"That boy needs a leash!" Rude proclaimed, "Or a tracking device of some sort. Hell, a little bell around his neck to tell when he's around would be better than this!"
"Calm down, Rude," Knowledge sighed, "Raven will find him eventually."
"I don't want to calm down," Rude replied, folding her arms, "In fact, why am I the only one freaking out?"
"Actually, I think Timid is in shock, or else she probably would too," Brave pointed out. Timid simply continued silently staring ahead of her, not even blinking.
"I can't say I blame her," Affection said, "I mean… this is embarrassing."
Brave shrugged. "There's nothing any of us hasn't seen before."
"That really doesn't make it much better," Affection replied, "But thanks for trying."
Sighing, Affection fingered the purple collar around her neck. She could feel her name stitched into the satiny material. The collar was barely an inch wide, and it was the last bit of 'clothing' they had left. Other than the almost identical collars (they only differed in color and the names stitched on), none of the other emotions wore anything. She shuddered.
"It sure is cold in here," Happy commented, "And I thought that skirt was breezy."
"Oh, shut up," Anger hissed.
"Don't be so mean to her," Knowledge scolded. Happy didn't seem to mind though, and she continued.
"But I don't get it. Raven already accepted that she likes Beast Boy. Shouldn't things be going back to normal?"
"No," Knowledge shook her head, "Have you forgotten? It's too late now. Accepting it isn't enough. She has to tell him how she feels and have the feelings reciprocated."
"Well, at least we know that Beast Boy feels the same," Affection said, smiling warmly.
"You're right," Rude said, sitting down on one of the cushions Knowledge had given them to sit on (tile floors are cold, after all). "All she has to do is find him. There's nothing else left to really worry about, is there?"
"Um… guys?" Timid spoke, looking around the room hesitantly. "I've been thinking…"
"And?" Brave prodded.
"Well…" Timid continued quietly, looking down at the floor, "It's just, if we look like this… what does Raven look like?"
Knowledge's eyes grew wide, and she grew pale.
"Why does Knowledge look like she just swallowed a bug?" Happy asked, somewhat nervously.
"Well," Knowledge replied, looking at Timid, "She hasn't been effected… yet. But judging by the way that we look right now-" she paused and looked around the room, nodding reluctantly. "-I'd say she should be starting to be effected right about…"
-
Walking into the main room, Raven looked around. Her heart sunk as she saw that Beast Boy wasn't there. Robin and Starfire sat on the couch, watching a movie, while Cyborg was puttering in the kitchen. Raven realized that, by now, it was probably around dinnertime, but truthfully, food was the furthest thing from her mind.
"Friend Raven," Starfire greeted, looking over the couch, "Would you care to join us in the viewing of 'The Lady and the Tramp'? It is a most wonderful story of earth dogs who are able to talk."
"No thank you, Starfire," Raven declined, "Has anyone seen Beast Boy?" She heard a hint of urgency in her own voice, and evidently, so did the others. Frowning, Robin and Starfire shook their heads no.
"I saw him a couple minutes ago," Cyborg said, walking over. He wore an expression that Raven was unable to read. "He was heading to the roof."
"Thanks," Raven nodded and turned to leave, but Cyborg stopped her.
"Raven, what's going on?" he asked.
"It's…" Raven stopped. She had been about to say that it was nothing. But it wasn't 'nothing'. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing to do with you."
He peered at her suspiciously, and Raven felt herself growing uncomfortable under his gaze. Suddenly, he blinked, and his suspicion seemed to turn to confusion.
"That's odd," Cyborg muttered.
"What?" Raven asked, frowning as he continued to stare at her.
"You just seem… different somehow."
Raven frowned, suddenly realizing that her leotard seemed a bit tighter, but mostly around her chest. Out of the corner of her eye, her hair seemed different as well. Longer somehow. Instinctively, Raven pulled her cloak around her body, noticing as she did so that it was a couple inches shorter. Inside her cloak, her hand brushed across a small diamond shaped opening that had appeared in her leotard just below her collarbone.
'My powers…' Raven realized, 'They must be starting to effect me.'
