Afterburn: Part I

Arc I: Illusions

Chapter 2: Discourse and Diversions

By: mrbeans

Rated: T

I am so sorry for all the spelling misktakes that were in here. This chapter has been run through spell check and should be alot better.

Rain still pounded the city as the , now unconscious, Slade was brought to the medical bay. Raven stood outside the room looking through the window. What did he need ME to help him for? she asked herself.

Robin walked up, back from his room. "You look troubled" he said, making an attempt at caring.

"Why would he need my help?" she replied.

"We're still trying to find out." he replied

Cyborg left the med bay. "He want's to see you Raven".

Still troubled Raven walked into the white med bay, Slade was in one of the beds.

"You wanted to see me?" Raven asked, disguising her confusion with her normal monotone.

Slade leaned up and grabbed Raven's collar, pulling her close to him.

"Commit this to memory as I will not live long enough to say it again." he said "The army is coming. They are led by the lizard one but he is but a distraction. The dragon works for him." His eye widened on the last word.

Slade let go of Raven and lay back. "Wait" she asked almost franticly "Who's he? What Dragon?"

"You've met the Dragon" he said weekly.

"Malchior"

"Yes, be careful of him though. You have yet, thankfully, to encounter him"

Raven was about to ask him more but stopped. A small whirring noise was slowly becoming louder. She turned to the window as a man with a jet pack burst through the window. Raven pressed the alarm with her powers and turned to the attacker. He walked slowly into the light.

"Speedy?" said Raven with as much surprise as she would allow herself to show.

Speedy said nothing, just nocked an arrow and fired at Slade. Raven stopped it mid flight.

The rest of the Titans burst into the room and stopped when they saw Speedy.

The archer nocked another arrow but never got the chance to fire it. The second window shattered and Speedy fell over, dead.

No one said or did anything for a while. None of them could explain why someone who they thought was their ally had attempted to kill them and had then been sniped by a mysterious assassin.

-----

The next day brought no solace. It was still dark and it was still raining. Beast Boy and Cyborg had decided that they were going to play every video game known to man in one sitting. Robin and Starfire were doing who knows what.

Raven had returned to her books, attempting to find more information both on what she read and what the voice that had contacted her was. She found nothing else. There must be something else! she thought to herself. She slammed the book she had been reading shut unnessicarily loudly.

Almost to free her from her thoughts, the alarm rang once again.

Nothing could prepare Raven or any of the other Titans for what happened next.

-----

Malchior loved being devious. After all, it was what he did best. He slinked around his library, grabbing vials and flasks off the shelves. He dumped the contents of several into a large cauldron.

His moment of zen was disturbed when his holocommunicator, one of the few pieces he possessed (or needed). He picked up the small circle and a small hologram of his master appeared.

"I trust everything is almost ready, Malchior" he said.

"Yes" relied the dragon "she has read the book and I'm preparing the spell as we speak."

"Good, phase one is already complete, move on to phase two. Our triumph approaches"

The hologram faded. Malchior picked up the last ingredient, a small gem. He threw it across the room and into the cauldron, causing it to emit an explosion of green smoke. Taking advantage of the moment, the dragon decided to laugh rather maniacally.

----

The Titans had reached the source of the disturbance, a high-tech facility, but not the disturber.

"I'm tellin' ya' Robin there's no one here" said Cyborg.

"I agree with friend Cyborg, no one appears to be here" said Starfire.

Suddenly there was the sound of footsteps. The team turned.

"Follow the sound!" yelled Robin.

The Titans followed the footsteps to a large four story room that didn't appear to have anything in it. The only thing in the entire room was small gem, floating in the center.

Raven's eyes widened "We have to go...now" she said

"How come?" asked Beast Boy "It's just a rock"

As if purposely to contradict him, the gem shattered. Malchior, as if he had been compressed inside, burst forth.

"Didn't you get trapped in a book?" asked BB

The dragon said nothing, he simply held out his hand and sent a beam of energy at the floor.

"Yo!' yelled Cyborg mockingly "You missed!"

"Did you ever consider" said Malchior "That I may not have been aiming at you"

The patch of floor was suddenly sucked down, revealing the presence of a portal like vortex.

"Your world will now be sucked into oblivion" said Malchior, he looked at Raven "There is but one way to stop it"

He leapt into the air, rotated and then vanished in a burst of light with a smile.

"No" said Raven to herself "This is not happening"

Robin suddenly was whipped off the ground and flew into the vortex. Without giving another thought to logic she said one spell she hoped she'd never utter "Orion Calzar Elcoume" she yelled. The vortex stopped spinning and spat Robin back out. It flashed and then vanished.

The Robin it spat out was slightly different somehow. the yellow and green on his uniform was black.

"Dude" said Beast Boy "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine" said Robin "We should get back to the tower"

The Titans left the building.

"So Robin?" asked Cyborg "What's with the new outfit?"

"It must of been the vortex" said Robin, making a very poor attempt at being evasive.

Cy decided not to say anything else. No one spoke until they reached the tower. Robin went off to the study.

"Does Robin seem kinda'...different?" said Beast Boy once Robin and Starfire had left.

"He did seem even more evasive then usual" said Cyborg. "What'd you think Raven?"

"There's something strange about him but I can't sense what" said Raven

The three titans went off to bed. Sinking into their troubled subconscious.

These mild nightmares were nothing compared to what lie ahead.

Cool. Chapter II is already up.

If you find the first few chapters annoyingly cryptic and vague, that's what I'm going for.

The story after next chapter (that's chapter 4) the fic will break off into four separate stories that take place at the same time in Universe A (where the Titans are now).

This is why I have the fic divided into a quadrilogy, arcs, and chapters.

Enjoy,

-mrbeans