48. Scattered Raven part 3

"You want to come along?" Raven asked from inside the Titan's garage. "I know it's only Mumbo Jumbo and all, but, it could be dangerous."

"I've been in dangerous situations before," Sandy replied. "Remember, this isn't my first time hanging around with a Titan'm."

Raven smiled. "Well, since you put it that way…" She put on a helmet. Then grabbed another and handed it to Sandy. "You'll need this. Put it on."

Sandy did so, and spoke: "Think we can catch up with your teammates in time?"

"The way this thing handles, I wouldn't doubt it," Raven said, mounting it and gripping the handles. "Besides….er…not all my teammates were in such a hurry to leave."

"We'll worry about that later."

"Hop on board," Raven said, revving the engine.

Sandy got on behind her and held on tight. "Just curious…have you ever driven this thing before??"

"Never had the chance to," Raven spoke over the engines and reached for the garage door opener on a side panel. "But I've watched it in action very carefully!"

"Somehow that isn't very reassuring," Sandy gulped. "But hey…you turned from stoic to hedonist in twenty-four hours. Anything can happen, right?"

Raven exhaled. "We're about to find out…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The door to the Tower's garage opened with rattling clanks.

VROOOOOOOM!!!!

Raven ambled the two of them out on the R-Cycle. The engines revved as she tested the gas in the middle of the driveway.

"So….um….," Sandy blinked beneath her helmet. "How fast can this thing go—OOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

Sandy was not alone in her shrieking. Soon Raven's screams were joining her as she approached an undesired velocity on the strange bike that sent the two blasting down the land bridge and streaking towards the center of the City at mach 5.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime…

In Downtown…

Besides the smoking entrance of the First National Bank…

Cars stopped in the street and multiple drivers, pedestrians, and workers wandered curiously—silently—across the asphalt and peered into the fresh hole of the urban establishment.

"…………………"

SMASH!!!!!!!

People shrieked, cried out 'Run!', and dashed every which way as a newer hole was formed in the building side. A humongous white automaton emerged with an electronic growl. A twenty foot tall bunny rabbit. Circuits and robotic limbs. Parts that supported aluminum whiskers and glass-plated, black eyes whirred and hummed as the multiple, synthetic body parts moved around and marched the sluggishly huge beast one rabbit foot at a time out onto the sunlit pavement.

CRACK!!!!

A sidewalk split in two beneath one of the giant white feet, unearthing a fire hydrant that spewed water and a lamppost that sparked to death before careening over and collapsing loudly through the length of a minivan.

The gargantuan, android lepus lifted its razor-sharp buck teeth to the sky and let out a betrayingly vicious snarl as it heaved a bulging canvass of cargo over its back. The bag was full of solid gold bars, and it dangled halfway between its folded ears of titanium and a huge, fiberglass fluffy tail. All eccentricities aside, the robot was the perfect getaway machine.

In a puff of smoke, Mumbo Jumbo—the comic villain himself—appeared beside the three ton weight of his hideously cute golem.

"Fluffy…," the lanky fiend smiled up at the robot. "How ever did I pull you out of a hat?! Ha HA!!" He swiveled around, spun his magic wand in his grasp, and tipped his black top hat towards the frightened tellers and bank members inside the hollowed out building. "I'm sorry, folks. But I am far too busy for an encore. Fluffy and I never believed in a heaven. So we're going to take these bricks some place where we can pave our own streets with gold!! Too-ta-loo!"

He swiveled again, tapped the side of the robotic mammal with his wand—producing sparks.

Two big, beady eyes creaked down to face him.

"Come, Fluffy!" Mumbo smirked and proceeded to gleefully goose-step towards the far end of the city. "Life's a stage, and we're only in the First Act! Hop to it!! Ha ha ha!!"

The buck-toothed monster reared its metallic head and let out a serrated roar. People across the street ran in every which way as Mumbo sauntered playfully along and the three ton rabbit smashed-jumped its way down the road, forming craters with each hop.

BOOOM!! BOOOM!! BOOOM!

On the fourth leap, the titanium rabbit had a delay in coming back to the ground.

Mumbo—realizing that even his magic wasn't impervious to gravity—naturally formed a question mark over his head and glanced up.

An enraged Tamaranian teenager had flown down and was hoisting the beast halfway up from the ground by its ears.

"RRRRRAUGGGH!!" Starfire growled and flung with all her might.

"Nooo!!" Mumbo shrieked.

The huge rabbit tipped backwards and somersaulted in reverse. The ground shook. Cracks went off for dozens of yards in the asphalt. The canvass bag of gold bricks tumbled to the side and rolled to a stop against a squad car, denting two doors and breaking the siren.

Starfire floated in mid-air, panting and heaving heavily. "Your magic is most foul, annoying, and inherently WEAK!!!"

Mumbo Jumbo gasped. His usual devil-may-care grin left him as his masked white eyes drooped cartoonishly from under the top hat. "You….you can still fly!!"

"Affirmative!!!!!"

"You….h-have not lost your powers?!" he growled and wrung his fists.

"She most certainly has not!!" daintily mused a certain android.

Mumbo squinted. "Eh?!"

Cyborg jumped down from a building top with his feet together and lifted his arms up. "Ta-daa!! Now who wants to party?!"

"P-Please…must we fight?" moaned Robin as he sauntered over, draped sadly in his own cape. "W-We could just….ya know…ask him nicely to stop robbing stuff…."

A green pterodactyl landed next to him, turned into a spectacled elf, and mumbled: "I do hope this excursion will be abbreviated. I am wasting valuable time that could be spent indulging in the late modernist prose of Jack Kerouac and---ooh, is that a large scale, cybernetic replica of a oryctolagus lagomorpha?"

"It is in shambles!!!" Starfire growled like a tiger, her green eyes blazing. She pumped both fists out and zoomed straight into the chest of the giant, white rabbit.

SLAM!!!

The robot skidded across the street, scraping up asphalt. It let out a roar, its eyes clanking, and headbutted the Tamaranian girl on her third descent.

WHUMP!!

"UGH!!" Starfire was sent flying back across the street, smashing through a station wagon, and tumbling into the side of a newspaper stand. "Rrrrrrgh," she grit her teeth and pounded her fist into the sidewalk, making a hole. "Curses untold!!!"

