There was a ring of a doorbell. Within moments, the door opened up to reveal Cyborg, whom looked around but couldn't see anyone. Shrugging, the cybernetic titan closed the door. A grumble of annoyance was heard before a wooden hand rung the doorbell again. Cyborg opened it again, looking around more intensely, but couldn't see anyone.
"Annoying ding dong ditchers." He grumbled before heading back in and closing the door. Growling with more irritation, the door was knocked on in a rather erratic and aggressive way. "Robin, can you check who's out there?! I ain't going to be punked again!"
"Fine." The titan leader's voice was heard in a mildly annoyed tone. He soon opened the door, and immediately noticed a package. "Cyborg, there was a package here the whole time. Did you even bother to look down?"
"It was out of my peripheral vision! I was expecting a person, not a box!" He replied back. Rolling his eyes, Robin walked around the package and pushed it in. Entering the living room through the elevator, Starfire noticed her boyfriend with the package and flew to him.
"Oh, where have you found this box, Robin?" She asked curiously.
"Outside our front door. Maybe it's a ton of fan mail."
"But it isn't that time of the month." Raven pointed out.
"Uh, when do you read fan-mail Rae Rae? You never read anything that's not more than a century old." Beast Boy joked as he gazed at the box.
"I may not read it, but I know when it arrives. Cyborg's always loud about it." The half-demon sorceress clarified.
"Well whatever it is, let's just open it." Jinx suggested. After Cyborg opened the box with his hands, a tiny figure jumped out, and did a flip over Beast Boy was jumped back with a yelp and landed on his butt. Landing on his feet, a wooden figure turned and showed that he was a living ventriloquist dummy.
"Hello and welcome, one and all! I am the Puppet King! And let me tell you what the king of puppets has got to tell you all!" Producing a hat and dancing cane from out of nowhere, he started to sing.
"This will be so fun, for you are lucky ones!
Unlike most, I've got no strings, so nobody can make me do unfun things!
Instead, I can sing and dance, when given the chance!" He demonstrated the dancing part by tap dancing while twirling his cane.
"Whatever fun you wish me to bring, it's within my power as theeeeee Puppeeeeeet Kiiiiiiiiiing!" He mad a dramatic pose as he wrapped up the brief number, making Beast Boy and Starfire clap as they were the only ones actually entertained.
"Oh wonderful! You are definitely the most fun puppet I've ever encountered." The alien princess scooped up the puppet king so she could hug him.
"Yeah dude, what made you come here?" The green teen asked the Puppet King. The little wooden man sighed as he got out of Starfire's embrace, and jumped onto his head, going into a more somber, serious musical number.
"Alas, despite being the puppet king, most are freaked out by a living wooden thing. I've been called as ugly as a nut cracker, and once was even attacked with a weed whacker. I've wandered near and far, night after night, thinking why things rarely go right? For centuries I've looked for a friend to be called, but most ran away because my nature made them appalled." Most of the titans were sympathetic of his sad tale, the only ones still skeptical were Raven and Jinx. The music slowly started to pick up in hope. "But then, I heard news there was finally something. Something called the Teen Titans. A group of individuals that beat most things that frightens! Fighting evildoers, aliens, headmasters, demons and all! If they face all that, then maybe I finally can have friends after all! Yes, this was a surefire thing, in which this could be the best home...for the Puppet King!" Bowing at the end of his song low enough he fell off of Beast Boy's head and landing on his feet, four of the six titans now clapped.
"Wow, to think people shunned you for however long you've been alive. Is it magic that gives you life?"
"Yes, and it was all thanks to a man who wished upon a star hundreds of years ago."
"Where does that sound familiar?" Beast Boy wondered, but Jinx answered him.
"Pinocchio, you green dummy. As for you Puppet King, I've got my eye on you." The pink haired metahuman pointed towards her eyes before redirecting her fingers towards him. "You may have won them over, but Raven and I don't trust whoever just waltzes in with a sappy tragedy of a story." Puppet King was unnerved by her coldness, shaking his arms in defense.
"No no no! I mean what I said! I mean, I'm not the only puppet that came!" Jumping onto Jinx's head and using it as a spring board, to her chagrin, he leapt into the box. "As a sign of good will, here's miniatures for all of you!" The wooden man threw small puppets with strings towards all the titans.
"Aw, isn't that cute? Puppet Cy has a light up eye." Cyborg pressed a center button which indeed made the puppet's left eye glow red.
"Yeah, talk about immaculate detail." Robin closely inspected his own puppet, pleased by how accurate it was. Starfire giggled from holding her own.
"I have never seen such a whimsical device."
"Hello Starfire, nice to meet you." The Tamaranean voiced her puppet as if it was greeting her.
