Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Crow: Armageddon ❯ Old Friends, New Enemies ( Chapter 2 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: The Wolf Demon 
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Horror / Adventure | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 04.14.2007 | Updated On: 04.14.2007 | Pages: 9 | Words: 7.6K | Visits: 204 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Horror / Adventure | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 04.14.2007 | Updated On: 04.14.2007 | Pages: 9 | Words: 7.6K | Visits: 204 | Status: Completed
The Crow: Armageddon
By Kokuryu and The Wolf God
Disclaimer: The Crow, Teen Titans, and Yu-Gi-Oh do not belong to either of us. They belong to James O’Barr, DC Comics, Warner Brothers, Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, and Cartoon Network.
Author’s note: The Crow has arrived in Gotham City to track down Téa and her kidnappers. However, he will end up attracting the attention of a certain pointy-eared dark defender, as well as that of a few old friends who are also in Gotham.
Also, I don’t mean to offend anyone with what I said about American airline security since 9/11. I’m just trying to write what a non-American would think about it. If anyone is offended, then I offer my sincerest apologies. Speaking of 9/11, this chapter is for all the victims of that day. May whatever god or gods you worshipped watch over you.
“When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
“Destiny flying high above
All I know is that you can realize realize
“Destiny who cares destiny who cares
As it turns around as it turns around
And I know that it descends down on me
“It’s just another day
The shame is gone
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go, let it go, let it go
“Destiny can’t replace my life
Scary shadows of my past
Are alive alive
“Destiny who cares destiny who cares
As it turns around as it turns around
And I know that it descends
With a smile
“It’s just another day
The shame is gone
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go away
“It’s just a melody
It bleeds in me
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go
“When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
“It’s just another day
The shame is gone
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go away
“It’s just a melody
It bleeds in me
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go, let it go, let it go.”
Lacuna Coil – “Swamped”
Chapter 2:
Old Friends, New Enemies
A plane arrived at Gotham Airport, and all its passengers stepped off the plane and into the airport. The passengers were mostly unremarkable, except for a young man with outrageously spiked black hair with red tips and lightning-like blond bangs. He was dressed from head to toe in black: a leather trench coat, a sleeveless shirt, and leather pants.
The young man’s outfit was accented with a studded collar, two studded belts, and studded black boots.
Other than his gothic-styled clothes, he was not very noticeable. However, this concealed a dark secret.
This young man was Yami Yugi --- The Crow, the dark avenger of Domino City. And his presence in Gotham City meant one thing and one thing alone. Someone was going to find himself in a world of pure life-shortening agony.
For the moment, he had to endure the security procedures installed since September 11, 2001. Since that terrible day, Americans had gotten much more concerned with their own security, perhaps to the point of paranoia. In light of that, Yugi had declined to bring his guns with him. He figured he’d buy new ones here in Gotham.
After the security guards had determined that Yugi wasn’t carrying any contraband or weapons, they let him check out of the airport.
Yugi walked into Gotham City. The area of the city he was in was very clean and very bright. That was only one part of the city, though. The darker parts were not the places anybody in their right mind would want to visit.
Then again, not many people had a mystical crow giving them dark powers and watching over them. Speaking of that crow, Yugi had to place him with the other pets in the pet carriage of the plane. It was lucky none of the cats on that flight had tried to eat him, but they were all in cages, too.
Now that Yugi was out of the airport, he could let his crow out, and so he did. The crow flapped its wings and soared into the night sky.
‘I need a place to stay,’ Yugi thought as he walked through the city. As he walked, he saw a mugger rush a young couple and snatch the woman’s purse. The man immediately ran after him, but he was too slow to catch up.
However, Yugi wasn’t. In a burst of superhuman speed, he rushed the mugger and tackled him, twisting his arm behind him.
“One should not presume to take what does not belong to him,” he hissed. He yanked the mugger up, still holding his arm twisted behind him.
“Ok, ok, man!” the mugger shouted. “I’ll give it back!”
“No, I will,” Yami Yugi replied. “You’re going to jail.” That said, he dropped the mugger and picked up the purse. He walked over to the young couple. “I believe this is yours.”
“Thank you so much,” the young woman said, taking the offered purse.
“You’re welcome,” Yami replied before walking away. He kept on walking, not really headed in any particular direction. Once he stopped, it was right in front of a rundown apartment building.
‘This will do,’ The Crow thought immediately before stepping inside. He soon caught the eye of the landlord, a slightly overweight but friendly-looking man.
“Hey, goth boy, lookin’ for a place to stay?” he asked cheerfully.
“Yes,” Yami replied.
“I’ve got a good one for you,” the landlord said. “Follow me.”
Yami did follow him, to a drab apartment with peeling wallpaper and a few small holes that inexplicably looked like they’d been made by bullets. The furniture, too, looked like it had seen better days; the colors were faded and some of it was gouged.
“Not bad,” he said. “I’ll take it.”
“Got two hundred and fifty dollars a month for it?” the landlord asked.
“Yes, I do,” Yami Yugi replied.
“Then by all means, sir, welcome to Gotham City,” the landlord said with a sweeping gesture of his arm. “It’s not bad, if you don’t mind hearing sirens all the time.”
Yugi glanced at him with his violet eyes in a sign of annoyance.
“Ok, I’ll stop talking,” the landlord replied. “See ya around, kid.” He walked away, leaving Yugi to enter his new apartment.
“It’s not so bad,” the undead avenger said to himself.
Elsewhere, Gotham City’s dark defender was fighting some men in dark robes.
Batman had been patrolling the city as he always did when his keen eyes had alighted on the sight of four robed men assaulting three random pedestrians. Knowing their intentions to be foul, he’d swooped in to intervene.
It occurred to him now that the four robed men were a lot tougher than he’d estimated. As Batman, he knew the importance of never underestimating one’s foe, but their fighting skills were even more than he’d thought they could do.
He blocked a roundhouse kick from one man and used his free hand to chop a nerve ending in his leg that left the man sprawled on the sidewalk in pain. Another one of the robed men had tried to rush him while he was occupied with the first, but Batman had backhanded him without even looking. A third man had surprisingly slipped under Batman’s punch and decked him with an uppercut.
That particular move had startled Batman but not so much so that he was unable to react. The fourth man had seized his opportunity to attack, thinking that the Dark Knight would be easy prey now that he had actually been hit.
The poor sap realized a few seconds too late just how wrong he was. The exact moment he figured it out was when Batman deftly avoided his assault and struck him with a roundhouse punch, knocking him out cold.
The one remaining robed man stood his ground, silently challenging Batman to fight. Batman accepted his unspoken invitation with a fast sweeping kick.
The robed man jumped over the kick and behind him in a demonstration of unnatural agility.
‘He’s good at this,’ Batman thought as he turned around to face him. ‘Whoever he is, he isn’t just some thug off the streets.’
As the fight went on, it seemed to be at a standstill. The robed man would block or counter every move Batman made and vice versa. It seemed like there was no way for either combatant to seize the advantage and both were riding the edge of exhaustion.
Finally, Batman had his victory.
Whether it was arrogance or exhaustion-fueled desperation that had guided the robed man’s next move the Caped Crusader wasn’t certain. What he did know was that the man had just rushed him, apparently thinking there was nothing Batman could do to stop him. He had been proven extremely wrong when Batman punched him in the gut, knocking the breath out of him.
The robed man began to crumple to the ground, but Batman grabbed him by the collar and held him up.
“Talk,” he demanded in a low, cold voice.
“Why should I?” the robed man asked, exhausted but still defiant.
Not bothering to answer that question, Batman continued with a question of his own.
“Why were you and your friends after some people off the streets?”
“Like I’m gonna tell you,” the robed man sneered before losing consciousness.
Batman dropped him and then gathered the unconscious bodies of the other three. He used a cable to tie all four together and then hung them from the nearest streetlamp. In the process, he had noticed a strange symbol on all the robed men’s hoods.
“An Egyptian eye,” he said to himself. Unless he was mistaken, that particular eye was the Eye of Horus, the son of the Egyptian deities Osiris and Isis.
Batman strode to his Batmobile and got into the driver’s seat. The cockpit closed over him and he drove back to the Batcave. Once there, he exited the Batmobile and strode to the Batcomputer.
“Unpleasant night, sir?” Alfred Pennyworth, the butler to Batman when he was in his civilian pose of industrialist Bruce Wayne, asked.
“I have to find something,” Batman replied as he sat down in front of the massive monitor of the Batcomputer. He typed “Eye of Horus” onto the screen and then ordered the computer to search for anything linked to that.
“‘The right eye of Horus became the sun, and the left eye of Horus became the moon,’” Batman read from a text on Egyptian myth. “This is not turning up anything I wouldn’t find in a typical dissertation on Egyptian mythology. I have to dig deeper.”
