Disclaimer
Teen Titans is a registered trademark of DC Comics and Cartoon Network Inc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent. Additional information used in creating Teen Titans: Adaptation is courtesy of Titans Tower Online.
"This is the stupidest thing we have ever tried. Hands frikkin' down."
"Be quiet," Ravager told Shimmer. He settled onto the floor between her and Jinx, his legs folded carefully to avoid knocking over the candles encircling them. "Everyone, take your places. It's time to begin."
Night gathered thickly inside Ops. The ocean tide knocked on the windows with its distant thrum, sounding fainter than it should have. Even the stars struggled to reach through the glass, as though something were filtering the outside world from the cavernous room.
Inside Ops, the six Tyrants sat into a circle, facing a pentagram that had been drizzled on the carpet in blood. Six candles, their only light, stood watch around them, and made their shadows dance together atop the pentagram. Warm darkness stirred at the edge of the candlelight, and darted between flickers to brush the Tyrants' spines with chills.
Kid Wykkid sat at the apex of the pentagram, holding out his hands. The folds of his onyx robe rippled as he offered his wizen grasp to either side of him. Glistening eyes deep in his hood stared expectantly first at Billy to his left, and then at Blackfire to his right. Billy took Wykkid's hand with a cringe. Blackfire rolled her eyes and clasped his other hand, making the pale, skeletal fingers creak in her grasp.
The rest of the Tyrants followed suit. They closed their circle within a circle, six souls within six flames. Six breaths merged into one. Six discordant minds aligned for a single cause.
"Nobody mess up their lines," Ravager mumbled, breaking from their harmony only a moment.
Annoyance crackled pink beside him. The phantom stirrings in Ops scurried from the hex. "We aren't going to forget," Jinx muttered.
Wykkid's bloody stare narrowed. Everyone else drew still and silent. Together, they raised their heads, merging their dancing shadows into one distinct whole over the pentagram.
Crackling growth consumed the candle flames. Each tiny fire climbed from its wick into a wire-thin pillar, which then bent to connect to the next flame in the circle. The flames became a ring, and then rose into a wall that trapped the Tyrants in flickering heat.
Five voices rose into one. "From the heart of their ruins, we join together, seeking ruin upon their hearts. We unite here for one purpose."
Tongues rose from the fiery wall around them. They rolled from the thread and spun into a toothed wheel above the Tyrants' heads. Reaching their circle's center, the wheel solidified into a cog of fluid flame.
"Through us, they will know fear."
The flickering circle flared again. A flat, fluttery avian culled itself from the wall. Its screech shot sparks from its beak. Its tail trailed wisps of fire as it flew after the spinning cog.
"Through them, we will know triumph."
A beast came next from the fire. It climbed out from the wall on tentacles that became hooves that clopped as it stampeded the edge of the wall. Wings erupted from its back to thrust it into the air, where it joined the cog and the bird in chasing one another.
"With our hand, they will grasp only loss."
The flame wall flared, birthing a star of glimmering brilliance. Its light cast out the shifty darkness. It shone upon the circle on its way to the formation spinning overhead.
"With their hand, we will take victory."
One flame of the wall stretched, growing flat and long. It left the wall with a hilt of coiled fire and spun into the formation. The air trembled at the heat of its blade.
"Bring us now their glory."
A monster burst from the wall. Plated in flames, it turned its flickering scowl to the shapes above, and flexed its brutish legs to jump into their midst.
At Kid Wykkid's lead, the six lifted their joined hands. Their stirring shadows surged into the center, pooling in the pentagram. Light and shadow blurred together in the bloody shape, forming a muddy golden luminance that spread, pooling beneath them. The six shapes overhead circled harder, blurring until they formed another ring of fire among the Tyrants.
Together, they chanted, "We offer our whole in recompense. Take us now, and give us what we seek. Take us. Take us! Take us!"
The circle of swirling fire froze above their heads into the six shapes. Each shape paused, quivering, as if considering. Then, the shapes spirited into the Tyrants, each choosing one reposed pillar of the circle.
Ravager gasped as ethereal flame punched him from the inside, knocking him out of the others' grasps. His eyes flew open as he sprawled backward through a dying wall of fire. Glowing tendrils wisped from his chest plate. He patted the armor, and felt no heat through his gauntlet, but instead in his stomach. The warmth vanished entirely as he looked up.
The flames around them were gone. Only waxy stumps remained, black and ghastly in the starlit room. Spots swam in his vision, the only remnants of the flame. His Tyrants lay away from the pentagram in varied states of unease. Their outlines glimmered, pale and fragile in the dark.
