Part 2: Oh, The Humanity
The lights were only out for a few seconds before they flickered back on…but something wasn't quite right. It was as if they weren't functioning at full capacity…which was very strange considering the general amount of high technology that the Titans possessed. The lights should not be flickering and dim like a porch light of a summer cottage that has not been used for two years.
"Tim! What just happened? Are you ok?" Kory said, springing up to the side of her boyfriend.
"I think so…but what the heck was that…"
"Ow…." Nigel groaned. It was a good thing that when the lights went out Noel and Raven had gotten off the couch as their battle instincts awoke. Because he had fallen from the ceiling and landed on it. "I think I'm…" Nigel said, as he tried to get up.
And found he couldn't.
Well, not really. He could move.
He just felt like he was moving through sand…with weights tied to his arms and legs.
"In a bit of a spot." Nigel said, trying to shift his weight and found even THAT was difficult.
"Nigel?" Noel said. "What's wrong?"
"I'll check…" Raven said, as she stepped back over to where the alien was lying, his hat on the floor next to him.
"What has interrupted our movie night? And why are the lights so strange?" Kory said, as she tensed her leg muscles…
And suddenly found herself falling forward. She squawked and waved her arms, but that didn't keep her from falling as she landed awkwardly, her face taking more impact then it should have.
"KORY!" Tim yelled, running over.
"That hurt more then it usually does…" Kory said, sitting up while clutching her nose. Blood, slightly brighter then normal human blood, with a very subtle purple tint, began to leak from the hand she had on her nose.
"Are you ok?" Tim asked.
"Guys…" Raven said from where she was kneeling by Nigel's side. "I can't read him. My powers…they're not working."
"What? What the…hey!" Rob yelled as he instinctively tried to shift the Gauntlet to battle mode, only to find that it was stuck in its ring form. "Hey! Work!"
"I fell because I attempted to fly. Only I did not. That is very strange…" Kory said, putting tissues on her nose that Robin had gotten her.
"The Shimmer's not working either. Something has definitely happened." Noel said, staring at his hands. "What's going on with you Vic?"
"I don't know. I feel ok…" Victor said, staring at his metal hands. They reacted to his commands, flexing and twisting. "Maybe I wasn't affected because I'm a…"
Then he tried to turn his arm into his sonic cannon and found it wasn't responding.
"Hold that thought." Cyborg said, as he tried again. Nothing. None of his other functions, from his scanners to his other weapons responded either. "Ok, I'm ok, but my gear is acting like its not here."
"My powers aren't working either." Tara said, withdrawing her hands from the stretched out position her arms had been in as she tried to call a few small rocks to her and got nothing in return.
"Same with my body. I'm still green, but that's about it." Gar said. "What's going on?"
"That orb. Someone must have gotten to it!" Noel yelled, whirling and heading for the door.
"Noel! Don't go running off! You could be walking into a trap!" Tim yelled.
"And we could be being set up for one right now! We might be playing right into their hands!"
"Who are they?" Raven asked, having helped Nigel to a semi-sitting position. The alien's body was like handling dead weight.
"Well I don't think that this just happened!" Noel replied. "This was a set up!"
"Set up? Noel, only WE know about this movie night." Rob said.
"It's not exactly a well hidden secret!"
"Yes, perhaps. But who could know enough to time…"
A gigantic flash of lightning lit up the room, followed immediately by a gigantic boom of thunder that made all the Titans jump.
"Ok, ok. Everyone gather around. We can't go running around like chickens with our heads cut off." Tim said.
The Titans gathered around…and there Beast Boy made a discovery.
"Ah no! The movies!" he yelled, heading over to where the main VCR/DVD player was placed on a table. The tapes and discs had apparently been exposed to intense heat and had melted, ruining the electronic device as well. "No! I had a copy of Zolton, Hound of Dracula in that!"
"Actually that's back in with the other videotapes. We vetoed it, remember?" Tara said.
"What?" Gar replied, and then went over to the small chest where they kept their personal videos and DVD's and found Tara was right. "Whew!"
"Ok, if we can focus on more important things…is anyone who has some kind of power NOT affected?" Tim said. Every Titan tried to use their abilities again and once again nothing happened.
"Looks like we're all like you Fearless." Victor said.
