ZAP!

Z-ZAP!

"Raven!" Robin shouts as he leaps across the hallway of the H.I.V.E. underwater layer with batarangs flying. "They're going to blow the walkway!"

As Starfire tosses a screaming flurry of starbolts into a sea of thugs besides me, I spin about in mid-shielding to see beyond my obsidian translucent soul self the source of Robin's concern. A squadron of yellow-suited H.I.V.E. thugs are attaching plastiq explosions to the one hallway leading towards our destination in the evil HQ's control room.

"Don't let them cut us off! Cyborg, Aqualad, and Beast Boy are counting on us!"

I gnash my teeth amidst laser fire and explosions. "I'm on it…."

"Get her!" a lead thug motions at me with a gloved finger.

"Yaaaaaugh!" half a dozen crooks run my way with laser rifles armed.

"Nnnngh!" I fling both of my hands forward.

Fwooosh! A blast of black telekinesis soars at their feet, collapsing all but one instantly. "Oooof!" THWUMP!

The one thug is leaping over the black sweep and firing at me with twin barrels of laser fury.

ZAAAP!

I hold my breath and cross my fingers in front of me, forming a tiny, translucent shield. CRACK! The laser blast explodes into the dark barrier. I furrow my brow in concentration as I flex my fingers and wrap-around the burning laser impact with the spherical body of the black shielding. I then levitate the fire-filled black ball in my palm before blowing on it like a dandelion—

SHOOOOOM! The black orb flies into the ground a few feet from the one thug and explodes like an incendiary grenade with his own laser fire.

POW!

"Ugh!" He slams up against a glass wall looking out onto the watery landscape.

Fire and flame clog up the corridor.

I hold my breath, encase my entire body in black magic, and bolt forward with spreading wings of avarian energy. A demonic shriek echoes through the corridor as I burst through the murk and come sailing in with a graceful glide, my blue robe billowing against the blackness.

The recovering thugs have barely stumbled up to their feet when they see me and gasp.

I land between them and strike a meditative pose.

They all aim and fire with one mutual berserker yell.

"Yaaaugh!"

"Dieeee!"

"Fry, you witch!"

I hold my breath, twirl gracefully to the side, avoid the fire, close my eyes, blindly duck another barrage, then open my optics with a hot gray glow before flexing my calmly poised fingers forward in an exploding array of dark fury.

FWOOOOOSH!

Ribbons of solid black magic bolt out and slice off the barrels of every thug's weapon.

They stumble back, gasping.

I march forward, frowning.

The two closest thugs growl and charge at me, swinging electric-daggers. ZZZT! Z-ZZT!

I bend backwards, duck a slicing splash of metal and electricity sweeping over my angled nose—and then I come up with a twirl and grasping the man by the forehead and covering his cranium with suffocating black. FLASH!

"Mmmmmmfff!"

"Sonuva---!" The second thug leaps at me with a stabbing electric-dagger--

I flick my other wrist towards him and explode the knife in his grasp. CRACK!

"Augh!" He grabs his hand and winces all over.

I then spin in place like a dancer and—eyes closed with concentration—fling the breathless thug by his head into the second assailant.

Swooooosh!—"Waaaaaaaaaaah!'—THUD! Both men collapse like slabs of meat into the ground.

I come to a stop from my spin and half-kneel.

Just in time too—ZAAP! ZAAAP!—two bolts of laser fury surge over my head from the last three blocking me from the explosives.

I fling my wrists to opposite sides while squatting. With a rattling sensation, two metal hexagon panels rip out of the walls and soar—on my command—towards the itchy trigger miscreants.

SWOOOOSH!

"Wh-Whoah!" Two duck. A third isn't too lucky—

WHANG!

"Ooof!" He falls down hard.

The other two men blink, then gasp—

SWOOOSH! I glide towards them menacingly with hot gray eyes and black tracers fluctuating alongside me.

They raise the intensity on their laser rifles with a whining noise and fire—ZAP! ZAP! Z-ZAP!

I leap up into a drifting levitation, sailing above the rifle fire.

They sweat, pant, and aim up at me. ZAAAAAP!

I cross my arms before my chest, summoning a thick wall of blackness as I descend… ..descend… … …descend….

Z-Z-Z-ZAAAP!

Everything splashes and explodes off my angled shield.

I drift and drift until—

Finally…

I land between the two men.

I kneel down.

I uncross my arms.

The black shield splits into two raging talons of onyx.

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!"

GRIP!


CLUTCH!

Both men scream as the black talons seize them by their midsections.

I toss them both up and behind me as I stand up with a simple shrug of my shoulders.

"Daaaaaah!'

"Yaaaaaaugh---" THUD!

TH-THUD!

Both men collapse like dull ragdolls in the smoking corridor behind me.

"… … ….." I march forward.

The men arming the explosives look up, see me, and gasp.

I raise a hand and—in a sweeping 'salute'—knock them all aside with billowing black.

Th-Th-Th-Thrump!

"Ooof!"

"Ooomph!"

I erect a black shield to hold them back.

I squat before the explosives.

My violet eyes narrow.

0:07…

0:06…

0:05…

Grip!

I grab the plastiqs.

I glance to my side.

Windows into the ocean… …

0:04…

0:03…

FLASH!

I encase the explosives in solid black talons.

Holding my breath, I shove my soul-self's upper limb through the glass fixture and extend the talon out and into the waters.. .. …'tossing' the explosives away and into the blue, liquid yonder like torpedos.

0:02.. …

0:01…

I draw my hand back, dissipate the black 'talon'….and brace myself against the wall—

KABOOOO-OOOOOM!.!.!.!

"Nnnnngh!" I grunt and stumble and fall—

SWOOOOSH! Starfire zooms by, sweeping me up before I can collapse. "Do hold onto your derriere, friend Raven!"

She carries me out of the corridor as Robin follows behind, spins, and tosses a handful of smoke pellets at the nearly fifty pursuing thugs coming after us.

He turns and catches up with us, running as fast as his lungs can assist him.

"Good one, Raven! You deserve a reward for saving us from a drowning death!"

"Yeah…," I nod with my forehead pulsing. "You can start by telling your girlfriend to let me down."

"Eeep!"

Robin's face is a little red. From fighting? Adrenaline? Something else?

"Now's not the time for insinuations, Raven."

"Yeah? Why not?"

ZAP! Z-ZAP! ZAAAAAAP!

"Oh… ….Right…."