Blackfire rose first, ignoring Kid Wykkid's tired, proffered hand in need. "Well," she purred, "that was needlessly showy. Is all of that pyrotechnic fluff actually supposed to do something?"
A crackling pink scowl pierced Blackfire without effect. Jinx helped the ailing Wykkid to his feet as she glared at Blackfire, and said, "What you know about magic probably couldn't fill an anal probe, Saucer-Slut. The spell worked just fine."
Billy Numerous squinted at himself, patting the sigil on his chest. When he found nothing out of place, he duplicated, and proceeded to double-check himselves. "I don't feel no different," he decided in chorus.
"All according to plan," Ravager said, and brushed off his chest. Thumbing his helmet's clasps, he ducked his head free, revealing a smile that hovered in the starlight. "Now, everyone get a good night's sleep. Things will look much brighter in the morning."
Teen Titans
Adaptation
By Cyberwraith9
The Low Road: Trading Up
At eleven o'clock, precisely, Raven's door rattled with a gentile knocking. The knuckles' polite inquiry against her door came just moments after she had finished her meditation, and just moments before she would draw back the covers of her bed to end the day. A casual observer might mistake the knock's timing as fortuitous. To Raven, ever the wiser, the knock was a calculated attack on her privacy, one that needed to stop once and for all.
She looked over from her seat at her dresser, puffing at the intrusion. The knock struck four times and then waited. She was tempted to ignore it, but she knew it would come again unless she answered. So she resolved to do so for the last time, and set her hairbrush aside to meet the door.
Emotions wavered on the other side. Nervousness became concern, and concern became assuredness, only to become nervousness again, all in a foghorn that blared through the door without regard for its soundproofing. When Raven opened the door, that nebulous emotion collapsed into a smiling green face waiting in the hall.
Beast Boy pulled his hand back, lowering his knuckles. "Hi, Raven!" he said, vomiting cheer mixed with minty-brushed breath over Raven's poker face. "How are you?"
"Annoyed," Raven said. "Beast Boy, this is the last time. Do you understand?"
He chucked his thumb down the hall and grinned as though she hadn't spoken. "I was just on my way to my room. Thought I'd stop by to see how you were, maybe say goodnight. Man, my ears are still ringing after all that noise this afternoon. Right?"
Raven's nose whistled with exasperated breath. "Yes, I know. You've stopped by every night for the past week to 'say goodnight.' You keep bringing me food and checking up on me like I'm a starving invalid. Up until now, I've tolerated it, because I know that, for you, this is the height of restraint. That's why I'm putting this as politely as I can: Go. Away."
The frost in her words only made his smile glisten. He leaned on her doorframe with a casual air. "Well, I should probably let you get to sleep," he said. "Long day, and all."
"Azar," she swore under her breath and clenched her eyes. "I know you know, all right? You can probably smell it, or something. But I don't want your help, and I definitely don't need you checking up on me like this. It stops now. This is the last time. Okay, Garfield?"
Beast Boy stood from her door with a forced yawn. "Yeah, I'm bushed too. G'night, Raven. See you in the morning." He sauntered from her door to his, and hip-checked its control. Winking, he disappeared into his room. Despite her glare's supreme efforts, he did not burst into flame at any point.
Shaking her head, Raven withdrew into her sanctuary. Her cloak floated to its peg with a sleepy thought. She turned out the lights and crawled into bed. Her annoyance drifted away, lost in her meditated tranquility. Even the city's rampant emotions dwindled behind her psychic walls.
But Raven did not fall asleep for quite some time. A soft, steady babble of emotions floated through her, not of her, but no less connected.
Cyborg balanced a brimming mug of hot chocolate encircled with Oreos on a small plate as he climbed the stairs. Fatigue buzzed in his optics, casting static in the shadows at the top of the stairwell. He shook his head clear and relied on his gyros to keep the plate and mug upright.
In a few tired steps, he rounded onto Ops' balcony. "Knock-knock," he said.
Starfire turned from the main console at his approach. In the dead of Sector Prime, the glow of the hovering holographic city map made a colorful ghost of her. She nodded to Cyborg, and then turned back to her console.
"I thought you might like a snack for your first graveyard shift," he said, and set the plate on top of her console. "Blow on that chocolate before you drink it. Our microwave is the only one in the city with 'nuclear' as a standard setting," he joked.
She did not give the plate a glance. "I am not hungry," she said. The map above them shifted as she clacked the keyboard. Her gaze patrolled the hologram, oblivious to the disappointment wrought in Cyborg's expression.
