Sorry, this is a day late. I kind of stayed up all night binge watching a show called 'Rise of the Shield Hero.' It was pretty amazing actually.

Quite honestly, I've been stoked for this to happen ever since a reviewer mentioned that the of them should face off against Superman. I don't remember who it was, it might have been Dark Azarathian's review from Chapter 20, but whatever it was I finally decided to use him. Thanks for the suggestion from long ago! I hope you're all ready for a chapter that finally has some action in it!

Because believe me, this is almost nothing but action down below. ;) Enjoy!


Mailbox Time!

neslykoki: Sorry for leaving you like that for a week. Tacos and Coca Cola really don't sound like the thing I'd go too at the same time. I feel like that'd ruin my digestive system for a few days. As to your questions, spoilers!

skyknight9: I'll take it the author wielded the cliffhangers the best here :).

FanficsOP: Yeah, I'll admit the cliffhanger was especially cruel. Will I apologize for it, probably not. ;) There's still worse I can do after all.

WarpCrazy: Interesting theory. Though Rose did claim she couldn't see everything. And besides, if my timeline is correct Wonder Woman would still have at most one moon left before she'd wake up.

Golem XIV: Who needs Kryptonite when you've got magic on your side my friend.

catholicjedi32: I haven't tried doing that, but someone has hit my car from behind going 50 mph while I was stopped. So I know kind of how the brick wall feels like.

TheAlienHeart: I had to look up those two names since I didn't recognize them, and thinking on it now I can understand why you'd use them. That makes your review even funnier! Glad I was able to do the moment justice!

Azarath Cat: Careful, you're starting to sound like your own emoticlones are arguing with each other ;). Both reactions would be just fine!

Eris: You keep on asking the right questions because all I can do is say nothing but spoilers!

J-Rob95: Okay, if I do a blooper reel for this story, that comment is so being said by Raven at the end of it!

frog31791: Indeed. Beast Boy said his piece, now it'll be up to Raven. After, they deal with Superman of course.

Pixel-Pie02: Your comment has inspired me, my friend. Inspired me to make my cliffhanger and author's note at the bottom even eviler than it was before. I hope you like the fruits of your labors. You should never joke song around a guy who loves to think of rhymes in his head. ;)

Guest: Thank you for the compliments! I hope you continue to enjoy what's in store for our two heroes!


Since Last Time: 3 more favorites, 2 more follows (Total: 284 Favorites, 327 Followers)


Updated: July 6th, 2019 5:20 A.M. MST


Wonderful Disclaimer: You all would probably hate me if I owned DC. Mostly because of all the evil cliffhangers.


Chapter Forty-Five: White Raven Vs. Superman


The first thing Raven tried to do after recovering from the shock of Superman entering the room was to bring her ethereal energy to bear. She didn't know what she'd be able to do against Superman, but anything seemed better than just standing there and doing nothing. A complete turn around in her opinion since only a moment ago she was willing to sacrifice herself for everyone else to escape.

There were only two problems. She had realized that she couldn't sacrifice herself so everybody else could escape. And two, she couldn't find any ethereal energy to use inside her soul self.

'What happened to all of it?! It was coming off me in waves moments ago!' Raven thought in frustration.

Then again, she had just used a good amount of it. Not that she really knew what her cap limit was or not. She was also way off center emotionally because of the argument she had just had with Beast Boy. His declaration of love to her probably didn't help her out much either since it left her not only angrier at herself, but she also felt more and more guilty about everything from before.

'At least my powers aren't threatening to explode outwards anymore.' Raven thought. It was a small comfort, but it paled not only to her other thoughts, but also to the danger right in front of them. Even an uncontrollable power burst would have been preferable to no powers whatsoever.

Superman stopped a dozen feet in front of them and stared them down. "Surrender now. You have nowhere to run." He said calmly with authority.

Raven opened her mouth to dryly reply. Beast Boy, however, stepped in front of her and approached Superman before she could. "If you want Rae." He pointed to Raven as he approached the hulking figure. "Then you'll have to go through me dude." He finished pointing to himself.

The comment surprised Raven. Superman also raised an eyebrow at the changeling's rather bold and idiotic move. The look on his face said it all as he looked down at the small green human below him. "Are you sure you really want to try that?" He asked.

Beast Boy growled. "I might be small, but I can grow big too!" He said determinedly.

