Chapter Eight: When Monkeys Play With Fire (What the heck?)
Blackness. Nothingness. Darkness.
Yet standing in the middle of this void, she felt no fear. Instead she felt... Peace. A sense of comfort and well being, something that was totally absent from her every day life. A place without demons, without destruction, without death, only... Her.
But there was something, strange. In the back of her mind, something was screaming something was horribly wrong. And it turned out that like most times, the little voice was right. Around her, a landscape began to fade into view, blurry at first but slowly becoming clearer.
Scorched, razed, and barren, the sheer rocks of the place she now hovered over screamed devastation. Something had destroyed this place, charred it to a blackened husk of what it once was. It all seemed so, familiar. The cold shiver of fear that snaked around her spine said that she had seen this landscape of destruction before.
That's when she saw him. The figure, the man walking, instrument slung across his back. He stopped, looking far into the distance. The clouds that wrapped around the world enveloped it in twilight, not completely dark but no where near light either. Raven traced his gaze, and saw what looked like just another group of rocky outcroppings and plateaus. It hit her though, as she looked closer that it wasn't rocks at all.
It was a city. The decrepit remains of a city. Buildings toppled over, the stones smashed to pebbles. Tall towers standing like grim monoliths, a reminder of what once was. She counted the towers, eight of them, standing an equal distance apart around the dead city. Eight towers...
The eight towers of Elementhius! The grand mage city, capital city of...
Mystell.
The breath caught in her throat. She looked back to the figure, eyes wide in shock. They couldn't truly be trying to...
(Music fade in: Some Kind of Monster, Metallica, St. Anger)
He slipped the guitar into the ready position, and began to play. She immediately recognized the tune, the same that he used when he fought Mael Kirheinse. Low at first, yet even though it wasn't meant to give off power, the wind picked up and swirled around him. Then he hit the first hard note, causing the ground to shoot upward, and he stood alone on a tall pillar facing the ruins of the great city.
In her mind, she tried to figure out what he was doing. He was much, much too far away for his powers to work. What was he hoping to accomplish? To let them know he was there?
Indeed, from the city rose a great many lights. Like candles flickering in the distance, they came to life, and began to float towards him. Fiery specters, charging with wild abandon. He was stirring up the hornets next. Only these weren't hornets. They were an army, a demon army. The demonic legions of Trigon the Terrible.
Yet, faced with this approaching destruction, he merely smirked. Just then dozens, no, hundreds of meteors broke through the clouds, burning all the way. They struck like as many bombs, scattering many of the demon phantoms, turning them into smoldering ashes. But for every one destroyed, it seemed two more appeared. A wave of fire to sweep away all opposition.
A line of black, as if it was tearing the air itself cut into the first wave of the phantoms, dissipating them never to return. Raven noticed them at that point, the hundreds of men and woman that had appeared around the pillar. All wearing the black cloak that symbolized the fallen kingdom of Azarath.
Magic in the form of whips, spheres, arrows, and all manner of elements began to fire at the ghostly demons, and began to actually push the horde back. Raven's heart began to beat faster, hope rising in her spirit. They were winning, they were actually winning! But her hope was soon gone.
Blinded initially by the light, she looked in sheer terror at the figure that stood in the city, taller than even the high towers. His skin was dark red, with long white hair. His four eyes burned with sadistic glee and pure evil. He stood in black armor, which shimmered like obsidian.
He gestured towards them, "Foolish mortals. This world is mine!"
Energy poured off him, cutting through even his own legions, and the screams of people being incinerated by the fires made her hands try and clamp her ears shut. The people were dying, and as she watched the pillar fell, and even the guitarist descended wide eyed and screaming a silent cry into oblivion...
Raven's eyes shot open, and she sat straight up, looking around her room. Still hearing the screams, still seeing the look on Kirk's face. Shivering, she pulled her knees up to her chest and began to rock back and forth slowly, forcing herself to calm down. She wasn't aware of it, but the entire tower was shaking slightly.
"It was just a dream... Just a dream..."
She had to force herself to believe that. That what she saw hadn't really happened. It couldn't of... all of those people... her friends... No, it didn't happen. It was just a nightmare, she'd had nightmares before. They were all perfectly safe, why was she even worried?
