Uninvited Rally Ravager
"Let no one tell you you don't know what's best! This is our city, our lives, and we know what's best for us!"
Councilwoman Alderman's words rang out among the crowd, amplified with the help of a megaphone. Some clapped in agreement, others cheered, and those who had them raised and lowered their signs as if to draw more attention to them.
The politician was drinking it up and did not seem to find an end for her rallying diatribe. Like many who sought power, the attention was an addicting perk. The applause and cheers were confirmation that she was right. So why stop? Rally their spirits, weaponize their hearts, and rise to the highest echelons on their shoulders.
They agreed with her, which meant so many others did too. A shame they couldn't be here, but they were in spirit as they say.
This was a moment to be enshrined in history. A turning point. One to be remembered.
With what happened next, it would end up being remembered for all the wrong reasons.
The boom cut through the cheer and the celebratory atmosphere, and fire blossomed out from beneath one of the parked cars that lined the street. More and more fire raced along that side of the rally as car after car exploded, shrapnel made of car debris blasting into the unsuspecting crowd.
As the sounds of destruction registered, people began to fall, whether they were ducking or because they were struck, so many found themselves closer to the ground. Some leapt into the bay, hoping that water would keep them safe.
Councilwoman Alderman had an arm shoving her down, security trying to rush her away immediately. She gave no protest, allowing them to manhandle her while still trying to comprehend what had started happening seconds ago.
The detonation of several more cars had her security pull her back and down, one guard using their own body as a shield. By then, the smell of smoke from the burning wreckages was reaching her nostrils as well as obscuring the area around.
It seemed like the explosions would not stop…wait, those weren't explosions. These were more rapid and were accompanied by what sounded like a whizzing noise. The politician peeked around one of her guards, trying to see for herself what was happening.
Someone had come out of the smoke, a man in a ridiculous costume that was coordinated with silver, black, and red. He was wearing a mask, she could tell that much from this distance. Then her attention was drawn to the weapons he wielded; they looked like some kind of automatic rifle. Worst of all, he was firing into the crowd and into would be heroes that tried to fight back.
This was an attack. No, an assassination. That man, he was here for her. He had to be.
Her suspicions were only confirmed as he began to stalk in her direction.
The flowery blossoms of flame had Cyborg on alert, but it took a few seconds—way too long—before he gave out a swear.
"That ain't right!" he declared.
"Is that…?" Miguel began to ask, his voice slightly cracking from shock.
"Is somebody bombing them?!" BB exclaimed, pulling away from Terra and pressing both of his hands against the window while trying to get his face as close as possible.
"That's…not normal?" Kid Flash asked hesitantly.
"Hell it's normal!" the cyborg stated. "I might not like those people, but they don't deserve that. Everyone, move!"
The cybernetic teen was practically spinning on his heel, bringing up programs to send the alert to the others who weren't there. Kid Flash was in his way though.
"So that's not normal?" the speedster asked.
"Why would you think that's normal?!" Cyborg demanded.
Kid Flash shrugged his shoulders. "Usually, that's how they ended in the future. Functionary really doesn't like having other opinions in it."
"One of these days, I'm gonna sit you down and explain everything about this Functionary, but right now's not a good time. Get your skinny butt out there already!" he demanded. Not even a second later, Kid was gone, and if you looked outside the window, you could see a trail of water being kicked up and heading right where the protest was.
Seemed like he used the right tone of voice, though, because Beast Boy wasn't waiting around and was making a run for the nearest exit. Terra was right on his heels too. They'd be out there in a couple minutes, tops.
That just left, "Yo! Red, everybody else! We got a situation east of the Tower. You know that stupid protest? Someone decided to bomb it. We need to head out, ASAP!"
Immediately, "Get people to safety first, try to find out what or who's responsible after. Save as many as you can." Good ol' Red with his priorities. The guy was probably already mobilized and whoever was listening in on that little call would have heard the order.
Right, time for him to get out there. Not gonna be easy, but hey, this was another chance to give the T-car…it needed to be reloaded. Crap. Oh, and he wasn't sure, but had his baby taken any damage? Things had gotten crazy and there had been more of a focus on everyone else. What kind of a state was the garage in?
Focus, Cyborg. You just needed to find a different way across the bay. That was all. Hmm, maybe if he was fast enough, he might be able to catch up with Terra or Beast Boy could come up with an animal that might be able to carry him. So long as he didn't get wet or anything, it should all be good.