"I don't know how you pathetic punks still have powers…," Mumbo glared with a pointed finger. "But don't think Mumbo Jumbo will back away that easily!! You need to be shown some real strength! It's a good thing that—since the last time we met—I got the beat down on a great class act!! Hocus pocus!!" He spun his black wand, which transformed into a pistol. "Back in the days before magic school, people in my home town used to call me Buckeyed Jumbo!!"

Beast Boy had a sarcastic face. "Guess it was not too difficult switching to a new profession to match with your last name." He blinked. "Is that an antique luger?!"

BANG!!!! BANG!! BANG!!!

Robin gasped. "Look out!!" he jumped belly first onto the sidewalk and grabbed Beast Boy's ankles.

"CRIMINY!!" the green elf fell to the floor as bullets whizzed overhead.

"I'm sorry!!" Robin gasped as the two hid behind a car that sheltered the bullets. "I'm so so sorry!! I-I'll try to be less forceful next time!!"

Beast Boy sighed calmly as the bullets ricocheted a few feet away. "This is already transforming into an experience of pure redundancy," he mumbled and wiped his glasses with a cloth.

Robin ducked his head under his hands and jerked each time a bullet struck the car nearby.

BANG!! BANG!!!!

Mumbo unleashed shot after shot.

"Pfft!! Now where is my magic aim of youth??"

"HEY DAVID COPPER OF THE FIELD!!!"

Mumbo glanced to his left.

Starfire blazed towards him, her entire upper arm shaped to launch a punch at him. "TAKE A GOOD AIM AT MY INEVITABLE FIST!!! RAAAUGH!!"

Mumbo spun the luger, which turned back into a wand. "Drawbridge!" he grinned. He tapped the wand against his torso. Somehow the shirt of his suit dislocated completely from the pants of his suit, creating a gap which the hot-tempered Tamaranian soared through.

"AAAAAH!!!" she sailed straight into the razor sharp mouth of Fluffy, who shook her around in its jaws and sent her flying off across the city over three rows of building tops.

Mumbo's two halves rejoined and he spun his wand with a chuckle. "Heheheh…had to pull myself together for a minute there."

"YO!!"

He glanced aside.

Cyborg walked up. "You're not very nice," he smiled. He aimed a laser rifle that glowed in the magician's face. "If I were you, I'd have a talk with Mr. Laser! He's positively Electrifying!! He he he!!"

STOMP!!!

Fluffy landed down right behind its master, bent over, and roared threateningly at Cyborg.

The android gasped. His human eye sparkled joyfully and he spread his arms out with a huge grin. "BUNNY!!!!"

"Hrmmm??" Mumbo raised an eyebrow over his eyemask.

Cyborg skipped over—giggling—and hugged one of the titanium legs of the robot beast. "SOOOOO CUUUUUTE!! AND SOOO BIGGGG!!" A pause. Cyborg looked up, grinning. "Wanna come to one of my birthday parties?!"

WHACK!!!

"OOOF!!" Cyborg exhaled as an iron forepaw swatted him across the street to where he formed a crater in the side of a brick wall. He blinked. "Hehehehe!! And I thought rabbits kicked!!"

"Hmmmmmm," Mumbo Jumbo scratched his chin, looking at the android across the street. He glanced at the bullet-holed car where Robin was practically hiding under his cape with the case of the shivers and Beast Boy was studying the tires of the automobile.

"Fashioned in Nineteen Ninety Nine by the Appleton automotive company in Detroit, Michigan, Brevard Street….," the changeling mumbled. "This thing should be recalled! Listen, Robin, if someone were to drive on this vehicle today, he could fishtail and end up perishing along with all passengers against a telephone pole or a guardrail!"

"S-Stop talking l-l-like that!!" the Boy Wonder's voice mumbled from under the cape. "You're sc-sc-scaring meeee!"

"Hmmmmmmmm," Mumbo smiled. He spun his wand and looked up at the lumbering robot bunny. "It looks like it worked out afterall. Howbeit, not in the exact fashion that I desired. But it'll do. Now let's resume our trek to the banks of the Western District!! Something tells me…I could just have easily left my wand at home. HA!"

The robot Fluffy roared in obedience. It lifted the canvass satchel of gold in its mouth, hoisted it over its shoulder, and resumed hopping a straight path of titanium destruction westward while Mumbo whistled and pranced alongside.

SMASH!!! SMASH!!!! SMASH!!! SMASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!-SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!!

Dust flew into the air, mixed with black sediment from a tire.

(The R-Cycle's rear tire….)

The vehicle was dead-still now in the center of the road.

It had taken Raven the entire ten minutes of frantic fright to 1) figure out how to brake and 2) implement the brakes.

She and Sandy were frozen in an eternal flinch.

"………"

"………"

"Are we there yet?" Raven whimpered.

"What?! You're the driver. Why're you asking me that?!"

"I don't know," Raven blinked her eyes open from under the helmet. "I d-don't even know if we're still alive or not."

SMASH!!!!!

The girls shrieked. They yanked off their helmets for a better look as a giant, white rabbit smashed straight through a nearby skyrise and hopped its heavy, titanium way across the city street.

Both girls had horrified looks on their faces. They stared, wide-eyed.

Sandy finally blinked, gulped, and said: "Well, at least I know I'm alive."

"How's that?"

"I just peed in my pants."

"I see…," Raven coughed. She knocked the kick-stand down and ran over towards Mumbo Jumbo and his automaton.

"Wait!!" Sandy cried forth and reached a hand out. "How're you going to fight them without your powers?!"

"I'll work on that when I come to it!!" Raven shouted back. "Just call it an experiment with 'fear'!"

Sandy bit her lip.

"Let's go do the hop!" Mumbo Jumbo psychotically sang as he goose-stepped besides his leaping Terror. "Doo doo doo!"

SMASH!!! SMASH!!

"Let's go do the hop!! Doo doo doo!!"

"Hold it right there!!" Raven shouted.

Mumbo looked over. "Ah! Lovely lady of darkness!! I was wondering when I'd be bestowed with your enchantment! I do declare, your partners are most mixed up at the moment!!"

"Cut the chatter!" Raven shouted. She gave only half a thought to the fact that—in trying to sound 'threatening' in front of the fiend—she in no way matched the intimidation of her formal self. Nevertheless, she did her best to frown and yell: "Stop what you're doing this instant!! The Titans will not allow this sort of mayhem!!"