But even she couldn't silence the doubt in her mind. The fear that gripped her very spirit. She closed her eyes and whispered, "God, let them be ok..."
Knowing that sleep wouldn't come again that night, she decided she would skip tossing and turning in bed and began to meditate. Maybe she could find some peace that way, since her dreams certainly weren't the way to go.
"Azarath Metreone Zinthos... Azarath Metreone Zinthos..."
TEEN TITANS!
Curly walked into the living room, taking a deep whiff of Cyborg's cooking, "That bacon better be for me."
"Only if I don't eat it all first."
"Do and you're a dead man."
Cyborg chuckled before continuing to monitor the wide variety of meats he was cooking, along with waffles. Beast Boy was in a corner bawling his eyes out, muttering stuff about how cruel this was and why Cyborg should die. Robin and Starfire were sitting on the couch watching Saturday morning cartoons waiting for breakfast to finish.
Rubbing his eyes, Curly plopped down on the couch, propping his legs up on the table, "Was there an earthquake last night or something?"
"I didn't notice anything."
"Me neither, slept like a rock." Cyborg commented, flipping the eggs over.
"Huh... I woke up and it felt like the whole dang tower was shaking."
Robin shrugged, "I guess we're just used to it and you're not, you have lots of little earthquakes here. It is California after all."
"I guess so... So, is there anything on the agenda for today?"
"Not really. I have some leads I'm going to follow up on, but that's about it."
"Oh ya by the way, you handled the press pretty good last night."
"Man, I thought I was going to die during that..."
Robin smirked as a thought struck him, "You'll have your own action figure by the end of the week, I guarantee it."
"Goody..."
"I don't get it, normally people drink stuff like that up. Why are you so... I mean, Raven is the only one whose worse about this than you are. What are you so worried about?" Beast Boy asked, drawing his plans to murder Cyborg with a crayon.
"...I'm not the most popular of guys with some people. I was hoping to have this entire thing done with a while ago, but SOME PEOPLE HERE wouldn't let me."
"Who are you referring to?" Starfire asked innocently.
"You for one."
"What do you-oh... Well, you were using your firearm recklessly in the presence of citizens, and-"
"I know, I know, you can skip the hero speech. Look, the sooner I can leave the better off it will be for everyone, I promise. So let's find this Slade guy, kick the living crap out of him, get my generator, and let's all be on our merry way."
"It's not going to be that simple."
Everyone turned to Raven, surprised by her sudden entrance. Robin checked the clock, "Raven, you're usually up by-"
"I had some trouble sleeping, you WILL leave it at that. And finding Slade will not be that simple, nor will bringing him down be that easy."
"This is true. We have faced him many times, and against all odds he has escaped time and time again..."
"Ya, like after Trigon turned everyone to stone and the world got all apocalyptic, then Slade helped us fight him, then we won, and Slade still got away. That was crazy..."
Curly didn't move for a moment, then slowly turned to the changeling, eyebrow raised, "Uh... care to run that one by me again?"
"Um... hehe?"
Raven slammed her cup of herbal tea on the counter, practically shaking with rage, "Thank you for bringing that up Beast Boy."
"Sorry, it just-"
"Slipped out. I know." She turned towards him, advancing slowly, seeming to grow in size and power with every step, "That happens a lot with you. It always just slips out, you weren't thinking, so much so that I'm beginning to doubt you have a brain left to think with. No, this isn't a question of intelligence, this is a question of decency. You somehow ALWAYS are able to remind me, always mention it, tell me Beast Boy. Do you just not care or are you trying to make me feel worse than I do?"
All movement in the room had stopped, and all eyes were focused on the sorceress. Beast Boy was backed against a wall, wide eyed at the form that was now towering over him. Electronics were exploding, as were the various items of half-cooked food. Chairs and the table were levitating, plates and glasses were shattering. The tower itself was shaking.
"Raven, I'm-"
"Sorry. Of course you are, you're always sorry, you never meant it. But just because you don't mean it doesn't make it hurt any less."
