Chapter 14: The Madness Returns...
I have no excuse for the long absence, sorry about that, I just couldn't write. I've been having creative block a lot, so this might be less than stellar of an update. If you like it, if you hate it, leave a note maybe? I absolutely love feedback, its like crack for artists.
Obligatory Discalimer: I own none of the characters or their likenesses that appear in this story, but I love them just the same.
TtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTt
Cyborg shook his head, blinking away the stars. He felt like himself, if a little tweaked from his usual build.
Scanning his surroundings he placed himself in some kind of museum, tall golden statues lining the walls. They were superheroes, some he recognized, some not*. Batman, Superman, Hawk Girl, Green Lantern; it appeared to be some kind of shrine to them.
A grumbling of a custom motorcycle reached his artificial ears, and Cyborg looked back to the entrance, through which a familiar bike crashed. It had a different paint job, but Cy knew the Robin bike anywhere, though apparently not its rider.
A guy, the rider, leapt from his bike and landed fist first onto the red carpet strip. He looked up, and masked eyebrows rose on them both. "Cyborg?"
The artificial man scratched his head, running a quick scan on the other. "Robin? Why are you dressed like that?"
Robin looked down at his black suit, noting the blue 'v' emblem and electrified batons in hand.
"Never mind. Where are we?" Robin holstered his sticks and looked about, also confused. "I don't know... to both questions,"
"Is this some kind of video game then?" he wondered aloud, and Cy shrugged. "Beats me, all of this jumping is getting confusing, it's quite an-"
"Injustice?" a deep voice interjected, and both looked up to see Raven... or something supposed to be Raven, as this clearly was not their friend.
Red skin, a bizarre feather cape and massive claws combined with the manly voice and goofily pointed hood made the descending individual more Rocky Horror Picture extra than hero. "Raven... is that you?" Robin asked, genuinely concerned.
"Yes you fool," they both cringed at her awful voice, "and I will kill you both!"
Skeletal hands glinted as she struck, sending the two Titans into the wall, knocking over the golden Flash statue in the process.
Cyborg shoved a hunk of metal off of himself, coughing from the dust. Robin was already up, having produced explosive birdarangs from somewhere. The metal teen grinned, "I got the sonic, if you've got the boom..."
*because my universe exists in tandem with the DCAU, the only place for the Teen Titans show is in between Batman TAS and The New Batman Adventures, meaning a lot of big players have yet to be introduced, like Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, etc. Even Superman is relatively new to the scene in my world, having only a few months in Metropolis. This sequence though is in the Injustice game, where all of the characters do exist, but the game does not, at least in my DCAU-EU, so Cy knows neither the heroes or the game. This was a really long author interruption... sorry about that.
TtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTt
Beast Boy shook his head, trying to get rid of ringing in his ears and stars in his eyes at the same time. He felt constricted, and he touched his head. Instead of furry green hair, he touched smooth something, and he screeched, Bald, I can't be bald!
Opening his eyes, he realized that he was in fact simply wearing a helmet, blue tinted visor pulled down over his face. The contraption felt too big for his head, like an orange balancing on a tooth pick, and it wobbled and he looked about.
He was sitting, that was neat, he guessed. He was dressed from head to toe in some kind of space suit, which though constricting looked cool. All around him were panels covered in buttons, and he was careful not to push any. He'd learned that lesson the hard way... many times over.
It was then that he realized that he was not only jammed into a tin foil suit, but he and said suit were both crammed into a small boxy contraption, along with rows of buttons, his seat, and a joystick poking out of the forward panel almost too eagerly.
The edges of this box were clear, and after processing this, Beast Boy realized that beyond lay a crap ton of stars and an endless void. Asteroids drifted lazily by, and the green boy felt very much like a bug in a jar. A jar that happened to be floating in space, at any moment liable to be smooshed my a space pebble or two; probably more.
A static buzz made him jump, and on the panel before him three screens lit up. "This is Fox, ready to go." a voice said over the speakers positioned directly over Beast Boy's ears. The pain was such that the call sign didn't recognize.
"Peppy, all systems green on my end," another voice stated, followed by yet another "Falco locked and loaded."
Beast Boy stared blankly at the board before him, proverbial smoke rising from his over worked brain. "Um..." Fox? Peppy, Falco?
Then it clicked; Star Fox!
Then another thing clicked, and Beast Boy groaned. Pressing the unlit screen on the dashboard, he mumbled, "Slippy, prepped and ready for action..."
TtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTt
Starfire rubbed her eyes, thanking X'hal for nine stomachs; vomiting was not pleasant, and the extra organs made a good buffer.
Quite dizzy, the alien looked about, noting rather quant surroundings. A large body of water stretched out, and she stood on its shore. Behind her was an expensive looking resort, and she wondered where she was.
She didn't wonder for long, as loud earth music struck her ears, of the 'club' variety. Human music was so... garbled. Star called upon her inner joy and lifted from the ground, and she saw a large barbecue party down the beach.
