Instantly, Starfire and Beast Boy started running towards her and calling out to her.
"Terra!" Starfire shouted.
"Terra!" Beast Boy shouted, pushing Starfire out of the way. Starfire zapped him in the butt with her starbolts and reached her first.
"Oh, hello long lost friend! You remember me, yes?" Asked Starfire as she embraced Terra in a bone-crunching hug.
"Of course, Starfire. I still have bruises from the last time you hugged me", replied Terra.
Then Beast Boy rushed over to her, but had a hard time finding the right words. Terra playfully teased him, and I got the feeling that there was a little thing going on between them. How cute, I thought.
"Well if it isn't my favorite little rock 'n roller", said Cyborg.
"Cyborg! Robin! What's shakin?" She asked.
"Good to see you again", said Robin as he shook her hand.
"What? Is he kidding? It's great to see you again! I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" Beast Boy exclaimed. Then Robin pulled me over beside him.
"Terra, there's someone I'd like you to meet", he said.
"Hi...", said Terra with a puzzled expression.
Hi, I'm Sarah. I take it that you and the Titans have met before." I looked at her and smiled. She smiled a weak smile back.
Beast Boy was ecstatic. "Hey Raven wake up, Terra's back! Isn't that awesome?"
"Super, just help yourself to anything in the fridge and don't forget to lock the door when you leave", said Raven sarcastically, without looking up. I don't think that she really cared that much for Terra; don't ask me why.
"Actually, I kinda wasn't planning on leaving this time", Terra said, "I'm ready to take you guys up on your offer- I wanna be a Teen Titan!"
Everybody looked at Terra as if they didn't know what she was talking about.
"Got it, sorry. Didn't realize the offer had an expiration date." She started to walk away, and I saw tears forming. Robin put a hand on her shoulder.
"The offer didn't expire. We're just... concerned", he said.
Beast Boy said, "Yeah. It's cause well, last time when you kind of freaked out and ran away, you couldn't exactly... you weren't completely..."
"You couldn't control your powers", said Raven.
"Hello- that's why I left! Robin said I needed practice, so I've been practicing. Check it out." With this she snapped on her goggles, leapt onto her rock, and took off into the air. Terra was really good.
"Wow, she really has gotten better", exclaimed Beast Boy.
"She learned a few tricks; doesn't mean she's any less dangerous", objected Raven.
Terra could do some pretty awesome stunts, like jump off of one boulder, fall a ways and land on another one. I was very impressed. I mentioned this to Robin.
"Man, she's really good."
"Yeah, she has gotten better. You should've seen her when we first met her", he said with a shudder.
"She was that bad?" I asked.
"Well, she didn't have total control over her powers. She was pretty dangerous to be around when she lost control. Ask Beast Boy", Robin went back to watching Terra, and I did, too.
Seconds later, all of us had to duck, because Terra was about to hit us with four huge boulders coming at us from four directions! I went intangible and ducked down with everybody else. Just when we thought that we were going to be smashed, all of the boulders shot upward, and Terra jumped off of them, but continued to push them up with her powers. The next moment, there was a huge explosion, and silver sparks started raining around the Tower. It was really cool. Terra walked over to us.
"You see? I've got everything under control." She said.
"Dude, that was awesome! You're really good. So, how long have you known the Titans?" I asked her. She didn't get a chance to answer, because there was a small earthquake, and we all looked at Terra.
She shook her head, "Wasn't me!"
We all went back inside the Tower and checked out what was going on. There were small earthquakes happening all over the city.
"Too many to be natural", observed Terra.
"That's because they're not earthquakes they're a trail. Something's moving under the city. We need to find out what. Titans, GO!" Robin said. Terra didn't move, so Robin, Raven and I slowed down.
"Are you coming or not?" Robin asked.
"Does this mean I'm on the team", asked Terra.
"It means we could use your help", replied Robin. Terra nodded and rushed out. Then Raven suddenly kind of spaced out.
"Everything okay?" Robin asked.
"Can't tell. Are you sure it's safe to have her around?" Raven asked.
"Not entirely, but everyone deserves a second chance", said Robin. I waited for him and Raven to catch up, and the three of us hurried to catch up with the others.
