Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out this story. This first chapter is a combination of the first two chapters of this story's original form, "The Problems Caused By Control Freak," by makerboy13. Sadly, makerboy13 has given up fanfiction, and so I offered to take over this story. We agreed, and so here you are, reading our story. Nothing in this chapter was written by me, and was originally written by makerboy13 himself. Also, I have combine the first two chapters into one big one, saving time. Everything past this, though, will be my work. I'm really glad to be able to do this, but it will mostly be a side project while I do "Henry's Story," so frequent updates will be unlikely. So, without any further delay, here it is…

It started off innocently. Really, it did. All Starfire wanted to do was go to the "mall of shopping," as she put it. Robin couldn't say no, not to her, with her big, open eyes and slightly quivering lip… when she did that, he melted like butter in a microwave. Butter that was later crushed between the arms and chest of an alien princess, but you got used to it after a while. It could be worse, like being thrown out of a window and into the ocean, but, the narrator digresses…

The rest of the Titans wanted to go, so one Saturday, Jump City's teen guardians decided to go shopping. Of course, there was going to be a problem. Two Titans-a small green one in particular-had decided that it was a good idea to try and make Raven get a video game, to show her that they weren't a "huge waste of time and energy" like she claimed. Raven protested at first, but it was very obvious that he wasn't going to shut up until she did. No amount of tossing into the ocean was going to change that. There was also Robin suggesting she should, to "better connect" with her teammate. Finally, Raven had given in and agreed to get a game.

"As long isn't going to kill my brain cells," said Raven, putting the game onto the counter.

"Oh, it won't, trust me," the clerk told her. He ran the item under a scanner and put it into a bag. The cost rang up on a screen, and Raven pulled out the money. "Sometime, if you want, you could come over and we could play co-op," he said, leaning towards the empath. The look in his eyes was not one Raven liked-that of a hormonal male trying to hook a fish, and unknowingly failing miserably.

"No, thanks, the big guy'll want to play," said Raven, laying the money on the counter and nodding towards Cyborg, who was busy talking to Beast Boy about some new racing game. The clerk looked over at him, at swallowed hard.

"Oh, ok then. Enjoy your purchase!" he said defeated, handing Raven the bag with the game inside. She walked away, towards Beast Boy and Cyborg.

"We're leaving," she told them bluntly. The look in her eyes told that ten new games were enough for now.

"Okay, Raven," the two answered simultaneously, not wanting to see what had made her this way, and the three of them walked to the food court, where Robin and Starfire were.

"…No, Starfire, you can't order mustard as a drink in the mall," they heard Robin telling Starfire.

"But, it is delicious, yes?" she asked.

"Well, yeah… But most people don't drink it."

"Then what do you do with it?" At this point, the triad of Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg had met with them.

"Star, we put it on food. Hotdogs, hamburgers, and such," Cyborg told Starfire. "It's really good."

"Oh! Friend Cyborg, tell me, why do you eat dogs that are hot?" Starfire asked, confused about why anyone would eat such a thing. Dogs were cute, the few times she'd seen one that wasn't green. Cyborg stammered for a moment.

"Uh… It's not what it sounds like. I'll show you," and with that, he walked over to a hotdog stand.

Finally, the Teen Titans had returned to their tower. Starfire had enjoyed the hotdogs with mustard immensely, and Cyborg was secretly regretting showing her. He'd have to share his meat, and he did NOT look forward to that. What he did look forward to, however, was Raven's game. He'd gotten a look at it—in fact, he was the one who had showed it to her. He, too, appreciated a game that made you think, but he'd never get over beating the green one's butt in racing. Ever.

"So, Raven, you gonna play your game now, or do you wanna wait to see me beat Cy in Turbo Racers II?" Beast Boy asked. Raven took all of maybe half of a second to decide. It wasn't that hard of decision for her; watch Cyborg beat Beast Boy and listen to him complain about losing, or get to try something new?

"I'll play, Beast Boy," she said quickly.

"Okay, I'll set it up for ya!" said the changeling, and took off towards the back of the Ops. What am I getting myself into? she wondered to herself, watching her teammate plug in a small, boxish system with wires hanging off of it. "The game, Raven, I need the disk." She opened it and floated the disk over to her smaller, green teammate. "Portal? What's this game?" he asked, closing the top of the system.

"Okay, your all set up, Raven," he said.

