A/N: Wow, I've had a lot more time to write lately than I thought. I'm
putting out chapters faster than ever before. This is where you finally
get to meet Mr. Mysterious. Can't tell you his real name yet, that'd be
cheating on your part. :P
Replies to Reviewers (sry, I forgot about this last chapter):
Prologue reviewers:
Dark: :D Thanks, Raven's backstory will continue to develop throughout the story, hope I manage to keep it as good as you say it is.
Rugsrat: True, I did leave myself a lot of untied strings. Too many, I just went and enticed myself into writing more...
audi katia: cool rose thingy... thanx
QueenTigris: HOW DARE YOU! You stole my name! I'll have to report identity theft. j/k anyways, thanks for the review! :D
EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!: I know Raven's past will be a little bit different to what is in the comic books or whatever you go by, but I haven't read the comic books. So consider this a little like an AU, if you must.
Chapter 1 reviewers:
Dark: *munching cookies* oooooo yummy.... thanks a lot! That's the kind of compliment that really makes a writer feel good. Raven is a difficult character, what with all the limitations she comes with. I like her because there is so much opportunity to exploit her inner thoughts... so many things that you can't get just from the TV show. Not only that, she's a cool character, whoever came up with her put a lot of thought into her character development; and her being so different from the Titans, she's kinda a difficult character to maintain, if you know what I mean. Keep reviewing! :D
Tamaran Girl: Thanks! I thought I might get a flame or two for that, some stingy flamer complaining about that being out of character or something. But, if you really think about it, it's really impossible to write perfectly in-character. The whole point of a story is to draw something different out of a character, something unusual... oh geez, sry. I tend to ramble. Thanks for the review!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans and co.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Just A Little Advice
Chapter 2: Captured
~*~
Robin hadn't been able to sleep, even with Raven's advice he hadn't been able to relax. In fact, he was even more anxious than before. Beast Boy was already cooking a breakfast of tofu eggs when he entered the kitchen.
"Yo! Breakfast is almost ready! You're just in time Robin." Beast Boy was grinning ear to ear, having beaten Cyborg to the stove.
"No way! I am NOT eating that tofu stuff!" Cyborg was complaining when he came in behind Robin.
"Oh, c'mon! It ain't half bad! You should try it, Cy!"
"I HAVE tried it! It tastes awful, almost like Star's pudding!"
"HEY!"
Robin sighed and sat down at the table, too tired to try to break up the fight between Beast Boy and Cyborg.
"Good morning, friends!"
Robin flinched, slowly raising his gaze to the doorway where Starfire was just entering. "Er, good morning, Starfire." His words slurred from exhaustion and stress and he could just barely hold his head up correctly, much less sit straight.
Starfire was instantly all over him. "Oh, Robin! Did you sleep wrongly? You do not look well."
Robin could feel his cheeks starting to burn. "No, no. I—I'm fine. Really."
"Very well, Robin." Starfire sat down beside her and turned her attention to the plate Beast Boy was setting down in front of them. "Oh wonderful!" She said cheerily, picking up the fork.
"See? Starfire likes my tofu eggs!" Beast Boy was still arguing with Cyborg.
Next thing was; Beast Boy and Cyborg were yelling at each other, perturbing Starfire. But before the alien could do anything, the two Titans were silenced with tendrils of black energy constricting their ribcages.
"What a headache." Raven said as she passed, releasing Cyborg and Beast Boy once they started turning blue.
"Yo! What was that for?!?" Beast Boy and Cyborg said in unison once they could breathe again.
Raven's answer was monotonously sarcastic, as usual. "For my ears, you morons. You really know how to make noise, don't you?" She poured herself a cup of tea and headed for the door. But before she could reach her destination Beast Boy was shoving a plate of tofu eggs in her face.
"How about some breakfast?" He said with a silly grin.
"How about you get out of my way?" She replied while the eggs exploded all over him.
"Aw, man! What's her problem anyway?" Beast Boy complained while trying to wipe off the tofu entrails from his face after Raven had pushed past him and disappeared down the hallway.