T
When we got downtown, what we saw was really weird, but nothing that we couldn't handle. There was this giant mechanical worm tearing up the streets! We had just arrived when a bus was about to topple down into the huge tunnel that the worm had made. Raven pulled it back; then Robin and Cyborg started saying those lame superhero lines.
Robin said, "You've missed the bus."
"Looks like you'll just have to take a cab!" Cyborg yelled as he threw a cab at the worm.
Starfire and I flew above the worm and started firing our starbolts at it. I don't think that they had any effect on it, because the worm started to shoot its own laser at us. Starfire and I almost got out butts roasted!
Terra was getting really involved. I guess her power is moving earth rocks mainly. She made a line of jagged boulders rise up out of the street and knock the worm backwards. Then, Robin told her to help him get in the worm's face, and when he did, he jumped on top of it and tried to get into the systems and electronics, but the worm threw him off before he could get anything done. Starfire flew to Robin and caught him, then she flew him over in front of the worm s mouth and he threw some little bomb-things into it. When they exploded, the worm fell backwards, and seconds later it shot underneath the streets, leaving a big, long tunnel behind. Robin said that we had better follow it, so we ventured down into the dark tunnel.
The tunnel that the worm left behind was really long. After about half an hour of following it, we came into an underground cavern. Robin was scanning the rock for any signs of Slade or anything else unusual. He picked up a signal. I'm picking up something from deep inside the rock.
"Yeah", added Cyborg, "electronics... and a heartbeat."
"Slade", said Robin angrily.
Minutes after we reached the cavern, the whole thing started shaking, and three of the giant worms drilled up through the rock and came through the floor of the cavern and paused to tower above us. We backed into a group. Robin said, "Titans, ready." However, the worms didn't come towards us; they went in three separate directions headed up.
Beast Boy didn't like this. "Hello! The good guys are over here! Dude, we got snubbed!" We all thought that this was really unusual.
Robin started giving out instructions. "Okay Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire: go after the worms. Raven, Terra, and Sarah: come with me."
"Star, B.B., let's move!" Cyborg yelled. They were gone.
It was just Robin, Terra, Raven, and me. Robin gave us our coordinates.
"Ok, I've got a fix on the signal; 40º down, 600 meters deep. Can you do that?" Robin asked.
"No problem", the three of us responded. We started blasting. It seemed that Terra and Raven didn't like each other, but were in some sort of competition or something because they had me stand in the middle of them, and Terra started talking to Raven with a tone that's hard to describe, but it was as if she really didn't want Raven to be there.
"Is that as fast as you can go?" Terra challenged Raven.
"Not even close", Raven replied.
We blasted the rock with everything that we had. I tried something new by using my telekinesis and starbolts at the same time, and what do you know it worked! We moved through it pretty quickly. Soon, the four of us reached a room even farther underground than the cavern we had started out in. This one though was way different. There was an enormous computer in the middle of the room, and there was what looked like three of those worms connected in a circle and rotating at the top. It looked like Slade's new place. Just then, Robin got a call from Cyborg. We were horrified by what we heard.
"Robin, it's the Tower! They're attacking Titans Tower!" Cyborg cried. That's when the worms at the top of the room that we were in started firing their lasers upward and moved them in the circle.
"It's not just under attack", Robin said, "It's about to be underground."
Robin had found a model of What Slade was planning to do to the Tower. He was trying to sink it!
The four of us started trying everything that we could to stop those worms. I hit them with my new starbolt/telekinesis mix, Terra shot huge rocks at them, Robin hit them with his birdarangs, and Raven blasted them with her powers. When we looked at the damage, we didn't see a thing.
"Not even a scratch!" Robin cried.
He rushed to the computer, and started trying to hack into it. "If we can't break the drill, then hacking this computer is our only shot at shutting it down", he said.
Robin didn't get anything accomplished though; he looked up at the sound of footsteps, and saw Slade running straight at him. Slade knocked Robin back into a metal elevator.
"Robin!" I called. Terra, Raven, and I ran over to help.
"Forget about me! Stop the worms!" Robin ordered. Slade was glad to hear him say this.