"Thank you, Beast Boy," Raven said, and walked over to the couch and sat down. She picked up the controller, and hit a blue button on it. How can they stand this? It's so bulky… Raven wondered. However, the narrator has decided to step in and say that this may result from the fact that her hands were much smaller than her friends. She watched onscreen as music played. A bald man appeared, but you could only see the back of his head in the gray tone. What was disturbing, however, was the fact that the man had a visible valve on the back of his head, plain as day. Just sticking out of his head. Internally, Raven recoiled. Externally, the rest of the Titans did.

"Ugh!"

"EEK!"

"Dude!"

"Aw, man, that ain't right."

"Raven, what kinda game is this?" Beast Boy asked.

"I don't know. Oh look, it's gone. And just opening credits, too," Raven replied. The music wasn't bad, though. She could listen to music like that a lot. Onscreen, a simple menu appeared. She selected "Start" and watched as a loading screen popped up. After several moments, a bright white filled the screen. A strange, computer-like female voice began speaking as the screen showed the inside of a small room with clear walls.

"Hello, and, again welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment center. We hope your brief detention in the Relaxation Vault has been a pleasant one. Your specimen has been processed, and we are now ready to begin the test proper. Before we start, however, keep in mind that although fun and learning are the primary goals of all Enrichment Center activities, serious injuries may occur. For your own safety, and the safety of others, please refrain from…." Here, the voice fizzed out, sounding incomprehensible, gargled, and strained. After a moment of what seemed to be Spanish, the voice continued. "Stand back. The portal will open, in three…. two….. one." The voice sent shivers up Robin's spine as he listened. He knew it was just a game, and that it was just some voice actress speaking and having her voice altered, but still…. There was definitely something off about it. As if it wasn't actually in the game as a character, but rather was speaking through the game to you. And he didn't like that.

"Starfire," he whispered, "let's go do something else, somewhere else." She replied with a nod, and the two left silently. The others were intrigued by what was happing onscreen. After the countdown, a large orange oval opened on a panel near where Raven's character, whom they had not yet seen, was standing. Raven made the character walk towards the oval, and was shocked at what she saw: a woman clad in an orange jumpsuit, in a room identical to the room she was in, with an orange oval in front of her. The strangest thing, however, was when Raven went to move her character, the other woman moved too. After several back and forth motions, Raven understood that she was seeing her character through this… portal, as the voice had said. Raven followed the path that appeared to be prompted for her to travel. She looked back at the portals, and saw the one she had left was blue. Somehow, these two portals allowed her to travel to places that she assumed she wouldn't be able to otherwise. Interesting. It was similar to her own dark portals in terms of transportation, but any differences, other than color and being able to see through them, would need to be determined later.

She walked through a doorway, which sealed behind her. In the medium-sized white room, a large red thing sat on the floor. It appeared to be…. Well, it didn't appear to be anything. The only thing that made some sense was the string of blue dots that ran along the floor to a box with an 'X' in it near another round door. Suddenly, a large cube dropped from a clear pipe in the corner. A prompt to click a certain button on the controller said that it would pick up an object. Seeing nothing else, Raven commanded the character to go over and pick up the cube. By some unseen means, the cube moved when she clicked the button, and floated in front of the character. Now what do I do with this thing? she wondered to herself.

"Put it on the red thingy!" Beast Boy offered. Raven did, and a noise sounded. The door had opened, the blue dots changed to yellow, and the 'X' had become a checkmark. The computer spoke again.

"Excellent. Please proceed to the chamberlock after completing each test," and such began Raven's adventure. Beast Boy and Cyborg would occasionally give advice, not that Raven needed it. Soon, Raven had been equipped with the "portal gun," a strange white thing with three prongs on one end. She had been instructed not to "look at the operational end of the device," and to not "submerge the device in liquid, even partially." She soon discovered the concept of the strange portals: using them to travel between to places, or to move things to her. Raven had started finding solutions with remarkable ease-she could make her own in real life, so she was familiar with the concept. Throughout the course of the game, aside from allowing small smirks at the strange female voice's comments, she began to think of ways she could use her own portals in fights against criminals. She couldn't wait to Dr. Light's face when he was suddenly falling from the side of a building when he had just been running away….

