Authors notes: The story has artwork now. Check it out.
I also have a discord now too. Check my profile, and check it out if you want to talk stories and writing.
Also, made a few edits to previous chapters. Nothing much. Just tightening everything up so it flows better.
Chapter Four
The Chaos Continues...
Raven just wanted to go home. She could step into one portal and return to her room in the tower. But she pushed her anxieties aside.
She didn't like being away from her home. She didn't like being in the real world with real people. But she was no use to anyone locked up in place that was quiet and safe. If she was going to continue with her life mission she needed to step out of her comfort zone. Going outside was normal to most people. To Raven it was like leaving your home and walking into a swarm of flies. Not deadly, just massively uncomfortable.
The monster in her head stirred. There were many monsters in her head, but this one just wanted to sleep and rest. Noise, irritation, unnecessary stimuli made it stir, when it did it'd kick on the inside of her skull. Disturbing it was like poking a sleeping lion, it'll eventually rip your head off. She tried to vanish into herself to keep that demon calm. "We'll be home soon." She thought to it, soothing it like it was an angry child. Then we can go somewhere nice and quiet to rest.
Where was the guy with the rubber head? He was keeping her from this needed rest period.
She had to remind herself the masked man wasn't doing all this to personally annoy her. It was just how a game of cat and mouse went. She kept reminding herself of this fact to curb the deep urge to knock those white teeth out. She'd nearly lost control once before and almost killed one of their enemies over it.
In the shadows she heard a dark, low giggling that echoed around the deserted street. She twisted and looked for the source of this noise. His aura was difficult to pinpoint. She vanished into the shadows of a half demolished building to avoid being an easy target. She reached out into the aether for any sign of him.
He was... He was...
Raven leapt back. The masked man suddenly materialised in the shadows in front of her. He stepped from the shadows so Raven could see him. She put her arms up, her eyes narrowed, ready to fight in close quarters. Her stance didn't relax, but her eyes softened to bemusement at his garb. He was wearing a hooded cloak similar to her own with with sleeves. "The Farce is with you Miss Resting-Bitch-face."
Raven's face dropped. "But you're not a Jedi yet."
She growled. "You're worst than Beast Boy."
"Yeah, cute kid, that guy." The green man said. "He'll make a lovely roast."
Raven's eyes darkened. "If you've hurt them!" Messing with her friends was the equivalent of going into her room and touching her stuff, and it commanded the same penalty. An ass kicking.
"Good." The masked man went in a throaty whisper. "I can feel your anger. Let the hate flow through you." He grinned like this was all a joke.
Raven bore her teeth. Her eyes had whited out. She punched the air and left a trail of darkness. A giant sphere of black energy slammed into the masked man like a wrecking ball. The energy dissipated when it slammed into the flat wall. He was nothing but a flat smear against it. Raven leapt back. She hadn't hit him that hard. Oh Christ, what had she done?! What had see...
What the hell was going on?
His flattened hand pulled itself free of the wall and it was peeling himself off like a giant sticker. Raven knew how crazy that sounded. But it was happening.
"Okay, maybe don't let the hate flow that well." He said in a horse whisper. He popped back into his original shape, took something from his belt and tossed it to Raven. Her hand was up in an instant and automatically caught it. It was a metal cylinder of some sort. She sensed no danger from it. It wasn't a bomb or anything.
The man had a similar cylinder. He held it up and with a snap-hiss a red lance of light extended from the thing. He came at Raven. With a similar snap-hiss a blue lance of light appeared from her own cylinder without her prompting. She caught the red lance on her blue on. The red blade came swinging left and right with Raven only managing to parry.
"Wait. What am I doing?" She tossed the laser sword away and spread her arm from left to right leaving a trail of blackness. It caught the red laser sword more effectively than that blue blade could. The barrier faded and Raven had to charge her power and produce another one with her other hand. She did this a few times. Raven was not very good at close quarters combat and if the guy wanted to go in for the kill he could, yet he missed obvious openings. Meaning either he knew little about close quarters combat too, or the guy was playing with her.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" She called. A nearby car was picked up and flung at the man. He turned to dodge, when he did Raven blasted him with a beam of dark energy. The guy vanished like a burst balloon. "Shit, did I really kill him that time?" She nearly dropped the car on its roof. Despite her panic she gently put it back down on its four wheels. The car belonged to someone and they might not be able to afford another.