He morphed into a large green one thousand pounds of pure muscle grizzly bear. "Rawrrr!" The bear gutturally roared as it swept forward with one large mighty paw.

Pow!

Superman was flung back from the hit. He stopped a mere dozen feet away in the air. He flicked a piece of claw off his shoulder where he had been hit. The blow didn't look like it had hurt him.

The green bear then fell onto one knee. It morphed back into Beast Boy, who looked very much in pain. "Dude, I feel like I just tried to punch a brick wall!" He howled in pain as he gripped his wrist. The fingertip of one of his gloves was starting to turn red where he had lost the claw. His wrist was also sprained.

Superman shrugged. "I'm called the Man of Steel for a reason kid." He said almost boredly.

Ksss!

He then used his heat vision with no sense of mercy on his part. 'If the kid wants to fight after killing two young heroes, then he's going to get burned.' He thought.

Beast Boy barely raised his arm to defend himself in time before the blast hit him. "Augh!" He screamed in pain as he was blasted back over Raven onto the cement ground behind her. He had a burn mark running along his arm.

'Garfield!' Raven thought in surprise as she turned to face him.

Superman landed back onto the ground and approached again. Raven turned back to Superman and got in a defensive stance. Now she looked angry. Both at Superman for what he'd done, and Beast Boy for trying to pick a fight he should have known he couldn't win.

"You won't win. If you surrender now, I promise that the two of you will be treated fairly." Superman said flatly.

"We'll see about that," Raven said to herself. She was feeling a bit of her dark ethereal energy now. It was like her emoticlones were starting to rally with her after what happened to Beast Boy. She tried to bring it out in a controlled way. But it was like there was still something in the way keeping it from happening. Like a wall of maple syrup that she was trying to reach through.

Before she could do anything, Beast Boy got in front of her again. Even despite just getting hurt, he was still willing to fight. "Liar! Last time I checked, Outer Perdition wasn't fair to anyone!" He yelled before he morphed into a lion.

"Mreowr!" The lion roared as it jumped for Superman.

KaPow!

Superman was tired of the green changeling, and his lightning-fast reflex punch connected with the lion's head, sending it flying across the length of the room in surprise. Howling in pain and surprise.

Boom!

The lion hit against the back-side wall hard, leaving an indent in the cement. Then it collapsed onto the floor. Its limbs bent at odd angles as if they'd been dislocated. "Reowr…" The lion had its eyes closed tight as it meowled in pain. It tried to get back up, but then it collapsed onto the ground again. It didn't move.

"Gar, no!" Raven yelled in worry before she ran to where the lion lay. She got down on one knee next to it and started to examine it. The lion likely had a fresh concussion, along with some broken ribs from hitting the wall. And just as she'd thought, his back two legs had been dislocated.

Raven narrowed her eyes angrily at the lion through her tears. "Why would you do such a stupid thing Gar. You know that you can't fight Superman on your own." Raven said in a dry, but anger filled voice.

A thought popped into her mind. 'Maybe he doesn't care, because he cares more about protecting you than about being beaten up by Superman.'

Raven almost wanted to deny the thought right there. Even with his previous confession to her still fresh on her mind. It just didn't seem possible. But then her eyes caught a piece of paper sticking out of the lion's mane. She didn't know why, but she felt to grab it and look at it…

It was like a slap to the face.

The paper was a pencil drawing. The only one that had survived the storm several days earlier. The one of her staring calmly out over the plains.

"No…" She whispered.

She looked down at her hurt green friend. The one that had gone through so much just for her. She clutched the paper to her chest and hung her head. She couldn't deny it anymore to herself. 'He really does care that much for me. After everything I've done to him.' She thought sadly.

"Twenty minutes to base self-destruct." The A.I. of the base said.

"One last chance demoness. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way." Superman said behind her as he approached again.

Raven turned around. Superman was only a few feet away. He looked calm, powerful, invulnerable, unbeatable.

Raven breathed in calmly, and let the drawing drop onto the ground beside her. 'No. I'm done running away. I'm tired of being afraid.' Raven thought confidently. 'And no one is allowed to hurt my Garfield.'

She received a roar of approval in her mind at that. For once, it seemed that she and her emoticlones were all on the same page.

'Nobody hurts our Gar!' Love repeated, leading the charge of emotions.

