Hey there people! I hope you're all prepared for more titanic awesomeness, because thanks to a polite request from veteran TT fanfiction author, TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne, I have now posted yet another chapter ^_^. In this awesome new chapter, the relaxing and peaceful night of our fab five teenage heroes is rudely transformed into a literal living nightmare from Hell when they're rudely awakened by five unexpected and very much unwelcome guests. Here's to hoping that you read, review, and enjoy!
A/N: Just to clear the air, I do not own Teen Titans. Also, in regard to elements contained within a dream that one of the titans is having before being rudely awakened, I do not own any elements from Disney's The Lion King either. Finally, any elements that some readers might potentially recognize from the hit TV series Supernatural are indeed borrowed more or less from that show and loosely adapted for this story (and in that regard, I apologize in advance if any inadvertent religious offense is caused by certain elements within this chapter). And now, without further ado, onward with the fic!
Chapter 4:
Uninvited Guests
Robin was fast asleep in his room. He was sleeping quite soundly, which was not something that often happened to him due to how rarely he experienced nights in which he didn't have lingering worries, thoughts, or doubts on his mind that ended up somehow making their way into his subconscious while he was sleeping. Fortunately, this night was one of those rare nights in which he could truly sleep peacefully. And boy was he happy about it.
However, despite his current sound state of sleep, he was still more or less a light sleeper in nature. His nature of being a light sleeper was a lingering effect of his time under the tutelage of Batman. And as it would later turn out that night, it would prove very valuable indeed, for at the unexpected sound of the door to his room opening, Robin's eyes came wide open, and he quickly glanced towards the door from out of the corner of his masked eyes.
He looked towards the door in this manner just in time to see an ominous looking shape standing in the shadows directly outside his room. Robin made sure to remain perfectly still, careful not to make any noise or give any other hint that he was awake. For now, one of his biggest advantages was how, due to the obscure area of the room in which his bed was positioned combined with a small series of book shelves and other furniture as well as assorted newspaper clippings on the walls and clutter on the floor, his bed could not be seen just from looking inside the bedroom from the doorway. The other, as Robin currently suspected, was that this mysterious visitor, whatever it was, very likely didn't yet know that Robin was awake.
Seconds later, he quickly looked straight back towards the wall directly in front of his face and made a big show of pretending to snore. As he did this, he heard an ominous hollow snarling noise coming from outside his room, followed by the sound of footsteps coming inside. As Robin continued to maintain his current position in his bed and pretend that he was still asleep, he heard the sound of the footsteps coming gradually closer towards the area where he and his bed were located. The low snarling also continued at random intervals. Already, Robin had a feeling that whatever was currently inside his room uninvited was either an animal, or at least some sort of non-human.
Carefully noting this information in his mind, he continued to remain where he was, listening to the sound of the footsteps and snarling as whatever this mysterious intruder was got progressively closer and closer to him. When the footsteps started sounding particularly loud as if they were in very close proximity to where he was and the snarling took on a tone that seemed slightly happy, Robin deduced that the intruder was now not too far away from him.
What seemed to be exactly one minute later, Robin soon sensed in what could only truly be purely animal instinct that the mysterious intruder was now just a few steps away from being right next to his bed and in position to strike if it planned to attack. This same instinctive feeling he now had also got him to realize that the intruder would likely be at the opportune position to strike at him in his apparent sleep in just five more steps.
Careful not to show any sign to the intruder that he was awake and aware of its presence, Robin carefully grabbed onto the handle of one of his nunchucks. Just like his nature of being a light sleeper, he had been carefully conditioned to always keep a weapon at hand while sleeping, and he found himself once again silently giving a grudging thanks to Batman for teaching him this valuable lesson, for ever since leaving Gotham City, he'd always worn his utility belt in his sleep as well as everywhere else he went. And at the same time he grabbed onto his weapon, Robin carefully tensed himself slightly so that he'd be ready to lunge at the intruder when the time was right.
Robin heard the mysterious intruder let out one last snarl, and then he heard it make the last few footsteps necessary for it to reach the opportune position of attack. The instant Robin heard the sound of the 5th footstep, he abruptly leaped from his bed straight towards the intruder with his nunchuck raised, letting out a piercing yell.
Robin just had time to clearly see a pair of astonishingly blue eyes widen in surprise before he slammed his nunchuck across the mysterious being's face and sent it stumbling backwards away from him and his bed. Mere seconds after Robin's feet touched the floor, he threw a smoke pellet at it. The smoke pellet landed on the floor right in front of it and exploded into a massive cloud of dark gray smoke, obscuring it from view, and him from its view.
As Robin heard the mysterious intruder he'd just now momentarily subdued coughing and snarling within the smoky cloud, the boy wonder quickly ran out of his room. The instant Robin left his room, he hurriedly ran down the corridor in the direction that would lead towards the common room, and coincidentally to the two sub-floors beneath him where Starfire and Cyborg's rooms were located. Upon remembering this detail, Robin hurriedly increased his pace. Even as he eventually heard the sound of what appeared to be a furious roar coming from within his room, he still had one single very important thought on his mind, "I've gotta warn the others." And indeed he was very certain that he needed to call them up and warn them, for he had a feeling that he wasn't the only one to have received an unwelcome guest in his bedroom.
. . . . .
Cyborg wasn't entirely certain just how long he'd been in sleep mode before he suddenly heard a strange voice none too different from the kind he'd often heard coming from computers and other relatively high-intelligence machines state in a rather urgent tone, "Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Emergency activation initiated."
Seconds later, Cyborg's eyes abruptly opened just in time for him to see a large black figure with equally pitch black eyes standing right at the foot of his bed with what appeared to be clawed hands raised up to strike at him. At the sight of this, Cyborg screamed in fright. The intruder also appeared to have been surprised by Cyborg's unexpectedly waking up, because it also let out an inhuman shriek of shock and stumbled backwards.
Barely giving himself any time to recover from his shock, Cyborg quickly activated his sonic cannon, pointed it at the intruder, and fired at it. The blue blast of sonic energy crashed into the being's chest and sent it crashing into the wall directly across from the foot of Cyborg's bed.
No sooner had the mysterious intruder slumped down slightly upon impact with the wall, when Cyborg jumped out of his bed and ran out of his room, quickly making his way towards the common room while at the same time working to activate the video-phone communicator built into his right arm. "I've got to warn the others," Cyborg thought. "I have a feeling that whatever that thing was brought friends along."
. . . . .
Raven wasn't entirely certain how she managed to sense the intruder inside her room walking up towards her bed, much less how it had ended up happening while she was asleep. Perhaps maybe it was just her naturally being wary of others entering her room without her permission. Maybe it was a result of her past experiences of times in which she'd gotten terrified in her own room. Or maybe it was some sort of demonic danger sensing ability she had as a result of her demonic heritage. But whatever it was, she was glad she had it, because she had a very bad feeling, practically instinctive, that whatever was now inside her room heading towards her was not Beast Boy or any of the other titans attempting to play a joke on her, much less someone friendly.
