Raven was beginning to get lightheaded from all of this shifting. By the nature of her physiology shifts in dimensions came easily, but this was getting ridiculous. Adding to this forced nature of their shifting… her spirit literally cringed with each tear. She opened her eyes and was blinded by something absurdly bright.
She exclaimed and covered her eyes, tightening her jacket. Looking down she saw it was black, along with her pants, both of which appeared to be a uniform of some kind. A grey tank was underneath, and Raven sighed in relief for finally being fully clothed.
The glare at last subsided and she looked about what she now realised was a cockpit, but larger than any she had ever seen. Worse, when she turned forward she saw stars…the space kind, stretching out into infinite nothingness.
Her eyes widened and she clutched her stomach, the vertigo and shifting merging into a not so comfortable Raven. She heard a chuckle from behind her, and Cyborg's voice sounded out, mechanically warbled for some reason. "Never knew you got star sick,"
She grimaced and turned to his voice, finding the half machine substantially thinner than usual. His eye glowed yellow and blue energy radiated from his joints.
"It usually doesn't bother me," She looked back at the panel in front of her, covered in dials, switches, and buttons. She eyed it curiously, the aesthetic familiar for some reason. "Where are we now?"
"We are in a Star Wars game." Came his curt reply, cut with a dose of disappointment. Raven rolled her eyes; she had been doing a lot of that today.
"Great. So, why are you miserable? I though you liked this sci-fi stuff…"
"Science fiction," Cyborg corrected, mechanical body whirring as he approached and sat next to Raven.
"What?"
"Calling it sci-fi denigrates the genre. It's sickens me."
Raven consciously forced her eyes not to roll, "Okay then…"
Cyborg's face drooped and he sighed with longing, "I'm sick of being the secondary characters. Beast Boy gets all the cool…" Just then a hiss filled the cabin and the two turned to see a widely grinning Beast Boy, decked out in beat-up combat gear, hair slicked back and eyes sparkling.
"Dudes, I'm Starkiller!"
"See," Cyborg looked pointedly to Raven, who again made an effort not to roll her eyes.
"Can we just find Control Freak and get out of here? I actually miss fishing now…" Beast Boy's smile fell at the lack of enthusiasm from the empath, and he grudgingly flopped into the remaining seat.
Raven looked to Cyborg, while motioning to the controls, "So, where is he?"
Cyborg scratched his metal chin, "Well, if Beast Boy is in the training gear outfit and you are in your full uniform, I suppose this is the first level, so…"
Cy cracked his knuckles and turned to the control panel. After a brief second of indecision he gleefully began fiddling. The ship lurked, and Raven clutched her gut again; she really hated space.
All of a sudden the glare returned, only this time Cyborg was able to adjust the filters on the glass, and a giant space battle came into view. "Yup, like I thought, the tie fighter construction facility. Now we just have to get in. I'll bet Control Freak is either the General or Vader,"
Beast Boy seemed to wake up, "Woah, we? I'm the Jedi here!"
"Sith," Cyborg corrected, and Beast Boy came up short, a look of shock coming over him.
"I am a Sith…that means I'm a bad guy! But, bad guys lose…" Happy the little green menace was once again distracted Cy hit the thrusters and the ship hurtled toward the massive station orbiting a dirty looking planet.
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Meanwhile, onboard the station…
"The Rogue Shadow approaches sir," a battle-worn soldier called out from his station aboard the recently captured command bridge.
"Good," said a figure in shadow, who approached the soldier. He pressed a series of buttons and a holographic display of the ship appeared.
"At last I have drawn you out of hiding…"
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"I should go first! You guys aren't even supposed to be here,"
"Sure, but we are, and I flew us here, I should go first."
"but I have the lightsaber,"
"and I have the scanners, I can tell if anyone is around."
"can't you do that from up here?"
"Yeah, but-"
From an airlock at the top of a long corridor two bodies tumultuously fell, followed by a third graceful figure. The grey panels and tubing echoed with clangs and a whispered "Imbeciles…"
Beast Boy, who was currently underneath an excessively heavy Cyborg, groaned, "Still first…"
Cy on the other hand stared wide eyed at a robot before him. To Raven, it was just a fancy trash can. But the little R2 unit was everything Cyborg had ever wanted. Like a kid at Christmas he leapt off of Beast Boy and hugged the little machine, a tear leaving his eye. Raven looked to Beast Boy, confused, who shrugged, "It's a nerd thing,"
They made their way down the corridor, coming to a conveniently shut bulkhead. Raven was about to ask Cyborg to hack it when she was pushed aside by a once again grinning Beast Boy. She brushed off her shoulder and watched him hunch over like he was going to be sick.
