-Thanks for the reviews!
-Now, one reviewer mentioned the dialogue. To an extent, I agree since the Titans are a bit talkative in this story. I try to keep it down as much as I can (like the last chapter. I tried to cut down excessive dialogue with an increase in action [and when I say action, I don't simply mean fighting monsters. I mean action in general]). But I also figured, this is how the Titans would be like given the situation (after all, they are stuck in a strange and horrible place. Since the Titans are a team and are good friends, I always pictured that, if they are together, they would be quite talkative [better then allowing only the sound of monsters and other 'terrifying' sounds dominate]). However, that requires that they stay together. ;-) Also, I've been trying to increase the action and make the Titans 'less talky'.
-Also, originally, the masked man wasn't Pyramid Head. Though I did base the monster off of him, I tried to have it more intoned with Teen Titans and made his mask similar to Slades. However, thinking back, maybe it would be fine to leave Pyramid Head as Pyramid Head. It isn't like my version is that different then the game version (and at the moment, I haven't figured out any reason why it would be a Silent Hill 2 specific monster [maybe that has to do with the fact that I haven't finished Silent Hill 2 yet]). So, if you go back and read my proofread and revised Chapter 3, I've made those changes to that chapter.
-As for a Prediator/Teen Titan crossover...I don't know. At the moment, I'm sticking with simply crossing over with Silent Hill.
-Now, enough of my rant. Now for the story...
Romero Apartments
Robin grabs and shakes his head, clearing it a bit. He looks around him. He sees that he is in apartment 303. The apartment appears to be completely normal. He sees that the room is clean even through it is dimly lit. He notices that it is still foggy, blocking most of the sun's light (if there is even a sun. Robin isn't exactly sure of that yet). He notices that the rest of the Titans are there as well (minus Raven of course).
Beast Boy shakes his head. "Was it all just a dream?"
Cyborg looks around the apartment. Cyborg sighs. "No. Raven is still out there somewhere and...and if this was just a dream, why do we have hand radios and in an apartment that is on the third floor?" 'If it is on the third floor. Though I see no reason why it wouldn't since that is where we came from in the 'other' world.'
Robin looks at the apartment then looks back at his radio. "Well, it's safe...for now. No monsters yet."
Beast Boy scratches his head. "Yeah. No more pyramid headed super monsters."
Robin nods. "Well, I guess we could continue..."
"Wait Robin." Worry fills Starfire's eyes. "We need a 'breaking' from fighting evil."
"A break?" Robin blinks at Starfire. "But..."
A loud rumbling sound is heard. It turns out to be Beast Boy's stomach. Beast Boy pats his stomach. "Heh, I guess I need a recharge."
Cyborg looks at his clock. "Odd, it says that it's only been a few hours since we've been here." Cyborg looks around. "Then again, I guess time and space are not the same in this town." Cyborg turns to Robin. "Look, we're all concerned with Raven...but...with these constant encounters with these...monsters, especially that armored freak, it doesn't do her any good if we are killed because we are too tired and weak."
Robin looks at the group who all appear to need a rest. Robin finally nods. "I guess we can afford a break." 'Raven can take care of herself. But I'm still worried about her.' Robin looks around the apartment. "And..." Robin frowns. "And I have a feeling the residence might not mind if we raided their cupboards."
"Good." Beast Boy walks over the refrigerator. "Now, to see if there is anything ..."
"Wait BB!" Robin walks up to Beast Boy. "Do you really want to open that refrigerator door?"
Beast Boy stops cold. Images of severed heads and arms and tons of blood filling the refrigerator flash in Beast Boy's head. Beast Boy slowly moves his hand away from the refrigerator door. "Heh, good point."
Robin's stomach rumbles. "But it probably wouldn't hurt to look..."
Cyborg checks the cupboards. "Some cereal, half bag of potato chips, a bagel...I guess we could eat this stuff. They seem to be all fresh." 'Supposing that this food IS safe to eat. Hopefully, what's in this food isn't what caused this town to be what it is.'
