Raven broke out into a cold sweat, her eyes widening in horror as a small group of mechanical hand slithered from underneath her chair. Despite her fear, the girl didn't bother trying to fight back with her spells – she could feel her energy being subdued by whatever devices Control Freak had built into her restraints, just like he had done on the previous occasion. Grimacing, she concluded that each of the Titans' chairs had been designed to override their unique powers and abilities. The fat little freak had certainly outdone himself this time.
The priestess swallowed hard as two of the hands slowly slid her boots off, exposing her soft, ultra-sensitive feet. 'That fat little monkey is going to milk us all like we were cattle!' she thought, her brow furrowing. 'Well, he didn't break me the first time, and he certainly won't hear me beg for mercy this time around!'
Raven had no qualms about whether or not she could resist the tickling sensations on her body. She was well aware that she couldn't. Any moment now, those fiendish hands would begin prodding her body, and it wouldn't take too much to reduce her from an emotionally distance spell caster to a giggly little girl. But Raven's will had saved her is more dire situations, and it was all she could rely on now.
The Titan's body practically stood on end as two stiff feathers made contact with her ticklish soles, while other hands began stroking her upper body and legs in tandem. The silence lasted for mere moments, as a deep, bubbly laugh emerged from her chest, taking the floodgates down with it as it came. Falling back to the table, The Girl from Azareth succumbed to the torture.
'Raven's laughing already,' Robin though to himself, watching the mechanical hands of his own device busied themselves with preparation. 'I guess she's just as ticklish as she said she was.'
The Boy Wonder grimaced, his ears ringing with the laughter of Raven in one ear and Starfire's shrieking in the other. The Tamaranean hadn't stood a chance, exploding into hysterics the moment the fingers and the feathers had touched her exposed flesh. Her ticklishness level surpassed practically everyone in the vicinity, and the use of such a torture against her had planted the odds highly in Control Freak's favor.
On the opposite side of Cyborg, Mas and Menos howled as they discovered a torment unlike any they had ever felt before. Speedy, on the other hand, was biting his bottom lip to keep from losing control. That, however, failed spectacularly moments later. As for Bumblebee, her tough callous exterior had melted away the moment those feathers started working their magic. Squealing in agony, her table was nearly vibrating as she bucked, trying desperately to escape from the sensations wracking her brain.
Sitting nearly dead center was Cyborg. His nearly-metallic body had rendered using tickling against him useless. He surmised that the only reason he was here was to prevent him from trying to bust the Titans out. But, Control Freak had failed to capture three of them, and the only one Cy had any real hopes for was Beast Boy. He had, after all, led the charge to rescue the Titans and their extended family when the Brotherhood of Evil had hunted them down. However, he had a lot more than just Aqualad and Tremm in tow. Slowly, the cyborg grimaced. The laughter of his friends echoing in the warehouse was starting to become a bother. He desperately wished that his hands were free – partly so he could put an end to Control Freak's twisted little plan, and partly because he wanted to put his fingers in his ears.
Robin clenched his jaw. Although Cyborg would not be susceptible to this kind of stimulus, he was not going to be as lucky. 'Come on, Robin,' he thought, 'there's nothing to be ashamed of. Just about everybody's ticklish somewhere. I've got this…'
The Boy Wonder's eyes shot open, uncertainty filling them. As the machines started exploring his body, he soon realized that, regardless of one's physical strength, attitude, and prowess, there were some things that could bypass all of that. All the muscular strength in the world, the rockiest abs meant nothing if those same abs were ticklish.
As Robin's jaw dropped, and unwilling laughter escaped from his being, he realized too late that Control Freak's method of torture was far more effective that he could have ever imagined.
Holding up his fist, Beast Boy brought his team to a halt in an alleyway a block or two away from the abandoned warehouse. Sticking to the shadows, the three crouched down, and observed the building.
"Okay, guys," BB said, ready to put his plan into action, "tell me what you see over there."
Aqualad stared, his brow furrowed. "Well, it definitely looks like a building," he deadpanned, after a moment's pause.