Curly's hand instinctively went inside of his coat, grasping one of his pistols. His eyes narrowed, body tensing, ready to strike. He didn't know what was going on, but it was quickly turning ugly, and he was the who caused messes, not the one who become one.
"I-"
"I'm sick of it Beast Boy. I'm sick of you're half-wit remarks and you're mindless chatter, and I'm sick of you're bad sense of humor. I've endured it for a long time, endured it based on you're half hearted apologies and unkept promises. I don't need you to remind me of what I am, nor of what I did, they haunt me on their own. I'm sick of you trying to 'get on my good side', I'm sick of your senseless games, and most of all, I am sick of hearing you say 'I'm sorry'."
Beast Boy certainly would've been a pile of charred and broken pieces, save for the even voice that rang out in the silence, "Raven."
She gasped, as if waking up from a dream, blinking several times as she came back under control. Taking a final glance around the room, she dissapeared into the floor, so that no one else could trigger her anger. Robin, who was the one who stopped her, stood and looked to his teammates, "Have any of you ever seen her snap like that?"
"No, not even at Beast Boy. Not over something as small as that."
"Is friend Raven alright? Perhaps she is ill, or something else troubles her..." Starfire asked, flying towards the door, "I will check if she went to her room."
"Hey B-" Cyborg stopped when he saw his friend. He had never seen the changeling look like that, not even when Terra betrayed them. It wasn't anger, and though it was sad, it was something else. The emotions in him had combined into something that the half-robot titan had never seen the jokester have. Remorse.
"I didn't mean it... Really..." in a sudden burst of anger he slammed his fist into the wall, "Why can't I ever do things right!"
With that, he changed into a falcon, and flew out the open window of the tower. Cyborg tried to stop him, but couldn't. He soon left to follow Starfire, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Well, there goes another perfectly good day..."
This left Curly and Robin in the empty silence that remained after the sorceress's outburst. The older teen stood, eyebrow raised questioningly, "What in the world just happened there? And what is this crap about people turning to stone and who is this Trigon guy?"
Robin's eyes narrowed, before he stopped off towards the elevator, "I'm not the one to ask. Raven is like you, when she wants you to know something, you'll know. Until then, it's not my place to tell you about her past."
The elevator door slide shut, and Curly was suddenly left alone. He sighed, rubbing his temples, before glancing upwards, "Please, not this again..."
He bowed his head for a moment, then followed suit, going to the elevator and hitting the button for the hanger level...
TEEN TITANS
Raven was no where to be found, and wanted to kill him. Starfire was looking for her, Robin had already left, and Cyborg was... probably working on the T-Car. It was times like this that Beast Boy really felt lonely. After all, what did he do now? Raven practically said that she hated him, and while he got that a lot, this time it seemed like she was serious. I mean, sure he knew that he got on her nerves, and that she was still a little edgy when it came to Mael or Trigon, but still. He hadn't done anything that bad, did he?
Just when he started to get on her good side, he had to go and screw things up again. One step forward and about a million steps back. He knew everything she had told him was true, and... The way she said it just drove each one right into him. What could he do? Apologizing was one of the things she had grown tired of...
Cyborg. He needed to talk to Cyborg. Or someone, anyone. He needed some advice, and he needed some bad. Using the ventilation system, he crawled down from the roof to the garage as a mouse, until he dropped silently from the ceiling to the concrete floor. There was the T-Car, and Curly's car, and the empty spot where the R-Cycle normally sat. He heard movement under the T-Car, someone sorting through some tools.
"Cyborg...", There was the distinct sound of someone freezing. Beast Boy took the silence as a cue to go on, "Look, what do I do now man? I've never seen her go off like that... I mean... Am I that big of a screw up? What should I do?"
Then the one working on the T-Car rolled out from under it on the little thing. However, much to Beast Boy's horror, it wasn't Cyborg. Curly reached over, grabbing a tool before rolling back under the car, "I dunno, apologizing profusely couldn't hurt."
"You, why didn't you say you weren't Cyborg?"
"Cause, I was almost sure you were dead. Thought I was hearing a ghost for a second."
Beast Boy sighed, "Not far off..."
"So then, what was that all about up there?"
