Chapter 16: Twisted Games

The woman raised a fist and glowed green for just a moment before shereleased a starbolt that struckHalle in the chest, making her fly through the air.

"Halle!" Kaden cried. Heraised a hand and caught her in black soul-self 1 energy before she could make a rather painful impact with anything.

"Thanks," she breathed, trying to catch her breathas she regained her footing on the ground, although Kaden was several yards away and it was not possible for him to be able to hear her.

The four watched apprehensively as Starfire's three companions moved slowly closer to her faint green glow. They sttod strangely still for the moment, faces horribly familiar - Robin, Raven, and Beast Boy.

"What are you doing?" Kaden yelled at his mother, but she wasn't responding. -

"They're not themselves," Cyborg yelled back, the distraction giving him enough time to get on his feet, "They're under some type of mind control."

"Mind control?" Kaden repeated, curious despite the strangeness of the moment. The human mind was not so simple as to be as easily manipulated as scifi channel movies made it appear. But he could feel it - they were not themselves. In fact, the woman that was apparently Halle and Alex's mother felt incredibly empty at the moment. She was feeling no emotions at all.

"What?" Alex asked disbelievingly.

Cyborg didn't answer, as Starfire moved suddenly into the air, then sped towards him.

"Al, Kay," called Halle, having picked up the use of Cyborg's nicknames. She nodded jerkily to the rest of the old Teen Titans who had turned their attentions to them.

Robin moved first, springing forward and swiping his bo staff under his son's legs, causing him to trip and fall hard on his butt. The man stood and raised his staff high in the air, ready to bring it down. Alex was too stunned to move. Robin swung the staff down and Alex flinched in anticipation. Before the hit was complete, Kaden's black energy surrounded the bo staff, stopped it, pulled it out of Robin's hands, and flung it far out of the alley.

This brought Robin's attention to Kaden, and away from Alex, a painfully easy target on the ground.

"I got this, take my Mom," said Kaden, not looking away from his opponent. Alex nodded, understanding the twisted logic. It was slightly easier to fight someone who wasn't your parent. So Alex ran towards the grey-skinned, purple-haired woman who had to be Kaden's mother. Halle, he could see out of the corner of his eye, was ducking the talons of a green hawk circling her head.

All of the mind-controlled former Titans were wearing a semblance of their old costumes, except they were solid black with black embossed lightning bolts across their chests. Robin and Beast Boy were in full-body outfits, Raven was in a leotard and cloak, and Starfire in Tameranian style shirt, skirt, gloves, and boots.

The woman called Raven looked at him with empty eyes. Alex released a blue starbolt; it was badly aimed and very weak. It only grazed the Raven's shoulder and didn't faze her at all. All the shock, heart-wrenching pain, and disbelief pushed away all room for righteous fury.

Raven's black energy encased a nearby trashcan and it came hurtling at Alex. He squinted his eyes in concentration. 'Please fly,' he thought to himself and jumped. He made it into the air, but not fast enough to be free and clear. The trash can hit his feet, causing him to pinwheel in the air a few times before regaining himself. When he did, he flew up out of the alley where there was more room. Raven followed on a circular platform of black energy. It looked liked it was going to be an aerial fight.

Cyborg and Starfire were reasonably well matched. Both had some superstrength: Star from her alien physiology and Cyborg from his, well, robot physiology. Both had projectiles of some sort; she had starbolts and he had the sonic canon. They were both seasoned in hand-to-hand combat. However, there was one thing that gave Starfire the upper hand over Cyborg, and that was that ability to fly.

Cyborg was able to dodge a barrage of starbolts by diving behind a nearby dumpster, but he knew what was going on. Mind-controlled Starfire was backing him up to the dead-end of the alleyway with her successive attacks. There was not much room to maneuver and often only the ability to retreat back.

"Sorry about this Star," he said, leveling his sonic cannonarm to the height of his flying former comrade.

Halle had just about enough of swooping green birds. Or one particular swooping green bird. Instead of ducking again as the hawk descended, she dodged to the side and karate chopped it on the back. It fell, but moments before the bird hit the ground it transformed into an agile kitten, able to take most of the impact with ease. Still, the animal seemed a little dazed from being karate chopped in the back by someone with superstrength. Halle could have made another move, but the kitten looked so harmless and cute and wide-eyed…until it transformed into a very vicious wolf 2 and snarled menacingly.