During one test chamber, she received a cube that was normal, except that it had pink instead of the light blue circle, and there were hearts on it. It was called a "companion cube," most likely due to the fact that it was the only cube in the level. However, when the voice had instructed her to euthanize it, she stopped for a moment. There was nothing wrong with the cube-it was actually really useful, serving as a step, holding buttons so she could go through doors, and saving her character from death by energy pellets. But since the game did not advance, she decided to drop the cube into the incinerator. Raven felt immediately regretful, but couldn't explain why. It's just a stupid cube in a game, Raven. The voice spoke.

"Congratulations. You euthanized your faithful Companion Cube more quickly than any other test subject on record." Raven felt some guilt, but pushed it quickly aside. There were presumably more tests for her to do, and darn it if some stupid heart-covered cube was going to make her stop.

"…Goodbye." That was the robotic female voice. Raven stared in disbelief at the screen—the computer was just going to kill her, after all that work she'd done? Oh, no. Recognizing the back of the area ahead of her, Raven knew what to do. Fwip went a blue portal, then Raven jumped towards the wall to her side, shooting an orange one slightly further down the wall. Succeeding, Raven fell onto the ledge she'd just been staring at. Raven made the character walk towards the railing near the pit, and watched as the lift she had been riding on entered the roaring fire. That'd show HER, now, wouldn't it! Now, Raven needed to figure a way out of the area…

"Raven," a voice spoke. Raven shook and sat up. "You need to eat dinner. Or, um, drink tea, whatever." It was Robin. Raven glanced at the clock. It had been over two hours!

"Um, ok. I will," Raven said, and got up. Raven mentally chided herself. Two hours, on a video game. That sounded more like Beast Boy or Cyborg, but not her! And to go completely unobservant of what was around her? That was unacceptable. "Beast Boy?" she called out as she began getting the water for her tea going.

"He's in Cyborg's room," Robin answered for him. Raven put the water for her tea, now in a kettle, on the stovetop, neglecting to turn on the heat. She walked towards the back of the Ops room, and entered the elevator. Selecting "Living Quarters" as the floor, she waited until the doors closed to allow a smile. Out of habit, she forced it away from her face. Being in the elevator reminded her of the elevators in Portal, and that gave her an idea.

When the doors opened, she pointed her arm down the hallway and focused one of her own dark portals. On the wall, in line with her arm, glowed a black outline. Then she did the same to the floor in front of her. Not seeing through them, she merely stepped into one, instead of floating through. What followed made her very glad that nobody else could see her. Stepping in the portal on the floor, gravity pulled her first to the ground and through the portal, then sideways as her orientation changed. Raven fell to the floor, and muttered an oof! as she tried to become positioned correctly. Well, now she knew how her character felt. At least, she could see through the orange and blue ones.

Wait.

SEE. That gave Raven an idea. However, she heard a cry of anger and of "You're stupid!" from down the hall, so that must of meant Beast Boy and Cyborg were up to something. Walking towards the room, the sounds became louder.

"No, shoot it THERE, grass stain!" she could hear Cyborg say.

"But, if I do that, I won't be able to get the Energy Pellet into the receptacle!" Raven paused for a second. She knew where she'd heard of Energy Pellets before… Portal. Now, she simply floated down the hallway quickly, and looked into Cyborg's room. The two were on a bed, looking at a large screen on the wall. On the screen was a white room, and a portal gun.

"What are you two doing?" Raven asked simply.

"Seeing what makes this dumb game so fun," Beast Boy replied, keeping his eyes on the screen. Raven took another look. They only had the single-portal device. She sighed. The two would never finish the game. A few of the levels had been hard for her (only because she couldn't maneuver the controller fast enough, she remembered); there was no way these two could do it. Cyborg, maybe, but not with Beast Boy. This was simply not his strong suit.

"Well, you guys still have a ways to go. Good luck," Raven said, and turned to leave. "Oh, and you can use the Ops TV if you'd like."

Several days later, Raven had decided it was okay to play again. It didn't take long to finish it from where she had left off. Within the hour, she'd thrown the Anger Sphere into the Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator. GLaDOS' babbling was intriguing as the room filled with a bright light. However, the ending of the game had been slightly less than satisfactory. As she looked onscreen, seeing the outside world, she was suddenly surprised by a strange, robotic voice:

"Thank you for assuming the Party Escort Submission Position," followed by the view changing, as though she was being dragged. This, followed by the revealing of a cake somewhere deep in Aperture and a song that Raven was impressed by, led Raven to do the only thing possible in her situation: immediately search for a sequel. Raven was lucky, and within minutes was out the door, Starfire at her side, heading towards the mall. Flying, of course. If you're two superpower-enhanced teenage girls, albeit an alien and a half-demon, and you want to do something, then almost literally nothing will stop you.

