An ominous streak of lightning illuminated the black, threatening storm clouds overshadowing Jump City. A green hawk soared across the scene to the city's coast and kept flying, out to circle the T-shaped steel fortress on the tiny, lone island that stood as if guarding the land from all invaders. Outside reigned the neutral quiet that simply comes from lack of life, essential when 50 percent of one's job was observation. But within reigned the quiet that comes from shock and fear and a chaos so strong, no voice could do it justice, so no one tried.
Cyborg stood before the op center's wall-turned-computer-screen, typing at the keyboard, hence the roving stats and pop-up charts and zones being scanned in turn on screen. Raven stood next to him, hood down and eyes focused, not on what they were watching but on what her powers were tuned in for. The screen morphed into one large view of the pier and ferris wheel the teenagers knew all too well. Cyborg sighed, "Nothing," as he switched to a visual of the park. "Nothing," he repeated, and "Nothing," again as four windows showing four different but equally placid buildings appeared. "Nothing suspicious anywhere in the entire city," he finally concluded.
"And just as many clues," his telepathic friend added, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head in concentration, suddenly alerted to something. "Beast Boy's back."
The double doors parted as the last member of the remnants of the team entered. "Let me guess," Cyborg greeted him. "No news?"
"Zip, zilch, nada," the green hero confirmed. "They're long gone."
"Man, where could he have taken her?" Cyborg asked of the air for the hundredth time.
"With the power to teleport, he could take her anywhere," Raven explained, listing slowly and tediously, "The other side of the city, of the country, the galaxy... even to another dimension. Maybe even the Spirit World from which there's no return."
"We get it," her exasperated teammates shut her down together.
"Just looking at the big picture," she defended herself.
"Here's the picture," Beast Boy spoke up. "We're dealing with a ghost! An evil spirit that can move through walls and turn invisible and take over your body! A real, live GHOST!" A pause. "Uh, I mean... you know..."
"No, you don't know, and neither do we," Cyborg took over. "Some creep took Starfire and we don't know anything- who he is, where he's hiding, what he wants, or how to find him!"
Raven raised her right hand from within the folds of her cloak, examining Starfire's communicator. "Or how he knew about the locator in the communicators. Pretty smart move."
"Too smart," said Cyborg. "That was the only chance we had of ever tracking them down. This guy really pulled one over on us."
"He sure couldn't have picked a worse time to make his move," Beast Boy said next. "I mean, what are the chances we'd get attacked right after Robin goes MIA? What a coincidence."
Cyborg shook his head pitifully at his clueless friend, but Raven sighed, seething with frustration, "Yeah... coincidence."
"This is Starfire we're talking about," Cyborg theorized. "What if this does have something to do with Robin?"
"You don't think it's Slade, do you?" Beast Boy shuddered.
"No way. That's impossible," Cyborg assured him. "Right?" he added after a pause, glancing sideways towards Raven.
"I'll believe anything's possible now," the girl answered, strolling away from the two boys with a scowl on her face, but not from anger at either of the two Titans present.
"Even if this isn't about Robin, Robin wouldn't have let him get away," Raven heard Cyborg criticizing himself, behind her.
"Who's gonna tell him Star's missing when he gets back?" Beast Boy asked, evidently hoping it wouldn't have to be him.
But it wouldn't be Raven either, she thought, not because, like the boys, she was afraid of Robin taking the medieval approach of killing the messenger. What bothered her most was how things were falling apart, and it all seemed to lead back to the leader. Next time she saw him, Robin had better be afraid of her.
Returning to the window, Raven closed her eyes and slowly, icily whispered, "Robin, whatever you're up to, it had better be good."
Beams of kryptonite-green energy rocketed back and forth. The air was sliced and diced by disks and speeding red blurs. Bombs exploded, tree limbs were vaporized, and two slim, young figures, one a plethora of color, one solely black and white, darted around the ring (that is, otherwise deserted forest clearing).
Robin landed and righted himself just in time to deflect two more energy blasts with his trusty bowstaff. Danny successfully dodged both of the rebounds. "Come on," Robin said, pulling his staff apart into two and twirling them before him. "This was supposed to be a challenge. I work out this hard every day in the gym."
Danny flew down and the two exchanged fist-to-staff blows until the ghost boy knocked one away with an ectoplasmic-energy boosted punch. "You know if you were a ghost, I'd have you locked in an impenetrable vortex prison on your way back to the Ghost Zone by now!" Danny threatened as the athlete somersaulted into a tree and he flew after him.
