It didn't take us too long to make it back to the meadow in the southern forest. By this point, we could've flown there blindfolded. The problem, however, was that waiting for us there, in the middle of the meadow, were the Puppet King, his minions, our captured friends, and a "do-it-yourself"-looking sacrificial setup that looked like he was preparing for yet another ritual of some kind. Upon seeing this, I led Starfire downward into the brush surrounding the meadow before we were spotted. Once there, the two of us Changed back into our human forms (Starfire did so unintentionally) and began to converse.

"So what are we to do now", asked Starfire.

"We do nothing. You on the other hand, will act as a distraction", I said with a sigh. Upon discussing our plan back at the stadium, I intentionally left out the part about how we were going to distract the Puppet King's forces, because in order for my plan to work, I had to manipulate and exploit Starfire's emotions, which wasn't going to be fun for either of us.

"What do you mean?"

"Patience, Princess. Patience", I reassured her as we sat and waited. As we watched our enemies prepare for the ceremony, we noticed that in the center of the meadow was another large, demonic Orichalcos symbol surrounded by a circle of lit torches. Several yards away from the circle was a large, stone slab (which looked like they simply tore a chunk of earth from inside the caves). Boltted to the slab by his wrists was Cyborg, still trapped in Raven's body as he hung there as if he was waiting to be crucified. And finally, on the other side of the circle, approximately the same distance away as Cyborg was, was some kind of throne-like platform with three levels. The bottom level was empty as it allowed people to step onto it, the middle level contained the five Titan puppets, including the three currently possessed by our teammates, and at the final level at the top was the king puppet, with its creepy mouth hanging open as its face was looking in our direction.

"Soon, my puppets", began the Puppet King to himself as his mindless minions continued to prepare the meadow for the ceremony. "Soon my power will be limitless, and all those who oppose me shall fall at my feet." It was at that point that Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire's empty shells all walked over to him and dropped to one knee. "Ah, Titans", chuckled the Puppet King as he leaned down and caressed Starfire's shells' chin, urging it to rise to its feet.

"What the Hell do you think you're doing", asked a hysterical Robin as his puppet squirmed helplessly from the platform. Without answering his question, the Puppet King simply nods to Starfire's shell. It then walks away towards the stone slab where Cyborg hung.

"Whoa", exclaimed Cyborg once Starfire's shell arrived there as she proceeded to lift the entire slab over her head and walk it back over to the Puppet King, who stood in the center of the circle. Cyborg exclaimed again as the slab was slammed back onto the ground. In response to this, the Puppet King began eyeballing Cyborg up and down. "My eyes are up here", retorted Cyborg in a half-serious-half-sarcastic tone.

"Take your positions, my pets. No one is to interfere", said the Puppet King to his minions, once again ignoring the fact that our friends were talking to him.

"I know you can hear me", exclaimed a highly annoyed Robin.

"Silence, you fool! You are not to speak until you are spoken to!"

"Or else what", challenged Beast Boy. "You're already stealing our souls, what else can you do?" The Puppet King chuckles a moment before responding.

"You know, I originally planned to consume your souls once I've claimed all of your bodies", he began as he walked over to Cyborg. "However, I think it will be more amusing to feed all but one of you to my queen", he said creepily as he caressed Cyborg/Raven's chin. Needless to say that this was a huge red flag for me, as it was obvious what the Puppet King intended to do.

Rather than consume their souls like he planned to do with all of the innocent civilians he attacked recently, he planned on feeding them to Raven's empty shell, also implying that she would be the one to be spared of being consumed. It was also implied, due to the way he kept touching and looking at Cyborg, that he planned on keeping Raven trapped in her puppet for eternity while he claimed her body as his own personal play thing. The Puppet King didn't even care that her body was currently being occupied by a dude, making his already creepy threats even creepier.

"That is quite enough", began Starfire as she tried to barrel past me towards the Puppet King. It took every ounce of my being to block her with my arm, as I was very much tempted to let her bash his face in, but the time wasn't right, so I was forced to wait.

"Before we begin", began the Puppet King as he reached for Cyborg again. He then rips off Raven's cloak, giving him a complete look at her body in its skintight leotard. "Much better."

"I feel violated", complained Cyborg.

"Imagine how I feel right now", chimed Raven.

"Silence, Fools", exclaimed the Puppet King. "The time has come", he continues as his/Control Freak's body becomes encased in a ghostly aura. He then goes on to chant his demonic mantra again as his Daemon Ritus unleashed another black energy tentacle. "Peta, neru, mairen seshian. Peta, neru, mairen seshian. Peta, neru, mairen seshian. Peta, neru, mairen seshian", he chanted repeatedly as the tentacle clashed with the aura raven guarding Raven's body.

"We must act now", exclaimed an anxious Starfire as she tried to bulldoze through me.

"No, not yet", I attempted to reassure her. I could tell the time was drawing near as a small gust of wind blew in our direction, sending small hints of Raven's scent towards me and Starfire. A few seconds later she argued again.

"But we must, Cyborg needs our help."

"Just a little more", I responded as I began looking around nervously. Where is she, I exclaimed to myself in my head. She needs to be here for my plan to work! My thoughts were interrupted upon hearing the aura raven give out a final squawk before disappearing. The Puppet King had succeeded in overpowering it.

"Wolfman", said an irritated Starfire as my werewolf growl escaped through her jaws. As I had hoped, she was getting angry.

"Almost there", I said just before I heard the sound of a quiet giggling, telling me that Kendall had finally showed up. "Now", I exclaimed as I morphed into Beast Boy's werewolf form and tackled Starfire onto her back. I then proceeded to punch the sides of her face over and over again as I had her pinned underneath me. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up, I thought to myself as I desperately tried to push Starfire to her breaking point. I continued my assault on Starfire until finally she got angry enough to where she snarled at me as her brown eyes turned yellow due to her beginning to Change. There you are, I thought to myself as I then grabbed her by the throat and began spinning her around. Now break, a, leg, I continued as I hurled her into the air towards the center of the meadow with a Hail Mary throw. The Puppet King had just almost succeeded in claiming Cyborg's soul when Starfire came crashing down in the middle of the two of them.

"What's this", asked the Puppet King aloud as he looked upon the seemingly unconscious werewolf as she laid limp in front of him. Before he could think too far into what he had just witnessed, the werewolf slowly rose onto her paws with her back turned to her ghostly opponent. Once she had recovered, she turns towards him with an angry snarl as her yellow eyes burned with an intense rage. "Ah, so you've finally decided to face me, have you? Now you will know the true meaning of—", he continued before Starfire interrupted him with an angry roar as she lunged at him. Having been caught off-guard, the Puppet King just barely manages to jump out of the way. However, because of how close she was to him, upon her initial attack failing, Starfire then goes on to grab the Puppet King by Control Freak's leg, only to give him what I like to call the "Loki Treatment". If you were to ever ask me what I meant by that, I would tell you to pretend that the Puppet King was the Marvel trickster of Asgard, Loki, and that the raging Starfire was the Incredible Hulk. The rest speaks for itself. The other Titans didn't even so much as hesitate to comment on the beating the Puppet King received.

"Duuuuuuuude", exclaimed Beast Boy.

"Way to go, Wolfman", said Robin.

"Beat the souls right out of him", added Cyborg. It was at that point that I noticed that Raven was surprisingly quiet, almost as if she seemed confused as to what she was watching. Before I could think too far into it, the Puppet King spoke again once he was able to recover.

