Realms of Chaos
Rated T
The First Chapter: "Pilot"
"Are we ready?" Robin asked, his eyes roaming over his friends to gauge their expressions as they answered.
Starfire nodded, her neutral look hardening into an expression of ironclad determination. Cyborg grimaced and gave a wave of annoyance, looking like he wanted to spit but couldn't be bothered to waste the saliva on this. Beast Boy had a goofy grin on his face that could have meant anything from clueless daydreaming to ultimate nervousness. Raven's expression didn't change at all, but her grim tranquility seemed strained as she nodded, too. With everyone's silent acknowledgement, Robin took a deep breath and prepared himself.
"Remember," he spoke a few final words of encouragement, "stay low and loose. Keep moving—they'll mob you if you plant your feet for even a second. Don't let anything distract you from escape, because it only takes an instant of hesitation for them to pounce. And don't forget: no one gets left behind." He waited a moment to give that statement the necessary sense of gravity, then smiled. "Good luck."
With his warning behind him, he nodded to the bouncer guarding the backstage door to the Jump Municipal Theatre Hall. The enormous, muscular, bald white man nodded back and yanked open the door. The noise blasted into the previously soundproof hallway like an ear-stinging breeze, a physical presence with no definable form that still pressed against the body with its sheer weight. The team set out the moment the way was clear but hadn't gotten past the door before the crowd spotted the Titans coming.
The shriek that rose from the massed fans was like a wave, the shout of insane joy spreading from the front to the back as those who couldn't see added their voices to the chorus without actual, first-hand knowledge why. Then again, they were all here for the same thing, right? The twin cordons of hired security forming a shoulder-to-shoulder pathway through the masses was strained and buckled inward as they pressed forward in their common, overpowering desire to see their idols. Camera flashes started to go off like bright sparkles on a sea of joyous faces, and the crowd's surface seemed to undulate as people further back hopped and squirmed forward for a better view.
Cyborg led the way, helping with a discreet hand to push back security guards who were quickly losing ground to the Titans' enthusiastic fans. With his other hand, he waved, his height towering above the others and, fortunately or unfortunately, letting the rest of the gathered revelers know about where they were, even if they couldn't see them. He got more than his share of attention, to be sure, but his fans weren't quite as… expressive as those hounding the others.
Robin was next, and he definitely got the loudest bunch, if perhaps not the most. A slew of women, the vast majority of those here now, in fact, now raged against the struggling bouncers tooth and nail for the chance to surge a little closer and express their undying adoration for the Boy Wonder. The ages ranged widely, but tended rather disturbingly toward teenie-boppers. Robin was so distracted by the effort of dodging through the grasp of innumerable petite, manicured hands that he was unable to avoid the sudden barrage of underwear. He came out of the silken storm with no less than three bras hanging from his head and shoulders. He shed them, noticing with a shudder that one was a training bra.
Starfire was up next, and she had what was certainly the most mixed reaction from the crowd. The fans in general seemed to adore her, and she smiled brilliantly and waved to them with a rather bewildered look on her face, still not used to scenes like this even after two years of it. The mixed part of her exceptional reception came from the Robin fangirls, who turned from begging for his attention to shouting catcalls and vague but angry threats at what these deluded youths believed to be their chief rival. She had her own devoted fan club, of course, but Starfire fanboys aren't the types to press into a mosh to compete for her attention. They're the ones to stand far off with the high-powered cameras and construct internet blogs to trade their favorite pictures anonymously.
Beast Boy was next, and he was unique among the Titans in that he was having the time of his life. He played the crowd like a champ, switching from one side of the mess to the other with an exuberant smile on his face. He gave high-fives to hands still reaching futilely for Robin, he did a little dance for some of his own adoring multitudes, and he took a few quick requests for animal transformations. He would have kept right on like that, except Raven snatched him by his ear while he was in llama form and jerked on it until he reverted. She shoved him back toward their ride, eyes focused forward and hood pulled up to blind out the screeching crowds.
Raven, for her part, understood that the Titans' public lifestyle was unavoidable, and that this was the price of their opportunity to do the good they worked toward. That didn't mean she had to enjoy the mindless adoration and frequent stupidity of the people that hounded them. The thought that this many people had nothing better to do with their time than come here and bug her frustrated her to no end, such that her generally fierce temper was hovering at a boiling temperature.