Robin thought back to last night and his unexpected, but appreciated, meeting with Raven in the kitchen. He doubted he would let himself just forget about her slip up, but he didn't say anything except, "I guess she's just not a morning person." He shrugged.
"Not a morning person?!" Cyborg exclaimed. "She's not an all day person!"
Starfire blinked and turned to Robin. "What do you mean? She is not a person in the morning?"
Robin sweatdropped. "Uh, it's an expression. Forget about it, Star."
"Oh."
~*~
Beast Boy and Cyborg were turning the living room upside down looking for the clicker; that Robin purposefully hid. They'd be at it for hours and probably wouldn't even be paying attention to anything else, just what Robin needed. As for Raven, she was busy in her room.
Robin took a deep breath and opened the door onto the rooftop where Starfire was already waiting for him.
She turned around. "Oh, Robin. Tell me, why did you ask for me to come here? What is it that you must talk about?" She cocked her head, her emerald eyes curious.
Robin swallowed and cleared his throat, closing the door behind him. "Er... There's been something I... need to tell you, Starfire." He looked down at his combat boots, hoping he wasn't blushing too noticeably. "I ahh... Well, I..." How could he start? "Um, well, I went to Raven to talk about it last night... and uh..."
Starfire blinked and looked downcast. "Oh... well... what did Raven say?"
Robin swallowed again. "Well, she said to just tell you straight out... and—"
Suddenly Robin's beeper went off. He froze, forgetting what it meant for a split second.
"Oh no! There must be trouble in the city!" Starfire was now hovering a foot off the ground. "We must get the others!"
Once she had flown away, Robin sighed with relief. Saved by trouble, he could have laughed.
~*~
"It's Plasmus!" Beast Boy cried out when their adversary was in sight.
The great ugly blob was busy ripping out a sewage system from the middle of the street. Citizens were fleeing in every direction.
"Titans, GO!" Came their cue.
A sonic blast soon got Plasmus's attention, only to find he was being pelted by a barrage of starbolts. With a wordless gurgling, he retaliated, covering Cyborg and an approaching rhino-shaped Beast Boy in muck.
Next he squished Robin with a blob from his hand, stopping a jump kick in its tracks.
"Robin!" Starfire flew to his side, only to find herself also covered in the sticky mess.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" A nearby streetlight suddenly came to life, twisting itself around Plasmus's legs.
Plasmus looked up, to see Raven, her eyes glowing eerily.
"Grrrrrrraaaaaaaaagggghhhhhhhh!" He brought his arm up, catching her in the glop that should have been a hand and slamming her into the ground.
The street light stopped contracting, but it was still wound around his legs. Taking advantage of Plasmus's current immobility Cyborg shot a sonic beam through his head. Beast Boy first in the form of a sparrow to get above him, and then a hippopotamus, let gravity take care of the rest.
This reduced Plasmus to a pile of mush, but not for long. Instead he morphed into four different, smaller, blob-like creatures. Cyborg found himself being chased by a weird creature with a big mouth and several pairs of feet, Starfire was being chased away by an octopus, Beast Boy by a weird blob resembling Plasmus's head, and Robin was trying to fight off a snake-like creature that constantly dodged his attacks and twisted around him.
"Eeeeee!" Starfire fired multiple starbolts, but the octopus creature lashed a tentacle around her foot, pulling her from the air.
Beast Boy was busy trying to dodge the barrage of muck Plasmus's head was spitting at him, and Cyborg was running, trying to shoot his elusive chaser.
The different parts of Plasmus were chasing the Titans away from each other. Beast Boy ran into an alley, Cyborg was running away down the street with his quick-footed follower, and Robin and Starfire were slowly backing away in the opposite direction.
Suddenly, a blob of left over plasma exploded on the sidewalk, revealing Raven. She coughed and gasped for air, having not been able to breath under the glop. Her arms shook just from holding her in a sitting position, if she had had enough air in her lungs she would be cursing herself for even considering using the fortunetelling cards last night. What had she been thinking? It had obviously taken more out of her than she thought.