The bits of the masked man wriggled, melted into a fleshy pile and pulled themselves into a puddle that reformed like in that movie Beast Boy liked about killer robots from the future.
"I'm back!" He said in a fake Austrian accent.
"Oh, thank Christ."
This guy was like Plastic-man, very durable yet somehow more irritating. The masked man adopted a fighting stance. "You're move, Passport-photo-face." The monster stirred, but Raven blocked its feelings from bleeding into her face. She would not rise to his bait.
She raised her arms. The power billowed out from her core kicking up her cloak. The full shape of her body could be seen.
Someone wolf whistled at her.
Concentration broken Raven dropped her arms, her powers and she wrapped herself tightly back up in her cloak. Her cheeks turning red. "Maybe I should reconsider my crime fighting garb." She thought. Usually, she wouldn't care, but recently Raven had been feeling more self-conscious about herself. Originally, she only wore this garb to piss a certain group of people off. But they hadn't been a factor in her life anymore.
The masked man was gone?! No. He was behind her, and he clamped his hands over her head.
"Wicked child, can you see the light?!" He sounded like a TV faith healer. "I cast thee out, child of the devil and feel the love of the lord." She brought her elbow back and into his stomach.
"Feel that." He let her go. Raven didn't like being touched at the best of times.
He was now in a black trench coat and with black glasses. Raven didn't get the reference. He waved at her to come at him.
Raven wasn't falling for it. She'd let him make the first move, and... He did, and he was fast! TOO FAST!
One moment Raven was ready to fight, the next she was sailing through the air after he'd slammed a bat into her abdomen. "Augghh!"
"And Passport-photo-face is going... going..."
"OOF!" She smashed into a window and bashed her head against an inner door of the room she was in and landed on the floor.
"SHE's GONE!" Came his cries of victory. "Hurray for the whole team!" A baseball jingle played.
"Oww..." Blackness took her.
"Friends. Has anyone seen sight of the man with the head of Mellon?" Only static came over Starfires communicator. She stopped with her feet dangling in mid-air. The sack of money still at her back. She had a wide range of view, but couldn't see the green headed man. Beast Boy had also vanished from her sight. "Friends, please respond."
"Cyborg here. I'm a little waterlogged, but I'm making my way back to your position." Waterlogged? What happened to him?
"This is Robin. Titans, regroup. We need to rethink. Meet at the car."
"No sign of Friends Raven or Beast Boy?" Starfire asked.
"It's possible they're in battle. Any sign of them?"
Starfire looked around. Just the rough buildings around her. She listened to the air. She couldn't hear anything. "Not that I can see."
"Miss. Miss. Please, help me miss!" Came a shout from below. A little old lady was waving up at Starfire. She came down to see what was wrong. "Oh, thank goodness. I just saw that green man down that street fighting with the devil child. Quickly!"
"Thank you miss." Starfire nodded and hefting the bag of money on her shoulders.
"You might as well leave that here, dear. I'll look after it." The old women trembled, but hefted her cane. Starfire liked the fighting spirit of the elderly on this planet. Even while infirm they will fight.
"It is greatly appreciated, miss." Starfire put the bag down and flew off to help Raven. She came to a sudden stop as something registered in her head. Why was there a split in the woman's neck, and why could she see green underneath?
"Oh Miss Fake-tan!" Starfire turned back. A large, green head now sat on top of the body of the little woman. A fleshy old-woman mask lay discarded on the floor, and she was now holding a massive rocket launcher. It was pointing directly at Starfire.
"CATCH!"
After a window shattering explosion Starfire was thrown clear of the blast. An ordinary human would've died, and if it was a direct hit maybe Starfire would've died too. But Starfire wasn't human and she had dived out of the way at last second.
She stood and the green masked man stamped over to her with bulging muscles and tattoos covering his body. Tattoos of symbols she knew and associated with Earth bigotry.