'We won't back down from this stuck-up wannabe Boy Scout!' Rude yelled.

'We're going to kick his butt!' Brave yelled.

'And we'll tear him apart piece by piece and feed him to the hellhounds that guard our Father's prison!' Timid yelled more loudly than the others in a bloodthirsty voice.

All the other emotions stopped and looked in surprise at Timid. Realizing what she'd just said, she became bashful and starting twirling her foot around nervously. 'Sorry, I kind of caught up in the heat of the moment.' She whispered nervously.

'No worries. He is going down.' Rage muttered firmly.

Raven's eyes turned a dark black.

A piece of concrete to the side was covered in black. It lifted itself up into the air and aimed itself towards Superman. 'I'm not going down without a fight.' Raven thought as she chucked the piece of concrete through the air with her powers.

Pow! Kckck!

The piece of concrete connected with Superman's side. The concrete blew into many different pieces on impact. The contact with magic made him stumble back more than the surprise from being hit by solid concrete. But it had worked. Her powers had finally worked correctly for her.

Raven smirked to herself. 'There we go, now that's what I wanted.' She thought.

Her victory was short-lived, however, as Superman sped forward and gripped Raven's arms tightly. "So, you want to try the hard way like your friend too?" He asked in a calm, yet slightly more angry voice.

Raven's eyes turned red and split in two. "Grabbing a half-demoness against her will. Big mistake Mr. Boy Scout." She growled out, embracing the term for herself. Because now, she was going to embrace her powers, along with the heritage that came with them.

BOOM!

Black energy exploded outward from Raven, blasting Superman back onto the floor. Unlike the concrete, her magic based powers had hurt him a lot more than anything physical could.

He got up quickly. "What the heck-" He was saying.

Then, surprisingly, a white ethereal hand gripped around his whole body. Superman looked up in shocked silence and followed the white energy all the way to its source.

Somewhere mid-explosion, the energy of Raven's psyche had changed colors. Now she was entirely encased in a field of white energy that swirled in rings of pure light around her new form. Her clothes had turned white, and her violet hair had lengthened past her shoulders to halfway down her back. Both pairs of eyes glowed white under her pure Raven form with power and energy. Some of the energy spread outwards from her back forming two white ethereal wings on either side of her. It was honestly like looking at a large white ethereal Raven with a purple gem flashing in its forehead.

Superman sighed in the grip of Raven's powers. "You're choosing the hard way, aren't you?" He asked.

"I'm so going to enjoy this," Raven said in a flat tone.

(Epic battle music starts to play in the background)

"Scree!" Raven's white ethereal clawed hand reared back, and then chucked Superman up towards the ceiling. Her form letting out a screech of indignation in the process.

Boom!

Superman's body went through the metal plating of the roof and into the cement. Superman quickly scrambled out of the small crater he had made.

"Fine then. You asked for it demoness." He muttered as his eyes glowed red.

Ksssss!

Superman sent a strong blast of heat vision at Raven.

Raven moved her arm quickly, and one of her white ethereal wings moved in front of her.

Boom!

The lasers deflected off to the side and blew up a portion of the wall.

Raven thrust her arm forward, and another white-clawed hand went to strike at Superman.

Boom!

Superman dodged the white fist, which hit the ceiling beside him. He flew along the length of it to attack. "You'll have to do better than that!"

Pow!

Raven's other white ethereal wing slammed against Superman's side, sending him reeling across the room. Raven calmly took to the air with three more pieces of concrete floating around her. 'He'll have to do better than that.' She thought calmly.

Superman shook his head from side to side and then started to fly forward again. Opening his mouth to release a frost attack.

Pow! Pow!

Raven threw the first two pieces of concrete at Superman, hitting him in the chest and head. The two hits slowed him down a little in annoyance, and forced him to close his mouth to avoid swallowing bits of concrete. "Urgh!"

Boom!

When she threw the third one, Superman punched right through it. And continued on to punch for her.

Thump!

Superman flew right into a white ethereal shield inches in front of Raven's face. "Freaking piece of-" Superman muttered as he brought his fist back.

BOOM!

Superman punched right through the shield, dissolving it into a bunch of itty little white pieces. He expected to see Raven on the other side as he punched through. He was surprised though when his fist got nothing but air where Raven had been.

He looked around quickly trying to figure out where she had went… then he felt someone tap his shoulder.