He said, "Good, Robin now I have you all to myself." Slade then shut the door to the elevator and they both shot towards the top of the room. Raven, Terra, and I were left to stop the worms. Raven hurried over to the computer and started trying to shut the worms down. "We have to hack in", she said. Terra, however, had a different plan.
"Why hack, when you can smash!" She said as she lifted a huge boulder and was ready to drop it on the computer. Raven and I both stopped her with our telekinesis.
"No! Destroy the controls and we might never be able to stop it!" Raven pointed out.
Terra said, "Or we might stop it sooner, and save our home! Why can't you just trust me?"
"Oh, because you don't deserve it! I have to meditate every day to control my powers, and I'm supposed to believe that you can suddenly control yours? Trust is something you have to earn!" Raven snapped.
"How- how do I earn it?" Terra asked.
Raven said, "You can start by trusting me."
Terra relinquished her hold on the boulder at this, and so did Raven and I. Then Raven rushed over to the computer and started to try and hack it. After a few seconds of trying, we heard a crumbling from above, and looked up in time to see a huge piece of stone falling from the ceiling. We all dove away from the computer and the stone fell right on top of it. Then, we heard a whining, and the lasers on the worms got even more power behind them!
"Ok, maybe smashing the computer was a bad idea", Terra said with an embarrassed look. Moments later, we saw the worst thing possible: Titans Tower was sinking underground! Raven and I turned to leave, but Terra stayed put. We tried to get her out. "We have to get out! There's nothing we can do now", Raven said, but Terra wasn't about to give up.
"Yes there is! Trust me!" Terra shouted. She ran right underneath the huge stone section that had Titans Tower on it and fired at it with all her strength and power. Man, she was really determined, but then, the force of the Tower pushing down started to get a little too much for her. Raven and I rushed over to her aid, and we both fired our telekinesis at the stone. When all of us combined our powers, we started to push the Tower back up! Robin had joined us there, and he was talking to Cyborg, who was still on the surface with Starfire and Beast Boy. I could hear them rejoicing in the background.
Back at Titans Tower, all of us except Terra and Raven were waiting in Terra's new room. That's right, we were letting her join the team! I was so excited! Now, I wasn't going to be the only new girl around. When Terra and Raven arrived outside the door, we turned out the lights and got ready. We heard Terra ask Raven, "Where are we?"
Raven answered as she opened the door and flipped on the lights, "Your room."
The other Titans and I all shouted, "SURPRISE!" Boy, was Terra surprised.
"You guys did all this for me?" Terra asked.
Beast Boy said, "Yeah, since you helped save our home and all; we thought you deserved your own room."
"You also deserve one of these", said Robin as he held out one of the communicators.
"So I'm-"
"A Teen Titan. Good to have you on the team." Robin finished for Terra. She was in awe. All of us congratulated her.
Starfire said, "Welcome new Titan!"
"Aw yeah, very nice!" Cyborg exclaimed.
"Way to go, Terra!" I said.
"This is the best thing that's ever happened to me", sighed Beast Boy.
"Congratulations Terra, you earned it", smiled Raven. Then, Cyborg had an idea to celebrate.
"Okay, there s only one way to commemorate such a momentous occasion: waffles!" We all agreed, and headed out of Terra's room. She didn't follow immediately.
"You guys go on; I'll catch up in a minute." Terra said. When we were heading towards the kitchen, I turned around to go back to Terra's room.
"I'll be there in a minute, okay guys?" I asked them.
"Okay. Come when you're ready." Robin smiled at me. I floated back to Terra's room. When I got there, I knocked on the door, and announced that I was there.
"Terra? It's me, Sarah. May I come in?" I asked through the door.
"Sure, come on." Terra replied. I went intangible and poked my head through the wall. I stepped into her room, and went over to talk to her.
"So, how come you're not in the kitchen with the rest of us?" I asked.
"Just need some time to let all this sink in. I mean, you guys have accepted me. I'm honored." Terra smiled a huge smile.
"Well actually, I really didn't have much say in their decision. After all, I haven't known the Titans for that long. I did, though, tell them that you would be great for the team. I think that they already knew that, but I did all that I could. I'm glad that from now on I won't be the only new girl around." I giggled. Terra laughed, too.
