SQ: Thanks so much for following and deciding to favorite my story! I hope you enjoy reading this next chapter as much as I loved writing it.
[Chapter 5: The Last Blow]
Raven flew beside Beastboy, the green eagle wingtips just barely grazing her skin. They soared upward, Beastboy caught an updraft, spiraling higher. Raven followed, checking the enemies' positions below. The park with its cherry slide, three neon yellow swings and deep brown climbing rope didn't seem very threatening. But the beast waving a torn-off section of that slide did. His companions did, too. It wasn't the entire HIVE. Just Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth. Not an easy battle, but one they'd won before. Small victories.
Jinx's hands glowed pink as she hurled an energy burst in their direction. Raven swerved. She answered with her own dark magic, spiraling some to the ground. Beastboy dove behind the attack. Jinx leapt to the side to avoid the energy, but Beastboy barreled into her, knocking her off her feet. Raven darted to the ground after them, slamming a fist into Jinx's side. Beastboy changed into a boa. He slithered around Jinx and squeezed.
He nodded to the second fight. "Help them!"
Robin, Cyborg and Starfirebattled against Gizmo and Mammoth. Gizmo broke from the pack and darted under the broken slide. Starfire followed. Robin leapt into the air and somersaulted over Mammoth, grabbing hold of the giant's arms, creating a clear target for Cyborg's energy burst. The shot crumpled the giant. The boys had him under control, but where was Starfire? Raven searched for her. Not under the slide, not behind the fort, not anywhere.
A green laser sliced through the air behind her. Raven spun. Starfire zoomed from behind a nearby car, tailed by Gizmo. Starfire shot another green burst. Missed. But Gizmo wasn't attacking. Why wasn't he attacking? Starfire tried to dart around the kid but each time he blocked her path, forcing her to go higher into the air.
"Raven!" Beastboy's cry distracted her.
Jinx had gotten away, Beastboy lay sprawled in the dirt, some form of wire mesh holding him down. One down. Mammoth launched upward, slamming into Cyborg and ripping the electric unit from his arm. Immobile. Cyborg's immobile. Two down. Mammoth tossed the unit to Jinx, who sprinted toward Robin, hurling a burst of her pink energy, hitting him square in the chest. A shockwave scattered over him, curling him to the dirt. Cyborg's electricity. Jinx towered over him, hands lighting crimson. Raven dombed a shield around him, pulling Cyborg and the writhing mass that was Beastboy under it as well. They couldn't be hurt anymore, as long as Raven kept her shield up. But they couldn't help either. Mammoth hurled himself against it but it didn't dissipate. It wouldn't if Raven kept her concentraition. But with three of her teammates down, Raven took to the sky, heading after the only other member left to hurt besides her. Starfire.
It seemed Gizmo finally decided to go on the offensive. He threw a bomb Starfire's direction, flapping his mechanical wings to increase the weapon's speed. The bomb exploded, shockwave hitting Starfire and knocking her out of the air. Raven tried to cushion her friend's fall, but Jinx countered the attack, slicing through Raven's darkness with a pink energy scythe. Gizmo hurled another gadget at Starfire. Another bomb. Another explosion. Slamming Starfire into the dirt. Starfire didn't move. She didn't move at all.
Raven's voice caught in her throat. Her concentration wavered. The shield fluctuated. She couldn't do much. She couldn't do anything. Not while keeping the shield. Not while Jinx aimed an energy charge their direction, the power coursing around her, encasing her in a maroon glow.
Mammoth leapt onto Starfire, pulling her limp body from the ground and tossing her, bodily tossing her, back up again. Gizmo sliced her arm open with the tip of his wing. Blood spurted to the ground, Starfire fell right after, crashing into the dirt. She still didn't move.
Gizmo dropped another bomb, yellow metal strapped around a bundle of wiring. A white light flashing on top of the spherical weapon.
Bleeding, Starfire was bleeding and unconscious and maybe worse.
The shield wavered.
Time seemed to slow.
The bomb seemed to drift to the ground, growing closer, closer, closer to Starfire. The light flashed faster.
Starfire, who bled on the ground.
Starfire, who was unconscious.
Starfire, who couldn't fight back.
Starfire, who Raven loved.
And, finally, Raven snapped.
Her shield shattered.
She caught a brief glimpse of the shocked faces of her team before her powers overwhelmed her.
Energy sucked back into Raven's core. Energy she burst out again, lashing at the Jinx before the witch could do anything, knocking the legs out from under Mammoth, snapping the wings off of Gizmo's wings, hurling them all up, up, up into the air and slamming back down again.
See how much they like it.
She wrapped her power around them, smashing them together, holding them tightly, squeezing the air from their lungs. There was nothing they could do to stop her. No one could stop her.
Yet the bomb still fell. Now just inches above Starfire's chest. But energy coursed around Raven, stilling time, slowing it down. She worked her darkness into the bomb, weaving the tendrils around the wires, creating a lacework around the weapon itself. Then she guided the bomb away from Starfire and hung it over her enemy instead.
Her teammates seemed to be shouting something, their mouths opened and closed but no voice filtered through Raven's mind. Her power controlled her now, muting out the world, demanding to be felt, to be harnessed, to be used to their fullest extent. Her vision darkened around the edges.
She squeezed the enemy trio harder. Their faces grew red, their eyes bulged.
Nothing could stop her.
But she wasn't a murderer.
She dropped the bomb, encasing the trio in a bubble of darkness and hurling them toward the prison on the far side of town. She projected her voice inside it.
"This will take you to the prison. You will be taken captive. You will go quietly. If you don't, this bomb will explode and you will die."
She shoved the sphere away from her, watching it hover around a corner and out of sight. She flicked open her wrist communicator, inputted the outbreak and capture, and sent the information to the prison. They could deal with the HIVE now.
Her powers ceased. The world flooded her senses. Shouts from her teammates came through. But her vision blurred. She fell to her knees, scraping the gravel with her palms, and fainted.