He turned around, only to find Raven with both her white ethereal wings cocked back behind her to the sides. "Hello there." She muttered.

KaPow! Boom!

The two white wings turned into fists as they collided with Superman's face. With a look of shock from the hit, he was sent him flying across the room into a wall. A cloud of cement dust blocked his crater from view. Raven looked at her white ethereal wings just as they disappeared off her back. She then smirked to herself. 'I'm fighting Superman and not losing… I feel really good about myself right now.' She thought.

Ksssss!

Superman's heat vision came out of the crater he had formed at Raven. Raven quickly formed another barrier, which deflected the blast to the wall beside her. She made several other different barriers as he came out of the dust firing more and more heat vision lasers from his eyes. Each one meeting a similar fate to the first one.

"Nice aim, did you learn from Starfire by any chance?" Raven asked blandly.

Superman looked slightly more ticked. "Okay. I'm starting to get sick of dealing with you." He said angrily.

"Ditto." Raven blandly replied.

Boom.

Superman broke the sound barrier as he sped to attack Raven head on.

Pow! Thump!

This time Superman himself was deflected into a wall by one of Raven's curved white energy shields. "Maybe it's your eyes. You might have bad eyesight or something from firing those weak puny lasers of yours." Raven suggested blandly.

Superman got a little more ticked by that and tried the same thing again.

Boom!

He was again deflected onto the floor. "Do you want me to stand still?" Raven asked in a slightly taunting voice up above.

'There's no way she should be able to react that fast!' He thought angrily as he got back up and flew towards Raven again.

Pow!

He saw the shield forming this time and stopped before hitting it to punch through it. "Ha!" He yelled as he blew through the particles.

Raven, however, was no longer where she had been floating. "Aw come on-" Superman started to yell in frustration.

Pow! Boom!

Raven's boot, compounded with her white ethereal energy, connected upwards with the side of Superman's jaw. He again went flying into the first hole he had made in the ceiling with a look of surprise and pain on his face. The whole movement had been pretty epic on Raven's part, who then got in a defensive stance in the air.

"How!?" Superman asked angrily as he came out again.

Raven shrugged. She was slightly glad to have gotten that habit from Beast Boy. "Maybe you want us to get away or something, I don't know what you're thinking," Raven suggested blandly. It seemed she was really embracing her Rude for this fight. And Rude was loving it.

Superman angrily sped through the air towards Raven again. Opening his mouth, he released a blast of cold wind to try and freeze Raven in place.

Raven put her hands in front of her, and a human-sized white ethereal raven burst out of her.

"Scree!" POW!

The white Raven screeched before it slammed through Superman's ice cold breath into him. He was sent spinning out of the room and back down the hallway from where he had originally come.

Raven finally took the time to look down at her hands in slight surprise as she floated in the air. 'Okay. I don't remember being able to do that… How did I even get to my white form? What changed?' Raven thought questioningly.

'Oh, that would be us.' Knowledge spoke up in her mind.

Despite hearing a couple of her emotions earlier, Raven finally seemed to realize that what she had heard hadn't been a figment of her imagination like she'd thought. 'You're back!? You're all back!?' Raven thought in surprise.

'Of course we are leader bitch!' Rude said.

'We're so not going to miss out on a fight like this!' Brave yelled excitedly.

'One of Superman's only weaknesses besides Kryptonite is magic.' Wisdom said wisely.

'I want to see a fantastic beatdown on that super idiot for hurting Gar!' Sloth bellowed surprisingly.

'I was just sick and tired of him beating on BB.' Happy said.

'I didn't like what he did to Garfield.' Timid said angrily.

'And I wanted a challenge.' Rage finished for them.

'That isn't your only reason now sister.' Lust said next to her.

'Fine… and I wanted revenge for him hurting our Gar.' Rage admitted.

Superman came flying back into the room. He looked even more angry and frustrated than before. 'Well, you all wanted a challenge.' Raven thought determinedly.

'Oh yeah.' Rage and the others said excitedly.

The fight went pretty well from there.

Ksssssss!

Superman sent a strong blast of heat vision at Raven. Raven used another curved shield to try and deflect the blast into another wall. Then Superman started to fly to the side while continuing his heat vision.

'He's getting smarter.' Raven thought as instead of moving her shield, she just fed more energy into it and expanded it. The heat vision lasers, though strong, didn't break through the powerful white shield.