Struggling, she managed to get to her feet without help, but her knees shook and she was sure she would collapse any minute. This was what happened when she overused her powers, yet another reason to have to keep her emotions under check. Her breathing calmed, and Raven could breathe normally. She barely had any energy left to lift her head and take in her surroundings, noting all the Titans had disappeared.
She swayed and fell backwards, hoping she would be unconscious by the time she hit the hard concrete. But instead she found herself captured in a strong embrace. Her eyes closed, she no longer had the energy to keep them open. Was that Cyborg talking in her ear? Her hearing wasn't working right, the world seemed to be spinning...
...Nighty night...
~*~
Starfire suddenly let loose an explosion of bright energy, blasting the octopus to smithereens. She turned where she hovered in the air. "Robin!"
She flew over to help him and soon the plasma snake was taken down too, with a couple of starbolts and a jump kick or two.
"C'mon, we gotta help the others!" Robin started running back down the street with Starfire following.
When they turned the corner Beast Boy and Cyborg were triumphantly exiting an alleyway a little down the street.
Cyborg was brushing off his sonic canon arm. "You owe me big time, BB!"
"Look!" Starfire called out, pointing to the sidewalk. "He's got Raven!"
The four Titans turned to the hooded figure trapped between them on the sidewalk. Seeing that he was being scrutinized he bent his knees slightly as if readying for battle and hugged the unconscious Raven closer to his chest. His face was hidden by a deep hood, much resembling Raven's, and he was dressed entirely in black. His ragged cloak was held around his neck with a silver brooch at his throat and it reached down to the back of his knees, shivering slightly in the breeze. He wore black leather combat boots and a shirt and pants made out of a durable, soft black fabric unknown to the Titans. He also wore a heavy leather belt with a silver buckle which held two daggers and a couple throwing knives. His arms were bare and the Titans could see on the shoulder of one muscular arm he had a tattoo of a loping white wolf.
"Let her go!" Cyborg yelled, powering up his sonic cannon. While Beast Boy readied himself beside him.
Strapped to the stranger's back over the short, patched cloak was a long, pitch black lacquered staff. Seeing Cyborg's canon and the other Titans readying themselves for battle, he drew it out now. He hefted it expertly in his right hand, the arm with the tattoo. The ends of the stick were reinforced with silver caps and, seeing this, Robin drew his own staff.
"I SAID let her go!" Cyborg repeated.
The darkly attired stranger looked back and forth between the Titans on either side of him. He lifted Raven and held her over his left shoulder, using one hand to balance her. Then he bent his knees and gripped the quarter staff, Robin instantly recognized it as a defensive stance, this guy was looking for a fight.
"Titans, GO!"
On their cue, the Titans attacked. Raven's captor leaped to dodge the sonic canon blast and several starbolts. Then raised his stick and slammed it down on a green tentacle that had been grabbing for his legs. Robin moved in as Beast Boy was yipping in pain and threw two birdarangs.
These were dodged, but it gave Robin a chance to get in close with his staff. He grunted when he found his attack had been blocked by the stranger's own staff. So he jumped up, using his staff against the stranger's for leverage and brought his foot down on the stranger's head.
He grunted and stumbled backwards but managed to recover himself in time to keep Raven from slipping off his shoulder and returning an attack to Robin. The quarter staff caught his arm which Robin had raised to throw another birdarang, causing him to drop it and clutch his smarting forearm, but when the birdarang hit the ground it exploded, knocking the Titans' leader to the ground.
The new Titan enemy jumped back to dodge a charging rhino and then more starbolts. Seeing an opportunity, he turned and ran down an alleyway with the three standing Titans following him. Nearly slipping on the remains of the part of Plasmus that had been chasing Beast Boy, he reached the end of the alley, to find a dead end.
"You're trapped now!" Cyborg smiled, lifting his canon.
The stranger backed up to the plasma splattered brick wall, bending to one side to gently lay Raven behind a couple of garbage cans. He then took his quarter staff into both hands, falling into an offensive stance this time with one end of his stick pointing toward the three Titans blocking his path.
"This is your last chance! We do not want to hurt you!" Starfire was saying, her hands already starting to glow bright green.
The stranger didn't say a word, didn't move from his battle- ready pose.
