In Need of a Friend

It was a silly thing, really. Of all the things in the world to get caught up on, it had to be a stupid T-shirt.

Huntress kept seeing Colin's shirt in her head, and not gonna lie, that had really made her day, so much so that she was thinking about it on patrol. Was it sad to feel like she made it if she was getting printed on T-shirts?

The dark-haired woman had to shake her head, an attempt to get the lingering thought out of her head. It partially worked as she was able to focus on the street below. There were a few people walking up and down the street, the occasional car passing by. Nothing really to write home about.

She could actually say the same about the previous stops too. For whatever reason, she hadn't seen much activity, if any at all. The other Birds had a few carjackings and muggings under their belt this night, so it wasn't like crime wasn't happening. For whatever reason, it just wasn't happening at her location.

Deciding to give up on this spot, she raised a hand to her ear. "This is H, moving to point E."

"How about you hold off on that?"

Huntress' eyes sharpened. Slowly turning her head, she saw Black Canary standing a short distance away, her hands on her hips. How long had she been standing there anyways? She usually detected when someone was sneaking up on her.

"Not on your A-game," the blonde vigilante quipped. "I've been standing here for like, two minutes."

The purple-clad woman stood up, turning to face her teammate. "I'm getting bored into oblivion, so sue me."

"Something up?" BC pressed. "You've been off since you got to the Roost. You didn't give Manhunter your normal snarky greeting. You didn't even ask me about playing in the Big Leagues either."

Huntress rolled her eyes. "It's nothing, alright? Especially when compared to getting asked to join the Justice League, Ms. Big League."

"Just talk to me, H. It's been awhile since we've done that." Canary moved her arms up so that she could shove them into the pockets of her leather jacket. "What's got you knitting wool?"

This time she raised an eyebrow. "Knitting wool?" she repeated incredulously. "What, did you age too while up in space?"

Canary didn't take the bait, unfortunately. "I've got all night; so do you. So spill."

A moment or two passed before the purple-clad vigilante sighed. "How do you know when you've arrived?" she asked.

That caused the blonde woman to raise an eyebrow, her turn apparently. "Arrived?"

"Yeah, you know, getting recognition after paying all of these dues. You, obviously, got that invite from Batman to join the Justice League. That must have felt freaking amazing."

"Look, H—"

Huntress held a hand up to cut her off. "You wanted to talk, so I'm gonna talk. I'm getting somewhere, I promise." She paused again. "I think I felt that moment today, when I saw one of my kids wearing a shirt."

"What kind of shirt?"

"A Huntress shirt. Like, it had my color with my symbol. I can't tell you how many kids I've seen wearing Batman shirts over the years. How many have called him their hero and pretend to be him on the playground. And today I had this amazing talk with one of my kids about me. He was gushing about me. And then he went over each and every one of us, telling me how awesome we all are."

Huntress paused yet again, sighing once more. "I have to admit, it felt amazing. Feels amazing."

Silence fell over them. "They have a T-shirt for you?" Canary questioned.

"On all of us, actually. I looked it up on my lunch break and I found all this merch. There was naturally all the Bat stuff, but then there was me and you and Katana and Manhunter. Someone felt we were profitable to make such stuff. It made me feel that we were finally getting some recognition in this city after all of this time. Hell, someone even went to the effort of making a logo for the Birds of Prey!"

"I definitely need to see that," Canary chimed in. "So that's what got you distracted. I gotta say, it's a lot better than I thought it would be."

"What did you think it was?"

"One of your cousins throwing their weight around again. Usually when you get distracted, it's because of family drama and how you're gonna have to explain to your parents why you broke one of your cousin's arms."

Ahh, memories. Ricky was still giving her the stink-eye for that one. Hey, if he thought he could just bully her because she wasn't actively helping the family, earning her keep and all, then he had another thing coming. Ricky was a little shit anyways; she was just waiting for the day he tried to escalate things. Then he would really see what it was like to eat food through a straw.

A hand slapped down on her shoulder, shaking her out of her thoughts. Since when had BC walked up to her? She hadn't been kidding about her family drama being a distraction. "I'm happy for you, H," the blonde woman smiled at her. "Really and truly. It's like a Hallmark moment."

Aaaand she ruined it. Huntress rolled her eyes and she shrugged the hand off of her shoulder. "Whatever, Glorious Leader. I gotta get to point E while you hang out at your C. You and the others have been keeping busy after all."

