Hey ya'll! I hope you guys are all ready for some more Teen Titanic awesomeness, because here's a brand new chapter! In this new addition to the story, the Titans find themselves fighting an epic battle against the powerful demon that has now unexpectedly appeared in the Brotherhood of Dante library with them. Can the titans prevail? Or will this demon be villain that they cannot defeat? Prepare to find out, in this epic new chapter!
Before we get started on this chapter, let me just remind you guys again that I own neither Teen Titans, nor any other elements of the DC universe. And I certainly don't own the demon featured in this chapter (and for that matter, I apologize in advance if I accidentally cause any religious offense). Now, without further ado, onward with the fic!
Chapter 9:
Abaddon
For what seemed like an eternity, the Titans and the large demon that had unexpectedly appeared in the library with them remained standing where they were, facing each other intently. As the titans gazed at the demon now standing before them, Robin carefully made note of as much information as he could gather. In regard to its tail design, head adornment, and the color of its eyes and scales, it looked no different from any of the other Abrahamic shadow demons that the titans had encountered the previous night and this morning.
However, upon closer inspection, it didn't take long for Robin to determine that this demon was very different from the demons that they'd already dealt with before. Unlike all the minor-league Abrahamic demons they'd encountered, this demon seemed to radiate power and authority, almost as if it were demanding both respect and fear at the same time. And as if to further add to this image, while all the minor demons the titans had encountered so far had all been roughly around the same size range as them, this demon was the exact same size as Slade himself.
The demon chuckled, licked its chops hungrily, and then stated, "I must say, for a supposedly minor threat, you've certainly proven quite an annoyance for my client. But no matter, I will most certainly succeed where all those wannabes he sent after you before failed; of that, I can assure you."
Finally regaining her voice, Starfire pointed at the large black demon and shouted, "You will not succeed."
"Yeah!" Cyborg yelled. "Heck, you shouldn't even be in here! This is hallowed ground!"
At the sound of that comment from Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy looked each other in the eyes nervously. They had a very bad feeling that they knew how this demon had apparently managed to get in to the building without being phased by the fact that it was built on hallowed ground.
Sure enough, the demon chuckled, lifted his left hand up in a dismissive gesture, and said, "That may work in the minor leagues, but as I'm sure you might have already been told by that goody-goody Novak, you need something much stronger than that to keep out higher ranking demons, especially ones like me."
At the sound of this, a hard eyed glare came on Beast Boy's face, and he pointed his finger at the demon before shouting, "You're a knight of Hell aren't you!?"
"Very good young shape shifter," said the demon. "It seems that you are not quite as stupid as I was led to believe."
The knight of Hell turned its head so that it was once again placing equal visual focus on all five of the titans as opposed to just on Beast Boy, and then said, "And since you lot now seem to be entirely familiar on how high ranking I am, I might as well introduce myself properly."
The demon raised its clawed hands up in the air as if to show himself off and roared proudly, "BEHOLD! I AM ABADDON, DEMON OF THE PIT, BRINGER OF DESTRUCTION, KNIGHT OF HELL, AND CHOSEN CHAMPION OF LUCIFER!"
Robin's eyes narrowed. "I remember reading about you in the bible," he stated. "You certainly didn't get mentioned very often."
"Indeed," the demon stated, its tone clearly showing that it wasn't entirely pleased with this information. "But it matters not how I didn't get the attention I deserved in the Bible. All that matters now, is that I'm going to be the knight of Hell who gets the honor of personally sending you to the afterlife."
Robin glared, pointed at Abaddon, and stated, "I wouldn't be too confident about that. The minor leaguers that came after us before you more or less said the same thing, and we were able to handle them just fine."
"True," said Abaddon. "I will admit, you five children have proven yourselves to be far more formidable then my client, Vandal Savage, originally thought. After all, he may have had the confidence to dismiss the situation as a minor setback when last night's advance party never returned to our campsite last night, but when he caught the news from Lucifer about how you'd managed to send the rest of the squadron he'd been granted back to Hell this morning, well I must say that you certainly gave him a gray hair or two. In fact, you've also made Lucifer quite impressed. He truly wasn't expecting you to live past turn of day last night, and he's certainly feeling happy that you've turned out so tough that he's ended up having to grant Savage permission to send a knight of Hell after you."
The demon then proceeded to clasp its hands together so that its clawed fingers intertwined, and then stretch its arms upward into the air before saying, "And to be honest, I'm quite happy to finally get the chance to get back in the game. I'm sure it wouldn't be surprising for you that it's been Hell knows how long since me or any of my four compatriots have been called upon to handle a situation for Lucifer. With that in mind, I'm sure you will understand that I'm very much looking forward to battling you."
"Well I hope you're ready for a disappointment," said Cyborg. "Because from what you just said, I have a feeling you'll be pretty out of practice. And it's never good for someone who's out of practice in battling."
Abaddon chuckled, and then stated, "On the contrary, even without having been sent on many missions for quite a few decades or so, all of the knights of Hell, I myself included, have made sure to constantly train ourselves for battle every day in Hell. So needless to say, I haven't softened up in the slightest, and you will definitely be satisfied in fighting an opponent at full strength and skill."
Robin's eyes narrowed. "Prove it," he growled.
Abaddon grinned smugly at Robin, lifted its right hand up in the air, and then snapped its fingers. In a flash, a gigantic bolt of pitch black lightning struck the floor literally one centimeter in front of Robin. The boy wonder just managed to catch a brief glimpse of the bolt of shadow lightning before it vanished seconds later. To say that Robin was startled would have been an epic understatement. The other titans were likewise stunned speechless by this horrifying display of power. Even Raven was visibly shocked.
Abaddon laughed at the sight of the five bewildered teenage heroes, pointed his clawed right middle finger at Robin and jeeringly hissed, "You should pay more attention to the weather report before flying little bird; it looks to me like there's a storm coming." He laughed again at his joke.
Robin glared at the laughing demon, pointed his own right middle finger at it, and yelled, "Well you may not be a pushover, but we're still not going to go down against the likes of you without a fight! And that's assuming the Brotherhood of Dante doesn't come charging in here to help us!"
"Ah yes," Abaddon chuckled. "Thanks for reminding me about that."
The demon snapped its fingers, and a nearby lock pad became engulfed in shadow energy. A minute or two later, at the sound of an electronic beep, the shadow energy faded away, the screen on the lock pad turned from green to red, and the silence was emphatically shattered by the abrupt blaring roar of an alarm. The titans had just barely realized that they were now hearing alarms going off before they heard what sounded like an immensely heavy object slamming on the floor directly on the other side of the doors to the library.
"There," Abaddon hissed in pleasure as it glanced at the doors and lock pad. "Now we'll have no need to worry about the Brotherhood of Dante ruining our fun."