Confused, she made to shake his shoulder, only to have him straighten up suddenly, thrusting his hands forward. Some concussive force blew the bulk head off and into the next room, smashing into the far wall.
Beast Boy turned to Raven and rubbed his knuckles on his chest, arrogantly blowing on them. "And that is how a man opens doors," Raven frowned, barely succeeding in keeping her eyes from rolling.
A blast sounded, and Beast Boy shouted as a smoldering gash appeared on his breast plate. More blasts sounded and the green teen ducked behind a bulkhead. Raven leapt to the other side of the corridor, glancing out into the next room. Soldiers in rugged plating and shiny white armour fought one another, and the occasional blast came their way.
Raven raised a brow and smirked at Beast Boy, "And that is how a man fights… I presume?"
He stuck his tongue out at her. Cyborg on the other hand didn't duck, his chassis easily reflecting the bolts.
"Oh yeah baby," he grinned, pulling two cylinders from his waist, one in each hand. Brilliant blades of light shot from the tips along with a constant hum, and Raven supposed these were the famed 'light sabers'.
Cy ran into the next room flailing madly, and Beast Boy soon followed. Raven simply watched them massacre the defenceless armies, wondering if they realized the scope of murder they were committing. After all, these people may have been fictional but they did exist. She mused about the ethics of deleting a program and murder as the two finished the group.
"C'mon Raven, we have to get to the command bridge," Beast Boy called, as the two continued into the next corridor. Raven sighed and followed, continuing her train of thought as she walked.
How could Control Freak do all of this? It felt like they were changing dimensions, but she knew that wasn't possible; there was no way video games existed in their own universe. Or could they? Infinite diversity in infinite combinations (IDIC) and all that. But did that mean that Earth, their Earth, was just some game to another dimension? Did everything in her life boil down to the whim of some extra dimensional beings' imagination? And what if it wasn't just video games? What if all imagination created dimensions of their own, creating an even greater number of dimensions, and those would only be from Earth itself. Alternate realities could have infinite dimensions of their own, and if they were somehow lost in them…
Raven stopped a grabbed the bridge of her nose, squinting back a headache. She added dimensional physics to her list of hated things, and took a calming breath… Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…
"Raven?" she opened her eyes and found Beast Boy staring at her, far too close for comfort. She leaned away from him, and he mercifully stepped back, "We're at the elevator," She blinked deliberately and looked around him.
They were indeed at an elevator, a glass one with an unprecedented view of space.
"Great. Why?"
Beast Boy's ears drooped, "You weren't listening?" Raven struggled to keep her eyes straight forward, and simply walked into the elevator.
"Well," the green boy continued, but Raven tuned him out again. She stared at the wall, the solid, non-glass one, and continued her mantra.
All of a sudden the station shook, and Raven tumbled backward into the still talking Beast Boy. Thankfully he caught her, and as much as she hated physical contact, falling would have been worse. That is, unless that thing digging into her back… "That had better be your lightsaber, Garfield."
Cyborg's eyes just about popped out of his head and Beast Boy froze. Raven pulled herself up again and checked, noting that it was indeed the lightsaber that had poked her back. Raven looked back to her wall, bracing herself against any future explosions, and she heard Cyborg take a deep breath.
Beast Boy was still leaning halfway up the wall, face shocked, and beginning to turn an adorable shade of brown. And Cyborg lost it, his breath releasing in a fit of laughter. Beast Boy recovered, dusting himself off and sending a huff in Raven's direction. The empath risked a glance back and smirked, causing Beast Boy to blush once again.
The elevator dinged, alerting them to the upcoming stop. Raven retreated a few steps and allowed her teammates to go first; she really didn't want to use the cumbersome pistol hanging from her hip.
The bridge was a giant amphitheatre of a room, with large windows on all sides. Along the far wall a catwalk hung, and the Titans caught a glimpse of rebel soldiers fleeing through it. One silhouette remained however, and it stepped from the shadows with a disappointed sigh.
"A boy? Months of attacking Imperial targets, and Vader sends a boy to face me?" the man, Raven assumed he was the General mentioned earlier, was definitely not Control Freak. Whether that was good or bad she didn't know, but she did notice Beast Boy holster his saber.
"I'm not here to fight you," he said, voice and expression settling into a peaceful state.