After what seemed like an eternity to Raven, she sensed that the being was now just a few footsteps or so from her bed, and she quietly whispered, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," before abruptly sitting up in her bed and firing a blast of shadowy energy at the intruder.
The intruder's blinding yellow eyes widened in shock, and it let out a surprised howl at the unexpected sight of Raven sitting up in her bed awake in combination with getting hit by her umbrakinetic blast. The impact of the blast sent it flying backward before it landed directly outside her room. Unfortunately, it landed on its feet, and looked straight at her before growling, and lifting its clawed hands so that its fingers pointed at Raven. At the sight of the electricity that soon started crackling on the mysterious being's clawed fingers, Raven quickly yelled out her mantra again, and sank into a vortex of shadows that opened up directly underneath her and closed the instant she'd completely entered it seconds before the maelstrom of lightning bolts that leaped out from the intruders clawed fingertips struck the bed right where she'd been sitting.
And even as Raven hurtled through the shadowy emptiness she now found herself in as she hurriedly attempted to somehow manage to exit from it into the common room, she thought to herself, "The others, I have to find them. If that thing was what I think it was, it didn't come alone."
. . . . .
Beast Boy had been in the middle of a pleasant dream in which he was racing alongside the adult versions of Simba and Nala in his lion form when he suddenly heard a deep bestial voice from behind him growl, "Wake up."
Stunned, Beast Boy positioned himself so that he came skidding to a stop. The dream versions of Simba and Nala continued running far ahead of him, and he turned his head to look behind him. His lion eyes widened in shock at the unexpected sight before him. Standing right there about a foot or so behind him, was the Beast; the very same primal monster that he had first ended up being capable of turning into after the first time he and the other titans had battled against Adonis and now only used as a last resort, a case in point being when Trigon's army of demons had attacked the tower on the night Raven had been destined to become the portal that would allow Trigon to come to Earth in his demon form.
"What the?" Beast Boy yelled in what could have qualified as telepathy. "How did you . . . ? What are you doing in my dream!?"
"Wake up!" the Beast roared. "There is danger lurking inside your lair right this very moment while you sleep. Wake up and defend yourself!"
"Danger?" Beast Boy asked in shock. "In my room? What do you mean?"
The Beast growled in exasperation, and abruptly leaned forward so that its face was mere centimeters away from Beast Boy's own face and savagely roared, "I SAID WAKE UP!"
Beast Boy's eyes snapped open instantaneously after this, and he rocketed up into a seated position on his top bunk, shrieking in shock.
At the sound of an inhuman howl of shock coming from the area around where his bottom bunk was located, Beast Boy turned his head. His eyes widened as he saw that the Beast hadn't been kidding when it had told him that there was danger right there in his room. Standing not too far away now from his bunk bed was an unfamiliar and threatening looking figure. The darkness within the room combined with Beast Boy having still not yet quite gotten his full bearings back yet made it hard for him to make out just what the being looked like, but he could definitely clearly see a pair of blazing red eyes widened in shock at the sight of him awake.
Before Beast Boy could have a chance to make note of any other distinguishing features, the eyes soon narrowed, and he heard the intruder snarl before he saw it draw its right arm back as if about to throw something, and then thrusted it forward, sending a large ball of fire flying from its hand.
Beast Boy quickly turned into a hummingbird and flew out of the way just in time to avoid getting roasted alive by the flaming projectile, which crashed right onto the top of the wall his bunk bed was positioned directly next to. Beast Boy quickly hovered down towards the being, and then turned into a bighorn sheep right as he was about a few inches away from it.
With a gravelly bleating noise, he slammed into the intruder, horns first and sent it crashing onto its back. No sooner had he knocked the mysterious unwelcome guest onto its back when he proceeded to bound out of his room, still in bighorn sheep form. He skidded to a halt in a way that allowed him to turn to face the direction that he could run down to get to the common room, and then hurriedly bounded down the corridor, turning into a cheetah after reaching the end of the immediate corridor and letting out a snarl of exertion before running off to the right to run down the path leading down to where Raven's room was located, and from there past the restroom sub-floor and all the way to the common room.
"I've gotta find the others," he thought to himself in his cheetah form. "I have to find them! I have to warn them about that crazy intruder!" Then another thought popped up in his head as he ended up having to abruptly skid across the floor on his side to slide under a large slew of horizontal lightning bolts coming out of the entrance to Raven's room as he was running down the corridor that particular room was located on. "Oh great! It has friends! Oh God, I hope Raven's ok."
. . . . .
Starfire slept very soundly and peacefully with a smile on her face for almost an entire hour before she abruptly heard a piercing "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Starfire bolted up in her bed awake, letting out a shriek that would have given even a banshee nightmares. She barely had time to even begin processing what had just happened or calming her now very quick breathing or rapidly pounding heart before she heard a surprised inhuman growl coming from directly to her left.
She flicked her head in the direction she'd heard the growl coming from just in time to see a scaly green bipedal figure awkwardly stumbling backward on its right leg, its equally verdant green eyes widened in shock, and its left draconic foot lifted up in the air as if it had just recently lifted it back up after accidentally stepping on something.
Right as Starfire noticed that particular detail, she briefly directed a slight glance down towards the floor between her and the intruder in time to see Silkie's tail disappear underneath her bed. Silkie had been sleeping right on the floor next to her bed from that side, and it now appeared to Starfire that the intruder had accidentally stepped on him while making its way towards Starfire, causing him to wake up and unleash the ungodly screaming noise that had now woken her up.
All this happened in about ten seconds before she abruptly remembered the intruder, and let out a belated scream of fright before hurriedly blasting a star bolt at it. The bright green energy blast hit the intruder in the chest with a bang, sending it slamming hard into the wall directly across from the door to her room. Breathing rapidly, she took to the air and flew out of her room.
No sooner had she left her room and started rapidly looking to her left and right as if trying to decide where to go when she heard Robin's voice to her right yell, "Starfire!"
She looked to her right just in time to see Robin running straight towards her and then jump in the air towards her just in time to avoid a forceful jet of water that abruptly came from around the corner of a wall that separated her room from the upwards ramp corridor leading up to where his own room was located and blasted the floor right where he'd been before jumping.
Starfire almost reflexively extended her hands, and Robin grabbed onto them. Having thus taken their favored position when flying together, Starfire hurriedly flew down the opposite direction leading to the ramp corridor heading downwards to where Cyborg's room was located and from there to a nearby side entrance to the common room with Robin tightly clutching her hands. Almost immediately after the flying couple rounded the corner that bordered with the downwards ramp corridor leading down to the sub-floor division where Cyborg's room was located, jets of water and massive clouds of what looked like vivid green poisonous gas came pouring from the hallway they'd just left and pounded into the wall.
As Starfire continued to hurriedly fly through the corridors while carrying Robin, she fearfully asked, "Robin, what's going on? What are these nasty things in our home?"
"I don't know," Robin responded, "but whatever they are, we need to find the others and warn them, because judging from how both of us have ended getting visited by one of those things, the others probably had their own unwelcome guests in their rooms as well . . . look out!"