The shape shifter frowned. "Brilliant, Holmes," he replied sarcastically. "Whatever would I have done without you?"
Lad smirked. "Man, I can't believe that thing is still standing," he said, eyeing the decaying structure. "Wasn't the city supposed to tear it down a couple years ago?"
"Yeah, but they never go around to it," BB said, sighing. "Guess everyone's afraid of stepping on a rusty nail and getting lockjaw."
Peering around the corners of the alleyway for any sign of trouble, the Titans found the streets to be practically empty. Waving his hand, the green hero led his team across the road and into the shadows of the next alleyway. After repeating it a few more times, the three amigos found themselves standing before the old building.
"Okay, what now, Superdude?" Aqualad asked, looking around.
Scanning the front of the building, Beast Boy spotted a drainage pipe leading up to an open window on the second story of the building. "Going up," he said, pointing our the path to the others.
Quietly, he grabbed the pipe with both hands. After testing it to make sure that it probably wouldn't buckle under their weight, Beast Boy began his ascent. Aqualad and Tremm soon followed suit. The Trip up the side of the building was arduous, however, as the old metal creaked and moaned under the stress of supporting the weight of three teens.
"Hey, BB," Aqualad asked, pausing for a moment on his ascent, "did you eat dinner tonight?"
The question left the Titan rather confused. "Yeah, why?" he asked.
"Because I think this pipe only supports 300 POUNDS!" Lad said, rocking back and forth, shaking the pipe within its restraints.
"Dude! Stop! Not cool!" the green hero said, latching onto the pipe with a death grip while listening to Aqualad's snickering. "You suck!" he added, angrily, shaking his head.
"Oh come on, you know you love it," the aquatic hero said as the three resuming climbing. Suddenly, he stopped short, causing Tremm to ram head-first into his hindquarters. "Listen! You hear that?"
Leaning towards the building, Beast Boy put one of his ears against the outer wall of the warehouse. "Sounds like some kind of commotion's going on in there," he whispered back.
Finally reaching the top of the pipe, BB reached out and pushed the window up and in, giving them the entrance they needed. At the same time, the sounds from inside the building became clearer. Listening to it for a moment, the realization of what it was stunned all three heroes.
"Is that…laughter?" the shape shifter asked, visibly confused.
Aqualad smirked. "Maybe they're all just inside, watching that little tape of your last stand-up comedy act at the Titan City Kings of Comedy show," he said.
Beast Boy sighed. "I wish," he said, solemnly. "The last time I showed it to them, it put 'em to sleep."
"Ouch," Lad said, wincing. "Harsh criticism."
Quietly, the three heroes crawled their way onto the upper floor of the old warehouse. As they regained their footing, they all were nearly deafened by the echoing laughter that was emanating from the level below. The grated floor beneath their feet obscured too much of the detail for them to make out what was happening below.
"Man, I don't think I've ever heard any of them laugh that hard in my life," BB said.
"Maybe because they're not around you," Aqualad said, grinning. "You're kind of like an anti-fun black hole. I mean, Raven's one, too, but she just looks so much better than you."
Ignoring the snide remarks, Beast Boy's brow furrowed, his eyes hardening. "This is right," he muttered. "That's not regular laughter."
"And how would you know that, Buzz Killington?" Lad asked.
BB looked back at the hero, a half-smirk on his face. "I do have my moments, you know," he said. "But this is different. This is being forced out of them."
Slowly, the three heroes inched over to the ledge of the upper story. As they peered over the side to the floor below, they were met with a scene that none of them ever dreamed they would ever witness…
Every single Titan, with the exception of Cyborg, were wriggling in ticklish agony as Control Freak's devices sought out and exposed the most sensitive areas of their bodies. Even the macho male Titans were helpless against the assault, as Robin, Speedy, Mas and Menos struggled against their bonds, frantic laughter pouring from their lips. The females, on the other hand, shrieked in hysterics as they were forced to bear what had become a never-ending tickle fight. The sight of their friends in such a helpless situation was almost too much for the three Titans to bear.
"Oh man," Beast Boy said, a shiver running down his spine. "Dude, that is just not cool."