Dentist offices did their best to be welcoming and non-threatening. Considering what the vocation entailed, it hardly worked. You could thank Hollywood with its plethora of sadistic dentist interpretations, especially when it concerned the more sophisticated tools of the profession. There was a reason why there was a phobia where dentists were concerned.

The office was dark, save for the glow of a digital clock on the wall. A waiting room with chairs lining the wall was the first room, small end tables covered in heaps of magazines. Occasionally there was a toy, usually one of those small playsets with bent and twisting metal bars. Small plastic beads were on the bars and could slide from one end of each bar to the other.

This was ignored as the Dark Knight stood in front of the front desk. The counter acted as separation from the waiting room to the employee side. A couple of computers were present, each one turned off. Phone stands, a calculator, and metal stands that held papers in them were also there. Small placards of IN and OUT were on the stand, indicating it was for paperwork placement.

On the wall next to the front desk was a plaque. GOTHAM'S #1 DENTIST 2017 it proclaimed, followed by the name of the recipient, DR. PHILIP MILES.

This was Dr. Miles' office, the scene of where a man had a drill put through his head. Leaving the front desk, Batman headed down a short hallway, stopping when it reached a T-intersection. There were a series of doors here, a couple to the left, a couple to the right, and one right in front of him. That made five in total, four of which had their doors wide open. The fifth was shut and had police tape in front of it.

Reaching a hand out, he grabbed the tape and pulled it up, allowing him to step into the room it blocked off. He was greeted with the site of a dentist chair, along with a little stand with a metal tray on top of it, various dentistry tools set on it. In the corner was a counter with a sink, along with a mirror on the wall above it. Just like any medical profession, hand hygiene was mandatory. There were even a few boxes next to the sink, each one containing small, medium, or large gloves. All and all, this was a typical dentist operating room.

Save for the blood, of course.

On the chair where the patient would normally lay their head was a red stain, along with a small hole that went right through the padded headrest. This was where Jack Dawson met his untimely end, and if the crime scene photos were any indication, it was grizzlier than what he was seeing currently.

Batman did his usual routine, slowly turning himself around as he scanned every last bit of the room. He took note of anything that looked out of the ordinary, like the straps that were on the dentist chair. Those weren't standard issue, so no doubt Dawson had his arms strapped down to the chair when he was attacked. Referring to the crime scene photos, Dawson had been found strapped down, still in the chair. Reports had come from people in the waiting room upon hearing the screams, screams that even the staff couldn't ignore.

He kept the room dark, allowing whatever light he could get from the window to reveal the room. He didn't want to alert anyone to his presence here. It was because of this that he detected a brief flash of light. Stopping, Batman slowly spun back the other way until he spotted the flash again.

It was coming from a potted plant, one that sat on the counter with the sink. Approaching it, the vigilante brushed some of the leaves to one side, which allowed him to spot a small camera just peeking out of the pot. He must have caught the ambient light reflecting off of the lens when he had been turning.

While it seemed odd that the police wouldn't have spotted this, it most likely had to do with them having the lights on as well. They wouldn't have seen the reflection like he had in the dark. Studying the camera, he noticed it was connected to a small box, a frequency broadcaster.

Hmm, so it was sending the footage somewhere, but where?

Glancing around the room, he noticed a metal arm on the wall, one connected to the computer monitor. Hanging beneath the monitor was a small keyboard stand with a mouse attachment. Walking over to the computer, he turned it on, waiting for it to boot up. It took a few moments before the desktop appeared, a small handful of icons appearing. One was of the charting system for the dentist office, another for internet access.

There was one icon that seemed off. Grabbing the mouse, he moved the cursor over to the icon and double clicked on it. He waited a couple minutes before a program opened. Immediately, he recognized it as a recording program. His eyes narrowed. What were the chances…

A door opened, on the screen, the program clearly playing the last footage sent to it. In walked in a man in a business suit, who was pulling off his black jacket. He tossed it onto the couch that was on the back wall and sat himself in the dentist chair. A second man followed, dressed in a white uniform. "What brings you in today, Mr. Dawson?" the man asked.

"I've got this pain on the left side of my jaw. It's been hurting the last couple days," Dawson replied. "Look, I'm in a hurry, so can you look and see what the problem is?"

"Of course, Mr. Dawson."