"So what should I do? You need me to…I don't know, do something about the fires?" Where was—oh yeah, Miguel. He'd gone into mission mode so quickly that the Tower's new hombre had slipped his mind. At first he was going to say something like a yes or huh, maybe Miguel could give him a ride over.
Then, as he faced the Hispanic male and really took in the sight of him, he had a change of mind.
"You stay here. Keep an eye on the Tower. For all we know, this might be some kind of distraction," he told him.
"What? But you know I can help!" Miguel protested.
Reaching an arm out, he placed a hand on Miguel's shoulder. "This is nothing personal, but have you really taken a look at yourself? Nothing against the duds, but your face is completely exposed. Some of us can't hide how we look, like me, and Beast Boy. Some don't care, like Starfire and Raven. You're not gonna find anything on Terra; I know, I checked. Red Robin and Kid Flash have masks, because they have other lives they are trying to protect. It's a real bitch keeping Wonder Girl's under wraps; Red asked me to help with that and that's the only reason she doesn't get swarmed in public. I'm willing to bet someone out there is gonna recognize you. That could lead them back to your home and everyone else who lives there. Out there, that's a crowd of people who aren't our biggest fans, so you better believe they'll try to figure out who you are. For your safety, and the safety of everyone back home, stay here."
He put in what he hoped was a comforting squeeze on Miguel's shoulder, then he broke contact and began hurrying down the hallway. He didn't wait for any response because already he was late for this party. Now he just needed to figure out a way to join the others.
He was sure he'd figure something out.
Kid Flash was first on the scene, and the sight that met him could be described as a war zone. Smoke was filling the air, people were screaming, and the smell of blood brought back memories.
For a guy like him, he was over it as fast as his name implied and he was getting down to work. First the injured; he swept them off their, um, backs and sides and however else they were lying on the ground and traveled further down the street where the air was clearer and the area was relatively safer. He made multiple trips, clearing up the area and hey, even took the time to use the Titan issued communicator to call for the cops and other emergency guys.
After trip number twenty, he spotted the source of all the trouble. It was that guy from the fight, the one where they failed to stop the jailbreak. That one. Well, there was—hey, he was the guy with that frictionless stuff. Now he really remembered! Ravager! He thought the name was Ravager. Might as well stick with that until someone could confirm.
Anyway, there he was in all his silver and black and was that red? Yeah, that was red. And guns. The automatic kind too. So it wasn't just the explosions. Well, they couldn't have that, could they?
In a fraction of a second, the speedster had changed directions and was racing right for the Ravager man. In that same amount of time, he was swiping and taking apart both of the long barreled guns, even going as far as to separate the bullets one by one and stashing them far away before returning several feet away from the mask-wearing assassin. Just to make a show of it, he dropped the pieces of the disassembled guns onto the ground, frowning slightly where there was no clattering sound.
Because of course they were standing on grass and it was muffling everything. Well, everything except the cries of pain and screams of trauma. However, Ravager here seemed to realize that when he pulled in his curled trigger fingers, nothing was happening.
Pure luck that he whipped that silver head about and spotted the dashing Kid Flash who instantly turned that frown upside down and made a show of wiping his hands.
"Don't you know it's dangerous to use those things in a crowd?" Kid Flash chided, placing both of his hands on his hips. "You could really hurt somebody."
Ravager smirked. "I was actually wondering when you were going to show up. Are you always so slow?"
Oh ha ha, like he hadn't heard that one before! Actually, yeah, this was the first time he was hearing that. Bet Wally had heard it a hundred times by now.
Wait, Ravager was sliding out a sword. Alright, time to get to work. No sooner was that long blade held in attack mode that Kid Flash was already swiping this weapon too, though not going too far. Time to make up for that embarrassing first time and he did so by taking half a second to get his next pose set up, one that had him admiring the sword.
A fist striking him in the side of the head stopped him from making a quippy one liner as well as causing the sword handle to slip out of his hands. Stumbling, he kept himself from falling while holding a hand to the side of his head. He was blinking away from black spots, which was a rarity and did that happen a lot when you were hit in the head?
Finally ripping himself out of the pained daze, he had the realization that he had been hit. Him. The fastest…second fastest guy in the world. He just got punched! And there stood Ravager, one arm extended out, a hand clenched into a fist and opening up to catch the falling sword, snatching it in midair.
"You're a lot more predictable than you think," Ravager bragged, looking very proud of himself. "There's no way to stop you from taking my weapons, but you don't go too far when you're in a happy mood. Like a little kid, you want to show off. If you plan for that, you can get around that speed of yours."
Why that… So that's how he wanted to do this? Alright, no more playing around. If he wants to take the fun out of this, then he could have it that way.
