These Black Eyes Chapter 133: Mortuana part 2, a teen titans fanfic

133. Mortuana part 2

The violins stroke.

The flute lingers.

The pale figure pauses to take a breath.

He lifts his arms and opens his eyes as he spins dramatically inside the fire-lit circle of gothic listeners and utters:

"Lost!! Inconceivably scattered within the hallow shell of pure darkness!! They had no way of finding each other!! They had no way of knowing if each other were alive!! And it was all because of the selfish villain's attempt to strike pain and suffering in the heart of the sacred mother's child.........Can you imagine such an atrocity??"

Murmurs.

Worried looks.

Hands comforting each other......

The pale man smiled and raised a finger. "But......"

Pale lips. Pale teeth.

Thin eyes......

"She had allies......," he whispered at first, then practically sang: "Friends so dear and close to her that they would give anything to assure that the attack on her person was relinquished. Sure, the rescue attempt was made for all the souls of the land of light trapped within the obsidian shell......but these two souls in particular had every reason to seek her and her alone. It was their destiny......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Progress slowly.....and.....freeze frame." The lieutenant said.

The t.v. screen flickered to a stop. The fuzzy black image of a thin figure appeared in the middle of a helicopter view of Main Street. Besides the figure was a small, onyx cylinder of threatening mystery.

The lieutenant leaned over the technician and pointed at the figure.

"This...is Dr. Light. And beside him is what we think triggered the dome."

I narrowed my black eyes through my shades. I glanced aside at Cyborg.

The android Titan stared, his arms folded. We were gathered inside a makeshift tent erected in the middle of the street besides the ever-growing barricade formed around the sudden half-sphere of blackness. It was bright daylight outside and a cold autumn wind kicked at the tent flaps, deaffening the otherwise tense scene.

"Just what could it be??" the technician sitting before the editing controls muttered.

"Shhh....let them examine it," the lieutenant hissed.

Cyborg rubbed his chin.

I stared a bit more intently. A beat. I hand-signed at the Titan.

"Nah, man...," Cyborg exhaled and shook his head. "Not a chronoton detonator. It's too small. Besides...you've seen one before, remember?"

I sighed and nodded.

A beat.

"It's Terran technology," Cyborg leaned a titanium finger and traced the small dark shape of the cylinder. "Just...pretty damned advanced. Too overtly sinister for something like Lexcorp to manufacture. Dr. Light is certainly smart and technologically gifted enough to make something that small and yet that dangerous on his own...but I have no idea how he'd gotten the money to do something like that."

"Not to mention he's only been a free man for five months," the lieutenant took the liberty of adding. "He escaped from Arkham Asylum and wasn't heard from until now."

"A maniac like that could have gotten some help from Intergang...but I think they're still reeling from Metallo's imprisonment. This guy is working solo, that's for sure." A beat. A sigh. "What Raven did to him must have screwed his brain up more than any of us could guess," Cyborg said.

I looked at him strangely.

"Long story, Noir...."

I hand-signed: 'I would love to hear it.'

Cyborg groaned. "Let's just say that none of us are perfect....okay?"

I bit my lip.

A ruffle of tent material. Decker marched in.

"Looks like the National Guard's coming. The Governor's declaring a state of emergency and I just remembered I needed to buy shaving lotion. God, I friggin' hate Mondays."

"Just keep everyone as far away from the dome as possible until the probe is finished."

"How's that rusty little Johnny Five gonna do us any good??"

"If you want to go and stick your head into the black mass, Comissioner...be my guest. But believe it or not, this City actually needs your razor-edged spunk from time to time. So I suggest you stay alive."

"Heh...," Decker glanced at me with a dry smirk. "Since when did the grow up?"

I simpered.

Cyborg again refocused attention on the computer screen. "Progress by ten frames," he pointed.

"Allright," the technician fumbled with the controls.

I leaned forward....watching....

The fuzzy image clicked into blurred motion until the figure of Dr. Light (or 'Dr. Dark') leaned over and flipped the switch to the device. The top of the cylinder was the first to explode outward in a big bulbous blob of blackness---

"Freeze frame!"

The technician did so.

"Now zoom out..."

The entire Main Street came into a wide-angled focus. The half-exploding mass of darkness could be seen in the center of the otherwise-quaint scene.

"Now progress by twenty frames....slowly....."

The technician did so.

The five of us watched the tiny t.v. screen as the black sphere expanded outward and sloshed throughout the City till it formed a structurally sound 'dome' of obsidian.

"Freeze."

The Technician did so.

Cyborg glanced at me. "Did you see what I see?"

I nodded slowly....

"????" Decker and his lieutenant appeared clueless. "What the Hell's going on?"

"Reverse and forward the last forty frames...and repeat," Cyborg instructed.

The technician did so.

"See?" Cyborg pointed for the officers to see. "The black mass...it's contorting fluidly to match the mass and shape of the ground."

"Meaning...."

"Whatever this darkness is....it isn't merging with the actual structures around it. Rather, it's shaping itself around it. Like a gas or a half-solid."

"So you're saying that the part of the City that's blacked out.....," Decker scratched his head, "...isn't in fact obliterated?"

"Nope. Rather, I think it's covered. As if with a huge-ass blanket."

"A blanket that we can't even see through..."

I hand-signed: 'Can it be penetrated?'

Cyborg swiveled about. "There's no saying it is or isn't permeable. But hopefully we should know by now."

"How so?"

"The probe...," Cyborg walked out of the tent.

I followed him swiftly. Decker and the lieutenant were at our heels.

Outside of the tent, the street was a loud and busy bustle of officers rushing about, setting up barricades, and securing a perimeter around the heart of the City's Downtown district. Orders were shouted. Engines revved as cars and trucks pulled into position. Tents and monitoring equipment were set up. And beyond it all was a line of citizens beyond yet another perimeter...and most of the innocent people were shouting and sobbing and crying out for answers. Their loved ones were trapped inside....

"Where's this probe of yours now????" Decker cackled.

"If the Phaser Labs scientists are doing their job...then it should be at least fifty meters deep into the black mass right about now."

"You mean you've actually been sending something inside that dome??"

"A remarkable feat...," Cyborg slurred. "Considering that it's been two and a half hours since it appeared and nobody has come out yet..."

Decker was silent.

I had a sore sensation in the back of my throat.

We approached a group of white-coated lab technicians flanked by armed guards. They were busily scrambling around a computer console erected and attached to a loud, humming machine with huge electric cords dangling and stretching off towards the body of obsidian. The cords seemed to pierce through the black nether like brave placentas, and the cables danced...indicating that the probe inside the depths of the obsidian mass was moving about efficiently and exploring somewhere.

