(Author's note: after finishing this chapter I spilled soda all over my old keyboard. Good luck?)
"So uh..." Beast Boy said, watching Raven's chest rise and fall as she slept on the table at the rear of the main room, "do we wake her?"
"Not yet." Cyborg was binding Robin's arms and legs with metal wire, "Remember how I saw Starfire when I was asleep? I've got a feeling that the same thing's happening to Raven. Meanwhile we should monitor that thing in the basement."
"Speaking about that thing..." Beast Boy looked across the room at the giant display screen. A fleshy pink blob quivered on the monitor. Parts of it seemed missing, red light emanated from gaps in it, but those were slowly closing. The monster was slowly becoming whole.
-
"Please tell me you know what's going on around here." Raven asked the pair who just arrived in her dream.
"We have not determined how," Starfire told Raven, "but a creature in the basement is the source of our dreams."
"It seems to feed off of our nightmares..." added Robin, unsure if Raven would believe him.
"That explains the dreams... but what happened to you and Starfire? And what does it get from our dreams?"
Starfire looked away from Raven at the lifeless Beast Boy. She absently touched her face.
"I think that is to provide a constant supply." Robin had watched in horror everything he had done since he'd walked into the basement, including his fights with Raven, he avoided her eyes. "We think it's using something from our dreams to manifest itself physically. First it could make sound, now it is becoming solid. If it becomes real who knows what it could do."
"So then how are we supposed to st-"
"EEEK!" Starfire pointed at Beast Boy's body. A fleshy tentacle wrapped around his neck and began to pull it to the stairwell.
"Titans, move!"
The three Titans sprinted after the body; it twisted and contorted as it was pulled, leaving a long trail of blood.
They entered the stairwell. The meaty limb already had Beast Boy two floors down. The body flailed around at each turn of the stairway, colliding with the walls and leaving red stains all along the way.
Raven could barely contain her feelings of remorse. 'That isn't really him', she had to tell herself.
"Hurry," ordered Robin, "we have to stop it before it becomes real!"
Starfire and Raven flew down the stairs as Robin agilely leapt from stair to stair. Raven found an opportunity to grab Beast Boy as they reached the ground floor. She wrapped a dark tendril around his leg, pulling his body taut as the monster's tentacle pulled on his neck.
Starfire cried out as she blasted at the fleshy limb with her starbolts. One of them connected and severed it just above Beast Boy's head. From below them something squealed in pain. An instant later two more tentacles shot up from the floor below, one grabbing on to the body and the other whacking the two girls aside.
Robin reached the bottom of the stairs. Beast Boy's body was being pulled through a hole in the floor. He dived for it but he was too late, the body was pulled under and after he landed the slick blood sent Robin skidding away.
They couldn't stop it. Through the hole they could see Beast Boy's body being enveloped into the creature. The lit gaps sealed, the creature stirred.
"NO!" cried Starfire putting her hands over her face.
"Starfire what-" Raven was cut off as her alien friend started to wail in pain. Behind her hands her face erupted in flames and she toppled over.
"RRRAH!" Raven turned away from Starfire in time to see Robin's bloodied boot before it connected with her skull.
-
"That thing's alive in there; we've got to stop it!" Cyborg readied his sonic cannon. Behind the basement door the creature was slamming into walls and crashing limbs against the room's supports, the loud noises occasionally accompanied by a piercing squeal.
Beast Boy sighed, he knew they didn't stand a chance. The other Titans were still sleeping; even Raven wouldn't wake despite their many tries to wake her. There was no way they could defeat the massive monster, but if it got to the other Titans... or lose in the city...
There was no other choice. "Another giant monster... why does this keep happening to me?" he asked before joining the other Titan in size as a gorilla. He grunted in agreement. As if on cue, the creature chose that moment to slam into the basement door. The metal door bent and groaned until finally it blew open, knocking the two Titans over. It was quickly followed by a massive meaty monster.
-
"Raven, wake up!" The words were much too loud. Raven opened her eyes and the green light nearby was much too bright. She had a splitting headache that seemed to hurt worse every time someone talked. "Come on Raven," Robin pulled her up by the arm and she moved so that her legs hung over the table, "there you go."
It must have been a few hours since Robin's second fight with her but outside the sky was still dark.
Starfire smiled, her raised right arm illuminating the room. She had knocked down her door and cut Robin's restraints before the both of them woke Raven. "It is good to see you." Starfire noticed the dried blood at the side of her friend's face. "You are... injured?"
"I'm fine." Raven lied.
