Chapter 8: Mad Mod
A startled gasp was the first thing that escaped Robin's lips as he regained consciousness. What he immediately noticed was the chair he was securely strapped to and he immediately began tearing at his bindings. Of course, they did not budge the slightest. 'Dammit, what is this? What happened?' he asked himself.
Weak groans alerted Robin that he was not the only one trapped here. Casting his eyes to his left, he found his entire team strapped to similar chairs as him, though with different restraints for each of them. The moment they became aware of their bindings, they too tried to break free.
They had about the same luck as Robin.
This did not look good; they were all restrained in an unknown location, facing an unknown enemy this time around and none of his teammates' powers seemed to work. This could not possible get any worse than it already was in Robin's eyes.
"Okay, what the hell is going on here?!" scratch that, it could apparently get worse. Robin turned his head to his right, where the highly aggravated voice originated from, to find the last thing he expected.
"Raven?!" he burst out in surprise, and could you blame him? He was currently sitting next to Raven, someone who had tried to kill him in the past, who was strapped into the same type of chair as the rest of them were. Though for some reason she still carried her weapons.
Upon hearing his voice, Raven turned towards him before her confused look melted into one of chock and irritation.
"Great, what did you guys drag me into this time?" she asked irritably. Not that you could blame her anger. She had been contacted by a client that had promised a really nice pay check. But what does she get when she reaches the agreed upon spot? Freaking knock-out gas to the face!
She was seriously going to skin the culprit once she got her hands on him.
Robin looked like he wanted to retort to her, but Beast Boy saw a much better question to ask in this predicament.
"Am I the only one who has no idea where we are?" he asked in confusion. His answer came sooner than expected.
"Why, you're right where you belong, my duckies." a very distinguishably British voice announced, originating from a man standing at the top of a stair right in front of them. "You're in school!"
The so far unidentified man then proceeded to jump up on one of the railings and surf down it to land right in front of the Titans… and a very pissed off mercenary.
Now that he was in front of them, they could see him much clearer. He was a middle-aged man wearing white pants and a shirt colored like the British flag. The guy had red hair along with a pair of glasses and topping off his look was a cane in his hands.
"That's right, lads and lovies, you're the only students at Mad Mod's institute for bratty teenage do gooders." the newly named Mad Mod announced before he held his cane forward while electricity danced from the ruby at its top. "And it's high time someone taught you sprogs a lesson."
Things did most certainly not look good for the Titans, plus Raven, this time. And as they struggled to break free, Mad Mod was calmly waltzing closer towards them.
"Titans, move!" Robin shouted in alarm. The team tried to follow through with his order, but were unable.
"I ain't one of your Titans, bird boy, but I'm not sitting still for this." Raven stated sarcastically as she herself tried to break free, with the same result as the rest. Robin meanwhile chose to ignore her for now. He had bigger concerns right now.
"My starbolts are useless!" Starfire cried out in surprise, just as Mad Mod walked up to her.
"Specially designed chairs, love. Can't have those nasty superpowers disrupting my lection, now can I?" he asked rhetorically as he leaned in uncomfortably close to her face.
"Get away from her!" Robin snarled out in anger, causing Mad Mod to turn his attention to him. He thrust his cane into Robin's face as more electricity sparkled from it.
"Now don't get your nickers in a twist, my little snot." he said before he withdrew from Robin. "I didn't go through all the trouble of building this school, setting up a fake contract with Raven and filling you Titans' tower with knock-out gas just to finish you off licking the splits."
"Then what is it you want?" Argent asked in irritation.
"Just what I said, dearie, to teach you lot a lesson." he stated as he once again got very close up to her face before turning around and scratching his ass (Random, right?). "Yes, I've been watching you children misbehave. And I hate misbehaving children."
With that said he suddenly pointed towards a collection of pictures showing a few of the Titans escapades.
