Hello once more, pseudomeat enthusiasts and deriders alike! Nice to see we have a near-even distribution thereof. I apologize for the relative lateness of today's update. I've been enjoying my latest video game purchases: Tetris DS and Big Brain Academy. I've already broken the kilogram mark in the latter, though the former is proving somewhat more challenging. Don't worry, I shan't suspend Mox Quest for the sake of Tetrominoes. Now then, I'll disclaim before ranting further.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Teen Titans, Magic: the Gathering, The Simpsons, the Global Positioning System, or any satellites thereof. I do own the Cy-Wing, but it is heavily influenced by the Neurok Hoversail card, which I don't own.

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Robin and Cyborg nodded at one another. The leader pointed an authoritative finger at the circle of cooling molten glass and cried, "Titans, GO!" The two remaining Titans then moved in the opposite direction, so they too could get to the garage.

Cyborg grinned in anticipation on the way. "I've been wanting to try out the Cy-Wing for a while now."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "'Cy-Wing'? You never told me you were working on anything like that."

"That's 'cause it ain't called the R-Wing. This is my little treat to me, one I don't have to share." The half-robot's eyes filled with pride. "Besides, she's even got a cup holder!"

The leader sighed. "As long as it can hold it's own in a battle."

The two arrived at the garage level just in time to see the T-Car headed east, to collect the final Mox. Cyborg dashed up to a tarp-hidden lump of something-or-other, said triumphantly, "I give you…THE CY-WING!" and pulled back the cover.

Robin had to admit, it was pretty cool looking. The construct resembled a headless steel albatross, wings swept back, and legs twisted upward to help form the cockpit. Naturally, pieces of it featured Cyborg's signature cerulean circuitry styling. "Nice," commented the Boy Wonder, mounting the R-Cycle. "Now get on."

"'Nice'? NICE?" Cyborg was not amused. "Do you have any idea the breakthroughs needed to make this thing? I practically rewrote the laws of magnetism just to-"

"Cyborg! I'm sure you put a lot of time and energy into it, but we kind of have a situation right now. We need to get going."

"Fine," replied Cyborg, followed by a series of largely unprintable grumblings. He leaned into the cockpit, resting his chest on the steel surface and engaging the foot pedals that controlled pitch, yaw, and other fun aeronautic terms, leaving Cyborg's hands (and sonic cannons) free. The maiden flight of the Cy-Wing began, as it and the R-Cycle were prepared to face the dangerously supercharged Starfire. "Here goes everything," thought Cyborg, and the two vehicles exited the Tower, heroes in tow.

INTHETCARINTHETCARINTHETCARINTHETCARINTHETCARINTHETCARINTHETCAR

Beast Boy sighed, watching yet another stretch of the Atlantic speed by beneath the repulsor pods embedded in the T-Car's hubcaps. "Remind me again why I'm not driving?" he said.

Raven sighed as well. As much as she loved the changeling, he was still an unholy terror during long trips. "For the seventh time: 1. Cyborg said so, and this is his car." Beast Boy had no defense for this, so he settled for a disgruntled harrumph. "2. The last time you used a motorized vehicle, it collapsed in less than a day."

"You can't blame me for that!" he cried, "I had to crash the B-Ped into the Destruct-O-Tron to turn the thing off. Otherwise the planet would've been explodified!"

"Regardless," she replied crisply. "3. I have that all-important quality for operating a car that you don't."

"What? A gem on your forehead? Eight different voices in your head? Little blue booties?"

"A driver's license."

Beast Boy's ears drooped in defeat. "Oh, right. Sorry about the 'voices in your head' comment."

"Don't worry about it," Raven replied reasonably. The changeling's bubbling sense of relief was popped by the empath's next comment. "At least, not yet."

Desperate for a change in subject, Beast Boy found a good one. "Hey, look! Land ho!" Indeed, African coastline was ahead of the duo. "Lamumba should be in the western part of the continent, in the heart of the rainforest."

"I think the GPS might be a bit off," said Raven. "According to our readings, we should be approaching the Sahara, but it's trees as far as I can see."

The changeling's eyes widened as he took in the view. "Dude…that is the Sahara. Or was. You can just make out the shape of the jutting-out part of the continent."