He continued his search, until something very interesting fell into his lap --- in a figurative way of speaking. Specifically, it was the image of a stone tablet with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved onto its face.
“Computer, translate,” he ordered.
Given that the Batcomputer was the most advanced piece of computer technology in the world, the process began immediately, translating each hieroglyph into an English word or phrase. Said process finished within mere minutes.
One couldn’t actually say that Batman didn’t believe what he saw, because Batman’s philosophy was that nothing was unbelievable, just poorly understood. Still, it was rather shocking. Warring religious factions, ancient magic, and an archfiend at the center of it all.
And if the four men he had just come back from fighting were connected in some way to all this . . .
“I’m going to need help,” Batman said.
“Yes, but who will you call?” Alfred asked.
“Jason Blood, for starters,” Batman replied.
“Anyone else?” Alfred further inquired.
“Robin, Nightwing, and the Titans,” Batman replied.
Inside the ruins of the old Arkham Asylum, a teenage boy brooded.
He was of average height, with pale blond hair that starkly contrasted with the deep tan of his skin and sharp lavender eyes that glittered with a hellish light. He was dressed in a hooded sleeveless lavender shirt that was too small to cover his navel and black pants with golden wristbands, armbands, and choker, as well as dagger-like earrings. He held a golden rod in his hand, a rod topped with an orb that had the Eye of Horus engraved on it and protrusions that made it look almost like a double-bladed ax.
Beside the sinister but handsome boy, a taller, older male stood, wearing a similar robe. He wore a robe with a hood over his head, which did not conceal his golden eyes or the Egyptian markings carved onto the left side of his face.
“Odion, what happened?” the boy asked angrily. “I sense that my Ghouls failed.”
“I am sorry, Master Marik,” Odion replied. “There was interference.”
“From whom?” Marik asked dangerously.
“The one they call . . . Batman,” Odion replied.
“Batman!” Marik spat. “And here I thought he was nothing more than an urban legend created to intimidate common criminals!” He sighed. “Whatever. Bring in the girl.”
The Ghouls that had been sent to kidnap Téa came back with her, her hands bound behind her back.
“Who are you?” she asked angrily. “What do you want with me?”
“What do I want with you? That, I’ll reveal in due time,” Marik replied with a condescending sneer.
“You won’t get away with this!” Téa yelled. “My boyfriend knows I’m missing by now and he’ll be coming for your sorry ass!”
“My dear, I already know all about your boyfriend,” Marik replied coolly. “I know what he is, I know who he is, and I know who he was.”
“Who he was?” Téa echoed.
“Yes, Téa, your lover has many secrets,” Marik continued. “Secrets that are so deeply buried that not even he knows them! But I know.” He gestured to his Ghouls. “Put her in the cell.”
Almost immediately after Téa was locked away, a sinister voice intruded upon the scene.
“So you’re the kid who’s taken over Arkham,” a man with green hair, red eyes that gleamed with madness, snow-white skin, and dressed in a purple suit said. “Not bad, for someone who thinks he’s some kind of Egyptian punk.”
“Joker,” Marik spat contemptuously. “I’ve heard of you.”
“You’re not that bad-lookin’, kid,” Harley Quinn, a woman in a red-and-black harlequin outfit with white greasepaint and black makeup covering her face, said in an insanely sugary voice. “If I weren’t in love with Mr. J, I’d go for you. Then again, you’re too young for me.”
The Joker was looking around when he spotted Téa. “Hey, pretty girl you got locked up in my old cell.”
“Get away from me, you psycho!” Téa yelled.
“Ooh, I like my women feisty!” the Joker commented with a lecherous smirk.
“Mr. J, don’t you think I’m a lot prettier than her?” Harley whined.
The Joker sighed.
“Hey, boss, she really is cute,” a tall, muscular longhaired man named Zygore said.
“Yeah, a real hottie,” a smaller redheaded man with sunglasses named Sid added. “What’s up, sexy lady?”
“Get away from me, you creeps!” Téa yelled.
“Enough,” Marik growled, clearly displeased by his unwanted guests. “What do you want here?”
“Listen, kid, you may think you’re really hot stuff but you’re new to this,” the Joker replied. “You need a tour guide, someone to show you all the hot spots, someone to show you what the nightlife here is like, and . . . someone to teach you how to keep certain bats out of your belfry.”
“And you want to be my guide?” Marik asked.
“Yes!” the Joker replied. “I think you and I would work very well together.” He smirked and held both hands outward. “Think about it! With our combined resources, we could own this town!”
“I’m not interested in one miserable city,” Marik sneered. “I want the world.”
“Sounds like someone’s got big aspirations,” Harley commented. “Don’t worry, kid, we’ll be there to help you.” Then a figurative light snapped on in her demented mind. “Hey! I used to be a psychiatrist, so I can be your guidance counselor!”
“Whatever,” Marik said. “Do whatever you want. I don’t care.”
“Well, then, it looks like we have a partnership,” the Joker said.
The Titans and Robin had arrived in Gotham that night, at Batman’s request. The Dark Knight had sent them a transmission at almost the same time Robin and Starfire had come back from their date. This had irked Robin greatly, as he had wanted nothing more than to cuddle with his beloved Tamaranian princess and relax.
“Robin, I need your help,” Batman had said.
“What is it, Batman?” Robin had asked, keeping any trace of resentment out of his voice. Their working relationship had ended a few years back and the memory of how it had ended still stung for the Dead Boy Wonder.
“Something’s happened in Gotham,” Batman had replied.
“What happened?” Robin had asked.
“Earlier tonight, I fought four robed men that were attempting to kidnap people off the streets,” Batman had explained. “I managed to beat them, but they had a symbol on their hoods that resembled an Egyptian eye. I recognized that eye as the Eye of Horus, so I did some research and I found something very interesting. If my suspicions are correct, then those robed men are tied to a cult called Skrios.”
The mention of Skrios had caused all the Titans to gasp in recognition.
“Skrios?” Wonder Girl had uttered.
“The cult that worshipped Thartoc?” Beast Boy had asked.
“I see you’re familiar with the ancient scriptures that tell of Skrios and their battle with Taelos,” Batman had replied.
“Familiar?” Superboy had asked. “We actually fought the demon that Skrios worshipped!”
“And you’re here to talk about it, so obviously you won,” Batman had said.
“Wait a minute,” Robin had said. “You think somebody’s resurrected the Skrios order, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Batman had confirmed. “That’s why I need your help. Since you’ve fought the demon they worshipped and won, you’ll be invaluable in helping me figure out what they want and how to stop them.”
“Don’t you have Jason Blood to help you with that?” Robin had asked. “He’s the demonology expert.”
“Yes, but even with Etrigan fused to his being, there’s only so much he and I can do,” Batman had replied.
Knowing full well what Thartoc had been capable of, it had stood to reason for Robin that if someone had restarted Skrios, then something very bad was in the works.
“We’ll be there,” he had finally conceded.
“Before you leave, there’s something I have to tell you,” Batman added. “Bane migrated to Domino City in Japan, looking to rebuild his empire by selling the same chemical that turned him into what he is. However, the local vigilante --- The Crow --- stopped him.”
“The Crow, huh?” Robin said. “I’ve met him once or twice.”
“Really?” Batman wondered, looking curious. After all the time Robin had spent with Batman, he could tell the Dark Knight’s moods despite his mask. It all lay in how he set his jaw.
“We’ll be there,” Robin repeated, changing the subject.
And that was how they had come to be in Gotham City. They were all dressed in their civilian clothes, partly due to Batman’s instructions and partly because they wanted to maintain a degree of anonymity.
Robin, or Tim Drake, was wearing a blood-red sleeveless shirt and black jeans, along with the buckled boots from his costume and a pair of spiked bracelets. Starfire, or Kory Anders, was wearing a purple peasant blouse with roses on the bosom and a matching leather skirt. Superboy, or Conner Kent as he called himself when he wasn’t in costume, wore a black T-shirt and blue jeans. Wonder Girl, or Cassie Sandsmark, wore a sheer red lace shirt with matching tube top and black Capri pants. Raven was in a black halter with a raven print on the front and low-rise black jeans. Beast Boy and Cyborg, otherwise known as Gar Logan and Victor “Vic” Stone, had used holographic imaging devices to disguise themselves as normal humans. Cyborg looked like himself minus the machine parts, while Beast Boy had a more normal skin tone and his hair was brown.
“We should find a place to stay,” Tim said.
“So this is Gotham,” Conner commented. “Hell of a lot more interesting than Smallville.”
“This city is quite depressing,” Kory said, looking around in a mixture of curiosity and slight dread.
“I like it,” Raven said.
“You would,” Gar mumbled to himself.
