Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or any other DC character listed here.
Deeper – Chapter Five – Flying, Take Two
The chill of that interdimensional elsewhere enveloped them for less time than it took to take a breath. The metal half of Cyborg's face gleamed through the black smoke on the other side. The top floors of S.T.A.R. labs loomed over his shoulder.
"Glad you made it here so fast," he said. His face was grim. "We're on the roof of the building across from S.T.A.R.. Do you remember the vault with all our tissue samples from Dr. Rovin over at St. Luke's? Someone just tripped the silent alarm on it. Good thing it rings back to the tower."
"Oh, great, tin-man," moaned Gar. "I knew we should've destroyed those things. Have they left yet?"
"Not yet. But when I contacted S.T.A.R. security, no one answered. Sorry I didn't give ya'll time to change, but this couldn't wait. I needed backup. My infrared scans show at least three of them. And there's more." His electronic eye gleamed like a hot coal. "They're carrying weapons that have an energy signature like the ones we found in Twilight Canyon last month."
"Azar!" Raven exclaimed. "The Black Rose again?"
"You got it. You need to watch them especially, witch. They might have that joy juice with them. Maybe not."
"It's safer to assume they do," Gar interrupted. He cupped her elbow with his palm. "Are you sure she even needs to be out here?"
She glared at him as Cyborg replied, "I'd rather know where she is, BB. We need to—"
A small explosion in the lab's tenth floor rained glass and concrete into the dark. Three shadows shot into the air, blue trails streaming from their backs into three different directions.
"Jetpacks!" Cyborg turned to the team. "Air support, you're on!"
Raven slipped out of her shoes and dropped the flower while Cyborg completed his thoughts: "Cassie, North. Superboy, East. Raven – "
She leapt into the night. Another full moon, another chase. Only this time, she was the hunter.
She crested the concrete and steel spire between her and the flying shadow. Her own shadow leaned into the south, then the west, as the fleeing patch of midnight rounded an intersection and flowed towards a lower block of buildings. The full force of the west wind slammed into her face and raised chill bumps across her skin. Swimming against the current of the cold night air, she pressed the pursuit.
She could hear her teammates reporting in over the radio.
"Wow, these guys are fast," Superboy said.
Her eyes followed the thief as he passed in and out of the hard cold moonlight and all the indigo and violet shades of night, with buildings instead of clouds blocking out its rays. But he did not try to escape into the voids of light, as she would have. Faster now, her heart rate was climbing with the speed. Her spine shivered from the chill wind, but the shiver was exhilarating. There was no metallic taste of fear in that shaking.
Cassie reported in: "He's gone. He has absolutely disappeared. Do you still have yours, Superboy?"
The shades descended lower to the ground, nearly brushing the rooftops of cars sleeping on the street. Left, right, up, down, in a maze of glass canyons. She controlled the flight this time from her center, from her hara, like she was learning in class Fortunately, she learned quickly. Her ki extended out from her and stroked the hard surfaces under her and around her. It was less intense than her soulself's touch, but it was enough. His journey through the city telegraphed itself from the air into her nerves.
She approached him closer and closer, and tasted and smelled his flight in her own mind.
There is no fear there, either, she concluded. He's not running from me. I am being herded, once more.
She shouted into her communicator, but she could barely hear her own voice over the wind. "He is leading me, Victor. I may be the hunter, buthe is in control here."
Cyborg's voice whistled over the wind. "Then take control. Get him to chase you."
"Then what?"
"Then open up a can of Hyk Mar, baby. You can do it."
She heard him send out the signal to Beast Boy to head out to follow her; her green companion's cries of protest were just as loud. She couldn't help but smile to herself. Of course he didn't trust this maneuver. Of course not.
"It's just a little mid-air aikido, Gar. She can do this."
Now to turn into the hunted: when her blackened prey turned to look at her, she kicked into the air and aimed for the sky. She felt the eyes follow her up, up, up, until she floated between him and the silver eye of the night. She hovered, knowing only her outline was visible. Cassie's words came to her: strike a pose. She tucked her knees up in front of her. The inner rebel that slept beneath her shy veneer awakened as she extended an arm to her side and stretched her fingers out into an open hand.
