2

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Gotham City...

Nocturne and Daimen materialized in a top class apartment on the far side of the city, still smiling. "Do you think they're going to be much trouble now?" Nocturne giggled lightly, tilting her head towards him in challenge. She slumped onto the chocolate brown sofa gracefully and he dropped himself beside her.

"No... But I'm beginning to think you might be." Daimen's voice was still pleasant, but carried a hint of a threat.

"Excuse me? You'd never have taken all three on your own."

"I could've actually, but that's beside the point. What I mean is, why won't you tell me where you're hiding her?"

"Because. I'm a telepath, so my mind is a secure place. However, the Triquetra may also have telepaths on their side. I just don't want to see you hurt if they're ransacking your brain for information."

"You mean you don't trust me?"

"I'm not the one with the trust issues here. You're the one accusing me. All you need to know, is that the little hostage is safe in a place, where the Titans would never dream of looking for her."

"You had better not be playing me."

"And risk losing you? Why would I do that?" She looked straight at him, slightly hurt at his paranoia. After a moment of thick silence, his face softened. She looked away, but he reached out and gently nudged her chin, making her face him again. "Be careful... if our skin touches, I'd steal your powers... you'd have nothing, and I'd be in control of your mind as well... I don't want that for us," she warned, grimly reminding him of her cursed power. He sharply brought his hand away from her face, instead reaching down to her gloved paw.

"I'm sorry. I've met too many people like me, is all. Always afraid of getting stabbed in the back... You're different, Noc. I can feel it," he murmured in apology, returning the smile to her face.

"Mmh... You don't know the half of it," she beamed.

Just then, in Jump City...

Raven was alone in the tower. It was her night off from patrol in the city. She was quite intent on making the most of the silence, levitating in the centre of the living room in deep meditation. She sensed the disturbance even before it happened. The shrill cry of the telephone sliced through her concentration like a razor blade. She hovered over to the counter and, as aggressively as is possible with a phone, lifted the receiver. "What?" she snapped irritably.

"Raven... Are you okay? Should I call back?"

"Oh Venom, it's you! No, it's okay. Did you find Teleka?" she asked, cheering up considerably at the voice.

"Not quite. Are the other Titans there?"

"No... Hold on a second, I'll rewire you to their communicators." Raven clipped her own communicator over the telephone wire and switched on. "Venom's on the line, guys. I think it's about Telly." An image from Triquetra HQ of the trio appeared on screen as Venom took over.

"Friends... Why are you sad?" asked Starfire, seeing their depressed faces. "Has Teleka not returned to your base?"

"We think she's been kidnapped. By two insanely powerful enemies. Ever heard of 'Nocturne' or 'Daimen'?"

"I don't think we've ever fought them," Cyborg answered. "You guys need some help?"

"That'd be nice!" Blue called broadly from the background, seemingly hugely interested in her fingernails.

"Not everyone can go..." Robin muttered, thinking out loud.

"Obviously, it's not like you can just abandon your city," Speedy added. "But Venom nailed it. Insanely powerful is a pretty good description."

"I'll go," Terra offered readily. Her traveller's nature was probably urging her to move on already.

"Me too," supplied Raven. "Teleka's my friend..."

"If Terra's going, I'll go too," Beast Boy finished.

"Great. Thanks you guys. It shouldn't be for long," Venom said gratefully.

"We hope!" Blue Moon chimed in again, sounding uncharacteristically saddened.

Only a few hours later, Terra, Raven and Beast Boy sat with the remaining members of the Triquetra and Speedy in Gotham City. "This is so unreal," BB murmured once they had heard the whole story. "Not Teleka. Even if they took her by surprise, she'd have them on their asses in minutes. Trust me, I have experience."

"Video games don't count BB," Terra reminded him sadly.

"You're all speaking like she's dead!" Speedy said heatedly, standing up from his chair at the other end of the table. "Why would they be telling us they had her if she was dead? She's fine! They want to use her as a hostage, so they'll be keeping her alive!"

"We don't know what they want her for, Speedy," Venom said, gravely soft as always.

"Isn't it a little sore always straddling the fence, Venom?" came the reply, with Speedy stepping antagonistically closer

"I'm just trying t-"

"Save it for someone who-"

"Enough!" Raven snarled, parting the two with her powers. They traded glares through the black wall before they both backed off back to their seats. "Fighting is getting us nowhere, especially not closer to the bottom of this."