Starfire looked in front of her, and shrieked as she saw a massive ball of shadowy energy hurtling straight towards her. She swooped downward and the sphere of shadows crashed harmlessly into the ceiling. Terrified, she let her eye beams fly out towards the area in front of her. By sheer luck, the lasers she'd just fired from her eyes blasted the dark black figure that had tossed the shadow ball at her right in the chest, sending it flying backward and crashing right into the wall at the opposite end of the hallway where Cyborg's room was located.
The intruder Starfire blasted happened to zoom near enough in proximity to the common room doors within that hallway while careening backwards for the doors in question to open up and reveal that the lights were now on in that room. Robin pointed at the doors and yelled, "Quick, let's get inside the common room! I think the others might be there!"
Starfire didn't need to be told twice, and she soared straight through the doors and into the common room. Seconds after that, Starfire let go of Robin and he landed on his feet while turning the impact into a series of somersaults before Starfire herself flew up slightly higher so that she was hovering a few inches or so above Robin and the other three titans, who she could now see standing nearby the back of the sofa in what appeared to be battle-ready positions.
At the sight of Robin and Starfire now inside the room alongside him, Beast Boy, and Raven, Cyborg said, "I'm guessing you've also now met the unexpected guests?"
"Yes," Robin responded.
"Well good thing you and Star are here with us now," said Raven.
"Yeah," said Beast Boy. "Whatever these things are, they're definitely here to attack us, and this room's as good of a place to make a stand against them as we are likely going to get at the moment."
Seconds later, the titans heard what sounded like crashing noises coming from the walls, and they looked upwards just in time to see the two air vent covers, one at the top central area of the left wall and the other at the top central area of the right wall, come popping off of their respective air vents and come crashing down on the floor. At the same time the air vent covers came popping off, five ominous looking jets of smoke came rocketing out from them. The two jets of smoke pouring out of the left air vent were yellow and red, and the three smoke jets billowing out of the right air vent were blue, green, and black.
Seconds after the tail ends of the smoke streams had exited the air vents, the five smoke jets swirled around in the air before abruptly taking a nosedive straight down towards the floor. The five smoke jets all came crashing down on the floor in random areas a couple feet in front of each of the five teenage heroes before then seeming to solidify and taking on a more corporeal shape, revealing themselves to in fact be the same five mysterious intruders that had come into the titans' bed rooms and attempted to strike at them in their sleep.
. . . . .
Now that the titans were both in a room with the lights on and had sufficient time, they were able to get a much better look at the five intruders. The five beings now standing before them that had only minutes ago attempted to very likely kill them in their sleep looked very much like wingless bipedal humanoid dragons. In fact, since their bodily shape, complete with the tails, fangs, claws, scaly skin, and other draconic features seemed almost exactly alike in each of the five intruders, the only ways that the titans could tell them apart were the blaringly obvious differences in the color of their scales and eyes, the shape of their tails, and the way their heads were adorned.
The intruder that had been in Robin's room and was now standing in front of the boy wonder had icy blue scales, sapphire blue eyes, a fish-like tail, and a pair of straight vertical needle shaped horns on its head. The creature that Cyborg had encountered and was now standing in front of him had midnight black scales, bull-like horns on its head, a small mane of jet black fur around its neck, a tuft of black fur at the tip of its tail, and a pair of pitch black eyes that were so dark that they looked as if they were pupil-less. The being that had dared enter Raven's room and was now standing in front of her had golden yellow scales, topaz yellow eyes, a pair of lightning bolt shaped horns on its head, and a spiked tail that closely resembled the kind typically found on a stegosaurus or similar spike-tailed dinosaur. The draconic home invader that Beast Boy had dealt with had blood red scales, ruby red eyes, a ring of horns around its neck in a style reminiscent of a lion's mane, and a long tail with an arrowhead shaped spike at the end. Finally, the monster that had invaded Starfire's room and was standing on the floor area in front of her had venomous green scales, emerald green eyes, a barbed tail that closely resembled that of a scorpion, a straight row of scythe-shaped spikes lined across the top of its head in a mohawk-like style, and a verdant green frill around its neck. And as Starfire and the other titans watched, the green scaled intruder extended its frill to full length and hissed maliciously at Starfire, revealing a long forked tongue.
Starfire gulped in fear at the sight of the intimidating display of aggression from the creature. "Robin?" she asked fearfully. "What are these things?"
"No idea," Robin admitted. "But whatever they are," he said as he proceeded to ram his right fist into his left palm in an almost anticipatory for battle gesture, "they're not going to get away with this little home invasion without going through us."
Seconds after Robin said this, he and the other titans were very surprised when the five humanoid dragon figures let sickening grins come on their faces. The green scaled one then started hissing again, but this time in a tone that sounded similar to laughter. "How foolish," it then said in a raspy voice that sounded very much like the way Beast Boy himself would have definitely expected a snake to sound like if snakes could talk. "That little bird thinks he stands a chance against us, I can't tell whether or not to feel respect for his bravery or laugh at his stupidity."
The blue scaled being then chuckled in agreement, and stated, "Indeed, and it certainly doesn't help how even after all he and his friends have gone through and encountered, they still don't even know what we are."
The red scaled monster let out a harsh laugh, and said, "You'd think that at least one of them would have known, especially the shadow girl considering how half her blood comes from one of our kin!"
At the sight of this, Raven cursed silently to herself in her mind. It seemed that her earlier suspicions had just now been proven true.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," said Beast Boy. He pointed at the red scaled being, and then stated, "Half her blood comes from one of your kin? I thought she was half demon?"
The yellow scaled creature laughed, and condescendingly hissed, "Oh indeed she is changeling."
"Hold on," said Robin as he proceeded to point at the five beings as well. "You're saying that you guys are demons?"
"At last," said the black scaled being in a tone that sounded prideful. "A modicum of intelligence."
"Oh come on!" shouted Cyborg. "You expect us to believe that?"
The five draconic figures directed stern glares at the half robot teenager. "And why would you not?" they asked in unison.
"Because we've fought real demons before," said Cyborg as he proceeded to point at the five intruders. "And you guys don't look like any demons I've ever seen!"
The five intruders raised their eyebrows in confusion. Then the black one proceeded to gaze very intently at Cyborg, its black eyes seeming to turn even darker if that was possible. Then its eyes turned back to its normal shade of still rather dark black, and it grinned before saying, "Oh that's right; you're referring to those fiery disgraces you battled when Trigon attempted to overthrow your entire universe."
Cyborg's human eye, and the eyes of the four completely biological based titans widened upon hearing this information. "How did you know about that?" Raven asked, though she had a feeling she knew.
The black scaled being chuckled, directed its gaze at Raven and said, "Your friend's mind may be partially inorganic, but it is not immune to mind reading, least of all the kind that me and my kin possess."
"You read my mind!?" Cyborg yelled.
"Oh yes I did, Victor Stone!"
At the sound of that name, Cyborg looked as if he'd just been punched in the gut. "My . . . my civilian name . . ."