The demon looked back at the titans, spread his arms out as if to gesture for them to behold his awesomeness, and said, "As you can now see and hear, I've just now gone ahead and triggered this building's emergency lockdown. That slamming noise you heard coming from the other side of the doors? That was the sound of the consecrated marble walls decorated with warding runes slamming down in front of every door in this entire building. As long as the emergency lock-down mode remains in effect, absolutely no one will be entering or leaving whatever rooms or hallways they happened to be in before the lock-down mode was triggered. The only way to manually turn it off without waiting for the threat, in this case me, to leave the building is to enter the override code into the central core supercomputer located in the computer room. And as my luck would have it, there is conveniently absolutely zero people in that particular room. So in other words, you can say goodbye to any hope of receiving professional reinforcements."
The titans looked at each other. It was clear that they would have to take care of this enemy on their own just like usual. Abaddon laughed, stood up to full height, and calmly announced, "Enough talk! It is time for our battle to begin! And as for that plan of Lucifer's that you shall soon be prevented from foiling, all you need to know is that my client has spent the last three months two steps ahead of you! All he needs is a single key element, emphasis on key, and the world will have until exactly two days from now to wait before all Hell literally breaks lose!"
The second Abaddon finished shouting that last phrase, he abruptly thrusted his right hand forward, and a tractor-sized orb of shadow energy burst from his hand and came flying at the five teenage heroes.
. . . . .
Robin just barely managed to yell, "Titans go!" before he and the other Titans lunged off in random directions just in time to avoid getting blown to bits by Abaddon's blast. The computer, however, was not so lucky, and the shadow ball plowed into it with enough force to cause a respectable sized explosion. When the smoke and lingering shadow energy cleared, a smoldering circular patch of ashes was all that remained of the computer.
At the sight of this, Robin whistled from the spot where he'd landed between two bookshelves, and he stated, "For a Biblical minor character, he sure is powerful."
He turned his head to get a closer look at Abaddon once more, and his eyes narrowed before he said, "We'll just have to find out the hard way how much light it's gonna take to light him up."
The boy wonder then shouted, "Titans, surround him," before lunging at Abaddon with his right leg positioned so as to give him a flying ninja kick.
Abaddon was quick to react, and he grabbed the flying boy wonder by his right ankle when the leg in question was seconds from smacking right into his face. All of one second passed before Abaddon took advantage of his newfound position of dominance in his current struggle with Robin by lifting him upward. Robin had just enough time to shriek in surprise before Abaddon then swung him through the air to the left and slammed him downward onto the floor. Before long, the demon proceeded to repeat the process four more times, alternating from right to left as he did so. After slamming Robin on the floor for the fifth time in a row, Abaddon lifted him up in the air again, spun him around four loops, and then let go of his ankle directly after finishing the fourth loop. As a result, the boy wonder was sent flying head first towards the doors to the library.
Fortunately, Robin was positioned close enough to the floor for him to halt his head on flight towards the doors by tapping the floor with his right fingers. Having turned his head on flight into a somersault, he proceeded to further reduce his speed and impact with the floor by making three somersaults across the floor before coming to a far more pleasant backwards landing that allowed him to skid gently to a stop on his hands and feet while facing Abaddon.
Abaddon was just about to tense up to lunge at Robin when he heard Cyborg yell from behind him, "Heads up!" Abaddon turned to face Cyborg just in time to see the cybernetic teenager fire a blast from his sonic cannon at him. The knight of Hell just barely managed to deploy a force field of shadows around himself in time to deflect the sonic laser upward. The blast hit the center of the reinforced glass roof, and ended up being deflected in random directions across the roof as a result before eventually hurtling downward back at Cyborg.
Cyborg ducked just in time to avoid getting zapped by his own sonic blast, and the laser blasted a nearby bust of Master Novak into dust. Cyborg managed to look behind him at the obliterated remains of the bust and say "Oops," in his mind before he heard Abaddon growl. Cyborg looked back at Abaddon just in time to see the demon, with his shield now gone, slam his right fist on the floor. Seconds later, before Cyborg even had a chance to blink, he was abruptly engulfed in a gigantic pillar of shadow energy that erupted from the floor directly underneath his feet. A few minutes later, the pillar faded away in time to reveal Cyborg hurtling upward towards the roof of the library, which he slammed into with a bang.
Cyborg had time to groan before he came plummeting down on his back on the floor. No sooner had he managed to get his eyes fully opened when he saw none other than Abaddon standing right by his head looking down at him. Smirking, the demon extended his right hand so that it was hovering palm-side down over Cyborg's face. "It took me only a minute to reprogram the security system so that this building would go into lock-down mode," Abaddon stated. "Considering how you are also a machine, perhaps I ought to see how long it will take for me to reprogram you into fighting alongside me." At the sound of this, Abaddon's eyes narrowed to the point that his pupils resembled such thin slits as to make him look pupilless, and his hand hovering over Cyborg's face began to glow with black energy.
Fortunately, before Abaddon could activate his 'reprogramming,' he suddenly felt something crash into the back of his head. Abaddon's eyes, now back to normal, narrowed in a mix between irritation and disappointment. Being a masterful wielder of shadow energy himself, he could recognize the feeling of shadow energy on his skin, and thus he immediately knew who had blasted him. He turned around to face the area behind him and saw, as he'd suspected, Raven hovering nearby.
Abaddon smirked, chuckled, and hissed derisively, "You think that will stop me? You of all beings should know how useless such an attack is against a being who uses similar attacks. No one can fight fire with fire, and you cannot defeat darkness with darkness daughter of Trigon."
Raven growled, her eyes narrowed in anger, and her hands glowing with her own shadow energy, and then yelled, "Watch me try!"
In a flash, she raised up her hands and yelled, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Upon shouting out her mantra, Raven swiped her hands in an x-shaped slash, and what appeared to be a mysterious rune made out of shadow energy was formed. Abaddon had just enough time to catch the slightest glimpse of the rune before a gigantic beam of blinding white light was fired out from the center of the large rune. The beam engulfed Abaddon and then eventually vanished with a bang in time to reveal him being sent flying backward.
The demon slammed into a wall and landed on his belly nearby the ashes that remained of the computer. As he got on his hands and knees and lifted his head to look at Raven with a growl, the sorceress calmly stated, "That's what happens when you end up on the wrong side of an Azarathian holy light rune. When summoned, this rune causes a blast of angelic light to be fired out from it to smite all evil in its path."
Abaddon snarled, got up on his feet, and hissed, "Clever. But not clever enough!"
No sooner had Abaddon yelled that last phrase when with a wave of his hands, he caused three massive cables that looked as if they'd originally provided power to the computer to rise from the floor, electricity crackling at the tips. At the sight of Raven's stunned look, Abaddon growled, clenched his fists, and yelled, "My combined nature as both a demon and an umbrakinetic might make me susceptible to holy light! But let's see if your similar nature allows you to fare any better against electricity!"