I have your attention now.
She reunited her fingers and swept them in to her palm in a beckoning gesture. If you want me, come and get me.
The predator and the prey . . . it was difficult to tell which was which. His form turned and dove into the sky after her. She hovered until he approached still closer, then plunged down and west toward the bay. During her descent she caught another grounded shadow out of the corner of her eye, one that embraced the water as she had the air, melting and reforming mid-jump into a dolphin. Her breath caught in her throat for just a moment, then she forced her mind back to the duty at hand.
You won't hurt us again. Not this time.
White light caressed her lips, unlike the sun that usually kissed her face during practice. Her mind raced around the steps of the Hyk Mar as Koriand'r had taught her . . .
With labored breaths, she swept down, down, down, in a long slow arc, not like the violent drop that was her goal. She brushed the tops of the waves below. Drops of salt water sprayed her face, making seeing her pursuer difficult. But with her senses unfurling like a sail around her, she did not need to see him. Just feel him.
Knives of fear pierced the space between them. I have known this before, and lost. Her eyes squinted against the salty wind. But this time, I know it is you. I am ready for you.
She reached deep within her mind and allowed her soulself to form, but she did not release it into the wind. What her mind had calculated in Twilight Canyon, her empathy now sought out and captured, like a photograph, to remember for when she found him again. He could not seem to focus on flight and on blocking her out. But her body was flying the plane while her soul read him out. If being able to separate body and soul had taught her anything, it was how to do two things at once.
The empathic signature that she could not capture before due to the poison of Compound 27 in her brain was there, and she seared it into her memory as she veered right, then left, then swerving up, down, her organic flight under tighter control than his mechanical propulsion.
Got you. I know you now. Fear-eater. I feast on it, too, but not like you.
I am not you.
A comforting voice edged in apprehension drove into her ears: "I'm in position, Rave. Go for it."
Turn up, turn up, turn up . . .Another kick in the darkness raised her higher into the night. Accelerate. Get him above you.
She increased her speed, her mouth filled with the tastes of salt and steel. He followed, a copy of her own movement. Blend, Raven, see it from his point of view. He will think he needs to be faster and faster to catch me.
At the last moment, when he seemed to be brushing her ankles with his fingertips, she swiveled on the axis of her shoulder, hurling herself out of the way. His momentum kept him in a straight vertical ascent and placed him directly above her. She spread her arms wide to slow her movement. She hovered and turned her face to her attacker, who was high above her now.
Her chest heaved with the exertion, but she wasn't done yet. He turned and plummeted towards her. See me as a target, foul one. I am small. I am weak. Come for me.
"Remember to turn this time. I can't catch you both," his voice came to her.
"Octopus," Cyborg advised.
Dark air, dark water. Liquid flowed around his fins as he chased the predator and the prey dancing in the sky above him. She was there. She was taking an awful chance, using something that never worked in practice. And she's really pissed off. Only he could feel how angry she was. Never a good thing, even under the best of circumstances.
Octopus, he says, Gar thought to himself. Just what she needs to think of me.
No time for that, just think about catching them. Keep her safe.
A ki-ai erupted from her as she charged for the sea below. Charged for him.
"You need to turn," Gar warned.
"That," she began.
Her fall and her pursuer grew faster and faster.
"Turn . . ."
"Will not be."
"Turn, turn, turn," Gar screamed at her.
The fortress of midnight blue around him rushed up to embrace her.
"Necessary."
Black, acrid smoke emerged from nowhere just feet above the water, and that eerie rushing sound that he should be used to by now echoed across the waves. The dark shadow plunged into the sea instead of her. Gar's newly formed tentacles wrestled with that shadow and wrenched the flying machinery off his back.
Cyborg's voice penetrated the smoke. "I'll meet you on shore."