"That's right!" yelled the black scaled being. "Even your biggest secrets cannot be hidden indefinitely from a demon who's willing to dig deep enough!" No sooner had he said this when he and his four compatriots started laughing maliciously again. The five titans looked each other in the eyes nervously. It seemed that the five intruders were very likely telling the truth about what they were.
"But enough of the mind reading business," said the black demon. "Back on your doubts, even after your experiences with Trigon and his army, surely you didn't think that those demons and all the demons from every other religion out there were one and the same, did you?"
At the sound of this, Robin and the other titans apart from Raven looked at each other awkwardly.
The five beings chuckled, and then the blue being said, "Well regardless, you may have been able to handle the denizens of the Azarathian form of Hell, but with us, you're now dealing with a completely different kind of threat!
"Yeah," yelled the red creature. "Move over those big shot wannabes you fought during Trigon's pathetic attempt at the apocalypse! You're now dealing with the demons of the Abrahamic faith, the fallen humanity that haunts the Jews, Christians, and Islamics, the followers of Lucifer himself!" Upon finishing this little bout of bragging, the red demon and its four compatriots laughed once more.
Robin glared at the five laughing demons. He was now beginning to get seriously angered by how they were now laughing at him and his friends once again. He pointed at them and growled, "Well you may be a kind of enemy we're not entirely familiar with, but we're still going to take you down and send you right back to Hell!"
The yellow demon chuckled, licked its lips hungrily, and then said, "Very brave words, but I'm afraid you are very much wrong. You and your pathetic friends may have been lucky enough to awaken in time to prevent us from mercifully killing you in your sleep, but you have only prolonged the inevitable. And by the end of this night, all five of you will be dead; and not only will it be slow and painful now, but it will also be done without us even needing to possess you and cause you to deal fatal injuries to yourself that will cause you to die within seconds after we abandon your bodies!"
The demons laughed again, and then leaned forward as one in apparent battle stance. "Attack," the blue demon hissed. In a flash, the five demons rushed towards the five teenage heroes with Hellish roars bursting from their throats.
"Titans go!" Robin yelled as he and the other titans leaped out of the way of the charging demons. The demons crashed into the sofa with such an impact that they went flying over the sofa and towards the windows in front of it. But before the demons could crash into the windows, which the titans had actually been expecting, the demons abruptly turned back into their smoke forms and rocketed back at them before coming to another crash landing in front of them and solidifying once again.
The demons growled, and pointed their hands at them, their claws now starting to tingle with their own respective elemental energies. "Split up!" Robin yelled, and the titans each leaped away in different directions in time to avoid the blasts of elemental energy the demons fired from their hands at them.
"Spread out!" the blue demon yelled after it and its brethren had finished their failed attempt at blasting the titans. The five demons promptly began pursuing their own apparent targets of choice.
Robin carefully noted this detail in his mind. "Looks like blue boy's the leader," he thought to himself before he jumped off of his perch on the super computer counter top to avoid the water jet the blue demon spouted at him from its hands. It seemed like only seconds passed after Robin landed from his jumping escape before he then had to somersault to his left to avoid a second spout of water, cartwheel backwards to his right to avoid getting skewered by a gigantic icicle that rose up from the floor in direct response to the demon slamming it's right fist on the floor, and then jump backwards again with a back flip to avoid a gust of icy wind that the demon caused to spin around the area directly surrounding it. "And he's certainly tough enough to be worthy of that position," he thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Cyborg found himself using his sonic cannon quite often as he continuously blasted the orbs and jets of shadow energy that the black demon threw at him again and again. And not only did Cyborg have to deal with the shadowy energy blasts that the demon summoned, but also from abrupt attacks that the demon pulled off in which it melted into the shadows and then abruptly seemed to materialize out of nowhere in a flash of shadows and attempt to strike at Cyborg.
"Good grief," Cyborg yelled as he ended up narrowly dodging a fifth such sneak attack from his shadowy assailant. "I am so glad that I'm on the same side as you Raven, because I now have a feeling that I now know exactly what it would be like to battle against you as an enemy!"
"Good to know," Raven growled as she remained where she currently was and put in as much effort as she could muster to keep the force field she currently had deployed around herself fully functional under the merciless barrage of lightning bolts that the yellow demon attacking her fired at her from its clawed fingertips.
She grunted from the exertion. While she certainly doubted that she would readily admit this to anyone who happened to comment on it now or later, she couldn't deny that against this particular type of demon, she was at a severe disadvantage. Due to her naturally shadow-oriented abilities, she had a natural weakness against light-based attacks. However, out of all the kinds of light-based attacks in existence, she was dangerously susceptible to electricity. Even the weakest electrical shock was enough to put her at risk of severe burns and draining of her energy.
And now, against this horrific electrokinetic demon, she found herself truly fighting one of her most potentially life-threatening battles ever. Not only were the beams of electricity it fired and bolts it summoned capable of ripping her shadowy energy blasts to shreds as if they were paper, but the ones that she was lucky enough to successfully strike it with didn't seem to cause any damage high enough to even wound it, much less kill it. In fact, whenever she was lucky to succeed in striking the thunder demon with one of her energy blasts, it only laughed, and sometimes even condescendingly asked her if she'd truly expected her blasts to hurt it. And her telekinetic skills didn't seem to do any better, for no matter what she tried to throw at it, the demon would almost contemptuously blast whatever object she'd thrown at it into dust before it got even remotely close. Of course, taking a defensive strategy now didn't seem any easier. Even now Raven was fighting to keep herself from losing her focus on keeping her shield up in light of her rapidly draining energy. And the demon seemed to know how weak she was getting because it was now chuckling maliciously like a mad man as it continued to increase the intensity of the bolts it was currently firing at her.
Beast Boy was also having a difficult time fighting against the fiery red demon he was currently doing battle with. Every time he'd attempted to get close enough to it to attack, he'd ended up forced to jump away as a result of his assailant shooting fire at him. And at the current moment, as the demon continued to throw more fireballs and jets of flames at him, the green shape shifter found himself with now choice but to continue to run, jump, and fly in his desperate race to continue to avoid getting blasted by the fire.
"Good grief," he yelled in his mind as he turned into a peregrine falcon and flew up higher towards the ceiling to avoid yet another jet of flames. "Is there anything I can do hurt this guy?"
Meanwhile, Starfire at first was able to hold her own against her assailant slightly more easily than her companions as she found it more or less easy to dodge the boulders and streams of acid it shot at her, and the small shockwaves it had proven itself capable of creating held no fear to her since they only seemed able to harm anything within their area of effect if the object in question was on the floor.
Unfortunately for Starfire, the verdant green poison demon had changed tactics a few minutes later, and was now appearing to summon a large mass of poisonous gas that concentrated in the air directly surrounding Starfire, and it followed her no matter where she flew. And even worse, it seemed that this type of gas was indeed capable of effecting her, because she soon found herself coughing and struggling to stay awake in spite of the fumes she was inhaling. She was so busy trying not to pass out, that she didn't even notice the poison demon start to climb up the wall she was now hovering next to like a gecko.
