Opening the Closet Door a Crack

by still too old for this

Requested to find a missing professor of anthropology, the Titans begin a descent into the darkness where dwell madness and evil. Mystery and horror await our intrepid heroes. As for survival, that remains to be seen.

3. Chapter 3

I do not own anything relating to the Teen Titans.

Opening the Closet Door a Crack – Chapter 3

xxxxxxxxxxx

"Has EVERYONE here gone mad?" shouted Robin. "Starfire, WHAT'S WRONG?"

Reaching the communications console, Starfire, still speaking in Tamaranean, began to furiously punch various buttons.

"At least speak ENGLISH!" Robin shouted as he ran over to her.

"I need to contact the Grand Council, then the Gordanians, the Thanagarians, the Rannians, the Citadel. Probably should contact the Spider Guild. Definitely the Guardians. We'll get two or three lanterns on permanent detail watching the region. I'll let the Gordanians contact the Psions. OH, I definitely need to speak with New Genesis, probably with Apokolypse as well. They have to be notified. We'll set up evacuation procedures for the planet. Let's see, where's the nearest habitable planet? Never mind. I'll let the council come up with something. Hmmm, I expect a five light year buffer will suffice, that's what we have for Aldebaran. Robin, is there any central government body on Earth we can work with to set up the evacuation? Or should I just work through the Justice League?"

Robin stared at her, absolute horror on his face.

"What on earth are you TALKING about?"

Starfire stopped her actions and turned to face Robin. A look of incredulous disbelief was on her face. "Did you not hear him? Are humans really so without a clue? This is CTHULHU!"

"Who's Cthulhu?"

Starfire looked straight at the puzzled expression on Robin's face. Then she looked around the room at the others gathered, Cyborg, Raven and Dr. Phillips. All had the same perplexed expression on their faces. "Do none of you know about Great Cthulhu?" she asked.

Muttering again in his stupor, Beast Boy said, "The Great Enemy."

"SEE, Beast Boy knows about Great Cthulhu! How can NONE of you know of him?"

"Starfire," said Raven, "Beast Boy is being controlled by his animal instincts right now. I'm sure that he doesn't really understand what he is saying."

A look of shock passed across Starfire's face. This was no longer the culturally naïve teenage girl, but the warrior princess from a planet of warriors. "Are humans THAT ignorant of intergalactic issues? Do you really have NO CONCEPT of the dangers involved?" Starfire began to speak in Tamaranean again. Given the tone she was using, it sounded extremely uncomplimentary regarding earthlings, and probably somewhat obscene.

"Star, please," pleaded Robin, "calm down and explain to us what is going on."

"X'Hal! It's like dealing with children! How can you NOT know? Great Cthulhu is the high priest of the Outer Gods. For eons, we in the civilized galaxy have been searching for him and his sunken city of R'yleh."

Dr. Phillips interrupted at this point, "R'yleh, wait a moment. That name appears in Carter's notes." The professor shifted a number of papers around. Finally, he pulled one out and began speaking. "I don't understand the language. Apparently, NO ONE understands the language. According to his notes, Carter's tried a number of local linguists to decipher the phrases." Reading as best he could, Dr. Phillips said, "F'nugly maglwy.."

"FOOL," interrupted Starfire, obviously in a highly agitated state. "The phrase is the ancient galactic tongue. The warning is:

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'yleh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

"Translated to English, it means," Starfire paused for a moment, considering, then began to speak,

"In his house at R'yleh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming"

Cyborg spoke up, "Star, that makes no sense. If he's dead, how can he be dreaming? Dead is dead."

Dr. Phillips spoke up again. "You know, it's odd, Carter wrote something about that as well. Let me look here again." And once again he shuffled through the papers and notes that Randolph Carter had left. "Ah, here it is.

"That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange aeons even death may die."

Starfire inhaled suddenly and looked frightened. "That is not part of our lore. It may suggest that Great Cthulhu may be ready to rise again."

From over on the couch, Beast Boy muttered, "The Great Enemy."

"But this is all nonsense," replied Dr. Phillips. "These are only stories. Ancient myths that prehistoric races used before they became aware of scientific methods for explaining natural phenomenon."

"MYTHS? NONSENSE?" shouted Starfire. "For eons civilized space has placed a five light year buffer around Aldebaran, waiting for the day that Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, attempts to leave his great city of Kadath and contact his masters, the Outer Gods." The princess was practically speechless with incredulity. "It is the 8th oath of the Tamaranean warrior to attack anything attempting to leave Aldebaran."

"That doesn't sound too serious," said Cyborg.

