Summary: A traveling magician who uses actual magic, and who happens to be in Jump City when it's struck by a strange green comet. Then he meets other strange people, and begins to discover something he wouldn't mind. A place to call home.
Teen Titans: Arcana the Magnificent
In the city below, a mugger dressed in black and gray was rushing to avoid the cops, having just successfully pulled off another bank robbery. He quickly turned and bolted down an alleyway, hoping to lose the squad cars chasing after him. Somehow, they didn't see him, and rushed past.
The robber grinned and held up his bag of stolen money. Another job well done. He began walking down the alleyway when a shadow suddenly passed over him. "Huh?" he said, looking up and around. But the shadow was gone as soon as it had appeared, leaving him thoroughly spooked.
He drew his crowbar for protection, but then a red projectile whistled through the air and hit the weapon, knocking it out of his hand. Starting to freak out, he yelled "Hey, whoever you are, I don't want any trouble! Okay?!"
He heard something land behind him, and a voice say, "If you can't pay the price, don't do the crime." He whirled around just in time to be caught with a flying kick to the chest, sending him back. The criminal quickly recovered and charged at his attacker, letting loose a series of blows there were all either blocked or deflected.
Then the attacker responded with a rising knee to stomach and then a spinning kick to the head, making the robber see stars. He was completely unable to counterattack, and that let his assailant grab him and throw him into the wall hard enough to send him to ground.
The robber groaned and looked up, trying to see who had whooped him. Once he was able to see, his eyes went huge. It was a teen only five feet and four inches in height, with slicked back hair and a domino mask. He had on green tights with black steel-toed boots, green elbow-length gloves, a red vest with a yeller letter "R" over the left side pectoral, a yellow utility belt and black cape with a yellow interior.
The crook stared. "What the hell?! This ain't your town! Aren't you supposed to be-?" he began, before the teen interrupted him.
"Just moved here. And from now on, I work alone," he stated. Before either of them could say anything else, however, they were interrupted by the arrival of the glowing green comet, which flew overhead before finally crashing several blocks away, creating a large explosion on impact.
Seeing that, Robin was quick to bind the thug in front of him up and call in to have the police come to pick him up, before rushing off.
"Well, that was the last of them. I'm starting to run out of jobs," a young man said aloud.
Said young man was walking down the streets of Jump City, having finished with his latest gig at a nearby café. It was surprisingly hard to find places that wanted to hire a traveling magician for a show, even if it was only one night. Apparently, the one places left were either carnivals, Vegas casinos, or at kids' birthday parties. 'None of which I have a low enough opinion of myself to work at," he thought.
The lack of proper streetlights made it hard to see his face, but it was obvious that he was wearing a black, three-piece suit with a white undershirt, a light gray tie, and white gloves. His short silver hair was covered by a black top hat, which went well with his black cape and black dress shoes. The inside of the cape was the same light gray as his tie, and his eyes were a surprisingly clear green, like emeralds.
As he continued to walk, and try to think of places where he could get work, the comet from before passed overhead and landed only a block ahead of him, in front of some pizzeria. Curious, he joined the crowd and converged on the scene.
The impact had kicked up a large cloud of smoke, as well as left a circular crater in the ground. Slowly, the smoke faded, revealing that the comet had not been made of rock, ice or something similar, but was actually a person.
The person was female and had long auburn hair with orange skin, as well as eyes there were glowing the same green she had been previously enveloped in. She was wearing purple body armor with silver metals plates on top of it, including a face guard that covered her forehead and jaws, and a silver pauldron over around her neck. One odd thing that did not go with the outfit was the pair of white metal cylinders that covered the upper half of her arms, bolted in place and held together by a half-ring of dark grey metal.
The girl jumped down from the edge of the crater and looked around, scaring most of the crowd with how hostile her stance and expression were. She opened her mouth and began talking, but none of them could understand her. "Slopforn ivortmat! Slopforn! Ond gudshik zerrole!" she yelled.
Then young man titled his head and hummed. "Should I use a Translation spell to figure out what this space-girl was saying? Do I even need to know?" he said to himself.
The one of the witnesses had the bright idea of taking a picture of the girl, and the flash caused her to recoil and shut her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked even more enraged than before, and roared before swinging her bound arms into the ground, crushing the asphalt and creating a shockwave that spread out in all directions.
That was enough to convince all of the other civilians to start running away, screaming in fear as the alien girl went on a rampage. She swung her arms into a taxi and nearly rent it in two, sending it flying. She did the same thing with a phone booth and caused spark of fly from the impact while she turned and smash a concrete bench to pieces.
"You know, you should probably quit doing that. I doubt you have enough money to pay for all these damages," the young magician told her.
The space-girl paused and looked over at him, momentarily surprised that he hadn't run away. When he simply smiled and waved, she growled before flying at him and trying to knock his head off.
