Hey guys, I am REALLY sorry that this chapter took so long. But I think it was worth it. I went through this chapter 3 times, each a different version. But I think this one is the right one. I want you to especially pay attention to some symbolism I've been experimenting with (check the third paragraph out, it's my favorite amount of symbolism and I hope it was clear enough for you guys as to what I was saying). So please, enjoy this excellent chapter (at least I hope it is) and your opinions will not be left unheard. (also, if you are confused, when I say Master of Darkness and King of Night, I'm referring to Spencer)
Chapter 3: A New Threat
The world moved past him in a dark, horrid blur. He was running away. The shadows around him seemed to stretch out their edges like evil claws ready to grasp at him. He bent his head down and started pumping his legs faster, trying to escape. But it kept following him. A sinister, evil voice laughed in the background, it's cackling sending shivers down your spine and seemed to surround your entire body, squeezing all the life and joy out of you until you were nothing left than a cold, empty shell of your former self. Spencer made a quick left and ducked into an alleyway, the darkness passing mere inches above him, the tentacles of night swiping at him as it passed over, brushing against him like strands of hair when the wind blows it around, but it wasn't the pleasant brushing. It seemed to suck the life out of him. He was scared and he hugged the ground as closely as he could in the hopes that he would not be touched by the horrendous evil surrounding him.
The voice continued with its laughter. Spencer was afraid. That laughter took all the life and joy out of him. He couldn't think straight and he couldn't move out of fear and he shook like a child. He crunched himself into a tight fetal position as the darkness swirled around him, closing itself nearer and nearer as it slowly began to engulf his entire body. He began to cry because no matter how hard he tried, the Master of Darkness could not control his own power. He looked through the tornado of darkness and saw a suave, smiling man. A man smiling over the pain and misery of the King of Night. Evil radiated off of him and Spencer closed his eyes as the darkness blanketed itself over him, the last sight being the man's smile widening, at the extinguishing of another life.
Spencer burst up from his sleep. He was breathing heavily. The sweat glistened off his shirtless body in the poor lighting of the moon through his window. Light shone through the blinds, creating a barred pattern of dark and light stripes. A small sliver of moonlight slid down Spencer's face and over one eye like a scar where the blinds had broken. The darkness was surrounding him, and for the first time, Spencer was threatened by it. The voice was still clear in his mind, and it didn't seem to fade away. The maniacal laughter sent shivers down his spine. He couldn't escape it. Burying his head in his hands, Spencer breathed heavily, choking back the overwhelming feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. He had never been so scared in his entire life, especially of the dark.
See? You can never possibly defeat me." the laughter was maniacal and vicious, as though the voice knew something Spencer didn't, and was holding it out in front of him, laughing at Spencer's inability to distinguish what it was. He put his head back in his hands and sighed. Why couldn't things ever be easy?
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"Spencer!" Nightfire exclaimed in fear as she bolted upright in her head. She was breathing heavily, sweat glistened off her brow. Her normally cheery, sky blue room look dark and dastardly in the night. She wiped her forehead and released a sigh of relief. It had only been a nightmare. Her light blue, silk nightgown was drenched in sweat and she could already tell her undergarments were showing through. Turning sideways, Nightfire dangled her long legs slightly the floor and searched for her slippers in the dark. Unable to find them, she reached her hand out and turned on her energy. The greenish glow lit up most of the room, though shadows danced in the wilderness of the corners. Slowly getting off the bed, her bare feet touched the cold, metallic floor. Her bedroom was the only one without carpet on the floor, though Cyborg had said he was soon going to place carpet there, but for now it was just a cold, cold floor.
"Where are those slippers?" she asked quietly to herself. She held up her hand and let her light dance across the walls like hand puppets until she spotted her fluffy, light blue slippers in the far corner of her room next to her dresser. Levitating about an inch off the floor, she hurried to them. Landing softly into them until they embraced her feet in their warmth, she searched through her drawers for dry pajamas. She didn't think she was even capable of producing that much sweat. But apparently she was.
Once she changed into her clean pajamas, she softly walked back to her bed and fell forward face-first, smothering herself in the pillow, thinking about that awful nightmare.
She had been in a large, open, white-wash area. Nothing was in-sight all around her. The only aspect of any sort of other presence was the far-off sound of yells. Yells of combat from a single source fighting desperately against an unrelenting opponent.
Flying towards the sounds of the grunts, she saw come into her line of sight, far off in the distance, dark blasts of what looked to be two figures going against each other. As she neared them, she was able to make out one of them to be Spencer, the source of the grunts and yells. He looked exhausted, power emanated from his body, dripping from his arms as he struggled to control his powers and keep them from escaping. His clothes were torn and blood seeped from his wounds and large, dark blots the color of rust stained his clothes and literally bled through. The other figure was one she did not know, though he sent cold, evil shivers down her spin. He was dressed in a black, button-down shirt and red tie with a black sport's coat. His hands were in his pockets as he casually continued to sidestep Spencer's brutal attacks. There was not a scratch on him and he seemed to not put up any sort of effort as he kept his cool, brutal smirk on his face as he watched Spencer fight through the hurt and the pain in his pointless attempts to land a blow.
