Teen Titans: Arcanum

Arc One: Arrival

It had happened on a Tuesday, to the irritation of one Raven Roth. Beast Boy and Cyborg were playing one of those fighting video games in the main room, Robin had locked himself in his quarters in order to maximize his time in order to search for leads on Slade, and Raven was teaching Starfire how to meditate properly.

During this time, a light headache manifested informing her of a magical disturbance that was occurring somewhere in The Tower. Then the power had gone out. After some minor outrage and confusion—including having to open Robin's nightmare of a lock system manually—they discovered the issue. A large electrical disturbance had caused Cyborg's custom power generators—which were in the basement—to short out.

Cyborg and Raven traveled downstairs to check the damage while Robin, Starfire, and Beast Boy went on patrol, at least until the alert systems were back online. It was then that they discovered what Raven, Cyborg, and later Robin suspected to be the source of the blackout. Right next to the generators, a perfect circle was burned into the concrete. In the center of that circle was a young man, who could not have been older than Robin. The young man was unconscious, his clothes looked burned and were emitting some kind of smoke.

After restarting the generators, Raven and Cyborg were quick to move the boy to the infirmary, where the mage and the mechanic analyzed the damage to the boy's system. While the boy displayed no physical wounds—despite the burned clothes—a deep scan made by Cyborg revealed that the damage to the boy's nerves were extensive. Raven attempted to heal the damage done but discovered that it would be a slow process that would take an entire week, if she—and the boy—were lucky.

It was the second day now, and Raven could not be more irritated or bored. Since she had to take care of the young man, Robin had ordered her not to go on patrol with the rest of the Titans. She understood of course. The Tower had somehow been breached, and Robin wanted to know how this was done and if the boy worked for one of their many enemies.

Robin had also asked her to study the objects in the young man's possessions. Aside from the clothes on his back, a few paper dollars, a credit card, and a driver's license, there were four objects of interest. There was a bone white mask that had two cube-shaped eye holes, a dagger the size of a kitchen butter knife, a book holding a startling number of magical spells, and a necklace with a key containing a small, green jewel.

As stated before, the mask was bone white and had two cube-shaped eye holes. At first glance, nothing about it seemed special. However, she determined the properties of the mask using the magics of her home, Azarath. It quickly became apparent to her that the mask was made of elements that simply did not exist, along with some that did. The mask also had several mind and magic enhancing spells placed upon it, and it also had wards that rendered physical and most magical attacks against the masks useless. Only a master of the mystic arts—such as Doctor Fate or John Constantine—would be capable of damaging the mask.

The knife had a handle that was made of bronze, and the hilt was made of gold. The blade, however, was made out of a material that behaved like steel, but clearly wasn't. And it was clearly arcane in some way, given the fact that the edges of the blade glowed a burning white light whenever she touched it. There was also something else about the blade that she couldn't quite grasp, like it was changing somehow. Weather in shape, size, or properties, she couldn't tell.

Then there was the book. It was no Necronomicon—Fate had thankfully kept that locked deep in his Tower—but it still held a number of dangerous summoning rituals and spells. Raven had wondered if the young man was a cultist connected to some Daemon, her father, or even one of the Outer Gods, but when she scanned his soul, she found nothing. His soul—while not pure, few ever were—was almost completely untouched by the supernatural. Either the boy was innocent of what she thought of him, or whatever entity had connected itself to him had hidden its tracks well.

Then there was the most frustrating member of their number. The necklace, and the jewel it held. Several spells had indicated that the necklace was either a key, a power source, some kind of communications device, or a portal to the young man's psyche. As far as Raven could tell, it could not be the last one, since the boy was not a Daemon, or an Elderspawn, or a half-breed like herself.

She had attempted to use the jewel to communicate with whatever was linked to the other side and had found nothing, if there was anything to find. And if it was a power source, it was a very poor one, since the sensation of the storage felt like adding a single drop of water to the world's smallest teaspoon.

That left the last possibility, which was the most mysterious. If it was a key, what was it a key to? Something regarding the mask? The blade? The book? This was a mystery that only the boy knew, Raven suspected. Perhaps even he did not know. Slightly frustrated and in need of meditation, Raven left the boy for the day, hoping that he would awaken on the seventh day so that she could have answers and get on with her life.

But something would happen on the third day that She would not expect.

On the third day, he would awaken for the first time to his new world.