Of Cabbages & Kings
"Things are not always as they seem." –Mandrake
Part 2: Learning
Four of the Teen Titans, namely Robin, Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy, awoke to find themselves in a dizzy heap within a rather empty room. None of them knew where they were, and how they got there. After taking a few minutes to untangle themselves from the dizzy they awoke in, the Titans minus one tried to figure out what was going on.
During their fight with the never-ending supply of robots, Robin attempted to contact Raven, only to end up as the first to be captured by one of the robots. Soon after that, Beast Boy went down, and then Cyborg, and finally Starfire, who put up the hardest fight. Then they woke up in…wherever they were.
The four Titans were trying to work out what was going on when a door, almost invisible to all, opened up on one of the walls. The Titans stared at it.
"Um, where did that come from?" Beast Boy asked to no one in particular. Robin looked not only confused, but determined, a feat which made his facial expression look something weird. "I don't know, but it's our only way of getting out here." Robin, being the take-charge guy he is, made his way towards the door. The other Titans looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him out the doorway.
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Raven arrived at the factory where one of the team's earliest battles, before Savior joined, took place.
Djinito, the being responsible for kidnapping her friends, had told her to go to the place where a divided team was nearly conquered, and her first thought was this factory, and the story it represented.
Cinderblock, a rock-monster of a menace, once broke into the Jump City prison, hoping to bust out one of the criminals. The Titans tried to stop him, but Robin and Cyborg's "Sonic Boom" move backfired, allowing Cinderblock enough time to abduct the man who, when awake, became the monster Plasmus. Although none of the other inmates had escaped, Cinderblock still got away. Robin and Cyborg got into a argument over who's fault it was, an argument which led to Cyborg quitting the Titans. The next day, Plasmus had attacked this very factory, and it was only until Cyborg showed up that the Titans were able to capture him.
The Titans didn't know it at first, but this was the first part in one of Slade's masterminded plots. Raven came here, because it this whole scenario was very much like one of Slade's. A mysterious being, cryptic clues needed to be unraveled, the full package. Raven didn't know why Djinito was doing this, but after she found her friends, that would be on the top of her to-do list.
Raven looked around the factory, searching for…something that shouldn't be here. Something out of place. Unique. Raven spent fifteen minutes looking, but to no avail.
Then, when she had lost all hope, she found it. It was a poster, advertising a rave that was being held in an abandoned warehouse. Party at a warehouse? That sounded familiar. Raven checked the date on the poster. According to the poster's date, the rave had been held some time ago. Raven flipped the poster over and on the back the following message was hastily scribbled.
1St PoSiTiOn:
BaCkWaRd Z
Backward Z? what's that supposed to mean? Raven couldn't figure out what this bizarre message meant, but she had a pretty good idea where to go from here.
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The Titans had been walking down a dark, mysterious hallway for about fifteen minutes. At least, it was dark and mysterious, but soon it brightened up and the four Titans could see the old movie posters that dotted the wall.
Cyborg remarked, "Well, at least we can where we're going, now."
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Raven arrived at the warehouse where the rave had been, and upon entry thought about how Blackfire nearly had Starfire arrested for crimes she had committed. At first, it was easy to like Starfire's older sister, her being cool, confident, and sure of herself, and Raven had been impressed by the dark poetry Blackfire knew. But it soon became clear that Blackfire was stuck-up, and quick to lord over others, her younger sister included. When the Centari Police arrested the Tamaranian, Blackfire swore revenge, which she nearly got, had Starfire not been stronger than one would expect(See Legend-Maker's Black and White, and TT ep Betrouthed for more details).
A slight noise shook Raven out of her fit of nostalgia , and upon inspection of the source, found it was a small monkey. The monkey shrieked and zipped off, dropping an item on the floor. Raven normally could have used her powers to catch the monkey, but due to certain laws against animal cruelty, she instead picked up the item the simian left behind. It was a robotic device, similar, if she remembered correctly, to the ones Fixit had. Hastily scrawled on the machine was the following:
4TH PoSiTiOn:
A rOmAn ThOuSaNd
Raven didn't know what this meant,( although she had a shrewd idea…) but she did know where to go from here. The half-demon just hoped her friends weren't in any danger…
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The four Titans arrived at the end of the seemingly endless hallway, all suffering from footache. Well, Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg were suffering from aching feet, Starfire opted to float somewhere down the way. In front of them was a normal-looking doorway, with a not-so-normal sign tacked up on it. The symbol, if one could call it that, was identical to the one Raven saw in the Djinito Pyramid, although the four Titans didn't know that.
"Well," Robin said grimly, "Here we are."
"Yes… But where are we?" Starfire asked, nerviously. She seemed more unsure of herself then she had ever been during her first few months on Earth, and for good reason. During the walk down the hallway, the four Titans passed by a singing tiki.
Robin said, "I wish I knew, Kory, I wish I knew."
Beast Boy pressed one of his ears, which he morphed into an elephant's, against the door and said, "Hey, there's someone on the other side!"
Robin looked determined, and pulled out a Birdarang as he reached for the doorknob."Alright, everyone get ready. We have no idea what's on the other side and no idea what to expect."
In answer to his request, Starfire prepared her starbolts, Cyborg activated his Sonic Cannon, and Beast Boy crouched down the way a predator would. Robin flung open the door…
…And what they saw really took them by surprise.
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Fixit was, by no means, a people person.
This was due to the bio-cybertronic, implants he acquired some time ago. And somewhere along the line Fixit decided to "upgrade" so much that he lost most of his humanity. And he would have done the same to Cyborg, if he had not seen the real world through Cyborg's eyes.