Because the man had his back to the camera, Batman couldn't see what happened next. However, when he moved, the vigilante noticed the straps were around Dawson's wrists. Apparently Dawson hadn't noticed them.

A few seconds passed before the man in white moved into frame, ending up on the opposite side of the dentist chair. He set his tools on the stand, then moved to hover over Dawson. "Say ahhhhh," he ordered.

"Hey, Doc, what's with the nose?" Dawson asked.

Batman narrowed his eyes. It was hard to tell because the footage was in black and white, but he noticed something round on the man's nose. It looked like…like a round clown's nose, if he wasn't mistaken.

"Now, now, you said you were in a hurry," the man replied. He then reached a hand down and grabbed Dawson by his chin and forced his mouth open. Dawson shook in the chair, only then realizing he couldn't move his arms. "Oh my, what a horrible cavity, Mr. Dawson," the man proclaimed.

That's when he pulled out the drill, a finger squeezing the trigger, causing the drill bit at its end to spin with the familiar drill whine. "I have to do surgery immediately."

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Batman hit the space bar, which paused the footage. Pulling out a flashdrive from his belt, he shoved it into the USB port and downloaded the footage onto it. Once that was done, he opened up the internet browser.

Though the footage was disturbing, there were a couple things that had caught Batman's attention. The first was that Dawson had been behaving like the man in white was his regular dentist. Clearly he recognized him as such. Once the browser was opened, the dark-clad man did a search for Dr. Philip Miles, specifically looking for an image of him.

Only a couple seconds went by before he received a whole list of pictures. The first few were of headshots, an older man smiling. Staring at them, Batman did a comparison between the images and the man in white in the footage. Just from the eye test, it looked like he had a positive ID on the third image.

Using the mouse cursor to click on that image, he received some info on the picture, that of a Dr. Philip Miles, dentist in Gotham. He was a middle aged man, a receding hairline, and glasses. There was also some graying of his hair at his temples.

And now he was wearing a clown nose.

The second thing that had come to his attention was that the camera had been positioned perfectly for what this dentist had done. He clearly wanted it recorded, but for what purpose? Was this man depraved enough to want to view this murder after the fact?

It seemed he was going to need to do a background check on Dr. Miles.

Disengaging the flashdrive, Batman left the room. He pondered over the small, clown paraphernalia Miles had been wearing. It was a small attempt at dressing like a clown, which in Gotham wasn't a good thing. Was that the connection between Miles and the Joker? If it was, it was really a stretch, even for him.

In all honesty, he was having a hard time connecting the Joker to this. It was quite clear on the footage that Miles was the perpetrator here, but why?

And was it possible he had something to do with the other murders?

There was that calling card, the one for the League of Smiles. It seemed he had been premature in stopping the footage when he had. At least he had a copy so he could view if Miles had been the one to drop the card in question. Reaching the front desk, he couldn't help but glance over the counter and come to a stop.

One thing he hadn't paid much mind to was the presence of a large calendar on the front desk. Reaching over the counter, he grabbed it and lifted it up, moving it so he could get a better look. Clearly the receptionists used this to schedule appointments for Miles if the handwriting on it was any indication. Each day had a list of names with times next to them. Skimming over them, it wasn't until he noticed an evening appointment scheduled. Considering all the other times were during the day, this one stuck out.

Actually, as he studied the calendar more carefully, he saw an evening appointment scheduled on the same day of the week, always at the same time. Next to the time was Dr Appointment scribbled next to it.

A recurring doctor appointment for the same time on the same day of the week. It seemed Batman needed to see just who this doctor was and why Miles met with them so frequently.

In the distance you could see the lights. They lined the horizon itself, stretching from your left to your right, seemingly unending. They were not bright enough to turn night into day, but they were enough to tell you that you were getting closer to a city.

That city was Gotham. They were still several miles out, perhaps a little under twenty, but the Teen Titans were getting closer to it. After his call with Oracle, Red Robin did not know if that was a good thing.

They had truly narrowed things down; Gotham was near the bottom to check out in his opinion, but for the rest of the team it was practically the first. However, coming across one of the demonic constructs so far away from this particular city had them slowing down a bit, checking any and all towns and cities between Gotham and Blüdhaven for any more. There had been at least one other they had found, only detected courtesy of Cyborg who was gathering more and more data on them.

