Fear Itself/Transcript

Fear Itself/Transcript
Season	2
Episode	5
Air date	February 7, 2004
Preceded By	Only Human/Transcript
Followed By	Date with Destiny/Transcript

This is the transcript for the episode "Fear Itself".

Prologue

(Opening shot: the night sky, filled with dark storm clouds and flashes of lightning. Tilt down to the exterior of a video store in Jump City; a crowd of panicking customers bursts out and breaks for cover. Inside, a clerk screams and backs across the floor. Some large thing with many long, sparking appendages rears up before her, causing her to stumble down, and the camera cuts to behind her to show these as coaxial cables. Tilt up to reveal the main body, a large television set whose static-filled screen frames an evilly grinning face with narrowed red eyes.)

(It brings two of the cable ends together, striking an arc, and leans toward the imperiled young woman; she cries out and shields her face. Now we see a close-up of a remote control, its front end fashioned into a menacing creature's head, held in someone's hand. The press of a button stops the big screen in its tracks, wipes out the static, and leaves just a blank expression on the face. Pan to the remote's user, standing atop the shelves near a wall of video screens, and cut to a close-up. Fat, long straggly hair, dressed after the fashion of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, a dark gray overcoat topping off the ensemble: this is Control Freak.)

Control Freak: Okay. Either you admit that Warp Trek Five, which reunited the entire original cast of the classic TV series, deserved to be on your "Favorite Rentals" list, or...

(When he says the movie name, he points the remote at the screens and brings up an image of a green-skinned starship crewman to make his point. After he finishes the line, he aims the device toward the o.c. television monster; it comes back to life. The clerk scuttles back toward the candy counter.)

Clerk: Please! I-I don't even know what Warp Trek is!

Control Freak: And that, my little tribble, is why you must be destroyed!

(Another button pressed; the screen roars, strikes sparks from two cables, and reaches toward her. She screams and dives over the counter to get out of striking range. Close-up of her, behind the display and looking up fearfully; tilt up to show the thing floating steadily toward her hiding place. Before it can get to her, though, a sonic cannon blast drives it off to one side. Control Freak covers his face as dust flies back from the area of its collision with the far wall. He looks up with a gasp; cut to inside the entrance, where the Titans have arrived on the scene and Cyborg has his weapon at the ready. Pan slowly across the group as he disarms.)

[Animation goof: The cannon is on his left arm in this shot.]

(The overweight movie nut hops nimbly from one shelf to the next, approaching them.)

Control Freak: Well, well, well. If it isn't my old arch-nemesis...ses...the Teen Titans!

Beast Boy: Um, yeah. (to Cyborg; question mark by head) Who is this guy?

(Cyborg shrugs, equally puzzled, and both get their answer when the screens all come up showing an image of Control Freak at the click of his remote. Close-up of one.)

Control Freak: (on all screens) I am the master of monsters! (Pull back to frame more of the wall.) I am your darkest nightmares come to life! (Pull back again.) I am...Control Freak!

(The genuine article stands up into view on the end of this and produces applause and clapping with the right button.)

Raven: (unimpressed) A couch potato with a souped-up remote. I'm petrified.

Control Freak: You will be. (approaches the camera) You will be.

(Pull back. He laughs and fires up the controller; near Raven, a video drop box grows considerably and turns its deposit slot into a toothy mouth. She gasps and backs up from its expanding shadow as it growls in a very rusty manner. Close-up of her wide-eyed, startled face, zooming in slowly, and fade to black.)

(Fade to black.)

OPENING THEME

Act One

(Opening shot: a close-up of Raven, looking just as she did before the theme. Pull back to the sound of the drop box's growling, then cut to it as it stomps toward her. Cyborg leaps in and hits the thing broadside with a flying shoulder to knock it away, but it soon recovers and locks up with him.)

Cyborg: Don't worry, Raven! (picks it up) I can drop the drop box!

(He tosses it across the store; it fetches up against several sets of shelves, and he leaps in with a yell to do a little old-school clobbering.)

Robin: (from o.c.) Get his remote! (He dashes across, followed by Starfire and Beast Boy.)

Control Freak: Show's not over, Titans. And if you thought Part One was scary, just wait for the sequels!

(He aims his remote at the two cash registers; as the cowering clerk cries out in fear, evil faces appear on the price displays and the handheld scanners float up of their own accord. The Titans, save Cyborg, look from here to Control Freak, who has dropped to the floor and now brings a set of shelves to life. The video boxes on the top level are red while those below are white, and most of them fall away to leave the unit with two eyes and a snarling mouth. It moves in.)

(Now the four look elsewhere and see the portly enemy twirling around the floor. Another click, this one with the remote aimed under his upraised leg, and the camera shifts to a large cardboard cutout of an alien in samurai armor. Its eyes glow red as it brings the blade back for a swing, to the sound of the geek's laughter; cut to the four bewildered Titans, then to Control Freak, who waves derisively at them.)

(Pull back. The two-dimensional warrior and Robin face off, and as the former charges, the latter brings his fighting staff out, extends it, and leaps away. He comes down behind it and sends it flying with a well-placed swing; in an instant, though, it stretches its body and strikes at him like a snake. Robin is sent flying across the room.)

