AN: A new villain is born of fear and doubt. Do you believe in the Boogeyman, Titans? Because he believes in you.
Outta This World: Observer's Cut
Arc Three: Teen Tyrants
Chapter Twenty: Boogeyman (Part I)
Entry #92
Been a while since I've wrote something down here. Starfire went to the future, and we learned that things got extremely bad (Adrian Finch turned criminal, so we'll be watching him. I got knocked into a coma by DEATH HAND, THE BLACK HEARTS SWORDSMAN, and a guy who I think might be JACOB WINTERS). Then we got a new teammate, Terra, who BB is absolutely smitten with. Watching the two of them dance around each other is sickening in the best kind of way.
Kinda makes me think about where I stand with Rav-
Raven's started training with Terra, since their powers are similar enough. She's a bit slow due to a lack of confidence and a lot of self-esteem issues. Especially since she apparently killed her parents.
Seventh—or rather, Death Hand—seems to be trying to form some kind of connection with that. Trying to do the same thing Slade did to Robin, we think.
Mikumo's been kinda quiet recently. Usually he's much livelier, but now he seems…introspective.
Might ask him about it later, if I have the time.
Jump City. The Teen Titans.
A call had come in from a rental store called the Video Dome. Apparently, some overweight maniac with a magic or highly advanced remote control had broken in and had started bringing the cardboard cut-outs to life, attacking the customers and staff.
The Titans of course travelled to the store immediately, finding civilians fleeing the scene and police officers already surrounding the building. Robin turned to the two newest heroes on the scene and spoke. "Mikumo. Terra. You'll both stay out here and direct the civilians towards safety, since you're relatively new to this."
Both teens nodded, somewhat dejected by the fact that they were playing crowd control, especially after having been given new uniforms.
(Terra wore a black long-sleeved shirt with the Titans' own symbol on the chest, along with new and improved goggles, a utility belt, combat boots, and tan shorts.
Mikumo on the other hand wore a green jumpsuit with black sleeves and white gloves, combined with grey shoulder pads, a red utility belt, black leg-guards, red boots, some kind of grey facemask, and a green hood. It felt…right on him somehow.)
"Don't worry, you'll both have your time." Blitzkrieg said. "Besides, crowd control is actually a pretty important job. We'll need you both out here in case something goes wrong."
Both of the new heroes turned to each other and nodded, and then Terra spoke. "Then you can count on us!"
Robin smirked. "Good. Now, LET'S GO!"
The original team members entered the building, finding a ginger with a scraggly stubble threatening a store clerk and screaming something about Star Trek.
Behind him were a few Television-monster-creatures and an army of living candy creatures…which Cyborg began shooting at immediately.
This immediately grabbed the villain's attention. "Well, well, well. If it isn't my old arch-enemies…the Teen Titans!" The overweight man announced.
Beast Boy immediately turned to Robin. "Did we ever fight this guy before?"
Robin squinted at the man, trying to find an answer to Beast Boy's question. "…I don't think so?"
"That sounded more like a question than an answer." Raven droned out.
"L-look." Blitz stuttered out, extremely confused by this whole encounter. "Could you perhaps remind us of who you are?"
The apparent couch potato proceeded to do this with great enthusiasm. "I am your darkest nightmares come to life! The master of monsters! I am…CONTROL FREAK!" He announced withdrawing his remote and pushing a button. A purple spark of electricity emitted from a small lightbulb on the remote control, striking a nearby collection of collector's items, bringing them to a ghoulish form of life.
"…You do not sound familiar." Starfire commented, taking the wind out of the villain's sails.
"He's just a couch potato with a souped up remote." Raven spoke, slightly annoyed by the whole thing. "We can take him."
This seemed to make him angry.
"You can take me, can you?!" The villain cackled as he fired several more bolts out of his remote, each bolt striking cash registers, shelves, DVDs, and other such things that were found in stores like this one. "YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME, CAN YOU!?"
Raven sweat-dropped while Beast Boy leaned towards her. "Why did you have to jinx it?"
"TITANS! GET THE REMOTE!" Robin commanded, and the Titans surged forwards…
All save for Blitzkrieg.
