Halloween special (late as f-) for fun :D Wanted to Write Avenger's FF, but still was working on TT stuff. More TT coming soon (possibly Avengers and more)!
"This," Raven muttered as they reached the doorstep, "Is it?"
Cyborg nodded. "Of course!"
"Why wouldn't we just have it at one of the Towers?" She asked, pulling her cloak toward her to ward off the chill.
He tapped her on the chakra, causing her to hiss at him. "Because the Teen Titans are not hosting this time."
"What?" She raised an eyebrow.
He grinned. "We're invited to the Big Hero Halloween Bash!"
"Bash?" She did the math in her head. "That equals not a fun time for me."
Cyborg patted her on the head and rang the doorbell. "You'll be fine."
"Most people wouldn't force their friends to do things that make them uncomfortable." She challenged.
He only shrugged. "We're already late, I didn't have time to convince you."
She sighed. A voice, instead of a person, came from the door. "Who may I ask is attempting to enter?" It was female, European...Irish?
"Cyborg and Raven. We're late."
"So I see." It answered, almost amused. "Well, I suppose you must join the rest of them."
Cyborg nearly blushed in front of the technological marvel before him. "Yeah, heh-heh, thanks, Friday."
"You're welcome, Cy." It answered kindly.
The door unlocked and they were allowed access into an ornate, high-tech lobby. It reminded her of the Tower, if they'd had a bigger budget when they built the place.
"You're on nickname terms with the disembodied voice?" She asked him.
"If you came to more parties, Rae, you would be, too."
She firmly believed that she would not.
"Sorry bout' that, Ms. Roth," The voice spoke again. "Could I take your cloak?"
She nearly had a heart attack at the name. How did it know her last name?!
"No, thank you…Friday?" She answered monotonously.
The air felt like it was apologetic. "Very well, Ms. Roth."
"Raven. Please." She answered, feeling foolish beyond belief.
They crossed the lobby and the voice did not speak again. Cyborg tapped the elevator buttons for "up", and Raven had a feeling they were headed to the top of this tower.
"Penthouse." He grinned. She rolled her eyes, unimpressed.
The elevator looked over portions of the building. It was made of glass; outside the pane was laboratories, engineering projects, and a whole plethora of technology that Cyborg nearly drooled over. She guessed that they were nearing their "party" destination when the outside disappeared and nothing but stone was visible before them. She almost tapped her foot, but restrained herself. Cyborg looked too excited, so she tried to reign in her disdain for the evening events to come. As the elevator climbed slowly higher to the penthouse suite, she vaguely observed his appearance.
They'd been late. Partly because she'd refused to set down her book before she'd finished her chapter and partly because he couldn't decide what he wanted to wear for a costume. It wasn't many occasions that Cyborg and Raven had time alone together, but when that inevitably did happen, they usually had a nice, quiet and pleasant time. This was the first time, though, that she'd ever helped Cyborg decide on his outfit. This was probably because his body was metal and he didn't require further attire, and because of this it was an odd experience.
"Raven!" He'd yelled, exasperated. "PLEASE?"
She set down the book on the coffee table and massaged her temple. He was lucky she was done. "What?"
He poked his head into the living room. "You know what!"
She sighed and followed him back to his room and leaned against his metal bed. "Fine."
"YES!" He grinned from ear to ear.
A whirlwind of clothes flew past her, hit her or landed at her feet. "Whoo-hoo." She answered.
He'd narrowed it down by then, but needed her advice on the last three options. "Okay, we got Frankenstein, complete with real electric shocks," He pulled out a wig and two screws for his neck.
"At least you'll finally have hair." She commented. He wasn't amused.
"OR," He pulled out a huge flannel shirt and an axe. Her eyes widened. "Lumberjack, complete with pancakes!" He picked up a plate from the desk that had what looked like six hour old pancakes and crusty syrup.
"Pass." She replied. "You look more like the guy on the paper towels."
Finally he pulled out purple spray paint and a fuzzy accent for his arms, legs and head. "Sully: Monster's Inc." He declared with finality.
She looked over the fuzz, the fake tail and imagined the color-coded idea. "Yes."
