Hiya! Foamy here with another chapter! I enjoyed this one a lot cause it has some good action in it. I tried to make it sort of like hiw the cartoons did it (actiony with a little comedy and not taking too long), so I hope you guys enjoy it!


"Hellfire and brimstone!" Raven spat as she phased up through the tower floors after dropping Emelia off with Fixit. It only took her seconds to reach the common room, where she could feel the others gathered.

"Robin!" She shouted as she came up through the floor. "Prison Break!"

Robin, who was sitting on the couch with Martin in his lap, was up and over said couch in a heartbeat, still holding Martin. He ran up to ran. "Status report!"

"Garfield and I were coming back home via Bayway Drive and passing by the Bay Prison when the doors were knocked clean off. Cinderblock, Plasmus, and Overload were escaping, and Garfield's stubborn butt demanded that I come for you all while he held them there, so we need to go now!" Raven said before opening a portal in front of Robin. He set Martin down and the boy scurried through, knowing Emelia was on the other side. Starfire flew over and Kid Devil ran over just as Raven closed the portal.

She looked at her friends. "Be ready, likely as not Gar has pissed them off already."

The three nodded and Raven opened a portal beneath their feet. They sank down into it…

And emerged into a warzone.

The courtyard was destroyed, with more than half the walls missing, two of the towers were piles of rubble, and the entryway into the prison itself had been smashed into pieces. Ternion was flailing about, trying to hit something small, fast, and green. Said green thing landed on his nose and turned into Beast Boy, who hung there making faces at the behemoth. Ternion roared at him and brought his fist up just to punch himself in the face as Garfield shifted once more and flitted away. The behemoth roared as it fell back with a heavy crash.

"Titans, go!" Robin shouted. Starfire flew right at Ternion, launching a dazzling ray of eye bolts as she passed over him. Kid Devil hopped up onto his chest and took a deep breath before releasing a billowing gout of flame that covered the bulk of the beast. These attacks made Ternion cry out in rage as he thrashed about. Kid Devil was thrown off and he bounced across the ground hard. Robin dashed forward, dodging between the limbs as he whipped out and extended a bo staff. He pole-vaulted onto Ternion's chest (landing in the least flamey spot) before slamming the pole into his opponent's face. Raven back away from the brawl for a moment, looking about for Garfield. She finally did spot him, high above the fight in the form of a bird of some sort. She sent him a telepathic message.

Gar! Are you hurt?

Nah, I'm fine. He didn't touch me at all.

You're not lying to me to sound cool, are you?

Ha, no. If I did that, you couldn't kiss my booboos and make them better. He teased.

Raven rolled her eyes and started scolding him. Gar, this isn't the time or place-

"AHHHH!"

Raven snapped her head over to find shockwaves of electricity pulsating from Ternion's body, catching both Robin and Kid Devil in the radius. Both boys were thrashing where they lay screaming as the electricity courses through their bodies.

Get them out of there so I can drop something big on him! Garfield shouted via their mind link.

Raven, wincing at the intensity of his order, reached a glowing hand out and sent a shadowy claw racing towards Kid Devil. It snatched him and yanked him back towards her just as a red blur flew by Ternion and snatched up Robin. Starfire brought him to Raven immediately, setting him down and turning back towards their foe, her eyes glowing with rage.

"You clorbag! You shall not get away with…" She trailed off as she realized it had suddenly gotten darker. She looked up in time to see a huge green whale drop hard onto Ternion, crushing the villain beneath a gargantuan weight and burying it in a small crater.

Beast Boy climbed out of the crater and brushed himself off before striking a pose.

"Who da beast? I'm the beast! Aw yeah baby!" He shouted as he started dancing. Raven rolled her eyes at his antics as she knelt down and began healing Robin. She could feel Eddie's fiendish healing factor kicking in through her empathy, so she wasn't worried about him. Robin, on the other hand, was only human-

"Lookout!" Starfire shouted. Raven whipped around just in time to see Ternion's foot come out of the crater and strike Garfield in the back. He cried out as he was launched across the yard, but he disappeared before he struck the wall. Raven figured he shifted into something small and fast to avoid impact.