Raven looked at the boy in confusion, but Cyborg followed his lead, sheathing his own blades. The man on the catwalk jumped down, landing the ten foot drop without any apparent effort.
"Oh really?" he asked, mockery coating his words, "Am I to believe a Sith at his word?"
Beast Boy raised his hands, "Not my word, my future. Look, you will see."
Raven stared at the green teen, as she felt waves of calm coming from him. She was an empath, and even she couldn't exude the amount of pure emotion he was expressing.
The man frowned and closed his eyes, then opened them in shock. "I see…me, we fight together…"
Beast Boy nodded, lowering his hands. "I have come to you for training General Kohta, I wish to undo the evils of Vader and the Emperor, and restore the true Republic."
Cyborg crossed his arms, thinking his friend was going a little overboard with the whole Jedi vibe.
Kohta however seemed to believe it, and approached, extending his hand. "The Force is…strong in you, boy."
Beast Boy was about to shake the man's hand when a red blade materialized through his chest. Kohta stopped and looked down at the beam poking through him, and turned in confusion to look behind him.
There, in the shadows, was an unmistakable form, with pinpoints of lights and a hulking shape, the figure stepped forth, cloak trailing behind. Even Raven knew who the individual was, so infamous was he. But as the bulky man stepped into the light, they realized he was shorter than he should have been, and wider around the middle.
Kohta groaned and toppled over, the blade extinguishing and flying back to its owner. A chubby hand shot up to catch it, revealing the figure to be none other than Control Freak, wearing Vader armor that was significantly tighter than it should have been. His face was uncovered underneath his flared dome, and a wicked grin was on his lips.
"Dude, way to ruin Vader," Beast Boy said, still completely serious.
Control Freak opened his mouth to reply but stopped when he realized the boy hadn't reacted as expected, "What? Ruin Vader? I just killed General Kohta, I'm awesome!"
Beast Boy rolled his eyes, causing Raven to grimace to keep her own from rolling.
"Dude, you are so not, I sensed you over there ages ago."
"But…Why did you let Kohta die then?"
"Well, I wasn't expecting you to kill him, but the Force told me not to interfere."
Control Freak huffed and lit his saber, "The force tells you nothing traitor, I am the only master here."
Beast Boy made no move to draw his own saber, he simply stared at the geek, "Only a master of evil Darth,"
Control Freak cracked his neck, and settled into a fighting pose. Cyborg made to draw his own blades, but Beast Boy shook his head. For whatever reason, he listened. Beast Boy seemed… zen-like, at peace. He couldn't help but trust him.
"There can be only one," the fat one said, staring down the animorph.
Beast Boy still didn't draw his weapon, and Control Freak's frown grew deeper and deeper, until finally with a shout he charged. Beast Boy still didn't move, and Cyborg and Raven both flinched away as he approached.
Then, just as he reached swinging distance, Beast Boy ducked and swung upwards with clenched fist. Control Freak was so surprised that he was bodily flung backwards.
Beast Boy used the Force to call the other's lightsaber to his hand, and smiled at his friends' shocked expressions. "And that, dude and dudette, is how it's done."
Raven's eyes were wide, and she asked "How did you do that?"
Dusting his shoulders off boastfully, the green boy smirked, "The force is strong with me, baby."
"Yeah, more like predictable moves," Cyborg had played back the fight in his electronic brain, and noticed a number of telegraphed moves.
Beast Boy shrugged, "Okay, so I did see the Makashi form III charge coming,"
Raven rolled her eyes, "I should have known,"
Beast Boy reached down and poked at Control Freak's unconscious body. The super villain wanna-be groaned, and from his belt the remote fell. Beast Boy picked it up, grinning. "Dudes, at last; let's go home,"
Cyborg looked back from where he was examining a broken consol, eyes widening, "No! BB, don't press anything!"
Too late, Beast Boy's grin fell as the remote beeped twice, and everything went white…
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Cyborg shook the glare from his eyes, feeling heavy in all the wrong places. He was in some kind of courtyard, white walls of stone stretching up a good twenty feet. Little gardens dotted the ground, and he wondered where he was this time.
Looking about for either Beast Boy or Raven, Cyborg caught sight of a window. Thinking his reflection could give him a hint as to where they were, he approached the sill. What he saw only confused him more.
Staring back at Cyborg was a heavily armoured woman, with white hair tugged back into a pony tail. At first he didn't recognize the figure, but as he imagined her pixilated it came to him. Impa; he was in the Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time! And, he realized a moment later, he was a girl. The scream of rage echoed through the palace.