"Whoa, there!" he called, letting himself fall backwards to avoid the hit. As he did, a hole suddenly appeared over the ground behind him, looking for all the world like one of those bottomless pits out of a cartoon. Another hole appeared over the ground behind the alien, and he let himself fall into the first one.
An instant later, he rose out of the second hole and got to his feet. Reaching over, he tapped the girl twice on the shoulder. Quickly, she spun around and tried to bash him again, but he repeated the trick and ended up behind her. "Now, if I didn't know any better, I'd think that you really were trying to ki-" he managed to say, before she gave up trying to hit him with the metal cylinder and just kicked him in the stomach.
The pure strength behind the blow drove all the air from his lungs, as well as sent him flying several feet away. With the unknown magician temporarily out of the picture, the alien girl resumed her path of wanton destruction.
Or at least, she would have, had a red bird-shaped projectile not suddenly hit her out of nowhere. Luckily, the metal forehead protector she had on deflected it, but the impact still left her slightly dazed.
Looking around for whoever had the gall to do throw that at her, she saw Robin standing on top one of the undamaged cars. Quickly moving into a martial arts stance, he simply asked "Who are you?"
Either she didn't understand the question or chose to ignore it, as the alien girl's response was to charge at him and try to turn him into a smear on the pavement. Luckily for the Boy Wonder, he was able to avoid each strike, showing off the skill of a born acrobat. However, that left no room for him to counter, and she even shrugged him one of his exploding discs.
After the blast from the disc cleared, she sent her own projectile at him. That projectile being an entire car, which she kicked at him like a football. It flew end over end and he was forced to duck. However, that was the exact moment where the magician from before got to feet, saying "I'm okay! Arcana the Magnificent is oka- AAAH!" he screamed, seeing the hunk of metal flying towards him.
Robin cursed and turned around, despite knowing that he wouldn't get there in time. So imagine his surprise when the teen, Arcana, pulled out a regular black wand with white tips, and pointed it at the car. He yelled a few words in a language neither witness understood, and the car was enveloped in a large cloud of smoke.
What came out of the cloud was a rubber chicken, which landed harmlessly against the ground in front of him. Picking it up, Arcana glared at the alien. "Okay, now you're starting to tick me off!" he yelled, and threw the chicken at her. It was enveloped in another puff of smoke halfway through its flight. But rather than change back to a car, the rubber chicken became an actual chicken, who clucked and flapped its wings in panic.
The alien girl tilted her head to the side and let the chicken fly past her, too bemused by the display to even be angry. In fact, her confusion was such that she didn't even see the large green ram running at her from the side. Though, when the ram slammed into her and sent her into a nearby building, she certainly felt it.
Seeing that, the magician grinned and said "It's all about misdirection," as if he had planned the entire thing.
Meanwhile, the green ram transformed into a short, green-skinned teenager. His outfit consisted of a purple jumpsuit with black sides covering his arms, shoulder and the bottom halves of his legs, with a gray circular belt and matching gloves. His shoes matched the color scheme, being purple with gray soles and black trim. And over the top half of his head was a gray mask that had black rings around his eyes, as well as overly large pointed ears.
The mask-wearing teen snapped a quick salute, shouting "Ex-Doom Patrol Member Beast Boy, at your service! How can I help?" But then he stopped, realizing who was in front of him. "Whoa! You're Robin, aren't you?"
Quickly recognizing the hero-worship, Robin had to resist groaning. "Yes, I am," he said evenly.
And indeed, stars began appearing in Beast Boy's eyes. "Well, I've got to tell you that it's a real honor to meet you, sir! Honestly, you and Batman are-" he began, before Robin cut him off.
"Beast Boy, was it?" When the changeling nodded, he simply pointed to the left. Arcana was there, trying avoid getting crushed once more, as well as fiddling with a deck of cards.
"Come on, come on…" he said, shuffling the deck while running before drawing the first five cards. "Ha! Flush!" he declared, showing a five, eight, two, three and nine, all of spades. The cards glowed and shot out a massive wave of water, which hit the alien girl dead-on and sent her staggering back.
Growling in anger, she began to slowly pick up an entire bus, raising it over her head and aiming it at the three boys. With a shout, she threw it at them, forcing Robin and Beast Boy to dive to either side. Arcana dropped down through another of the magic holes, rising out of the ground seven feet to the left.
Just then, a large person in a gray hoodie and black pants jumped into the bus's path. Rather than be crushed by it, he instead actually caught it, skidding back a few feet before stopping. He placed the bus back on the ground and to the side, before looking at them.
"Yo! Who's been messing up my neighborhood!" he yelled, his one visible eyes glowing red.
"She started it!" Beast Boy said, pointing at the alien.
The girl took a few steps forward, and then released a battle cry and slammed her arms against the pavement. The blow was strong enough to nearly send all four of them onto their backs. The white metal cylinders also fell off, finally mangled beyond repair, though her arms still remained bound together.
