This was an awful idea I had late one evening, and was written at my worst. Also, as I have no beta reader, it's not been beta read. Which means it might suck. I'm not sure... because I only wrote it twenty minutes ago and if I post it i'll be more inclined to re read it later, because other people can now see it.
Review please, and tell me what you think! =D
Raven woke from her sleep abruptly, with the unnerving feeling that she'd just fallen several meters and landed with a bump. Knowing that this was, rationally speaking, highly unlikely, she forced the thought out of her mind, and turned over to glance around the room. She was fairly certain that something had caused her sudden waking, and wanted to know what.
She surveyed her room from her bedside, and was unable to find anything immediately wrong. Something about the room made her unsettled, though she couldn't place exactly what. Something was off. Different. She decided to get out of bed, and immediately noticed how cold it was. Taking several deep, even breaths to calm her nerves (which were agitated more than she'd care to admit), she reached for her cloak and drew it swiftly around her shoulders. Then she put her boots on, and threw up her hood, before she padded softly to the door.
Placing her hand on the cold steel, she could definitely feel something wrong. Something felt so… off, and she couldn't place exactly what. It disturbed her. She narrowed her eyes and cleared her mind as she silently chanted to focus her energy, and step through the door, to check out the rest of the tower. Moving forwards, she pressed her hand against the steel…
…And felt steel.
Raven frowned, then her eyes widened. She tried again, this time saying her chant in a low voice.
Nothing.
"My powers…" she whispered, barely audible to anyone but herself as she stared at the door. She drew her hand back slowly, and reached across to the door controls. Something felt so wrong. A strong instinct told her to find the other titans.
Moving swiftly through the corridors, Raven found herself becoming more and more frustrated. It wasn't just her room. The entire tower was different. The subtle change wasn't anything she could see or hear or smell or touch, it was… something else. She squashed the frustration automatically, pacing as quickly and silently as she could to the main control room where she intended to use the other Titans communicators to wake them, rather than invade their separate rooms.
She reached her destination shortly, and moved swiftly to the huge Titan computer, her cloak sweeping behind her. Glancing around in a vague state of self-preservation instinct induced paranoia, she began to tap keys rapidly, and created an alarm effect on every communicator but her own.
Robins voice sounded from the device on her cloak immediately. He couldn't have been asleep. One glance at the computer clock told her that it was just after three in the morning, but for some reason, she wasn't all that surprised.
"Trouble?" He asked. One word. Straight to the point. Raven replied.
"Maybe. I'm in the control room," she said, keeping her voice low.
"I'm on my way."
Starfires was the next voice she heard, but it came from the corridor behind her.
"Raven?" Asked the alien girl, walking through shadows past the door, in the corridor. "Is there trouble?" She stepped into the room, her eyes wide. One of her boots wasn't quite done up, and she was hopping a little as she tugged at it. But that wasn't what caught Ravens attention.
Starfires skin, which had always been a kind of… well… orange colour, was pale. Oddly so. Infact… in contrast to her bright red hair…
As Raven stared at her teammate, she realised that Starfire had stopped hopping around in her boot, and was staring back at her.
"…" she said, sounding a little incredulous, and for some reason, eyeing Ravens hair.
Robin entered the room. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, looking at Raven and Starfire with an odd expression on his face. His eyebrows went dangerously far up his forehead.
"What?" Raven asked, partially curious, partially annoyed because she was sure she was missing something. And the weird feeling that the entire tower was wrong… wasn't going anywhere. And she was a little cold.
"This is what the problem was?" He asked, his eyebrows back in a normal position, and looking back at Starfire. It wasn't really a question, realised Raven. But the problem had been her powers. Why was…
Raven blinked. Then she got an idea, and then she hoped she might be wrong. Raven pulled a strand of hair forwards in front of her eyes, and looked at it.
…A strand of auburn hair. Dark auburn. Raven's hair was purple. She blinked, then her line of vision moved to look at the hand that had pulled the hair forwards. It was… a yellowy pink. Her knuckles were reddish, and her fingernails were pink and purple. A couple of veins showed under the skin on the back of her hand. She breathed slowly, and cautiously turned her hand over to look at her palm. She brought her other hand up to her face, as well, and stared at them both. Her skin was normally more a shade of grey…
She was about to say something, when her train of thought was interrupted. Rapid footsteps were sounding down the corridor to the control room, and a short boyish figure in a familiar jumpsuit rounded the corner.
Raven stared at the kid, who couldn't be taller than five foot two. His hair was dark and incredibly messy, and he had a suntan. His eyes were wide, and he stared at Starfire, then at Raven, then at Robin. And then he opened his mouth.
"AAAAAAH!" Screamed Beast Boys voice. He started to jump up and down, and waved his arms frantically. Then he stopped, put his hands out in front of him, stared for a moment, and screamed again.
He stopped yelling, and looked around the room desperately at all three of them. Raven was more than a little shocked. She had no idea what to say. She had no idea what was going on. She decided to keep breathing slowly.
"AAH!" Yelled Beast Boy again, gesticulating manically.
Robin was the first one to speak, for the second time.
"Beast Boy!" He said, commandingly. "Calm down!"
The authority seemed to reach Beast Boy. His arms stopped waving.
"Calm down?" He said, in a strained voice. "Calm down?"
