Prologue 1: Chasing Fire - part 3

In a few seconds, it was clear that that wasn't going to be an easy task. As if propelled by a cannon or slingshot, the mysterious metahuman girl unfroze and jerked to life, in one fluid motion propelling herself out of her sitting position. She half scrambled, half flew, out of the debris pile, scattering trash in all directions as she fled.

The five teens turned away and shielded themselves with their arms as plastic wrappers and aluminum foil rained down on them; Raven, being the closest, was rewarded with a foil-covered, half-eaten baked potato, sour cream and all – Seriously, who puts food in a junkyard?! – to the face, much to her annoyance. When it was over, the titans looked up to find….

…that their elusive young villainess had left the scene. Again. The brief, three second onslaught was a long enough distraction for the metahuman to make a break for it, as well as gain a considerable advantage. They spotted the girl already several hundred feet ahead of them, running between the increasingly enormous trash piles, making a bee-line for the border of the junkyard. She made a sharp turn behind a pile and vanished from sight; obviously she was trying to make the Titans lose her trail in this maze of a mess.

Oh no, not again. Not going to happen. Not this time.

"Titans, after her!"

Robin didn't need to tell his team twice. As a matter of fact, he didn't even need to tell them once. As soon as their target was once again in their field of vision, the young heroes locked onto her and sprang into action, like hunters after prey. Normally, they might not have been so urgent in their efforts to pursue and capture – but this girl was a wild card; who knew where she came from, or how dangerous she might be? Especially if their suspicions about her association to Slade happened to be true.

They needed answers, and this had gone on long enough.

Beast Boy morphed into a falcon and took to the air, scanning the ground below from a bird's-eye-view; he wanted to keep a lookout just in case the ruiner of his day decided to do one of those weird teleporting-disappearing thingies and end up on the other side of the junk yard. Or in a whole other part of the city for that matter. From this height, it wouldn't take long for him to tell if the girl was no longer here.

Cyborg and Robin split up, Cyborg taking the girl's last known direction of travel. The Cyber-teen skidded around the trash pile the girl had disappeared behind, his feet moving at 100% speed. He fiddled with his scanner as he ran, trying to make it tell more than just the girl's heartbeat – which was, understandably, ridiculously fast at the moment – or her general location; anything to make it easier to find her.

Robin, meanwhile, ran parallel to Cyborg, a wall of junk piles between them. He sped toward one of the junkyard exits closest in the direction the girl was heading, with the aim of coming up ahead of her and cutting her off, should she try to escape that way.

Starfire followed the green boy's lead (minus the falcon), giving chase from above. She stayed relatively close to Robin – it wouldn't do to stray too far from each other, after all, especially without knowing exactly what the girl's powers were – with a starbolt powered up and at the ready. It was as much for light as it was for a weapon; the junkyard was dark, and the overlapping shadows of varied lengths – long and dim ones from the four tall apartment buildings; dark and comparatively short ones from the piles of junk – made it even trickier to make things out clearly. Starfire figured the girl might use the tactic of simply hiding and maneuvering through the shadows, counting on being overlooked, and the Tamaranian wasn't about to let that happen.

Raven trailed close to Cyborg, mimicking Starfire in her method of operation. Well, sort of. Raven also searched from the air, her black energy glowing from her hands, but she didn't stick with just that one strategy. She phased in and out of junk piles, should the elusive villainess decide to hide in one again, and tried to reach out with her powers to psychically contact her – which turned out to difficult. The other girl, it seemed, was constantly moving, so Raven couldn't get a proper hold on the connection before it fuzzed out and slipped from her mental grasp.

Or maybe, Raven thought, she has strong mental barriers. It would make sense; after all, making contact with a moving person usually hadn't been an issue with Raven. Intriguing. This sudden revelation added to her curiosity. There was something very strange about this girl, she could sense it – something maybe even a little…off. Just who was this girl?

Or maybe the question was not who, but…what?

The answer to this question was closer than the young Azarathian realized. From his long-range view from the air, Beast Boy finally caught side of their mysterious target. The girl was very close to Cyborg, about a couple rows – if they could be called rows – of trash piles ahead of him, weaving in and out, between, ducking behind, and occasionally circling around the piles. She was never in one place for more than three seconds.