"Buy me a minute, Starfire!" She ordered, turning to concentrate on healing Robin. Her muscles started to twitch and jerk in response to the empathic absorption of the shock in Robin's body, but she steadied them with the sheer force of her will. Behind her she could hear Starfire's battle cry and the sound of starbolts exploding. The rumble under her feet told her that Ternion had gotten back up. Seconds later, Eddie sat up.

"Ow." He said, smacking his arms. "Never been shocked before. Why didn't I get the memo that he can do that?"

"Actually, it is in his dossier, which means you didn't read it." Raven replied, not taking her eyes off of her fallen friend. Behind her, a reptilian roar sounded, meaning Garfield had turned into a T-rex again. "But the thing is, he doesn't do it very often because it drains the Overload part of him and makes him weaker as a whole. He must have figured hitting two of us was worth the risk this time."

"Y-you're telling m-me." Robin chattered.

"Don't talk, you nitwit, you can still bite your tongue off." Raven snapped. Robin nodded, so she spoke to KD once more. "Go keep him off us, I need more time to finish with Robin."

"Gotcha." Eddie nodded as he hopped to his feet and charged back into the fray. Between him, Starfire, and Garfield, they should be able to hold Ternion at bay for quiet some time. The Titans had figured out a while back that the best way to beat him was to weaken him piece by piece: Drain Overload, put Plasmus to sleep, and knock out Cinderblock. Overload was easy because he was purely an attacker and couldn't absorb electricity while combined. Plasmus still required Raven's Soul Self to enter his mind and put him to sleep though, and Cinderblock just had to be beaten repeatedly. With their strategies and attack patterns, he wasn't usually a-

A red blur at the peak of her vision drew Raven's attention. She snapped her head up just in time to see Starfire clip the top of the remaining southern wall and disappear on the other side. She felt herself pushed aside as Robin surged to his unsteady feet and took off after her.

"Robin!" Raven shouted at him. "She's literally ten times tougher than you! She'll be-"

"CLIFF!" He shouted back as he jumped over some wall rubble and disappeared. She heard one of his grappling hooks fire off within two heartbeats.

Raven hesitated. It was possible that Starfire could break something, like her neck, from the force of the fall. This wasn't good, she was the heaviest hitter on the team and Cyborg wasn't here to replace her. They didn't know exactly how strong Kid Devil was so-

A roar of pain sounded behind her, forcing her attention back to the fight. Ternion stood in the bottom of the crater, one hand wrapped around T-Rex Garfield's head as the other pounded into him. At their feet, Kid Devil stood, breathing fire onto the legs of their foe. Fire didn't seem to do much to Ternion, however, since he wasn't reacting to it at all. Garfield shifted and Ternion stumbled forward, kicking Kid Devil and sending him flying. Garfield reappeared behind the monster in the form of an ankylosaur and slammed his tail into his foe's legs. Ternion toppled forward once more, but Kid Devil was in his landing zone. Raven snapped a hand out, opening a portal beneath him and dropping him through it. He landed with a thud at her side.

"Thanks." He grunted as he stood up. He winced when Ternion kicked Beast Boy again, only this time he struck the wall in his dinosaur form. Ternion climbed to his feet once more.

"If you can't burn him then keep him tripped up. I need a minute before I can take Plasmus's real body out with my Soul Self, then all we have to do is hit him until he drops." Raven replied before she flew up into the air. She brought herself up to where she was out of Ternion's considerable height and assumed her lotus position. She needed to get her soul self out immediately.

"Azarath Metrion Zintho-" she chanted, only to be interrupted.

"RAVEN LOOK OUT!"

Raven had no time to react, however, because she was yanked out of the air by her cloak. The clasp dug painfully into her neck and she found herself unable to breath as she was slung about in the air. Ternion roared in triumph before he slung her so hard that the clasp broke and she was sent flying through the air. She crashed through a window, hit a wall hard, and blacked out.

"Shit!" Eddie cursed as he watched Raven disappear inside the prison building window. Ternion had jumped to reach her, but all he had managed to do was get the bottom half of her cloak. He hated to think what would have happened if he actually gotten ahold of her. She might have-

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR

Eddie whipped around to find a giant green and royally pissed off lizard baring down on Ternion, who just happened to be on the other side of him. He yelped and scrambled out of the way as the dinosaur smashed hard into the monster, throwing it to the ground and clawing at it with its forearms. Eddie recognized it as a spinosaurus, like from that one Jurassic Park movie. The giant black and green fin on its back wobbled back and forth as Beast Boy wailed on his foe until Ternion kicked him off again. But the dinosaur didn't back off, he charged again as soon as Ternion hopped back up on his feet. The monster swung at the dinosaur, but Beast Boy ducked under his swing, turned sharply, and slammed his tail into the chest of Ternion. His foe slammed into the only remaining wall and it crumbled beneath him.