Ravager slipped out a knife, holding it out plain and clear like he wanted him to see it. Oh, thought he was going to run after the first shiny thing, right? Pfft, he had more self control than that.
"You know what's another way that you're predictable?" the killer taunted. Without waiting for a snappy reply, Ravager threw the knife and based on where it was heading—that was an innocent and injured bystander it was heading for! It was a man, had a bloody leg and wasn't going to be moving fast any time soon and that knife was heading right for him!
Kid Flash made the only decision he should.
Too easy. Ravager watched as the Titan Speedy Gonzales went for that knife. Obviously, the yellow-colored Titan was able to catch the deadly blade and continue moving it away from the injured sheeple on the ground.
Just what he wanted.
Within the knife's handle was a little surprise, one that detonated while still being held in the speedster's hands. A yellow blur abruptly changed trajectory and his body was thrown away where it bounced against the grass-covered ground on impact.
He didn't have anymore of that special stuff H.I.V.E. had given him, but there were other ways to take on someone faster than the eye. The biggest thing was to outthink them and move them to where you wanted them to go. Goody two-shoes that he was, Kid Flash was going to try to protect other people from him, so threaten their lives and he had the annoying kid right where he wanted him.
There was no question that Kid Flash was going to be back on his feet, and quickly too. Ravager anticipated on him being winded first and foremost. Now for another trick. Which one to choose?
The answer for that was going to have to wait. He had company incoming and it was the shapeshifter and the rock mover. A wall of rock tore out of the ground, blocking Ravager off from the protesters and incidentally Kid Flash. Next, a green bull shifted from some kind of falcon and still had the same speed from flight backing it.
Enhanced reflexes and awareness gave him the advantage to leap up, a hand thrusting down to put itself on the bull's back, and with a small push, he completed a flip over the green Titan to land perfectly on the ground.
His sword was held right in front of him, and he trusted that his senses would pick up anything that tried to come after him from behind. Right now, he was going to focus his attention on Beast Boy and shish-ka-bob him from this life.
The bull shifted into something small, hard to tell what, but when the shapeshifter reappeared it was in the form of a changing rhino. Must have made some kind of U-turn with that small shift. Regardless, he had a rhino horn incoming.
It was simple enough to dodge to his right, but an easy evasion maneuver was not going to cut it here. While the rhino horn was entering the space that he had just left, Ravager slashed with his sword, aiming for the eye that was moving right into the blade's path. Remarkably, the shapeshifter turned his head enough that the horn intercepted, reinforced steel clashing with hardened keratin.
Beast Boy planted his large forelegs down and allowed his thick hindlegs to carrying his rear around, all the better to fully face the augmented man. The rhino horn jerked away, belatedly parrying the sword and another whip of the large head had the horn striking at him. Ravager blocked with his bladed weapon, and for the next several seconds, it was an odd sword fight that happened between man and rhino.
He had to admit, he had not seen the one coming and was starting to enjoy himself a little. The shapeshifter was showing impressive maneuverability with that oversized head, blocking and attacking with that thick horn. Who knew how long they could keep this up?
The masked killer sensed the attack coming from behind, and with a simple duck, he dodged the large rock that sailed over him and struck the rhino head on. The rock mover, Terra. Almost forgot about her.
"Sorry!" the slip of a blonde called out while the shapeshifter resumed his human form, a hand pressed against his head.
"I thought rhino heads were harder than that," the green Titan moaned.
The idiot. Well, Ravager wasn't one to turn down such an opportunity. His legs pushed and he was lunging at the shapeshifter. Sunlight glinted off his sword blade and his grip on its handle tightened. Arms tensed, muscles contracted and relaxed as the razor-sharp edge sliced through the air with the full intention of cutting into flesh.
Like a gold and red missile, the girl in armor—Wonder Girl—streaked down the sky and intercepted, blocking his sword with her gauntlet. The screech of metal against metal was sharp and the armor-wearing blonde girl's not quite obvious strength kept her in one place, practically stopping his momentum dead.
Physics, though, had a way of asserting themselves; while his upper body got the message of an unyielding obstacle, his lower half hadn't. The world was seemingly slowing down as his attention was captured by this latest challenger, and so he was able to start twisting his torso and swinging a leg to kick at her.
One of Wonder Girl's arms pulled away from the blade, swung and blocked the kick. The other pushed back against his sword, swung back and down only to come from below in an uppercut that managed to get him in the chest. Instead of resisting, he went with the blow, using it to put some distance between himself and the blond.