In a flash, Abaddon waved his left hand forward, and the gigantic cable to his left proceeded to rear up like a snake and then slam its electricity crackling tip down towards Raven like a scorpion's tail. Raven just barely managed to hover out of the way before the cable end jabbed down on the floor right where she'd been before. The sorceress didn't even have a chance to catch her breath before Abaddon caused the cable to his right to do the exact same maneuver, forcing her to dodge again. And for the next few minutes that followed, Raven found herself hurriedly and continuously dodging the three cables as Abaddon caused them to strike out at her again and again in random directions.
After a while, Raven found herself in a position in which she was hovering directly over the circle of ashes that was left of the computer that the three cables had originally provided power to. Abaddon snarled in anger as he found himself glaring at the daughter of Trigon. "She certainly has stamina, I'll give her that," he growled to himself in his mind. But then he remembered an important detail that had influenced his original choice to have just the three cables he'd used to rise up from the floor, and his snarl turned into a wolf-like grin. At the sight of this, Raven prepared herself, for she had a feeling that that look meant that Abaddon had a nasty trick up his sleeve. Seconds later, with a backwards wave of his right hand, Abaddon caused all three of the cables between himself and Raven to arch up like snakes. Upon seeing this, Raven reflexively summoned a shadow barrier large enough to shield herself from the front.
Unfortunately, this had been exactly what Abaddon had hoped Raven would do, and with an upwards crescent-shaped swing of his left hand and arm, he caused a fourth cable to rocket out of the floor and diagonally upwards towards Raven from behind, and the electricity enshrouded end jabbed her right on the back. The sorceress let out an unearthly howl of agony as she felt the electricity crackle across her back. Seconds later, with a groan of pain and exhaustion, Raven's shield faded away, and she fell down onto the floor.
No sooner had Raven been brought down on the floor when Abaddon caused the cables to lower back down into the floor and he jumped over to her before grabbing her by the throat and lifting her up so that he could look her right in the eyes. Raven's eyes widened in shock, and she panted in a mixture of fear and shortage of breath at the sight of the smug dragon-like face of Abaddon staring her right in the eyes.
Abaddon chuckled, tightened his grip on Raven's throat slightly, and then said, "You are powerful, I'll give you that; but there's only enough room in the apocalypse for one antichrist, and I'd sooner die then let you steal that role from a rightful future child of Lucifer!" With a growl, Abaddon lifted up his left hand, his claws extended as if he were about to thrust them into Raven's heart.
Fortunately for Raven, help came for her right that very instant in the form of a strong, powerful, and now very angry green lion that lunged onto Abaddon's back and dug its claws into his shoulders and the small of his back. Abaddon howled in pain, and he let go of Raven as he proceeded to struggle to get Beast Boy off of his back. Beast Boy made it very difficult for this task to be achieved as he proceeded to continue digging his claws as deep as he could and even sinking his fangs into the demon's scaly hide for good measure.
Eventually, Abaddon managed to reach backward, grab Beast Boy by the mane, and throw him off of his back to his right. Fortunately, for Beast Boy, this direction happened to be towards a book shelf, and he positioned his legs and paws while hurtling through the air so that his paws touched the bookshelf, thus giving him the leverage needed to then propel himself right back at Abaddon.
Abaddon ducked, and the green lion landed on the floor right behind him, only to then turn into a horse and direct a powerful back kick at Abaddon. The demon straightened back up and turned his head to face Beast Boy just in time for the green horse's rock hard hind hooves to give him a pounding blow right to his jaw. The demon was sent flying backward by the force of the blow, and he landed hard in the exact same area he'd landed in after getting hit by Raven's summoned beam of holy light.
Abaddon got back up and looked towards Beast Boy in time to see him charging towards him in the form of an African elephant, trumpeting furiously. Thinking quickly, Abaddon waved his right hand, and the green elephant bellowed in surprise as it suddenly plummeted into a shadowy vortex that appeared underneath it from out of nowhere.
The instant the vortex closed after Beast Boy had entered it fully, Abaddon lunged up so high that he managed to get a firm foothold on the very center of the glass ceiling. With his left hand and both of his feet firmly gripping the ceiling, Abaddon snapped his fingers, causing a second shadowy vortex to open up in the air three yards beneath him and four times that distance above the floor. Beast Boy the elephant came rocketing upward from this vortex with a surprised trumpeting noise at the exact same time that Abaddon sent himself flying downward towards Beast Boy. And in the time it took for the vortex to close, Abaddon was able to position himself so that he had his right leg extended towards Beast Boy's back. As a result, the foot in question slammed into the elephant's back with a sickening crack, and the elephant was sent pounding down hard onto the floor right in the same area as the Brotherhood of Dante emblem engraving.
When the dust cleared, it revealed a sprawled out and in pain green elephant. It opened its eyes and let out a groaning bellow of pain before shrinking back into Beast Boy's human form. The shape shifter had just enough time to let out a second, and this time more human-like, groan of pain before he suddenly felt something hard that felt suspiciously like a clawed foot slam into his left side and send him rolling away to his right. He shrieked in agony as he felt his back slam into the hard wooden surface of the front desk as a result.
A crouching Abaddon seemed to appear in front of Beast Boy's face mere seconds after this, and the demon grinned at the young green teenager before saying, "You know what they always say about survival of the fittest. Now it's your turn to fall to the power of the natural order."
All of two seconds passed after this comment before Abaddon felt something plow into him from out of nowhere directly in front of him with an angry feminine yell. As he hurtled backwards towards a wall, Abaddon was just able to notice that Starfire now both had a firm grip on his shoulders and was pushing him backwards before he felt his back slam into the wall she was pushing him towards.
Abaddon had barely any time to get his bearings before Starfire's furious face came up to look directly at him, and her eyes glowed dangerously green. In a flash, Abaddon jerked his head to his left just in time to avoid getting his face fried by the laser blast that Starfire fired from her eyes. He then jerked his head to his right to avoid a second laser blast. Seconds after getting his head back into its original position, he growled at Starfire, and then abruptly gave her a powerful head butt attack.
The Tamaranean was sent staggering off balance, and she didn't even get the chance to regain firm footing before Abaddon sent a shadow energy orb the size of a bowling ball flying at her. The shadow orb slammed into Starfire's chest and exploded into shadowy smoke with a flash and bang, sending the Tamaranean princess flying backward with a shriek of pain and shock.
Starfire had just managed to get herself back on her hands and knees after this when she suddenly felt something grab her by the neck and yank her upward. She gasped at the sight of Abaddon's glaring face looking her in the eyes as well as his clawed hand clenched around her throat. Abaddon growled, and then stated coldly, "Even the brightest of stars eventually have to go out, and now it is time for your light to be extinguished!"
Ironically enough, immediately after Abaddon said this, he himself suddenly became seemingly enshrouded in light when he abruptly felt himself getting engulfed in electricity. He roared in pain as he was zapped mercilessly in the web of voltage, and he let go of Starfire, who wasted no time to fly as far away from Abaddon as she could. When the electricity web that Abaddon had become ensnared in faded away, the demon remembered how he'd felt something strike him on the back right before he'd gotten electrocuted, and then turned his head to look behind him. Sure enough, he saw none other than Robin standing a couple feet away.