"Hey! Old man!" Cyborg planted his hands on his hips and cackled: "How goes it??"

"I wish you would not interrupt me, Victor......"

"Simon...you're an advanced computer construct. It'd take the whole northeastern electrical grid overloading for me to interrupt your subroutine."

"Bah......has it been that long since we worked together??"

A flicker of light, and the hologram of Simon Stone's figure appeared small and gentlemanly on the edge of the computer console. He was broadcasting his visual incarnation from the mainframe at Phaser Labs in which he was housed many, many blocks away across the City's interstate.

"Give me a break. I'm looking for your friends as much as you desire to meet them again."

"Don't forget about the innocent people stuck in Downtown when this crap unloaded too, Princess Leia!" Decker frowned.

I hand-signed at Cyborg.

Cyborg blinked at me and then looked at Decker. "Approximately how many people could there be stuck in there?"

"It's hard to say...," Decker groaned. "Lucky shit—though—that we managed to evacuate a bunch of families when Dr. Light first performed his pantomime of death."

"The estimation is at five hundred people right now...," the lieutenant said....with a latent shudder.

The two of us felt it too.

"Well...no time like the present to start taking samples of this thing," Simon's hologram said. He pointed at the keystroking scientists busy at work in guiding the probe. "Right now, tests show a virtual paradox inside that place. There is absolutely no sign of light. Not even in the daytime. Particles are almost absent completely. Nothing is being reflected or absorbed—save for that which the robot probe casts. And yet—in the absence of light energy—the City streets have not achieved absolute zero in temperature. We suspect that there may be another source of heat energy left in the City under the blackness.........or........."

"Or what??" Decker's eyes narrowed.

The hologram flickered...then smirked. "Quite technically......we may be dealing with the first recorded example of a self-sufficient, pocket dimension caused by an artificial paradox."

"..........," Decker blinked. He looked at Cyborg and I. "So how do we kill it?"

"Commissioner, I don't see how we can 'kill' a pocket dimension....," Cyborg grumbled.

"Right now, the lives of those possibly inside that thing matter the most," the lieutenant said.

"And just how're we going to get to them?" Decker asked.

I motioned a 'walking figure' with two fingers.

"Not a bad idea thus far," Simon Stone's visage grinned. "Part of the inherent paradox is the almost perfect, nonpolluted living conditions inside the interior of the dome. I dare say—as accidental as this is—we may have before us now the cleanest spot on the globe."

"Looks like a big glob of shit to me...," Decker grumbled, eyeing the dome and scratching his head.

Simon sighed. "Yes......well......there will be interpretations......"

"I don't see what we're waiting for," Cyborg spoke. He faced Decker. "I suggest you consider assembling a task force together, sir. We may not want to wait for the National Guard on this one. That thing looks big 'n all, but there's no telling how stable it is or not."

"You're telling me," Decker nodded. "In a place that dark, trapped citizens are only bound to get hurt in some way or another—"

"The probe!!" a scientist suddenly gasped. "It's....a-accelerating!!"

The figure of Simon Stone flickered. "Wh-What??"

"Into the center of the dome!" another scientist scrambled over the controls and computer console. "The cord is being pulled on! Hard!!"

"Then cut the engine to the probe!!"

"It's not the probe that's moving on its own, sir!!"

"Huh??"

Cyborg and I looked at each other. "........."

If Simon Stone had a jaw, it'd be gaping. His holographic visage snapped out of it and motioned: "Quick!! Pull it back!!"

A scientist shouted: "Initiate retrieval!!"

"B-But---"

"Now!!!"

Another technician jammed on the controls.

VRYMMMMM!!!!!!! The mechanical pulley system to the probe recoiled at a maddening pace. The cords slid back into a huge metal box. Retracting----

CL-CLANK!!!!

I jolted.

So did everyone else in the vicinity.

"The Hell???"

The cord had stopped retracting.

Two nearby scientists blinked at it. "It.....it's caught—"

CRACK!!!!!!! SWOOOSH!!! YANK!!!!

The cord was pulled fiercely forward...lunging into the black dome. The anchor of a pulley system snapped halfway off its hinges. The cord was yanked forward again from inside the dome. Sparks flew. A metal panel blew off with a POW!! and smacked hard into the back of a scientist, who collapsed with a groan.

"It's being pulled back!!"

"The machine can't counter for the force!!"

YANK!!! CRKKKKK!!!!

The cord pulled taut...dancing....metal twanging sounds reverberating everywhere.

"We're losing it!!"

Cyborg dove forward.

I gasped as I watched him.

The android Titan grabbed onto the cord, gritted his teeth, and pulled with heavy, titanium muscles. " Nnnnghhhhh!!!!!!!"

CREAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!

The cord stretched to the breaking point. Split 'ends' of wire strands snapped off in a dozen places. The cord shook, tensed, and finally gave in to the Titan.

YANK!!!!

"RghhhhrrRRAUGH!!!" Cyborg stomped towards the barricade as he pulled at the cord...easier....easier....

"Look....," the lieutenant pointed.

The cord dangled to the asphalt. Something emerged from the dome.

Decker and I squinted.

CL-CLANK!!!

The probe was dragged out of the black sphere.....

Or at least...what was once the probe. The wheels of the metal, robotic cart were gone. Many instruments were damaged and dangling. And at the front of the craft opposite of where the cords were attached....the metal body was scarred, scratched, and dented in key places.

"...........," Cyborg stopped pulling and stared at what was at the end of his line. THWUMP!! He dropped his grip of the cord and walked over to the mangled probe.

I joined him quickly.

The two of us knelt and stared at the metal device. Decker, the lieutenant, and a few stray (and dumbfounded) officers stood over us.

"What the Hell?? Did a building front land on it or something??" Decker remarked.

I ran my metal finger over the surface. My titanium digits ran in tiny ravines cut into the metal surface. ".........." I hand-signed to Cyborg.

The android took a deep breath. "Noir's right....it's not that simple."

"Why not?"

I looked up at the officers and pointed at the surface with emphasis.

Cyborg spoke: "Those are teeth marks......"

".....................," everyone stared at the scarred probe. "................." we all turned and stared at the black dome.

The dark wall stretched pure and satiny before us. Solid, pure black.

Silent......

Ever erect.....

".................."

Cyborg and I looked at each other.

A beat.

A breath.

My teammate said: "Ready to go for a daylight, midnight stroll?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gone were my combat fatigues. I did away with the camouflage jacket, black tanktop, and brown slacks that I was used to. In its place was a white jumpsuit. Reflective ivory color. I even had a white bandanna that I was fastening to my forehead.

