Part 80: The Quest Begins

Raven woke up groggily. She looked around and suddenly remembered that she wasn't in her room but in a rented room of an inn. She yawned. She looked to her left to see her boyfriend Shadowcobra but he wasn't there. Using her psychic link with him, she began searching where he was. An explosion outside alerted her. She then noticed that Shadowcobra's card deck was missing. She already knew where he was.

"Boys..."

She quickly got herself dressed up and went outside to see the commotion.

Jinx yawned and stretched her limbs. She flinched slightly as she touched her back. Suddenly she remembered the events of last night and blushed. Jinx grinned.

"Boy, Draco can be such an animal when he wants to," she said to herself, "He just kept going and going and going. He was like an energizer sex bunny." Jinx giggled. She looked around but she couldn't see Draco anywhere. She also noticed that some of the furniture was broken and all over the floor. She remembered that her Hex powers and Draco's telekinesis were going out of control when they were doing the nasty.

His card deck was missing too.

A shout outside her window alerted her.

"STRIKE VENT!"

It was Draco's voice and judging by the tone he was in his dragon armor. Jinx quickly jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom and got herself cleaned up. She knew it wasn't necessary since they were all in a VR world, but Jinx just loved smelling nice every morning, for Draco/Leo. Minutes later, she came out of the bathroom, fully dressed. She left her hair down since Draco liked it that way. Actually, the reason he was attracted to her was when she had her hair in the high ponytails that made them look like cat ears. They instantly fell in love the day they met.

In truth, Jinx loved Draco, a lot. Draco may have been a Teen Titan when they met and Jinx was a HIVE agent, but that didn't matter since he could see something the other Titans didn't; a heart. Sure Jinx bickers a lot with Raven and sure none of the Titans trusted her much, but she didn't care. All she wanted was Draco's trust and love and she got it. He cared for her, protected her and defended her like a knight in shining armor.

A witch and a knight, how fitting.

Jinx then remembered that Raven's own boyfriend was a Zodiac Knight too and frowned.

Jinx and Raven were both Goths and had occult powers. That was what started the whole rivalry, that, or the fact that Jinx went into Raven's room that one time and took her cloak. Now that they both had boyfriends who were Zodiac Knights, the rivalry had escalated to another level.

The fact that their boyfriends were also rivals also added to the punch.

With a grin, Jinx left the inn room to get a closer look at her boyfriend fighting whoever he was fighting.

Outside, Draco and Shadowcobra were circling each other. They had suggested that sparring was a good way to get used to using their powers and cards in the virtual world. Robin had wanted to spar with Draco, but Shadowcobra beat the Titan leader to the punch and challenged Draco to a friendly duel. Pluto stood at the sidelines with the rest of the Titans, watching the two rival knights duke it out. Raven and Jinx ran out and started cheering for their respective boyfriends while glaring at eachother.

The terms of the friendly duel were simple: Each knight shall summon a monster and only used Zodiac-Vent cards that were connected to that monster.

Shadowcobra hadn't summoned his signature monster, Genosnaker, but instead a white Rhinoceros creature that stood on two legs. It had golden claws on its hands and its horns were also golden. Its name was Metalceros.

Draco had summoned Razorclaw, one of his six monsters. Razorclaw was in the form of a black lion with a silver mane. When Draco had summoned it, Starfire immediately flew over to the beast and stroked the beast's mane. Razorclaw didn't seem to be offended by the gesture and allowed Starfire to pet it, until its master cleared his throat.

Draco was armed with the Black Lion Claws while Shadowcobra was armed with a gauntlet on his right arm that looked like the top half of Metalceros' head. It was called the Metal Strike Horn for good reason since the horn was pointed forwards like a spike.

"Ready to lose, my friend?" Shadowcobra asked.

"Heh! No way! When this is through, I'll be kickin yo ass!" Draco remarked. Razorclaw roared in affirmative.

Shadowcobra shrugged. "Suit yourself" Shadowcobra then disappeared from Draco's sight.

