him to create his own games console. I find it highly suspicious so we better start moving."

She handed his communicator back to him and levitated into the air.

"Alright, let's go!" They both took off in the direction of their friends.

Back at the Pizza Parlor, a sorrowful Starfire and a dismayed Cyborg sat opposite Arny and Beast Boy who had looks of relief on their faces.

"Dude that was a close one." The green bean sighed.

"Yeah, good thing we were sat on this side of the table." The strange teen added.

"Forgive me friends, I lost grip on my tongue." Her sentence caused everyone to glance at her before they realized what she meant.

"You mean a slip of the tongue Star." Cyborg corrected her.

"Well we better finish up and head off somewhere else before they catch up, great pizza's by the way." Arny gave them a covered thumbs up.

"Hah I told ya they were the best dude!" Beast Boy jumped up and was followed by the others.

"So were shall we head to now guy's? we still got several hours to kill." Arny asked as he walked down the stairs to his car.

"Oh! Oh! let's go to the arcade, I wanna see you and Cyborg go head to head." Beast Boy grinned.

"Hmm, sound's like a plan, what'd'ya say Cy?" Arny smiled.

"Well alright ya'll, let's see if ya can take on the gaming master." He rubbed his metal palms together grinning.

"That sound's like a challenge, your on."

He raised his sleeve covered fist and bumped the bionic man's fist.

"Booyah! Let's get going!" He entered the passenger side along with his two friends.

"Hey Cy, your gonna need a lot of energy to take on Arny, he's really good." The changeling smirked mischievously.

"Is that so? we'll just see who has the best opposable thumbs when it come to arcade gaming." He smirked back.

With a quick roar of an engine they left towards the arcade.

No less than three minutes later the two Titans arrived at the now empty Pizza Parlor.

"Argh! they left! now how are we going to find them?! Robin fumed. Raven placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax, they can't be too far away. They must be heading to the convention, we just have to find out where it is."

She turned to the masked detective who was trying to think of where the location of such an event would be held.

"I'm not entirely sure where it could be taking place, we're just gonna have to look around various places in hopes of finding it." He concluded.

"Fine, but we need to move fast." Before her leader could answer she levitated again and took of with Robin trying to keep up.

A few hours later the Wildcards and Cyborg were now driving towards their final destination. It had been quite a fun filled day for the new team after Arny had given the bionic man a huge run for his money with the trip to the arcade. On racing games Arny was the victor, with fighting and shooting games they were evenly matched but it was Pinball where Arny truly became the master. Cyborg's wide open jaw could only described the mystery youth's hidden talent.

He was completely unbeatable.

FLASHBACK

Arny stood back with a big grin on his pale face as he now currently held the highest score ever set on the machine.

"Well I'll. Be. Dang." The Tin Man finally spoke.

"HA! HA! I told ya he was really good dude!" Beast Boy laugh at his metal friends reaction.

FLASHBACK END

After they left the arcade Starfire suggested the went to the 'Mall of Shopping' which they all agreed on. They spent an hour browsing through the variety of stores with Arny and Beast Boy checking out the music shop while Cyborg went to the Auto parts shop leaving Starfire to visit her usual cloths shops. They left the mall with each of them making a punches.

Beast Boy had bought a 'David Glen Eisley' CD, Cyborg had acquired a Knightrider Style front grill light for his baby and Starfire had obtained some old skool purple shutter glasses.

As dusk filled the sky they neared the Jump City docks and the pier came into view, they saw a very huge crowd of people entering a rather massive building that was opposite the pier.

"Dude that's gotta be the place, there's alotta people going in there." The shape-shifter pointed.

"It sure does man, let's just hope we can get a parking space."

"Oh joyous, we have located the place of the Control of Freak's unveiling."

"Uh Yeah I guess so, I just hope he isn't plannin' on anything else other than that." Cyborg was still skeptical about this whole event.

Arny turned into a nearby parking lot which fortunately had a space near the front, as they exited the car he noticed something that was lodged in the foot-well of his car. He bent down to retrieve it only to discover it was Raven's hand mirror.

"Hey, how did this get here?" Arny only sounded half surprised.

The changeling glanced to see what he'd found only to do a double take.

"DUDE! you still have that?!" His eye's now the size of dinner plates.

Cyborg also looked at what Arny had found, his human eye nearly popped out.

"YO! HOW THE HECK DID YA GET AHOLD'A THAT?!" He yelled in a panic.

Arny stared at the mortified cybernetic man.

"I found it in Raven's room." He answered nonchalantly, Cyborg gawked at his casual response.

"Y-you went into Raven's room?! Ya'll must have a death wish or somethin'!"

"Well it turned out to be worth it since I made contact with the Raven's on the inside." He casually rolled the mirror back and forth in his palm.

Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

"W-wait... wait... hold on a sec, are ya'll tellin me that you were able to make contact with Raven's emotions?" He stared as the monochrome colored teen.

"I could demonstrate for you if you want." He went to start channeling his energy but Cyborg raised his hands stopping him.

"NO! NO! ya don't have ta do that man, from what you've told me about your powers I can believe ya." It was then he realized something and put two and two together.

"Hang on another sec, your the reason why Raven had those mood swings during our trip back to the Tower!" He glared at Arny who could only shrug.

"Well they all wanted to visit the tower cuz they wanted to see Beast Boy." He explained.

Cyborg's glare instantly changed to surprised, then a mischievous smile.

"Oh they did now did they?"

His attention was now focused on the forest hair colored teen who's cheeks were now red.

"H-hey! they only wanted see if I was okay, I mean it's not like I get to... I mean we get to visit them so often so I just-" Cyborg interrupted him.

"You just thought you'd spend some quality time with her emotions, I bet that was interesting." He smirked evilly.

"Oh you should have seen the emotion known as Purple, she had the most adorable ca... mmph?!"

The bubbly alien was silenced with Beast Boy's gloved hand clamped over her mouth.

"Err let's just get in there before we miss the presentation." He quickly guided her away from the confused looking Cyborg.

"Ohh kayyy... what was that all about?"

He looked back at Arny who simply shrugged again.