Gliding over the racked sand she approached, and noted something odd, the likes of which she had never seen on Earth. At this party, mingling, dancing, eating, were what appeared to be bears, the stuffed animal variety.
Now, Star loved stuffed animals, at the Tower were hundreds of every kind, ordered in neat picture perfect poses wherever Robin wouldn't notice. Star also knew the diversity of the universe, and the awkward nature of interspecies communication.
It was no small act of will therefore that prevented her from tearing over to them and mauling these life sized stuffed bears with hugs.
A rustling came from a fern to her side, and she stopped. Why was there a fern in the middle of the beach?
More rustling followed, and out of the far side of the grassy patch popped another bear. This one was in bad repair, patched and loosely stitched. Star was about to greet it when it suddenly rushed into the beach party.
In horror, Starfire watched as the bear, a rather naughty bear at that, proceed to massacre the party goers, with lawn mower, barbecues, and his bare paws. Stuffing flew and stuffed beasts ran in confused terror, and Star screamed.
TtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTt
Raven used her magic to steady herself, finding the dimensional rift easier to breech with each attempt. Squinting past the starry streaks she looked about, noting with more than a little relief the she was in what appeared to be a library.
Surely I'm not in video game this time, she thought, and pondered the diversity in the recent 'jumps'. It appeared that whatever protocol Control Freak had originally used was no longer in effect, or he simply had more than games in his dimensional collection.
If only she had access to her library, she remembered a number of books of theoretical physics and quantum dimensions sitting untouched by her closet. She looked up, finding the shelves of books not only lined every wall, but all of every wall, up to the ceiling, well over 30 feet overhead.
Library, right, she mused.
A yawn came from somewhere, and Raven turned, stumbling over her feet in her hast. She tried to untangle them, only then realizing that she had four.
Four feet, or hooves, she stared at them incredulously.
"Morning Twilight," the yawner spoke up, and the sound of two small feet pattering made her look to its source. "Are you okay?"
It was a dragon! A small one granted, not even a foot off the ground, with the least menacing shade of pink scales. It helped her up, and Raven wobbled, unused to the feet, er, hooves.
"What happened?" the dragon continued, and Raven looked at it with a mix of confusion, fear, and humour. A pale blue nightcap sat half-hazardly on its head, and a matching mini nightshirt in equal sleep distress rest on its, his, little torso.
"I, um, just got a little... dizzy," she replied, noting her voice was significantly higher than usual, "Who..."
She trailed off as the little guy stared up at her expectantly. "Who?" Raven twitched her muzzle, still disoriented, "Who... are you?"
The dragon rolled his eyes, "C'mon Twilight, it's me Spike. Your loyal assistant?"
"Um, are you alright?" Raven's eyes widened and she backed away, hoping that she was not where she thought she was. A table hit her rump, and she nearly jumped. Looking around she saw a mirror on said table, and leaned over it, cringing as she did so.
No, no, no, no, wishing evidently does not make something so, and Raven learned when she looked down into the mirror. A cute purple face looked back, a pony's face, and from her purple and pink mane poked a ribbed horn.
Calm, stay calm, to be honest, she actually wasn't that freaked out. What scared her was Control Freak; How did he know? No one knows! What if he tells?
Everyone has a secret, one part of them they keep hidden to a fault. Raven had more than her fair share, but this was the darkest of them all... friendship, is magic...
TtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTt
Cyborg ran into something this time, and fell flat on his back. Dazed and confused, he groaned in frustration, if I never see another video game again...
An odd sound reached his ears then, a rhythmic 'booping', coming from some unknown place. Cy opened his eyes, well, opened one and turned on the other.
A peaceful blue sky was overhead, dotted with the occasional fat cloud, white as well... clouds. Cyborg grunted and pulled himself into a sitting position, noting a rather substantial belly in place of washboard abs.
He was metallic, as far as he could tell, and the thing he'd run in to was a brick wall. His shiny metal butt was cushioned in soft dirt, and in the distance the boops continued. They sounded familiar, though he couldn't quite place them.
A deep grunt sounded from behind, and Cy turned to see a short brown creature slowly lumbering his way. It was the colour of the dirt underfoot, and its domed head sloped down to two tiny feet, looking like some kind of mushroom. It had a face to, a scrunched up one at that, and when it spotted Cyborg it looked shocked, then charged, face suddenly angry.
Cy stood up and put his hand on the little guy's head, and it grunted in protest as it found it could not get closer. Like schoolyard bully Cyborg stood there, holding the fungi at arm's length, the creature too stupid to try anything but continue running forward.
Was it a Gumba? It certainly looked like one, and examining his attire Cy determined that he must be Metal Mario. He shrugged internally, glad that the classics hadn't been forgotten on this ludicrous trek through dimensions.