"Fighting crime. Saving lives. Interfering with the plans of hardworking villains. Why, you lot are nothing but a bunch of troublemakers! But you'll learn your place soon enough." Mad Mod announced as he pointed his cane at each of his captives in turn, receiving a fair share of heated glares.
"You see, I'm older than you. So I'm bigger, badder and better." he stated smugly. Cyborg did not look happy from that statement, and he chose to voice his opinion.
"Say wha… OW!" that last bit came out after a very nasty hit to the back of his head from Mad Mod's cane.
"You're in my world now, and you won't be getting out 'til you've learned some proper respect." he stated. Raven meanwhile felt there was a small matter that needed to be addressed.
"If those are the criteria for being a misbehaving child, then what am I doing here? In case you haven't got the memo, I'm a freelancing mercenary and a general bad guy. Hell, I've tried to waste bird boy over here… twice!" she stated irritable. Robin was looking at her in confusion.
"Twice? When did you…? Wait, you were that sniper on the rooftop!" he burst out in anger while Raven gave him a flat look.
"Well duh! Who else uses guns in this town against you? Mumbo Jumbo?" she asked sarcastically. Robin stared at her with a murderous look in his eyes.
"If it wasn't for your intervention I would have beaten Slade faster!" he accused angrily. Raven merely scoffed at him.
"Please, it was a mere robot you beat. And besides, if Slade hadn't interfered you would be in your grave by now!" she retorted just as heatedly.
"Why did you even do it in the first place?!" Robin shouted back. By now, all the others (including Mad Mod) were staring at the bickering pair with dumbfound expressions. 'We're in the middle of a prisoner situation, and those two are arguing like an old couple.' was the unanimous thought circling through each of their minds.
"Geeze, why would a hired gun try to kill someone? Could it be that someone paid me to do it?" she asked just as sarcastically as before.
"And that's all there is to you, money!" Robin snarled at her.
"Well at least I'm doing something productive that provides me with an income, Mr. Traffic Light!" Raven snarled right back.
"And what you do hurt others!" Robin countered.
"Kill or be killed, bird boy. It's that simple." by now it appeared that the two teens had completely forgotten their current predicament and were devoting all their time and energy to this little argument.
"It's never that simple!"
"Says who?"
"Says I!"
"And since when did your words hold any relevance?"
"Since I'm the leader of the Teen Titans!"
"Do I look like a Titan to you, idiot?!"
"Does it really matter?!"
"Sure as hell matters to me, bird boy!"
"Don't call me that!"
"Why? Don't like it?"
"No!"
"Well, get used to it, bird boy!"
"Oh, I'm so going to beat you up when I get out!"
"I'd love to see you try!"
"Yeah, well how would you like to… OUCH!" the argument seemed to go on forever, so Mad Mod decided to interfere by hitting both teens on the back of their heads, receiving a pair of synchronized and highly aggravated "HEY!".
"Quiet you lot! You can sort out your fight after class!" Mad Mod stated before turning his full attention to Raven. "And as for your question, dearie. You may not be the same sort of troublemaker as the rest of these children, but you still apparently have trouble with authority."
Raven narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. 'Just what the hell is he talking about?' she thought. Mad Mod just smiled at her.
"Don't think I don't know about how you were expelled from H.I.V.E. Academy. Now I don't know why you were expelled, and frankly I don't care. The fact that you even were expelled in the first place shows that you're in need of disciplining." he stated smugly.
There were few things in life that could really aggravate Raven, having spent so many years learning how to not react in any way. Unfortunately, having an idiot go blabbering about her personal business in front of other people was a big no no in her books.
It was settled to her; this guy was so dead once she got loose.
"Dude, you got kicked out of the H.I.V.E.?" Beast Boy asked amusedly as he sniggered to himself. Raven felt like strangling the little grass stain.
"Just shut up." she mumbled out, only causing him to snigger more. Robin meanwhile seemed to ignore all of that altogether and had his entire focus on Mad Mod.
"We will get out, and when we do…" he never got further as a bell suddenly rang.
