"What are you two talking about?" Bart scratched the back of his head, looking puzzled.
"We suspect that the owners of these three robes are likely the three demons that appeared in the video," Yuri didn't beat around the bush and directly explained his thoughts.
"These three robes are not large, and based on their size, it's impossible for demons to wear them. This suggests that when they were wearing these robes, they were not as large as in the video. When they grew in size, the robes were torn into countless pieces," Tim stood up and said calmly.
"So, these three demons might not be real demons, but mutated humans." Conner said with a serious expression on his face, due to his experience in Cadmus Laboratories, he strongly opposed using humans to create weapons.
"We can't rule out the possibility that demons can change their physical size, although that possibility is low. From the video, those three demons only used physical attacks," Yuri added.
"If your guess is true, what does it imply?" Wonder Girl frowned and asked.
"...Maybe someone is trying to create demon soldiers through human experiments." Conner said with a dark expression. His own birth in Cadmus Laboratories made him extremely averse to using humans to create weapons.
"Who could be the mastermind behind all this? And who is the mysterious girl with magical powers?" Beast Boy questioned.
"They are wearing the same style of robes, which may indicate that they belong to the same cult. Different clothes represent different ranks," Wonder Girl speculated.
"Perhaps, in any case, we must find that girl first; otherwise, all these speculations are meaningless," Starfire said logically, and everyone agreed.
"So, what should we do now?" Bart asked, "Apart from these three torn robes, we have no other clues. How are we supposed to find that girl in such a big city like San Francisco? It could take forever."
Upon hearing this, Yuri smiled.
"Finding someone is simple; we have enough clues with these three robes."
As soon as he said this, everyone's attention turned to Yuri.
They saw Yuri activate his omnitrix and directly select the most needed alien sample at the moment.
A green light then instantly enveloped Yuri's whole body. He crouched on the ground as his body began to twist and grow continuously. His arms and legs became more muscular and powerful, and orange fur grew rapidly all over his body.
In the blink of an eye, a giant beast measuring almost two meters shoulder-high and over three meters in length appeared before them. Its body was covered with orange fur, and its front legs were slightly thicker than the hind legs.
The creature had no eyes but instead, had gills that opened and closed on both sides of its head.
Wildmutt, belonging to the Vulpimancer race, was a fierce creature without eyes but had extremely powerful sense of smell and hearing, many times superior to regular canine animals.
As a result, the "visual field" in its mind was formed by vague 3D patterns, much like a thermal imaging camera, reflecting how olfactory signals formed images in its mind.
Combined with its extraordinary hearing, its perception of the surrounding environment was remarkably strong, allowing it to easily evade attacks.
Yuri had to admit that apart from the enhanced sense of sight, the sensation of his other senses being significantly heightened felt strange. He couldn't see anything, but his mind could approximate what the surrounding environment looked like.
"Uh, Yuri, is that you?"
Beast Boy asked uncertainly why Yuri always transformed into such strange creatures.
Yuri controlled his head to nod gently, indicating agreement.
One major issue with Wildmutt was that the language logic of its species was overly complex and vastly different from any other alien race. Consequently, even the universal translator embedded in the omnitrix couldn't translate what Wildmutt says.
Previously, Yuri could communicate normally with others when he transformed into Four-Arms, Heatblast, or Diamondhead due to the existence of the universal translator, not because all extraterrestrial beings spoke English or had human pronunciation organs.
Wildmutt lowered its head and sniffed at the remnants of the cult robe on the ground. Instantly, several different scents entered its olfactory organs.
"Can someone tell me what Yuri is doing?" Bart asked curiously.
"He seems to be sniffing the smell on the robe fragments," Superboy hesitated before answering.
"That's right, Yuri is trying to track the mysterious girl through the scent left on the robe fragments," Beast Boy said with certainty, as he was well-versed in the characteristics and talents of every animal on Earth, making it easy to understand Wildmutt's actions.
However, in Beast Boy's understanding, even if he transformed into the animal with the best sense of smell among the canine species, he wouldn't be able to distinguish human scent from the smell of demons.
But Yuri quickly identified the scent he was looking for, as there was only one faint scent that was different from the others.
"Roar! Roar!"
Yuri roared at everyone and then shook his head in a certain direction, signaling them to follow him.
After that, he ran madly in that direction.
"Yuri found it! Let's catch up with him!" Beast Boy's face lit up, and he quickly followed Yuri.
The others followed closely behind.
At this moment, no one noticed that on top of a building two kilometers away, a one-eyed, white-haired man wearing orange and black armor quietly put away his binoculars.
"Kori and Gar, I never thought I'd see those familiar faces again in this lifetime. The rest are just a bunch of little kids who haven't grown up yet..."
Deathstroke sneered and spoke with a voice only he could hear, "The existence of the Teen Titans will only lead to more children's deaths. Why don't they understand this?"
"The Great Trigon has granted me power, and I should focus all my attention on finding Raven. However, now that the Teen Titans have intervened, dealing with them wouldn't be considered defying the will of my God. Perhaps, I might even use them to find Raven..."
"If killing someone is the only way to make those brats see the reality and permanently shut down that stupid Titan Tower, then I won't hesitate to help them out!"
With that, Deathstroke donned his helmet and leaped down from the rooftop...
Some time later, on top of an abandoned lighthouse near the coastline of San Francisco Bay, the Teen Titans stood, gazing at the horizon.
"I'm pretty sure this is the end of the scent trail," Yuri said, having reverted to his original form after transforming from Wildmutt. "At least three minutes ago, she was definitely here."
"But there's nothing here." Beast Boy looked around the empty tower top.
"Maybe she can fly? Well, she might actually be able to fly, but even if she flew away three minutes ago, with such a wide field of view, she couldn't have disappeared from our sight like that," Superboy suggested.
"Is there a possibility that we've been played, and this isn't the place we were supposed to come?" Superboy proposed.
Yuri was also puzzled; logically, Wildmutt's sense of smell shouldn't have led them to the wrong location. Could they have been tricked after all?
"No, this is the place we were supposed to come." Tim suddenly pointed towards the sea. Everyone followed his gaze and saw a small island just visible to the naked eye.
Yuri instantly understood Tim's meaning. From the video, the mysterious girl clearly possessed spatial magic that allowed her to teleport the three demons away. So why couldn't she teleport herself?
Yuri's theory was that after her battle with the three demons, her magical power had depleted, and she couldn't teleport to a faraway location. Therefore, after arriving here, she must have seen that small island and teleported there.
°°°
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