Sorry about deleting the last couple chapters, I really didn't like them. I only wrote them because of writer's block, and then I realized I didn't know how to continue the plot. This chapter is actually planned out, so I actually have a plot. Not sure about the quality of the plot, but I'll try to make it work.
So the end of this chapter is kind of leading into the end of this fanfic, and BTW I decided Starfire can't meet the team yet, but maybe I could have cameos of some other Teen Titans.
Thank you to all my amazing followers and reviewers who have bothered to read all this, you're literally the best 3 So yeah, a re-write of chapter 9.
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Orange lights flickered eerily throughout Jump City, and ghosts, bats, and zombies alike were scattered throughout the suburbs. Spiderwebs draped themselves over the dry, brittle branches of trees throughout the city. A few cackling vampires sprinted along Main Street.
Meanwhile, at the back of an alleyway, Raven and Robin were engaged in a frenetic battle of staff versus sword. Snarling, Robin swept his sword at Raven's feet, but she nimbly dodged the attack. Raven backflipped over Robin, grabbing his collar, and slammed him onto the pavement.
"Serves you right for hunting me down during a holiday! What kind of Halloween spirit is that?"
Coughing, Robin hissed, "What did you expect? Assassinating a politician on Halloween night is the same as assassinating a politician on any other day, so it merits the same punishment. Justice has no holidays."
"Ooh, very scary. But you're right, so I guess that means killing superheroes can be done on Halloween just like any other day as well! How fun!"
The Boy Wonder forced himself to sit up, but he'd scarcely propped himself on one elbow before a hard titanium boot collided with his torso. A groan escaped Robin's lips as he felt a couple ribs crack. Blood spurted out of his mouth. A few daggers glinted between Raven's fingers.
Raven giggled, doing a pirouette as she pinned Robin's hands and feet to the ground. The daggers dug through flesh and muscle like butter.
"Trick?" Raven smirked, casually twirling her katana.
"Or treat?" She tapped a pistol holstered on her hip.
The fight drained out of Robin, and he collapsed onto his back, spread-eagled and wide open for whatever attack Raven would use to finish him off. A raindrop splashed onto Robin's face. Then another. The rain quickly intensified into a battering, furious storm. Is this finally it? After all these years of training...killed by a mere mercenary?
Robin winced as the sharp, throbbing pain in his ribs intensified. A tear leaked out of the corner of his eye, mingling with the rain. Slowly, a shadow elongated over his body. Robin squinted, and sure enough, there was his executioner.
"Just...do it, then," Robin muttered, shutting his eyes. A clang startled him, and when he reopened his eyes, Raven was lying on the ground, unconscious.
"What the-?"
Robin felt something metallic strike his head. Darkness swirled at the edges of his vision.
Right before Robin lost consciousness, Robin heard a British voice. "Splendid, splendid. Now there'll be no interference with my very special Halloween celebration!"
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Robin really regretted regaining consciousness. That just meant the return of the aching in his head and the throbbing in his ribs. Along with all the other injuries. Just the perks of clashing with Raven.
He stumbled to the edge of the dark alleyway. Raven was still unconscious. Robin stopped in his tracks. Maybe I could...kill someone...just this once?
Robin almost punched himself. Murder wasn't true justice. The principle he'd lived by since his first day as Robin. And he'd almost forsaken it. What was he thinking? Robin clapped a pair of power-inhibiting handcuffs over Raven's hands and feet, then unclasped her utility belt. The rain had finally stopped.
Carefully, Robin glanced out at the street, then flailed backwards in surprise. The entire city was in chaos.
All the decorations were alive. It was like something out of a low-budget horror film. Fake serial killers chased after civilians, plastic chainsaws whirring. Robin gaped, open-mouthed, at the paranoia spreading like a wildfire. Citizens everywhere were practically trampling each other to escape the dummies. Even if the decorations couldn't hurt them, the citizens could definitely hurt each other.
Robin took out an emergency first-aid kit, bandaging his wounds, then staggered over to Raven. He shook her awake.
"I need you to team up with me. Just this once."
Raven's half-formed laugh dissipated as she caught sight of the chaos.
"I hate sloppy violence. I may be sadistic, but...ugh, the sight of unstructured killing. IT BOTHERS ME!"
"Uh, I'll take that as a yes."
