Raven found herself walking through the seedy warehouse district, a haven for all kinds of lawbreakers. Tapped-out junkies lay sprawled on the sidewalk, empty needles still in their arms, and girls in stilettos and heavy-lidded makeup wandered the streets, looking for a profitable pickup.
She and Red X stopped when they reached the entrance to a pulsing nightclub and bar called The Devil's Drink.
"How aptly named," Raven quipped dryly.
It seemed to be the most popular place in the area. A line of people spilled out the front entrance, chattering impatiently as they waited to be cleared past the bouncer.
"C'mon," Red X muttered, leading Raven ahead by the arm. He cut in front of the line and found himself face to face with the burly door guard, who was a good foot taller and had arms like tree trunks.
Red x cocked his head. "Gerald," he nodded to the bouncer, pressing what looked like money into the palm of his hand. The bouncer nodded back in acknowledgement, pocketing the bill and stepping aside.
"Head on in, Jason," he rumbled, holding back the furious line of people with his arm. Jason offered a quick smile of thanks before seizing Raven's hand and ushering her into the building.
A wave of pounding bass thudded against Raven's eardrums and she was momentarily blinded by the flashing green-and-purple strobe lights.
Everything felt like it was happening in still snapshots— at each second the lights plunged them into darkness, and then back into the glow of purple light. It created the effect of a strangely tinted photograph being placed in front of her, only to be whipped away in the next moment and replaced with another.
The air was hot and oppressive, the scent of sweat and cheap perfume permeating everywhere. Raven held back the urge to retch and instead allowed X to lead her to an empty table near the dance floor.
She stared out at the writhing bodies that thrashed to the music, people pressed up against one another and gyrating to the throbbing beat.
A girl in a skin-tight leopard print dress headed toward the bar, her gold bracelets clattering together. She cast Jason a seductive look, licking her lips as she prowled past their table.
Raven's stomach lurched and she pulled her hood down further, shadowing her face. She realized she had made a mistake, wanting to come here. Her empath powers were overloaded by all the people crammed in this building, by all their intensified feelings and desires. Raven felt like she was being beat senseless by the waves of lust that heaved through every pore, that dripped down the walls and pooled on the floor. She felt like she might be sick.
Jason seemed to be in his element though. He was coolly relaxed in his chair, greeting people that recognized him and making promises to catch up another time. Someone had brought him a beer, and X looked to Raven. "What do you want to drink?"
"I don't." Raven knew it was crucial to keep her mind clear, and she felt this to be especially true here in this den of crime and vice.
Red X nodded and muttered something to the guy who had brought the beer. He returned a few moments later and sat a glass of water down in front of the dark titan.
It seemed all of Jump's criminals convened in this place, for both work and pleasure. Raven was sure she had spotted Johnny Rancid chatting up a redheaded girl across the room, and she couldn't miss the hulking form of Adonis making his way across the room—
Shit, Raven thought. He can't be coming over here.
Jason was deep in conversation with one of his acquaintances, a muscled guy with a jagged scar running down the side of his face; together they laughed about a memory they had both shared.
Raven ducked farther into her dark blue hoodie, hoping maybe it had been a trick of the light, that maybe Adonis hadn't spotted her and decided to head this way.
She was sorely mistaken. The large, burly villain had his eyes trained on Raven as he shoved his way toward their table.
A hand jerked backed Raven's chair forcefully and she found herself looking up into the sneering face of Adonis.
"Well, well," he drawled, looking at her like she was small pet bird. "Imagine me running into my favorite little titan babe, in here of all places," he said with relish.
Raven's eyes flashed with anger and her magic sparked, but before she could launch herself at Adonis, a chair clattered to the floor. Jason had jumped to his feet, and Raven could feel the poison radiating from him.
"And what the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded furiously, his hands clenched so tight veins stood out and his knuckles were white.
Adonis raised an eyebrow, looking Red X up and down appraisingly, and deemed his size not a threat.
"Just spending some quality time with the tiny titan," he answered nonchalantly, jerking down Raven's hoodie so that her hair fanned out around her. Raven suddenly felt cold, and she shivered despite the sticky heat of the club.
Red X strode to Adonis, pressing his face up against the stronger villain's.
"You have three seconds to turn around and walk away," X hissed in a voice so low and deadly Raven could not help feeling a prickle of fear run down her spine.
"Oh yeah?" smirked Adonis. "And what's a skinny punk like you got against me?"