"Foolish mutt, you will pay for your arrogance", said a now pissed off Puppet King as he whipped out Control Freak's Key Saber (that's what I've decided to call it now) and charged at Starfire. Starfire responded by instinctively cloaking her claws with my aura and charging right back at him with another roar. The two of them then go on to engage one another in an epic rage-induced slash fight. My plan was working perfectly.

As I have told many people in the past, usually to other mutants I've helped to train, there is arguably nothing more violent, scary, or dangerous in comparison to a mutant who cannot control their powers, especially animagi, especially carnivorous animagi, and super especially werewolves. That being said, there are several things that can trigger a werewolf's instincts and send them into an extremely primal rage, and thanks to our dear friend the Puppet King, Starfire was surrounded by lots of them. Thanks to him, Starfire was now in the presence of a ghost, a half-demon, a witch, multiple humans, and another werewolf, all while battling in the center of a demonic ritualistic circle. All I had to do was piss her off enough, and her animalistic instincts would do the rest. With the Puppet King now distracted, I decided to make my move as I morphed into a field mouse and raced towards the ramp leading underground, which was currently wide open. The stealthiness of my approach was even more effective when you took into account that Beast Boy's green fur made the perfect camouflage. Once I made it safely to the ramp, I then morphed again, this time into a common housefly.

"Holy shit", I said to myself aloud, not that anyone around me could understand me. I was shocked by how drastically my eyesight had improved simply by becoming a fly. My spider form alone improved my usually perfect werewolf vision by 400%. That said, my now fly vision was twice that. "Whoa! Fuck the Shadow Zone, I can literally see everything at the same time!" My juvenile jubilation came to a halt upon catching a glimpse of one of the Strings walking by the end of the hall/tunnel. "Oh yeah. Gotta stay focused", I said to myself as I flew ahead as fast as I could go, carefully flying as high above everyone as possible to avoid being swatted at.

As I flew deeper into the underground lair, I passed through the living room where they were holding Fixit captive, which only encouraged me to pick up my speed even more. I eventually made my way into Fixit's workshop, which is what I started calling the room where Fixit first brought Terra's earthquakes to my attention.

"Looks like the coast is clear", I said to myself from the ceiling of the workshop upon noticing that the room was completely empty. When I felt it was safe to do so, I dropped from the ceiling in Beast Boy's human form and began exploring the workshop. "Come on, come on, come on, where is it", I asked myself anxiously as scoured through a great many files on Fixit's computer system. "Aha", I continued when I found a folder filled with blueprints. "No, no, no, no", I chanted over and over as I scrolled through the blueprints. "Base defenses, base maintenance, bot repairs, Spell Field…. wait a sec. What's a spell field", I asked myself as I happened upon an accidental blueprint that caught my attention. I then took a moment to read the description. ""Based on D-Tector technology, the Spell Field is designed to create a temporary environment meant to aid spellcasters in combat through the use of synthetic aura generators". Dually noted", I began as I made a mental bookmark of that handy tidbit, "but where the Hell is that chip", I continued as I abandoned my search and typed into a search engine. Upon doing so, I finally found the information I needed. "There we go, the Tri-Borg Mach 2", I said as I pulled up blueprints for a computer chip that Fixit had been developing. "Sweet! It looks like it's ready, too."

"For Master", hollered somebody from behind me. As I began to turn around, my instincts (which fortunately weren't at all altered due to me being trapped in Beast Boy's body) began to slow everything down again, revealing to me that my assailant was not only one of the Crimson Strings, but that he was also armed with an axe, one of those huge one-sided ones that were used for decapitations I medieval times. Seeing as how he was preparing to swing it at me, especially since my current body was rather shrimpfish in comparison to my other one, my first instinct was to merely jump out of the way. However, that was going to leave Fixit's computer system at the mercy of my assailant's axe, which was obviously something I couldn't afford, so I was instead forced to take a more direct approach.

"No you don't", I retorted as I quickly rushed at him and grabbed ahold of his axe before he had the chance to swing it. This of course led the two of us into a power struggle in which we each tried to either yank the axe out of the other's grip, or push the other over. Usually this wouldn't be too difficult as this guy was an everyday human, and I was a 6'1 werewolf. However, Beast Boy's werewolf strength was underdeveloped in comparison to mine, meaning he had to completely morph in order to utilize it. This was also in addition to the fact that Beast Boy was a dwarf in comparison to the 6'2 String drone at a height of merely 5'7. Upon realizing that I couldn't outmuscle him, I decided to attempt a variation of a death roll. First, similar to how I positioned Robin during our scuffle at City Hall, I urged the String to position himself to where if he were to swing his axe, it would be away from any nearby computers or machines. After that, I then pulled back as hard as I could while simultaneously dropping to the floor. As I fell, which caused my opponent to stumble forward a bit, I kicked out my legs at his feet, causing him to trip over me. Finally, I used our momentum to position myself on top of him once we finished rolling over each other, pinning him onto his back as I placed the axe over his throat.

"No one shall interfere with Master", groaned the nameless drone. "All hail the Puppet King", he continued before I knocked him unconscious with my gorilla fist.

"Yeah right", I muttered to myself as I climbed off of my unconscious opponent and returned to the blueprints. I then typed in a command code, and in response, a small compartment popped out of the bottom of the computer, revealing a small, green computer chip. "Bingo", I said to myself as I took the chip and put it in my pocket. It was at this point that I noticed some movement on the surveillance screens of the computer. Upon realizing this, I noticed that the Crimson Strings were all headed towards the exit, and they were bringing the prisoners with them as I saw Fixit being escorted from the living room, while Lola and the rest of the swarm, still in their cage, was being carted behind them. "Looks like they're going topside. Or should I say, we are going topside", I said as I looked back towards the unconscious drone on the floor. I then stripped him of his cloak and axe and ran out of Fixit's workshop to catch up with the others.

Fortunately for my sake, none of the other drones noticed me assimilating amongst the crowd as we all made our way up the ramp towards the meadow, nor did they ever question whether or not I was one of them. My disguise was apparently foolproof. All I had to do was look ahead, make as little movement as possible, and walk very, very slowly, and they couldn't tell me apart from anyone else. After all the Crimson Strings had congregated towards the center of the meadow, we all began to form a large circle around the Puppet King and the stage he had set for his revival ritual. The unfortunate part was, the reason we were all able to form a neat and tidy circle around the area, was because the Puppet King was apparently successful at apprehending Starfire, despite her animalistic instincts beating the shit out of him moments ago.

Starfire was now lying on her stomach, on what appeared to be a medical stretcher with arms, which were being used to restrain her. To a common onlooker, this might just seem like a randomly silly device that the Puppet King built. However, since I knew that the Puppet King's host was Control Freak, and because I myself was a bit of a nerd myself, I knew better. It was perfectly clear to me that the Puppet King/Control Freak had been window shopping through the world of television again, because the armed stretcher, was actually one of several silly devices and robots built by Team Rocket from Pokemon, known as the Stretcher Catcher. She also had a black, metallic collar around her neck, which prevented her from using my powers, and therefore kept her trapped in my wolf form.

"I'm afraid your little game is over", gloated the Puppet King as he towered over Starfire. "It seems you are not the all-powerful sorcerer your little friends make you out to be", he continues before striking her across the face, causing her to gasp. "What's this", he asks to himself before striking her again, again causing her to gasp. Robin caught on immediately as he was the first one to recognize Starfire's voice.

"Starfire", he hollered.

"What", asked a now irritated Puppet King. "Where is he", he continues as her grabs Starfire by my face and forces her to look up at him.

"I don't know", she answers honestly.