(A stream of coins lances through the area like a machine-gun fusillade. Here comes Starfire, swooping through with the two cash registers in hot pursuit and spitting their change at her. The chase swings low down one aisle as Beast Boy backs into view at its far end. The mutated set of shelves is bearing down on him here. In no time flat, he has transformed into a roaring tyrannosaurus rex; the unit screams shrilly, all its "teeth" and "eyes" falling out, and he tears into it.)

(Snap to black, which immediately resolves into Raven's outfit as she skids backward away from the camera. Control Freak approaches at a leisurely pace.)

Raven: You like bad movies, right?

(She levitates several scattered videos and propels them toward him. His first response is to work the remote, bringing them to a stop in midair.)

Control Freak: Yeah, but they like you!

(He sends them right back at her; they line up into an unbroken string, like a group of dominoes laid end to end, and wrap her up from shoulders to waist. Cyborg, meanwhile, has hoisted up the shelving unit Beast Boy fought, its "face" is back together, and slams it to the floor. He wipes his hands smugly, but his mood quickly changes to one of surprise.)

Cyborg: Huh?

(Control Freak, once again spinning across the floor, hits a button. Behind Cyborg, the candy counter is affected; all the goodies leap off the shelves and come snarling after him.)

Various candies: Eat him!...Who's delicious now, big man?

(The sugary horde leaps at him and attaches itself all over his body; he cries out and tries to back away.)

Cyborg: Bad candy, bad candy! Get off! Hey, hey! Stop that! Stop! That's not yours!

(The cash registers rocket across, spilling bills here and there, with Starfire now chasing them and firing starbolts. She shoots one down with ease, but the other takes evasive action and slows down to fall in behind her. It then starts to fire off coins; she is thrown briefly off balance, but gets herself under control and bounces off a wall straight back at the thing. One point-blank shot puts the crazed piece of retail hardware out of action for good.)

(Cut to floor level. Her boots touch down amid the clinking change and fluttering currency; tilt up to frame the rest of her as she picks up a coin and looks at it with a curious smile. An instant later, one of the big-screen monster's cables whips into view, wraps her up, and gives her a shock that forces a loud squeal out of her. She is quickly hauled toward the face as Robin backs into view, trading hits with the cardboard samurai-now back to original humanoid form. It goes into a new charge, and he gets a birdarang ready. Snap to black, with a brilliant white streak slashing across the screen: the weapon finding its mark, then to him coming down from a leap. Behind him, the figure has stopped in its tracks. He runs o.c.; after a moment, it falls apart, having been split down the middle by his throw.)

(That set of deranged shelves slides backward into view. Its "face" shows how scared it is, and for good reason, as we see when Beast Boy charges in as a bull and gores it. The thing skids farther and crashes into other shelves, throwing up a curtain of dust. Out comes the green Titan, back in human form and badly dazed from the collision. He staggers a bit, the camera panning to follow, and stops when another cardboard cutout is partially in view. This snaps his brain back into its groove; he stares silently for a second and them flails his arms with a high-pitched scream.)

(Cut to his perspective of the display's base, which shows a movie title in red letters that look as if painted in blood: Wicked Scary. Above this are several tentacles issuing from under the hem of a long, tattered robe. Tilt up to show the rest of the figure; very tall, hood up, no facial features visible within except for one glowing red pinpoint of an eye.)

Beast Boy: Dude! (Back to him.) Wicked Scary is out on video?

(Stars appear in his eyes; pull back a bit as Control Freak comes up next to him, his eyes doing likewise.)

Control Freak: I know! (as hearts float up around him) Director's cut, digitally remastered, alternate ending, it's great.

Beast Boy: Cool!

(The happy moment ends when he realizes that this man is actually an enemy.)

Beast Boy: Not cool.

(Control Freak grins nastily and fires up his remote. Cut to the base of the display again, tilting up as it comes to life. Those tentacles flash toward Boy, who lets off a terrified scream. Raven is still bound by the videos she tried to sling at the foe. Her legs are free, and she backs up as a swarm of cassettes floats toward her; each has long loops of tape hanging down, and the reels have become red eyes. Those loops snap out and bind Raven from head to toe. She starts to topple backward, then gathers herself and breaks free with a mighty burst of her powers.)

Raven: You don't scare me.

Beast Boy: (running across) Look out, he'll eat your brains!

(The Wicked Scary cutout goes after him; a moment later, more tape strands from the flying cassettes lash toward her and she dives away. Tilt down to floor level, where Cyborg crawls along the carpet as the mad candies chew on him.)

Cyborg: Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW! (He stands up.) ALL RIGHT!! (tears several candies loose) If y'all are biting Cyborg, Cyborg's biting back!

(He shovels the handfuls into his mouth, chews happily, and swallows.)

Cyborg: Mmm-mmm! Never knew evil tasted so good.

(The others scream in fear, detach themselves from his body, and beat a hasty retreat. As he stands there grinning, a loud rumble makes itself heard from within: what he just ate has disagreed with him violently. His face goes slack, then green and sweaty.)

Cyborg: Oh, boy.

