Koriand'r stirred in her sleep, shifting slightly. She smiled, her dreams were pleasant. And she felt warm all over. Blinking her eyes open a crack, she saw nothing but bright yellow light, and even her Tamaranian eyes were nearly blinded by it. She rolled over, covering her eyes with her arm, but then abruptly sat upright. Yellow light?
She glanced over in surprise, glanced around in surprise. And then she remembered.
Bright yellow sunlight. Verdant green grass. Bark brown trees. Clear bluish water. This strange world she'd found. It was nothing like Tamaran. Nor like the home world of the Okaraans. She and Kormand'r had both been briefed on the nature of their new home, this was nothing like it.
"I should find out where I am," she mused aloud. But she was a little nervous. And angry.
Why did she have to be left all alone? Why did these bad things happen to her? Why did she have to be sent far away from Galifore and her home, far away from her sister (whom she loved as only a sibling could, despite their rivalry) and far away from everyone who was her friend and family.
She was starting to feel furious, when a sudden feeling stopped her.
Here hands were tingling.
Koriand'r held her hands up to her face, peering down at them curiously. They were glowing too. Glowing a bright, brilliant emerald color. They started to grow hot, her bones feeling like they were on fire, and Koriand'r gasped in surprise as she thrust her hand away quickly. A bolt of greenish energy blasted clear from her hand, slicing down a path of trees in its way as it exploded like a Gordanian missile.
The glow around her fingers faded. Koriand'r peered down at her hands curiously. What did I do? she wondered. I have never done anything like that before… no one at home has. No one on Tamaran can use these… these strange bolts. Curious, tentative, Koriand'r launched another bolt, this time under control. Focusing her emotions into a feeling righteous fury. It blasted into the ground harmlessly.
Koriand'r was a bright girl, as Galifore was wont to quote. She figured it out in under an hour. An hour of testing, experimenting, remembering, comparing.
The answer was the Psion's.
They'd captured both of the Princesses when they'd been young, experimented on them to study how well their race took exposure to yellow sunlight, a concept as a young Tamarean she hadn't comprehended (their world was largely shadowed, after all, and the sun had a bluish tint to its light). But now here, on a planet with a yellow sun, these strange powers had manifested. Her body was… absorbing… the yellow sunlight. And she could use it to create these… these… well, she didn't know what to properly term them. Star-bolts seemed as close a term as any. She liked it. She'd always liked the stars.
Floating off to find her sister, the natives of this strange world, or anyone who could help her, Koriand'r drifted off towards the ocean, skimming low over its surface, searching for a city or a settlement of some kind. All the while taking in the splendor of the unknown planet she'd arrived on. It was very beautiful. Perhaps she'd be able to stay here instead of with the Okaraans. Time would tell. She needed to contact Galifore first. No doubt he would be worrying about her. Perhaps he knew where Kormand'r was.
She searched for many long hours, until night had fallen, and she neared the end of the ocean. A sudden urge overtook her then, as she started to look for a place to rest. She veered to the right, and soon came across a sprawling metropolis on the edge of the water. She sensed, instinctively, that was where she needed to go.
Robin sighed, pacing his room again, running a hand through his short black hair in frustration. Nothing was making sense. These criminals weren't doing anything logically, and he didn't have a clue what their next move was or where they were hiding. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and Jump City was a pretty big haystack.
Now I know how the old man felt when he was trying to figure out a certain demented clown, thought Robin with a wry grin. He glanced over at the alarm clock by his bed. Two o'clock. In the morning. Yawning, Robin had tried to stay up and solve the mystery, it was eating at his brain, but his body overruled his brain and decided they needed sleep. Reluctantly he lay down on the soft pillows and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep.
Help me…!
Robin bolted upright, glancing around. Had he heard that? He slipped off his bed, making his way to the window, peering outside. It was dead quiet. The city was completely deserted, in the small hours of the morning. Even most criminals had slunk to bed by now.
Yawning again, he turned to head back to bed…
Help me…!
Okay, I definitely heard that, he thought. But he'd heard it… in his mind. He gave an involuntary shiver. This spoke of telepathy, and there was nothing scarier than having someone inside of your head. But Robin frowned. The voice sounded scared and, though he couldn't be sure, female. A young girl, likely. Asking for help. From him?