"Raven's got some issues that she's had to work out. Some really deep and personal stuff, the kind of things that you don't like to bring up. Screw up that I am..."
"You brought them up huh?"
"Ya, pretty much..."
Curly grabbed another tool, and began to tighten a fitting on the fuel system, "Look, I don't know Raven as well as you do. But the way she stays bottled up all the time... Maybe you're the straw that broke the camel's back, maybe she was just blowing off steam."
"...Maybe, but I doubt it..."
"I can't tell you what to do. But I do know some general rules. She said she was sick of hearing you say 'I'm sorry' right? Probably because that's all it was, words. Try doing something to show her you're sorry."
"Like what?"
"Heh, all girl's like being pampered, doesn't matter what their personality is. It's a female thing. Buy her a nice depressing poetry book or something, I dunno. Use you're imagination, it's big enough."
"You don't know Raven man..."
"You're right, I don't. But since you're such an expert, why are you asking me for advice?"
Considering the point, Beast Boy shrugged, "Pampered huh... Like what?"
"Dude, you're asking the wrong guy. Make her some of her tea or whatever in the morning, do her chores or something. You know her. Do things that she doesn't like to for her."
"...Thanks man, I'll consider it."
And with that, Beast Boy left. Cyborg rolled out from under Curly's car, grabbing a wrench before going back under. They worked in silence for a minute, before the scientist teen asked, "So, is it always like this around here?"
"Five teenagers in full hormone swing, and a PMS-ing sorceress, pretty much."
"Dude, I got an idea."
"What?"
"Cyborg and Curly's Psychiatrist Garage."
"What?"
"People come, we fix their car and give them advice about life. Fixing your car and your life at the same time. We could make a killing."
Cyborg laughed, "That wouldn't be so bad actually. So, do you think Bb's going to pull it off?"
"Not a chance. You said Raven'll probably calm down anyway though?"
"Ya. She's a tough girl, ice in her veins. She's just got a lot on her plate."
"I like how you did this fuel coupling here, but I think that it's a bit inefficient for what you're using it for."
"Now that I think about it... As for you, you're entire power distribution system could use some tweaking. You have a bit too much going in too many different places."
"Ok, I'll look into that. So, do we have a bet?"
"Sure. Five bucks says that Raven and Bb make up."
"And I got ten that says Beast Boy's going to make a complete idiot out of himself before this is done. She blew you guys out of the tower once right?"
"Ya, that was painful..."
"I can't wait to see this... Oh man, this is going to be so awesome..."
Then the alarm system went off. Cyborg checked his transmitter, and Robin's face came up. The boy wonder looked embarrassed and angry, in a frustrated way.
"Rob, what happened to you?"
"...Get downtown... Now."
"Uh... Why?"
"Just, do it."
Curly and Cyborg exchanged looks, before glancing back to their car's. Eyeing each other again, they quickly shook their fists, then displayed a hand gestures. Curly had two fingers outstretched, while Cyborg had made a fist.
"Boyaa! I'm driving!"
"Shut it tin man. Why can't we take two cars again?"
"Cause, two speeding maniacs on the road is enough, we don't need three."
"...good point. So, should we count on Raven to show for this?"
"She'll be there, whether or not we see her is another thing." Cyborg told him, cleaning off some of the grease/oil off his hands before jumping into the driver seat of the T-Car. Curly did likewise, grabbing his coat before hopping shotgun beside him. Beast Boy showed up a minute later, a satisfied smirk on his face.
"What's got you in such a happy mood?" Curly asked, pulling on his seatbelt.
"I got just the thing to make Raven not mad at me anymore!"
Glancing back, he saw the true happiness that was spreading across the changeling's face. Then, making a mental decision that something that got Beast Boy that happy could never work on pacifying Raven, he turned to Cyborg and mouthed the words:
'Make it ten'
Then the peeled out of the garage, and over the submerged bridge that ran to the mainland. One of Cyborg's better ideas, the road would go up and down so that boats could still use the bay, they could get on and off the mainland, and they weren't flooded by tourists. Soon, they were on a main road, the bridge sliding back under the waves, and speeding towards Downtown Jump City.