Getting Starfire to go along was easy. Keeping privacy in the mall, however, was not. In her rush, Raven had neglected a simple, single detail: street clothes. Now, two known celebrities—in their trademark clothing, no less—were casually walking about the mall, one of which was wearing clothing that attracted certain male attention. C'mon, guys, admit it. If you were a normal teenage guy and saw somebody like Starfire wearing her outfit, you'd get a b—Never mind. Forget I said anything about it.

Anywho, after a case of "OHMYGOODNESSIT'STHETEENTITANSRAVENANDSTARFIRE! OMGLET'SGOHARASSTHEMFORTHEIRAUTOGRAPHS!" had swept through the mall, Raven eventually found her way to the game store. The same clerk who had sold her Portal was working, and he noticed her.

"Hey, you again, huh? Whatcha need?" he asked.

"The sequel. Also, the game didn't have co-op, you creep." The last part was directed with an icy glare. Seeing that Raven didn't look to happy, he made no funny business and went and got the game. When he returned, however, his finger was pointing to a bit on the cover: NEW CO-OP MODE.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Are you sure? I'm good, and could help you—"

"NO!" Raven replied hastily, rising up over the employee, suddenly four red eyes glowing. Her voice had an echo, deep and exaggerated, as if someone wanted a cartoon TV series character to sound like a female teenage half-demon that was angry at a small green teammate for taking her tea. After a moment, Raven returned to normal as the sound of a romantically desperate 30-year-old man peeing his pants filled the air.

"O-O-O-k-k-kay, th-then, m-miss. W-will that be all t-today?" the terrified employee asked.

"No, thank you," Raven replied, as if nothing happened. Feeling slightly bad for what she did to the poor guy, she placed a wad of cash—which was probably upwards of $100—on the counter, took the game from the employee, and left. The employee merely stared as she left…

After leaving the mall ("of shopping"), Raven and Starfire flew back to the tower.

"Friend Raven, what is it about this game that makes you… What is the word? Anxious?" Starfire asked. Raven took a moment before answering.

"Two things, Starfire. One, it's the first thing in a long time that has appealed to me this much. Second, because I am the one usually coming down on Beast Boy and Cyborg for playing video games. If, suddenly, I start playing them, then their respect for me comes down. That means I can no longer insult them and have it mean anything. So Starfire, will you keep this a secret from the boys?" Starfire squealed in delight (well, squealed in her typical Starfire fashion).

"Oh, joy! We have a secret of the girls!"

"Yeah, I guess we do, Starfire," Raven admitted. Once they got back, Raven went to head towards her room, but was stopped by Beast Boy. Not wanting him to see what she had, she quickly hid in her cloak, hands hidden as well.

"Hey, Raven," he asked, leaning against the wall with his arm extended.

"What, Beast Boy," Raven asked, although it was more like a reply of annoyance.

"I just wanted to know why you went to the mall in a big rush. It had to be important…" he said, standing now. The short green changeling had an uncharacteristically wide grin, even for him, on his face.

"Stop smiling, it's nothing important," Raven snapped.

"What was it, Rae?"

"It was just tea," Raven lied, "and my name is RAVEN. Not 'Rae' or anything like that. Got it?" she asked, annoyed, and left before he could respond. Finally reaching her room, the door opened and just as quickly closed behind her. Alone, Raven sat on her bed and took out the game. Portal 2, the title read. There were strange robot-looking things on the cover. One was jumping through a portal and coming out of a portal. Interesting, Raven thought. If that were happening, then whatever that THING is would be in a loop. Not caring to contemplate, Raven quickly took the game…

…and promptly set it aside. It was time to meditate.

What? Did you think the Raven was going to rush back to the tower to play it? No, of course she wouldn't! This isn't a book. Besides, Raven really did need to meditate. The mall had caused that. She needed to relax and calm down. Plus, she liked to meditate. But she didn't meditate long, just a few hours. By that time, the other Titans were eating dinner. Seeing the time, Raven went down to the main room. As she traveled, she contemplated why the narrator decided to not describe her meditation, and how it allowed her to remain emotionally neutral, or that it was very deeply relaxing. She decided that if she was a narrator, she probably wouldn't want to read about someone meditating. It was boring, and was a good way to stall until the next event occurred in the story.