Ravager was flipping over himself and as his feet began to touch down on the ground, a small section abruptly rose up, a small pillar that launched him up into the air. Chasing after him was Wonder Girl, throwing what would have been a devastating punch had the killer not blocked with the side of his sword.
He took advantage of his new momentum to let his lower body climb higher into the air and began another flip, this time over Wonder Girl herself. This pulled his blade away from the armored fist and with his arms he swung the weapon in for another slash, this one aimed for her back.
To his slight frustration, just as the sword's edge was about to connect with the red leotard, golden armor appeared out of thin air, stopping his attack from being any kind of lethal. He clenched his jaw, gritted teeth against teeth, then lashed out with his feet and striking the blonde girl in the newly protected area, sending her down while he gained more altitude.
A swarm of rocks came at him next, but his perception of the world was still slowed down and he was able to pick up on the fact there was quite a bit of space in the incoming barrage. His body twisted, twirled, and slithering about flying rocks, a few getting some glancing hits off of him, but nothing that would cause significant damage. Before he knew it, Ravager was through and slowly beginning his descent down to the earth below.
Danger sounded off, and he spun about to catch Starfire's glowing fist, one that radiating that green energy she was known to fire off. He could see her face, saw how hard and determined it was, which brought a bloodthirsty smile to his face.
Somebody wanted a rematch, eh? Well, he could give her that. The last one she would ever have.
It had to be a big show of trust he was giving her, but the second that Cyborg sounded the alarm, Red Robin had turned to Raven and asked her to take both of them to the battlefield. He couldn't forget the look of surprise that the pale-skinned girl gave him; even after she had told him about the nature of her powers, he was willing to risk her using them and with him?
The teen vigilante had stated that despite everything, he trusted her, and trusted her word that she had control over her powers once more. Now get the two of them out there.
The black, demonic energy pulled away as the two of them arrived at the scene of carnage. Fires licked out of bombed cars, injured people littered the area crying out in pain and fear, and just over there Kid Flash was intercepting Ravager.
Red Robin put his faith into the speedster to keep the terroristic madman occupied, then he did it again with Raven to get everyone in the immediate area away. That left him spotting a certain face in the crowd, one that he had seen on TV many times.
While no one would blame him if he were to, you know, look away, he still had his Gotham roots, and so he found himself running to the side of Elizabeth Alderman.
The masked teen skidded to a stop, placing himself between the councilwoman with his back to her, all the while facing the direction Ravager was in. He was just in time to see the masked man deck Kid Flash, a bit of a surprise, but one to go over later. The killer could try to pick up where he left off, but then Beast Boy and Terra arrived and the man's attention was diverted.
"Are you all right? Can you walk?" Red Robin called over his shoulder. In one hand, he held a birdarang defensively in case Ravager managed to break away from the fighting.
From behind him, "What are you doing here?"
Without a thought, he quipped, "Saving your life. You need to get out of here. We'll handle it from here."
Alderman had a difference of opinion. "This is a job for the police, not children. You have no place being here!"
"Lady, where are the cops? If they haven't come running to your safety right now, they're on their way. Any that were here were obviously targeted first and taken out. You don't have minutes to wait for help. Now get out of here before Ravager over there remembers you're here and finishes what he started." Enough with being nice. He wasn't here to be liked by a person who hated his guts. At least she would be alive to hate his guts in the first place.
"Ravager? We didn't have problems with his kind before your lot showed up," Alderman accused.
"Yes you did, they just didn't wear masks," he cut her off just as the view of Ravager was cut off by a wall of rock that Terra created. That would buy them some time. Turning to face the politician, "There's always been people like him, the gimmicks just change. If you want to argue about this, the only way you can is by being alive and to do that, you need to get out of here. Now."
The glasses did nothing to hide Alderman's anger. The teen vigilante didn't need to be a mind reader to know that she was offended by being interrupted. "This is a problem for adults to solve. You should be in school, not playing this game of yours."
"And you're crazier than Ravager if anyone is going to be in school on a Saturday." Okay, he couldn't resist that one. Pulling his gaze away from Alderman, he locked eyes with one of her staffers. "Drag her away if you have to. Just get her out of here. Do you want to stick around to find out what Ravager's going to do if he catches up with her?"
It didn't seem to click, not immediately, with the staffer, but you could see the recognition of understanding spark in his eyes. Slow on the uptake, yeah, but at least now he was urging Alderman to get on the move. That was something at least.
"This isn't over!" were the politician's parting words. Yeah, yeah, of course it wasn't. Still, getting her off the scene was a small victory. Now to focus attention on Ravager and put a stop to this scheme of his.