"You have given me the wrong answer", said the Puppet King as he releases her and stands back up. He then draws his weapon and slices it along the length of my left arm. This naturally got her to howl in pain.

"Stop it", hollered Robin. "Leave her alone!"

"I will not", said the Puppet King calmly, though still angrily. "For deceiving her king, she will suffer my wrath in place of the wolf, while I destroy his body. Prepare yourself, my dear", he said as he lifted his blade over his head with the intention of decapitating her.

"You'll pay for this", shouted Raven, grabbing the Puppet King's attention.

"Is that so, my queen? Perhaps I should discipline you as well", continued the Puppet King as the Daemon Ritus opened up again, unleashing two black tentacles, the first of which pierced through the back of my body. The second tentacle, as if it had a mind of its own, snaked its way towards the Puppet King as if it intended to stand next to him, as if it were an attack dog waiting for its master to give it a command.

"Stop this now", pleaded Fixit.

"Silence, Slave", retorted the Puppet King as he used Control Freak's remote on him. In response to this, Fixit sort of goes into a robotic sleep mode, similar to how Cyborg was when Gizmo attacked him. Lola and the others squirmed in their cage in response with angry hisses. "I cannot allow this rogue werewolf to interfere with my plans, nor can I allow my queen to behave in such a manner. They will both be disciplined, and what better way to do so, than for my queen to accept his punishment in his body", continued the Puppet King as he now planned to have Raven's soul possess my body so that he could punish her through me. It was at this point where I couldn't restrain myself anymore. In response to the Puppet King's threat, I utilized Beast Boy's abilities and morphed my human legs into kangaroo legs, and my human arms into gorilla arms. I then leapt high into the air, and plummeted back down onto the Puppet King, with the axe I wielded preparing to bisect him. In response to my surprise attack, the Puppet King broke his connection to the aura tentacles and dove out of the way just as my axe slammed onto the ground. I then positioned myself to where Starfire was behind me and the Puppet King was directly in front of me.

"Leave, them, alone", I warned with a growl from under the hood of the cloak I was borrowing.

"You dare raise your weapon to me", asked the Puppet King. "You, my lowly servant, dare raise your hand to your king?"

"I am not your servant, and you are not my king."

"You dare contradict me?"

"A true king wins over his followers with honor and heart, not through force and the underhanded tactics of a poacher. A true king respects his allies and followers, because he understands that without them, he is nothing. A true king doesn't take or demand his queen's heart, he earns it. You are no king to me. You are not a king in this life, you were not a king in your previous life, and you will never be a king in any other life", I said angrily as I lifted the axe up with one hand and pointed it at him.

"I have no time for your foolishness. You are of no significance to me."

"Oh really? From what I've heard, you've been itching for a rematch since that little stunt you pulled back in the tunnels."

"Is that….", began Robin.

"No way", added Beast Boy.

"It's about time", added Cyborg.

"Who are you that you question my rule? Who are you that you challenge me in my domain? Who are you to tell me that I am not a king?" Before I answered him, I slammed the axe back into the ground, so that my hands would be free for my grand reveal.

"I am one the defenders of Jump City. I am the leader of the most powerful mutants to ever walk the earth. I am the physical embodiment of the elemental force from which draw power. I am….", I began as I ripped off the cloak and threw it to the side, "…. the Wolfman, Prince of Darkness, and you will pay for the evil acts you committed against my friends."

"Told you so", teased Raven to the Puppet King.

"Impossible, you should be powerless against me. Your soul is trapped in another's body, your dark powers have failed you, the powers you currently possess are not your own, and you stand alone. How is it you are able to be so confident even though you are in no position to be", asked the Puppet King as he looked me over, still with kangaroo and gorilla limbs. Clearly this was the first time he'd seen Beast Boy's powers being utilized in such a manner, which to his credit was an unexpected development, as not even Beast Boy himself seemed to know how to do so.

"What do I have to be worried about? I don't need magic to kick your ass, and I've been changing into animals since before I could walk. The only thing you did was give me more animal forms to play with. Though I will admit, everyone and everything seems a lot bigger in this thing."

"Hey! I'm not that short", retorted Beast Boy defensively.

"Well then, Wolfman, tell me how big my army appears to you", chuckled the Puppet King as the Crimson Strings began closing in on me like zombies. In response to this, I picked up the axe again, which got them to halt in place.

"Your little drones don't scare me. My fight is with you, not them."

"And what if I were to decide against your little challenge", challenged the Puppet King, implying that he was going to let his drones fight me instead. This was something I could not allow, for multiple reasons.

The first and obvious reason was because of the fact that his drones consisted of the bodies of those whose souls had been taken. They were not in control of their bodies, and it was just as Robin said, they were going to want them back when this was all over. The other reason I didn't want to fight his drones was because it was going to take time, attention, and energy that I couldn't afford to waste on them.

Despite my cocky monologue, I still stood by what I had said earlier, Beast Boy's brute force alone would not win this battle for me. That said, the plan was for Starfire and I to distract the Puppet King (she through weakening him with her dark powers, and me through freeing as many prisoners as possible) until Spike and Geoffrey arrived with their secret weapon. Once they did, we would all surround and immobilize the Puppet King, with some help from Kendall's magic, and use the weapon to free all the souls that had been captured. However, Starfire failed to weaken the Puppet King, and I failed to free any of the prisoners. So, with Starfire now captured, and the secret weapon having not yet arrived, I now had to do my very best to stall for time, by taking on the Puppet King myself. I wasn't expecting to win, but I sure as Hell was going to try.

"Then I say we even the odds a bit", I retorted with a growl as I lifted the axe over my head. I then turned around towards Cyborg and chucked the axe at him like a giant tomahawk. Despite Cyborg's nervous yelling, I was aiming at the stone slab he was bolted to, which was reduced to rubble due to the force of my throw.

"Seize them", ordered the Puppet King. In response, the Strings broke into a sprint as they ambushed us.

"Hold on, Star", I said to Starfire as I grabbed the front of the Stretcher Catcher.

"With what", she asked both sarcastically and worried. She then shrieked as I swung the stretcher around in a large sweep, striking away all of the strings unfortunate enough to be close to us.

"Wolfman", hollered the Puppet King as he lunged at me with his Key Saber while my back was turned to him. In response to this, I placed the stretched back on the ground and kicked it towards Cyborg, which caused Starfire to shriek again as it rolled away. Though I did manage to dodge the Puppet King's attack in time, because of how close to me his swing was, a few strands of Beast Boy's hair fell in front of my eyes as they were sliced off. When the Puppet King swings his weapon at me again, I then change my left arm into a lobster claw and block his attack with it. With the Puppet King now temporarily stunned, I use my remaining gorilla fist and send him flying backwards with a swift punch in the abdomen. "Enough tricks! Come forth and face me like a man!"

"I would, except I'm not a man", I said with a growl as I made a few changes to Beast Boy's body. In addition to the kangaroo legs, the gorilla right arm, and the lobster left arm, I also added a crocodile tail, stegosaurus spikes on the tail, platypus ankle spurs, a great white shark fin, grizzly bear claws at the ends of my gorilla fingers, Texas long horn horns, wolf jaws, warthog tusks, a rhino horn, and my long serpent tongue. "I'm an animal", I continued before letting out a lion's roar.

"Whoa, since when can I do that", asked a half-weirded out-half-impressed Beast Boy. The Puppet King and I then rushed towards each other, thus beginning our rematch.

