Gamer4 in. Tut mir leid, aber ich habe heute nichts zu sagen. (Yeah, I'm taking a German class. Decided to throw in a bit more from the book- random languages where they don' t really have any place.)
Disclaimer: ... Muss es sein?
Chapter VII
Exploration #1: Across the Anteroom
Raven awoke early the next morning. It was a moment before she remembered everything that was going on. Then it came to her: that was the day the new arrivals would be making their first trip into the hallway. Sighing, she got to her feet, donned her robe, and picked up the keys. Before leaving the room, however, she headed to a desk that she'd set aside for writing. Without looking down, she picked up a piece of paper and a pen and placed them on the desk, intending to write a letter to her mother, Arella, who still lived in her home... dimension of Azarath. For a few seconds, the only sound in the room was the sound of her pen scratching on the paper. Then, there was a noise of confusion, as Raven realized there was another piece of paper under the one she was writing on. Moving her half-finished letter to the side, she stared down at a very crudely-drawn picture.
It is only context within the film that gives this image any meaning whatsoever. In the center of the page is a square of black. It takes up roughly two inches square, and is colored in multiple layers of black, not allowing any of the white page it is drawn on to show through. Around the square, several strange creatures have been drawn, not just octopuses or lizards or even dragons, but strange meshings and clashings- it was hard to tell where one creature ended and another began. But Raven's eyes were drawn to that square of darkness in the center. There seems to be little doubt in her mind about what it represents...
XXXX
The cameras then cut to the kitchen, where we see Tim preparing a cup of coffee for himself. He pours in a generous amount of cream and sugar, and, on tasting it, gives a smile and puts his finger and thumb together in an 'O' shape, though there isn't anyone else there to see it. As we can see out the windows, it's still somewhat dark out. The doors slide open, and Raven enters.
"You're up early," Raven notes, glancing at him as she begins preparing her usual morning tea.
"Yeah, I promised Robin I'd head into the city this morning, pick up some last-minute supplies for the trip," Tim says, taking another sip of his coffee. "You always up this early?"
"Usually," Raven says, but doesn't elaborate.
Tim, perhaps sensing something off in her tone, asks, "Something wrong?"
"I had a strange wake-up call," Raven said, producing a piece of paper. She hands it over to Tim, who gives the image on it a glance.
"You didn't draw this, I'm guessing," he said.
"I'm not very 'artsy,'" Raven said, producing a teabag.
"Well, why would anyone do it?" Tim asked, frowning at the paper. "A prank?"
"Probably Terra," Raven muttered, taking a drink of her tea. "Trying to make me lose control of my emotions again..."
"I'm guessing you two have some sort of history together," Tim said, sitting down across from Raven. A slight smile crossing his face, he added, "Let me guess- she stole your lunch money in Junior High, didn't she?"
"A little more serious than that," Raven said, a slight scowl crossing her face.
"...She didn't steal your actual lunch, did she?" Tim asked.
"No," Raven said, sounding definitely agitated at this point. "The fact is... she betrayed him."
"Him? Him who?" Tim asked confusedly.
Raven jerked her head up. "I didn't say 'him,' I said 'us!'" she said quickly, trying to cover up her verbal stumble. "She betrayed all of us."
Tim raised an eyebrow, but allowed the subject to drop. Shifting topics, his next question is, instead, "Exactly how did she betray you?"
Raven looked down at her tea. "Why don't you ask her yourself?" she muttered. "Get her to face what she did..."
"Maybe I will...?" Tim seemed to be thinking out loud at this point, confused. Shrugging, he downed the rest of his coffee. Standing, he said, "Well, I've gotta run, if I'm going to be back in time for the exploration!"
"Wait," Raven said, abruptly standing. "While you're out, there are a couple things I need. Do you mind picking them up, too?"
"Um... yeah, sure," Tim said, rubbing the back of his head. "What do you need?"
XXXX
One jump-cut later, and Tim reenters the living room with a couple of bags, which he hands to a nearby Raven. "That's the last of it," he said, brushing his hands together. "Now, want to tell me what all this stuff is for?"