Eddie could feel the bloodlust pouring off of Beast Boy as he jumped up on Ternion and began attacking him with tooth and claw. Ternion roared in anguish as he slammed a fist into Beast Boy's side, causing him to stagger and pause his attack as the air whooshed out of him. Ternion's other hand came up and wrapped around Beast Boy's throat and squeezed. Beast Boy clawed at that arm, gasping for air, as Ternion pushed himself up with his free arm. It wasn't until he was back on his feet that he did jerk Beast Boy to the side, grab him at the base of his tail, and then lift him over his head.

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap!" Eddie shouted as scrambled away once more.. Beast Boy was being thrown in his direction! The dinosaur roared as it soared through the air before it hit the building hard. It crumbled beneath him, showering Eddie with debris as he sought someplace to hunker down.

When the dust had settled and the debris had stopped falling, Eddie peeked out from behind a chunk of wall he had used as an impromptu shelter. There was only a single tower left, all the walls were gone, the entranceway was smashed, the front of the prison was mostly destroyed (other than the small area Raven had been slung through and the garage entrance), and there was a crater in the courtyard. Eddie, who actually wasn't new to being a superhero, hadn't seen so much damage in one area in a long time.

To his right, the rubble shifted for a moment before it exploded outwards. Eddie looked on in awe as some sort of green werewolf-like creature pulled itself from the debris and howled. The sound sent shivers down his spine and even Ternion took a step back.

When the beast charged Ternion, Eddie almost broke his neck trying to keep up with its erratic but crazy fast movement. It went around the edge of the crater halfway to his foe then up and over it, leaping like a grasshopper, landing at the behemoth's feet but making an immediate sharp right turn around Ternion. It went up and over a pile a rubble until it hit a particularly large chunk of wall. It climbed straight up and sprung backwards, flipping and over Ternion's head and landing behind him as the behemoth struggled to keep up. The green beast barreled forward shoulder first and hit Ternion's leg. Ternion, however, still very much had his balance, so he didn't topple forward. Instead he shifted his stance and leaned back, trying to grab the green beast.

But this was what the beast was waiting for, because he stopped trying to push Ternion over and instead rolled to the side. Ternion's hand smashed into the ground and the beast hopped forward and wrapped his arms around his opponents wrist. With a roar the green beast surged to the side, dragging Ternion's hand arm between his own legs. The behemoth bent over backwards before simply falling back with a crash. He ended up pinning his own arm beneath his considerable bulk and the beast took this opening to leapt up in his foe and slam his fists into Ternion's head. He pounded his opponents head into the ground, roaring in primal fury. The purplish-red goop that made up Plasmus's body splattered everywhere with each strike.

The beast was so hell bent on smashing his opponent into paste that he failed to notice Ternion's other hand coming at him until it was too late. The beast was snatched up and slung away like a rag doll. It soared through the air before hitting the rubble of the prison building with a bone crunching thud and disappearing into it.

Eddie gaped at the impact spot for a moment before teleporting straight to it. He had been in so much awe during the last few minutes that he had completely unable to act until now. He starting tossing debris of all shapes and sizes away from were Beast Boy was buried, knowing he had to reach his friend quickly. Behind him, he could hear the ground rumbling as Ternion trudged his way over. He quickened his digging, slinging aside a chunk of floor the size of a car and revealing Beast Boy.

The Changeling, back in his human form, was impaled on a piece of rebar, its jagged end protruding from his shoulder, but he was awake and growling like an animal. His ears were laid back, his fangs were bared, and his eyes were white.

"Why can't I beat you?" Beast Boy snarled as he pulled himself off the rebar. He knew ignoring this wound would cost him later but he was too damned angry to care right now.

"Dude, chill, all we gotta do is hold him til the others get back up." Eddie said, looking over his shoulder to see Ternion halfway through the crater and still headed their way.

"Don't tell me to chill, did you not see what he did to Raven?!"