"Mayhem?!" the magician shouted above his robot's hopping. "The name's Mumbo, you confused gypsy!! Mumbo Jumbo, and the two of us here are late, late, for a very important date!! Isn't that right, Fluffy?!"

The giant rabbit roared and jumped through an abandoned jeep.

SMASH!!!

"HA!!"

"No oversized wind-up toy is a match for the Titans!" Raven grunted.

"On the contrary," Mumbo winked. "Both you and I know that you aren't really the Titans today. Are you, Miss?!"

Raven's face fell.

Mumbo Jumbo faced her directly and opened his coat halfway at her, exposing his undershit. "Follow THIS down the rabbit hole!!" A giant, rubber boxing glove magically protruded from his inside pocket, sailed at Raven, and smacked her hard in the chest.

"OOOF!!!"

Raven flew back and skidded to a stop a couple feet off.

Sandy ran up from behind and helped her up. "Are you okay?!"

Raven dusted herself off. Her face was flushed. "I dunno. I didn't count on 'embarrassment' feeling so…..embarrassing…"

"Yeah, well, good thing you're not in High School."

"What are you two babbling about?!" came Beast Boy's voice from behind.

Raven spun around while Mumbo and Fluffy smashed through the street in the distance. "Beast Boy!! Robin!!"

The two stumbled up. Robin sniffled, clinging meekly to his cape. Beast Boy yawned intensely.

"This is rather dull," the elf hummed. "Why can we not engage in fisticuffs with some villain of a slightly more intellectual persuasion? Like 'Descartes Demon' or something?"

"At least he still has a sense of humor…," Sandy muttered.

"What are you just standing around there for?!?!" Raven exclaimed. She pointed down the street. "There's a twenty foot bunny smashing through people's stores and apartments, and instead of turning into an almighty T-Rex or something you're sitting around talking about classic philosophers?!"

"Hey!" Beast Boy snapped. "Descartes was not just a classic philosopher!! He was an important, theological component in the socio-political application of Newtonian physics and proliferation of bourgeoisie ideals throughout Western Europe during—"

"This. Isn't. Europe!" Raven exclaimed. "Europe doesn't have giant, demolishing bunny rabbits!!"

"I dunno," Sandy giggled. "Have you ever been to Amsterdam??"

Raven spun around, bug-eyed. "And what are you doing—SHUT UP!!!"

"Please….stop…y-yelling," Robin whimpered and shivered.

"I fail to see where this verbal interplay is advancing us in either a sophistication of this already bland day, or the apprehension of the mammalian golem in question."

Raven turned around once again and glared at the changeling. "I thought I just told you to TAKE THEM DOWN!!!!"

"Pfft!! Who am I, your lapdog?!" Beast Boy adjusted his spectacles and folded his arms. "If you are such a goddess of authority, why are you not employing your telekinesis as we speak?!"

Raven blushed. "I….kinda sorta….lost my powers."

"Oh…brilliant…hiding behind the claim of total ignorance," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "You are practically proletariat and oafish to the core!"

"…..," Raven blinked. "I think I liked you back when you were…..unsmart."

"Hmph!!"

"Where're Cyborg and Noir???" Sandy asked, concerned.

"Noir….pfft….how should we know??"

Robin peaked up from under his cape. "I….um…s-saw Cyborg stuck…i-in a wall….s-somewhere…."

Raven ran a hand over her face. She brightened. "How about Starfire?! Something tells me at least she'd be helpful right about now!!"

Beast Boy shrugged. "Last time I saw her, she was displaying what I interpret to be the numerous adverse side effects of the Tamaranian menstrual cycle and—"

"RRRRRRAUGHH!!!!!!!" A purple comet streaked overhead.

"Ah!! Speak of the corrupted Lilith herself!!"

SWOOOOSH—BAM!!!!

A militaristic Starfire slammed once again into the side of the metal rabbit, forcing it to tip over into a semi-truck of gas that burst in flames.

BOOOOM!!!!

Sandy and Raven jumped and shaded their eyes.

"Awwww fiddlesticks!!" Mumbo Jumbo shook. "There's a sucker born every minute!!"

"I am not finished with pummeling your pet of machina!!!!" Starfire growled.

"Well, pummel away, dearest!!" Mumbo grinned as the giant rabbit emerged—hopping—from the flames. "Your knuckles only have so much of a cushion of flesh left on them!!"

The rabbit roared and charged Starfire with its razor sharp incisors.

"RRRRAUGH!!" Starfire swung her fists. "STARFIRE SMASH!!!!"

WHAM!!! SMACK!!! CLANG!!!

The flying Tamaranian girl exchanged futile punches, kicks, and jabs with the hulking robot while the amused Mumbo laughed his top hat off on the sidelines.

"I can't let this go on forever….," Raven mumbled. She spun and extended a hand to Robin. "Robin!! Give me your staff!!"

"Wh-Why?!" the Boy Wonder coward. "Did I do something wrong?!"

"Not yet! Give me the damn staff!"

"You better do it," Sandy said.

"But….but…but..," Robin frightfully eyed the alien girl and the rabbit. "If you join that fight….you m-might get hurt!!"

"It's a risk I'm gonna have to take!!" Raven spat. "Now give me your staff right now or—I swear—I'll hit you so hard in the jaw your mother will feel it!!"

Robin blinked, whimpered, and tossed the staff to her from under his cape.

"I like your psychology," Beast Boy grinned.

Raven flipped the staff to its extension and tossed her cape over her shoulder. "I'd like your head on a plate." She spun, growled for courage, and ran across the pavement towards Mumbo Jumbo.

"Don't bite the girl too hard, Fluffy!! She might get rabies!! Robot Rabies!! HA HA HA HA!!"

Raven ran up with the staff. "YOU!!!"

Mumbo looked over. "Waah?!" CONG "OUCH!! MY SHIN!!" He hopped on one foot.

"Give me that wand!!" Raven shouted.

"Or you'll do what—" CONG "OW!! MY OTHER SHIN!!"

"I'm….not….JOKING!!" Raven growled.

"Sheesh, missus!" Mumbo stood still again and readjusted his top hat. "You've lost your mind just as much as the others!!"

"What do you know?!" Raven growled.

"Plenty," Mumbo winked his eyemask. He pointed his wand up at Starfire. "Hail Mary, Full of ANVIL!!"