"Yeah…did I mention that sucks?" Rob added.
"That might explain why Nigel cannot move. Blacktrinians are a very dense, in physical terms anyway, species, not to mention the various metals they have fused to their bodies. Their great physical strength was original developed to help them move, unlike mine, which is more of an evolution bonus, much like my flight ability. If Nigel has been cursed to have human level strength…he'll barely be able to move his own body." Kory said.
"I have to agree with Kory's diagnosis. I don't feel hurt or weary…I just can't move." Nigel said.
"Ok…so we're all suddenly human. And from what I saw, it clearly has something to do with the TV." Tim said.
"Yeah. I just noticed our headphones are gone. Whatever zapped us melted them, as well as our rentals…how are the actual televisions?" Noel asked. Victor went over to check.
"This is strange." Victor said after ten minutes of checking (as well as some hand wringing and moaning/groaning from Gar about the damage inflicted). "Our main TV's burned out. Same with two of the spares. But this one…it seemed to still be working…" Cyborg said, indicating the TV that he, Tim, and Kory had been going to watch. "Conveniently, or perhaps not, it's the TV hooked up to the VCR that now has some horror film icing on it. As far as I can tell, that VCR is fine too, the whole melted rentals notwithstanding, while the other ones have had their guts cooked like our televisions."
"Oh, why god why?" Gar lamented.
"Relax. They are more appliances where they came from." Raven said.
"But how could they ever replace Tom, Dick, Harry, and Jim?"
"You NAMED our VCR's?"
"Uh….yeah."
"Can we MOVE ON?" Tim snapped. "Please tell me there's some good news Vic."
"Yeah. Since we had to unhook it to hook up all these VCR's, the Gamestation is again unharmed!"
Tim facevaulted.
"I swear that damn device is going to outlive us all." He muttered into his hand as he got up. "Ok guys. Here's the sitch. Somehow, our powers have turned off. If it doesn't have SOMETHING to do with that orb we took off Mumbo, I'll eat my hat."
"You don't wear a hat. Only I do." Nigel said, not getting it.
"Yes, and you should not eat Nigel's hat Tim. I do not think it would taste very good." Kory added. Tim facevaulted again.
"Can we please not make jokes? This is serious! I'm used to being myself, but the rest of you all have some kind of ability that you're used to having that you don't have, and since we're not sure just how this happened…idiot!" Tim yelled, directing the last word at himself as he turned and ran over to the computer.
"While our Fearless Leader checks to see if the computer has any information, let me continue. Robin's right. We're powerless and facing an unknown threat, and on top of that we don't know what this condition will do to us. Nigel can barely move because he doesn't have the strength to lift his body…" Raven said.
"Actually…" Nigel said, slowly sitting up. "I can move. It's just…" Nigel slowly began to stand up. "Very…difficult…"
"Relax. Don't strain yourself." Noel said, giving Nigel a gentle push back down onto the couch.
"The point is, we don't know if this could have serious effects, sooner or later. Kory and Nigel are aliens. If they've suddenly been cursed with a human-like condition, it could prove harmful or fatal to them."
"I feel ok." Kory said, rubbing her arms.
"I do too. My body's still made of metal…but it feels like my old body now. Before the accident. Or maybe I'm just so used to this body now…but Raven, Kory and Nigel aren't the only ones. Gar could be affected too. Or Noel. Heck, even you. You're half demon. Who knows if that was needed to keep certain things…"
"DAMN IT!" Came a sudden roar, and within a few seconds all the Titans save Nigel were over by the computer.
"The whole system is scrambled! Whatever hit us, it was damn thorough!" Robin said, as he looked at the fuzzy shifting mass on the computer screen.
"Is the whole thing fried like the TV's?" Tara asked.
"Not sure…but if parts of the computer were fried I don't think it would work at all…maybe it just needs to be rebooted…"
"Ok, do that."
"It's not that easy. Since we don't know the exact damage, we'd need to do a general reboot, and that…"
Another giant lightning flash. The Titans waited for the thunder: it came a few seconds later.
"Could take hours."
"Do we need the computer?" Noel asked.
"It would help…" Tim said, and sighed. He spun around in his chair. "Ok guys, we need to think of a plan."