"Spencer!" she called out to him, but he didn't turn. His eyes were glazed over and focused on the task at hand. The other man turned to look at Nightfire and smiled a cold, secret grin. He had what many called the "bad-boy" mentality, you just seemed to be attracted to him, his suaveness and coolness was appealing and almost god-like, but there was still that evil that you felt was on the inside of him, but still choose to ignore due to the irresistible attraction to him. As the man turned, Spencer took his chance and, with a mighty cry, lunged towards his opponent, lifting both his hands in the air to unleash his full might upon his collected foe.
Spencer was in the air and came crashing towards his foe, a fire of hate and vengeance burning in his eyes straight from his soul. As his full form neared itself to strike his opponent, the man turned quickly on his heel and shot his arm straight out, fingers closed together and stretched forward, much like a snake would strike. The hand coolly cut through Spencer's body and emerged cleanly out the back. There was no blood on the man's hand, he moved to quickly for it to accumulate, but soon blood began to seep out of the hole in Spencer's abdomen as his body stayed in mid-air, held up only by the man's arm. The life hand gone out of his eyes and he turned towards Nightfire, a look of sadness and defeat, until as soon as it was there, it was out, and Spencer's lifeless body slumped forward, gravity pulled him down. The man stayed in the same position for a few seconds, holding Spencer up by his one arm, allowing the blood to drip out. As casually as he would throw away a trash bag, the man flung Spencer at Nightfire's feet. He rolled and stopped on his back, almost touching Nightfire's toes. His mouth was agape and a small pool of blood was leaking out of his wound, forming a sticky puddle of blood around her where she stood. His lifeless eyes gazed up at her, almost demanding of her as to why she didn't help.
Tears formed in her eyes and her body collapsed as gravity soon became too overwhelming for her. She felt his blood soak into her clothes, staining them. She bent her head down and touched foreheads with him. The tears wouldn't stop flowing and her voice was gone. She couldn't scream or cry out as the tears choked back her vocals, until finally, she screamed. And that was when she woke up.
The nightmare was still fresh in her mind as she closed her eyes, hoping that sleep would overtake her and force her to forget the terrible images. But when she awoke that day, they were still there.
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Spencer didn't get up for his usual workout that morning. Instead, he opted to stay in his room to think about the mysterious voice. He had not seen the man in his dream, but whoever was the source of that voice, was obviously looking for trouble. It wasn't until noon was he finally forced to leave his room. It was a bright, sunny day and the entire city was outside enjoying the day. Spencer's mother had used her powers to break down the door and drag him out into the living room so the entire group could go out for a picnic. Usually Raven didn't like going outside, especially on picnics, but Garfield had persuaded her that it was a great way for everybody to try and get back to some sort of normalcy. So she hesitantly agreed and now they were all going to go to the park and enjoy adults vs. children sports and lunch.
Spencer had changed into some purple athletic shorts and a dark-purple Tee. When his father asked him why he would wear such dark clothes on such a hot day, Spencer had simply said that he enjoyed the extra challenge it gave him when the sun beat down upon him, and how it would make him sweat more, and the obvious advantage for the other team. Garfield had shrugged and continued to opt for a green polo and white and green plaid shorts.
"Come on guys, it's time to go!" Starfire cried out. She was wearing an orange blouse with short white shorts, not knowing how attractive she was presenting herself. Nightwing stood at her side protectively, his arm around her shoulder in his khaki shorts and red polo. Nightfire was next to him in blue athletic shorts and a blue jersey with white stripes. She looked around at the group, she saw that Levitate had decided to stay in his skinny jeans and white shirt, his mother looked exhausted and exasperated at her attempt to make him change into more spring clothes. Telly stood off to the side, she was wearing a brand-new yellow blouse with short white shorts as well, for she and Starfire had gone shopping together the other day in search of new clothes for her, especially since she had hardly any to begin with.
"I'm not going like this!" The group turned at the source of the shouting. Cyborg, Sarah, and Vicky were still all getting changed, well, at least Sarah and Vicky were, Cyborg didn't need to change due to him being a robot. Finally they emerged from the hall and Spencer's laughter burst through the silence like a brick through a window. Vicky was wearing a yellow dress with white flowers dotted along it. Sarah was wearing a pink skirt and a white skirt in heels. The family looked like they were going to Easter Mass at Church.
At Spencer's laughter, Vicky's face turned bright red and she clenched her fists in anger.
"I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT'S FUNNY!" She lifted her fist outwards in deviance and triggered the cannon on her arm as it emerged from her watch. She had made significant improvements to her design and it was now able to fit everything from her jewelry, interconnecting from her watch to her necklace and bracelets on her wrists and ankles, plus she was able to control which part of the suit she wanted out at what time. It was pretty impressive.