By the time he reached where all the action was happening, it looked like it had been going on for some time. Thanks to a combination of Starfire's Starbolts, Beast Boy kicking up the dirt with whatever flavor of animal he chose at that second, and Terra, most of the grass that lined the side of the street, leading up to the bay had seen much better days. Scorch marks, paw-shaped divots, and holes—so many-holes—just made it look like a warzone.
Cyborg muttered to himself; he was going to need to figure out a way to leave the Tower that didn't require wheels. You never knew when trouble would happen within sight of the damn windows.
There was the guy, Ravager, and he was holding off both Starfire and Wonder Girl who were tag teaming him, as well as making some impressive moves to get out of Beast Boy's way whenever the shapeshifter decided to cut in.
Man, this guy was starting to make them look bad! Didn't remember if he was that fast the last time, but right now ol' Cyborg was here to help dish out some pain.
His large, titanium feet added to the damage to what once was a nice strip of grass as he leapt at the masked asshole. He angled a shoulder, barreling his way towards Ravager as he aimed his tackle. He was right there, back to the cyborg, and it should have been a sure thing.
But then Ravager leapt up, flipping over him like some kind of killer ballerina. Teeth clenched, Cyborg suddenly dug his feet in, dragging loose dirt out of the ground as he tried to kill his momentum. Spinning on his heel, he faced the rampaging lunatic who was coming right at him, his sword slashing in for a hit.
He brought up his arm, blocking the blade. He barely felt any jarring, his body taking the force from the attack easily, and countered by throwing a punch with his other arm. Ravager ducked under and went low, the sword reversing and incoming on his legs. No dice there; titanium was a pretty strong alloy and that sword didn't stand a chance.
Cyborg raised a leg and kicked out with it. Ravager rolled back and out of the way. Incredibly, the guy went out of his roll, was back on his feet, and leaning out of the way of Wonder Girl—armor covering most of her upper body currently—who's fist struck dirt and sent a flume of it up into the air.
Because of the dirt, he didn't see what happened next, but Ravager had to have hit the armor-wearing blonde because she was being flung right at him. Cyborg caught her, taking the brunt of her body slamming into him, but he held his ground. Tearing through the cloud of dirt, Ravager closed in, swinging his sword once more. Cyborg spun on his heel, using his back to take the hit and winced at the sharp sound of metal screeching against metal.
Beast Boy leapt into the fray, a green panther clearing over the cyborg and tackling the masked killer back. Ravager fell onto his back then kicked up with his legs, throwing the green feline up and over him. Raised legs kicked forward and up was the masked man, back onto his feet. By now, Cyborg had placed Wonder Girl back on her feet and was turning back to face the masked prick.
Raising his arm up, cannon mode now, he fired a nonlethal blast of energy. An acrobatic leap took his target out of the line of fire, the beam streaking ahead until it impacted the bay, water splashing up into the air.
Okay, this was getting annoying quickly. This guy was like a Mexican jumping bean, wouldn't keep still, and was somehow kept up with—one, two, three, four made Starfire—four of them at the same time! And wait, where was Terra? Wasn't she out here too? Where had she gone off to?
Time to up the ante, go for a wide area and not small and concentrated. This guy had all the space he needed to move around in, so they would need to take that away, right? A quick adjustment to the arm, and an O-shaped sonic blast came firing out. Ravager was hit dead on and back he went, bouncing off the ground several yards away.
Yeah, that's right. Try jumping out of that. Oh, what's this? The guy was getting back up. Ready for some more pain, hmm? Well, ol' Cyborg here could dish it out. Could Ravager here take it?
Maybe. The asshole rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself back up. His movements were slower and he could tell that thanks to his robotic eye. He was feeling the pain over there. The cyborg kept his arm cannon aimed at the maniac, waiting to see what he would do next. Let him waste energy running his ass over here, Cyborg was more than ready to let him have it.
One of Ravager's hands slipped behind his back and when it returned to sight, three objects were thrown in his direction. Small, oblong—those were grenades. Pins were pulled so the cybernetic teen fired a sonic blast to knock them away. The grenades were only just being knocked off course when they detonated and filled the air with a burst of flame and smoke.
Hold on a sec, Ravager hadn't meant to hurt him with those. The robotic eye went to infrared, but the heat from the grenades' explosion was obscuring that. Back to normal vision, but he would focus with his human eye as he searched for—
Time seemed to slow down. To his right was the killer, sword was already swinging, and based on the angle, it was heading right for the side of Cyborg's face that was flesh and not titanium. Immediately, he was bringing up his arm cannon to use its barrel to block but would he be quick enough? Ravager had been proving to be a fast little shit, but fast was fast.