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Raven and Robin combed through alleyways, broke into buildings, stormed convenience stores, and yet there was no sign of the culprit.
"Don't you remember anything about him?" snapped Raven.
"Only that he's British," Robin shot back. "At least I actually remember something."
A hot red blush spread over Raven's face. "And this...IS WHY I DESPISE YOU, RICHARD MARIA GRAYSON."
"That's not even my name!"
A shadow towered over the duo. Afraid of what they might see, the duo glanced up, gulping. It was eerily real, a fifteen-foot metal monstrosity. Raven seized Robin's bo staff, then tapped the robot.
"That is definitely not plastic."
The thing pointed an arm at Raven, and a gun barrel slid out of the hand. Raven barely had time to erect a shield of black energy before the force of a shot of pure energy sent her spiraling backwards. She plowed facefirst into the concrete, carving a trench in the road. Robin didn't know whether to laugh or to help.
Meh, or I could just do neither, he thought. Robin leapt into the air, delivering a swift kick towards the machine, which slid back a few feet.
"Robin: 1, Raven: 0," he crowed, before a massive metal elbow whirled towards him and sent Robin flying backwards towards a pizza store. Behind the counter was probably the most normal person he'd seen all day, which was really saying something. The kid had forest green hair, emerald eyes, and green skin.
Weakly, Robin dragged himself out of the dented red counter. "What's your costume? Asparagus?"
"Dude! This is all-natural!" the boy said, sounding insulted. And then he comprehended just who had trashed his workplace, and his eyes widened to two green saucers. "Robin, sir, can I please, please, please have your autograph?"
"Uh, no. And it's Robin. JUST ROBIN. You got that?"
"Of course, sir."
Robin facepalmed. "Do you have any...useful abilities? Like maybe superpowers?"
The boy blanched, twiddling his fingers. "Uh, no. No, why would you think that? But, I, uh, called some old buddies of mine. The Doom Patrol, don't ask how I know them."
Robin narrowed his eyes. "This conversation isn't over."
He sprinted out the completely demolished front door, nabbing an abandoned slice of pepperoni pizza on the way out. Robin tore out a chunk of the crust with his teeth.
Through the food, he mumbled, "For jushtish!"
Raven sent a crackling ball of black energy towards the machine just as Robin jumped to strike it. The next instant, Robin was twitching on the ground, black magic still sparking around his prone form.
"Leave it to us, kiddos. Just let the pros do their work."
Raven turned to look at the newcomers. "The Doom Patrol?"
Mento sent out a powerful energy blast at the machine, searing off one of the arms. He nodded towards a dark-haired woman, and Elasti-Girl rose to her full height, delivering a hard punch to the robot. It flew backwards, slamming into the pavement. Negative Man sent out his energy body double, which whirled into the machine, destroying circuits and frying wires, and with a twitch, the glow of the machine's red eyes faded.
Robot Man leapt onto the machine, tearing off the helm. "There can only be one robot man, and it's gonna be me!"
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From the shadows of a plain gray hoodie, a relatively tall teenager shook his head. He'd been observing the battle intently, but decided he didn't need to jump in just yet. Nobody, nobody could just come in and wreck his neighborhood, and yet the British dude in the robot had done way more than that.
Victor Stone almost laughed when he heard Robot Man say, "There can only be one robot man, and it's gonna be me!"
To himself, he muttered, "It's a little late for that."
His single red eye glinted as he turned around and trudged back to the shadows of his house, back to the shadows of his room. To friendlessness and seclusion. Oh, the joy.
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Raven pulled herself to her feet, watched as the Doom Patrol took out the robot, and saw the extremely patriotic British guy in his fifties get pulled out of the helm, but she knew the battle wasn't over yet. As soon as she glimpsed his ruby-topped staff, she knew it wasn't over until somebody got rid of the blasted staff.
A screaming little kid in a dinosaur costume ran by, closely followed by a plastic copy of Jason Voorhees.
"This city just gets weirder and weirder."
The British man smirked, and his staff glowed bright red. The members of the Doom Patrol got wrinklier and wrinklier, and the man got younger and younger. A disc of dark energy began whirling on Raven's palm.
Now!
"I guess this means I have more time to rule my empire!" cackled the man. "Mad Mod, the King of Halloween! Has a nice ring to it."