"Hey! No fair turning invisible!"

"All's fair in love and war," Shadowcobra's voice echoed as Draco was thrown forward by an invisible strike. Draco felt a slight sharp pain meaning he was struck in the back by the Metal Strike Horn.

Draco landed gracefully on his feet. "If that's how you're gonna play it!" Draco slid the visor of his helmet down over his eyes. "Fine by me!"

Draco was able to see Shadowcobra through the visor and charged, slashing Shadowcobra across the chest and then delivering a whirlwind kick to Shadowcobra's side. Shadowcobra reappeared and grabbed his leg under his right arm. Shadowcobra then started spinning around, while holding onto Draco's leg. Draco was getting dizzy as Shadowcobra spun him around.

"Please…Stop...!" Draco exclaimed.

"Suit yourself!" Shadowcobra let go of Draco's leg in mid spin and sent him crashing into a nearby tree. Draco stood up and was clearly angry.

Draco charged up a fireball and threw it at Shadowcobra. Shadowcobra sidestepped out of the way of the attack. Draco, not wanting anyone getting hurt by the blast dispersed the fireball before it hit anything.

"Playing with fireworks dragon?" Shadowcobra scoffed, "Pathetic."

Draco roared like a lion as he pounced at Shadowcobra. Shadowcobra tried to sidestep the attack but was slashed again across the chest sending sparks flying. Draco landed on an all fours crouching position and smirked.

"How's that for pathetic, huh, Snake?"

Shadowcobra whirled around and fired the horn of his weapon at Draco like a missile. Draco rolled out of the way. The horn returned to Shadowcobra's weapon via cable.

"Yes, I am impressed." Shadowcobra drew his Final Vent card. Draco did the same. Shadowcobra inserted the card into the back of his weapon while Draco followed his example and inserted it into one of his claws.

"FINAL VENT!"

"RHINOCEROS SMASHER!" Shadowcobra yelled as he jumped onto the charging Metalceros' shoulders and charged forward while standing horizontally from the beast's shoulders.

"LION CLAW RUSH!" Draco jumped onto Razorclaw's back and the black lion started transforming into a 4-wheeled ATV vehicle with sharp spiked attached to the front as well as on the wheels. The hybrid vehicle sped forward at incredibly speed.

Both attacks collided and a powerful explosion erupted that rocked the small village, waking up the still sleepy inhabitants as they looked out their windows to see the commotion. After the dust had cleared, their armors had disappeared, leaving the knights in their normal clothes.

"That…" Draco panted, "Was pretty good."

Shadowcobra breathed, "I know. You've been practicing."

Jinx immediately ran to Draco and propped him up. He was sore, but relatively fine since he was smiling all the way.

"You okay, Draco?" Jinx asked, concerned.

"I'm alright, Jinx, don't worry. Nothing like a little sparring to keep the blood going."

Shadowcobra smiled. "I never could've guessed it that you've gotten stronger these last few years," Shadowcobra quipped. Raven was at his side, helping him up, while using a healing spell to heal some of his wounds.

"Hey!" Draco scoffed. "I learnt a lot of stuff being a Zodiac Knight, don't you forget that, Shadow!"

Shadowcobra nodded. "I won't. Experience has been a fine teacher to you, my friend."

"Now that you boys have proven your manhood, I think it's time for some breakfast, wouldn't you say?" Raven said.

Shadowcobra turned his head to Raven and smiled. "Agreed."

Both Metalceros and Razorclaw growled. The Titans turned to them and then looked at each other.

"Dudes, just one question," Beast Boy spoke up, "If we're in a VR world, how come these guys are here?" he pointed at Metalceros and Razorclaw.

Smartest thing he said all day. "A good question, Beast Boy," Shadowcobra said. "These monsters are bound to us by contract. So where we go, they go."