Just then, Raven spotted a store with the title “The Razor’s Edge” inscribed in bleeding gothic font. ‘This looks like my kind of store’, she thought. Out loud, “You guys go on ahead without me.”
“Where are you going?” Vic asked.
Raven pointed to The Razor’s Edge. “There.”
“Oh, hell no!” Conner shouted. “Damn it, Raven, we don’t have time to go shopping.”
“Let her go, Conner,” Cassie said. “It’s not like she’ll take very long.”
Conner mumbled something unintelligible before sighing in resignation. “Fine. Go. We’re on our way to the downtown hotel. Meet us there.”
“Sure,” Raven replied in her usual monotone before turning to The Razor’s Edge and going in. She smiled once she saw the décor. “Definitely my kind of store.”
By the time she was finished, Raven had acquired a pair of leather pants with laced sides, a sleeveless buckled shirt, a shirt with a blood-red raven perched on a bleeding skull, a pair of lace-up boots, and a black shirt made from mesh fabric.
Satisfied with the items she had selected, Raven went to the cash register and laid down the clothes. The cashier, his face hidden by the stack of clothes, rang up the items.
“That’ll be $92.75,” he said, his voice deep and smooth.
Raven’s eyes widened in shock. Could it be . . . ?
“Yugi?” Raven wondered.
The cashier moved the clothes out of the way, revealing a teenage boy dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt and leather pants with a gray vest over the shirt. He had wildly spiked black hair with blood-red tips and lightning-like blond bangs. However, what really clinched his identity for Raven were his sharp yet gentle violet eyes.
“Yes, little sister, it’s me,” Yugi replied, smiling. He reached over the cash register to hug her. As awkward as it was, she returned the hug.
“As happy as I am to see you, what brings you to Gotham?” Raven asked.
“I’ll tell you later, when my shift is over,” Yugi replied.
“You work here?” Raven asked.
“For the time being,” Yugi replied.
“Hey, Yuge, who’s that girl with you?” a nerdy-looking punk asked.
“That’s my little sister Raven, Sean,” Yugi replied.
“Oh, ok,” Sean said.
“That’s my coworker,” Yugi explained to Raven. Speaking of Raven, the half-demon empath noticed a pale girl with dark hair and eyes dressed in all black with black eyeliner and lipstick. “And that’s Haze. Well, it’s what she prefers to be called; nobody knows her real name.”
Haze looked up from her spot in a nearby register and said in a monotone eerily similar to Raven’s, “And nobody ever will.”
“Hi,” Raven said.
“Hello,” Haze spoke in a monotone that was a little lighter than usual. She looked at Raven’s forehead. “Cool ruby. Or is that a garnet?”
‘Yeah, they’d make excellent friends,’ Yugi thought to himself.
“What’s the deal with you and Sean?” Raven asked.
“No deal,” Haze replied. “He has a crush on me. Strictly one-sided, though. Doesn’t stop him from trying to get my attention, though.”
‘Reminds me of myself and Beast Boy,’ Raven thought. Out loud, “What brought you to this shop, Yugi?”
“I rented an apartment here in Gotham,” Yugi replied. “And of course, I have to pay for it, which means I need a job so I can keep paying for it and not get kicked out.”
“I’d like to see your apartment,” Raven said.
“After my shift’s over, and that’ll be in a few minutes,” Yugi said.
A few minutes later, Yugi walked Raven to his apartment. “Hey there, kid,” the landlord greeted. “Who’s the cute girl with ya?”
“My name is Raven.”
“Raven, huh? Different, but that’s cool. People wouldn’t be interesting if they were all the same,” the landlord replied cheerfully.
“That’s my landlord,” Yugi said. Addressing him directly, “And by the way, she’s my sister.”
“Oh,” the landlord said, chuckling nervously. “My bad.”
Yugi and Raven continued on into Yugi’s apartment. “Not bad,” Raven commented. “Dark and dreary, just the way I like it. Mind if I stay with you?”
“I don’t mind at all,” Yugi replied. “I have an extra bedroom I’m not using.”
“Good, let me call the others to tell them,” Raven said. She pulled her T-com out of her pocket and flipped it open. “Robin?”
“Yeah, Raven?” Tim asked.
“I’ll be staying with Yugi in his apartment,” Raven replied.
“Yugi?!” Vic and Gar exclaimed in the background, pleasantly surprised.
“Friend Yugi is in Gotham City?” Kory asked.
“Yes, he is,” Raven confirmed. “Would you like to say hi?” She gave Yugi the T-com.
“Hello,” Yugi said.
“Oh, joyous greetings, friend Yugi!” Kory exclaimed. “This depressing and eerie city is treating you well, yes?”
“For the most part,” Yugi replied coolly.
“C’mon, Kory, let me talk to him!” Gar pleaded.
“Friend Gar, you may converse with friend Yugi,” Kory conceded.
It was at that moment that Gar Logan’s face appeared in the T-com’s circular screen.
“Who are you?” Yugi asked.
“It’s me, Beast Boy!” Gar replied. “Y’know, it’s not that surprising you don’t recognize me, since I was all green the last time you saw me.”
“Hologram?” Yugi surmised.
“How’d you know?” Gar asked, surprised. He quickly recovered and continued on. “Cy’s got a holographic disguise, too.”
“It’s good to see you again, Beast Boy,” Yugi said.
Later that night, Tim Drake slinked out of the room he shared with Koriand’r, dressed as Black Robin. He released the glamour mask that made him look like a normal boy, revealing the ghoulish cosmetic mask that made him look like a demon clown.
He was on a case, one that had interested him for a while. For the past few weeks in Gotham, men had been disappearing. After a few nights they reappeared as corpses, the life apparently sucked out of them.
At first, Robin had puzzled over what sort of being could do something like that. His first hypothesis was that it was some manner of succubus. Another hypothesis was that it was someone like Circe, whom he recalled Batman, Wonder Woman, and the magician Zatanna Zatara going up against fairly recently.
He had no solid clue as to who was behind the murders, but he was going to find out tonight. He could feel it.
Robin swung from an X-grapple and at the zenith of his swing he released it only to fire another X-grapple. His crow flew ahead of him, guiding him. To where he didn’t know, but he had learned long ago to trust his crow.
As he swung, he noticed a black muscle convertible --- a GTO, if he remembered Batman’s love of collecting classic cars --- with a blood-red crow painted on the hood. Robin looked more closely and saw the driver and passenger, both having distinctive hair colors and styles. The driver was male with wildly spiked red-tipped black hair with golden bangs. The passenger was female with wet-looking chin-length purple hair.
‘Yugi and Raven,’ Robin thought with a smile. He allowed himself to fall, timing it with the approach of Yugi’s car. Once he landed in the backseat, he smirked. “Hello, Yugi and Raven.”
“Hello, Robin,” Raven said, peering at him through the rearview mirror.
“Long time no see,” Yami Yugi said.
“Where you headed?” Robin asked.
“Men have been disappearing in Gotham for weeks,” Yami replied. “Raven and I are going to find out why.”
“What a coincidence,” Robin said. “So am I.”
“Then we would do well to work together,” Yami concluded. He slammed the accelerator pedal and the GTO raced ahead at its maximum speed.
“Aren’t we violating traffic laws?” Raven asked in a deadpan voice.
Yugi just gave her a nonchalant expression.
Approximately fifteen minutes later, the three dark heroes (antiheroes in the cases of Robin and Yugi) were at an abandoned strip joint called “The Sex Cauldron.”
“This is the source of the great evil,” Raven commented sarcastically. “A strip joint. I am so petrified.”
“It doesn’t look like much, but there’s plenty of evil in there,” Robin said. “Hey, wait; I remember this place.”
“Frequent a lot of strip clubs while you were in Gotham?” Raven asked sarcastically. “What would Batman think if he found out?”
“Only when Batman was shaking down common thugs for information,” Robin clarified. “He wouldn’t let me go in.” He added sarcastically, “Prick.”
Yugi parked the GTO and he, Raven, and Robin stepped out.
“Looks like you’ll finally get to see the inside,” Yugi quipped. “We must be very careful.”
“Didn’t this place go out of business?” Robin wondered.
“It’s in business now,” Raven replied.
The trio entered The Sex Cauldron and once they were inside their eyes were confronted by a sight that managed to be astonishing, horrifying, and perversely beautiful all at once.
Specifically, it was a decent-sized group of men kneeling before the stage where strippers had once performed. On that stage were three sisters that were definitely not human. They were all beautiful in their own way, and the bird-like wings attached to their arms and the talons that substituted for their hands and feet rendered them very exotic in appearance. Each sister had a different hair color and style: one with long magenta hair, another with spiked blue hair and the third with orange hair hanging over the left side of her face.