Red X's eyes narrowed and he shoved back his sleeve,holding his forearm up so that Adonis could see. A crimson snake twisted around a black X, its forked tongue flaming. Adonis's eyes widened.
"I don't want to see your sorry ass in here anymore. And if you ever touch Raven again, I will make sure the only parts of your body that are ever found are the bits you seem to be overcompensating for," Red X finished with a snarl.
Adonis looked at him apprehensively for a moment before slowly backing away, finally turning and disappearing into the crowd.
Red X picked up his fallen chair and sat back down with a fierce scowl. Raven watched him closely. What did that tattoo mean? Why would that alone scare the hulking mass that was Adonis?
She began to open her mouth to ask him this, but something else had just caught her eye—something that made her stomach clench in a way that made Adonis seem like an adorable puppy in comparison.
There, moving around the dance floor in black skinny jeans and a scarf around his neck. There, the long white-blonde hair whipping around as he danced. There, his incredibly long lashes framing those electric-blue irises, paralyzing with power. Raven's breath caught in her chest.
No, it can't be.
I locked him up in a place he could never be freed from. It can't be him—
His eyes met hers and they locked, sparks flying between them. Raven felt like a deer caught in the headlights. It seemed too surreal. It didn't make sense.
He smiled at her wolfishly and beckoned her out onto the dance floor, crooking his finger in a come hither way.
Immediately, unsure what she was doing, Raven stood up, her heart pounding. She had to make sure it wasn't him. She had to make sure she hadn't started hallucinating, hadn't started having the same visions that Robin suffered from when he grew too obsessed with Slade.
Red X's business contact had appeared just that moment and X had stood up to shake hands, saying something under his breath as his did. Raven took advantage of his preoccupation.
"I'll be right back," she murmured to X, edging toward where she had last seen the white-blonde boy moving. He nodded distractedly, already sitting down with his contact to discuss the deal.
Trying to keep him in her sights, the petite titan pushed her way through the thrusting crowd, shoving aside bodies that closed in around her. Raven kept blinking rapidly, disorientated by the on-and-off flashing of the strobes. Where had he gone?
Just then she caught a flash of his long flowing hair, glowing purple, now green, under the lights. She hurried after, fighting fiercely against the sweating dancers who seemed to be swallowing her up. Finally, panting, she broke through to the opposite side of the dance floor.
Nothing was here though. He wasn't here. Cursing, Raven spun around until she spotted a stairwell in the far corner.
Sprinting toward it, she leaped up the steps two at a time, ignoring the aching stitch in her side. The stairwell ended at a flat trapdoor in the ceiling. With a grunt Raven pushed at it and it swung open, clanging loudly.
She clambered out onto the roof, glancing up at the night sky above. The streets were so brightly lit she couldn't see the stars. Beneath her feet she could feel the pounding rhythm of the club, rattling through her bones.
Instinctively she ducked at the last second, a blast of powerful dark magic just narrowly missing her head. A throaty chuckle floated across the roof and Malchior stepped out of the shadows, his eyes intense and his hands crackling with black energy.
"Miss me?" he taunted maliciously, his smile devoid of any mirth.
"Fat chance," Raven scowled. With a yell she carved out a massive chunk of the concrete roofing, hurtling it at the wizard with deadly force.
Malchior dived to the side and shouted a counter curse, exploding the concrete into a shower of rubble. He sharpened his magic into a cloud of razor-point knives, flinging them toward Raven. She threw up a protective shield and the daggers stuck into it, quivering with momentum.
"What's wrong, precious Raven?" Malchior scoffed, drawing a huge black whip out of his magic and snapping it menacingly in the air. "I didn't break your heart, did I?" he asked in a false, breathy voice. "Poor, misunderstood Raven. Nobody likes her. Nobody wants to be around her."
"SHUT UP!" Raven roared with fury. She flew straight at him, her hands blazing. Grinning wickedly, Malchior flicked out the whip and its crack resonated loudly through the night air, biting into her skin. Raven found herself plummeting downward, wrapped tight in his magic. She hit the ground hard and Malchior stood over her, gloating.
"It was pathetic, really. How willing you were to just take it all in, to believe you were special and cared about." Malchior leaned over her, leering. "You were so desperate, you fell in love with a book." He threw back his mane of shining hair, laughing.
Raven struggled, her normally amethyst irises white with wrath. "You're the scum of hell," she seethed. "And I would know."
With a burst of power she broke the confines of the whip and sent searing orbs of black energy at Malchior. He sprinted in the opposite direction however, and Raven watched in confusion as he jumped the edge of the roof, plunging down to the street below.