(The exterior of the video store, seen in a long shot. He rushes out and vomits into the first trash can he finds. Inside, Starfire is still held fast in one of the big-screen monster's snaking cables, but Robin's birdarang flashes across and cuts her loose before sticking in the ceiling. He rushes up, staff ready to swing, and lands a thundering blow that would shatter the screen of any normal television set. This one just gets knocked backward, hard, and crashes into the wall. Robin leaps and catches the still-bound Starfire, whose cables fall off when they both touch down.)

(He looks across the store and sees Raven and Beast Boy backing toward each other from their respective threats. Behind Robin, Control Freak's laughter makes itself heard; he moves aside and the camera zooms in a bit to show the villain standing in the aisle. A button pressed, and the insane television moves back into the free-for-all. A swinging cable forces Robin and Starfire to dive in opposite directions; when he lands, he looks up at the ceiling. Close-up of one of the fire sprinkler heads, then an extreme close-up. The big screen closes in, and Robin makes up his mind and brings out two birdarangs. Making a huge leap that takes him higher than any regular pair of legs can carry a person, he lets them fly; they weave all over the place and slice through all the sprinklers.)

(Water gushes down from the broken pipes. The attacking cassettes yield under the deluge and tumble to the floor; the cardboard display softens and crumples. Beast Boy laughs, Raven smiles, and the clerk peeks up over the counter. Last to go is the television; a big drop of sweat slides down the edge of the screen, the static winks out, and the face becomes very uneasy. Sparks crackle from the shorting circuits as it topples backward and crashes to the floor at Control Freak's feet. He voices a strangled cry.)

Control Freak: My remote! (Waist level; he punches buttons uselessly.) I can't live without my remote! (Robin takes it away and grabs a fistful of shirt.)

Robin: Ever think maybe you watch too much TV?

Control Freak: This isn't over! You hear me? This isn't over! (Cyborg has returned now.)

Raven: Looks pretty over to me.

(Beast Boy waves his arms excitedly as Cyborg staggers a bit, moaning and clutching his gut.)

Beast Boy: Guys!

(He ducks o.c.; video boxes fly up into view, he is rummaging on the floor, and Cyborg's stomach rumbles anew. The Titan who overindulged claps a hand to his mouth and runs back out to vomit again. Beast Boy stands up, holding a copy of Wicked Scary. The hooded creature is on the cover, as are a couple of terrified people.)

Beast Boy: Check it out! (holds it toward the camera) Movie night!

(Cut to the counter, where the clerk ha not yet gotten to her feet. He sets the video down and starts to fish around in the pouches of his belt. Raven stands behind him, her posture and face showing just how little she thinks of the whole run-in, and Robin and Starfire drag Control Freak away.)

Beast Boy: Um, I-I know I've got my rental card somewhere.

(He removes one boot and shakes it to see if the card is stuck in there. Close-up of him; the video is thrust into view toward him.)

Clerk: (from o.c.) Just take it!

(He blinks bemusedly down at the offering. Dissolve to a pan across a room whose walls displays a wealth of objects connected with the Titans' previous adventures, and stop on Robin at the far end. We now see glass cases in the center of the floor, holding more items. This is the evidence room of Titans Tower. Close-up of a small pedestal; his shadow falls over it, and he reaches into view to set Control Freak's remote atop it. A burst of feedback is heard over an intercom speaker, shaking him out of his brief reverie.)

Beast Boy: (over the intercom) Robin! Emergency! Get up here, now!

(He runs for the door. Cut to inside the operations center door, which opens to admit him. Rain is heard outside.)

Robin: Report!

(Cut to behind him. Beast Boy stands on the far side of the coffee table, while the other three Titans are on the couch.)

Robin: What's the problem?

Beast Boy: (holds up the video) The problem is, it's showtime, and you're not in your seat.

(Robin steams at having been called up for something as trivial as this, and a vein throbs in his forehead. As Raven reads a book, Starfire holds a large bowl of candy.)

Starfire: Cyborg? (offers it to him) You are certain you do not desire unhealthy sugar candies? (He recoils and moans weakly.)

Cyborg: Make it go away... (Robin vaults onto the couch.)

Beast Boy: Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the scariest night of your lives. (pops up here and there around the others) Maybe Control Freak's monsters didn't scare you, but this movie is going to freak you out.

(The last word puts him right next to Raven, who has not looked up from her reading.)

Raven: Whatever.

(Sight gag: his mouth falls half off, as if it were a suspended sign with one end loose, and then drops away entirely to shatter on the floor. Cut to Robin and Starfire.)

Robin: Can't be any creepier than the documentary on hot dogs Starfire made us watch. (Pan to Cyborg.)

Starfire: It was fascinating! I had no idea that Earth people ate so many pigs, and insects.

(Her words set off a new wave of indigestion in Cyborg's gut; his face goes green, and he hangs over the back of the couch to vomit once more.)

Beast Boy: Yeah, yeah, bugs and hot dogs, big deal. (picks up the video again) This movie is supposed to be cursed. (He lets go; it spins in midair.) When people watch it, strange things happen, (leans toward the camera; his face goes red and creepy) evil things.

