The Following Words
Robin woke up, abruptly. He wasn't even that sure when he'd fallen asleep, or… unconscious. He looked around, momentarily disorientated. Industrial estating?
He sat up, rubbing at his head. A dull ache echoed behind his ears, distracting enough to require pressure from his hand.
Someone was screaming.
He looked around. Actually, it appeared more like Beast Boy was yelling. Loudly.
"Beast Boy," he tried to say, and blinked and wondered if he'd gone deaf. "Beast Boy," he tried again, more forcefully. He could hear Beast Boy. He wasn't deaf. He could hear a rasping noise coming from his throat. He still wasn't deaf.
Oh. Dear.
Beast Boy was still yelling. Robin looked around for something to throw at him to get his attention, when someone interjected.
"What the hell are you yelling about?" Cut in a Cyborg like voice.
Robin rubbed his head again, and stood up. Cyborg was slumped against a pole a few metres away. He looked as though he'd only just woken up, judging by the blinking and disorientated expression.
Robin looked around to see where Starfire was. Not seeing her on the ground, he looked up. Not seeing her there, either, he began to worry. Beast Boy said something to Cyborg that he didn't quite catch.
He looked around for Raven.
And then he remembered, a dream or something, which involved a giant structure on chicken legs with three quarters of a giant arm attached to it. He vaguely remembered it slamming its arm down, and… had Raven been underneath that? And had someone else… the memory trickled away then, like water out of his hands, and he rubbed behind his ears again.
He looked around for a second time, for something to throw at his remaining apparently two teammates.
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Terra drifted up from the sleepy warm hold of unconsciousness into a world of ow-my-head and what's-that-warm-thing.
She blinked and tried to look around, but it was dark, and her eyes didn't seem adjusted yet. She remembered going for a walk, and that was nothing unusual. She remembered everything else, and then wondered non-committedly if the church had slipped some drugs into her charity dinner.
She decided to squeeze her eyes, to make her vision better, and tried to move all her limbs. And that was when she remembered that there was a warm thing next to her. Terra grunted and poked it, hard, and it rolled limply.
Opening her eyes, she found them a little more adjusted, and she sat up. Everything still looked a little grey and dark. She looked down. Something black and white and maybe red, but she couldn't tell that much, was lying in the space of the thing she'd poked. It was covered with a sheet of some kind of blue material, but she still knew that it was black and white, and maybe red.
She looked down at herself, and wasn't that surprised to see that she was yellow. She was a little surprised to see that she was also a bit of blue, and a bit of green, and a bit of brown. She considered the drugs thing a bit more seriously as she tried to stand up, and failed, to her backsides misfortune.
She could hear a voice, yelling, somewhere vaguely in the distance. It sounded oddly familiar.
The limp thing under the sheet moved, Terra looked around to see if she could determine any further exactly where she was.
The no longer limp thing sat up, abruptly, checking that it had all its arms and legs, and then breathed in deeply. It looked at Terra, at the edge of her peripheral vision.
"This is so wrong," it croaked, somewhere between sarcasm and the tone of one who doesn't really believe that they're saying that out loud.
"Yeah," said Terra. Something about that voice sparked an old annoyance.
"Where are…" it paused. "Terra?" It said, as though testing.
"What?" Answered Terra, almost convinced that the black, white, and maybe red thing was Raven.
"Right," it said. There was another long pause, and Terra felt she'd better check.
"Raven?" She said.
"Uh… what?" What do you want? Heard Terra.
"Nothing," she replied. Raven changed the subject.
"Where are we?"
"Somewhere," said Terra, "didn't you get-"
"Squashed to death, yes, I am aware," replied the whatever-Raven-counted-as. "I take it you did as well, though exactly what the hell squashed us, and why you were even there, and where in shits name we are now, still rather eludes me."
"You just swore," said Terra, in an accusatory voice. Raven didn't swear.
"I'm annoyed," replied Raven. She did sound rather irritated. Terra suspected then, that Raven was also maybe a little scared, and that was why she was using all sorts of sarcastic techniques to sound like she was angrier.
"I don't think we're dead," said Terra, helpfully. "Because this isn't real earth." She poked the surface they were on.
Raven didn't say anything.
"I was out for a walk," the earthmover continued. "A giant kiddies toy with chicken legs and an arm got you. I mean us."
Raven levitated into a standing position, and Terra was momentarily envious of her power. Ravens eyes glowed white, she was looking around. Her arms and legs were all the colours, and none of the colours, and there were red veins running through them now and again. Terra wondered what she looked like to Raven, and hoped that she looked just as impressive.
"We're definitely not dead," said Raven.
"I know that," replied Terra.
Raven levitated higher, and Terra began to lose sight of her in the darkness. She worried now, that it wasn't just an absence of light, and more actual darkness, wrapping everything up so that she was effectively quite blind.
"Hey," she called, "don't-" She cut herself off, not wanting to sound like she couldn't take care of herself. But Raven was leaving her vision, and because she couldn't feel an ounce of real earth anywhere near her, and last time she'd tried to stand up she'd failed miserably, she was going to be left on her own, in the dark, pretty much helpless. Terra was overcome with a feeling of 'I'm a big baby'.
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"Brilliant!" Cried Kid's boss, joyously. "Brillion padding."