"Raven, please wait!" There was a tug on Raven's cloak, and she had to catch herself from reflexively turning on her heel and smacking the uninvited hand. Instead, she turned slowly, remembering that any explosions now would be a public-relations nightmare. She looked an annoyed question at the girl who'd stopped her, a tiny little brunette in all black. She honestly could have been any female from the hundreds packed behind the theatre for all Raven bothered to examine her.
"Oh, Raven, I'm your biggest fan!" Raven's biggest fan shouted, apparently astounded to actually be speaking with her lady and mistress for real, in the flesh. Raven was astounded the tiny slip of a girl had gotten past the security guards. "Please-please-please-please! Can I have your autograph? PLEASE!"
"Go away." Raven snubbed her biggest fan, jerking her cloak out of the girl's grip. She tried to press the issue but was interrupted by the enormous hands of an even more enormous security guard clamping onto her tiny shoulders and swallowing nearly half of her upper body in their grip. The look on her face as Raven walked away from her was totally crushed.
The rest of the fight to get to their car passed without incident, excepting of course the older man in the trench-coat who'd attempted to flash Starfire as they reached the door. Raven encased him in a shield of darkness before Starfire even noticed him, and he got to become painfully intimate with a half-dozen security guards as the Titans piled into the T-car and Raven dispelled the bubble. It was delicate work to get the car out of the theatre's spacious back lot with so many fans pressing in, but Cyborg shifted the windows to a hard one-way tint and took his time with it. It gave the crew some time to unwind.
"Remind me why we had to go through all that again?" Raven asked, dripping exasperation from her middle seat in the back. "I know there was a good reason," she said doubtfully, "but just please… remind me."
"Come on, Raven, it's for charity!" Cyborg played a recording of Robin's voice from his arm, getting a mean look from Raven and a slick smile from the Boy Wonder riding shotgun next to him. They'd set that one up the third time she'd complained that way, and that was the fourth time they'd used it. Her feeling of disgusted victimization at all this idiotic popularity was so deeply ingrained that the gag they were running kept slipping her mind. Beast Boy chuckling next to her was the last straw, and she clammed up completely.
"I do so enjoy the annual SDRF fundraising event," Starfire commented, the silent argument taking place around her going unnoticed as she watched the fans press in around the car in amazement. "Although it still seems strange to me that such an important charity has such difficulty obtaining funds. Who could neglect to aid those whose property was destroyed during a 'super-hero' battle?"
"Hey, if it involves me getting a little face-time with my adoring public—I'm there." Beast Boy had made the statement like an explanation, even though no one had asked him anything. He was admiring himself in his reflection off the window, apparently entertained to no end by the fact that the press of people outside couldn't see in.
"Yeah, yeah." Robin mostly ignored Beast Boy. "The way I see it, it was destroyed on our watch, sometimes by us…" Everyone thought back to the million-dollar satellite array that Starfire had jerked from its seating to use as a shield against an alien monster's laser-breath only a week ago. This fundraiser was actually going to pay for the two million dollars worth of thankfully empty office buildings it'd eradicated that Saturday—the satellite was coming out of their operating expenses, which was why it was first to come to mind. "… So we need to help out with paying for it all any way we can."
"Right." Raven was deadpan, too happy to be done with all that to really complain about her discomfort anymore. She just sat squeezed between Starfire and Beast Boy, brooding.
The car fell into comfortable conversation about things she didn't care to comment on, from their plans for the rest of the week to what they'd eat for dinner tonight. At length, they were on the road again, pulling away from the crowd that had so vexed her. All through this long, quiet contemplation, Raven felt a strange feeling growing on her, the oddest kind of vague, barely-there unease hanging around her shoulders and whispering in her ear. She considered it in silence for a while, but eventually relented. The feeling was so subdued that it couldn't be anything important—she'd probably just forgotten to rewind the movies she'd returned for the guys last night or something.
Here then was why one should never disregard a flash of intuition when one is a powerful psychic. As her eyes wandered the T-car and the calm banter of her friends surrounded her, Raven noticed something odd.
"Beast Boy, what's that on your shirt?" Raven asked, utterly serious as she spotted the odd little speck of shining blue light on his chest. It looked like his shirt was a wall with a flood lamp behind it, and someone had poked a needle-thin hole through the barrier.
"My god, Raven." Beast Boy turned around with a ridiculous look of glee on his face. "I never thought I'd see the day! Really, though, it's great that you're finally trying a prank, but please… the old 'what's that on your shirt' routine is hardly going to work on a prankster of my eminent sophistication."