The topheat-weaing teen stared. "Really? All she wanted was to have her restraints removed? I could have gotten her out of those in less than a minute!" he complained.
None of the others responded to him, too focused with what the alien girl did next. Which was aim her suddenly-glowing hands at them, and began unleashing wave after wave of green energy bolts. They were quick to split up, Robin and the one in the hoodie moving around to flank the girl while Beast Boy ran straight forward.
Arcana, on the other hand, waved his wand and the bus drove itself in front of him, taking the shots instead. Much like the bus, the group's surroundings were also peppered from the barrage, energy bolts hitting cars, the ground, buildings, everything. After about a solid minute of continuous firing, the alien girl finally stopped and fell to her knees, panting.
Robin, Beast Boy and the large teen joined the magician behind the bus to also take a breather. Unsurprisingly, it took the large teen less time to recover, and he said "That girl's gonna wreck the whole city of she keeps this up!"
Robin shook his head. "I won't let her. I'm not losing this fight!" he said, and ran out from behind the bus. The others followed, ready to begin a renewed assault of the alien girl. But no sooner had they made it just a few feet when a massive black wall of energy rose up in front of them. The barrier took the shape of a massive raven with its wings spread, one that released a very real caw.
Then they heard a voice behind them say "Maybe fighting isn't the way to solve this," and turned around. It was a girl, one who wore a long indigo cloak with a hood, held in place by a black and red jewel set in a gold plate. Although the cloak and hood obscured most of her other features, they could see that she had clear violet eyes and light gray skin. An opening in the cloak showed she was wearing a black long-sleeved leotard that left her legs exposed, wrists cuffs and ankle boots that matched her robe, and a black belt with the same type of jewel that held her cloak together.
Arcana hummed and tapped the barrier with his wand. "A physical barrier manifested by means of a nonphysical astral projection, fueled by a steady yet relatively small stream of energy… Impressive," he muttered.
The hooded girl looked at him in surprise, before releasing the barrier. That was when they saw how exhausted their foe was, and paused. Arcana stared at the sight for a moment, before saying "Hold on a second. I've got this."
Without waiting for a response, he started walking forward. Once he was close enough, the alien female managed to rise to her feet and point her hands at Arcana, growling.
"Easy there. My name is Arcana the Magnificent, and I don't harm those who don't ask for it," he told her, slowly reaching for his pocket. She shouted a few words at him in her language at him, but then he held up his wand for her to see.
She looked at it, and then at Arcana's calm expression. After a few seconds of tense silence, she calmed down as well, and the glow faded from their eyes. They were a vibrant shade of green, with her sclera being of a lighter green color, contrasting well with her orange skin and auburn hair.
Arcana quickly went to work, examining the restraints on the female alien's arms. Once he was satisfied that it was just a normal lock, he pointed his wand at them. "In the name of complete and utterly shameless spell stealing…" he said, before tapping the restraints with his wand. "Alohomura."
Just like that, the restraints magically unlocked themselves. The alien girl wasted no time in ripping them off and tossing them to the ground, sighing in relief. "There you go. Not so hard was-" Arcana began, but was stopped in a very direct way.
The alien girl reached forward and grabbed him by the front of his vest, before pulling him forward and trying to kiss him right on the lips. But Arcana was able to react in time and vanished in a puff of smoke, reappearing next to the others. And in his place, now being kissed instead, was Robin.
Robin's eyes went huge behind his mask, not even having the slightest idea what just happened or why she was doing this. After a few seconds, the girl released Robin from the kiss… and then shoved him hard enough that he fell on his ass.
"If you do not wish to be destroyed, you will leave me alone!" she warned in English, then shot into the air.
That left the four remaining teens to stand there, thoroughly shocked at what had just happened. Eventually, the silence was broken.
"So… I'm Beast Boy. Who are you?" the mask-wearing boy asked.
No one answered him, simply staring into the sky in silence. The teen wearing the jacket said "I gotta say, those two sure know how to make an impression."
"I'd say we were the ones to make an impression," Beast Boy pointed out, grinning. "The scary girl from space is gone, the city is saved, everything's 'mission accomplished'. Isn't that right, sir?" he asked, looking at Robin.
Robin responded "Quit calling me that." While Beast Boy gave him a nod and a sharp salute, he turned around and started walking. "Looks like this is done. Thanks for the help."
Arcana shrugged. "No problem. I was bored anyway," he replied.
The girl in the cloak looked at him for a moment, and then asked Robin "You're going to go after the alien?"
"Yes, I am. I have to make sure they're not still a threat," he stated.
"Hey! I want to go too!" Beast Boy said, running after him.
But Robin stopped him in his tracks, saying "Sorry, but I just decided to go solo recently. I'm not really interested in making a team."