Beast Boy looked ahead in the direction she was going; about 60 feet in her direction was an opening between the apartment buildings that she could slip through. It would be much harder to find her if they had to search for her in the dark alleyways once again. From the way she was going, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't aware of that escape route; she had to be caught before she found out about it. Or at least be herded away from it.

Beast Boy lowered himself to the ground and morphed back into a human, but kept up his pace at a run, not slowing down for a second. The chance of finally catching the girl being so close gave the tired boy a new burst of energy.

He wasted no time in informing his teammates. "Hey, Cy!" he called into his communicator, "I saw her! She's a couple rows ahead of you to your left, close by the pile with all those big red car part looking things and the one that looks like two-hill rollercoaster made out of aluminum and soggy cardboard."

As usual, Beast Boy's descriptions were a bit "out there", but Cy, and everyone else, was used to it enough to figure out what he was talking about. "Uhhh…I see 'em, BB." The older teen answered after he had spotted the piles the other boy was referring to.

He was still fiddling with his scanner, and nearly immediately after he said that, he reached a break through. Deftly thumbing the controls in a different combination, he was able to locate the girl's footsteps with his scanner and amply them, matching the sound with their distance and velocity.

We should get into more chases more often, the Cyber-teen mused to himself jokingly, if every one results in finding a new use for my tech. He slightly slowed his pace to a brisk, almost-jog and turned the "corner" of the trash "row" with the trash pile that "looks like a two-hill rollercoaster made out of aluminum and soggy cardboard". Sure enough, the girl was there, just coming out from behind another junk pile in the "row".

She got to the middle of the pathway before she spotted him. She then froze, staring at the other teen steadily coming toward her, momentarily looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. She started backing away slowly, and squeaked out something under her breath, which, to Cyborg's technologically advanced hearing, sounded a lot like "Oh, shoot."

As the girl clearly showed no sign of surrendering any time soon, Cyborg was all too happy to oblige. He powered up his sonic cannon, aimed, and fired.

"Not literally!" The girl shouted with a squeak, scrambling to duck and avoid the blue-energy blast. She succeeded, then turned her back on her pursuer and took off running.

She sharply turned a corner around another trash pile, weaving in and out of the mini-garbage-mountains of the "row", trying to avoid another cannon blast – which she ducked – as well as lose the Cyber-teen that was on her tail.

This case, she did not succeed. Cyborg was right behind her, determined not to lose track of her again.

Several yards into the chase, away from the pile consisting of "soggy cardboard", the girl tried a different tactic. In her desperate drive to hurry, to get away as fast as she could, the girl swerved right toward a medium sized – at least six feet high – trash pile of the next "row".

She skidded straight through the pile, scattering its contents everywhere. Aluminum foil, empty wrappers, and even gray, dirty, fireplace soot and ashes flew through the air, raining down on Cyborg and everything in the surrounding area within a five foot radius.

Five feet. That's how close Cyborg had come to finally catching the little nuisance.

But now, Cyborg was once again having to protect himself from a messy onslaught, while she, once again, got away from him. He ducked slightly with his arms over his head to shield himself as wrappers and ashes rained down on him. After a mere few seconds, it was over, and he lowered his arms and coughed from the ashes that hung in the air. A mostly empty bag of Lay's potato chips had landed on his head, as if it was quite pleased to give the teen a new hat; Cyborg narrowed his eyes in annoyance, snatched his unwelcome new piece of wardrobe, and flung it away.

When he looked, Cyborg found that much of his arms and legs were covered with soot. He huffed in exasperated indignation and brushed off the offending black substance as best he could – with extra special attention to his scanner of course. He vigorously wiped the screen with the inside of his other arm. Cyborg sighed; all he really accomplished was smearing the screen with a translucent layer of black. Ah, well – at least was clear enough to see through. He would have to give it a more thorough cleaning once they got back to the Tower. Speaking of which…

Time to get some more back up, Cyborg thought.