A few minutes later, the poison gas abruptly vanished. Before Starfire could fully process this information, she was taken completely by surprise when she felt a clawed hand come from out of nowhere to her left and clench tightly around her throat. She managed to look in the direction the hand appeared to have come from and saw the maliciously grinning face of the poison demon staring back at her. The demon chuckled, extended its forked tongue towards her face mockingly, and hissed, "Lights out Starfire," before positioning its barbed tail, which now appeared to have acidic venom bubbling up at the tip, as if about to stab her with it.
Fortunately for Starfire, Robin just happened to glance in her direction from out of the corner of his eye in time. "NO!" Robin roared before hurling one of his fire disks at the poison demon so fast and hard that it would have probably hit the creature with enough force to break its back if it hadn't been designed to explode. And explode it indeed did. The instant the disk so much as touched the demon's back, it exploded in a fantastic burst of flames.
"OOOOWWWW!" The demon roared in agony, and fell backwards off of the wall, letting go of Starfire in the process. Starfire also fell, still feeling relatively weak from the poisonous gas she'd inhaled in combination with the choking grip the demon had gripped her throat with. Fortunately, Robin quickly threw a freeze disk at the water demon he was battling to keep it busy, and then leaped through the air towards where Starfire was falling. The freeze disk crashed right into the force field of water that the water demon summoned around itself in a reflexive defense move and the resulting blast of frosty air caused the water shield to freeze solid, leaving the water demon trapped inside an icy dome.
Right as Starfire was seconds away from landing hard on the floor, Robin reached the area she was heading towards in time to catch her valiantly in his arms and then acrobatically position himself so that he absorbed the majority of the impact from landing on the floor afterward, shielding Starfire from suffering further damage.
The poison demon that had been attacking Starfire was not so lucky, and it crash landed hard on the floor, right on its back, which was now horribly burned as a result of Robin's explosive disk. It landed so hard that the acid that had bubbled up on its tail went flying into the air before landing right on top of the thunder demon's left foot.
The thunder demon hissed in pain, and it shut off the electricity spouting from its claws at Raven as it proceeded to start hopping up and down on one foot in pain. Growling it turned its head towards the poison demon and shouted, "Watch where you drop that stuff you fool!"
"Sorry," the poison demon groaned as it proceeded to get on its hands and knees and try to get up. "Ow," it whimpered as the motion caused waves of pain to flare up across his back.
Raven, seeing the distraction, briefly lowered her shield, and happened to notice Beast Boy hovering tiredly in the air in his falcon form. The fire demon he'd been battling was standing right below him about to shoot another fiery blast at him.
In a flash, with her assailant distracted, Raven summoned a shadowy hemisphere that engulfed Beast Boy and spirited him away in time to let him avoid getting blasted by the fire demon's blast. Another dark hemisphere appeared to her right and faded away to reveal Beast Boy in his falcon form. Beast Boy shifted back, and panted briefly before saying, "Thanks, I really owe you one now."
"You're welcome," Raven gasped, relieved to have saved her friend and to have managed to get a brief respite from the thunder demon's murderous attacks against her.
"What the Devil?"
Upon hearing the thunder demon's surprised voice, Beast Boy turned into a polar bear, roared as he turned to face it, and then slapped it right in the face with his huge right front paw.
The thunder demon was sent flying through the air and it crashed right into the shadow demon just as it was about to hurl another orb of shadow energy at Cyborg, resulting in the two demons collapsing onto the floor and the shadow orb rocketing off in the direction opposite the one the shadow demon had originally intended to throw it.
This direction just happened to be towards the water demon, who had just now managed to bust out of the icy prison Robin had managed to trap it in. Upon shattering the walls of the icy dome, it happened to look in the direction of the shadow ball, and its brilliant blue eyes widened in surprise and what Robin could have sworn was fear. Hissing in shock and apparent fear, the water demon lunged forward just in time to avoid getting blasted by the shadow demon's errant shadow ball, which crashed into the floor where it had been standing and blew the small circular base that remained of the icy dome to smithereens.
Soon after the water demon got back on its feet, it glared at the shadow demon and indignantly growled, "Watch where you're throwing those things you idiot!"
"Sorry," the shadow demon groaned weakly as it continued to struggle to get itself out from under the dazed thunder demon lying on top of it.
The water demon growled as it saw how the thunder and shadow demons were now momentarily incapacitated, growled again when it noticed the poison demon still lying on its belly groaning in pain, and then growled a third time when it saw the fire demon looking around in confusion as if trying to decide or remember what it was supposed to be doing at the moment.
"Enough with this!" The water demon roared. "Get your sorry acts together so we can finish the. . ." It turned its head to face the area where Robin and Starfire were right as it was about to finish that sentence, only to unexpectedly feel something sharp abruptly crash and jab into its neck.
While the water demon had been looking away from Robin as it yelled at its underlings, Robin had thrown one of his birdirangs at it, with full intention of attempting to kill it. And as a result, when the demon finally turned its head back to face Robin, the 'beak' end of the device had jammed point-first into the demon's throat like a knife.
For a brief moment, the demon had an expression of shock on its face. But then its eyes narrowed as if in disappointment, it shook his head with a half annoyed and half disappointed glare on its face, and then calmly directed its eyes downward towards the projectile sticking out of its throat. Seconds later, much to the shock and slight horror of the titans, the water demon calmly reached up and slowly pulled the birdirang out of its throat. The small hole left behind in the demon's neck almost instantly closed up afterward without leaving any signs of there having ever been a wound there in the first place.
As the titans watched in shock, the water demon glared at them and proceeded to derisively hiss, "Did you seriously expect a mundane human weapon, much less a toy like this . . ." it gestured at the birdirang it was now clutching in its hand, "to be capable of killing something like me or others of my kin?" The demon then proceeded to clench its hand that held the birdirang into a fist, crushing the birdirang like a bug. Robin gulped, and he and Starfire looked into each other's eyes nervously. It was now very much seeming that the titans were potentially in way over their heads in this situation.
The water demon growled, and then furiously roared, "You dare to mock me and my kin by being so insulting as to futilely attempt to kill me with something as insignificant as a toy?! We may be demons, but we deserve to die in much better ways than ones as ignominious as the one you have just now dared to tease me with!"
The demon growled, pointed its clawed finger at each of the five titans, and then said, "We have been going easy on you so far, but now that you have chosen to insult us the way you have now done with that pathetic toy, the gloves are off." The demon shouted out to its fellow demons in the room, "Comrades! Gather to me!"
One by one, the other four demons ran over to their leader and took positions by its side. The poison demon was the first to decide to make its way back to the water demon, and it slowly got back on its feet, hissing and wheezing in pain from the burns on its back before then slowly walking over to its leader, flinching and cringing in pain as it walked. Upon seeing its compatriot join up with its leader, the fire demon hurriedly rushed over to take a position by its leader's side. The thunder demon soon got off the shadow demon and back on its feet, still slightly dazed, and then limped over to join up with its fellow demons. It was clear that it was still feeling pain from the acid that had landed on its foot. The shadow demon was the last demon to join up with its comrades, and it didn't take long at all to get back on its feet and obediently march over to join its fellow demons.