"This has to involve Mumbo's orb. We need to go down to the Evidence Room and see if we can do something in regards to it and to this." Victor said.
"And since we're powerless for the moment, we'll need guns from the armory. Just in case." Noel said.
"Agreed. And we need to check on the power as well, see what's causing these damn flickering lights. I don't want us suddenly plunging into darkness: it would be a great time for a sneak attack. Ok…" Tim said. "Victor, Kory, you're with me. We'll go to the armory. Noel, Raven, you go down to the Evidence Room and get the orb. Maybe Raven can reverse this like last time. Rob, Tara, you go check the fuses. ALL the fuses. Gar, you stay with Nigel. We can't just leave him alone: he's helpless this way and I'm not leaving a teammate open for attack…"
"Um, shouldn't YOU stay Tim? I have some normal combat training, but you're the expert…" Gar said.
"And if the door locks to the armory are scrambled we'll need the stuff in my utility belt to break in."
"Then just take Vic and leave Kory."
"We'll need her to carry stuff."
"But…"
"Gar, what's your worry?"
"Nothing really…I just don't like the idea of being alone."
"You're letting those movies get to you Gar. Don't worry, we'll be quick. Ok people let's go!" Tim said, and the Titans scattered, none of them wanting to be separated for long either.
It wasn't until a few minutes later that it occurred to Tim that maybe he should have checked their communicators for any problems.
The T-Tower stood dark, lights flickering on and off in various parts as rain poured down around it and waves lashed at its shore.
"I don't want to go out in that." Terra said to Gauntlet. The two had checked the two fuse boxes in the Tower and found nothing wrong with them. That just left the one OUTSIDE the Tower, so they made themselves down to the base of the T, and were now outside the door which would lead them to the fuse box.
"Why?"
"I hate getting wet with my clothes on. A personal thing."
"I have to admit, it is pouring pretty hard…" Gauntlet said. He looked at Terra, who pleaded with her eyes. "All right fine, but when I come back don't complain I left you alone."
"Fine. Deal." Terra said, and Gauntlet stepped out into the storm.
It actually wasn't that bad: the wind and rain were warm and it wasn't blowing hard enough to cause him any harm.
Of course, Terra didn't know that, as she watched Gauntlet make his way out to the remote box.
It was too bad she had all her attention focused on him.
It might have helped if she had seen the set of wet boot prints that tracked IN from the door…as if someone has stepped into the Tower from the storm. But that was impossible. Even IF someone could have gotten on the island, they couldn't have just OPENED a door. They had locks and alarms.
The word being…had.
It wasn't just boot prints. There was a lot of water on the ground as well, suggesting a very waterlogged traveler. Which Gauntlet would be…except he hadn't come back in yet.
At the moment he was looking the fuses over. He couldn't see anything really wrong with them…but then again, he was devoting about 10 percent of his effort to looking and the other 90 to keeping the box open, out of the rain, and an eye behind him in case someone tried to jump him. He missed his powers and hoped they'd be back soon: he wasn't used to be cautious. It was boring.
Terra watched, as the lights flickered around her.
Then her stomach growled loudly. Terra winced and brought her hand to the complaining section of her body, which immediately notched a new complaint. She supposed it had a right: she had been planning to pig out during the movies and now due to this strange event wasn't doing so. She flipped open her communicator and tried to raise Gauntlet, but all she got was a crackling noise.
"Gauntlet? Rob? Can you here me? Gauntlet! Come in!" Terra yelled. All she got was crackling static. "Shit!"
Her stomach growled again, loud enough that if someone was in the next room they could hear it.
"Screw it." She said, and left. She'd head back to the kitchen and grab a candy bar or something. Gauntlet would be all right…
"Man Vic, is this due to the TV thing or are you just trying?" Robin said to Cyborg. The three had been unable to raise the elevator, though that was far more annoying then alarming to Robin. He figured that if there was some enemy plan behind this, they would have attacked by now (of course, that begged the question that if this wasn't an enemy plot, then what had happened that had stolen the Titans' powers and royally screwed up their building's systems, as well as wrecking their horror movie marathon, but Robin figured he'd burn that bridge when he came to it). Since they were still unhindered, and none of the other Titans had called in with an alarm, Robin had downgraded the general status from code red.