"The light clothes and gear are essential in this mission," spoke Simon Stone's image from atop a holographic pedestal inside the equipments tent. "Your only way of seeing will be use of artificial light, whether it be flashlight or lanterns or flares or what have you. And in order to prevent the two of you from getting lost from each other......you'll just have to deal with the dusty ghost look."

Cyborg finished inserting a chip into his sternum and closing the panel over it. "On top of that, old man," he smirked. The usual blue glow of his titanium exoskeleton was replaced with a bright white aura. "Heh...I can feel my basketball-dunking skills fading already."

I glanced Cyborg's way and stuck my tongue out.

He chuckled.

"And did I mention flashlights? You'll need a lot of them. A whole pack of them. Along with medical aid kits and—just in case—radio equipment."

Cyborg and I finished bagging the items in questions. The two of us had backpacks—though Cyborg's was considerably bigger.

"The ropes and cords are for any emergency rescue you might need to orchestrate...be it scaling a building or a sewer or what have you."

I nodded in understanding. I fastened tight bundles of cord around my chest and torso in an 'x' formation. I slipped on Myrkblade between all of this and the backpack and practiced unsheathing the weapon. CHIIIING!! I sighed with a slight smile. At least some things are working today......

"About the radio equipment......it's going to be hard granting you and the officers outside two-way communication......much less one-way. We found out with the probe that we couldn't transmit live signals in or out of the black dome completely. It seems to be cancelling out radio waves and other transmissions. It might also account for the fact that no phone call has gotten through to anyone's mobiles among those still stuck in the Downtown District."

"That's for you to wonder about and for us to find out, old man," Cyborg said...fastening the last of his ropes and cords to his chest. "Consider this the final experiment. I hypothesize that we're gonna go in there and come out with over twelve hundred people in tact."

"That doesn't sound like a null hypothesis to me......"

"Yeah...well...screw you, Mendel," Cyborg winked.

The hologram's figure chuckled. "Heheheheh."

Silence.

"This isn't gonna be easy, Victor," Simon solemnly said. "Be careful."

"You know we won't," Cyborg said.

Just then, one of the technicians rushed in with a CD. "We think you may want to see something."

"What's that?"

"????" I looked.

"It's a recording from the probe," the technician slipped the CD into a nearby computer console and typed up a media program. "Taken as a sampling right when we nearly lost it."

"Is it footage from inside the dome??" Cyborg walked up, I beside him.

The technician bit his lip. "I-It's mostly sound....but............j-just watch...."

One last keystroke...

-click-

Cyborg and I leaned forward to the computer screen.

Simon's hologram 'craned his neck'.

There was nothing in the media window but absolute white snow. The audio corresponded predictably:

"Snkkkktkkkkkkskkkkksnnkkkkskkks-skkkknnkkkkskkkttkkkkkkk........."

Cyborg slowly shook his face, shrugged, and sighed. "Nothing—"

"Shhh....watch...," the technician said.

"Snkkkkkkktkkkkkknkkkkkkkkkkksnnnkkkkttt-kkkkkksnnkkk........."

Pure snow. But then...a hump of black...then snow again.

I narrowed my eyes. I leaned in between the two's shoulders.

Cyborg rubbed his chin.

Snow.....more snow.....more snow......

"Snnnkkkkkkkkksnkkkkkkkktnnkk-kkkktkkkkkkktkkconsumemesskkktkktk......"

Snow. Snow. Another dark hump. Parting snow. Dancing. Asphalt up close. A shadow. Snow burst. An eyebrow. Twitching cornea. White lace.

"Snnkkktkkkkconsumememommysnnkkktkkkkkktohgawdhe'sHERE-SNNKKKT—TKKKK!!!"

The screen went black.

The speakers dead silent.

I blinked. I adjusted my shades and glanced at my teammate.

"..................," Cyborg leaned back. He took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck....feeling for hair that wasn't there.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When the two Titans marched slowly towards the obsidian wall, the commotion of the barricade and the two perimeters had practically melted into absolute silence. Even the news and camera crews from beyond the outer rim of protection had turned mute. Everyone—officer, scientist, and technician alike stared in awe and uncertainty as we approached the line of no-light. Our bodies equipped with backpacks, rope, and lighting equipment.

We were ready....

We paused at the edge of the black wall. I glanced at Cyborg.

Cyborg nodded. He turned around and faced the barricade from a long distance. He looked at Decker and the lieutenant in particular as he spoke...and his voice had a frighteningly queer echoing sound in the middle of that sunny afternoon in the City:

"I know it might not matter much...but we'll try and keep in contact!! If we don't meet or see anyone in the first three hours...we shall return!! If we're not back by then...I suggest you rely on some outer forces to investigate! Maybe....M-Maybe the Justice League..."

I bit my lip at that.

Decker nodded. He called out. "Don't forget the cord!!"

We both looked down.

A black cable painted with impromptu bands of white highlight had been tossed into the surface of the black dome.

"Right!" Cyborg saluted back from a distance. "If there's a tug on it...that means people are ready to come out! Don't come in for us unless you see that thing there moving!! It's too dangerous for anyone but heroes at this point...."

Silent understanding...

Cyborg and I swiveled back to the dome. We took our own...independent breaths.

"Remember, dawg....we stick together....no matter what...."

I nodded. I hand-signed. 'I am dressed like Colonel Sanders. I don't think that will be hard.'

Cyborg chuckled at that. He smiled at me.

I smiled weakly at him.

"............"

"Let's go find our friends, Noir."

I nodded.

I faced forward.

Slowly....I stepped in first.

I reached my metal hand out while absent-mindedly holding my other arm back and clutching the hilt of my sheathed sword.

I exhaled....and oozed through.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cold.........

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Absolutely cold.

Absolutely silent.

Absolutely black.

And then...there was a thunder that exploded through the blind world.

I gasped...and it thundered louder.

And I realized that that very thunder.....was my very own breath.

I fumbled my metal hand down to my belt...where a flashlight had been tied to my jumpsuit. I snapped the flashlight free of the belt........and turned it on.

-click-

A golden beam shot out from my left arm like a lightsabre. It startled me. I twisted my metal hand around. The beam danced around. And suddenly...building sides appeared. And street signs. And empty cars. Like pieces to a puzzle lighting up from beneath a mahogany-glass surface.

I exhaled.

Visible wisps drifted into the beam as my breath thundered into the deathly silent domain of black......

I shuddered.

Two echoes of thunder from behind me.

I spun my head around.

A shuffling.

A pause.

".............."

".............N-Noir?" Cyborg's voice.

I swung the flashlight around.

The ground caught fire in an orange glow. Cyborg's boots appeared.

I tilted the flashlight up.

Cyborg's upper body. His human eye squinted.

