A/N: This story is already receiving so much positive attention and I really appreciate it guys! So this episode is similar to the episode the last chapter was based on in the sense that the team is just in a rather normal bind, no backstory stuff or anything. Still trying to get my footing in this so won't be doing anything with that stuff just yet.
Thx!
AMM
I jolt to awareness with a gasp, all of my senses trying to cram my mind as I try to remember what happened. Last thing I can recall is snuggling with Raven on the couch in the community room. Starfire had been doing whatever in her room and Cyborg and Beast Boy was inventing some kind of game on the roof. It had been the perfect afternoon for Raven and I to get some peace and quiet outside of our rooms. I remember getting drowsy and falling asleep, feeling Raven follow suit.
As I take in the room around me, I realize that my hands and legs are bound to a chair. Struggling seems to be getting me nowhere but it doesn't stop me from trying. I glance to my left and sure enough the rest of the team is there, all waking up as well. Raven's right beside me followed by Cyborg then Star and Beast Boy.
Realizing they're all stuck as well, they begin to struggle, testing their bonds. Each of us has different things holding us to the chairs. Magical forces of some kind surround the girls, each seeming to mess with their powers, while Cyborg is contained in solid steel and Beast Boy is being held down with some kind of elastic.
"Am I the only one who has no idea where we are?" Beast Boy pipes up, looking across at us with an arched eyebrow but Raven continues to look forward. I follow her line of sight to the top of the staircase in front of us. Sure enough, a figure stands against the harsh light through the doorway and a voice echoes down into the room.
"You're in school!" The figure jumps forward and slides down the railings, landing directly in front of us and revealing himself. He has bright red hair, a sports coat with the English flag on it, and a cane with a large ruby on the end of it along with rectangular glasses that sit on the end of his nose and a British Accent to match his patriotic jacket. "That's right, lad and lovelies! You're the only students at Mad Mod's Institute for Bratty Teenage Do-Gooders. And it's high time someone taught you some sprogs a lesson." He growls, shoving the end of his cane in our faces as it sparks with electricity.
He pulls back only to dance around in front of us and swing his cane all over the place, sparks still flying off the end of it while we all struggle.
"Titans! Move!" I order and they all struggle harder but nothing seems to work. Raven's eyes are glowing white but nothing's happening. Cyborg strains against the steel, Starfire tries to lifts her hands but cannot and Beast Boy shifts through different animals trying to get loose. Mod seems completely calm as we all fight, confident in his chairs.
"My powers are useless!" Raven grunts and Mad Mod approaches her chair.
"Specially designed chairs, love," he tells her and she snarls at him, teeth gritted and eyes squinted in disgust as he leans closer, right in her face. "Can't have those nasty superpowers disrupting my lecture, now can I?" By now, he's nearly touching her and I can see her getting more upset and uncomfortable by the second.
"Get away from her!" I shout, struggling even harder against my restraints. He throws the cane right in my face, a bell sounding as the electricity, which I just noticed turned off, coming back on. I can feel small zaps against my face as he leans over towards me, his face hovering right above the sparking stick but seemingly unaffected by it.
"Now don't get your knickers in a twist, my little snot!" He leans away and his cane turns off. "I didn't go through all the trouble of building this school and filling your tower with knockout gas just to finish you off lickety-split."
"Then what do you want?" Raven asks as Mod paces in front of us.
"Just what I said, dearie. To teach you lot a lesson!" he shouts into her face, leaning close once again but quickly leaning away and turning towards the far wall. "Yes, I've been watching you children misbehave. And I hate misbehaving children." He groans, dragging a hand down his face. The bell sounds again a photo of Rae and Cyborg fighting Lighting and Thunder appears along with a picture of Starfire and I holding cats after she dragged me to a local animal adoption that got out of hand. The cats had gotten scared so we'd gotten them down from trees. That had been a….fun….day…..
