With her head hung low and guilt weighing heavily on her heart, Raven dragged herself through the halls of the Watchtower, replaying her conversation with Beast Boy over and over again in her mind. She felt terible for having left him sitting there alone, but she just couldn't face him anymore.
His words were so honest, so beautiful and she deeply wanted to return every last one of them. She wanted to tell him that she felt the same way, that she couldn't imagine life without him, that he held a special place in her heart and had for a long time, but something stopped her.
At first she had thought it was confusion, that she couldn't tell him what she felt for him because she honestly didn't know, but now that she had gotten away and had time to think, she realized that wasn't it at all. The reason she couldn't tell him how she felt, how much she cared for him was because she was afraid. She was afraid of herself; she was afraid of her past; she was afraid of opening herself up to him and she was afraid for what being too close to her might do to his safety. She was afraid and she wasn't sure she could ever find the courage to give him her answer, the answer they both wanted to hear.
The sound of an intercom crackling to life broke her out of her thoughts as Superman's voice suddenly filled the hall.
"Attention! Attention! Will the Titan's please report immediately to the bridge. I repeat, will the Titan's please report immediately to the bridge."
The urgency in Superman's voice was enough for Raven to force her current dilemma to the back of her mind as she phased up through the ceiling.
In a matter of minutes, the entire team had arrived and was greeted by a ready-to-go Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Flash. Raven couldn't help feeling another pang of guilt upon noticing Beast Boy seemingly trying to avoid eye contact with her.
"What's wrong?" asked Nightwing with urgency in his voice.
"Metropolis is in trouble," said Superman stepping forward. "A few minutes ago there was a massive uprising in the Super Powered Human Detention Center and several dangerous villains escaped."
"Don't they know that when you skip detention you only get into more troube?" asked Flash with a slight smirk.
"Dude, I was going to say that," complained Beast Boy.
"Sorry man, you can have the next one."
Ignoring the second rate comedy act, Superman continued.
"There's chaos on the streets and we need to get things under control before any more people get hurt. I know you're not officially part of the League yet, but we were hoping you'd lend us a hand."
"What kind of heroes would we be if we said no?" said Nightwing with a smirk.
Superman smiled in response.
"Alright, follow us down to the Javelin bay."
"Well alright!" exclaimed Cyborg, pumping his fist into the air. "We're going on a mission with the Justice League."
Minutes later, the Titan's found themselves rocketing back to Earth within the confines of the JLA Javelin.
"Get ready everyone," said Superman at the helm. "This won't take long."
Adjusting his headset, Superman punched a few digits into the keypad in front of him.
"Hello, can anyone hear me?
"Roger, who is this?" came a frazzled, desperate voice a few seconds later, accompanied by what sounded like a violent battle in the background.
"This is Superman and the Justice League. We're on our way to your location."
"Oh man, am I glad to hear from you guys. You gotta get down here, things are crazy."
"What can you tell me about the situation?"
"I don't know; it was weird. One minute everything was just fine and then one by one every inmate in the entire place just started going nuts. They don't even seem like they really know what there doing. They're just babbling like a bunch of mental patients.
The occupants of the ship looked at one another for a moment, pondering the possibilities.
"Just hang on and try to stay safe," said Superman. "We'll be there soon."
"Please hurry, sir."
With that, the line went silent.
Wonder Woman was the first to speak.
"What do you think, Superman?"
"I don't know," he replied. "But let's not waste any more time."
Pressing hard on the throttle, the Javelin increased speed as it closed in on its final destination.
On approach to ground zero it was obvious to the team that the situation was as bad as it sounded. There were small fires scattered around the city and several costumed villains could be seen causing wanton destruction. What was strange was there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. One would think that if an inmate had just broken out of prison their first goal would be getting as far away as possible while keeping a low profile. All the escapees; however, seemed only intent on destroying everything and everyone in their path. Something was amiss.
After landing on an accommodating rooftop, the group quickly exited with Superman taking command.
"Flash, start clearing the streets of civilians and make sure any wounded get medical attention."
"I'm on it," replied the speedster, dashing away in the blink of an eye.
"The rest of you, seek out and subdue."
In an instant, the heroes were off.
Gorilla Grodd stomped furiously about the streets. Anyone who dared to cross his path paid dearly.
"Filthy disgusting humans," he growled. "I'll rip them all to pieces with my bare paws."
"Yo, Kong, called a voice from behind him.
The super-intelligent gorilla turned around only to be leveled by a titanic punch courtesy of Cyborg's bionic fist. The ape was knocked to the ground, but wasted no time in pulling himself back up to his feet.