"Okay, man....we're both here and we're both okay. Stop blinding me."

I sweatdropped, simpered, and pointed the electric torch away.

"Step aside....," he thunderously whispered.

My footsteps echoed twice to the side.

Whurrr-Chting!!

His shoulder flashlight popped up....and...

FLASH!!!

A quarter of the nearby street appeared before us...as if emerging from the surface of a black lake. Everything beyond fifteen meters disappeared into inky oblivion. Everything was still. There was no movement. No wind. No ambiance. Just perfect oblivion. Death, almost.......

"..................," Cyborg's human eye blinked. "Whoah......."

I walked ahead of him a bit. I shone around with my flashlight. The light scanned the buildingfronts. But when it met the glass of the windows, it didn't reflect off. There was no glinting effects. No glistening. Just dullness.

"...............," I blinked a few times. My face scrunched up. –click- I turned my flashlight off.

"?????" Cyborg glanced at me strangely.

I reached a flesh hand up....and took my shades off. I blinked with my black eyes.

A beat.

I glanced Cyborg's way.

He looked at me.

A beat.

I shrugged and tossed the black shades off.

They clattered with unnatural loudness on the asphalt floor beneath us.

I took a deep breath and took the lead, walking ahead and scanning the immediate area with my naked, black optics.

Cyborg marched up slowly behind me, assisting with the glow of his floodlight.

And in such a slow manner, we advanced into the abyss....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Streetsides oozed past us.

Cars and trucks and vans in the thick murk of black.

Lampposts and street lights looming like silver ghosts.

No lights.

No strobes.

No blinking.

Just a cold, quiet dullness.

The footsteps of Cyborg and I seemed to echo as far as the android's floodlights could pierce into the nether.

My black eyes caught the shells of vehicles and abandoned storefronts seconds before they emerged into the normally visible spectrum.

No people.

No bodies.

Nothing...

Quietly...breathing steadily....we walked on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We passed by the site of the Titans' battle with Dr. Light.

Smashed cards and building fronts littered the asphalt on either side of us.

Cyborg stepped over a mound of debris.

Loose bricks crumbled under the weight of him.

Echoing cracks and rumbles drifted into the nearby air.

I walked by and peered into a smashed building front with my eyes.

I sensed stone-still shadows inside but nothing moving.

I sighed.

Cyborg walked over the hole in the asphalt where Tempest had collapsed.

He aimed his floodlight down.

The sewer was dry.

No liter of water or muck could so much as be seen.

Not even a trickle or a piece of residue.

Cyborg inhaled.

He stood up and joined me in the center of the road.

There, we found the spot where Dr. Light's cylinder was.

And the object was gone...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Surrounded in an orb of dim, golden glow...our two bodies shuffled down the empty streets of Downtown.

We reached the Business District.

At an intersection, four huge skyscrapers stretched up into the blackness.

I glanced up with my naked eyes at the edge of the northwest building.

The electric stock exchange ticker was off completely.

I peered up.

Cyborg stepped up behind me and aimed his floodlight up.

He switched the light to its highest intensity.

The glow managed to climb up the first six stories of the building...but failed to go beyond.

Cyborg swiveled the flashlight around.

The light caught three shadows in front of a building.

The two of us jolted.

.....

Flagpoles.

The canvass flags hung limply.

There was no wind and they didn't move an inch from where they 'dangled'.

Cyborg and I glanced at each other.

A breathy shrug...

....and...

We moved on...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The buildings spread apart.

An open space of ground appeared before us.

The asphalt was replaced with sidewalk and then with grass.

The central park in front of the City Hall....

I gazed around.

Cyborg swung his floodlight gently around.

Our light-colored boots padded over the grass.

My eyes narrowed.

I jerked to a stop.

Cyborg froze behind me.

I held up a finger.

I extended my arm out.

I concentrated.

I sent murk pouring down my white-sleeved arm...outstretched.

My eyes danced with smoke.

A beat.

I took a knowing breath, then smiled sarcastically.

I walked on ahead and motioned for Cyborg to follow.

With a confused look on his face, the android Titan did so.

In a matter of seconds, Cyborg saw emerge from the darkness that which I had sensed with my spatial awareness already.

A pale finger and a pale skull.

Cyborg nearly pratfalled........

It was a statue of General McClellan mounted on a horse.

Stretched in pale marble in the center of the park's monument.

Cyborg let out a sigh of relief.

He smirked my way.

I was walking up to a water fountain.

I switched it on.

......

No water.

I scratched my black head of hair.

I glanced back at Cyborg.

The android Titan silently shrugged and walked on towards the far edge of the park.

I followed suit.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We walked past a parking garage.

Concrete slabs, metal fences, and dull headlights drifting past us and dripping back into darkness.

I took a tired breath and strained to keep my black eyes focused on the invisible path ahead of me.

A deafening beeping sound was alighting the air as Cyborg fiddled with his arm communicator.

"Decker...come in." A beat. "Decker...do you read me?" Another pause. "Simon? You there, old man?"

Silence.

"He was right...," Cyborg grunted. "No signals can get in or out. We're in dead space right now, dawg."

I nodded with my back to him.

"It's not just the light that's sucked out...but everything's pretty much kaput in here!" Cyborg said. It was eerie how he referred to that place as 'in here'. "None of the power's working. There's no water in the sewer or fountains. It's like the lifeblood of the City's gone!"

I looked around the empty street.

"Not to mention, no people whatsoever...," Cyborg muttered. "Ain't there supposed to be five hundred citizens not evacuated? Not to mention our friends?? You'd think we'd run into them by now!"

I took a shuddering breath.

"Well....one thing's for sure," Cyborg said. "We've been walking through the streets for well over an hour. If none of them are out here..." he nonchalantly pointed to a random building. "Then maybe they're in there..."

I faced him and nodded.

A flowing figure streaked behind me.

"!!!!!!" I spun around. CHIIING!! I held Myrkblade out, darting my eyes around.

"Did you see it too, dawg??" Cyborg breathed.

I nodded. I cleared my throat, composed myself and walked forward in a march.

Cyborg followed with his light.

Creak......Creak......Creak......Creak......

From up ahead, a squeaking sound emanated intermittently.

I narrowed my eyes.

Cyborg's light fell over the front of the Downtown Hotel.

The centermost revolving door was slowly spinning to a stop.

Creak......Creak.........Creak............Creaaaaak.......................................

"............" I glanced back at Cyborg.

"Come on!" he rushed forward.

I followed behind.

As we reached the entrance, something golden on the cement foundation caught the corner of my ebony optics.

I did a double-take. I squinted.

There was a plaque on the wall.