It was putting them all on a little edge due to both worry and anger. The worry was for Raven; these constructs shouldn't be forming unless their missing friend was in a very bad state emotionally. With her powers linked directly to her emotions, it was necessary for her to remain in control. The anger was for whoever was putting her into that kind of distress to form those constructs in the first place.

Thanks to the call he had made, the teen vigilante had at least one suspect and it was one he did not want the team facing. Anytime the words Gotham and clown were mentioned in the same sentence, it was never a good thing. No, it was a downright terrible one.

Currently they were at a rest stop on the side of the road. It had been his request to do so while giving Oracle a call. He had been keeping tabs himself over the former members of the original Batclan; he knew that Oracle's day job was a demanding one and before he had even tried using his direct line to her, Red Robin had made sure that she could even be found at her proverbial night desk. That was why he had Cyborg pull over and he had contacted the computer hacker at the GCPD instead.

The call had gone pretty much how he had expected. Of course the masked teen knew they weren't going to get the red carpet treatment. It was his hope to find out that Gotham was as calm as it would ever be. That would make it so much simpler and hopefully smoother. But then the comment about clowns…

Normally it was Wonder Girl who would be asking loudly about what was up. He had naturally stood away from the rest, letting them stretch their legs a bit while making the call. As the team leader was returning, he had noted how the armor-wearing blonde had glanced at him, yet she didn't call out and draw everyone's attention to them.

There had been changes in the relationship between the two of them. Even with Raven's plight hanging over them, he and Wonder Girl were getting closer, as in starting to steal kisses with one another. Yeah, it seemed like with every day they were becoming more and more official. Once the drive to the east coast had started, it had naturally fallen off some, but there were other public displays of affection to keep on the downlow to do. There was even a growing change in their interactions, calmly talking with one another, hushed whispers that he figured a certain shapeshifter could overhear, and more and more understanding looks.

No, this time around the one who drew everyone's attention to him was Kid Flash, the team speedster. "So what's the deal, Red? Got the intel we need?" the teen in yellow and red called out two feet away from him. By now, Red Robin was getting more and more used to how Kid Flash would just appear right next to you. Superspeed let him do that.

"Yeah, what's the deal?" Beast Boy agreed, sitting on a picnic table in a sleeveless, red and white jumpsuit.

"Bring it in everyone!" the teen vigilante announced, making sure his voice carried. The group of teens and one alien of unknown age obeyed. A sign of their circumstances, no doubt. Usually they would stay where they were or continue what they were doing while lending an ear. Not here, though. "Alright, we got some poor timing. We got some people acting up and they aren't the kind I want us getting involved with. Let the locals handle them."

"Is it one of the guys from Arkham?" Cyborg asked, his tone a combination of curiosity and seriousness.

Red Robin nodded his head. "Unfortunately, yes. Reports of murderous clowns and confirmed kills. We need to be really careful."

"Dude, Red, are you saying," Beast Boy's voice became hushed while gaining in pitch, "is it the Joker?"

Somebody was quick to catch on. It might be surprising that it was the green shapeshifter, but you had to take into account that there were at least two Batman fanboys on the team, and Beast Boy was one of them. Of course he would know about the rogues gallery. Who didn't?

"No confirmed sighting, but that doesn't mean anything. Clowns and Gotham don't mix, and where there's one, there's bound to be more, and one of them is one we have to avoid at all costs," Red Robin continued to brief them. "This also means we need to stick together, and no going off on our own to sightsee. You show up in the wrong place at the wrong time and you can find yourself dead."

Starfire politely held up a hand, and Red Robin nodded his acceptance. "I find myself lacking information about this Joker. What should we expect if we were to intersect our path with him?"

"Poison that makes you laugh yourself to death, lots of guns, explosions, property damage that we ourselves have not been able to cause, lots and lots of innocent and not so innocent people getting caught in the middle, and there's more I'm not saying. This man kills indiscriminately. There is even a vigilante that was beaten to death with a crowbar. Unpredictable so even with what I tell you now, you can't one hundred percent expect it to happen. There's always something new."

A bit wordy, but you could never just use one word or even short sentence to sum up everything related to this particular man. Hell, Red Robin hadn't even met him face to face! But he had seen the handiwork. Too many times, in fact. Each one was worse than the last. Then, when you do a casual internet search, you learn of even more. Also, when you had at least one pair of eyes and ears left behind, they tended to tell you about all the other stuff.

"Um, real quick question." Kid Flash was mimicking Starfire by raising a hand of his own. "Any powers we should know about?"