"BOOYAH!" he exclaimed both overjoyed and annoyed. "Was that SO hard?"
"Yes."
In the end it only took a little while to get the fuzzy accents and the spray paint right, but in the end he still couldn't get Raven to dress in anything other than her crime-fighting outfit.
"Come'on! You could be 'bunny Raven' again." He had smirked, pulling out black rabbit ears. She thought she would deck him on the nose, but decided to transport them to Stark Tower by dark forces instead.
"So we wouldn't be too late." She'd said. He had the creepy-crawlies and complained that they had left his car behind.
Now they were in the elevator, and she took in his costume and smiled. He did look good. She almost regretted not dressing up. Not as 'bunny Raven' of course, but anything would have been fun to put together. Perhaps 'Priestess of Azarath'?
The doors pinged and they had arrived. They opened slowly to reveal a dark, epic room that was decorated in dimmed lights, a bar, dancefloor and expensive furniture. Halloween-themed music came from the speakers and the view outside was littered with Christmas lights that were shades of white, orange and purple. Their friends were there, along with the Avengers she'd heard so much about. From what she could see so far, they looked just as impressive as they did on TV. Titan's East was present, a few stray other Titans here and there, along with some strange characters that wreaked of X-Men. Bat Man didn't seem to be in attendance, to which she was grateful, for Robin's sake.
"Don't they know we're under the drinking age?"
Cyborg shrugged. "I've only got another year before I can drink. I don't think it matters to them much. Besides, it's not for us anyway."
She guessed he was right. Why prevent them from having some wine on Halloween just because they were hosting the 'Teen' Titans. It was as if the whole party turned at once to see them enter and she blushed a little under her hood.
"Welcome, Friends!" Called Thor, a large blonde man that didn't believe in sleeves. He rounded upon Cyborg. "Metal man! You are late, I see." Cyborg chuckled.
"Sorry bout' that. Raven here was helping me with my costume and I just couldn't decide. She was real nice about it, though." He nudged her, turning the attention on her.
Raven nodded without a smile. Thor didn't seem perturbed.
"Welcome young bird! I am Thor!" She nodded again in greeting. "You remind me of my brother," He placed his hands on her shoulders roughly and bellowed out a laugh. He reminded her of some king that drank too much and partied too hard.
She didn't know the significance of reminding Thor of his brother, but by Cyborg's face it didn't seem all too great of a compliment.
"Raven! Cy!" Beast Boy's voice came from behind the gargantuan man. Everyone else's attention had left them for now. "About time, guys. Jeez." Thor left them with Beast Boy to rejoin the party.
"He was modeling for me." Raven responded, deadpan. Beast Boy burst into laughter.
"I'm sure you loved every second!" He winked at her. She rolled her eyes. "Come'on let me show you around!"
Cyborg nodded in the direction of the food which was lavishly spread out on the bar. "I'm going that way."
"You would." Beast Boy answered. Secretly he'd already had about seven cookies shaped like bats. "This way!" he pulled her along with him.
She took in his costume while she 'followed'. He was dressed like 'Soul Eater': black suit and a red tie. She noticed he was even wearing cufflinks with little skulls and black dress shoes. His fangs worked perfectly with the costume and she, again, regretted not dressing up a little.
"I'm surprised you didn't dye your hair white." She mumbled. His ears twitched, catching her words over the music.
"That's more like bleach, Rae." He grinned at her. "Star and Robin are dressed like Neo and Trinity from the Matrix, you gotta see them!"
He led her in and out of hallways and rooms that all seemed to cost more than their whole tower. She doubted it, but it was lavish nonetheless. The main room, she realized had a few floors that seemed to fit everyone in rings above them.
They passed strangers she didn't know: Jean Gray, Scott Summers (One a witch and one a gladiator). They met up with old friends: Aqualad, who was dressed as himself and told her that going without a costume was perfectly fine, Bumblebee who was ironically dressed as a cat, Speedy was Robin Hood (of course) and Mas Y Menos were dressed as a Matador and a bull. For some reason Jinx was there, making both Bee and Cyborg uncomfortable with their awkward history, but Wally was ecstatic that she'd agreed to come with him. She was dressed in a red tango dress, and he insisted on keeping a rose in his mouth while they talked. Jinx rolled her eyes, but blushed when he tickled her with the petals. Beast Boy told Raven that she should meet some girl named Negasonic…something. He claimed that the two of them would get along, but when he pointed at her across the room, she didn't think they would. After all, the girl was glued to her phone.