Robin puts his hand on the refrigerator handle. Robin takes a deep breath. 'Please let it be normal!'
Beast Boy covered his eyes. Starfire just stared, wide eyed, at what Robin is doing.
Robin grabs the refrigerator door handle. He slowly pulls it back. The suction slowly lets go. As the suction lets go, Robin swings the door fully open revealing...a normal refrigerator with normal contents. He looks around and sees sandwich meat, bread, milk, juice, soda, cheese, vegetables, and pudding.
Beast Boy peeks then takes his hands away from his head. Beast Boy uncovers his eyes and sighs in relief.
Starfire smiles slightly. "We have nourishment to consume."
Robin takes one of the sandwich meat. He sniffs it. "But is it safe to eat? Certainly smells fine."
Starfire looks at the food. "There are no blue furry things growing on it."
Cyborg takes out a portable examiner. He takes a potato chip and checks its chemical composition with the device in his hand. The chip appears to be completely normal. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. He takes a bite of the chip. "A little stale, but normal from what I can tell."
Robin takes a bite out of the sandwich meat. Chews it a bit, then swallows. "Taste okay..."
The Titans take the food, make sandwiches, and bake a pizza, drink, and so on. They all eagerly eat the food that they could find knowing full well that, they have no idea when the next time they would be able to eat normal food again in this place.
Robin takes a bite out of his sandwich, as he looks out the window. He sees a woman, a blond woman walking towards a building. 'A survivor?' Robin looks at the woman again. She is wearing a dark dress. Robin takes out the picture that he retrieved from the superintendent's room. 'It's the same woman!' He rereads what is on the picture. 'Rebirth of Paradise. What does this mean? Maybe she knows what is happening with this town!'
Beast Boy exits the bathroom. "Good thing that's normal too."
Robin first knocks on the window. The blond woman below doesn't seem to notice him. Robin then tries to open the window.
Cyborg looks at Robin messing with the window. "Robin, what are you doing?"
The lock for the window seems to be jammed. No matter what Robin does, the window simply will not open.
Robin throws his hands up in frustration. "Gah."
Cyborg blinks. "Robin?"
Robin turns his head towards Cyborg. "Huh? Oh..." Robin turns the rest of his body towards Cyborg. "I saw a survivor down there. A blond woman."
"Blond woman?" Cyborg thinks back to the accident that caused them to get stuck in this town. "Like the one that ran in front of our car?"
Robin shakes his head. "No. This one is a little older. And..." Robin takes out and shows the picture to Cyborg. "She appears to be the woman in this picture."
Cyborg looks at the picture. He flips it over to reads what is on the picture. "Rebirth of Paradise? You don't think she created all this, and this is her 'paradise'?" 'Because if she thinks this is paradise, she is one crazy woman.'
Robin shrugs his shoulders. "Either way, she is a survivor of sorts. Hopefully, she can shed some light in what is happening."
Cyborg looks out the window. "But how are we supposed to get to her from here? Remember the roads are caved in." Cyborg scowls as realization hits him. "Wait, let me guess, we have to check this apartment for clues."
Robin looks around the room. "Probably."
Starfire exits the bathroom. "It is so nice that the bathroom is not too evil."
Robin looks at the bathroom. "Well, guess that would be a good place to search." 'Get through two things at once.' Robin enters the bathroom, closes and locks the door.
Cyborg opens a few drawers. Nothing of interest pops up until... "Well, what do we have here?" Cyborg looks at the keys on the refrigerator. There is a note next to the keys. The note reads; The Roberts, the newbies in Apartment 201, entrusted me to look over their birds while they are on vacation. I don't really like birds but since I don't want to get on anyone's bad side here, feeding it once or twice everyday shouldn't be a problem. 'Guess that's where we are going next.'