Warm hands pressed against another tentacle. Her face surfaced from another puff of smoke as she returned to his side.
"I have you. Hold him still," she said between deep ragged breaths that sounded like she had been running for miles. She touched the man's shoulder.
"Sleep," she whispered to him. "Sleep."
He felt the weightlessness of water fading. Replacing it was the firmness of asphalt and pebble. He quickly shifted from eight limbs to four; he held the enemy in a gorilla's full nelson. Cyborg landed a few yards away, grinning from ear to ear. He held out her shoes. The flower was nowhere to be seen.
"That's my girl."
Gar wasn't so busy that he couldn't sneak a sidelong glance at the soaked dress. Clings in all the right places, he thought while he tightened his grip on the fallen thug. Whoops, she probably heard that one. I gotta stop thinking so loudly. The strange man really was like a shadow; even his face was hidden behind a veil that wrapped around his head.
Gar lowered him to the ground as every muscle in the unknown figure relaxed. Cyborg checked the man's breathing and walked away to radio the rest of their team for pickup.
"I had to make him unconscious before he found his way out, like the others of his group."
"Good. We need him to find out what a group of assassins is doing stealing tissue samples. Who could've hired them?"
"How would they know where the samples were in the first place?" Gar asked.
"I do not know. Perhaps they wanted to sell them on the black market?" she asked.
"They have to fund their tech somehow. Who knows?"
The gorilla looked up at the elf-like figure next to him. Something strange about the whole Hyk Mar move nagged at the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite get a paw on what it was. But he did know that it had taken its toll on tonight. Her feet shuffled across loose gravels as she slid them back into her shoes. Wilted curls plastered her forehead. Black tears of mascara streamed down her glistening cheeks. A loose shoulder strap dangled from her china-white shoulder. I hope that dress isn't dry clean only.
He began to shift back to his human form until a sharp squeal and a sudden averting of her eyes reminded him that his uniform was back at the tower. He morphed back into the gorilla.
"Some first date, huh." He cringed as he said it.
She sighed as she wrung water from her dripping hair. "Date? It certainly was not . . . not what I had expected."
He hung his head. Not the first time I've screwed this up. First I laugh at her and get thrown out of her room. Then we get hounded by paparazzi on a slow night. Now this. I really wanted this to be perfect for her.
Her hand grasped his and pulled the gorilla to his feet. Her teeth were chattering.
"Life in the Titans is anything but boring. We must always be ready. Do not blame yourself." She snapped a shoulder strap back into place with her free hand as she looked away. "Just please refrain from the cologne next time. There is no need to change your scent for me."
Next time. And she doesn't mind my eau de wet dog? I like the sound of that.
He held on to her hand. A hand that she didn't pull away like she would have a few weeks ago. He felt a slight tremor in her fingertips.
"You're shivering. Look, maybe we can still get some time in. Why don't you go back to the tower and dry off. Get into something warm. I'll make some popcorn and pop in a flick. I'll even make you my special hot chocolate. Celebrate our teamwork. We do make a good team, y'know. And who knows? Maybe tonight's the night."
"Night for what?"
"Maybe you'll giggle for me. Rachel."
"Gar," Cyborg's voice interjected. Held hands broke contact. "Let her get back to the tower. The rest of us are hauling this guy to the precinct. That goes for you, too." He flicked the radio with a steel knuckle. "Erk. Can't get the others on the radio. Gar, stay here with him. Witch, go on and get dried off before you catch your death in that skimpy thing."
He bounded off to the East.
"Well, he's the boss," Gar grinned at her. "Go on. I'll see you soon. Warm up the couch for me."
"Be careful, Garfield. He may not stay unconscious for long. I don't want to leave –"
Her sentence cut off as her eyes glazed over and rolled back into her head. He caught her as her legs buckled. A feathered barb protruded from beneath her ear.
"Raven? What hap-"
Sharp biting pain in his neck.
Darkness.
A/N: I made up the name Hyk Mar, but I saw a similar maneuver done by Starfire and Robin in the animated series episode "Stranded".