3
Beast BoyTalk about the short straw... Everyone else gets to hunt down friends. Me, I get to crawl around through this stinking gas, looking for the source. What am I supposed to do when I find it anyway? Turn on an extractor fan and pray it gets all of it? Like that'll ever work. Why couldn't I go get Venom with Terra? Oh yeah, I remember! Because I'm the smallest. I fit. I can morph into a snake to squeeze through the gaps, so everyone else gets cool dart guns, and I get to slide through boring air vents. They all look the same. I could be going round in circles for all I know.
Sometimes I pass a vent looking into a room, but so far all I've seen is the gym and a couple of guest rooms. Hold up! What's that? Judging from the mess, and the colours... Blue's Room. I can't help but laugh for a second and I pause. I think I deserve a sneaky peek. I've been up here for at least an hour and a half now. So with just a thought, there's a tiny green spider crawling down the wall. And a thought later, I'm standing in the room.
"Teleka's going to love this..." I smile with a laugh, poking around a little. Blue does a lot of sticking her nose into other people's business. So someone should poke around in hers, right?
So what can we find? Maybe a diary or a scrapbook? I walk over to inspect some of the posters on the wall, mostly for the kind of boy bands Venom loves to make fun of when Blue's not listening. My foot catches on something, just a wrinkle in the rug, I guess, but there's a grinding noise as well. I flip back the carpet, looking at the floorboards. One looks a little loose and it shifts easily. The kind of place she might keep something personal? I'm starting to feel a little bad about this, but well, I'm here now. I've found the place. I'd be a crime not to look... I wonder is that how Slade thinks... That's beside the point, but by the time I'm done thinking the floorboard's out and my hands are in. Let's see now, address book, no numbers I recognize... picture of her parents, I wonder who that guy behind them is... notebook full of gibberish... God, these girls have no taste for secrets! I wonder does Telly's room have a vent. Now she's got secrets... Or Venom! He tells nobody anything! I could learn things...
Wait, what was I supposed to be doing? Oh yeah! Vents! Ducts! Extractor Fan! Okay!
Robin
Whatever happened to Blue Moon, she's still trailing blood. I've heard of Scarecrow's victims hurting themselves, but never so quickly as this. She could have caught her leg on something in the weapons room.
Mental note: Buy Teleka sheathes for her birthday. Blue could've sliced me up nicely.
I've tried helping Starfire grasp the concept of self-harm and why it's so dangerous, but she can't seem to understand why anyone would want to. I don't think that should be an issue for a while yet. I've never heard of victims committing suicide until at least 3 days of total immersion in the fear gases, which is why it's so important that Beast Boy gets a move on. It's as important to clear the air as it is to knock the Triquetra out and set them up with the breathers. I just hope he can focus on that...
"Robin? You are certain Blue Moon is in no danger from these visions?"
"Yeah Star. None of them can actually hurt her. But she can't see that."
"Then... why does she bleed again?"
"She could have been hurt in any number of ways. I don't think there's anything to worry about." There's a slight change in the pattern of the drops around the corner. "She slowed down here and started walking. Maybe we can catch her up." Around the corner, there's no sign of Blue Moon, but there is a door lying open, swinging slightly. I motion for Starfire to follow and walk forward silently towards the room, aiming the dart gun. We step inside, but there's noone there. The door slams behind us and something is jammed underneath it. "It was a trap!"
"But who would do such a thing?" The only answer Starfire gets is a high-pitched, mad cackle outside the room.
"Nasty children in my business! Trying to spoil my fun. Now your all trapped! Trapped trapped trapped!" comes the voice.
"The Scarecrow," I tell her quietly, listening as the cackle gets farther and farther away down the corridor. What can we possibly do for Blue Moon from in here? Something metal catches the light in the top corner of the room. The ventilation opening. What was it Beast Boy said about the screams carrying? "Beast Boy!" I shout. "Blue Moon's third, halfway down the hall leading on to the common room. Unblock the door!"
Thirty seconds later, the door flies open, scaring Starfire to hide behind my cape.
"You yelled?" BB says exuberantly, holding up the two staffs that had been braced between the door and the wall, effectively locking it shut. "I saw Blue on the way, she's gone nuts dude! That's all I can say."
"That's what the Scarecrow wants. She probably thinks so too..." I say slowly. "Go back to the vents. Try the area leading up to the roof."