You would think that such a strange situation would render such a thing impossible, but the human beings can be a resilient species. And a stupid one that can be easily distracted by other things.
Like Cyborg, who had found that while his metal body felt normal to him, it still acted like a metal body in some respects. Like in terms of weight. Normally, Cyborg's systems would have handled this…except they were down, shut off by whatever had caused this event.
The end result was that due to no elevator, the three of them had taken the stairs, and Cyborg was lagging behind.
"I'm TRYING Fearless. I'd like to see you be all full of pep and energy if you had weights tied to your arms and legs."
"Hey, if you really felt that way you could have stayed on the couch with Nigel."
"Hey wait just a minute…"
"Friends! We cannot aid this situation by starting to fight! It is a bad time!" Starfire pleaded from her position behind Cyborg. She daintily placed her hands on Cyborg's shoulder and leapt over the hulking man/machine. "Cyborg, perhaps we should go ahead. Do not worry, we will need your…"
And then the lights in the stairway, already dim, suddenly went out.
A moment later, Starfire screamed.
"I hope the others are doing better." Savior griped, punching at the keypad that was outside the evidence room. He had gambled that since the system had been so screwed up beforehand, maybe whatever had just mucked up the Tower and its occupants might have FIXED the defiant security setup. Of course, that was proving to be a pipe dream. The dim, flickering light wasn't helping either, as Savior leaned in, straining to see the buttons.
Raven stood behind him, watching for the moment. The evidence room was at the end of a T-Junction of the hallway: One T-Prong led to the elevators and stairs that the two had come down a few hours ago, the other eventually led to some of the more generic storage rooms, and the final line went off behind Savior and Raven. The hallways behind the two was the only part that had windows looking onto the outside, and it eventually led to the garage and some more storage rooms and elevators/stairs.
Off to his left, the lights suddenly gave one final flicker and then shut off. Savior glanced over to them, only to see them sputter back to life within two seconds.
"Do you know who makes those? I don't know who to curse." Savior said, returning to the panel. He had given up on getting the actual code to work and was now poking around in the system to see if he could do an amateur hacking job. So far he was coming up with nothing, and he was begin to become frustrated, even more so when he realized that even IF he could manage to get the system to work, the doors might not open anyway because Savior had closed them manually with the Shimmer.
"Fuck." He snapped as his seventh attempt failed. "Ok Rae, you better go get a crowbar."
"You want to PRY the doors open? That will be nearly impossible without our powers Noel."
"I don't want to pry the DOORS open. I want to pry the cover off this thing so we can see if a little surgery will do the trick, and if we lose THAT patient, I want to pry a little hole in the doors so Robin can insert some explosive."
"You'll be ok?"
"Fine, fine. Relax…"
The lights over Savior and Raven suddenly went out. Savior cursed and stood up, holding up his hands instinctively before he remembered that the Shimmer wasn't coming. He lowered them and was just looking at Raven when the lights flickered back on again.
"What's DOING that?" he asked.
"I really don't know. It's eerie though. Well, I'm not the one who has to stay behind. See you later Noel. Maybe." Raven said, a slight smile on her face, and then she turned and headed for the stairs.
"Ha ha." Noel muttered, turning his attention back to the panel. Outside, the thunder boomed, but it was beginning to weaken: the storm was passing by. But there was still some left to go…
Savior lost himself in the fiddling. When the lights in the hallway behind him suddenly sputtered out, he only paid it a backwards glance and then got back to work. He didn't even notice that the lights didn't flick back on after a few seconds.
He worked.
And behind him, lightning flashed, illuminating the corridor…and the figure in black at the end. Even IF Savior had been looking, all he would have been able to see would have been a dark form…with a strange patch of white near the top.
But he wasn't, and the darkness quickly swallowed the figure. Thunder boomed several seconds later. Savior continued to press buttons.
Another lightning flash.
Now the figure was two/thirds of the way up the hallway.
"Shit. Fuck me." Savior cursed, totally oblivious.
One more lightning flash.
Now the figure, finally revealed as someone dressed totally in a black outfit, was right behind Savior. If it had any intentions, it could not be judged through its face, which was covered by an elongated white mask.
And then with a sudden crack, all the lights in the hallway shut off, plunging everything into total darkness.
"Oh great. NOW what?" Savior cursed.