"Oh dear, there's the bell, my duckies. Off to class." Mad Mod said amusedly as the floor beneath each of his captives opened up and they fell into whatever twisted class this nutjob had cooked up for them.
"I'm so gonna get you for this, Mad Mod!" Raven had enough time to shout out before she too fell into the hell that every student endures on a daily basis.
When Raven's chair finally made contact with solid floor again, she found herself in a room filled with books and artifacts from ancient eras along with a few marble statues modeled after Mad Mod himself.
"Let me guess; history class?" Raven questioned rhetorically. In response, the light dimmed and an old movie projector that looked like it had come right out of the forties started up. Guess what it was projecting.
Mad Mod.
"Right you are, dearie." the Mad Mod on tape answered her (Man, he's good). Raven merely glared daggers at him, wishing now more than ever that she had heat vision. She sure knew who she would have been using it on right now.
"You've made the biggest mistake of your life here. Unlike those pesky Titans, I don't mind getting blood on my hands that much." she snarled at him. Mad Mod merely shook his head like a disappointed teacher.
"Now now, dearie, no need to overreact like that. This is for your own good after all." Mad Mod explained calmly. Something definitively snapped inside Raven the moment she heard those words.
For your own good. For your own good. For your own good. The four words she hated more than anything. The answer she had always been forced to accept as the truth for more than fifteen years of her life. Words that were used to justify her imprisonment in her old home.
Lies they had cooked up just because they were too high and mighty to admit that they were scared of her, of what she might become.
"How dare you?! How dare you to presume what's for my own good?! You have no right to decide! No one tells me what's for my own good! DO YOU HEAR ME?! NO ONE!" if anyone had told Raven's old friends back at H.I.V.E. Academy that Raven could throw such a temper tantrum, they would have rolled over laughing.
Though Mad Mod on the other hand found nothing to laugh over in this matter.
"That's exactly the attitude that has landed you here. But no worry, one of my hypno-screens should solve that problem in no time." and with that, the projection of Mad Mod turned into a hypno-screen, spinning wildly.
"Dammit!" Raven cursed as she tried to look away, not liking the idea of getting brainwashed. Of course, Mad Mod would not allow such a thing as mechanical arms came out of the chair and grabbed Raven's head. She was forced to look back at the screen despite her struggles.
Raven tried to shut her eyes closed, but the damned hands merely pried her eyelids open. 'Stay focused, stay focused, stay focused.' Raven desperately repeated as a mantra in her head, fighting the mind control for all it was worth. She most certainly was not planning on ending up as a vegetable for this idiot's amusement.
But it was slowly proving futile as Raven's defenses were slowly crumbling away. With each passing second, Raven could almost feel her control and sanity slip away from her grasp. She had time to give one final mental curse before blissful darkness enveloped her mind.
But what Mad Mod had not anticipated was that with Raven's mind practically turned to mush, all her mental controls and restrictions were gone. And with those out of the way, there was nothing left to keep her supernatural powers contained within the deepest recesses of her soul.
Now finally free for the first time in years, Raven's powers felt like they had a hell of a lot of destruction to catch up with. Starting with this pesky prison their unfortunate wielder was trapped in.
Before Mad Mod could even grasp what had gone wrong, dark energy literally exploded forth from Raven, wrecking the whole classroom. For a few precious moments, it was as if God had decided to switch off all light. But then the darkness retreated back into its wielder, feeling it had been satisfied enough.
With shaky breaths, Raven's senses returned to her as the hypnosis was broken, along with her restraints. She carefully stood back on her feet, grateful of finally being loose again.
"Oi, what just happened?! You're not supposed to have any superpowers!" Mad Mod demanded, sounding absolutely livid. Raven could not help herself here, and smiled mischievously.
"Let's just say that I'm full of surprises." she said as she began to draw her broadsword. "And allow me to point out your stupidity here of letting me keep my weapons, 'cause now I'm going to carve you up like a beef."
