Bloodied Prophecies [Raven]

[John Stewart]

Players: John Stewart, Raven, Atrocitus (NPCed)
Location(s): Earth, Ysmault, and Sector 2812
Plot Summary: While deciphering prophecies, Atrocitus learns of his death at the hands of the next and future Red Lantern. He seeks out a powerful empath in Raven to locate this future killer and kill them before they get him.

In Sector 666 on the planet of Ysmault, Atrocitus continued to decipher prophecies from the book of Blood. This book was not something that could be read by just anyone, one had to have the Red Lantern Ring and their mind. Because most Red Lanterns when they first join the Corps are driven mad with their overwhelming anger, almost mindless soldiers obeying their leader's orders. The only one other than Atrocitus with their mind restored and the ability to act on their own within the Red Lantern Corps was Bleez, his second in command. The only issue the two faced was that the pages within the book needed fresh blood to bring forth new prophecies within the pages of the book.

"Your death will bring us more knowledge..." Atrocitus' voice was dark and ominous as he dragged the battered and beaten body of Dreek from a small planet in Sector 667. "Rgghh...I've too long for the answers I'm seeking..." he spewed words of anger as Bleez and Vice walked next to him. As they walked up to the center of the room they were in Atrocitus lifted the frail remains of Dreek up with his right hand, but soon struck into the beings body with his left tearing out his heart. Disposing of the body to the side he then walked over to the open book with blank pages on it. "Now..." he started to speak as he lifted the heart over the book, he crushed the heart over the pages letting the blood falls onto the book.

It took a moment before the symbols began to form, Bleez stepped forward to ask, "What does it say?" The following silence could of been read differently depending on who was in the room, but to those that knew Atrocitus they knew to not meddle with him during these times. "RRGGGH!! NO!" Atrocitus' barked out as he backhanded the book onto the ground. "Atrocitus?" Bleez asked her leader as she motioned for Vice to back off. "I've learned of my death. It'll be at the hands of the next Red Lantern. Once this being comes in contact with his power ring, events will be set in motion and making my death inevitable." Atrocitus informs his second in command of the predicament that he was in. There was no way to tell exactly who would be their next lantern within their Corps. There were hundreds of rings flying around space finding those that were worthy of the red rings of rage.

Atrocitus stands still for a moment letting all the information just sink into his head. He would do anything for his Corps, but his life was on the line. He was about to make a tough decision. "Bleez, to keep this from happening I will murder the prophesied one, but there is just one problem.. We are unable to identify who this person will be," for reason unknown to him. "We need to find a powerful empath that could detect who the next Red Lantern and my future murderer will be."

[rae]

There was the way she wanted to say what she thought, and the way she said. The two were different, but the sentiments were the same. "This seems..." Raven's eyes jumped to Dr. Fate. She chose to be nice. "Unsafe." "It is. But I assure you, these practices will help. You need this, more than you're admitting." Raven's eyes shifted back forward. She shut her eyes and breathed in deep. She hovered three feet above the ground, cross legged and with the back of her hands resting gently on her knees. Dr. Fate's hands raised up high. They were no longer in his Tower, but someplace else entirely. "Now, tell me what you sense."

Past Fate's near undecipherable aura, Raven could see the essence of those around them. A business man struggling with a heroin addition. He can't get the drug off his mind. He wants to dull the pain. He wants to die. Tonight's the night he's going to do it. One final shot. Fear. The mother of three. She has no self respect. It's the third man this week and he didn't pay for dinner. He left her a black eye though. She thinks she deserved it. Rage. The young boy with his friends. They're wild, ecstatic, but all of them so afraid of losing acceptance. They intend on killing the blond boy for being different. He steps up and fights off the wolves. They call him names and leave, it hurts. The boy stays with the beaten blond kid anyway. Compassion.

