I posted this before I had an editor, she went through it and made some changes, so here is the new edit.

I redid an old fan fiction story I wrote back in the 90's about a band and changed the characters to the teen titans so the story wasn't just taking up space on a disk where no one ever got to see it. In this story I use only the characters, in what I like to imagine is an alternate reality. None of them are superheros or aliens with alter egos. This story takes place with both Starfire aka Kori and Robin aka Richard. The original story was never finished so this one is going to be a work in progress. The orginal concept was just too funny so I Ieft the concept of a band in this story. I know Slikie is not a cat...but I thought having a giant worm as a pet would be a little too odd even for this story. Leave a review and let me know what you think.

Close Encounter

Kori is awakened around midnight by a loud noise. Against her better judgment, she gets up and goes downstairs. She has a strange feeling that she should hide somewhere safe, but something is drawing her downstairs. She finds Silkie sitting on the stairs. "Hey Silkie was that you making noise?"

Silkie, an albino Maine Coon Cat Richard gave to Kori on their first anniversary of dating, stares up at Kori. Kori sits on the stairs and Silkie jumps into her arms. Kori strokes Silkie's fur as she tries to calm her racing heart.

"Richard isn't here trying to play a trick on me is he? No, you wouldn't let him do that would you Silkie?"

In the hallway the phone rings. "Think that's Richard calling to say he'll be late, Silkie?" Kori sits Silkie back down on the stairs and goes to the phone. Kori answers the phone. "Hello." Kori stands there waiting for several moments, she's about to hang up when she hears a strange voice. It doesn't even sound like a voice, it's more like a high pitched electronic screeching.

Silkie runs under the couch and hides as ultra violet light radiates through the window Kori stands next to. The power goes out, all the battery powered clocks are frozen at a few minutes past midnight, and the phone lines go dead. When the ultra violet light fades away Silkie is alone in the house.

***

30 minutes later Richard comes home. Oddly the car quit at the end of the drive and they couldn't get it started back so his good friends Garfield and Victor are going to spend what's left of the night there before they go back to work at the recording studio in the morning. When they first enter the house, none of them notice anything out of the ordinary. Richard flips on the light switch, but the front hallway remains dark.

"That's odd."

"What's odd Richard?" asks Garfield as he walks inside."

"The power is out."

"The neighbor's security light was on when we passed their house." says Victor.

Silkie runs out from under the couch and jumps into Richard's arms.

"Hey Silkie." With the aid of light from the full moon streaming through the window, Richard can see the fear in Silkie's big pink eyes. "Something's wrong." Setting Silkie down on the floor, Richard goes to the kitchen and grabs a flashlight from one of the drawers, before starting upstairs. "I'm going to look for Kori."

As Richard leaves the room, Garfield looks at the clock on the kitchen wall, he can just barely make out what it says in the moonlight. "Isn't around 12:30?"

"Yeah. Why?" replies Victor.

"The clock says its only midnight."

"Maybe the battery is dead, I know it's dark, but it doesn't look like it's running from here."

Richard comes back downstairs. "I can't find Kori anywhere, but her car is here so she couldn't have left. There's no power here, but there is at the neighbors--I don't like this."

"Maybe Kori is in the basement." says Garfield. "Something could have triggered the circut breakers."

Richard turns around and shines the flashlight down the hall as he starts toward the basement door. He stops when he sees the phone receiver lying in the floor. "Something's wrong, I know it."

Garfield and Victor look where the flashlight is shinning and see the phone off the hook. Richard walks down the hall and picks up the phone. He punches the hang up button and then listens for a dial tone, but he finds the line is dead. "The phone is out."

"Maybe she went to the neighbors to call someone." suggests Victor.

"She would use her cell ph--"

Garfield holds his phone up to the light. "Mine isn't even working now and it was fully charged."

Victor looks at his cell phone. "My phone is dead too."

Richard opens the basement door and shines the light downstairs. "Kori?" He goes down several of the steps and looks all around. "She's not here either."

***

When Kori fully awakens she's extremely cold and she feels pain all over her body. Kori finds she's strapped to a metal table with several beings standing over her, all of whom are jabbing her skin with various sharp objects. When her vision clears enough for her to make out their features, she wants to scream, but she's paralyzed with fear. Suddenly she feels intense pain in her head, she can make out one of the beings holding a long sharp object against her left temple. The pain lasts for what seems like hours to Kori. Tears are streaming down her face as the pain finally begins to subside. She wants to believe that all of this has been some terrible dream, but the pain in her head is all too real.