No sooner had the five demons regrouped together when the water demon pointed at Robin and growled, "You and your team mates shall now regroup together near that large door near the back of the room. I want this battle to be done properly all the way from the beginning."
Four of the titans glowered and looked as if they were about to resist. Fortunately, they all managed to see Robin gesture with his head for them not to do so, and then mouth to them 'I have a plan.' The other titans raised their eyebrows, but then looked at each other, and then looked back at Robin before nodding that they understood. After all, their fearless leader had rarely ever failed them before when he made his plans for defeating the enemies they fought in the past. Besides, they knew that if this current plan Robin had formed up worked, then their potentially wounded pride at playing along with the demons' games for the moment would be a small price to pay for victory.
The titans quickly proceeded to gather together two meters or so opposite from the five demons. In a flash, right as the demons proceeded to position themselves as if they were gathering their strength and composure, Robin whispered to the other titans, "Alright team, do you have any abilities or skills you know of that you could use to possibly deflect any of the demons' elemental attacks in opposite directions from us?"
The other titans thought to themselves. "Well," said Starfire, "I think that if I were flying and happened to continuously kick quickly enough, I could potentially deflect the flames that the red creature uses in its attacks."
"Alright Star, that should work nicely," said Robin. He looked at the other titans and whispered, "What about you guys?"
"I could potentially whip any one of those blasts away with my tail as an ankylosaur or stegosaur," said Beast Boy. "But it would probably be more reliable for me to turn into a Galapagos tortoise and using my shell to redirect the water jets."
"I think I have just enough strength to create a shield strong enough to redirect the shadow blasts that the black demon conjures," said Raven.
"I still haven't yet used those shield extensions I had installed back in Tokyo," said Cyborg. "If they're truly as sturdy and strong as the guy who installed them said they were, then I could likely deflect all of those different elemental blasts those demons use, including the acid."
"Good to know," said Robin. He drew out his bo staff, allowed it to extend to full length, and then said, "With my staff, it should be easy enough for me to deflect those lightning bolts."
"Mind if I ask what exactly you're planning for us to do?" Raven asked.
"Starfire," Robin said. "Did you notice how much the fire from my exploding disk seemed to hurt the poison demon that I saved you from?"
"Yes," said Starfire.
"Raven," Robin said. "Remember how that thunder demon reacted when the acid from the poison demon landed on its foot?"
Raven nodded her head. Beast Boy also nodded, for he'd managed to see this while still in the air as a falcon.
"Cyborg," said Robin. "Did you see how quickly the water demon was to dodge that shadow blast that got knocked towards it? Or better yet, did you see the look on its face when it saw the shadow blast heading towards it?"
"I did see how quick it was in dodging it," said Cyborg. "But I didn't get a close look at its face."
"It was afraid of it," said Robin. "And with all that in mind, plus the knowledge of how water is an almost universal method of extinguishing fires and the relative similarities between the natures and abilities of Raven and that shadow demon, I think that we might be able to defeat them more easily if we could somehow manage to get them blasted in the crossfire of their own elemental attacks."
The other titans considered what Robin had said, and then smiled and nodded as they realized that their leader's plan actually made sense. Robin smiled upon noticing this, and then said, "When those demons resume their attacks on us, try to get whatever demon you pick to focus on and fire at you. When we're all positioned just right, I'll give the signal, and then we all need to let the demons' elemental blasts come close enough to you without dodging so that you can reflect them at the demon that's weakest against each respective elemental attack. Got that?" The other titans nodded and smirked, for they indeed understood and were now ready for action.
Seconds later, they heard the blue demon yell, "Now my brethren! Attack!" With a roar of challenge, the five demons bolted straight towards their targets once more.
"Titans move!" Robin yelled, and the five teenage heroes leaped in different directions and proceeded to initiate their newly formulated plan.
For the next few minutes, the demons fired their elemental blasts randomly again and again, now not seeming to care that some of them were now no longer firing at their original targets from earlier. Meanwhile, the titans continuously dodged and likewise evaded the attacks as they slowly got themselves and their attackers positioned for the trap the titans were now setting for the demons. And as the demons continued their efforts to kill their targets, they were now so angry and single-mindedly focused on their efforts that they didn't even notice how their targets were slowly but surely leading them straight into a trap.
"Come on," Robin thought to himself as he and the other titans continued to get themselves and their attackers slowly into position. "Almost, almost, any moment now."
Seconds later, when Robin, the other titans, and the demons were all in what Robin instinctively knew were the right positions for his plan, he yelled, "Now!"
Coincidentally, the demons all chose to attack at that exact moment. The thunder demon snarled, and sent bolts of lightning flying from its clawed finger tips at Robin. The shadow demon fired a massive burst of flame-shaped shadowy energy at Raven. The water demon sent a forceful spout of water from its hands at Beast Boy. The fire demon unleashed a brilliant jet of flames flying up towards Starfire. And finally, the poison demon caused a large stream of corrosive acid to spray from its hands towards Cyborg.
In that instant, the five demons caused their own downfall. Seconds before the lightning bolts being fired at Robin could touch him, the boy wonder started rapidly spinning his bo staff around clockwise like a stereotypical martial arts master, deflecting the beams of electricity to his right and causing them to spear the shadow demon in the back. At the same time the thunder demon's electricity struck the shadow demon, the shadow demon's own burst of shadow energy was reflected to the right off of Raven's own shadowy shield where it ended up smashing into the back of the water demon.
The leader among the five demons attempting to kill the titans fared no better in its efforts to blast the titan it was attempting to blast, for Beast Boy turned into a Galapagos tortoise and curled up into his shell just in time for the demon's water jet to pound onto the top of the shell and cause the shelled up tortoise to be pushed up into a position allowing it to be leaning against the counter that doubled as a table. As a result of how Beast Boy the tortoise was now positioned, the water demon's water spout ended up being reflected to the right off of Beast Boy's shell and splashing onto the back of the fire demon.
And of course, at the exact same moment that the water demon's attack was sent crashing into the back of the fire demon, Starfire ended up continuously kicking at the tip of the fiery jet heading towards her so quickly that she caused it to be deflected downwards to her right, where it plowed into the already hideously burned back of the poison demon, whose own jet of acid was sent flying to the right as a result of slamming into Cyborg's newly extended and artfully positioned arm shield extensions so that it forcefully splashed onto the back of the thunder demon.
The five demons howled in shock and pain as they felt themselves getting unexpectedly blasted in the back by their own comrades' attacks, and they hurriedly tried to shut off their attacks. Unfortunately for them, in a cruel paradox, instead of the pain causing them to lose the focus needed to maintain their elemental attacks, the pain proved so distracting to them that they were unable to focus clearly enough to shut off their currently active elemental blasts. And so, the five demons now found themselves hopelessly trapped in a web of their own elemental powers, completely helpless to escape or shut down the same powers they'd hoped to kill their targets with that were now causing their own demise instead.