"Yes, I did!" Eddie snapped. "I also saw what he did to me and Robin and Starfire! I've also been watching him throw you around!"

"Yeah, thanks for helping!" Beast Boy spat.

"My super strength only goes so damn far and my Hellfire doesn't do squat against him! You're the one turning into giant lizards and werewolves and shit that's either as big as him or too fast for him to hit!"

"Well I obviously ain't doing shit to him either! He keeps getting back up!"

"So turn into something bigger! Hit him harder than he can take, like Cyborg and Starfire do!" Eddie shouted.

"Are you stupid or something? I already used the biggest animals I-"

"Gar…"

Beast Boy's bead snapped up and to the side, his eyes wide as he immediately spotted a head of purple hair against the grey concrete rubble two floors up. Raven was leaning heavily on a slab of flooring, a stream of blood running down her face. Beside her was one of the security guards stationed in the prison, his armor dented and battered and his helmet cracked, though he had his arms out as if to steady the superhero he accompanied.

"Raven!" Beast Boy shouted. "Are you-"

"Comicon." She said, wincing and clutching her left arm.

Beast Boy stopped in mid shout. Comicon? What is she talking about that for? What did Comicon have to do with him turning into a creature big enough to-

Oh.

"Are…are sure, Rae? I mean, last time I was really mad and didn't ask if it was okay, so…" He started to say, but trailed off as Raven rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Gar, there is a vast difference between you and him. Now, kick his ass."

Beast Boy stared at her for a moment before dropping his gaze and shaking his head with a slight grin. "Alright mama, I'll do it."

"Cough cough whipped!"

Beast Boy shot a glare at Kid Devil. "Shove it, you overgrown tomato. You don't even have a girl."

To his surprise, Eddie just grinned. "I did, once, and she was a bit of a bossy britches too. Raven kinda reminds me of her, just a lot more even tempered and quiet."

Beast Boy snorted. "Uh huh…"

"I'll introduce you to her after I find her again." Eddie said, his grin never fading as he and Beast Boy turned to face Ternion, who had just climbed out of the crater. "So…how are we gonna deal with him?"

"You are going to go find Robin and Starfire. I got Ternion." Beast Boy said as he started walking towards their enemy, who was remarkably close now.

"Oh really? A minute ago you said…" Eddie trailed off as Beast Boy began to change once more.

It started with a tail, sprouting out from the base of his spine as he walked. The tail lengthened and thickened as the changing grew, its skin turning into innumerable rows of scales. Next came a pair of bat-like wings that burst from his shoulder blades, stretching and growing as he did, scales forming on the outer ridges as the membrane stretched between said parts. His legs and arms followed suit with scales and they sprouted claws as his face began to bulge forward, his mouth opening to reveal his teeth lengthening into fangs. But probably what was the most disturbing part was that he was growing bigger and bigger. Within a heartbeat he was Ternion's size and within two heartbeats he was twice Ternion's size.

By the time the fifth heartbeat ended, Beast Boy towered over Ternion.

The villain craned his head waaaaaaaay back to look at the dragon before him, his mouth open in shock. Dragon-Beast Boy swung his head down and looked down at his dwarfed opponent, his fangs bared and a growl rising in his throat.

And then he let loose a roar that shook the entirety of Jump City.


"What the hell was that?" Rose murmured as she peeked through the blinds in her apartment, pistol in one hand. Some colossal noise had rumbled through the building, knocking the few things she had shelved onto the floor.

She looked left and right, but saw nothing. There were people out in the street just looking around in confusion, trying to figure out what happened just like she was. When nothing else occurred she tucked her gun behind her back into the waistband of her pants. She turned away from the window with a sigh. She'd been home a whooping five minutes and had really been looking forward to-

She stopped and stared at the broken plate on the floor, her ham and cheese and jalapeno sandwich splattered onto her dirty boots right next to the plate. The plate had been sitting on the counter just a moment ago, right before…

"YOU MOTHERFU-"


Back at the Bay Prison, Ternion had a very different reaction.

First, a chunk of Plasmus goop fell off with a squelch and dropped between his legs with a plop.

And then...he turned and ran.

Like, ran ran. He didn't trudge or lumber or wander or meander or saunter or skedaddle or dart away. He ran, ran like the hounds of Hell were right behind him. Colossal, fire breathing dragon-hounds of Hell was probably a little more accurate of a description, not that Ternion was a stickler for details.