The magenta-haired sister looked at one of the men, a particularly handsome gentleman in his mid-thirties. “Come here,” she said in a sultry yet deadly voice.
The man couldn’t help himself. “Yes, Mistress Aleera,” he said in a love-dazed voice. He rose from his kneeling position and climbed onto the stage. Aleera came to him and kissed him on the lips, sliding her tongue into his mouth.
“So that explains where all the men have gone,” Raven mumbled.
“I’ve encountered them before,” Yugi whispered. “The magenta-haired one is Aleera, as you doubtlessly know by now unless you weren’t listening. The blue-haired one is Verona, and the orange-haired one is Marishka. Together they’re known as the Harpy Lady Sisters.”
“What is she doing to him?” Robin asked.
“Sucking out his life force,” Yugi replied. “That’s what they do after they get tired of their human prey.”
Robin projected one of his X’s as a shuriken and threw it at Aleera, forcing her to release the man before she drained all his life force.
“Who did that?” she asked. “Show yourself!”
It was then that The Crow, the Black Robin, and Raven made their appearances.
“Yugi,” Aleera purred. “It’s good to see you again.”
“I wish I could say the same,” Yami replied.
The Harpy Lady Sisters emitted their trademark pheromone Seductive Shadow, which emanated from them in the form of a purple vapor.
“What the hell is this stuff?” Robin asked.
“Seductive Shadow,” Verona replied. “Our special pheromone. Once you smell it, you will desire us and no one else.”
By this point, Yami and Robin had smelled the Seductive Shadow and were fighting against it. Before, the two undead avengers had casually thought of the Harpy Ladies as attractive without actually being attracted to them. Now that the Seductive Shadow was in their systems they were having an extremely difficult time resisting the Harpies’ charms.
“Just give in, little Crows,” Marishka purred with an alluring voice. “Give in and know the pleasure that only we can bring you.”
“We won’t give in,” Yugi snarled. “Not to you demons.”
As for Robin, he wasn’t having as hard a time as he had anticipated. He was certainly holding out a lot better than the harpies’ previous victims, but then again they didn’t have the mental discipline that he had. Still, it was a challenge. When he looked at Aleera, he saw red.
‘Red . . . like Starfire’s hair . . .’ he thought. ‘Starfire . . .’
He remembered a sweet, naïve alien princess, a young girl eager to learn about Earth’s culture and befriend everyone she met, a girl full of light and life and love. He remembered feeling her silken crimson hair and looking into her sparkling emerald green eyes.
“Star . . . fire . . .” he murmured. He channeled his love for her into the strength that he needed to resist the Seductive Shadow, firing an energy blast out of the X on his palm.
“Damn it!” Aleera cursed as she barely evaded the X-blast. “Why didn’t our Seductive Shadow work on you two?”
“We’re a lot stronger than you think we are,” Yugi replied, having successfully resisted the demon pheromones as well.
Raven hadn’t been affected at all, as the Seductive Shadow was meant to elicit desire in men, not women.
“Slaves, attack,” Aleera ordered.
The enslaved men rose from their kneeling positions and attacked the trio. Most of them weren’t fighters, their main strength lying in their numbers instead.
“We can’t hurt them too badly,” Raven said as they approached.
“We know,” Robin said. “Titans, go!”
That said, the trio went into action, incapacitating the men instead of causing them severe harm. A few quick strikes at specific points were enough to accomplish that particular task.
“Did you think your besotted slaves would be enough to stop us from getting to you?” Raven asked.
“No, but they were numerous enough to put you three through the ringer,” Verona replied. “And now it’s time for all of you to die.” That said the Harpy Lady Sisters leaped high, almost to the ceiling, and then swooped down on Yugi, Robin, and Raven, talons out to slash.
“Azarath Metrion Zinthos,” Raven chanted, creating a wall of black energy to protect herself and the Crows from the harpies. Said Harpies forcefully struck the wall and collapsed in a heap of feathers and golden armor.
“That hurt,” Marishka snarled as she and her sisters arose from the ground. “But don’t expect that barrier to keep you safe from us for long. Feather Duster!” She sprouted four green wings to complement the purple ones on her arms. A tornado emanated from her and blew Raven’s shield away.
“That’s much better,” Aleera said.
“Go time,” Robin said, drawing his latest acquisition: a pair of three-pronged sword-like Japanese daggers called sai.
And so the battle was joined: Yugi vs. Aleera, Robin vs. Verona, and Raven vs. Marishka. Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle glowed and he channeled the energy into bolts of magic force that he fired at Aleera, who was dodging with lightning-like speed. Robin was slashing at Verona with the sai but she was blocking his slashes and retaliating with her own. Raven was creating localized shields to protect herself from the fury of Marishka’s slashes.
Finally, Aleera attacked Yugi and caught him with a slash across the face. The cuts bled only slightly before the blood was sucked back into them and they sealed.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Yami Yugi snarled.
“And why not?” Aleera asked almost coyly.
Yami’s response was a very fast and vicious attack that caught Aleera off-guard. Fists and feet were flying and impacting against Aleera with enough force to completely shatter a normal human. It wasn’t quite enough to do the same to Aleera but it was enough to do some damage, damage that she felt even through her armor.
“Yugi!” Raven shouted upon seeing the vicious beating her older brother was delivering to the redheaded harpy.
Raven’s cry was enough to bring Yami to his senses, but calling out to her brother had given Marishka the opportunity she needed to strike. The purple-haired telekinetic ended up receiving a slash to her midsection, but she had moved just enough to keep the slash from being fatal. Nevertheless, she was bleeding. Marishka went in for the kill but was repelled by a dark telekinetic blast.
Verona had just succeeded in clawing Robin near his collarbone, slicing his cape off in the process. Robin just smirked at her as his wounds healed.
“Time to exterminate you all,” Aleera said. She and her sisters flew upward, forming a triangle in the air. They cupped their hands and hellish red-and-orange energy formed in those hands. A line of light connected the three spheres and an X formed in the center.
“Exterminator Attack!” the Harpy Lady Sisters shouted, firing the X at the three dark heroes.
“I don’t think I can block an attack of that level of power,” Raven said.
“You’re not going to,” Yugi replied. “We’re going to combine our energies the same way they did.” The Millennium Puzzle glowed and crackling black-and-purple energy formed in his outstretched hand. That same energy formed in Raven’s hand and black-and-red energy burned in Robin’s hand.
“Soul Destroyer!” the dark trio shouted, firing the combined dark energies at the Harpy Ladies’ ultimate attack. For a while, the two sets of combined energies pushed viciously against each other.
“Keep pushing!” Robin shouted.
“What do you think we’re doing?” Raven asked.
“You weaklings won’t win!” Verona snarled.
“Watch us,” Yami Yugi replied. The symbol of the crow glowed on his forehead and he gave the Soul Destroyer a little extra juice, strengthening it enough to push through the Exterminator Attack and reach the Harpy Lady Sisters, sending them back to the hell that spawned them.
“That was rough,” Robin said.
“Yeah,” Raven replied. Yami and Robin both looked at her midsection. “What?”
“You’re injured,” Yami stated.
“I’m half demon,” Raven replied. “I heal faster than full humans. That’s not what I’m worried about, though. What happened to you, Yugi?”
It took Yami only a second to realize the reason for his younger sister’s question. “I’m sorry,” he replied. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“I should get back,” Robin said. “Daybreak’s about to come and Starfire will be worried about me.” That said, he picked up his cape, wrapped it around his shoulders, and exited The Sex Cauldron.
“We should return home as well,” Yami said.
“Yeah,” Raven agreed.
With that said The Crow and Raven got into the GTO and rode back home. However, the ride was spent in silence as Yugi brooded over a single, one-word question.
Why?
To be continued . . .
“You try to dream, but you are not able to sleep
You want to scream, but you cannot even speak
You want to walk, but you just started to creep
And when you talk you always feel so weak.
“A promise you can’t keep
Please don’t try to flee.
“It’s just a passionate act of desperation.
“You hear a voice, a voice inside your ear
Some gun that speaks, “I wanna see you dead”
Insane thoughts, that you don’t dare to say
Not now, not here and never not this way.
“Don’t try to run away.
“It’s just a passionate act of desperation
It’s just a passionate
Just a passionate act of desperation.
“Your broken heart it beats in fever
It beats in pain, deeper and deeper.
“It’s just a passionate act of desperation
It’s just a passionate
Just a passionate act of desperation
Just a passionate
Just a passionate
Just a passionate
Just a passionate
Yeah just a passionate.”
Love Like Blood – “Passionate”
End Notes: There you have it. Yugi’s already run into Raven and Robin again, but don’t assume that everything’s going to be perfectly fine. There’s still the matter of Yugi’s outburst of violence to deal with, not to mention two all-important questions. One, what does Marik want with Téa and what does he know about Yugi? Two, why has the Joker taken such an interest in this young mastermind? These questions and more will be answered in future chapters, so keep reading.