The cannon quickly whirled and fired out a blast. Spencer let out a yelp and quickly ducked as the sonic wave passed over him, shattering the windows behind him. He quickly got back up and, with a smirk on his face, generated a dark energy ball in his hand.
"Oh it's on." He moved forward, arm behind him raised to throw the ball at her. He galloped on the last step and brought himself to pitch the energy at her, before he was stopped by his own mother.
"YOU WILL NOT RUN THIS DAY SPENCER RICHARD LOGAN!" she screamed at him. Spencer tried to unsuccessfully maneuver a way out of her energy grip, but eventually sighed in defeat. No one could beat their mom.
After the initial cool-down and clean up, the group headed out to the park together. They all traveled in their own way, but they all more or less arrived at the same time. Spencer immediately hopped out of the car with Frisbee in hand and pointed out towards the green field.
"Ten bucks to whoever catches this!" he reeled his arm back and flicked the disk far into the distance. Spencer's dad shape shifted into a hawk and skyrocketed towards the flying Frisbee, catching it with his talons. He flew back and shape shifted back into his human form and smugly handed Spencer the disk and held out his hand. Spencer dug into his pocket and took out his wallet, handing his father the money.
"cheater…" he muttered under his breath. Garfield didn't seem to mind as the smugly took the money from his son. The group laughed and they spread out to enjoy the day. Garfield offered his hand out to his wife and Raven gingerly took it, both walking hand-in-hand towards a nearby tree and they lay the blanket down underneath the shade, both enjoying just watching their son and his friends play. Spencer and Levitate were tossing the Frisbee back and forth while Telly, Nightfire, and Vicky watched gently on the side, enjoying the sun. All the parents had agreed to watch from a distance underneath the tree that Garfield and Raven had set their stuff aside to. The day was going great. The sun shined gently through the white, fluffy clouds on the beautiful, blue sky, children were playing happily as they frolicked, the Titan children were enjoying themselves, the adults were relaxing, smoke rose into the sky from the city…
Garfield's eyes shot open wide. Smoke? He removed his arm from around his wife's shoulder and stood up, gazing at the harsh, black cloud rising from the heart of the city. The smoke billowed out, carrying itself over the park. Garfield's tentative ears were able to distinguish screams coming from within the city. Horns blared and tire screeches were heard as the dark cloud slowly blocked out the sun and descended down upon the entire city, stretching its evil black arms across towards the park. Titan Tower was once easily visible in the distance, but now it was blocked out by the malicious dark substance.
The young heroes watched as the dark cloud slowly crept towards them, expanding to encompass the entire city. Spencer could feel the sweat being soaked up into his shirt as fear crept in. The dark cloud reminded him of his nightmare, and he soon got the feeling that it wasn't any ordinary nightmare; it was coming true.
A light stroke sent a tingling sensation up his shoulder. He looked to see Nightfire look at him. She seemed to know what he was thinking. Her eyes pleaded at him not to go, and for a while, he wanted to listen to her. He had only just gotten back, it wasn't really his responsibility to protect the city. Their parents could do it for them, they were far more capable, and yet….
Spencer sighed and blasted off in the direction of the city, not even waiting for the others to say anything. He knew it was a rash thing to do; he really should stop jumping into these kinds of things. It probably infuriated his mother, but there really nothing much he could do to stop himself. He was just born for the hero gig.
Looking up at the surface world through the shadows, Spencer was able to distinctly point out the flying form of Levitate on his board as he sped towards the city. It seemed his silent friend had the same impulse as he did. Behind Levitate, Spencer could just make out the forms of the rest of his friends and his own parents. It looked like they were going to do this together.
Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought it would. Spencer thought to himself. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that he may have met his match. Shaking the feeling off Spencer made his way through the shadows to the center of the city. Stopping, he jumped up and emerged to the surface world, forming a tornado of smoke and ash at the area where he emerged, but as soon as he cleared the small area, it moved back around to encompass him. Searching through the fog and smoke, Spencer saw the outline of his friends and family.
"SPECER LOGAN IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN I WILL GROUND YOU FOR LIFE!" yep, definitely friends and family. His mother walked through the dust and glared daggers at him. She seemed unaffected as the wind blew ash and smoke around her and into her eyes. Spencer had to hold up his arm to his face to block out as much dust as possible. Save for Nightwing, Levitate, Tech Girl, Cyborg, and apparently his mom, everyone else had to block out the dust. It was too thick and it blocked out all sources of light. Spencer couldn't see a damn thing.
Calm yourself. You're the Prince of Darkness. You shouldn't care about the stupid light. But the smoke and ashes still affected him. He still was as blind as everyone else, and he was still worried. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the cold hands making their way towards his neck.
Hey guys, I've kind of ended this chapter early, I've been keeping you guys waiting long enough. I apologize though, I've had a lot of crap going on with college preparedness and making my last year in high school awesome: plus a lot of last minute projects my teachers give me :P So here's this chapter. Please give feedback so I know I still have you guys. It's obviously been about a month or two.