He activated the communicator built into his arm and contacted Robin. "Yo, Robin! I need more back up! I think that exit's safe; we need you over here. I almost had the little nuisance but she pulled the throw-trash-everywhere trick again," he said irritably. He sent Robin the location and the current direction the girl was heading.

"On my way," came Robin's reply.

Meanwhile, said little nuisance was madly scrambling out of the pile and to the other side. The girl's clothes, arms, and legs were partially streaked with soot, but she barely gave herself a glance before completing the U-turn, putting a "row" of trash piles between herself and the other teenager. Her appearance wasn't important now.

What was important now, as far as she was concerned, was escaping.

She set herself at a brisk jog, rather than a run – she was tired, and thought that her scattering the trash at Cyborg had once again been enough of a distraction to gain a good amount of ground, as well as a chance to catch her breath, before she had to start running and maneuvering again.

Wrong.

While Cyborg had been distracted by the trashy bombardment, one teen titan had not. Raven, as mentioned before, had been staying close to Cyborg, keeping a close eye on the girl's movements. The girl was unaware of the blue-cloaked teen watching her from her hidden pocket of dark energy. Only for a moment, that is.

The girl barely made it five feet before she was blindsided by a blast of dark energy. She pitched to the side and was thrown backward three feet before landing on her rear with an "oof!" She wasted no time in scrambling to her feet, breathing heavily and shaken from the unexpected attack.

Her mysterious assailant made herself known; Raven phased out from inside a nearby trash pile, her eyes glowing white and her hands surrounding with glowing – how did something black glow? – dark energy. "You should know by now that you can't get away from us that easily." She hissed to the frozen, wide-eyed girl.

As soon as she said that, the girl whirled around and ran. So much for the break. Cyborg had long since recovered and now was, too, giving chase. The girl skidded to the side, nearly colliding with a fresh batch of moldy grill left overs, just barely missing an energy-cloaked object. She ducked a blue-cannon energy blast, turning again between trash piles, only to scarcely avoid being creamed in the side by what appeared to be an old, rusted, dented, ice-cream maker.

Creamed by and ice-cream maker. If not for the situation – being busy avoiding capture by five superheroes in the middle of the night – the girl would have laughed.

As it was, she was doing good to be keeping enough breath just to stay moving. And the girl's problems were only mounting – a new pursuer for her to worry about had now just entered the scene.

The young villainess let out a shriek-squeal and threw herself forward and rolled to the side, nearly getting trapped by an energy-cloaked cardboard box coming down from on top of her. As she rolled herself upright and prepared herself to keep running, her breath coming in heavy gasps, she found herself facing Robin; the boy was in front of her in a fighting stance, his staff held out in front of him, ready take her down or fight her in doing so.

Well, the girl was going to make it clear to him what she thought of that.

Robin wasted no time in putting his weapon to use. He lunged at the girl, his staff raised to land a blow. The girl bent backwards and extended one arm more-or-less fully out in front of her, with the other arms raised at her side, bent at the elbow, in defense, to try and block the attack that was coming at her.

And then – Impact.

The boy superhero's weight knocked her to the ground. But the blow never landed. The girl caught the staff in her outstretched hands before it could. The boy loomed over her and pressed downward against the staff, which was gripped firmly in all four of their hands. If he couldn't strike her, then he could at least pin her down. The girl underneath him gasped – both from the impact of hitting the pavement and from the effort it took to keep the staff away from her. The girl's arms slightly shook with exertion. She was clearly tiring.

Now if only Robin could keep at this long enough to tire her out completely, until she gave up of out of exhaustion or the others came to overwhelm her with their numbers – it was only one to one right now, after all.

That's when the girl's eyes flashed fire-orange.

"Ow!" The boy hero barely had time to glimpse the change before the staff, and wherever he happened to be touching the girl, became unbearably hot. Caught off guard, Robin had just only let go of the staff when the girl kicked his legs out from under him. The girl shifted to the side, causing Robin to sprawl forward directly onto the concrete. He caught himself with his hands. Robin winced as his palms scraped against the rough surface.

As he fell, the girl dropped his staff next to him, which hit the pavement with a soft clang. Robin heard the girl's footsteps and turned his head to her running away, her back to him. Robin scrambled to his feet and scooped up his staff from the ground. He chased after her, clutching his staff in one scraped hand, just for the girl to turn behind a medium sized junk mound.