Halle let out a small scream as the animal lunged at her and she jumped backwards into a brick wall. 'Crap,' she thought, 'Dad never taught me how to wrangle animals…Dad…'

She glanced quicklyover to where Kaden was fighting her father to witness her newly acquired friend block a blow, only to be hammered in the gut by another. Halle was brought back to her own fight as the green furred wolf sprang at her, growling. She narrowly escaped by jumping to the side, but landed painfully on the cement ground.

She was backon her feet in just a second, but that undefended moment was all that the predator needed to slice his claws through the air and leave a trail of parallel gashes on her shoulder. Halle looked numbly at the wounds; due to her last second dodge, they weren't too deep and the adrenaline prevented from really feeling them yet, but, she thought a bit wildly, they did cut through her new costume top.

"Oh, it's on."

Kaden felt nothing from any of them. No fear, anger, hate, sadness, joy… anything that one might expect from a fighter. He had just been hit in the gut and it sucked, majorly. Robin brought a hand up for another strike, but Kaden stopped it with his black soul-self energy. The Robin- drone yanked against the translucent, magic-induced binding several times. It broke, finally, but the delay gave Kaden time to regain his breath. Robin swung his fist again, but Kaden blocked it with his forearm. Robin grabbed the boy's forearm and flung him over his shoulder. Kaden landed with a bang and much clattering into a row of aluminum trash cans, scattering them everywhere. Robin moved towards him.

Kaden's eyes glowed and his powers wrapped around a trash can that had rolled to the opposite side of the alley,behind the approaching Robin. He lifted it and withfull force brought it flying at the back of the once-Wonder Boy's knees, making him fall flat on his face and temporarily stunning him.

"Cool," Kaden commented, before surveying the local battling scenes.

He flinched when he witnessed Halle do a Chuck Norris style round-house kick to his father's head. His father was in the form of a leopard at the time, but still. This caused him to revert to his human form and collapse onto the ground.

Cyborg wasn't faring as well. Star was dodging the sonic blasts with a flying ballerina-like ease. Cyborg was backed into a corner with no other options but to continually fire on hisopponent, flying well out of reach.

"Halle!" Kaden shouted and she turned her attention on him. "Your mom," he said, forming a short flight of stairs out of his soul-self energy. Halle nodded in understanding and got a runing start from the mouth of the alleyway. They had practiced this strategy earlier. She ran up the flight of steps and pushed herself into a leap at the end, extending her body long and she flew through air on perfect aim to collide with her mother. It was a great move, a beautifully planned and wonderfully executed,…but it was also the moment the tides turned from the kids and Cyborg of having the upper hand with two adult Titans out and another on the way, to total butt-whooping losing.

You see, at the same moment Halle was making her graceful, aerial arch was the moment in which Alex and Raven and descended from fighting higher in the air, a rather give and take battle, because neither had quit gotten the upper hand above the other, although Alex might admit his erratic flying made him quit a hard target and even when he had strengthened his starbolts, his erratic flying made him a bad aimer. Alex was not in Halle's way at first, not until his was hit in the chest by pure, dark, energy, quite stronger than Kaden's had been when Alex and him had sparred, hit him the chest. He was pushed into Halle's trajectory. So she crashed into him mid-flight and then the both of them fell and crashed into Cyborg on the ground. Kaden facepalmed. Total, butt-whooping losing.

Raven landed on the ground between the recently reawakened Beast Boy and Robin. Starfire landed also among the group, blocking off Kaden and the Halle-Alex-Cyborg pile from the entrance of the alleyway and the apartment door.

"Crap," said Kaden, especially because he was the only member of his team currently standing. The older Titans, Starfire, Robin, Raven, and Beast Boy, had not worked together as of yet in there attack, but now that they targets were all in one place, it seemed that they were all but ready.

The Halle-Alex-Cyborg pile successful untangled itself and all of its members found there feet and took fighting stances with Kaden. However, it didn't make up for the fact that they were all worse for the wear. Halle and Alex bruised and achey from their fall, Kaden stomach still hurt from pummeled by Robin's fist, and even Cyborg had seemed to lose his edge. And the four black-clad, former Titans seemed unfazed by any of the attacks from earlier.

It was quick, it was humiliating, and it was painful. A total and complete butt-whooping.