Then again, Raven was glued to her books.
X-men of all kinds introduced themselves, and Natasha Romanoff, someone that Raven highly respected, told her she had nice eyes.
"About time we met you." She accused. "You're always invited you know."
Raven looked the woman up and down. "I'll try to keep that in mind." But she smiled.
Their tour finally ended at the balcony view outside which was…
"Stunning…" She whispered. Beast Boy tried to hide his smile but couldn't.
"I know." He answered. "Oh, my gosh, Raven!"
She whipped around at his tone of voice. "What!?" He sounded shocked.
"The MONSTER MASH!" He tried pulling her back inside with him, but she was rooted where she was.
"I think I'll skip it." She told him forcefully. He looked like he was going to protest but was wasting precious seconds of song-time. He told her he'd be right back, and that if she got hungry to go get food. She remembered the plethora of sugary snacks and grimaced inside. "Sure thing."
He was gone.
She looked out over the view again, the whole thing was beautiful. Jump City was also beautiful, but their tower was estranged from it, on its own island for the protection of the city in case someone tried to take it down. This view, though, was right in the city. Imagine how much quicker the Avengers did what they needed to do when they were right in the middle of it all.
"What are you doing?" Came a soft voice from behind her. She turned slowly, composed. A woman stood before her, dressed in a soft red sweater. Her hair was auburn and equally soft looking. Raven, for some reason, felt at peace near her.
She gestured a hand out at the city. "Looking."
Back at the party, while Beast Boy was showing off his inner 'monster' during the 'mash', Titans and Avengers alike were getting to know each other and each other's powers. Speedy and Hawkeye were battling it out by braining pumpkins in windowsills with arrows while Robin and Steve were discussing training methods. Robin was in awe of the Captain, and was taking down everything he said about being a good leader.
Tony nudged Bruce playfully while Cyborg gushed about everything he'd seen in their collaborative lab projects. He held up his arm (which he'd detached from his body) and showed them his own personal tricks of the trade.
"I could always get you some new stuff, if you need it." Tony suggested. Cyborg smiled but shook his head.
"No offense, Mr. Stark, but I do my own upgrades."
On the other side of the room, somehow, Beast and Logan had gotten into an arm wrestling match. It was shortly after the Wolverine had commented on how Beast's fuzzy blue fur reminded him of Cyborg's costume and 'Why didn't he dress up as Sully for Halloween'? This escalated into a tournament, which left a few casualties (of the prideful persuasion) in its wake. In the final battle, Thor and Starfire went toe to toe. The Asgardian god was close to winning, but in the end, Starfire's strength won out. The only one who could have beat her would have been the Hulk, but Bruce was content in the corner with his mojito, just watching.
"This small girl is NOT Asgardian?" Thor asked again, for the third time.
Robin beamed with pride. "Nah. Tamaranean."
"Never have I heard of such a world."
"Of course you haven't, brother." Loki appeared. "You don't get out much."
Starfire's eyes darkened a little at seeing the trickster god. "I remember you."
He held up his (bound) hands in surrender. "Sorry about that, Princess. I was under the impression your world was still run by Empress Blackfire, and overstayed my welcome."
Starfire nodded. "You did."
"Brother," Thor face-palmed. "You've been banned from yet another planet?"
Loki shrugged. "I deserved it this time."
"But you do NOT regret the attack on Earth?"
Robin removed Starfire from this squabble and went to chat with Rogue and Bobby (Dressed as Bonnie and Clyde), another 'power' couple. They remarked on the irony that both relationship was split in half. One with and without powers. While Rogue's powers were willfully given away for love, Robin still gave her a knowing look. They weren't helpless, and they appreciated their partners' power.
The adults of the party, now no longer occupied by the arm wrestling match, had returned to their light drinking and mingling with teenagers.