Dragon-Beast Boy roared again and unfurled his circus tent-sized wings. With a few mighty flaps he leapt into the air and soared after his foe. Almost lazily he snatched Ternion up and turned sharply to the side, heading for the ocean. Once there, he simply dropped Ternion in.

It really wasn't much of a fight now.

Eddie shook his head at that sight. He didn't think Beast Boy would intentionally drown someone, but that was a bit cruel. Ternion must weigh a ton, so he had to have sunk like a boulder. And considering that's what Cinderblock basically is…

He put it out of his mind as he looked up at Raven. "Hey! You okay?"

"Been better. Been worse." She replied, closing her eyes and leaning heavily on the slab. "Could use my cloak though."

Eddie looked around for a moment and spotted it beneath some rubble near the crater. He teleported over there and pulled it out before teleporting up next to Raven.

"Here ya go." He said, holding it out to her.

She nodded. "Thanks Kid Devil. Have you seen Robin and Starfire?"

He shook his head. "Not since they went over. Been busy with blockheads."

"Go find them. The less I move right now, the better."

Kid Devil shrugged and looked at the trooper beside her. "Keep her safe. If you don't, the jolly green giant over there might not be so happy."

The trooper looked up into the sky and watched the dragon soar for a moment before plunging into the ocean. He sounded a little nervous when he spoke. "Yeah…okay."

Kid Devil wasted no more time there and teleported directly to the spot where Robin jumped off. He peeked over the edge and came almost face to face with the boy wonder.

"Oh, now someone shows up." Robin grumbled. He had apparently been slowly climbing up the cliffside with an unconscious Starfire slung over his shoulder and had just now reached the top.

"Sorry man, things got hectic up here." Kid Devil said as he grabbed Robin's forearm and yanked both teens up.

"I heard a lot of rumbling and saw something big and green fly by a moment ago. What happened?" Robin said, easing Starfire down onto the ground after they had cleared the rubble.

"Uh, well, Raven went up in the air to do her Soul thing you guys told me about but Ternion jumped up and grabbed her cape and swung her around like a lasso before he slung her into the prison. BB went coocoo for coco puffs right after that, goin' from a dinosaur to some weird looking werewolf to a dragon."

Robin raised a masked eyebrow as he looked around the decimated courtyard. "A dragon? I didn't know he could do that. Why didn't he do that right away?"

Eddie shrugged. "Dunno, but he said something about asking Raven's permission? Didn't really make sense to me…"

Robin was quiet for a moment before he nodded. "I understand his hesitancy, actually."

"You do?"

"Yes, but it's not for me to explain. Ask Raven."

"Uh...okay…"

At that moment, Dragon-Beast Boy burst from the water with several somethings clutched in his claws. He circled the ruined prison for a moment before setting down in the courtyard, where they saw that he had been carrying Cinderblock, Plasmus's human body, and Overload's CPU. He tossed Cinderblock and Overload down before setting Plasmus down gently. He immediately shrank back down into his human for and started hitting the oozing enemy in the back, forcing him to cough up water. Plasmus didn't wake, but that was fine as long as he wasn't in danger from drowning. Cinderblock groaned and started shifting around, but Beast Boy stopped him with a glare.

"I suggest you stay down." The green teen growled, his eyes going white again.

Cinderblock grunted and lay still.

Beast Boy snorted and made a beeline straight for Raven, who hadn't left her spot. He had to shift into a bird to reach her.

"Hey…" He said softly as he knelt beside her now kneeling form. "You okay?"

She gave him a small but pain filled smiled. "I am now that my hero has rescued me."

Beast Boy chuckled before leaning in for a kiss. Although she was covered in concrete dust and mortar, her lips were still the tastiest thing he'd ever had. When they parted Raven lay her head in the crook of his neck.

"I need to go home and heal." She murmured.

Beast Boy looked at her cloak, reclasped (tied, probably) and hiding whatever wound she had. He could smell her blood, as well as that of the security guards scattered about the area. There weren't many of them up and running about, but the one standing there seemed to be alright.

"What happened?" He asked the guard, who jumped in surprise. He guessed the guy figured a superhero wouldn't talk to him.

