(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. I'd say something witty, but whatever.)
Author's Note: Okay, just before I get started, let me apologize for how long it's taken me to post up more of this story. The combination of a massive rewrite, Christmas holidays (i.e. being away from my computer, which is at school), and my own natural laziness meant that I didn't have anything to put up over the holidays. I also wasn't writing anything, and didn't have a buffer—truth be told, I probably posted Chapter 1 before I was ready to. But now I'm back, and writing again, so things should go okay from here on. Anyway, I hope I haven't lost too much interest with this delay (wait, wait—I had interest?). I'll try to make it up to you guys by making this a good story, but since this is only my second serious story that might be a bit iffy. Oh, well. It's up to you guys to decide if it's good or not, so read on! Oh, and while I'm here…
To My Reviewers:
Zoe Rose: Thank you. I do try to keep the characters as close to what is seen in the show as possible. Sorry to keep you waiting, but here goes!
Mephisto2022: Thanks for your trust. Fight scenes are kind of my Achilles' Heel at this point, but I will work on them. There will be some humour later on, so don't worry about that. Look out for the Ghostbusters theme song, amongst other things. I hope I don't get sued for it, like they did, though.
CloudsHalo: Good to see your long reviews again. I will definitely stay further away from the whole romance thing than I did in Duplomatic (sorry, romanciphiles), and this will again be a very Raven-centred story. The weird thing about the fight scene in Chapter 1 is that I actually wrote it before I wrote Duplomatic, but didn't post it until now (or rather, three weeks ago) because I didn't like the way I had planned out the rest of the story. Beginner's luck, maybe? Oh, well.
Anyway, on with the story! Oooh, the paragraph breaks are capital O's now! Rockin'!
OOO
-CHAPTER TWO-
The next morning, it was business as usual in Titans Tower. The Titans had faced psychotic villains, robotic ninjas, slime monsters, and all manner of other horrors, and a single demonic possession was not about to cause any lasting effects on them. Robin had suffered a minor concussion, but after some quick healing from Raven the only thing that was still wounded was his pride. The other Titans had suffered minor scrapes and bruises, but again, these had been healed by the resident sorceress. So, as has been said, the next morning was business as usual. This of course meant that Cyborg and Beast Boy were fighting over the meat content of breakfast, Starfire was doing something unmentionable to ingredients better left unnamed in an attempt to recreate one of the many delicacies of her homeworld, and Robin was reading the newspaper on the couch—the front page headline read "Terrorists Made My Daughter a Lesbian", with a picture of Dick Cheney underneath.
Oh, and Raven was trying not to be noticed.
"Psssst!" she hissed. She was currently poking her head out of a small portal she had formed on the couch cushion next to Robin.
"Huh?" said Robin, looking up from his newspaper. He looked around futilely, trying to find the source of the sound.
"Down here!" Raven whispered. Robin looked down and began to scream at the disembodied Raven head, but was cut off by a band of dark energy clamping over his mouth.
"Quiet! Do you want her to hear?" Raven whispered urgently.
"Uhhh…who?" said Robin, once she had released her hold on his mouth.
"Never mind that now, I'm just letting you know that I'm heading out to…uhh…do some things," Raven continued.
"Wait, why didn't you just come and tell me?" asked Robin. "Who are you trying to avoid?"
"Friend Raven's head! Joyous morning to you! Did I hear you say you were going out somewhere?" cried Starfire, appearing next to the couch, seemingly without having traveled the distance between it and the kitchen. Raven swore in what might have been Aramaic.
"Oh," said Robin.
"I believe that now is about the time of month when you go shopping for magical items to restock your supplies," continued Starfire, "and since you promised me that you would take me with you sometime, I am certain that I would have been the next person to whom you would appear! How lucky that I found you here, so you would not have to expend precious energy making a second portal!"
"Uhhh…Yeah…" said Raven.
"And I'm sure that you were not even thinking of leaving me behind!" said Starfire. Her tone did not change by anything more than the slightest fraction, but there was still just a hint of an uncharacteristic edge to her voice. Robin tried to inch away while keeping up the appearance of reading his newspaper, and Raven cursed again under her breath. Despite her usual naïveté, Starfire could actually be quite shrewd at times, and she took shopping very seriously. Raven sighed.
"We'll leave after breakfast," said Raven, accepting her defeat.
"Glorious!" cried Starfire. "I look forward to seeing the purveyors of magical items whose shops you frequent!"
Raven muttered something about nosy aliens, idiosyncratic English, and the colour orange as her head disappeared back into the portal. Robin visibly relaxed as Starfire returned to the kitchen, where Cyborg and Beast Boy were still arguing about sources of protein.
OOO
An hour and a half later, Raven and Starfire came to the district commonly known as Magic Alley. It had a reputation in Jump City as being just a weird place with strange shops that sold hokey items at ridiculous prices, claiming that they had magical qualities, and that was largely what it was, but if you knew what you were looking for, as Raven did, there were actually some genuine magic shops there as well. In fact, things had been purposefully set up this way to ensure that those who didn't know what they were looking for never got their hands on anything with any real power—the magical community in Jump City had learned quickly after the incident in 1985 involving three Czechoslovakian tourists, two taxis, an elephant, and a cursed monkey hand. Nobody wanted to see something like that happen again. It had taken them weeks to clean up all the ectoplasm and Victor the Unstable, one of the Magic Alley shopkeepers, had never been the same since.