After about a minute, the demons suddenly started jerking and vibrating in pain as they suddenly appeared to become engulfed in electricity that matched their respective scale colors and their eyes flashed with color complimentary lights on and off. But even though this caught the titans by surprise, they continued to keep their current deflection mechanisms they were using active, not daring to break the now perfectly functioning trap that they'd set against their would-be killers. For the next few minutes, the demons continued to jerk and writhe and hiss in pain as the electricity and lights sparking up on their skin and in their eyes continued to flash in and out of view. After what seemed like an eternity, the hellish lightning engulfing the demons sparked up and started crackling continuously without fading. In that moment, the demons had just enough time to close their eyes, raise their heads upward to face the ceiling, and despairingly howl "NO!" before they abruptly exploded into clouds of dust that matched their respective body coloring.
In that instant, time seemed to stop, and the five clouds of unnaturally colored dust seemed to hover in place in the air at the positions where the demons had originally been standing. After exactly three seconds, the elemental blasts harmlessly crashed into the walls of the common room as the titans proceeded to pause in their defensive tactics, and the clouds of dust proceeded to explosively spread out into circular vortexes of dust that then sprinkled down onto the floor. For a few moments, the titans remained standing where they were, staring wordlessly at what now remained of the five demons that had invaded the tower and attempted to kill them. But after about a minute, small vortexes of shadowy energy abruptly appeared on the floor directly underneath the dust, swallowing it all up before closing up and vanishing immediately afterward.
For all of five seconds afterward, the titans gaped at the now empty floor spots where the remains of the five demons had been. The awkward silence was finally broken when Starfire slowly stated, "It appears . . . that we are victorious."
Starfire's comment was enough to get the other titans back down to Earth, and they nodded and mumbled in agreement. "It certainly looks that way to me," said Beast Boy. "I mean, I'm not the only one who saw those things explode into dust right?"
"No need to worry about that," said Raven. "I saw it to, and if those things were about to reform any time soon, I would have sensed it."
"According to my scanners, they certainly aren't in the tower anymore," said Cyborg. "Odds are, they're definitely dead," he then said before looking at Robin and saying, "I daresay your plan appears to have worked man."
Robin briefly found himself lost for words, wondering just what he could say that would truly sound appropriate for the current moment. "Apparently so," he eventually said. He looked at the other titans. "Nice work team." The other titans nodded, and mumbled statements of thanks.
"Umm," said Beast Boy. "So now that those demon thingies are dead, does that mean we can go back to sleep now?"
"Soon," said Robin as he walked on over to the security monitor positioned on the wall directly to the left of the two large sliding doors located to the side directly opposite from the windows. "But first we need to quickly take care of a few things."
"Like what?" Cyborg asked.
"Well for starters," Robin explained as he logged onto the security monitor, "We need to figure out why the security system didn't go off the second those demons entered the tower, or even stepped foot on the island."
Immediately after he said this, Robin managed to log on, and his eyes widened as he noticed a very surprising detail. "It's off."
"You mean something's wrong with it?" Cyborg asked.
"No," said Robin. "It's literally been turned off. Someone's deactivated it."
The other titans gathered around Robin and the security monitor. Sure enough, the entire security system for the tower had been deactivated.
Beast Boy gulped, and then stated, "Well I guess that explains why the alarms didn't go off when the demons got here."
"Wow, what gave it away?" Cyborg asked sarcastically.
"Well with that done, now the question is how it got turned off, and more importantly, who turned it off," said Raven.
"I certainly didn't turn it off," said Cyborg. "Heck, as far as I know, we haven't even touched anything remotely related to the tower's security functions once since we got back from Tokyo." Directly after saying this, he directed a look of suspicion towards Beast Boy from out of the corners of his eyes before stating, "Then again . . ."
"Dude," said Beast Boy, "whoever turned that off, it wasn't me. I may be a prankster, but turning off our own security system? That's low, even for me!"
Beast Boy then suddenly looked as if he'd just had an epiphany. "Heck, how do we even know it was turned off today?"
Robin thought to himself, and then pointed at Beast Boy before saying, "Good point, I'll go check."
"Oh come on Robin," said Cyborg. "You know Bee. If anyone had turned it off before she left today, she would have turned it back on. And I know for a fact that she definitely would have neither turned it off herself, nor allowed any of the Titans East boys to do so while they were staying here or before they left."
"I know Cyborg," said Robin. "But it's better to be safe than sorry." At that moment, he managed to access the activation/deactivation history menu on the monitor. "And yes, according to this, it was indeed turned off today."
The boy wonder squinted at the time that the security system had been turned off, and then turned his head to face Cyborg. "Cyborg, do you think you could access your internal clock and try to match the time this was deactivated to any particular event that occurred today?"
"Let me see," said Cyborg as he made his way over to take a look at the security monitor. He stared intently at the displayed recent time the security system had been deactivated, his facial expression making him look as if he were deep in thought. "Well, from what I can gather from comparing this to my internal clock data, the security was turned off at the exact time we started battling Johnny Rancid earlier today."
Robin thought to himself. "Hmm," he then said. "Same time as we were battling Johnny."
"In other words," said Raven. "Either this was a coincidence, or our battle with Johnny Rancid was a diversion to allow for someone else, likely a demon, to deactivate the security system."
"But how would anyone have even managed to get past the security system while we were gone fighting Johnny?" Beast Boy asked.
"It might not have been that hard if the culprit was one of those demons," said Raven. She looked at Beast Boy and said, "Remember how they were capable of taking on that smoke-like form? The security system based on the island outside the tower is ground based. In their smoke forms, the demons were capable of flying. They would have almost certainly have been more than capable of avoiding triggering the security system while it was still on by flying over it."
"That doesn't explain how a demon would have managed to get inside the tower," Robin stated.
"On the contrary," said Raven. "It does. In incorporeal form, demons are like ghosts. They are capable of going right through solid barriers and objects when in their smoke forms. In that form, any demon would have easily been capable of both flying out of reach of the security system and phasing right through the front door, roof top entrance, or even through one of the common room windows."
"Well if they can do that, then why turn off the security?" Cyborg asked.
"Unlike with ghosts," said Raven, "phasing through solid barriers costs demons energy. Odds are, the demons wanted to be at full strength when they got in the tower and attempted to kill us."
"How do you know all this?" Robin asked.
"I'm half demon," said Raven. "I have a more or less firm understanding of demonology. And I also have more than one book in my collection about the subject of demons and similar hellish and demonic topics."
"And you wait till now to tell us about all this?" Robin asked.
Beast Boy placed himself protectively between Robin and Raven, a glare on his face. "Lay her off Robin," he growled. "This attack caught her by surprise just as much as it did the rest of us. Heck, until tonight, Raven was the only one who even suspected that the ones we fought during that incident with her father weren't the only ones in existence. And besides, even before then, demons have rarely ever actively gotten involved with the affairs of the world of the living. Would you have expected them to go after us now?"
The other titans gaped at Beast Boy in surprise. They had never seen Beast Boy act so protective of Raven before. And they then realized that what Beast Boy said did make sense. "He does have a point," Cyborg said to Robin.
