Jericho sat alone on the darkening rooftop of the tower, staring absentmindedly at the sunset before him, his wavy hair blowing in the light breeze. He pulled up his sleeve and glanced down at his right arm, discovering that he was more cut and bruised than he had thought he was. Being punched through a brick wall was obviously more serious than it had felt like, for when it was happening the pain had been numbed with the adrenaline of the fight. It had done more damage to his body that it felt like.
"Hi," a dull female voice said suddenly. Jericho looked over his shoulder and saw Raven standing on the roof behind him, her face hidden by her hood and her cape blowing loosely on her shoulders. Surprised that she talked to him first, he stared at her for a moment, then smiled and waved. She walked towards him a few steps, then stopped. "I didn't know you were out here. I don't want to bother you."
"No, I'd love to have some company," he signed quickly. "I was more invading your space than anything." He patted the roof beside him encouragingly, and was surprised when Raven came over and sat down.
"I usually come out here to get away from the noise," she said expressionlessly. "Beast Boy's enough to get on anyone's nerves."
Jericho laughed silently. "I'm not really used to a lot of noise either."
"I'm used to it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it," she replied.
"That's true," he signed. "I haven't been able to make a sound for years."
Raven turned her head away from him. "I'm sorry, I know that must be hard."
Jericho looked at her, startled. He hadn't been wanting or expecting sympathy, he had just been pointing out a fact. Raven didn't seem to be the type to apologize often, especially over something that wasn't her fault. "No, no, I'm okay with it. Some things are just meant to happen that way."
"I guess a lot of things are. No matter how much you try to stop it, some things are bound to happen anyway. I've had some personal experiences with that."
Back in Tibet, Jericho had heard a lot about the Titans, like everyone else around the world, even about their personalities. According to what he had heard, Raven was the quiet, irritable one and the most difficult to talk to. Well, obviously not in real life. She didn't seem to be having any problem talking to him.
"So, where do you come from?" Jericho asked. He hoped it wasn't too personal of a question, and when she hesitated, he touched her arm. "I'm sorry. It's really not my business."
"Don't worry about it. I come from another dimension, Azarath. It was a peaceful place until, well..."
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Of course she already knew that. But it just seemed better to point it out.
"Let's just say I have some family problems."
Well, he could relate to that. "I know what you mean. Anyway, how old are you?"
She didn't answer, and he blushed, feeling stupid. How uncomfortable was he making this girl? She had been nice enough to come and talk to him, and all he was doing was peppering her with annoying questions. He would feel weird to apologize again, so he just signed the next thing he thought of. "Well, I'm fifteen, just so you know. So, how long have you been with the Titans?"
"About as long as everyone else, I guess."
Jericho blushed again. "You can ask me a stupid question, just to make up for all the ones I asked you."
"We don't know that much about each other, and I guess there's no better way to find out than to ask questions," she replied. Jericho was about to answer her, but the jewel on the front of her cape started blinking and her communicator beeped. "Looks like trouble," she said dully, and teleported through the roof without another word.
-T-
The Titans arrived on the scene of a deserted alley where the call for help had been placed, but there didn't seem to be anything going on at the moment.
"Dude," Beast Boy said irritably, "is this a trick or something? There's nobody here!"
"Yeah," Cyborg agreed. "I could be back in the gym instead of wasting my time doing nothing."
"There is somebody here," Raven said. "I can feel it."
Even in the short time that he had been with the Titans, Jericho had learned to trust Raven's senses. She usually knew what she was talking about, especially when it came to danger.
"Raven's probably right," Robin said, pulling out his bo staff. "We weren't called out here for nothing, so let's just-"
His last words were interrupted by an alley wall being shamshed to pieces, and a huge humanoid villain made of pure rock gray rock stood growling in front of them.
"Cinderblock," Cyborg said, his hand disappearing to reveal his sonic cannon. They were about to commence battle, but an oozing purple-ish creature slithered into view almost like water, then took the form of a large, human-like, top-heavy man made out of clay. "And Plasmus?" Cyborg exclaimed.
"How unusual," Raven said sarcastically. "Let's just get this over with." Her hands glowed black as she motioned to a chunk of smashed wall, then threw it in Plasmus's direction once she gained control of it. The clay man was struck hard in the chest, but the rock just stuck to him and stayed in place. The creature roared, and the rock was thrown from his body with his clay-like form, but Raven threw up a shield and blocked.
Starfire flew forward and charged up a starbolt on each hand, her eyes glowing. She put her fists together, creating one large starbolt, aimed her weapon, and let it fly. It blew through Plasmus's head like he wasn't even there, and he stood there headless for a moment before sucking in a breath and creating a new head. Jericho found it strange that no one saw this as surprising.