"While I applaud you on correctly using the word 'eminent'—"
"Thank you—word of the day calendar gets the props there!" Beast Boy interrupted her, even as her concern suddenly spiked. The little speck on his shirt was now the size of a ring-binder hole made by a hole-punch.
"Whatever!" Raven shouted, "Look, there's really something going on with your shirt!"
"I'm telling you, no matter how much drama you pull out, you're not going to be flicking my nose today!" Beast Boy was being stubborn as a mule, stoutly refusing to glance anywhere in the vicinity of his chest. Their discussion was loud enough to have drawn stares from Robin and Starfire, and as soon as they recovered from the shock of what was happening to Beast Boy, they spoke up too.
"Jesus—what in the world is that on your shirt, man?" Robin asked, turning completely around in the passenger seat with his face set in amazement.
"Where's the brotherly support, dude? Don't help her with this lame joke!" Beast Boy was annoyed now. Just because Raven never replaced his hair gel with honey, suddenly, Robin comes down on her side with this obnoxious routine. How immature can you get?
"We do not jest, Beast Boy!" Starfire said, her eyes widening in creeping fear as the glowing spot reached the size of a key ring on his chest. "Something odd is definitely happening to your costume!"
"Not you, too!" Beast Boy shouted in complaint, and he started to sweat, because Starfire was never in on jokes like these. Still, he wasn't about to give in on this.
Cyborg had had enough of the mystery and glanced over his shoulder to get a peek. He did a double-take, and then slammed on the breaks, the T-car screeching to a stop on an abandoned nighttime road next to the park. Everyone was tossed around like pebbles in a can for a moment, and then Cyborg leaned back and turned in his chair to look at the glowing spot as it became the size of apple.
"What the heck is that?" Cyborg asked Robin, seeing as how Beast Boy was being… well… himself.
"How should I know?" Robin was busy trying to think of something he could do. This was actually outside of his experience. "Do you think it's dangerous?"
"Well, it sure as heck ain't normal!" Cyborg snapped back, also worried out of his mind.
"Guys—there is such a thing as taking a joke too far, you know!" Beast Boy shouted, trying not to sweat too visibly as he resisted the urge to glance down.
"IT'S NOT A JOKE!" everyone else shouted at the same time. Raven actually grabbed Beast Boy by the back of the head and forced him to look down. He saw the expanding circle of glowy-flashy-ness on his chest, now the size of a dinner plate, and he panicked.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" He screamed, sounding a lot like a girl. "What is that! Never mind! Get it off! Get it ooooffffff! Off off off OFF!" As he chanted that, he writhed and bucked in his seat, kicking Raven and slapping uselessly at his chest. With a glance at one another and an exchange of nods, Raven tackled the spaz and held him down while Robin leaned in and gave him a sharp five-upside-the-face. The crack of skin on fur echoed in the sudden silence.
"Listen, we don't know what that is, but it looks like you're still fine," Robin explained to Beast Boy in very calm, clear tone. Beast Boy's terrified eyes latched onto that calm and rode it back to a semblance of clarity. Robin and Raven let him go, and he slumped into his seat, a bemused look on his face.
"Right," he said to himself. "Yeah, I'm all right. I'm… I'm going to be okay." He nodded, looking down at the glow on his shirt as it began to wrap around the sides of his chest and crept up onto his neck. He looked much more confident somehow. "Of course! This can't be that bad! I mean, what kind of lame 'dangerous sparkle-thing' would glow such a gay shade of—"
ZZZRITTT! Beast Boy vanished.
"NO!"
"BUDDY?"
"WHAT?"
"EEEE!" The responses to his sudden and dramatic absence were varied, but were all underwritten by a staggering terror of the unknown. What in the world was going on?
"Cyborg, do a full spectrum scan for any and all unusual energy frequencies!" Robin snapped, determined to do something, anything at all other than sitting there like a dolt. "Raven, you—"
"Uh, Robin," Cyborg stopped him before he continued, a note of week terror in his voice, "there might be a little problem with gettin' that scan you wanted."
"Huh?" Robin asked, but had his question answered as soon as he turned back to Cyborg. All of the machinery exposed by the heat vents and service ducting in his armored body was glowing the same shimmering blue as Beast Boy's shirt. It had been creeping around inside of him without their ever knowing.
"Quickly Cy—can you—"
ZZZRITTT! Cyborg vanished.
"Oh, man…!" Robin was staggered, slumping back into his seat with eyes wide.