By Kokuryu and The Wolf God
Disclaimer: The Crow, Teen Titans, and Yu-Gi-Oh do not belong to either of us. They belong to James O’Barr, DC Comics, Warner Brothers, Kazuki Takahashi, Shonen Jump, and Cartoon Network.
Author’s note: The Crow has arrived in Gotham City to track down Téa and her kidnappers. However, he will end up attracting the attention of a certain pointy-eared dark defender, as well as that of a few old friends who are also in Gotham.
Also, I don’t mean to offend anyone with what I said about American airline security since 9/11. I’m just trying to write what a non-American would think about it. If anyone is offended, then I offer my sincerest apologies. Speaking of 9/11, this chapter is for all the victims of that day. May whatever god or gods you worshipped watch over you.
“When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
“Destiny flying high above
All I know is that you can realize realize
“Destiny who cares destiny who cares
As it turns around as it turns around
And I know that it descends down on me
“It’s just another day
The shame is gone
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go, let it go, let it go
“Destiny can’t replace my life
Scary shadows of my past
Are alive alive
“Destiny who cares destiny who cares
As it turns around as it turns around
And I know that it descends
With a smile
“It’s just another day
The shame is gone
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go away
“It’s just a melody
It bleeds in me
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go
“When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
When you’re taught through feelings
“It’s just another day
The shame is gone
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go away
“It’s just a melody
It bleeds in me
Hard to believe
That I’ve let it go, let it go, let it go.”
Lacuna Coil – “Swamped”
Chapter 2:
Old Friends, New Enemies
A plane arrived at Gotham Airport, and all its passengers stepped off the plane and into the airport. The passengers were mostly unremarkable, except for a young man with outrageously spiked black hair with red tips and lightning-like blond bangs. He was dressed from head to toe in black: a leather trench coat, a sleeveless shirt, and leather pants.
The young man’s outfit was accented with a studded collar, two studded belts, and studded black boots.
Other than his gothic-styled clothes, he was not very noticeable. However, this concealed a dark secret.
This young man was Yami Yugi --- The Crow, the dark avenger of Domino City. And his presence in Gotham City meant one thing and one thing alone. Someone was going to find himself in a world of pure life-shortening agony.
For the moment, he had to endure the security procedures installed since September 11, 2001. Since that terrible day, Americans had gotten much more concerned with their own security, perhaps to the point of paranoia. In light of that, Yugi had declined to bring his guns with him. He figured he’d buy new ones here in Gotham.
After the security guards had determined that Yugi wasn’t carrying any contraband or weapons, they let him check out of the airport.
Yugi walked into Gotham City. The area of the city he was in was very clean and very bright. That was only one part of the city, though. The darker parts were not the places anybody in their right mind would want to visit.
Then again, not many people had a mystical crow giving them dark powers and watching over them. Speaking of that crow, Yugi had to place him with the other pets in the pet carriage of the plane. It was lucky none of the cats on that flight had tried to eat him, but they were all in cages, too.
Now that Yugi was out of the airport, he could let his crow out, and so he did. The crow flapped its wings and soared into the night sky.
‘I need a place to stay,’ Yugi thought as he walked through the city. As he walked, he saw a mugger rush a young couple and snatch the woman’s purse. The man immediately ran after him, but he was too slow to catch up.
However, Yugi wasn’t. In a burst of superhuman speed, he rushed the mugger and tackled him, twisting his arm behind him.
“One should not presume to take what does not belong to him,” he hissed. He yanked the mugger up, still holding his arm twisted behind him.
“Ok, ok, man!” the mugger shouted. “I’ll give it back!”
“No, I will,” Yami Yugi replied. “You’re going to jail.” That said, he dropped the mugger and picked up the purse. He walked over to the young couple. “I believe this is yours.”
“Thank you so much,” the young woman said, taking the offered purse.
“You’re welcome,” Yami replied before walking away. He kept on walking, not really headed in any particular direction. Once he stopped, it was right in front of a rundown apartment building.
‘This will do,’ The Crow thought immediately before stepping inside. He soon caught the eye of the landlord, a slightly overweight but friendly-looking man.
“Hey, goth boy, lookin’ for a place to stay?” he asked cheerfully.
“Yes,” Yami replied.
“I’ve got a good one for you,” the landlord said. “Follow me.”
Yami did follow him, to a drab apartment with peeling wallpaper and a few small holes that inexplicably looked like they’d been made by bullets. The furniture, too, looked like it had seen better days; the colors were faded and some of it was gouged.
“Not bad,” he said. “I’ll take it.”
“Got two hundred and fifty dollars a month for it?” the landlord asked.
“Yes, I do,” Yami Yugi replied.
“Then by all means, sir, welcome to Gotham City,” the landlord said with a sweeping gesture of his arm. “It’s not bad, if you don’t mind hearing sirens all the time.”
Yugi glanced at him with his violet eyes in a sign of annoyance.
“Ok, I’ll stop talking,” the landlord replied. “See ya around, kid.” He walked away, leaving Yugi to enter his new apartment.
“It’s not so bad,” the undead avenger said to himself.
Elsewhere, Gotham City’s dark defender was fighting some men in dark robes.
Batman had been patrolling the city as he always did when his keen eyes had alighted on the sight of four robed men assaulting three random pedestrians. Knowing their intentions to be foul, he’d swooped in to intervene.
It occurred to him now that the four robed men were a lot tougher than he’d estimated. As Batman, he knew the importance of never underestimating one’s foe, but their fighting skills were even more than he’d thought they could do.
He blocked a roundhouse kick from one man and used his free hand to chop a nerve ending in his leg that left the man sprawled on the sidewalk in pain. Another one of the robed men had tried to rush him while he was occupied with the first, but Batman had backhanded him without even looking. A third man had surprisingly slipped under Batman’s punch and decked him with an uppercut.
That particular move had startled Batman but not so much so that he was unable to react. The fourth man had seized his opportunity to attack, thinking that the Dark Knight would be easy prey now that he had actually been hit.
The poor sap realized a few seconds too late just how wrong he was. The exact moment he figured it out was when Batman deftly avoided his assault and struck him with a roundhouse punch, knocking him out cold.
The one remaining robed man stood his ground, silently challenging Batman to fight. Batman accepted his unspoken invitation with a fast sweeping kick.
The robed man jumped over the kick and behind him in a demonstration of unnatural agility.
‘He’s good at this,’ Batman thought as he turned around to face him. ‘Whoever he is, he isn’t just some thug off the streets.’
As the fight went on, it seemed to be at a standstill. The robed man would block or counter every move Batman made and vice versa. It seemed like there was no way for either combatant to seize the advantage and both were riding the edge of exhaustion.
Finally, Batman had his victory.
Whether it was arrogance or exhaustion-fueled desperation that had guided the robed man’s next move the Caped Crusader wasn’t certain. What he did know was that the man had just rushed him, apparently thinking there was nothing Batman could do to stop him. He had been proven extremely wrong when Batman punched him in the gut, knocking the breath out of him.
The robed man began to crumple to the ground, but Batman grabbed him by the collar and held him up.
“Talk,” he demanded in a low, cold voice.
“Why should I?” the robed man asked, exhausted but still defiant.
Not bothering to answer that question, Batman continued with a question of his own.
“Why were you and your friends after some people off the streets?”
“Like I’m gonna tell you,” the robed man sneered before losing consciousness.
Batman dropped him and then gathered the unconscious bodies of the other three. He used a cable to tie all four together and then hung them from the nearest streetlamp. In the process, he had noticed a strange symbol on all the robed men’s hoods.
“An Egyptian eye,” he said to himself. Unless he was mistaken, that particular eye was the Eye of Horus, the son of the Egyptian deities Osiris and Isis.
Batman strode to his Batmobile and got into the driver’s seat. The cockpit closed over him and he drove back to the Batcave. Once there, he exited the Batmobile and strode to the Batcomputer.
“Unpleasant night, sir?” Alfred Pennyworth, the butler to Batman when he was in his civilian pose of industrialist Bruce Wayne, asked.
“I have to find something,” Batman replied as he sat down in front of the massive monitor of the Batcomputer. He typed “Eye of Horus” onto the screen and then ordered the computer to search for anything linked to that.
“‘The right eye of Horus became the sun, and the left eye of Horus became the moon,’” Batman read from a text on Egyptian myth. “This is not turning up anything I wouldn’t find in a typical dissertation on Egyptian mythology. I have to dig deeper.”
He continued his search, until something very interesting fell into his lap --- in a figurative way of speaking. Specifically, it was the image of a stone tablet with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved onto its face.