(His complexion returns to normal as he backs off and laughs maniacally. Lightning cracks out through the windows behind him. Not a bit of this has changed Raven's demeanor or made her close the book.)

Raven: Just start the movie.

(Beast Boy's face falls and a vein throbs in his temple as he pulls out the television remote. Pan from him to the window/screen, which fills with static and blacks out. The movie's title fades in, appearing as it did on the box; this view dissolves to a shot of Raven and Robin, staring wide-eyed with mouths agape straight ahead toward the screen. The lights have been shut off, so that the only illumination is from the screen and the night sky outside. Pan from them to Starfire and Cyborg, in that same stunned silence, to the sound of low, unearthly chuckling from the speakers. Starfire has grabbed the end of Robin's cape and is huddled behind it.)

(Dissolve to the exterior of the Tower, standing dark and ominous under the raging thunderstorm, then cut to a close-up of the screen and zoom in slowly. A woman backs up in the approaching shadow of the tentacled creature seen on the box and screams in pure terror. Snap to black, against which the word "END" fades into view in big red letters, then cut to Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin. They are still frozen from the sheer horror of what they have just witnessed; Starfire's eyes are now shut tight. Beast Boy carefully peeks up from behind the couch, he has been hiding here the entire time.)

Beast Boy: Is it over?

Starfire: I dare not open my eyes to find out.

Cyborg: Now I'm really sick to my stomach.

Robin: I've fought psychotic villains, robot commandos, and giant oozing monsters--

(Close-up of Raven. Her hood is down, but she quickly composes herself, puts it up, and turns away as Robin continues.)

Robin: (from o.c.) --but THAT is the scariest thing I have ever seen.

(Back to the other four. They trade wide-eyed stares for a long, tense moment, and then break out in exuberant laughter and chatter.)

Beast Boy: Did I tell you or did I tell you?

Starfire: Thrilling, Beast Boy! It was wonderfully horrible! (Close-up of the back of Raven's head.)

Cyborg: (from o.c.) Yeah, when she went into the basement-- (She turns partway back on the next line.)

Robin: (from o.c.) --and it was right behind her and she turned and-- (Back to the four.)

Cyborg: I was freaking out! (grinning) I wanted to turn it off.

(Raven turns the rest of the way back and puts her hood down as Beast Boy leans over to her.)

Beast Boy: So...come on, Raven, admit it. You were totally scared. (Zoom in on her.)

Raven: I don't do fear.

(Dissolve to the exterior of the still-dark Tower, seen from ground level as more rain and thunder stream down, then cut to inside the hall. Sheets of water pour over the windows. From here, cut to the empty stairway, then to a closed door. Zoom in and dissolve to an overhead view of Raven, asleep in bed: the entrance we just saw was to her room. The camera zooms again and rotates slightly before a flash of lightning shows a profile view of her, sitting up with a sharp gasp. She has taken off her cloak to sleep.)

(She looks out the window, then across the room. Cut to her perspective, panning slowly from one corner to the other, then to her four-eyed drama masks seen in "Nevermore," and finally to a bookend statue that looks like an enlarged copy of the small black birds in that same episode. After this last item, we see her in a long shot, panning slowly.)

Raven: Maybe I should consider redecorating.

(Close-up: she looks out uneasily for a moment more and then settles back down to sleep. All is quiet until a piercing scream rips through the air and snaps her bolt upright again; it sounds just like the one in the final scene of Wicked Scary. Cut to the operations center's side door, where she emerges with her cloak back on.)

Raven: Who screamed?

(The other four Titans have gathered there and switched the lights back on.)

Robin: Sounded like something from the movie. Did we leave the TV on?

Starfire: We did not. (picks up the video) And the movie is right here. (Out go the lights.)

Cyborg: Okay. That's creepy.

(He extends a small flashlight from his shoulder and turns it on. Swiveling slowly in place, he lets the beam play over the kitchen, from counter to tables. Robin steps into the circle of light.)

Robin: The storm. Probably just tripped a circuit breaker.

(A tentacle reaches into view to touch his shoulder. Giving it only a raised eyebrow, he says nothing else as Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven cry out; now he smiles.)

Robin: Okay, Beast Boy, you got us. (pushes the tentacle off) Good one.

(The three onlookers remain stock-still as Beast Boy leans into view next to them.)

Beast Boy: Uh...dude?

(Now both of the Boy Wonder's eyebrows are all the way up as he turns his attention back toward the source of that touch. Cyborg's flash moves that way, the camera following, and rests on the robed one-eyed terror now standing in the operations center. It rips away the garments to show all of itself: blue-gray skin, mouths all over its body, long tangled hair, two normal arms in addition to the tentacles, and a large red eye to either side of the one seen under its hood. It backs up and lets off a primal roar; the Titans stare, their feet nailed to the floor with terror, as the camera pulls back slowly. Fade to black.)

Act Two

(Opening shot: the petrified Titans in "Super Deformed" style. Zoom in slowly and cut to behind them, drawn normally and looking up at the movie monster. The couch is grabbed in one long tentacle and tossed aside with ease; now many others lash out and force the five to scatter. Robin tries to deliver a kick, but gets knocked backward before he can drive it home. He tumbles past Beast Boy, who becomes a T-rex and roars in the creature's face. Its answering yell scares him so badly that he changes into a cat and runs off with a startled, little yowl.)