"We don't appreciate your kind here!" He barked, pure hatred was in his eyes. Starfire shrank away. She may be a warrior princess with the strength of ten men, but unjustified hate still hurt. "The human race is really going downhill if we allowed someone like you onto our precious planet..." He looked down. "WEARING THOSE SHOES! Come on, really?!" He gestured to her boots. "Honestly, fashion disaster alert!" His voice and manner had changed to be more feminine. "Honestly, girl, we'll be the laughing stock of the galaxy."
Starfire relaxed and smiled. "Oh, this is what you Earth people call a joke?"
"Yeah, but give it twenty years, darling." He sped off past her. Starfire turned to follow but a catwalk sprung up out of nothing in front of her in two seconds flat. Flashing lights and dance music echoed around the street. The big headed man walked towards her on the catwalk swaying his hips while wear something that Starfire guessed to Earthlings would be considered the height of fashion, but it just looked odd to Starfire. She'd later find out it looked odd to her friends too.
"Now, how are we going to fix this?" The masked man grabbed at her outfit. "Far too sexualised for a teenager. This mid-rift. What are we trying to say? Sex object? In fact, where are your organs? Not a good role model for fifty-eight percent of America. People wanna see themselves, and most of them have enough space to hold three pairs of organs. Honestly, we've got some work to do here to prepare you for a modern audence."
Starfire was flipped onto her back and strapped down to an operating table. The masked man produced a chain saw from nowhere and buzzed it close to her head. "Let's do some cosmetic work!"
"But I like being me!"
"Yeah, but I'm from a consulting firm. So your opinion doesn't count for much. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and frankly, right now. You are too few to even care to piss on, fascist!"
The chainsaw was about to cut into her stomach. But a quick blast of green from her laser eyes shattered the chainsaw into pieces. It also left the green faced man covered in soot. "Talk about eyes that can kill."
A funnel was now shoved into Starfires mouth and the masked man held a barrel of lard above her. "We'll do this the old fashioned way and make you truly an American!" He poured it all down her gullet. She drank it all down and when the barrel was empty...
Starfire hadn't changed a bit. She broke a hand free and wiped her face. "That was tasty, have you got more?"
The masked man's jaw dropped and literally hit the floor with a loud clang. "But... that was twenty-eight-thousand calories! You should've bloated up like James Corden!"
Starfire broke the other bonds around her like they were made of tape. "On my planet that is barely a snack."
"Christ, I understand why the Titans can't help the hungry and starving. Every cent must go towards feeding you."
Guilt flashed onto Starfires face briefly, until she realised he was just toying with her. He took Starfires hand and shook it vigorously.
"Anyway, nice working with you. I'll just be going. Okay? Okay." He hefted the bag of money on his shoulders. "Okay. Okay. Bye-bye."
Her hand shot out and grabbed one of his wrists. The masked man screamed and fought against her grip, but her grip was like iron. No matter how hard he fought her she stood as still as steel. "This is brutality. I'll sue you into oblivion. I'll have you arrested! You can't keep the democrats out of the oval office forever!" She held him aloft by said wrist. He kicked out his legs at her, but couldn't twist around to get her. He flipped upside down and tried to push against her fist with his legs. It was like trying to open a peanut with a wet straw. He tried to bite her arm with his large teeth, but it barely fazed her. In fact, his own teeth shattered into pieces. But they were back to normal a few seconds later.
"You're a strange, strange man." Starfire commented.
"This coming from Miss Trump Tan, algae eyes!" The man said.
Starfire blinked. "This is an insult?"
"You betcha ass it is!"
"Oh." It was the sort of 'Oh' one gives when something isn't worth your time. "You're coming with me."
"I'd love to, lass." He twisted this way and that. "But you're a little young for me. I'll get arrested!" She didn't understand. "Oh no, wait. I vote democrat. I'll be let off!" His face dropped and his heads cartoony proportions reduced. "Wait, what the heck am I saying?" The concerned face faded as the manic grin and cartoony features reasserted themselves. Starfire was still none-the-wiser. Earth people had strange customs, beliefs and religions, and a lot of their insults and gibes just went over her head.
Starfire got her communicator back out. "Friends, I have... huh?"