Robin finishes his 'business', and flushes the toilet. None of the cupboards or drawers yielded any clues. As he is washing his hands, he looks up at the mirror. He notices an odd watermark on the wall at the opposite side of the room. As he stares at it, it looks like...a face. Robin frowns. Normally, he would just have passed it off as a visual illusion. However, with what he experienced so far in this town, that could very well be a real face. Possibly even a ghost. That last thought gives shivers to Robin. 'Luckily, if it is a ghost, he hasn't attempted to go through. But I have very little desire to find out if it is.' Robin quickly dries his hands, opens the door and exits the bathroom.
Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg are all in the living room waiting for Robin. They see Robin exit the bathroom.
Robin looks up. "So, I take it you know where we should go next?"
Cyborg tosses Robin the keys. "Apartment 201. Coincidently..." Cyborg's voice dripping with sarcasm, "the renters of this apartment were entrusted on keeping a few birds feed."
"Figures." Robin turns to the door. "Well, no point in delaying this, Titans! Go!"
Robin opens the door to Apartment 303. Robin sticks his head and looks in one direction, then the other. Seeing that the coast is clear, he ushers the other Titans to follow him to the elevator. Their radios are still silent indicating that there are no monsters in the general area. Robin pushes the button to the elevator. After a few seconds, ping is heard indicating that the elevator is ready. The doors open and the Titans enter.
Robin is about to push the second floor button when he remembers Bryan. "Say guys, we should we check on Bryan first?"
Starfire nods. "Yes, we should check on our new friend to see if he is safe."
Robin pushes the button for the first floor. The elevator goes down the first floor. After a slight rumble, the elevator stops, and the elevator doors open. The Titans exit the elevator and head towards the first floor apartment that Bryan is staying.
Cyborg is the first to get there. He begins to knock on the door. However, he is only able to get one knock as the door slowly opened. A deafening creaking sound is heard that brought fear to the Titans. Cyborg eyes widen as he sees what's in front of him. "Oh no."
The window is shattered. Broken glass is everywhere on the ground. A massive blood trail leads from the window to the middle of the room. Bryan is nowhere to be seen.
Starfire's eyes start to water. "Friend."
Cyborg shakes his head. "Wherever he is, we can't help him now."
Robin nods. "Guess we should head to Apartment 201."
Robin, and the rest of the team head back to the elevator. After pushing the button to the second floor, the elevator starts to move. After a few seconds, the elevator doors open. Robin looks at his radio, which is still silent, he looks in one direction of the hallway, then the other direction. With the coast, seemingly clear, the Titans slowly head towards Apartment 201. The only sound that could be heard is the sound of the creaking floor underneath them. They arrive at Apartment 201. Robin takes the key to the keyhole, and slowly turns it. Click, the sound of the Apartment door being unlock seem to echo through the mostly quiet hallway. Robin grabs the handle, and slowly turns it. The sound of metal rubbing against each other gives the Titans a slight pause. As a soft click is heard as Robin lets go of the door handle. The door slowly opens. Robin instinctively grabs his Bo Staff, ready to use if anything were to jump at him. As Robin waits, the room finally reveals itself, showing nothing out of the ordinary is prevalent. Robin looks down at his radio, still silent. The other Titans breathes a sigh of relief that nothing evil is in the apartment.
The Titans enter the apartment with Robin leading the way. Everything seems normal, except an empty birdcage with a small jewelry on the bottom. 'Definitely a clue.' Robin thinks to himself. Robin takes the jewelry from the cage.
Cyborg looks around the room. He checks the drawers to see if they can find any other clues in the apartment.
Starfire does the same. She checks the bathroom, the bedroom, the closets, even the kitchen to see if there are any clues that she could find.
Beast Boy too looks around.
Robin looks at the room. 'What am I missing?' Then he sees the TV and VCR. 'Hmmmmm...wouldn't hurt.' Robin powers the TV, puts it on channel 3, powers the VCR, takes out the tape and puts it in the VCR.