And lastly, a picture of Beast Boy seeming to pull down someone's underwear as a dog flips over as Mad Mod continues to rant. "Fighting crime, saving lives, interfering with the plans of hardworking villains-why you are nothing but a lot of troublemakers! But you'll learn your place soon enough. I'm older then you so I'm bigger, badder, and better."
Cyborg seems to get caught up on the whole age thing. I've come to let it go but he doesn't like other people rubbing it in if they're older then him. "Say wha-owww!" Mod whacks him in the head with his cane, effectively silencing Cyborg.
"You're in my world now and you won't be gettin out till you've learned some proper respect!"
"We will get out!" I promise him. "And when we do-" I'm cut short by a stereotypical school bell ringing somewhere in the building.
Mod shakes his head before smirking at us. "Oh my, there's the bell, my duckies. Off to class," he solutes as the floor drops from beneath our chairs.
I fall through the floor and land hard against the floor, my head snapping back against the chair. I thankfully don't tip over as I shake myself back into reality, glancing around the room. It's rather bare. There are two statues of Mod in the corners and a giant blackboard in front of me but nothing else lines the pale green walls or obnoxious checkered floor and ceiling.
The chalkboard animates itself, Mod being drawn in chalk and beginning to speak to me.
"Now how can I teach you anything if you won't sit still and listen?" A hand-like device grabs ahold of my head, pulling back against my forehead and applying pressure when I struggle. "One of my hypno screens ought to get your attention! And it will erase everything else in your brain as well!" The chalkboard disappears and hypnotic swirls replace it. I continue fighting against the claws of the device holding my eyes open and try not to look at the screen.
I can't let him hypnotize me. If Mod's figured out ways to neutralize the team's strengths, I have to get out of here to help. Who knows what else he's capable of?
I glance around and notice all of the walls have turned into hypno screens. There's nothing in this room but me, the hypnotic walls, two statues of Mod in the corners, and me in this chair. I jerk my head away and feel myself wobble. Getting the idea to tip, I rock back and forth until the chair goes sailing down to the ground, breaking one of the cuffs holding my hand. Seeing that the lock to the cuff is easily breakable, I quickly pick my way out of it and smash the other one off of my left hand, the grip of the device on my head immediately slackening and the cuffs around my legs popping open. I grab the nasty device off of the back of the chair and chuck it at one of the screens, creating a tear as the projections disappear.
"Naughty snotty!" Mod's voice echoes throughout the room as I rub at my wrists. "If you're going to destroy school property, school property is going to destroy you." I stand from my spot on the floor as a large rocket tears through the hole I made with the device from earlier.
"Right then, count along with Moddy!" The two statues in the corners begin moving, lasers coming out of their eyes and saws popping out of their ears. "Ten, nine, eight," both statues fire at me but I quickly dodge out of the way, jumping behind one of them as the other fires at me, destroying it. "Seven, six, five," I push the broken statue out of the way and dive through part of the wall as Mod finishes counting down, forgetting about the other statue. "Four, three, two, one!" I run as fast as I can and nearly escape the detonation but the force still knocks me off of my feet.
Righting myself, I notice that I appear to be in some sort of confusing optical illusion. It simply makes no sense.
"There goes my shot at perfect attendance." I mutter to myself when Mod speaks again.
"Don't be so sure, my little ducky." I look around me and notice Mod to my right, standing at the end of the cone shaped illusion. "You may be out of the classroom, but class is never dismissed. I run towards him but he manages to run along the cylindrical shape of the illusion and end up on the ceiling. I jump for him as he runs over me.
"Next lesson, physics! What goes up stays up!" He laughs at me before running off.
"Until I take it down!" I chase after him and next thing I know, we're in a stairwell reminding me of Penrose stairs. They come from every direction and go every which way without either Mod or I falling. I chase him out of the stairwell only to be in yet another optical illusion with him hanging from the ceiling once more. However, I go to jump for him and end up falling as if I were the one on the ceiling. Mod jumps over me and I quickly recover, getting back up to chase him once more.
