Chapter eleven (wow, eleven already?): Hopeful Chaos
Author's notes: Thankies to everyone for helping me pass the 190 mark! I'm really happy! And finding that loophole (seen in chapter ten) really made me cheerful too, because another J-pop song inspired me to get back to writing! The song is "Heartbeat" from the anime Di Gi Charat, and I worked on translating it not long ago...some parts came out completely incomprehensible. So I added a little of my "creative writer's touch" and made it more consistent. And the finished product reminded me a lot of Beastboy and Raven, so yayneth!
Nari: Dang, long author's note...
Me: Yup. And I can't believe we're on chapter 11 already! I think (after this one) we have three or four more chapters then maybe an epilogue if you're all really good. XD Ideas are welcome, but there's a good chance I won't use any of them unless I'm totally in love with one. Anyway, TO THE STORY! (skips off)
Nari: Where is SHE going? She's supposed to stay here and write...oh well. This chapter is dedicated to kkori!
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We join our three adventurers with their newest addition. Beastboy, Timid, and Anger are covering their ears, due to an over-zealous emotion who won't stop spouting.
"If Anger is released by Beastboy, does that mean she can never be locked up again or can she go back to the way she was before? Is Raven the only person who can talk to her emotions? Why did the chicken cross the road? What does VCR stand for? What were we doing again? Why does-"
Happy was gruffy interrupted by Anger, who slapped her hand over her mouth.
"To answer your painfully long and pointless chain of questions, and shut you up, I CAN be locked up again, no, to get to the other side, nobody knows, and searching for Hope. Will you shut up now?" (a/n: Would have used an exclamation mark after that question mark, were it not for the evilness on this website that prevents authors from expressing too much excitement.)
Happy mutely nodded her head and Anger removed her hand.
Peaceful quiet overcame everything until Happy dared to speak again.
"I have one last question then I'm done talking for now."
Everyone let out annoyed groans. "What is it?"
"How come Anger doesn't hate Beastboy?"
There was a dead silence. No one but Anger really knew the answer.
"W-what does it matter, anyway?" Anger snapped irritably.
"Well, I was just curious."
Timid made her voice heard for the first time in the last few minutes. "I...was kind of wondering, as well..."
Anger hated socializing as it was, but admitting something like the answer to their question was just degrading.
"Look, it's not important right now anyway! And we're at our destination."
The three that had been following Anger looked at their previously unnoticed surroundings. It was what looked like a desolate hill, completely uninhabited.
"Here?" the green Titan questioned.
"Yes. I can summon the other emotions up on this spot."
Everyone stood back from the emotion in red garb as she waved her hands in the air in strange patterns. Glowing lights were emitted from the bare grounds, causing Timid to whimper.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos..."
---
There was at Starfire's door, to which she answered cheerily "You may come in!"
She sat up at the sound of her doorknob turning and looked to see who her visitor was. Starfire was overjoyed to see it was the Boy Wonder himself.
"Hey, Star. Uh...what are you up to?" he asked awkwardly, lingering in the doorway.
"I was just listening to Radio-a-Japan," she answered simply.
Robin's face twisted into a weird expression then reverted back to normal again. "Ah, you mean Japan-a-Radio."
Starfire nodded, blushing slightly at her error. "I very much enjoy listening to foreign music and looking up the lyrics. It helps take my mind off of..."
"Yeah, I know," Robin interrupted to save Starfire from having to finish her sentence.
The two turned their attention to Starfire's radio as the host announced the next song.
"Next up is Hearbeat from the popular anime Di Gi Charat! This is Japan-a-Radio!"
Starfire instantly began to search for english lyrics, but this time, no results came up. Robin looked over her shoulder out of curiousity.
"Nothing?"
"No," she replied sadly.
Robin thought for a moment, then had an idea. "You could always request a translation on a message board or something."
Starfire seemed to like the suggestion. "That is a good idea! I shall do so."
The Titans leader assisted Starfire in posting a request for english lyrics. He showed her all of the buttons she needed to click, how to register, and how to make a new thread. Starfire was enjoying the lesson immensely, especially because Robin was the one giving it to her.
Robin read over her post for grammatical errors. "'Thread title: Lyrics request
Hello, I wish to ask for someone to translate the song Heartbeat into english for me. Thank you in advance,
TwinklingStar'. It sounds good, Starfire!"
Starfire smiled broadly at his praise, happy to have learned something new. "I like to make these 'posts'. Perhaps I shall do it more often! Thank you for helping me Robin."