"Well, you heard him." Cyborg said and let the sonic blast fly.
"Ruvna, Shikra, Tibre!" He yelled, holding his staff horizontal in front of him. A light blue aura formed around him and Raven, blocking Cyborg's shot completely.
"Whoa, did you guys see that!?" Beast Boy exclaimed.
The blue light dissipated and suddenly the stranger was on the attack. Before the Titans could react he had used his staff to knock Cyborg's feet from under him and he had pushed Beast Boy against the wall and then into a dumpster. Dodging starbolts he leaped off a trash can to get some air and knocked down Starfire. He landed above her, raising his quarter staff above his head and readying to bring it down on the dazed alien's head.
"Agggggghhhhhhhhhhh!" Robin screamed as he jump kicked their hooded adversary square in the chest, knocking him onto his back, he shoved his own staff against his throat threateningly. "Who are you and what do you want?" He commanded fiercely.
He started to retaliate but then Cyborg appeared and held him down. "He ASKED you a QUESTION!"
The stranger shook his head in defiance, but this also caused his hood to slip back and reveal his face. The countenance that was revealed was that of a young teenage boy, if not their own age, then one or two years their senior. He had icy, light blue eyes that burned with fury and retaliation. His skin was pale and so was his shoulder length hair which was the peculiar color of silver and it reflected the midmorning light in the shadowy alleyway. He had high cheek bones and eyebrows and eyelashes of the same silvery color as his hair.
Beast Boy climbed out of the garbage rubbing his head and trying to brush off the stains of who-knows-what from his costume. "Aw, man! Did it have to be a dumpster?" He looked up. "Hey, you caught him!"
"Yes, and now Raven will be safe." Starfire said, coming to stare down at their defiant adversary.
"Safe? With you?! You gotta be kidding me!" The teenager snarled, opening his mouth for the first time since they had met him. He tried to break from Robin's and Cyborg's grip but they held him tight. "Hey! You stay away from her, you dirtbag!" He yelled at Beast Boy who was pulling the still unconscious Raven from out behind the garbage cans.
"Wha— Hey!"
Suddenly the un-hooded teenager jumped up from under Cyborg and Robin, throwing them aside with a sudden burst of the same blue energy that had shielded him from the sonic blast. Moving with agility, he tossed Beast Boy aside into the garbage cans and grabbed Raven.
Before anyone could even blink he was gone with a flash of more blue light, and so was Raven.
"They're gone!" Starfire gasped.
"Dude..." Beast Boy picked himself up, brushing off more grime. "The garbage cans again? Aw, man!"
"What happened? He took Raven!" Cyborg's expression changed quickly from surprised to angry. "He took Raven!!"
Robin stared silently at the place they had disappeared, grimacing. "Slade's work I bet! First Plasmus to distract us, then he sends in that guy to kidnap Raven!"
"Hey, you guys, you think she'll be okay? Wherever that guy's taken her?" Beast Boy looked to Robin, the worry apparent in her face. The other Titans turned to him as well.
He shrugged. "If Slade did this there's no telling, but I can bet she's in trouble."
Cyborg raised his arm and started scanning for any traces of where they had gone, but he found none. They had simply disappeared. "I got nuthin' here..."
Robin straightened his shoulders, going into leader mode. "Well, there's nothing we can do at the moment. We better go back to the tower and get some rest. We can't help her if we're too tired."
The Titans agreed and they all headed home, their spirits somewhat dampened.
~~~
Several blocks away a flash of blue light marked the arrival of the stranger in an abandoned warehouse on the docks, Raven asleep in his arms. Looking around, he saw that he had lost the people who had been trying to get Raven away from him, but this certainly wasn't the kind of place he wanted Raven to wake up to. Empty old crates were everywhere, and there was a layer of dust over everything that must have been left untouched for a couple of years.
His knees sagged and he could feel the exhaustion creeping up on him. He didn't have a knack for magic, just a few simple spells, so transportation spells like the one he had just used could easily tire him out. This would have to do, once he had rested he could move himself and Raven to more reasonable quarters. Besides, he had slept in places worse than this.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: A good sized chapter, I had more time on my hands than I thought I would. Aren't you all wondering where Robin hid that clicker??? Review!