I began by leaping high into the air again with the intent of stomping on top of him. Just as he did before, the Puppet King dove out of the way. The Puppet King then throws his weapon at me, forcing me to shield my face with my lobster claw. Just as the blade had finished bouncing off of my claw, the Puppet King rushes at me with his shoulder leaning inward, and barrels into me, knocking the wind out of me in the process. As he continued to drive me backward, I fought back by wrapping my arms around him and kicking my right knee into his abdomen. Though my attack seemed to be working, as it stopped the Puppet King in his tracks, he countered by grabbing my knee and yanking it to the side, causing me to fall onto my back. I winced immediately as I landed on top of my shark fin. The pain was made even worse when the Puppet King stomped on my throat, causing me to grab at his foot in an attempt to pry it off.

"Honestly, Wolfman, is this the best that you can do? I expected more from you", gloated the Puppet King as his stomped on one of my ankle spurs with his other foot, breaking it in the process. I roared in pain in response. "Swear your allegiance to me, and maybe I will spare your friends."

"Never", I growled at him. I then shot out my tongue and wrapped it around his left fist. I then yanked it towards me as hard as I could, causing him to tumble forward. While he was still airborne, I lifted up the lower half of Beast Boy's body and double-kicked him square in the torso, sending him flying backwards yet again. Fortunately, this allowed me to rise onto my feet, though with a limp due to my broken ankle spur. Unfortunately, I had apparently kicked him back towards his weapon, as it was now in his hand upon recovering. "Ah, shit", I said to myself as I used my kangaroo feet to launch myself at him, my lobster claw poised in front of me like a sword as I did so. Once I was close enough to him, the two of us partook in yet another slash fight as his blade clashed with my claw. Eventually, we found ourselves in a power struggle as we pushed into each other.

"For a wolf, you seem to fail at listening", said the Puppet King before pushing me away from him and slicing off one of the horns on my head. Once again, I roared in response to the pain. "Now surrender", grunted the Puppet King.

"Apparently, you don't listen too well either", I retorted. The Puppet King, in a frustrated fit of rage, responded by lifting his Key Saber above his head and bringing it down on me. I responded to his obvious little outburst by catching the blade with my lobster claw.

"What", asked a shocked Puppet King. I then tracted the bear claws on my other hand and scratched his wrist, which combined with the grip I had on my lobster claw, caused him to lose his grip on his weapon, allowing me to throw it away from him with my serpent tongue. "No!" Before he had a chance to break away, I used my now free lobster claw to deliver a karate chop to his forehead, discombobulating him in the process and he was now too stunned to react. I took the opportunity to fight back by grabbing at his throat with my gorilla hand, swinging him around, and hurling him straight up into the air. While he was airborne, I leaped into the air once again. As I rose into the air, at a higher height than the airborne Puppet King, I did a brief somersault as I delivered my finishing blow.

"Tail Hammer", I growled as my crocodile-stegosaurus hybrid tail swatted the Puppet King out of the air and towards the ground, engulfing him in a cloud of dust upon impact. After landing on my feet, my ankle injury caused me to fall forward and rest on my gorilla hand, panting as I struggled to catch my breath.

"Duuuuude! I rock", exclaimed an excited Beast Boy.

"Way to go, Wolfman", added Robin.

"Hold on", began Raven. "Look there." It was at this point the Puppet King rose to his feet as the dust around him began to clear.

"Here we go again", I said to myself as I lunged at him.

"Enough", he shouted as his eyes began to glow white. Immediately afterward, a ghostly white aura fired out of his eyes at me. Upon making contact with it, I dropped to my knees and grabbed at my head as I roared in pain. The pain was so intense that I morphed back into Beast Boy's human form.

"The pain! Make it stop! Make it stop", I hollered. Though I initially refused to beg or submit to anyone as a rule, the pain inflicted by the Puppet King's magic was more than I could bear, and that was saying a lot. Over the years as an Elemental, I've been shot, electrocuted, stabbed, sliced, burnt, crushed, run over, blasted, chocked, punched, kicked, trampled, and frozen solid, but none of that compared to whatever it was the Puppet King did. Without exaggeration, it literally felt like my brain was going to explode inside of my head, and as an Elemental whose powers were typically linked to my brain, I can honestly say that it was the worst pain I had ever felt at that point.

"So, only now do you beg for mercy", taunted the Puppet King as he walked over and kicked me, forcing me onto my back. While I was there, I got an upside down view of Starfire and Cyborg as they struggled to keep the Crimson Strings at bay. For Starfire, it was due to being weakened by the Puppet King. As for Cyborg, he unfortunately wasn't as lucky as Starfire and I, so he was still struggling to find a system that worked when using Raven's powers.

"No", I groaned weakly upon seeing them being overpowered. I screamed in pain again as the Puppet King grabbed my attention with his weird aura-eye attack. With no energy or strength to try to roll away, I cringed and pulsed on the ground as the torture continued.

"How the mighty have fallen", taunted the Puppet King as he sent a pulse through his aura stream, causing me to temporarily scream louder.

"Wolfman", cried Raven, Robin, and Beast Boy.

"Yes, my dear children", began the Puppet King as he used the aura being fired at me to lift me above the ground, putting me on full display to the others. "You will all watch as I savor this moment. You will all watch as I end the life of this worthless, disobedient mutt. You will all watch as I banish this poor fool's soul to roam the Earth for eternity. He will have all the time in the world to think about how he failed to protect his friends, as the very world as he knows it crumbles around him", he said before sending another aura pulse into my brain. My screaming was made even louder because of it.

"Please stop", cried Raven. "I'll do whatever you want! Just please, let him go!"

"Wishful thinking, my dear. However, I'm afraid you're a bit too late. Any last words, Wolfman", asked the Puppet King. In a moment of desperation, I managed to cease screaming long enough to unleash one, loud-as-Hell howl. I howled for as long and hard as I could, causing my eyesight to become blurrier and blurrier, as I feared that I had met my end. "It's over, Wolfman", said the Puppet King as he used his aura to force me to look at him. "The world is mine to command!"

"Fuck, you", I groaned weakly with what I thought was going to be my final breath. Once again angered by my attitude, the Puppet King opened his mouth as wide as he could, as his ghostly white aura prepared to fire out of it as well. It was then that, out of seemingly nowhere, the Puppet King was attacked. From behind his back, through the tree-line of the meadow, came what appeared to be a small, blast of blue energy, shockingly similar to one of Cyborg's cannon blasts. It wasn't as powerful as Cyborg's blasts, but it was enough to break the Puppet King's concentration as his connection broke, causing me to fall to the ground.

"What was that", asked an annoyed Puppet King. "Who did that", he continued as he turned towards the tree-line. While lying on my stomach, I also looked towards the trees to see what it was that attacked my opponent. Due to the aura attack, my vision was so blurry that I could barely see the Puppet King, who was merely a couple of feet away from me, let alone the mystery attacker from several yards away. "Come on out and fight", demanded the now impatient Puppet King. The attacker responded by firing another energy blast at the Puppet King. This one was powerful enough to send him flying backwards. I could then here the sound of a large machine/vehicle crashing through the trees and into the meadow as it rushed at the Puppet King as I collapsed from exhaustion, though I did not blackout.

Rather than fall unconscious like I would usually do, I struggled to stay awake as my eyesight continued to fail me, as well as my hearing as the sounds of everyone's voices around me sounded muffled. I was so weak and groggy that I didn't even realize that I was being dragged away until another voice spoke directly to me.

"Kid! Kid, are you okay", asked the voice as I could feel something hitting the side of my face. This continued on for a bit until I became conscious enough to realize what was going on. The voice that dragged me away was Spike, and it was his hand slapping the side of my face in an attempt to wake me up. "Come on, Kid! Wake up! Wolfman!"