Fuming, Raven followed after, flying down and landing gracefully to face off against him in the middle of the road.
"C'mon, lovely," Malchior called mockingly. "It's no wonder that even your parents didn't have it in them to love you—"
A shriek of irrepressible rage ripped itself loose from Raven. It came from a place deep within her, a place long controlled and hidden.
"ENOUGH!"
She seemed to grow where she stood. Malchior took a slight, uneasy step back when four, blood-red eyes, blazing with fury, appeared on her face. Her mouth was twisted into a cruel line. She released another scream and the ground beneath them shook, as if the earth itself was shuddering at the sound.
Dozens of black-magic tentacle arms shot forth from Raven's body and before Malchior even had a chance to repel them, they had wrapped themselves tightly around him, restricting his movement.
With a violent hand gesture, Raven slammed Malchior's body into the brick wall opposite the club. Then she ripped a fire hydrant out of the sidewalk, water spraying everywhere in great floods. Taking control of the water, Raven hardened it into a giant ice mace, slamming it into the form she kept pinned against the wall.
The arm-like tentacles then flung Malchior's bruised body down onto the cement street. Raven waved her arms and a nearby lamp post bent in half, creaking with an earsplitting grating noise as the metal twisted under her control. She bent it like clay, and it wound around Malchior's body in a vicelike grip that made it impossible for him to breath.
"Merc!—" Malchior began to cry, but Raven ignored him, her crimson irises glowing only brighter.
"Mercy?" she cackled in her demonic voices. "Mercy? Mercy tastes like weakness. You'll be begging for death before I'm through with you—"
"RAVEN!"
Raven spun around at the sound of her name, taken off-guard.
Red X stood at the entrance of The Devil's Drink. His face was calm and his voice firm, but his eyes betrayed fear.
"Stay out of this Jason. It doesn't concern you," she snarled at him.
Raven turned back to the pitifully whimpering Malchior, her hair billowing in the wind. For all the world she looked like the hell-raising demon she was.
She shaped her magic into a massive, knuckle-spiked fist and drew it back, reading to pummel Malchior into a smearing of guts against the pavement, when a hand suddenly snatched her arm, holding her back.
"Raven." This time his tone was pleading more than anything. "Please—you're tearing the whole street apart. You're putting innocent lives in serious danger."
Raven stopped and stared around herself, at the damage her rampage had caused. The building with the brick wall had caved in, reduced to a pile of rubble. A huge, earthquake-like crack ran down the street, dividing the pavement in two. The dismantled fire hydrant still gushed torrential floods of water everywhere, and a now-twisted lamp post lay in the middle of the road, a testimony to the wrath that had bent it so viciously.
Raven allowed herself to be led away. She felt dazed, lightheaded. A crowd had gathered around the scene, faceless people, all muttering and pointing, gaping in horror at her.
Raven bent her head, pulling up her hoodie around her face. Jason was leading her firmly away by the hand, out the sight of the gawking onlookers. When they had reached the safety of an empty back street, he rounded on her.
"What the hell was that, Raven?" he exclaimed vehemently. "You could have killed someone! Why didn't you stop? You completely lost control!"
Raven had felt subdued, even guilty, when she had awoken from her trance of rage to see the wreckage surrounding her. Now, however, her anger began to raise its beast-like head again, baring its teeth. Why was he furious at her? Didn't he get it? Malchior was the one to blame!
"That was the person who betrayed me, who used me and tossed me aside and tried to kill me—twice now!" Raven spat venomously. She was trembling with indignation, barely able to keep it inside of her. "He deserved exactly what he got."
Red X's face fell as Raven told him this, and his look softened. "He did deserve it, Raven. But those people back there—they didn't deserve to have their lives endangered, to have their city destroyed for your own vengeance," he said.
"That's rich, coming from you. So it's okay to steal things, just not to pay someone back for a world of hurt and pain?" Raven fumed.
Red X looked at her hard. "I'm not the one who ripped up the whole block," he said coldly, crossing his arms in front of him.
Raven made a disgusted noise and turned on her heel, her fists curling tight.
"You don't get it, X" she shot angrily over her shoulder.
Morphing into her bird soulself, she beat her wings and took off into the empty night.
"I guess I don't," he said to the empty street.
Xxx
Oh man, is love rough or what? Mind you, I'd wet my pants if I ever witnessed Raven go that berserk. As always, please let me know what you think and how you feel! Your feedback is glorious. :)