"Oh, I assure you, it was not idiocy that made me let you keep your weapons. It was simply the fact that they'll do you no good here." As if to emphasize his point, several holes in the walls opened up and marble statues of Mad Mod rolled out, carrying a wide array of nasty weaponry.
Raven however was not looking that much impressed by her opponents.
"Marble statues? That's the best you can throw at me?" Raven questioned before she leaped forward to avoid an energy blast from one of the statues. As she landed in front of the statues, she made one fluid swing of her sword. Three of the statues promptly fell together as they were bisected.
"Frankly, I'm insulted that you think that they would even stand a chance against me." She sneered as she pulled out one of her guns and fired three rapid headshots into the remaining statues.
"Who said that they were meant to beat you?" Mad Mod asked rhetorically as the wall split open and a missile poked out, aimed straight at Raven.
Raven meanwhile felt that there was only one thought that could sum up how she felt about now. 'I just had to say something'.
"Now then, count along with Moddy. Five…" Raven frantically looked around for an exit.
"Four…" she soon spotted a door that was blocked off by a trio of Mad Mod statues.
"Three…" the statues opened fire with eye lasers, but Raven dodged them before lobbing a grenade at them.
"Two…" the grenade exploded and Raven literally dived through the smoke towards the door.
"One." Raven threw the door open as she heard the missile firing up behind her. The moment she stepped outside, she slammed the door shut. Seconds later she felt something explode on the other side, though thankfully the door held.
"I always did manage to blow things out of proportion" Raven commented to herself as she dusted off some nonexistent dirt from her sleeves. Casting her eyes around her new surroundings, she found herself standing in a corridor whose floor, walls and roof was made of black and white squares.
"Now then, where is that pesky little Brit?" she asked herself as she looked thoughtfully down each path, wondering where to go.
"Looking for me?" Mad Mod suddenly asked from the opposite direction Raven was looking at. Turning around, she found that the annoying little pest had changed into a black suit.
"Don't waste your time, dearie. When the student is ready, the teacher is never far away." he stated smugly. Raven merely pointed her sword at him.
"If that's the case, I hope you don't mind if I teach you a bit about sword fighting and its effect on the human anatomy." she said as she rushed him, intent on skewering him. Though it seemed Mad Mod did indeed mind as he hastily turned tail and ran.
For how long Raven was forced to chase after that nutjob, she was not certain. But finally she saw a dead end ahead of them. Raven smiled victoriously, he was trapped now.
"Nowhere left to run now!" she shouted after him. But then he did something Raven most certainly had not expected; he dived straight through a black square on the wall. When Raven reached it, she could only stare mouth agape.
She tried putting a hand on it, but it was solid again. No hole.
"How did he…?" unfortunately, what Raven had not realized was that she was standing right on top of another black square. And without warning, Raven suddenly found that the earlier solid ground had become a hole as she plummeted down, screaming like a girl. Not something she did very often, mind you.
Her fall did not last very long, and she soon landed inside an exact copy of the hall she just fell from. Though thankfully she was ready and nimbly landed on her feet.
"What the hell happened?" Raven asked herself as she steadied herself. This place was just freaky to her. A whistle made her aware that Mad Mod was here as well. But wait a minute, was he standing…
"How the hell can you stand upside down on the roof?" Raven asked in confusion. Mad Mod merely smiled at her confusion.
"What makes you so sure that I'm the one upside down?" he asked amusedly. Raven had enough time to open her mouth before gravity reversed for her and she fell face first to the floor (or was it roof?).
Mad Mod merely jumped right over and sprinted down the corridor.
"I'm gonna kill him in the most slow and painful way possible." Raven grumbled as she got back on her feet and rushed after him.
After a near endless chase through the most bizarre and freakish school Raven had ever had the misfortune of attending, Raven finally found herself back in the same room she had woken up in. And standing at the top of the stairs, looking as smug as ever, was Mad Mod.
"You may as well chuck in the sponge, lassie, you can't catch the likes of me!" he stated while twirling his cane. But to his confusion, Raven merely smirked at him.