"There are 497 oaths that a Tamaranean warrior takes."

"OK, that's serious." Mumbled Cyborg.

"The oath requires that no matter what we are doing, wherever we are, even if we are already in battle, we are to break off battle and attack whatever has left Aldebaran. The Gordanians, Thanagarians, Rannians, Psions, the Citadel, the Spider Guild, all of us, even if we are at battle with each other, have sworn to break off and join forces to attack whatever has left legendary Kadath."

Robin considered this for a moment, these were all sworn enemies of one another. This Nyarlathotep sounded serious, to say the least. "Wait a minute, why did you say 'whatever has left Aldebaran?'"

"Because the crawling chaos can change his shape. No one knows his real image. Therefore, rather than take a chance, we will attempt to return anything leaving Kadath back to the planet."

"You won't kill it?" inquired Raven.

Starfire began to laugh, there was an hysterical edge to it, "Kill Nyarlathotep? We'll be lucky if the combined forces of the galaxy can actually return him to Kadath. The Guardians have two lanterns permanently on duty in orbit around the system as an early warning. The gods of New Genesis will join us at our call. Even Darkseid has said he would join us in beating back whatever leaves the system."

The fact that the greatest evil known to the galaxy was united in the war against this Nyarlathotep was chilling to the other Titans. Then Robin had a thought, "Hold on, Darkseid has designs on controlling the universe. Why wouldn't he use this Nyarlathotep as a weapon?"

Starfire looked at the Titan leader as if he were an imbecile. "Because Nyarlathotep is one of the two high priests of the Outer Gods. Darkseid wants order, HIS order. The Outer Gods are beings of complete chaos, seeking only death and destruction. They are mindless masses of power."

"Star," continued Robin, "that still doesn't make sense."

The warrior princess thought for a moment. "You have told me about some of the enemies that you have fought over the years. One of which is called, 'The Clown'?"

"The Joker."

"Yes, I remember. You have told me of a number of acts and crimes that he has done, the randomness and insanity that characterizes him." Robin nodded. "Imagine the Joker without a mind, but still with the evil insanity." Robin nodded again. "Now make him a God." Robin paled. "Now imagine dozens of Joker-Gods." Robin sat down hard on the couch.

"That is the closest I can describe the Outer Gods to you. And Nyarlathotep is one of their high priests. Great Cthulhu is the other. And he is mightier by far."

Lying on the couch, Beast Boy muttered, "The Great Enemy."

"For eons, we have searched for signs of Great Cthulhu. Always, we have left warnings of him. That phrase, that is the warning amongst all civilized beings. Always remember, Great Cthulhu waits. And once he awakens, he will call his dread masters back to this universe that they once ruled so they can rule again."

"Excuse me, Starfire," interrupted Raven. "What do you mean, call them BACK to this universe?"

"The Old Ones banished the Outer Gods to the realms outside of time and space. While the Old Ones have vanished, their protection remains. Before they left our reality, the Outer Gods left two of their high priests behind to prepare for their return someday. For eons, we have known of Kadath, great city of Nyarlathotep, the crawling chaos. But always, sunken R'yleh has been lost, along with the mightiest of the high priests, Great Cthulhu."

"Now that we know R'yleh is here on earth, we must evacuate the planet, set up a containment buffer and wait however long it takes until Great Cthulhu rises again."

The three other titans looked at one another. "Star," began Robin. "None of us have ever heard of this sunken city of R'yleh. There's no proof that Cthulhu is even here."

"ARE YOU MAD? Did you not hear Dr. Phillips?"

At that moment, Beast Boy groaned. Rising from the couch, he held his head in his left hand. "OHHH, my head. That was painful." The green teen remained in a sitting position as he tried to regain some balance. Raven went over to him.

"Beast Boy, are you all right?"

"I don't know. Never had all my animal instincts take over like that. They overwhelmed me completely. Cy, what did you hit me with? I feel terrible."

"Just a little gas to put you out, grass stain. You were about to rip Dr. Phillips to shreds."

"Huh, oh yeah." Beast Boy looked up at the academic. Sheepishly, he said, "Ummm, sorry about that. Once you completely uncovered that book, the scent, the vibes set off my animal DNA. I wasn't actually trying to attack you. I was going after that book."

"Will you be able to control yourself?" asked Robin. "Otherwise, I'll have to put you in isolation while we have these papers."

"Hmm, oh yeah. I think I'll be able to control it now. I know what I'm reacting to." BB still seemed a little distracted. He continued to hold his head. "Does anyone have an aspirin?"