"Raven?" Dr. Fate asked after a few seconds of silence. "Where are you?" Raven was absolutely still. "I'm there." "Good. Hone in on the fear." "There's too much." "Do it. Pick it up and drop everything else. Select the fear and focus on it." She was silent. "He's going to kill her tonight. She hasn't slept for days. He's just a boy. I need a gun. Why him? She's gone forever. I'm alone. I'm lost. I'm scared. Who are you?" Dr. Fate stepped in front of Raven and placed his hand on her head. They were linked. "There's a hundred voices in here. Find Derek Goldstein." "I need more time." "Right now, Raven. Derek Goldstein." "Don't leave me, please. What is this place? I miss him so much. Why was it her and not me? God, if you're listening... Mommy! Daddy! Help!"

Raven's eyes shot open. She opened a portal and flew threw it immediately. On the other end, she exited into a forest in the middle of the night. A wolf howled in the darkness and there was barely any light from the moon. She removed her hood and approached a collection of large rocks. "Derek?" she crouched down and spoke into the mouth of a small cave. "Derek, don't be scared." A small boy no more than six walked sheepishly out of the cave. He was shivering madly. Raven reached out her arms and he walked into them. Her robe wrapped around his small body as she stood up. "I'm taking you home. Don't be afraid." She flew up into the air and Derek gasped, but she held him tighter. Raven headed in the direction of those looking for the boy, sensing them miles away (it helped considering they were the only voices in the forest). She landed gently and passed the boy to his parents. Their auras changed immediately. She bowed her head and flew away, traveling back through a portal to meet with Dr. Fate again.

"You did it." he said. Raven shook her head. "That method only worked because you helped me. I can't do it again by myself." He shook his head. "I didn't do anything. I spoke to you while you were linked in, and that's all. That boy you found was on the other side of the planet." Raven couldn't believe it. She had never tried such a long distance reading before. And this one felt so...easy. "It was. I transported us to Jordan and you found a missing child in the Oregon wilderness by his feelings alone." She was still amazed. "How...?" "You tell me. To achieve something like that, you'd need to be a powerful mind reader, very powerful. And seeing how you do not possess that ability, I'd venture to say you're empathy has some potential you haven't fully explored yet. I strongly suggest you change that."

Taking his advice after they parted ways, Raven set herself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a small island only barely peeking out of the water. It couldn't have been bigger than a football field but it was perfect. She positioned herself back in a meditative state. Empathy was such a different thing to control. Collecting auras too fast could affect her own mood and result in dangerous results. Collecting too much could reveal more information than she was comfortable knowing about others. And collecting too much too fast would kill her faster than she cared to think about. The whole ability was a life-threatening one so she proceeded with caution, only to realize it was that cautious attitude that kept her empathy from achieving great feats. She felt safe with Dr. Fate there to watch over her so she felt free to test herself. He was her backup in case something went wrong. And now, without him or anyone else around for miles, it was just her. She had to approach it with the same confidence. "I can do this." Raven shut her eyes and began.

[John Stewart]

Atrocitus' forces had their mission; to locate an empath with enough power to locate the prophesied murderer. That is why the team of Dex-Starr, Antipathy, Rankorr, and Bleez were hunting together in Sector 2814. Rankorr and Dex-Starr were from this Sector, while Antipathy's power to sense emotions (not to the Level Atrocitus needed) was leading the group in it's direction, and Bleez being the second in command to Atrocitus made her the leader of this group. They did not have long and no doubt Green Lanterns would know they were in the Sector, especially this close to their precious Mother Earth.

"RRghhh--thatgghhh Wayrrghh--" the muffled voice of Antipathy spoke out to their leader Bleez. "Lead on then," Bleez ordered her fellow Red Lantern to take them in the direction of this powerful empath. Their orders were clear, capture and bring back this empath to Atroticus so that he could find the next Red Lantern to his corps. Someone that would be strong enough to kill their leader. Something that did not strike fear in their hearts, but did draw a level of concern to their minds as to who could even be thought of to be that strong. They were not the type to sit back and let things happen, no they were a team of action.

Burning through the atmosphere at an incredible rate of speedy they were being lead to a small island in the middle of an ocean, so small of an island that no one was living there. Though someone was there meditating. Bleez motioned for the other three to disperse and surround the cloaked woman down below lowering to the level of this person. "Come quietly and we won't have to use force," Bleez wasted no time in interrupting the meditating woman's silent surroundings with her demands. her red lantern power ring was aimed right at Raven's forehead with the other three foaming at their mouths with plasma praying that the girl would want to fight.