So were purple bricks that formed in midair and took the brunt of the sword slash. Soon enough there was a whole wall between him and the masked killer, and Cyborg blinked his human eye once before it hit him.
Quickly he looked for and sure enough found Miguel. What the hell was he thinking?! He was still in his civilian clothes and—what the hell was he wearing over his head? Almost looked like a durag, but it was purple and had two eyeholes cut into the fabric. Where the hell had he found that thing in the Tower? Better yet, what the hell did he think he was doing out here?!
"What did I tell you?!" Cyborg exclaimed.
"Just looking out for you," Miguel responded as more of those purple bricks formed around the Hispanic male's lower arms, creating two large purple hands. "Looks like you could use a hand or two."
Was he trying to make a joke? Any further protest Cyborg could make, Ravager decided to cut in. "I remember you. Whatever surprise you might have had, you just blew it. You should have taken me out while you had the chance."
Miguel gave a cocky smirk. "I don't ambush people, amigo. I like to go face to face."
"Biggest mistake of your life," Ravager quipped back, already matching actions to words as he lunged at the new arrival.
Cyborg swore, initially aimed his arm cannon at Ravager but then hesitated. Miguel would also be in the way and he didn't want to hurt the guy, even after ignoring what the cybernetic teen had told him to do earlier.
Those purple hands of Miguel's swung into a punch, and Ravager dodged at the last second, changing his attack to an evasive maneuver. Down came the other purple fist and while it missed the masked killer, it did send up a cloud of dirt into the air. Knowing how Ravage took advantage of smokescreens, Cyborg took off into a run to try and give Miguel some breathing room.
If they got out of this alive, someone was going to be read the Riot Act.
Most of the protesters had been removed by now, clearing the area to allow for the fighting to go on without collateral damage. Raven found she had done most of the moving, initially starting with teleportation but slowly turning to intercepting any friendly fire while telling any stragglers to run for their lives.
Maybe she was feeling some residual effects from last night. It almost felt like she didn't have enough control over her demonic powers. That, or it was slipping. Rest was needed along with a long session of meditation. Control was absolutely needed and this attack on the anti-Titans rally could not have come at a worse time.
The attacker needed to be stopped. Then solitude could be turned to. The empath sedately walked around the wall of earth that Terra had raised to block off the assailant and the rest of the fighting. By the time she could get a good look at the violence, she found Cyborg chasing after the masked murderer who was in the middle of fighting with Miguel. Beast Boy was rubbing his back, but watching for an opening. Wonder Girl was lining herself up as well and Starfire was hanging back. From here, it looked like the Tamaranean was breathing heavily.
Meanwhile, the man known as Ravager was keeping pace with all of them. He was showing a lot of skill along with physicality whether it was evading, attacking, or twisting his body about. It appeared that numbers was the advantage that the Titans were using to stay in the fight.
Frowning, something brushed against her mind, and Raven turned to her right, finding Terra lowering herself beside the hood and cloak-wearing girl. The thin blonde looked to her and said, "You going to take a turn? This Ravager guy hasn't been making this easy for us."
Terra wasn't wrong. Raven refocused on the battle and considered their options. They weren't exactly tag teaming, were they? However, it wasn't one-on-one since Cyborg and Miguel were double-teaming. The others were looking for openings, not wanting to get in each other's way because they might suffer friendly fire from that. Perhaps numbers had a liability of their own?
Then she considered what she could contribute. There was levitating any objects her powers could grasp on to. There were plenty of rocks and if she allowed her powers to cover the area, she might find something else. However, she could end up hitting one of the others. The same could be said if she used the power raw in the form of a beam. Everyone was moving quickly, Wonder Girl was making her move to try and throw Ravager only for their enemy to somehow move even faster.
Then, almost impossibly, Ravager seemingly kicked randomly only for his booted foot to strike Kid Flash in the face, sending the speedster flipping over himself. How had he done that? Kid Flash had the speed to avoid most senses as it was.
There…there was one option. She didn't like to use it. Not often. Or ever. It would place her in a very intimate position though it would afford her absolute control over Ravager. At the same time, it would leave her physically vulnerable and unable to defend herself. Options were running low here and this needed to end.
"Terra, I need you to protect me at all costs. Can you do that?" she spoke suddenly and forcefully. Terra flinched a bit at the tone and looked back at her, wide eyed. Then the geokinetic nodded her head.
