Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. More fun abounds as Beast Boy and the emoticlones climb Happy Tower.
"This just keeps on getting weirder and weirder." Rude states, mildly irritated, as the group enters the next room.
The eight people in the group had spent a good ten minutes climbing the tower only to find they had only made it halfway up. They had passed rooms that were very strange to say the least, but the newest one took the cake.
"What IS that?" Brave asks wearily.
Sitting in the middle of the room is a giant half-chicken, quarter-giraffe, quarter-armadillo. The floor is sandy and the walls seem to be made of sponges.
"I've seen some odd things in Brave's realm, but this is just..." Knowledge trails off, not sure what to say.
"Don't eat us!" Timid squeaks, hiding behind the changeling.
"Umm... It a herbvore." Beast Boy says calmly, pointing to the THING standing in the middle of the room.
"How can ya tell?" Sloth asks, curious.
"Look at it teth." He says, pointing to the creature's mouth. "Dey awent twong nuf to tear apawt meat."
"Oh."
"How did you know that?" Knowledge asks, curious.
"I gwews up in Afica. Learned lots abowt aminals and tuff." Beast Boy announces proudly. "I is good at biowagy."
"I keep on telling Raven that you're smart!" Affection purrs, stroking his arm. Knowledge reaches forward and pulls Affection back and away from the confused changeling.
"Err, right." Brave coughs. "So we have nothing to worry about?"
"Pwobawy not." Beast Boy affirms.
Brave nods and slides around the edge of the room. The creature might not be dangerous, but that doesn't mean she wants to take unnecessary risks.
Seeing Brave make her way around the creature unmolested, the others quickly follow.
"Why does Happy even have something like this in her house in the first place?" Rude mutters.
"Don't know, don't want to know." Brave whispers in reply.
The group walks up a long tube and comes together another door.
"Who's opening it this time?" Rage asks, sighing.
"I believe it was Timid's turn." Knowledge informs everyone.
Timid quails but is pushed forward by Rude. She shivers and tentatively opens the door. She is launched backward by a massive gust of wind and crashes into Rage. The two fall to the ground as the rest of the group tries to enter the room, straining against the wind.
Surprisingly, Affection is the first to reach the door. She nearly falls as she tries to step over the threshold. She carefully backs away from the room.
"There's no floor!" She cries out, trying to be heard over the wind.
"What?!" Brave calls out? "Mind the boar?"
"THERE'S NO FLOOR!" Affection screeches.
"Close the door!" Knowledge barks.
Muscles burning, the purple-cloaked emoticlone manages to shut the door. The wind shuts off abruptly and everyone else falls to the floor as their advance suddenly lacks resistance.
"That was fun." Rude mutters.
"Get off me." Rage growls to Timid.
"Dood! My hawr is wuined!" Beast Boy complains.
"What now?" Sloth asks, rolling over on the floor and not bothering to get up.
"Now we try a different direction." Knowledge sighs.
"Geeze, what's taking you guys so long?"
The group whirls around to see Happy standing behind them.
"Happy?!" Rage says, shocked. "Where have you been? We've been trying to get you for hours!"
"Actually it's only been fifteen minutes." Timid points out weakly. Rage shoots the grey emoticlone a glare and she shrinks back into her cloak.
"Well you would have gotten to the main room already if you had just taken the elevator silly!" Happy laughs.
...
"THERE WAS AN ELEVATOR?!"
###
Robin paces in front of his teammate's door. His face reflects his distress, which is obvious despite the mask covering his eyes.
'Why did I volunteer to remind Raven?' He whines to himself. 'She's gonna be so pissed off.'
An image of Cyborg grinning and saying "I told ya so" pops into the boy wonder's head.
Growling, Robin brushes away the irritating thought.
'I should probably just get this over with.' He nods to himself. Raising a fist to the door he prepares to knock... But can't bring himself to do it.
'Stop being a coward! Just knock already!' He hisses to himself mentally. Once again her raises his fist... And swerves away at the last second.
'This time I'm really gonna do it!' Robin thinks to himself in determination. He tries to knock once more.
His fist is inches from the door.
Centimeters.
Millimeters.
He taps the door very quietly. A minuscule "ding" Sounds from the metal surface.
No response.
'Stop being pathetic!' He scolds himself. 'Just-'
"Sometimes I swear you're worse than Beast Boy." Raven's voice says from the other side of the door.
Robin's head drooping as the door slides open. He forgot Raven was an empath, and probably knew he had been standing there for ten minutes.
Raven sits on her bed with her arms and legs crossed, looking at an embarrassed Robin with one eyebrow raised.
Robin rubs the back of his head as he enters the dark room. "My bad."
Raven huffs. "You think my current appearance would make me less intimidating, not more so."
Unsure of how to respond, the boy wonder shifts in place. An awkward silence hangs in the air for a few seconds.
"You had something to tell me?" The miniature half-demon reminds him dryly, breaking the quietness.
"R-Right." Robin takes a deep breath. "I have something to tell you."
"Go on." Raven prompts, irritated.
"It's about Beast Boy." Robin says slowly.
"I know." Raven growls, annoyed.
"You're not going to like it." The masked boy informs her hesitantly.
"Quit stalling." Raven barks sharply. The effect is somewhat ruined by her childish appearance.
"Beast Boy is..." Robin hesitates, his eyes glance left and right.
"SPIT IT OUT!" The half-demon roars.
Robin flinchs and takes a step back. "H-He's in your mind." The boy stutters.