"Sure," Raven said, looking gratefully through the bags. "You've heard of feng shui, right?"
"May have heard about it somewhere," Tim says, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's the use of certain items and decorations to channel the flow of energy through a building," Raven explained, picking some items out of the bags. "Of course, it's more complicated than that, but there's your basic summary."
"You're hoping to channel positive energy?" Tim guessed. "To combat... whatever's going on over there?" Here, he indicated the door to the hallway.
"Bingo," Raven said, placing several items on the table. "You know, I'll bet Starfire would be willing to help with this..."
While Raven picks out her feng shui items, Tim begins unpacking the supplies he's bought for the exploration. This includes five miles' worth of fishing line, several neon flares and markers, twenty glowsticks, four two-way radios, and some high-powered flashlights that would, hopefully, be able to illuminate more than the flashlight Robin had used in his disastrous first exploration.
While they are doing this, the others begin to trickle in, yawning and getting their own breakfasts ready. Only Robin seems to truly be awake. "Ah, good to see you got the stuff, Tim!" he said, smiling at the equipment currently laid out in the living room.
"You had doubts?" Tim asked, a slight smirk crossing his face.
XXXX
Shortly after breakfast, it seems, the group is gathered around the entrance to the hallway. Terra is holding one of the reels of fishing wire- the other end is tied off to a pole in the living room. Each of the three going into the hallway has been given one of the radios, with the fourth to be kept by the group remaining behind so that they could stay in contact. In addition, each of the 'explorers' is carrying a camera to record what happens in those dark hallways.
"Alright, good luck everyone!" Tim says jovially, shaking their hands as if they are off to ascend Mount Everest. "You know, this reminds me of a story-" he was interrupted here by Robin giving an impatient cough, "-that will sadly have to wait for another time!" he quickly amended. "Good luck to you all!"
Jinx, Aqualad, and Terra seem to vary from 'off-put' to 'amused' by Tim's antics, but, nonetheless, a few moments later, they turn and take their first steps down the hallway. After about ten feet, they reach the first corner and turn right, and are out of sight.
For a moment, the other Titans wait for something to come in over the radio. Finally, we hear Jinx's voice. "Testing, testing," she says, a slight crackle entering her voice due to the radio. "Can you guys hear us?"
"Loud and clear," Cyborg responds- he's the one who has been chosen to keep contact with the group in the hallway. "What are you seeing down there?"
"So far, it's exactly the same," Aqualad's voice comes in. "Just long, and dark. I don't even know what these walls are made of..."
"It's some kind of rock," Terra buzzes in, "but I can't tell exactly what kind... and that's kind of a big deal for me..."
"Why's that such a big deal?" Raven spat in the radio's direction.
"Well," Terra explained, "as a geomancer, I'd like to think I can generally tell rocks apart, but maybe that's just me..."
Raven gave a grunt of frustration. Turning, she addresses Starfire. "Hey, Star, want to help me out with something?"
"Yes, I would like that very much," Starfire agreed. Throughout this whole exchange, she had been watching the hallway with no small amount of apprehension. She sounds extremely glad indeed to have an excuse to be anywhere where that door isn't.
"Great!" Raven said. "Now, let me show you a few books about feng shui..." And with that, the two women leave into the tower's main hallway.
A few moments pass. Then the radio comes through again. "Looks like you called it, Robin," Aqualad says. "We haven't seen that big room you described, but we just came to a fork."
"Alright, which way are we going from here?" comes Terra's voice.
"Left," Robin says. "If you're going for that big room, take a left."
Beastboy, seeing that his presence doesn't seem entirely necessary, quietly stands, and says, "If nobody minds, I think I'll go help Raven and Star with whatever they're doing." With nobody speaking up, he follows them out, leaving Robin, Tim, and Cyborg to oversee the exploration.
XXXX
The cameras, strangely enough, choose to follow Beastboy' s story, at least for a brief amount of time, as he finds Raven and Starfire working to put up some of the feng shui items in the hallways. "Hey," he said, "need a hand? I have eight!" Here, he morphed into an octopus, just to demonstrate his point.