Cyborg popped open a compartment on his right arm and extracted a couple of pills. "Here, it's a little stronger than aspirin. It should also help you get over the disorientation from the gas."

"Thanks," replied Beast Boy. Putting them in his mouth, he swallowed. "Bleah! I hate medicine! OK, now, I think I heard most of what happened, but 'cause of my animal side I'm not sure what I did hear."

"Never mind that," interrupted Robin. "What is the 'Great Enemy' you were muttering about?"

"Oh, apparently, he…it…whatever, is considered the most dangerous of all creatures. Something that all animals join against. I couldn't get a real understanding about it, only a feeling. It was triggered by the…vibes?...given off by the doc's book. Seems as if the entire book gives off that scent. That's why I went off the deep end."

"Can you be trusted?"

The changeling looked at the boy wonder with an air of disgust. "No, of course not. I might suddenly join our arch-enemy and create a costume that is stolen by a sneak thief. Or I could, undercover, lie to all my teammates, no my friends, and attack them. Gee, I don't know, maybe I can be trusted. Jeez, Robin! I'm getting damn tired of your suspicions and accusations. Amazingly enough, I've only attacked the other titans when I under the influence of chemicals that I had no control over. Unlike a certain team leader who shall remain nameless."

Robin face set in a mask of stone. He didn't like being reminded of his mistakes. He especially didn't like being reminded by someone he was always uncomfortable around because he had been unjust towards him in the past. Pointedly turning away from his green teammate, he faced Starfire. "If these warnings have been spread throughout the galaxy, who's to say that the author of this book didn't write them down as a warning? There's no sign that Cthulhu is actually here."

Starfire, Cyborg and Raven all looked at Robin. Then they all looked at each other. Raven moved over to Robin. "I believe," she said in her monotone, "that you owe Beast Boy an apology. Or at least, an explanation." Her eyes flashed red.

"I also believe that you are being unfair to friend Beast Boy." Starfire said. Off to the side, Cyborg, eyes narrowed, nodded.

Robin, in a sullen mood, muttered to Beast Boy, "sorry."

"Yeah, I can tell."

"Let's get back to business, Star, is what I said possible?"

"Yes Robin, it is possible."

"Then, we need to find out the real facts before we try to relocate seven billion people and an unknown number of animals."

"Thanks for mentioning the animals," said a grateful Beast Boy. Robin gave a rueful smile; it was the closest he was going to get to a 'real' apology.

"Doctor, we'll track down Dr. Carter. It seems that this case has expanded beyond a simple missing person. Will you allow us to hold on to Dr. Carter's papers and that book." Dr. Phillips looked uncomfortable.

"Robin, I'm not at all certain that I can leave this book with you. It's not that I don't trust you, but I'm not sure that I have the authority. I was permitted by the board to bring this to you for your review. Leaving it with you is another matter." Dr. Phillips mused, "This book is extremely valuable. Highly rare. It is the crown jewel of our university rare book collection."

"Doctor," replied Robin, "without access to every possible clue, the chances of finding your colleague being to drop drastically."

Torn between the conflicting duties to his university and his friend, Dr. Phillips was torn. Finally, the president of Jump City University chose the course of friendship over duty. "Please take care of it, and as soon as you're done with it, send for me and I'll bring it back to the University. Thank you for looking for Carter." Cyborg escorted the doctor to the front door.

Waiting for Cyborg to return, Robin began to shuffle through the various papers left by Dr. Phillips. There were a number of hand written notes, references to various books, pages, a map of Massachusetts. Cyborg returned to the common room.

"OK Titans, in order to find Carter and determine whether this Cthulhu is on earth, we need to determine everything that he was searching for, the order he was searching for it and where he's going. It appears that a good portion of his notes refer to various sections of this book. Unfortunately, it's in Latin. I know some, but not a lot. Raven, can you give me a hand?"

Raven looked startled. "Why ask me?"

"You know Latin."

"No, I don't. What makes you think that?"

"All your spellbooks, aren't they in Latin?"

"No, Azerathean. It's where I grew up. Why would you think they're in Latin?" Robin looked stunned.

"Oh….. Cyborg, don't you have knowledge of Latin?"

"Birdboy, I was an athlete and a mechanic. Why would I know Latin?"

Robin looked around. Starfire only knew languages through kissing. Somehow, he didn't think she had kissed Julius Caesar lately, so she was out.

Beast Boy mumbled.

"What was that?" Cyborg asked.

He mumbled again, slightly louder.

"Try again, grass stain. This time so we can hear you."

"I SAID I KNOW SOME LATIN!" Beast Boy looked sheepish.

