Be one with nature... sort of... [Jinx/Open]

Forest on the outskirts of Jump city...

A quiet, calm, and tranquil place. A lovely location to spend a sunny day in. Away from the busy city, free of sounds of traffic jam, clanking of computer keys, and constant hustle and bustle of that giant anthill, made of stone, steel and glass. Nothing disturbed the quietness here, except perhaps a sudden song of a bird, or a cricket in the grass. It was a ... lovely place to be.

Raven was surprised to find herself here, alone. She never was a nature-lover to begin with, preferring to stay in her room, reading a book. Yes, just like that... It was like that a long time ago. Things changed, she changed too. And there was no room in the teen tower for her. She wasn't going to stay in this city for long. Just... visiting places. And the forest was one such place.

Crossing the green mass, there was a burnt patch. Like a scar. An old scar. Still, smell of smoke and ash was coming from it, despite things happened here a long, long time ago. Grass didn't grow here, and trees that remained were like charred, tortured skeletons. The kind of stillness around here was not the tranquil one of the forest, oh no... It was the one of the graveyard. This was where Raven was going, a place she wanted to visit. Like a ghoul, she seemed to be drawn to places of her past. Their past. She floated in the air, her purple cloak fluttering slightly on her shoulders, until finally, the girl landed, and ashen ground creaked underneath her boots.

- It's been a while now...

Pictures began flashing in front of her eyes again. The time when they fought a giant fire monster here, with help of the Thunder Brothers... this was the reason this forest was scarred - they stopped it here, preventing from reaching the city. Raven could see stones flying, woods burning... Just like before. Just like back then. There was no doubt, the demon girl was sick. Home-sick. Past-sick. And she realized it.

- We really kicked that fire-golem's ass, didn't we guys? - the girl muttered to herself, and sat on the half-burnt stump, looking up to see the clear blue sky. Only one dot marred the perfect image - a black bird, that flied over, and sat on a branch of a tree nearby, letting out a loud cowl.

- Raven...

Mars was doing some lone hunting, wanting to half hunt, half explore. She still hadn't seen all of the forest despite her hunting there about a hundred times. There was one place that was on interest of her, a part that smelled like ash and burnt wood. She decided to hunt toward that place to see if she could find it as she hunted.

She sniffed the air, smelling for the scent of ash and smoke. She had a dark green dress in her mouth, one to hide for later in case she ever ran in to anyone around these parts and needed to change in to a human. She didn't want to be clothing-less when she met someone.

Her ears perked as she caught the smell of ash. She padded quickly toward the smell, also smelling around for prey. She was planning to hunt after all. She caught smell of a deer and followed that. She was quiet and steathy as she could be.

Time flied slowly.

And lying on the trunk, Raven stared at the sky. She shouldn't have allowed herself to dwell that deep into past - now she was just browsing through her memories like through a book she used to read so often... Hmm... a book. That was an idea. If she were to write a book, she could recall fond memories again, and again, and again, without being afraid of them fading away with time. In times like this, the girl realized how awesome it was, to be in a team like that. A team, that sadly, was no more.

- Justice League just ... consumed us.

It was true. But things happen. They were no longer 'teen', they were adults. They believed in different things. All wanted to get to the 'bigger picture'. Being heroes of Jump wasn't enough? Guess it wasn't. And no matter how hard she tried to prevent it... she failed. Raven was the last to join JL. Robin went to work on his own, and others... Being assimilated into a bigger organization separated them...

- Huh?!

Raven gasped at the sudden source of sound, turning around immediately, one of her hands being surrounded by dark energy she wielded. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the bushes move and shudder, as if something was hiding in there. Carefully, the magic girl floated closer, ready to defend herself should anything happen.

- Next time you try sneaking up on someone, you'd might want to consider making less noise. Come out! - Raven demanded, and the bushes stopped thrashing for a second. And out of them, a pair of horns emerged. She blinked a few times, floating a bit away, and the animal that emerged from the bushes was ... a deer.

- I've been startled by an animal. Great... - Raven shook her head, as the animal drew closer to her. She must hare really been overworking herself to be startled by such a thing. Though ... there was something odd about the deer. It had a scared look in its eye, as if it was running away from something. Or someone. Raven shot a glare at the bushes again, as if understanding...

- I don't like playing hide and seek.

Mars had followed the deer for a while. She had paused when it had gone in to a bush. She crouched down low to the ground. She suddenly heard talking. She never moved from her position though. She got ready to pounce. She heard the words 'I don't like playing hide and seek.' and about 5 seconds after that, she leaped from the forest and on to the deer, killing it with a single bite.

She picked it up, only to drop it again as she turned to look at the girl. She looked her up and down with her bright red eyes. She bent down to eat the deer, eating it slowly, wary of this girl in front of her. Something about her seemed......dark. She couldn't quite put her paw on it. Her misty long tail drooped behind her a bit. She had her eyes on her prey but all her other senses were on full alert about her.