"Hello tiny wooden replica of me!" It was then that Robin introduced his puppet to hers.
"Hello Starfire. I love what you've done with your hair." Starfire giggled.
"Thank you Robin. I have done the rising, lathering, and repeating just for you."
"I love you."
"I love you too." The puppets began to make out with each other as the puppet masters made the noises and laughed from doing such silly antics. Beast Boy entered the picture and had his puppet kick the butt of Puppet Robin.
"Hey, take that display somewhere else! I'm going to get termite cavities from watching something so sickeningly sweet!" The Boy Wonder knew he was joking, so he played along.
"If you don't like it, you can just leave!" Pushing Puppet Beast Boy into Puppet Cyborg, it 'tried' to pop its knuckles ready for a fight.
"You want a piece of me you little splinters? I'm a cyborg puppet!" The three male puppets started to playfully fight like the Three Stooges, while the girls and the Puppet King watched.
"Boys." Raven remarked dryly with Jinx nodding in agreement.
"Oh yes, let us join in with the boys and see who is the best fighting puppet between us. TO PUPPET BATTLE!" The warrior princess yelled out with a huge smile on her face. However, both Raven and Jinx threw their puppets at her which she caught.
"No thank you. As 'fun' as this looks, this is just too childish for me." The pink haired witch objected.
"Me too. It's getting around time I need to do my meditations." As both of the dark girls left, the Puppet King looked dejected.
"Aw man, and here I was hoping to make friends with everyone here."
"Do not the worry, Puppet King. They just have the different taste buds is all. It has nothing to do with you." She picked up the ventriloquist dummy and hugged him sympathetically.
"Shucks, you're going to make me blush even though they're painted on my face." After letting him down on the ground, the two noticed that the boys were inexplicably exhausted, just like their puppets.
"Wow. That was some intense play fighting for playing with puppets." Beast Boy chuckled.
"Yeah, we sure got carried away, didn't we?" Robin laughed along with him.
"Well I'll tell you what your problem is with your puppets." Puppet King said as he picked up the three male marionets. "They're as skinny as sticks! No muscle or strong healthy bones! I'll tell you what they need. A work out session!" The four titans got along with the plan as they made their puppets work hard on their bodies, doing lunges first before doing their own thing. "Haha, you call that working out? I've seen more effort from trees growing from saplings! Cyborg, work those glutes! Beast Boy, keep yourself completely folded with your legs straight! Keep going until you think you're going to snap like a twig!" As they were all having fun, Birdarang and Boom Box entered the living room when they spotted the scene.
"Whoa, what's happening up in here, fellas? The floating weapon asked interested.
"It's the Puppet King, guys! He wanted to come here to make friends and gave us these sweet puppets."
"Now that's ri-don-culous. I like it!" He responded.
"Pump up the jam!" A woman's voice came from Boom Box.
"You're right, somehow sentient music box!" Puppet King agreed. "Let's make this into a party!" Robin jumped to the control module so that the living room went into party mode, with lights, confetti and lots of food.
"Booyah, that's what I'm talking about!" Cyborg celebrated as he high fived Beast Boy.
"Yeah, boy! Let's raise this through the roof!" The green titan shouted. The Puppet King himself started drawing symbols on the glass and walls around the living room, which Starfire was curious about.
"Why are you writing on the walls?"
"To make this party more festive! You can help me! Here is a list of symbols you can write on the walls to really give this place atmosphere." The wooden man handed her small papers with symbols on them.
"Oh, then I will help! This is going to be so fun!" As the four titans and Puppet King did their thing, Raven and Jinx watched from around the corner.
"Something doesn't seem right with those drawings he's scribbling on the walls." The metahuman accused.
"Right. I'll be on guard if anything happens." Raven went into her room to prepare. They partied into the night and the titans went to sleep with their puppets.
Robin groaned as he sat up in his bed. Stretching his body, he looked at his clock that read it was 1:30 in the morning. Walking it was then that he screamed as he fell onto the ground...but it didn't hurt, and sounded really light. "Huh? What is this?" He noticed that the room was much, much larger than it should be. Heading to the side of the room with the mirrored closet, the titan leader saw he was a marionet! Just like the Puppet King. "Wha?! What is happening?!" Taking out a tiny communicator, he yelled into it. "Titans, meet up in the living room, now!" Once they've all gathered, everyone was a marionet puppet as well.
"What has happened, Robin?!" Starfire asked, quite distressed.
"Yeah, this is straight up weird bro!" Beast Boy added.
"Ugh, if I'd known not playing puppets would turn me into one, I'd even play pretty princess dress up with them!" Jinx complained.