Replies to Reviewers (sry, I forgot about this last chapter):
Prologue reviewers:
Dark: :D Thanks, Raven's backstory will continue to develop throughout the story, hope I manage to keep it as good as you say it is.
Rugsrat: True, I did leave myself a lot of untied strings. Too many, I just went and enticed myself into writing more...
audi katia: cool rose thingy... thanx
QueenTigris: HOW DARE YOU! You stole my name! I'll have to report identity theft. j/k anyways, thanks for the review! :D
EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!: I know Raven's past will be a little bit different to what is in the comic books or whatever you go by, but I haven't read the comic books. So consider this a little like an AU, if you must.
Chapter 1 reviewers:
Dark: *munching cookies* oooooo yummy.... thanks a lot! That's the kind of compliment that really makes a writer feel good. Raven is a difficult character, what with all the limitations she comes with. I like her because there is so much opportunity to exploit her inner thoughts... so many things that you can't get just from the TV show. Not only that, she's a cool character, whoever came up with her put a lot of thought into her character development; and her being so different from the Titans, she's kinda a difficult character to maintain, if you know what I mean. Keep reviewing! :D
Tamaran Girl: Thanks! I thought I might get a flame or two for that, some stingy flamer complaining about that being out of character or something. But, if you really think about it, it's really impossible to write perfectly in-character. The whole point of a story is to draw something different out of a character, something unusual... oh geez, sry. I tend to ramble. Thanks for the review!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans and co.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Just A Little Advice
Chapter 2: Captured
~*~
Robin hadn't been able to sleep, even with Raven's advice he hadn't been able to relax. In fact, he was even more anxious than before. Beast Boy was already cooking a breakfast of tofu eggs when he entered the kitchen.
"Yo! Breakfast is almost ready! You're just in time Robin." Beast Boy was grinning ear to ear, having beaten Cyborg to the stove.
"No way! I am NOT eating that tofu stuff!" Cyborg was complaining when he came in behind Robin.
"Oh, c'mon! It ain't half bad! You should try it, Cy!"
"I HAVE tried it! It tastes awful, almost like Star's pudding!"
"HEY!"
Robin sighed and sat down at the table, too tired to try to break up the fight between Beast Boy and Cyborg.
"Good morning, friends!"
Robin flinched, slowly raising his gaze to the doorway where Starfire was just entering. "Er, good morning, Starfire." His words slurred from exhaustion and stress and he could just barely hold his head up correctly, much less sit straight.
Starfire was instantly all over him. "Oh, Robin! Did you sleep wrongly? You do not look well."
Robin could feel his cheeks starting to burn. "No, no. I—I'm fine. Really."
"Very well, Robin." Starfire sat down beside her and turned her attention to the plate Beast Boy was setting down in front of them. "Oh wonderful!" She said cheerily, picking up the fork.
"See? Starfire likes my tofu eggs!" Beast Boy was still arguing with Cyborg.
Next thing was; Beast Boy and Cyborg were yelling at each other, perturbing Starfire. But before the alien could do anything, the two Titans were silenced with tendrils of black energy constricting their ribcages.
"What a headache." Raven said as she passed, releasing Cyborg and Beast Boy once they started turning blue.
"Yo! What was that for?!?" Beast Boy and Cyborg said in unison once they could breathe again.
Raven's answer was monotonously sarcastic, as usual. "For my ears, you morons. You really know how to make noise, don't you?" She poured herself a cup of tea and headed for the door. But before she could reach her destination Beast Boy was shoving a plate of tofu eggs in her face.
"How about some breakfast?" He said with a silly grin.
"How about you get out of my way?" She replied while the eggs exploded all over him.
"Aw, man! What's her problem anyway?" Beast Boy complained while trying to wipe off the tofu entrails from his face after Raven had pushed past him and disappeared down the hallway.
Robin thought back to last night and his unexpected, but appreciated, meeting with Raven in the kitchen. He doubted he would let himself just forget about her slip up, but he didn't say anything except, "I guess she's just not a morning person." He shrugged.