"Sir, yes, sir!" I can hear the obvious sarcasm on his voice, but choose to ignore it. It's normally a wise decision with Beast Boy.
"Oh... This is a terrible, terrible situation. We cannot allow our friend to become insane. This cannot happen!" Starfire frets.
"We won't. Don't worry Star."
SpeedyMore screams. They're the only thing leading us to her. The claw marks have ceased completely. All I can say is I hope she's still not thinking about earlier. She was out of her mind, I try to reason. She'd have let me know if I'd ever done anything to hurt her. She'd have hurt me back. It's easy to know where you stand with Teleka.
Raven hasn't said much, but I know she's thinking about Venom. She's worried, but not letting it show. Does she ever? I know exactly how she's feeling. She doesn't care about catching the Scarecrow. She just wants to know he's okay.
Teleka doesn't seem to be slowing down. Maybe she knows we're chasing her. Maybe she doesn't see us. The fear could be making her see something different. But suddenly, the shouting stops and footsteps can only just be heard, and the scraping noise of metal on metal. Raven looks at me with concern. Teleka's an expert with several weapons. Any of them could do us some serious harm. The footsteps start again, coming back towards us from the direction of Telly's room.
Her shadow moves up the wall slowly, the only clue that she's coming. She's not making a sound now, which I have to admit I find scary. She grew up around cats. Earlier on, it looked like she was hunting like one. What if it's the same thing? The shadow blurs and disappears too quickly to follow, forcing us to turn the corner to investigate. A feral shout tears the air in two, incoherent. Something hits the ground noiselessly behind us, barely causing a tremor. Raven spins and tries to hold the figure with her powers, but it moves too fast.
"Do you know what you did to me? To my mind?" The voice is more of a deep, rumbling growl I've heard before.
"Teleka, it's us," I say quietly, trying to comfort her as she bounds around.
"I know who it is. Three years of one, one year of the other. Four years of hell!" she screeches, coming out of the shade, allowing the sunlight to glint off the deadly blade of a glaive.
"You've figured out what she's seeing?" Raven asks quietly.
"Yeah. Actually, I'm kind of offended.""Don't be. It's not her fault."
"Yeah, but still... I bear no resemblance whatsoever to-" "Look out!"
I jump instinctively, just in time to miss the blade slashing beneath my feet. "This is going to feel so good," Teleka growls, swinging again.
"Yeah, until you snap out of it! Then it's not going to feel good."
"Care to put money on that?" she continues, before she softens again. Her eyes slide in and out of focus, and she stops looking through me for a second, dropping the glaive. "S-speedy? Rae? It's... It's the Scarecrow! He's doing this to me! It's not me! I – I'm sorry!" she cries frantically. I hand her my breather so she might take a few breaths of fresh air and hold her tight, feeling her body shake as she starts to sob.
"We know. We know about the Scarecrow... You told me before, remember? This morning... Just breathe, you'll be okay, it'll all be okay, Tel." I see Raven turn her hood up and turn away. Is she thinking about Venom? Could she be doing the same for him?
"Th- This morning? You were here? You were here! I remember! Oh my Gotham... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean any of it!" She kicks her weapon as far away as she can, letting go of me for a minute as she does so. Something reaches down from the ceiling, a long gangly arm, and wraps around her neck to lift her from the floor. She chokes, losing the breather as she does so, and inhales the dense gas that hangs around the ceiling. She claws at the arm, beginning to go red. I see Raven charging up a blast of telekinesis, but I'm afraid she'll hit Telly as well. I load up an arrow and fire at the limb, singeing it. There's a high-pitched scream, and Teleka drops to all fours on the floor, gasping in the gas and searching frantically for the breather. "Can't... lose... it... again," she gasps, trying to hold her breath. The owner of the arm drops from the vent in the ceiling.
"Nasty stinger! This is my party! Gatecrasher!" The Scarecrow. As mad as any of his prey have ever become. But he still hasn't spotted Raven who lands her charge in his back, throwing him forward. "Bad! Nasty!" he shouts before pulling himself back to the ceiling and swinging upside-down for a second before he disappears into the labyrinth of ducts again. For a second, I think about following him, and then I realize... Teleka's gone and so is her glaive. My breather's still lying where it fell.
"Damn it..." Rae and I mutter in unison.
Cyborg"I still can't believe this is plan B..." Terra murmurs, starting to strum quietly on the guitar as we walk.
"Why don't you just wear a cow-bell? Tell Venom we're coming why don't you."