Abaddon snarled, leaned forward towards Robin, and then pawed his left foot back and forth before rushing head-on towards Robin like a Minotaur. Robin remained where he was as Abaddon charged towards him, slightly tensed up as if at the ready to lunge suddenly to the side. Right as the demon was mere seconds away from plowing its horned head into Robin, the boy wonder abruptly somersaulted to his left and out of the way just in time. Abaddon skidded to a stop, jumped around 180 degrees to face Robin again, and proceeded to rush at him a second time. Robin repeated his earlier strategy, but this time to his right, and Abaddon again ended up running right past him without causing any damage.
Abaddon skidded to a stop, jumped a 180 degree angle turn to face Robin once again, and was just about to roar in rage at the boy wonder when he suddenly sensed two large objects heading towards him from either side. He just had time to take a closer look to notice two large bookshelves encased in shadowy energy flying through the air straight towards him. From the way they were positioned, it was clear that he was about to be sandwiched between them. Seconds later, the two bookshelves clashed together with a loud smack.
Raven held the bookshelves in position for at least three minutes before finally releasing them from her hold. The bookshelves fell down hard on their backs, revealing a seemingly empty space in the area where Abaddon had originally been standing. Frowning in suspicion, Raven levitated over to where Abaddon had been standing in order to get a closer look. However, right as she was on her hands and knees examining the area, she suddenly heard a voice from behind her and above saying, "Impressive, unless you were trying to hit me." Raven turned her head just in time to see Abaddon suddenly land on the floor right behind her and then throttle her in the face with a powerful right hook. Raven was sent hurtling upwards before she landed hard on her back.
Abaddon was just preparing himself to attack Raven again, when he suddenly heard the sound of energy blasts and noticed a sonic laser heading towards him from behind him at the exact same time as a salvo of star bolts hurtled towards him from the front. Snarling, Abaddon summoned a shadow force field around himself and the energy blasts harmlessly plowed into the walls of the dome-shaped dark barrier. Five seconds later, noticing a lull in the energy blast onslaught, Abaddon proceeded to lower his force field just in time to see the two titans who'd early been firing energy blasts at him hurtling towards him from their respective directions.
Unfortunately for them, Abaddon was ready, and he unleashed an ear-splitting dragon-like roar. Starfire and Cyborg discovered the hard way that this roar was ultra-sonic when they found themselves getting sent flying backward by the force of the noise waves. At the sight of the Tamaranean princess and partially robotic teenage boy sprawled out on their backs, Abaddon chuckled, and then mockingly stated, "Well that was certainly a roaring success."
Abaddon laughed at his wit, and then turned to face the area where he'd earlier left Robin and Raven lying around just in time to see Beast Boy barreling towards him in the form of a rhinoceros. Right as Beast Boy was inches away from plowing into Abaddon, the demon quickly grabbed onto him by his horn, lifted him upwards, and then slammed him down on the ground on the side opposite the demon.
Hissing in pleasure, Abaddon lifted the green rhinoceros up again. But this time, Beast Boy was ready, and he turned into a gorilla while in mid-air. No sooner had the transformation freed him from Abaddon's grip when he hurriedly grabbed onto Abaddon's bull-like horns in mid-air and positioned himself so that he landed on his feet on the floor, lifting Abaddon upwards in the air as a result of the momentum.
With Abaddon thus incapacitated, Beast Boy the ape proceeded to slam him down on the floor left and right four times before then jumping up and slamming him down even harder than before. The impact from Beast Boy's fifth slam was enough for Abaddon to bounce on the floor three times before skidding to a stop on his belly. Abaddon got back up on his feet just in time to see Beast Boy charging towards him as a grizzly bear, bellowing out a harsh roar of challenge.
Unfortunately, luck was once again not on Beast Boy's side, for Abaddon then proceeded to send a jet of shadow-fire from his palms that crashed into the green bear and sent it rocketing backward. Beast Boy crashed into a wall and crumpled to the floor, groaning in pain.
Abaddon chuckled, and was preparing himself to lunge at Beast Boy when he heard Cyborg yell, "Hey Abby! Try this on for size!"
Abaddon turned his head in the direction he'd heard Cyborg shout just in time to see that the teenage half-robot had uprooted the emblem engraving from the floor and was now swinging it towards him. The solid gold circular engraving slammed into Abaddon with a tremendous bang, sending the knight of Hell flying towards the wall that Starfire had originally been lying down near. Abaddon crashed into the wall, managing to get his bearings just in time to see that Cyborg had now jumped into the air and was now hurtling down towards him with his right fist drawn back as if to punch at him.
Growling, Abaddon thrusted his own right fist forward in a right hook of his own. His fist pounded into Cyborg's chest with such force that Cyborg could have sworn that Abaddon had managed to break the sound barrier before Cyborg himself was then sent rocketing backwards and up through the air before landing hard back on the floor quite a few yards away from Abaddon. The demon snarled when he saw Cyborg slowly get up, and he yelled, "How about you try this on for size," before snapping his fingers. In a flash, Abaddon's own shadow suddenly detached from him, rose up, and then contorted and writhed as it proceeded to take the shape of what looked like a serpentine creature with a dragon's head and four octopus-like tentacles at the base of its body. The entire creature was made out of shadowy energy. No sooner had the creature fully formed when it reared its head back and then abruptly thrusted it in Cyborg's direction, unleashing a savage roar of challenge as it did so. Cyborg just had time to gulp at the sight of Abaddon's shadow monster construct before the creature suddenly slithered towards him at a speed that made it seem like quicksilver.
Abaddon just had enough time to smile snidely at the sight of the creature snap Cyborg up in its jaws before he suddenly found himself having to leap to his left to avoid getting caught in the sudden barrage of explosive fire disks, star bolts, and shadow bombs that came his way alongside a volley of books being chucked at him by Beast Boy in the form of a chimpanzee. Upon reaching a perch at a safe distance away, Abaddon suddenly appeared to blink out of existence and then reappear up on the very center of the ceiling. The titans barely had a chance to notice that before he then started rapidly teleporting again and again, reappearing in random locations within seconds so as to confuse the titans and cause them to aimlessly strike and fire their attacks.
Fortunately, Robin was wise to this trick, and he yelled, "Titans! Back to back compass formation!"
In a flash, Robin leaped into a position that allowed him to face one of the walls, Beast Boy positioned himself back to back with Robin so that he was facing the wall opposite Robin, Raven positioned herself so that she had her back up to the sides of the two boys and was facing the remains of the computer, and Starfire positioned herself with her back up the two boys and facing the doors to the library. Thus positioned, the four titans watched as Abaddon continued to teleport randomly around them while seeming to gradually move closer towards them without giving any hint as to which of them he'd attempt to strike at first. Robin's eyes narrowed, and he said, "Be ready to strike out at any moment." His three companions nodded, tensing themselves so that they'd be ready to attack if necessary.
