5523/Titans: That Thing Happened Again.

Titans: That Thing Happened Again.
Date of Scene:	09 October 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	A mystery from a year ago reappears. And gets even more mysterious. Damian mysteriously decides not to reveal just how mysterious it is.
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Amarok, Raven, Robin (Wayne)

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Stardust has posed:
    It is quiet in the Tower. Ever since the war against the Mushrooms ended, it has been pretty quiet in the Tower. Calm, blessed, quiet.

    And then it isn't.

    <<ALERT. ALERT. SECURITY BREACH IN LIVING QUARTERS. SWIRLY WOBBLY THING ALERT>> This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, not one of the standard alert messages. Someone has clearly been messing with the security alert system, and has created a new alert classification, which for whatever reason has been triggered by something in the living quarters. It's anyone's guess who'd mess with the Tower systems like that and insert such a flippant security message, but it's not hard to guess.

Several miles away, Colette's at home (she does have one), seated on her sofa, guitar in hand, and teaching herself the words and chords to an old Leonard Cohen song when her Titan's communictor buzzes. She glances over it and ignores it. "~And just when you mean to tell her / that you have no love to give her / Then she gets you on her wavelength / And she let's...~" She stops singing, blinks, and stares at her communicator. With a sigh, she puts down her guitar and heads for the door.

    Back at the Tower, anyone visiting the living quarters will soon discover that the alert is in fact well named. On the wall of the living quarters is something that could best be described as a swirly wobbly thing, although 'probably some kind of portal' might be apt. It's hard to make out the shadows beyond the swirling colors, but there's a distinct appearance of a room behind. Although a closer look might suggest it's some kind of swirly wobbly mirror, because the room beyond does seem to display remarkably similar outlines to the living quarters themselves.

If Amarok's memory is working well, he may recall having seen something very similar before, a year or so ago, the day he met Colette. On that occasion, some kind of shadow visitor appeared to have used the portal to explore the Tower. On that occasion, Colette walked through the portal and Amarok had to drag her back out, as there was /something/ moving towards her visible beyond.

Amarok has posed:
Amarok is down in the gym when the alert comes in, doing one armed push ups in a small but slowly expanding puddle of blood. When the alert comes in, he flips up onto his feet and heads right for the lift in a single fluid motion, smacking the living quarters button to head up to it, pulling and checking his shotgun as the doors close..

Raven has posed:
    Rather unfairly to everyone else's ability not to pay attention to alarms- not that anyone ever does, but the option is there for some- Raven lives in the Tower. The alarm disturbs her in much the way Colette always seems to, despite the fact that Colette is not present in the tower.

    That will not stop Raven from blaming her, however.

    Moments after being awoken from her trancelike state, Raven is flying through the floors towards the identified area, telling the laws of physics exactly what they can do with the spare time she's giving them.

    Raven emerges from the roof shortly before Amarok's elevator arrives, having paced herself so as not to arrive alone. That was important- don't do things alone.
    

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Robin was tinkering with some equipment on the lab floor. As the alarm rings, he grapples up to the living quarters through the flight shaft.

  Damian drapes his cape over himself once he lands at the living floor. "Status?" He asks, anyone that is there before him.

Stardust has posed:
It's hard for Damian's question to be heard over the constant blaring of the alarm, but the status is fairly apparent to the eye. The large screen that dominates one wall now has a portal in the middle of it, which does not bode well for Movie Night.

There's nothing, apart from the portal itself, untoward happening. Amarok, or anyone who read his report, would be aware that last time one of these showed up, something may have come through, but if something came through again, it's not immediately apparent. However it only showed up as a shadow last time, so it's entirely possible that the three Titans have an invisible visitor standing right next to them.

Alas for Raven, Colette has not yet arrived. This may make blaming her somewhat tricky. Hopefully she's responding to the emergency alert, and can be blamed shortly.