"Sorry... You're sure there are no better plan B's?"
"Well if you think of any, just let me know Terra. I feel bad about this too, but the idea is, just knock him over the head and get him outside in fresh air, okay?" I say. She's starting to annoy me a little now. Can she keep her mouth shut for more than a minute?
"I bet Raven wishes she was sent after Venom."
Obviously not.
"Well she wasn't, so can you shut up so we can get on with tracking him down?"
"Oh... okay, then... Sorry." I hope I haven't offended her. Who am I kidding? I hope I did. Might keep her quiet for a while. "I mean, I didn't realize, I was prattling on like that..." Good god, she must have some psychological problem with silence. No wonder she gets on so well with Blue Moon and Starfire...
"I didn't hurt her. I know I didn't. It's not me..." The muttering coming from the room at the end of the hallway is definitely Venom. Terra raises her guitar warily. I scan the brightly lit chamber the voice is coming from. "I would never hurt any of them. Not Telly, not Blue... not Raven... definitely not Raven. I would never do that..." The Triquetra's gym, it seems. At first glance, I can't see Venom, but my heat sensor picks him up in the far corner.
I nod to Terra and point in his direction. She nods back and begins to tiptoe across the wood floor, brandishing her makeshift weapon. As far as can tell, this is the only safe exit, so I stay here to block it. She seems to be doing a good job of silence now as she creeps across the room, but something shifts in the corner, over Venom's head. A rope moving down. Terra's too preoccupied with stealth to notice, but it seems to be attached to something on the ceiling... Those monkey bars maybe. Then I realize how high the ceiling is. Blue and Teleka could get to those, but what about Venom? And why are there two layers?
Then it hits me, as the lower layer loosens and starts an arc towards the ground. One set's the ladder, and the other is the bars. "Terra! Behind you!" I warn her. The ladder's about to knock her over. Quick spectrographic analysis shows the metal as a light titanium alloy. It wouldn't do much damage, but it would be enough of a distraction for Venom to get away. She dives flat to the floor in the nick of time, the feet of the ladder catching her hair as they swing past. Venom makes a run for it, but I manage to reach out and clothesline him. "You're not going anywhere. It's for your own good, man!"
I pick him up, ready to let Terra knock him out, but he twists in my grasps, hissing. I've never seen anything like this before. Green scales begin to burst out of his skin, and his face seems to... melt for lack of a better word, becoming flat and triangular, like a snake's head. "Ah! Creepy!" I say, letting go just as Terra swings. Venom runs past me, as a guitar breaks over the metal side of my head. "Nicely done."
"Me? You were the one who let go!"
"He was turning into a snake thing. What do you want me to do?"
"Um... Hold on?"
"Don't get smart now. After missing the goddamn ladder swinging for your head, that would be hypocrisy."
"Don't use big words if you don't want me to get smart! What the hell is hypocrisy?"
"Saying one thing and doing the opposite, Terra!"
"Ok, then! Let's go after Ven!"
"Ok then!"
ScarecrowHehehe! Nasty children won't get out. Scarecrow's fun's not over yet. Scarecrow having too much fun to let silly children spoil it. Scarecrow finds Green Boy and Scarecrow stops him taking all Scarecrow's lovely gas out, so the fun can keep going. That's why Scarecrow's up in the metal tubes. It's fun, but Scarecrow has to find Green Boy. Scarecrow mustn't laugh. Can't let him know I'm up here. But Scarecrow can't help it. Scarecrow hears screams. Screams are fun. Scarecrow is going to keep the three nasty kids here and listen to them scream. Scarecrow wants his fun to keep going, so Scarecrow not let them get out. But Scarecrow doesn't want the other ones. Scarecrow gets rid of them. Starting with Green Boy...
Beast BoyThere's someone else up here. Snakes can sense the tremors from miles away. Someone trying to be quiet, but they seem to be struggling not to laugh. Maybe it's one of the Triquetra. Blue Moon gone mad. But from what I can feel, it's someone bigger, skinny for his or her size. The Scarecrow. Robin was right; this is how he got the gas in.
He doesn't have an animal's senses like me, but he's heading the right direction. If I slide out, I should be able to avoid him and get closer to the roof at the same time. There's a vent just ahead, so I drop into the room below and take a second to get my bearings. Another bedroom, by the looks of things. The walls are black with red tribal patterns all over the place. The carpet is deep blood red, and the perfectly made bed has black and red silk covers in the same patterns as the walls. Telly's room.