As he ran, a thought briefly flickered through his mind. Why had she left the staff there for him to take it and possibly use on her again? Wouldn't the logical thing to do, in her situation, be to keep it from him?

When he caught up and turned the corner, the girl was gone. Somehow she had managed to outmaneuver him again. That, or she pulled whatever trick that let her disappear from the alleyway earlier today. His target was out of sights, if only for the moment. Before continuing, Robin paused to catch his breath. Down the "aisle" of tall trash heaps, the ground was cast with eerie, crisscrossing shadows, and no more than five yards in ahead, the path vanished altogether.

The young boy reluctantly moved his feet forward – he knew he had to find that girl. If she had any connection to Slade at all, he – they – had to find out what it was. Pushing himself into a brisk jog, Robin found himself momentarily distracted by the ten – bordering on fifteen – foot tall piles of garbage and debris that loomed over the path.

Was it just him, or was the night getting darker?

Above him, Beast Boy saw when the girl got away from Robin. He had turned back into a bird – and eagle this time – shortly after the girl had gotten away from Cyborg. He had caught up with the older teenager, who had told him in a grumbling tone that mirrored Beast Boy's own feelings about the situation, what had happened. After a brief chat to figure out where Robin and the girl were headed, Beast Boy flew off, figuring it would be more efficient to search for and keep tabs on her from the air.

He saw her turn around the trash pile and slip between two others that lined the path, then cross into another "row". She was now crouching in the dark twin shadows cast by the two – ridiculously tall, in Beast Boy's opinion; seriously, who ran this place? – garbage mounds. The girl was clever; she had chosen well. She practically melted into the darkness of her hiding place. If it weren't for his aerial view, he wouldn't ever have seen her.

Beast Boy noted that the girl was looking forward and around, not up. Now would be the perfect time for a sneak attack.

Beast Boy glided silently, as to not alert her to his presence. When he was positioned directly in front her hiding place, he swooped into a dive, morphing a few feet above the ground to land on his feet as a human. The darkness between the two piles obscured the girl from his view, but he didn't need to see her; he already knew she was there. He sensed no movement from within the hiding place, so he guessed she didn't think he saw her.

That was about to change.

The green boy turned into a ram, lowered his head, and ran headlong in between the piles. He felt something soft collide with his forehead, heard a startled half-grunt-half-cry, and then suddenly burst out from between the piles and back into the – mostly dim, but shockingly different from the pitch black of the space – light. He blinked a couple of times, then lifted his head.

The girl was sprawled on her back three feet away from him. Beast Boy morphed back into a human. The girl groaned softly and lifted herself into a sitting position, with her knees bent and the rest of her weight leaning on her hands. When she saw Beast Boy, she gasped and scuttled backwards about a foot.

The boy in question crossed his arms and leveled his gaze at the girl, who eyes were wide in fear. "Remember me?" He asked in a flat, no-nonsense tone, much unlike his usual manner of speaking.

The girl slowly, barely perceptibly shaking, stood up to her feet. "Y-yes." She answered him, her voice catching slightly.

Beast Boy hid his surprise; he hadn't expected the girl to answer him. It's not like she had been especially talkative, after all.

But now was not the time for small talk, anyway.

Nor was it the time to let that girl get away again.

Less than a second later, without any further words, the girl was running off down the trash row-aisle-path-thing, dashing like a lightning bolt, fleeing from the green hero like prey from a predator.

She didn't see Beast Boy turn into a large bear behind her – a better form to catch her in, he figured, plus the thick fur would protect him in case she tried to use the burning-hurty trick again.

Although why she stuck to running and didn't just fight was beyond him.

Beast Boy was about to seriously regret having that last thought.

The girl whirled around when she heard the heavy footsteps of a bear running towards her. She scurried away even faster, to the side this time, hoping to get out of his path and that his size and speed wouldn't allow him to change directions soon enough. But Beast Boy was quick and agile, even as a lumbering bear, and he followed her every move, gaining on her with each stride. She quickly looked back at him, and one glance at her wide, frightened eyes told Beast Boy that the girl knew there was no hope, that there was no escaping this time; she was going to be caught.