Amarok has posed:
Amarok walks from the elevator and keeps his stride in pace with Raven as they approach the bubble thing, slowing to a stop once within about ten feet of it, "......Well....This is gonna be a long night...." He says monotonaly. When Damian arrives asking for a report, he simply gestures towards the bubble with his readied shotgun, "Dont get to close to it. Last time I saw one, something came out of it. Switch to thermals if you've got em. I seem to remember that making it easier to see." He says as his bloody free hand reaches up to press a small section of his helmet in with a small 'ka-chunk' noise.

Raven has posed:
    Raven has lain the blame on Colette internally, and that's all that really matters. Sometime later, if not tonight, Raven will get back at her for the slight of disturbing her meditation with the alarm that Colette had no hand in triggering.

    Raven is the only person present that doesn't look as if she belongs in a fight. She's not even wearing shoes, but this alarm happened at random in the living room of the Tower- she can be forgiven for leaving the one thing upstairs.

    "I don't sense anything. Whatever it is, -if- it is, it may not be sentient. Be wary."

    Raven does not have thermals. She does have the ability to sense even the most base of emotions, though, so that's pretty neat.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     A hand reaches to the mask on Robin's face. Switching to thermal view while still keeping a distance from the portal.

  "Last time?" He quips, searching the portal. "So, what happened last time?"

Stardust has posed:
The alarm finally cuts out. Moments later, Stardust appears, flying up the empty elevator shaft Damian had used earlier, and into the room. "Why did nobody switch the alarm off?" she asks, looking between the three. "I assumed nobody was here when it was still going when I got here." She lands close to the portal, and looks around the room. She too has thermals lenses. She rarely takes them out on a mission, because unlike the rest of her costume she can't regenerate damage to them at will, and they're kind of expensive. However she, like Amarok, remembers that they were useful last time. "Anything come through this time? Tower been searched?" she asks.

  Colette takes step closer to the portal, leaning in just inches from the swirling vortex energy that surrounds it. With just a moment's hesitation, she shoves her hand in, then pulls it out again. "Hmm. There's a kind of resistance. Like pushing against a sheet of rubber or something. Last time I just went straight through, it's not quite the same." She looks back to the three, perhaps unwisely turning her back on the portal. "Any theories?"

Amarok has posed:
At Colette's appearance, Amarok snaps his head back to look at her, giving her an affirming nod before quickly looking back. When asked about the tower being searched, he responds with, "Not yet. Was waiting on you. Cant leave the others here with no experience on it. You wanna do a top-down, or should I?" When asked on theories, he stays quiet, obviously not the team's designated smartperson.

Raven has posed:
    Raven doesn't deal with technology. It is also Colette's fault, then, that the alarm remained on for so long. These are immutable facts, and are definitely relevant.

    Her attention flits to the blonde as the woman arrives, now quite literally the only person without neat gadgetry but hey whatever the laws of physics don't apply to Raven. She'll deal. She's not jealous. There is an emotion temporarily suppressed that might have been jealousy, but it gets locked away in the box.

    "I don't know anything about it or where it goes, but I can find out. It will require a level of... Research." It is at this point that Raven allows gravity to matter to her again, and begins taking a few steps forward, padding along the living room towards Colette. Her hands rest quietly in her pockets, and her eyes lock, immovably, on the portal.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian watches as Colette reaches in. "You never cared much for the scientific process, did you?" He says with a >tt<.

  "What happened the last time?"

Stardust has posed:
    "Damian, this is the scientific process," Colette points out. "I am performing an experiment. By poking it." Colette stares at Amarok for a few moments. "What's a top-down?" she asks, puzzled. "Is that some kind of ninja jargon?" she turns back to the portal, looking at the top of it for clues. English isn't her first language, and she doesn't have military training. Amarok could perhaps have expressed that better. Fortunately, it's not actually necessary to suggest to Colette that she speaks. She rarely stops.