Thump!

Superman flew sidelong into another white ethereal barrier she had formed, which made him stop using his heat vision. "Urgh!" Superman said in annoyance. 'But not smart enough.'

Slash!

Raven's white ethereal clawed fist came out of the barrier and punched/slashed Superman across the face. Then before the now bleeding and dazed Kryptonian could react, she grabbed him around the legs with her powers and threw him down below.

Boom!

He slammed into the ground, making another crater. Raven was slightly surprised that her magic had actually managed to pierce his skin. Though when he glared up at her, she was able to tell that it was healing over. Just like all the other magical based injuries she had inflicted on him throughout the course of the fight. "If you think your sorcery is going to hurt me-!" Superman was yelling as he got back up.

BOOM!

Two large white ethereal fists slammed down on top of Superman burying him into the ground. Raven smirked up above. "I might not be hurting you for long, but I can't say I'm not having fun right now," Raven said dryly.

'You say it for us sister!' Brave bellowed happily.

'Preach to the choir! Preach!' Rage also said happily.

Boom!

The two white ethereal fists disappeared as Superman blasted out from them.

Pow!

Raven didn't have enough time to react as Superman's fist finally connected with her face. "Take that demoness-" Superman yelled as Raven was sent across the room.

POW! Boom!

Another large white ethereal clawed fist appeared from below Superman and sent him into the same hole in the ceiling again. It looked like the crater was now fifteen feet deep going up. How much farther it was to the ground up above, Raven wasn't sure. She only focused on stopping her momentum just before flying into the wall. 'Okay, that was too close.' Raven thought as she rubbed her aching jaw.

She looked back to the ceiling in time to see a now very angry looking Superman come flying out. His eyes were glowing a fiery red. "Ahhhh!" He yelled angrily.

KSSSS!

A much stronger laser blast hit Raven's hastily formed ethereal shield. The outside of it turned red hot as Superman kept put more energy into the lasers. He was hellbent on breaking through her barrier this time.

Raven strained as the shield in front of her started to fracture under the heat. Not to mention, she was beginning to realize she couldn't keep up with Superman forever. She hadn't known about him having a healing factor before. But even if he hadn't had one, taking him down would still be near impossible even for someone like her. 'Help me! We need to think of something else to beat him!' She commanded in her mind.

'Okay! We got it!' Several different emoticlones responded at the same time.

KSSSS!

Superman was still blasting his epic lasers from his eyes.

KSSSS- "YEOW!"

Three different shields formed at the same time. The first one deflected the lasers to the right into the second shield, which deflected the lasers right again into the third shield, which deflected the high powered lasers right into the side of Superman's head. Superman gripped the side of his head howling in pain. His own blast having burnt away part of his hair.

'Impressive.' Raven thought as she dropped her shield.

'Quick Raven! Pull from those sections of walls and those sections of the ceiling while he's distracted! Make sure to destroy the pieces using his body!' Knowledge said, even as the sections of cement she pointed out in Raven's mind glowed white in their individual places.

"Now you know what it's like to get burned." Raven dryly said as she looked with glowing white eyes all around. Inwardly, she wondered what her emotions were up too.

Kckck! Thump!

Several different chunks of the ceiling and walls broke off and shattered on impact all around Superman's body. Superman was left buried under a load of debris.

"Urgh!" Pow! Kckck.

'What was that supposed to do now other than giving him ammunition?' Raven thought as she watched Superman freeing himself.

'Didn't you ever notice the wards the Doom Patrol had sketched into the cement? The wards that kept us and others from forming portals out of the base.' Knowledge asked her.

A look of realization dawned in Raven's eyes. Once again, Knowledge proved just how much of a genius Raven truly was.

Superman grunted, and then punched the last piece off him. It shattered into many pieces around him. He easily hefted one of the larger pieces and got in position to throw it. "Did you actually think you'd beat me doing that!? After everything else you've done in this pointless fight!?" Superman yelled in anger.

Raven shrugged. "No. I didn't do that just to hit you." She said before she smirked. "I was just getting rid of the last wards in the room that were keeping me from portaling your dumb *** out of here." She said.

Superman didn't realize what she had meant at first. But then a pure white portal opened up behind him. Raven lifted the heavy steel door beside her with her powers.

"Now, leave me and Gar alone!" Raven yelled before she swung the door like a baseball bat.