"Well, that's too bad Jinx." A familiar voice called out from everywhere. "It seems unfortunate my magic didn't completely nullify your wills, but it's quite amusing seeing you all as puppets."
"That's because I cast a spell to protect our souls, in case something like this happened, Puppet King." Raven stated while she looked up, seeing the Puppet King over a stage version of their living room, inside of the actual living room.
"Man, Mr. Puppet Man tricked us!" Cyborg pointed to the puppet master. "So was everything you said a lie to us?!"
"Actually, my history was true for the most part. I'm so old by the time I was built, the Mona Lisa and the Sistine Chapel were some of the newest art pieces in the world. And no, it wasn't a shooting star, but by means of dark magic. My creator, Louis if you will, he was one of the few first to build puppets like me, but had ambitions that were so much more than just simple entertainment. I was his personal thief, bringing him goods and wealth while the audience was distracted. However, he was caught and executed, but I survived by feigning lifelessness. I tried doing the whole solo act, but without someone to sell it to since nobody knew I was alive, thievery was of little value. So I did try to do the friendly person act, befriend children wherever I went, but they were scared of me. I've failed to befriend someone for over 200 years. So if I can't be the good guy either, than I would take over everyone. At least by that point ventriloquism was finally perfected and started becoming what you would say, 'smalltime mainstream' entertainment. So it wasn't hard to find a religious nutjob who believed I was a child of God himself, and had a cult where I ate souls of the sinners, and turned them into my puppets. I secretly rose in power, and I would've even turned the King of France had a lucky priest not found me out. Once they found out I couldn't be exorcised or destroyed via physical means, I was tossed in a crate and thrown into the ocean. By the time I was found by civilization again, you silly Americans were in the so called roaring 20's, meaning I've been adrift at sea for some 40 years. I can't even begin to tell you what happened after that, so that's my origin story."
"So what are you going to do now?" Beast Boy asked.
"Now? I just need to finish my spell, so that I can consume your souls, gain complete power over your bodies, and go on my conquest to turn everyone into my puppets!"
"We won't let that happen! Ack!" Robin tried to object, but strings pierced their bodies as the Puppet King had a string extend from each of his fingers that were required to stop their movement.
"You don't have a choice in the matter. I am the Puppet King, which means I'm your master now!" But thanks to Raven's protection spell, even though their bodies are locked, their minds and souls could still put up a fight as pink energy travelled through Jinx's body, up her string, and zapped PK's finger, causing him to yelp as the transformed metahuman dropped to the floor, and then slung more energy which severed the strings of the demonic puppet, freeing their bodies.
"Nobody is the master of me you stupid puppet!" Jinx refused.
"Titans, GO!" Each of the titans tried to chase after Puppet King, but due to being a third of the wooden man's size, they had difficulty keeping up with the surprisingly agile dummy as he jumped up the couch and went into the vents. As he crawled around, Puppet King shifted around in random directions since he had no idea where they led to. Eventually, he was found as he was ensnared by a green sock snake with eyes the length of a full leg.
"Augh, get off me you yarn freak!" Biting down onto the sock body with enough force to cut the threads, the sock snake hissed as Puppet King dived down a vent hole, and landed hard on the floor of what looked like the electrical room, where many of the fuses, triggers, breakers and other stuff were seen providing the hundreds of room in the tower power with several catwalks showing several floors for each purpose. From the back, he was blasted by blue ping pong balls by Cyborg, helped to fly by Starfire. Robin and Raven then showed up via portal, and both of them delivered a kick to each of his eyes. "Ow! Hey, both my eyes are lazy already! Don't break them even further!" Noticing that his foot was within the loop of a cable, the sorceress focused.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthose!" The cable glowed black as they ensnared as his ankle and dragged the screaming puppet up into the air, and left him dangling from a height. However, the dummy pulled himself up and chomped through the cable, dropping down onto his feet and proceeding to run. From behind though, something dropped down onto his back, causing him to trip and fall because it was Beast Boy in the form of a stuffed gorilla, half the size of the ventriloquist dummy. But try as he might, being made of plush did nothing but make him grunt from annoyance before getting back up and throwing him off.
"You'll have to try harder than that if you want to beat the Puppet King. Ping Pong balls and plushies are nothing against solid wood!" His boast was answered by a kick to his temple by Starfire, whom still retained strength proportional to her size. Even with a quarter of her strength, it was more than enough for her to pick up the Puppet King and throw him into a wall of electronics like a ragdoll.
"What about Raven's magic or my Tamaranean strength?" The princess warrior questioned in a form of mocking the foe.
"Or a bit of bad luck?" Jinx added as she sent a wave of pink energy into the wall behind Puppet King, which started to cackle with electricity, shocking the living dummy as he screamed before the wall exploded, sending him tumbling across the floor, burnt and partially damaged. Picking himself up, the wooden man found himself surrounded by the smaller puppet titans.