"It's okay," Robin continued. "We're going to find out what happened to you guys." He seemed to be looking for something else to say. "Where's Cyborg?"
Raven found her voice. "I messaged him," she said automatically. "His communicator should be waking him up with an alarm."
Robin narrowed his eyes. "Cyborg doesn't ignore Titan alarms," he said. "Raven, Beast Boy. Check his room. Starfire and I will run a search for him on the computer."
He turned to the computer, and began tapping in commands. He frowned at the results he got, but Raven was supposed to be looking for her team mate, so she began to hurry past Starfire, and grabbed Beast Boy by the arm to make sure he'd follow.
"Ow," he complained, once they were further down the corridor. He snatched his arm back, and rubbed at it. "You didn't have to grab my arm so hard, you know."
Raven frowned. "Don't milk it," she said. "If I wanted to hurt you, you'd know about it."
"No, seriously," he replied, sounding serious. "That bruised."
Raven looked over at him as they walked, about to tell him that he didn't bruise, and especially not that quickly, when she saw that he was rubbing on his arm and frowning in a way that actually looked pretty real. She looked away quickly, because it was a little weird looking at a Beast Boy with brown hair and no fur. A BB who didn't have odd fangs, who wasn't green…
"Can you still change into animals?" She asked, suddenly, not sure if it was just his appearance that had changed, or if, like her, he'd lost his powers.
"No I can't," he replied quietly, sounding disturbed. He opened his mouth to say something else, but didn't seem to be able to form the words properly. Raven didn't speak again as they kept walking.
When they reached Cyborgs door, Raven halted, and wondered fleetingly if she would rather it was Beast Boy or herself that knocked. Then she mentally growled at herself for being stupid, and raised her hand to knock, four solid times, on the door.
Drawing her hand back, she realised that her knuckles felt sore all of a sudden. She stared at them in disbelief. As well as losing her powers, and changing in appearance, she also seemed to have turned into a… well… a pansy.
"Cyborg?" Called Beast Boy, through the steel. "You in there?" The volume of his voice made her wince.
There was silence for a second, and Raven suddenly began to imagine all the things that could've abducted the robot from the tower while they were sleeping. Her theories came to a welcomed halt as a semi groggy voice answered through the door.
"BB?"
"Yeah," called the no-longer-changeling, sounding a little annoyed. "Get up!"
"Just a mi…" Cyborgs voice cut short. There was a silence for another few seconds. Raven glanced at Beast Boy, who was looking suddenly worried. "Cy?" He called.
"Cy!" He called again, when he received no answer.
"Erm…" Cyborgs voice came through the door. He sounded a little strained. "Maybe… more… than a minute…" His voice trailed off.
"What?" Said Beast boy, loudly. "Is there a problem? And why didn't you answer your communicator?"
"…Ehh…" Cyborg sounded like he was finding something very worrying and amusing all at once. "BB… could you hold on, like… three minutes?"
"What?" Said Beast boy, incredulously.
There was a clanging sound, and no one spoke any more. Beast Boy bounced on his toes. Raven watched a piece of dust float around down by the bottom of the door, illuminated by the corridor night lighting.
A couple of minutes later, Cyborgs door opened. Raven blinked. For some reason, Cyborg was wearing a vanilla suit… or the pants of one. He didn't have any shoes on. Raven stared at his feet. They were… feet. She blinked again, and looked up at the lack of the shirt under the jacket. She couldn't see metal. She could see an athlete's set of pecs and abs, plus a couple of collar bones… but no metal. She swallowed, and told herself not to be surprised.
"Umm…" Cyborg was glancing between Raven and Beast Boy, trying not to stare at either. "Is this what you were trying to send me an alarm about?" He gesticulated at the air between the three of them. Raven didn't wonder what he was talking about.
Something else clicked in her head then. "Your communicator," she said out loud, looking at his arm. "It was… built in."
Cyborg stared at his arm. "Yeah…" he said, blinking. He didn't look horrified like Beast Boy had done. He didn't even look all that shocked. Just sort of… curious, like he was letting it go past, and taking it in his stride. Raven admired that, sort of, she decided. "That's why you didn't get the alarm," she finished.
"Robin and Starfire are waiting in the control room," said Beast Boy, eyeing Cyborg's feet as though they were the most peculiar difference in his appearance.
"Right," said Cyborg again, rubbing the back of his neck as they turned and started walking.
"Cyborg! Beast Boy! Raven!" cried Starfire, as the three Titans walked into the control room.
"…Nice suit," said Robin.
"Yeah, well," said Cyborg, a little darkley. Robin seemed to understand what he was being dark about his outfit. He grinned a little at the no-longer robot, but didn't say anything.
"Robin and I believe we know why this has happened," said Starfire.
Beast Boy turned to stare at her. "Yeah?" He asked. Raven felt his anticipation, but didn't show it.
"Well… think about it," said Robin. "Cyborg's got no weapons or super strength. Raven and Starfires powers don't work at all, and Beast Boy can't change into animals anymore. We're effectively weakened, as a team, to the point of having to rely on what normal people do."
Raven blinked as she realised something.
"So someone took away all our powers…" said Cyborg.
"…But why change the way we look as well?" Asked Beast Boy. "And how come Robin's not affected?"
"It's because he was already human," said Raven.
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