"She's right. Just chill out, yeah?" Blue chided them darkly. "As far as I see it, we have two choices. One, we wait and see what Nocturne and Daimen are planning and then we take them down for definite. Or Two, we get out there and find Nocturne and Daimen, take them down before they start, and then find Teleka afterwards."

"I vote Two!" called Speedy, Venom and Beast Boy in near unison and total discord.

"But the problem there is, what if we can't find Telly when all's said and done?" Terra interjected. "I say One."

"But the problem there is, what if they y'know... kill their hostage?" Raven continued, taking Venom's place on the proverbial fence. "Obviously both plans have their problems. What if..."

"Enough of the 'what if's already! My head's starting to spin!" Beast Boy cried out, morphing into an ostrich and demonstrating by twisting his huge neck around. He was about to continue when a Triquetra alarm went off. Blue Moon walked to the computer matrix at the other end of the room and busily typed for a second.

"It's them. Let's get out of here!" She ran to the open window and prepared to fly on. "Raven, come with me, we'll fly ahead and scout it out. Ven, you take the car and the others and follow us. Hurry!"

"Are you sure they're coming, Noc?" Daimen sighed impatiently, standing precariously on one of the thin stone ridges protruding from the side of the downtown Mars Building of Gotham City.

"Take it from a girl who knows Gotham, Daimen, they'll be here. They're all this place has got when Bats is off with the JL."

"They're taking long enough. We could've been here and back a dozen times."

"Ah, but would we have gotten this?" she challenged him, waving a thick manila folder under his nose from where she sat on the window ledge beside him.

"Is that it?"

"Yes indeed. Everything we came for handily pre-collected in the one file. How thoughtful of them!"

"You're brilliant! You're sure that's everything we need?"

"I know I'm a genius, honey, don't inflate my ego, and yes, that's everything," she smiled at him before she looked away. "Ah look, our beloved Triquetra brought the cavalry. Six on two... Not good odds."

"Yeah... maybe you should just go on ahead, even the score for them," he joked, beginning to fade out.

"You're kidding, right? I wouldn't miss this for the world. Ready to go?" She looked around, smiling when she saw he was gone. "Should have known better than to ask," she muttered, sliding off the window ledge into freefall. She reached one hand out sideways, flying past Daimen as he rematerialized. She would leave Blue Moon and Raven for him alone this time.

Meanwhile, those in the car below lost the sense of movement as the wheels were lifted from the ground. Two dents appeared in the ceiling with a loud thud, just as the roof itself began to peel away, bending slowly like a bird in the wind. Nocturne ducked over the edge, smiling brightly with her ponytail waving in the breeze. "Ladies and Gents welcome to Nocturne Air all passengers are advised to keep their seatbelts fastened at all times as we can be expecting turbulence." She disappeared again, flipping off the roof and waving as she passed the back window on her way to the ground. The car swung through the air at her mercy, before Nocturne released her telekinetic grip. She quickly pulled it back to the ground just before it slammed into the Mars Building, much to the surprise of the occupants. Terra and Beast Boy had already risked the jump, using their powers to each land safely.

Nocturne giggled wickedly and took a bow, smirking at them. "Girl, I don't know who you are or what you think you're going to get away with, but it's not going to happen on my watch!" Terra called in warning as her hands began to glow.

"Your watch? This isn't even your city! Darling, ten minutes ago you couldn't even have told me where the Mars Building was, never mind what was in it. You used to skip past Gotham City when you were travelling, remember? What was it? Aren't the caves good enough for you here?" Nocturne snorted. Terra snarled angrily and pulled her hands in towards her chest. Jagged pieces of the pavement flew up behind her floating enemy, moving at blinding speed, but Nocturne simply floated slightly to the left, allowing them to pass easily. Beast Boy ducked to avoid the hail, but Terra continued to fight and yell, jumping upwards, dragging a platform out of the ground beneath Nocturne.

The gymnastic villain looked around, laughing in disbelief when she saw she was once again level with the roof of the building. She took a swan dive off the platform, releasing more of her capsules from her belt. Beast Boy found himself stuck to the ground with the same foam she had used on Blue Moon, while Terra rose slightly off the ground in a violet bubble, unable to use her powers. "You'll have to do better than that, honey," Nocturne sighed smugly as she dragged her hand across the rippling surface of the force field on her way past. She bent down and tapped the foam holding Beast Boy. It instantly hardened and she looked him straight in the eye. "And as for you..."