(Now the thing smiles broadly from all its mouths, but its mood goes sour when a starbolt blasts into its back. It turns and finds Starfire floating in midair; she throws several more shots, which it deflects with one arm before snaking a tentacle up and seizing her. She is reeled in with a scream, at which point Cyborg jumps up to wrestle with the monster. As both Titans struggle against it, Raven steps up.)

Raven: Azarath Metrion Zinth--

(Lightning cracks out as she cuts herself off sharply. Her hands, which should be black with her powers by this point in the incantation, are still completely normal in appearance. She regards them with considerable surprise.)

Raven: My powers!

(Robin rushes in to give Starfire and Cyborg some backup and is seized; Beast Boy, as a falcon, swoops along next and dodges a swipe. He turns into an octopus just before reaching the three-eyed face and wraps all eight of his own tentacles around it. Robin and Cyborg redouble their assaults on the limbs that hold them, and Raven begins a charge. It is cut short when a tentacle slams into her, driving her back next to the stairs that lead up to the side door. The monster disappears without any warning and leaves the other four Titans tumbling to the floor in a heap. Cut to normal eye level, putting the group off the bottom edge of the screen; a cry is heard from Starfire.)

Starfire: (from o.c.) Someone's claws are on my grebnaks!

Beast Boy: (from o.c.) Heh...my bad.

(He stands up in human form, whatever form he had taken, some part of it touched her in the wrong place, and the other three Titans in the pile straighten up as well during the next two lines. They are thoroughly bewildered by this turn of events. Cyborg's shoulder flashlight has retracted.)

Cyborg: There was a monster here, right?

Robin: But where did it go?

Starfire: And from where did it come?

Beast Boy: (freaking out a bit) Hel-lo? (holds up the video) Isn't it obvious? The movie's curse! Watching it opened a portal to another dimension. The monster came through the portal, now it's gong to hunt us down and eat us! And I'm probably delicious!

(As he describes the situation, the following things happen. One, a word balloon appears by his head, showing the creature reaching out from a television set toward two panicked viewers. Two, the entire background goes black and a doorway opens, showing a wall of flame beyond, to admit the thing. Three, it moves toward the camera until its image fills the screen, then turns off to one side. Four, Beast Boy stands up against the black field and the red eyes flare up behind him, followed by the advancing head with main mouth open wide. Five, he pulls at his own face to distort it a bit.)

(After he finishes, cut to Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin. They are having big trouble swallowing even one word of this theory.)

Cyborg: Or...

Robin: Control Freak must have escaped and come to the Tower to get his remote, and take his revenge. (Starfire cries out and steps aside; Raven is behind her.)

Raven: But that doesn't explain why my powers aren't working.

(Letterbox, top half of the screen: silhouettes of the five Titans stand in the operations center.)

Cyborg: If that remote can turn candy evil, who knows what else it can do? (Fullscreen.)

Robin: Whatever's going on, we need to get to the bottom of it. Split up and search the Tower!

(All but Beast Boy scatter. He turns into an octopus again and yanks them back, then resumes human form.)

Beast Boy: Split up? Split up?! (leans to each Titan and pulls Raven's hood down) Did you not see the movie? When you split up, the monster hunts you down one at a time, starting with the good-looking comic relief guy. (grabs Robin's tunic) Me!

(He shudders and curls himself around the shoulders of the leader, who struggles to pull him off during the next line.)

Robin: Get a grip, Beast Boy! The monster's not going to eat anybody.

Raven: He's right. There's nothing to be afraid of.

(A violent lightning strike throws its glare over her and makes everyone face the windows for the next bolt. Dissolve to the hall; Cyborg's flashlight beam marks his approach from around a corner, and he leads the Titans along the passage. Beast Boy brings up the rear and keeps looking back the way they came. As they pass the stairs, a small voice floats up to them.)

Voice: (drawn-out) Help! Help me!

Robin: This way!

(He moves off. Snap to black, which resolves into the interior of Beast Boy's room as the door slides open and the group peers in. The flash roves across the pigsty that is the green goofball's living space and stops on a closed door.)

Voice: Help me!

(Robin steps into the room, moves toward the door, and wraps his fingers around its handle. He braces himself as the other Titans hunker down behind him as best they can. A sudden heave slides the portal open on its track; behind it, something very large starts to move. As all five scream, panic-stricken, the mass tumbles over them, dirty laundry and lots of it. Robin has just opened Beast Boy's closet. When the pile has settled, we see on top of it a small toy monkey banging a pair of cymbals together. Overhead view: the unwashed clothes have entirely covered the Titans. The plaything speaks with the voice just heard.)

Toy monkey: Help me, help me, help me count! (Close-up of it on the end of this; it is grinning.) One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...

(As it counts, Beast Boy and then Raven put their heads up from the pile. The former grins sheepishly as a big drop of sweat rolls down his temple; the latter is just annoyed.)