"Well, I'm going to go now," Raven said, turning to leave, still gripping the edges of her cloak together. However, her announcement seemed to remind Cyborg of his earlier interrogation, and he stopped her again.
"Raven, seriously." Lifting her eyes, she found that Cyborg was staring at her intently. "I'm worried about him. When I passed him in the hall, he seemed so… depressed. I've never seen him so down. Never. Not even after Terra.
"He wouldn't even tell me what was wrong. He just looked at me with these… dead eyes, and said that he just wanted to be alone. Just seeing him like that… it scared me. You have no idea. I mean, it was like… like he just lost something he really loved." He paused, frowning sadly as he remembered his green friend's behavior. He sighed, and continued.
"I tried to get him to come with me, but he wouldn't. I guess he had just made up his mind about something, because I couldn't talk him out of it, no matter what I said."
Raven frowned. From what Cyborg had just told her, Beast Boy was really upset. Had she done that? Guilt welled up inside her as she imagined what he must be feeling at the moment. She should have been braver. If she had just worked up the nerve to interrupt him and tell the truth, they wouldn't have to go through all this… HE wouldn't have to go through this.
Without warning she felt as though the top of her leotard was shrinking. Opening her cloak just a bit at the top and looking down, she realized that instead of her leotard shrinking, something else was getting bigger. Hurriedly, Raven pulled her cloak tighter around her and spun around before Cyborg could see anything.
"I have to go find Beast Boy," Raven said abruptly, stepping out of Cyborg's reach.
"But I still want to know what's going on," Cyborg protested. Raven looked back, and halted her hasty retreat.
"I'll explain later," she promised. Cyborg still seemed unsure, but after a moment of contemplation, he relented.
"Fine. But I want details later," Cyborg insisted, wagging his finger at her as though to prove he wouldn't forget. Nodding, Raven turned around again and left the main room.
Quickly, the empath dashed into the hallway and around a corner. After waiting a second to make sure Cyborg hadn't changed his mind and chased after her in his pursuit of information, Raven opened her cloak to better examine her outfit.
The first thing she noticed was that, as she had feared, her chest had indeed grown. Not by too much, but enough that the back of her bra was cutting into her uncomfortably, and her straps would need to be loosened a bit to compensate by her sudden new bust size.
Along with her unexpected breast enhancement, Raven felt as though she were an inch or two taller, although she wasn't completely sure. Lifting a hand to inspect her hair, she was able to confirm that it was indeed a couple inches longer.
The diamond shaped opening in her leotard had grown larger, revealing more skin than Raven would have liked. The bottom of her leotard had lifted higher on her hips. Her much-loved cloak was definitely shorter, and it didn't close around her as well as before. Lifting her hood, she found that it wasn't as concealing, as it was now somewhat smaller.
Raven shook her head in annoyance. Her powers could be so infuriating sometimes. But, she reminded herself, she had bigger things to worry about. Forcing her attention away from her attire, Raven straightened and began to walk to the staircase that would take her up to the roof.
It didn't take her long to reach the door that closed off the unattractive, metal stairs from the hallway. Flinging the door open, Raven took the stairs two at a time, and quickly reached the top. Opening the second door at the top of the stairs, Raven took a deep breath and stepped out onto the roof.
It was empty.
Raven looked around in confusion, finding that the object of her affection was nowhere to be seen.
Closing the door behind her, Raven walked further out onto the roof. There was no way she could be mistaken; it was completely barren of human life.
Walking over to one of the ledges lining the roof of the Tower, Raven sat down, resting her chin on her hand. A small gust of wind played with her long hair and tugged at her cloak. Even as the wind died down though, there was a flicker of movement at the corner of her vision.
Turning her head, Raven saw that there was metal screw sticking out of the side of the building. On the end of the spiraling piece of metal was a ripped swatch of familiar black material.
"Beast Boy!" Raven exclaimed, running toward the piece of material. Panic rose up in Raven, and she found herself leaning over the edge of the building to search the ground below. There was no sign of a body.
Sighing in relief, Raven backed away from the edge. She had been afraid for nothing. She lifted a hand to her chest to still her rapidly beating heart, and looked down in surprise as she felt that the diamond had grown wider again.