Tony, now on his third whiskey, went in search of the bathroom through the sea of young supers and X-men. Pepper was the one, after all, who suggested they invite the 'kids'. He'd protested, claiming that he wanted to get drunk as a skunk instead, but she'd shot back and won the argument.
"Tony," She'd said, slowly. "These 'kids' are the future of crime-fighting. You could teach them something. Or learn something from them, honestly. Besides, you're always drunk as a skunk."
"Not in costume…" He grumbled, touching up his bow-tie to complete his look as Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Regardless, he found the bathroom, pushing past a long-haired mini-Loki-looking kid who wore a lot of blue and had scales. He sighed in relief when he opened the door and stepped into…
"The kitchen?" He whipped around in circles. He could feel his bladder protesting the surprise. "What-" he ran to the double doors of the commercial-sized room, expecting to end up in a great dining room, and ended up in the lobby. He nearly had a heart attack. "How drunk am I?" He counted the whiskeys. Three? Three was totally a proper amount. He wasn't even buzzed!
"What is happening?" Came a voice from across the room. It was Bucky, dressed as a 1920s gangster. He had emerged from a broom closet, his gaze scanning the lobby, a little frantic. "Tony?"
Tony shook his head. "Loki?"
Bucky shook his head. "He's bound by some…I dunno, magic rope?"
They rushed to the elevator and headed up to the penthouse. The workshops, labs and floors upon floors of Stark Tower rushed past them. Finally, the view turned to stone and they were reaching their destination. The doors opened to the party, they both sighed in relief, about to pummel Loki (even if he was innocent), but when they stepped off the elevator they were shocked to find that they had, once again, warped back to the lobby.
"What in the good goddamn is happening!?" Tony blinked.
Bucky breathed deeply, attempting to maintain some control. "Okay. Clearly the doorways are rigged. We just go upstairs, hold the elevator doors open, and then shout for help."
"Shout for help?" Tony was skeptical about the plan.
Bucky crossed his arms.
"Fine. Fine." Tony waved away his angry expression. "Come'on."
Loki crisscrossed his way through the party, both bored and disappointed. He'd expected super-powered teenagers to be more of an entertaining mess than this turned out to be. They were all generally polite, well-rounded (albeit troubled in their own way). Almost like himself, if they had even a shred of mal-intent. Alas, they were a pack of post-pubescent do-good-ers with overly imaginative visions of grandeur.
He leaned against a steel girder that held the windows in place. From there he had both a view of the disappointing Halloween party, and the balcony.
The balcony? He thought.
Outside were two women and a girl. He recognize agent Romanoff immediately, her hips and hairstyle were impossible to miss. With her was Wanda, which was common nowadays, and finally a girl. One of the 'teens'. He squinted and attempted to get a better look, but when she turned her head a fraction of an inch, he was startled to see that her eyes were glowing white. When they locked eyes, green to white, hers stopped glowing. He realized that their natural color was more of a violet. A striking violet that matched her hair.
Inhuman. Very inhuman. He thought to himself. What was she doing?
Romanoff saw him 'lurking' (She called it that. He called it participant observation) and stomped toward him, opening the door and beckoning him outside.
"Onto the balcony? With you?" he emphasized his bound hands and dramatically 'peered over the edge'. "I don't think so."
She rolled her eyes. "Come on, you ass." She pulled him outside and plopped him on one of the lounging couches. "Did you see anything?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"Doesn't matter, now you're in on it. Right girls?"
Wanda looked as if she would have preferred NOT to include the trickster god in their affairs.
"Wanda." He nodded at her. She averted her gaze. "Natasha." It was almost like he was counting them. "And you."
"Raven." She supplied.
"Pleasure."
She crossed her arms. "Are you sure?" He looks like he's swallowed a whole lemon. She thought.
He smiled. "Ah. Apologies". He extended his bound hands, one of them open in handshake-like greeting. She took it without fear. Loki frowned. His own illusionist magic was picking up her aura. He was frowning because he was realizing (regrettably) that she was more powerful than him. "Hm."
He wasn't exactly human himself, being a frost giant wasn't really something to flaunt around, but her inhuman affect seemed to stem from something far darker than frost giant. His skin prickled a little.
"What are you three doing?"
