The chance meeting on a dark corner in the dark Jump City, a encounter both sad and humorous in a grotesque sort of way. Raven is walking home with Beast Boy from a local café, they had spent the night among trendy underground types thick in a smoke of clove cigarettes and the clouds of blue prose emitting from the mouths of the scene. Raven had tried to explain to Beast Boy the deep spiritual and emotional value behind Rozz Williams' poetry and music, yet had given up when Beast Boy stopped paying attention to her and just stared at her feminine assets.

"Hey, do you have a light?" A voice soft yet still masculine asks, a voice like black velvet. A figure partially concealed in the elegant shadows cast by the street lights. From what the pair can see the figure is a man, tall in height yet with a slumping posture. A pair of deep set eyes glow like burning coals in the thin frame of his face.

"Nope sorry dude, I don't smoke." Beast Boy says to the man.

"Ah not a problem, your face strikes a chord of recognition within me. Are you not Beast Boy of the infamous Teen Titans? A gentleman of both great humor and fearsome power." The man in the shadows says in speech very similar to the ugly poetry of the spoken word artists in the café. "And you are the enigmatic and enchanting Raven? It is a exquisite pleasure to meet you two."

Beast Boy blushes slightly in the cool night, yet Raven remains nonchalant her facial expression slightly colder than the December chill in the air. "And you are?" Raven asks.

"I am the ugly, I am the iller. And there is the strangest feature upon my arm, one day you may be honored by the horror of all my features." He pauses and takes an asthmatic breathe into lungs tortured by years of smoking. "I find more every day."

"Cool dude, but what is your name?" Beast Boy asks the man.

"My friends call me Sleazoid, can I trust that you are my friends?" He says with a flourish and steps forth fully into the light.

"Sure man," Beast Boy says, he then turns to Raven and whispers in her ear, "Weirdo."

"In my veins runs a fire, in my soul rages a passion. The curse of the motherless, the beautiful bastard starved for affection. It is this, this that is the strangest feature living on my arm. May I show?"

Without waiting for an answer the man rolls up his long sleeve, on his arm is a fleshy tumor like growth. An obscene cist resting on the forearm made obvious by a roadmap of fever filled veins, "Would you like to touch it?" He asks.

"No, let's go Beast Boy." Raven says and levitates into the air with the intention of flying away from the stranger who calls himself the Sleazoid.

Before Raven can finish her flight away from the Sleazoid he reaches up and grabs her ankle, the strange tumor like growth on his arm seems to take on human aspects. This horrid action is followed by a strange sighing sound coming from the Sleazoid's arm, "You may not wish to touch it, but it wants to touch you." He says.

Raven feels the strange tumor undulating on her leg, and in a moment of pure revulsion lets lose a blast of energy that sends the man flying against a nearby brick wall.

The Sleazoid laughs manically, the pain he feels from the attack causes the tumor on his arm to grow further and the agony of the growth causes the Sleazoid to reel in masochistic pleasure.

"Rae are you okay?" Beast Boy questions.

"My leg, it burns." Raven says.

"What did you do to her?" Beast Boy cries out in rage. He runs forward charging the Sleazoid transforming into a grizzly bear as he does so.

The Sleazoid makes no attempt to defend himself as Beast Boy in the form of a mighty bear slashes into him with devastatingly sharp claws that shine ivory in the street light. No indeed, the Sleazoid seems to relish the pain that Beast Boy puts him in.

"Please dear Beast Boy, awaken the sadist. I the masochist yearn for you." The Sleazoid says through a mouth of broken teeth.

This spurs Beast Boy into further rage and he continues to strike the Sleazoid, barely able to keep control as he does so.

"Beast Boy I'm okay! The threat is over!" Raven says to Beast Boy, "Please stop attacking him."

Beast Boy transforms back into his regular shape and looks over at Raven, a blister is beginning to form on her leg where the strange tumor had made contact with it.

"Okay Raven," Beast Boy says, his voice is quiet, "Let's put him in proper custody."

Later, after the Sleazoid had been arrested Raven sits alone in her room. Her thoughts keep wandering back to their encounter earlier that night. She thinks about how Beast Boy had gotten so uncharacteristically angry, the rage he had been pushed to while protecting her was both terrifying and flattering.

Raven also thinks about the strange broken man who had called himself the Sleazoid, she wonders what could spur a man to such depravity that he enjoys being mauled by a bear.

The blister on her leg grabs her attention by itching feverishly, it has turned red and is now swelling up into a clear rounded head. She unwittingly scratches at it, and then disgust! She feels the fragile skin of the blister pop under her fingernails and leave drainage all over her fingers.

She looks at her fingers to see them covered in a greenish yellow pus, she then looks down at her leg just above her delicate ankle to see that it too is covered in the same sickly colored liquid. Raven grimaces stoically and walks to the bathroom to wash it off.

As Raven walks out of her room a dark thought intrusively enters its way into her mind, the thought is that she almost enjoyed the sensation of the blister popping. She quickly dismisses the thought and goes to clean herself off.