Thirtieth-century time traveler who paid more attention to Flash lore than anything else. Completely understandable. "None, unless you count escaping near death situations with hardly a scratch."

The curious look on the speedster's face turned into a frown. "So why do we need to be so worried? I mean, look at us! We fight a bunch of people with special powers all the time! What's one guy who has none?"

You would think, but no.

"This is his home turf, he knows a thing or two," Wonder Girl spoke up, arms crossed. "If Red says we keep away from this guy, we keep away."

"I'm just saying," Kid Flash tried to protest, but then one of the fanboys cut him off.

"You don't pay attention to the internet either," Cyborg said. "There are a lot of blogs, a lot of vlogs, hell, whole websites dedicated to the sick shit this maniac does, and worse, some of them worship him. Tell me about one Flash baddie that has achieved that. I can fact check and confirm it."

"Dude, doesn't everyone have a website about them now? Or a Wikipedia page?" Beast Boy mentioned, holding up a hand with one finger extended.

"Not helping and we'll be here all day," Wonder Girl intervened, sending a sharp look to Kid Flash. "I've been all over the world, Kid, and everywhere I went, whenever that maniac was up to something, I heard about it. I was a kid when I heard about the cloud of death he unleashed. Gave me nightmares for a week that he'd do it in Gateway. I was so happy when I heard he died in a fire. I was even more happy when I left the country again after hearing he was still alive."

Red Robin put a hand on her shoulder, hoping to give her the chance to calm down. When she looked to him, he gave a nod then took a step forward. "When I still lived in Gotham, I heard stories about what happened when the Joker decided to leave the city and go national. He took on the Justice League, and took them down. He made Superman a crazed lunatic, murdered anyone he thought took attention away from him, and poisoned a whole city, Central City. The Flash, Kid Flash, not even the Flash could stop him. Was any of that ever covered in the future? Any of that make it into chronicles about the Flash?

"Here's the situation. No one knows where the Joker is. No one knows if he is alive. No body was found after that civil war between Gotham's worst happened. He is capable of anything, and somehow has the money to pull off anything his twisted mind can come up with. That means he could have the cash to buy Raven if he wanted to. He has the mind to do anything, and I have no doubt that includes creating a situation where Raven begins projecting her fear again. The sooner we find her, the sooner we can get her out."

"Do you fear it is that terrible?" Starfire asked, one hand clenching at her chest. She still felt guilty about being unable to prevent Raven's abduction.

Red Robin looked over the team with him. Starfire and Wonder Girl brought brute force, Kid Flash and Beast Boy could scout, Cyborg had access to everything cyberspace, and he himself knew the lay of Gotham better than any of them did. It was difficult to keep it all this small, to be honest.

Left behind was Terra whom was under the ministrations of Martian Manhunter. The Martian was treating her for any aftereffects from being under the thrall of a very powerful psychic. Any control that Queen Bee held over her was being undone; no one needed Terra to be controlled from a distance and used to free the defunct leader of H.I.V.E. from wherever she was currently being incarcerated. Bunker was also kept back in Jump City for several reasons, the first being that Red Robin did not think he was ready for what Gotham could throw at him and second there was the little issue of his illegal presence in the United States. It was bad enough having to deal with anti-Titan sentiments back home; there was no need to spread it to the east coast.

Though, there were plans being thrown around to expand how big the T.I.T.A.N. Initiative was so as to better include all of the teenaged metahumans liberated from H.I.V.E. and many of who had nowhere else to go. One of the ideas thrown around were a few more towers. That was something for the men and women who had come up with the Initiative in the first place to figure out.

This matter, on the other hand, was for them on the ground.

"This isn't going to be like last time," the teen vigilante continued. "We're now looking for a missing friend who we need to consider is not in safe hands. We need to be fast and efficient. The longer Raven remains in danger, the more dangerous she will become to everyone around her. We don't know the full extent of her powers, but in the worst case, she's a ticking time bomb. This is a search and rescue mission, plain and simple. We need to keep on track and no diversions." Here he gave Cyborg and Beast Boy a stern look. "No sightseeing. We do not have, and may not get, permission from Batman to do this search. He may even force us out. Expect for him to find us, and notify me immediately if anyone sees him. I'll take responsibility."

"You don't have to do that," Wonder Girl said softly, looking down.

"We're in this together, man," Cyborg stated. "He'll have to understand. He doesn't know what we do."