"Ugh, Spike", I groaned upon my vision finally returning. "What happened? Where's Cy and Starfire?"

"That depends, is Cyborg stuck in Raven's body?"

"Yeah."

"Then they're over there warding off the cloaks", said Spike as he motioned his head over to my friends, still engaged in battle.

"And Geoffrey?" Upon asking my question, I heard a loud crashing sound coming from behind Spike. The Puppet King was engaged in a fight with what appeared to be a crawling tower crane (though only a fraction of its average size), except instead of a cable and hook, the crane was instead equipped with a metal orb at the end of it, that fired electricity. "Awesome", I said with a chuckle upon observing the bizarre sparring match between a chubby redhead and a two-story tall machine.

"Hold it, Boss. Maybe you oughtta rest for now", suggested Spike when he noticed me trying to stand up.

"There's no time", I grunted as I managed to rise to my hands and knees. After taking a moment to gasp for air, I reached into my pocket. "Here, take this", I continued as I handed him the computer chip. "Guard it with your life. And when the time comes, return it back to me."

"Then why give it to me?"

"Stop questioning me and listen. We have to move quickly if we want to save the others."

"Alright, what do you need, Boss?"

"Unless we can finish off the drones, we are hopelessly outnumbered and distracted, so what I need you to do is even the playing field", I said as I pointed to the unconscious Fixit off to the side of the battlefield. "The Puppet King did something to him. Get him back online, he'll take care of the rest."

"Leave it to me", said Spike as he dashed away on his jet pack towards Fixit. Upon seeing him dash away, I caught a glimpse at the nearby cage that was harboring my swarm. The moths, particularly Lola, had looks of confusion on their faces, as if they recognized my voice despite me being in another's body.

"I'll save you guys", I said to them as I shot up and tried running to assist Fixit. My attempt ended up failing as my legs gave in, causing me to fall onto my face. Beast Boy's body had apparently been rendered so weak that simply standing up was proving to be difficult, let alone running.

"Wolfman", yelled Raven from off to the side in response to me collapsing.

"I won't quit on you, Raven", I muttered to myself as I started to crawl on my stomach. "Not now, not ever", I continued to myself as I continued forward. I paused for a brief moment upon seeing the crane, which was currently harboring Geoffrey, capsize on its size upon the Puppet King delivering an airborne kick to it (between the unestablished ghost powers of the Puppet King, and my knowledge of his host, I stopped questioning the defiance of logic at this point). "Geoffrey", I hollered, worried that he had been damaged. Upon seeing Geoffrey fall over, I begin having flashes of the last time Geoffrey fell into disrepair, which also caused me to think of my mother. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh", I roared in rage as I mustered up enough strength to morph once again.

"What's this", asked a shocked Puppet King upon seeing me transform into a two-story tall, two-legged, carnivorous, prehistoric lizard.

"Surprise, Bitch! I'm back", I roared at him. Well sort of, I thought to myself upon remembering the unfortunate fact that I was currently borrowing Beast Boy's tyranno form as opposed to utilizing my own.

"So, you've abandoned your chimera strategy, have you? I, the mighty Puppet King, have just taken down a machine of your size with my bare hands. What makes you think your little dinosaur test drive will fare any better than your mechanical friend did", he asks before leapt towards my face with his blade out in front of him. The typical response would be to open my jaws and snap at him. However, what the Puppet King didn't realize was that I was just as much a dinosaur as I was a werewolf, so I had several years of combat experience in this form just as I had with my default wolf form. Instead of open my jaws and snap at him, I bared my teeth and used them as a crude shield to block his attack. Once I did, I hit him downward with my chin, forcing him to crash into the ground. I then stomped on the ground next to him as hard as I could, causing him to shoot back up into the air a bit. And then finally, I swung my tail and swatted him backwards several yards.

This isn't a test drive, you fool, I thought to myself with a growl as I watched the Puppet King tumble along the ground. I then charged at him with a loud roar, shaking the ground with each step I took. Once I was close enough, I chomped at him as he lied on the ground, but he managed to roll out of the way as I bit into a mouthful of dirt. Upon my attack missing, the Puppet King then tried to swing his blade at me yet again, but failed once again as I caught it in my teeth. Upon noticing that he refused to let go of his blade, I lifted my head up and began swinging him around. I was about to hurl him straight into the air as I did last time, but was interrupted.

"Enough", shouted the Puppet King as his body once again became encased in his ghostly white aura. "Fist of the Puppet King", he continued as an aura projectile fired from his fist. Just before it collided with my face, the aura projectile took the form of the face of the king puppet from earlier, which I guessed was his true form. Upon the projectile hitting me square in the face, I lose my balance and fall onto my side.

"Copy cat", I groaned to myself in response to the Puppet King imitating my battle gimmick.

"Ah, I think you may be on to something, Wolfman", chuckled the Puppet King as he walked over to me. "Attack names make the concept of inflicting pain so much more fun. In fact, let us try it again. Fist of the Puppet King", he continued calmly as he repeated his attack, except from an even closer range. The resulting blast caused me to crash onto my stomach several feet away from him in Beast Boy's human form. "How does it feel, Wolfman", asked the Puppet King as he continued to taunt me as he walked over to me. "How does it feel to be knocked ten steps backward each time you feel you've taken one step forward?"

"Speaking of "ten steps backward"—", I began as I looked up and noticed where the Puppet King was positioned. He was merely a few feet away from where I needed him to be. Upon realizing that, I mustered up enough strength for one last attack as I morphed into a bull and charged at the Puppet King. After driving him backwards a few feet, the Puppet King fought back by driving his elbow into the back of my neck. Normally, an attack such as that wouldn't faze a bull, but due to my weakened state, the attack was enough to force me back into human form again as I once again fell onto my stomach.

"When will you learn", asked the Puppet King as he grabbed me by the back of Beast Boy's uniform and threw me backwards. After landing on my back, I slowly managed to sit myself up and face my opponent. "When will you learn that you can never outmuscle me. You can knock me around all you like, but I'm afraid it'll never wear me down", gloated the Puppet King as he pointed his weapon at me. As I sat there listening to him, I noticed where he was standing, as well as what was going on behind him. Upon noticing, I couldn't help but throw my head back and laugh.

"You still think that I'm trying to beat you with brute force", I chuckled at him. "You haven't a clue, do you?"

"Pardon?"

"Not only did I think you could kick my ass while in Beast Boy's body, but I planned that you would."

"What do you mean? Explain yourself", demanded the Puppet King.

"What I mean is, I'm not what you should be concerned about. I'm merely bait, and you fell for it", I said in reference to the fact that the Puppet King was now standing directly in the center of his Satanic circle.

"What?"

"Flight Pattern Lock-Down, now", I commanded. In response to my command, Lola lets out an angry shriek as she leads the swarm into an aerial assault against the Puppet King. One by one, the five mutated moths flew past the Puppet King, similar to how they did when I first met them. And just like how I did on that faithful day, the Puppet King fell victim to their trap as he stood in place trying to swing at the moths, completely oblivious to the fact that they were merely stalling.

"You'll much more than these abominations to contain me", hollered an annoyed Puppet King as he continued to swing and miss at the moths.

"Good, because I've got more for 'ya. Fixit, activate Spell Field!"

"What", gasped the Puppet King.

"Spell Field now activating", said Fixit from off to the side as he began to glow red (apparently I was correct in assuming that he would be able to keep the Crimson Strings at bay upon being freed). In response, the earth shook a bit as several lightning rod-like receptors shot out of the ground around the perimeter of the entire meadow. Once they arrived, the tops of them began to glow a pinkish-purple color, creating energy waves that were sent towards the center of the meadow, causing the Satanic circle to glow. In response to the Spell Field's energy waves, the Puppet King dropped to one knee and screamed.