Both Raven and Starfire responded at the same time: "No, we're fine on our own," and "Yes, that would be wonderful!" respectively. The two looked at each other slightly awkwardly, then Raven finally said, "Then again, maybe some help wouldn't be too bad."
Beastboy morphed back to a human, smiling. "Glad to help out!" he said. "But... Raven... I need to talk to you."
"What is it?" Raven asked, turning to him.
"It's something that happened yesterday," he said. "I was talking with... you know, with Terra..." he paused here, as if afraid that the name would set Raven off. However, while she closes her eyes in agitation, she doesn't say anything, so he continues, "and I mentioned that name that Robin keeps mentioning. You know, Emma."
"Oh, goody," Raven says sarcastically. "And what did Terra have to say on the subject?"
"Well... she said she doesn't know the name, but when I mentioned it, she freaked out, and... well, if you felt that little quake-"
Raven gave a sigh of exasperation. "Yeah, I did wonder what that was about." Rubbing her eyes, she groaned. "You have got to be kidding me! Of all the people who would know about Emma besides Robin, it had to be freaking Terra!"
Beastboy looked a little panicked- Raven wasn't prone to outbursts of emotion like this.
Suddenly, Raven froze. "What... is that...?"
Beastboy glanced down at whatever she was looking at. It turned out to be a rolled-up piece of paper sticking out of his pocket. "Umm... I don't know what you're talking about," he said quickly, making to hide it.
"Don't lie to me!" Raven almost screamed. The paper was covered in a sort of black energy and flew out of Beastboy's pocket, into Raven's hand.
"Please, friend Raven, what is so wrong about the paper?" Starfire asked, leaning over.
"I knew it," Raven growled. "I should have known."
Sure enough, on the paper was a picture almost identical to the one she'd found in her room that morning: a small black square (though this one was slightly larger, measuring in at about three inches square) covered in multiple layers of black, with crudely-drawn monsters dancing around it.
"I found a paper just like this in my room this morning," Raven growled at Beastboy. "Want to explain how a paper just like this found its way into my room?!"
"I didn't go in there, I swear!" Beastboy says immediately, raising his hands in surrender. "I found that in my room this morning! I was going to show it to you guys, to see what you thought of it!"
Raven was still furious, but she could tell he wasn't lying. Silently, she handed the paper back to him. "So," she said, "someone's making this drawing and putting it in our rooms..." Turning, she said, "Starfire, did you get a picture like this in your room?"
Starfire shook her head. "I have no papers in my room that I am aware of," she said.
Raven turned back to Beastboy. Sighing, she said, "This can wait. You still want to help?"
"Yes," Beastboy said, glad that she was calm again.
"Good," she said. "Now, the thing about feng shui..."
XXXX
The film then takes us back to the living room, showing us the Titans perspective as the explorers penetrate deeper into the hallway. It seems they have finally reached the large room where Robin's previous trip ended. From descriptions over the radio, we hear that they have discovered all the walls of the room, and, using the high-powered flashlights Tim procured, they have even discovered a ceiling to the vast chamber, arching roughly fifty feet over their heads.
"This place is definitely bigger than we bargained for," Aqualad says over the radio. "We've found another hallway on the opposite end of this... room."
"Antechamber," comes Jinx's voice.
"What?" Aqualad responds, confused.
"I think this is just the antechamber- you know, the entrance hall," Jinx explains.
A moment of silence, and Aqualad says, "Yeah, what she said."
Here, Terra chimes in. "We're starting to hear that growling you told us about. But we can't see anything. If there's something here, it's not in this room."
"Wait, I have an idea!" Tim said, leaning forward. "You say you don't know what kind of rock these walls are?"
"I think I said that, yeah," Terra responds.
"Can't you break off a bit of the walls, or the floor, or something? Carry some pieces back, and maybe we can test them to figure out what this place is made of. I don't know how much it would help, but..."
"Well, I can't see how it would make things more confusing," Aqualad says. "Think you can break off a bit from the wall, Terra?"
"Yeah, I'm fairly certain," Terra agrees.
A moment passes.