Help me…! it echoed again, more faintly this time. And more desperate.
"Where are you?!" he said aloud, hoping she would hear him. He didn't know any other way to contact her, and without knowing where she was he wouldn't be able to find her.
Here, said the voice in his mind. And suddenly, he -knew- where she was. And that she was in a great deal of trouble. She'd called out to Robin out of desperation, and he realized if she, a telepath, was in trouble, then he might be too. He was going to need back-up.
On the nightstand next to his bed, the compact device Cyborg had given him glinted in the moonlight. Robin reached down and picked it up. At the same time, sliding his black mask into place.
Raven struggled, fighting against the onslaught of bug-monsters, but she was hopelessly outnumbered. For each one she cut down, three more took its place, and soon they'd overpowered her. She'd tried desperately to send out her telepathic cry but, helpless, she didn't know if it had been answered. A vicious strike from one of the bug-men sent her sprawling, and she struck a dumpster with enough force to dent it with her body. She slumped to the ground, nearly unconscious.
"Azer… ath… M-Metr…" she muttered, her hand trembling, trying to call on her power… but she couldn't. Her head too much. She was too weak. She was defeated.
The leader of the insectoid monsters stood over her. He was wearing a long trench coat and a broad hat but he didn't fool her. She saw through his disguise, knew what sort of monster he was. And who he worked for. He stretched out his hand, grabbing her by the front of her cloak and hauling her up to his eye-level. "You're coming with us, little spawn," he hissed, his mandibles clacking together menacingly. "We'll get quite a reward for turning you in."
A sudden whirring sound caught the insectoid-thug completely off-guard, and he grasped his wrist as something struck it hard. He dropped Raven to the ground with a dull thud, where she lost consciousness. Growling at the interruption, the master insect turned to see who had dared to interrupt… and then his mandibles hung slack. His eyes, had they not been multifaceted and already bulging, would have bulged clear out of their sockets.
A red and yellow birdarang flew back into the outstretched green glove of its owner.
Standing at the mouth of the alley they stood. Three of them.
The first was the boy from the warehouse. A black-haired boy in bright green, red and yellow, wearing a mask and armed with a metallic bo staff. The second was a younger boy with bright green skin, dressed in a violet and black uniform and with a determined grin on his face as he regarded the bugs. The third was a giant, towering over his companions, a human machine of silver, white and blue metals. A single red eye glowed with an eerie light as it peered out from under his left brow.
"Let her go."
"Get them! Destroy them!" roared the master of the bugs, shredding his coat and spreading out his arms in what he hoped was a threatening gesture. None of the gathered heroes were impressed. They'd seen scarier things stuck to the bottom of their shoes.
"Go!" shouted Robin, launching himself into the fray. A dozen of the monsters flung themselves at him but launched his grapple and swung clear over their heads, letting them watch him arch over them in confusion. Their confusion was enough to allow Cyborg and a green rhino that was formerly Beastboy barrel straight into their ranks, tossing insect-men left and right. There were a lot of them though, and Robin was very grateful he'd called in backup. He was going to need it.
Cyborg knocked aside one of the insect-men with a backhand that could've shattered concrete, sending him smacking into a wall with a dull thud. A second bug launched himself forward, latching his mandibles hard onto Cyborg's hand, trying to restrain him. Cyborg smirked then… his hand switched, effortlessly flowing into his plasma cannon… which was still in the beast's mouth. It's multifaceted eyes nearly bulged out of its head as it realized the sudden precariousness of its situation, and in that instant, Cyborg shot. A bright blue blast of energy nearly tore the beast's head off, but Cyborg had been conserving power, and it merely sent the horrible thing flying through the air to land at the other end of the alley with a dull thud, its face blackened and smoking. It wasn't getting up anytime soon.
"A little help here!" shouted Beastboy, reverting to his normal form to cry out for assistance as a small wave of the bug-monsters engulfed him, dog-piling atop of the small hero. Cyborg and Robin, however, were both busy with opponents of their own. Beastboy was on his own. The creatures continued to battle, beating each other as they sought out their green-skinned opponent. However, to their surprise, he wasn't underneath them. A tiny green rodent had slipped out moments earlier. The nearest ones turned to face the little green rodent…
… only to find themselves staring up at the fearsome visage of a great green T-Rex instead.