Beast Boy looks at Robin. "Um, do you really want to do that Rob?"
"Covering all bases Beast Boy." Robin pushes the play button.
Static fills the TV screen. The sound of static also fills the mostly quiet room. Cyborg, and Starfire stop their searching a bit to see what is on the TV. There seems to be an image in the static, a person or persons even, but Robin can't make them out. Robin listens to the static. Something is definitely being spoken, but whatever it is, it is being drowned out by static. After a few minutes, the screen goes blue indicating the end of the tape.
Robin ejects the tape and looks at it. 'That didn't help me any.' Then Robin remembers where he got the tape. 'Guess this means I have to play it...in the other world.' Robin puts the tape away. Robin turns to the team. "Find anything guys?"
Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy all shake their head. "Nope."
Robin looks at the jewelry in his hand. "This must mean something. But what could it mean? It isn't a key that's for sure. And I haven't seen any puzzle that would need it." Robin walks around and stops as he looks at the window in the bathroom. He notices that the window is directly in front of an open window of the other building. The buildings are close enough so that they won't have to worry about falling. The windows are just big enough so that even Cyborg could go through. Robin approaches the window. He notices the bathroom window is slightly open. Robin puts his hands under the window, and lifts it up. Robin looks in the other building. It seems to be more apartments, hotel, or an office building. Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all peak into the bathroom. Robin turns around, "Guess we can proceed now."
Office Building
Robin enters the next building. The other Titans look into the hallway. The hallway is darker due to the fact that the lights in the hallway are not on, and there are few windows in the hallway. There are dark stains on the walls. Robin checks his radio. A light static could be heard. Robin takes his Bo Staff out and elongates it. Whatever monsters are in this hallway will not get the better of him.
Cyborg follows Robin in. Despite the tight squeeze, Cyborg is able to get through the window to the next room. Beast Boy, in lemur form, jumps through easily to the office space. Starfire flies across and stops behind Robin. Cyborg turns on his mini-light to give the dimly lit hallway a just little more light. The dark stains turn out to be bloodstains. Some even look like handprints.
Robin looks up at the hallway. 'Should we search this building first, or should we go straight down to catch up to that woman?' He sees an office door next to him. Office 206. 'I have a very sneaking suspicion that this woman won't be in danger, and that we will meet her anyways. Not that she would be staying in one place. It probably won't hurt to search a little since, we probably have to go through this building anyways.' Robin grabs a hold of the handle. He slowly turns the handle. Click. The door opens. As the door creaks open, a giant moth flies towards Robin. Robin swings the Bo Staff, whacking and killing the moth. Robin enters the office. Swish. Robin takes a back step as a monster in front of him swings a knife.
Starfire blast the monster back to the office shelves.
The monster, momentarily stunned, slowly gets up ready to strike again.
Robin rushes the monster with the Bo Staff; he bashes the monster a few times, before stomping on him. Destroying its neck. Robin wipes the sweat off of his brawl.
Beast Boy, and Cyborg enter the office after the fighting is over.
"Glad it was just a few monsters." Cyborg looks at the now dead monsters on the ground.
Robin checks out the office. For the most part, it is clean, and nothing pops out as being important or out of the ordinary or even useful. Robin checks out the drawers, and rummaging through the papers, nothing of interest still pops out at him. All the papers seem to be financial statements. 'What use is this?'
Cyborg takes a look at the financial statements. "This is odd, a lot of money is being spent on this...store." He looks at the name of the store. "Darkness Falls Memorabilia Shop? Sounds gothic. I don't know about you but I seriously doubt that this store would be this profitable." He looks back at all the numbers. "What's even odder is that there doesn't seem to be a source for the money."
"So it is a store where Raven shops?" Starfire ask innocently.
Beast Boy, Robin, and Cyborg stare at Starfire.
Starfire feels small. "It was just a thought."
Beast Boy blinks. "Maybe Starfire is on to something."
