Well, without further ado, 'A Trifecta of Terrible Troubles' : three stories within a story, by me (of course). Though I do not claim to be the author of the 'Teen Titans' that honor unfortunately goes to others(hello, blatant disclaimer!). Once again, there is Action, Drama, Romance, Angst, and some other really neat stuff, (and even you Rob/Rae haters should still enjoy this.)
Love to all! -you may now commence with the reading...
-Rave-
Some Titans and a Really Big Gun
Robin grappled his way up the side of the rocky cliff while Raven levitated just above him, Beast Boy, as a hawk, flew next to her, and Starfire cut through the air carrying Cyborg like a giant feather. As they reached the apex, they gaped in awe at the massive chunk of metal staring them straight in the face.
The Titans had been tipped off that Professor Chang was about to strike again. So now here they were in the space on which his laboratory had been, but all that remained was scattered wreckage and a newly rebuilt ray gun. It seemed to have acquired some new pieces since they had last seen it, some of which were now glowing a bright blue. But they weren't as concerned with its new appearance as the pure fact that it was even rebuilt in the first place.
There didn't seem to be anyone around, but appearances can be deceiving as they soon found out. A loud whirring sound emanated from the machine as the barrel shifted toward them. The sound gathered intensity and a red light shifted up and down the horizontal piece as the structure heated. A "zap!" rang out as the gun jumped backward from the sheer force of energy it had used to fire. The Titans dove to each side to avoid the blast that had obviously been meant to hit them.
Robin was the first to recover and assess the damage that the blast had caused. To his surprise there was no damage. 'What? That shouldn't be!' He looked once more and noticed that just behind their former location, ten feet off the edge of the cliff and hanging in the air was a ball of black light about two yards in diameter. He noticed that not only was it emanating black light, it was rotating while emitting sparks.
"Oops! Missed," Professor Chang called out playfully, "I meant to do this…" the machine whirred again as it turned to aim at Cyborg and Beast Boy who had chosen to dive to the right of the machine.
"Man, not again!" Cyborg shrieked as he dodged back to the left just before another surge of black light breezed past his metal shoulder.
Chang raised his fist to yell at the Titans once more, "Mwahahaha! You can run, but you can't hide! My own special blend of singularity will just suck you right in!"
"No way dude!" Beast Boy retorted sticking his balled fists on his hips and puffing out his chest. Thinking twice, he changed his stance and instead stuck his hand in front of his mouth and leaned to the side asking, "Um, guys? What's a singularity?"
"It is a small hole of blackness!" Starfire skiddishly replied floating above the ground with her hand covering her mouth.
"A WHAT?" Beast Boy questioned anxiously.
"A black hole," Raven interjected dryly, correcting Starfire's interpretation.
Starfire spoke again already forming green balls of light in her hands, "We must stop the madman or everything will be destroyed!"
Robin called out, "Titans GO!" as he dove toward Professor Chang's perch, flinging a birdarang at the controls. This only succeeded in knocking the demented doctor's arm to the side causing the gun to whip rapidly to the left and down. It shot out another dark orb that landed dangerously close to where Robin had been standing.
Now all of the Titans -except Starfire who was hovering above the gun- were grouped together amidst the three still menacing spheres. They could feel the heavy gravitational pull and were fighting like mad to escape it -Beast Boy especially. He hurriedly morphed from animal to animal trying to access the one form that would aid his efforts the most. He was a lion, then an elephant, then an emu, then a cheetah, and more, but not one form could assist him enough to escape fully. It would have been some sight to see if they weren't paying more attention to fighting so hard for their lives.
Robin deliberated quickly, 'If we can some how plug it up before he spits out another singularity, maybe it will implode on itself.' This sounded like a good plan so he yelled out for assistance, "Raven…could you create an energy shield strong enough to keep the next blast in?"
"I can try," she said flatly, though her face showed just a hint of panic. As she chanted her familiar words, a sinister light grew behind her. She lifted it with her mind and used it to cover the barrel of the gun.
Luckily for them, Professor Chang was too busy resituating himself to notice. "This should finish you imbecilic kids off!" He pulled back a lever increasing the power and magnitude of his next blow. He then punched in a sequence of buttons and readied himself, fingers interlaced behind his head, leaning back to observe the impending destruction.