In a matter of seconds he had caught up with her, backed up –essentially cornered – towards a 12-foot tall garbage pile of aluminum foil wrappers and whatever else; he loomed over her on his hind legs, coming down, ready to either catch her in his huge paws or knock her out with them, while she looked up at him in horror, fear and desperation and panic – for heaven sake, she looked close to tears, almost; why didn't she just fight him instead of stand there? – familiarly evident, written all over her face and in her glowing eyes.

Wait. Glowing eyes?

He barely had time to register the thought, for the light, as before, was simply a herald of something greater.

Only this time, it was much more.

The girl raised her hands up toward him. And out of them came red. Hot. Searing. Curling.

Flames.

"Ah!"Beast Boy yelped in surprise and pain as he quickly stumbled back, away from the sudden fire bursting from the girl's hands, morphing back into a landed on his rump and rolled onto his knees, cringing, hands raised instinctively to try to protect himself.

Dude, what the heck?!

Flames dissipated nearly as quickly as they came. Beast Boy opened his eyes and checked himself over. His sleeves and the front of his uniform were singed, but he was otherwise unharmed. Beast Boy looked up and caught the gaze of his attacker.

The girl stood a good five feet away from him, her muscles tense, arms and legs spaced apart in a defending stance, ready to fight. Her eyes stared at him with a fearful, wild look. A distant streetlight shone on her at an angle, and her skin appeared to glow and glimmer in the dim light. Both teens were panting heavily, their skin shiny with sweat.

For a split second, as he stared at her, Beast Boy didn't know what to do. He'd thought he was prepared, the girl suddenly turning and fighting with this kind of power caught him off guard. If this girl could produce fire at a whim, then she was extremely dangerous, and they were up against more than they originally thought.

But of course, that had never stopped them before. And it wasn't about to.

Beast Boy slowly stood up, keeping his gaze locked on hers, and hurriedly tried to think of a plan. He couldn't fight fire, not without risking getting burned. Not of them could, except maybe the girls. And that was a big maybe.

So how could he fight this girl? What was a good defense against fire?

The gears in his head clicked and the most obvious answer hit him.

Water! Of course.

And they were smack in the middle of an apartment complex. However run down it was, it should have a hose or at least a water spout-faucet-something-or-other. Maybe among all of his techno-gadgets, Cyborg had something that could enhance the water spray.

Or we could call the fire department, he joked to himself. But of course, that would also bring the attention of the police, once they explained the details of the fire "emergency", and that was not something any of them wanted.

Least of all the girl, but it wasn't as if they actually cared what she wanted right now.

He finally stood up to his full height, still holding the gaze of the girl's. Funny, she still didn't seem to be in a hurry to fight. The girl looked tired out, if anything. Her body quavered slightly has she held her defensive stance, and her breathing was a little bit shaky.

The gears continued turning in the young green hero's head. He didn't have water with him now; he would have to find it first.

Beast Boy tore his eyes away from the girl's and dashed away from her, down the aisle, heading to an apartment wall to find that water hose/spout/faucet/whatever – no sense trying to catch her with that weapon up her sleeve.

Suddenly, she was right in front of him. With a yell of surprise, he stopped in his tracks, skidding to a halt. How the heck did she do that?!

His thoughts briefly went to her sudden disappearance from the alleyway.

Well, no way was he giving her a chance to make him Roast a la Beast Boy.

The girl thrust her arm out in front of her and shot a blast of orange flames directly at him. He morphed into a bird and flew up from the ground, just barely avoiding getting hit. The orange flames curled a centimeter under his feet - almost brushing against them, close enough for him to feel the heat and cringe – before going out two feet past where he'd been standing, then dissipating.

He flapped his wings and flew higher, and flew toward the girl, squawking. If he couldn't fight her, then he could at least distract her and catch her off guard long enough to get a good distance away from her, contact his friends, and get to work finding that water hose.