There was a sparkle of magic and a huge metal anvil popped into the air just above Starfire's head. The alien girl was too busy fighting to notice—much less dodge—the object flying down at her.

Raven gasped. "Star!!" She grunted, spun the rod, and tossed it up at her.

"Grrrrrrr—huh?" the alien glanced down. SMACK!!! The rod struck her back. "OWCHNESS!!"

THWANG!!!!

The anvil flew down where Starfire would have been and formed a three-foot-deep hole in the sidewalk.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho!!" Mumbo Jumbo chuckled gleefully. He spun around, disappeared in a puff of smoke, and reappeared in a 'saddled' position atop Fluffy's head. Between the ears.

"Tally Ho, Bugs!!"

Raven stared upwards, panting, eyes wide.

Mumbo waved his top hat from up high at Raven. "I'm sorry for the brief meeting, girl. But when there's an exit in sight, I must LEAP to the occasion. Ha ha ha!! Onward--!"

The rabbit was about to hop---when I streaked down from a building side and rammed my blurred shoulder straight into Mumbo's chest.

SWOOOOOOSH—WHAM!!!

"UGH!!!" he cried out and flew across the street, landing hard.

I leapt off the rabbit, flipped, whipped out Myrkblade, and blurred straight at him…snarling.

He was just then standing up—

RIIIIIP!!!

Myrkblade slid through the collar of his shirt and lifted him off his feet. I soared across the street like a jousting knight and shoved Mumbo hard through the window front of a clothing store.

SHATTER!!!!!

Mumbo Jumbo landed painfully amidst a sea of glass shards.

I spun Myrkblade around and aimed it at him. Panting. Frowning.

Raven watched. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was agape.

"Ugh!! Pffft!!" Mumbo Jumbo coughed. A trail of blood or two trickled down his cheek from where the glass cut him. "It's fun until someone gets hurt," he wheezed.

"Looks like that someone is me!"

My brow furrowed under the shades.

He was damn right.

I reached in, grabbed him by the neck, and—holding my breath—flung him straight back out into the street.

"OOOF!!" he landed hard on the pavement, aching all over. A torn and disheveled magician.

I spun Myrkblade above me. Above him. Above us.

Make this disappear, you bastard!!

I gripped the blade with two wrists.

I grit my teeth.

My eyes saw red.

I swung the blade down directly over his cranium.

Mumbo flinched.

CLANG!!!

"No!!!" Raven shouted, having blocked my sword with a stab of Robin's staff.

My face jerked up to see her. Sweating.

"That's enough….you grounded him," she panted.

I glared.

A flash of red.

CHIIIING!!!!

I dashed forward and raised Myrkblade. I managed to stop myself just seconds before Raven's head split in two. The tip of my blade rested at the end of her nose.

She had her head tilted back. Eyes like golf balls.

She was panting.

I was panting.

Everything was heaving.

My face fell.

What am I doing?!?!

"Noir….," she breathed. "What are you doing?"

I swallowed.

"Tender moment?" Mumbo asked.

We both looked down.

The magician grinned. He flicked his wrists and two tensile strings of scarves flew out. "Let's call it a wrap!!" He whipped his forearms to his side from where he lay.

The scarves acted like bullwhips, tripping Raven and I hard to the ground.

Not a moment later, Mumbo jumped up to his feet, leapt, and backflipped towards the other side of the street.

I started to get up—wincing. I heard a roar and a stomping sound. I looked forward.

Fluffy charged at full force.

I inhaled and held Myrkblade up vertically.

CLAMP!!!!

Fluffy's bucktoothed mouth bit onto the length of my sword and pushed forward. I slid on two steady feet over the concrete, blurring and practically leaving a trail of fire. The giant robot shoved me against a pickup truck. I upended along the side, tumbled over the side, and fell onto the ground behind. The rabbit butted the truck aside with its head.

CRASH!!

I jumped up, blocked a bite with Myrkblade, and stabbed forward into its titanium chest.

CRKKKKKK!!!!

I made a sparking scar.

The robot roared and stamped its huge, white food down at me.

I rolled to the side, charged up Myrkblade----flash of red---and swung forward with a silent scream.

FWOOOOOOOM!!!!

Somehow, the wave of smoke and Destruction was enough to knock the giant golem over. I gritted my teeth—limbs pulsating—and leapt on top the creature. I proceeded to madly stab and stab and stab and stab into its white, polished skin.

In the meantime, Raven was getting up from being knocked down She winced and rubbed her shoulder.

Mumbo whistled.

She looked over.

The magician winked at her. Spun around, and whipped a string of scarves at her.

SWOOOSH!!!

Titanium alloy!

Raven's eyes twitched. She raised Robin's staff and blocked.

CLANK!!

"HA!!!" Mumbo spun the other way and flung his other arm.

SWOOOOOSH—CLANK!!

Raven blocked and jumped back.

Mumbo spun around like a ballerina and extended both hands.

SW-SWOOOSH!!

Raven gritted her teeth. She charged forward with the rod held horizontally. The two scarves struck the far ends of the weapon and wrapped around.

Raven jerked the object up to redirect the scarves and ran to perform a charging punch straight in Mumbo's chest.

She had practice……

"Some flowers, Miss?" Mumbo smiled as his face flew into her view. A rosebud magically appeared on his lapel. "A rose is a rose is IN YOUR FACE!!!"

The rosebud exploded forth blinding sparks like a roman candle.

Raven skidded to a stop and covered her eyes. "Ughhhh!"

Mumbo bowed, tipped his hat, and spun around---kicking Raven hard in the side.

"OOF!!"

She tumbled to the ground.

Mumbo glanced across the way. He saw me stabbing madly into his robot rabbit. He brought two fingers to his lips and whistled. "Let's move, Fluffy! And bring your lucky rabbit's foot!"

Fluffy twitched from underneath me. As if on cue, it stretched a leg up and slapped the entire length of my body with it.

THWAP!!!

I grunted and flew off into a buildingside hard. "!!!!!"

The rabbit stood up, gathered the canvass of gold, and hopped quickly towards the edge of the City.

STOMP!!! STOMP!!!! STOMP!!!

"We'll worry about the other banks later!!" Mumbo chanted as he ran up the robot's side and stood between its ears. "For the Titans are dimwitted as of today! And

I still have plenty of things up my sleeves!! He he he he he!!"