Black letters were chiseled into the golden sheet:

'Hannah and Her Dolls'

I raised an eyebrow.

Since when did they put that here?

"Noir! Come on!!"

I shrugged it off and dashed after the android.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Creeeak

Cyborg and I stumbled into the lobby.

"Augh....dammit....loudest revolving door in the world. Hang on." He shone his light around the murky-back hotel lobby. "Hello?!?!" Silence. "Hello?!?!?!" Echoes. Then silence.

"..................," I peered around with my black eyes at the spots where Cyborg's light couldn't touch. I scanned the shadows in the immediate darkness. Nothing. No one.

"We're the Titans!! We've come from the rest of the City outside!! We only want to help anyone and everyone!! Please show yourself!! We'll get you out of here!! I promise!!"

Silence.

"Why would you run away from us?? I mean come on!!" Cyborg tossed his arms. He glanced at me. "Maybe we do look like ghosts, dawg."

I smirked.

Creaak-CLACK!!

I spun with Myrkblade.

Cyborg shone his light on the revolving doors.

But they weren't moving.

Clack......Cl-Clack...

I turned. I pointed to the left.

Cyborg aimed his floodlight.

The door to the stairwell flanking the lobby settled close.

Clack......clink......

"There we be...," Cyborg said.

We both crept towards the stairwell.

I ducked in and opened the door ahead of Cyborg.

The android stood in the frame and shone his light in.

The shadows of steps cast against a wall below. The stairwell only led down.

"Pfft....lovely....," Cyborg muttered. He cupped a free hand around his mouth and called down: "You actually think it's any brighter down there?!?!?!"

Silence.

Cyborg's voice echoed back, latent.

"Argh...," Cyborg looked my way. "It figures that the first group of people we save are a clan of albinos."

I simpered.

"Let's take it slow...," Cyborg said as he marched in and down.

I followed behind, letting the door fall closed behind.

CLACK! Clack......cliiiiink.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Our footsteps clapped against the claustrophobic, hollow walls of the stairwell.

As we descended what felt like a full three flights, Cyborg's flashlight caused shadows of the steps and handrailing to dance all around.

The light had a yellowish hue against the sick walls, as if a lantern fish was swimming around inside a fishbowl positioned in the center of the room.

We finally came to the bottom two doors. They had windows with tiny crosswires in them. The sort that one would find in a hospital.

But what was more....the handles of the two doors were chain-locked together.

"Say what???" Cyborg made a face as we reached the bottom of the stairwell. He fingered the chains...rusted and old. He gave me a wyrd look. At the same time, we both glanced behind us and back up the stairwell.

A dead end....

"Didn't the person just run down here??"

"..................."

"This is seriously creepy man...I don't mind saying," he chuckled.

I hand signed.

"Nah, dude. I could have sworn I saw a skirt or something on the figure. Remember?"

I nodded.

"So it couldn't have been Dr. Light....unless he's a closet transvestite or something. Though he has managed to turn the entire Downtown into one bigass closet."

I was peering through the cross-wired windows at the dark hallway beyond while Cyborg spoke. I narrowed my black eyes. I spotted shadows within the shadows....perhaps doorways or entrances leading into basement compartments or storage rooms.

"I think we should go back up. Perhaps our imagination's playing with us."

I turned from the door and smiled at him.

"If we want to find the other Titans, at least, we shouldn't be going around in any basement levels. If Robin's gathered the others, he's probably somewhere high up."

I nodded. I turned back to the windows. A girl's pale face stared at me through the glass.

"!!!!!!!!!" I fell back into Cyborg.

"AAAACK!!" THRUMP!!! "Noir?!?!?!"

His light went out.

I panted.

I jumped up, whipped out my flashlight in one hand, and aimed both it and Myrkblade at where I sensed the door in the darkness.

-click-

The light shone dully through the cross-wires of the window. But there was no pale face. No girl.

I took deep breaths.

"Nnnnghh....man....wh-what did you see??" Cyborg hobbled up to his titanium feet, dusted off his shoulder lamp, and switched it on again.

The glow shone through the glass and into the dark hallway. We saw the black and white tile. The plastic lining of the bottom walls. Two white heels dashing off into darkness.

"........"

A chill ran through my body. I bit my lip.

"Okay...so we got some scared kid to take care of," Cyborg groaned. "Let's go check up on her...it's 'what heroes do', I suppose."

I nodded. I took a breath and swung Myrkblade. CRACK!!

I broke the lock apart and pushed the doors open. Creeak.

"Hey! Little girl! Wait up!" Cyborg spoke. He walked ahead with his flashlight.

I followed along.

"Yo!! It's okay!! It's Cyborg! Ya know...like in T.V.? The big black dude with the blue birthday suit!!"

I hissed: "Shhhh!"

"What??"

I held a finger up, and hand-signed: 'She may be frightened.'

"Oh....r-right...," Cyborg winced. "My bad..."

I sighed. I walked ahead of him and peered at every door on my sides.

It was the maintenance storage facility, positioned strategically in the basement level of the building. Small alcoves for huge washers and dryers appeared on either side of us. And then there were entire closets devoted to hotel towels. I gazed in each of them with my naked vision and Cyborg illuminated every corner with his flashlight.

We were already halfway across the corridor...and yet....no girl.

As we walked past a large service elevator, Cyborg muttered. "There sure as Hell better not be another stairwell on the other side or something."

I glanced around. I rounded a cart for carrying foodstuffs....empty. I felt the interior yawn open to my right. I stopped and glanced in.

A huge black room stretched before me. I could already sense—both from my vision and the edges of Cyborg's illumination—the bodies of numerous carts, laundry trays, and towel racks. A curtain of translucent, plastic sheets hung in two or three tiers before us like ghosts. Remarkably, Cyborg's floodlight didn't shimmer off their smooth, dangling surfaces.

Silence.

I sighed.

Dead end.

I glanced up at Cyborg helplessly.

"She's just....h-hiding, man...," he spoke to himself more than me.

I raised an eyebrow.

Rustle......

The two of us turned around.

"..........."

............

............r-rustle.........

Cyborg whispered: "Where's that coming from??"

A beat.

I looked at my Titan friend. I elbowed him hard.

"Oof!! What the?!?! O-Oh, right. Ahem," He raised his voice. "You can come out now! We're your friends, okay? We want to help you get back home....only it's really super dark right now and it doesn't help that we can't see you!"

Silence.

"Won't you work with us?"

Silence......

.......................................r-rustle............rustle.........

Cyborg rubbed the human half of his head. "She must be deaf, man...."

The entire time I had my ear crained intently towards the air of the basement hallway. I tried to determine the source of the shifting noise. And I had made a substantial hypothesis. I walked partially into the huge alcove where plastic tarps hung before me. I glanced behind me at Cyborg. I pointed 'inward'.