A light blush crossed Robin's cheeks, and he rubbed the back of his head. "No problem. I've gotta go now. Talk to you later?"
He stood up and left Starfire to her own devices.
Starfire watched him leave then turned back to her laptop. An idea entered her head. "Hm..."
She clicked on the "new thread" button.
"'Thread title: Raven, my friend...'"
---
A familiar flash of light and all of Raven's remaining emotions surrounded Anger.
"It worked?" Beastboy asked.
"No duh," Anger replied hastily, rolling her eyes.
"Why, if it isn't Beastboy," Knowledge observed, adjusting her glasses. "And we were summoned by Anger, I see? How queer."
Anger scoffed at Knowledge's know-it-all airs and began to talk. "You have been summoned merely because Beastboy is in search for Hope. I know that if we were all to gather, she would eventually be found."
Beastboy nodded. "Who's in?"
"I'm most certainly ready to help," Knowledge said.
Brave placed her hands on her hips. "I'm there for you!"
"As am I," Affection agreed cheerfully.
"I guess I'll tag along. It'll be nice to hang out with Beastboy since I didn't really get to last time," Lazy said slowly, not as eager as the others to go on an emotion hunt.
"And I shall join, but you must be aware of the possibility that Hope may not WANT to be found," Wisdom announced.
Everyone looked at her curiously.
"What?" several of them questioned.
"Well," Wisdom began, clearly already knowing she was probably going to have to explain this. "Raven lost Hope because she was no longer in use. She no longer held any faith. And though there has been an occasion or two when she was found long enough to manifest, aforementioned emotion has been gone so long that she may not be able to work properly anymore. This is a large part of why Raven's health is failing so readily; she has no Hope of surviving."
Though this concept went over a couple of people in the group's heads, everone seemed to understand.
"But," Beastboy countered, "I don't really care if finding Hope might not work. If there is some kind of possibility that finding her will help Raven, then that's good enough for me."
---
An hour or so had passed since Robin had last seen Starfre, and he was starting to wonder what she was up to. He mused over whether he should check on her, or if going up there again would seem tacky.
As he, at last, decided to go for it, the alarm went off. It seemed the city was being attacked in three different places! Mad Mod at the park, Mumbo Jumbo at the bank, and Johnny Rancid at a random street.
This was going to be difficult, with Raven bedridden and Beastboy nowhere to be found.
While Robin was brainstorming as to what he should do, Cyborg and Stafire entered the room.
"What's the trouble?" Cyborg asked.
"Mad Mod, Mumbo, and Rancid, all in different areas," Robin muttered.
Cyborg and Starfire made confused faces.
"But do the villains not usually strike at different times?" Starfire queried.
"That's what's weird. And it's so...all of a sudden, too. It's like they were all inspired by something to attack now." Robin shook his head and began giving out commands. "I'll take Rancid, Cyborg can take care of Mad Mod, and Starfire can deal with Mumbo. Titans, GO!"
Without a minute to spare, the three remaining Titans dashed off to take care of the criminals.
---
Starfire had arrived at the bank, only to see Mumbo stealing money. As she ran at him to attack, she wondered what the point of having money was anyway, if you were a theif? Strange.
Mumbo was not even paying attention, so she threw a well-aimed starbolt at him and he collapsed to the ground.
"That was...embarrassingly easy," Starfire thought out loud. She scooped him up and slung him over her shoulder, to carry him to jail.
A few of the citizens approached Starfire and thanker her for stopping the troublemaking magician. Then one lady asked her a question.
"Hey, would you happen to be TwinklingStar on the Jump city forums?"
"Yes, that is me," Starfire confirmed.
"Ah! I read your post about Raven. Is it true? Is she really sick?"
"It is true," Starfire confirmed once again, wondering where this woman was going with this conversation.
"Oh, I feel so bad for her! I should tell my friends."
Starfire didn't really know what to say, and didn't honestly want to pursue the subject, so she simply nodded and left.
---
"Hey, Jamie, you'll never guess what I heard from Starfire..."
End of chapter eleven
Next time, on Finally Snapped...
The three remaining Titans are having trouble defeating the two remaining criminals. But they're going to come home to quite a surprising welcome when they're done...
And Beastboy continues his search, now accompanied by eight of Raven's nine emotions and must convince Hope to return.
"Attack of the Fans," on Finally Snapped. See ya then!
Author's note: Wow, I actually wrote this in one day. Weird, I don't usually finish chapters this quick. Though I'm not really happy with it, but whatever. I hope you guys enjoyed. Thanks again for all of the reviews!