"What are you going to do?"
"Finish this," Raven answered as she calmed her mind and focused. The great power housed within roiled and flowed, but then stilled as her will gained dominance. That was very concerning, so perhaps an extra hour would be needed for the next meditation session. Taking in deep, calming breaths, she uttered the words, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"
Her eyes flared open, glowing with intense black. Her body remained still, almost unnaturally so. Invisible to every eye, from within, a black, transparent shade of herself emerged.
This, this was her soulself. It took a great amount of control and will to do this, and once it had left her body, it raced into the heat of battle, targeting the unaware Ravager. The killer had no idea what was heading for him and he wouldn't until it was too late.
Too late meant that her soulself's arms and legs wrapped around him from behind, constricting all of his movements and stopping him in his tracks. Then this transparent shade sank into the man's physical body and this was where the intimacy happened.
Even from where her body physically stood, she could feel Ravager's all around her. She could detect his thoughts, feel the shock and surprise at the unseen attack, the short panic followed by aggression and an attempt to fight her off. Her will, however, was greater than any one human's, and so he was fighting off the equivalent of a formless seal and trying to do so with blunt attacks.
Through Ravager's mouth, Raven's voice spoke, "I have him. Do not worry for me, incapacitate him now!"
Through the soulbound man's ears, she could hear the protests from the others. "What if we hurt you?" "Are you sure this is safe?" "What are you doing, get out of there!" "I don't know, what if you get hurt?"
The concern was annoying. Here, she had him incapacitated, why were they not taking advantage? Ravager—Grant—would have. Oh, there was some seepage. Little piece of this man, the man named Grant who used the moniker Ravager would slip in and contaminate her. This was another reason she did not like to use the ability.
Grant's soul, it was putrid and corrupted by this sense of entitlement and selfishness. There was anger, a swelling rancor of it, along with bitterness, and no little hatred. It all pushed back against her, but she remained in control, unyielding to the resistance.
She would remain firm. Her hold would not break. Images would flash across her vision from time to time, all of which meant nothing to her but were important to this man. They were memories, no doubt. For a brief instance, there was an old man in an ancient military uniform. There was a girl, casual and flirty. There was a young woman, pretty but neglectful.
There was one image that burned her. There was a lot of hatred there, seething and spiteful. So much resentment all for the face of a man, hard and cold with only one eye.
No. Her grip was loosening. The wave of hatred that accompanied that face was battering her hold and more so than she could have anticipated. She would not let go. Not when the others, her teammates, needed her to remain in control.
Not when she needed to make up for last night.
It was surreal to hear Raven's voice coming out of Ravager's mouth. Red Robin had no idea how that happened, but that was what he had arrived to. The team was scattered all around, Ravager in the middle of them, and everything was starting to look real torn up.
The mask-wearing killer looked to be giving them a hard time, keeping up with and even showing them up. As soon as the man went still, it seemed all action came to a stop. There was a lot of uncertainty, and the teen vigilante understood why. Even now, the extent of Raven's powers was not known. Not yet.
It could wait, though. It needed to wait. Ravager was the more immediate threat, not only to them but the people around. He'd have to trust that Raven was fully in control.
"Take him down!" he called out, drawing the attention of a few of the Titans in the process.
Starfire was the first to act. From where she hovered, the Tamaranean raced down and knocked the frozen killer off his feet and using quite a bit of force with that clothesline. The second to move was Kid Flash. From rubbing his jaw to running around pretty much everywhere, to becoming a blur around Ravager's prone body, when the speedster came to a stop, it was with all sorts of makeshift restraints wrapping around the man from cables to strips of cloth.
Wonder Girl, Cyborg, and Beast Boy jumped in there, with Wonder Girl stomping an armored boot onto the killer's body, Cyborg taking position where his arm cannon was aimed point blank, and Beast Boy had shifted into a feline, cheetah to be precise, and ready to pounce if all else failed.
Red Robin noticed how Terra remained next to Raven's still body. There was a reason for that, he was sure, but for the time being, he'd withhold his questions. Well, not entirely. What was Miguel doing here? What was he wearing over his head? Answers for later.
Calmly, the team leader strolled over to where they had Ravager secured, restrained and pinned down. "You have him, Raven?" he asked loudly, crouching down next to their defeated opponent.
"For now," Raven answered, still speaking from the masked man's mouth. "He is resisting but that is to be expected. He will not be able to break free in the immediate future."