He sighed. "Yeah. You said the same thing at dinner. And again after we took down Punk Rocket's stupid Calliope of Death. You love post-brawl doughnuts, Kory. You used to call them—"
"—tiny, sweet wheels," Starfire said. Her voice rang as if from a great distance that Cyborg could not see. "I know. I will eat when I am hungry. Is that acceptable?"
Cyborg picked up the plate, careful to avoid crossing her chilly gaze. "Yeah. Yeah, of course that's okay, Kor. Let me know if you need anything, okay? Or if something non-emergency-related comes up."
"The setup here is similar to those in the Tower. I should be fine," she stated without looking up.
He leaned over, snaking his hand toward the color-coded commands at the edge of the control panel. "Should be pretty boring, so you can use this command bar to access the 'net, or TV, or radio, or whatever."
Her distant words waded through annoyance. "Thank you," she said, far from thankful. "I will manage from here."
"Right. Sure. I'll be up in six hours to take over," Cyborg said, and backed away. "Goodnight, Kory."
"Mmn."
Cyborg lingered at the edge of the balcony. The plate balanced on his hand felt heavier than it had coming up the stairs. He hefted it and watched Starfire pour herself into the console. Her shoulders tightened noticeably beneath his stare. When she glanced back, the sharp challenge in her look turned him away.
"Checkmate," Bushido announced, and folded his arms to frame his smug expression.
Tek leaned over the board, overshadowing the Commons' pale fluorescence with her puzzled look. She searched across the board for his means of blocking her king's escape. "Where? I can't see…"
He tapped his bishop. "Here," he said, and traced a line of white squares to the spot where her king would escape his queen. "Diagonally."
She grinned. "Pretty sneaky," she said, and tilted her king. Leaning back from the coffee table, she collapsed back onto the couch and exploded with a yawn. Her arms burst into a stretch that crackled her spine. The twinkling city lights out the window spelled a late hour. "Probably cheated," she mumbled between yawns.
Slapping his folded legs, Bushido rocked forward on the floor and set about resetting the board. "Unfounded accusation is the last, desperate act of a poor loser," he told her.
"No," she yawned, "'Unconsciousness' is the last, dusty snack of a poor taser… Wow. That calliope really took it out of me." She perched her feet at the end of the couch, and laid her head upon the armrest. Her eyes fluttered shut.
Bushido sidelined his queen to watch Tek drift from the land of the waking. His victorious smirk was drained at the sight of her, replaced with an expression he was glad she could not see. "No rematch, then? You aren't even going to brave the stairs up to your room?" he asked.
"Mmmnno," she murmured, and squirmed deeper into the cushions. "Unless you wanna carry me?"
"Mmmnno," he replied wryly. He stood and tugged the blanket off the back of the couch, and draped it over her. Retrieving a cushion from one of the easy chairs, he lifted her head and pillowed it gently. "Goodnight, Tek."
"Night, Ry," she mumbled.
Bushido tiptoed around the couch, still wearing his furtive smile. But with each step he took, that smile waned. It left him entirely as he stopped by the door. Turning, he looked back through the couch where she lay. "Tek?" he said softly, half-hoping she was already gone.
A moment. Then, "Mmm?"
"I cheated," he said.
The couch shifted slightly. Tek remained hidden behind its back. "Mm-hmm. I know," she called back. "Moved your rook when I got a drink."
He tilted his head. His brows furrowed at the couch as he asked, "Why didn't you say anything?"
Her voice faded into luxurious slumber. "We were having fun. I like you having fun without whacking someone with your sword. S'nice."
Surprise stayed him a moment longer. He watched the back of the couch, spellbound by the steady rasp that emerged from behind it. Then he tapped the light switch, tucking her in darkness. He left for his own bed with a sense of wonder and a loss for words.
The sun vaulted the hedge row of the Compound to climb its walls. A symphony chirped from tree to tree, greeting the day in song. Lamp posts winked out as their nightly job came to an end, and the traffic returned to the streets and sidewalks of the city.
Morning trickled through the slit in Cyborg's window. His systems activated with an electrical hum. His senses came online to take in the day, waking him fully. As his awareness rebooted, he lay on his inclined maintenance harness and took stock.
His eye trailed to the twisted stalk of cords sprouting from his chest. He fingered the stalk, running his thick fingers through the rubber cords. The metal of his hand caught the dawn and made it dance. He watched the colors swirl in his hand, following them down his arm and across his armored, alloyed body.
Cyborg laughed. He sat up and grasped the plug, wrenching it from his chest socket, laughing raucously at the room full of maintenance towers and backup servers around him. Sparks showered from his fist as he crumpled the plug, laughing at the way it crunched. "Marvelous," he said, and dropped the stalk.