Nocturne was cut off as something landed square in the centre of her back, throwing her forward. She landed face down and turned to see Venom leaping at her again. He landed across her chest, pinning her down. He bared his fangs silently at her, but only drew a smile. "You don't waste any time do you?" she grinned, flicking her eyes over his compromising position.

"What have you done with Teleka?" he hissed through his pointed teeth, ignoring her and leaning down to her face.

"Nothing yet. She's safe..." Nocturne trailed off and reached up, placing her hand suggestively around Venom's head. "...For now."

"Just off topic for a second, but what do you think you're doing?"

"Mmh, you'll see," she whispered. He felt her body tense as she prepared to move, but it was already too late.

"Get your filthy paws off him!" Raven growled, sending a blast of her telekinesis down towards the ground, aiming for Nocturne's skull. Using her hold on Venom's head, Nocturne avoided the flare, pulling up underneath his torso and forcing his head to the ground to take the full force of the explosion.

"Jees, Rae!"

"I was aiming for that -" Raven's apology was cut off when Venom was tossed upwards, taking her back out of the air into the side of the building.

"A little friendly advice, Raven. Your aim leaves a lot to be desired. Not to mention your boyfriend." Raven's temper was about to reach boiling point when Venom turned to calm her.

"Don't lose it Rae," he muttered quietly to her. A purple shell landed at their feet, before it exploded upwards in what looked like silk ribbons. These twined themselves around the already tangled couple and stuck like spider webs, holding them against the wall of the towering Mars Building. Nocturne sauntered past with the same self-satisfied smirk on her face, but not before Venom spotted the folder tucked into her belt at the back. He nodded Raven towards it, wondering if her powers were still active. Her face crumpled with concentration, but the documents wouldn't come away. A few pages from the centre came loose and floated to the fingers of Raven's restrained hands. No matter how much they rustled on their way, Nocturne didn't seem to notice...

Daimen was busy fighting Blue Moon and Speedy as they attacked together. Anyone simply watching the fight would call it undeniably close. Anyone looking closer would have declared a winner by now. While both the heroes were struggling to catch their breath, their adversary hadn't even broken a sweat. "Noc! These two are boring me. How did you get all the good ones?"

"They come to me, hon. Should I free a couple up for you?"

"Leave them. This is over anyway."

"I quite agree, I just know how much you love a worthy adversary," Nocturne laughed, looking arrogantly at Speedy and Blue, anticipating their next moves with her telepathy. She simply stood still as they came at her, rushing her to the ground.

"Let me explain this to you, so that you might understand me," Speedy snarled. "Whatever you have done to Teleka, I will do to you ten times over. Then I'll set Blue Moon loose on you."

"It's so cute the way you all so blindly love her, even after all she's done, after all she put you through, all she's going to put you through..."

"Shut your big fat posh snobbish mouth, you posh snobbish bitch! You don't know anything about Teleka!" Blue fumed, forcing Nocturne's head back into the concrete.

"I know a lot more about her at the minute than you do, Blue. You're right, Daimen, these two are boring. Let's get out of here." She flicked her fingers, throwing Blue Moon and Speedy in opposite directions and allowing Daimen to help her up, fading her away. "Bonne soir, mes amis!"

Speedy shook off his awkward landing and glanced around. "Six of us, and the two of them still managed to beat us? We have to do something about these guys, and fast."

"Ya think?" answered the other five in unison.

"Dude, the chick on her own would be hard to beat, but when you match her up with that Daimen thing, they're unstoppable," Beast Boy said, his voice muffled in the hard casing.

"And Nocturne knows things noone outside the Titans should know..." Terra continued, banging against the walls of the bubble.

"Like me and Rae," Venom interjected.

"She must be getting all this from Teleka's mind, now that she has her telepathy," Raven reasoned.

Blue Moon began to untangle Raven and Venom as they spoke, voicing some shady opinions of her own. "All that's true chums, really it is. But that annoying, blonde, preppie bitch was right about something else too. They still know more than us. We're still completely in the dark as to their plans. And unfortunately, as to Teleka. That's twice in the one bloody day we've had our arses monumentally kicked!"