KAPOW!

"Nooo-" Superman yelled before he was slammed back into the white portal. The portal closed.

(Epic background music stops)

Boom.

The steel door and the piece of ceiling fell onto the ground. Raven sighed in relief as she lowered back down to the ground. When she had set foot on the ground again her clothes had returned to their normal colors, her eyes had gone back to normal, and her hair had reverted back to shoulder length again.

Raven didn't take any time to celebrate her victory and turned and ran.

"Urgh…"

The green lion groaned in pain, and then it morphed back into Beast Boy. "Dude, my head…" He groaned.

"Sixteen minutes to base self-destruct." The A.I. of the base said.

"Ugh…" Beast Boy groaned again.

"Gar. Are you okay?" Beast Boy heard Raven faintly. It sounded like she was far away to him.

Beast Boy tried to get up, but then he felt a sharp pain in his side and his legs that made him fall back down onto the ground again. "Ugh. I've been better." He groaned in pain.

He was still lying in his spot with his eyes shut tight when after a moment the pain started to go away. His pounding headache disappeared, along with the sharp pain he felt in his side. He felt his legs move back into their proper sockets. His strength started to return as well. 'Wait, what the heck?' He thought in surprise.

After a few seconds, a hand gripped his shoulder and helped Beast Boy to sit up. He saw Raven's hand, which was covered in blue energy, move up from his shoulder to continue healing his head. Her other hand stayed near his side, drastically speeding up the healing process of his ribs. He couldn't tell why, but her healing energy seemed stronger than before. It was also working incredibly fast. His eyes moved from her pale hands to her calm slightly bruised face.

"Dude, where's Superman?" Beast Boy asked quizzically.

"Gone for the moment. I portaled him to the first part of the base where we originally came in. That was the only place I could picture that was near enough for me to remember and as far away from us as possible. It should give me more than enough time to heal you and for us to get out of here." Raven said dryly as she quickly finished healing Beast Boy.

Beast Boy sat in silence, looking up in awe at her. 'Dude, did she really beat Superman?' He thought in amazement.

"Your ribs should be good for now. Don't overexert yourself for a couple of days just in case." Raven said like a doctor before she helped him stand up.

Beast Boy let go of her hand and looked down at himself. Even the broken claw on his one hand had been fixed. He now looked both amazed and grateful. "Wow, thanks Rae-" He started to say in admiration.

His words were cut off as Raven quickly embraced him. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Whaaaa?" He said dumbly.

"I'm sorry Gar. I forgive you for everything you've ever done before." The words quickly fell from Raven's mouth.

Beast Boy still looked shocked. "What?!" He asked again.

Raven let go of him, and rolled her eyes. "You doofus, I just accepted your apology. I'm not mad at you anymore. You're completely forgiven of all those drawings now." She said dryly, though she had a hint of a smirk on her face.

At first, he still looked confused. Then Raven picked up the paper on the ground next to him and showed it to him. A light bulb finally lit up above his head, and his confusion was replaced with happiness. "Dude! That's so sweet!" He said happily as he quickly hugged her back.

Raven's smirk turned into a small smile. "It is sweet." She said as she took a few seconds to hug him and bask in the happiness that was coming off him again… she then let him go and put the drawing in a pocket of her cloak. "Now we need to get out of here and disable that Zeta Tube after using it before Superman gets back. He won't give up that easily on capturing us." She said before she started to turn towards the Zeta Tube.

Beast Boy stopped her by grabbing her arm. "Wait, Rae… does this mean that you love me too?!" He asked excitedly.

The smile completely fell off Raven's face. A record coming to a screeching halt would have been fit for just an occasion. She hadn't been expecting that question from him now. Maybe later after everything had settled down, but certainly not now.

"I, um." She tried to say.

"Fifteen minutes to self-destruction." The A.I. of the base said.

"I'll tell you later, we need to get going now." Raven deflected the question, and she tried to turn away again. Beast Boy, however, didn't let go, and he wouldn't budge from his spot.

"Rae, you love me too, don't you?" He asked in disbelief. His former excitement was already melting back into depression again.

A sweatdrop appeared on Raven's head as she looked nervously around. "Gar, I really don't know. But that's not important right now. Superman could be back at any moment-" She tried to say.

