Chapter 2: Welcome Home Part I
A white car pulls up to an abandoned house in the country. The doors open and four young teens get out. The driver is a young boy of about 16; he has dark hair, glasses, and fair skin. His friends include another boy of about 14; he's built muscularly, and has dark hair also. There are also two young girls. The first has light brown hair, glasses, and fair skin. And the other has darker skin, and very dark brown hair. The first is about 16 and the second is around 15.
"This is the place I was telling you guys about," the boy with glasses says.
"This is pretty cool," says the dark haired girl. "I've gotta hand it to you Joel, this place is neat."
"Tara's right Joel," says the muscular boy. "Where'd you find this place anyway?"
"Who cares Sam," the light haired girl comments. "This place is no big deal."
"Shut up Christine!" Sam shouts.
"Why don't you?" Christine retorts.
"Why don't you both be quiet?" Tara says.
"Yeah guys, simmer down," Joel adds.
As the four teens enter the house, they all have a feeling that there is something strange about the house. It's no ordinary house, and the teens learn this very soon.
Fade into song
When there's trouble you know who to call
TEEN TITANS
From their tower they can see it all
TEEN TITANS
When there's evil on the attack
You can rest knowing they've got your back
'Cuz when the world needs heroes on patrol
TEEN TITANS...GO!
With they're super-powers they unite
TEEN TITANS
Never met a villain that they liked
TEEN TITANS
They got the bad guys on the run
They'll never stop 'til the job gets done
And when the world is losing all control
TEEN TITANS...GO!
1...2...3...4...GO TEEN TITANS!
Fade out of song
"So, how do we wanna look around?" Joel asks. "Do we wanna stick together, or split up and call when we find something?"
"Oooh! Let's split up," Tara comments. "It's way scarier that way."
"Yeah, let's do it," Sam adds.
"All right," Christine gives in.
"Sam, you take the basement. Tara, you take the attic. Christine, you and I will look around on this floor in different rooms," Joel says.
Christine heads into one of the bedrooms, and looks at everything. She's surprised at how much was left in the house. All of a sudden, a jewelry box on a dresser catches her eye. She crosses to the box and slowly opens it. Inside is the biggest, bluest gem Christine has ever seen. As she looks at the gem, she notices that there is a slight mist surrounding it. She also notices that she can see her breath.
"Wow," Christine remarks, "is it getting cold in here, or is it just me?"
As soon as Christine says this, frost begins to seep out from the gem and cover the dresser.
"Guess it's not just me," she whispers.
She slowly and carefully reaches out to pick up the gem, and as soon as she has it in her hands, it begins to glow in a brilliant blue light. Little blue lights begin to come from the gem and flow around her body. She begins to feel the cold from the gem become one with her body. As she watches, the gem slowly becomes nothing but a useless lump of coal. Soon, the cold mist surrounds her, and she blacks out.
Meanwhile, in a room down the hall, Joel searches the room. As he's looking around the room he notices the mirror over the bureau. It's not an ordinary mirror. Its oval in shape, but in the middle, the glass is cut into a pentagon shape. And from each point of the pentagon, the glass is cut all the way to the edge of the mirror. As Joel stares into the center pentagon of the mirror, it begins to glow white. As this begins, the other portions of the mirror begin to glow. Each of the five sections glows a different color, one red, one orange, one yellow, one blue, and the last green. All of a sudden, what looks like a shadow of Joel is sucked out of him, and into the center pentagon of the mirror. A copy of this shadow is put back into Joel, and the other is split into the five colors and also put into Joel. The mirror returns to normal, Joel clutches his head in pain, and crumples to the floor.
Upstairs, Tara is searching through the many dusty boxes and crates to see if she can find anything of interest. She moves aside a stack of boxes, and finds a hidden door. She stands there for a second in awe of finding such a mysterious door, and wonders whether or not she should open it. Curiosity eventually overcomes her and she tries the door. Amazingly, it opens with ease. Inside is a small room that is only lit by a single circular window. Over by the window is a small stand with an old book laying open on it. She crosses to the stand and looks at the book.
The book is opened to the legend of the Banshee. As she reads, she learns that Banshees are capable of haunting more than ruins. They can even haunt a book. As Tara reads this, something catches the corner of her eye. It's the picture of the Banshee, it's moving! As Tara backs away, the Banshee appears out of the book. The Banshee slowly glides across the floor towards Tara and begins to speak in a wailing voice.
"I have not come to harm you," the Banshee says, "but to bestow upon you a gift."
"What do you mean? Stay away!" Tara shouts.
"I will not hurt you," the Banshee repeats. "Most should fear the Banshee, but you should not, for you have been chosen."
"Chosen?" Tara asks cautiously. "For what?"
"Give me your hands, and it will all be made known," the Banshee replies.
The Banshee reaches out and takes Tara's hands in her own. All of a sudden, there is a blinding light, and Tara is by herself, with her hands out, and eyes closed.