"Hang on...," Cyborg stepped to my side. He brought a hand up to his red eye and switched on a scanning device. A whining sound. A beat. "Mmmf...," he exhaled. "Infrared's not picking anything up. If someone's in there, she's got no body heat." He glanced at me. "You sure?"

I blinked my black eyes.

I faced the room.

I took a deep, steady breath.

I shifted forward.

I raised my hand up and outward.

I spread the fingers.

I relaxed.

I coursed a thin curtain of murk down my limbs and outward, spreading my spatial sense.

I took a deep breath.

My flesh wrist drifted towards the center of the room.

Towards the darkness.

Inching towards the plastic tarps....

SWIIIIIPE!!! A brown limb reached out and grabbed my wrist.

My eyes bugged---

SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!! I was yanked forward into the jet blackness of the room, swiping through rings of hanging tarp and slamming into a forest of metal carts and trays.

CRASSSSSH!!!!

I tumbled onto a cold, uneven floor.

"Noir!!!" a numb voice warbled.

I winced, splain across the floor in total darkness.

Two orbs opened above me.

I glanced up.

A three foot six inch girl stood above me in a dress of black lace and petticoats. Pale heels. She hugged a headless teddy bear to her blouse...until I realized that the teddy bear was also a bubble of brown flesh sewed to bloody wrist-stubs with rusted stitches. Her eyes glowed and her teeth were black as she sadly sang: "Are you my Mommy??"

I stared, my mouth agape.

"You're late for tea time, Mommy...," a piece of her gray lip broke off and fell wetly to the floor as she slurred: "...go join my dollies. They're very thirsty..." The girl's skirt lifted on its own.

My black eyes twitched.

SWOOOOSH!!! Three brown tentacles shot out from underneath her dress and converged on my lower figure.

"!!!!!" I grabbed desperately for the tile floor as I was dragged off, tossed up, ricoheted off the ceiling, and plunged towards a brown pit in the tile illuminated dimly by a child's nightlight that appeared suddenly overhead.

THWAP!!!!!

I grunted as I landed on a mound of bround dirt and muck. I stumbled up to my knees. I was aware of bodies writhing all around me.

The girl floated to the edge of the pit above me. She hugged the brown mass that was her 'teddy-hands' to her chest and relaxed her tentacles.

"Be kind to my dollies. They haven't had company in a long time. They're so lonesome..."

I panted. I widened my black eyes to see the most I could of the darkness.....and suddenly wished I didn't.

Six pale, naked, human figures writhed about on the ground in a ring around me. Where their heads should have been instead formed the four-limbed, writhing figures of three-year-old babies growing backwards from the things' necks. Two chubby arms and two chubby legs danced around in similar fashion to the aimless struggle of the bodies' limbs across the brown pit's ground. "Mmmmmff!!!" One abomination sniffed me out. It pounced. "MMMMFFF!!"

I held my arms out and gripped the torso of the creature helplessly as it pounced upon me and pressed my body to the floor. CLUMP!!! GRIP!!!! Two baby legs clamped over my forehead.

I winced. I watched with horror.

Where the baby's spine would normally be there instead opened wide a mouth lined with snake fangs and two lashing tongues like worms. "RAWSSSSSSSSH!!!!" It drooled on me with the scent of brimstone.

I blinked. I let out a silent scream and gripped the baby-head as the mouth lunged at my neck. I held it nose-length. The worm-tongues flailed about, wetly tickling my face.

I shuddered. I took a huge breath and shoved with a murk-controlled pulse.

SWOOOOSH!! The naked thing toppled across the floor at my feet.

I tried standing up---

"MMMMMFfffff!!!"

CLAMP!!! Pale arms tackled me from behind. I was planted into the floor with the dead weight of the 'dolly' against my back. I felt baby arms snake around my neck and felt the hot breath of the drooling mouth against my hair. "RAWSSH!!!!"

I concentrated---SWOOOSH!!!—I teleported backwards, jumped off the naked back of the monster, leapt over the lunges of two other beasts, and gripped onto the edge of the pit.

I struggled to keep my hold.

The pale nudes hissed and moaned and reached up for me all at once with pale arms and baby-bodies.

GRIP!!!!

I gasped.

SWOOOSH!!!

A hideous tentacle hoisted me up.

I hung upside down and was forced to look at the source of the tentacle...

"You can't go......" The girl's face scrunched up. Her nose cracked in two. Her eyes melted into her lashes and dribbled black blood onto her lacey blouse. "I need Mommy to consume me!! She won't be late again!!!"

I blinked.

ZAAAAAAAAP!!!

A blue beam shot in with glorious blindness and slammed into the girl's body.

"AAAAAAH!!!!!!"

The tentacles convulsed violently.

I fell towards the writhing pit...

"Hang on, Noir!!!!"

POW!!!!

Cyborg's arm shot out at me on the end of an extension cord.

I reached out desperately and gripped it.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The arm retracted and I was yanked mightily towards Cyborg and his floodlight.

He caught me with his other arm and set me on the ground. "What happened?!?!"

I panted and leaned against him.

"NOOO!!! MOMMY!!!! Don't leave me alone with him!!! Consume me!!! NOW!!!!"

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Three 'dolls' pounced at us like giant frogs from the pit. Pale arms stretched wide. Baby limbs twitched. Fanged mouths opened wide. "RAWSH!!!!"

TWHOOSH-WHAM!!!

All three collapsed on us.

I tumbled with one.

Cyborg found himself wrestling with two. "Wh-What in the blue Hell?!?!"

"RAWWWWWWSH!!!!"

They bit down onto his titanium exoskeleton.

"AAAUGH!!! GET OFF ME!!!!"

In the meantime, I struggled desperately with my aggresser. Worms extended outward from the drooling jaws and encircled my ears.....squeezing.

I winced in pain. The blood was leaving my ear lobes as I was drawn closer to the razor-sharp mouth in the back of the baby-body-head. I reached back with a struggling hand for Myrkblade....but found my sheathe empty.

I gasped.

Had I dropped it??

I glanced across the black and white tile.

Myrkblade rested four feet away from our wrestling figures.

I dropped it!!!

"RAWWWSHH!!!!"

"AUGH!!! Sons of a—"

I lost hearing for a moment there as the teeth grazed my nose wetly.

I clenched my black eyes shut, summon murk, and---

FWOOOOSH!!!

I exploded into a short-ranged teleportation. I slid across the floor straight on my back, snatched up Myrkblade, vaulted myself up and onto my feet in a murk-pulsing flip, and twirled Myrkblade at ready.