We run from optical illusion to optical illusion, Mod managing to run through things that I smack into but I don't waste time trying to figure out as I pursue him.
I bust through a closed door to see I'm back where I woke up, Mod whistling to grab my attention from the top of the staircases.
"You may as well chuck in the sponge, laddie! You can't catch the likes of me!"
Taking the bait, I run up the railing of the first stairwell and jump onto the steps of the next one, Mod sounding some sort of bell as I begin to run up the stairs only to find they're moving under me like a fast escalator, keeping me in one spot.
"Now, what did I tell you? Children these days won't listen to their elders! They have to learn everything the hard-hey!" he yells as I narrowly miss him with a birdarang. "No throwing things while the teacher is speaking!" I launch a grappling hook for the railing right in front of him and let it pull me off the steps and towards him. Mod turns and runs through the doors behind them and as I bust through them, my heart sinks, seeing I'm back at the bottom of the staircases, Mod nowhere in sight.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I groan in exasperation when I hear a scream that sounds like Starfire.
I run through one of the doors to find myself in a library maze, Starfire's yells echoing throughout the room. I see a ladder leading up the shelves and climb to the very top, spotting a hypno screen and taking the guess that that's where Star is.
"I will not read your book of meanness and swirls!" Star shouts rebelliously.
"Now, now, love. It's for your own good!" Mod's voice reverberates throughout the room. "Nothing teaches discipline and respect like a brain erasing trance."
The ceiling opens up above the screen as I race across the tops of the bookshelves, a large OVERDUE stamp dropping out of the opening.
"Besides, if you won't stop squirming, I won't stop squashing!" The stamp slams to the ground and pulls back up, dropping pieces of debris before moving forward and slamming down again.
I get to her section of the library just in time to knock her out of the way of the large stamp and keep her from getting crushed. While she's on the floor, I take the chance to break open the cuffs holding her hands, which stops the chair from nullifying her powers. Is Raven being held as hostage as Star? Is she injured or close to because of Mod's magic chairs?
"Are all schools on your planet this horrible?" Star asks, bringing me out of my thoughts, and I smirk as she floats up into the air, starbolts ready.
I don't answer her, though, as books fly off the shelves and release missiles from their spines. I climb up the shelves but one of the books explodes next to me, causing me to lose my grip and fall. Star quickly swoops back down and grabs my hand before flying up over the bookshelves, letting me go once we're on top so she can fire starbolts at the remaining books. We quickly duck through the exit door and push against it as we hear the books explode on the other side. I'm not surprised to see we've stepped into another optical illusion and decide to just start walking. I need to find Raven. The thought of her being hurt or worse is twisting up my insides.
"Robin, I wish to thank you for saving me from-"
"Don't thank me yet, Mad Mod still has us right where he wants us. I know we could take him if we could just get our hands on him but every time we get out of one trap-" I stop at Starfire's gasp. I look back at her and see numerous statues have appeared from black stripes in the illusion. My shoulders drop in aggravation. "There's another one waiting." Star flies past me and I follow after her, dodging the destruction from the statues when we suddenly begin falling, dropping through a spot in the floor only to land in a chemistry classroom.
"It's no good procrastinating, really. Because sooner or later you'll both end up like him!" Mod claims victoriously as we spot Beast Boy tied to his chair, effectively hypnotized by one of Mod's screens. As we approach him, I spot a dunce cap sitting on his head and drool dribbling from his mouth as he makes groaning noises and watches the screen blankly.
"Model student, that one! Lovely! Sits there, quietly, never thinks about misbehaving. Matter of fact, he never thinks at all!"
I quickly get to work on breaking him out of his cuffs as Starfire tries to snap him out of his trance. "Beast Boy, awaken! Your friends are here!" She pulls the dunce cap off and looks at it curiously before tossing it aside and snapping her fingers in his face. "Beast Boy?" I manage to break his cuffs in time to see Starfire look up at the screen and raise her fists, prepared to break the screen.
