Chapter 2: Tempest

Shoutout to Rebel-Aquarius for all her help with this back in the day!

He watched the chaotic scene unfold before his eyes with a grin. The cyborg was unsuccessfully shouting orders to the others, and the living room was a mess of screaming, fainting, and distress. He felt his smile widen. The green boy had fainted once again and the redhead was desperately trying to revive him, fanning his face and shaking him roughly. A brightly clad boy was hovering around the other girl, the one he had found so wonderfully off-guard on the roof. The boy was trying to halt the crimson that flowed from various wounds upon her body with not much success. He watched as the cyborg threw his hands in the air in frustration. Pushing the ebony-haired boy aside, the cyborg grabbed the girl and rushed out the door, the other boy sprinting after him. A chuckle bubbled up in the spectator's chest and he dropped to the ground from his cloud outside the living room of the T-shaped tower.

They were so flashy, he thought to himself. Their bright tower, brilliantly lit up and glowing in the bay, mocked him. It said, "Here we are, the beloved freaks of Jump City, look at us." He had seen the end of their battle earlier today. How the police so warmly shook their leader's hand, how the neon glow of the restaurant welcomed them. The stranger felt a scowl take the place of his smirk as he walked to the edge of the small island to the angry waves. The rain fell harder as he raised his hands to the sky. In one quick motion, a giant burst of thunder echoed through the city followed by a crash of lightning. It was like daylight for a split second, and then the power throughout the city flickered and fell. The only light source for miles was now the lightning and Titans Tower. Backup generators, of course.

The man summoned a cloud and he stepped lightly onto it. His flight took him back to the mainland to a rocky inlet on the outskirts of the city. He found the stone he was looking for and pressed a hand to the concealed memory pad. A door hissed open, and he stepped into the dimly lit room. Cracking his neck and stretching, he made his way over to the counter to fix himself a cup of coffee.

He was known as Tempest. Anyone who had seem him would tell you he was a man stuck in his late twenties who came from the sky a few years back. Roughly six feet tall, his skin was light, stretched tightly across a toned body. A jagged scar ran across his left eye and a single silver stud was set in his left ear. His silver eyes matched the long silver hair that cascaded over his shoulder and across the back of his black trench coat. The silver stitching of the coat still glistened with raindrops from his storm. Removing the coat to dry, Tempest shook it once and hung it on a rock near his door. Sitting, he propped his heavy black boots up on another rock, watching the rainwater drip off the silver buckles. He slipped a set of swords from his belt and set them next to him. The hilts glowed with lightning designs, and he handled them ever so delicately. Removing one from its sheath, he studied the inscriptions on the blades carefully, smirking. Blood obscured some of the markings, and he wiped the blade on the sleeve of his long black shirt.

It was almost painfully easy, his rooftop ambush. That girl with the lavender hair… she had no idea he was there. He hadn't gotten a good look at her through the rain and sword flurry, but it didn't matter. They were all just earth freaks, just like he had once been. But he was more than that, now. Adding mastery of martial arts and swordsmanship to his power over the storms had made him the stuff of legends. It was his responsibility to spread his legend across earth now. The 'Titans' would know him and fear him, and he would enjoy every minute of it.

…

"Cyborg," Robin said again, wiping blood from Raven's face as the metal man hooked her up to a few machines. Finishing, he turned back to Robin.

"What happened?"

"I don't know! We got home, she went to her room, I was watching the storm, there was lightning and then she was suddenly in the room! I thought she was asleep or something when I was walking over to her and then you all came back and turned the lights on." Robin paused to catch his breath. "I don't know what happened to her or how she got to the living room. She sure wasn't there a minute before that!"

"She was soaking wet. Are you sure she didn't go outside?" Cyborg asked sternly. Robin clapped his hands to his face and sat down in a chair shakily, trying to avoid looking at the scorched blue cloak on the ground next to him.