The sorceress realized he was right. "This must be the work of the Emerald. It's accelerated the growth rate of the jungle to ridiculous levels. There's no telling what havoc this could be wreaking on the other ecosystems."

"Then let's get down there!" cried Beast Boy. Unfortunately, after he said that, a sudden shudder passed through the vehicle. A nervous eye towards the fuel gauge showed that the needle was on "E."

"That might not have been the best choice of words," deadpanned Raven, as the T-Car began the plunge into the unnatural vegetation.

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The fight against Starfire was not going well. The dilemma of battling a former Titan was only a minor concern. The real problem was predicting what she would do and where she would go next. So far, the tuned-up Tamaranean had pillaged a jewelry outlet and a grocery store, but was now emerging from a tattoo parlor where she had politely waited her turn and paid in full.

She was almost unrecognizable as the gentle soul so many in Jump City had grown to love (or, in some unfortunate cases, lust after.) Her hair still rivaled Marge Simpson's in height, but streaks of red had returned to the largely blonde coif, giving Starfire the overall appearance of a giant, lit, multicolored matchstick. Her body was bedecked in rings, bracelets, anklets, several earrings in new piercings, and a particularly tasteless gold necklace to which the Ruby had affixed itself. Mustard coated much of her body, and the condiment was smeared in sigils of war on the girl's face like war paint. The heat aura still raging off her skin slowly boiled the goop, giving off a scent that cleared sinuses from thirty paces. Her uniform still served the primary purpose of all clothing, but was currently damaged to borderline indecent levels. In short, it looked as though someone had thoroughly extracted Starfire's sanity and had thrown it out the nearest window.

Exiting the tattoo parlor, she flew off in a seemingly random direction, leaving a heat trail easily traceable by Cyborg, who was doing just that. Cy-Wing and R-Cycle fervently pursued the bespelled girl through the skies and streets, both minds desperately trying to find any pattern to Starfire's activity, when she suddenly came to a dead halt in midair.

Both sane Titans hesitantly approached the mad alien, Robin positioning himself directly below her, Cyborg slowly hovering to her side. "Star?" he said slowly, "You feelin' OK now?"

The girl turned to him and smiled. Just as the mechanoman began to relax, her happy grin turned into a psychotic rictus, and she fired what her pursuers had dubbed a Super Starbolt: Starfire pointed both palms out toward the foe, forearms pressed together. Red energy cascaded across her palms, formed a sphere, and compressed, sending a beam of destruction screaming towards whatever she was aiming at.

In this case, it was the Cy-Wing, and while Cyborg managed to see the move coming, he couldn't avoid it completely. The energy ripped through the pedal controls, vaporizing the tempered steel and throwing the device out of control. Its pilot mournfully abandoned aerodynamic magnetic levitation device, firing his sonic cannon at the ground to cushion his fall.

Starfire giggled as she watched the now uncontrollable construct pinwheel across the sky until it hit a skyscraper. Seeing that the show was over, she shrugged and cartwheeled through the sky, destination unknown even to her.

As Cyborg hit asphalt, he turned to Robin and said, "That settles it. We have to use the Moxen."

"But Star-" Robin stopped himself. Beast Boy's words from the Mega-Raven incident echoed through his mind. Would you go if it was Starfire? The Boy Wonder now had an answer. He would not fight the girl he loved, but this wasn't her. This was a monster that had to be stopped so he could get her back. He turned back to Cyborg. "You're right. Need a ride back to the Tower?"

"Nah, I got one." Cyborg called up a control display on his right arm and pressed something. A few moments later, a perfect copy of the Cy-Wing came to a gentle landing next to him. "Inventor's First Rule: Always make backup copies whenever possible."

With that, he bestrode the new flight device and headed for the Tower. Robin followed suit, thinking, 'I'll get you back, Starfire. I promise.'

The author would like to show what is currently going on within Starfire's psyche, but cannot without a particle accelerator, several varieties of illegal hallucinogens, the liver of a platypus, and an unripe cantaloupe. Hopefully you can infer from that the general situation. Sorry.

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Fortunately, Beast Boy and Raven's current situation is only occurring in three spatial dimensions at the moment, though altitude is currently the one of most pressing concern. Raven had managed to keep the T-Car aloft for a while, but the mental strain was beginning to overwhelm her.