She licked her lips a little as she finished. She dug a small hole, well to her small anyway, in front of the deer's remains and gently pushed what was left of the deer in to the hole. She then covered it back up softly. She touched her nose to the freshly dug grave and whimpered softly. She brought her head up again to look at the girl.

The ground trembled rocks and the bushes shaking, the trees swayed slightly. Tiberius was tunneling after Mars and the deer. He was ten feet beneath the surface, he sensed Mars' nervousness and burst up through the ground. scattering earth and rock around the area, he'd used brute force rather than cutting the earth away as usual. Tiberius looked at the girl his back was toward her revealing only a massive shell with tubes coming out of it. They swung around from pointing toward the ground and snapped up pointing straight toward Raven.

Tiberius watched her through the hidden eyes on his back curiously his talons were stuck against his chest as he observed her curiously. He began slithering up and out of the hole. Tiberius looked down at Mars and asked. "Are you hurt?" He reached down and began petting Mars gently.

Raven expected anything to come out of that bush, knowing that she is probably stronger than whatever could it possibly be.

But she sure as heck didn't expect a two-ton demon dog leap out of the bush. Orbs of dark energy appeared at her hands at an instant, the girl preparing to repulse the attack coming at ... the deer? The poor animal never survived the fell blow. So that was what it was running against... Ugh...

Raven took a couple of steps back, when the wretched dog simply tore the poor animal into bloody bits just in front of her, proceeding to consume, flesh and bone being crushed within those jaws. The girl blinked a few times, her pale skin becoming even more paler at the gory and gruesome end that the deer met.

- That is... disturbing.

If not more. Raven resisted the urge to see her breakfast once more and levitated into the air. Whatever this wild beast was ... it was obviously dangerous. She did remember reading in the newspapers that several people gone missing in this very forest recently. She didn't remember the details of the article, but it was said they were murdered rather gruesomely. And it wasn't that hard to put two plus two.

- I do not know who or what you are, but dangerous animals such as yourself do not belong here... - Raven sounded dead serious, and was about to do something when suddenly, an explosion came from under the ground! It sent stones and earth flying about like shrapnel! And one of these stones came right for the girl's face!

- Ah!

Receiving a powerful blow, the magician girl went down, spiraling to the ground. Legendary teen titan or no, she was fragile, and not quite made to take hits to the forehead like she did. Everything went blank, and she hit the ground, buried into rubble and dust from the alien's appearance. She didn't quite see him before she went out cold.

More of a surprise when she would wake up...

Mars yelped in surprise as her Master burst through the ground, sending rocks everywhere and sending her jumping back a few feet in surprise. She shook out her pelt, getting the dust and stuff out before looking over at her Master. She shook her head and pushed lightly and affectionately against him. She glanced over behind him to look at the girl and saw her buried in rubble. She looked up at her master as if asking for permission to dig her out, whimpering softly.

She hadn't know Tib had been following her. She wasn't going to hurt the girl or anyone else. She was just hungry. She had sensed her making the energy orbs to stop her from killing the deer and was going to attack her before Tib showed up. She supposed she was half greatful of him for that. But she hadn't done harm and she easily would have rolled on to her back in sign of surrender, trying to show she wouldn't harm her. But it didn't quite work like that. She had actually wanted to become friends with this dark girl if she could.

Tiberius saw that Mars wanted to dig the girl out. He nodded and used the back of his talons to moved dirt and stone ocff her as well saying to Mars "I'm sorry I thought you were I deer I heard running so I started chasing." Tiberius. Looked at the strange girl when they dug her out and figured she was some sort of villain. Tin curled up and looked over at Mars asking "still hungry?"

Tiberius pulled his claws up against his chest the six arms resting there easily.

The knock-out didn't last for long.

Raven, while indeed fragile, couldn't afford being out cold for too long, while her teammates were fighting some sort of monster that was threatening the city. Except this was a different situation. She was alone, there was no team to cover her back, and she was in presence of two seemingly murderous creatures... Oh, when she's gonna wake up it would be ... startling.

- Ugh... nghh... - a groan came out of her as she carefully opened her eyes... And saw a monster looming over her, with blood of the deer dripping from her jaw. No, there were two monsters now! The second one simply ... hideous. It looked fresh ripped out of a horror movie involving freakish monsters. He must've been the one who knocked her out!

This wasn't good, it wasn't good at all. Her survival instincts were screaming for her to do something. And she would've done it too - one 'Azarath Metrium...' and the monsters would've been sent back with all the force of her dark magic. But as she was dug out from under the rubble she fell in, and felt the steamy breathing of the giant mutt on her face, it made her reconsider giving the 'peaceful solution' one last chance. I'm negotiating with animals... great.

- Take 5 steps back. NOW. - she said with a threatening tone, and would stand up off the ground as soon as the mutt would comply. She looked ... funny with that bump on her forehead and her cloak trashed and covered with dirt and rubble. She wiped her hand across her face, and sighed out.

- And now I smell like dog's breath. My life is complete.