"We're just having some fun." Natasha grinned down at Raven. "Tony and Bucky have been having an off night."
"What have you done?"
Wanda sighed, relenting to their new 'partner in crime'. "We've been transporting them all around the tower. Right now they're on the elevator for the third time." She thought it was a little funny, but once Vision found out she knew she'd get that look from him again. She thought about all the ways she'd like to make it up to him, but also knew that it would make him incredibly uncomfortable.
"Is that why the elevator keeps opening and closing for no reason?" Loki asked.
Raven shrugged. "It's not for no reason."
"Well," He smiled. "I must say I like it."
Agent Romanoff rolled her eyes. "You would. Come on, one more time and then we'll let them go.
Tony and Bucky were in the Lobby yet again.
This time, teenagers were slowly drifting out of the tower, tired from the festivities. It was a little after midnight, and quite frankly, Tony couldn't blame the little Supers. He was exhausted from this whole magical game of 'hide the party', and was about to explode when one of his guests thanked him graciously for inviting them to his home. It was a girl, pink haired and small with big blue eyes. She grinned widely.
He released an angry breath and murmured: "Sure thing, kid," with a smile.
After seeing off another group of teens and a couple of X-Men, he and Bucky (who was growing more impatient at this point) turned their attention back to the elevator of the damned.
"What about the stairs?" Bucky suggested.
Tony gave him a poisonous look. "I may be 'Iron Man' but I'm not the one with bionic muscles. Do you know how FAR it is up those stairs?"
"What do you want from me?" Bucky threw his arms out. "We could always run through doorways to see if one of them leads us to the party."
"No, I think whoever is doing this knows where we are and only warps the doorways we go through."
Bucky looked at the elevator with distaste. "Fine."
"Ready?" Tony asked.
"Ready." Bucky replied.
One last time the angry duo rode the elevator up to the penthouse suite. Neither of them wanted this last trip to be in vain, but they had no other choice. The doors opened and they both thrust out their arms, holding them in place.
"THOR!" Tony yelled. "Where's that brother of yours!"
Thor turned from the bar, nursing some Asgardian mead. "Wha?"
"LOKI!" Bucky yelled to clarify.
Thor turned around, searching. He came up empty and shrugged. "I cannot say, friends. Why are you hesitating in the lifter?"
They looked at each other, too embarrassed to say that they'd been had. Tony, however, feeling that it was finally safe with Loki out of sight, took a step out of the elevator. He was fine; not in the lobby.
"Phew." He closed his eyes in relief. "I'm telling you, Loki was definitely behind this." He opened his eyes again and was… in the bathroom alone. He was about to storm out and demand answers when he remembered that he still needed to take a piss. "Alright, you win this round."
Bucky blinked in surprise when Tony had vanished into some sort of black hole in the floor. He checked his feet but was seemingly out of danger for now. Everyone who had witnessed Tony's disappearing act was now focused on Bucky, who seemed frozen in the elevator.
"Ohhhh!" Beast Boy smacked his forehead. "I get it!"
Bucky looked at the young, green man and pointed with his metal arm. "Can you stop this…whatever it is!?"
Beast Boy laughed, nudging Cyborg who tried to hide his smile behind his fuzzy arm. He didn't want to anger the man with the metal arm, mostly because he was scared of him, and also because Bucky was pretty damn cool.
"Yeah, we can stop this. Hold on, try not to fall through the floor." He laughed the whole way to the balcony, which for some reason, had gone dark. He couldn't see out onto it, but knew who he would find. "Rae! What are you doing? Not that I mind, it's great to see you pull some jokes but—"
His jaw dropped. On the balcony Agent Romanoff (who he'd had a crush on for forever but not so much anymore) was wearing Raven's leotard and cloak. The red pendant around her shoulders matched her hair perfectly, but was absent the chakra that he was used to. Raven, on the other hand, was wearing a black jumpsuit (very cat woman), with a gun holstered to her hip and the zip a little undone on her chest. Seeing him, she finished zipping it all the way to her neck.
"That'll get uncomfortable after a while." Natasha commented. She swished around in Raven's cloak which was a little too short for her.
Loki had his hands over his eyes. "Are you done playing dress-up now? Can I remove my hands?"