“Computer, translate,” he ordered.
Given that the Batcomputer was the most advanced piece of computer technology in the world, the process began immediately, translating each hieroglyph into an English word or phrase. Said process finished within mere minutes.
One couldn’t actually say that Batman didn’t believe what he saw, because Batman’s philosophy was that nothing was unbelievable, just poorly understood. Still, it was rather shocking. Warring religious factions, ancient magic, and an archfiend at the center of it all.
And if the four men he had just come back from fighting were connected in some way to all this . . .
“I’m going to need help,” Batman said.
“Yes, but who will you call?” Alfred asked.
“Jason Blood, for starters,” Batman replied.
“Anyone else?” Alfred further inquired.
“Robin, Nightwing, and the Titans,” Batman replied.
Inside the ruins of the old Arkham Asylum, a teenage boy brooded.
He was of average height, with pale blond hair that starkly contrasted with the deep tan of his skin and sharp lavender eyes that glittered with a hellish light. He was dressed in a hooded sleeveless lavender shirt that was too small to cover his navel and black pants with golden wristbands, armbands, and choker, as well as dagger-like earrings. He held a golden rod in his hand, a rod topped with an orb that had the Eye of Horus engraved on it and protrusions that made it look almost like a double-bladed ax.
Beside the sinister but handsome boy, a taller, older male stood, wearing a similar robe. He wore a robe with a hood over his head, which did not conceal his golden eyes or the Egyptian markings carved onto the left side of his face.
“Odion, what happened?” the boy asked angrily. “I sense that my Ghouls failed.”
“I am sorry, Master Marik,” Odion replied. “There was interference.”
“From whom?” Marik asked dangerously.
“The one they call . . . Batman,” Odion replied.
“Batman!” Marik spat. “And here I thought he was nothing more than an urban legend created to intimidate common criminals!” He sighed. “Whatever. Bring in the girl.”
The Ghouls that had been sent to kidnap Téa came back with her, her hands bound behind her back.
“Who are you?” she asked angrily. “What do you want with me?”
“What do I want with you? That, I’ll reveal in due time,” Marik replied with a condescending sneer.
“You won’t get away with this!” Téa yelled. “My boyfriend knows I’m missing by now and he’ll be coming for your sorry ass!”
“My dear, I already know all about your boyfriend,” Marik replied coolly. “I know what he is, I know who he is, and I know who he was.”
“Who he was?” Téa echoed.
“Yes, Téa, your lover has many secrets,” Marik continued. “Secrets that are so deeply buried that not even he knows them! But I know.” He gestured to his Ghouls. “Put her in the cell.”
Almost immediately after Téa was locked away, a sinister voice intruded upon the scene.
“So you’re the kid who’s taken over Arkham,” a man with green hair, red eyes that gleamed with madness, snow-white skin, and dressed in a purple suit said. “Not bad, for someone who thinks he’s some kind of Egyptian punk.”
“Joker,” Marik spat contemptuously. “I’ve heard of you.”
“You’re not that bad-lookin’, kid,” Harley Quinn, a woman in a red-and-black harlequin outfit with white greasepaint and black makeup covering her face, said in an insanely sugary voice. “If I weren’t in love with Mr. J, I’d go for you. Then again, you’re too young for me.”
The Joker was looking around when he spotted Téa. “Hey, pretty girl you got locked up in my old cell.”
“Get away from me, you psycho!” Téa yelled.
“Ooh, I like my women feisty!” the Joker commented with a lecherous smirk.
“Mr. J, don’t you think I’m a lot prettier than her?” Harley whined.
The Joker sighed.
“Hey, boss, she really is cute,” a tall, muscular longhaired man named Zygore said.
“Yeah, a real hottie,” a smaller redheaded man with sunglasses named Sid added. “What’s up, sexy lady?”
“Get away from me, you creeps!” Téa yelled.
“Enough,” Marik growled, clearly displeased by his unwanted guests. “What do you want here?”
“Listen, kid, you may think you’re really hot stuff but you’re new to this,” the Joker replied. “You need a tour guide, someone to show you all the hot spots, someone to show you what the nightlife here is like, and . . . someone to teach you how to keep certain bats out of your belfry.”
“And you want to be my guide?” Marik asked.
“Yes!” the Joker replied. “I think you and I would work very well together.” He smirked and held both hands outward. “Think about it! With our combined resources, we could own this town!”
“I’m not interested in one miserable city,” Marik sneered. “I want the world.”
“Sounds like someone’s got big aspirations,” Harley commented. “Don’t worry, kid, we’ll be there to help you.” Then a figurative light snapped on in her demented mind. “Hey! I used to be a psychiatrist, so I can be your guidance counselor!”
“Whatever,” Marik said. “Do whatever you want. I don’t care.”
“Well, then, it looks like we have a partnership,” the Joker said.
The Titans and Robin had arrived in Gotham that night, at Batman’s request. The Dark Knight had sent them a transmission at almost the same time Robin and Starfire had come back from their date. This had irked Robin greatly, as he had wanted nothing more than to cuddle with his beloved Tamaranian princess and relax.
“Robin, I need your help,” Batman had said.
“What is it, Batman?” Robin had asked, keeping any trace of resentment out of his voice. Their working relationship had ended a few years back and the memory of how it had ended still stung for the Dead Boy Wonder.
“Something’s happened in Gotham,” Batman had replied.
“What happened?” Robin had asked.
“Earlier tonight, I fought four robed men that were attempting to kidnap people off the streets,” Batman had explained. “I managed to beat them, but they had a symbol on their hoods that resembled an Egyptian eye. I recognized that eye as the Eye of Horus, so I did some research and I found something very interesting. If my suspicions are correct, then those robed men are tied to a cult called Skrios.”
The mention of Skrios had caused all the Titans to gasp in recognition.
“Skrios?” Wonder Girl had uttered.
“The cult that worshipped Thartoc?” Beast Boy had asked.
“I see you’re familiar with the ancient scriptures that tell of Skrios and their battle with Taelos,” Batman had replied.
“Familiar?” Superboy had asked. “We actually fought the demon that Skrios worshipped!”
“And you’re here to talk about it, so obviously you won,” Batman had said.
“Wait a minute,” Robin had said. “You think somebody’s resurrected the Skrios order, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Batman had confirmed. “That’s why I need your help. Since you’ve fought the demon they worshipped and won, you’ll be invaluable in helping me figure out what they want and how to stop them.”
“Don’t you have Jason Blood to help you with that?” Robin had asked. “He’s the demonology expert.”
“Yes, but even with Etrigan fused to his being, there’s only so much he and I can do,” Batman had replied.
Knowing full well what Thartoc had been capable of, it had stood to reason for Robin that if someone had restarted Skrios, then something very bad was in the works.
“We’ll be there,” he had finally conceded.
“Before you leave, there’s something I have to tell you,” Batman added. “Bane migrated to Domino City in Japan, looking to rebuild his empire by selling the same chemical that turned him into what he is. However, the local vigilante --- The Crow --- stopped him.”
“The Crow, huh?” Robin said. “I’ve met him once or twice.”
“Really?” Batman wondered, looking curious. After all the time Robin had spent with Batman, he could tell the Dark Knight’s moods despite his mask. It all lay in how he set his jaw.
“We’ll be there,” Robin repeated, changing the subject.
And that was how they had come to be in Gotham City. They were all dressed in their civilian clothes, partly due to Batman’s instructions and partly because they wanted to maintain a degree of anonymity.
Robin, or Tim Drake, was wearing a blood-red sleeveless shirt and black jeans, along with the buckled boots from his costume and a pair of spiked bracelets. Starfire, or Kory Anders, was wearing a purple peasant blouse with roses on the bosom and a matching leather skirt. Superboy, or Conner Kent as he called himself when he wasn’t in costume, wore a black T-shirt and blue jeans. Wonder Girl, or Cassie Sandsmark, wore a sheer red lace shirt with matching tube top and black Capri pants. Raven was in a black halter with a raven print on the front and low-rise black jeans. Beast Boy and Cyborg, otherwise known as Gar Logan and Victor “Vic” Stone, had used holographic imaging devices to disguise themselves as normal humans. Cyborg looked like himself minus the machine parts, while Beast Boy had a more normal skin tone and his hair was brown.
“We should find a place to stay,” Tim said.
“So this is Gotham,” Conner commented. “Hell of a lot more interesting than Smallville.”
“This city is quite depressing,” Kory said, looking around in a mixture of curiosity and slight dread.
“I like it,” Raven said.
“You would,” Gar mumbled to himself.
Just then, Raven spotted a store with the title “The Razor’s Edge” inscribed in bleeding gothic font. ‘This looks like my kind of store’, she thought. Out loud, “You guys go on ahead without me.”