Starfire pulled herself to her feet, rubbed her head, and glared at the escaping villain. "NO!!! We almost had you!!" She flew to the center of the street, charged up starbolts, and unleashed them in wave after wave after wave of streaking fury.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

But it was far too late. Mumbo and his mechanical bunny were hopping off towards the horizon. His goofy laughter flew through the air, littered off the rooftops, and dangled into the streets with the gradually setting sun. The gold was stolen. The battle—if it even was one—was lost.

Raven winced. She dropped the rod and rubbed her shoulder. She slowly twirled around and looked everyone and everything. A plume of fire and smoke arose from the semi truck. Storefronts and cars had been smashed to bits. Starfire had bruises. Cyborg was nowhere to be found. And the other Titans were….were…..

She slowly looked over at me. She glared. "What…..has gotten into you??"

I fumed.

I clenched my fist around Myrkblade's hilt.

Why won't you just………shut…up……?!

She marched up to me. Slowly at first. Then with an increasing tempo of rage. "Do you have any idea….any clue…how many codes of heroism you nearly broke by not only trying to kill Mumbo…but trying to STAB ME THROUGH THE FACE?!?!?"

Shut the freakin' HELL UP, BITCH!!!!!!!

I silently screamed, raised Myrkblade, and blindly let it rain down.

FWOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Pavement flew up like snow. Glass windows shattered in a straight line down the road. Cars rose up and fell, alarms going off left and right.

Starfire spun and glared at me, her fists clenched. Beast Boy blinked behind his spectacles. Robin jumped and sobbed his head off, clutching his face and hiding his eyemask.

Sandy hugged a telephone pole for balance and stared at me…unbelieving.

I panted.

I would have stared at myself too….

My arms couldn't stop shaking.

I wanted……wanted……

I panted and looked at Raven's shocked form. My Titan companions….all in pieces.

Extinguish……

I took a deep, shuddering breath.

Extinguish………everyone……

"Noir…..take it easy," Raven said. It was the softest sound in the world.

And yet…it was enough to send everything inside of me pulsing and heaving and sweating again.

Your head…IN THE AIR!!!!

I struggled. My right hand tugged to slash her head off. But my left hand held the hilt of Myrkblade down and to my side.

Raven eyed my shaking muscles.

I had to get out of there……

I panted. I shook.

Had to get……her out of my sight……

I spun around and limped down the road towards the distant direction of the Tower.

"Hey!!" Starfire growled. "Where do you think you are going, you unruly miscreant?! Raven was talking to you—"

Sandy grabbed Starfire's ankle and lowered her to the pavement. She faced the Tamaranian girl and shook her head.

Starfire frowned at the volunteer, shook her shoulder free of her grasp, and crossed her arms. "Hrmmphh!"

Raven swallowed. She watched as I sauntered off like a zombie.

Sandy and Starfire walked up.

"That….is not normal Noir," Sandy said.

Raven spun and glared at her. "What do you know? You know nothing!!" she marched an angry path towards the R-Cycle.

Sandy played 'catch up'. "No! Listen!! Everything is wrong here!! You! Noir! The Titans!! Heck, the only normal person at this fight today was Mumbo Jumbo himself!!"

"And I suppose you're all peachy keen yourself too!!" Raven spat.

"That's not the issue here!!" Sandy said. "Raven, listen to me!!" She forced Raven's shoulder around till they were eye to eye. "Listen. To. Me!"

Raven sighed.

"Titans don't turn into violent punks overnight! It just doesn't happen!" Sandy said.

"I could care less," Starfire mumbled. "He almost hurt Raven. The traitor!"

Sandy glared at the Tamaranian before continuing to lecture Raven: "Maybe I don't know much. But I'm a good observer. You can ask Noir himself."

"He's kind of in a bad mood right now," Raven bluntly droned.

"I had a talk with Robin last night," Sandy said. "At the carnival. He told me all about you."

"Oh did he really?" Raven chuckled sarcastically.

"I'm sorry!!" Robin murmured.

"I wasn't TALKING TO YOU!!!"

Sandy stepped again in Raven's face. "Your life is a challenging one."

"Drop it…."

"You have to meditate to hold back on your emotions."

"I SAID DROP IT—"

"When was the last time you did that, Raven?!"

The dark girl stared at Sandy blankly. She looked down at the cracked pavement, sighing.

"You're changing, Raven," Sandy said. "Something happened overnight. As silly and as crazy as it seems, something's gone off in that mysterious little head of yours and somehow, someway, it must be related to what's going on with everyone else."

"Why me, Sandy?" Raven mumbled. She looked up—wounded—in the volunteer's face. "Why are you trying to get through to me?"

"Because," Sandy said with gentle firmness, "…as crazy as every one of you is acting right now, you're the sanest of the craziest. And I think that means something very special. And very helpful too."

Raven was silent. Contemplating.

"Now…..," Sandy went on slowly. "When did you remember……being freed?"

Raven looked back up at Sandy. Her lips parted. Her eyes wondered. She ever so softly said: "I……last night….I woke up last night and…." A pause. Her blue eyes squinted. "No……it was earlier….before sleep…..I was dizzy. The ride home. Walking down the stage—"

"I know what happened," Beast Boy said, examining his nails.

Everyone turned to face him.

"You what?!?" Starfire squinted.

CRASH!!

Everyone jumped—Robin most of all—as Cyborg walked onto the scene through an overturned car. "Wooo!! That was fun!!" he brushed the dust and rubble off his shoulders. "Nothing like peeling oneself off a brick wall to realize how silly life is!! He he he he!! What'd I miss?!"

"Not now," Raven glared.

"You have an answer and yet you are holding back!" Starfire shook a fist and stomped a pace forward. "Out with it!!"

"Verily, verily, I say unto you," Beast Boy adjusted his spectacles and squinted with scholarly contempt. "The solution lies within the boundaries of the carnival itself."

"It does?" Sandy remarked.

"Should we go there or s-something?" Robin murmured.

"Pfft!" Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Silly plebian! There's a factor of time involved as well!!"

"Sorry….," Robin whimpered.

Raven stepped forward. "WHEN?"

"I suggest a timely return to our heroic abode," Beast Boy yawned. "The tools I need to explicate the complex situation there would be most applicable there."