"MMMMMFFFF!!!" the naked body leapt up from the floor and flew at me.

I swung my sword down, baby-middle.

SLAAAAAAASH!!!!

"MMMMFNNNNNKKKKTTT!!!!!!!" the creature twitched and groped everywhere as my blade went down its neck, between its shoulders, and halfway into its torso. Black blood—the color of obsidian—splattered and splashed all over my white jumpsuit.

I panted.

I gritted my teeth.

YANK!!!! I pulled the sword out.

A spray of black spurted towards the ceiling.

I rushed over towards Cyborg's body.

I swung my sword like a golf club, severing the baby-body from the neck of one creature.

"RAWWWWWRSH!!!!" both the baby torso and the naked form twitched eerily independent of each other in their own blood.

"RAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg punched the baby-face in of his last attacker. SMASH!!!!

"SNKKKKTT!!" the monster spurted blood.

Cyborg tossed the mass of flesh off as I pulled him up to his feet by his shoulders.

"What in shit's name?!?!?"

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!" the girl's body rose on a spider-stance of writhing tentacles from under her skirt. "My pretty dollies!!! What are you doing?!?!?!"

"Screw saving this brat...," Cyborg gulped.

I tugged at him and the two of us hobbled through the plastic tarps towards the basement corridor beyond. The vision of the underground passage dancd with every bob and shake of Cyborg's shoulder flashlight.

"Don't leave....DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE WITH HIM, MOMMY!!!!"

The girl-thing screamed and twitched around. It snatched up carts and metal racks with its tentacles and flung them at us one at a time.

SWOOOOSH!!! THWOOOSH!!!!

The objects blew through the tarps and sailed barely over our heads.

CLANG!!!! SMACK!!!! They crashed explosively into walls and dryers around us.

Cyborg gritted his teeth, produced thrusters to the back of his exoskeleton, and throttled us both out into the hallway.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

One last cart struck dangerously close to our heels and knocked us off balance.

CRASH!!!

"Augh!!!"

"!!!!"

TH-THWUMP!!!

We fell across the tile. I slid into the elevator door. Cyborg landed flat on his chest.

"Nnnnnghh," he shook his head. He looked up...and gasped. "No way!!!"

I glanced up. My black eyes narrowed.

The double doors to the stairwell through which we had entered the basement corridor had been covered from head to toe with rusted chains, locks, bolts, bars, and braces---all of which were absolutely and positively not there beforehand.

"Uh uh...I am NOT spending the night doing a Linda Blair slumber party!!!" Cyborg frowned. He jumped up, glanced aside, and spotted the service elevator doors. "Going up!!" he gripped the crack in the doorsides hard and pulled apart. "Nnnnnghhhh!!!!" YANK!!! He opened the elevator. "Noir!! Get in—"

"MMMMFF!!!" SWOOOOSH!!! A 'doll' flew in and shoved itself and Cyborg into the elevator car. WHUMP!!!! "RAWWWSH!!!" the baby limbs gripped Cyborg's bald head and the mouth prepared to bite over the young Titan's flesh.

"Nnnngh....no!!!"

I snarled and stabbed forward with Myrkblade.

SLIIINK!!! I skewered the monster down the center.

"MMMF!!!!!!!"

I pulled back, yanked the abomination off of Cyborg, and flung him across the corridor.

SLAM!!!! The naked thing slammed into the front of a huge washing machine, cracking the glass door panel.

Tentacles slithered into view.

I gasped and looked up.

The girl gradually octopused towards me, her arms pulling taut at the seams bubbling them together. "Go nowhere....go NOWHERE!!!"

I stepped backwards into the elevator car, panting.

"Come on...come on...," Cyborg jammed his finger onto the elevator door.

"I MUST BE CONSUMED!!!!" the girl shrieked and flung its tentacles at me.

I expertly twirled Myrkblade and deflected the blow. CLANK!!!!

"Hang on!!!" Cyborg popped open a panel in his arm and yanked out a power conduit. He ripped off a panel inside the elevator wall and hotwired the system with his own electrical innards. "Go up! Go up!!!"

CLANK!!! CL-CL-CLANK!!! I deflected more tentacle blows and slashed hard on the last one. SLIIIINK!!!

"AAAAAAAAH!!!!" the girl shrieked, its mouth stretching beyond normal capacity. It hacked black flesh out of its mouth and rushed at me with tentacles fanning everywhere. "HESHAAAAAA!!!"

Sparks flew from inside the elevator.

"Got it!!!"

The doors closed.

The girl flew in.

I flinched and blocked with Myrkblade.

SWOOOOOSH!!! The girl's crumbling head ducked in like a giraffe neck through the closing doors, opened its crusty mouth wide, and breathed a fiery vapor into me.

"!!!!!!!" I jolted. I inhaled.

"Noir!!!"

I.........I consumed.....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Burning sunlight.

Lone bird burning on the sidewalks.

Revolving door.

Creaking.

Hotel lobby.

Smiling faces.

Pale yellow stairwell.

Skipping joyfully down the steps.

Tall doors.

Cross-wire windows.

"Are we gonna help Mommy do the people's laundry, Daddy?"

He led her by the hand through the basement of the building past washers and dryers.

"We're going to wait here for Mommy, Hannah."

She hugged a doll to her chest and bit her lip. "Is Mommy being bad again?"

"Just play with your dolls, Hannah."

Giggling voice.

Pale heels dangling under a black skirt.

"Want to have tea with me, Michelle?" she tilted one doll's head to the other. "Why, that'd be divine Nikki!"

Footsteps echoing on the other side.

A gasp.

"D-David???"

"Hello, Emily......"

The girl looked up, curious.

Peering through a translucent door yawning open from a washer.

A tiny blurred figure and a strong blurred figure.

Facing each other......

"David......you're not supposed to have even stepped into the daycare center! The restraining order—"

"Shut the Hell up. What do I need to do to get you off my back?!?!"

"David......we've settled this. The judge said—"

"Screw him!!! You're using me, you bitch!! It's time I put this to an end!!"

"David, if you so much as—Let go of me!!"

"Shut up!! Shut up!! I didn't come all this way for you to just preach to me!! Now I'm going to—"

"Someone!! Help!!!"

SMACK!!!

"Augh!!!"

"I said SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!"

The girl trembled, hugging herself.

"WAAAAAAAAAIEEE!!! WAAAAAAAAAAIEEE!!! WAAAAAAAAAAIE!!!"

"...you hear me? And if you so much as get your brother into this again, I swear I'll slit his throat!! Your whole family has been triple-teaming me from the get-go!!"

"WAAAAAAAAIEEEE!!! WAAAAAAAAAIEEEE!!! WAAAAAAAAAIE!!!"