Raven took Starfire to a few shops, tactfully steering her away from the considerably flashier decoy shops which invariably caught her attention, and hoping desperately that her alien friend would not cause any lasting damage to her reputation in the magical community. She had to be on the alert at all times, since Starfire naturally tended towards the "Ask What It Is As You Poke It" school of curiosity, something that had gotten not a few incautious people killed in Magic Alley over the years. Raven also had to explain several times that they would not at any point in the outing be seeing Harry Potter, since he was, in fact, fictional.
"That means not real, Starfire," said Raven, for the fourth time.
"Oh. Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"But that boy over there has a scar like…"
"Starfire, we've seen nearly a dozen people now who have dressed up like Harry Potter in a misguided attempt to seem cool, and probably also to pick up girls. We've been through this before. That isn't him," said Raven. "Besides, he isn't exactly a boy. He looks like he's forty-five."
"But…"
"We've also seen eight Gandalfs, three professor Dumbledores, a pair of Doctor Stranges, and five people dressed like me, one of whom was a guy," Raven continued with a shudder. "Just because someone is dressed up like somebody doesn't mean they actually are that person."
"Yes, Raven," muttered Starfire, obviously deflated. Raven sighed. As irritating as Starfire's perpetual good mood could be, Raven hated seeing her friend looking down.
"Look, you'll like this next shop," she said. "They have mostly books and some reasonably stable spell components—it isn't anything too dangerous, so you can look around if you want." Starfire brightened at this, her usual smile quickly returning to her face. Raven hoped like crazy that the shopkeeper hadn't gotten anything new and dangerous since the last time she had been in his store.
As the two of them stepped into the small shop, they were greeted by a rather handsome young man sitting behind the cash register.
"Hello, may I help you ladies?" he asked.
"No, no," Raven replied. "I know what I'm looking for, and she's just looking around."
"Oh. Well, let me know if you need anything," the young man said, and turned back to reading a scroll that was spread open on his lap.
Raven studied him for a moment. He wore a black T-shirt and jeans, and his long, dark hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail that hung down between his shoulder blades. He was tall and skinny, and while it was difficult to tell for sure since he was sitting down, Raven figured he would be a little over six feet tall. His features were sharp, but the thing that stood out most about his face were his eyes—they were a seemingly bottomless black, with a glint of humour and intelligence to them.
The young man looked up, catching Raven staring at him.
"Is there something you wanted?" he asked. Raven thought quickly.
"Uh…I was just wondering where McPhearson was. This is his shop, right?" said Raven, remembering the balding, bespectacled old man who usually ran the shop.
"Oh, yes," said the young man. "I'm his new assistant. Started two weeks ago. My name's Drakon."
"Drakon? As in Greek for serpent?" Raven asked.
"Heh, yeah, nice catch," Drakon said with a smile. "I'm a bit of an amateur seer, and Mr. McPhearson has kind of taken me under his wing."
"Hmm…Well, McPhearson is a pretty good seer," said Raven, who found herself inexplicably drawn into conversation with Drakon. "You'll probably learn a lot of…"
Raven was interrupted by a shriek from Starfire. She and Drakon both looked up in shock to see Starfire staring wide-eyed at a large snake that was coiled up on one of the shelves. Starfire had disturbed its sleep, and it was hissing menacingly.
"Oy! Down, boy!" Drakon yelled at the snake. "Don't scare the customers, you bloody great worm!" The snake turned its head to look at Drakon, then settled back onto the shelf with a final contemptuous hiss. Starfire continued to stare at the snake in horror, not daring to move.
"It's alright, he won't hurt you," Drakon said to her. "That's just Slither, my familiar. He's really just a big baby once you get to know him." Starfire still didn't move, and continued to stare at the snake, which had gone back to sleep.
"Um…Miss Raven, do you think you could snap your friend out of…uh…whatever it is she's in?" Drakon said. "If Mr. McPhearson comes back and finds her like that I'm going to get in big trouble."
"Okay, okay," said Raven. She walked over to Starfire, leaned right up to her ear, and yelled: "THERE'S A SALE AT MACY'S! HURRY!" Starfire nearly jumped out of her skin.
"OhnoImightmissitIsawsuchalovelylittledressthelasttimeIwasthereitwouldlooksoniceonmeanditfitperfectlyand…" Starfire paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "Oh. Thank you, Friend Raven. I needed that."
"No problem," said Raven with slight grin. Starfire took shopping very seriously. Raven frowned as something occurred to her.
"Wait a minute," she said, turning back to Drakon. "How did you know my name?"
"What? Didn't your friend just say it?" he asked.
"Yeah, but only after you asked me by name to wake her up," Raven replied.
"Oh. Hmm. That happens sometimes with my second sight," said Drakon. "Every once in a while it will put something in my mind that I couldn't possibly know otherwise, without me even realizing it. I thought I had gotten that under control, though."
"I see," said Raven. "Well, I should probably finish up before Starfire pisses your snake off again." She grabbed what she had come in for and put the items on the counter.
"Okay, so that's some bat oil, three lesser dragon teeth, and a mortar and pestle…" Drakon said as he entered the purchases into the register. "That will be fifteen dollars and eighty-six cents." Raven handed him the money, and he thanked her.
"Come on, Starfire, let's go," Raven said. Starfire put down a large glass jar full of eyeballs and followed Raven out of the shop. Drakon watched the two of them leave. Slither hissed from his shelf.
"Oh, don't worry, my friend," Drakon said. "I gave her just enough to get her suspicious." He smiled.
"She'll be back."
-END CHAPTER TWO-