Arny sat with his legs propped up on his desk and arms folded, a TV show that was being broadcast on the hanging TV in front of him, which he watched with a bored expression.

"Charles in charge of our nights and our days."

He blandly sung along to the theme tune.

"Charles in charge of our wrongs and rights."
"And I say, I want Charles in charge of me..."

He then noticed that the audience had come back again. "Oh! hey there!" He quickly sat up, grabbing the remote and switched the channel to the previously paused video. "I was just wonderin' when you lot would return." He smiled casually. "Besides, I've kinda gotten into a phase of watchin' old TV shows." Arny then briefly smirks knowingly at the audience. "Especially since my creator just loves to sneak in references to other cartoons that no one seems to notice." He then turns back towards the TV "Alright then, lets get back to the show!" He aims the remote and hits 'Play'.


THE DISPATCH

part 4: Silent City

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." - Joseph Heller

"Uuuuhn..." Raven held her head, which ached. She felt as though she had fallen from a great height. She rolled onto her side, feeling the cold, hard, tiled floor beneath her. The last thing she remembered was that noise... that horrible... ear piercing noise... she couldn't describe it. Slowly opening her eyes, she was greeted with a dimly lit ceiling. "Where am I...?" She sat up and glanced around, spotting her two teammates who lay a few feet away from her, sprawled out on the ground. She quickly crawled over to the nearest body, which happened to be Robin.

"Robin! wake up!" She shook her masked leaders shoulder urgently. He stirred slightly and let out a groan. "Robin! you've got to wake up now! something is terribly wrong!" Looking around her eyes widened as she recognized their surroundings.

They were back in the vault room. As though nothing had happened.

(MSP) Kevin MacLeod - Echoes of Time v2

Robin blinked several times, letting out another groan as he tried to regain conscious. "Ugghh..." He lifted his head to see Raven's kneeling next him, a deeply concerned look on her face. "R-Raven...?" As he began to recover, two thoughts quickly entered his mind. "w-what happened...? w-wheres... Starfire?" He sat up, letting his eyes adjust to the the familiar room they had somehow reappeared in. That's when he saw Starfire's unconscious form in front of him. "Starfire!" He gasped and crawled over to her side. Her expression was that of distress, but there didn't seem to be physical damage to the alien princess. "Starfire! wake up!" He shook her gently.

"Ohhhh..." She moaned, curling to one side and trembling. "R-Rob-b-in...?" She uttered, trying to regain her vision. "It's okay Star, I'm here... we all are." He carefully helped her up into a sitting position, relived that she was OK, if not a bit light headed. "Oh friends... what unspeakable horrors did we experience?" The redhead asked nervously. "I don't know Star." Robin stood, helping her up from the floor. "The last thing I remember was trying to keep us from being pulled into..." He paused, unsure at just what they were being pulled into. "...whatever was beyond that vault door."

"Umm... you might want to come and take a look at this." Raven spoke from behind them.

Turning around to face her, they both stared in bewilderment. The large open vault before them had changed. It's interior was now an ordinary looking containment room, with three metal walls and ceiling. There was no sigh of the endless darkness that had previously swallowed them whole. "What the...?" Robin started, trying make any sort of sense of what was happening. The lights above flicked, diverting the masked detectives thoughts to an important question. "Wait a second... this room was pitch black and being lit up by a lantern when we arrived, so just how are the lights working now?" The three teens all shared looks of confusion. "Perhaps friends Cyborg and Beast Boy found a way to restore the power?" Starfire theorized. Robin was skeptical but decide to see if there was a logical answer to his question. He took out his communicator, flipping it open. "Come in Cyborg or Beast Boy, this is Robin, do any of you read me?" Fizzling static filled the small circular screen like before. A sigh escaped his mouth and he made to turn it off.

"We have lost contact with Gemini." An obscured voice emitted from the device. Robin nearly dropped the tracker in surprise. "Hello?! Cyborg?! Beast Boy?!" He called into his device. There was no picture, but the sound quality was clearly audible. "Gemini?" A second equally obscure voice spoke, but not to Robin. "That new energy program. I didn't know it was so far long." Robin's eyes narrowed. These voices were definitely not thous of Cyborg and Beast Boy. It sounded more like an radio transmission. "That's right. Clean, efficient. Single device that could power the western seaboard for the next two-thousand years." The three heroes listened carefully to the mysterious conversation. They wondered just what on earth was happening... who were the two men talking? how were they transmitting through a Titan tracker? where were Cyborg and Beast Boy, and what was with that large vault? "We've got a search team, people in secret. Last contact, they were close to done. Damn Close. 'Week ago, satellite, landline... all dead. We're counting on you to get your arms around this Gemini thing." The line very suddenly went dead. They all stared at the device itself.