Raven concentrated all of her mind's power and inner strength on enclosing the black shroud over the barrel and therefore snuffing the singularity. The odds of her magic working overall, were in her favor and she was fairly certain of success, so it came as a complete surprise when she found herself being driven backward by her own defense screen. She soon found that she was not the only one who had been caught off guard; all three boys flew through the air beside her.
Raven grasped the dead space in front of her desperately trying to cling to any object in order to keep herself from being sucked in to the swirling darkness. She finally caught hold of something just as her leg disappeared. To her disappointment it proved to be the opposite of steadfast. The last thing she saw before she entered the abyss was a wad of black and yellow fabric clutched in her hand.
Starfire, who was still floating above the large machine, screamed in terror and flew hurriedly to her companions' aid. She grabbed the remainder of a green arm and tugged with all of her might. Before she could gain any ground, she had to relinquish her hold for fear that she too would be drawn into the unyielding gravitational pull. She had to use the remainder of her strength just to escape it.
The shock of seeing her teammates dissipate into blackness, now weighed heavily on Starfire's mind and her thoughts quickly turned from fear to retribution. She roared with rage as her energy turned to flames of green in her palms. The burning light not only manifested in her hands but also her eyes. It made her look as if she were possessed. Her resolve never faltered as the flames grew and began to encompass her body. She let out a final furious cry as the light expanded and shot forth from her being, engulfing the gun in light and dismantling it piece by exploding piece.
Once Starfire had finished demolishing the weapon that had annihilated her friends, she turned her rage to the man who operated it. She darted forward landing inches from Professor Chang. She clutched the tubes extruding from his suit (almost crushing them and cutting off his life support) and hoisted him into the air. "What have you done to my friends?" she growled making sure he could detect the fury in her voice, "Where did you send them?"
"I didn't send them anywhere," the demented doctor shot back trying hard to look as innocent as possible.
"LIAR!" she roared, her eyes glowing such a shade of green that the yellow could almost be seen separated from the intense blue. "You have done something to them! Now you must tell me what so that I may fix it!"
"Most likely they were crushed to death in a black oblivion," he stated with a flippant air. He shrugged his shoulders for added effect still trying to look totally innocent.
She menacingly drew him toward her so that his face was only inches from hers, "If you do not reverse this effect I will throw you in to the crushing blackness as well!" She punctuated her threat by floating over and dangling him above one of the spheres.
"I can't!" he yelped, finally revealing how scared he truly was, "There is no 'antidote'! It's a freaking singularity!" She released her hold on one of his air pipes making him drop ever closer to the darkness. Fear rang through every bone in his body and he had to speak quickly to quiet the mad thoughts streaming through his head, "The b-b-best you can hope for is that the singularities gained such instability t-to tear apart the fabric of time and space. They might be in an alternate dimension…"
"If this is true tell me where to find them!" Starfire demanded.
Chang looked ever more worried, "Even if that were the case, there's no way I could track them!" He cringed, imagining what would happen when she heard this.
At this point Starfire was only holding on to him with her thumb and middle finger. Her lip quivered with hatred as she threatened to let go. He pleaded for his life with every ounce of sanity he had left, "Please don't kill me! That's all I know. I swear! Please don't kill me! Please! PLEASE!"
Starfire glared at him and let out a low growl before releasing her last fingers from their grip on the doctor. He screamed in high-pitched horror as he fell. He braced himself for any impact that might occur and expelled all of the air from his lungs as he felt his body lurch downward. All of a sudden…he felt weightless. He wondered if this was what death was like. He tentatively opened one eye, then the other and readied himself for never-ending darkness. What he saw made him sigh with welcome relief. Starfire had stopped his deadly plummet mere feet above the opening. She yanked him upward with all of her might, and dragged him away from the singularities. She glared at him once more and threw him to the ground beside her, before dropping to her knees, legs splayed to the side. She let herself sob in mourning for her friends, knowing full well that she may never see them again.
But, before becomingtoo engrossed in her sob-fest, she pulled herself up and walked over to Professor Chang. Staring down at him from above, she spoke to him as if he barely mattered in the grand scheme of things (as she should), "You are a bad man. You do not deserve any goodness that comes to pass in your miserable life." With that she bent down and punched him in the face. After weeping once more, she wiped away her tears, picked Chang up off of the ground, and flew him to jail.
Now, please don't forget to review and tell me what you think. Did you like it? Did you hate it? (But PLEASE no flames, you can be nice, I know you can!)
Though I do not profess to be great, I do not profess to suck either -'me'