Okay, there was that. Now what to do now? They had the man who was out to kill them so it stood to reason they needed to find out why. There were holding rooms in the Tower; someone had anticipated that there may be a time that someone may need to be held in one whether it was an out-of-control power or a place to keep those that the police may not have the means to hold. They could put Ravager in one of them and see if they could get him to talk. After that, a transfer to JCPD as a gesture of good will.
So first, they needed to get Ravager into the Tower. As much as he trusted Raven, his new found understanding of how her powers worked made him want to have extra insurance that they weren't going to have a mishap along the way. Right now, it looked like they had Ravager secured but the masked teen had been at this long enough to not underestimate someone like this man.
Kid Flash might have ridiculously used a large amount of everything to wrap up the man, but knots were not necessarily the speedster's best skill. More restraints compensated for that. However, Ravager might have a few gadgets and weapons of his own to cut through the restraints. They were going to need something else.
Well, there was Wonder Girl's lasso. However, her armor had been behaving strangely in the last few hours. Terra could pin him in some kind of rock-based restraint. That one had merit. Beast Boy could become a constrictor type of snake but he wasn't willing to endanger the shapeshifter like that. Hmm, there was Miguel with those purple bricks of his. Those had managed to work defensively thus far. Perhaps a combination to be on the safe side, even if one might see it as overkill?
"Hey," he called out to Miguel, refraining from using the Hispanic teen's name. "Can you use your bricks to hold him? We're heading back to the Tower—"
It was soft, but there was a gasp. Shortly after that, there was a noise, one that sounded like a "shiick," and that was followed by an eruption of movement as Ravager tore out of the restraints, his body practically blurring as it spun about.
Whatever Raven had done, it had been broken.
Wonder Girl's foot was knocked away, Cyborg's cannon was struck hard enough to throw off the aim, and the quick, snarling cheetah was avoided. A feline yowl slipped out of the cheetah snout, a foot hooked around Red Robin's ankle, and the next thing he knew, he was falling back onto his ass.
Some sort of danger sense was yelling at him, and so he allowed the rest of his upper body to fall back and just barely missed the sharp blade that would have cut through his throat as a result. For a second, he saw how the hidden knife extended from atop Ravager's wrist, indicating how Kid Flash's restraints had been defeated.
It was hard to describe what happened next. Ravager just kept moving without missing a beat. The killer hadn't gotten back onto his feet, not yet, but he had gotten into a couch right next to Cyborg. Ravager grabbed onto the cybernetic teen's arm cannon and further threw off its aim and unfortunately Wonder Girl was now in the line of fire. The barrel of the cannon had been glowing and so it ended up firing at that second. Wonder Girl was blasted away, Kid Flash running to catch her.
"Why did I forget about the spikes?!"
And made the same mistake of catching her again. However, Red Robin had more pressing concerns because now the arm cannon was aimed at him. Cyborg, though, transformed it back into default mode, a strong, titanium hand now instead of something to fry the teen vigilante with.
Unbelievably, Ravager ran with this and somehow threw Cyborg over his shoulder, pulling down on the transformed arm and sending the cybernetic teen on a crash course with—oh shit.
Purple bricks formed a shield between himself and the much heavier Cyborg. In theory, they should protect him. In practice, they cushioned Cyborg, and Red Robin found a large weight pinning him into the ground. Oh, that was a lot of pressure. Under these bricks, his head was turned, and while he didn't get the best view, he could see Ravager's red-colored boots moving about. He could hear the sounds of some fighting, but with who, no telling.
Miguel's bricks rose up, giving Red Robin the space to not only catch his breath but to feel some relief that he wasn't being crushed anymore. He was getting a better view now, but that was a moot point as Ravager released a smoke bomb, creating a smokescreen. Starbolts were fired into the smoke, but the masked teen knew it was a wasted effort. If Ravager was smart, he'd use this chance to get away.
When the smoke eventually cleared, he was proven right. There was no signs of Ravager and only destruction remained behind.
He had to blink. Really, he did. This had happened so quickly, he was beginning to doubt himself. They had him. They had him. In less than a couple of minutes, there was a one-eighty, and they were left with nothing to show for their efforts.
"You okay, man?" That was Cyborg. Must be checking in to see if he wasn't too crushed. Very thoughtful of him.
"For now," Red Robin said. His breathing was hard but his mind was in a daze. No, no time for that. They needed to act, and to act now. Sirens were growing louder. Looks like Jump City's finest was arriving on the scene. "Get back to the Tower. We need to figure out our next move."
Exhaustion was washing over him now, but the day was only just starting. Hell of a way to start the weekend.