Her chest was larger as well. When she tried pulling her cloak around her to hide that fact, Raven found that it was no longer wide enough to reach in the middle, leaving a two inch gap between the edges. The royal blue material now only reached the back of her knees now as well. Her hair was much longer, falling past her shoulders more than before, and she was quite sure now that she was a couple inches taller.
Huffing in anger, Raven gazed angrily across the water at Jump City, directly across from her. Beast Boy's uniform must have gotten snagged when he went to fly across the water. Which meant that he must be somewhere in the city, and the sooner she found him, the sooner she could stop these ridiculous changes.
Stepping onto the edge of the roof, Raven lifted herself off and flew across the water separating the Tower from Jump City. It didn't take long to cross the stretch of water, and soon, she was flying high above the tall buildings of downtown Jump.
"If I were a green, teenage boy, where would I be?" Raven muttered, floating lazily above one of the many busy streets. Looking down, she spotted an arcade. That was the one Beast Boy went to sometimes with Cyborg, right? Shrugging, Raven flew down. It was worth a shot.
Opening the door to the arcade, Raven looked around. The lighting was surprisingly dim, considering all the flashing games set up around the large room. Still, if he was there, he shouldn't be too hard to find.
She slowly made her way through the bustling arcade, carefully looking at the faces of everyone she passed. She continued to do this until she was sure she had seen everyone in the arcade at least twice.
She sighed as she made her way out of the arcade. He obviously wasn't there.
Slowly, she began walking down the street, considering where he could be. She stopped suddenly, as she caught her reflection in a store window. Frowning, she gazed at her image. It looked… different somehow.
'I look older,' she finally decided, peering at her more matured features, 'Although, not by much.'
The first thing that tipped her off was her physique. She was taller, and a bit leaner. Though she had never been pudgy, she could tell that any leftover baby-fat had disappeared completely. Now that she wasn't looking at her chest from above, she could see that they weren't as bad as she had thought. True, they were much bigger than before, but she simply looked… well endowed. She had a feeling though, that if these changes kept going on, eventually she wouldn't look quite as "natural" in that department.
Though it was less noticeable, Raven could see that her facial features had also changed slightly. Her cheekbones seemed more defined, and her cheeks weren't quite as round. Her now long hair framed her face with subtle layers.
Raven's frown deepened as a thought came to her. What if she kept aging until she was old? What if, by the time she found Beast Boy, she was a wrinkled old woman!
Luckily, her common sense quickly kicked in, and she chided herself for being so hasty.
'I won't get that old,' Raven assured herself, slowly backing away from her reflection and continuing to walk, 'These changes are because of Affection, so I'll probably only age a little.'
Still, she shuddered as she imagined the OTHER possible changes that might occur if she didn't get her rear in gear.
Having already decided where she was going to check next, Raven quickened her pace. She only had to walk a few familiar blocks before she reached her destination. The pizza place they loved so much.
The scent of rising pizza pies and tomato sauce filled the air as Raven stepped inside the restaurant. There were tables set up inside the little pizza place, but Raven barely glanced at them before crossing the room and making her way up to the outside patio where they usually sat.
A couple sat at one of the bright red tables, talking in hushed tones as they shared a small pepperoni, and another table was occupied by a middle-aged man reading a newspaper while slowly eating a garden salad. Other than that though, the patio was empty. Beast Boy was nowhere to be seen.
She sighed, slumping down at the table they seemed to inhabit most nights that they came here. It was at this table that they were always at odds over pizza toppings. Once in a while, Starfire would throw in a suggestion, such as toothpaste, or Robin would suggest some kind of pizza that had enough meat that Cyborg would be satiated, but that Beast Boy could easily pick off.
However, a compromise was never good enough for the two boys, who seemed to enjoy their meat vs. tofu debates more than they let on.
Raven smiled lightly, thinking about the many food arguments Beast Boy and Cyborg had had at the pizza place. Though they could be tiresome and quite often stupid, sometimes they were pretty amusing, and Raven had to admit that it just wouldn't be as fun to go out for pizza at least four times a week if they didn't have their usual dispute.
