Chapter Four: First Impressions
''ARGH!'' Robin groaned aloud
He immediately shut his mouth tightly, but furrowed his eyebrows and squeezed his face forcefully.
Starfire also groaned with grieve, but reached out her communicator that was alarming nonstop.
''Hello?''
She then saw an image of Raven and Cyborg
''Star! Robin! Sorry to interrupt your supply shopping..." Raven barked in a mixture of rudeness and sarcasm "… but we have an emergency here! Someone is causing chaos and DESTROYING EVERYTHING!'' Cyborg finished
''Proceed, Robin and I shall accompany you all soon'' Starfire declared
''He's at Gotham Center, hurry'' the Azarathian added
in a second their images had flashed off from the miniature screen. The Tamaranean, although decently annoyed, snapped her communicator closed and turned to the equally annoyed and angered boy wonder.
''We must hurry, there is a crime in progress'' Starfire notified
Robin grunted one last time ''Let's go''
They held hands tightly as they charged across the ground and then kicking off, soaring high into the sky.
'So much for time alone' Robin thought to himself
''Hold ON!'' Starfire shouted over the howling of the wind
The boy wonder had barely three seconds to maintain a firmer grip before the beautiful Tamaranean flew as fast as her ability could offer. Robin was slipping and grasped Starfire's delicate hand with both of his large own, the speed they were flying was nearly blinding the teen hero. But his mask-- hardly qualifying had succeeded to strengthen his view so he could just catch a glimpse of the large destruction in the Gotham Center's region.
Starfire aimed for the ground and landed swiftly on her feet with Robin almost tumbling; his muscles stretched and tired from the pressure of the flaring wind. But he quickly secured his balance once more as he hauled out his bow-staff seeing the other four titans armed and ready for battle.
''About time'' Terra had remarked
''Where is the culpri--'' Starfire began
Just then a blue beam of energy had accelerated past her, barely missing the rim of her soft cheek as the stream of power had propelled behind them and into a building. Large gravels of plaster wood and hard wall being broken off was now plunging straight for the six fighters.
''TITANS MOVE!'' Robin barked
Everyone had dodged the falling mess by a couple seconds, the impact of the plaster on the hard street concrete caused dust to descend upon every direction in view.
'' I missed'' noted a mysterious voice slyly
Robin's ears immediately twitched at the unidentified sound
''Titans, ready'' He whispered to his teammates as they all huddled their backs together watching over every area for any sign of anything other than dust to break free from the clouded scene.
''Come on out and fight us, you coward!'' Robin commanded
"To find me, you must first have to seek me…." He laughed teasingly as they heard something being pulled out
And at that moment, the stream of blue energy had been shot and embraced Robin hard in his chest knocking him over. Starfire instinctively kneeled down and grasped his arm to heave him back on his feet.
''I'm NOT gonna let you get away with what you're doing'' Robin vowed through his coughs of the smoke clouded in his throat.
''Oh, but it's not what I am doing, it's what I'm after, meaning GOTHAM''
''you shall not accomplish! We shall be triumphant you GLEMPLORK!'' Starfire hissed as she still held onto Robin's arm.
In another flash the blue stream had shot from another unidentified area and aimed for Starfire at her remark, but fortunately the attack was blocked by a telekinetic shield.
''TITANS! ATTACK!'' Robin ordered
Instantly, Raven had emerged a dark energy mirage that had cascaded everywhere, while Cyborg had fired his cannon at every direction he could possibly aim for. Beast Boy had morphed into a small rat seeking the scent or view of another non-titan figure as Terra mustered her commanding hands straight up high creating separate, long, concrete support beams hoping to perhaps launch the criminal out of it's hiding. Within the dust, Robin was tossing his disks everywhere and Starfire in assessment of her barrage of alien energy but her attempts resulted in only neither cries of pain or seeing of the criminal. And just then, a large green ram had tackled a teenage figure from the shadows and causing it to plow hard into the street cement.
''GET HIM!'' The human form of Beast Boy shouted ''IT'S HIM!''
The mysterious figure immediately bolted upright, and at the same second, all of the titans had launched their attacks: with a hyperactive cannon, telepathic energy, rock smash, electrical and disabling disk and extraterrestrial volley of starbolts all combined together aimed at the same target.
The culprit had done back flips varying from his hands and feet flipping back faster and faster dodging the blows and attacks that were following dangerously behind. Then in the middle of a flipping, the foe had shot his blue energy again and had hit Terra brutally to send her flying backwards and landing hard in merciless concrete immediately signaling her unconscious.
Then the opponent had taken out another weapon that looked like a long and thick whip and flung it at Raven, the quick flickering from the whip caused a blue barrage to explode in front of Raven's eyes causing blindness to corrupt.
''I---CAN'T--SEE!'' Raven howled as she fell hard on her knees attempting to regain her sight
Raven's blindness took Cyborg's attention for a second.
''RAVE---!''
But a second too long for the criminal had fired again and accurately enough to disable Cyborg's system as he too fell hard on the floor down and hurt.
The villain laughed menacingly with his whip tight in his grasp, but stopped his chuckling when he heard the sound of a hiss, he turned his attention to a green snake slithering rapidly towards him.
''Try fighting someone your OWN species, fangs!'' He barked at the wrathful snake
the culprit tossed his black whip in front the Beast Boy snake, and with a wave and motion of the villain's highlighted blue eyes and hands, the whip had transformed into a large black snake as it proceeded to battle with the green. The new serpent flared its beadily-like hood and revealed its own impressive set of needle-like fangs.
''THIS ISN'T OVER YET!'' Robin cried as he charged with his staff
The evil-doer's eyes had glowed even brighter blue as he began to gesture his hands, and then a flash of blue smoke had emerged. Then Robin saw what the criminal was doing, he had created small sized horrors and laughing characters beginning to face off to Robin's staff, preoccupying his time for the moment.
''Let's break the ice while we're getting to know each other" He purred cunningly as he watched his self-created henchmen march towards their prey. "For starters, learn this name well…."
In a second a stream of alien energy had been shot and finally had hit the villain hard knocking him over, the Tamaranean that had shot the attack had then approached the figure cautiously. Unfortunately not enough as he rose spontaneously from his given false sense of security and secured Starfire by her wrists.
''Say it with me…." He whispered into her unseen ear " "THE RING MASTER" '' He instructed her as he began to chuckle once more.