Beast Boy: (chuckling) Um...I really oughta get rid of that thing.

(Out in the hall. Cyborg leads the team out of the room and makes exaggerated horror-movie moans, poking fun at the encounter.)

Cyborg: (similar tone) Look out, y'all, big scary monkey! (He laughs.)

Beast Boy: (laughing) Yeah, Raven. You shoulda seen the look on your face.

Raven: You mean this look?!?

(On the last two words, her face goes bright red and she thrusts it toward him. Her normal color resumes as he speaks.)

Beast Boy: No, that's more angry than scared.

(Flames kindle in her eyes; her face reddens again with the next words and the camera zooms in a bit.)

Raven: I already told you, I don't get scared.

(Normal color again. There is a loud growling from the unlit area of the hall past these two. Zoom into it between them as the source comes forth; the creature that disappeared from the operations center, all its teeth bared to strike.)

Robin: Titans! Move!

(All five make tracks. Now Raven is at the rear of the group, and the look on her face when she glances back toward the pursuer give the lie to her repeated denial of fear. The apparition races after them, scraping sparks from both walls with its clawed fingers, and they turn into another hall to give it the slip. Snap to black, which resolves into an opening doorway with five teenage heroes charging through it from the hall. Each drops screaming into the empty space as soon as his/her feet cross the threshold; Beast Boy becomes a falcon to stay aloft. Starfire catches Cyborg by the shoulders and brings him up, while Robin fires a grappling hook that embeds itself in the ceiling of this place. The line pulls taut under his weight and Raven's; he has caught her around the waist to stop her fall.)

(Cut to the hall. Starfire peers gingerly out from the doorway. Nothing there.)

Starfire: The creature is gone. (leads them out; Beast Boy turns back into human form) We are safe, for the moment.

Beast Boy: (to Raven) Okay. Don't even try to tell me that didn't scare y--

(Those tentacles have sneaked up behind him on this line, and they take a firm hold and begin to drag him away, causing him to trail off into a scream. Starfire's voice gets stuck on one horrified, quivering note as she stares.)

Robin: Beast Boy! (He charges; a patch of writhing tentacles.)

Beast Boy: (from o.c.) What did I tell you? (gets dragged into view and away) Funny guy goes fiiiiirrrrrsssssttttt!

(He disappears through an open door and into the shadows. It slams shut just before Robin runs up; he struggles to force it open. Cut to inside the evidence room, whose door slowly gives way under his efforts from the other side. Except for him and the other three Titans, no living thing is in sight here. Starfire gasps.)

Starfire: Beast Boy! He is--

Raven: --Gone.

Robin: Give me some light.

(Cyborg's onboard flashlight puts out a high-intensity beam; cut to the group's perspective, panning slowly across the display cases and walls.)

Cyborg: The evidence room. What are we looking for?

Robin: Something that shouldn't be here.

(Back to the group. He leads them in, straight down a center aisle, and stops at the far wall to pick up...)

Raven: Control Freak's remote.

Robin: Right where I left it.

Starfire: But how could he conjure these monsters without his technology?

Cyborg: Maybe he had an extra remote. I mean, we got, like, nine.

Robin: I'm starting to think Control Freak doesn't have anything to do with what's been happening.

Raven: Well, whoever is doing it, they're not gonna scare us. (Robin thinks hard for a moment.)

Robin: Fear! That's it! (He turns to face them.) The movie, the monsters, Raven's powers, the answer's right in front of us! If Control Freak isn't behind this, it has to be--

(Red eyes appear behind him as he says this, followed by a couple of tentacles. Before he can finish the sentence, his head is securely wrapped up and he is yanked toward the wall. The tentacles have passed through it from the other side. His body slams up against it, stuck for a moment, and Raven and Starfire attempt to pull him free; they are stopped when more tentacles emerge and swat them away. Now he starts to disappear into the wall, but Cyborg moves in and grabs his free hand to begin a tug-of-war with the Titans' leader as the rope and the prize. Close-up of the green-gloved forearm in both bionic hands, then of the straining, groaning Cyborg, then of the forearm again. In this last shot, the beast's grip proves too strong and Robin is torn away. Cyborg tumbles to the floor on his back, but stays there for only a moment; as the wall seals itself again, he dashes to the spot.)

Cyborg: ROBIN!!

(He lets off a frustrated groan, then cocks one fist back and punches out the wall. Dust and debris fly everywhere; when the view clears, we see a very new hole in the architecture and no one on the other side of it. He turns to face the girls.)

Cyborg: I don't suppose either of you know what he was about to say.

(Both shake their heads. Cut to a close-up of his very worried face, zooming in slowly, and fade to black.)

Act Three

(Opening shot: the exterior of the Tower, seen from ground level. The storm continues at full force. Inside the operations center, Starfire leans over the kitchen counter and checks behind it, using a spot of light from her hand to help the view, while Cyborg inspects a couch cushion.)

Starfire: Robin? Beast Boy? (Raven comes in.)

Raven: They aren't here. We've already looked here.

Cyborg: We've already looked everywhere. (Close-up of her, zooming in.)

Raven: Almost everywhere.