"Wait!" I grab her wrist. "Trust me!" Her starbolts sizzle out as the stoppers on all of the chemicals pop off and the chemicals begin to overflow. One in the very back, a vile yellow cover, spills all the way over and melts everything it touches. I pull Beast Boy from his chair and shove him into Star's arms.
"He's your hall pass. I'll meet you outside." I jump on the back of the chairs in order to avoid the goo and practically surf my way to the door. Starfire's waiting for me at the door and the minute I clear it, she slams it shut, propping Beast Boy against the bottom of the stairs. As soon as we're sure the acid isn't going to burn through the door, we both look to our teammate. Star lowers herself to her knees beside him.
"Beast Boy? It is I, Starfire, your friend! Please, speak to me! Beast Boy!" she shouts in his ear before shaking him and knocking on his head. "Beast Boy!" she shouts louder then the only warning I get before she screams it loud enough to wake Alfred in Gotham, is the giant gasp. I barely have time to plug my ears.
"Uh, Star, I don't think that's working," I point out the obvious in hopes she'll quit yelling.
"But we must do something or he will remain this way forever!" Beast Boy sways back and forth before collapsing against Starfire, a large trail of drool already dripping down her stomach and onto her skirt when I hear a door slam shut.
"Mad Mod!" I tell her before ducking behind the stairs. She grabs Beast Boy and ducks behind me.
"We'll hide here and then take him by surprise." I look around the banister of the stairs when Beast Boy begins groaning and grunting again. "Anyway to keep him quiet?" I ask Star and she nods, slapping her hand over his mouth before gagging as the drool seeps through her fingers. I see a shadow approach and just as I swing around the corner, I find I'm hovering in thin air, caught in my jump, a familiar black energy surrounding my middle while two familiar forms stand at the end of Star's arms, one pointing his sonic cannon back at her. I look down and realize my foot is just short of Cyborg's head and Star's starbolts are mere inches away from Raven's hood. Starfire quickly drops her arms and clasps her hands.
"Cyborg! Raven! How delighted we are to see you!" Cyborg quickly puts his cannon away and Raven gently lowers me to the ground. I pull her into a quick hug before pulling back and glancing between the three of them.
"This place is making me crazy!"
"Tell me about it! Mad Mod's computer lab nearly wiped out my hard drive!" Cyborg admits when Star glances curiously at Rae.
"Where did our captor send you?"
Raven pulls back her cape to reveal a form fitting tank top and basketball shorts that could pass as the once she steals from me to sleep in along with wrist bands, a pair tall socks and sneakers.
"Gym," she drawls before her magic encases her body and her uniform returns and she drops her cape.
"Anybody seen BB?" Cy asks just as Beast Boy comes inching around the corner, scooting on his chest and knees like a worm or slug, trailing drool behind him. He passes by our feet and turns around Raven, scooching behind us as well.
"Mad Mod's hypno screens did this. We can't snap him out of it! We've tried everything!"
Cyborg looks at him for a moment before moving him into a sitting position. "Did you try this?" he leans down and burps loudly in Beast Boy's ears, Beast Boy snapping from the trance to laugh. Cyborg smiles proudly as he stands back up.
"Nice one!" Beast Boy compliments before standing up and looking around. "Uh, how did I get here and why am I covered in drool?" he asks, glancing down at his soaked uniform.
"Wonderful!" Starfire bounces on the balls of her feet excitedly, hands clasped together again. "Now all we need is to locate an exit."
"Or just keep blasting till we make one," Cyborg suggests, smirking and loading his cannon.
"Easy! Last thing I smashed tried to smash me back. I'm sure this whole place is booby-trapped."
"Then how are we supposed to get out?" Beast Boy asks.
"We're not," Raven speaks up. "Mad Mod's just going to keep messing with us until…." Seeing where she's going, I finish her thought.