The other four titans looked incredulously at the shapeshifter. After a few moments, Raven said, "You're kidding."

"No, I learned it studying up on animals."

"Wait a minute," responded Cyborg. "I thought you changed instinctively."

"I do. Do you know how many animals there are? BILLIONS! Without changing into each one, how would I know which falcon flies fastest? Which snake is longest? Which spider is most agile? I had to study as many as I could. Mento helped me learn Latin so I could get the families and genus down properly. So I could tell which type of wolf would be needed under what circumstances. I know a lot of the word because all the scientific classifications are in Latin. Doesn't mean I speak it, but I can usually figure out a lot of it."

Once again, Beast Boy had surprised them with his abilities. Robin thought to himself, "Just ONCE, I'd like it if he would be honest with us about his abilities, his capabilities. Finding things out on the fly makes it so difficult."

"Fine," he said out loud, "Then you can read the book."

"No."

"What?"

"No."

Robin looked stunned again. "I gave you an order."

"No."

"Beast Boy, I said…"

"NO. YOU LISTEN TO ME! I've been doing this for as long as you have. I haven't stayed alive this long by ignoring my instincts. They are telling me NOT to go near that book. You want me to read it, NO! You want me to translate it, FINE! But YOU write out the sections you want translated. I'll do it in another room. I'm NOT going near that thing. I can probably keep my animal instincts under control, but I'm not ignoring them. So I'm not taking the chance."

Beast Boy continued, "And before you call me a coward," with that, he glared at Robin, "remember, I'm the one who has faced as many dangers as you and was the one who went after the Brotherhood when you failed. Remember, Doom Patrol. So don't go there, otherwise we really will have it out." All trace of the joking prankster was gone now. This was the serious, experienced hero, a very dangerous man when he chose to be. Robin, who never liked to back down, and hated being showed up, began seething. The two titans stood face to face, eye to eye. Looking at his younger friend, yes, they were friends, even when they didn't always get along, Robin realized this was an argument he wasn't going to win.

"Fine, I'll write out the sections that Carter's notes suggest we look at, between the two of us, we probably have enough Latin to translate it." Beast Boy looked satisfied.

Robin moved over to the table in the middle of the room where Dr. Carter's papers were laying. He picked up the book.

As I said before, Mankind is a young creature. And as with most young, it means he is foolish, believing in his abilities far beyond their merits. It is a characteristic of the young that they believe themselves to be immortal, omniscient.

The Greeks, perhaps wiser than the rest of the other children we call mankind, had a word for it, hubris. A sense of pride out of proportion with abilities or merit. Oh so often has mankind fell into that pit, that trap. In the face of events and forces far beyond his ken, mankind continues to pursue courses that are far beyond his capabilities, usually to his regret.

Unlike most other turning points, the hags had played fair. They had given mankind sufficient warnings. The forces of nature had warned them. The knowledge of the supernatural had warned them. The wisdom from the stars had warned them. Three hags, three warnings. Yet, once again, mankind, believing in his own superiority, chose to ignore the warnings, to believe that he and he alone was the holder of all knowledge.

Robin opened the Necronomicon.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

And so we begin. The search for Randolph Carter and sunken R'yleh will commence in the next chapter. Hopefully, you will enjoy my little journey through the works/world of H.P. Lovecraft. To those who are reading this, my thanks. I'm somewhat saddened that I so few readers for this story (maybe I should go back to romance), still, I think it will be quite interested. It will also be far longer than my other stories as we have a number of places to go. Next stop, Arkham.

Meanwhile, my thanks to my reviewers.

The Force Is Strong With This One – I suspect you are correct. You hadn't had a hit in 4 days and I KNOW I read Joker's Shadow (cool, even if I'm not a Harley fan). As you can see from this chapter, the outside universe is far more aware of Cthulhu than humans are.

X – My thanks for your kind words. As long as you enjoy my stories, I'm satisfied. As for best, I believe there are many that can vie for that title before me. (See either Force above of Novus below for good examples)

Novus Ordo Seclorum – Novus, that was a surprise. I was sure you were familiar with Lovecraft's work. After Poe, he is probably the next greatest American horror writer (mostly short stories). My personal favorite is "The Statement of Randolph Carter". His influences are felt throughout the horror genre today. Meanwhile, I'm glad you are enjoying the story and, hopefully, this explanatory segment helps to set the stage for the coming events. And there WILL be plenty of events. (PS, Arkham Asylum in DC is named after Lovecraft's mythical town in Massachusetts where many…odd…things happen. Hence, the Titans trip to Arkham in the next chapter.)

Until next time my friends.