Beast Boy wilted at that, muttering "Need a sidekick…?" But Robin either ignored him and or didn't hear him, and kept walking. So he turned to the other three, asking "You guys want to get some pizza?"
Arcana looked at him. "Do you have the money to pay for it? I'm broke right now," he said.
Beast Boy paused and shook his head, prompting the magician to say "Then thanks, but no thanks."
Then he walked away in same direction of the large teen, and the hooded girl was already gone. Deciding to follow the larger one, Beast Boy said "Just you and me, huh? That's cool! I haven't really had anyone to spend time with since I quit Doom Patrol, so this is gonna be fun. You want to play some video games?"
But then the teen stopped and Beast Boy walked right into him, creating a thud that sounded rather… metallic. The gray-clad man turned around and lowered his hood, revealing that the left side of his face and neck, the left and right parts of his skull and his chin were all replaced by light blue, dark blue and gray mechanical parts.
"There! Take a good, long look! I had an accident, and now I'm a monster, alright? A cyborg!" he yelled.
Bur rather than be horrified or intimidated, the sight did nothing but awe the green-skinned changeling. "A cyborg? Cool! You're the next generation's Robot Man!" he said.
Arcana shrugged. "Hey, if you think what happened to you is bad, you should see my old teacher. Just a regular stage magician, but then he managed to find a hat and wand that actually gave him magical powers. Next thing I know, he's gone completely insane, his skin's turned blue, and he tried to stuff me into his freaking hat! I am not a rabbit!" he said, beginning to rant.
The gray-wearing cyborg stared at the both, with a neutral expression. "You're a weird pair of little dudes. You know that, right?" he stated.
Beast Boy chuckled. "You called me 'dude'. Hehe." That caused him to roll his remaining eye and resume walking away. "So… see you later? Right, dude? Dude?" But he still didn't get any response. A moment later, his ears twitched as he picked up a low humming, and the area around him turned darker. Looking up, he saw that it was because of a massive spaceship. "DUDE!"
Cyborg and Arcana looked up as well, and stared at the ship as it flew overhead. It passed over the buildings and continued to the small island in the middle of the bay. Once over it, the ship released a large orange object shaped like a torch, which slammed into the island and kicked up a large cloud of dust.
Cyborg frowned. "Looks like our space girl came with some friends," he said.
"Or enemies," Robin added, joining them.
The torch-like object released a blast of blue electricity skywards, which then resolved into a hologram of another alien. This one was similar to the lizard-fish-men that had been on the spaceship, though the one they saw now seemed to be the leader.
"People of Earth," the lizard-fish-man began, "We have come to this planet hunting an escaped prisoner. A very dangerous prisoner, at that. Do not attempt to interfere with our search, and we will leave this city intact. But if you attempt to assist her, we will make sure that your destruction is absolute."
And with that, the hologram faded away. A set of doors on the side of the torch opened, allowing dozens of other aliens similar to the one that had spoken to fly out, racing towards the city.
"They told us not to interfere," the girl in the cloak said, having joined them during the speech.
"Very true. And I usually only take jobs I'm actually getting paid for. I doubt there's any money in this," Arcana added.
Robin didn't say anything to response, prompting Cyborg to look at him. "You're still going to go after her, aren't you?"
Robin nodded, and Beast Boy saw his chance. "Oooh! Can I come?" he asked.
There was a moment of silence… and then the Boy Wonder smiled. "I suppose I can team up. Just this once," he said, causing the rest of them to smile.
They began to head out, but the cloaked girl stayed behind, a dismayed expression on her face. Arcana noticed that she wasn't coming, and asked "Are you still with us?"
Looking up at him, she said "I… I'm not the hero type." She turned away. "Trust me. If you knew what I am, you wouldn't want me around," she told them.
Arcana placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look back at him. "You were willing to put yourself in the middle of a fight to avoid conflict. That tells me enough." He gave her a reassuring smile, and behind her, the other teens did the same.
As the search for the alien girls continued, the aliens that were searching for her seemed to be making no progress. They tore the roofs off cars, blew up those same cars, destroyed anything they encountered with energy blasts from the ends of their spears… All in all, it was clear that they were much more interested in finding their target than keeping the damage to a minimum like their leader said they would.
As they moved on, the group of five teens emerged from a nearby alleyway. Robin whispered "Alright, we need to think of some way to track-"
"They're nearby," the girl in the cloak interjected, causing the others to look at her in confusion. She lowered her head in embarrassment. "I-I'm an empath. I can sense things."
"I've got a sonic analyzer built into my arm. If those two are around, I'll be able to hear it," Cyborg said, pulling back his sleeve to show that his arm was indeed also mechanical.
"And I'll see if I can pick up their scent!" Beast Boy said, before changing into a green bloodhound and sniffing around on the ground. After a few moments of waiting, he barked and suddenly took off, while the sonic analyzer also started showing a heartbeat.
