A Kamen Rider in Jump city

The sum of his parts

It was early in the morning as Raven made her way to the Bookstore. The air still holding the rain's scent from the storm. The rest of the Titan's were still at home sleeping and Raven couldn't blame them. It had been a long night. But she found she could not sleep.

Her mind was plagued by Atlantic. She could see him, hear him, taste his power, and yet she could not feel him. It was as if he were a ghost, as if his heart and mind were not there standing in front of her. And yet he was, he was here, all of her senses telling her he was. Raven just couldn't reach him. This had never happened to her before.

She arrived at the bookstore, only it was closed. Taking a look, Raven did see that it was only closed on Sundays but today was Tuesday. It should be open.

Sighing, Raven turned to leave, mindful of the small glass fragments that still littered the streets. When she noticed a small black button beside the handle of the door. Looking at it she realized it must be the door bell. After all, Cyborg did say that Tyler lived in the basement. Raven debated, if the store was closed then that must mean Tyler was at school, but then how could the store be open by nine every morning? Curious, Raven rang the doorbell and waited.

She heard the muffled chime as it rang through the store, its sound slipping out from the broken window. Raven wasn't sure how long she stood there, and was about to leave when she heard a door open. Tyler walking down the aisle rubbing his eyes tiredly. He didn't even look up until he reached the door and seeing that it was Raven turned the lock to allow her inside. He must have given up trying to avoid talking with the Titans.

The store was dimly lit, the only light filtering in from the windows, the smell of rain and paper filling her nose she noted while moving around Tyler, who'd flopped down on one of the nearby couches. Raven joined him, sitting down by his feet, which were covered with thick black socks, lowering her hood Raven sat there, taking in Tyler's appearance.

He was wearing a black jacket with a black under armor shirt to hide his arms, on his left hand he had wrapped white bandages around his fingers and palm, and he wore deep blue baggy sweat pants that looked maybe a half a size to big. Overall, his clothes made him look frail. As if he could shatter at the slightest touch. It didn't help that Tyler had his right arm thrown over his face, shielding his eyes from the sun, his black messy hair looking like he'd just woken up. As Raven watched him, her overall impression was that he looked ill.

Are you sick? Is that why you're missing school?" She asked with this Tyler raised his arm showing two blue laughing pools. Tyler did laugh out loud, until it turned into a slight cough. Raven sat there pondering the idea that maybe he was on drugs.

"Sorry, no I'm not sick. It's just a monster headache. And I graduated from high school last year," he said closing his eyes from the sun as Raven concluded that he was not on drugs, merely in a lot of pain.

"Then you are a lot older than you look," Raven stated looking at Tyler trying to picture him as voter in California.

"No, I'm sixteen. I graduated when I was fifteen," he said opening his eyes and looking at her with slight annoyance.

"Then they must have done that to get rid of you. Were you too stupid for school?" Raven asked for some reason she liked seeing him looking at her with such annoyance. It was better than him lying there looking…dead. He gave a snort of irritation, now fully glaring at her although not quite pulling it off with the shadows under his eyes.

"No, I graduated because the school was too stupid for me. Ever heard of young geniuses?" He asked.

"Yes. But most of them are twitchy little things being held in underground government facilities. Playing video games and designing jetpacks while trying their hands at online dating," she said. Tyler gave a brief laugh.