7Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, nor anything associtated with them, besides this fic. I do, however own the character Kaelia and everything associated with her.
A Fox Down the Rabbit Hole
"Now, you're sure that this is a good idea?" I asked the professor, standing in front of a transporter portal that he claimed was "perfectly safe." Right. That's why the baseball he sent in came out as a fine power at the exit portal across the classroom.
"Of course, my little TSCR/UC hybrid," he said good-naturedly. "I've fixed all the bugs in the previous version. The rematerialization error was the first thing I fixed." The professor was a full-blood TSCL, despite that, he never believed half-bloods and hybrids like me were lower than the rest. Just one of the many things I admired about him. Another thing is that he's the first professor in history to be a TS. Until now, all the professors were Silicon Gods, or humans as they like to be called. The fact that he was just slightly attractive didn't hurt things either. I can now admit that I had a tiny(read: huge)crush on him the first time I saw him.
"So, now the computer can put back together what it takes apart?" I asked.
"Yes," he answered. "Go ahead and test it Kaelia, if you don't believe me."
"If you don't mind, I think I will." He snorted in indignation, but I felt that his ego would survive the blow. Drawing a card from my right deck, I tossed it into the shimmering black of the gate. It appeared instantly out of the other portal, and a TSFD caught it. "Coool," I said. "What about objects that stay in the active portal? Will they be solid here but disassembled in the acutal connection itself?"
Professor Johnson frowned. "I don't know. It should, but I haven't tested it."
"Can I?" I asked eagerly, like a kit with a new toy. Which is what this was, essentially.
He chuckled. "Sure. Just, don't do anything stupid."
I drew myself up in mock righteous indignation. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked haughtily. He started to answer before I interrupted him with a raised hand and my favorite threat.
Still laughing, the wolf shook his head and gave me the go-ahead.
Invoking my beloved halberd Aelos, I tip-toed forward, earning slight chuckles from the class. Which is funny, I guess, considering I walk digitigrade. My halberd slid past the event horizon of the portal and appeared on the other side. It appeared fine, even after I waved it around, and moved it front to back.
"Well, seems safe enough," I said after a while, letting Aelos dissolve back into the ether.
"I told you that."
"Well, I had to make sure. I wouldn't want to be reduced to a molecular powder."
"Are you ready to walk through?" asked the prof.
"As ready as I'll ever be. What could it hurt?" I said, walking through the portal. Ahh. Famous last words.
"Now, you're sure this is a good idea?" asked Cyborg, as they walked into Raven's room.
"Relax, Cy. Rae's birthday is coming up, and this is the perfect way to see what she has and what she likes," answered Beastboy. "Here, take this for example," he pulled a musty tome off the bookshelf. "The Necronomicron." The shifter thumbed through it. "Eww..." he said after a while, replacing it on the shelf. "Hmmm... What about this one?" Beastboy said, pulling out "The Dunwich Horror." "Ahh!" he screamed after five pages, dropping the book and rapidly shoving it back on the shelf.
"Well, we've established that she likes dark, creepy, and frighting things. Why don't we just give her fifty bucks and let her get something for herself?" asked Cyborg, who had just finished examining a rather macabe statuette of a dragon.
"Cop-out. I just got through to Rae, and I don't want to just say, 'here's some money; go buy yourself something pretty.'"
"If by 'getting through to her' you mean 'making out like the teens you are', then yeah, you have," Cyborg said somewhat good-naturedly.
"You're just jealous because I'm with Raven and Robin and Star are together," he retorted, his emerald eyes never leaving the bookcase.
"You see this? Right here?" The metal teen tapped the place where his heart had been previously. "A part of it just died."
"Oooh! This! Right here!" Garfield exclaimed, excitedly pulling a book of the shelf and paying no mind to Vic's retort.
"What is it?" asked Cy, coming over and looking at the book he was holding. "So?"
"Therio Mysterium. The mysteries of the animals. I've only heard about this in legends. I never thought it really existed."
"What's it about?" Cyborg asked, somewhat interested.
"A legendary animal mage was nearing the end of his life, so he decided to write down a compendium of all the knowledge he had ever gained in his lifetime. It was said that he could summon an animal from anywhere in the world simply reciting a chant," Beastboy said, eagerly and carefully flipping through the pages.
"Wow. What was his name?"
The green-skinned youth looked up, and tried to recall. "I think it was something like 'the god of animals,' but I can't remember the exact name... Oh well," he said, falling back into Raven's book. "Hey, I found that chant I told you about."
"Cool."
Beastboy grinned mischeviously. "Wanna see if it works for us?"
"I dunno BB, messing with magic has never been a good idea. Remember what happened the first time we went in here?"
"That was months ago. Besides, that's totally different."
"Really? How so?"
"That was with a mirror. This is with a book."
"Wow, I guess that makes all the difference. Read on then," Cyborg said sarcastically.
Beastboy didn't respond, but started chanting in an unknown language, flowing and smooth. The hairs on the back of BB's neck began to rise as forces swirled around the two. His chanting rose to a fevered pitch, then both the chant and the eerie feeling stopped dead.
"Well, that wasn't creepy..." said Cyborg, after a while.
"Yeah... I think we should get out of here..." Garfield said, replacing the book on the shelf.
"Good idea," responded Vic, walking/dashing towards the door.
Instead of walking out of the portal into the other side of the class, I was dumped headfirst into a rather hard marble floor. Luckily, my head was harder, so I was more or less okay. I looked up just in time to see the portal disappear. "Oww..." Rubbing the spot that had hit the floor, I sat up and took stock of my location. The portal seemed to have dumped me out into a busy human bank. At least it had been. All the humans in there who had been previously going about their business were now staring at me. To say I felt self-conscious was a slight understatement; I found myself fervently wishing I had thought to get my armor BEFORE class, and extremely glad that I hadn't taken my roommate's suggestion and worn my halter and miniskirt.