Following Beast Boy, Cyborg and the hooded girl's lead, the five of them quickly made their way to a video rental store, one that had a large hole burnt into the side of it. Inside, they could see a familiar girl grabbing food items left and right before scarfing them down. She ate with such speed that she didn't even bother to remove the wrappers from anything, and what didn't go into her mouth was sent through the air until it landed on the floor.
In shock at the sheer speed at which they were eating, Beast Boy hesitantly said "Um… You know, those would taste better if you took them out of the wrappers."
That alerted her to their presence, and she turned around. "Hraagh!" the girl snarled, creating another orb of green energy in each hand. The quintet quickly backed away, not interested in starting another fight. Or at least, most of them weren't.
Arcana, on the other hand, reached into his hat and pulled out another rubber chicken, which he held in both hands like a sword. "I will use this if I have to, but I'd rather not," he said seriously. In any other scenario, he would have looked downright ridiculous, trying to pass the fake animal as a weapon. But having seen what he could do with ordinary objects already, the alien girl knew not to be dismiss him. "Besides, we're all friends here, right?" he added.
The girl narrowed her eyes. "Friends? Why? Why did you free me?" she asked.
"We were just trying to be, you know, nice," Beast Boy said nervously.
"'Nice'?" the alien repeated, her brow creasing as she tried to understand the meaning of the word. "This word does not exist on my planet. The closest word is rutha, 'weak'," she said, before moving into a fighting stance. "And we do not tolerate the weak."
At that, Cyborg was able to momentarily overcome his fear, and shot back "Well, on this planet, 'nice' means 'nice'. And if you want us to keep being nice, you'll tell us why the lizard-fish took you prisoner."
She blinked at that, and the glow slowly faded from her hands and eyes. "Not prisoner. I am… prize," she said, garnering a fair amount of surprise from all five of them. Arcana even lowered his chicken, and she continued "They are Gordanians, and they wish to deliver me to the Citadel. To live as their servant."
"And the Citadel is…?" the girl in the cloak said, trailing off.
The alien snorted. "Not. Nice," she said simply.
Robin stepped closer. "Then you're not going with them. Not if I have anything to say about it," he declared.
However, no sooner had he said that then one of the walls of the building exploded, sending them all to the ground. Once the smoke cleared, they saw who was responsible. It was over a dozen of the lizard-fish-men, who zeroed their gazes on the alien girl once they saw that she was there. "Seize her!" one of them called, and they charged.
The six teens got back up and met their charge. Cyborg nailed one with a double axe-handle, made all the more powerful by the fact that his limbs were metal instead of flesh. Beast Boy changed into a rhinoceros and nearly gored one with his horn, while sending several others hurtling in separate directions. The alien girl hit one of them with an uppercut that caused its head to go through the ceiling, before she threw more energy bolts at the others.
Arcana waved his wand and yelled "No longer will you be lizards, fish, men or lizard-fish-men. Now, you are just fish!" Then he pointed his wand at three of them and fired a beam of light. It hit all three and they were enveloped in a blue glow. When it faded, a trio of catfish were in their place, flopping around on the ground.
Robin drew an extendable staff from his belt and used it to great effect, hitting any Gordanians that came close hard enough to knock them out. And the hooded girl coated her hands in the same black aura as before, using that to send any that neared her flying.
Eventually, one of them managed to keep a lucky hit on the alien girl with its spear, shooting an energy blast that sent her through another section of the store, and out into the open street. Three more came after her, and she was able to dispatch two of them with her energy blasts. But the third one flew close enough that she could no longer try that, and so she tried to knock it out with a right hook.
Only for it to dodge the attack and slam its spear into her back. She shot down and crashed against the street hard enough to leave a spider-web of cracks, and the Gordanian landed on top of her. It pointed its spear and was about to unleash a blast at point-blank range… when a Snickers bar the size of a large dog suddenly slammed into its head from the behind.
"Eat that, and stop being so hostile!" Arcana said, stepping outside with his wand again raised.
The Gordanian dizzily turned around, still seeing stars from the hit. It was so dazed that it didn't even see Robin throw the one he was fighting into it, downing them both. The mask-wearing teen, the magician, and the alien girl smiled at each other, before rejoining the fight and working side by side.
After that, the fight quickly moved outside, with no side showing any signs of giving up. Cyborg grappled with one of them, trying to overcome it with sheer strength, until it tripped him by pulling his ankle with its tail. He rolled to the side to avoid getting shot in the face, and flipped onto his feet. But more blasts kept coming, hitting him all over and generating a smokescreen.
When the smoke faded, his jacket and pants were virtually gone, showing off all of his cybernetics in their full form. Cyborg shouted in anger and swung at the Gordanian that had tripped him. It raised its spear to block it, but he punched hard enough to not only break the spear in half, but to send its owner into several of its comrades.