"Damned homosapien. You and you're kind will be wiped from this earth," he spat through his teeth as saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth.
With surprising quickness, Grodd leapt at the bionic man, swinging his mighty paws with reckless abandon as Cyborg did his best to dodge or block every attack.
Finally, Grodd snatched Cyborg's head in his massive ape hands and began assaulting the Titan's brain with telepathic mind blasts.
Cyborg gritted his teeth as Grodd ravaged the inside of the poor man's head, taking glee while he did so.
"Feel the pain, human. My psychic blasts won't stop until there is nothing left of your pitiful mind but a sticky pool."
At that comment, Cyborg managed a small smirk.
"I guess this is probably more debilitating to someone whose mind isn't half robotic, huh?"
Grodd then realized far too late that Cyborg's sonic canon was pointed directly at his gut.
"Bad monkey," Cyborg smirked, firing the weapon. Instantly, Grodd rocketed back several yards into a brick wall and crumbled unconscious to the ground.
"Next," proclaimed Cyborg, dusting himself off.
Volcana, screaming like a banshee, launched a massive fireball, setting fire to yet another building.
"They wanted to use me, she wailed. "They stole my past, my life. They didn't care! All they wanted was a weapon.
As she ranted to the air, she readied yet another enormous fireball.
"Well, they want a weapon, they got it," she screamed. "The entire world will burn!"
A rustling sound caught the enraged pyromancer's attention. Turning, she spotted a young boy and girl in an alleyway, lost and scared. A deep hatred shot through the wild-haired woman and she was immediately consumed with the desire to kill. Fortunately for the children, Volcana failed to notice a fast approaching Starfire who, with a righteous yell, clobbered the villain with a massive right cross, sending her flying through a store window.
Right on cue, Flash appeared on the scene. Starfire pointed out the children, and the speedster immediately scooped them up into his arms.
"Come on, you two, let's find your parents," he said before speeding off.
As Starfire watched him go, she was suddenly alerted to the sound of glass crushing underfoot. To the Tameranian's shock, Volcana had managed to pull herself back to her feet.
"Please stay down," warned Starfire. "I do not wish to harm you anymore than is necessary."
Volcana would hear none of Starfire's warnings and instead began launching fireblasts at the orange skinned woman, screaming with rage.
Starfire soared gracefully through the air, avoiding every attack before quickly switching directions and heading straight for the fire-starter.
"I am sorry for this," she said and then leveled the woman with another devastating punch, this time knocking her out for good.
Starfire's eyes were transfixed on the unconscious Volcana, ensuring she was down for the count when the noise of combat filled her ears.
She turned to see Wonder Woman come spilling out of an alleyway, grappling with Cheetah, who was snarling and clawing at the Amazon in a way that was very much akin to her namesake.
With speed and grace befitting a woman of her pedigree, Wonder Woman gripped the animalistic woman by the wrists and catapulted her into a wall, knocking her out cold.
"You are injured?" asked Starfire, approaching the Amazon and observing the scratches on her arms.
"I'll be fine," responded Wonder Woman.
Turning away, Starfire took in the forms of the unconscious villains around her.
"I do not understand. These people seem to be motivated by nothing, but the desire for destruction. Is this normal for these individuals?"
"No," replied Wonder Woman adjusting her bracelets. "Something is definitely wrong."
Raven hovered above the city, taking in the chaos around her. Ever since they had arrived, she had sensed an immutable rage emanating from the city blocks and every escaped villain seemed to be contributing to it. Raven knew of human anger, human evil, but this was far different. There was something deeply unnatural about the ferocity she was sensing from these people.
Closing her eyes, she attempted to identify a possible source for the hate. After a few seconds, a sudden emotional flux caught her attention and without hesitation she pursued. Flying over the city, she zeroed in on the flux, hoping to find the source of this inhuman rage. What she found surprised her. Her acute senses had led her to the hulking giant that was Solomon Grundy.
From what Raven understood about Grundy, he was a simple creature motivated by simple greed. She therefore was confused as to why the unyielding fury she was sensing seemed to be emanating from him. Nevertheless, if he was the source of this madness, she intended to stop him.
"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday," she said coldly as she landed a few yards behind the beast. "Tell me, what do you know about what's going on here?
Slowly and quite uncharacteristically, Grundy turned and faced Raven, giving her a deep and menacing stare.
"Raven," he said hauntingly.
The voice was Grundy's, but Raven sensed there was something else there, something not his own. Suddenly the empath was filled with a horribly familiar presence that terrified her and brought her to her knees.
"No," she gasped.
"Yes, my dear daughter," growled Grundy. "I've come home."