The green man lashed out with his fist and impacted Starfire right in the abdomen. There came a cracking of bone from his hand. "OW!" He punched her again with the other hand, and again. But it was like hitting a steel beam. Starfire was unfazed. "What are you made of?!"
"Starfire?" Came Robin over the communicator. "What happened."
"I have the Mellon-head man. Sending my cords."
"You're sending them your cords?!" Mellon-head man asked in surprise. Starfire nodded. "You're not talking about trousers, are you?" Starfire didn't react, he may as well have been speaking a foreign language.
He suddenly spun the wrist watch around on his trapped arm and... his hand just popped off and he fell to the floor.
"Hey, don't hurt me. I'm 'armless." He got up and made to run but collapsed back to the floor. His legs had fallen off. "Don't you say anything. I haven't touched a drop!"
Starfire still didn't understand. Was this about the alcohol stuff? Humans, for all their ingenuity were very fickle creatures.
That confusion was all the man needed.
Suddenly, the green man leapt from the stage with his arms and legs back in place. He landed on the ground, reached into his jacket pocket and threw to the floor an open topped, orange sports car the size of a kids go-kart. He leapt into it with his backside taking up the front two seats. With his legs hanging out either side of him the car took off down the road, the bag of money still strapped to his shoulders. A cloud of smoke fired out behind him covering Starfire in black soot.
"LATER HATER!" He called back to her. Starfire took off after him in flight.
"OOF!" She came to a sudden stop and dropped to the ground. Heavy chains were wrapped around her ankles. She tried to bend them. Confused, she wrapped her knuckles on them and they produced a very solid clang. "Where did he get dwarf-star alloy in this sector of the galaxy?!"
When Raven came to it was to a shadow looking over her. It's large eyes were glowing in the dim light. She sat up in an instant and reversed into a wall. A wet blanket had been placed over crown head. She pulled it off and winced at the pain.
The eyes continued to stare, but she relaxed as her eyes adjusted to the gloom. It was just a little kid. A boy of about twelve. He was wearing round-rimmed spectacles, a mass of black hair, and he had a face that looked like it had never know joy.
"I'm sorry. Are you alright. You crashed through my window."
"Umm... I'm... sorry." Raven stood up to her full height. He barely came up to her collar bone. Her hood had fallen down. She pulled it back up.
"You're Raven, aren't you? Of the Teen Titans!" The boy asked in a flat-monotone. There was emotion there, but it was so subtle it was hard to detect, and she really wished he'd blink more. His eyes were creepy and staring. He gave off the energy of a panther about to pounce.
"Um... yeah..." Raven's brain was not in 'social interaction' mode. More panic mode. She didn't like children at the best of times. She didn't understand them. Some of the worst people she knew were children. Come to think of it, some of the worst adults she knew were still children.
"You're my favourite." He said it in such a flat monotone it made her skin crawl.
So he was a fan of hers. This rang alarm bells. Raven knew of her fan club and frankly she didn't want to meet any of them, especially if the chatrooms around Starfire were anything to go by. He stared like he didn't care about the discomfort he was clearly causing her, and she wondered if she should say she has a boyfriend to make him go away.
"I like you, because you're like me." He blinked. His eyes smiled, his features softened. He looked more normal now, but in an uncanny valley way like he was bait at the end of an angler fish's lure. "You're misunderstood. You're feared. But you're really harmless. You're judged just because of the way you were born."
Raven's eyes darkened. How did he know this? Nobody new this! She was ashamed to admit it, but she was considering ending him before he spoke about where she came from. What she was destined to do. If it wasn't for her conscience she'd do it.
"An autistic person usually can detect another autistic person."
"Aut... what?" Raven's anger dropped. So he didn't know. Wait, what did he call her?
"You're autistic like me."
Raven's skin, if possible, went even paler. Being a half demon hybrid and dealing with that stigma was stressful at the best of times. "No. You're wrong! I'm not a freak! I ah..." She stopped when she realised what she'd said. "Oh shit, I've pulled a Beast Boy." The expression on the boys face was subtle, but she felt his spirit had just shattered internally. The boy shrank away, turned and looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry. I'm..." She didn't know how to proceed.
The boy went to the window and looked out.