“Where are you going?” Vic asked.
Raven pointed to The Razor’s Edge. “There.”
“Oh, hell no!” Conner shouted. “Damn it, Raven, we don’t have time to go shopping.”
“Let her go, Conner,” Cassie said. “It’s not like she’ll take very long.”
Conner mumbled something unintelligible before sighing in resignation. “Fine. Go. We’re on our way to the downtown hotel. Meet us there.”
“Sure,” Raven replied in her usual monotone before turning to The Razor’s Edge and going in. She smiled once she saw the décor. “Definitely my kind of store.”
By the time she was finished, Raven had acquired a pair of leather pants with laced sides, a sleeveless buckled shirt, a shirt with a blood-red raven perched on a bleeding skull, a pair of lace-up boots, and a black shirt made from mesh fabric.
Satisfied with the items she had selected, Raven went to the cash register and laid down the clothes. The cashier, his face hidden by the stack of clothes, rang up the items.
“That’ll be $92.75,” he said, his voice deep and smooth.
Raven’s eyes widened in shock. Could it be . . . ?
“Yugi?” Raven wondered.
The cashier moved the clothes out of the way, revealing a teenage boy dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt and leather pants with a gray vest over the shirt. He had wildly spiked black hair with blood-red tips and lightning-like blond bangs. However, what really clinched his identity for Raven were his sharp yet gentle violet eyes.
“Yes, little sister, it’s me,” Yugi replied, smiling. He reached over the cash register to hug her. As awkward as it was, she returned the hug.
“As happy as I am to see you, what brings you to Gotham?” Raven asked.
“I’ll tell you later, when my shift is over,” Yugi replied.
“You work here?” Raven asked.
“For the time being,” Yugi replied.
“Hey, Yuge, who’s that girl with you?” a nerdy-looking punk asked.
“That’s my little sister Raven, Sean,” Yugi replied.
“Oh, ok,” Sean said.
“That’s my coworker,” Yugi explained to Raven. Speaking of Raven, the half-demon empath noticed a pale girl with dark hair and eyes dressed in all black with black eyeliner and lipstick. “And that’s Haze. Well, it’s what she prefers to be called; nobody knows her real name.”
Haze looked up from her spot in a nearby register and said in a monotone eerily similar to Raven’s, “And nobody ever will.”
“Hi,” Raven said.
“Hello,” Haze spoke in a monotone that was a little lighter than usual. She looked at Raven’s forehead. “Cool ruby. Or is that a garnet?”
‘Yeah, they’d make excellent friends,’ Yugi thought to himself.
“What’s the deal with you and Sean?” Raven asked.
“No deal,” Haze replied. “He has a crush on me. Strictly one-sided, though. Doesn’t stop him from trying to get my attention, though.”
‘Reminds me of myself and Beast Boy,’ Raven thought. Out loud, “What brought you to this shop, Yugi?”
“I rented an apartment here in Gotham,” Yugi replied. “And of course, I have to pay for it, which means I need a job so I can keep paying for it and not get kicked out.”
“I’d like to see your apartment,” Raven said.
“After my shift’s over, and that’ll be in a few minutes,” Yugi said.
A few minutes later, Yugi walked Raven to his apartment. “Hey there, kid,” the landlord greeted. “Who’s the cute girl with ya?”
“My name is Raven.”
“Raven, huh? Different, but that’s cool. People wouldn’t be interesting if they were all the same,” the landlord replied cheerfully.
“That’s my landlord,” Yugi said. Addressing him directly, “And by the way, she’s my sister.”
“Oh,” the landlord said, chuckling nervously. “My bad.”
Yugi and Raven continued on into Yugi’s apartment. “Not bad,” Raven commented. “Dark and dreary, just the way I like it. Mind if I stay with you?”
“I don’t mind at all,” Yugi replied. “I have an extra bedroom I’m not using.”
“Good, let me call the others to tell them,” Raven said. She pulled her T-com out of her pocket and flipped it open. “Robin?”
“Yeah, Raven?” Tim asked.
“I’ll be staying with Yugi in his apartment,” Raven replied.
“Yugi?!” Vic and Gar exclaimed in the background, pleasantly surprised.
“Friend Yugi is in Gotham City?” Kory asked.
“Yes, he is,” Raven confirmed. “Would you like to say hi?” She gave Yugi the T-com.
“Hello,” Yugi said.
“Oh, joyous greetings, friend Yugi!” Kory exclaimed. “This depressing and eerie city is treating you well, yes?”
“For the most part,” Yugi replied coolly.
“C’mon, Kory, let me talk to him!” Gar pleaded.
“Friend Gar, you may converse with friend Yugi,” Kory conceded.
It was at that moment that Gar Logan’s face appeared in the T-com’s circular screen.
“Who are you?” Yugi asked.
“It’s me, Beast Boy!” Gar replied. “Y’know, it’s not that surprising you don’t recognize me, since I was all green the last time you saw me.”
“Hologram?” Yugi surmised.
“How’d you know?” Gar asked, surprised. He quickly recovered and continued on. “Cy’s got a holographic disguise, too.”
“It’s good to see you again, Beast Boy,” Yugi said.
Later that night, Tim Drake slinked out of the room he shared with Koriand’r, dressed as Black Robin. He released the glamour mask that made him look like a normal boy, revealing the ghoulish cosmetic mask that made him look like a demon clown.
He was on a case, one that had interested him for a while. For the past few weeks in Gotham, men had been disappearing. After a few nights they reappeared as corpses, the life apparently sucked out of them.
At first, Robin had puzzled over what sort of being could do something like that. His first hypothesis was that it was some manner of succubus. Another hypothesis was that it was someone like Circe, whom he recalled Batman, Wonder Woman, and the magician Zatanna Zatara going up against fairly recently.
He had no solid clue as to who was behind the murders, but he was going to find out tonight. He could feel it.
Robin swung from an X-grapple and at the zenith of his swing he released it only to fire another X-grapple. His crow flew ahead of him, guiding him. To where he didn’t know, but he had learned long ago to trust his crow.
As he swung, he noticed a black muscle convertible --- a GTO, if he remembered Batman’s love of collecting classic cars --- with a blood-red crow painted on the hood. Robin looked more closely and saw the driver and passenger, both having distinctive hair colors and styles. The driver was male with wildly spiked red-tipped black hair with golden bangs. The passenger was female with wet-looking chin-length purple hair.
‘Yugi and Raven,’ Robin thought with a smile. He allowed himself to fall, timing it with the approach of Yugi’s car. Once he landed in the backseat, he smirked. “Hello, Yugi and Raven.”
“Hello, Robin,” Raven said, peering at him through the rearview mirror.
“Long time no see,” Yami Yugi said.
“Where you headed?” Robin asked.
“Men have been disappearing in Gotham for weeks,” Yami replied. “Raven and I are going to find out why.”
“What a coincidence,” Robin said. “So am I.”
“Then we would do well to work together,” Yami concluded. He slammed the accelerator pedal and the GTO raced ahead at its maximum speed.
“Aren’t we violating traffic laws?” Raven asked in a deadpan voice.
Yugi just gave her a nonchalant expression.
Approximately fifteen minutes later, the three dark heroes (antiheroes in the cases of Robin and Yugi) were at an abandoned strip joint called “The Sex Cauldron.”
“This is the source of the great evil,” Raven commented sarcastically. “A strip joint. I am so petrified.”
“It doesn’t look like much, but there’s plenty of evil in there,” Robin said. “Hey, wait; I remember this place.”
“Frequent a lot of strip clubs while you were in Gotham?” Raven asked sarcastically. “What would Batman think if he found out?”
“Only when Batman was shaking down common thugs for information,” Robin clarified. “He wouldn’t let me go in.” He added sarcastically, “Prick.”
Yugi parked the GTO and he, Raven, and Robin stepped out.
“Looks like you’ll finally get to see the inside,” Yugi quipped. “We must be very careful.”
“Didn’t this place go out of business?” Robin wondered.
“It’s in business now,” Raven replied.
The trio entered The Sex Cauldron and once they were inside their eyes were confronted by a sight that managed to be astonishing, horrifying, and perversely beautiful all at once.
Specifically, it was a decent-sized group of men kneeling before the stage where strippers had once performed. On that stage were three sisters that were definitely not human. They were all beautiful in their own way, and the bird-like wings attached to their arms and the talons that substituted for their hands and feet rendered them very exotic in appearance. Each sister had a different hair color and style: one with long magenta hair, another with spiked blue hair and the third with orange hair hanging over the left side of her face.
The magenta-haired sister looked at one of the men, a particularly handsome gentleman in his mid-thirties. “Come here,” she said in a sultry yet deadly voice.