Mars had dug her out most of the way. She froze when she ordered her to take 5 steps back. She slowly did so. She looked at Raven. She whimpered and nudged Raven softly, hoping for it to get across as a 'are you ok?' gesture and not a threatening one. She backed up a couple more steps and watched the dark mysterious girl with curious bright red eyes.

She licked her lips softly, hoping to get the blood off her muzzle. She was hoping they didn't seem too threatening. She didn't want to fight. She wondered....

Tiberius said seriously "if your going to threaten someone you should at least thank them for digging you out first. Motto mention the fact that I cant step anywhere." Tib was looking down at her he was quite sure that the little girl was one of the superhumans who were so aggressive. Tiberius watched her without moving. Tiberius had taken too many orders it was time for him to take charge.

Ugh, dogs.

Raven never had much luck with those creatures. She didn't like them, they smelled, they left fur everywhere, and whenever they wanted to show affection she ended up soaked in saliva. Even though it was a couple of years, the memory of that green-ish alien dog was still fresh in her memory. Not to mention having Beastboy around for so long...

However, right now that memory was the least of Raven's worries. She stood against a freaky alien monster too. A freaky alien monster that TALKED. Though with the experience this girl had with weird species inhabiting the universe and occasionally visiting Earth, Raven did not bat an eyelash. Only rubbed the bump on her forehead, and began dusting her cloak off. All that while keeping the eye on the two.

- Should I thank you? You dug me in in the first place, you ... whatever you are. - Raven said with a tone of sarcasm, and with a command of her mind, levitated into the air again. Now that the two were right in front of her, there would be no unfortunate surprises, like the one that left her with a nice blue bump on her forehead.

But in all honesty, the incident was pretty much over. The question would be ... what to do with these ... creatures. They obviously looked dangerous, predatorous even. And if memory served her well, there were registered disappearances of people around here without a trace. Narrowing her eyes as the girl glanced over at the bloody dog, she could've guessed where the missing people went... If these two were to blame that is.

- What are you? You don't look like part of this place's local fauna. Though fairly quick at consuming it. - the wizard girl asked cautiously, obviously talking to the alien creature. And nudged away from the dog that tried touching her. Looking in the eyes of a dog was dangerous, since ... well, they would get aggressive. Or so she read.

- Uh, you're touching me.

Mars padded softly over to a tree around the edge. She sniffed in the tree's branches before pulling out the green dress. She backed in to the lush forest slowly, making sure she was careful. She closed her eyes and was engulfed in a white light.

Her form started to shrink until they could only see the light of her transformation. As she finished turning human, she opened her eyes and slipped on the green dress. She ran out of the forest on two feet. She slowed to a walk as she approached to sit by Tib's side.

"Hello. Um sorry that you had to see me eat. I know it's not the prettiest site. I'm Mars. This is my owner, Tiberous. I'm a demon dog or sometimes known as a He|| Hound. My master is.......I'm not intierly sure what planet he is from but he is a space alien. We don't mean to harm you. Well, Tib will only mean harm to you if you harm me."she said with a cute toothed smile. Her british accent was thick in her words. She tugged lightly at the light blue collar around her neck that had in fact been there when she was a huge dog but it had been black and had spikes.

Tiberius watched her and said "yes we did dig you out, I was attempting to ambush the deer. You must have just been in the area. I am a hunter warrior of my people. We did not name our planet." Tiberius stretched out and looked down at Raven saying. "I'm nearly 13 and I will grow to 28."
Tiberius looked at mars and put one of his taloned arms around her shoulder gently. He stroked her hair with another and said "your a very good pet."

A space alien and a hell hound, together. Hnh, what were chances meeting such were?

Alright, enough time has passed for Raven to somewhat familiarize with these strange creatures and stop mulling over how unnatural they were to the surrounding environment. Considering who these two were, she expected a fight with a probability of circa 90%, but surprisingly enough, it didn't happen. The dog, somehow, magically transformed into a human, and was apologetic even... Heh, reminding of a certain green fellow that could transform to animals. The alien, however, did not strike Raven fancy, he wasn't cooperative much.

And, of course, first impressions weren't something that would make Raven bring her guard down again - orbs of dark energy were around her hands, ready for offense and defense, if need be. There were some things she had to ask these... people? Or animals? The demon girl had hard time specifying. Animal-people? Yeah, sounds about right.

- You may have no name for your planet, but this is our planet. - Raven stated, and immediately felt a bit hypocritical, because she was not from this planet as well. But she fought for its well-being more than often enough to consider this place her home. - And this forest isn't exactly cut out to feed 2 huge carnivorous monsters for long. - the last statement sounded like 'a matter of fact' rather than a thread. And the demon girl figured these two must be hunting a lot to sustain themselves... And considering that...

- Also... I heard several people vanished in these woods recently, without a trace. You two don't have anything to do with it, do you?

That question was asked with more intent than the previous statement. Raven's eyes narrowed, as she folded her hands on her chest, glaring at the two from above, and amplifying her senses. An empath, she could tune to a creature's emotions. If they would lie, she thought she would feel ... something.