Aqualad shuddered as he watched the Titans scream. "Man, I'm so ticklish, it hurts me just watching this," he said groaning. Tremm nodded in agreement, nearly sickened by what he was seeing.
Lad slowly wrenched his eyes off the scene below, and turned his attention towards BB. "What are we going to do?" he asked.
The green hero kept his eyes on his friends, uncertain of the next course of action. Suddenly, he saw Control Freak sitting on the edge of the stage, eating a sandwich. Mad Mod had returned from his outing, and was now seated in a chair near the containment unit doing a crossword puzzle, a set of noise-cancelling headphones on his ears. Seeing the two villains together made the Titan's blood boil.
"I'll tell you what we're gonna do," he said, his jaw set. "We're going down there and giving Freak-boy and Mad Mud what for!"
As Beast Boy prepared to spring over the side, Aqualad quickly caught his arm, and pulled him back down. "Wait! Look over there!" he said to him, pointing.
BB followed the direction of lad's outstretched finger – and found himself staring at a small army of Mod Mod's Royal Guard robots standing at attention near Mod's position. They were currently offline, but that could change at any moment. "So that's how those two overpowered everyone," he said, grimacing. Things were not going to be easy as he first thought.
"Great," Aqualad said, shaking his head. "You know, if Bumblebee, Robin – heck, all of us – hadn't been arguing with each other, they wouldn't have been caught off-guard like that."
"True, but Mod's 'bots are a lot tougher than you're giving 'em credit for," Beast Boy said. "Even if we had been ready for them, they still could have overpowered us – and then we'd be with them down there."
"Well, they got away with this because they had sheer strength in numbers and the element of surprise," Lad said.
At that, BB smiled. "The element of surprise," he echoed. "Now we have that!"
"True," the aquatic hero surmised, "but we are lacking that whole 'strength in numbers' bit."
"Maybe," the shape shifter said, reaching for his communicator, "but not for long."
Heading back over to the window to get a better signal and escape the sound of pained laughter, the Titan began transmitting:
"Attention, attention. This is a Code 1 priority message. This is Beast Boy of the Teen Titans requesting assistance, I repeat, requesting assistance…
In a dark alleyway right next to the local movie theater, Beast Boy's voice rang out loud and clear…from under a dumpster.
During the scuffle between the Titans and Mad Mod's minions, Robin had not only lost his utility belt, but had also lost his communicator when he hit the ground. Unfortunately, this lost communicator was the only one currently in the city, as much of the Titan's extended family were halfway across the world. Kid Flash, the only Titans capable of arriving in a timely manner, was too busy being on a date with Jinx at a lovely restaurant in Paris and therefore had switched off the communicator in order to gain some…alone time. It seemed that no one would be in range to help the Titans…
A white gloved hand reached quickly under the forlorn dumpster, and swiftly retrieved the device. Recognizing the communicator, the shadowy figure stood in silence as it listened to the voice on the other end: "- I repeat, requesting assistance. The Titans East and West are being held captive in an abandoned here in Titan City, and my team is far too outnumbered to attempt a rescue mission on our own. I repeat, the Titans East and West have been captured, and our team is not equipped for a rescue mission. Follow the signal for our communicators to locate the warehouse. It's in the northern section of the city. This is a Code 1 priority message. Please, we need your help."
As BB's voice fell silent, the figure pressed the button on top of the communicator. Quickly, a mini-map popped up on the screen similar to the Titan's computer, but with a severely limited range. However, this communicator just happened to be with in range to pick up a weak signal.
'Hmm…if all of the Titans got caught by whomever's behind this, then this is not going to be a walk in the park," the shadow thought. 'There's probably going to be some crazy big battle with plenty of bad guys to plow through just in order to stay alive…'
The figure grinned, exposing his canines. 'Just my kind of fight,' he surmised.
Despite the fact that this individual was not technically a part of the superheroes' extended family, he was consider to be a Titan among those that knew him. This kind of knock-down drag-out was something just too good to pass up.
With the location firmly set in his mind, the figure took off into the shadows, the anticipation of a big fight spurring him along. This was going to be one hell of a night.