Chapter Seven: Anger Management

Chapter Seven: Anger Management.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." Cyborg slumped back in his chair as Starfire flew in. "Oh, hey. Any problems?"

"None whatsoever. It was most refreshing to alleviate my frustration by punching someone." Starfire said brightly.

"…Okay." Said Cyborg, wheeling his chair away from her slightly. "I guess now we've got a little breathing time I can explain where BB and Rob are."

"It would be helpful to know, yes."

"Okay." Cyborg pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think of a way to explain this in words that made sense, to him if no one else.


"Beast Boy?" Robin said, flopping down onto the stone pathway.

"Yeah?" Beast Boy replied, removing the clothespeg now that they had escaped Rude's realm.

"Remind me never to call your room a mess again."

"'Kay." Beast Boy slumped next to him, clearly exhausted. Robin couldn't blame him. After all, his oxygen intake had been severely stunted, and they had been doing a lot of running back there.

Robin felt the need to break the silence. "If you had told me this morning that I would spend the day running away from swamp monsters that inhabit lakes of cold macaroni and cheese in the head of one of my errant teammates, I'd have thought you were crazy." Robin looked sidelong at his emerald teammate. "Well, in your case, even if you'd said 'good morning' to me, I would have questioned your sanity. You know, just 'cause it's you."

Beast Boy grinned, getting his breath back. "I'm not the one who thinks that traffic light colours are ideal for sneaking around in."

"What's the next area?" Asked Robin, clear to avoid further discussion of his apparel.

Beast Boy paled. "Anger. This oughta be fun."

"But I thought Trigon-"

"Trigon's got nothing to do with it. Think of Raven in the worst mood you can possibly imagine."

Visions of fire and brimstone filled Robin's head.

"Now imagine a being made solely of that concentrated emotion."

The fire became spurting fountains of magma, while the brimstones were disregarded in favour of hunks of raw plutonium.

"Now imagine that you're that being, and on top of all that, no one likes you."

Robin's imagination blanked out. "Okay. This could be bad. You should be safe…-er, right? What with being her boyfriend?"

Beast Boy stared at Robin for a moment. "Obviously you've never had a girlfriend."

"Have too."

"Of course you have. Now, here's my idea."


"This is…confusing." Starfire stared at the drawing Cyborg had helpfully sketched.

A doodle of Raven with an oversized head was on a circle marked ??, and a thought balloon was attached to her head, with Cyborg's two symbols representing Beast Boy and Robin (a green monkey head and a traffic light, respectively) drawn in the bubble. To the right of this was a drawing of Titans Tower, where her symbol (a yellow star) and Cyborg's symbol (an overly complicated, and overly flattering, drawing of the teen himself) were situated. A sketch of a hand mirror was with them, with a dotted line leading from it to the thought bubble. The tower had a broken window, and a second dotted line was drawn from the smashed window to the circle the picture of Raven sat on.

"The drawing is helpful, though."


"'Run like a motherfucker'? That's your grand plan?" Robin sounded incredulous.

"Dude, you are listening to the world expert on escaping a pissed off Raven. If you hide, she'll find you. If you trap her, she'll phase out. If you apologise…actually, that sometimes works, but only on the real Raven. Running is our only shot. Maybe she'll find something else to be angry about that'll distract her."

Robin rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I don't like it, but, like you said, it's out only shot. I just hope the next door is easy to find."

Taking a deep breath, Robin plunged into the next realm, Beast Boy hot on his heels. After a while, Beast Boy spoke.

"You know, at least the portal's easy to spot."

Robin had to agree with him. They had an unparalleled view of the doorway to Knowledge's realm. Across what looked like an ash-strewn wasteland covered with innumerable statues, locked in combat. Of the owner of this realm, there was no sign.

"We'd better get moving." Robin broke the silence, and began to walk down the hill to the frozen battlefield below.

"Who's this guy?" Beast Boy asked, pointing at a statue of a man with a lionskin draped across his shoulders, and hefting a heavy looking club.

"My guess would be Heracles."

"Uh huh, uh huh. And this guy?" Beast Boy gestured at a bald, goateed man wearing nothing but a loincloth and a scowl, with the two curved swords in his hands attached to his wrists by heavy chains.

"I don't know, and I don't think I want to."

"He was called Kratos." A voice hissed, and Beast Boy and Robin froze. "And what in the name of the eight greater demons are you doing here?" Beast Boy had heard Raven in a temper enough times to know that this fuse was short.

Run, Beast Boy mouthed. Robin took his advice.

They ducked and weaved through the statues, desperately trying to lose the red incarnation of demonic fury that was on their tail. Robin threw a handful of smoke pellets over his shoulder, which confused Anger for long enough for him to grab Beast Boy by the scruff of his neck, and hurl him through the portal, Robin following a few seconds later.


Beast Boy looked up at their surroundings, the culmination of their efforts, and said only one thing.

"I was kinda expecting it to be a library."