"You will return us back to normal, now." Robin ordered.
"And why should I? I told you I can't be exorcised or destroyed. I am indestructible."
"You seem to have an affinity with souls. But it just so happens so do I." Raven threatened as her eyes glowed white, surrounding his body in black energy. Puppet King tried to escape, but he was trapped. "Now, return us to normal, or I'll eat your soul."
"No, wait! The glyphs Starfire and I written! They can be washed off! They're what's keeping you like this!"
"That's it? Seems too easy." Beast Boy remarked.
"Hey, so long as I can be made of metal instead of wood, I'm willing to do whatever." Cyborg countered.
"Me too. This is so not cool." Jinx agreed. With the help of Starfire's speed and Raven's magic erasing said glyphs with either cleaning or straight up erasure, the half-demon sorceress was able to reverse the Puppet King's effects and return to normal, which they were all relieved.
"So, what are we going to do about him?" The emerald shapeshifter asked, all of the titans glaring at the nervous living puppet.
"I have an idea." Raven smirked. As Cyborg threw the Puppet King into the crate he came from, he could only shout at them in both fear and anger.
"No! Don't send me back out to sea! If you do, then you'll wish you remained my puppets! I'll-!" His threats were gone as the re-nailed crate was dropped into the pacific ocean to float with nothing nearby.
"So Raven, where did you drop him off where no one will ever find him?" Robin asked the sorceress.
"The lower Pacific Ocean. Specifically in the South Pacific Current in which he'll encircle in between South America and New Zealand with very little chance of being found. Especially with the do not open signs we put on it."
"Wow. Alone forever in a dark box. That is cold." Jinx giggled as she held up her puppet. "Ash much as this thing is cute in comparison to my likeness, puppets just aren't for me." The pink haired witch threw her doll in a trash bin, before yawning. "Well, goodnight titans. I'm going to get more beauty sleep. See ya." With unanimous agreement, the titans went to sleep, Raven disposing of her puppet too. Today may have been fun, but they don't like being strung along.
A/N: And that's season 1 everybody! Heading into season 2 will be so much intrigue, since after Mr. Butt will involve TTG vs TT, thank you for your reviews Eris. For this A/N, I'd like to share my top 10 chapters and moments where I had a blast writing them down. Here goes.
10. Little Buddies. Moment: When they were doing their separate paroles, such as Birdarang and Boom Box knocking that criminal out, or Pain Bot delivering a well needed beatdown for being an abusive father. I also loved the team up of Luna and Lotus, especially since it involved the Among Us crewmates. That was so funny.
9. Ghost Boy. Moment: Beast Boy being a troll at the beginning and end of the chapter. The ones at the beginning were either actual real life pranks, or modified ones suited for the situation.
8. Super Robin. Moment: When Robin tried to cover up his mistake in his dream and had to fight Starfire. That was a cool action scene, and certainly sad.
7. Tween Titans. Moment: All of it. The introductions, the training montage, the battle against Mad Mod, so awesome.
6. Books. Moment: Raven reading kids books. I remembered how much I loved reading some of those books as a kid, and don't you just love it when you beat someone by just annoying them? Epic.
5. Opposites. Moment: Jinx joining the titans. Cyborg and Jinx may not have officially hooked up by verbal agreement or any kind of strong implication, but her becoming part of the roster was so enjoyable.
4. Terra-ized and Triangle Tortured. Moments: Every scene with Terra. It was really interesting writing Terra in a way that felt like it was faithful to both the original cartoon and comics, and I loved whenever she and Raven fought with all they had. Easily my best action scenes I've written for this story.
3. Girls Night Out. Moment: All of it. Having the three girls hang out in accordance to Eris's description was incredible. I just like writing the girls more than the guys for some reason. And their interactions with Mumbo were really funny.
2. Legs. Moment: Raven advocating against sexism. I had good talks with my mom and sister on how to write this episode without appearing to condone sexism that's found shockingly often in children's shows. I wanted to make a PSA that felt organic in the chapter and I can say this is my proudest moment that I've ever written.
1. Colors of Raven. Moment: All of it. Every sentence I wrote, I love it. The character interactions, the consequences of bringing the emoticlones into reality, the lead up that went into Legs part 1 and 2, it was all perfection to me.
I thank you all for providing me the details I needed to make all this fixing possible. And a special shoutout to TomoMoon1, Eris, and a few other reviewers in the PM's who helped make all these possible. What were some of your favorite moments as you read them? If you need to go back and skim, go right ahead. Season 1 has been a blast, and I believe season 2 will be even better. Thank you all so so much and leave your review below.