It didn't take them long before they pulled up beside where the R-Cycle was parked. An older, little used building seemed to have burned down, firemen looking over the scene. Robin though was on the other side of the street, glaring with his arms crossed and teeth gritted. He stared at the playground, where several children were playing.
The titans, minus Raven who was probably in an alley nearby, walked over to him. Curly glanced around, "Please don't tell me you made us come all the way down here cause' a building burned down."
"Not exactly..." He pointed, and said in a voice that dripped hostility, "I called because of... HIM..."
Expecting Slade or an equally terrifying villain, they all prepared for the worst. Until they saw a little kid playing on a set of monkey bars. Glancing back between the titans leader and the child, they looked around to make sure they were looking at the right thing.
"Uh huh... Robin, did you take some sort of medication or something this morning..." Cyborg asked, moving closer so he could restrain the boy wonder if necessary. Curly scratched his head as he looked at the little kid. He had stopped playing on the monkey bars, and was doing something in a sand box. What?
"No, what are you talking about."
"Now man, you just need to come back to the tower and take a break from things..."
"Huh?"
Curly began to walk over, so he could get a better look at what the kid was doing. He noticed the wavy, cherub-like copper brown hair the kid had. It was weird, even by his standards, which was a trip to the unknown in and of itself. As he neared he asked, "He there kid, watcha' doing?"
"Hehehe... Exper'mentin."
"Experimenting?"
"Tha's what I said."
"...Ok, what are you experimenting with?"
"This!"
"Cyborg, I'm telling you, this kid is a serious threat!"
"Calm down, I never said he wasn't. Just come get in the T-Car, and we can talk about it."
Yet, at that moment something very interesting happened. From no-where, and explosion rocked the park. It knocked the titans off their feet, and as the looked they saw that Curly was not only thrown back but up. He did a complete flip in mid-air, before belly-busting into the ground of Down-Town Park.
The kid stood, mouth slack with amazement, drooling at the small crater. He clapped eagerly, "Yay! It was all, and then I, and it, when, BOOM! FIRE! AHAHAHA!"
"...Ok Robin, I believe you now."
Starfire rushed forward to Curly, "Friend, are you injured?"
The coat-clad teen stood up slowly, keeping his face towards the ground. At first Starfire thought he was hurt, but then his head jerked up, glaring at the laughing child, "Ok, if that's the way you want, that's the way your gonna get it you little punk!"
Without thinking, he reached into one of his innumerable pockets and tossed a spherical explosive at the boy. It arched perfectly, and the kid just watched it. It landed at his feet, far closer than Curly had wanted, and promptly exploded in a massive fireball.
"YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU-"
Curly had gone numb. He looked at the fire, unable to move, "I... Why didn't he move... Kid!"
Running forward, he looked around, but couldn't see anything. Guilt wracking his heart, he frantically looked for any sign of life. Yet he found none. It was just a stupid kid, he didn't mean to... He should have...
"That's it! You've gone to far-"
Curly turned around, almost crying at his fatal mistake. Yet, why had Robin stopped talking? He looked at the park scenery, seeing nothing particularly out of place.
Then he looked down, at the kid who was staring up at him, smirking, "Hehehe..."
"How did you..."
"Hehe, mine blow up bigger!"
He tossed another canister into the air, running off far quicker than any person should be able to. Curly watched it fly up, then slowly begin to descend again. Eyes widening, he turned to run before once again being knocked forward by the force of one of the kid's explosives. He skidded across the ground a good ten feet, eating dirt the entire way, which wasn't a particularly good feeling. Yet, it should've hurt a lot worse. Looking down, he saw a black field slowly dissolve under him. So, Raven was there...
"Whoa..."
"BANG BANG BANG! FIRE! AHAHAHA!"
Curly jumped up, his brown eyes an inferno of anger. Reaching into his coat, he decided that he wasn't going to take it easy on the kid, after all. The titans just stood, watching the battle unfold. Raven gazed down from a tall building, thinking about the dozens of things that pressed her to be thought about. However, she found the unfolding tussle quite distracting...
"Um... Perhaps we should help?" Starfire asked uncertainly. Then she looked down to Beast Boy, who had a camera in one hand, almost shaking with excitement.
