Hey everyone. I'm updating a day early, just because.
So, yes, another chapter of Wykkyd Shadows! Yay! The Crowd of Fans go Wild!
I hope there's a crowd of fans. Actually, I just hope there are fans. I dunno, it's hard to tell with the internet.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, just the story.
I hope you all enjoy this fic so far, and will continue to enjoy it. But once again, I ask:
Please Read & Review!
In the shadow of the room, submerged in absolute darkness, the shapes moved about. They danced, and twirled, and fly about the shadowy night, laughing with manic glee. They were beings of darkness, they, and fun were their games, cold their joy, exciting the stakes. And the shadows danced, in the darkness of the room, all about the open book.
The figure in the middle, placed a hand on the heavy tome, slamming it shut. Twin pyres of scarlet burned. And the shadows danced in the darkness of the light.
The landscape was cloaked in shadows, a world of eternal twilight. The last remaining rays of some manner of sun shone at the edges of the horizon. Three suns, to be more accurate, of various sizes and radiance, all disappearing past the edge of the viewed world. Birds flew through the skies on ebon wings, cackling mercilessly as their glowing six eyes searched for prey in the duskling world. The howling of ape-like creature brachiating through the branches of this nightmarish jungle as insects and crawlers of all variety of horror creeped about the gnarled and twisted branches and trunks of the deep dark plants and trees that swarmed the landscape. On the ground, large beasts surged through the underbrush, hunting prey, or eluding the reaches of predators. The beasts, this creatures of nightmare that put Lovecraftian horrors to shame, were the masters of this world, it's denizens, it's prisoners. Prisoners by choice. Here, they thrived. They hunted, they killed, the hungered.
They survived.
A loud rumble ran through the nightmare world, as the clouds that swirled in the upper skies shook and moved across the greying dome. The creatures howled, commotions arose, beasts and birds and monsters of every variety rampagings and reacting to the sound. It was a large thump, that closed the rumble, and with it, the entire world fell silent.
A second of silence, and the life started up again. These creatures of darkness lived in this world, for this was their home. And now… now was their time. The master had left for the night, and now they were free to do as they pleased. They had rules, but these were of little consequence. They did as they pleased, and all followed the strange rules of this jungle of nightmare.
The monsters left the structure nestled in the tallest trees, the one the master had wrought out of the jungle itself, be. To enter was death. And none wanted a death so ignoble. For to the nightmarish creatures, death was to be on honorable terms. Seek to live, to survive, at any cost. Death is for those who could not survive. The creatures truly were the beings of life, and the monsters of nightmare be.
And in the master's house among the trees, where no beast or denizen of the duskling jungle dared trespass, something stirred. A groan, emanated from within the house. There was a rustle of movement, and two eyes shot open. Two violet eyes, scared, hurt, and angry. And between them, a red chakra point, shaped into a diamond, began to glow a pale light, purple hair cascading over her face, as her quivered with confusion. She blinked several times, trying to shake herself awake. She was too tired. She didn't know where she was, nor what she was doing there. She was afraid.
So Raven woke in the nightmare world - afraid.
"Ah've got Chee-ree-yoh's!" the Texan hollered as he walked in. He wasn't wearing his usual red, white and black outfit, but was instead dressed in his more casual attire. The hootin' tootin' duplicator was decked in faded blue jeans and strong steel toed brown boots, a thick belt with a shiny buckle of a division sign over a longhorn bull, black t-shirt under an unbuttoned red plaid long sleeves. He held several paper bags in his hands, filled to the brim with food, about to tear from the weight. He plopped them on top of the dining table, drawing an irritable "Hey!" from Gizmo who had just been about to put the device down. He flashed the tiny genius his goofy smile, all teeth, which weren't very clean; a little yellow at the edges made Billy one of the few HIVE FIVE who didn't value oral hygiene. It was one of those traits that the Academy had driven into them: to appear immaculate was to appear dastardly, for a sloppy villain was a lousy villain. That, and headmaster had been rather particular on appearances, despite the irony of such a trait in the end. The Texan's hair was dirty blonde, and shaggy, hanging all over the place, pretty much obscuring those baby blue eyes, which didn't quite shine with intelligence. His ears were a bit big, and his nose average, but acne had claimed a patch on his forehead. Billy Numerous plopped on the couch and grabbed the remote. Kicking his legs up on the ottoman, he began flipping through channels. "Whut channel's the game on, huh?" he called to no one in particular.