Cinderblock charged at them from behind, his heavy footsteps rocking the ground and shaking the buildings around them. Robin was the only one to turn around fast enough to defend them, and he threw a few flash bombs that exploded on Cinderblock's face, causing him to stop blindly and roar in frustration. Cyborg shot the rock man square in the face with a blue blast from his sonic cannon, and as he was falling backwards Beast Boy shape-shifted into a gorilla and smashed him in the back, sending him falling forward onto his overly-large chest.
Robin, Starfire, and Raven seemed to be taking care of Plasmus as Jericho merely stood there. He wanted to help the team, but he also didn't want to butt in when they were taking care of it themselves. A second later, Robin and Starfire were suddenly covered in purple-ish goo and flying by him, and they both hit a nearby wall hard. Raven levitated over and blasted a wave of power at Plasmus that drove him back against a building. Jericho turned to see what was happening in the fight with Cinderblock, but Beast Boy came flying through the air and hit him hard, sending both of them sprawling to the pavement. Jericho struggled to get up as he heard a crash and Robin yell out in pain. A few yards away, Cyborg grabbed Cinderblock by the arm and swung him violently, letting go of the mass of rock at the last minute and sending him flying through a large window of a building. Jericho quickly performed a backwards handspring to escape accidental friendly-fire from Starfire, who was throwing starbolts like mad.
"Watch it, Star!" Beast Boy yelled in Jericho's defense. Starfire turned to apologize, but was hit by an extended arm of Plasmus's and went sliding across the ground, moaning all the way down. Beast Boy was grabbed in Cinderblock's crushing arms, and Robin seemed to come from nowhere to save his green friend from the deadly grasp, jumping down with his bo staff extended, but he was knocked from the sky by Plasmus, who seemed to laugh as Robin took the fall hard to his shoulder.
Jericho glanced above his head and saw the small balcony of a fire escape in perfect jumping reach, and after making sure he wasn't in immediate danger and had room to move, jumped up and latched onto a metal bar with both hands and swung up gymnastics-style, landing just right on the steps above him. The move alone was enough to catch Plasmus's attention, which was just Jericho's plan. The blond boy jumped off the platform directly towards Plasmus's face, but on the way down he stared into the clay man's white eyes as his own glowed black and green, and as he made contact his jump took him right down into Plasmus's body.
"Good idea, Jericho!" Robin yelled, pushing himself up from the pavement. "Go for Cinderblock!"
Jericho took control of Plasmus's body and turned to face Cinderblock, who seemed oblivious to the fact that his teammate had been possessed by the enemy. Jericho lifted Plasmus's heavy arm and extened it quickly, smashing it into Cinderblock and driving him a few feet into the pavement. Starfire and Beast Boy cheered Jericho on in the background as the fight between teammates ensued. Cinderblock stood up in confusion, obviously reluctant to attack who he thought was Plasmus, until Jericho attacked him again, this time sending him straight through a building and out the other side.
"Don't let up on him, man," Cyborg encouraged.
Jericho nodded once and stretched Plasmus's body around the corner of the building, coming down on Cinderblock again, who finally decided that it was best to fight back. Their fists met hard, but Jericho let Plasmus delapidate slightly, causing Cinderblock's huge fist to be stuck in the other's arm. Jericho clenched Plasmus's fist and planted it with all his strength into his opponent's face, causing him to scale three buildings and splash hard into the ocean. After waiting a few minutes for Cinderblock to come back, and when he didn't, Jericho exited Plasmus and landed lightly on the pavement as the blob behind him melted down and an unconscious man lay breathing heavily amidst the clay.
The rest of the Titans came around the side of the building to meet Jericho, and Starfire clapped her hands once. "Glorious! You whooped the butt!"
"Yeah, good job," Cyborg said, punching Jericho's fist.
"Couldn't have done it better myself," Raven said, taking off her hood, revealing her short violet hair and dark blue eyes.
Jericho smiled at the praise he was receiving and shrugged slightly. "I just thought you guys could use some help."
"You've got cool powers," Robin said, "but... nevermind. Let's get back to the tower."
"Go ahead," Jericho signed. "I'll catch up in a minute." Robin shrugged and the Titans headed down the road, Raven seeming to be the only one reluctant to leave Jericho behind. He waved at her encouragingly, and she waved back, then levitated into the air alongside Starfire.
Jericho walked to the edge of the ocean where he had heard Cinderblock come crashing down and knelt beside the water, but there was no sign of the chunk of rock anywhere. Was it possible for a being like Cinderblock to drown? Probably not, but you could never be sure. Jericho wanted to fight against crime and evil and everything, but drowning someone was not really on his list of a victory move.
"Looking for something, Jericho?" an eerily familiar teased. Jericho stiffened and stood up, then turned slowly to face his father directly. Slade was standing in the shadows, his hands clasped behind his back. "Don't worry, your friends aren't around anymore to hear us." He walked out of the shadows and Jericho took a wary step backwards. "To make a long story short... I wasn't finished with you the other night. We have a little catching up to do. So... let's talk."