Hey! long time no post! I have no reasonable excuse... I'm a terrible person. I apologize for the wait, I express great gratitude to all who read, read (past tense), reviewed or followed this, you are much more loyal and patient than you should be. This is almost finished, I swear, and now that I'm back in school I've got stuff to do... that I can procrastinate on by working on this stuff, so it should be finished soon. I apologise for any lax in quality, it's been a while and I am really just filling space at the moment to get to the final two showdowns, which I am working on starting now.
I love you all, really, without you this would never have left my head and I would be sitting around pondering what great things I could contribute. Well, more so than I currently am anyways. I hope you enjoy and if you don't let me know, I won't be offended.
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Chapter 16: Psycho-Nots
Cyborg groaned, "why are our villains so bizarre? Is it too much to ask for a simple murder here and there?"
"Certainly you are joking, friend Cyborg,"
Starfire flung a starbolt into the face of one of the tiny squarish men who were attacking them. It grunted a "No!" before falling into pieces. "Are you sure these tiny business men are not alive?"
"They're just mental projections Star, like white blood cells for the brain."
She looked suspiciously at the oncoming 'Censors', as Cyborg called them. They didn't seem to be alive, and they were rather dumb. Shrugging she put her hands together a threw an enormous starbolt into their ranks, sending pieces flying everywhere. They were holding stamps of some kind, and one landed on her boot.
Curious, Starfire picked up the object, turning it over to read what it stamped. The other side had a red circle with a line through it, and if she recalled correctly it was the earthly sign for 'no'. Fitting, considering it seemed to be the only thing they could say.
They had arrived next to each other in this strange, rather nauseating place. Star, who knew very little about earth video games, only knew what Cyborg had told her; that this place was some kind of 'mindscape', from a game called 'Psychonauts'. Beyond that, she was at a loss.
Cyborg nodded in appreciation of her show of destruction, "Nice,"
As Starfire was about to comment back, suddenly the ground they were on lurched. They had ran into this shelter, a long tube of sorts with windows. It was essentially an oversized airplane, circa WWII.
Apparently the extra weight of Cyborg (Starfire doesn't count because, well, she was floating) was too much for the plane to handle, and that last blast knocked something loose. With a horrific screech the plane lost its grip on the rocky cliff it balanced on, and plummeted.
Starfire grabbed hold of Cyborg as he lifted off the ground, and stopped their decent, the plane falling around and then below them to crash into a blimp.
This was a rather confusing place, the alien observed, as she looked out over a caricature of early 21st century warfare. "thanks," Cyborg said, and pointed to a clearing below, "Let's set down there,"
Star nodded and dropped, nervous with all the explosions around. Cyborg took pot shots at Censors as they descended, commenting "These guys usually don't show up for quite a while..."
As they touched down they saw two very disfigured children. In annoying voices they cheered for the Titans, and Cyborg groaned, "I hate these guys," Starfire was similarly disturbed.
Out of nowhere the ramshackle building the two children had been hiding in exploded, sending them flying. Robin stood in the midst, a Censor in hand, and he threw it away from him, the little guy exploding in the air.
He caught sight of them, and cleared his throat, "about time you got here. Where are we?"
Cyborg looked disappointed, "You mean you've never played Psychonauts?"
Robin frowned, "I've always tried to avoid them myself," he replied, and approached, eyes open for new threats. Starfire waited patiently for him to assess the situation, knowing she would get a hug soon enough. She had him well trained that way.
Sure enough Robin embraced his girlfriend, giving her a once over, the professional kind. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, Robin, I am alright. Are you?"
The young man smiled, and she smiled back, not expecting an answer; he was like that, always concerned for everyone else.
"Where's Beast Boy, and Raven?" Robin asked, looking around again and pulling away from Starfire.
"Don't know; it hasn't exactly been stable, all this..." Cyborg tried to think of something to call whatever it was that they were going through, "Jumping,"
All of a sudden a huge sound like canon fire burst into the air. Their heads whipped around and they saw a huge tank in the distance, its main barrel pointed skyward. A flaming projectile had just been launched from it, and it left a trail of black smoke in its wake.
As the shot arced and began its descent, the Titans realized it was headed their way. "Um, we should probably," Cyborg trailed off.
"Run," Robin finished, and did so, followed by his teammates.
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Beast Boy was often wondering things.
This may come as a surprise to many, after all the green animorph was hardly a poster child for cognitive development.
Nonetheless, he did often wonder things, like how people could stand the stink of the city, or how weird it must be to not hear people's heartbeats, or how cool it would be to make out with someone who kill him with just a thought... just wondering, of course.
As a crime fighter, he'd also been around his fair share of guns and gunfire, and this curious nature had led to a number of gun related ponderings. Mainly, how would it feel to be a bullet? To be shot out of a barrel and hit something at ridiculous speeds?
It would seem that unlike most of his ponderings, the empathizing with bullets business was about to come true.
He had no idea where he was, whether video game or film; after all he hadn't played every game or seen every movie or show, there were bound to be places he wouldn't recognize. This place, though it had a vague Tim Burton aesthetic, was utterly foreign.