"Not important, what do you mean that's not important!?" Beast Boy angrily and immaturely asked. It was like he hadn't even heard the second part of her response.

Raven could sense the dark void completely filling his psyche again. 'No, not now! Please not now!' Raven thought.

"I just laid my soul bare for you! I got beat up by Superman for you! I told you that I love you! How can this not be important to you right now Rae!?" He angrily asked.

Raven had a look of disbelief in her eyes. She was rather shocked at how he considered this more important than escaping a self-destructing base with one of the most powerful members of the Justice League on his way to hunt them down. But then again, she couldn't put him down for marking it as important. Because it really was. She just wasn't sure if it was that important at that moment. 'Oh Azar, what do I do now?!' She thought in her mind.

'Be honest with him!'

'Teleport him to that Tube and get out of here!'

'Knock him unconscious and get his stupid (Bleep) out of danger!'

'Ask him to be patient with you!'

'Tell him you love him!'

'Then tell him you'll rock his world later after saying that if you escape right now!'

The various comments from the emoticlones in her mind came like a torrent. Raven couldn't even think straight with all the different suggestions. She started to cover her face with her hands because of all the various emotions piling through her in that moment. "Gar, please, I really don't know. Can we please talk about this later after we're safe-" She tried to say.

"RAVEN!" Beast Boy gripped her by the shoulders, and the action forced her to completely face him. He was breathing in and out heavily. His eyes were wide and sad, and he looked close to having tears coming down his face as he stared into her eyes. "I just need to know Rae. It can't be like Terra all over again for me. I can't, like, be hurt like that all over again… I need to know that my feelings aren't in vain. Please… do you love me?" He sobbed out at the end.

Raven was shocked into silence. Her thoughts were silent. Not even her emoticlones were speaking anymore. They seemed to be just as shocked as she was…

"I… I-" Raven started to say.

KSSSS!

Before either of them could react, a powerful heat vision blast slammed into Beast Boy's side. "Augh!" He yelled in surprise and pain as he was launched away from Raven.

Raven snapped her head to the side. Superman was flying through the doorway again. His face had already healed over where he burned himself, except the patch of hair that had been burnt away. His eyes glowed red from the anger and frustration he was feeling at that moment.

'Azar-!' Raven thought as she tried to take to the air and form a black ethereal shield.

KSSSSSS!

The powerful laser blast slammed right through the weaker shield into Raven's side. She was, in turn, slammed out of the air back onto the ground near where Beast Boy was groaning in pain. "Ugh…" Raven groaned to herself.

She tried to get back up as Superman approached. His still glowing red eyes narrowed. "Stay, down!" Superman ordered.

"Bite me," Raven replied. "Azarath-" She started to chant.

KSSSSSSSSSSSSS!...

The next laser blast hit Raven in the gut. Unlike the other ones though, this one didn't stop. She was pinned back down to the ground from the unrelenting blast.

"AUGHHHHHHH!" Raven screamed in pain as the hot lasers burned through her clothes and burned against the pale grey skin of her stomach.

KSSSSSSSSS!

Superman didn't stop at her screams of pain. He was tired of the last few months. He was tired of the endless searching. He was tired of these two getting away again and again and again. And he and all the other members of the Justice League were tired of being fooled around with. So, just this once, under some influence, he mercilessly bored down with all the power his lasers could muster at the powerful fugitive down below.

"Urgh." Beast Boy groaned to himself and looked up. His eyes bugged out at what he saw. "Raven!" He yelled.

KSSSS-

A second after the yell, Superman finally turned off his heat vision. 'There. That should keep her down.' He thought.

Beast Boy was left staring in shock at an appalling sight.

Raven's leotard and cape from the bottom of her rib cage to an inch above her hips had been completely seared away. Her exposed skin, instead of being pale, was either burning red, or black and charred.

"No." Beast Boy said in shock.

Raven's face was clenched tight with pain, yet she still managed to look over to him. He saw the beginning of a tear start to fall from one of her amethyst eyes. She reached out towards him. "I'm, sorry, Gar. I-" She tried to say when she passed out from the pain.

"Fourteen minutes to self-destruct." The A.I. of the base said.

The last few days faded from his mind. The last few years faded from his mind. All the pain, all the anger, all the depression, everything disappeared all at once at the sight of Raven's weak hurt form lying on the ground. 'NOOOOOOO!' He thought in anguish.