"Not a morning person?!" Cyborg exclaimed. "She's not an all day person!"
Starfire blinked and turned to Robin. "What do you mean? She is not a person in the morning?"
Robin sweatdropped. "Uh, it's an expression. Forget about it, Star."
"Oh."
~*~
Beast Boy and Cyborg were turning the living room upside down looking for the clicker; that Robin purposefully hid. They'd be at it for hours and probably wouldn't even be paying attention to anything else, just what Robin needed. As for Raven, she was busy in her room.
Robin took a deep breath and opened the door onto the rooftop where Starfire was already waiting for him.
She turned around. "Oh, Robin. Tell me, why did you ask for me to come here? What is it that you must talk about?" She cocked her head, her emerald eyes curious.
Robin swallowed and cleared his throat, closing the door behind him. "Er... There's been something I... need to tell you, Starfire." He looked down at his combat boots, hoping he wasn't blushing too noticeably. "I ahh... Well, I..." How could he start? "Um, well, I went to Raven to talk about it last night... and uh..."
Starfire blinked and looked downcast. "Oh... well... what did Raven say?"
Robin swallowed again. "Well, she said to just tell you straight out... and—"
Suddenly Robin's beeper went off. He froze, forgetting what it meant for a split second.
"Oh no! There must be trouble in the city!" Starfire was now hovering a foot off the ground. "We must get the others!"
Once she had flown away, Robin sighed with relief. Saved by trouble, he could have laughed.
~*~
"It's Plasmus!" Beast Boy cried out when their adversary was in sight.
The great ugly blob was busy ripping out a sewage system from the middle of the street. Citizens were fleeing in every direction.
"Titans, GO!" Came their cue.
A sonic blast soon got Plasmus's attention, only to find he was being pelted by a barrage of starbolts. With a wordless gurgling, he retaliated, covering Cyborg and an approaching rhino-shaped Beast Boy in muck.
Next he squished Robin with a blob from his hand, stopping a jump kick in its tracks.
"Robin!" Starfire flew to his side, only to find herself also covered in the sticky mess.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" A nearby streetlight suddenly came to life, twisting itself around Plasmus's legs.
Plasmus looked up, to see Raven, her eyes glowing eerily.
"Grrrrrrraaaaaaaaagggghhhhhhhh!" He brought his arm up, catching her in the glop that should have been a hand and slamming her into the ground.
The street light stopped contracting, but it was still wound around his legs. Taking advantage of Plasmus's current immobility Cyborg shot a sonic beam through his head. Beast Boy first in the form of a sparrow to get above him, and then a hippopotamus, let gravity take care of the rest.
This reduced Plasmus to a pile of mush, but not for long. Instead he morphed into four different, smaller, blob-like creatures. Cyborg found himself being chased by a weird creature with a big mouth and several pairs of feet, Starfire was being chased away by an octopus, Beast Boy by a weird blob resembling Plasmus's head, and Robin was trying to fight off a snake-like creature that constantly dodged his attacks and twisted around him.
"Eeeeee!" Starfire fired multiple starbolts, but the octopus creature lashed a tentacle around her foot, pulling her from the air.
Beast Boy was busy trying to dodge the barrage of muck Plasmus's head was spitting at him, and Cyborg was running, trying to shoot his elusive chaser.
The different parts of Plasmus were chasing the Titans away from each other. Beast Boy ran into an alley, Cyborg was running away down the street with his quick-footed follower, and Robin and Starfire were slowly backing away in the opposite direction.
Suddenly, a blob of left over plasma exploded on the sidewalk, revealing Raven. She coughed and gasped for air, having not been able to breath under the glop. Her arms shook just from holding her in a sitting position, if she had had enough air in her lungs she would be cursing herself for even considering using the fortunetelling cards last night. What had she been thinking? It had obviously taken more out of her than she thought.
Struggling, she managed to get to her feet without help, but her knees shook and she was sure she would collapse any minute. This was what happened when she overused her powers, yet another reason to have to keep her emotions under check. Her breathing calmed, and Raven could breathe normally. She barely had any energy left to lift her head and take in her surroundings, noting all the Titans had disappeared.