More shots kept peppering him until Beast Boy, in the form of a pterodactyl, grabbed him by the shoulders and carried him out of the line of fire. When they tried to give chase, Arcana conjured an actual fish net that caught two of them, causing them to fall out of the sky. Then the cloaked girl used her powers to cover a nearby streetlight in dark energy, before using it as an improvised bat to knock the rest of them into the dirt.
It finally dawned on the Gordanians that, even though they had greater numbers, they still had no chance of winning, and some flew away in retreat. The rest followed their allies' example and fled as well.
Once they were all gone, silence reigned once more, the fight finished. The redhead looked at the rest of them. "I believe your expression is… thanks," the girl said roughly.
Cyborg nodded back, before looking down at the remains of his outfit. "Aw, man! My suit," he groaned.
"So what? I think you look cooler without it," Beast Boy remarked, giving him a thumbs-up.
Arcana raised an eyebrow. "Says the green-skinned shapeshifter in a clown mask," he said, while also subtly snapping his fingers.
Beast Boy looked at him in confusion. "Clown mask? What are you even-" he began, before there was puff of white smoke, and his gray mask was indeed replaced by a clown mask. He nearly shrieked in surprise and yelled "Dude, not cool! What about my secret identity!?"
"What secret identity? You're green," the sorceress pointed out.
Beast Boy was silent for a moment, processing what she had just said. He tried to come up with some sort of counter, opening his mouth. But then he stopped, realizing that she was right. With a sigh, he pulled off his mask, revealing that his hair was spiky and just as green as the rest of him, while his ears were smaller than the mask indicated, though still pointed.
"This is not over. Now, Trogaar will strike even harder. It is only a matter of-" the alien girl started, before she was cut off by another talking hologram that appeared.
"Fools!" the alien, who they assumed to be Trogaar, yelled. "The Earth scum were warned. You have aided our prisoners, and such insolence must be punished. Your city will be destroyed!"
Then the hologram faded away again, and the Gordanian ship pointed its main gun at the city, which began charging up. As it did, the civilians throughout the city started to panic, scurrying around like frightened ants beneath a magnifying glass
"Great," the cloaked magic-caster said, looking up at the ship.
Beast Boy grabbed the hair on either side of his head. "So… after trashing both a pizza place and a perfectly innocent video store, now we've made an evil space lizard angry enough to vaporize our entire city?!" he said.
"Go team," Cyborg said flatly.
The alien girl glared at Robin. "This fault is all yours! I commanded that you leave me alone, but you insisted on being 'nice'!" she said angrily.
"My fault?" Robin replied. "You blast me, you kiss me, but you never once decided to mention that they have a giant particle weapon!?"
Arcana sighed. "Well, I might as well get my things together if I'm going to escape," he said, taking off his top hat and looking inside. "Let's see… Tent, can of peaches, magic props, a week's worth of clothes, industrial bug spray, fire-proof canoe…" he said, causing the hooded girl to look at him strangely at that last part. Why did in the world did you need a canoe that was fireproof?
Beast Boy groaned. "We're all so doomed! I can't believe I let you talk me into this!" he said, looking over at Cyborg.
"Say what?! I was ready to walk, but then you started following me!" the partly-mechanical teen shot back.
As the four of them continued arguing, and said arguing grew steadily louder, the sorceress tried to remain calm. After several more seconds, however, she finally snapped and yelled "QUIET!" They did just that, and looked over at her. Feeling all their gazes at once, she nervously waved her hand. "Hi," she said.
Satisfied that he had everything he needed in case he did need to run, Arcana looked up at them. "Look, how we fell into this mess isn't important. What matters now is that we stop it from getting worse," he told them.
"He's right. We're in this together, and that's how we'll get out of it. Together," Robin said. One by one, the others smiled and nodded. "Alright. Now, let's go save this city."
Inside the Gordanian ship, the atomization beam hummed as it continued charging up until it had enough power to destroy Jump City in one blast. A group of Gordanians passed by an empty hallway as they rushed to report to their lord. The moment they did pass it, though, an orb of pitch-black energy rose out of the floor.
That orb that dissipated to reveal the group of six heroes, with Raven at the front. Beast Boy shivered and said "Dude, that dark energy stuff gives me the-" But then he stopped when he noticed Raven staring at him, a flicker of annoyance visible in her eyes. "I mean, uh, it's cool!" he quickly said.
Robin looked around the corner to make sure that the coast was clear. Once he was sure it was, he said "We have to get to the firing controls. Let's keep moving."
They began moving quietly towards the next room, but the mage once again stayed behind. She didn't get the chance to do that for long, as Cyborg asked, "Mind telling me why you're always alone?"
She looked up to see him standing in front of her, and she diverted her gaze elsewhere. "It's like the kid said. I don't exactly fit in," she said.
Cyborg placed a hand on her shoulder. "He's green, I'm mostly made of metal, he uses magic tricks that make stage magicians look like chumps, and she's from outer space. Trust me, you fit in just fine." That said, he used the hand on her shoulder to gently push her forward, and she let him.