A couple minutes later, Abaddon suddenly appeared in front of Beast Boy. Unfortunately for the demon, the shape shifter was prepared, and a powerful kick that came from him in the form of a kangaroo sent Abaddon hurtling backward. No sooner had Abaddon been knocked off balance when the four titans proceeded to hit him with everything they had. Robin showed no mercy in his tossing fire and electricity disks at Abaddon, Raven unleashed a storm of shadow orbs, Starfire sent a meteor shower load of star bolts, and Beast Boy unleashed a blinding assault of blows as a kangaroo, giant anteater, and rhinoceros in rapid succession. Over time, this assault was enough to get Abaddon positioned so that he a titan rushing towards him from all four sides. Unfortunately, right as the four teenage heroes were about two feet away from him each, he summoned a ring of shadow orbs around that he then caused to explode right when the titans were an inch in front of them. This fantastic ring of shadow orb explosions blew the four titans away.
Abaddon laughed, grinned snidely at the teenage heroes, and said, "Give up Titans! You can't win!"
Beast Boy got himself on his hands and knees, growled, and then turned into a Utahraptor before rushing towards the demon, snarling viciously. Abaddon chuckled, positioned his hands so that they were a foot or so above the ground, and sent what looked like streams of shadowy smoke pouring onto the floor, which seemingly proceeded to absorb them. When a flat circle of shadowy energy suddenly appeared on the floor centimeters away from Beast Boy's feet, the changeling had just enough time to skid to a stop, snarl in shock, and then turn into an ostrich and run away before the shadowy energy abruptly erupted upward in a fantastic spout of shadowy energy. And even worse, as Beast Boy continued to run, more shadowy spouts proceeded to form on the ground and erupt from there, continuously following Beast Boy's every movement like a heat seeker.
As Abaddon was thus focusing on Beast Boy, he suddenly heard Cyborg yell, "Take this!"
Surprised, Abaddon turned his head just in time to see that not only had Cyborg managed to somehow fight off the shadowy monster he'd been tangling with, but had also sent a large volley of missiles flying towards him. Cursing under his breath, Abaddon summoned a shield, and all the missiles hammered into it harmlessly. With the last of the missiles gone, Abaddon lowered his shield in time to see Cyborg bearing down on him with his fist drawn back. With a sweep of his tail, Abaddon knocked Cyborg's legs out from under him. Cyborg had been lying down on his back for three seconds after this before Abaddon grabbed onto him and proceeded to lift him up so that he was holding Cyborg up in the air directly above him.
Having thus positioned Cyborg like this, Abaddon snarled, and then yelled, "Tenebreo Caelum!" A gigantic bolt of shadowy lightning plunged down on Cyborg exactly one second later.
Cyborg screamed in pain as he was painfully blasted by the shadowy energy blast. When the shadowy lightning bolt vanished, he panted and gasped, and also happened to notice that the blast had been strong enough to jolt his power level down from 90% to 77%. "So this is how enemies of the Marvel family feel," he thought to himself bitterly.
"Tenebreo Caelum!"
Cyborg let out a second pained groan as a second bolt of shadowy lightning speared him in the chest. When this bolt of shadow lightning faded away, Cyborg had just enough time to notice that his power level had now been blasted down to 54% before he then heard Abaddon yell for a third time, "Tenebreo Caelum!"
The agonized howl that Cyborg unleashed upon getting struck by this third shadowy lightning bolt would have deafened a banshee. Seconds after this bolt faded away, Cyborg heard a computer-like voice in his mind say, "Warning, power level 26%."
Abaddon growled, and yelled, "Tenebreo . . . !"
However, this was as far as the demon got before he abruptly got hit in the back by a pair of vivid green laser beams. This sent him stumbling forward and caused him to lose his grip on Cyborg. Abaddon had just managed to turn his head to glare at Starfire before he was then forced to dodge another pair of her eye beams. Before long, he found himself having to deploy a force field around himself as he ended up under fire from both Starfire's eye beams and star bolts and Raven's shadowy blasts. After a few minutes of this, Abaddon caused his force field to explode outward in a rippling shockwave of shadow energy that slammed into the two girls and sent them flying. No sooner had Abaddon blasted the two girl titans out of the air when he snarled, and turned his head to face directly in front of him just in time to see Robin directly in front of him with his sword at the ready. Seconds later, before Abaddon even had a chance to blink, Robin thrusted his sword through the demon's chest.
Abaddon howled in pain, and crumpled onto his hands and knees, his skin becoming engulfed in weakly crackling black lightning. Unfortunately, much to Robin's shock, it soon turned out a minute later that while the sword was indeed causing Abaddon pain, it wasn't apparently enough to kill him. As if to further support this, Abaddon soon reached up, grabbed onto the hilt, and then pulled the sword out of his chest. As Robin and the other Titans gaped at Abaddon in shock, the Knight of Hell proceeded to point the sword at Robin with a look of half irritation and half grudging respect on his face and then hiss, "Well played boy wonder. Well played."
Abaddon tossed the sword over his shoulder, and it slid underneath the emblem engraving lying down on the floor where Cyborg had dropped it after earlier smacking Abaddon with it. Abaddon then pointed his finger at Robin and said, "But you'll need more than a simple demon-killing weapon to slay a knight of Hell! And while we're at it, how about I show you an ace I have up my sleeve!"
The instant Abaddon said this, he snapped his fingers and an elephant-sized orb of shadow energy appeared in the air directly above his head. A second snap of the demon's fingers caused the orb to explode into at least fifty or so rhino-sized shadow orbs that began to fly erratically around the room in random directions.
"Run!" Robin yelled, and he and the other titans promptly began to run off towards a large group of toppled bookshelves just as the multiple shadow orbs began to slam down randomly on the ground like meteors. It was only by sheer luck that all five of the teenage heroes managed to successfully jump up behind the bookshelf barricade and reach safety without getting caught in any of the blasts resulting from the onslaught of shadow meteors.
"You can't hide from me forever!" Abaddon roared. "Sooner or later, you will come back out of hiding, and I will send you on your way to the realm of the dead if it's the last thing I do!"
Robin growled silently as he heard this, and then looked at the other Titans before saying, "I hate to say this, but he has a point. At this rate, we'll be dead before we're even a fraction away from overwhelming him, not to mention my sword is both apparently not strong enough to kill him and is currently unavailable. Any ideas?"
"We could try to exorcise him," Cyborg suggested. He and the other Titans looked to Raven.
"Well," said Raven. "From what I remember it saying in the database before Abaddon blasted it, knights of Hell are just as vulnerable to exorcisms as any other demon. However, it also says that Abaddon has, to date, never been successfully exorcized before. Granted, it doesn't say he's immune, but it does say that no one who's ever tried to exorcise him as ever to date survived against him long enough to finish it. As a result, the Brotherhood of Dante has come to nickname him the Unexorcisable."