Beastboy roared, and the bugs scattered before his awesome might as he snapped his great jaws at them, knocking them aside with his great head and clearing a pathway. Robin and Cyborg were still busy, but he quickly cleared a path towards the girl, who they were trying to rescue.
Knocking a final one of the bug-monsters out of the way with a swish of his tail, Beastboy slipped back into his natural form and dropped down beside the girl, checking her for injuries. There didn't appear to be any as far as he could tell, she just looked unconscious. Gently he placed a hand on her cloaked shoulder, rolling her over onto her back to get a better look at her.
... wow, he thought. She's really pretty.
She stirred then, her big violet eyes blinking open as she peered up at the smiling visage of the green-skinned changeling.
"Hey!" he said. "Uhm… you alright?"
"I'll inform you when my ears stop ringin…" she said, then gasped. "Azerath-Metrion-Zinthos!" she shouted in quick succession, the words almost blurring together. A loose stone from a nearby wall sped through the air and neatly conked their would-be attacker right in the back of his head, rendering the big ugly brute unconscious. Beastboy hastily grabbed up the girl and leapt out of the way of its crashing body moments before they were flattened.
"Wow," he said. Then, abruptly remembering he was holding her in his arms, he gently placed her down on her feet, holding a hand awkwardly behind his head. "Uh, thanks."
"No problem," she replied.
Robin leapt backwards, landing in a crouch and pushing himself up with his feet for a circle kick that knocked backwards the next insect-thug that came at him, as well as the one trying to make an attack on his rear. He'd seen him coming, and as the circle kick spun past the first it hit the second too, and he landed in a graceful crouch. One of the bugs launched himself at Robin, who dodged backwards, parrying the quick blows of the monster. He wasn't used to fighting an opponent with four arms instead of two, but all things considered he was doing rather well for himself.
That is, until he realized he'd been backed into a corner. Two more of the great bug monsters struck then, grabbing Robin's arms. Despite all of his training, despite all of his strength, he couldn't dislodge them. They had him firmly clamped as any pair of iron manacles. The first bug, seeing they'd finally caught him (for the moment anyway), reached down and picked up a spare iron rod lying on the floor of the alley and held it up. The tip was sharpened, cracked off of a longer pipe, and the tip glinted as deadly as a dagger as Robin watched.
"Die you basta…!" shouted the bug, charging at the restrained Robin. He was only about six steps away.
He didn't make more than two.
A bright bolt of emerald energy lashed out from seemingly no where, catching the insectoid full in the chest and sending him skidding across the ground. Robin, though startled, took advantage of the surprise of his captors, grabbing their arms for leverage and giving a back-flip, catching them both in the face with his booted feet as he did so. Then, when they released his arms, continued into the flip and grabbed the side of their heads, slamming them against one another. They slumped to the ground.
Robin turned to see who his rescuer was.
It was a girl, but not the one they'd come to save. A red-headed girl dressed in a metallic gray and purple top and skirt of a style that Robin didn't recognize, as well as some gauntlets and a pair of purple boots on her feet. She was hovering in mid-air, her skin was richly tanned, almost orange in color, and she had a bright look on her face as she turned to regard Robin. Everything about her was strange, exotic… alien.
"Uhm… thank you?" he said, peering up at her. She smiled back down at him. Her eyes had been glowing a brilliant emerald, the same as the bolt she'd fired. But it was fading now to a less brilliant green in color, though her eyes were still too intensely green to be human. He'd never seen such beautiful…
Another bug-monster was suddenly flung between the two of them by Cyborg, interrupting the scene and bringing both Robin and the strange alien girl back to their senses. Robin reached behind his back and grabbed his bo-staff, sliding out both ends as the girl held up her hands and filled them with more green bolts of energy. They charged into the fray, joining Cyborg, Beastboy and the now conscious girl they were trying to rescue… who was putting up a rather decent fight on her own, truthfully. If not for sheer numbers, she might've been able to save herself.