"Are you kidding? This is going to be so good!"
The small child laughed as he watched Curly approach slowly, rocking back and forth on his feet, "You're fun! Wanna play?"
"No, I'm not in the mood for games. But I would like to see you dance!" He yelled, pulling several discs from his coat with both hands, tossing them haphazardly. They spread out as they approached the pyro-boy, who watched unimpressed.
"That's the best you can-"
At that moment the discs split, multiplying into dozens of small, marble sized explosives. The ground was peppered with bursts of flames, and the kid dodged quickly left and right while screaming. It worked for a while, until one of the small bomblets hit the boy right in the face, knocking him back several feet.
Curly arm-pumped, yelling, "Gotcha!"
Of course, the kid did the natural little kid thing. He began to cry. And of course, Starfire, bleeding heart that she was, smacked Curly as she flew by, "You fiend! Look at what you've done!"
She picked the small form up gently, telling it soothingly, "There now, it's ok. He won't try to hurt you any more. Tell me, what is it you called?"
"...My friends call me Monkey Boy..."
"An odd, yet strangely fitting name. So tell me, why are you..."
Yet, as she looked down from her pondering of Monkey Boy's name, she saw that she was no longer holding a boy at all. Instead, she was holding a metal canister, with a smiley face drawn (Poorly I might add) on one end.
"Eeep!"
Tossed into a building by the resulting explosion, the Tameranian was more infuriated by the bomb than injured. Much to Monkey Boy's horror, she floated out of the hole she had made on her way in, hands and eyes glowing an angry emerald green.
"That fiend! That Tornelpian Rotsporg!"
Curly, still unused to her use of Tameranian, asked, "What the crap is a Tornelpian Rotsporg."
Cyborg coughed, rubbing the back of his head, "Trust me, you don't wanna know."
"...Ok then. Hey, where did that kid go?"
Then he noticed the weight on his head. Monkey Boy started jumping up and down, yelling in glee, "Bouncy hair! Bouncy bouncy!"
Curly was used to this sort of thing. People were naturally inclined to bounce their hands or other objects off his hair. Curlybouncy after all. However, this isn't to say he liked it. In fact, it quite perturbed him. So it didn't take long before yelling in anger, he grabbed the small child yelling, "STOP!"
"NO!"
With that, still holding Monkey Boy's small form easily with one hand, Curly gave him a swift straight punch to the gut. He hung limp, stunned for a moment, before twitching. The semi-mad teen's eyes were quite insane with anger (No one messed with the hair), as he delivered another punch. Then another, and another. Yet the pyro-child would always start smiling or moving again. Finally, growing weary of being used as a portable punching bag, Monkey Boy bit Curly's hand.
"AH! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!" He screamed, waving his hand viciously. Yet Monkey Boy's bite held firm, like a smaller, less threatening bulldog. Or more, depending on how you look at it.
Curly pulled out a laser, and aimed at the boy dangling by his teeth from the lab-coat clad teen's hand. Pulling the trigger without thinking, he didn't consider the fact that they were connected. So both started yelling as the electrical current hit Monkey Boy, traveled through to Curly, then shot back through the gun in one giant vicious cycle. Until finally the force of the current threw both of them back, sparks still arcing from their bodies.
It took a grand total of ten seconds for them to be back on their feet, and going at it. Nothing was held sacred as they threw every ounce of explosives they had at each other. Rockets, bombs, bomblets, missiles, and even a stray flash grenade filled the air with smoke, dust, noise, and light.
Meanwhile people had gathered around the edges of the park, watching. A few took pictures. Then, growing tired of this display, they walked off, leaving the warzone that Down Town Park had become.
Finally, the dust settled, and they both stood breathing hard on their own patches of grass. Around them, the ground was cratered and burned, bare of all life. Monkey Boy laughed wearily, before yawning, stretching as far as his body would go, "That was fun... Nappy time..."
He laid down on the ground, instantly going to sleep. The Titan's, plus Curly's, eyes went wide as their jaws dropped. Then Curly dropped to his knees, "Get that kid... Some redaline...".
Before also collapsing in a heap.