As he stood, he gripped the edges of his harness. It groaned in his grip, molding like soft butter. Cyborg marveled at the indentation of his hand in the metal. He hopped free of the harness, touching his chest socket. It retracted back into his armor, whirring softly away.
He caught sight of another Cyborg looking back at him across the room. He walked toward his reflection, filling the mirror with a quarter ton of metal capped with a satisfied smile.
He raised his arm to the mirror. His smile collapsed into a frown as he concentrated on his arm. His grin returned when the arm began to change. With a rough clattering of components, it blossomed into a sonic cannon, glowing blue at its aperture.
A shriek from the cannon shattered his reflection. He watched the shards cascade at his feet as he flexed his cannon back into an arm. "Absolutely magnificent!" he crowed.
Slapping the door control, he stepped into the hall. He glanced down either direction with a smile that threatened to crack his alloy. It grew wider still when one of the other doors opened.
Bushido stumbled out, struggling with the knot of his teal sash at the waist of his keikogi. Wonderment glistened through the dark hair falling from his forehead. "Well, I'll be a son of a monkey's uncle. It worked!" he exclaimed.
"Was there ever a doubt, Bushido?" said Cyborg. He touched his throat in surprise. Staring intently at the swordsman, he drawled, "Bushido." Delight consumed Cyborg's face once more.
Bushido shook his arms. Metallic jangling escaped his oversized sleeves. When he shook harder, a collection of shuriken sputtered out his cuffs and clattered to the floor. "This is so weird. These pajamas got more metal 'n a scrap yard! And they're heavy as hell, too."
Another of the hallways' doors opened, and a blue cloak floated out. Its hood turned to the noisy pair down the hall. Ethereal stars burned in the hood's shadows above a thin-lipped grimace. The cloak continued floating until it bumped into the wall, where it sagged.
"Ah, Raven!" Cyborg sang, pushing Bushido aside. "Good morning! And job well done, I might add. This is…" His praise trailed off as Raven's lips drew thinner still. Frowning, Cyborg asked, "Are you all right? Is something wrong with the…?"
Raven shook her head. Her arcane stars narrowed as she clutched her stomach. She lurched away down the hall, keeping one hand to the wall to brace herself. Her other hand kept her stomach in place.
Cyborg started after her to press the issue. He needed to know that they wouldn't all wind up sick like Raven as the result of some unmentioned side-effect. But his concern became preempted as a fourth door opened with a scream that curdled his hemotrolium.
Beast Boy burst into the hall, his hands woven through his tussled green hair. He doubled over in a terrible fit, dressed in a rumpled tank top and boxers dotted with animal shapes. Immediately, he found Cyborg, and his scream became a snarl. "You!"
"Hello, Beast Boy," Cyborg said. It was an uphill struggle to filter the laughter from his voice. "Sleep well?"
Rage glistened white in Best Boy's fangs. "Look what you did to me, you son of a bitch!" he shrieked. Waving a hand across his lanky body, he stammered, "I'm a…I'm…I'm…!"
"Green?" Bushido supplied, and snickered.
Shaking, Beast Boy thrust a hand at the sniggering swordsman. His clawed fingers tensed, as if twisting the air. Nothing happened. Beast Boy erupted with another scream and stomped back into his room, punching the control. His snarled curses snapped shut with the door.
Cyborg quelled his laughter. Flexing his hand, he said, "Well, enough foolishness. Let's have a look around, shall we? The first thing we need to find is—"
"—Ops." The silky word descended a stairwell at the end of the hall. Starfire followed soon after, slinking on lilac boots and shapely legs. Hooded eyes of emerald fire licked the thunderstruck boys in the hall. She ran her hands down her sides, tracing the golden contour of her body. "I just woke up there. It's right up the stairs."
Bushido grasped the hilt of his sheathed sword, kneading his fingers into its grip. "Ooh-wee," he said breathlessly, gaping with naked abandon. "I see some definite perks to this here gig."
Starfire grasped her bound breasts, pushing them together. She stared down at them with mild interest. "Fills the armor out nicer than I thought." Sucking in a breath, she moaned, "Mmm, and just aching to Quicken. There's going to be real trouble if Robbie-poo doesn't come back in time."
Half-blushed, Cyborg tugged on an imaginary collar, and stuttered, "Yes, well, let's focus on the task at hand, shall we?"
The stairs spoke again, this time in a different lilt that came from below. "Oh, I don't know, Cyborg. What's the point of all this if we don't have a little fun?" Tek emerged from the stairwell, jumping the last step and landing in a cartwheel. She flipped onto her feet and posed, stretching the blue and white skin of her suit.
