Titans: Elemental

Chapter 46: Fear Itself, Part 2

Later in the hall.

Vic's flashlight beam marks his approach from around a corner, and he leads the Titans along the passage. BB brings up the rear and keeps looking back the way they came. As they pass the stairs, a small voice floats up to them.

"Help! Help me!"

Blackfire, "gah! What the-?!"

Dick, "this way!"

He moves off to BB's room as the door slides open and the group peers in. The flash roves across the pigsty that is the green goofball's living space and stops on a closed door.

"Help me!"

Dick steps into the room, moves toward the door, and wraps his fingers around its handle. He braces himself as the other Titans hunker down behind him as best they can. A sudden heave slides the portal open on its track; behind it, something very large starts to move. As all five scream, panic-stricken, the mass tumbles over them, dirty laundry and lots of it. Dick has just opened BB's closet. When the pile has settled, we see on top of it a small toy monkey banging a pair of cymbals together. The unwashed clothes have entirely covered the Titans. The plaything speaks with the voice just heard.

Toy monkey, "help me, help me, help me count! One…. Two…. Three…. Four…. Five…. Six…. Seven…. Eight…."

As it counts, BB and then Raven put their heads up from the pile. The former grins sheepishly as a big drop of sweat rolls down his temple; the latter is just annoyed.

BB, "um…. I really oughta get rid of that thing."

Jack, "I'll say. What're you, five?"

Out in the hall. Vic leads the team out of the room and makes exaggerated horror-movie moans, poking fun at the encounter.

Vic, "look out, y'all, big scary monkey! Hahaha!"

BB, "hehe, yeah, Raven. You shoulda seen the look on your face."

Raven, "you mean this look?!"

Her face goes bright red and she thrusts it toward him. Her normal color resumes as he speaks.

BB, "no, that's more angry than scared."

Raven, "I already told you, I don't get scared."

There is a loud growling from the unlit area of the hall past these two. The source comes forth; the creature that disappeared from the living room, all its teeth bared to strike.

Dick, "Titans! Move!"

All of them make tracks. Now Raven is at the rear of the group, and the look on her face when she glances back toward the pursuer gives the lie to her repeated denial of fear. The apparition races after them, scraping sparks from both walls with its clawed fingers, and they turn into another hall to give it the slip. Jack grabs Raven's hand as they run.

They all turn into an opening hallway, and into the air of a rather large room.

Each drops screaming into the empty space as soon as his/her feet cross the threshold; BB becomes a falcon to stay aloft. Starfire catches Vic by the shoulders and brings him up, while Dick fires a grappling hook that embeds itself in the ceiling of this place. The line pulls taut under his weight and Rose's; he has caught her around the waist to stop her fall. Bryan grabs the wall with his cybernetic arm as Blackfire flies into the air. Jack uses his wind powers to keep him dn Raven in the air.

Starfire peers gingerly out from the doorway. Nothing there.

Starfire, "the creature is gone", she leads them out. BB turns back into human form, "we are safe, for the moment."

BB, "okay. Don't even try to tell me that didn't scare y-"

Suddenly, the tentacles sneak up behind him, and they take a firm hold and begin to drag him away, causing him to trail off into a scream. Starfire's voice gets stuck on one horrified, quivering note as she stares.

Dick, "Beast Boy!"

BB, "what did I tell you? Funny guy goes fiiiiirrrrrsssssttttt!"

He disappears through an open door and into the shadows. It slams shut just before Dick runs up; he struggles to force it open. Slowly, they open the door to the evidence room.

Except for Dick and the other Titans, no living thing is in sight here. Starfire gasps.

Starfire, "Beast Boy! He is-"

Raven, "-gone."

Rose, "but, he can't be!?"

Dick, "give me some light."

Vic's onboard flashlight puts out a high-intensity beam.

Vic, "the evidence room. What are we looking for?"

Dick, "something that shouldn't be here."

Jack, "the remote?"

Dick nodded. He leads them in, straight down a center aisle, and stops at the far wall to pick up….

Raven, "Control Freak's remote."

Dick, "right where I left it."

Blackfire, "but wait, that doesn't make sense."

Starfire, "my sister is right. How could he conjure these monsters without his technology?"

Vic, "maybe he had an extra remote. I mean, we got, like, nine."