"Sorry little guy, I can't have you tripping me up," Cy honestly wasn't threatened by the stumpy creature, it was hilariously not intimidating, to be frank. With the way the day had been going though, he wasn't taking any chances.
Cyborg grabbed the Gumba with both hands and flipped it over, effectively trapping it. He set off down the hill lined with bricks, content that the creature would be stuck for a while.
As he walked, he heard the distant sounds grow in volume, until he was able to make out the details. It was the Mario theme, looping apparently indefinitely from the end of the path he was following.
A few more Gumba's littered the otherwise empty dirt path, as well as the occasional brick structure. In all, Cyborg was a little disappointed, until up a head he saw a flag pole, Kupa colours billowing in the light breeze.
He ran to the pole and grabbed it, but nothing happened. Reaching up he grabbed hold of the flag and pulled it down, wondering what he was supposed to do.
A loud beep came from the pole, making him jump. He backed up as the pole retracted and revealed an egg in its base. It was no surprise when the thing cracked open, and Cyborg tossed the flag aside, expectantly waiting for Yoshi to appear. The egg split entirely and fell apart, leaving the green dinosaur blinking in the sunlight on the brick stump.
It yawned and stretched, then noticed the metal man in front of him.
"Cyborg?"
"Beast Boy?"
Cyborg grabbed the little green guy in a bear hug, "Man, I haven't seen you in ages,"
Yoshi, as played by Beast Boy, grinned up at his pal. "Man, I love Yoshi! I love Mario! This day is awesome! Well, accept for the whole 'lost in space' thing..."
Cy nodded and patted his buddy on the back, "No big, we'll think of something. Now, I've never had the chance to say this but... wanna go eat some shrooms?"
"Hell yeah!" Beast Boy took off at a run, and Cyborg followed, the two lost for a moment, forgetting all their problems. After all, isn't being in a video game what you've always wanted?
*thanks again to The Brod Road for this suggestion, once again I had the idea and I'm glad someone else thought of it too!
TtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTtTt
Raven shook her head, the brilliance of the, well, the whatever they were warping through, leaving streaks in her vision. Where now?
It looked like a train station of some kind, though in a poor state of repair. The posters and fliers littering both wall and floor were yellowed and chewed, covered in scat from rodents (and hopefully nothing else). Tiles and bricks were cracked, and the yawning opening to the tracks was pitch dark.
It stank too, like mold and dust. She was no stranger to these smells of course, but coupled with the deafening silence she felt claustrophobia waking in her head.
Raven pulled her hood off, and realized she was in her uniform, for once. Black leotard, blue cloak of Azarathian cotton, jewelled belt. Where then was she, to be dressed normally? Well, as normally as a superhero could manage.
She took a step toward the tracks, or at least the blackness where she presumed they lay. She knocked over a rusty can in the dim lighting, and from a distant corner another crash came, followed by skittering of tiny paws. Two rather large rats came into her field of vision, sniffing in her general direction. She suppressed a shiver.
Just then the recessed lights in the ceiling, previously dead, flickered, and a bulb exploded, sending sparking showering down. The rats bolted, and Raven looked wearily up at the ceiling. The old bulbs continued to flicker at random, and she suddenly heard something.
It was a distant sound, not in terms of direction though, as she felt it in her chest as much as heard it. The... whirring, she decided, grew in volume, fluctuating from far away to almost too close. It set her teeth on edge.
A light appeared in the corner of her eye, and Raven turned, hands raised, magic at the ready.
At just above eye level the flashing light materialized, along with a dirty box, big enough for Raven to be worried. The form solidified as the grinding whir reached a crescendo, and she made out an appealing shade of blue paint on the box.
Telephone box, it looked like a telephone box, but old, battered, like the rest of the place. It fit right in despite its colour, like it belonged, and was so mundane that she almost forgot how it came to be there, not twenty feet away.
Some rattling came from the box, and Raven tensed, ready to leap from the ground. One side of the phone booth cracked open and a figure rushed out, accompanied by a copious amount of smoke.
The figure turned back to the box after coughing theatrically, and shook his finger at it. "One of these days, we are going to make a good landing, a happy landing!" the man's voice had an English flavor, and there was a strange resonance to it.
Raven relaxed a little, sensing nothing hostile from the man, who she now noted wore a mustard yellow plaid jacket. "Excuse me, who are you?"
The man jumped, and spun around, looking like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Who am I? who are you? this train station is empty,"
The man had a square-ish face and an alarming lack of eyebrows, and a seemingly permanent grin. He straightened his jacket and adjusted a rather red bow tie around his neck, and added, "or it was supposed to be,"
Raven lowered her hands, "My name is Raven,"
The odd man smiled, much like Beast Boy, she noted, "And, is there a last name?"
She frowned a little, "No,"
"Right then, Raven 'No', it's a pleasure to meet you," the man leapt forward, and extended a hand to shake, which Raven wearily took, "I'm the Doctor!"