She swayed and fell backwards, hoping she would be unconscious by the time she hit the hard concrete. But instead she found herself captured in a strong embrace. Her eyes closed, she no longer had the energy to keep them open. Was that Cyborg talking in her ear? Her hearing wasn't working right, the world seemed to be spinning...
...Nighty night...
~*~
Starfire suddenly let loose an explosion of bright energy, blasting the octopus to smithereens. She turned where she hovered in the air. "Robin!"
She flew over to help him and soon the plasma snake was taken down too, with a couple of starbolts and a jump kick or two.
"C'mon, we gotta help the others!" Robin started running back down the street with Starfire following.
When they turned the corner Beast Boy and Cyborg were triumphantly exiting an alleyway a little down the street.
Cyborg was brushing off his sonic canon arm. "You owe me big time, BB!"
"Look!" Starfire called out, pointing to the sidewalk. "He's got Raven!"
The four Titans turned to the hooded figure trapped between them on the sidewalk. Seeing that he was being scrutinized he bent his knees slightly as if readying for battle and hugged the unconscious Raven closer to his chest. His face was hidden by a deep hood, much resembling Raven's, and he was dressed entirely in black. His ragged cloak was held around his neck with a silver brooch at his throat and it reached down to the back of his knees, shivering slightly in the breeze. He wore black leather combat boots and a shirt and pants made out of a durable, soft black fabric unknown to the Titans. He also wore a heavy leather belt with a silver buckle which held two daggers and a couple throwing knives. His arms were bare and the Titans could see on the shoulder of one muscular arm he had a tattoo of a loping white wolf.
"Let her go!" Cyborg yelled, powering up his sonic cannon. While Beast Boy readied himself beside him.
Strapped to the stranger's back over the short, patched cloak was a long, pitch black lacquered staff. Seeing Cyborg's canon and the other Titans readying themselves for battle, he drew it out now. He hefted it expertly in his right hand, the arm with the tattoo. The ends of the stick were reinforced with silver caps and, seeing this, Robin drew his own staff.
"I SAID let her go!" Cyborg repeated.
The darkly attired stranger looked back and forth between the Titans on either side of him. He lifted Raven and held her over his left shoulder, using one hand to balance her. Then he bent his knees and gripped the quarter staff, Robin instantly recognized it as a defensive stance, this guy was looking for a fight.
"Titans, GO!"
On their cue, the Titans attacked. Raven's captor leaped to dodge the sonic canon blast and several starbolts. Then raised his stick and slammed it down on a green tentacle that had been grabbing for his legs. Robin moved in as Beast Boy was yipping in pain and threw two birdarangs.
These were dodged, but it gave Robin a chance to get in close with his staff. He grunted when he found his attack had been blocked by the stranger's own staff. So he jumped up, using his staff against the stranger's for leverage and brought his foot down on the stranger's head.
He grunted and stumbled backwards but managed to recover himself in time to keep Raven from slipping off his shoulder and returning an attack to Robin. The quarter staff caught his arm which Robin had raised to throw another birdarang, causing him to drop it and clutch his smarting forearm, but when the birdarang hit the ground it exploded, knocking the Titans' leader to the ground.
The new Titan enemy jumped back to dodge a charging rhino and then more starbolts. Seeing an opportunity, he turned and ran down an alleyway with the three standing Titans following him. Nearly slipping on the remains of the part of Plasmus that had been chasing Beast Boy, he reached the end of the alley, to find a dead end.
"You're trapped now!" Cyborg smiled, lifting his canon.
The stranger backed up to the plasma splattered brick wall, bending to one side to gently lay Raven behind a couple of garbage cans. He then took his quarter staff into both hands, falling into an offensive stance this time with one end of his stick pointing toward the three Titans blocking his path.
"This is your last chance! We do not want to hurt you!" Starfire was saying, her hands already starting to glow bright green.
The stranger didn't say a word, didn't move from his battle- ready pose.
"Well, you heard him." Cyborg said and let the sonic blast fly.