"No! I will not allow this", hollered the Puppet King as he lifted his blade and prepared to fight back.

"Firing Lightning Generator", said Geoffrey as he rushed forward and zapped the Puppet King with a constant bolt of electricity, immobilizing him further as he dropped to both knees.

"Keep up the pressure", said Cyborg as he, Starfire, and Spike all formed a crude circle around the Puppet King and fired at him as well. Cyborg had apparently learned how to finally utilize Raven's dark powers (probably with the assistance of Starfire), and Spike was shooting at the Puppet King with what appeared to be two proton pistols, which explained what the small, blue energy blasts from before were. With my friends now successfully immobilizing the Puppet King, there was only one thing left to do. I let out a howl, signaling Kendall to take action. In response, four white lights appeared on the ground in the illustration on an eyeball, Kendall's trademark. One appeared under me, one appeared under Starfire, one appeared under Cyborg, and the last one appeared within the circle under the Puppet King.

"Starfire", I hollered to my friend, grabbing her attention. "Listen very closely and repeat after me! Use the powers of the Elemental of Darkness! Say, "Atlantis Auroros Motom"!"

"At once", replied Starfire before repeating my spell. "Atlantis Auroros Motom!" In response to her words, my aura began radiating from her body.

"You know what to do, Cyborg", I said to my other teammate.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos", he hollered as Raven's aura began radiating from his body.

"Nooooooooo", hollered the Puppet King as the magical energies of Kendall, Raven, and myself began affecting him.

"It's over, Puppet King", I said to him. "You lose!"

"NEVER", he hollered once more before sending out a shockwave with his ghostly aura. This resulted in creating a white light, which caused us to be thrown backwards as if the Puppet King had exploded. In response, I temporarily blacked out.

"God, I hate blackouts", I groaned as I slowly sat myself up. "Oh, my head", I whined as I placed my hand on the top of my head. "Wait a sec", I said upon realizing what I was touching. "A scruffy, mini afro", I asked aloud before observing my hands, and the dark skin that covered them. "Alright! It worked!"

"Not quite", said the Puppet King in a drastically altered voice, grabbing my attention. This was where our battle took a weird turn. In the live-action Scooby-Doo movie, the Shyamalan-style plot twist was that the evil mastermind behind the entire film was Scrappy-Doo, and the Daemon Ritus he used to steal souls wound up turning him into what was supposed to be a giant, more intimidating Scrappy. That said, Control Freak's body was at this point, also a giant Soto-sized monster, even to the point where, like Scrappy from the movie, looked and sounded strikingly like Pumbaa from "The Lion King". "This is far from over", he continues before pushing a button on one of Control Freak's wrists, as he was wearing some kind of an alternate remote-like device on his wrist like a gauntlet (again, with Control Freak, you learn not to ask questions). In response to the button being pushed, a large white hole opened up in the sky and created a white flash. Once the flash had passed, the Puppet King found himself standing a few yards with a fictional army consisting of a fleet of Mantis-droids from "Red vs. Blue" and/or "Halo", a swarm of "Killer Needle"s from "Yu-Gi-Oh!", that mechanical bull monster thing from "Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters", and the serpent tree dragon from "Maleficent". Also joining them was soulless Robin, as well as the now empty shells of both Raven and Beast Boy.

"Okay, seriously, what the fuck", I asked in disbelief. Even though it was typical behavior of Control Freak, it was still ridiculously trippy having to shatter the laws of fiction and reality every single time I got into a fight with him. In response to my outburst, the tree dragon rushed forward at me and roared as I remained seated underneath it. I was a little too much in awe to move, as the movie the dragon was pulled from was easily in my Top 5 List of Favorite movies of all time. Fortunately for me, my focus was brought back upon the dragon being blasted in the face by both a proton blast and a barrage of star bolts, allowing me to escape a few yards away from it towards the opposing team, which consisted of Cyborg, Starfire (both now back in their real bodies as well), Fixit, Lola, Nightmare, Grinder, Killer, Jiant, Geoffrey, and Spike.

"Wolfman, status report", said Cyborg as we all squared off with our enemies.

"We are outnumbered by a lot, hilariously outgunned, three members of our team are still missing their souls, and until we can get the Puppet King out of Control Freak's head, we are all royally screwed.

"I am saddened to say this, but I perhaps am beginning to miss the Control Freak", added Starfire. In response to Starfire's comment, Puppet King was temporarily replaced with an outburst from the real Control Freak.

"Ha! Hear that, Robin? She misses me! In your face", exclaimed Control Freak.

"Silence, you fool", retorted the Puppet King as he struggled to retain control over his host.

"Sir, it is as you suggested", began Geoffrey to me. "The Puppet King does not appear to have complete control over his host."

"I see", I replied as I watched the bizarre sight of the Control Freak essentially having an argument with himself. Hmmmm, I wonder if I can overtax it, I thought to myself before having an outburst of my own. "Hey, Lexi! The Puppet King may be a puppet, but it looks like you're the dummy", I taunted. As expected, Control Freak did not appreciate my comment in the least.

"MY NAME IS NOT LEXI! I AM CONTROL FREAK! OTHERS DO NOT COMMAND ME! I COMMAND THEM!"

"Get out of my head", argued the Puppet King.

"This is my head, you miserable pile of termite bait", retorted Control Freak. As I watched the two of the battle for control, I noticed that the Puppet King's hold on his host was growing weaker and weaker, though he still lacked the strength to break free.

"Whatever is going on in that head of yours, I want in", said Cyborg noticing that I was getting an idea.

"It's a bit of a gamble, but if it works, I might be able to force the Puppet King out of his mind."

"What do you require", asked Starfire.

"Chaos. Lots and lots of Chaos. Cyborg, where's—", I began before getting interrupted by one of the Mantis drones.

"Hostile forces detected", it said in a menacing, mechanical voice as it took a step forward. "Targets locked", it continued as it prepared to fire.

"Uh-oh", muttered Cyborg.

"Firing main—", began the drone before being interrupted as it got barfed on by a slimy projectile from off to our right. In response, we all turned to see the green alien dog from before rushing towards the fictional army, viciously barking all the way.

"Firing main cannons", repeated several other drones simultaneously as they all turned and began spreading a barrage of bullets at the dog.

"Look out", cried a worried Starfire. Much to our surprise, the dog merely zigzagged straight into the assault, continuing its path towards us as it continued to push forward.

"The mutt moves fast", commented Spike upon being as impressed with the canine's speed as we were. Once the dog was close enough, he shot out his tongue and wrapped it around one of the arms of one of the Mantis drones. He then swung from it in a large, wide circle, causing the selected drone to crash into multiple other drones, before releasing himself into the air. We were all about to cheer as the green canine began being dragged down by gravity, but he was then attacked yet again. As the airborne dog began to fall back to the ground, one of the "Killer Needle"s charged at him with its stinger poised for attack.

"Block it, Nightmare", I commanded, sending the red moth into action. With some lightning-fast speed on his part, Nightmare managed to rush at the giant insect, and intercept the attack by biting down on its stinger. Despite that however, it wound up being all for naught, as the mechanical bull intercepted the falling dog by headbutting him before hitting the ground. The poor canine let out a canine whine upon being struck as it was thrown onto his side at my feet. "Oh no, are you okay", I asked the dog as I picked him up in my arms and shook him slightly in an attempt to wake him up.