'Really hoping that the drop in quality villains isn't a 'calm before the storm' type of thing.' The electro-kinetic Titan thought.
"Hey, look at it this way…" The Lethargic side of the hero spoke. "At least we aren't dealing with the kind of shit the Justice League deals with on a daily basis."
"Any idea on how we beat this guy and his army of animated store material?" Courage asked.
'Well duh.' Blitzkrieg replied. 'We get the remote!'
The Video Dome. Beast Boy.
"Dude!" Beast Boy cried out as he looked at a cardboard cut-out of a green hooded figure. "Wicked Scary is out on DVD!?"
"I know!" Control Freak squealed out. "Director's cut, digitally remastered, alternate ending!" The villain let out a whimsical sigh. "It's really great."
Beast Boy blinked. "…Aren't we supposed to be fighting?"
"What? Oh, right." Control Freak once again pushed a button on his remote, bringing the cardboard cut-out to life.
"AH! Not cool!" The shapeshifter cried as the newly animated cardboard monstrosity pursued him down the aisle.
Control Freak smiled as he walked down said aisle, seeing Robin in a deadly dual with a cardboard samurai, Cyborg feasting on a legion of evil candy creatures, and Raven and Starfire battling a plethora of animated cash registers—!
And then he realized that he was missing one Titan.
Control Freak squinted. "Hey, where'd the ninja-looking guy go?"
"Right here."
The next thing Control Freak felt was something hitting him in the back, sending him crashing into one of the shelves, his remote knocked out of his hand.
"Got the remote!" Blitzkrieg called out, removing the device's batteries.
"Nice." Raven congratulated as she pulled down her hood.
"Thank you." Blitzkrieg replied, pulling down his own.
"Hey guys!" Beast Boy called out. "Movie night!"
Later that night. Titans Tower.
Robin stepped into the Evidence/Trophy room, placing the Control Freak's remote in a small lockbox. As he moved to leave the evidence room, a burst of static came over the intercom.
"Robin! Emergency! Get up here now!"
"Shit, what now?" Robin hissed as he ran up towards the common room.
Titans Tower. The Teen Titans.
"What's the issue?" Robin demanded as he burst into the common room, seeing that all of the Titans—save Beast Boy, who was standing in front of the coffee table—were assembled on the couch, with various food and drink in hand.
"The 'issue' is that it's movie night, Rob. And you aren't in your seat." Beast Boy said, pointing at the couch.
A vein throbbed in Robin's head as he realized that there was no 'real' emergency, and he took a seat next to Starfire.
"Are you certain that you do not wish to have the unhealthy sugar candies, Cyborg?" Starfire asked as she tried to hand a bowl of said candies to the cybernetic hero.
"Ugh." Cyborg groaned out. "Make it go away."
"Popcorn, Blitz?" Mikumo asked as he and Terra split the large bowl between the two of them.
"Sure, why not."
Beast Boy clapped his hands twice, catching the attention of the gathered teenagers.
"Ladies and gentlemen…" The changeling began. "Prepare yourselves for the scariest night of your lives…Maybe Control Freak's monsters didn't scare you, but this movie will shock you to your core!"
"…This isn't gonna be like Star's hotdog documentary, is it?" Blitzkrieg asked.
"What? NO!" Beast Boy replied as he slid the disk into the DVD player. "I promise. Just…just watch."
An hour and a half later. Titans' Tower
Once the movie had finished, the teenage superheroes were left in various states of shock and horror. Robin stared at the now black screen with wide eyes, while Starfire held up his cape like a protective shield. Cyborg peeked at the screen between metal fingers, while Mikumo and Terra hid behind the couch with Beast Boy, who had reverted to a turtle and withdrew into his shell. Both Raven and Blitzkrieg held each other's hands in a vice grip, both uncaring of the fact that they were doing so since they were frozen in combined, cold horror of what they had just seen.
Their hands withdrew from one and other the instant Robin spoke.
"Is it over?" The Boy Wonder asked with a small tremble in his voice.
"I dare not open my eyes to find out." Starfire replied, still hiding behind Robin's cape.