Imagine his relief when he literally ran into a person shortly after waking up, in a military graveyard no less.
The guy he ran into, and subsequently knocked over, was purple, with a huge orange afro and an unfortunately extreme case of over bit. He sounded like he was wearing a retainer as he grunted, "Hey! Watch it! Who are you?"
The kid stared at Beast Boy, obviously not put off by his skin. Then again, he was purple himself. "I'm, uh, new around here," Beast Boy replied sheepishly.
"Oh, new kid huh?" the other got to his feet and dusted himself off, "I'm Bobby. Bobby Zilch."
Beast Boy also got to his feet, a little confused at being the tall one in the conversation; that didn't often happen. "I'm Beast Boy. You wouldn't happen to know where I am would you?"
The purple boy grinned a rather horrific smile, "Just training new kid. C'mon, I'll show you the way out,"
The purple kid started walking, and Beast Boy followed, looking around as he went. It looked like he was in some kind of old battle field, and the sky was filled with old planes and blimps, illuminated through heavy clouds via spotlights from unseen bunkers. There was also the steady rumble of gun and canon fire, and explosions in midair followed. Altogether not a very comfortable place.
Bobby apparently reached where he was headed, and Beast Boy looked around him to see a ruined bunker with a door frame in the middle. It wasn't connected to anything, this door was just sitting there in the middle of the rubble.
"That there is the way out new kid," Bobby explained, "You might want to check in with the coach if you don't know where you are."
Beast Boy nodded, "Thanks, Bobby, I'll do that," tentatively he walked towards the door, and gingerly touched the handle. Not sure what to expect, or even why he was apprehensive, Beast boy paused, looking back over his shoulder to Bobby, who nodded in encouragement.
Something felt off... but then again, if he could find someone who could explain what was going on, it was worth a shot. There was also the opportunity that this Bobby kid was crazy; after all, this was just a door frame, sitting in the exact center of a pile of rubble, it probably didn't lead anywhere.
He turned the handle anyways, and pulled the door open. To his surprise, the other side was actually open to the air, and looking down he saw a huge maw of a barrel, attached to an enormous green thing that was so big that he couldn't fully make out what it was.
Beast Boy stopped and pushed out of the door frame, glancing over his shoulder to Bobby, "Um, Bobby, this just goes to a drop..."
That sentence would go unfinished, as just then Bobby, who had snuck up on Beast Boy, gave the young man a hard shove from behind, sending Beast Boy out the portal. It was so fast Beast Boy barely had time to register it, and he was falling from some ridiculous height.
Looking up he saw the glowing portal just floating there in the dirty clouds. On the other side Bobby was doing some kind of dance, and Beast Boy decided that he was a jerk.
All of a sudden he was surrounded by black; he must have fallen straight into the barrel. Flipping over, he morphed into a flying squirrel, and spread his limbs, slowing his descent to a less than fatal velocity.
After a long fall, he landed on something. A very long way up was a now tiny circle of light.
It occurred to Beast Boy quite suddenly that he was in fact in the barrel of an enormous tank canon. It followed that not only was this an enormous canon barrel, but one that was in the middle of some kind of war.
This led to that age old curiosity of what it would be like to be shot out of a canon, as he had no doubt he would soon find out.
Moments later, the pin struck, and the gargantuan bullet shot out of the barrel, and Beast Boy would never have to wonder about that particular question again.
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The room shook violently, and Raven clutched the handrail before her desperately. The room, well... cockpit, maybe, though high-tech, appeared to be not very user friendly.
Across the pillar in the center of the room the strange man called the Doctor jutted about, flipping switches, spinning dials, and even pulled a Twinkie out of a control panel. He gave it a sniff, shrugged, then shoved it back.
In a phrase, Raven was seriously beginning to question this man's piloting capacity.
"Alright," the man said with finality, appearing behind her.
Raven gave him a pensive look, "alright?"
The Doctor smiled in her face and turned away, crossing the slightly less shaky room to retrieve his overcoat. "Seventh time's the charm, they say,"
Raven sighed, "This is the eighth, the eighth stop,"
"Don't be cynical Raven, only two of the other stops tried to kill us."
"Three," she corrected, and flipped up her hood, casting her face into deep shadow. It felt like months since she'd worn it last.
The man chuckled and approached the doors, stopping with his hands on the handles, "Here we go,"
A slight tug and the door opened, to reveal a cartoonish and chaotic battlefield. Blimps and bombers soared overhead and constant distant explosions made the air vibrate. A slightly sheepish Doctor looked back to Raven, chewing a little on his lower lip. "Well... the air is breathable."
Just then a distant and fast growing whistling was heard, the sound of an incoming projectile. The Doctor whipped his head around, and squinted at the sky. "Hey Raven,"
Raven crossed her arms, sarcastically replying "Yes Doctor?"
"That one friend you mentioned... he was green right?"
"Yes... Doctor." Raven continued, feeling her heart beat a little faster.
"Well, he's on his way,"
"What?" Raven ran to the door, and shoved uncharacteristically past the taller man. "Where is he?" she continued, not seeing him among the piles of rubble and other clutter.