There's a strange feeling here, like I'm being watched, but I know there's noone nearby, I would sense them. Bookshelves to the left of the bed, nothing interesting, just about a gazillion full sketchbooks and a few old coffee cups. The computer near the door is password protected. Probably a good thing, I'm getting as bad as Blue Moon.
A sharp cackle carries into the room from the ducts above. Scarecrow passing. One side of the room is portioned off by a curtain, so I run over to the corner in case he spots me. He passes right by, singing some little kid's song. And Cy says I'm crazy?
Of course, I had to ignore the signs directed at Blue when I dashed through the silk curtain, but I think most of them were pretty stiff warnings. I try to stand up, but crack my skull off something above me. When I move forward and stand I can see why even Blue doesn't brush off those signs. This rivals Raven's room in the creepy department. It was a display case I bumped my head on, one stretching across the entire wall, divided into boxes by red material. Katanas, sai and other weapons make up most of the items inside. Jewels and ancient-looking prizes take the rest of the space. Teleka's no millionaire. These must be from her days as Cat-Girl. I reach the end of the case, and come across three mannequins covered in a dustsheet. I can already tell what they are, but I've come this far. I'm not going to tell anyone anyway...
I was right, three uniforms. Cat-Girl, Slade's apprentice and Nocturne. Why would she want to keep those? I suddenly feel I shouldn't be here and walk out of the room. There are stairs in both directions at the end of the corridor, so I head towards the roof to find that extractor fan, suddenly Venom's room doesn't seem so important. It can wait. I don't like seeing something I know noone's supposed to see.
"Why?" Somebody drops onto the landing in front of me at the top of the stairs. "What did you see? Why were you in my room? Never mind, I'll read your thoughts." Teleka, carrying a long staff with a blade at each end and coming towards me.
"Teleka? What's wrong?"
"Don't tell anyone. Never tell anyone. This is the only warning you'll get. I don't like being betrayed, okay? If you ever tell anyone what you saw behind the curtain, I will kill you..."
"Hey, no problem Telly. That's fine! I wasn't gonna tell anyone anyway! Really!" I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. If the Scarecrow's intention was to terrify me, mission accomplished. I knew she was scary in the past, but this is beyond. I should have one of those cool dart guns. I try to think of an animal with knockout gas, but somehow they escape me at the minute. Are there any?
"You're lying! I don't like being lied to! Maybe I should make sure you don't, should I?"
"No, no, no! That's fine. I won't tell, I swear."
"Why should I believe you? Why should believe anything any more? This place! It isn't real! You're probably not even here!" She screams, swinging for me with her weapon. I'm not the only beast in HQ any more. She's nuts.
"You're right, I'm not here. You're wasting your time. You should just go on ahead and find Speedy and Raven... Or anyone else, in fact... The real me is up in the air vents. I'm a dreeeeeam..." I tell her, wiggling my fingers a little. She raises one eyebrow, leaps over me, and heads downstairs. "It worked? It worked! I don't believe it, it worked!" I glance around to check there's noone coming before I break into a quick victory dance.
"Go Beast Boy, You tricked her. Go Beast Boy, you're cool. Oh yeah, I'm funky!"
"Beast Boy?" I recognise that voice...
"Raven! I, uh... didn't see you there..." She's just come out onto the landing below me, from the hall where Teleka's room is.
"Evidently. We don't really have time for you to dance in the hallways. Have you seen Teleka?" Man, she can be so cold sometimes. All business. And then Venom shows up and she's all, ' Ooh, he says as little as I do, we're made for each other'. I'm standing thinking about this when I remember she's standing below me and see the impatient look on her face.
"Oh... Right, yeah. She just went downstairs. Jumped right over my head and landed a couple of floors down."
"Ok, then. Speedy, get out of her room. She's downstairs." Just like that, she's hovering off down the stairs. No 'Thank you Beast Boy, that was helpful,' just, 'Ok then'. I really don't get her. But that's not the point. I finish off the last couple of steps of my victory dance and take off upstairs again. I'm gonna save the day! And then someone'll have to thank me.
(a/n Now doesn't that deserve a review, my honeys? Please? I'm really desperate. My boyfriend just ran over a badger who stole my cookies, so I'm really depressed and need cheering up.)
(No badgers were harmed in the writing of this chapter.)