To compensate for lack of action ;)
"I want an alert put out all over the city, and I want it to happen now."
Robin swore as he slammed the phone back into it cradle, perhaps more violently than was necessary. Cyborg paused, one blowtorch finger suspended over a blown circuit in the T-car's keys.
"What's going on, man?"
Smashing his hand into the alarm button on the side of the wall, Robin stalked furiously toward the master computer built into their TV screen.
"Remember the guy that kidnapped Raven, tortured her, and commissioned a power-neutralizing device from a mad scientist who tried to blow us up when we raided his store?"
"Well when you put it like that, how could I forget?"
Robin snapped his mask over his eyes and began to type vehemently at a keyboard that was close to the size of the sofa.
"He got out of jail."
Starfire frowned over his shoulder, the scent of strawberries drifting from her hair.
"But how? And where is he going?"
Robin scowled.
"My best guess? To join our favorite new mastermind."
He glanced over his shoulder at his now-assembled team.
"He's headed east. Traffic light caught him at 24th and Pine."
Beast Boy was halfway out the door when he paused and glanced around the otherwise empty living room.
"Uh…dude? Where's Raven?"
Robin's masked face was impassive.
"I don't know," he lied. "But we don't have time to wait around. Come on."
Raven frowned, hand tightening around her blinking communicator. There was no message accompanying the beeping, but it still sounded insistently through the spacious room in which she was seated.
"Turn it off."
"People could be in danger – "
"The city can do without you for one hour. You know the rule, Raven."
With a sigh, Raven reigned in the unruly urge to blast one of his figurines through the wall and shut off the communicator. Her therapist readjusted his grip on the yellow legal pad he seemed welded to and pushed his glasses further up a long nose. He was a kind-looking man, greying at the temples, with an emotional energy that was calming and steady. Raven appreciated that; it was the rare person who was introspective enough to project that kind of aura. She, on the other hand, was projecting all sorts of spikes and flurries. Somewhat uneasily, she crossed one leg over the other.
"Happy now?"
He smiled slightly.
"Where were we?"
"I believe I had just told you my father is a demon from a hell dimension on the planet Azarath."
"Ah, yes. I would ask how that makes you feel, but I think I can surmise."
Despite herself, Raven cracked a smile.
"Robin told me you would ask about my childhood."
"Robin is…your team leader."
"Yes."
"The one who asked you to come in."
"…yes."
"That was perceptive of him."
"He…watches out for his team."
She found herself unsure of where to look and began to count the stones in the small decorative jar that occupied the low coffee table. He followed her gaze.
"Feel free to touch anything you like."
She shot him a quick glance and tipped several clear stones into her hand. Rubbing them together in her palm, she listened quietly to another ever-so-careful question.
"This wasn't your first experience with torture, was it?"
Raven recited her mantra once or twice in her head, causing the stones to hover just off of her outstretched palm.
"No."
"What was different this time?"
The stones formed a loose circle and began to rotate, movement regulated by her breath.
"I couldn't fight it."
"You are used to fighting."
"I wish I wasn't."
"That wasn't the question."
The stones began to rotate a little faster as memories surfaced.
"I'm a hero. Whatever that means. Of course I'm used to fighting."
He wrote something down, expression carefully detached.
"So when your father hurt you…"
Raven closed her fist over the stones, stopping her powers before they spiked dangerously.
"My father was a demon. I was ready for it. I gave myself up. When I was in hell…that was different. There was always a course of action. I couldn't always see it, but…it was there."
"And now?"
"Now, there's nothing to fight. There's no ultimatum. It happened. And now it's over. I should be over it by now. This shouldn't be happening. It's all wrong."
Despite her best efforts, blackness crept out of her palms. She clenched her fist more tightly, watched her knuckles go white as she reigned in her powers. Dr. Levitt let the silence stretch for a moment, then changed the subject.
"What were the months following your father's death like for you?"
She shut her eyes briefly.
"Not great. I had nightmares…my powers were harder to control…but this never happened."
"When you say 'this', you mean the panic attacks you've been experiencing."
"Yes."
"Has it occurred to you that this recent apocalypse is also a contributing factor?"
It hadn't. As Raven swallowed, she detected sympathy in his emotional climate, which didn't help.
"That…would make sense."
Thirty excruciating minutes later, Raven left his office, feeling more drained than when she had started. With a vague smile at the placid receptionist, she left the office, grabbing a jacket reminiscent of her cloak on her way out. By the time the elevator had deposited her on the ground level of the sleek building, she had gathered herself enough to pull her hood up over her hair and button her coat.