Raven's eyes grow wide and she freezes, stunned.
Deciding to run while he still has the chance, the boy wonder tries to bolt from the room. The door is surrounded in a black aura and slams closed just as he reaches it.
'Uh oh' Is his only thought.
He turns around slowly to see the empath fuming. Dark energy wreaths her small form.
"And exactly HOW long have you know that he was in my mind?" She hisses.
"W-Well... H-He..." Robin stutters.
The dark girl growls, tentacles of dark energy are visible writhing under her cloak.
"S-Since the HIVE FIVE attacked the Tower!" He manages to spit out.
"Exactly WHY did he go into my mind?"
"You told him to." Robin recoils as Raven's eyes snap to their full size. Her death glare is directed at the unfortunate form of the Titan's leader, who cowers before her.
"So why don't I remember this?" She hisses. "I know you're not lying, so why don't I recall telling him to enter my mind?"
"I don't know." Robin whispers, backing away from his teammate. His back met the hard metal of the door and he knew he had run out of room.
Raven fumes for a moment before barking "get out of my sight!" and removing her energies from the door to let a frightful Robin escape.
Raven takes a moment calm herself as a few books start to float in the air. After the books drop back to their respective places Raven's head whips around to look at her mirror.
"I'm gonna want answers." She hisses. "Why didn't my emoticlones remind me of this?!"
Picking up the hand-mirror the half-demon allows herself to be pulled in.
###
"And that is why pancakes eating fingernails are smaller than swashbuckling caterpillars on skateboards." Happy finishs.
The eight others in the room just stared at the pink emoticlone with faces of confusion, revulsion, and amusement.
"Right..." Sloth offers, unsure of what to say.
"Dats bes part was when da picones eated da sun." Beast Boy laughs.
"Happy" Knowledge says, straightening her glasses. "That made absolutely no sense."
"I liked when the worm made friends with the doughnut." Affection smiles with a slightly mischievous expression on her face.
"AFFECTION." Rage growls sternly. "Keep everything rated T please."
"Fine." She huffs. A moment later her irises shrink and she bushes at her inappropriate statement.
"I thought nothing could be more disgusting than Rude's victory poems, but it seems I was wrong." Brave says, looking slightly horrified. "I never want to hear a story like that again."
"I liked it." Timid whispers. "The puppy and the ice cream were cute; until the beetle came along. That was scary."
In case you were wondering, the group of nine are seated in the main room of Happy Tower. The "seats" resemble marshmallows and the floor, walls, and ceiling look suspiciously like watermelon. Light is provided by small waffles that float randomly through the air.
In short, the place is weirrrrred.
Suddenly, the eight emoticlones sit bolt upright and share a look.
"What wong?" The changeling inquires, worried.
"Raven's here." Knowledge says quietly.
"She's gonna be maaaad." Happy giggles.
"Will Beast Boy be alright?" Timid whispers in concern.
"Rae won't do anything bad to 'im. He didn't do anything wrong after all." Brave says confidently.
"She might not see it that way; after all, she doesn't remember sending Beast Boy here in the first place." Knowledge points out.
"So why didn't you remind me?"
Knowledge gulps and turns around to see the original Raven standing before them.
"You're so cute!" Happy squeals. "You're small just like us!"
Raven tries to fend off her irritation at the "cute" comment.
"It would be best if she were back to normal." Affection remarks. "She's not looking her best right now."
"Gee, thanks for noticing." The empath replies icily.
"Waben!" Beast Boy cries out happily. "Yous jus missed Happeh's tory! It was amazink!"
"I'm gonna hurl." Brave coughs, holding her stomach.
"Enough!" Raven hisses. "Knowledge." She says, turning to face the yellow emoticlone. "Why didn't you remind me Beast Boy was in my mind?"
"She didn't know." Rage explains, covering for Knowledge. "You repressed our awareness of Beast Boy's arrival, but in doing so you forgot about it yourself. I was too strong to be repressed though." The last part is added as an afterthought.
"That explains why I didn't know before." Raven says, deceptively calm. "So why didn't you alert me when you found out?"
"Well..." Knowledge shuffles her feet guiltily.
"We wanted him to stay for a while." Timid's voice is so quite it almost can't be heard by the empath, but hear it she does.
"If you all had let me we could have had some FUN." Affection purrs.
Everyone, Beast Boy excluded, glares at the purple-cloaked emoticlone. She grins broadly and holds her hands up in surrender.
"Well. We'll be going now." Raven sighs.
"Come back soon BB." Sloth murmurs.
"Don't forget to write." Rude remarks sarcastically.
"Don't get yourself into trouble." Rage orders seriously. "Or you'll be answering to ME."
"Yes ma'am." Beast Boy tries to salute, but ends up falling over backwards.
Raven shakes her head. Eyes glowing, she teleports herself and the goofy shapeshifter over to the forbidden door.
"Be thankful you didn't mess up my mind." Raven growls. "Or there would have been hell to pay."
"I was jus pwayink wid dem." Beast Boy protests.
"That in itself is dangerous. What if Rage had lost control?"
"By pwayink a gam? Give yousewf a bid mowr cwedit Waben. Yous not DAT vowatile." Beast Boy scoffs.
Raven isn't sure what she's more surprised by: the statement itself, or the fact Beast Boy used the word "volatile".
"Let's just leave." She mutters, embarrassed.
Chapter 14 complete. A strange chapter, even by my standards. Hope you enjoyed.