Gently drumming her fingers on the red laminate tabletop, Raven thought back to one of their more recent pizza outings.
They had been sitting around their table. After a couple minutes of the usual debate, they had decided to be as democratic as possible and have a vote. Weary of their friends' constant bickering, Starfire and Robin had both agreed to give up their votes to Beast Boy and Cyborg, resulting in a stalemate. Raven would be the final vote.
"Come on, Rae," Beast Boy had whined, unheeding of the glare she gave him for the use of her nickname, "You know you want some of that vegetarian pizza with extra tofu."
"No way," Cyborg had protested almost immediately, "She wants extreme meat lover's, don't ya, Raven?"
'Hm… bland, tasteless dinner, or clogged arteries for the rest of my life?' Raven remembered thinking before looking at both of their hopeful faces.
She remembered looking at Beast Boy's especially, and trying to remember how often he actually won out and got to have his meat free dinners without having to pick anything off or settle with plain cheese pizza. It definitely wasn't often.
And then, an odd feeling had flickered through her. Some might call it compassion, and despite her better judgment, she had given in and sided with Beast Boy. The happy expression on his face had been worth it.
"Miss? Miss? Would you like to order?"
Raven shook her head, noticing for the first time that someone was standing in front of her. Tapping her pen on her notepad, the waitress looked at Raven with a hint of impatience. Raven sighed, realizing the girl had probably been waiting for a while for Raven to snap out of her little dream world.
"Uh, no," Raven replied, "I actually have to go…"
"Wait!" Raven turned around, and the server gave her outfit a curious look.
"What?" Raven asked, not trying too hard to hide her annoyance.
"Well, I saw you walk in earlier," the girl said uncertainly, "But… I don't know. You're outfit seems… different somehow."
Looking down, Raven groaned. She had changed again. The diamond hole in her leotard was wider and reached further down her chest, exposing much more skin, and her hair was at least an inch and a half longer. Her cloak only reached mid-thigh, and she could feel that it wasn't as wide as it had been.
"It's nothing," she lied. Before the waitress could say anything else, Raven lifted herself into the air and flew away from the pizza place. She stopped about a block away to inspect herself more closely.
Her breasts had grown again, she noticed. Enough that she was beginning to grow concerned about how tight her bra could get before cutting off her circulation. As it was, it was already digging into her back and shoulders as it strained to stay on. One more change, and she was sure it would just snap off.
She knew she was taller as well, although it was hard to tell with no one familiar around to compare herself to. A quick glance at her reflection in a nearby shop window showed that her face had matured more as well.
As her hands curled into fists, Raven glared murderously at the reflection.
"This is just ridiculous," she growled, "And I still have no idea where he is."
Sighing, she unclenched her fists and shuffled over to a nearby bench (noticing as she did so that her leotard was much tighter in the back and was beginning to ride up). Folding her arms and leaning back, Raven stared out at the street pensively.
'Where could he be?' Raven wondered, idly twisting the hem of her recently shortened cloak as she thought. 'He wasn't at the tower, or at the arcade, or at the pizza place… I still can't believe I was changed again over a memory about tofu pizza toppings…'
She stared moodily at the busy street, her thoughts echoing in her head.
"Wait," Raven sat up, an idea beginning to form in the back of her mind, "Tofu. Maybe he's at that tofu restaurant he loves so much. What's it called again? Oh well, that doesn't matter. I know where it is."
She stood up from the bench. "It makes sense. He might have gone to drown his sorrows in flavorless meat substitutes in a place that he knows we never go to as a group, so it wouldn't be our first place to look. That must be it!"
There was a small coughing sound as a few people shuffled away from her uncertainly, trying to put some distance between themselves and Raven without moving too far away from what Raven now recognized as a bus stop.
'Maybe I should stop talking out loud when I'm in public,' Raven thought. She didn't let herself get too caught up with this thought, however, as she was already flying away to continue her search for Beast Boy.
---
Hehe, I bet some of you are getting pretty annoyed by now that Raven still hasn't found Beast Boy, eh? Sorry. But patience, my friends, I promise she'll find him soon. I won't say when, but soon. ;D Again, sorry.
Tammy Tamborine.