Cyborg's blush broke toothily. "Time enough for that later, Tek." He glanced back as Beast Boy emerged from his room, wrestling with the inseam of his pants. The shapeshifter's murderous look did little to dour Cyborg's breezy tone. "Let's get to work, Titans. There's a busy day ahead of us."
Ravager awoke to a dawn of crashing waves and warm colors splayed across his window. He opened his eyes, staring sleepily at his ceiling, and listened to the waves roll against the shore of Tyrants Island. The sound of the tide nearly lulled him back to sleep. He rolled over and squinted through the window. The ocean rippled with color…
The ocean…
The ocean?
He bolted upright in bed, tossing the covers from his body. Black armor unveiled itself from beneath the king-sized sheets. He slapped the armor with gauntleted hands, patting it down, panting in panic. Then he grasped his gauntlet and tore it off.
Calloused, peachy skin crinkled as he flexed his hand. He felt tendons pulling against bone, and muscle burning as his hand began to tire. Holding his breath, he brought the hand to the left side of his face. His gaping mouth popped like a drum as he patted his smooth, soft cheek.
He looked around. His room was simple, but not plain. A rack of swords and knives adorned one wall, mingled with other weaponry he couldn't identify offhand. A two-toned mask stared back at him with hollow eyes from the rack's center. A dresser, desk, and a full-length mirror sat opposite his bed. He flew from the covers and ran to the mirror, knocking aside the desk chair in a state of panic.
He grasped the edges of the mirror. His reflection grasped back, gaping with horror at who it saw. He ran his hand over crew-cropped chestnut hair, down along the front of his armor harness, up to the empty sheaths on his back. Ravager saw himself, and was horrorstruck.
Something hung next to his reflection. It was a card, taped to the mirror. He lifted it and read aloud the one word written inside: "Surprise."
Seeing his reflection speak, hearing his voice, Ravager reeled back. The card fluttered from the mirror, dancing in the air after him. He staggered back and groped for the door.
Ravager fell from the ocean-view room and collapsed in a dark hall. Fluorescents sensed his presence and flooded the hall from above. Now lit, he recognized the hallway, making for two impossibilities in the same moment. Squinting, Ravager clambered to his feet. "This is a nightmare," he said to the haunting memory around him. "It has to be."
Further down the hall, another door opened. Ravager tensed, reflexively bringing his arm to bear as a confused, hyperventilating Jinx ran into the hall. Frazzled pink braids swung behind her crazed look. She grasped the wall as though it weren't real, and mewled, "What am I doing here? Why am I back in—?"
Her chest seized when she saw Ravager aiming his fist at her. She stumbled backward, trailing a wave of pink sparks. "You!" she cried.
His arm remained an arm in spite of his every thought to the contrary. Furious, he dropped his fist, and demanded, "What's the game, Jinx? How am I back in the Tower? What the hell did you do to me?"
As angry as Ravager was, Jinx seemed five times as frightened of him. "Stay away from me!" she screamed. Her back struck the end of the hallway hard, bouncing her forward. Panicking, she thrust out her arms and scowled in concentration. Pink chaos trickled from her hands, but nothing more. She strained turning red as she screwed shut her eyes. At last, she gasped, and twisted around, chasing her back. "What did you do to my armor? And why—?"
Ravager blinked. He watched her spin in a pitiable circle, clawing at the small of her back. "Jinx?" he asked. Then he clutched his throat in alarm.
"Stop calling me that!" Hex exploded from her cry. She clapped her hand over her mouth with a squeak, stemming the pink spray. Tears flooded her eyes as she collapsed against the wall, flattening herself from Ravager. "Stay away!" she sobbed.
"Jinx, it's me! It's Ravager!" he cried, and staggered forward.
Her hands clawed at the wall, leaving streaks of entropic char in its metal. "I know who you are!" she snapped.
"No!" he insisted. Grasping his throat, he tried to wring out the right words. "I'm not Ravager, I'm 'Ravager.' Ravager! Rrr… Rrrraavager. Ravager! Damn it!"
He swore, and punched the wall with his bare fist. Pain swallowed his knuckles, making him yowl and cradle his hand in his armpit. He stamped his foot at the throbbing pain, and glared at the tiny smear of red left behind on the wall.
Gritting his teeth, he hissed, "Damn it. Stupid! Not made of metal…"
Jinx's tears dried. Her dizzying gasps dwindled as she watched Ravager nurse his red knuckles. Something in his muttered curses sparked a revelation in her, one she could scarcely believe. "R-Ravager?" she asked. Her eyes exploded. She clutched her chest, and said, "Ravager? It's me, Jinx. Jinx! JINX!" Tearfully she squeaked, "Why can't I say my name?"