"Now I'm really sick to my stomach." Cyborg groaned.
For a moment, all was silent. Then, Blitzkrieg stood up and spoke.
"Whelp, that was as horrifying as advertised." The electro-kinetic announced walking over to the now un-turtled Beast Boy. "BB, that was a wonderful horror movie. Let's NEVER watch it again."
"Only on Halloween?" The shapeshifter negotiated.
"Only on Halloween." The black dressed hero conceded as he left towards his own quarters.
"A perfect watch for such a holiday." Starfire spoke, finally letting go of Robin's cape.
"Star's right. I was so scared, I almost wanted to turn it off." Terra revealed, letting out a shiver as she spoke.
"What about you, Raven?" Mikumo inquired, turning towards the mage.
"I don't do fear." Raven told them before she, too, left the room.
"We need to talk."
Raven scowled at the new voice that emitted from her mind. "No. We don't. And if we did, what would there be to talk about?"
"Blitzkrieg."
Raven paused at the threshold of her residence. 'What about him?'
"We both know that we didn't accept his date proposal because we liked him. At least, that isn't the only reason."
Raven's teeth grit. 'He's keeping secrets from us.'
"Like Robin isn't?" The voice shot back. "Like Cyborg isn't…like you aren't?"
'…Point taken.' Raven conceded. 'But it's the fact that Trigon mentioned his 'darkest secret' that worries me.'
"So, you are afraid." The voice accused. "If not of the movie, or of Control Freak's 'monsters', then of Blitz."
Raven pursed her lips. 'Not afraid. Just…cautious.'
In the dark.
The concept of darkness was an interesting thing. On one hand, there was the physical darkness. That which manifested into the shadows that were attached to us. The absence of light that came when the sun set. The presence that blocked all sight when you went deep enough underground.
Then there was the metaphorical kind of darkness. A word used to describe what was evil, what was deviant, what was wrong. What was…other. This was the kind of darkness that rested on the spirit, or the conscience, or on the mind, whatever you wanted to call it. It was the kind of thing that warped and twisted someone or something into becoming malevolent. Evil, if you will.
And in the darkness, something very evil was coming into being. It wore the face of a hero—of two heroes—but its mind was that of a hungry predator…
And of a forsaken son.
Do you believe in the Boogeyman, Titans?
Because he believes in you.
Titans' Tower. Raven.
Raven's sleep was…peaceful, in a way.
No nightmare's haunted her. No dreams blessed her. All that Raven felt was a calm void, an endless, dark abyss. A place of warmth and comfort.
And then that peace was broken when a shrill scream echoed throughout the Tower.
Raven's eyes went wide, and the teenage mage bolted out of bed, grabbed her cloak, and ran out the door.
A solid minute afterwards, someone else entered the room, and glowing orange eyes fixated on two marionettes, both made in the image of Raven and Blitzkrieg respectively. The figure glared at the puppets, and a tendril made of rusted iron emerged from the being's back, and shot forward, piercing both of the puppets' heads.
Titans' Tower common room. The Teen Titans.
The Titans—save Blitzkrieg, who they figured had slept through the noise—assembled in the common room, where they had guessed the scream had come from.
"Who screamed?" Raven asked, scanning the faces of the other seven Titans.
"Sounded like something from the movie." Robin muttered. "Did one of you turn it on?"
The present Titans gave a resounding 'no'.
"What about Blitzkrieg?" Cyborg asked.
"I checked on him before coming here." Raven informed the cybernetic teenager. "He's still asleep."
"And the movie's right here." Mikumo revealed as he held up the disk.
And then the lights went out, shrouding the room in all-consuming black.
"Oh God." Terra spoke, her voice carrying a tremble.
"Oh-Kay…" Cyborg spoke as he activated a flashlight attached to his right shoulder. "That was creepy."
"There's a storm outside. It probably just tricked a circuit breaker." Robin reasoned, feeling something squishy land on his shoulder just as the last three words left his mouth. The Boy Wonder turned his head towards his right shoulder, and almost jumped when he found a green tendril similar to the ones belonging to the Wicked Scary monster. He let out a small huff of laughter.