And then they left, before any real damage was done. The teens and Cyborg were still alive and functioning. The pizza had been trampled and ruined. There were no broken bones, mostly out of luck and a semblance of teamwork that they have scrounged together. But there was scratches and bruises and, maybe the most dangerous of all, broken spirits.

…

Cyborg had left to get more food for the kids. None of them had an appetite at the moment, but he persisted, saying that they needed to keep their strength up. They had sleeping bags and pillows in the gym, which had become their unofficial sleeping place and often hang out during there stay with Cyborg. It was the only room with enough open floor space to fit them.

"Man, when we fought out parents in practice, they weren't so kick-ass," said Alex sulkily.

"I know," agreed Halle. "…I feel so…useless."

"Wah?"

"That whole battle, either our parents won and we lost or we won and beat up our parents. We couldn't win…not really…and they left right after. The Strike was playing with us again."

"Yeah, I know, a really twisted game."

"I don't feel like much of a hero…We haven't even won once…we're no closer to finding our parents, our parents kicked our butts, the Strike holds all the cards and we don't where they are or how to free our parents from the mind control once we do find them…I'm so pathetic," she said staring at the ceiling, trying to hid her budding tears.

"Halle," said Alex, touching his sister's shoulder gently. "You're not pathetic."

" 'Heroine,' 3 that what my name means. That's what mom and dad wanted me to be. They always told us the story of how careful they were to pick out our names. I'm supposed to be a hero, but I'm just a poser. Who cares if I can sew my own costume or know a few moves or whatever…I don't know how to save the people I love…I don't know how to do anything really."

"What about my name," insisted Alex. " 'Alexander'…protector of mankind. I can't protect much of anything. Not our parents, myself…you."

"Me? I don't need protecting…I can handle myself."

"You're my sister, I'm always going to worry about you."

"But I'm your big sister, I should be the one worrying about my little brother."

"Hold on a second, let's get this straight once and for all, you're my twin sister, not my big sister, I don't care if you were born five minutes before me, we developed in the same womb."

"Ew, gross."

"It's what happened."

"Yeah, but you don't have to get in all the anatomy of it all."

"I'm just trying to prove my—'

"Fine, fine, twin sister. Let's just not get into it again."

"So…I won."

"Yeah, you won," said Halle in an exasperated kind of tone, rolling her eyes. But the humor of the incident was short-lived. She glanced over at Kaden, who was sitting in a meditation position in the far corner by himself.

Alex followed his gaze. "He's been sulky ever since the fight."

"Well, us two haven't exactly been sunshine either. It's a lot to handle."

"I know it's a lot to handle, I'm trying to handle it too."

"But at least we've got each other to help get through it with." Halle glanced back at the boy again. "I hope he's okay."

"I'm okay." Halle and Ale almost jumped out of there seats on the floor when Kaden spoke up so unexpectedly, not even cracking his eyes open.

"How did you…?" started Alex.

Kaden openly one eye narrowly. "I have good hearing…and you two are loud."

"So you're good?" asked Halle.

"As good as to be expected."

"Oh…well…okay."

"I know you guys don't get me...I don't always get myself. I've always tried to live by my dad's philosophy."

"Philosophy?" asked Alex.

"Yeah. He says both good and bad things happen in your life and you can either laugh or cry. He decided to laugh to the bitter end. It's easy to laugh when everything is going right…but my mom's not like my Dad on that at all. See, both my mom's and my powers are controlled by our emotions. Any emotion too strong and they go out of control. My blood is more diluted than hers, so I've always had a little more range to play with. With good emotions, it usually is not that bad, but with negative emotions—sadness, anger, hate, fear—everything I'm feeling right now, it's so hard to control…"

"Oh, Kay…"

" 'Fighter.' That's what 'Kaden' means, 'fighter'. I've always known that my parents were superheroes, that they were risking their lives everyday fighting for something else, something greater…and for all my life that I can remember, I wanted to go out with them, I wanted to be a hero too…but I never thought why to be a hero. I didn't know what I was supposed to be fighting for…, but I do now. I fighting to save my parents lives, and if that's not enough, than I don't know what is."

…

Her head felt like…a big, fuzzy weight. It ached in a dull sort of pain. She rolled her head on her shoulders and felt the back of her cranium thud lightly against a cold wall. She cracked her eyes narrowly open. Where was she?