Down in the large living room (or Ops Room. Whatever you want to call it, you know what I'm talking about. You've seen the show. The room where there's a big TV where Cyborg, Beast Boy, and sometimes Robin played that stupid racing game.), everyone was eating. Tofu, a hamburger (and ribs, and… etc.), Not really caring, Raven went to boil water as she prepared her tea. Several minutes went by, and before long, Raven had herself a nice, fresh herbal tea. Raven took a sip, enjoying the scent of it but not quite enjoying the heat of the tea.

Somewhere in Jump City, a large, dorky man with long orange hair stood, watching the Titans Tower from atop a building. He sought revenge against the Titans, and tonight was the night he would get it. And he would defeat them using a weakness that at least two of the Titans shared, one that he now had mastery over. Long gone were the days of flipping between channels. Oh, no. With time, Control Freak—for that was who it was, of course—had discovered control of another realm of electronic media: video games. This had given him a whole new range of things to get, like Pokéballs, energy swords, portal guns, and more, not including a whole string of video game baddies to place under his command. He would only be taking a few things with him, a portal gun among them…

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" cried an alarm. Raven jumped up from sitting on the floor, pausing the game. The rest of the Titans also stopped what they were doing.

"Titans, you know where to go—" Robin started, before a large something burst through the large window. It turned out to be nothing more than a large rock, somehow sent flying quickly through the air. All the Titans were stunned. The only thing—well, person—that they had ever known who could control rocks like this was a stone statue. Only Raven noticed the blue oval that appeared on the ceiling.

"How?" questioned Cyborg.

"I don't know, Cy. Maybe someone threw it—" Robin started, before being interrupted again. This time, a large man suddenly appeared out of nowhere, it seemed. Raven looked up and saw that she could see through the blue oval. Then she looked at Control Freak—and gasped. In his hand was a portal gun.

"Greetings, Titans! It is I, Control Freak, your arch-nemesis! I am here for my revenge!" Control Freak said loudly. Unfortunately for him, Raven decided that it would be good idea to use a dark tentacle of energy to swat the portal gun away from him. Surprised, Control Freak accidently created a portal directly underneath Raven. She fell, and landed on him. The other Titans had finally recovered from the shock of seeing Control Freak drop from out of nowhere, and jumped into action.

"Get his remote!" instructed Cyborg. Starfire picked up the villain, and Raven stood up. She out reached a hand to help up Robin. Beast Boy turned into an octopus, and started feeling around Control Freaks' pockets.

"Stop it!" the dorky man replied, struggling. But it was too late—Beast Boy had already found it, and was waving it around with one of his tentacles. Turning back into normal, Beast Boy was going to hand it to Robin, but tripped over Control Freak's dropped portal gun. He rolled away, and the remote flew towards the game station sitting on the floor. Raven was standing near it, and suddenly, a white flash enveloped her. She began to be sucked towards where the remote had been dropped.

"No! Cyborg, help!" she cried out, surprised. He ran over and grabbed her arms. Starfire dropped Control Freak and grabbed Cyborg. Robing and Beast Boy each ran over to hold Starfire. Control Freak was too busy trying to get a good look at Starfire to try and escape. Raven slowly kept being pulled into the glowing light. When Raven had sunken waist deep into the light, however, Control Freak spoke up.

"It's too late, Titans! Raven is being pulled into the game! You can't save her now, but you can go with her…" he taunted. Robin, however, wasn't sure if he was telling the truth. As if hearing his thoughts, Raven focused on Control Freaks' words.

"He's telling the truth! Let me go, I'll be fine!" she said, knowing what would happen.

"No, Raven! We can save you!" Beast Boy said, then turned into an octopus again.

"Yeah, what grass stain said! We can't let you go!" Cyborg agreed. Raven was now merely a head and arms sticking out of the light.

"Sorry about this Cyborg…" she muttered. "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" Raven shouted. A pulse of energy shot through her arms and into Cyborg. He flew back in pain, and so did the other Titans. The rest of the light enveloped Raven, and then everything went black.

So there's that. Hopefully, you enjoyed makerboy13's words. All I did was a little editing—typos, grammar, repeated sentences, and the like. Hopefully, you go read my other story while you wait for this to update—because Henry's Story will be updated more frequently than this one. Hopefully you all understand that. Have a great day everyone!

—Cortexin