Superman approached closer to the two downed heroes. Despite releasing a lot of his anger in that blast, he still looked pretty mad. "You two didn't have to fight! You could have just turned yourselves in! I would have even tried to have you treated fairly! If you'd just submitted to your crimes, I wouldn't have had to resort to doing something like this!" He yelled in anger as he pointed down at Raven's form.

Beast Boy looked at Raven for a couple seconds more. He realized at that moment that what had just happened to her was all his fault. And that made him angry. In fact, he was furious, at himself, and at the one person in the room who had hurt Raven.

He got up off the ground and faced Superman with a look of disgust on his face. He didn't know how, but he could see it in his eyes then. Maybe it was because they weren't glowing red in preparation to fire his heat vision. Maybe it was just the way how this Superman was acting out of character to all the times he'd seen the man on TV. Whatever it was, he could finally tell he was under somebody's influence, just like Wonder Woman had been. The realization only made him angrier.

"This is being treated fairly!?" He yelled as he pointed to Raven. "What you did here was a crime dude! You're the one who's acting as the villain, not us!" He yelled at Superman.

Superman crossed his arms. Much to Beast Boy's surprise, the comment didn't even phase him. 'This spell has to be different than the one Wonder Woman was under.' He internally realized.

"And what are you going to do about it you mad green animal? Are you going to show me one of your little parlor tricks that I haven't seen from you yet?" Superman asked tauntingly. He knew that Beast Boy was incapable of harming him.

Beast Boy growled to hide his internal shock and hurt. He couldn't believe it. Superman, the Superman he'd idolized almost as much as Batman as a child, had also fallen victim to this conspirator Slade had mentioned was pulling the strings behind everything. He couldn't believe that Superman would allow himself to fall so far from his ideals under some stupid influence hidden in his mind...

If Superman wasn't going to listen to reason, if he was going to resort to acts like this, than Beast Boy was done holding back. He was tired of standing by the sidelines. He was tired of being weak. If this conspirator was going to be merciless than he would likewise show no mercy. His glare became primal.

"Rae's been hurt enough in her life! And I'm not going to stand by and have you or anyone else hurt her anymore!" He yelled, directed more at the individual influencing Superman than at Superman himself.

Superman got in a fighting stance. "Then show me your little tricks green boy. I'd love to see if you had something in your arsenal that could stand a chance against me." He replied coolly.

Beast Boy growled again. "You asked for it dude, not me." He said angrily. Mirroring Superman's comment from earlier.

Then it happened. Beast Boy's transformation finally appeared.

The muscles in his body thickened as Beast Boy grew in size. His uniform disappeared to be replaced by a hide of long thick green hair. His gloves disappeared as his hands developed thickly padded paws. Long, perfectly sharpened claws appeared on the tips of his fingers. He fell down onto all fours as a large muscle bulge appeared on his back behind his neck. His face scrunched briefly in pain before it became more wolf-like. His fangs grew out more, his eyes became more slanted, and a long green mane appeared on the back of his head.

"Grawwrrrr!" Finally finished with the transformation, the ten-foot tall Beast growled a mix of wolf, bear, and a bunch of other predators from the animal kingdom as the Apex Predator himself stood up to face the surprised Superman. Although it was the Beast standing there, a remnant of Beast Boy could still be seen in the green pupils of his eyes and stance. Inside the mind of the Beast, his thoughts and Beast Boy's thoughts combined together at last.

And boy, were both of them ticked.

'Let's do this!' They thought in unison.

"Awhoooo!" The Beast howled as it pounced forward towards its prey.


Author's Notes:

(To the tune of Old McDonald)

Mr. Allen loves his cliffs;

Terror pain death yeah!

And he stuffed those cliffs into his fics;

Terror pain death yeah!

I'll put a cliff right here

And a cliff right there.

Here a cliff,

There a cliff,

Everybody sees a cliff right there oh

Mr. Allen loves his cliffs;

Terror pain death yeah! (Many thanks BlueDog!)

And you all thought the last chapter left on such a middle finger cliffhanger! Heck yeah, I'm so excited for you all to see what happens next chapter! It's like, the chapter I'm probably going to be the proudest of in the history of this story! I'm so excited for it, that I'll even give you all the chapter title right here!

Chapter Forty-Six: Superman Vs. The Beast

Till Next Time

Allen Blaster