Cyborg nods. "Whatever this store is, it definitely connected to what is happening here, one way or the other."
Robin takes the papers again. "Where is this store by the way?"
Cyborg checks the map. "Well what do you know, it's just outside of this office building."
Robin thinks about the woman. "She seemed to be going to that store." Robin begins to walk out of the office. "Whether or not she will still be there when we get there, it's obvious that this place should have answers to what is going on. And maybe a way to stop it in its tracks."
The Titans exit office 206. Robin tries office 205 the handle, only to find it broken. 'One less office to explore.' Robin checks office 204. Click. The handle door opens. Robin prepares his Bo Staff, and swings it open. Nothing. The room is empty. No furniture, no lights, no holes either. 'That was a waste. Though at least there is no monsters to fight.' Robin, with the group behind him ready to help if there are encounter any more monsters, tries out the door of office 203. After opening office 203 doors the room is again empty. 'Why can't they break the handles like the other doors instead of wasting my time!' The Titans head towards office 202. Robin is about to grab the door handle.
Crash.
Robin swings out of the way. Beast Boy, back in a lemur form, leaps out of the way. Starfire flies backwards away from office 202. Cyborg readies his sonic cannon.
"Roaaaaawwwww." The ape like monster slashes at Robin. Very close scratches appear on Robin's suit.
Cyborg blasts the monster back. The monster flips a bit, and then gets back up. "Roaw."
The monster lunges at Cyborg, knocking Cyborg down.
Beast Boy changes into a huge gorilla and punches the monster off of Cyborg. The monster flips and lands on the wall. The monster jumps from his position and lands on Beast Boy. Beast Boy changes into a turtle and hides inside of his shell. The monster swings his arms at Beast Boy, making scratch marks on Beast Boy's shell.
Starfire blast the monster back with her starbolts. "Die evil thing! Diiiiieeeeeeee!" Starfire's eyes glow green. Starfire uses her laser eyes and burns the monster's midsection.
"Roaaaaaawwwwwwwww!" The monster, momentary stunned, and extremely hurt, turns its attention to Starfire. He dodges another attack from Starfire, and springs towards her.
"No!" Starfire brings both of her hands forward, readies a massive energy attack, and fires at the monster. The monster explodes into a million pieces, bringing a quick end to the battle. Starfire breathes in and out. She drops to the ground. Starfire's expression changes from that of anger and determination, and that of concern.
Robin looks at Starfire. "Star?"
Starfire's lower lip starts tremble. "I...I...it was evil right? And evil things are supposed to die right?"
Robin nods. "Yeah. Yeah that's right. You did the right thing Star."
Starfire continues to blink. "Yes, I did the right thing."
Robin frowns. 'I don't like what this town is doing to Starfire. The sooner we get this over with, the better.'
Cyborg gets up.
Beast Boy returns to his human form. He turns to look at his back. There are massive cuts in his uniform. "Man, this can't be good."
Robin enters the office. He sees a box. The box has a hole on top of it. He takes the jewelry out from his belt. He looks at the jewelry, then back at the box. "Guess this is what this box is used for." He places the point on the jewelry in the hole. The jewelry begins to spin, with a soft music playing. After the music stops playing, the box opens. An odd looking key is in it. The key seems to have a skull for a handle, to what looks like an old looking key. Robin puts the key away.
He exits the office and looks across the hallway. Office 201. The handle is broken. 'Guess that means there is only one-way to go. And that is to the outside.'
The Titans enter the stairway and went down to the first floor. The first floor is fairly sparse. There are boarded up rooms on either side of the hallway. The front entrance is bared. The back entrance door is unlocked. The Titans exit the building.
Back Alley
The Titans all exit the building. They look around. The sky is still shrouded in fog. The brick building of the office building that they just left is a two-story brick building that shows a ton of wear and tear. Next to it is the newer Romero Apartments with its stucco walls. In front of them is the all black-painted Darkness Falls store.