"So, you wanna go get some of those waffles now?" Terra asked me.
"Sure. Let's go." We walked out of her room beside one another. We talked the whole way to the kitchen. Terra's a really cool girl. She's sporty, like me. I really liked her. I found out that the Titans were the first people to give Terra a real home; that before she met them, she just wandered around, crashing in caves and traveling all over the place.
"You know they did the same thing for me", I told Terra, "Of course, I had only known them for a few minutes. I had just been zapped to the city, and they confronted me."
"Zapped? What do you mean zapped?" Terra asked. So I went on to tell her the whole story of how I got there and that I was hoping that someday I might contact my family and friends, to let them know that I'm all right. She was really interested in my story. I don't know why.
Terra and I became really good friends. She was really nice, and I felt that I could relate to her because we were both the newest members of the Teen Titans.
One day, I was in my room reading when I heard Cyborg yell, "MAIL CALL!"
I went into the living room and found everyone standing next to a wooden crate. I hurried over to them.
"Who's it from?" I asked.
"Doesn't say." Robin said as he looked for a name. "It just says To: Teen Titans. That's it."
"It's probably fan mail from one of my many admirers", grinned Beast Boy. We opened the crate and found little wooden puppets carved to look like all of us inside it.
"Honestly, I was kind of hoping for chocolate", Beast Boy said with a disappointed look.
The puppets were so cute! I took mine out and examined it closely. Marionettes had always fascinated me. The boys started to battle. Starfire was so funny with hers. She had never seen a puppet before, so it was fun to watch her play with her 'tiny wooden replica of Starfire', as she called it. Terra and I had our puppets fight and had a fun time. Raven didn't give hers much thought and gave it to Starfire to mess with.
That night, I was in the middle of a really good dream (with, of course, Robin in it!) when I heard Starfire and Raven talking outside my door. I got up and walked sleepily outside and scared them both really bad. We all screamed. Then, they explained to me that Starfire had heard strange noises coming from her room and in the hallway. I went to wake Terra. On my way however, I was attacked by Cyborg! He just jumped on me. I heard Raven and Starfire yelling at Robin and Beast Boy down the hall. Apparently all of the noise woke Terra, because the next thing I knew, she was on top of Cyborg struggling to get him off of me. It worked, but she was thrown against the wall. I blasted Cyborg with my starbolts and went to help Terra. She and I rushed to the place where Robin and Beast Boy were attacking Starfire and Raven. There was this short, weird-looking dude standing there with Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy's puppets. Then, the puppets spoke!
Robin's said, "Sarah!"
"Raven!" Cyborg's puppet muttered.
"Help!" Beast Boy's puppet cried.
While I was taking a second to try and figure this out, I felt myself being restrained from behind and found myself beside Terra, Raven, and Starfire in Cyborg s grasp. I saw the weird dude holding up something that looked like a control thingy; like on top of the marionettes. I tried to go intangible, but I felt myself being drained or something like that. I heard Raven try to chant, "Azarath… metrium… zinthoss."
Then, everything went black for a few seconds. Suddenly, someone was pulling me to my feet. They pulled me into an opening in the floor and we waited for the others to pass over, then I pulled the light switch. What I saw almost made me faint: I saw myself looking back at me! I looked down and saw that I was dressed like Raven, and then I heard Raven's voice coming from my body!
"Sarah?" Raven asked as she looked at me.
"Raven?" I asked as a looked at my body.
"Oh my gosh! What the heck happened? Why am I in your body? This j-", Raven had pulled me back and covered my mouth. I was so surprised; I didn't react and just sat there, waiting for her to release me. I heard the little weird dude, who called himself The Puppet King, order the zombies that were controlling the boy's bodies to search for us.
Later, when we had found a way out of the little room through the sewer, I decided to try and use Raven's powers to move the manhole cover. I figured that it couldn't be too different from my own telekinesis. Boy, was I wrong. Her powers were sensitive, and when I tried to merely slide the cover off, I accidentally blasted it into the air! I reached out and silenced it; the two of us climbed out of the manhole and onto the street. I was trying to grasp the concept that I was in Raven's body. This was just too weird. While we were walking down the sidewalk, I found out the Raven's powers were dangerous if they weren't controlled right.
