"What the heck, you're me!" Beast Boy cried, pointing dramatically at his double, which was still grinning stupidly.
"Which one is the real Beast Boy?" Starfire stood between the two changelings, eyes flitting back and forth.
"It's me! I don't look that stupid." Beast Boy folded his arms and poked his tongue out at the imposter. Everyone looked to Raven.
She glared back, and pointed to the changeling who had just spoken. "He's the real one. He has just a little more brain activity than the other."
"Oh, you're hilarious," Beast Boy rolled his eyes, but secretly his heart sunk. She didn't have to be so mean. Before he could do anything about his double, however, it leapt straight up, somersaulted backwards and landed on the top of the huge prism. It stood up straight and pushed its chest out, as though laughing, but not making a sound. It then proceeded to make ugly faces at the Titans below.
"Ignoring the fact that it's far more athletically capable than Beast Boy," Robin began, making Cyborg giggle.
"Not to mention taller...and better looking." Beast Boy punched Cyborg in the arm, but winced as his knuckles connected with the half-robot's hard metal body.
Robin raised his eyebrows at them. "I was going to say, I've seen this sort of thing before. Except...well...it was better last time." He finished mysteriously.
"What does it remind you of?" Raven asked stolidly. Cyborg and Beast Boy had begun to pull faces right back at the duplicate above.
"Well, back when I worked in Gotham, there was-" Robin stopped in midsentence as his eyes fell on the building across the street. Raven and Starfire followed his gaze and gasped. Squatting on a buttress above the first storey was a man in an orange and green jumpsuit. As their eyes met his, he smiled widely and waved, as though unconcerned.
"It is you!" Robin cried. "What are you doing here, in Jump City?"
Before their very eyes, the strange man disappeared. "Where-" Starfire began, but was cut short as harsh laughter rang from above. The Titans jumped back as they saw the same man appear above them, standing upon the giant prism next to the second Beast Boy.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Boy Wonder," the villain mocked. "It's been a while. Gotham wasn't much fun, you know."
Robin scowled up at him. "You're supposed to be locked up – in Central City!"
"Wait-wait-wait! Dudes! You know each other?" Beast Boy pointed at Robin and the newcomer, then his fingers switched directions. "Introductions would be super. You know, before we kick his butt and all."
Since the foe appeared not to care about Beast Boy's interruption, Robin complied. "He calls himself the Mirror Master. No one knows how, but he can trap people in their own reflections." Instinctively, the Titans backed five paced away from the glass before them.
"As you can tell, Robin," Mirror Master patted the shoulder of the imitation Beast Boy. "I'm actually into a new racket nowadays."
"Sorry to break it to you," Robin crouched and pulled out a birdarang. "But it isn't going to last. Titans, get him!" The birdarang sliced through the air, but went right through Mirror Master as if he were smoke. The criminal laughed.
"It's hopeless, children." He laughed again as starbolts went right through him and the second Beast Boy, not harming them in the slightest. Beast Boy transformed into a pterodactyl and attacked his twin, but like the others, couldn't make any contact. In response, the other Beast Boy continued to grin stupidly back, mocking him. Robin crouched, ready to leap onto the monolithic prism.
"Wait a second," Cyborg pulled Robin backwards. "What if he's done the opposite? You know, brought the reflection out, instead of trapping someone in."
"Cyborg's right," Raven murmured. "They're illusions."
"Well, find the real Mirror Master, before he replicates any more of us!" Robin growled, shaking Cyborg's hand off of his shoulder. "Split up! He'll be nearby, probably watching us. Raven, you guard the prism."
Raven merely nodded her assent, and the Titans dispersed in four directions. The Mirror Master and Beast Boy duplicates continued to stand upon the prism, staring down at her and laughing. She glared up at them, furious.
"Do you have nothing better to do?"
"I could say the same, little miss."
"Don't call me that, you cheap fake." Raven narrowed her eyes and looked back down. Ignore them, she thought. They can't do anything. They're just there as distractions. Control your emotions.
"I'd heard about you Teen Titans," said the fake Mirror Master conversationally. "But you look so much taller in the newspapers."
Raven gritted her teeth and concentrated on the shiny prism, admiring the simple beauty of its clear glass, which refused to properly reflect the sunlight.
"You're the witch-girl." He wouldn't give up. "You use telekinesis, right? Stunning...stunningly boring."
Refusing to give the duplicates any satisfaction, Raven didn't look up. But she replied angrily, "What about yourself? Mirror Master? You're a complete cliché. I've heard of you too, and I must say that I'm disappointed."
"Wh-what?" In the corner of her eye, Raven saw the fake Beast Boy topple over, laughing silently at her remark. The Mirror Master reflection raised his voice. "Insolent witch-girl!"
Raven's temper was ready to burst apart, but she saw right through his facade. "No matter what you say, I don't care. You're only a fake, and you can't do anything to me."
There was a silence, in which Raven casually meditated, trying to get a firmer grasp on her anger. Something about Mirror Master's words got to her, more than usual. She couldn't quite place it, however. Right now, he was probably thinking of something else to say to annoy her, to distract her. She sighed inwardly, wondering how the other Titans were doing.
Suddenly, a cold hand grasped her head and an arm curled around her body, trapping her against her attacker's torso. Peering into the glass, she saw the reflection being held by another Mirror Master...the real Mirror Master.
"Don't like my double then, do you?" he rasped into her ear. Before she could even fight back, he pushed her towards the glass and pointed her head straight at the flat prism face. "Look," he continued, his voice eerier and fouler than his copy. "Aren't you pretty?"
Unwittingly, she stared into the glass, into her own eyes. Behind her, she could see Mirror Master clutching her, forcing her to look. As she prepared magic words in her head, hoping to retaliate, she suddenly noticed something.
Her reflection was gone. It was just Mirror Master now, alone – laughing at her. How could that be?
It wasn't his reflection, she realised with horror. She was, somehow, inside the prism.
xxxx
Thanks for the reviews and favourites! I'm trying to get past the beginning so I can get into the best part, so excuse the freakishly weird chapter. XD Also, in case you didn't know, I didn't invent Mirror Master – he is one of the Flash's greatest villains, and sometimes sneaks into Gotham to cause havoc. Yay crossovers!