The Doctor leaned against the other door, and when Raven tossed him a glance he pointed up. Looking back up, she squinted, and saw a huge bullet arcing toward them. She couldn't quite make out the details, but she saw a hint of green on its face.
"Be right back," the Doctor said, before slipping away.
Raven's eyes widened; Beast Boy was stuck on that bullet! How in the name of Azar...
She raised her hands to summon her powers, hoping she would be able to catch such an enormous and fast moving object, "Azarath, Metrion-"
Her concentration was broken when the floor suddenly lurched, and she tumbled to her backside. The gravity was the same in the ship, but now she realized that they were angled, facing skyward. In the path of a fast approaching giant bullet.
Raven grunted and raised her hands again, hood falling off in the process. She wasn't going to let Beast Boy, or them in the TARDIS, get flattened. No mantra this time, pure emotional focus, instinctual magic from the core of her soul. Azar would be horrified.
The giant projectile was now the size of her in her field of vision, and she could make out a screaming Beast Boy squished on the tip, clinging desperately. Just then, seconds from hitting the ship, the bullet was engulfed in a black aura, and slowed. It was still roughly the speed of a car on a highway, but it wasn't terminal velocity anymore.
Too late, Raven realized she forgot to grab Beast Boy in her mental grip, and as the bullet slowed to a halt a dozen feet from the doors, the green boy continued forward, miraculously slipping cleanly through the open Tardis doors. Raven tried to grab him, but just as her soul self latched on he ran into her, the magical aura lifting her along with him, and the two hurtled backward.
No longer touching the ground, natural gravity took over, and the flight turned into a fall, through several doors. The last was just opened by the Doctor as the two passed through, landing feet first in a pool.
They plunged into the cold water, and immediately clawed their way to the surface. Beast Boy looked shell shocked, and Raven sent a light smack to the back of his head. "Ow, what was that for?"
"What the hell were you doing?" Raven demanded, as she turned and swam to the edge of the incredibly large pool, not bothering to wonder why a time traveler had an Olympic sized swimming pool in his spaceship.
Beast Boy sputtered, following her, "What did it look like? Some jerk shoved me into a canon barrel, and it fired. Not my fault,"
Raven sent him a suspicious glare, and he suddenly cracked a grin, a light chuckle in his whining voice, "It wasn't my fault!"
As he pulled himself out of the water and plunked down next to her Raven suddenly gave him a hug, surprising them both. She pulled away and drew her sopping hood over her face. "Um..."
"I was worried, shut up." she answered to his gaze, as a throat was cleared over at the door.
"I hate to break up the reunion, but we haven't met,"
Beast Boy's ears perked up, and he turned around slowly. When he caught sight of the man at the door, his voice squeaked, and he covered his mouth. Confused, Raven looked between the two, and the Doctor gazed curiously at the green boy.
"You're... you're... the Doctor..." Beast Boy whispered, and the Doctor's brow furrowed.
Raven finally made the connection, why the man had seemed so familiar. The was the guy from that show Beast Boy watched, was it Sunday nights? On BBC? She couldn't remember, but she had heard him babble about the show enough, apparently she retained some of it.
This was going to be strange, but at this point she supposed she shouldn't have expected anything else.
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Robin squinted through the dust, cape drawn over his face. This day was not going well; from panic attack to grueling combat, it felt like ages. He hoped it would be over soon, and they could all go home and have a nice dinner, in peace. Small things, it's the small things that kept him going.
Starfire was next to him, crouched behind the concrete rubble they were using as cover. Not that she needed it, the alien princess was practically invulnerable. She was frowning, "This adventure is lasting far too long, boyfriend Robin,"
He nodded, "I know how you feel Star,"
Another explosion hit on the other side of their cover. Cyborg, from an adjacent cover, shouted to them, but he couldn't quite make it out. Robin peaked over the edge of the chunk once the dust blast had passed.
In the haze he could make out a light, and he watched it intently. The crunch of gravel told him that Cyborg had joined them. "What's the plan?"
Starfire shrugged, and stood alongside Robin. Feeling a little left out Cybrog followed suit, arm raised and sonic canon poised.
Through the dust the pillar of light shone, and as it cleared they could make out a proud, heroic figure atop a brilliantly white Pegasus. He held a sword over his head and a blow-up doll against his hip. Red and black spandex clung to his muscular form, topped by a full head mask of red, a black diamond around each eye.
Slowly, the man in red lowered the blade to point at the teens. He gave the doll a kiss, through his mask, and dropped it. In a voice vaguely familiar the man declared in deep tones, "Titans! You meet your doom!"
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Well? not worth the wait was it? I feel like this story is out of gas, I'm cranking my way to the finish line. I want to thank Crow The Mad for suggesting Psychonauts as a crossover. I have yet to play it, but I watched a lot of gameplay and a walkthrough, and I have to say I've loved everything I've seen thus far. I don't know if this was what you were thinking, but I did have fun, so thank you. I'll have more asap, I am greatly embarrassed by how long I took this round.
see you all, or hear from you soon, I am grateful for every kind of feedback, so don't feel shy on my account!