"Okay Beast Boy. I admit it. You got me. Good one."
"…uh…Dude?"
Robin's eyes went wide as he found Beast Boy amongst the other Titans, who were gazing at him—no, BEHIND him—with a look of horror on all of their faces. The world's youngest detective turned towards whatever was behind him, the world feeling as if it were in slow motion, Cyborg's light trailing up the tendril to the source of the appendage.
The light found Wicked Scary, in all of its movie monster horror, its many red eyes glaring down at the young heroes with an empty, black hatred. The Titans stepped back as the creature roared, surging towards them.
And then the common room doors opened again.
"Are you guys still awake? It's four AM." Blitzkrieg yawned out as he rubbed his eyes. Then he turned to the creature and let out a huff of laughter. "Good work Beast Boy. That'll surely scare off any intruders."
"Dude!" Beast Boy yelled, waving his arm from within the group of gathered teenagers.
"…Ah. I see." Blitzkrieg spoke as his eyes switched between gazing at the Titans and the creature. Then his calm demeanor broke as he screamed. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!"
The thing roared again, tossing aside the couch with ease and charging at the Titans, lashing out at Robin with its tendrils. The Boy Wonder attempted to counter but was knocked aside and into Mikumo. Beast Boy transformed into a T-rex, letting loose a powerful roar that would have intimidated anything else.
The Wicked Scary monster simply roared back, causing Beast Boy to turn into a cat and scamper off, yowling as he did so.
Starfire retaliated by firing off multiple starbolts…to no avail. The creature simply shrugged the bolts of green energy off. Terra lifted a few pebbles out of her utility belt and threw them at the beast at high speeds. The creature flinched as one of the pebbles struck its eyes, but aside from that, there was no effect.
"Azarath Metrion—!" Raven chanted, her hands glowing with dark energy. "ZINTHOS!"
There was nothing.
"M-my powers!" Raven gasped as Blitzkrieg, Robin, and Mikumo rushed in to give the rest a hand, all attacking with a combination of bird-a-rangs, shock cards, and other objects thrown with Blackwhip.
The creature simply lashed out with its tendrils again, throwing all of the teenage heroes at Raven, causing them all to land in a heap and the monster to vanish.
"Somebody's claws are on my grebnaks!" Starfire screeched.
"Heh, my bad." Beast Boy apologized as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Wasn't there a monster here a second ago?" Terra groaned out as she stood up from the floor.
"There was." Blitz answered. "But where did it go?"
"And where did it come from?" Starfire queried.
"Hel-LO!" Beast Boy yelled, holding up the DVD case for Wicked Scary. "The movie is cursed! Watching it opened a portal to another dimension. The monster came through the portal, and now it's gonna hunt us down and eat us! And I'm probably delicious!"
Mikumo slapped Beast Boy on his head. "Calm down."
"Or a bit more plausibly…" Cyborg began.
"Control Freak escaped prison and broke into the Tower…to get his revenge." Robin proposed.
"That doesn't explain why my powers aren't working." Raven pointed out.
"And besides, I fried that remote. He'd have needed to make another one in order to pull any of this off." Blitzkrieg said.
"And besides that, wouldn't the police have tipped us off if he broke out?" Beast Boy asked.
"…You do have a point." Robin spoke up. "Cyborg, can you check to see if you got any odd notifications? A-and could you also scan the Tower for any extra life-signs?"
"Done." Cyborg said, bringing up his personal computer on his arm-panel. A few moments of silence passed as Cyborg stared at the screen on his arm. Then, the panel retracted back inside of its compartment, and he spoke again.
"I've got good news, and then I've got bad news." Cyborg announced.
"Go ahead." Robin commanded.
"Good news: Control Freak is still imprisoned." The cybernetic teen informed his fellow team members.
"And the bad news?" Terra asked, apprehension filling her voice.
Metallic tendrils slithering in the darkness.
Four orange eyes glowing in the shadows.
A grin of malice, filled with needle sharp teeth.
A ragged coat that dragged across the floor.
The sound of hellish spurs on a concrete floor.
"Someone else is in the Tower."
AN: Here is part one of the TRUE spoopy month episode.
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