That's right, Batman doesn't. Still, the Dark Knight should be able to hold out. Hopefully Oracle would reach him and they could get this face-to-face confrontation out of the way from the get go. His tolerance is all they needed.

Until then, hopefully, Raven would be able to hold out until they reached her.

Space was limited in this cylindrical prison. On one side there was metal that curved from left to right and stretched upwards. On the other was a curved, transparent surface, one akin to glass but nowhere near as delicate. It was strong and tough, and it kept her trapped in what had become a prison turned home.

Her mind was far from being stable. Waking up in this…whatever this was had only been the start of a nightmare in which she was unsure if it was a dream or in waking. It felt suffocating at times, even for her who knew how to put mind over matter. The only net positive to find was that there was enough space to curl in on herself with some extra in case she felt like stretching her legs.

This hellhole had been all that Raven knew since she had woken up in it. One of her last memories had been…she had been…yes, finding Beast Boy under a psychic attack. It became hazy there, and then everything that could be remembered was coming to, in and out, a fuzzy vision of one location, then another, and another, and then here.

The hood and cloak wearing girl did not know where here was. All she could see was what looked like some kind of laboratory through the transparent wall. There had been a man, one she did not recognize. As she had regained consciousness and her stable grip on her emotions, she had given a warning to release her. The man had refused. Raven gave one last warning, and when that too was dismissed, the empath had unleashed her powers, her inheritance from a demonic father of whom she hoped never to see again.

It should have been easy. This…thing, this prison of hers should have been torn apart. Bent outwards, glass shattered, her captor in panic, and yet none of that had happened. The cylindrical prison had contained her might and then somehow absorbed it. She had been left weakened as a result.

The man had praised his work. Had marveled at her containment. It was as if he had had some doubts that she could be held. Those doubts were now gone and the true nightmare began.

It had left her mind in its most fragile state since before Azarath. Her normal methods of meditation were weakening bit by bit. The longer this went on, the more she feared at what would happen if all control was lost. It had happened…recently? It was difficult to tell how long she had been here. Nevertheless, it had been the other Teen Titans who had suffered then. The Tower had been warded by Dr. Fate himself so that incident was contained at the time.

This wasn't the Tower. There were no wards from a Lord of Order. This was a dangerous situation that would only escalate more and more until disaster. No, not disaster, calamity.

"Ah, I see you're awake."

The voice. The man's voice. Peering from under her hood, Raven glowered at her captor. She said nothing, refused to. However, this produced a chuckle instead of intimidation.

"Teenage rebellion, how annoying. Not that you know any better. Still, you have your strength so we can continue."

Continue. Not again. It was so hard to hide the grimace even from where she sat, legs curled into her torso. Not a good sign because that meant her control over her emotions was not where it needed to be. It was one thing when it was a lame joke from Beast Boy, right now much preferable to this. There was contempt she could direct his way and then enjoy the annoyance he returned.

Of all the damn things to miss.

"I wasn't able to procure any fish for your dining enjoyment. However, I do believe I can cook something to maintain your constitution. Energy bars and soda won't do you any good in the longer term and I need you healthy, little bird. That will have to come later, though."

If there was one thing that she did not begrudge, her attacker wasn't forcing her to devour granola bars or some third rate cafeteria food. He had taken to giving her actual meals, and he wasn't too bad of a cook either. Judging by his looks, he had to have learned some culinary skills. No one would ever voluntarily mate with him.

Another sign of her degeneration. Those thoughts would be the furthest thing from her mind. She had more control than this, damn it!

The man wandered out of her view. She heard nothing else and this put her on edge. There was a sinking feeling…oh no, please. Not this. Not again.

"If you have the strength to wish death on me, you have the strength for another experiment," the man commented. "We'll keep it at a low concentration. I am just dying to know what you'll come up with this time."

Above, a set of slats tilted open, creating a vent. The second time this had happened, Raven had tried to force her powers into it, seeing it as an opportunity to break out. That hadn't worked. Whatever was capable of absorbing her dark energies had done just that, and after…

Well, the gas that was being pumped in had a little extra that time to augment itself.

Once more, at an assured lower concentration, it was being vented in. Colorless, it would fill this prison of hers, and inevitably she would take in another breath. Not even a girl with her heritage could prolong asphyxiation without the gasping reflex kicking in.

Not in this prison from which she could not escape.