"Ummm, hi," I said, picking myself up and waving. "I'll just be...on my way now," I said, walking towards the door. I got the impression that they couldn't understand what I was saying. True, I wasn't wearing my translator, but all humans should have had the linguistic chip implanted. Weird. A blast of cold air and snow greeted me as I walked out of the building. Shivering, I pulled my light jacket closer to me. What the hell? It had been sixty-five when I went into class. Well, whatever. Out on the street was no better. Odd looks and utter confusion resulted whenever I asked for directions to the nearest Info Center. Didn't anyone have an L chip or a spare translator handy? I finally caught sight of a likely looking building after an hour of wandering in the snow, earning strange looks. It looked like a giant Theriocenter, following the traditional "T" pattern. The fact that it was on a small island was a bit odd, but I wasn't about to argue if it meant I could crash for the night and get out of this miserable cold.
"Ugggh," I groaned. Half an hour of solid walking and I still hadn't closed much distance. Dash would be dangerous in a crowd of people, and besides, I just didn't have the energy. The light was fading quickly, and the snowfall had increased. I resolved to get there more quickly.
"Hello?" I said, knocking on the door of the T-center. I was nearly on the verge of passing out after having to walk across the bay. It had "luckily" frozen over, but my feet were now so cold that I could barely feel them. I wished for a pair of shoes.
The staff was used to random TS's showing up suddenly, so I figured that they wouldn't mind if I just walked in. The doors proved to be unlocked, and I lurched into the warm, blessed entrance hall. My eyes looked for the nearest place to collapse in. I made it up four levels before finding the common room, and the couch seemed to glow. Almost magnetically, I was drawn to the couch, falling down on it, curling up; then passing out.
Afterthoughts
Hey, look, I'm not dead! Sorry for the wait, plot bunnies like to take their sweet time with me... This is a tricky project for me, seeing as I'm a guy trying to write from a girl's point of view. I'm trying to do the best I can, but please let me know if I've misinterpreted a perspective. Anyway, you're likely wondering at some of the terms used here. I'll do my best to explain them. Bonus points if you make it to the end. :)
Theriosapiens (TS) : This is the Familiy that Kaelia hails from. It means(or is supposed to)"the wise beast." Think Jakkal's kaetif or general anthros. (subliminal message: GO READ BLACK TAPESTRIES)
TSFD: Theriosapiens Felius Domesticus. Basic house cat morph.
TSCL: Theriosapiens Canis Lupus: Grey wolf. Seen as the progenators of all Theriosapiens, as they were the first to develop sentientience. They later gave all the other members of TS intelligence. Interestingly, all members of TS have some supernatural ability to some degree or other. Anthros with superpowers... Scary.
TSCR/UC: Theriosapiens Canis Rufus and Urcyon Cineroargentus. Kaelia's species. Because all canid morphs are the same species, fertile interbreeding is possible. Mixes tend to be somewhat looked down upon, but Kaelia has had a good childhood away from bigotry.
Silicon Gods: Humans. In this fanfic, humans have developed a level of technology more or less indistinguishable from magic. They're not very involved with the race in any respect(and have long since stopped using silicon), but their existence is known to the planet. By the by, they're almost worshipped as literal gods in the more rural parts of Aldas.
Aldas: The name of the planet that Kaelia lives on. It has a technological equivalent to early twenty-first century Earth. Orbit is .998 AU with an axial tilt of 22.8, currently is in a tropical interglacial period, land covers 34 of planet's surface, and is geologically active. Biomes range from deciduous/conifer forests, pure conifer or deciduous forests, tundra, arctic, tropical rain forests, temperate rain forests, temperate cloud forests, savannahs, grasslands, to deserts. Overall population is 2.5 billion over five continents. Between 45-60 sentient species exist, living in (relative) harmony. Territorial disputes ocurr, but seldom result in physical injury. Permanent aboveground habitations are rare, most are nomadic within a territory, or live in underground dens. Dens are the norm, as they allow for a place to have running water, sewage lines, and such. Mineral resources are abundant, but are mined using shafts and burrowing species. The term 'strip mining' has never occured to them. Aldas was smacked around a few times by metal rich asteroids, and so it has more Os/Ir/Pl than most planets, but not by much.
Theriocenter: A wanderer's rest area/hotel. Because it's common for all races to journey, whether as part of a coming-of-age ritual, or simply as a nomadic lifestyle, theriocenters were created to allow them to rest. They have a distinctive architecture, looking like a "t."
L Chip: Linguistics chip implanted into all humans at birth. Allows for near-instant translation of any language, incoming and outgoing.
Dash: One of Kaelia's two powers. The summation and twitch movemets have been set to equal in her muscles. It allows her to move at incredible speed. Her bone structure has been modified to handle the extreme stresses exterted by Dash. Also, it works with any of her movements, not just running. Unfortunately, her muscles have a hard time in converting lactic acid.
Aelos: Kaelia's main weapon. A modded naginata, (the blade is flared) it's single piece, made from a osmium /platinum alloy interwoven with carbon nanotubules. The edge is a metallic glass, honed to a monomolecular edge. It stands at about six feet and weighs roughly 37 pounds. Appearance is shimmering black(think opaque black tiger's eye). It can handle incredible stresses and can be summoned or banished at her will. Named after the legendary spear of Aljaera.
One more thing. This story takes place after the events in "Aftershocks Part II." Beastboy and Raven are together, as are Robin and Starfire(surprise...)
Next Chapter: I'll explain how the wolves came to sentience and perhaps the entomology of Kaelia's name.