Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Only Half ❯ The Disappearances ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or anything affiliated with it.

Only Half

By HeavenSentTenshi

Chapter 1: The Disappearances

The sun rose slowly over the tops of the towering trees. The shadows were only just starting to dissipate in the fresh sunlight. Her ears and nose twitched as her eyes slowly surveyed the river before her. Her tongue ran over her lips as a small amount of drool dripped from her chin and joined the water where a trout was swimming, causing it to jet off in fright. In a mixture of frustration and hunger, the dark figure dove into the water, causing a noisy splash to disrupt the surface and a blood curdling screech to tear from her throat.

Less than a mile away, Robin sat straight up in his bed as he spun his head around in time to see the splash on the other side of the river through his window. Confused, he rose from his bed and stood before the pane of glass. He spied a shadow on the bottom of the shallows just before it erupted from the water, screaming and howling, darting back into the trees from which it had originally come. Robin could easily hear from the screaming that whatever it was that had disrupted the river so early in the morning wasn't human, though it had almost looked it. Just as he had decided it best to investigate, there was a rapid knock on his door. He hurried to the metallic barrier and opened it. Standing on the other side was Starfire. She had a disturbed look upon her face as she spoke.

“Robin, I fear I may have seen and heard something most frightening,” she whispered through the hands she had held at her mouth.

“That thing by the river?” Robin inquired, figuring that Starfire must have also seen the figure and had been awoken by the scream.

“By the river?” Now looking slightly confused, Starfire shook her head violently. “No, Robin, it is Beast Boy and Cyborg. They have not slept and still continue to play their video games in the living room! It is most... odd.” She shuddered at the thought of their lifeless fish-eyes as they had continued to stare at the screen when she had checked on them after hearing Beast Boy howling in joy after finally beating Cyborg for the first time since the afternoon before.

Robin stood in the doorway for a minute before blinking twice and refocusing on Starfire again. “What...?” he asked, still in shock from her answer being so far from what he was expecting.

“Beast Boy and Cyborg, they have just been sitting there staring at the television!” Robin sighed at Starfire's hissing whisper. “I am not sure whether their skulls are occupied any longer by their brains! I fear for their safety!”

“I'm sure they're fine, Star; they've done this before....”

“Not like this, Robin! Their eyes were large and empty!” Starfire held up her hands to her eyes in large circles to signify the enormity and vacancy of their eyes.

“I think I've seen them act like that before. Don't worry about them; they'll come out of it.” Robin's voice didn't seem interested, and Starfire noticed it, especially when his eyes traveled back out the window. She raised an eyebrow as she watched him for a moment.

“Robin? Is something wrong?” Thinking, she then remembered what Robin had said earlier. “And what did you mean when you mentioned something in the river?” Robin's eyes returned to her face.

“Never mind... I just saw something dive into the water... didn't you hear it?”

“Hear what?”

“That thing screeching.”

“Robin, I believe what you heard was Beast Boy. After he beat Cyborg he began to yell.”

Robin paused. He had heard Beast Boy yell before and he was quite sure that not only was it not Beast Boy who had screamed, but he was also sure that it wasn't a very human cry that had issued from the figure in the water. He sighed, undecided as to what to do, before finally following Starfire to the living room to check on the pair. Beast Boy was still hopping around on the couch, bouncing along happily and yipping. Cyborg was attempting to quiet him by challenging him to another game, but Beast Boy was a bit too caught up in his celebrations.

“Beast Boy,” Robin called from the doorway, “what are you doing?” Beast Boy paused and looked over at the two, a large grin on his face.

“Guess what, Robin! I won!” It was quite easy to tell that Beast Boy was sleep deprived, especially as Cyborg reached up, grabbed the top of his sleeve and pulled him down onto the couch again before handing him the controller.

“Double or nothing,” Cyborg muttered.

Beast Boy grinned again and shouted, “You're on!” just as Starfire and Robin sighed.

“I told you things are normal…” Robin muttered, turning and leaving Starfire alone in the doorway. He strode down the hallway toward his room. He wasn't sure whether the creature was something he should even worry about anymore, though he was afraid for the city's safety. If that thing was blood thirsty, which he wasn't sure of, than something would have to be done; though at the moment, it didn't seem to be something he should lose sleep over.

Just as he reached his room, the small communicator at his hip went off. Opening it, Starfire's face appeared on the screen. He was sure that she would be calling about Cyborg and Beast Boy again and he was just about to tell her off for using it in such a childish way before Starfire said something.

“Robin, I believe you should return to the living room.” Her face was very serious as she said this; something about it troubled Robin. “Something has happened and I believe we should check into it.”

Confused, Robin nodded and returned to the living room as quickly as he could. When the door opened, he found that the video games had been shut off and the news had been turned on. Cyborg and Beast Boy were in nearly the same positions he had left them in; both of them were sitting on the couch with the controllers still in their hands. Raven was now standing behind the couch next to Starfire, who had the remote to the TV in her hand. All four looked back when Robin entered, though Starfire was first to speak.

“It's terrible, Robin! Many people have just disappeared!”

“I wouldn't say many, Starfire,” Raven began, “There was only three.”

“Three?” Robin questioned. Raven motioned to the screen as the anchorman there repeated the story the four had just heard on another news channel.

“And now, for this morning's top story. Late last night, around the time of eleven pm, three young men were found to have disappeared. Normally, the police would not suspect kidnapping or foul play, however, many eye-witness accounts claim to have seen the three men one moment, and within the next they had simply vanished.”

“Vanished?” Robin muttered. The four nodded as the anchorman continued.

“One witness had with her a video camera, and was able to capture this chilling scene.” The tiny screen behind the anchorman enveloped the television and blacked-out. The next moment, many people could be seen, crowded around a dark skating ramp. The camera looked over to a small flyer that headed “Tonight Only, Midnight Skate-A-Thon”. Suddenly, the picture jerked up to capture a skateboarder successfully landing a large jump before returning to what seemed to be eye level. A small group was gathered at the base of the ramp; one of them turned around and waved. The camera neared them as a huge cheer rose up. Two others turned around too. The young man who turned around first had short, spiked, black hair, a young, kind face, a black shirt with indistinguishable white print on it, and baggy black pants. The second had dirty blond hair pulled back into a tiny pony tail at the base of his neck, a dark blue shirt and milky white cargo pants. The third also had black hair, though his was slicked back, his face was a bit more angular than the first, and he sported a blood red hooded sweat shirt with black print and a pair of baggy blue jeans. The three of them looked to be around the age of eighteen. Another cheer rose up as the camera jolted up again and then back down. One of the teens playfully covered the camera with his hand before the four of them laughed. When the hand pulled away there was a shriek. The three teens stood just in front of the camera, staring behind it, their eyes full of what could only be described as pure fear; and then they were no longer there. Hundreds of screams pierced the air as the camera fell to the ground and the screen went blank.

“As you can see,” the anchorman continued, “what the witnesses say seems to be quite true. The police began searching for the kidnapper and also wish to find out what caused the teens to disappear as they did. So far, nothing has been concluded.” At this, Raven hit the power button on the remote.

“That's about all the information they'll give,” she explained.

“Well, I guess everyone knows what that means, then,” Robin stated. Everyone nodded as he turned around and motioned for them to follow. “We have to find those guys and figure out who or what did this.”