"And when we're hungry, they're hungry," Draco said. He drew five more cards from his deck and summoned the rest of his monsters. "Dragonzer, Brainstorm, Wildcat, Hardhead, Overbite, come out!" he threw the cards into the air and they materialized into a red dragon (Dragonzer) a giant blue condor (Brainstorm) a Tiger (Wildcat) a buffalo (Hardhead) and a red shark (Overbite)

"You too, Genosnaker and Stingdiver!" Shadowcobra did the same as Draco and threw two cards that materialized into a giant purple king cobra (Genosnaker) and a giant pink Stingray (Stingdiver)

Pluto pulled away his cape that then transformed into a dark blue bat. His thrown card became Cerberus, his three-headed dog.

"Cerberus (dog) and Darkwing (Bat) are out!" Pluto said.

Robin looked the bat over and Pluto. "No wonder you looked like Batman."

Pluto groaned and took off his helmet. "Enough with the Batman stuff please."

"It's the cape and helmet, Pluto," Shadowcobra pointed out.

"Anyone would think you were Batman," Draco finished.

"I know," Pluto narrowed his eyes. "The last newspaper with us on it said, 'Is Batman in Jump City? What's with the new costume?'" he said. Everyone laughed. "Laugh it up, guys, laugh it up."

The assembled monsters growled. They were hungry.

"I think these guys are hungry," Cyborg said.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious, Cyborg," Shadowcobra said. "Let's ask the innkeeper to prepare a meal for them while we eat."

"Good," Robin said as he took out a rolled up parchment of paper. "The chief gave us a map. We can look it over during breakfast."

Shadowcobra raised an eyebrow. "Always prepared, Robin?"

Robin shrugged. "We have to be one step ahead of these Gamemaster guys if we want to beat them and get out of here. The villagers also helped us out by giving us supplies for our journey."

"I'll have to thank them later."

Starfire perked up. "Friends! Let us enjoy the feast of break!"

"It's breakfast, Starfire," Shadowcobra corrected her. "But you're right. I am really famished."

"You can sit with me then, Raven said, "We could both share some herbal tea."

"I would like that Raven."

"I hope they've got meat!" Cyborg said.

"You cannibal!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "I just hope they've got something vegetarian!"

Terra rolled her eyes. "Let's just leave it, Beast Boy." But Beast Boy wasn't going to leave it as he and Cyborg went into their normal ritual of breakfast arguments.

"MEAT!"

"VEGETARIAN!"

"MEAT!"

"VEGETARIAN!"

"MEAT!"

Shadowcobra rubbed his temples in irritation. "I am associated with morons," he said quietly.

Raven nodded. "I could never get used to their pointless fighting."

Draco shrugged. "Food is food."

Jinx said, "Let's just eat."

"We could always feed them to our monsters," Pluto suggested.

"As much as I want that to happen, don't," Shadowcobra said. "We need them, unfortunately, and besides, our partners (monsters) wouldn't like them," Shadowcobra paused. "And my partners don't eat junk food."

Robin just ignored Cyborg and Beast Boy and walked into the inn with the rest of the team. Terra had to pull Beast Boy away from Cyborg by force to get him into the inn. He was relatively kicking and screaming.

At the breakfast table, Robin had a map laid out before the assembled Titans. Cyborg came seconds later after smelling some sausages.

The map was circled in red in various areas. Robin must've gotten the location of the Dark Lords whereabouts from the village chief.

"First, we have to go through the dark cemetery. It is probably haunted if I know these RPG games. Next, there's the Snake Forest, which is full of venomous snakes." The Titans gulped. "There's a village after we go through the forest though if we want supplies and some rest. Then there's the Swamp of Doom. After that, we'll arrive at the Desert of Storm. The chief said that that desert has a sandstorm every hour, on the hour, so we better move quickly. There's a village nearby that rents out camels we could use, if we needed them of course. After the desert, we have to go through the Granite Caves. The caves are like a labyrinth, so stay close. You guys wouldn't want to get lost there. After the labyrinth, we'll arrive right at the Dark Lords' doorstep. Be careful team, coz no one has ever came back alive."

The Titans had listened to Robin. They had remembered the dangers of their path.

Now, their quest has begun.

To be continued…