Disclaimer: Nadda. Noodles. Nothing. Zilch. But the storyline, that's mine.
Did I say that it had to be shipping? Wait patiently, my friends. It will come soon enough. You'd be amazed what a love triangle this starts.
Chapter 4
That was it. Doctor Light attacked before they even saw it. Robin, being the closest, was hit square on with a bolt of yellow light, sparkling with red specks of xinothium. He was knocked backwards and into a wall. He groaned and rubbed the back of his head, then assumed a fighting position even as Raven joined him on the wall, followed by Red X.
"The xinothium has given his suit a major power up. We could be taking some pretty hard hits here. Ready?" he nodded towards Raven, who nodded back, pulling her hood over her head, her eyes lighting up with black energy as they rushed to confront Doctor Light with his newly acquired power.
Raven attacked immediately, chanting her trademark, "Azarath Metrion Zi-"
Doctor Light cut her off, though, with a harsh attack, sending her flying backwards with a small "oof" as red sparks jumped around her arms and chest area where she had been hit. She grimaced. Something as dangerous as xinothium could be quite painful when fired directly at somebody. Closing her eyes to clear her mind of the gripping pain, she reached out, her hands glowing, and levitated a nearby car, causing it to crash into their adversary.
Robin and Red X followed the attack, the former with a bo staff and the other with his red daggers. Both dived, perfectly in sync, as they attacked. Despite their harsh striking force and their combined efforts, though, the suit was only slightly scratched. They, on the other hand, were thrown full force backwards, propelled in this direction by a beam of bright light.
"You cannot possibly hope to defeat Doctor Light!" the villain yelled. Robin shook his head. This guy really needed to come up with some better lines.
"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!" came a voice behind Doctor Light. Raven. A large, black hand reached out and grabbed him, but it suddenly recoiled. Raven's eyes stopped glowing down and she looked down at her hand, the hand that was sparkling with traces of red xinothium. "Wow, that actually hurt!" she whispered to herself, though it was just loud enough for the other two to hear.
Red X nodded. "You can't touch him. The xinothium is on the suit as well. Really the only way to beat him is to break down the suit, but I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. For the time being, though, just try not to touch him, kay?"
Robin, apparently, wasn't listening to this conversation, for he was in midair, flying towards Doctor Light with his fist in front of him, going in for a hard punch. Though he managed to connect with the villain, the result was pain for both parties involved, Doctor Light because of the force of the strike that caused static to eminate from his suit and push him over, and Robin because the xinothium on the suit burned through his glove at the knuckles. He grimaced in pain as he looked down at his exposed fingers that were sparking in red as Raven's hands had done before.
"Hey, kid, are you deaf?" Red X asked, his voice holding as much annoyance as the voice modifier would allow.
"Sorry, what now?" Robin asked, a small, taunting smile tugging at the sides of his mouth.
Raven stifled a laugh. It really was true entertainment when the two of them went at it. She didn't allow them to distract her for too long, though, and she attacked Doctor Light, who was already back up on his feet. "Next time we beat you, stay beaten!" she yelled, her eyes glowing as she brought two building down onto the villain. Smiling, she allowed herself to take pride in her strike, but such feelings only lasted a moment, for the buildings suddenly moved apart, revealing a grinning Doctor Light standing underneath a red and yellow suit.
"You can't beat me with this new suit. You can't even touch me! But I can touch you!" With that, Raven's face was lit up even beneath her hood as a huge blast of light came up towards her, hitting her full on and sending her backwards into Robin, causing both heroes to tumble to the ground.
Wordlessly, X snuck up behind Doctor Light and planted a gadget on the villains back which emitted sparks, causing the whole suit to malfunction for a moment. If he wasn't wearing a mask, he'd probably be grinning wildly. But, the joy was short lived, for the suit suddenly lit up and the gadget was fried. Red X could see Doctor Light check his readings. Well, at least it had dropped from ninety nine percent to ninety percent.
Robin came running up while Doctor Light was looking away and planted a similar device, only this one was yellow instead of red. The effects were exactly the same, with only a nine percent decrease, but it was a start. The boys looked at each other. Robin grinned and Red X nodded back, both taking out more of these gadgets from their belts, advancing towards the dimwitted villain.
Unfortunately, Doctor Light wasn't about to be fooled the same way more than twice. He blasted the two of them with a light shield, trapping them both in the glowing yellow sphere dancing with red sparks. They were both surprised by the maneuver, and neither could get out without receiving a substantial shock.
With the two boys out of commission for the moment, Raven took over, giving it her all. "Azarath...Metrion...ZINTHOS!" she screamed, and black energy shot up around Doctor Light in a five foot wide circle, frying as many circuits as possible. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she struggled not to let in down, but she had to eventually. When she did, Doctor Light had still retained some power, enough to escape. With a quick, "I'll be back!" the villain disappeared.
She rushed over to the two trapped boys, both of which were obviously disappointed at Doctor Light's escape. She couldn't actually touch the shield, so she phased the boys through it indirectly. Robin dropped to the ground, followed by Red X. She fell beside them, red sparks practically covering her entire body. "That stuff is pretty bad!" she gasped, holding her side in pain.
Robin rushed to her side and helped her up. Wearing glum expressions, they walked back inside the concrete stronghold. Once inside, they discussed breifly what this meant.
"He's definitely going to be harder to beat than any other time we've fought him. Raven can't even touch him with her powers, since they're part of her," Robin said, half to himself.
She nodded. "Every time I use my powers, I put a bit of my soul into it. Now it's coming back to haunt me. If I touch that xinothium, it gets into my soul for a brief moment."
X nodded numbly, rubbing his arm. While encased in the sphere of light energy, he had taken several jabs at it, trying to free himself. Not a good idea. His arm was completely numb and it could be days before he could use it again.
They certainly were quite a sight: X with his arm in a sling, Raven lying in bed, and Robin with his entire chest wrapped in white bandages.
"We're not really fighting Doctor Light. We're fighting the suit. Once we break that, we can take that idiot straight to jail. And I'll have a little word with those prison guards about keeping the prison guarded!" Robin said, snarling the last word.
"We may already have something. What did you make those electric discs out of, kid?" Red X asked, referring to the discs that had actually damaged Doctor Light.
"Polarized matrices of high energy electrons," was the reply. Automatic, almost robotic. He knew what he was doing when he made his gadgets, and he was serious about it. Otherwise, they'd be in some serious trouble.
"Looks like we may have found something to combat the suit with," X said. Raven and Robin grinned. Maybe this mission could be shortened by a lot after all.
Meanwhile, the Titans went to respond to a distress signal sent out but a few minutes ago. They only found a scarred battlefield with upheavals of dirt and blaster marks on the rocks.
"What happened here?" Beast Boy asked.
Cyborg bent down and picked up a fragment of a red gadget. "Red X."
Starfire motioned the boys over. She held up half of a birdarang. "Not just Red X, but Robin as well!"
The three Titans looked at each other, each wearing bewildered looks.