Robin growled, rammed his right fist into his left hand, and then said, "Well we'll just have to see how long he still remains worthy of that nickname when we're done with him." He positioned his head to face all four of his team mates, and then said, "Alright titans, you all know that Raven is our exorcist here, so we need to make sure that Abaddon doesn't have any chance at attacking her. Spread out and try to distract as best as you can so that Raven will have enough time to finish reading the exorcism! Got that?"
The other titans nodded their heads, and Robin smiled. "Good," he stated. "Titans go!" Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg promptly jumped out from the hiding place and rushed towards Abaddon while Raven remained crouched behind the makeshift barricade. Within seconds, the four titans that had left the safety zone resumed their battling of Abaddon, making sure to hit him with everything they had and also to further keep him focused on them by goading and taunting him with insults to make him angry. And as they did this, Raven proceeded to summon her book of demonology that contained exorcisms and open it up to the one designed for higher ranking demons and knights of Hell.
Raven silently counted to ten in her mind, and then proceeded to read, "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus . . ."
Unfortunately, seconds later, the Titans' plan suddenly began to go downhill. Mere seconds after Raven began the exorcism and Abaddon felt the distinctive nausea that came to demons when they were being effected by an exorcism, he teleported away from Raven's fellow Titans, reappearing right in front of Raven just as she finished reading the first line of the exorcism.
Raven had just enough time to find herself gaping at Abaddon in shock before the demon swiped the book out of her hands, hurled it away towards the other four titans, and then grabbed her by the throat before lifting her up to his face level. As Raven gasped for air and the other titans found themselves paralyzed with horror as they stared, Abaddon snarled, and derisively hissed, "You dare attempt to exorcise me?!"
Raven panted and gasped in reply, as Abaddon's grip was far too tight for her to really say anything else. Abaddon growled, and then angrily roared, "Out of all the knights of Hell, I am the only one who has never once been exorcised! I have remained that way for the last few millennia, and I will most certainly not allow that record to be lost today, and especially not at the hands of a filthy half breed spawn from the union of a human and a Trigonian demon!"
At this point, Robin was hurriedly flipping through the pages of Raven's discarded book, which had landed near his and Beast Boy's feet. As Beast Boy heard what Abaddon said, he groaned in exasperation, rolled his eyes, and swiped the book from Robin's hands. "Gimme that!" the shape shifter yelled as he grabbed onto several pages and yanked them over, revealing the same exorcism Raven had been reading before getting interrupted. Seconds later, right as Robin was about to indignantly yell at Beast Boy and Abaddon was on the verge of thrusting his claws through Raven's heart, Beast Boy extended his right hand towards Abaddon dramatically while holding the open book in his left hand before angrily yelling, "Spiritus, omnis satanica potestas!"
"What the!?" Abaddon yelled as he jerked his claws to a halt. "Who's reading that?" He stared in shock in the direction he'd heard the suddenly continuing exorcism in time to see Beast Boy still in the same position from mere seconds ago with a defiant snarl on his face.
Growling, Abaddon dropped Raven and started running off towards Beast Boy. However, right as the knight of Hell was halfway between Raven's position and Beast Boy's, Raven got back on her feet, her own left hand extended towards Abaddon much the same way Beast Boy's right hand was and yelled, "Omnis incursio infernalis adversarii!"
Abaddon shrieked in shock and pain, and spun himself around to face Raven, only to screech in shock and pain once more when he heard Beast Boy yell from behind him, "Omnis congregatio!"
And as Abaddon found himself ending up turning his head left and right rapidly in confusion as a result of the tag-team exorcism going on, Beast Boy and Raven worked together to finish the exorcism while Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg looked on in stunned awe.
"Et secta diabolica!" Raven shouted.
"Ergo, draco maledicte!" Beast Boy yelled.
"Ecclesiam tuam secura!" Raven howled.
"Tibi facias!" Beast Boy roared.
"Libertate servire!" Raven snarled.
At that moment, Abaddon finally made the snap decision to resume his hurried racing towards Beast Boy. Unfortunately for the demon, he'd made this decision too late; for in the time it took for him to take seven steps towards Beast Boy, the shape shifter managed to emphatically growl, "Te rogamus, audi nos!"
"NO!" Abaddon roared as his head involuntarily jerked back, his jaws snapped open, and a massive geyser of black smoke erupted from his mouth and into a shadowy vortex that suddenly appeared in the air directly above him. Minutes later, Abaddon himself crumpled into a mass of black smoke that conjoined with the stream that had erupted from his jaws and proceeded to get dragged along with it. And as the bottom end of the now combined spout of smoke rocketed higher up and closer towards the vortex, the very tip of it seemed to take on the shape of a dragon-like head that opened its jaws and let out what sounded like both a dragon-like roar and the word 'no' at the same time. The instant the last of the smoke that had Abaddon had now become entered the vortex, the vortex snapped shut and vanished.
For what seemed like an eternity, the Titans remained standing where they were. Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg looked completely dumbfounded and stunned while Raven and Beast Boy remained calmly standing where they were and gazing blankly at their three speechless friends. Cyborg, finally managing to get his voice back, stated, "Well, it seems that you two have just now exorcised the unexorcisable."
The sound of Cyborg speaking brought Robin's own voice back, and he said, "I daresay, good job," before looking at Beast Boy with a still rather surprised look on his face. "Beast Boy," he asked. "How did you do that?"
Beast Boy raised his eyebrow. "How did I do what?"
Robin gestured weakly at the area where Abaddon had been hovering over the floor while in the midst of suffering the effects of the finished exorcism. "That. How were you able to exorcise Abaddon alongside Raven? I thought Raven was the only one among us who had the power to exorcise demons."
Beast Boy made a silent 'oh,' and then looked at Raven, his eyes seeming to silently ask her what to do. Raven nodded her head up and down in a clear gesture of 'yes'. Beast Boy nodded, took a deep breath, and then said to Robin, "You know how Raven and I were the ones who went out to pick up our lunch for today?"
. . . . .
Hours earlier, Raven and Beast Boy were at the Titans' favorite pizza joint, waiting for the pizzas they'd ordered to go to finish so that they could take it back to the tower. As they were waiting at their usual table, Beast Boy found himself staring intently at Raven out of the corner of his eyes. From her outward appearance, it looked as if Raven were completely calm. Beast Boy, however, had a feeling that she had something on her mind that she wasn't all that keen on voicing at the moment. And the fact that he himself still had both the exorcism from that morning and the attack from the previous night on his mind only served to strengthen this belief that he shared with all the animals in his mind.
As he had the thought, Beast Boy found himself wondering something else that had been on his mind ever since Raven had finished the exorcism that morning. Before long, he abruptly stated, "Hey Raven? Can I ask you something?"