"What was he thinking rushing at them like that", asked Cyborg.

"Uh, Guys", said Spike as he pointed forward, drawing our attention back to the matter at hand. Upon us returning our focus, we noticed the tree dragon towering over us again, preparing to attack. Once again, the dragon was interrupted by another surprise guest.

"You hurt Doggy", hollered a familiar voice from off to our right as the ground began to shake as if a herd of elephants were stampeding into the meadow. We all then turned back to our right to see the large alien charging at the dragon. "SOTO PUNISH", hollered Soto as he rushed at the dragon and punched it square in the face, knocking it onto his side. In response, the drones and "Killer Needle"s all swarmed and surrounded Soto and the now unconscious dragon the laid beside him. "You make Soto angry! Soto smash you", he hollered again as he grabbed the dragon by its tail and began using it as a weapon as he flailed it at his enemies.

"I have no idea where that rock guy came from, but I am not complaining", said Spike, who I guess had never met Soto before.

"Right-o, then, it worked", said the dog cheerfully as he woke up and jumped out of my arms and onto his four paws.

"What the", I said shocked that the dog was now conscious and full of energy.

"What? Do dogs not play dead on your planet", asked the green dog with a chuckle.

"Did that not hurt you", asked Starfire.

"Of course it was painful. But you needed the extra muscle, and it was the only way I could get Soto to get involved. Now are we to do battle or not?" I couldn't help but smile at the dog. He had never ditched us. All this time he was luring Soto to us so that he could assist us.

"Right, first thing's first", I said as I looked back up at Soto, who was becoming more and more annoyed with the "Killer Needle"s.

"Soto not like you! You go now", he hollered at them.

"Lola, you stay here", I said to my Beta. "The rest of you, seek and destroy", I said as I pointed at the opposing insects. An epic sky war between giant bees and giant moths then ensued upon hearing my command as the four male moths rushed at their opponents with angry hisses. "Cyborg, what happened to that collar that was around my neck?"

"I don't know. I threw it away somewhere."

"Is it still in the meadow?"

"I didn't throw it very far, so I guess it should be."

"Find it, T-Bone", I said down to the dog.

"Who? Me", asked the slightly confused dog.

"What? Did I stutter?" The dog's tail began wagging in response to my question, as he was now happy to have finally been given a name.

"Not at all", he replied.

"Good, then fetch", I said as I pointed somewhere behind me. Without any further questions, T-Bone took off in search of the collar. "Go with him, Fixit. Once he finds it, I'll need you to get it back online."

"As you say", said Fixit with a bow before taking off after T-Bone.

"Starfire, see if a few rounds of star bolts will help drive the Puppet King out. And Cyborg, you take care of the drones."

"Say what? How am I supposed to take on a fleet space marine military robots?"

"Spike", I asked the mechanic. In response, Spike pulled the chip out of his pocket and tossed it to Cyborg. "That should help. Happy Birthday."

"Splendid, it is complete", said Starfire gleefully in response to Cyborg receiving the birthday gift we all pitched in to help get for him.

"Well alright then", said Cyborg with a grin as the mechanical side of his head flipped open, revealing a series of slots. He then inserts the chip into one of the slots and closes the side of his head. His blue circuitry and red, robotic eye then give off a brief flash as he begins morphing one of his arms into a cannon, but with a twist. This cannon had two fork-like receptors at the end of the barrel, and a scope on top to help aim. "Boo-yah", hollered Cyborg as he fired his new weapon at one of the drones. Instead of the usual stream of blue energy, the cannon fired a single orb of light green energy (to the point where it looked almost identical to a star bolt), causing the drone to explode instantly upon making contact.

"Whoa-ho", chuckled Spike. "Looks like Cyborg upgraded to a plasma cannon."

"And check out what else I can do", said Cyborg as his body prepared to show off more upgrades. His other arm became cloaked in electricity as it began sparking. It then also turned into a cannon and fired four metal grappling claws, each attached to a thick, metal wire. The four claws then attached themselves to another drone, just before electricity was sent through the wires. "Nice. I've been trying to perfect my taser cables for months."

"Satisfied", I asked.

"You better believe it", said Cyborg as four wheels appeared on the bottoms of his feet. Four tiny hatches then opened up on the backs of his shoulder blades and calves to act as exhaust ports.

"And what do you require of us", asked Geoffrey. Just before I could answer his question, the empty shells of the other Titans all stepped forward, preparing for battle.

"It'll be a three-on-three sparring match", I said to Geoffrey, Lola, and Spike. "Draw their fire, and try not to rough up their bodies too much. Any questions?"

"Nope", said Spike.

"At the ready, Sir", added Geoffrey. Lola also chimed in with an eager hiss.

"Shall we proceed, Wolfman", asked Starfire.

"After you, Cyborg", I said to the metal Titan.

"Alright, then", he began. "Teen Titans, go", he shouted as the power source that his body runs on began firing out of his exhaust ports (simulating tiny, blue flames) and helped propel him forward, ultimately giving him a rocket boost as he skated towards the opposing army. The others all followed his lead as Starfire flew towards Control Freak and proceeded to attack, while Lola, Spike, and Geoffrey turned their attention to the shells of our teammates. With everybody occupied, I snuck away to the Shadow Zone as I opened a portal beneath my feet and sank into it. Once there, I snuck underneath all of the fighting over towards Starfire and Control Freak.

Wolfman, wait, interjected Kendall to me telepathically.

What is it, Kendall?

I know what you are up to.

Then you should also know that there's no point in trying to talk me out of it.

But a Spirit Call is too dangerous. You'll never be able to control such powerful magic without severe consequences.

"If it saves Raven's soul from an eternity of slavery, I don't care", I said aloud with a roar before leaping out of the Shadow Zone. Once I did, I used my aura to levitate in midair above Control Freak, still arguing with the Puppet King while simultaneously enduring abuse from Starfire, while I began to meditate. As I did so, I began chanting out a Spirit Call, the same spell the Puppet King used to sacrifice his followers. "Peta, neru, mairen seshian. Peta, neru, mairen seshian", I repeated over and over and over again, hoping that my gamble would pay off.

There were a few reasons why a Spirit Call was a dangerous gamble to use. The first reason was because it had a huge strain on both the mind and body, making it a difficult spell to cast for even the most experienced of magicians. Another reason was because it was one of the seven spells deemed so powerful by my master, that he made me swear to him that I would avoid casting them at any cost. And finally, and ultimately the most important reason, was because of how a spirit call operated. What I was basically doing was calling upon any and all nearby spirits in the area that happened to be trapped in the physical world, and asking them to bond with me and lend me their power. That wouldn't be such a bad thing, if it weren't for the fact that there was no filter to keep evil spirits from bonding with me, meaning, that I was risking being possessed and corrupted by an evil spirit just as the Control Freak was. As I continued to verbally chant my mantra, I was mentally begging for assistance from anyone willing to help.

Please, I beg of you. If anyone is out there, I desperately need your help. Alone, my magic is futile, but together, we may be able to defeat this evil ghost, and free these innocent souls. In the name of the Elementals, I call upon thee. As I continued to plea and cry for help (I think I was secretly hoping to receive assistance from the woman in the white cloak), one spirit finally responded with a sinister chuckle. He neither greeted me, introduced himself, or mentioned his motives. He simply entered my mind and temporarily took over, casting a spell of his own as I noticed he seemed to have a sort of European accent of some kind.