Robin had taken point, and was looking around to make sure that they didn't run into any opposition. As they kept going, the redhead approached him, getting his attention. "I bring you a… apology," she said.
The girl smiled. "You are… nice. On my world, only my k'norfka showed me such kindness," she told him.
Robin smiled. "Well, things are different here," he said. The two of them stared at each other, and a faint dusting of pink appeared on the young woman's cheeks.
The tender moment was soon broken, and by Beast Boy saying "Uh, guys? I think they found us!" and pointing ahead.
True enough, a group of more Gordanians had appeared in front of them, with more approaching from behind. Arcana grunted and raised his wand, calling forth his trusty wand. "Then let's start the show!" he called, and they sprung forward.
On the main deck of the ship, a monitor showed the atomization beam reach its full power. One of the Gordanians turned around in its chair, saying "Lord Trogaar. We are ready to fire at your command."
Above them, a large thronelike chair swiveled around, showing the Gordanian who had been on the projections. "Then begin the firing countdown," Trogaar ordered. They did just that, and a timer in their language appeared on the monitor. He smirked. "The scum of Earth shall learn that it takes more than six delinquent heroes to defy me!"
The weapon glowed as it prepared to fire, but just before it could, the door behind Trogaar exploded, and all the Gordanians turned to see what caused it. Standing there was Robin, with Beast Boy and Cyborg on either side of him, the two girls hovering in the air and flanking them, while Arcana was standing above and behind them on an energy disc Raven conjured.
Trogaar growled in rage and his minions ran towards the heroes. The heroes ran as well, Robin jumping into the air and delivering a flying kick to the face of one of them. Cyborg slammed his fists into the floor hard enough to create a shockwave, one that sent two more onto their backs. Beast Boy transformed into a kangaroo and kicked another two in the gut with his full strength. And the female redhead hit one with an uppercut so hard she nearly made its head touch its feet.
Arcana sidestepped when one of the Gordanians tried to stab him with his spear, and drew his deck of playing cards. This time, however, he threw them one at time time, like shuriken, and they cut into its scales with equal sharpness. Then he used his 'flush' trick again, sending them away with another wave of water.
Beast Boy used the ability granted to him by his animal forms to avoid being hit several times, However, he failed to notice Trogaar coming in from behind. The massive alien hit him with a backhand hard enough to make him crash into a wall and fall to the ground, unmoving. He charged forward to deal the finishing blow, but then the Raven rose out of the ground in front of him and created a barrier.
Trogaar growled and smashed his fists against the barrier. The girl tried to maintain it, but eventually it gave out, and she fell down next to Beast Boy. Trogaar grinned as he prepared to end them, but then he was interrupted a second time, this time by regular bull that tackled him from the side.
Looking in the direction it came from, he saw Arcana standing there behind several other bulls, grinning maliciously. "Hope you practiced running!" he called, before waving his wand and causing a square of bright red cloth to appear over Trogaar's chest. As expected, the moment they saw it, the other bulls charged at him in a stampede, sharpened horns pointed right at him.
Trogaar roared and swung his massive arms, knocking several of them to either side, where they turned back into knocked-out Gordanians. What ones he couldn't send away, he avoided both spreading his own wings and flying over them. He dived at Arcana, ready to tear him into ribbons, but then Robin came in from the side and delivered a strong left jab, followed up by an equally strong spin kick.
Trogaar landed harshly on the ground and tried to regain his bearings. When Robin came in for another round of hits, he was caught by a massive hand wrapping around his midsection, before throwing him into the wall harder than even Beast Boy had been hit.
The female redhead gasped and called "Robin!" Feeling herself filled with renewed rage, she punched the minion she was fighting hard enough to knock it out cold, and flew at Trogaar. She threw as many starbolts as she could at him, kicking up yet another smokescreen. Trogaar jumped through that smokescreen and tackled her to the ground. She struggled to break free and succeeded, just as Cyborg finished off the minion who had attacked him.
Working together, the two teens dealt a devastating series of blows to the alien lord, their enhanced strength gradually wearing him down. But Trogaar wouldn't go down like that, and he dealt back those same blows with interest, sending them back until they landed on either side of Robin. When Cyborg landed, the armor plating on his right arm shifted around, briefly exposing the circuitry underneath.
Robin saw this and got an idea. "Your arm. Can you reconfigure it into another form, like a weapon?"
Cyborg glanced down at his arm. "I can't make any promises, but I can try," he said.
Looking up, they saw that they had been surrounded, and Trogaar smirked down at them in victory. But then they heard Raven speak up, and looked over to see her standing next Arcana, who was reluctantly carrying Beast Boy on his back. "Get away from my friends," she said, her eyes beginning to glow white as dark energy surrounded her. "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!"