"Well... that was... unexpected." Raven uneasily broke the silence. "I must do the agreeing, I could not do the recognizing of thous voices." Starfire exclaimed. Robin let out a soft sigh of weariness. "Okay... lets just try and find a way out, hopefully we'll be able to contact the others from outside." The two girls agreed and they made to leave the room. Raven caught a glimpse of something on the ground and jolted to a stop. "Wait!" Her urgent yell causing her teammates to freeze and look over to the dark girl. "Raven, whats wrong?" Robin asked. Raven didn't answer, instead she stared down at a huge, black symbol that had been scrawled into the tiled floor, she squinted at it. "Oh my..." She was unable to finish her sentence. Robin and Starfire were quickly at her side. "What is it, Raven?" Her concerned leader followed her gaze, his mask widened when he saw the symbol. Starfire's lips went slight agape at what had been drawn. "W-what on Tamaran is that?" She whispered. "A binding symbol..." Raven answered, kneeling down to touch it. "...made from wax." She recognized the texture that made up the mark. "They are used as a warding symbol to fend off evil spirits. This is what that strange intruder was drawing, apparently it was trying to protect itself while it spoke the ritual." She stood back up, Robin rubbed his chin at hearing this information. "Mmm... that just raises more questions. Just what exactly was in that vault, and how did it open after we halted it's ritual?" There was short silence as they had no way of answering these question. "We best get going, for all we know Cyborg and Beast Boy could be outside waiting for us." He attempted to sound reassuring, but it did little to ease the dread that was looming over his teammates.

(MSP)

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

(MSP) Audionautix - Deep Space

Beast Boy cautiously drove the T-Car through the dense fog. The road ran along a hillside and had no markings, so he had to rely on the car's headlights for guidance. He drove for what felt like ages, not quite remembering just how far off the map the facility was. After several more miles of driving blind, a row of very tall shapes in the distance emerged through the fog. Surprised and somewhat relived that he was nearing the city, Beast Boy glanced into the rear view mirror. "Don't worry Cyborg, we'll be back at the tower in no time." Smiling at his unresponsive passenger, he looked back at the road. The tall shapes soon came into view, revealing them to be a section of the many skyscrapers that made up the city. The large structures pierced through the dark mist, leaving only their lower bases visible. "I wonder just how long we were in that place?" He checked the small digital clock in the center console. '12:00 AM' blinking repeatedly was all it displayed. Beast Boy frowned. Somehow, the car's electronics had been reset.

Eventually the road lead him back onto the bypass route, which to his surprise was oddly still empty of any traffic. "Huh, I guess we weren't in there that long, there isn't a morning rush hour." He followed along the three lane road for a few miles until it ran alongside the city. He suddenly shrieked as he was then forced to slam on the brakes! Beast Boy tightly gripped the steering wheel, his eyes widening in disbelief as the car came to a screeching halt.

Just a few yards ahead, the road had completely vanished.

In it's place was a row of police barricades, and just beyond them the road abruptly ended. Beast Boy blinked his eyes several times and shook his head. "Dude! when the hell did this happen?!" Not quite believing what he was seeing he opened his door and climbed out, walking over to the barricades. He noticed they were the tradition 'Road Closed' barriers, the ones with the twin circular, orange warning lights that were strangely not active. Raising an eyebrow he walked past them and up to where the road ended. His jaw dropped open as he made a shocking discovery.

The road ended at the edge of a cliff! the thick mist submerged what was below it, making it look like an endless abyss. It was like the road had been ripped from existence. Feeling a shiver go up and down his spine, Beast Boy backed away slowly. When he reached the barricades he turned and quickly retreated back to the T-Car. Closing his door he let out a disturbed sigh. "Dude... just what could have possibly done that?" He looked out of his side window in the direction of where the ocean would normally be visible. "And just what the heck is up with this fog?" He sat in silence for a minute, he then turned towards Cyborg in the back seat. "I dunno what you'd say about all this Cy, but it looks like we're gonna have to take a detour." With that said Beast Boy shifted the car into reverse and performed a near flawless three point turn. "Hey, I'm gettin' pretty good at this Cy." He smiled at his little achievement. Cyborg remained silent, apart from his constant 'Beeping' noise.