"Lemme guess," Sandy folded her arms. "A hammock and a glass of lemonade?"

"Negative," Beast Boy shook his head and then gestured. "Cyborg's skull!!"

Sandy and Raven raised eyebrows of perplexity. The two girls and Starfire turned to look at the android.

Cyborg grinned. "Heeeeeeey!! I'm the life of the party!! Well, alright!! So!! Who's down for some Twister?!?! Hehehehehehe!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLAM!!!!

The door behind me shut.

I stood in my bedroom.

Heaving.

Panting.

Fuming.

My fists clenched.

I cracked my neck.

I walked over to my mantle, took a deep breath, and set Myrkblade down in its holding.

…the weapon fell out of place.

I gritted my teeth. I rushed over to grab it. I tripped. I smacked into the mantle, banging my knee.

DAMN IT!!!

I snarled. I flung my arms up…flinging the mantle up into the air and all over the wall.

CRASH!!!

The noise snapped through my ears. Enraging me more.

I dashed to the opposite side of the bedroom like a madman, elbow first.

WHAM!!!

A lantern knocked over, shattered, spread glass and oil.

I jumped to the other side and swung my fist into a hanging mirror on the wall. SMASH!!!!

My knuckles were cut. Bleeding.

I wanted to howl.

I clutched my head.

I stumbled left….I stumbled right.

I ended up in the bathroom.

I fell to my knees…in front of the counter….over the sink.

My face strained.

My teeth grit.

I looked up at a distant face framed by two clutched hands. My eyes bulged as I saw four red spots leering over my reflection in the wide mirror.

I gasped and fell back against the wall.

Panting.

Sweating.

Chills ran up my spine, melted at my cranium, and boiled down like lava down my veins and back into my heart where they were pumped into plasma.

My body jolted.

I jumped up.

I was hyperventilating.

I dashed into the shower—costume and all—and frantically drenched myself in the coldest water possible. I yanked my shades off and let the water invade my black eyes. Wash away the bleeding face of Mumbo Jumbo. Raven's wide eyes as I held the blade to her nose.

I held the blade to her nose!!!

I hugged myself, shivered in the icy faucet spray, and leaned into the tiled corner.

I tried to kill………I tried to kill……

I wanted to sob. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to explode. Implode. Melt and fly at the same time.

I shivered.

My lips quivered as ice water trailed down my cheeks and nose and mouth.

Black eyes bulging against the moisture.

Four red spots……

Something deep inside me whimpered. For a second, I thought I almost made a sound. And that sound sounded like a laugh. An evil laugh full of pulsing blood and four red spots and the flapping of naked black wings like salamander eyes stretched across buffalo muscle and pierced by a rusted dagger.

I knelt down in the cold shower. It no longer felt cold. I clutched every shivering part of myself I could get a hand full.

Was I going mad? Was I…Was I…

I bit onto my finger. Hard. It hurt. My eyes clenched shut.

Oh Master……Master……I can't control it……I can't feel the dividing line anymore…………

Flapping wings.

The cries of crows.

No, not crows.

Not crows at all.

Feathers littered the floor. Feathers and sauce. Myrkblade's handle forming lines in my palm. Someone screaming my name and being carted off.

My throat hurt.

I clutched a hand over the scar. It felt like something was moving underneath.

I gasped.

I teared.

The ice water flowed into my ducts and laughed their way back out.

Master………please help……

I can't………see myself……anymore…

I shivered. I gasped.

My black eyes twitched. Looking. Not finding.

Not finding.

I……I…

Four red spots.

My heart skipped a beat.

I……can no longer see her face……

A bell sounded off in the distance of the spiritual abyss.

"Hello, Jordan."

I gasped.

I shot up—drizzling—in the shower and spun around.

I was alone. In my damn dark room in the bottom of the damn Tower in the damn cellar.

Every fiber in me was collapsing.

I had to get out……

Minutes later, I dried up, threw on a t-shirt and jeans, and dashed out of the Tower for what I hoped would be a leisurely, relaxing walk through town like I always enjoyed.

The moon stalked me like a wolf into the night.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So if we attach these audio-video fiber optics to the neural pathways in Cyrborg's central system of operation, then we should be able to produce on the output devices a rough representation of his visual recording over the last forty-eight hours," Beast Boy explained.

Cyborg was propped up in a chair in the Main Room while the green changeling hooked him up to a dozen wires attached to the large monitor screen.

"Hehehehehe!!" Cyborg smiled. "Better skip last night, B.B.! I had some naughty dreams!!"

Beast Boy sighed during his electric administrations. "Silence, my dear friend, we will not be visiting your cybernetic romps through hormonal planes of existence."

"Awwwww….you spoil the fun!"

"There we go!!" Beast Boy beamed. The monitor flashed a bright white.

"There we go where?" Raven exclaimed, arms folded. "I don't see anything!!"

"Cyborg, do be a good fellow and rewind some," Beast Boy mumbled.

"With pleasure!! Hehehehe!!" Cyborg's human eye thinned.

The flash imploded into a tiny dot of white in the center of Cyborg's 'vision'.

"Hey!! The carnival!!" Sandy pointed.

"When we were getting our picture taken on the stage," Beast Boy nodded. "Keep rewinding."

"Yup yup yup!!" Cyborg beamed. Images from Cyborg's perspective danced backwards in Charlie Chaplin mode.

"Um….," Starfire remarked, "I think he is going back too far."

"You can stop now, Cy," Beast Boy said.

"Heeeeee!"

"Okay, Cy! STOP!!"

The scene was going backwards further. Ms. Cartwright's face loomed as she placed a medal around the android's neck.

"HEY!! IMBECILE!!" Starfire grunted.

"Whoops!!" Cyborg 'stopped'.

The recording froze on a blink of Cyborg's past eye. Fascinatingly, it was zeroed in on Mrs. Cartwright's cleavage.

Sandy lifted an eyebrow.

"Ahem….," Cyborg's human side blushed. "Moving on then. Hehehe!!"

Robin blushed. "That was……wrong."

"Doo doo doo."

"Did you a-apologize to her??"

"Shh!!" Beast Boy leaned forward. "There! Stop, Cyborg!"

The recording stopped.

"What is it?" Raven asked.

Beast Boy adjusted his shades and produced a laser pointer. He walked like General Patton in front of the huge monitor and pointed to shadows in the distance of the carnival as spotted from the stage. "Notice at the very edge of the congregation of aristocrats. There is a rather…thin shadow. Holding something."