"Did that even happen?" Tara asks herself in a daze. "And what was she saying about a gift?"
For no reason, a box falls from a top shelf straight towards Tara. She sees the box and puts up her arms to shield herself. She closes her eyes, but there's no impact. She opens her eyes, and the box is a few feet away. She goes to pick it up, trips, and falls right through the box. Tara realizes what just happened, and lets out a scream. What she doesn't realize is that this scream knocked over many things in the room...
Down in the basement, Sam searches for anything of interest. From what he can tell, it's an average, everyday basement. There's junk here, there's junk there. Basically, there's junk everywhere. But as he's moving through the basement, something on the floor catches his eye. It's a stone tablet. Normally, he would have just passed by, but for some reason, he feels compelled to pick it up and look at it. It's somewhat square in shape, with rough edges, and made out of some sandstone sort of material. It's also heavier than it looks. From first look there's nothing on it, but as Sam turns it over, he notices some strange hieroglyphic writing. It says...
TO THE FEW
WHO CAN READ THIS WRITING
SHALL BE GIVEN THE POWERS
OF OUR MOST SACRED PATRON
TO YOU ARE GIVEN HIS
AGILITY, STRENGTH, AND ALL SEEING EYES
But as Sam continues to stare at the mysterious writing, it starts to shimmer, and then sort of melt. And as he stares longer, it melts into English! Now he is able to read the perplexing inscription.
TO THE FEW
WHO CAN READ THIS WRITING
SHALL BE GIVEN THE POWERS
OF OUR MOST SACRED PATRON
TO YOU ARE GIVEN HIS
AGILITY, STRENGTH, AND ALL SEEING EYES
Something catches the corner of Sam's eye, and startles him. He drops the tablet, and it snaps in half. As Sam looks in horror at the broken ancient tablet, something that looks like a shining golden cat leaps out from between the two pieces and at Sam. But instead of the cat hitting Sam straight on, it goes right into him! As Sam looks around, he can't find any trace of the cat, or the broken tablet. Sam starts heading towards the stairs to go back upstairs, but only one thing is on his mind.
"Why did I have to go down to the basement," he asks himself bitterly.
Around the same time that Sam is heading upstairs, Tara is heading down from the attic. The two see each other, and run to meet.
"Oh my God!" Tara says. "I just had the weirdest thing happen to me!"
"You had the weirdest thing happen? I don't think so." Sam says. "I did."
"Something weird happened to you too?" Tara asks shocked.
"I guess so," Sam answers.
"Weird. Hey, where are Joel and Christine?" Tara suddenly realizes.
"Good question," Sam says. "Let's see if we can find them."
"One thing..." Tara trails off.
"What is it?" Sam asks.
"I'm done splitting up. Let's stick together." Tara says a little worried.
"Hey, no arguments here!" Sam says.
The two travel throughout the main floor of the house, peeking into the many different rooms looking for any sign of Joel or Christine. As they're rounding a corner, they have a clear view into one of the bedrooms, and there they see...
"Joel!" Tara shouts. "What happened to him?"
"Don't ask me!" Sam retorts. "Let's just go help him!"
The two rush into the room to try and assist the crumpled figure of Joel on the floor.
"My head...," Joel moans.
"Well, at least he's not dead," Sam chuckles.
"Not funny Sam!" Tara shouts.
"Hey! I'm just trying to lighten the mood!" Sam shouts back.
"Well it's not helping!"
"Fine!"
"What happened?" Joel asks clutching his head as Tara and Sam help him to his feet.
"Why don't you tell us," Tara says.
So Joel tells them all what he can remember about his strange experience with the weird mirror. When he's finished, the others don't seem too surprised.
"You guys don't seem too shocked," Joel says.
"Well," Tara begins. "We both had weirdo things happen to us too."
"You did?"
"Yeah," Sam replies.
"Well, if the three of us had things happen to us, than we can guess that Christine probably had something happen to her too." Joel analyzes.
The three start up the search again and soon come across the form of Christine, also crumpled on the floor, with a strange sort of mist surrounding her.
"What did I tell you?" Joel asks rhetorically.
"You're right," Tara responds. "Definite weird factor here."
As they move over to Christine's lifeless body, they notice that she is still breathing. But as they move closer, and go to check her pulse they notice that Christine's body is as cold as ice.
"Guys, what's wrong with her!" Tara asks in a panicked voice.
"I don't know," Joel replies, panic sneaking into his voice as well. "Her pulse is fine; she shouldn't be having problems with circulation."
"Let's get her out of here and try to call an ambulance," Sam replies as calmly as possible.
The three youths assist each other in lifting Christine up off the floor and carry her to the car. They carefully place her in the back seat, and Tara climbs in next to her to keep an eye on things. Joel and Sam then climb into the front seats and drive off.
"Little do they know that they've fallen into my trap," said a figure standing on the top of the house. His face was hidden by a mask, half orange, half black.