Fixit was busy repairing one of his little robot things(What else am I supposed to call them?) when he heard the sound of footsteps. Fixit, who assumed it was Cyborg who needed his help with some dilemma, was surprised to see it was Raven.
"May I help you?" Fixit asked the demonic Titan. He noticed she seemed to be carrying something…
"Cyborg and the rest of the Titans core have been kidnapped. While searching for them, I found one of your robots."
Fixit nodded, and answered, in his blank way, "That one vanished a few weeks ago," -A few weeks…the same time I started having those dreams… Raven thought.- "It was also the same time that this graffiti appeared." This last part snapped Raven out of her musings. She looked where Fixit had guestered, and saw, hastily written and poorly spelled, the following:
LAST/6TH POSITION: THE END OF TIME, THE END OF SPACE
3RD POSITION: UPSIDE DOWN 7
Raven stared at the graffiti, memorizing it. Fixit, even with his lack of emotions, was slightly disturbed by her apparent fascination. He asked, "Is something wrong?" Raven did not answer, but shrank into the shadows, disappearing from sight. Fixit stared at where she had been, and without another word, went back to work, feeling miffed. She did even say good-bye…
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Starfire asked her host, "When will you let us go?"
"When there are five of you."
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Raven returned to Titans Tower with the feeling of failure on her shoulders. Where was she to go next? Each clue was confusing and bizarre. And she was no detective. That was Robin's forte'…
For a moment, she considered calling for help. Savior was at a conference in Washington, Gauntlet and Scapel were in Gauntlet's hometown, Uberton, and Terra was visiting a pen pal. Maybe if she called one of them-
No, She thought to herself, I can't. Djinito, whoever he was, was challenging her and her alone. Raven would have to figure this out for herself. Pushing all thoughts of failure out of her mind, Raven reviewed the clues she had Djinito had left her. Each one spoke of a position, six positions in all. The clues, when deciphered, must spell a specific word. So, getting a piece of paper, Raven jotted down six blank spaces.
Okay, time to decipher the first hint! Raven thought back to the scribbling on the poster in the factory.
1st Position: Backwards Z.
Okay… a Z turned backwards… Raven drew a Z, then drew a reversed Z. Raven stared at the twisted letter.
What does it mean…? AAARRGG! In desperation, Raven slammed her head against the wall. Ouch! With her vision slightly blurred by the self-inflicted concussion, Raven noticed that her 'backwards Z' looked very much like an S…
That's it! Raven's pain and dizziness left her upon this revelation. The first letter was S!
S
Now for the next clue. Raven reviewed the scrawls on Fixit's stolen robot:
4th Position: A Roman Thousand.
This one was easier. A thousand, when written in the Roman numeric system, was a K. So, in theory…
S K
Now for the last two clues. Raven thought back to the graffiti she saw in Fixit's workshop…
6th/Last Position: The end of time, the end of space.
3rd Position: Upside down 7.
The first one was easy. The 6th letter was E, the end of time, and the end of space. Now, figuring out the 3rd letter was a bit of a challenge as the answer wasn't going to be simple.
Or was it?
Raven decided to do what she did when she tackled the first clue. She first wrote the number 7 on a separate piece of paper, then turned it upside-down. The result resembled an L, though slightly tilted.
SLK E
Raven stared at what she had written. The word was not complete. There were still blanks to be filled in. A headache began to form. Not knowing what else to do, our favorite half-demon did what she felt would clear help her mind and solve this problem. She began to meditate.
Closing her eyes, crossing her legs, and hovering ever-so-slightly above the floor, Raven began to chant her mantra of, "Azarath, Mentrion, Zinthos" and opened her mind to the universe…
Or at least, that's what she should have done, if not for the tugging on her cloak. Raven didn't bother to open her eyes. "Not now, Silkie, I'm busy." Raven knew the mutant larva that Starfire cared for missed his Tamaranian owner, and-
Wait.
Wait-A-Second.
Silkie.
S-I-L-K-I-E.
1-2-3-4-5-6
Raven's eyes shot open with enough speed to make the Flash green with envy. She stared at Silkie, who stared back. It all came to her in one startling revelation.
The word is Silkie.
Raven picked up Silkie, looked him in the eye and asked, "What is it, Silkie?" Silkie wriggled out of her grip and fell to the floor with a plop. Then, after getting up, he crawled as fast as his little legs could take him. Raven hovered after the mutant, wondering where he was scurrying off to.
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Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Jump City, there was a sudden flash of color and sound.
FWAASSHH!
A figure stood where there had been none. He stared intently at the city before him, and focused on a strange-looking structure… shaped like T.
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Silkie led Raven to the door of her room. She looked down at the larva, who kept nodding his head into her private sanctum. Raven took a deep breath, and opened the door. Her eyes widened.
HOLY-!
Raven spent most her time in her room. She knew it very well. And one thing she knew was that a multi-colored vortex floating in front of her bed had certainly not been there before.
This is it, She thought, This where I need to go. Raven, acting without thinking, which was amazingly uncharacteristic of her, jumped into the vortex in a single bound. A few seconds afterward, the portal shrank into nothingness.
Silkie, who witnessed the event, gurgled.
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OKAY! Sorry it took so long! And sorry if this chapter seemed so boring, but this is more… intellectual. Also, I'm a little miffed that only ONE PERSON REVIEWED. C'mon, people! I won't update until I receive at least 5 more reviews.
TO BE CONTINUED