(Starfire gives a shuddering moan and her eyes pop as the cushion drops from Cyborg's hands. Snap to black, which resolves into an opening door and a long staircase leading down from it. The three remaining Titans are here, and Cyborg turns on his flashlight. Raven leads them down the stairs; dissolve to them reaching the bottom. An electric generator sits nearby. Huddled behind Cyborg, Starfire peeks out, looks around, and gasps sharply.)

Starfire: (hastily, smiling) Oh, well. (She backs up the stairs.) Our friends are not present. Let us quickly go back up and see if they--

(He plants one oversized hand and yanks her bodily off the flight; she voices a terrified little squeal.)

Cyborg: Not yet. We have to get to the bottom of this.

Starfire: This unpleasant room is not the bottom?

(We are in the Tower's basement, then.)

Raven: Come on.

(She leads them on, her steps illuminated by both the flashlight and Starfire's glowing hand. A dark shape, resembling a giant rat with glowing red eyes, runs across near the camera; the high-strung Tamaranean shrieks and throws a starbolt toward it. No hit, but a lot of smoke.)

Cyborg: What is it?

Starfire: The floor! I saw something!

Raven: I didn't.

(Cyborg adjusts his eye implant a bit. Cut to his perspective-tinted green, panning across the basement.)

Cyborg: Night vision scanners aren't picking up anything either. (Back to him.) Let's keep moving.

(He and Raven continue across the area, leaving Starfire too scared to pick up her feet; after a moment, she gathers her nerve and goes to catch up. More small critters zip across behind her, and she cries out and fires one off after them. This blast causes Cyborg and Raven to flinch.)

Raven: Please stop doing that. There's nothing to be afraid of, all right? It's probably just a few rats.

Starfire: (points upward) Those are not rats!

(Cut to the other two, who pivot to look where she has indicated, and tilt up to the overhead girders. Many pairs of small red eyes open in the blackness here. Cyborg's beam moves across the creatures, which number in the thousands.)

Cyborg: (from o.c.) Run!

(Cut to just behind the horde, the camera pointing down at the trio. Now they can be clearly seen: rat bodies, with heads matching those of the four-eyed birds that attacked Beast Boy and Cyborg in "Nevermore.")

Cyborg: Run!

(As they do so, the mass of bizarre vermin surges forward from both the girders and the floor. Raven and Cyborg pass Starfire, who has again frozen in place due to sheer terror; as he fires a cannon shot back toward the creatures, she gets her feet and starbolts in gear. The "fearless" Titan is first to reach the stairs, Cyborg is not far behind her, but Starfire stops and floats up from the floor to unload on the rodents. Tilt up from her to the girders, where yet more of them scuttle into view and leap toward her. She looks up with a startled cry and is buffeted back and forth by the dropping bodies.)

(Just before she drops o.c., cut to the base of the stairs. Raven starts to climb and Cyborg catches up to her.)

Cyborg: Hurry! We're almost-- (A scream stops them cold.) Starfire!

(The creatures have swarmed up to her waist. She fires a few point-blank shots into them before being sucked into the pile with a final scream that would have been audible ten miles away. Cyborg hurls himself toward her, but an instant too late; the horde evaporates, leaving him to crash down on the empty patch of floor where Starfire had stood. Close-up of his hand, which he rubs across the area.)

Cyborg: (from o.c.) Star? (Pull back; Raven comes up behind him and he sighs.)

Raven: No!

(Overhead view of the closed basement door, seen from outside. It opens to admit the two remaining Titans, who stop near a flight of stairs leading up from here.)

Raven: We should go back! Maybe there's still a way to save her!

Cyborg: We won't save anybody if whatever this is gets us, too. We have to get outta here and come back with help.

(He breaks out his cannon and trains both it and his flashlight on the stairs, and up they go. Cut to the hall at the top of the flight. Cyborg stops to sweep the light across the dark expanse as Raven gets up to the last step.)

Cyborg: We'll get through this, all right? Don't be scared.

Raven: (spark by her temple) For the last time, I am not afraid.

(She steps into the hall and ahead. Close-up of his suddenly frozen, wide-eyed expression, sight gag: his left eye appears normal in this shot, then of Raven's back. The light playing across her goes out.)

Raven: Cyborg, I could use a little more light.

(She stops and turns toward the camera; surprise writes itself all over her face in bold type.)

Raven: Cyborg?

(The camera shifts to point back the way they came, showing him nowhere in sight now. Pull back slowly as she wheels around to the sound of a horrendous screeching from ahead o.c., then cut to ground level by her feet. An enormous winged creature flaps around the corner toward her: black, four red eyes, long tail, and she backs up and sets off at a dead run. The thing chases her around corner after corner before she comes up on the closed elevator door and punches furiously at the call button. Still screeching, it flaps inexorably along; cut to behind her and zoom in as the door opens and she ducks into the elevator.)

(She lunges toward the controls and gets the door shut just as the monster snaps its head out to strike. Cut to inside the car; the impact of its beak puts a major-league dent in the panels and throws her against the back wall. Outside overhead view in the shaft: the elevator starts to move, rising toward the camera. Inside, Raven gets to her feet and braces for more action. Close-up of her face; she lets off a visible sigh of relief at having eluded capture, but the mood changes to one of panic as the sound of something boiling is heard.)