"Hm... that's interesting," comes Jinx's voice, sounding somewhat amused.
"What is it?" Robin asks, leaning in closer.
Terra's voice comes back, sounding shocked. "My... powers. They don't work in here."
"What?" Robin asked. "Your-"
"My powers, yeah," Terra repeated. "I know these walls are made of rock, but I can't shift them."
Jinx's voice came in. "My powers aren't working in here either. It's like this place is a dead-zone for powers."
"You coming back?" Robin asks.
"No, we're going to try to find the end," Jinx affirms.
"What about you, Terra? Aqualad?"
"Makes no difference to me," Aqualad says with a shrug.
"I... well, I wasn't really planning on using them anyways..." Terra says.
A few more minutes pass before anything else happens. It seems that the explorers have entered the hallway at the other end of the chamber. For a while, they have nothing else to report, until there's a sudden, unanimous gasp between the three of them.
"What? What is it? What do you see?" Robin asks eagerly.
"It's another room," comes Jinx's voice. "But it's bigger... much, much bigger. We can't make out any of the walls, and we can just make out the ceiling... that must be..."
"It's like it's almost 200 feet!" Comes Terra's astonished voice. "I don't think we'll be able to cover this..."
One silence later, Jinx finally says, "Alright, we're coming back. I don't think we have enough fishing line to last us much further."
For the next couple hours or so, they seem to be making their way back. All we hear in addition is an occasional exclamation, as the group notes that it seems that the hallways have, indeed, shifted around since they went through it last. Thankfully, however, none of this shifting has split the fishing wire they'd been laying out behind them, and they finally turn around the corridor, appearing at the end of the 10 foot long hallway.
"It... is... freezing in there," Aqualad says, eagerly stepping out of the darkness of the hallway and into the living room's warmth. Terra follows with equal apparent eagerness, while Jinx throws one last longing look at the hallway as Tim, in accordance with Raven's instructions, stands up and locks the door securely behind them.
"Did you keep the cameras running?" Cyborg asked.
"Sure did," Terra nodded, producing her camera for the metal man. Aqualad and Jinx followed suit.
Quickly, they plug the cameras into the television and review all the footage, which seems to follow everything that the group back in the living room heard over the radio.
"This... this is unreal," Cyborg says, staring at the footage.
"How many times are we going to make that observation?" Tim asks, though he himself is clearly stunned by just how far the hallway seems to extend.
"So, the question now, is, 'Are we going to do another exploration,'" Robin commented.
"I'd be willing to go in again," Jinx immediately states. "I want to find the end of that place."
Terra and Aqualad are a little slower in agreeing, but eventually, they, too, agree to make another trip.
"In that case," Tim said, standing up, "I should head out and pick up some more equipment. Don't want you running out halfway through."
As he stands up, something seems to occur to him. "Hey, I never finished my story!" he said.
Several of the people in the room sighed, but Robin finally said, "Alright, go ahead, what is it?"
Tim smiled. "It's this party that I was at before I came here. The host was fairly wealthy, so... well, long story short, I was gatecrashing. Anyways, the host had this great, big pool with sharks swimming around it in his backyard. As I was sneaking in, he gave a speech to his guests, saying that he would give anyone who could swim across the pool whatever they wanted. Of course, nobody took him up on this.
"An hour or so later, everyone was back to dancing or talking, when everybody heard a splash. They turned and saw this woman in the water, swimming across it for her life! Everyone rushed to the pool to watch, as she kicked at the water harder and harder, until she finally got out at the other end.
"Well, the host hadn't expected anyone to actually do it, but he was a good sport. He approached her, gave her a towel, and said, 'I am a man of my word. You can take whatever you want.'
"And she responded, 'Well, you can start with the name of the jerk who pushed me in!'"
And with one last smile, Tim swept out the doors.
XXXX
To tell the truth, I wasn't entirely sure how to end this chapter. Anyways, things are picking up! Next time, Exploration #2, The Great Hall! Please R&R, constructive criticism and questions welcome, flames will be used to build a bonfire (building an actual bonfire is on my bucket list,) Gamer4 out.