The Titans arrived at the scene to find the villain exiting what had previously been a very nice bank. He dropped the bags, which obviously contained money and valuables, and turned to address them.
His power suit appeared similarly humanoid in shape to that of Adonis. But where Adonis's suit had been mostly red in color, the new threat before them was colored in varying degrees of blue. The main visible difference, though, was the helmet that the character wore. The dark visor hid the face of their enemy. But from the voice that spoke, the Titans guessed their adversary to be male.
"Ah, I was hoping you were going to show," the man commented.
Robin raised an eyebrow. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.
"So I could test out my new toy!" He raised his hand, and the fingertips bent inward, releasing five small rockets at the gathered Titans.
"Raven, shield!" Robin instructed. Raven instantly complied, throwing the majority of the little power she had regained since reviving Terra into the guard.
The first hit and detonated, injuring no one. The second did the same, but Raven's shield began to flicker and fade. The third broke through her barrier, and the other two missiles followed it.
"Raven!" Several of them cried.
Suddenly threes rocks flew up to meet the remaining projectiles. The Titans could feel the heat from the explosions, but they remained unharmed. The males and Starfire breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thanks, Terra."
"Good job."
"I am so pleased that you were here to aid us."
"Man, you saved our lives."
"Hey, Raven." She looked at them, her face betraying nothing of her emotions. "Maybe you should meditate more or something," Cyborg suggested.
"You could have gotten us killed!" Beast Boy exclaimed.
"We'll talk about it later, right now, we're busy," Robin stated, turning to face their opponent. "Who are you?" he demanded.
"You can call me Delano." They could almost hear the grin in his voice. "And now, I think I'll be going."
"I don't think so, Delano. You had to pay for what you've done," Robin said, halting the man with his voice. "Titans, go!"
Every one of them rushed in, except for Raven. She knew she would have to conserve her power, since she had such a small amount left. Her attacks would have to be calculated and cautious.
She watched as Robin tried to fight Delano physically with punches and kicks. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon, and Starfire launched her energy bolts. Terra hurled rocks. Beast Boy was attempting to harm Delano as many different animals. Their attacks had extremely little effect. Delano's armor was strong. The suit made his attacks even more powerful. The only advantage the Titans had was their numbers.
In her effort to be especially careful with the use of her powers, Raven found her own strikes serving mostly as a distraction to give her teammates an opening or save them from being harmed.
At one point, Delano's foot came down hard on the ground. Cyborg and Robin, who were near him, lost their balance and fell hard. The blast that Cyborg had been aiming at Delano went wide, and hit the rock Terra was standing on several stories above. All rocks she had been controlling dropped to the ground, along with her. But as she started to fall, Beast Boy caught her in his pterodactyl form.
Delano picked up one of Terra's nearby rocks, and hurled it at an unsuspecting Starfire.
"Starfire!" Robin called as she was knocked unconscious and began to drop from a dangerous elevation. But no matter how hard her ran, Robin knew he wouldn't reach her in time.
Raven used most of her remaining power to appear under the plummeting alien and catch her. She had, however, forgotten about her as-of-yet unhealed shoulder.
She lost all of her concentration as immense pain flared in her arm and upper back. It was all she could do to not release her grip on Starfire.
They both began to fall, though from a less perilous height. Raven turned slightly in the air for their landing. The resulting crash was more painful than she had imagined it would be. She had landed on her back, allowing the unconscious Starfire to use her body to cushion the sudden halt in their fall. Starfire's added weight had not helped Raven in the least.
A groan escaped Raven's unwilling lips. Almost as a result, Starfire began to waken. The others arrived, and they helped the shaky Tamaranian stand. Raven sat up slowly, and unthinking grabbed her shoulder as she suppressed a hiss of pain.
For the first time the other Titans noticed the makeshift bandage Raven wore to support her shoulder.
"Friend Raven," Starfire said, her senses regained. "You are injured!"
"Raven, why didn't you tell us about this?" Cyborg asked.
"You should have told us. You put us in danger as well as yourself by not telling us when you're hurt," Robin scolded.
"Hey, that Delano guy is getting away!" Terra shouted, pointing upward. They followed the direction of her finger and saw that Delano's power suit had a rocket pack, and he was using it to escape.
"We'll discuss this later. Let's go," Robin instructed.
They soon caught up to Delano. One of Starfire's energy bolts damaged the rocket pack, and Delano crash-landed near the outskirts of town, in the small industry district. Before the Titans could stop him, he fled into the nearest building, which had been only recently abandoned.
The Titans moved cautiously through the structure. Many colored liquids had been left, or had not yet been disposed of, and they had no idea what the chemicals had been used for.
The sound of glass breaking startled them, and they turned to see Beast Boy standing next to a broken vial and a green liquid staining the floor. They glared at him.
"Um, sorry?"
A hissing sound brought their attention back to the floor, which was now being eaten away by whatever acid the changeling had spilled.
Robin barely dodged the beaker that was thrown at his head, the pink fluid having a similar decomposing effect on the wall.
All of the Titans turned to the source, only to separate to avoid the barrage of chemicals that were being tossed at them.
They tried to stop Delano per Robin's orders, but the spilt chemicals began to mix, and a hazy smoke soon began to fill the air.
"It's not safe here!" Robin shouted to the others, raising his arm to cover his nose and mouth. "Let's get back to the Tower!"
As he began backing towards the nearest exit, the other Titans followed.
Raven was following as well, when suddenly a glass beaker smashed in front of her. When whatever substance it contained mixed with another, either in the air or on the ground, a large cloud of smoke suddenly swallowed her. She began to cough as the substance made its way into her lungs.
She stumbled out of the smog, only to fall to the ground in a dead faint.
ThessalyD: Thanks! Raven will be leaving, and she will probably come back, unless I have a sudden inspiration to have her do otherwise. No blatant pairings. Subtle things may appear, and readers may see them as they wish: as signs of friendship, or something more. Thank you for reviewing!
BlackShield: lol. I completely agree with you on the pairings remark. I admit that the other Titans are a bit more out of character than I would like, but the story is told slightly from Raven's point of view, and one could put down their overly-harsh actions to her fears that they don't need her anymore, at least in this fiction. And there will probably be a scene of regretful 'why did I say that?'s in the near future. Thanks so much for your reviews!
Defafaeth Mechqua: Right back at you! Thanks for reviewing!
aurorasmist: Thank you, I'm glad you like it! Don't worry, I won't stop in the middle, but updates may become a bit scarcer once school starts again.
DelofDani: Thanks! I know, I want to slap them myself, and I'm the one writing it that way, lol. Thank you again!
Sparrowing: Thank you! This chapter took a bit longer to get out, but I hope it still meets up to your expectations.
VashTheStampede7123: Thank you very much! I hope you feel the same about this chapter, too!
nevermoretheraven: Thank you! I'm really glad you like it. This fiction is my main focus at them moment, so updates shouldn't be rare until I have to go back to school. Thanks again!
darkgoddess333: Thanks very much! I hope you liked this chapter as well.
'wouldntyouliketoknow?': Yes, I do agree, poor Raven. But Terra was a statue, so we can't know how perceptive she was in that state. The other Titans care, but sometimes people forget to acknowledge the good things about those close to them, and instead only pay attention enough to reprimand the bad. Kind of the moral of this story, I guess you could say. Thanks for reviewing!
disappearer/Syani: Thank you! I do hope not to rush, sometimes that can be a bad habit of mine when I write. I'd appreciate it if you let me know if I do start going too quickly. And no, this is not a BBRaeTer love triangle. I'm not good at writing romance, so I don't. However, subtle gestures are prone to appear.