"There was a breach in security a little while ago. Someone in black body armor with a black and orange mask broke in, killed a handful of guards, then locked themselves in the main security room. From there they opened Cinderblock's restraints, released Overload from his containment box, and woke up Plasmus. We were so busy trying to keep them in that the intruder disappeared without us noticing." The guard replied, standing at attention.

"Greeeaaat. Slade himself. Just what we need." Raven said sarcastically.

Beast Boy shook his head. "Rob is gonna freak."

"Actually, the intruder was female." The guard corrected. They both looked at him in stupor until her shuffled a bit. "Well, uh, the intruder appeared to have breasts, so we speculate that they were female."

Beast Boy and Raven exchanged looks.

"You don't think that-" Raven started to say.

"Nope." Beast Boy interrupted her with a shake of his head. Curious about his immediate response, Raven peeked at his aura and found only certainty there. He was very confident that Terra wasn't working for Slade again, but that was it.

She is still encased in stone. Knowledge reminded her.

Yeah, and that flat chested little bimbo didn't show anything when she wore armor. Rude snorted.

"So Slade has a new apprentice. Lovely." Raven sighed. "We need to tell Robin."

Beast Boy nodded, then shifted into a pterodactyl. He spread his wings out and gave her a squawk, turning around and presenting his back to her. Raven sighed again before she climbed onto his back, ignoring her pain. As soon as she had her arms around his neck, he hopped off the ledge and glided down.

"Beast Boy, Raven, are you two alright?" Robin called out as they landed. Raven eased herself off Garfield's back and turned to her leader as Gar changed back into his human form.

"I need to heal myself." She said to him.

"I'm fine." Beast Boy said. Raven glanced at him. Although outwardly he was being stoic, on the inside he was a maelstrom of emotions. Anger, fear, concern, affection, and sadness all made up the storm that was Garfield Logan at this moment. It was a little worrisome.

Robin nodded. "Alright. Raven, will you take a quick look at Starfire? She cracked her head at some point and her right shoulder looks weird."

Raven nodded and stepped over to her unconscious friend. She eased herself down into a kneeling position before pressing a glowing hand to Starfire's head. Afterwards, she moved her hand to the aforementioned shoulder.

"She's just unconscious." She said with a relieved sigh. "And her shoulder is dislocated, but that's all."

Robin nodded and Raven could feel the relief pouring off of him. "Alright, let's wrap this up as quickly as we can and go home."

"Why don't you guys go back? I can handle the cleanup and paperwork." Kid Devil offered. Robin turned and looked at him, masked eyebrow raised. Eddie just shrugged. "I've done police paperwork before and I can supervise the cleanup. It's the least I can do since I wasn't much use during the fight."

Robin frowned. "You were plenty helpful, Kid Devil. If anything, you just need experience fighting against those three."

Eddie shrugged again. "Either way, I can deal with this and you guys can go take care of your girls."

Robin and Beast Boy traded glances. Was it that obvious that they wanted to get the girls home and safe?

"It's not like guys can't come back to help, you know." Raven interjected. Both boys were quiet for a moment before they nodded. Raven turned to Kid Devil. "Call us immediately if you need us."

He nodded and Raven opened a portal.


Ring ring, ring ring- click. "Hello?"

"Steve? Its Bernard."

"Buddy? Wow, its been, what, ten years?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. I had some…complicated things going on."

"You aren't the only one." A laugh sounds on the other end of the line. "So what's up, my old friend? What made you call out of the blue?"

"Well, I've been living up in Vermont for a little while with Ellen and the kids, but we're kind of cut off from everyone. Ellen home school's the kids, so the only time we really get contact from the outside world is when we come into town. Just a few days ago we stopped in a diner and I just happened to see some superhero kids on the telly, a documentary of some sort. One of them was green and wearing a very familiar looking uniform…"

Another laugh. "Hah, that's right! You never met my boy Garfield!"

"Oh? You and Rita must have adopted then."

"That we did. He's a bit hyper and has a short attention span, but he's a good kid. Why, just a few months ago he led a counter charge on the Brotherhood of Evil and beat them! They're on ice until NATO says otherwise!"

"WOW, really? You spent most of your life hunting them down!"

"Trust me, I know. I am very proud of my son."