It was dark, Raven could tell that. The room was solid cement, she guessed. Her eyes wandered as they adjusted the lack of light, to a door, on the wall 90 degrees from where she sitting rather slouched over. A door with only a small bar window at the top. What this a cell? A prison? A dungeon? How did she get here…? A few flashed of memories snapped through her mind…the attack! Where's Gar? Where's Kaden?...

'Calm down, Rae, calm down. You can figure a way out of this…why am in a straight jacket?' the empathic woman thought, as she weakly tugged at her arms.

A moan interrupted her struggles. There was someone else in the cell. Raven's eyes found a figure in the shadows off the opposite side of the room. A woman…with red hair.

"Star…" Raven managed to whisper, surprised by how dry her mouth was. Starfire too seemed to be on the edge of consciousness.

Raven wanted reach into her consciousnesses to pull out her powers. A sharp pain went through her head. She couldn't concentrate and if she couldn't concentrate, she couldn't use her powers. At least not in a way that would get her out of here and not possibly maim the other occupant in the room.

Her head began pounding in a rhythmic way that was slowly increasing in loudness…wait, that wasn't her head (although her head was in much pain) that was footsteps. Three pairs of them, if she was discerning right.

"Richard…" said Starfire in small whisper across the room.

The footsteps paused in front of the cell door before it was opened. A little light leaked in from the open doorway and two people entered the cell, but the light silhouetted them made it impossible to identify them. The third man, tall, bulky, and muscular, stood in the doorway with his arms crossed as if to stop any escape attempts.

Of the two other men, as much as silhouettes would allow her to tell, one was short, small, lanky, and possibly wearing googles or glasses of some sort. He was either an awesome meta-human or really smart, because he sure didn't seem to have the brawn. The other man was of medium height, on the shorter side, but not as short as the scrawny guy, portly (and that was the nice way of saying it) wearing on overcoat and had long hair.

They went over to Starfire first. Raven wanted to protest, wanted to tell them to leave her the hell alone, demand of them what was going on, or zap them with her soul-self, but she couldn't. As much as she wanted to turn violently against this people, something was preventing her.

The fat man blocked her view of Starfire. "This is better than Clash of the Planets: The Lost Episode," said the fat guy followed by cackling laughter.

'Control Freak,' thought Raven, because speaking was too difficult at the moment. 'What is that loser doing here?'

Memories rushed back to her...Kaden and the two Grayson kids and…Victor?...Madam Rogue. Madam Rogue was behind this, but Rogue is dead…

Before she was able to discern what this all meant her hair was grabbed roughly and her head was pulled to the side. The short man, he was wearing glasses, and a lab coat, and latex gloves, and was carrying a syringe. Either he was a doctor or a mad scientist.

She felt the pain of a pin prick on the side of her neck and a few seconds later her mind was growing blank, despite how hard she was struggling against it. None of it made sense.

…

1 Soul-self— in the comics, Raven's black energy/magic stuff is often referred to as her soul-self. Although they never refer to it such in the cartoon, there is a part in the first episode with the t-car and it gets stolen and overdrive takes it over and Cyborg has to explode it…That Raven says she understands why Cyborg considers the car his 'baby' cuz he put so much work into it because she has to put a put of her self, her soul, into anything she uses her powers on…

2 not the beast

3 Yes, I know that heroine (as in female hero) and heroine (as in the drug) are spelled the same way.

About how I refer to the Titans in the narrative (the narrative is anything but the dialogue). Earlier in the fic, I referred to the characters by there real names (ex. Garfield or Gar, Richard or Dick, Kori, Raven her real name is Raven, although she does adopt the name Rachael as a secret identity, her real name is still Raven). However, in much as this chapter I referred to them by there superhero names (Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire…). I have a reason, when they are living as normal people, the narrative refers to their real names. When they are acting as superheroes or whatnot, as such in this chapter, they are referred to by their superhero identities. Cyborg has always been Cyborg and not Victor because he is living as a superhero 24-7 basically. The kids will always be referred to by their real names due to them not having superhero names (but they will adopt ones by the end of the story, I already have them picked out). Exceptions to this rule occur, such as in the last section of this chapter, when the story is through a particular character's perception and how they see that person. (Raven referred to Kori as Starfire thus the narrative referred to her as Starfire). I don't know if anyone cares, but I just wanted you to know why I did what I did.

Anyway, don't review...ha, ha, reverse psychology...