Robin's bird-a-rang sliced through the air, crossing into the path of Raven's dark energy, and simultaneously, the two projectiles carved the staff into halves.
A pair of handcuffs clicked over Mod's wrists. Robin leaned towards him, masked eyes boring intently into the villain's eyes. The man began to twitch nervously as the virtual reality began crumbling into haze.
"No, no, my empire!"
"Sorry to disappoint you, but this is Jump City, not your empire."
Raven levitated through the air, her dark cloak billowing around her. Through her helmet, she grinned. "Yeah, better pack up your tea and cakes, old man. This is the age of democracy."
The decorations began freezing up, returning to their original forms, and throughout the city, the sound of screaming began to die down. The random bursts of flame ceased, and the citizens of Jump City nervously dropped flamethrowers and assorted kitchen knives as inflatable ghosts finally succumbed to their stab wounds and the Jason Voorhees dummies crumbled into charred ashes.
"Weirdest day of my life," blurted Robin. "And this is even counting that time when the Joker wanted to throw a birthday party and the fish and the train and all that."
Raven gave him a strange look. "How are you not in a mental institute right now?"
They turned to thank the Doom Patrol, only to find that the group of superheroes were clustered in the pizza shop, staring down the unfortunate green-haired boy. Robin burst into the shop.
"What is going on?"
"Here to collect one of our own," Mento snapped gruffly. "C'mon, Beast Boy, we don't have all day."
"I told you, I'm leaving the superhero life behind. Besides, weren't you the one always telling me I was a failure? Always telling me the mission was worth more than the lives of our teammates? Sorry, Mento, but I'm done with all that. Until you get your priorities straight, I'm staying right here at Pork's Pizza Place. Even though I could do without all the meat."
Elasti-Girl stepped forward, embracing Beast Boy. "If that's what you want."
Mento furrowed his eyebrows, anger flaring in his eyes. "Well we tried. Not like you have any promise as a superhero anyways. You have fun making pizza and earning minimal wage, Beast Boy!"
Beast Boy glared at the retreating backs of the Doom Patrol as he absentmindedly scrubbed the counter.
"That fucker," commented Raven. "That little fucker."
"He is kind of a douche," observed Robin, leaning on the counter.
Beast Boy smiled faintly, then grinned. "So who wants pizza?"
Two pairs of red eyes appeared under Raven's hood. She grinned, baring demonically sharp teeth. An unnaturally deep voice ordered, "THREE-MEAT WITH EXTRA CHEESE."
Beast Boy forced a smile, fear wavering in his eyes. "But..what about vegan? It's a healthier-"
Another snarl and a few tentacles of darkness later, Beast Boy got to work on the three-meat pizza with extra cheese. "Nasty," he shuddered, scattering bacon over the pizza.
As Robin left, he stopped in his tracks, turning to look at Beast Boy. "Nice meeting you, Beast Boy. I get the feeling we'll see each other again."
Raven looked up from her pizza. "Because that totally wasn't creepy."
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BREAKING NEWS- MAYOR OF JUMP CITY ASSASSINATED, TEMPORARILY REPLACED BY ACTING MAYOR MICHAEL NOGIRT
Robin's yogurt spoon clattered onto his table. Raven certainly hadn't wasted any time in getting back to work, had she? But the mayor? What could have been her motive?
Halfway across Jump City, Raven was glaring at her television. Nogirt...Trigon...he wasn't even trying to be subtle. But...already? It's not even time.
The so-called 'Nogirt' gave a lame speech and offered a few empty words expressing 'genuine regret' about the mayor's death. And that's when he said it, and Raven knew exactly why her father was setting his plan into motion.
"One of my aspirations as acting mayor is to crack down on the criminals in our city. Particularly one. The Raven, as many of you know her. Her reign of crime has gone on too long. We've already set to work on designing a...special cell for her."
The citizens cheered, and Raven paled several shades. "Special cell? Sounds like it's almost time. The end of the world."
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Meh. Anyways, I'm sorry if I haven't been able to do as well in my writing, I just have a lot going on right now. I have no idea why all my extracurriculars are in the spring, but state spelling bee and state MathCounts are almost here and I have to study. Ugh. Well, whatever. Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me this whole time, and this is almost the final arc of the story.