"That's great to hear Steve, really." The man called Buddy grinned. "You'd be real proud of him right now too. I just watched him turn into a giant dragon and save his friends from some weird rock and goop monster."

"A dragon? I didn't know he could do that…"

"The kid has talent, Steve, I will definitely give him that. So much that he's the prime candidate for my mantle."

"Your mantle?! I know you retired from the superhero business, but to give up your name…"

"Maxine is starting to come into her powers, Steve. I need to be there to protect her from the Rot at all times until she's ready. And even though I'm retired, I'm still on the emergency reserves Leaguer list. Giving up a name to a worry successor doesn't bother me the slightest and it absolves me of obligations to the League. Besides…it's almost like you named him after me."

Another laugh. "Actually, he chose that name for himself! He emulated you, you know. He wanted to meet someone that had powers like him so badly that I went looking for you once. Never found you."

"He'll get his wish one day. I promise. Right now my focus is keeping Maxine as far from Anton Arcane as possible. And if something happens to me, your boy could very well be appointed the next guardian."

"I understand and he will to if it comes to that."

"I hope so. Unfortunately, I need to go. It's a long flight back home."

"Alright. Don't be a stranger, Animal Man. You know you're always welcome in the Doom Patrol house."

"Haha, alright Mento. I'll be in touch more, promise."


"Ow." Raven deadpanned as they appeared in the tower. Garfield looked at her in concern.

"You okay?" He asked gently.

Raven shook her head as she leaned on him. "Not really."

Robin frowned. "I'm taking Starfire to the medbay now. When you can, Raven…"

"I have to heal myself first. On top of that, you need to pop her shoulder back in place."

The boy wonder grimaced but nodded. "I understand."

And with that he left, carefully carrying the unconscious Starfire down the hall. As soon as Garfield was certain be was out of earshot, he turned to Raven. "How bad is it?"

Raven stared at him for a moment before deciding against lying to him. She sighed and indicated her back. "Bad."

Garfield reached up and untied her cloak, letting her cloak flutter to the floor. He leaned over and gasped when he saw Raven's back. "Jesus Christ, Rae, it looks like you slid down a cheese grater!"

And that was the truth; Raven's back was borderline shredded, full of glass and wood shards and rocks and covered in blood. Her uniform was little more than a spider web of threads in some places.

"Feels that way too." Raven muttered as she leaned more onto him. "I really needed Starfire to help me wash out these wounds so that I could heal."

"What? Why Starfire? Can't I help?" Garfield said indignantly.

Raven rolled her eyes. " You do realize that my uniform has to come off to wash this, right?"

Garfield was quiet for a moment as a blush lit up his face. "….oh."

Raven, just as embarrassed, buried her face in his shoulder. She was getting weaker by the second due to blood loss. If only she had enough strength to wake Starfire up-

"I do not understand the problem."

Both teens almost jumped out of their skins before they whirled around to find that Fixit had silently approached them from behind.

"Cheezus Crust, dude, don't scare me like that!" Garfield sighed melodramatically. Raven, on the other hand, merely raised an eyebrow.

"Where's Emelia and Martin?" She asked.

"They are in the common room, watching a movie by the name of Lilo and Stitch Two. I detected your arrival through the security feeds."

Garfield bobbed his head. "Ah, well, that's good and all-"

"I still do not understand the problem." Fixit interrupted.

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

"I do not understand why you would not allow Beast Boy to bathe your wound when Starfire cannot."

"Because, well, it's a little early in our relationship to be…nude…together." Raven practically stammered, looking away from Garfield. From the corner of her eye she could see him looking away too.

"Uh, yeah!" Garfield coughed. "That's like, way later stuff."

Fixit tilted his head. "Is that so? Then why do the two of you frequently emit hormones that indicate physical desire for one another?"

He received no answer other than two dark blushes.

"If you do not seek intimacy at this point but require a close physical contact for the cleaning of a serious wound, then should you not just put on your bathing suit and wash the wound in the shower?" He mused out loud. Both teens stared at him like he had sprout another head, then warily glanced at each other.

"Is…is that okay?" Garfield asked carefully.

"I…suppose?" Raven said slowly as she thought about it. It was actually a very feasible idea. She could wear the bottom and hold the top in place while Garfield washed her back. "Yes…it is okay."

Garfield slowly nodded. "Well alrighty then. I guess we're taking a shower...together."