"We mess with him." She nods. "That cane of his controls everything in here. We take the cane,"
"We take control," Cyborg catches on.
"And take him down!" Beast Boy says, smiling sinisterly. "Oh I'll find him. That demented doofus is never hypnotizing me again." He claims as he stalks towards the staircase just for a painting to pop off the wall and hypnotize him.
Star runs forward to catch him as he begins to fall over.
"Oh, come on! Won't you lot ever learn?" Mod asks as pops out of the floor. "You're in my world, my duckies! You can't win." Then he turns and bolts through the door behind him.
"Titans, go!" I shout and Cyborg, Rae, and I all take off after him.
"But how do I-" Starfire starts before Cy cuts her off.
"Make him laugh!"
Moments later, Star is flying in after us with Beast Boy hot on her trail. We chase Mod through numerous illusions again throughout the building, Mod always remaining one step ahead of us.
We get to a hall of doors where going into one just spits you out of another when I notice Mod disappear at the end of the hall, nothing there but a statue. I approach it and feel around before tipping the head back and flipping a switch. The wall slides open and deposits us in another hallway of doors but at the end, there's an opening revealing what looks to be outside. We all stop and stare at it hesitantly, unsure if it's real or another trick.
"No way," Raven speaks up, seeming to read our minds.
"Is that what I think it is?" Beast Boy asks.
"One way to find out." We approach the opening and the birds chirping grow louder.
"Looks like the real deal," Cyborg comments as we get right up to the opening only to fall through it. I feel Cyborg on my leg and Beast Boy on my arm, Star's hand pushing up against my foot, and Raven's chest is pressed into my back as we all look up o see that we're just back where we started.
"No!" Cyborg cries out for all of us and I slam my hand on the floor as everyone begins to stand up. I try not to focus on Raven's body heat and curves leaving me and instead attempt to focus on how the hell we're supposed to get out of here.
"We're right back where we started!"
"Of course you are, my duckies. " Mod says smugly, a piece of the floor turning over to reveal him. He thumps his cane on the ground and the piece of floor flies up towards the ceiling. "Class is over and you lot haven't learned a thing. As a failing grade for each bloomin' one of ya, there's only one thing for it." The doors behind us slam closed. "You'll have to repeat the entire lesson!" He shouts out as the walls fall away and a giant hypno screen starts from behind him. Each of out restraining chairs pop out of the ground along with more statues that all roll towards us.
Beast Boy doesn't stand a chance, immediately being hypnotized and falling into Raven who naturally reaches out to catch him. He hangs from her and she struggles to hold onto him at the weird angle his body has slumped.
The statues close in on us as Mod stands from above. "Time for class, my duckies! Everyone back to your seats!"
"Titans! Get that cane!" I call out as the statues begin to attack. Raven puts a shield around herself, as she can't help much with Beast Boy in her arms. The rest of us go tearing through the statues.
"Hey! No roughhousing! Do I have to separate you lot?" he pushes a button on his cane and the tiles of the floor begin to rise, blocking our paths from getting to Mod. I come close to getting Mod but he jumps out of the way last minute. I glance down at my team to see how they're doing just in time to watch Cyborg pull Raven's hood back, put his finger in his mouth and stick it in her ear. I try not to laugh as Raven grits her teeth and drops Beast Boy, pushing Cyborg away and pulling her hood back up. Beast Boy laughs from the floor, having woken up from his trance as Raven glares at both of them.
I jump back into action in time to watch Star get grabbed after kicking a statue into the wall, tearing the screen. Then Cyborg goes down from behind after being electrocuted in the back. Raven's chair grew arms or something and grabbed her upper arms, pulling her back in the chair, her powers doing nothing to it, as she's strapped down. A large screen appears in front of Beast Boy as Cyborg is secured in his chair. Beast Boy looks away, desperate not to be hypnotized again but it only takes a few minutes for him to fall back into a trance.