All but one of the beings leave the room, the remaining one stares at her with what could possibly be a look of sympathy.

Kori's voice is shaky and filled with fear as she speaks. "What did you do to me?"

"Fear not earthling, we will not hurt you as long as you cooperate."

"What? How did you--?"

"--My kind communicates with telepathy."

"What do you want with me?"

"You are going to bring the new Kings to us."

"I don't understand. What are you talking about?"

"We can't...make beautiful sounds as your kind do. For many years now the King has been with us, but sadly has passed on. You will bring us the new Kings that will make beautiful sound on our world."

"Who--what King?"

"...I believe your kind call it rock and roll."

"The King of rock'n'roll?...no-that's impoissible Elvis died--before I was even born."

"No, we took him to our home. You will bring us the new kings now."

"What new kings are you talking about?"

"The one who lives with you, and his...band mates. Their beautiful sounds have only now reached our world and is even more popular there than it could ever be here. Enough questions you will bring them now."

"This is crazy, I'm not bringing them to you."

"I assure you that will not be a pleasant experience if you try to fight us."

"You can't force me to help you."

"We anticipated this reaction from you, that's why we implanted the control device in your brain."

"Control? Why are you doing this?"

"We want them to the beautiful sounds and we will have them."

The alien releases Kori's bonds and takes her back to her home. Realizing that others are now in the home it leaves Kori in the attic.

As if she knows it's there, Silkie hisses then runs up to the attic. Silkie moves so quickly that Richard knows something is wrong and he follows her with his others following close behind him. They reach the pull down attic door in time to see ultraviolet light streaming down from the small gaps between it and the ceiling. Silkie scratches frantically at the wall beneath the door and hisses until the light disappears.

Richard quickly pulls on the cord and opens the door. He rushes up the ladder like stairs and finds Kori lying unconscious on the floor. He rushes over to her and lifts her up into his arms. "She's freezing." Richard carries back to the ladder and the others help him get her down.

Garfield looks at the door. "The door is made so you can't trap yourself up there, so how did she get up there?"

Richard carries Kori to the bedroom, lays her down on the bed and covers her up. "What just happened?"

Victor leans against wall, accidentally bumping the light switch and the lights come on. "Something weird is definitely going on here."

Silkie runs into the room and jumps up on the bed beside Kori. She's not allowed on the furniture, but Richard over looks that this time because he knows that she's just as concerned about Kori as he is.

"Look at that place near Kori's left temple." Garfield points the wound out to Richard and Victor.

***

Kori comes to several minutes later to find Richard dabbing some alcohol on the wound. She panics and tries to move away, because her vision is blurry and she can't quite make out who's standing over her.

Richard sets the bottle of alcohol on the night stand and holds Kori down. "It's okay, Kori calm down, everything's fine."

As her vision clears and Kori realizes she's back in her home with Richard she calms down.

"Kori, what happened?"

Kori tries to talk, but she can't make any sound. She looks up at Richard with tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" asks Richard clearly concerned.

Kori just shakes her head from side to side, letting him know that she can't tell him. She realizes then that the aliens aren't going to let her talk unless she does what they want.

As Kori begins to cry, Richard lifts her up from the bed and holds her in his arms.

Victor leaves the room and goes downstairs to the kitchen and picks up a note pad and pencil that laying on the kitchen counter. As he starts back up the stairs he notices the clock is now running, but it's almost 45 minutes behind. Victor takes the off the wall and takes it with him as he goes back downstairs. He hands the clock to Garfield, who looks at with a puzzled expression on his face until he realizes that it's now running again and he looks at his watch to see how much the time is off.

Victor hands the pencil and paper to Richard. "Can she write down what happened?"

"Kori, do you think you can write down what happened to you?"

Kori takes the pencil and paper from Richard and attempts to write down what took place earlier that night.

Richard and his others watch as Kori tries to write with first one hand, then the other. They know something's wrong with her because it appears as if she's totally forgotten how to write. One thing is clear, however, they can tell she knows exactly what she wants to.

Kori hands the paper and pencil back to Richard and looks down at her hands crying harder than before.

Richard hands the paper and pencil back to Victor and tries to calm Kori down. "Please don't cry, love. I know you're scared but we'll find out what's going on."

"Richard, maybe you should take her to the emergency room. Judging from that wound Kori could have fallen and hit her head." says Garfield.