"Sarah, you have to calm down. My powers are driven by emotion. The more you feel, the more energy you unleash. If you don't calm down, you could put us both in serious danger." Raven looked at me sternly.
"Ok. I'll try to calm down. I just don't get it. Where are Starfire and Terra? Did the Puppet King get them along with the boys? Am I going to be stuck looking like this forever?" I asked while trying to remain calm.
"I guess so; or else they'd be here wouldn't they?" She said grumpily. Wow, Raven really needed to loosen up.
"Look, just stay calm. We'll figure this out. I don't know how, but we we'll rescue the others and we we'll get our bodies back. What's wrong with the way I look?" Raven asked with a look of suspicion.
"Nothing!" I replied quickly, but I don't think that it reassured her very much. Then, I looked up and saw Beast Boy. I pointed him out to Raven.
"You mean Zombie Beast Boy! Run!" I followed Raven into the nearest alley and we ran for it. She was trying to fly, and looked silly jumping up and down.
"Fly, fly!" She just couldn't get it. After a while, we lost him, and we stopped to rest.
"We can't fight them again. I really, really don't want to and in this condition, we don't stand a chance", I said
Raven was stumped. "Ok, how do you fly this thing?"
Well, this may sound silly, but you have to, I dunno, feel flight, I guess that's how you could put it. You have to feel the joy or happiness of flight. It's really hard to explain. Once you do that, you'll fly", I explained.
"Joy? Happiness? Not really my thing", Raven said with a shrug. Then, we heard a snort. We looked down the pathway and saw Zombie Beast Boy in the form of a bull. Raven wanted to fight.
"What do I need to feel to use starbolts?" She asked.
"Roaring fury", I started.
"You're alien strength?" Raven asked. I nodded.
"Boundless confidence", I continued. This was too confusing for Raven. Beast Boy charged; she gave up, grabbed my arm, and we took off running. We ran through the maze of alleys and when we turned into one (to find a dead end), I saw a flash of black cape and then Robin was standing in front of us. His eyes were glowing green, and he attacked us. Again, we started running for our lives. Raven ran in front of me and dragged me around the nearest corner, where we stopped to rest against the wall. She smiled a relieved smile at me, and I returned it, but our relief didn't last long, because Zombie Cyborg burst his hands through the brick wall and was ready to grab us, when we ran to the end of the short alley. Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were closing in on us! Then, Raven told me what to do.
"If I can't fly, you have to levitate. You know those words I always-"
"Yeah, uh-huh!" I was ready to get out of there! I took a deep breath.
"WAIT! You have to focus!" Raven said quickly, but I was already in mid-chant.
"Azarath, metrium, zinthoss!" I shouted. Raven grabbed onto my arm and we shot upward into the air. I quickly found out that levitating is way different than flying! I went all over the place trying to gain control. After I had zoomed over what seemed like thousands of buildings, I asked Raven what to do next.
"Ok, this is not working out very well so- HOW THE HECK DO I STOP?" I shouted.
"Look at the ground and imagine-" Raven started to tell me what to do, but I didn't let her finish. I looked straight down, and both of us plunged down towards the ground. Luckily, there were piles of plastic bags (EW, landing in garbage isn't the most pleasant experience) for us to land on.
When I started to get up and out of that stinky mess, Raven knocked me down with a garbage bag, and we waited for the zombie-fied boys to pass. We looked out of an opening in the pile. I was getting nervous, and I could feel the energy surging through my body. Well, I could feel the energy surging through Raven's body with me inside, or however you wanna say it! I needed to calm down, fast. I started to think soothing thoughts: watching the sunset on the beach; Robin and I alone, spending some time getting to know each other like best friends; stuff like that. I was talking to myself, trying to help myself remain calm.
"It's ok. They're going", Raven said with a reassuring smile.