This statement momentarily caught Raven off guard. She managed to regain her composure a few seconds later, and she said, "Well you technically just did . . ." At the sight of Beast Boy hanging his head down and groaning, she swiftly recovered by stating, "But yes, you can go ahead and ask me something else."
The shape shifter exhaled in a mixture of relief and exasperation, looked Raven in the eyes, and asked, "I've been thinking about certain matters of religion, and I've over time found myself wondering, how is it that you are capable of exorcizing demons? I thought that power only came from the authority of God and Jesus."
Raven's eyebrows raised in surprise. She had not expected Beast Boy to be that knowledgeable about his religion in spite of his lapse in maintaining full loyalty to it. She thought to herself, and then stated truthfully, "Before I left Azarath and came to Earth five years ago, Azar thought that I should be able to defend myself appropriately if I were ever attacked by demons. And so, she used her own spiritual power to grant me the ability to exorcise demons."
Beast Boy raised his eyebrow in further confusion as if to ask Raven how it was possible for Azar to have that kind of authority, and the sorceress explained, "In the Azarathian culture, the authority to banish demons from the realm of the living back to Hell comes from both their equivalent of God, and the Azarathian angels. However, unlike in the religious cultures of Earth, the spiritual leaders of Azarath are capable of choosing a successor to share their power to exorcise, and in Azar's case, I was that chosen successor."
"Hmm," Beast Boy said. He then nodded, and asked, "Hypothetically, is it possible for Azarathian spiritual leaders like Azar to grant this power to multiple different people over the course of her life time? Or is it a onetime deal?"
"That depends," said Raven. "As Azar is a full-fledged religious leader in Azarath, she has the power to choose a second successor if her first successor chooses not to take the position in her place when her time to step down comes. However, such a situation in which a second successor has had to be chosen has rarely ever happened."
Beast Boy nodded, then seemed to take on an expression that made him look as if he were considering whether or not to ask Raven something else. A minute or two later, he seemed to come to a decision, and he said, "Hypothetically, as Azar's chosen successor, could you perhaps allow your exorcism powers to be shared with others the way she can?"
Raven thought to herself, feeling slightly confused as to why Beast Boy seemed so interested in this topic. Eventually, she decided that she might as well humor him, and she said, "Yes and no. I can indeed choose a person to share my exorcist powers with. However, unlike Azar, as I am not a full-fledged Azarathian spiritual leader, I can only do this with one person."
"Only one?" Beast Boy asked in a tone that sounded both surprised and awed.
Raven nodded in the affirmative.
Beast Boy whistled, and then said, "Wow, I guess that means you'll definitely have to make your decision count when you make it."
"Indeed," said Raven.
Beast Boy chuckled slightly, took a deep breath, and then said, "Well in that case, if it's ok with you, I'd like to be that person."
This comment caught Raven completely off guard, and she found herself gaping at Beast Boy with her eyes widened. After what seemed like an eternity, Raven finally managed to regain her voice, and she said, "You . . . want to be . . . my successor?"
Beast Boy nodded, his eyes closed in agreement.
Raven panted in surprise as she tried to think up a reasonable response. "Beast Boy," she stated. "Are you sure you want this? I can't share this power with anyone else if I give it to you, and this ability can be just as much of a burden as it can be a blessing. Are you absolutely positive you want it?"
"Yes Raven," he growled. "I do; and if you don't want to give it to me, then at least don't share it with Robin. All I ask is that you at least share it with someone other than Robin if you don't pick me."
At the sound of this, Raven found herself very surprised. "What do you mean?"
Beast Boy sighed, and then responded, "Look Raven, I get that we don't have very much in common, but I value you as a friend just as much as I'm sure you do for me and the others. But with me, I just don't think our friendship is nearly as strong as it is between you and any of the others. I mean come on, you and Cyborg get to have your time together to work on the T-Car, you and Starfire meditate together, and of course you also have that oh so special Vulcan mind meld mental link between you and Robin."
Raven's eyes widened at the slight bitter tone that Beast Boy had when he brought up her and Robin's strong mental bond, but before she could say anything, Beast Boy said, "Maybe I'm not being entirely as selfless as I could be in asking you to share your exorcism abilities with me, but I just want something that we can share between us the way you have something of that nature between Robin, Star, and Cy."
At the sound of this Raven gulped, hung her head, and responded, "Wow, I never realized you felt that way, but we already share the knowledge of what it's like to have a broken heart, and the knowledge of what it's like to struggle with a literal inner monster, and also what it's like to have abnormal skin coloring."
"I know that Raven, but I want more than that!"
Raven reared back in shock.
Beast Boy winced at the sight of this, and he hurriedly said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to explode like that." He sighed, hanging his head, and then lifted it back up before saying, "Look Raven, what I'm trying to say is that I want something for us to share between only the two of us that is both corporeal and entirely beneficial. And also, I want to be able to easily protect you from those demons like I wish I could have when I saw you in the midst of you battle against that Luciferian thunder demon last night."
The changeling directed a more serious look at Raven, and then said, "Don't try to deny it Raven. I saw how your battle against that particular demon was going last night before you managed to be lucky enough to get a lucky break, and I can tell that if circumstances had unfolded in a more unfavorable way, then you could have died against that demon."
Raven's eyebrows rose in shock, but she hastily recovered and then said, "I don't know what you're talking about Beast Boy."
Beast Boy sighed, hung his head, and then lifted it up with his eyes closed. "Raven, you may be capable of lying to Cyborg, it's a given that you can lie to Star, maybe it's possible in spite of your mental link with him to lie to Robin, and maybe you are somehow even capable of lying to yourself."
He sighed again, opened his eyes, and then growled in a mixture of exasperation and desperation, "But you can't lie to me!"
Beast Boy stood up, pointed at Raven, and said, "I saw how tired and weakened you were becoming during your battle with that thunder demon even while I was in the midst of trying to keep myself alive while fighting the fire demon, and both me and my animal instincts could tell without even needing to hear you say it that you could have very easily been killed by that thing. And do not deny it, I mean it! We both know that it's true!"
Raven opened her mouth, then thought to herself, and then nodded in the affirmative.
Beast Boy sighed in relief, nodded his own head up and down, and then said, "Watching you like that, and not being able to do anything. You don't know how guilty and self hateful I felt for seeing you like and being unable to help you. I was so tired and weakened by that point myself that not even the Beast was able to intervene in time.
"And also, with the demons we exorcized this morning almost certainly spreading the word down in Hell, it probably won't be too long before it becomes common knowledge that you're capable of exorcizing them. With that in mind, the next time we ever encounter any, odds are high that you'll very possibly be among the first of us to be targeted by them. And I don't want you to have to suffer that burden alone."