Sandy squinted. "Yeah…."

"Cyborg…progress two point thirty-five seconds."

"Rogerooni!!"

The recording progressed a bit and the shadow in question emerged.

"The photographer….," Raven mumbled.

"Not often that you find beatniks wandering the wasteland of our postindustrial empire, now is it?" Beast Boy muttered with raised eyebrows. He spun around and pointed with the laser. "Notice the tufts of hair coming out of his cap. The prominent nose. The hidden eyes."

"Yeah…..," Starfire's eyes trailed. "Get to the point!!"

"Tsk tsk," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "You have such a deflated sense of imperative dynamics. Very well. Cyborg…ahead by five seconds."

"You're on candid camera!!"

"Oh hush with your levity and follow through with my commandment!"

Five seconds later….

"I'll be damned…," Sandy mumbled.

"It is him….it has to be," Raven frowned.

"Remove the stereotypical costume and cosmetic apparition of a retro hipster and you have---"

The figure in Cyborg's recording flashed the old fashioned camera.

POOF!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"MUMBOOOOO JUMBOOOOO!!!!"

The magician laughed maniacally as he hung a perfect photo of the six Titans on the center tent pole of his canvass abode. He jumped back in a chair, bike-pedaled his feet in the air—giggling—and jumped back up to his feet.

"Gone!! Wasted!! Carted off!! Lunatics!! Every rotten lot of them!!" he danced his way towards a huge tarp-covered lump of titanium and rabbit edification hidden inside the bulk of the tent. "It was the perfect plan, Fluffy!! Why didn't I contrive it earlier?! Oh right. JAIL TIME!!"

He poofed! over to a fresh stack of gold bricks. He picked one up and petted a loving hand over the reflective, yellow surface.

"Well…I'll now have enough to bail myself out of every prison between here and purgatory! CUZ I'M SURE GONNA LIVE A WARLOCK'S LIFE!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!"

He kissed the gold brick, danced with it, and flopped himself down on the cot. Giggling loudly.

Alone in his tent.

In the abandoned carnival.

On the Vreeland lawn.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Freeze the frame here!" Beast Boy pointed with the laser.

Cyborg did so in mid 'poof!' of Mumbo Jumbo's beatnik camera shoot.

The changeling palmed his laser pointer and faced the others. "This is no normal flash." He pointed at the layers of discoloration in the brightness itself. "The spectrum has been altered in such a fashion as to emit programmed streams of optical data."

"Meaning…..," Starfire trailed off her tongue.

"A brainwashing device of sorts," Beast Boy said. "I am unsure as to exact effects of it. But I think it is somehow correlated to…..erm….these 'problems' Miss Sandy keeps saying are real."

Half the room glared at the volunteer.

Sandy glared back. "Hey…I can see at least ONE problem right now!"

Raven intervened. "What could optical streams of data do to us?" she asked. "Hypothetically, Beast Boy…."

The changeling grinned. "So desperate on me to acquire necessary information?"

Raven frowned. "Do you want a black eye, Beast Boy?"

"Yeah!!" Starfire shook her fist. "Want a black of the eye?!"

"Fine, allright," Beast Boy moaned. "In theory, this optical flash could be used to—quite literally—reprogram the transmissions of our central nervous system through our optic nerves. Any chosen functions of the body could be cancelled out, mutated, or even absorbed."

"Absorbed?"

"In the form of data….like a key that the host—or photographer—would keep at leisure," the changeling adjusted his spectacles.

"But what would Mumbo Jumbo want from you?" Sandy asked.

Raven clenched her fists. "Our powers."

"Then how come it did not work?!" Starfire gritted her teeth. "Grrrr….that Mumbo Jumbo fool! He seemed most surprised at my ability to fly when I first confronted him!!"

"H-He was surprised for only a l-little while…," Robin added form his frightened corner. He sniffed. "B-But then he s-saw us and wasn't afraid anymore…"

"I think he wanted to steal all of your powers…," Sandy said. "Ya know…like sucking out life juice or something."

"But somehow it didn't work??" Cyborg remarked. "Hey!! I'm part of the discussion!!! Hehehehehehe!!"

"Instead….we're all acting so….so strange…," Raven said. She froze. She looked up with a start. "I don't have my powers!! If that's what Mumbo Jumbo was after, it worked on me but not you guys!!"

"Hmmmm," Beast Boy rubbed his chin. He stared at the screen. "Cyborg…rewind a bit."

"This is fun!! Heeee!"

"Freeze."

"Done!"

Beast Boy pointed with the laser. "Raven is in front of the photo shoot."

"In front of everyone…," Starfire nodded.

Sandy glanced at the dark girl. "Y-You think that's important?"

Raven stared at the screen. She looked at her teammates. She saw Beast Boy standing tall and dignified with his glasses. He saw Starfire with her hands on her hips, glaring. She saw Cyborg wired up, a dumb grin on his face. Finally she saw Robin hunched over in the corner, pensively hiding behind his cape.

"R-Raven?" Sandy breathed.

The dark girl spun around and headed for the elevators. "I have to go do something. Now."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Night howled overhead.

Cars and bodies streamed by.

Puddles and asphalt.

Chuckles and cigarette coughs.

Bayside lights and police sirens.

I stared at my feet.

I dug my hands into my pockets.

Neon lights danced across my shades.

I was not going at a leisurely pace.

I was not having a leisurely time.

My breath was short.

My feet hurried.

My pace stumbling.

I gasped, swallowed, and rushed on.

Sweating.

Panting.

I glanced up.

People were blurring by.

The world was blurring by.

For once, everything around me was blurring and speeding and I was a stone at the bottom of some damn river and I couldn't swim to the surface.

What is happening to me?!

Visions of Raven's bulging eyes.

Shattered pavement and glass.

What have I done?!

I clutched my head. My walk turned into a run. I scurried through the crowd, bumping into a cursing person or two.

I shouldn't be here.

I shouldn't be here.

Oh god……

I panted.

Four red spots.

Black wings.

"Heh heh heh…"

I gasped and shot up against a wall.

I was in an alleyway.

Puddles of water and liquor bottles clattered against y ankles.

Moonlight squeezed its way down and licked my nose like a dog on strings.