Raven: No!

(We now see that the floor has turned into some thick, glutinous liquid, which begins to rise with alarming speed within the car. In almost no time, the level has passed her head and blacked out the entire screen. Snap to outside the elevator, on another floor of the Tower. The bell rings and the UP arrow lights to signal its arrival, and the doors open to spill both the foul tide and the screaming girl across the floor.)

(Pull back to an overhead view; she has reached the operations center, where she washes up not far from the couch. She stands up and shakes off some of this muck. A loud thump from behind the closed elevator door catches her by surprise, as does the bulging of the barrier due to the monster its other side. Backing up toward one side door, she is again brought up short by growling from its shadows and the appearance of two red eyes. Sure enough, here comes the tentacled beast that first attacked the Titans.)

(It advances out of the passageway and stands up to its formidable full height. Raven backs up fearfully toward the couch as lightning rages outside, then whirls into a run for the other side door. While the huge creature comes up fast behind, she stops with a gasp; there, in the gloom, hundreds of doubled pairs of eyes wink up and the rat-like critters from the basement swarm out. One reaches her feet, then another and another, and she retreats onto the coffee table; her temporary refuge ends when the giant roars and pounds both hands against the piece of furniture. She is thrown to the ground.)

(As the black rodents move in a body toward her, she gets to her feet and jumps onto the ledge that runs in front of the windows. With them closing in from the sides and in front, and the glass at her back, she is now completely hemmed in. Behind the mass, the huge terror looms over her, and the windows turn black while two pairs of red eyes appear on them. She turns toward this.)

Raven: Stay back!

(She steps back. From the flat black expanse, a colossal animal shape begins to emerge and reach for her.)

Raven: You don't scare me!

(The new apparition comes out far enough to show itself as a wolf-like thing with a bird's head. She turns her face away and closes her eyes.)

Raven: I'm not afraid...I'm not afraid... (It roars; she drops to her knees, puts her hands to her head.) ...I'm not afraid!!

(Behind the huge black creature, the windows have now returned to normal. Close-up of her screwed-up face, eyes shut tight and teeth clenched so hard they might break at any moment. After a long second, she relaxes and opens her eyes wide. Her next words have the tone of someone who has finally accepted an inevitable and immutable truth.)

Raven: I...I am afraid. I'm afraid.

(Her eyes turn pure black, with no sign of irises or whites, and she stands up.)

Raven: But that doesn't mean I can't fight back!

(Ground level. The rat-things back up uncertainly; tilt up to the growling leviathan behind them, then cut to Raven, rising from the floor.)

Raven: Azarath Metrion Zinthos!!!!

(A huge wave of black energy radiates out from her-the powers that fizzled out in Act Two have returned-to instantly evaporate the hordes of vermin. The tentacled giant is engulfed, then the wolf-thing that came from the window. Overhead view of Raven, descending toward the floor. The remains of the unearthly onslaught swirl around her in a large circle, from which the head and wings of a four-eyed bird emerge and approach the camera.)

(Cut to the exterior of the Tower, a long shot, as this apparition emerges from the roof-fully formed, with a wingspan at least ten times the width of the structure. It lets off one long, tortured screech as lightning rips the heavens, then disintegrates into random pieces that are sucked back in through the roof. Inside the operations center, Raven drops to the floor and collapses insensate. Fade to black.)

(The view opens up into a shot of the other four Titans, as of an eye being opened; her perspective, coming around from the fainting spell. None are any the worse for wear.)

Robin: Raven. (Cut to Raven; she looks around, puzzled. Her eyes are normal again.)

Raven: You're all okay? (Cyborg helps her up.)

Robin: We were never in any danger.

Cyborg: Say what?

Beast Boy: Did you not see the monsters?

Robin: We saw them, but they were never really there. Raven was afraid, (Cut to her; he continues o.c.) but when she wouldn't talk about it, (The truth hits home; zoom in.) the fear found another way out. (Cut to him and Starfire; she gasps.)

Starfire: Her powers!

Robin: (to Raven) Once you accepted your fear, you regained control over it.

Beast Boy: You mean Raven made all those creepy-crawlies by accident? (Cut to her.)

Raven: (blushes and smiles nervously) Uh...sorry?

(Pull back slowly from her as Robin and Beast Boy step into view on either side. Light steals over the room from o.c.; cut to behind the group. The Titans look toward the source, the sun coming up over the shore of Jump City Bay. Robin and Starfire head for the side door while Cyborg yawns and stretches expansively. The storm is over.)

Cyborg: Sunrise.

(He too turns to leave. Cut to Beast Boy and Raven, who have stayed put. She aims a slightly worried look out the window.)

Cyborg: (from o.c.) Time for bed.

Beast Boy: You know, your haunted house was way creepier than that stupid movie. Any chance you'd want to do all this again for Halloween?

(He beams at having come up with this idea, but she does not alter her expression in the slightest. Dissolve to the exterior of the Tower.)

Raven: (from inside) I'm afraid not.

(Fade to black.)