Beast Boy took a deep breath, exhaled, and then continued, "And finally, I know that this might make me look supremely selfish, but I want you to share your exorcism powers with either me or at least any other person apart from Robin." He looked at Raven and continued, "I don't know why but, ever since our experiences with your father, I've found myself feeling just so . . . well . . . jealous of Robin in regard to you. I mean, I know that I really shouldn't but, ever since we defeated Trigon, I found myself making notes of all the things he's done for you during that time and before then, and how strong your friendship with him is, and I've found myself unable to help but feel as if I'm perpetually overshadowed by him no matter what I do for you."
The changeling turned his head to gaze at the tower, and with a slightly bitter tone reentering his voice, he explained, "I mean, I took a more or less free tour of your inner mindscape alongside Cyborg, yet Robin's the one with a practically permanent telepathic mental link with you. I'm the one who knew exactly how you felt after Malchior broke your heart, yet Robin's the one you freed from the effects of the time stopping spell while I had to remain frozen in mid-morph and on the bench while he fought alongside you against Slade. I'm the one who shares your knowledge of what it's like to struggle with a living inner darkness that's making every effort to claw its way out, yet he's the one who stepped up the plate and attempted to talk you out of becoming the portal. And don't get me started on how he was the one who accompanied Slade to search for you. It's almost been a full year since then and the Beast still won't let me hear the end of it."
Beast Boy sighed, turned his head to face Raven with a surprisingly weary and depressed look on his face, and said, "Look Raven, I get it that I'm probably making myself look like a selfish jerk by saying all this, but it's just that, after all he's done to make me feel second best, and especially since he already has that sword that grants him the power to protect us against demons by killing them, I want to be more or less on equal footing with him in regard to protection against demons through sharing your ability to exorcise them. I know it's a lot to ask, but for the sake of our friendship and what we already do have between us, please at least grant me this wish."
Raven was rendered speechless, yet also slightly proud and admiring, by Beast Boy's heartfelt speech. Gulping, she hung her head, thought to herself, and then took one more look at Beast Boy's depressed and weary face before immediately making her decision. She lifted up her right hand, gestured for Beast Boy to straighten himself up, and when Beast Boy did so, she placed her right hand on the top of his head before closing her eyes, concentrating, and then saying with her eyes opened and completely white, "By the authority placed upon me by Azar, I bestow upon you the power to banish demons from the realm of the living and back to Hell."
No sooner had Raven said this, when her hand glowed with a blinding white light that spread onto Beast Boy to the point that he himself was engulfed in an aura of the same brilliant light. After a few minutes, and with a small flash of light, Beast Boy was revealed to still be slightly glowing with light before the aura eventually faded away entirely, and Raven's eyes took on their normal color.
After a few minutes of silence, Raven said, "How do you feel?"
Beast Boy thought to himself, and then smiled before responding, "Surprisingly, I actually feel pretty good, not to mention strangely warm and powerful inside for some reason."
Raven nodded. "That's good to hear." She then looked back towards the doors leading from the pizzeria rooftop patio to the interior of the restaurant, lifted her hand off of Beast Boy's head, and said, "Come on, let's go see if the pizza's ready. With luck, the next time we encounter and exorcise any demons, you'll be able to put your potential new powers to good use."
. . . . .
Hours later, at the library of the local Brotherhood of Dante headquarters, Raven and Beast Boy told the other titans about that incident. However, for the sake of diplomacy and preserving Robin's feelings, they omitted the matter of Beast Boy's lingering jealousy and feelings of being second best towards Robin. In spite of this though, Robin had a feeling that there was something that his two chromatically challenged friends had left out. But in light of how he and the other Titans had already gone through enough that day in his opinion, he chose mercifully to not push the issue any further. Instead, he nodded in acceptance of what Raven and Beast Boy had talked about in regard to Beast Boy's now having exorcist powers, and said to Raven, "Well I can definitely say that you made a good choice Raven. I honestly think that Beast Boy was an excellent choice for you to share those abilities with."
Beast Boy's widened in shock when he heard this. He hastily recovered before Robin could see it. The action, however, did not go unnoticed to Cyborg, who raised his human eyebrow inquisitively.
The titans were then brought back down to Earth when they heard an electronic voice say, "Threat neutralized. Emergency lockdown deactivating." Seconds later, they heard the sound of the heavy barrier on the other side of the doors rising up, and then they both heard and saw the doors to the library open.
Upon sight of this, Robin addressed all four of his teammates, "Come on team, let's go find Master Novak and the other senior members. I have a feeling that they probably have backup copies of their database on a flash drive or two. And if so, I have a feeling we're going to need to borrow one so that we can continue our research at the tower. I'm thinking that with the computer in this library destroyed, and with Savage having gone so far as to send a knight of Hell after us, we're going to need to work double time tomorrow to try to figure out a logical theory about what it is Savage is trying to find out for the sake of Lucifer's plot."
With that decision having been made, the titans promptly left the library to go find the Brotherhood of Dante members, only pausing long enough for Robin to retrieve his sword from where Abaddon had tossed it away. They now knew that it would definitely be worthwhile to continue their efforts that they'd begun that day at the Brotherhood of Dante headquarters. However, not one of them noticed a single purple demon fly above the glass roof and away from the headquarters to head off in the direction leading to the coastal forest located to the south of Jump City.
And just like that, another chapter has been completed! ^_^ I hope you guys all enjoyed it and that you leave lots of reviews! I especially hope you enjoyed the fight scene! I really enjoyed writing this one, and I feel very proud of how it turned out. I especially hope you guys enjoyed all the BBRae stuff I included in having them double team Abaddon with the exorcism and having that little flashback conversation.
On another note, here are a few comments I wish to make to TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne. In light of what you said to me in a PM a while back regarding the previous chapter, I'm really sorry that this chapter has proven so long. Hopefully, this one will at least be more exciting to you than the previous one. On another note, since I'm sure you might potentially have some things to say to me in regard to my portrayal of Abaddon, let's just say that for the sake of this story and take on the DC universe, he is an umbrakinetic. Also, my thing about him (at least until this recent battle of his) being considered unexorcisable is based on how his counterpart in Supernatural (which happens to be a female, believe it or not) is entirely immune to exorcisms. The thing about Robin's sword not killing him is also based on how his counterpart in Supernatural proved immune to being killed by (but still at least feeling extreme pain from) a special knife that serves the same purpose in that universe as Robin's sword in this story. Finally, I also hope you find my explanation of how Raven is capable of exorcising demons (not to mention my immediate explanation for Beast Boy suddenly being able to do the same) is acceptable for you. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this chapter ^_^.
Coming up next: Vandal Savage finds out about his latest failure in assassinating the Teen Titans, which later leads to him and Slade cutting ties as well as to the immortal intelligent cave man having a discussion with Lucifer that leads to a change of plans in regard to finding what he needs to help the latest plot of the devil come to fruition. Meanwhile, the very next day, the Titans continue their research at the tower with help from a handy flash drive provided to them by the Brotherhood of Dante and manage to make a major breakthrough in the process.