Extinguish……

My heart raced.

……everyone………

My teeth chattered.

……all stupid morons……

I hugged myself.

I shivered.

I melted.

"Hello, Jordan."

I gasped.

I jerked around.

I was alone in the alleyway.

But I wasn't alone.

I was……

"There is no ussssssse running away……"

I stumbled down the alleyway. I bumped into the wall. I coughed uncontrollably. I hunched over.

"I am sssssso lucky that I came to youuuuuu."

I clutched at my chest. I winced. Pain. Intense pain.

"I was rather surrrrrrrprised when it happppppppened myself…."

I limped down the alley. Gasping for breath. Miserably moist and melting all over inside.

"It's likkkkke the wet snapppp of a mother's corddddd. Or the gusssssh of blood down a throattttt and out through the gash of a daggggggger."

I froze. I heaved.

"To be honest….it was a ssssssspiritual orgasm of its owwwwn. Heh heh heh heh!!!"

My lips quivered. My black eyes glossed over. I gripped my shades, flung them away, and cupped a hand over my face.

"You holdddddd so much powerrrrrr. Senseless Destructionnnnnn is what I like the most…."
My body jerked up and I gasped. I felt like a set of claws was fondling my pumping heart from inside of me.

"And Constructionnnnn…..hisssssssss…..haddddd to do awayyyyyyy with thattttt waste of energyyyyyy!!"

I twitched. The claws swam their way up my throat and tingled the emptiness there. I felt like hacking up my lungs.

"Poor…..poor boyyyyyy…..you don'ttttt even have a voiccccce to talkkkkk back. Heheheheheheh….I am sooooo going to likkkkkkkke you much more than herrrrrrr."

SCHUMP!!!

Claws in my brain.

I clutched my face and leaned over.

My black eyes clenched shut as I let out a silent howl.

"But herrrrrrrre. Herrrrrrrrre is where the meattttttt is…….."

Black wings.

Raven wings.

Red specks and black feathers.

Tossed on the floor.

I twitched. I cringed. I sweated blood.

Feathers.

Bodies.

Circling around me.

"Yessssssss……"

Red sauce.

Red skin.

Myrkblade.

Fingering the hilt.

"Yesssssssss!!!!"

I shook my head. My eyes exploded.

I was staring into a sheet of broken glass on the alleyway floor. My black eyes formed four red specks like ruby irises floating in the nether.

My jaw dropped.

"I know……I know where your hatred lies……"

The red specks spread.

These black eyes were gone.

"Allow me to consume you, WORM!!"

The black wings flew into me.

Cawing.

Falling over and bleeding off my sword.

A girl's face sobbed and exploded in red ribbons that carried the blonde hair and blue eyes across the sea just as I ran into a pearly white grin with fangs.

"Azarath Metrion TRIGON!!!!"

Red.

Red.

Everything was red.

The invisible spikes that shot out of my body were red.

The needles that shot into my stomach and produced ink were red.

The ice that clogged the sensitive spot between my brain stem and my spinal cord was red.

My eyes were red as I tilted towards the cowering slit of moonlight at the top of the alleyway and put all of my energy into the release of one torturous scream.

Imagine….

Imagine my horror when I actually heard myself releasing that scream into the night.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven descended into her Mindset.

She landed softly on the ground. Her eyes opened. Her lips parted.

Emptiness. Even the cosmos were gone.

The gray and black world had been washed like a clean slate.

None of her emotions……none of her personalities were anywhere to be seen.

"Hello???" she called out.

Echoes.

Wind.

Silence.

The trees were barren.

The soil swept away towards the horizon.

Towards oblivion.

"Is anybody there?!?!?!"

More echoes.

More emptiness.

Raven stumbled forwards. Her feet shuffled against the cold ground. She glanced ahead. "Please!! Respond! Is anyone—" she gasped.

The canyon……

Her lip quivered. She ran in a full sprint, panting.

She blazed through the canyon, winded in and around rock crags, and came to the stop with a skid.

She struggled for breath. Her face fell.

The torches were out.

The ground had been open.

And Rage's cage……Rage's wrought iron cage……

Raven stumbled forward and leaned tremblingly on it.

The hinges were blasted open. The gargoyles shattered.

The prisoner had been released.

And Him………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In her room, Raven meditated at the end of her bed.

Her eyes flashed open.

She gasped.

"No……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHLUMP!!!

Sandy and the four awkward Titans looked over across the Main Room.

Sweating, pale as a sheet, Raven stumbled in. "This is bad. This is bad….bad…..bad…bad…very bad!!"

"What is it?!" Sandy stumbled over and held Raven's hands. "How bad is it?!"

"My mind…," Raven swallowed. "All of my emotions. All of my personas. They are gone."

"Gone?!"

Raven looked at all of her perplexed teammates. "And I think I know where they went."

"The camera…."

"I was in front of everyone when the flash went off," Raven said. "My powers are closely linked to my emotional personas. I took the brunt of Mumbo's device. Because my mind is so complex and poly-functional…."

"Only your power was taken away…," Sandy filled in.

Raven nodded. "And the rest of the Titans were spared. Only, my personalities had to be displaced. They all went inside them!!"

Sandy stared at Raven's face intensely. "There's something else, isn't there? Something bad?"

Raven took a deep breath and shuddered. "Something horrible….utterly, utterly horrible."

"What is it? We need to know!!"

"It's Rage….," Raven trembled. "Th-That emotion….it is closely linked to a…..a terrible, terrible demon."

Sandy's eyes rounded. "A demon?"

"My father….," Raven quietly admitted.

Sandy nodded. She spun around and glanced at the Titans. "How….h-how do we know which one got Rage?"

SMASH!!!!!!!!

Everyone jumped and shrieked.

My body leapt dramatically into the center of the Main Room. Shards of glass from the windows flew with me like water off a crimson dolphin. I landed in a squat, my limbs speckled with cuts and bruises.

"N-Noir???" Raven gasped.

I slowly rose like a package of meat on strings. When my face elevated, my solid black eyes were dotted with red fury. I grinned a serrated set of teeth and moved my lips as a sickening, foreign voice came out from my scarred throat.

"Hello, little girrrrrrrrrrl……"

Raven's eyes widened.

I stood up, summoned red murk, and flexed my bleeding arms.

"Daddy's gotttttt a new toyyyyyyy!"