Kori shakes her head to indicate that is not what happened.

"Garfield's right, no matter what happened she may need medical attention." adds Victor.

"I think that's a good idea. I'll be right back okay love?"

Kori nods her head to indicate she understands.

Richard stands up and goes to the bathroom and gets Kori's bathrobe and returns to the room. "Lets get you ready to go." As he helps Kori put the robe on he realizes that she's still freezing, but she doesn't seem to notice.

As Richard gets Kori ready to go, Garfield and Victor leave the room and go downstairs. Garfield hangs the clock back up on the wall, and checks the other clocks on the first floor. "Victor the clocks are 45 minutes behind and they're all battery operated. What could have caused that? The power going out obviously had nothing to do with it. I think my watch is even several minutes behind now." He checks his cell phone again which has a fully charged battery now. "I'm offically freaked out now."

"And the neighbors down the street had power. Something weird happened here and I'm not sure I want to know what it was. There's no rational explanation I can think of that covers the clocks stopping, the power going out and Kori not being here when we came in. When she does show up the power comes back on and the clocks start to work. She can't talk or even write, but she obviously knows what she wants to say."

"How did the cat know to find her in the attic? And did you see that bright light, what could've caused that?" Garfield watches Victor walk down the hall to the phone. "What are you doing?"

Victor picks up the phone receiver and holds it to his ear. "Checking the phone...it's working now." Victor checks his cell phone. "So's the cell phone."

"Yeah, mine is too. This is getting really creepy."

Richard leads Kori down the stairs and Silkie follows close behind them. "We'll probably be gone for hours."

"I'll drive." volunteers Victor.

"I'll go with you."

Richard doesn't question them, right now he's not comfortable in his own home. As they all leave the home, Silkie runs out of the door behind them. Richard holds the door open. "Silkie you can't go in a hospital. Go back inside."

Silkie rubs against Kori's ankles and purrs.

"Silkie..." Richard begins to get impatient.

Kori kneels down and picks Silkie up. She knows the Silkie isn't going to leave her side. Kori looks up at Richard with a pleading expression in her eyes.

"Okay, she can go, but you know she'll have to stay in the car once we get there." Richard closes the door and makes sure it's locked before he leads Kori toward her car.

"The car is blocking the drive." Garfield points down to the car they came in.

"I'm betting it will work now too." Victor walks down to the end of the drive. He opens the door then puts the key in the ignition and turns it. The car starts up like nothing was ever wrong with it.

Garfield looks all around as Richard leads Kori down the drive to the car. Something is definatly wrong here and he can't wait to get away.

Once inside the car Kori snuggles close to Richard as she holds the cat in her arms.

***

By the time they reach the hospital, it's clear that whatever is wrong with Kori is getting worse.

"You have to put Silkie down now Kori." Richard waits a few moments but Kori doesn't even act like she heard him. "Kori?"

Garfield turns around to look at Kori. "I don't think she hears you."

Richard takes Silkie from Kori's arms and hands the cat to Garfield. "I don't know how long this is going to take if you guys want to go back I'll call you."

Victor glances over at Garfield. "I think I would rather just wait."

"Yeah, me too."

Richard nods his head as Richard picks up Kori and carries her into the hospital.

Victor drives out of the emergency lane and finds a parking spot. "What do you think happened back there?"

"I don't know. The phone was off the hook and Kori was practically locked up in the attic. Someone else had to have been there."

"That doesn't explain why nothing was working when we got there. As crazy as it sounds I don't even think Kori was in the house until the cat went running upstairs."

"But how could she have gotten in? There aren't even any windows up there she could have climbed through."

"You felt how cold she was when we helped Richard get her down out of the attic."

"Are you trying to say you think this is something paranormal?"

"Does any of this seem normal to you?"

---

Richard watches as the nurses place heating pads on Kori before piling on lots of blankets as they try to bring her temperature back up. He looks up as the doctor approaches.

"Are you family of Ms. Anders?"

"She's my fiance."

"Right now she's in a state of shock. I'm not going to put her in any further danger by trying to run any sort of tests until she's more stable."

"Do you have any idea what could have caused this?"

The doctor looks over notes the nurses made on what Richard told them happened. "You told the nurses she was responsive when you first found her?"

"Yes, she couldn't talk then, but now..." Richard looks back at Kori who just lays there staring up at the ceiling. "...it's like she doesn't know what's going on around her."

"It's most likely due to the shock. I'll know more when I run some tests."