Disclaimer: You know!

Chapter thirty-six! Yay! I worked out the order of this chapter in Biology last week. More thanks to The Gnostic, who helped me with the events of this chapter also!

I'm not exactly sure how to write Johnny Rancid yet, so bear with me here. He's a new subject for me.

One day of school left for the year!

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It only took the Titans a few minutes to reach their destination: the Second National Bank (tee hee) not far from the bay. It was completely obvious at first glance exactly who was behind this. Jump City's most common threats never seemed to have any idea how to vary their attack styles. A smallish mechanical rhinoceros stood smack dab in the middle of the street. Perched precariously atop the steel beast stood a tall man with spiked black hair and dull midnight blue eyes encircled by layers and layers of overly-exaggerated black makeup. The man was holding a large sack and laughing rather menacingly as civilians ran around screaming like victims of a horror movie. Behind the great steel monster, an ATM machine was smashed open by the force of the metal horn on its nose. The ATM machine was shooting pale blue sparks.

The four Teen Titans landed grandly in the street before their latest challenge. He was so caught up in his self-satisfied laughter that he failed to notice them.

"Johnny Rancid. Still in the criminal business, I see," Robin said, crossing his arms.

Johnny allowed himself another few seconds of laughter before he stopped and looked down on them with smug eyes. "Hey, Titans. Miss me?" he asked, malignant pride sparkling in the cloudy gemstones of his eyes.

"Oh yes, of course we did," Robin said, whipping out his bo staff and flipping it to its full extent. "I see that little stay in jail didn't turn you around. Maybe you should pay another little visit."

"And this time, you won't have such an easy time getting out," Cyborg said, readying his sonic boom.

"Sounds like a pleasure," Johnny said. "I look forward to watching you four try to put me away again. The challenge of escaping makes it all worth the while." he paused, eyes passing over the four teenage superheroes carefully. "Now, what happened to the Goth Witch?" he asked, feigning disappointment. "She was always my favorite. Finally got sick of you losers and bailed, is that it?" Johnny asked, eyes glinting in sadistic pleasure.

"Shut….up…." Beast Boy snarled coldly, stepping forward.

"Or what?" Johnny asked, giving a demeaning smile at the changeling, who stood with balled fists, his mouth a stern line.

"Or you're gonna be sorry," Beast Boy threatened.

"Ooh, is that so? Oh mommy, please help! The Walking Lima Bean is going to hurt me! Oh, please no!" Johnny said in a mocking tone.

"Shut up!" Beast Boy snapped.

"Aww, what's the matter? Why are you being so mean to your old buddy Johnny? Are you sensitive because you lost your little friend?" Johnny asked, getting more and more pleasure out of mocking him.

"Don't you dare talk about Raven!" Beast Boy snapped, green fire flashing in his eyes.

Johnny gave a small chortle. "Oh, somebody has a soft spot for the Living Dead Girl! No wonder she's gone. I'm guessing she threw herself off of your roof just to get away from your little crush on her, am I right?"

Beast Boy's mind snapped. "Shut the fuck up!" he shrieked, diving forward as he transformed into an elephant, slamming into the mechanical rhino and knocking it into the street. Johnny was tossed to the ground, managing to hold onto his sack of cash. Beast Boy transformed into a sparrow, flying up over the fallen robot animal and morphing into a whale in the air. He fell onto the rhino with a crunch and squeak of buckling metal. The steel body smashed beneath the massive force of the giant mammal. In his original form, Beast Boy stared down at Johnny for a moment from where he stood on the top of the pile of smashed metal.

One glance at the look in the changeling's eyes told Johnny that he was in trouble. They were cold, emotionless, and completely terrifying. Johnny took several steps backward, clutching his sack like a small child clutches a brand new dollar in the face of a lunch-money thief.

Slowly, menacingly, Beast Boy lowered himself from the pile of crunched steel, eyes never leaving Johnny's face. Johnny kept taking steps backward. Behind him stood the other three Titans, ready to spring if he attempted escape, and before him stood Beast Boy, advancing on him like a monster of prey. There was no escape. His fate was inevitable.

Beast Boy moved slowly, silently, almost sneaking across the pavement. There was no trace of jovial humor in his eyes, now. His eyes, his movement, everything about him at the moment were more animal than human. His eyes showed no faint hint of hero. Only deep, dark layers of varying degrees of hatred, and pure killing instinct.

"Whoa, easy man, I didn't mean-" Johnny's tough villain demeanor crumbled, revealing the bare, naked fear that he had kept hidden just below the surface until now. "Please don't…"

Beast Boy was on him in an instant, moving across the remaining feet between them with catlike flowing grace. He grabbed the burly man by the front of his jet black shirt and stood on his tiptoes to almost be able to look him in the face.

"If you ever mention Raven again, I swear, this hand will be down your throat faster than you can say 'shit'!" he bellowed at the dark man. Johnny gave a small, uncharacteristic whimper. "Got it? Got it you goddamn motherfucker?"

Johnny nodded timidly. "Yes, yes, please, just let me go!" he said, trembling. Beast Boy gave a small noise of disgust and released him. Johnny's legs crumpled beneath him and he dropped to the pavement, rolling himself into a small ball of self-comfort. Beast Boy bent down and wrenched the sack of money from Johnny's hand, walking over to Robin and depositing it in his.