Suddenly another Billy appeared beside him, answering, "I dunno, Billy, try'm all."
A third Billy somehow appeared behind the first two, clapping them on the backs, hollering, "Good idea'r Billy! Let's make bets!"
"Fifty grand on the Buck'roo's!" one called.
"And another fifty on the Buck'roo's!" another hooted.
"Don' furget my fifty on the Buck'roo's!" the third hollered.
Gizmo shook his head at the antics as Mammoth rooted through the bags of food. The giant took out a box of cereal and tore it open, munching on little handfuls at a time as he put the remaining food in the tiny fridge and the various cupboards of their pantry. See-More simply looked up from the book he was reading, or more accurately, moved his head in the direction of the Billy's gathered at the large television, and called out to them, "Thirty on the Bulldogs." The teen smirked, knowing that there would be, at the very least, twelve of the Texans staring at him in shock over the back of the couch, sputtering insults and words about treason from former friends.
Gizmo ignored their infantile antics, concentrating on his work. The diminutive genius grumbled about wanting to work in his room, away from all this ruckus, but See-More seemed to be giving him that look again. The genius could swear the teen knew when he was trying to sneak off back to his lab. Even when he had installed stealth features into his tech so they couldn't be heard. It irked him that they didn't work, and he stayed put, trying to shut out the background noise to get some work done.
Mammoth grunted, and sat on one of the few couches, munching on the cereal. As he came down, the other end of the couch bounced, sending a couple Billy's tumbling to the ground with a thump. The Billy's growled, and began to pick up pillows from the sofas. The soft projectiles were thrown, and Mammoth growled, retaliating in kind. As the game began to start, a pillow fight was being engaged in the living room of the hideout, and feathers flew, the crowd on the TV cheering fanatically for their favored team.
See-More closed his book, and got up from his chair, one hand finding the stick leaning against the table. Holding it before him, See-More said nonchalantly, "I'm gonna go get Kyd. It's almost dinner time."
"Kyd?" a Billy asked curiously, the one spectating the entire melee. "Ah, jus' saw 'im leavin' the place. All quiet like, on the roof."
See-More stopped short. Things were getting stranger. First Kyd had isolated himself in his room, now he was sneaking out at nights? That wasn't good, not one bit. Especially with him on some of the worst most wanted lists out there. But… it was also weird. This wasn't the usual Kyd Wykkyd. See-More wondered at the last time he remembered Kyd like this. It was at Hive Academy, wasn't it? No, it was just a bit after, when he was starting to get things back together. For a while he was like this, right? Yeah, after Angel had…
She couldn't be in town, could she? See-More paled. Things hadn't ended well between those two. It had been way too long and drawn out, painful for both sides and everyone involved. Kyd hadn't been the same for a while afterwards. Now that he thought about it, the symptoms were rather similar. The isolation, the gloomy attitude, and the random excursion. He had been nigh uncontrollable. If Jinx hadn't stepped in… See-More stopped that train of thought. He didn't want to think about Jinx. Too much anger, too much pain in his own heart from those bottled emotions.
See-More went to Kyd's room, finding the door firmly shut. Not bothering with the niceties of knocking - no one was inside anyways - he pushed open the door slightly, and a slip of paper fell from the gap between the door and the frame. As the paper fell on See-More's head, he grabbed at the paper, and moved his fingers over it. He could feel ink on the page. Rushing back to the others, he put it in front of Gizmo.
"Tell me what this says." he demanded.
Gizmo scowled, irritated that See-More was messing with his work environment, but obliged. He read out Kyd Wykkyd's spidery handwriting, the words dancing across the page in midnight ink, a simple phrase.
"Gone to apologize."
Gizmo looked up at See-More, an eyebrow raised in confusion. "What the crud does that mean?" he whined.
See-More shook his head. "Wish I knew. Wish I knew."
Not much of a cliff hanger this week. I'm sure there'll be a better one next week though. XD
Though of course, there is the big shocker... Raven's not dead!
So, yeah, Please Read & Review! It means a lot to me when readers do that, and helps me know that my work here is good enough that people actually like it. Or hate it. Though I haven't gotten any reviews of hate so far, so I must be doing something right... Anywho, if you have read Wykkyd Shadows this far, please leave a review! Think of it as a means of persuasion to update with chapter 12 sooner (because I already have it written) !
Read & Review!