I jump onto Mod's platform and he somehow manages to dodge me each time before hovering over his cane.
"Oh, give it a rest, snotty. You've already lost!" he gestures to the team as I glance down and see Starfire and Beast Boy being pulled into their respective chairs. I run for Mod's exposed cane but as I go to grab it, it fazes right through my arm. I roll to the edge of the platform and look back to see Mod smirking down at me. But I ignore him. The can isn't real. Which means Mad Mod is just as fake as everything else in here. I run straight through Mod's hologram and jump towards the tear Star put in the screen earlier. I crawl into the space and begin yanking on wires and tearing through panels before coming out into a dark space with numerous computer screens and an old man backing away from his smoking control panel.
"My machines! That meddling little snot will pay-" Mod turns around and walks right into me. I grab his jacket lapels and pull him towards me, glaring him down. He reaches up and nervously adjusts his glasses. "H-hello governor,"
"School's out, Mod. And you're looking at about twenty years of detention." He grimaces as I pull him behind me. Tossing him out to the other titans who all scowl and tower over him, arms crossed. I tie him up while Cy locates the exit. He finds the ladder and climbs up, pushing the pothole aside to reveal the sky. He climbs out and Raven follows behind him, I follow her and try to keep my eyes out from underneath her cloak as Star tosses Mod up out of the hole before grabbing Beast Boy and flying out.
"Oh, yeah! This is definitely the real deal," Cyborg basks in the breeze.
"School always seems smaller after you graduate, doesn't it?" I ask teasingly.
"Just don't expect me to go to any reunions," Rae retorts, making me smile.
"Oh, I cannot awaken Beast Boy! I have tried tickling, all manner of bodily noises, and the word underpants! I fear this time, his brain is gone forever!"
Rae arches an eyebrow and glances at the green changling. "If Beast Boy had a brain," Beast Boy springs to life, laughing hysterically as we all turn and walk away.
"Good one!" He tells her as he stands to follow before realizing it was an insult. "Dude! That's not funny! I totally have a brain! I just don't use it much," he admits as he chases after us, Mod hanging over Cy's shoulder. I grab Rae's hand as we walk towards the edge of the oilrig we're on and continue holding her hand when the black energy envelops us and spits us out on the tower's roof. We glance to Mod who's shaking like a leaf against Cyborg's shoulder, clearly freaked out by Raven's sudden teleportation.
"You get used to it," I say to him with a shrug. It took me a couple times to finally accept it and ignore it. Cy heads down through the tower and a few minutes later I spot the T-Car driving away towards the city with Mod strapped in, no doubt.
"Alone time," I smile at her and she rolls her eyes but tugs on my hand as we descend from the roof and enter her room. She unclasps her cape and releases my hand, flopping down on her bed with a sigh. I chuckle at her and undo my own cape, remove my gloves, and kick off my boots, removing hers as well before settling a little more elegantly on the bed. I pat the spot beside me and Raven groans before crawling up the bed and flopping across my chest.
She makes herself comfortable, her head on my shoulder and leg tossed across my stomach. I'm partially propped against her headboard and she looks up at me, a hand moving to cup my face as a silent request to kiss her. I don't hesitate to lean down and press kisses to her lips, pulling back each time she tries to further the kiss and smirking when she grows frustrated. She finally grabs a hand full of hair and hauls me down to her, keeping our mouths sealed together.
I shift to be more on top of her and we lose ourselves for the rest of the day lying in bed kissing and snuggling and being content together.
A/N: I liked the last chapter a lot more. I feel like this one didn't have as much RobRae but oh well. Maybe the next chapter will be better. I really appreciate all the support from you guys on the first chapter. It means a lot to see a story do so well already and only have one chapter out!
I also want to apologize for missing the last couple weekends. First this whole corona thing, then I get 3 foster puppies, and then my grandma dies. The last two weeks have been really hectic. I'm trying to get back into a normal pace though! Hang in there!
Thx!
AMM