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!" he said, voice rising with each repetition. "I should have been there, should have done something or heard something! You know Raven, Cyborg. She was probably on the roof when it happened. She loves storms."

Cyborg's harsh face softened as he saw his leader hunched over in the chair. He didn't know what he had been thinking. He was just worried about Raven. Finding her like that on the couch, propped up for show, bleeding and burned… it had been scary for all of them. He looked back to the girl lying on the white bed. A slice on her cheek, a burn on her shoulder, blood seeping through her ripped leotard from a gash on her side. Cyborg shook his head and he pressed a cloth to her abdomen.

"Sorry, man," he said in apology. Robin nodded. "Will you hand me those bandages?" Robin raised his head and grabbed the pile Cyborg was pointing to.

"I didn't see her between the time we got home and when you got home. If she was outside, that would explain the burn marks," Robin said, settling his leader face into place. He watched as Cyborg continued to clean off the many cuts and scrapes Raven had. Stepping up next to him, Robin took one of the bandages and began wrapping the cleaned wounds.

"Her healing powers should kick in soon enough and she'll wake up," Cyborg said, half to himself and half to Robin.

"Good thing we have backup generators," Robin commented, looking outside. "The power in the whole city has gone out."

"Weird," Cyborg said. "This whole damn storm is weird."

"Um, Cyborg?" Robin said. Cyborg looked down to where Robin held Raven's pale wrist in his hand. "What is this."

It wasn't a question. Robin practically spat in anger as he glared at the brand on Raven's wrist. Blood still leaked from small marks around the lightning bolt brand, the flesh angry and red where it had been burned into her skin. There was almost a glow to the carved outline of the mark, like it was alive with energy. Staring at it gave the illusion of movement.

"What the hell," Cyborg said. Robin's eyes narrowed.

"We've got a new villain," he growled.

…

Tempest stood on a hill outside the city and watched as fires were put out by the heavy rain and firefighters. Raising a hand to the sky, he made a fist and thunder shook the ground. He watched as the ground rattled, sending small tidal waves running across the deep floodwaters in the streets. He threw back his head and let out a long, malevolent laugh. He brought his fist down in a swift motion, bringing more lightning to the city in front of him. More buildings caught fire and he feasted on the screams he could hear. Holding his hands out in front of him, lightning connected him to the sky. As he absorbed the heat and electricity, a young boy watched him from the streets below.

"Mommy? What is that?" He tugged on his mother's rain-soaked skirt. His mother looked to where he was pointing and her eyes grew wide at the sight of a man with a billowing black coat and lightning hands. He was the very reason she had left the Midwest and moved to Jump City.

The villain had terrorized her former home. He had grown up there, just another midwestern boy who did well in school and loved soccer. He had been struck by lightning as a baby and never quite recovered, that she knew, but she hadn't known the extent of the damage until he returned to his childhood home years after his parents sent him away to "be fixed." He had returned with silver hair and swords, and all hell broke loose.

"Tempest," she whispered. Her son looked up at her with a confused, frightened face as she fumbled for her cell phone, praying for reception. She dialed a number and whispered a few words into the phone before the windows in Titans Tower began flashing red.

…

"Titans, trouble!" Robin shouted over the intercom. Cyborg did one final check of Raven's vitals before exchanging a knowing glance with Robin and racing to the living room where Beast Boy and Starfire were waiting.

"Some guy named Tempest is on a hill outside the city causing all this weather. Let's go," Cyborg said.

"But what about friend Robin?" Starfire questioned, noticing the masked boy's absence.

"He's staying to watch over Raven and we'll call him if we need him. Titans, go!" Cyborg commanded. Starfire swooped out the door with Beast Boy close behind.

…

Tempest watched as two figures and a car came off the island with the T-shaped tower.

"Here comes the cavalry," he murmured to himself. "Let's see what they can do."

Short chapter, but the speed of updating has to make up for that, right? Maybe?