     "I know where it goes, Rae. I went through it last time it appeared. It goes to the Titans Tower. Possibly like an alternative dimension or something. But Moon Moon was with me in the room when I went through before, and he wasn't in the room on the other side of the portal, which was empty. Though he claims he saw some people moving towards me on thermals. What comes out is shadows. I chased one around the Tower, and I think it used one of these to escape. Looked pretty much human by the shadow, but there was nothing visible casting the shadow so it could have just been human...ish. Which, when I think of it, doesn't make sense. If light passes through it, it shouldn't cast a shadow. However, weird. Weird explains most things. Anyway, best way to research it is to go through and take a look. That's what I was doing last time, only Moon Moon dragged me back out, and then it closed. I thought you didn't like noise, Rae. Why did you leave the alarm going? Maybe you are trying to acclimatize to it. I shall endevour to make more noise in the future, just to help you out."

    Rather suddenly, two things happen at once. The first is that the colors of the swirling vortex surrounding the portal shift. Not slowly, but very suddenly, purples and blues giving way to greens and cyans. At the same time the surface of the portal appears to bulge outwards by several inches, as if it's reaching towards Colette and Raven, but that quickly subsides.

    The second thing that happens is that there is a loud, electric crackle, a smell of burning, and a flash of light in the air a few feet from Amarok's head. The source of this disturbance appears to be a drone of some kind, suddenly appearing in the air and burning out. It tumbles to the ground with a crash.

Amarok has posed:
Amarok looks over at Colette for a few awkwardly silent seconds when she asks what a top-down is, then lets out a Kif-esque groan, only to be cut off midway through by the sudden sulphorus explosion by his head. This startles the shotgun wielding madman, who dives to the side, and shoots it as it drops.....That cant've been good for it....Or for the ears of the others in the room as gun competes with the crackling to deafen everyone.

Raven has posed:
    This is literally torture. At every point where it would be correct and proper of a person to cease speaking, and allow a topic to be discussed, Colette somehow finds a new topic to speak yet more words about.

    "That you said the phrase, 'possibly like an alternate dimension or something', says directly that you do not actually know where this goes. You know what where this goes looks like, and that it happens to be the tower, but it does not go to the Tower." She lets the rest of that lie. Idly, she considers teleporting things around in Colette's room, in order to hide things that she needs. She also considers a role of duct tape.

    The portal flares, and the response is immediate. Colette is probably not used to this sensation- she's been teleported by Raven before, but this is... Different. There is a glimmer, a faint vision of a different dimension, of floating rocks- of, in the immediate, several different women who happen to look exactly like Raven, and then flashing back, she is in the real world again. No longer standing in front of the portal, she now stands behind Raven by a few feet, as if the world had moved for a split second without her following it. For some reason, Raven found it important to place herself between Colette and the portal. A mystery.

    Then, Amarok makes literally all of the noise. Guns are loud, and most of the time when they're fired, the person firing them is wearing ear protection. As well, the room is quiet and empty save for the people and furniture, which means that there is an echo.

    In sum total, this means the gunshot is loud, and painful, especially to Raven, whom has never fired a weapon. She lets out a pained noise followed by a word that doesn't necessarily bare repeating- and is probably a little difficult to hear anyways.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     The drone doesn't get a couple birdarangs thrown at it, but after the shotgun blast, Damian scurries over to the piece of machinery. "Okay, I think it's safe to say someone on the other side thought to investigate this too." The drone gets looked over for any bits of memory not destroyed by a shotgun shell.

Stardust has posed:
    Colette is about to remonstrate with Amarok. Probably in a highly flippant fashion. She actually has her finger held up in a remonstrative pose, when the tower vanishes, and a whole bunch of Ravens appear. Then the tower reappears, but in from the Colette frame of reference, in a slightly different place. These things are not normal. Her own words about 'weird explains most things' pop briefly into her head. With her finger still raised remonstratively and her mouth open to start remonstrating, Colette is for a few moments silent.

    "Okay," she says, recovering her poise, but finger still raised. "Who moved the Tower? And why? The Tower was fine where it was. Moving it several feet to the side was unnecessary and... Moon Moon, I think you accidentally shot and killed normal geometry. From now on, everyone is going to be randomly reappearing in different places, and it's all your fault."