"Ruvna, Shikra, Tibre!" He yelled, holding his staff horizontal in front of him. A light blue aura formed around him and Raven, blocking Cyborg's shot completely.
"Whoa, did you guys see that!?" Beast Boy exclaimed.
The blue light dissipated and suddenly the stranger was on the attack. Before the Titans could react he had used his staff to knock Cyborg's feet from under him and he had pushed Beast Boy against the wall and then into a dumpster. Dodging starbolts he leaped off a trash can to get some air and knocked down Starfire. He landed above her, raising his quarter staff above his head and readying to bring it down on the dazed alien's head.
"Agggggghhhhhhhhhhh!" Robin screamed as he jump kicked their hooded adversary square in the chest, knocking him onto his back, he shoved his own staff against his throat threateningly. "Who are you and what do you want?" He commanded fiercely.
He started to retaliate but then Cyborg appeared and held him down. "He ASKED you a QUESTION!"
The stranger shook his head in defiance, but this also caused his hood to slip back and reveal his face. The countenance that was revealed was that of a young teenage boy, if not their own age, then one or two years their senior. He had icy, light blue eyes that burned with fury and retaliation. His skin was pale and so was his shoulder length hair which was the peculiar color of silver and it reflected the midmorning light in the shadowy alleyway. He had high cheek bones and eyebrows and eyelashes of the same silvery color as his hair.
Beast Boy climbed out of the garbage rubbing his head and trying to brush off the stains of who-knows-what from his costume. "Aw, man! Did it have to be a dumpster?" He looked up. "Hey, you caught him!"
"Yes, and now Raven will be safe." Starfire said, coming to stare down at their defiant adversary.
"Safe? With you?! You gotta be kidding me!" The teenager snarled, opening his mouth for the first time since they had met him. He tried to break from Robin's and Cyborg's grip but they held him tight. "Hey! You stay away from her, you dirtbag!" He yelled at Beast Boy who was pulling the still unconscious Raven from out behind the garbage cans.
"Wha— Hey!"
Suddenly the un-hooded teenager jumped up from under Cyborg and Robin, throwing them aside with a sudden burst of the same blue energy that had shielded him from the sonic blast. Moving with agility, he tossed Beast Boy aside into the garbage cans and grabbed Raven.
Before anyone could even blink he was gone with a flash of more blue light, and so was Raven.
"They're gone!" Starfire gasped.
"Dude..." Beast Boy picked himself up, brushing off more grime. "The garbage cans again? Aw, man!"
"What happened? He took Raven!" Cyborg's expression changed quickly from surprised to angry. "He took Raven!!"
Robin stared silently at the place they had disappeared, grimacing. "Slade's work I bet! First Plasmus to distract us, then he sends in that guy to kidnap Raven!"
"Hey, you guys, you think she'll be okay? Wherever that guy's taken her?" Beast Boy looked to Robin, the worry apparent in her face. The other Titans turned to him as well.
He shrugged. "If Slade did this there's no telling, but I can bet she's in trouble."
Cyborg raised his arm and started scanning for any traces of where they had gone, but he found none. They had simply disappeared. "I got nuthin' here..."
Robin straightened his shoulders, going into leader mode. "Well, there's nothing we can do at the moment. We better go back to the tower and get some rest. We can't help her if we're too tired."
The Titans agreed and they all headed home, their spirits somewhat dampened.
~~~
Several blocks away a flash of blue light marked the arrival of the stranger in an abandoned warehouse on the docks, Raven asleep in his arms. Looking around, he saw that he had lost the people who had been trying to get Raven away from him, but this certainly wasn't the kind of place he wanted Raven to wake up to. Empty old crates were everywhere, and there was a layer of dust over everything that must have been left untouched for a couple of years.
His knees sagged and he could feel the exhaustion creeping up on him. He didn't have a knack for magic, just a few simple spells, so transportation spells like the one he had just used could easily tire him out. This would have to do, once he had rested he could move himself and Raven to more reasonable quarters. Besides, he had slept in places worse than this.
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A/N: A good sized chapter, I had more time on my hands than I thought I would. Aren't you all wondering where Robin hid that clicker??? Review!