The insects, seeing the tide was turning against them, turned to run. Their backsides were scorched by starbolts and plasma blasts, as they scurried up and around buildings and into manholes and building windows like cockroaches. Soon, they were all gone. The battle was won.
"Whoooh… well that was fun," remarked Cyborg, shaking his head back and forth to work out the kinks. His arm reverted back to its normal mode, the plasma cannons sliding back into his forearm and out of sight as he turned back to regard the others.
"Thanks for saving my life," said Robin, extending a hand to the red-headed girl.
"Valtrokin set-ya," she replied, tilting her head curiously to one side, green eyes open wide in confusion. It was clear she hadn't understood a word he'd said.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he added, embarrassed. "You can't understand a word I'm saying, can you?"
She uttered a phrase that, frankly, was impossible to repeat giving the limits of human vocal cords.
"Dude," said Beastboy. "What on earth did she just say?!"
"She says hello," replied the pale-skinned girl, drawing her hood down so she could see and hear more clearly. The others gathered around her.
"Whoa… you can speak that… that language?" asked Beastboy, peering at her in awe.
"Tamaranian," replied the girl in monotone. "And no, I cannot. I am sensing her thoughts, rather, and since communicating is at the top of her mind it is easiest to discern."
"Cooooooooooool," said Beastboy, stretching out the word. The pale girl glanced at him, one eyebrow quirked at his odd behavior.
"I think perhaps introductions are in order," said Robin, stepping forward.
"Agreed," replied the pale girl, drawing herself up. She wasn't physically impressive, being only about Robin's height and very thin of stature, but as she did, you could literally feel the air crackle around her, filled with power. An almost malevolent power.
"I am Raven," she intoned. "And I need your help."
Author's Notes:
Based on what we've seen of Starfire, her sister Blackfire, and the aliens of Tamaran in general, is that only Starfire and Blackfire possess starbolts (but not strength or flight, according to Starfire from 'Switched' and visual evidence from 'Betrothed'), so we can assume they were also experimented on by the Psion's at one point in their life. Their starbolts are powered by yellow sunlight. Raven's calling of the Titans is comic history, though originally it was to save Starfire, not herself. And so the Titans have finally come together to battle for the last slice of pizza. Oh wait, gotta deal with truth and justice first. Pizza later. Next chapter, introductions all around, and Raven reveals the plot to my story. Naughty Raven. Don't tell 'em too much now! Don't make me sic Lobo on you! I'll do it!
Koriand'r Star: I'm thinking more Teen Titan direct-to-DVD movie than episode but glad you like it regardless. Well there's your namesake, did you enjoy her entry into my story? And I know I cut down on Cyborg and BB but don't worry all Titans will get their chance to shine.
Todd fan: I can't help myself, its just too hard for me not to put in countless JL references. Glad you liked it though.
AZNGothic: Well I wouldn't know such things I don't read comics, I only know that the animated Nightwing left because he had a serious falling out with Batman. And they don't use Tim on the show, the writers/producers and such have said he is, and I quote, "just Robin", no secret identity or double-life we need concern ourselves with.
Elrohirthewriter: Because they are dumb. Dumb as hell. Why else would people still commit crimes in a world with superheroes? Glad you're enjoying my portrayal of Raven, I seem to write her best for some peculiar reason. Go figure.
Angelpup: Only if you write a longer, better review. Please, pretty please.
Lost Inside: I'm afraid now I'm the one lost. OOC but isn't? Can you clarify what event/action where BB is ooc? Perhaps that will clarify for me. Glad you're enjoying my dramatic pauses. That is one of the main points to my writing style.
Bookwurm13: Update I shall, but only if you continue to review, deal?
ViciousAssassin: Well here's yet another chapter! You'll never keep up with me! Never! Muwahahaha! No seriously, glad you're enjoying what I think (hope) are the Titan's origins. To save time I dropped in Cyborg and Beastboy together early, since they seem very familiar with one another. As for the rest you'll see soon enough, though I imagine a number of your questions were answered already in this chapter.
Ash's Scizor: I try to remain as faithful to the animated versions as possible, though with Titan's this is obviously much harder and I had to delve into comic info. Another place I try to stay as accurate as possible. I'm very glad some people appreciate that.