"I don't know," Ravager gasped, and shook the worst of the pain from his hand. His chestnut glare wandered the hall. "It looks like we're back in the old Tower. But everything looks fixed…"
Footsteps echoed down the hall, rounding the corner. Ravager hugged the wall on reflex, and dragged Jinx beside him with a gauntlet over her mouth to quell her cry. Together, they waited, watching the corner, tensed and trembling.
A skinny boy in a red bodysuit emerged from the intersection. A division symbol clung to his sunken chest. He stepped cautiously, keeping his weight low and centered on the balls of his feet. His goggles swept the hall and found Ravager and Jinx cowering at the ready. Immediately, his stance relaxed.
"I trust you are not who you appear?" Billy Numerous asked politely.
Ravager eyed Billy, still unconvinced. He let his hand drop from Jinx's mouth, and said, "I just woke up like this two minutes ago. What do you know about it?" he demanded.
Both Ravager and Jinx jumped as a second Billy strolled around the corner to join the first. He had been hiding in wait at the edge of the corner, and now joined the first Billy. The identical pair moved in uncanny unison, folding their hands behind their backs with a shared glance.
"I…Rather, 'we' awoke approximately twenty minutes ago," the first Billy explained.
"We thought the other to be an enemy, and immediately attacked," the second Billy continued. "Our battle was quite fierce, and prolonged by our equally impressive skill."
"When we happened upon the mirror in our room, we discovered our duoship, and our battle ended. We also found this," said the first Billy, as he drew a white card from his belt. It was exactly like the one Ravager had found on his mirror, down to its one-word message.
As Ravager took the card, the second Billy turned to his twin, remarking, "Credit where it's due. You threw me into the mirror. It was an impressive counter. I might have done the same."
His opposite nodded in appreciation. "High praise indeed. I did not want to boast before such a magnificent challenger."
"Kind and true, my worthy friend. You are clearly wise beyond what our unfortunate taste in apparel belies," Billy said, and tugged on his bodysuit. It snapped back to his chest.
Jinx snapped her fingers, spraying pink sparks at the gushing pair. "Hey! Can we focus on the insanity that's happening right now? I can't stop spewing pink! I hate pink!" she wailed, and grasped her dangling braids. Hex poured through her hair, bursting it from its ribbons into static-charged mess that made her sob and spark harder.
An invisible vice clutched Ravager's temples. He gnashed his teeth, and said, "Jinx, calm down. We need to figure out what's going on here. Or better yet, how I can wake up from this goofy nightmare and never eat chili before bed ever again."
"This is no nightmare." A spindly voice echoed through the hall. Ravager, Jinx, and the Billys jolted as a dark vortex spewed from the wall opposite where they stood. The air chilled at the appearance of a pair of luminous red eyes in the vortex. The eyes surged forward, pulling the vortex around it into a cloak of pure shadow that steamed the warm air.
Ravager shivered. The cold emanating from the cloaked figure cut him to the bone. Something primal inside of Ravager screamed at the figure's presence, which exuded wrongness in a way he could not put to words. "Who the hell are you?" he asked, fighting the urge to run.
"Kid Wykkid, apparently," the cloak hissed. His eyes perused the other Tyrants. Their fear and confusion blared in his hidden ears. "Is anyone here actually who they say they are? I tried to say my own name, but…"
Nodding deeply, the Billys edged away from Wykkid. "Such is our predicament as well," one Billy said.
Wykkid sighed. His breath emerged as a rasp that ran shivers up every spine in the hall, his included. "I was afraid of this. I haven't had a chance to examine the spell in detail, but it's pretty clear what's happened here."
Ravager groaned. His hopes for a snack-induced nightmare shattered as he let his head thud against the wall. He punched the wall again, this time careful of his knuckles' limits. "This is nuts," he sighed. "This can't be happening. It's too crazy. It's too stupid!"
"We've been here before," hissed Wykkid. "Blackfire and I…Blackfire?" He shook his head, and said, "Blackfire and I managed to get a handle on it. We dealt with it then, and we'll deal with it again. Though it wasn't quite this bad the last time…"
"It could be worse," the Billys harmonized, and traded appreciative nods.
Crackling pink hair fought Jinx's fingers for control, arresting her attempts to fight it back into a braid. "Worse?" she whimpered. "How can this be worse?"
The door at the end of the hall exploded with a scream. Startled, Jinx hiccupped a spray of hex that belted Ravager against the wall. Billy Numerous jumped into himself, merging into one from two, and staggered dizzily, clutching his head. The outline of Wykkid's flickering cloak blurred like steam caught in an updraft.