Beast Boy swooped down on her, claws outstretched. He flapped his feathered wings I her face and pecked at her hair, cawing and squawking. The girl cried out in protest. She squeezed her eyes shut to keep the feathers out of her eyes and ducked, her arms over her head. She tried to back away from him, to no avail, and pushed her arms out with her palms spread flat to try to fend him off, with the same results.

Beast Boy's plan was to attack her long enough to disorient her and fly off, but he didn't get to go all the way through with that plan.

While he was still pecking at her, the girl succeeded in putting about a centimeter of space between them. A split second opening.

That was all she needed.

Fire blasted from her hands, the orange flames curling and pluming out between Beast Boy and the girl. Beast Boy cawed shrilly and hurriedly flapped away, the flames fanning out with the added air his wings gave them.

Beast Boy flew upwards, a few feet away from the girl and her fire. The flames dissipated – for the most part at least. Some fallen sparks landed at the base of nearby trash mounds; small fires sprouted from them, giving off a quiet crackling.

The girl stared up at him, something unreadable in her eyes. Beast Boy flapped in place, looking back down at her. They stayed that way for the space of a moment.

Then the moment vanished.

The girl outstretched her hands and blasted flames up toward him. Beast Boy fled, flying away from her as fast as he could. He could hear the pounding footsteps of the girl running after him, and the fffwooommfff of the fire rushing toward him.

He had to get way and call for back up.

He morphed back into a human and hit the ground running. "Mayday, mayday!" He called into his communicator in a panic – which he would later be somewhat embarrassed about. As soon as he explained his water idea and that he need someone to get the heck over here and help him, he closed his communicator and put it away. He ducked a blast of flames and decided quickly that he'd probably be safer up in the air.

He jumped up and turned into a bird, flying a couple of feet higher than the nearest tallest trash pile – which was about 15 feet (for Pete's sake, that was ridiculous!). He figured that should be out of the girl's firing range – literally.

That was until he heard the roar and crackling flames from the behind him, and felt the near blistering heat in the surrounding air.

He looked back and saw that the girl was right behind him.

Beast Boy mentally kicked himself. How could he have forgotten? She could fly!

Now the roles were reversed, and Beast Boy was being the one chased.

He flew in and out and over trash piles, the girl right behind him. She kept shooting fire at him right and left, a steady stream of oncoming flames that he had to constantly avoid. Stray sparks, and full-on fire streams that he'd gotten out of the way of, ignited garbage piles, leaving a trail of burning bonfires in the teens' wake.

This was a huge help to those who were trying to follow them.

Beast Boy ducked and turned to the side, just narrowly missing being fried by to simultaneous fire blasts. If he was in dog, or even human form, he would be panting. As it was, he was becoming exhausted, and his wings ached with each flap.

They were now flying close to the brick wall of an apartment building. He flapped both wings hard at the same time, flying above a fire blast that curled not inches below him.

Then he heard a voice that was music to his ears.

"Beast Boy!" came Starfire's call. She and Raven swooped from the air, with Robin and Cyborg in tow on foot (no pun intended).

Beast Boy narrowly avoided another fire blast from behind. A second later, he heard a blast from a starbolt, followed by a thud.

Starfire took careful aim, powered up a starbolt, and fired. It hit its target.

The girl was knocked into the wall. She slid to the ground, unconscious.

Beast Boy morphed back into a human and landed. The rest of the team gathered around the unconscious girl. They were all thinking the same thing.

Finally.

The faint sound of fire truck sirens could be heard. Four pairs of eyes turned and glared at Beast Boy. The boy in question turned to look at the junkyard; at least on third of it was up in flames. And it was partly his fault.

"Heh heh…"he said sheepishly. He rubbed the back of his neck. "At least we know what her powers are."

Robin sighed and looked back at the unconscious girl laying on the ground. The sirens were getting louder. The fire trucks would be here soon.

"Let's just take her to the Tower."

And that's a wrap! You know when I said that I would put the 3 parts into one chapter? Well, this turned out longer that expected, so I figured it was good as just one chapter. I can't believe it took me as long to get it out as it did, sorry guys!

That's the end of the first prologue. Who do YOU think the mysterious girl is? Leave a review!

Hopefully the next update will be relatively soon. I'll try, but no promises. Reviews might make it come faster, though.