Bryan, "since you and Beast Boy constantly lose them."

Dick, "I'm starting to think Control Freak doesn't have anything to do with what's been happening."

Jack, "that just raises more questions."

Raven, "well, whoever is doing it, they're not gonna scare us."

Dick thinks hard for a moment. And then it hits him!

Dick, "fear! That's it! The movie, the monsters, Raven's powers, the answer's right in front of us! If Control Freak isn't behind this, it has to be-"

Red eyes appear behind him, followed by a couple of tentacles. Before he can finish the sentence, his head is securely wrapped up and he is yanked toward the wall. The tentacles have passed through it from the other side. His body slams up against it, stuck for a moment, and Raven, Rose and Starfire attempt to pull him free; they are stopped when more tentacles emerge and swat them away. Now he starts to disappear into the wall, but Vic moves in and grabs his free hand to begin a tug-of-war with the Titans' leader as the rope and the prize. The beast's grip proves too strong and Dick is torn away. Vic tumbles to the floor on his back, but stays there for only a moment; as the wall seals itself again, he dashes to the spot.

Vic, "Dick!"

He lets off a frustrated groan, then cocks one fist back and punches out the wall. Dust and debris fly everywhere; when the view clears, we see a very new hole in the architecture and no one on the other side of it. He turns to face the girls.

Vic, "I don't suppose any of you know what he was about to say."

They all shake their heads.

….

Later, as the storm continues at full force. Inside the living room, Starfire leans over the kitchen counter and checks behind it, using a spot of light from her hand to help the view, while Vic inspects a couch cushion.

Starfire, "Richard? Beast Boy?"

Bryan and Rose watch as the storm rages on when Raven and Jack come in.

Raven, "they aren't here. We've already looked here."

Vic, "we've already looked everywhere."

Raven, "almost everywhere."

Blackfire, "oh God, not there."

Starfire gives a shuddering gasp and her eyes pop as the cushion drops from Vic's hands.

….

The remaining Titans stand at the entrance to the basement, and Vic turns on his flashlight, while Bryan uses his eye again. Jack also uses his powers to light the way with a ball of fire in his palm

Raven leads them down the stairs; when they reach the bottom, they see an electric generator sits nearby. Huddled behind Vic, Starfire peeks out, looks around, and gasps sharply.

Starfire, "oh, well", she backs up the stairs, "our friends are not present. Let us quickly go back up and see if they-"

He plants one oversized hand and yanks her bodily off the flight; she voices a terrified little squeal.

Vic, "not yet. We have to get to the bottom of this."

Starfire, "this unpleasant room is not the bottom?"

Blackfire, "a figure of speech, sister."

Raven, "come on."

She leads them on, her steps illuminated by both the flashlight and Starfire's glowing hand. A dark shape, resembling a giant rat with glowing red eyes, runs across nearby; the high-strung Tamaranean shrieks and throws a starbolt toward it. No hit, but a lot of smoke.

Vic, "what is it?"

Starfire, "the floor! I saw something!"

Raven, "I didn't."

Rose, "I don't like the sound of this."

Vic adjusts his eye implant a bit.

Vic, "night vision scanners aren't picking up anything either. Let's keep moving."

Bryan, "my sensors can't pick up anything other than our heartbeats."

He and Raven continue across the area, leaving Starfire too scared to pick up her feet; after a moment, she gathers her nerve and goes to catch up. More small critters zip across behind her, and she cries out and fires one off after them. This blast causes Vic and Raven to flinch.

Jack, "Star, calm down!"

Raven, "yeah, please stop doing that. There's nothing to be afraid of, all right? It's probably just a few rats."

Starfire, "those are not rats!

They all look to see where she has indicated, and tilt up to the overhead girders. Many pairs of small red eyes open in the blackness here. Vic's beam moves across the creatures, which number in the thousands.

Vic, "run!"

Rose, "understatement of the night!"

They creatures have rat bodies, with heads matching those of the four-eyed birds that attacked BB, Jack and Vic in Raven's mind.

Vic, "run!"