"Yes Sir," said Kid, happily. "Fifteen really did surpass itself."
"And they have not one idea!" Said the boss again.
"Not one," confirmed Eighty-One, who was still wearing his headphones.
"You truly are a genius, Sir," complimented another man. General mumbles of agreement passed through the ranks of the twenty or so people in the surveillance room of the unnamed organizations HQ.
Kid span on his office chair, unable to keep the grin off his face. The mission had been successful, and he still had both arms, and his neck was fully in tact, and his boss was happy. And a happy boss was a generous boss.
"There shall be toast," said the boss, holding up a charred slice of bread. "Toast, for what we have achieved this day."
A kind of toast was had. Spinning again, Kid grinned.
A party was underway, for the most recent achievement of the unnamed organization. The fifteenth of the fifteen operatives had finally achieved the mission goal. This was only the second of the operations that the Teen Titans had even noticed as worth fighting. But the boss didn't mind. He had a million more inventions in that brain, and he enjoyed seeing a product of his mind finished and operative as much as seeing it complete the mission effectively."To the Brilliance," said The Boss. "And it could not have been undertaken without much of the work you all managed to get done."
"To the Boss!" Said the man by Eighty-One, spontaneously.
He was in for a pay rise, thought Kid, judging solely by the look on the Bosses face.
"A more Brilliant leader there could never have become," said The Boss, raising his toast again.
The party continued for another few hours, and the atmosphere was more relaxed and easy that it had been in months. Kid remembered why he worked there, as he relished in the overdone compliments and utter worshipping ethic that was underway.
Task One, mission completed. The follow-up job would only be easy, he thought, and ran through the plan in his head idly, enjoying the lack of obscene pressure.
Task One had been to make the law enforcement agencies of Jump City prove themselves to be useless against them. This included an agenda that went something like make the police hand the job over to their superiors, kick the crap out of their superiors.
The superiors, in this city's case, were the Teen Titans.
The objective part two had been to break the team down, and prove that they could do nothing to stop the Brilliance of the Bosses plans. This included separating the five members so that they were no longer a team, and using the weaknesses that they didn't even know they had to alter their minds and memories, and perhaps, eventually, their personalities, so that the city would be free for a new reign of ultimate vigilante power.
Task Two was to step up the organizations more active role in Jump.
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Terra sat in the dark, pretending that she didn't mind it at all, as she waited for Raven to return. She tried twiddling her thumbs to keep herself amused, and then started playing with the ends of her hair. She wondered more in depth why she couldn't feel any earth here, and why she had been turned into a big baby by this lack of powers thing.
A vague something drifted downwards, and landed in a crouch next to her. The graceful effect was spoilt by the odd balance shift that had made Terra fall over when she'd tried to stand, and now played its part by causing Raven to topple sideways and off of her feet. She sighed, and sat down in a more comfortable position.
"We're definitely not dead," said Raven. She sounded awfully sure about that.
"Why's that?" Asked Terra.
"Because…" Raven sounded like she didn't want to say something. "Because you'll have to trust me on this one."
Terra snorted without meaning to. Raven acted as though she hadn't heard.
"How are we going to get out of here then?" Asked Terra.
"I guess keep going up. As far as I can tell, there's just nothing there."
Terra shifted uncomfortably. "I, um, don't know if that'll work," she said. "Isn't there… like, a light-switch in here, or something?"
"No." Deadpan. But of course.
Terra decided to just say it. "I can't go anywhere," she said. "There's no earth in here. I can't even stand up."
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Robin paced down alleyways around the estate until he found the missing alien. She was lying on a heap of black garbage bags. She blinked and began sitting up as Robin approached, rubbing at her head. Robin frowned. He really hoped that there was nothing seriously wrong with her. Like a headache.
"Star," he said, jogging up to her. What actually came out of his mouth was a raspy breath of exhalation.
"Robin!" Said the alien, turning to look at him. "Robin, what… where are we?"
Robin gestured to his throat, and then began to make jerky hand gestures. When Starfire had arrived on earth, English was thankfully not the only language she'd been educated in.
Upon understanding his sign-language communication, Starfire gasped.
"But… what has caused this?" She said.
Robins face fell slightly. He made some more gestures.
"I understand," said Starfire. She got up off of the garbage pile, and brushed herself off in an attempt to appear more presentable. She eyed Robin, concern obvious. "How are the-"
She stopped as Robin began to gesture more, nodding, her eyes on his hands. When he finished, she took a moment to think. "What must we do now?" She asked. "I remember nothing."
A further yell from Beast Boy interrupted them. He was shouting, further away.
"I believe our friend might need us," said Starfire. She took Robins hand, and they began to walk towards the raised voice, the Boy Wonders face troubled.
Way2beme -- It certainly would.
Autumn Thief -- Sorry, I should have made that clearer! That comment was aimed more at Black Shield "smiley" , anyway, cheers, here's an update!
Sunshine10 -- Not so fast this time... but this week is the holidays. I'm home. I have no life. It should continue.
Lovely White Violets -- Cool! If you still want to nick MTB, email me or something and i'll send you the download. I'd love to see what you've got in mind for it.
Nevermore-raven -- I have no idea if I answered any of that... "grin"
Don't you just hate the lack of asterics? Thanks for reviewing, me and my pet monkey love you.