Robin gulped, hung his head, and then nodded. "You're right," he admitted. He looked at Beast Boy and Raven. "I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted," said Raven.
"Well on that note," said Cyborg. "Your knowledge on demons could probably be useful in answering a few more questions Raven."
"Well that would depend on the questions, but with the current circumstances you're free to ask whatever questions needed at the moment," said Raven.
Robin was quick to take advantage of the opportunity, and he asked, "Those demons that just now tried to kill us tonight, is there any chance they were working on their own?"
"Highly unlikely," said Raven. "Demons may be vicious and evil, but they rarely ever act solely on a whim. The majority of the time, demons typically do their work while answering to someone else's orders."
"Well that water dude was the leader of the group that tried to kill us just now," said Beast Boy. "Do you think he was the one behind the whole thing?"
"No," said Raven. "He may have been the leader of that group, but from what I know of demonology, he was probably more of a sergeant than anything else. And on that same note, that group of demons we just killed was most likely just a small advance party. Odds are, there's a larger force of demons somewhere else that sent them here."
At the sound of this, Raven's fellow titans looked at each other nervously. "Um Raven," said Starfire. "If there is in fact a larger group of these things you call demons out there who sent the ones who just tried to kill us, would it be reasonable to assume that more of them shall now end up coming to the tower now that we've killed their advance party?"
Raven hung her head. "Sadly yes," she responded.
The titans looked each other in the eyes nervously again. "Well I hope you know of some ways to defend ourselves against them," said Robin. "Because I doubt we'll be able to pull off that stunt we used against the advance party earlier a second time."
"The books I read do indeed make mention of the weaknesses of demons and defenses against them," Raven responded.
"Can you tell us what they are?" Beast Boy asked.
Raven nodded. "There's holy water."
"How does that help?" Cyborg asked.
"Holy water is like acid to Abrahamic demons," Raven explained. "Apply it to their skin and it burns them like crazy."
Beast Boy whistled. "That's cool," he said.
"Indeed," said Robin. "But the question is, how would we get ahold of holy water? I highly doubt that the nearest church will let us borrow any."
"I have a rosary in my room," said Raven. "And I know a ritual that we can use to make holy water."
"I say we do it," said Cyborg. He clasped his metallic hands together, and then said, "Now we just need to decide on what water we should bless."
"Could we use the ocean surrounding our home?" Starfire asked.
"I wouldn't recommend that," said Raven. "The ocean's too large. I'm not entirely certain of the area of effect that would be formed from attempting to make holy water out of the ocean surrounding our island. And besides not only would it be a little difficult for me to get the rosary back out of the ocean, but any demons that come to visit in the future will more likely than not just fly right over the ocean and land on the island surface as opposed to in the ocean."
"Well what water do we have right here in the tower we could bless?" Robin asked.
"Oooh," Beast Boy said. "How about the sprinkler system? We've always got loads of water stored up for use in that! And it's right outside the tower!"
"That will work," said Cyborg.
"How would we get it to activate?" Robin asked.
Cyborg made a dismissive gesture. "Piece of cake," he said. "I still have that feature on it that I installed during me and BB's last prank war that allows it to be automatically turned on whenever someone walks through an invisible laser line that serves as a trigger."
Robin gaped at Cyborg in surprise. "Ok then," said the boy wonder. "In that case, go ahead and turn it on and we can have this holy water defense set up in no time. But before we do that, Raven, I want you to tell us every other weakness you know that we might be able to use for tonight and the future. I want as many defenses set up as possible just in case any future demon visitors manage to get past the holy water."
"Demons can't cross iron," said Raven. "Place it in their path, and it's like there's an invisible force making it physically impossible for them to step over it in their corporeal forms. In fact, they're even incapable of flying over it in their incorporeal forms."
"Got it," said Robin. "We can set up some iron bar boundaries around the base of the tower, the edges of the roof, and the windows. Anything else?"
"Devil's traps," said Raven. "When demons walk within one of these, they are unable to get out unless the trap is broken in any way. We can paint them on the ceilings and floors of the tower for in case they manage to get in. And for that matter, we can also place salt lines in front of the doors to each room. Lines of salt have a similar effect on demons as iron. In fact, if you throw salt in the face of a being that's possessed by one, the resulting pain is so powerful that it causes the demon to automatically eject itself from its host and turn back to its natural corporeal form afterward."
Robin nodded. "Good," he then said. "Alright team, let's get to work. We've got to fortify this tower as quickly as we can."
Beast Boy and Starfire raised their hands. Robin sighed, and then said, "Ok, I'll let you two ask your questions first. But after that, we need to hurry and get the tower set up for future demon visits."
Starfire nodded, and said to Raven, "Raven, I remember that Robin once told me that when he and Slade were searching for you while Trigon was here on Earth, he was able to kill a large group of the demons that work for Trigon with his sword. Would it perhaps be capable of killing these demons that now attack us?"
Raven looked at Robin with an inquisitive look on her face. She had not been told about this. Robin chuckled nervously, and proceeded to summon his sword by interlocking the 'wings' of his two appropriate birdirangs together. Raven examined it, and then nodded before handing the sword back to Robin and saying, "Yes, it appears that whoever forged this placed the necessary spells upon it that would allow for it to be capable of killing demons."
Cyborg whistled, and said to Robin, "Looks like we've got our very own secret weapon against them."
Robin grinned sheepishly, and then said, "Apparently so." He turned to look at Beast Boy and said, "What did you want to ask Raven?"
"Raven," said Beast Boy. "Considering how you're . . . well, you know . . . do these things you mentioned have the same effect on you as it does on regular demons?"
Raven shook her head side to side. "Not exactly," she replied. "While I'll admit that I haven't tested out the effects of holy water or salt on me, I have demonstrated the ability to cross iron, and have also proven capable of walking in and out of devil's traps without any trouble. Odds are, I'm not quite as vulnerable to these things because of how I'm not a pureblood demon."
Beast Boy nodded, looking relieved, and said, "That's good to hear."
He then looked at Robin and said, "Ok Rob, I'm done."
"Good," said Robin. "Now let's get to work. I want to have as many demon defense mechanisms set up as possible before any more demons come to visit. And we also still need to turn the security system back on. Once we're all set up, we can go right back to bed. Titans, move." In a flash, the titans spread out to start setting up their tower for future visits from demons.
And just like that, another chapter comes to an end! What you guys think? Did you enjoy this? For that matter, what did you think about the battles in this chapter or the big reveal about what that shadowy thing from the previous chapter (not to mention the ominous mystery fourteen-eyed being from the prologue if you were paying a particularly large amount of attention) has turned out to be? Once again, I hope you guys all enjoyed this, and feel free to comment on all manner of elements in this chapter in your reviews. And let's not forget, I hope you very much look forward to when I post the next chapter in this story.
Coming up next: The next morning, thanks to the results of some quick thinking from Cyborg, the Titans have their hands full interrogating a large number of demons for the sake of figuring who sent them and why.