The television on the other side of the room still displayed a video feed from the basement. The room was empty, dents and craters littered the walls and the doorway was missing.
"Where's Beast Boy and Cyborg?" asked the half demon girl.
Robin and Starfire exchanged glances then shrugged.
Moments later they entered the corridor just outside the basement. There had been a struggle here, the door lay bent and broken far away from where it had previously stood and several wall panels were missing. Worst of all the three Titans had another trail of blood to follow, it lead down the corridor that would bring them to the T-Sub bay.
Raven felt a chill spread across her body... the other Titans kept their distance as she hovered quickly down the corridor.
The blood became wide in its placement, as if tracks left by a giant's feet. A few meters down the passage Starfire's green light brought a torn garment into view. Raven lifted it up. It was the shredded remains of Beast Boy's costume, it was covered in the same blood that stained the floor.
Raven dropped the piece of clothing and her body quivered. Starfire supported her as she threw up on the floor, Raven hadn't eaten for a while and bitter bile mixed with the blood that still lead down the corridor.
A door slid open and several arms grabbed the Three Titans and pulled them into a closet.
A shoulder lamp flipped on and a boy in green boxers smiled, "You ok Raven?"
"Beast Boy! Cyborg! You are alive!" Starfire still held on to Raven, who was facing a corner and dry heaving.
"But the blood trail..." asked Robin. Cyborg raised his right arm, it was covered in blood. "I was able to wound it before we decided to hide," He said, "but now that you guys are here we've got a chance, its time we find that thing-"
"and take it down!" their leader grinned.
Raven wiped a hand across her mouth and looked at Beast Boy, "did you have to get your clothes ripped off?"
"Hey, you think I like this look?" Beast Boy was flustered, even now Raven couldn't go a few minutes without a snide comment. "Uh..." he looked down at his almost completely naked body, "could I borrow your cloak?"
"Not a chance."
-
The door to the large sub bay was also knocked in, the Titans entered and with Cyborg and Starfire's combined lights were able to make out the strange creature turn from the T-Sub across the room and face them. It squealed.
"You should have stuck to the dreams," Robin called out, "but you're in our world now, and that is a big mistake!"
With out hesitation monster shot dozens of fleshy tentacles at them.
"Teen Titans, GO!"
After dodging the initial attack the titans scattered and closed with the monster. Robin pulled out his bow staff and deflected the pink limbs as they came, Starfire flew over head tossing starbolts and shots from her eyes, Cyborg was getting in close to punch it again, Raven threw pressured oxygen bottles while avoiding attack, and finally Beast Boy grabbed a hold of a large hunk of the monster as a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
A meaty limb wrapped around Starfire and slammed her into the green dinosaur. The oxygen bottles were averted and collided with Cyborg. One of them bent and popped, shrapnel digging into his metal chest and some finding the side of the round monster. It screamed again, worse then scraping teeth against a chalkboard, and lunged against Raven. Both girls were raised high before their attacker's tight grip was broken by Robin's birderang. Robin was close enough to strike, he leapt into the air and cracked down on the monster with his bow staff. A cut-short tentacle swiped across his chest and broke the collapsible weapon in half. Robin looked at the two pieces, strangely inspired. "This thing seems rather single minded, lets see how it fairs when it's beside itself!" Robin snarled as he grabbed a hold of part of the monster and pulled back with all his strength. On his side Starfire did the same while Cyborg and the green T-Rex followed on the other.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" dark energy flew from Raven, making a dark, flat blade. It sliced into the monster between the four other titans and cut deep. The Titans pulled, blood streaming from the massive wound. Soon the creature was ripped in half; the parts fell aside, the creature was quite dead.
The Titans stood there for a moment, breathing heavily. A few, especially Starfire, were stunned at the destruction they were forced to commit.
Beast Boy turned back into his human form, "And I thought Iron Chef was bad, cleaning this up is going to be the worst nightmare of all."
The other Titans walked away from Beast Boy and the felled creature... they could clean it later... now it was time for some sleep.
-
Raven sat on her bed. Her head still hurt, and even though it was over the questions still bothered her. Why did this thing go after the Titans? What really was it? How can we know it is gone forever? Was someone else behind it?
She shed her bloodstained clothes and got into bed. Answers, if they would ever come, would have to wait. She lie in bed for a while but soon, like the other Titans, enjoyed a long, dreamless, sleep.
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I loved writing this story. I may make a sequel or work on something completely new. Thank you for reading Nightmares of Titan Tower! Please feel free to write a review... hehe.