Robin approaches the Darkness Fall's door. He looks at the keyhole. The keyhole doesn't look like it is meant for the key they just found. 'If it isn't mean for this door...then that means...'
BAMThe Titans are taken aback. The garbage can next to them...something is banging the lid.
Cyborg, Beast Boy, Robin, and Starfire stare at the garbage can.
Cyborg puts his foot on the garbage can.
"Um Cy? Are you sure that is a good idea?" Beast Boy started backing away from the garbage can.
Cyborg pushes the garbage can over.
The lid opens, and a thing roll out of it.
The thing turns out to be a cat. The cat turns towards the Titans and hisses.
"Ahhhhh...it's just a cat." Starfire approaches the cat.
The cat continues to hiss before turning around and running away. A loud meow is heard from the corner.
"Kitty?" Starfire tries to fly to where the cat went when, but Robin grabs her hand and drags the Starfire to Darkness Falls.
"It's too late for it Star." Robin opens the door to the Darkness Falls store. "We need to find that woman. Hopefully we will get some answers." Robin, dragging Starfire, followed by Beast Boy, and Cyborg enters Darkness Falls.
Darkness Falls Store
Since they enter from the back, they wind up in the storage room. They see many boxes filled with candles, mask, and other weird stuff. Many seem to belong to a horror movie. As they look around the backroom, they notice that the entrance to the actual store itself is blocked off. And not just by bars or it being boarded up. Instead, the doorway is bricked up.
"That's odd." Robin looks at the bricked up doorway. "Why is it bricked up instead of simply boarded up? At least with the boarded up doors and broken handles, that is more of a logical step then having it all bricked up."
Cyborg searches the walls for a bit. He finds something that catches his eye. "Robin, check this out."
Robin follows Cyborg to the wall where he is. There is an old style keyhole. "Looks like this is it." Robin takes the key out and puts it in the keyhole.
Starfire follows Robin to see what he is doing.
As Robin turns the key, the wall shimmers, and moves to reveal a backroom.
Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg enter the room. It is dimly lit. There seems to be some kind of alter at one end of the room.
A blinding light catches the Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg off guard. They all cover their eyes from the blinding light.
Beast Boy is checking out a skull candleholder. "Some people seriously has some problems in this town." Beast Boy puts it away and notices the wall open. "Hey guys? What did you find?" Beast Boy waits a few seconds, receiving no reply. "Guys?" Beast Boy looks in the hidden room. He sees the alter on the far wall. But the room is otherwise empty.
-------Chapter 4 complete.
Some of you probably wondered where I have been? Especially since I'm supposed to be on summer vacation, which in turn means that, I have more time to write right? Right? Well, that didn't turn out to be the case. Other then the fact that I was suffering from a minor case of writer's block, I also was busier then I expected so far this summer. And with plans to get a summer job as well as go to summer school, I don't have the time I thought I did.
Also, yes, a lot of scenes that the Titans have encountered are taken from the games. But I hope that these mostly unoriginal scenes don't take away from the story as a whole.
I also cut this chapter off right here and didn't add a ton of other parts as well. I could've easily made it a lot longer, added more monster fight scenes and so on. But I decided that this is enough. I didn't want the story to be bogged down by another excessive search through the rest of the Romero Apartments, with the office building tact on as well. I also didn't want a lot of monsters fights, which would again slow the story down, a bit. You also might've noticed that I cut down on the dialogue so that it isn't as 'talky' as the other chapters of the story.
That being said, I am now in possession of Evangelion series! Once I get around watching the whole series (minus Death and Rebirth, and the End of the Evangelion), I can actually start my first NON-Teen Titan fic that I have planned! So, anyone interested in Evangelion fanfic by me, look out for it.
Now, where did Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg go? Can Beast Boy survive alone? Will he stay alone or will he meet someone from the past? What happened to Byran? And where is that older blond woman from the picture? Find out as the story progresses!
Chapter 4, proofread and revised.