Shimmer stumbled out the ruins of the door, her visage wavering through the tumultuous air. The walls around her ran, their metal glowing into syrupy liquid. Her steps squashed soft footprints into the steel flooring. The straps of her costume hung haphazardly, barely up to the task of keeping her minimally modest. She clutched her hair, framing her outrage with trembling hands as she screamed at the top of her lungs, "WHERE'S MY PENIS?"
Jinx's hex evaporated as she gaped at the reality-warping fit down the hall. "…oh," she murmured.
Tears drizzled from Shimmer's cheeks. They struck the ground as acid, sizzling pinholes into the floor as she lurched at the other Tyrants. Her face twisted with terrible rage. Matter fell into disarray around her baleful charge. "You! You turned me into a girl?" she bellowed.
The other Tyrants backpedaled, leaving Ravager to stand alone. He lifted his hands in surrender. The air stirred against his face, feeling heavy with change. Wincing against her turbulent storm of matter, Ravager stopped her cold with two shouted words: "Body swap!"
Shimmer stood mere feet from him with a nimbus of rearranging molecules swirling about her. The teary rage in her eyes died, as did the storm around her. Bitter fear remained, leaking into the rest of her face as she staggered the last few steps to Ravager. She crossed her arms, embarrassed by her tears, and muttered, "I hate that 'body swap' is a totally believable answer to anything in our world."
"Sh-Shimmer?" Jinx said, peering over Billy's shoulder.
Wiping her eyes, Shimmer said, "I guess so. I went to bed totally handsome, and when I woke up, I was all skankified. And I don't even have a decent rack to show for it!" She sniffed, looking up from her chest, and asked, "So, are you guys, like, not you guys? 'Cause if you aren't…I mean, are…"
"I believe we may be skewing into matters of philosophy," Billy said. He swayed slightly, still swimming with the combination of two perspectives on a single memory. The merging of both Billys had left him overwhelmed, yet intrigued.
Shimmer scowled at the first of many headaches, and snapped, "Look, if someone here is a bad guy, I owe him-slash-her a massive ass-kicking in memory of my lost doodle, and I aim to deliver." She looked down at her legs, wiggling them in experimentation.
Raising a tepid hand, Jinx stammered, "Q-Question? Why can't I say my name?"
"My guess is that it's part of the spell," Wykkid hissed. "It would hinder our ability to call for help, and sow confusion among us." He watched Shimmer examine her own swaying hips, and scowled. "Stop that."
"Sorry," Shimmer said, stilling. "They're hippier than I'm used to."
Ravager massaged the bridge of his nose. "The better question is, can you fix this?"
"I don't even know what 'this' is," hissed Wykkid. "I can tell you that it's some complicated spell craft, well beyond anything Jinx can do. I'd guess that, um, 'I' did this. Kid Wykkid…whoever I am. Regardless, it may take days to identify the spell without anything to go on, and maybe even longer to unravel it safely."
"Get on it," Ravager snapped. "Now. Yesterday. Everyone else, split up and look around. I want to know everything about where we are, starting with why this place looks like new, and what the hell we're doing here in the first place."
The lone Billy raised a finger, and said, "I hate to point out the obvious, but since no one else will… It stands to reason that, if we are in these bodies, that would mean that our bodies are currently…"
Ravager's growing growl put an end to his point. "Just get going. If Wykkid can break the spell, fine. Otherwise, we get back to the mainland, we find our bodies, and we make the idiots who are joyriding in them very, very sorry."
His anger cooled as he performed a headcount. No amount of optimism in the world could have made him hope that one of them had been spared this humiliating fate. He added, "And somebody find—"
Lavender light flashed around the corner, followed closely by a furious shriek. The hall shook in time with the flashes. The Tower rattled with her screams. Dust coughed from the ceiling to shroud the Tyrants.
Grasping the wall, Ravager sighed. He had been awake for less than ten minutes, and already felt exhausted. "Never mind. Somebody bring Blac…uh, Blackfire up to speed. And try not to let her kill you when she sees you. I…"
An alien pressure pressed beneath his stomach. He grunted, cradling the need with his palm, and frowned in surprise. It had been years since he had felt this need. It struck without warning. He hopped from foot to foot as he left the other Tyrants in curiosity.
"Ravager?" Jinx called.
"Go on ahead. And somebody start in Ops!" he yelled over his shoulder. Walking with urgent purpose, he muttered to himself, "I hope these idiots didn't move the bathroom."
The hologram of Titans Compound spun lazily overhead. Its surface flashed with highlights of red, yellow, and blue, alternating as dictated by the chattering keyboard of Ops' central console. A sly, mismatched stare took in the schematic, growing more impressed with each secret the hologram revealed.