"My Goddess, what is happening to our friends?" Starfire asked, horrified. "Robin, Raven, what is going on? How can this—" Starfire's panicked question was choked off as she noticed a small glowing spot spring to life on her forearm guard. Without comment, she shrieked quietly and ripped it off, flinging it out the window and into the street. The spot did not persist on her arm, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"It seems that we can halt the effect by removing the afflicted items. Though that does not explain where Beast Boy and Cyborg have gone to!"
"What if they haven't 'gone' anywhere?" Raven asked, her face paler than usual.
"Don't say that!" Robin ordered her not to consider what he'd already thought of. Starfire gave them both blank looks, it never having occurred to her that this might be some kind of deadly attack. "We've just got to—what?"
Both Raven and Starfire were giving him terrified looks, their eyes locked on his face. It occurred to him like a kick in the brain, and he tore his mask off and flung it out the window before the glowing spec between his eyes could get any bigger. The girls were still giving him wide-eyed stares, eyes locked on his face, and he arched an eyebrow. "What, so I wear a backup mask under my mask, so what?" Robin tried not to sound offended as the panic ate away at him. He reached up to rub the mask that had been under his other mask as his mind raced for an answer.
"Star!" Raven shouted, pointing at her friend's chest in alarm. Another spot was glowing there on the left shoulder, and Star scrambled to pull her top up. Robin got a fantastic view of her tight black sports bra before he turned away and concentrated on the dashboard, still trying to understand what was even going on.
Raven glanced away from helping Starfire yank the top over her long hair, and her heart skipped a beat as she spotted a shimmering blue light creeping along Robin's back under the edge of his cape.
"ROBIN!" She had time to say it, but nothing else.
ZZZRITTT! Robin vanished.
"Oh, no… oh, nooo…" Raven moaned, the nightmare worsening with every second. This wasn't magic! It didn't feel like magic, at least not any kind she'd ever encountered, and that meant she was less than useless to stop it. She felt helpless, useless, as she sat next to her struggling friend, her last remaining friend, frozen in mouth-gaping shock.
RRRIP! Starfire shredded her top in two and tossed the remains aside before the blue glow could spread to her skin. Her face was ashen because she'd heard what was going on, even if she hadn't seen it. Robin was gone now, and Raven was terrorized into near-catatonia.
"Raven… Raven, we must do something!" Starfire was sounding desperate, but Raven wasn't responding. Starfire leaned in close, crawling up onto her knees in the back seat, and gripped her friend's head shoulders both hands, forcing her to look back at her. "We cannot simply sit here and wait to be consumed by this despicable glow!"
"It's… it's too late." Raven mumbled the words so quietly Starfire could barely hear it. For a moment Starfire didn't know what Raven was talking about, but then she noticed an odd feel to the cloth under her hands, a quick look telling her that the light had already spread down Raven's back under her cloak. Starfire's heart seized with icewater, her own helplessness closing in on her exactly as Raven's had on her. The clincher was when she noticed where Raven's blank stare had landed, and looked over her shoulder.
Starfire saw the glow down the back of her skirt, legs, and boots… and that was it. It had crawled up her behind while she was sitting, rendering her every effort to strip completely worthless. Whatever this was, whoever or whatever was making it happen, it was flawlessly executed.
"What's going to happen to us?" Starfire asked, fear edging into her words. She slid forward until she was hugging Raven close for the tiny bit of comfort that provided.
ZZZRITTT! Raven vanished.
Starfire slumped, holding her hands to her chest as though she were still gripping her friend. She did not cry, though for a moment she would have liked nothing better.
ZZZRITTT! Starfire vanished.
The T-car was left there and was still running when the police discovered it the next morning. A full investigation turned up a discarded mask and a few items of Starfire's clothing, but not a single clue to where the Teen Titans had vanished to.
--------------------
So there's the first chapter, written by DBAinsw. Did you like it? Great. Did you hate it? So write something better! Hey, lets make it a contest! With prizes!
This is a call to any and all writers on any site who think they've got the stuff to write a good story. Prove it. If you really have the stuff, your chapter could be the next in our little epic here. The Titans are going on an adventure beyond the bounds of time, space, and reality, and we want your help to make it as nutty and varied as possible.
Just write a short story and submit it following the rules. The plot can be absolutely anything you want, as long as it starts with one or more titans falling through a portal (like the one they left this story through, or any other kind you can imagine) and ends with them exiting again. Simple, right? So what are you waiting for, an invitation? That's what this is! The respect of your peers is on the line fellow writers-- get off of your rears and participate!
(The URL linking to the competition is at the bottom of my profile... go click it! Now!)