Out on the sidewalk, the cold air swept through her hair and robbed a little of her breath. The city was busy, as usual, people sweeping by laden with shopping bags, high powered executives walking briskly back from lunch breaks. Occasional car horns broke the general hum of everyday life and cars screeched at unexpected stoplights. Raven ran both palms across her forehead as if to iron out the headache that was rapidly developing there. She was about to pull her communicator from the pocket of her jeans when a shout broke her thoughts.
"Raven! Look out!"
She barely had time to react before a robot was in front of her, strange claws outstretched as if to grab her by her arms. She was in the air in a minute, coat discarded as an encumbrance as Cyborg and Beast Boy backed into view around a street lamp, both battling their own opponents, followed by Robin and Starfire. It had been Robin who had shouted, and he was still watching her, which cost him a nasty blow to the back of the head.
She narrowed her eyes and watched long enough to make sure he was okay, then rose into the air, dark energy enveloping her hands. She made short work of the robot that had attacked her, cleaving it into a mess of wires and circuits in seconds, but there were more, and her powers were not at their strongest. Wincing as she inadvertently shattered a nearby lamppost, Raven hurtled towards the middle of the street, stopping traffic with her sudden descent.
She felt rather than saw Robin land near her, spinning his staff against an onslaught of bright red energy.
"Beast Boy! Get people to safety!"
The pedestrians had scattered, some of them knocked into walls and buildings by the sudden violence. Beast Boy, suddenly a pterodactyl, grabbed those not injured in his claws and deposited them on nearby roofs. Raven gritted her teeth and helped him, enveloping clothes and shoes in dark energy to move the injured to safety. Cyborg covered Beast Boy while Robin and Starfire joined forces in front of her, fending off attacks long enough for them to finish clearing the street. As Raven dropped the last of the injured civilians on a nearby rooftop patio, the robots broke through Starfire's attacks, sending her spinning sideways into a fire hydrant. Raven winced and parried a blow aimed for her head, standing back to back with Robin, who was fighting two of his own. Shouting over the grating sound of metal on metal, he turned his head slightly so that she could hear him.
"You okay to fight?"
She yanked at a wire, triggering a meltdown of her latest opponent.
"We'll just have to find out, won't we?"
Her eyes narrowed as two more robots closed in. Throwing her crossed forearms in front of her chest, she sent a blast of dark energy out from the pair of them. In the seconds it took for them to recover, she ascended again; she preferred to fight multiple opponents from a higher vantage point. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Robin rappel onto a nearby building, tossing explosive boomerangs from his belt as he did so. For her part, she grasped two cars with long tendrils of energy and smashed them together. The resulting explosion destroyed several robots and a good portion of the street.
Something whistled past her ear just then, and she winced, feeling familiar panic growing in her chest. Taking a deep breath, she recited her mantra once, blasting the robot behind her back several feet, where Starfire waited to finish it off. Despite intense concentration, her powers also blew up a nearby street sign, an outlet for the knot of anxiety in her chest. Raven grimaced and threw up a force field, crossing her legs in midair. It would hold for the minute or two that she needed to meditate.
Robin, fighting alongside Beast Boy and Cyborg on the ground, glanced nervously up at his now-shrouded teammate. There was no time to make sure she was all right. The robots that remained were attacking more viciously to compensate for the destruction of most of their fighting force, and it was all he could do to stay on his feet. Even as he thought it, his staff snapped in his hands. Cursing, he discarded it and leapt onto a nearby car for leverage. Bruce's training echoing in his mind, Robin pulled off an impressive back handspring, landing squarely on top of the robot headed for Beast Boy, who was lying dazed in a crater the size of a rhinoceros.
"You okay?"
Garfield stood unsteadily while Robin planted an explosive on the robot's head. By the time he had reached the green man's side, it had blown up, leaving a mess of sparking circuitry in its wake.
"Ugh…who knew rhinos could get broken ribs? Look out!"
They ducked as Starfire flew dangerously close to their heads, starbolts flying from both hands as she fended off two attackers at once. Robin put Beast Boy's arm over his shoulder.
"Let's get you to – "
It was an exclamation from Raven that interrupted him, giving them enough time to take in the four remaining enemy fighters all headed straight for Beast Boy. Robin barely managed to get a hand to his belt before Raven shot to the airspace in front of the pair of them, arms outstretched, projecting a force field of black protection.
"Leave. Them. Alone."
And as always thank you for rating/reviewing
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