The energy around her exploded outwards, leaving her allies unharmed but dealing massive damage to Trogaar and his minions. The blast also blew a hole in the roof of the command deck and destroyed the ship's controls, causing the particle beam to shut down. The loss of controls also caused the entire ship to begin descending until it crashed into the bay.
After the crash, the six heroes slowly rose to their feet, looking around at the defeated Gordanians. At least, until Trogaar managed to stand back up, looking at Raven with unbridled fury. It came closer and she wasn't able to conjure another barrier, that last move having drained what was left of her reserves.
Arcana handed Beast Boy off to her and stood in the way, holding up his wand. The claws on the end of Trogaar's fingers grew to the size of daggers, and he raised his hand to claw the teen to shreds. Just as he swung downwards, a ringed beam of bright blue and white appeared behind the alien lord, hitting him in the center of his back.
Trogaar managed to release a one last cry of pain before falling forward, down for the count once and for all. Behind him, Cyborg's right arm had been changed into some sort of cannon, which was smoking slightly from that last hit. "Alright, I'm only going to say this once," he declared, before smiling. "Boo-yah!"
Later on, the remaining Gordanians had taken their few working ships and managed to escape, leaving behind the torch-projector-thing and their destroyed warship. All six of the teens, minus alien girl, were standing at the edge of the small island where the projector was, watching as the sun slowly rose over the horizon.
The cloaked girl lowered her hood, showing that she had short hair that was the same purple color as her eyes, as well as a red jewel in the center of her forehead. "That's quite a view," she said.
Cyborg nodded, crossing his arms. "Someone ought to build a house out here."
"Yeah. If you like sunshine and the beach," Beast Boy said, lightly elbowing Raven.
She smiled ever so slightly at him, saying "You know, you're kind of funny."
That proved to be the wrong thing to say, as the changeling eyes grew sparkles just like when he had first met Robin, and his head also grew out of proportion. "You think I'm funny? Oh, duuuude! Do I know some jokes!" he said, causing the girl to lean back nervously.
Arcana chuckled. "I'd like to see what pranks you can pull compared to me," he challenged, holding up wand to emphasize his point.
As the four of them talked amongst each other, and Robin simply stood off to the side, the alien siblings slowly approached from behind. "Please. I look… nice?" the girl asked hesitantly. They looked back and saw that she had changed her outfit, with it now consisting a purple crop top that showed her stomach, a miniskirt and thigh-high boots of the same color, as well as a silver neck collar, silver gauntlets with green gems in them, and a silver band on her right arm. Her forehead protector was also gone, showing that she had short eyebrows that brought attention to her eyes.
Robin stepped towards them, saying "We still don't know your names."
Walking towards them, she said "In your language, it would be 'Star Fire'."
Cyborg smiled. "Welcome to Planet Earth, Starfire," he said.
Arcana frowned. "Actually, now that I think about it, we don't really know each other's names either," he pointed out.
"You know, you're right. The name's Victor, but you can call me Vic," Cyborg said, holding his hand out.
He shook it, noting that Victor had a strong grip to go with the fact he was mostly metal. "Pleased to meet you, Vic. My name is Arcana, but you can call me Arcana the Magnificent," he said with no ounce of shame.
"Nice to meet you, Arcana. I'm Beast Boy, but you already knew that!" Beast Boy said, shaking his hand excitedly.
Novafire smiled and nodded, before looking over at the girl in the cloak. "And what's your name?" he asked, smiling.
Seeing the smile and sensing the sincerity behind it, the girl looked away with the faintest blush. "It's Raven," she said.
"Raven, like the bird. I like that," he said, unintentionally causing her blush to grow.
Starfire smiled. "I thank you all for your help and your bravery. And I would like to have permission for us to stay here, where the people are strange, but also kind," she said. She and Robin looked at each other for moment, before looking away with blushes on their cheeks.
"You don't need our permission for that," Raven said warmly.
"But if you want our friendship, you got it," Robin added.
Cyborg said, "Guess we could all use some friends," and Beast Boy nodded.
The six of them gathered into a circle, and Robin reached for his belt. "I thought we might want to stay in touch, so Cyborg and I made these." He held out his hands, showing four communicators, each of these circular and colored black and yellow with a red button on the side.
They each took one, and Cyborg added "Made them with my own circuits."
"If there's ever any trouble, you know who to call," Robin declared. The six of them looked out towards the sunrise, feeling a sense of hope fill them. They could feel it. This was the beginning of something beautiful, something great. The beginning of a true friendship.
And that's last plot bunny I have posted today. This one has been sitting on my computer since I wrote the other one, 'Novafire', but only now did I feel like posting it. I'm seriously considering doing an actual fic, either with this one or that one, but I'm not sure which. If you have a preference, let me know.
Please review! If you flame me than Bruce Lee will smash you with his nunchaku. (I'm just kidding… or am I?)