"Job done," he stated simply. Robin surveyed his teammate through large eyes, mask stretched considerably to accommodate them. "Are you OK?"

"Yep," Beast Boy told him.

"Beast Boy, that was…most frightening," Starfire said softly, her apple-jade eyes even wider than normal.

"Yeah BB, I gotta admit, you kinda scared the living shit outta me. I thought for a second there you were gonna pull a Rae on us," Cyborg said carefully.

"Naw. I'm not a psycho," Beast Boy said. Cyborg was slightly disturbed by Beast Boy's indirect insult at Raven, but kept his mouth shut. It seemed like it was just one of those foot-in-mouth moments. "Sorry to scare you guys."

A whirring siren that had been floating in the distance grew louder.

"Good, the authorities are here," Robin said with a tone of pure relief. "We can get back home." he set the bag of money on the pavement clearly in the view of the cops who were now getting out of their cars.

"Yeah, that would be best," Cyborg agreed. The four of them turned to go, and were blinded simultaneously by a bright flash of white light. Holding an arm in front of his eyes, Robin squinted at the thin blonde reporter standing before them and the large hairy camera man and thin, bald photographer who lingered just inches behind her.

"Can we help you?" he asked.

"Yes. Robin, leader of the Teen Titans, is that right?" the reporter asked, shoving her microphone under Robin's nose even though the camera wasn't rolling. He instinctively took a step back.

"Yes, right," he said uncomfortably.

"What's with the light show, lady? You could permanently damage the criminal control unit here, you know?" Cyborg asked, rubbing his human eye.

The thin blond gave a small chuckle. "Sorry about that. I'm Julia Thompson with Jump City Update, and I wanted to ask you…er…four?…I wanted to ask a few questions," she said grandly with a highly pompous hand gesture to the two men behind her.

"You are updating the city? I was not aware it was in disrepair," Starfire said, looking slightly confused.

Julia gave an extravagant chuckle and her partners guffawed. Robin tensed, clenching his fists, and Starfire wrapped her had quickly around one of them. "Calm down, Robin. She did not mean the badness," she whispered sideways at him. Robin's hand relaxed in her grip.

"Sure. What did you want to know?" he asked, calmer now.

"Fabulous," Julia exclaimed, turning to face the camera. "Roll it," she said. And then, in a professional tone, smooth and controlled: "This is Jump City Update. I'm Julia Thompson coming to you live from downtown Jump City, where the Teen Titans have just finished defending our city against yet another criminal. The city is all well and fine, but the question is, are the Teen Titans?"

"Excuse me?" Robin asked from behind her. She shoved the microphone into his face again, and it took quite a bit of willpower to keep from wrenching his face away from it.

"Our viewers are dying to know, so perhaps you could tell us, are the rumors that have been circling about your team based on any actual fact?" Julia asked. Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Um, that depends on what the rumors are," he told the microphone.

"Well, I see by now that one of them is true, by the absence of…was it Crow?"

"Raven," Robin corrected her.

"Yes, Raven. Well, the rumors about Raven's departure are true, then. You saw it here first, people. But what about the team splitting up?"

"Huh?" Robin asked stupidly.

"Rumor has it that Raven's sudden disappearance is because of the team breaking up. So, is it fact or fiction? Is this the end of the Teen Titans?" Julia asked both Robin and the camera in a very mysterious voice.

"No," Robin said, looking at Julia as though she were insane. "The team has no intention of breaking up. Raven's….um…relocation has nothing to do with anything like that."

"OK, whatever you say," Julia said cheerfully. "Now, that's two rumors proved false. But what about the last one?" she moved over to Beast Boy, who had remained silent up until this point, and invaded his personal space with the microphone. "Is it true that you and Raven were involved in a romantic relationship?"

Beast Boy refused to look at her. He could sense the camera pointed at his face. "Murph," he muttered halfheartedly.

"Our viewers are wondering, if you love her, why didn't you go after her when she left? What caused her to leave? And were you two truly in a relationship?"

"Leave me alone," Beast Boy said softly. Julia showed no mercy.

"Come on, it's OK. Just answer the questions," she said.

"No, I don't want-"

"Just answer the-"

"Shut up!" he snapped in her face. "Yeah, I was Raven's puppet for a while, OK? I didn't go after her because she fucking told me not to! And she left because she got tired of dealing with my shit!" he walked over to the camera and shook it, screaming into it. "Why did you leave, Raven? Was I not good enough? Were you embarrassed by me? Or was it just too much of a crisis that I wouldn't FUCK you? Is that it?" he whipped around and took a wide-eyed Julia's microphone and threw it down onto the pavement. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave you to ruin other people's lives, bitch! Thanks for making me think about her again!" and with that, he stomped away from the group, morphing into the shape of an eagle and taking flight.

Robin looked at Julia. "I'm not going to make excuses, or pretend like that I think what he just did was wrong," he said, shaking his head at her. "And I just can't wait to see you get sued for putting that on live tv. Next time, just leave the poor guy alone." he turned to his team. "Come on, let's get back home. He'll need some cheering up," he told them.

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More soon. Sorry it took so long.