Suddenly, we saw the green face of Zombie Beast Boy. He was a mouse, and was sniffing the pile for any sign of us. Both of us jumped back in surprise. I gasped, and Raven slapped her hand over my mouth. She held me against the pile of garbage bags and we waited for Beast Boy to pass. We waited a few terrifying minutes to make sure that he was gone, and then we heard the Puppet King say, "Enough. We we'll continue to search for the other two once the ceremony is complete." Then, I heard the boys (still inside the puppets) start talking.
"Ceremony?" Robin asked.
"What ceremony?" Cyborg asked.
"Just a little spell that we'll get rid of you Titans and leave your bodies to be mine forever." The Puppet King said. Then he, the boys, Terra, Starfire, and the zombies were gone. Raven released me and we got up and started to head back to the streets. I was stumped.
"We have to beat the Puppet King or-"
"How? With my useless powers while your uncontrollable emotions blow us to bits?" Raven shouted, "Nice flying, by the way."
"At least I can fly", I snapped back. "Here you are, too caught up in yourself to feel anything at all! It's a wonder that we're still here!"
I was mad at her- really mad. I could feel the energy surging through me, but right then, I couldn't care less.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but my emotions are dangerous. I can't afford to feel anything at all. You may have my body, but you don't know a thing about me." Raven said as she turned her back to me. I considered this, and she was right.
"You know, you're right; and if we're gonna get through this thing in one piece, then we have to know everything about each other. So, you might as well start."
"Ok", said Raven as she turned back around to face me. We sat down and began. "I was born in a place called Azarath…."
When she finished, I was in awe. Raven had a lot of problems. I mean, I finally understood why she always seemed so unhappy: her childhood was horrible, and she's really afraid that she's not all good inside. I thought that Raven was doing an excellent job, what with all that she's had to put up with. I also found out exactly how to use and control Raven's powers.
When it was my turn, I explained how my father had bewitched me with most of my powers, and that I had been living with just my mom and two sisters. I explained how to use my most useful powers, and then we were ready to go beat the stuffing out of the Puppet King!
When we got to the entrance of the Puppet King's hideout, we saw Zombie Beast Boy guarding the entrance.
"Well, we can't get in through there, that's for sure", Raven stated the obvious.
"Wanna try the roof?" I asked. Raven nodded. I reminded her of what to do. "Ok, this is your job. Think of something happy. You could think of kittens, flowers, sunsets-"
Then, Raven lifted us into the air and up onto the roof. Luckily, Beast Boy didn't spot us.
"Dude, that was awesome! What'd you think of?" I was eager to know.
"You really don't want to know." Raven turned away from me.
"Sure I do." I insisted. She hesitated.
"You not talking." Raven said quietly.
This wasn't what I had expected. "Oh, well, I'm glad I could help. Anyway, you're not done yet. You'll have to make us both intangible to get inside. Remember what I told you: Concentrate really hard on what you need to do, and then you'll slip right through."
When we got inside, the Puppet King was about to throw the boys, Terra, and Starfire into a huge, blue fire! Luckily, I was fast enough to seize them out of his hands using Raven's telekinesis. They floated up to me, and I snatched them out of the air and embraced them in a huge hug.
"Oh my gosh; I was so afraid that y'all were long gone!" I exclaimed.
"Sarah?" Robin questioned.
"It's a long story", said Raven. We didn't have time to explain because the zombie-fied boys, Terra, and Starfire attacked us without warning. I accidentally dropped the others, but Raven swooped down and caught them. I was in no shape to battle, but I had no choice. I wasn't used to having only one power, so it felt kind of weird. Anyway, I made do with what I had. Raven still couldn't loosen up enough to use my starbolts, so she mainly kicked and punched. Luckily, Raven had quick reflexes. She was awesome!
The zombies put up a good fight; the Puppet King was willing to do anything to stop us. Raven and I were prepared, though. We fought the best we could, and I think we did pretty well! Robin faced me and lunged, but I ducked out of the way. My adrenaline kicked in, and as he turned around and came at me again, I blasted him backwards into the wall. Cyborg slammed into Raven and knocked the other Titans from her grasp, and they rocketed towards the floor. Like a bullet, I shot downwards after them, and caught them in time to spare myself and the other Titans an unpleasant landing.