"The guy went that way, by the way." He pointed. He seemed to lose all interest in her as he returned to his bed and tightly wrapped himself in the sheets while still wearing his glasses. Raven frowned, feeling guilty but didn't know how to fix it. She approached the window and looked out for the Masked man. There was no sign of him.
"I didn't mean to..." Raven started, but didn't know how to finish without sounding insincere.
"No. I understand." The boy went. She could feel his torn up emotions, but they weren't translating into normal, social interaction. He just stared at the wall in front of him. "You want to be thought of as you, not as a condition. I understand that fear." Raven frowned more. "Miss Raven, even if you aren't like me, I still admire you." Raven didn't know how to feel about that. She'd admit she was no role model. "Even though you find me a repulsive freak you're still my hero."
Raven's mouth hung open. Did her heart just skip a beat?
"You're not repulsive." Raven told him automatically. "You're just different." She wanted say more, but little came to mind, except to say, "like me."
She leapt out the window before she made things awkward. Had she just been patronising? It was always difficult to tell if she was coming off like that. Always best to be silent went it came to strangers. But she felt the glow of pride and positivity she'd left behind on the aether. It burnt like the sun, and it made something inside her glow too.
It felt nice. And the emotional feedback gave her much needed energy boost.
But anyway. Back to the business at hand. Raven felt her crown and winced. When she got hold of that masked mad man she was going to rip that stupid rubber thing off his face so there was less padding when she punch his lights out.
To Be Continued...
Authors notes: The twelve year old boy serves a purpose in the story, so watch this space. ;)
Some people react in a similar way to Raven when posed with the idea that they may have autism. Unfortunately the condition still has some stigma still attached to it. People tend to act like your brain doesn't work properly, therefore your mental and reasoning faculties must always be brought into question. Especially if you see things differently from the people around you. It's that that Raven fears. This is ironic, considering autistic people are generally characterised in fiction as highly intelligent. They're also stigmatised for having low empathy, but this is usually down to the inability to express empathy in the usual way. (Keep in mind, autism is also a spectrum. So there are no two autistic people who have exactly the same traits in the same way."
The chapter also highlights why masking can be so important to a person with autism. People tend to read into things expressed by the face, girls more so, their brains are wired to do that. It's an automatic process. But Raven is so used to being judged by how she expresses herself that she is able to recognise what she's doing.
The kids staring eyes I've based off of L's from Death Note. It was the kind of vibe I was looking for to unnerve the demon daughter and make her react harshly.
Some people have argued over if Raven is autistic, or just introverted. To that I say, keep in mind a lot of people have autism and it just goes undiagnosed until adulthood. But also that this is just my head-cannon and I am trying to write it in such a way that it's not directly addressed. Though the kid in this story has made that assumption because he feels genuine connection that someone like him can be a great hero.
Also, in my head-cannon the reason Raven wears a black leotard that doesn't leave much up to the imagination is because she's subconsciously rebelling against the Monks of Azarath. Their religious order appears to be more conservative in terms of their religion and their preferred garb. Raven is rebelling against that. Also in my head-cannon, though she still reveres the teachings of Azarath she doesn't necessarily respect the order, as I've imagined she was pretty poorly treated by them. Think about it. She's the daughter of one of their enemies. Do you think they're all going to treat her like a human-being or fairly? Also, add into this the head-cannon she's autistic, meaning some of her anti-social and awkward quirks were probably chalked up to the demon blood that flows through her veins. Which would then be propagandised into saying she's letting her demon nature take over when she's acting this way, when that's not the source of the quirks. (Trust me, trying to make an autistic person act neurotypical is cruel, because the best we can do is act it. But we can't keep it up. It's massively exhausting. When the act is dropped people then look at you as insincere.) From this perspective I think it's very admirable that Raven wants to be a good person at all. Instead of turning bitter and cruel, Raven has gone, "sod you lot. I'm going to go out there and do the exact opposite of what you want me to be like, just to piss you off and make you into paranoid liars." So in that respect, her desire to do good is also rebelling against people trying to force her into a box she doesn't want to be in.
Anyway, sorry for the long authors notes on this one. If you think these are long, you should see some of my old stuff and how into detail I used to get. XD. lol
Cheers
-TimeLordParadox