As they do so, the mass of bizarre vermin surges forward from both the girders and the floor. Raven and Vic pass Starfire and Rose, who have both frozen in place due to sheer terror; as he fires a cannon shot back toward the creatures, they get their feet and starbolts in gear. Raven is first to reach the stairs, Jack right beside her, Vic, Bryan and Blackfire are not far behind her, but Starfire stops and floats up from the floor to unload on the rodents, with Rose trying to slice at them for backup. Yet more of them scuttle into view and leap toward them. They look up with startled cries and are buffeted back and forth by the dropping bodies.

Just before they drop, Raven starts to climb and Vic and the others catch up to her.

Vic, "hurry! We're almost-"

Two screams stop them cold.

Vic, "Starfire!"

Bryan, "Rose!"

Blackfire, "sister!"

The creatures have swarmed up Rose and Starfire's waists. Starfire fires a few point-blank shots into them before she and Rose are sucked into the pile with screams that would have been audible ten miles away. Vic hurls himself toward them, but an instant too late; the horde evaporates, leaving him to crash down on the empty patch of floor where Starfire had stood.

Vic, "Star?"

Bryan, "Rose?"

Raven comes up behind him and he sighs.

Blackfire and Bryan both have tears in their eyes, as they had watched the people closest to them get swarmed.

Raven, "no!"

Jack, "this just keeps getting worse and worse!"

They stand before the basement door as it opens to admit the remaining Titans, who stop near a flight of stairs leading up from here.

Raven, "we should go back! Maybe there's still a way to save her!"

Vic, "we won't save anybody if whatever this is gets us, too. We have to get outta here and come back with help."

He breaks out his cannon and trains both it and his flashlight on the stairs, and up they go.

Vic stops to sweep the light across the dark expanse as Raven gets up to the last step.

Vic, "we'll get through this, all right? Don't be scared."

Raven, "for the last time, I am not afraid."

She steps into the hall and ahead. Jack quickly follows with Bryan.

Blackfire and Vic stop behind them with shocked expressions.

As another flash of lightning happens, they're gone!

Raven, "Vic, we could use a little more light."

She stops and turns toward the camera; surprise writes itself all over her face in bold type.

Raven, "Vic? Victor?"

Bryan, "God no. It's only us left."

Jack, "we gotta get outta here before anything else happens!"

That right when several tentacles emerge from the ceiling and grab Bryan!

Bryan, "ah! Get off!"

Jack, "Bryan!"

Jack grabs onto his brother as Raven grabs onto Jack!

Bryan, "don't let go man!"

Jack, "tell that to them!"

The pulling gets stronger and stronger, until one tentacle hits Raven hard enough to send her back, and quickly pulls the brothers up into the ceiling!

Raven, "Jack! Bryan!"

Raven begins breathing heavily as she realizes that she's the only when left, when she hears a loud, horrendous screech!

An enormous winged creature flaps around the corner toward her: black, four red eyes, long tail, and she backs up and sets off at a dead run. The thing chases her around corner after corner before she comes up on the closed elevator door and punches furiously at the call button. Still screeching, it flaps inexorably along; the door opens and she ducks into the elevator.

She lunges toward the controls and gets the door shut just as the monster snaps its head out to strike. The impact of its beak puts a major-league dent in the panels and throws her against the back wall. The elevator starts to move, rising up. Inside, Raven gets to her feet and braces for more action. She lets off a visible sigh of relief at having eluded capture, but the mood changes to one of panic as the sound of something boiling is heard.

Raven, "no!"

We now see that the floor has turned into some thick, glutinous liquid, which begins to rise with alarming speed within the car. In almost no time, the level has passed her head and blacked out the entire elevator. Once it reaches another floor, the bell rings and the UP arrow lights to signal its arrival, and the doors open to spill both the foul tide and the screaming girl across the floor.

….

She has reached the living room, where she washes up not far from the couch. She stands up and shakes off some of this muck. A loud thump from behind the closed elevator door catches her by surprise, as does the bulging of the barrier due to the monster on its other side. Backing up toward one side door, she is again brought up short by growling from its shadows and the appearance of two red eyes. Sure enough, here comes the tentacled beast that first attacked the Titans.

It advances out of the passageway and stands up to its formidable full height. Raven backs up fearfully toward the couch as lightning rages outside, then whirls into a run for the other side door. While the huge creature comes up fast behind, she stops with a gasp; there, in the gloom, hundreds of doubled pairs of eyes wink up and the rat-like creatures from the basement swarm out. One reaches her feet, then another and another, and she retreats onto the coffee table; her temporary refuge ends when the giant roars and pounds both hands against the piece of furniture. She is thrown to the ground.