Natasha tapped his arm and he did lower them.
Raven shrugged. "Hey, Beast Boy."
"Wha-uh, what?" he felt hot under her gaze and blinked. "What are you doing, again?"
She cracked the smallest smile. "Learning a few pranks from them."
Wanda wiggled glowing red fingers and Natasha winked. Loki shrugged as if to say: I had nothing to do with this.
He shook his head, hard, remembering why he'd come out here. "Right! Uh, yeah! No, seriously, hilarious, like I'm pretty proud, but you gotta let Cyborg's idol go or he won't forgive you."
She rolled her eyes. "Alright."
Natasha "Awww'd", seeming disappointed. "I guess we have to change back now, huh?"
Raven looked down at the jumpsuit and sighed. It was fun, honestly.
Beast Boy hurriedly added. "No! I mean, nah, we're gonna stay a little longer. Don't rush."
Raven nearly blushed. "Whatever."
The rest of the party was a mix of apologetic laughter on Natasha's part, polite nods from Raven and Wanda trying to sweet-talk Vision out of being parent-like. He softened up and that was that. Tony emerged from the bathroom, too tired to argue. When he'd found out it wasn't Loki doing the pranks, he was incredulous.
"Huh. Not what I was expecting from the 'Absent Teen Titan'." (Referring to her missing most of their parties).
She shrugged and told him that if he invited her more he might regret it now, but he (now knowing what she could do) was more interested than ever to have some sort of demon-witch nearby.
Loki told her later: "You remind me of myself. When I was your age." Albeit more powerful. I dislike this. He thought.
"What does that even mean?" She asked, remembering what Thor had said to her earlier. They were about to leave, her clothes changed back to the way that they were.
Loki only shrugged.
Raven narrowed her eyes at him and turned away, getting on the elevator with her friends.
"You did have fun, though." Beast Boy grinned.
She thought about it, long and hard. "Yes."
Back at the tower they all yawned and stretched, carrying on about the events of the night. Robin and Starfire had set up double date plans with Rogue and Bobby, while Cyborg explained all his new technological ideas from seeing the Stark laboratories again. Raven nodded along in the right places, suppressing her own tiredness. She casually mentioned that she would be getting coffee with Agent Romanoff and Wanda some other time. They were all both happy for her and weirded out by Raven having friends other than them; they got over it.
Finally, on their way out of the living room, Raven caught Beast Boy alone and asked him something that had been (for some reason) bugging her all night.
"Your costume," She mentioned, carefully. "Why the formal version?"
She was referring to the black suit with the red tie. He could easily have worn a grungier version of the same anime character: hoodie, beanie, sneakers. Yet he chose this well put-together costume with small details added; i.e. skull-head cufflinks.
"Oh," He blushed a little. "Actually I wasn't going to say anything, I chickened out but…" He motioned for her to sit and then, once she had, ran from the room. He returned moments later with an electronic piano keyboard.
She felt like she knew what was coming. "You learned piano for a costume?"
"Just shh." He scolded her, irritated. His first note that he pressed came out sounding like dog barks. "Whoops, left the animal noises on." He flipped a few switches and the next note that emerged sounded like a grand piano.
He looked at her, to make sure she was paying attention. She motioned for him to begin.
Nervously he cracked his knuckles and then, ever so softly, began to play the main theme song from "Angel Beats". Raven had to admit, once Beast Boy had shown her some anime shows, she had started to like them solely for their music alone. Their Japanese themes and haunting melodies soothed her sometimes. She didn't admit that to Beast Boy, but she didn't have to apparently.
Once he'd finished, he nervously glanced at her. Save for a few missed notes here and there, he'd done a good job.
"Very nice." She praised, quietly. He beamed.
"Really? You think so?"
"Mhm."
He tapped a few lower, minor chords. "I could teach you the song if you wanted sometime?"
She thought about it. "Maybe, sometime."
The moon was full that Halloween night, and in the weeks after the Titans visited Stark Tower often, saying it was an excuse to break the November monotony. In reality, they all learned a little something from each other, and Raven most of all, felt herself opening up to the possibilities of her future here as a hero on Earth.