[rae]

Deep breath. Deep breath. Deep breathhh... Only the sound of the ocean for miles and miles and miles... No one else. No one else. No one else... Rage.

Even with her eyes closed, all Raven could see is red, blood red everywhere. Her brow lowered and her lips tightened as she kept this powerful emotion at bay. But as she did so, she kept wondering where it was coming from. Who was her empathy channeling? The thought and mystery was keeping her from combating the emotion well enough. Focus, she repeated to herself. And yet, as she cleared her thoughts, the rage continued and it only became stronger. It was barreling down on her. She let out a puff of air from her nose as an increasing feeling of frustration built up. The rage was becoming too much. She had to back out of her trance. Raven had to--

Her once light eyes shot open pitch black. Before her and around her were Red Lanterns. What she thought was an emotion she was picking up from people miles away from her were now directly feeding an empath rage. She did not prepare herself for this. The rage took over. "I want you to use force!" she growled with a deep demonic voice very different from her usual calm low tone. Her astral projection encompassed her body and shot out in every direction like black ink tentacles. Shadows wrapped around her and took the shape of a giant crow that cawed and black plasma projected out of its beak, much like the Red Lanterns. It's feathers, still in the shape of tentacles, struck the Lanterns like whips and constricting snakes as she fed off their rage.

[John Stewart]

"So be it," Bleez shot back right away to Raven's statement, rather demand. It was not often that people chose the 'force' end of things with them, it was usually forced upon their victims anyways. So being that this empath of earth was already on the same wave length as the rest of them in present company, that would make things so much easier for the red lanterns to enjoy this.

At first Bleez wondered why they had sent so many Red Lanterns to track down this one lowly earthling, but in the following moments she would find out why. This empath could not only project her own astral form but also tap into forms of magic that were on the same scale of the teachings that Atrocitus studied from. This was quite the predicament they found themselves in, but they were not the type to shy away from a fight. No, they would rather die than back down.

The Red Lanterns scattered in all directions to avoid the large black mass of energy in the form of a Raven before them. "Why don't we unleash a red ring and turn this power to our side?" Antipathy questioned as she let out a wave of red hot plasma to protect herself from being caught in the tentacles. "Because our leader demanded that she be brought in alive and not turned," Bleez felt she did not have to add any further explanation to the fellow Lantern. They needed Raven's empathy powers and her mind to be able to channel correctly with a untainted mind. The Red Lantern Ring had a way of removing one's rationality and mind.

So as the other three moved into position, Bleez lowered herself down to the ground. Raising her ring arm up she took aim and unloaded an energy blast powerful enough to force it's way past the projection raven knocking Raven backward into ground several yards back. She was out cold now. "She can channel rage, but not control it. We are masters of our rage," she stated as she flew up and over to the fallen Raven. "Grab her, Atrocitus awaits our return," she ordered over to Dex-Starr and Rankorr.

Sometime later on the planet of Ysmault the Four Red Lanterns landed near the center of the capital where Atrocitus awaited them. "Did you retrieve it?" Atrocitus asked without turning to see for himself. His voice was low but carried the weight of someone that was on the brink of exploding. "Yes, the oracle of empathy that you asked for has been brought to you from Earth. She put up a fight, but not as much as others would have," Bleez stated as she motioned for Rankorr and Antipathy to carry over Raven near their leader. Dex-Starr was hovering overtop of the area, keeping watch for anyone that might be tailing them. "Expecting someone?" he asked his subbordinates as he turned and noticed was the feline was doing. "No, but you know how the Earth Lanterns are about their own..." Bleez was referring to humanities irrational need to save it's fellow man/woman even if they were not on the same side. "So be it..." he replied as he closed the gap between himself and the captive. Reaching out his hand he slapped Raven acrossed the face. "Wake up human," his voice was demanding but his tone was not of anger, yet.