As the black rodents move in a body toward her, she gets to her feet and jumps onto the ledge that runs in front of the windows. With them closing in from the sides and in front, and the glass at her back, she is now completely hemmed in. Behind the mass, the huge terror looms over her, and the windows turn black while two pairs of red eyes appear on them. She turns toward this.

Raven, "stay back!"

She steps back. From the flat black expanse, a colossal animal shape begins to emerge and reach for her.

Raven, "you don't scare me!"

The new apparition comes out far enough to show itself as a wolf-like thing with a bird's head. She turns her face away and closes her eyes.

Raven, "I'm not afraid…. I'm not afraid….", it roars; she drops to her knees, puts her hands to her head, "... I'm not afraid!"

Behind the huge black creature, the windows have now returned to normal. Ravens eyes are shut tight and her teeth clenched so hard they might break at any moment. After a long second, she relaxes and opens her eyes wide.

Raven, "I…. I am afraid. I'm afraid..."

Her eyes turn pure black, with no sign of irises or whites, and she stands up.

Raven, "but that doesn't mean I can't fight back!"

The rat-things back up in uncertainty, the growling leviathan behind them.

Raven rises from the floor and yells, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!

A huge wave of black energy radiates out from her-the powers that fizzled out earlier. They have returned-to instantly evaporate the hordes of vermin. The tentacled giant is engulfed, then the wolf-thing that came from the window. Raven descends towards the floor. The remains of the unearthly onslaught swirl around her in a large circle, from which the head and wings of a four-eyed bird emerge.

This apparition emerges from the roof-fully formed, with a wingspan at least ten times the width of the structure. It lets off one long, tortured screech as lightning rips the heavens, then disintegrates into random pieces that are sucked back in through the roof. Inside the living room, Raven drops to the floor and collapses insensate.

….

A few moments later, Raven comes too, seeing all of the other Titans around her.

None are any the worse for wear.

Dick, "Raven."

Raven looks around, puzzled. Her eyes are normal again.

Raven, "you're all okay?"

Vic and Jack help her up. She hugs Jack tightly as Dick says, "we were never in any danger."

Vic, "say what?"

Bryan, "seriously?"

BB, "did you not see the monsters?"

Blackfire, "I know I did!"

Dick, "we saw them, but they were never really there. Raven was afraid, but when she wouldn't talk about it, the truth hits home; the fear found another way out."

Starfire, "her powers!"

Jack, "that explains why she couldn't use them!"

Dick, "once you accepted your fear, you regained control over it."

BB, "you mean Raven made all those creepy-crawlies by accident?"

Raven blushes and smiles nervously, "uh…. Sorry?"

Jack hugs her and says, "no harm done."

Rose was about to say something, but Bryan put a hand over her mouth.

Light steals over the room as the Titans look toward the source, the sun coming up over the shore of Jump City Bay. Dick, Blackfire, and Starfire head for the side door while Vic yawns and stretches expansively. The storm is over.

Vic, "sunrise. Time for bed."

He too turns to leave, as does Bryan and Rose.

Rose, "I'm gonna have nightmares for weeks."

Bryan, "same here."

BB, Jack and Raven have stayed put. She aims a slightly worried look out the window.

BB, "you know, your haunted house was way creepier than that stupid movie. Any chance you'd want to do all this again for Halloween?"

He beams at having come up with this idea, but she does not alter her expression in the slightest.

Raven, "I'm afraid not..."

BB shrugs as he walks away.

Jack, "you wanna snuggle in my room? I doubt either of us wanna sleep alone right now."

Raven nods as she and Jack go to his room.

Percy was curled up on the bed, having somehow slept through all of the crazy things that had occurred that night.

Both Jack and Raven lay on the bed in one another's arms, drifting off to a peaceful sleep….

….

Reviews:

Bailey Radcliff: glad you enjoyed the chapter so much.

Canadude2029: well, I'm glsd you're liking it.

raven 2012: thanks. And yep. Never got scared by him.

Ushindi: glad to see I ain't the only one. 1. Probably the episode where Robin sees Slade but the others don't.

….

With Raven as the focus, of course we get more of her and Jack bonding.