They backtracked for half a mile when Beast Boy spotted on off-ramp that lead into the city itself, feeling relieved that he'd found another route he made a U-turn and drove onto it. The ramp ascended up to where it bared right. Following the ramp into the city, it didn't take Beast Boy to long to realize that the city was deserted. None of the street lights were working, not even the traffic lights. All the shops and buildings were in a state of decay or looked condemned. The roads were just as empty with not a single other car in sight. The city was devoid of any human life. "Dude... it's like a ghost town, where is... anybody?" Beast Boy drove further into the city, the T-Cars engine echoed around the urban environment. He followed the road until it reached a 'T' junction, unsure of which way to turn he slowed down as he approached it. The sound of another engine was heard coming from his left, Beast Boy looked over in surprise.

(MSP)

A lone, dark colored car sped across his path.

(MSP): Dark Ambient Background Music - Elise will take you and show no mercy

"What the...? that car... its the only thing that's moving!" Without hesitating he push down hard on the gas pedal and set of in pursuit. 'Now things are just getting completely outta whack.' His mind though as he chased after the the strange car. He followed it down several streets, it's dimly lit taillights being the only thing that was visible through the thick mist. Beast Boy used that as a guidance and was soon able to close the gap between him and his target. "I can't lose this guy, he has to know whats going on." The chase continued with the dark car seeming to be on some kind of mission. It didn't try to pull away or lose it's pursuer, instead it slowed down to a relatively normal speed. This only confused the young Titan even more. "This is weird... just what is this guy up to?" The dark car made a right into an area that Beast Boy was all to familiar with, the main drag, also know as the street where the Titan's favorite Pizza Plaza was located. His gaze lingered on it as as they drove past. It looked vacant and elderly, as if it had gone out of business years ago. He looked back, going rather a pasty shade of green. What in the world had happened to the city? the last thing he remembered was being grabbed by Cyborg just before they made it out of the base, then there was a huge blast of white. He then gasped as something dawned on him. "No... it can't be true..." Dreading the thought he looked at Cyborg's reflection in the rear view mirror. "They can't be..." Before he could finish the strange car took off at sped and made a sharp left turn. Caught of guard by this Beast Boy accelerated to catch up, when he rounded the corner he was forced to come to a screeching halt.

Both the car and the road ahead had vanished.

Beast Boy stared in shock and disbelief at the mist filled cliff edge where the road abruptly ended. Where did the car go? more importantly, where did the road go? this had gone from being eerily weird to a down right mind screw. "Eh...?" He gaped around, as though he were on an alien world. Cautiously, he opened his door and approached the edge of the recently new cliff. Like the previous one it was boarded off by a row of police barricades, but what he also noticed was the buildings that normally ran parallel to the road on either side had also disappeared, with only the dark mist covering the empty space. With a defeated sigh he returned to the T-Car, sitting back behind the wheel.

His brow furrowing as he thought for a long time, sitting in silence, with the occasional 'Beep' coming from Cyborgs immobilized body behind him. It gave the green teenager comfort, knowing that he wasn't entirely alone.

The sound of hurried footsteps shook him from his thoughts, he looked over at the near side door mirror, catching a glimpse of someone running across the road behind him. Startled by this he immediately jumped out of the car, just in time to see a darkly dressed figure disappear into a subway entrance. "Hey! wait!" he called out and ran over to the entrance. Greeting him was a flight of stairs descending down to an unlit subway system. He hesitated as he now had another dilemma. "I can't just leave Cyborg, he's completely defenseless." Looking back at the route they came from, he noticed the fog had become thicker, as if it was a solid wall. "Something tells me I can't go back that way." debating on what he should do and faced with only one direction, he sighed and took one last look at the T-Car.

"I'll come back for ya, buddy... I promise." He whispered and began to advance down the stairs. Maybe he'd find an answer to what had happened to the city and his friends... or maybe he'd find something a lot more sinister...

(MSP)


Arny pauses the TV. "Well? What do ya think? as promised, next chapter uploaded in less than a month. Be sure to fill me in on any questions or comments you might have, okay? great! Cuz right now, I'm gonna watch another show." Arny sat back and changed the TV channel, the theme of the 70s show 'CHiPs' begins to play. "Alright! now this is entertainment!"