    As Damian investigates the drone, Colette turns her head to look at the gate, and then, longer, at Raven. Her expression is all kinds of puzzled. She's really not quite sure how to react to what just happened. Damian's probing of the remains quickly reveals that the electronics is is VERY thoroughly fried. It's pretty standard equipment, customized and not a design Damian's completely familiar with, but it's far from exotic. The Titans have some of the parts in storage themselves. Though given what's supposedly on the other side of the portal, that might not be entirely surprising.

    Colette's puzzled look to Raven is interrupted as her thermal lenses show signs of movement on the other side of the portal. Anyone else looking that direction would notice a shape, vaguely humanoid, approach the other side of the portal, crouch down, and quickly move away. Colette's reaction is to dive head first for the portal in an attempt to grab the shape, but being three feet further away from the portal makes her just out of range. Her hand sweeps through the portal and clutches empty air as the figure dodges out of the way. She pulls back and gets to her feet, holding something. Staring down at it for a few moments, her look of puzzlement deepens, then she turns around and holds out a folded piece of paper to Damian. Written on the outside of the fold is Damian's name. "I think we've solved the puzzle. The Postal Service is developing portal technology."

Stardust has posed:
The colors of the portal shift again, darkening, and though the portal remains in place, the image of the room on the other side becomes even darker and less clear.

Amarok has posed:
Amarok's shot is a simple riot suppresent, sounding FAR worse than it actually is, so the drone likely sustained minimal to no damage from it. As Raven tries to recover from having her ears blown out and her soul infiltrated by her best frenemy, Amarok stands back up, casually reslotting a new shell in to replace the spent one. As the figure comes into focus, Amarok takes aim at it, but his positioning puts Colette and Raven in the way, so, after seeming to think on it for several seconds, he opts not to fire as the figure disappears from view. If he has any thoughts on the event, he keeps them quite effectively to himself.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     A quick visor change to normal view and Damian takes the offered note, opening it and reading. The boy reels his head back as he reaches the end, raising a brow.

  Once the portal changes, Damian folds the note and places it in his utility belt. "I would let the portal be for now. It needs further study." He recommends, picking up the remnants of the drone and observing. "This needs a bit more attention too. Maybe we can find out something useful."

Raven has posed:
    Raven's ears are ringing dully for another few moments. Her attention goes to the portal before the thing on the other side is particularly aware that she can -feel- it presently. Still, reaching your hand through a portal is reckless to the point of suicide and there's Colette.

    Raven, still, is fixated on the being. She let it go, and its fleeting emotions tell her plenty. Raven is stoic for a moment. The portal blackens and turns solid, and for a moment, it almost seems to Raven like she just learned something.

    "Hm." she mutters to herself, before walking towards a wall. "Time?" The wall opens in blackness shaped like a bird extending its wings, and soon, Raven is gone.

Stardust has posed:
Colette stares at Robin. Then Colette stares at Raven. Then Colette stares at Amarok. "Moon Moon. You've been in the business longer than me. What do you suggest, we kill Robin and Raven in the face, repeatedly, until they cut out the mysterious and tell us what just happened?"

    The stare goes back to Robin. "Damian, you're just going to put that note in your pocket and not mention it again? Come on. What's going on? Is this a Bat-thing and you've been asked to bring milk when you return to the bat-cave, or something?" She shrugs her shoulders in exasperation.

    Turning back to the portal, Colette immediately ignores Damian's recommendation and pushes her hand through it again, finding this time that it resists. She pushes harder, then tries pushing with both hands, then punches it. Nothing seems to work. She takes a step back, and says "Open Sesame! Um. Password! Mellon! Knock knock!" The portal does not react. Slowly, it starts to fade.

Amarok has posed:
Amarok holsters the sawed off and reaches up to reset his vision. When Colette starts trying to probe him for ideas, he simply shrugs.....Are sure he's not saying anything? He could've been talking this whole time and his speakers are just dead, who knows? When Colette proceeds to try and embarrass herself with attempting to open the portal back up, Amarok does the sensible thing, and throws a KA-BAR at it right past Colette's head.....What a helper.