"My, my, my," Cyborg said, and tapped his chin. "This place is impressive, loathe though I am to admit it. A home, a fortress, a center, and a strategic control point all wrapped into one alphabetic shape."
Tek scoffed from Ops' railing, where she balanced on her palms. A dizzying, deadly fall waited to one side, with Cyborg's engrossing hologram to her other. "You need a slide show to see that? Use your eyes. Or, eye. This place is enormous!" she exclaimed. Her voice echoed through the cavernous Sector Prime, where a bevy of doors awaited their attention.
Tapping a finger to his ocular implant, Cyborg said, "Tek, I can see more than you could ever dream of with these tin eyes of mine. The X-ray vision is particularly intriguing," he added with leer and a smirk.
She stuck out her tongue as her upside-down face filled with blood. "Eh. Personally, I'm not impressed," she said, and walked forward on her hands as she looked up at her body. Scowling, she added, "But I'd better not catch you using that perv-vision on Starfire."
"Is it cheating if it's not my body?" he asked with a laugh, and received a venomous look in reply.
"You wouldn't even live through it, Metal Man," Starfire said as she floated up and over the railing's edge. She landed in Ops, her hips already canted enticingly, her hair draped over one shoulder. She quirked her brow at Cyborg, and said, "I like to play rough."
Tek pushed off the railing and landed between Starfire and Cyborg with her scowl aimed at the former. "Just as well. Nobody is 'that' into orange," she jeered.
Starfire rolled her eyes as she brushed past Tek. "Meow," she drawled, and turned sharply to slap Tek with her hair.
A green parakeet fluttered up and into Ops in Starfire's wake. It hopped onto one of the ancillary consoles' seats, where its body bulged awkwardly. It morphed into a cat, which then became a mouse, which exploded into a hippopotamus, which crushed the seat with a crackle of plastic and steel. It shrank back into Beast Boy, who grasped his lolling head. "Wow. That flying thing is harder than it looks," he said.
The wall at the edge of the balcony squealed with the arrival of the FALL, a step-up lift that carried Bushido from the floor to the balcony in scant seconds. He jumped off the FALL with a snort and shook his head. Daggers drizzled from his jangling sleeves. "Woo! That there is a mighty fine time!" he beamed.
"Report," Cyborg said, swiveling to face his gathered Titans.
Starfire arched against a console with a bored sigh. "What do you want to hear? This place is just another clubhouse, exactly like the other one you stole from them."
"Are you high? This place is un-frikkin'-believable!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "It's twice as big as Tyrants Tower, and has way more tech crammed into it. Gizmo would have a field day with this place…if he was here," he added sharply at Cyborg.
"I'm with Booger Head on this one," Bushido said. "I went wandering around, and I wound up out front. This pretty li'l thing just popped out of thin air, all smiling and sweet-like, asking if I needed service. Said her name was…uh…"
"SARAH," Tek said, and flipped to sit atop one of the consoles. "It's the command program that runs everything here. If we're going to do anything to the security protocols, we'll have to go through it first."
Cyborg steepled his fingers beneath a shrewd smile. "Oh, I don't think we have to worry so much about that," he mused.
A klaxon howled in Ops, surprising Cyborg out of his chair. Red light flashed over him from a beacon in the ceiling. He and the other Titans looked about in confusion while the hologram of the Compound hovering above them evaporated. A city map appeared in its place, flashing white at the intersection of Winick and Churchill.
Covering her ears, Tek slipped off the console and fell into its seat. She read its screen between blinding red flashes. "This thing says it's a…Teen TroubAlert? Do they seriously call it that?" she shouted.
Emerald annoyance struck the overhead beacon, shattering its bulb and smashing its speakers. The klaxon whimpered silent as Starfire lowered her hand. "Well, what's all that fuss about? Is it them?" she asked.
With a few keystrokes, Cyborg focused the map on the intersection. Images and text appeared next to the blinking Titan sigil marking the emergency. "No," said Cyborg, intrigued. "But I think we might wish to respond anyway."
Beast Boy knocked his metal scalp and scoffed. "All that hardware of yours must be glitching. What do we care about that idiot?" he asked, and waved at the picture on the map. "We're waiting for the Tyrants!"
Tek rolled her eyes. Behind her, the shadows surged together, forming a portal that produced a white-eyed Raven. "You so just want to take your new chassis out for a cruise, Metal Face. Just cop to it already," said Tek.
"I said there would be time for fun later. 'Later' just happens to be now," Cyborg said. Grim delight spread in his face as he strode from Ops with his team in tow. "Titans, go…"
To Be Continued