"You never thought about how I felt once, did you?? Huh?? You rotten good for nothing bitch!! How many times do I have to—Hannah, stop your damn crying!!!"

"WAAAAAIEE!!!!!!"

"D-David......p-p-please.........just.........just l-leave her alone......please......"

"Tell her to shut up!!!"

"Hannah......p-please......"

"WAAAAAIEE!!!!"

"Hannah, for M-Mommy......for Mommy's sake......"

"WAAA-AAAIE!!!"

"Allright...you won't listen to Mommy?" Flick! Grip! "How bout I slit her throat?!?!"

"DAVID!!!"

"SHUT UP!!! You want your Mommy to bleed, don't you?!?! I'll do it, you little shit!!! Just keep on crying!! Just keep on trying to MAKE ME FEEL BAD!!!"

"DAVID PLEASE!!!"

"I've wasted six years of my god damn life on you and all I get are threat letters from some old-ass judge!! Don't you DARE tell me what to do!!"

"HANNAH!! RUN!!!"

"M-Mommy......"

"RUN!! GO!!!"

Pale heels.

Lifting skirts.

Panting lungs.

Little voice.

Glancing back, tearfully.

Two writhing bodies in the corridor.

A muscled arm and a glinting switch blade.

A woman's throat.

"NNNNGHHHH!!!"

Sliiiiiii-iiiiiiiiiink!!!

"Snkkkttt!!" TH-THWUMP!!! The woman's body deflated.

He panted. He wiped his chin. He looked her way.

The girl stalled.

"D-Damn brat.........NGHH!!!"

A flying glint.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!! THUNK!!!

Ice in the throat.

PLOP!!

Pulsating eyes. Tearing. Peering hazedly at a doll on the tile floor. Beady black eyes.

A reflection in the beads knelt beside her mother......and started to punch her dead face in.

A melting sensation.

Lace closing in.

Girl legs shrinking into chubby stubs.

Crying and sobbing.

Passed along in blue-gloved hands.

A frowning face of stone.

Crawling back up the womb with eyes sewn shut.

The walls are lined with snake fangs.

A blink of fire.

And......

Forever.........

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gasped.

I howled mutely for air.

I gripped my head.

I banged back and forth against the elevator walls.

CLANG!! CLANG!! CLANG!!

"N-Noir!!!"

CLANG!! CLANG!!

"NOIR!!!"

Strong Titanium hands gripped my shoulder.

I thrashed and twitched and gasped in them.

I punched at the metal arms.

I let out another silent howl, hacked, sputtered, and gaspd for air.

My black eyes flew open.

Blinding light.

Cyborg's light.

"Noir...take it easy!!"

I shoved against him.

I gripped my head.

I gritted my teeth and tried to implode.

"Shhhhh!! Noir!!" he held my arms strongly in only a way Cyborg could. He stared me strongly in the eyes. "It's okay, man.....it's okay......it's okay....."

I hyperventilated. I hugged myself. I scrunched into the corner and panted.....panted.....panted.....

Cyborg took a deep breath. "What did that freak do to you??"

I bit my lip. My throat was sore. My eyes felt like bursting into tears.

I remained on that precipice for a shivering two minutes. My body was chilled from the metal prosthetic, up, and back down again. I shuddered and ran shaking hand through my black hair.

There was an unzipping sound.

"Here, man....," Cyborg gently handed me a plastic bottle of water from his pack.

I hastily unscrewed it and gulped down a huge chug of water. I let some dribbled down my chin as I closed my eyes again, took a deep breath, and shuddered some more.

"You were out of it for nearly five minutes...," the android Titan said. "Scared me half to death until I performed a scan and realized that you were simply.....experiencing REM sleep."

I panted. I looked up at him weakly.

"Yeah.....you were dreaming, man," he said. He glanced at the elevator console. The 'stop' feature shone dully in his floodlight. He had it switched into functioning. "As soon as you breathed in the crap from that.......th-that thing, you fell down and—like—went to sleep immediately."

A beat.

"Tell me.....did you............envision anything?"

I hugged myself tightly. I looked off, shivering.

Cyborg bit his lip. "I-I'll drop it, man. For now."

I nodded with much, trembling relief.

A beat.

"Man......what the Hell is going on??" Cyborg remarked.

"..........."

"Those......those things.........," Cyborg gestured into the thick air of the elevator.

I merely panted.

".............," Cyborg glanced down at me. "We were lured down there, man. We had to have been."

I bit my lip again.

"I wonder.....," his human eye traced the ceiling of the elevator car. ".........does it all fit together somehow?"

I ran a shakey hand through my hair and looked at him strangely.

"I-I mean.....the black dome all around us........and those freaks in the basement....."

"............"

"Everything about this place....," Cyborg gestured. "It feels so......s-so dead........so empty of warmth and light. Well, duh."

I simpered nervously.

A beat.

"I don't know about you...," Cyborg spoke. "But something tells me this building isn't so safe."

I narrowed my eyes. I thought about something.

A plaque......

'Hannah and Her Dolls'......

My lips parted somewhat.

Hannah.........

"Here, man..."

I looked up.

Myrkblade. Held before me. Cyborg's hands.

He smiled. "Gotta superglue this thing to your hands if you're not more careful, dawg."

I smiled weakly. I gripped the sword with one hand and his wrist with the other. I let him help me up to my feet...followed by a pat on my back by his Titanium palm.

"I'll take the lead from now on, okay man?"

I nodded.

"I took us up to the seventh floor...," he said as he fingered the elevator controls. "I'm thinking a nice, quaint fire-escape exit will do us some good right about now."

I couldn't agree more......

Cyborg flipped the 'Stop' switch.

-Ding!-

The elevator doors opened....

And.......

"HA!!!"

"YAUGH!!"

"RRRRGH!!!"

Three flashlights, a knife, a two-by-four, and a golf club aimed threateningly at our necks.

Cyborg and I jolted.

Four or five normal (but frightened) looking citizens jumped back.

All of us panted.

"The.....Th-The Titans!!" the man holding the two-by-four stuttered. He and his companions on the dark-lit floor were wide eyed. A man behind them held up a bright, make-shift lantern. Two others had candles. The place was an elevated safehouse. "I-Is it really you??"

"Yeah...it's okay....put down the weapons, folks...," Cyborg gestured. "We ain't monsters...."

The men drew back. Women and children huddled against the wall of the hotel corridor together.

"Have....h-have you come to kill us?" a child murmured.

I blinked. I looked at Cyborg.

The android Titan exhaled. "Why...no! We haven't come to kill you!"

The child gulped and uttered: "Why not?"