"Now therein lies the problem, huh?" his caped opponent retorted, taking another flip and leap back to the ground while firing another bird-a-rang that went wide past the ghost boy's shoulder.
"Oops. Missed me," Danny couldn't help bragging.
"Look again. Or better yet, don't!" Robin taunted him as the weapon circled back and just cut his right arm. "Science or sorcery; weapons, powers-they're only as good as the fighter."
Danny rose from where he fell with new fire in his eyes. "You really love your gadgets, huh? Let's just see what's so great about them!" The last thing Robin saw was a translucent blue (intangible) Danny flying head-on towards him. He felt the cold shudder like a blast of winter wind coming from inside him, but this time he also felt a small electric type shock of pain in his head that seemed to travel down his spine, into his heart, through his bloodstream. What followed next was indescribable; he would have thought it unpleasant if he didn't feel so... detached. He was seeing and hearing and touching things, but had no idea what they were. He was moving but had no idea why or how, but it didn't frighten or bother him. After what felt like a nanosecond, the feeling passed, leaving no more side effects than the lightheadedness after a high-speed rollercoaster ride. After a quick shake to refocus himself, Robin was ready to get back to the action. He raised his right hand to prepare for another bowstaff attack, but there was a problem.
"Huh?" The short staff he'd just been holding was gone. "Looking for this?" Danny called his attention above his head where he was spinning Robin's staff around in his hand.
Not losing his head even in that instant of surprise, Robin reached to his waist for his grappling hook as he said, "How did you..." but got no farther as he realized his utility belt was gone, too. "Lose something else?" Danny asked levitating down closer. "Try looking down," he added, nonchalantly dropping the staff for emphasis.
"What? Aaah!" Now Robin almost lost it. He'd been standing on the ground next to that boulder. How did he end up perched on a strong branch in a tree ten feet away? He hadn't even noticed he'd moved.
Looking around him, Robin started to ask, "How did I..." His phantom companion turned intangible with a smirk on his face, as if trying to give him a clue. Robin got the message. "What did you do to me?"
"Didn't see that coming did ya'?" Danny gloated, folding his arms and coming tangible again.
"I should have guessed," Robin replied, still too shocked to return the smile. "So you can possess people, huh?" he added, raising an eyebrow in suspicion at what he'd always seen as a dark ability.
"Well, the G-rated term is 'overshadowing,' " Danny air quoted for him.
"What did you do with...I mean, what did I... what happened to my weapons?" Robin requested.
"You mean these?" Danny replied blankly, holding up a handful of disk bombs.
One wide-eyed stare and a gasp of surprise later, the acrobat leaped for the ground a hair ahead of the explosions. He retrieved a bowstaff in each hand in one backflip, but hadn't rejoined them before two of his own bird-a-rangs sliced each of the halves in half.
"Okay, tell me this. Was it the smartest move to make your gadgets indestructible against everything except the rest of your gadgets?" Danny wondered aloud.
Robin smiled confidently as he finally dropped the sticks of metal and assumed his combat stance. "Controlling your opponent so that their greatest strengths become your own... hmm, not a bad trick. But then again, every trick only works once."
"No, no, really, I understand. I'll make sure Mom and Dad won't worry about Danny. Whatever he needs to do, I've got him covered. Bye, Tucker." Jazz hung up before Tucker could even say, "Huh?"
"Okay, that was much too easy," Sam said as Tucker repocketed his PDA. They were back in her basement. "Am I the only one wondering why Jazz has been acting so...uncharacteristically helpful lately?"
"Hey, better too easy than too hard," Tucker shrugged her question off. "So, what're we gonna do now? Wait here for Danny and his vigilante buddy?"
"And my parents? I'd rather get trapped in the Fenton thermos," Sam shot such a repulsive suggestion down. "Look, we called your parents and Jazz. Let's just get out of here and wait for Danny to call." Sam paused to pocket her cell phone, and the two sidekicks locked up the makeshift lair and left. It was the worst move they would ever regret for a looooooooooooong time.
Two teenagers, two average human teenagers, powerless and unguarded and vulnerable. This is so easy, it almost seems below me...a shadowy figure silently pondered as his single eye followed the girl down the street. Several identical red eyes burst into light in the darkness behind their master. ...Almost. It won't be long now.