Beast Boy watched nervously as the dark aura around them flickered as Raven began to lose the tug-of-war against gravity. "Raven, we have to land soon."

"Don't…you think…I know that?" she managed between breaths. Sweat was dripping down her face as she struggled to keep several tons of metal convinced that it was doing just fine where it was, and that falling wasn't a viable option. She knew she couldn't do it for much longer. "Beast Boy…when I say bail…bail out."

"What about you?"
"I'll be fine. Now bail!"

"Not without you!"

"We don't…have…ugh." Raven passed out, exhausted from the prolonged telepathic exertion. Unfortunately, that meant the T-Car was now free to begin its final descent, and the heroes within had a lot more to worry about than putting their tray tables up and returning their seats to a locked, upright position.

Beast Boy didn't bother to think. He morphed into an orangutan, and then grabbed Raven with two hands while he opened his door with a third. He then dove, empath in tow. The now decidedly land vehicle crashed through the canopy, giving the simian shapeshifter plenty of opportunities to grab a broken branch with one arm for a moment and lose some momentum while keeping Raven safely in the other three. By the time he reached the understory, he could safely rest on a lichen-rich limb to make sure Raven was uninjured without turning himself into primate pâté.

Raven awoke to see a face that resembled a cross between Homer Simpson and a half-inflated balloon, done in green. It quickly changed into a more enjoyable sight, Beast Boy's smiling, relieved visage. "Ugh," she moaned, "what happened?"

"Well, you were holding the T-Car up, but you got really tired, and I wouldn't get out 'cause you never said how you'd get out, and you were all like, 'Get out!' and I was like, 'Not without you!' and you passed out, and I just kinda blanked out from there until about a minute or two ago when you and I were on this branch and I was an orangutan."

It took a moment or two for Raven to process this. "So," she said finally, "where exactly in the forest are we?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. All these trees are blocking the signal to the communicators, so I can't check the GPS."

"And it's sticky as hell out here," she complained, trying to fan herself with her hand.

"I guess. I think it's pretty nice." Beast Boy took a deep breath of the thick air and smiled. He turned back to Raven. "So how are we going to find the Emerald?"

"Well, I still have one Mox left to help us find it."

Beast Boy did a quick rundown of what they'd left in the city, then stopped in shock. "No. You can't use the Jet! It'll take over again!"

"Not if I'm careful," she assured him as she holding the offending gemstone. "Besides, it's actually a little afraid of me after the last time."

Don't kid yourself, sneered the black jewel, but quietly. Raven ignored this, and carefully tapped into the dark energies of the Mox Jet. An arrow, black as pitch, appeared and pointed in a direction that otherwise seemed no different from any other in the lush landscape.

"We go that way," said Raven, pointing in the exact opposite direction than that indicated by the arrow. Noting Beast Boy's skeptical look, she elaborated. "Black and green magics are naturally opposed to one another. Whatever direction the Jet wants to go, we go the other way."

He considered this, finally saying, "If you say so…" Sitting up, he prepared to transform, but turned to her and asked, "You can still fly, right?"

She performed a demonstrative levitation. "Apparently."

The shapeshifter gave his signature toothy grin. "Then let's go!" With that, he turned into a gibbon and started merrily swinging through the trees.

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"So," finished Robin, "are we agreed?"

Very well, the Mox Pearl replied, we'll augment your natural abilities to stop our chaotic sibling.

"And?" Cyborg prompted.

A mental sigh came from the Mox Sapphire. And we won't try to take control. But we're only doing this because this is the Ruby we're talking about here.

"Whatever works," responded the mechanoman.

Indeed, said the white jewel. And if you could both now don us?

With that, the two Titans threw the thin chains attached to the Moxen over their heads. Blinding twin flashes of blue and white energy flashed through the Tower for an instant. After that instant, Robin and Cyborg beheld their altered forms.

"Well," concluded the leader, "this is different."

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I was tempted to leave you hanging with the plummeting T-Car, but I decided speculation about the affects the Pearl and Sapphire have on Robin and Cyborg would be much more fun. Now go, tell me what you think I've done to the Boy Wonder and the Half-Man Half-Machine! Or just tell me what you thought of the chapter. I'm flexible.