The man couldn’t help himself. “Yes, Mistress Aleera,” he said in a love-dazed voice. He rose from his kneeling position and climbed onto the stage. Aleera came to him and kissed him on the lips, sliding her tongue into his mouth.
“So that explains where all the men have gone,” Raven mumbled.
“I’ve encountered them before,” Yugi whispered. “The magenta-haired one is Aleera, as you doubtlessly know by now unless you weren’t listening. The blue-haired one is Verona, and the orange-haired one is Marishka. Together they’re known as the Harpy Lady Sisters.”
“What is she doing to him?” Robin asked.
“Sucking out his life force,” Yugi replied. “That’s what they do after they get tired of their human prey.”
Robin projected one of his X’s as a shuriken and threw it at Aleera, forcing her to release the man before she drained all his life force.
“Who did that?” she asked. “Show yourself!”
It was then that The Crow, the Black Robin, and Raven made their appearances.
“Yugi,” Aleera purred. “It’s good to see you again.”
“I wish I could say the same,” Yami replied.
The Harpy Lady Sisters emitted their trademark pheromone Seductive Shadow, which emanated from them in the form of a purple vapor.
“What the hell is this stuff?” Robin asked.
“Seductive Shadow,” Verona replied. “Our special pheromone. Once you smell it, you will desire us and no one else.”
By this point, Yami and Robin had smelled the Seductive Shadow and were fighting against it. Before, the two undead avengers had casually thought of the Harpy Ladies as attractive without actually being attracted to them. Now that the Seductive Shadow was in their systems they were having an extremely difficult time resisting the Harpies’ charms.
“Just give in, little Crows,” Marishka purred with an alluring voice. “Give in and know the pleasure that only we can bring you.”
“We won’t give in,” Yugi snarled. “Not to you demons.”
As for Robin, he wasn’t having as hard a time as he had anticipated. He was certainly holding out a lot better than the harpies’ previous victims, but then again they didn’t have the mental discipline that he had. Still, it was a challenge. When he looked at Aleera, he saw red.
‘Red . . . like Starfire’s hair . . .’ he thought. ‘Starfire . . .’
He remembered a sweet, naïve alien princess, a young girl eager to learn about Earth’s culture and befriend everyone she met, a girl full of light and life and love. He remembered feeling her silken crimson hair and looking into her sparkling emerald green eyes.
“Star . . . fire . . .” he murmured. He channeled his love for her into the strength that he needed to resist the Seductive Shadow, firing an energy blast out of the X on his palm.
“Damn it!” Aleera cursed as she barely evaded the X-blast. “Why didn’t our Seductive Shadow work on you two?”
“We’re a lot stronger than you think we are,” Yugi replied, having successfully resisted the demon pheromones as well.
Raven hadn’t been affected at all, as the Seductive Shadow was meant to elicit desire in men, not women.
“Slaves, attack,” Aleera ordered.
The enslaved men rose from their kneeling positions and attacked the trio. Most of them weren’t fighters, their main strength lying in their numbers instead.
“We can’t hurt them too badly,” Raven said as they approached.
“We know,” Robin said. “Titans, go!”
That said, the trio went into action, incapacitating the men instead of causing them severe harm. A few quick strikes at specific points were enough to accomplish that particular task.
“Did you think your besotted slaves would be enough to stop us from getting to you?” Raven asked.
“No, but they were numerous enough to put you three through the ringer,” Verona replied. “And now it’s time for all of you to die.” That said the Harpy Lady Sisters leaped high, almost to the ceiling, and then swooped down on Yugi, Robin, and Raven, talons out to slash.
“Azarath Metrion Zinthos,” Raven chanted, creating a wall of black energy to protect herself and the Crows from the harpies. Said Harpies forcefully struck the wall and collapsed in a heap of feathers and golden armor.
“That hurt,” Marishka snarled as she and her sisters arose from the ground. “But don’t expect that barrier to keep you safe from us for long. Feather Duster!” She sprouted four green wings to complement the purple ones on her arms. A tornado emanated from her and blew Raven’s shield away.
“That’s much better,” Aleera said.
“Go time,” Robin said, drawing his latest acquisition: a pair of three-pronged sword-like Japanese daggers called sai.
And so the battle was joined: Yugi vs. Aleera, Robin vs. Verona, and Raven vs. Marishka. Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle glowed and he channeled the energy into bolts of magic force that he fired at Aleera, who was dodging with lightning-like speed. Robin was slashing at Verona with the sai but she was blocking his slashes and retaliating with her own. Raven was creating localized shields to protect herself from the fury of Marishka’s slashes.
Finally, Aleera attacked Yugi and caught him with a slash across the face. The cuts bled only slightly before the blood was sucked back into them and they sealed.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Yami Yugi snarled.
“And why not?” Aleera asked almost coyly.
Yami’s response was a very fast and vicious attack that caught Aleera off-guard. Fists and feet were flying and impacting against Aleera with enough force to completely shatter a normal human. It wasn’t quite enough to do the same to Aleera but it was enough to do some damage, damage that she felt even through her armor.
“Yugi!” Raven shouted upon seeing the vicious beating her older brother was delivering to the redheaded harpy.
Raven’s cry was enough to bring Yami to his senses, but calling out to her brother had given Marishka the opportunity she needed to strike. The purple-haired telekinetic ended up receiving a slash to her midsection, but she had moved just enough to keep the slash from being fatal. Nevertheless, she was bleeding. Marishka went in for the kill but was repelled by a dark telekinetic blast.
Verona had just succeeded in clawing Robin near his collarbone, slicing his cape off in the process. Robin just smirked at her as his wounds healed.
“Time to exterminate you all,” Aleera said. She and her sisters flew upward, forming a triangle in the air. They cupped their hands and hellish red-and-orange energy formed in those hands. A line of light connected the three spheres and an X formed in the center.
“Exterminator Attack!” the Harpy Lady Sisters shouted, firing the X at the three dark heroes.
“I don’t think I can block an attack of that level of power,” Raven said.
“You’re not going to,” Yugi replied. “We’re going to combine our energies the same way they did.” The Millennium Puzzle glowed and crackling black-and-purple energy formed in his outstretched hand. That same energy formed in Raven’s hand and black-and-red energy burned in Robin’s hand.
“Soul Destroyer!” the dark trio shouted, firing the combined dark energies at the Harpy Ladies’ ultimate attack. For a while, the two sets of combined energies pushed viciously against each other.
“Keep pushing!” Robin shouted.
“What do you think we’re doing?” Raven asked.
“You weaklings won’t win!” Verona snarled.
“Watch us,” Yami Yugi replied. The symbol of the crow glowed on his forehead and he gave the Soul Destroyer a little extra juice, strengthening it enough to push through the Exterminator Attack and reach the Harpy Lady Sisters, sending them back to the hell that spawned them.
“That was rough,” Robin said.
“Yeah,” Raven replied. Yami and Robin both looked at her midsection. “What?”
“You’re injured,” Yami stated.
“I’m half demon,” Raven replied. “I heal faster than full humans. That’s not what I’m worried about, though. What happened to you, Yugi?”
It took Yami only a second to realize the reason for his younger sister’s question. “I’m sorry,” he replied. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“I should get back,” Robin said. “Daybreak’s about to come and Starfire will be worried about me.” That said, he picked up his cape, wrapped it around his shoulders, and exited The Sex Cauldron.
“We should return home as well,” Yami said.
“Yeah,” Raven agreed.
With that said The Crow and Raven got into the GTO and rode back home. However, the ride was spent in silence as Yugi brooded over a single, one-word question.
Why?
To be continued . . .
“You try to dream, but you are not able to sleep
You want to scream, but you cannot even speak
You want to walk, but you just started to creep
And when you talk you always feel so weak.
“A promise you can’t keep
Please don’t try to flee.
“It’s just a passionate act of desperation.
“You hear a voice, a voice inside your ear
Some gun that speaks, “I wanna see you dead”
Insane thoughts, that you don’t dare to say
Not now, not here and never not this way.
“Don’t try to run away.
“It’s just a passionate act of desperation
It’s just a passionate
Just a passionate act of desperation.
“Your broken heart it beats in fever
It beats in pain, deeper and deeper.
“It’s just a passionate act of desperation
It’s just a passionate
Just a passionate act of desperation
Just a passionate
Just a passionate
Just a passionate
Just a passionate
Yeah just a passionate.”
Love Like Blood – “Passionate”
End Notes: There you have it. Yugi’s already run into Raven and Robin again, but don’t assume that everything’s going to be perfectly fine. There’s still the matter of Yugi’s outburst of violence to deal with, not to mention two all-important questions. One, what does Marik want with Téa and what does he know about Yugi? Two, why has the Joker taken such an interest in this young mastermind? These questions and more will be answered in future chapters, so keep reading.