Necronom Hezberek Mortix, said the voice in my head. In response to his spell, I began screaming in pain once more as my aura poured out of my eyes, just as the Puppet King did. In addition, upon being showered in my aura, both the Puppet King, and Control Freak began screaming in pain as well as they both dropped to their knees. My attack was so intense that it felt as though my very life force was being sucked out of my body for every ounce of my aura being poured from my eyes. While that was going on, the Puppet King was getting his just desserts alongside Control Freak as it was now their minds at risk of exploding inside Polinski's head.

"Wolfman, that is too much", hollered Starfire over the screaming. "You must stop!"

"I, can't", I groaned through the pain.

"But he will surely die if you do not!"

"But, I, can't", I replied.

"You must", she repeated as she flew up to me and grabbed at one of my arms. "Stop this now, Wolfman!" It was at this point I could feel my aura spiking as it began rushing up my throat.

"Help me", I hollered desperately just before I began gagging as if I was in the process of vomiting, permanently. As that was going on, my aura continued to erupt as it was now pouring out of my open mouth as well. In response, the Puppet King and Control Freak's screams got a whole lot louder as they began thrashing around on the ground. It was then then I could hear my heartbeat beginning to die as it began beating slower, and quieter. No, this can't be, I thought to myself as I had grown so weak at this point that I could no longer feel the pain anymore. It was if my body had accepted its fate, and was preparing to die.

"Starfire, look out", hollered Cyborg from off to the side. The last thing I remember before blacking out for about the millionth time was Starfire releasing me, Cyborg shooting me out of the air with a plasma blast, and crashing onto the ground.

As I lied unconscious, my head began flashing a series of eerie and menacing images. Images of demons, bloodshed, fire, stone statues, feathers, eyeballs, a dragon, a blizzard, skulls, and death swam through my head over and over again, while the sounds of innocent people screaming accompanied them. Over the screaming, the voice of the European spirit spoke to me again.

Under moonlight, one shall be dead. The Beast of Shadow, or the Dragon of Dread. In response to the spirit's words, I began sensing the presence of the cloaked woman as the horrific images began to be consumed by a blinding, white light. The last sound I remember hearing, before the light brought the nightmare to an end, was the angry sound of an elephant trumpeting. After that, I found myself beginning to awaken, kind of.

I was fully conscious at this point, as feeling began returning to my body, reminding me that I was lying on my back, but I couldn't move. I couldn't wiggle my toes, I couldn't twitch my nose, I couldn't flex my fingers, I couldn't even open my eyes. My body was completely frozen, as I feared that I might have rendered my body catatonic. The only thing that kept me from screaming in an internal panic, was the comforting sounds of my friends through the darkness of the backs of my eyelids.

"Is he okay", asked Starfire.

"He's alive", replied Raven as she began encasing my body in her healing, white aura. I could feel her hands on the sides of my face.

"But he is not moving."

"True, but his brain activity is rather high", replied Fixit.

"Perhaps he is merely resting", suggested T-Bone. "You cannot blame him for that."

"I second that", began Spike. "I'm tired, and I barely did a thing."

"Master Wolf's last attack took a rather large, traumatic toll. I'm detecting signs of cellular injury due to low blood perfusion", said Fixit.

"Uh, can you say that again, but in English", asked Beast Boy.

"He's in a state of shock, Beast Boy", translated Raven. "He just needs some time to recover."

"Then I know just the thing", said Beast Boy.

"You know how to awaken the Wolfman", asked Starfire.

"Sure I do. I saw it in a movie once", he replied. The next thing I know, life is scared back into my body as I "wake up" to a green sasquatch roaring in my face. As I clutch at my jump-started heart, struggling to catch my breath after being horribly startled, Beast Boy lets out a loud-as-Hell victory roar upon his plan to wake me up succeeding.

"He lives", cheered a relieved Starfire as she looked down at me.

"Told you I could wake him up", gloated Beast Boy as he also looked down at me.

"You okay, Kid", asked Spike. Without answering, I began trying to sit up.

"Easy", said Raven as she assisted me with her hands on my shoulders. I took a moment to grin back at her before speaking.

"Did we win", I asked with a groan. "What happened? What happened to the Puppet King?"

"The Soto happened", said Starfire as she pointed up at the sky. As she did so, Soto's ship came into view as it slowly cruised over the meadow. It was then that the bottom of the ship opened up, revealing a see-through window floor. Through the window, I saw Soto waving "goodbye" to us with one hand, while the king puppet from earlier squirmed in his opposite arm, wearing the black collar around its neck.

"Is that—", I started to ask upon seeing Soto's newest hostage.

"It sure is", said T-Bone as he and the others waved "goodbye" back to Soto, basically spelling out for me what happened after I passed out. My last attack was apparently a success as the Puppet King was now forced out of Control Freak's head, which forced him to retreat to the king puppet, which now acted as his body. Once that happened, Fixit then trapped him in that body with the collar, as he must've been successful in repairing it. "It was a trade of sorts", continued T-Bone, implying that the Puppet King was traded to Soto in exchange for his freedom.

"Seems fair", I chuckled as I also began waving to Soto. The ship's bottom then closes up, concealing the window. Seconds later, it dashes away into the sky with hypersonic speed, breaking the sound barrier as it exited Earth's atmosphere.

"And don't come back", hollered Beast Boy, who seemed to be the most relieved that Soto was gone. I chuckled at his enthusiasm a bit before speaking again.

"Now that that's over with, where are the others?"

"He's waking up", said Cyborg from behind us. We all turned to see him, Robin, Geoffrey (back in the body of Cyborg's robot clone), and the moths all hovered around Control Freak as he lied on his back, now also starting to wake up. "Rise and shine, Buttercup." Upon waking up to the sight of the Teen Titans, Control Freak responded by jumping to his feet, stepping away from them, and striking a kung-fu-style battle pose upon realizing his was missing both his remote, and his blade.

"What are you nimrobs doing here?"

"That's the "thanks" we get for saving your sorry butt", Cyborg began to ask as he pointed at him, "not that you deserved it." It was at this point I opened another portal to the Shadow Zone and sank into it.

"Who asked to be saved", asked an ungrateful Control Freak in response.

"You haven't changed a bit", I said to him as I rose up out of the Shadow Zone behind him in my beast form. "Gratitude was never your best feature."

"You", growled a now furious Control Freak as he pointed at me dramatically. The very sight of my beast form made his blood boil.

"Long time, no see, Polinski. How long has it been? Six years? Who knew you ended up in California of all places?"

"You have a lot of nerve using that form in front of me."

"It's nice to see you, too", I retorted sarcastically.

"Piss off, you traitor."

"Takes one to know one", I retorted.

"I would rather burn in Hell than be saved by you."

"If it were up to me, I would've trapped the Puppet King in your body and give you both to Soto. My moral obligation as a Titan is the only reason why you're even here right now, so believe me, the feeling is mutual."

"I promised that you would pay for the way you betrayed me. And you will bow to me", he hollered as he pointed at me again. I chuckled again before responding, as it was hilariously ridiculous that he was demanding me to bow after the Puppet King had just spent several hours trying to get me to do the same thing.

"Sorry, but the ground here is kinda dirty, Lexi", I taunted smugly. The mentioning of the embarrassing nickname I gave him only made him angrier.

"Then you will bow in pieces", hollered Control Freak as he began rushing at me with a clenched fist.

I don't think so, I thought to myself as I lifted my right paw and pointed it at him. "Shadow Pulse", I shouted briefly as I fired a small shockwave out of my paw. Upon making contact, the attack threw Control Freak back onto his back, rendering him unconscious once again. "It'll be a cold day in Hell before I bow to the likes of you", I said aloud as I Changed back into my human form.