"I don't need to catch you, dumbass, I just need you to stand still for a second." That was all she said before she made her move. It happened too fast for Mad Mod, one second Raven was just standing there and the next she suddenly had a pair of Desert Eagles in her hands and aimed at him.
Without missing a beat, Raven let loose with a barrage of bullets at her victim. But when her clips ran dry, Mad Mod was still standing and vanished through a door behind him. The idea of following him did not even occur to Raven, she just stared in surprise at where he used to stand. 'Okay, what just happened? I could have sworn I scored at least a dozen hits on him.'
Nevertheless, that crazy Brit was Raven's ticket out of this nuthouse, and she was not about to let it get away that easily. So with that in mind, she sprinted up the stairs, reloading her guns along the way. And as she reached the door, she kicked it in and rushed in with guns held high. However, she did not find Mad Mod on the other side. Instead she had barged right into…
"… The same freakish room I just left?" Raven burst out in shock. Cautiously, she peered over her shoulder at the door she just entered. Yup, the room was still there. Raven could not help herself and she groaned in dismay.
"Is there no end to this cuckoo nest?"
Suddenly, she heard a door opening somewhere, accompanied by approaching footsteps. She instantly tensed up in preparation. 'Mad Mod.' she thought. Raven quickly took cover behind the stairs, hoping to catch him by surprise and deliver and fast killing blow.
She could hear him draw ever nearer, just a few feet away now. The footsteps came even closer, a shadow was now visible. 'Just a little closer.' One final step, and a foot was now in Raven's line of sight.
"Gotcha!" she burst out and with the speed of a striking viper rose and grabbed hold of her victim before spinning around and slamming him hard against the wall, somewhere along the way withdrawing a gun and pressing it against the underside of his head.
But it was only now that Raven actually noticed a few anomalies concerning her expected prisoner. For one, his hair was black instead of red. Furthermore, he was wearing a ridiculous traffic light themed costume instead of a black suit. But most importantly; he was wearing a domino mask.
Though as Raven came to the realization that she had caught the wrong enemy, she became aware of a starbolt, a sonic cannon and a crimson fist being aimed at her back.
"The Teen Titans. Should I be relieved or worried that I've stumbled upon you here?" Raven asked dryly, sounding completely untroubled by the fact she had three very angry Titans pointing their attacks at her. From his position against the wall, Robin glared at her.
"Give up, Raven. We have you trapped here." he stated confidently. Raven merely scoffed at him.
"Says the idiot with a gun pressed to his head." She countered sarcastically. A groan of irritation suddenly came from Cyborg.
"Come on, Rob. We don't have time for a Mexican standoff here. We're all still trapped in Mad Mod's crazy house" he said in irritation. Raven never turned her attention from Robin, but Robin himself took the time to look over her shoulder straight at Cyborg.
"What do you suggest then?" he asked, perhaps a little harsher than he had intended.
"I suggest a truce" Cyborg simply said. At first, no sound was made by anyone. Then…
"WHAAAAT?!" that originated from both Raven and Robin at the same time, both temporarily forgetting about each other and turning their eyes at Cyborg. The man in question was quick to raise his hands in a non-threatening gesture.
"Not a permanent, just until we're out of here." he reassured them. Both Raven and Robin were fuming at the thought of cooperating, and could you really blame them? Raven had already tried to kill him twice. And Robin was the reason she had been kicked out of H.I.V.E. Academy.
But while Raven detested the thought of working together with her target, she was also pragmatic. She was alone here, with supplies running low and no idea how to get out. Teaming up with fellow prisoners would increase her chances of escape. Safety in numbers after all. And if nothing else, Raven would then have someone to trip while she slipped away.
The way it stood right now, sticking with the Titans was her best bet if she wanted to get out, no matter how much of a painful blow it was to her pride.
"Fine, I can accept this truce." Raven grudgingly conceded. What kind of cruelty had she done in a past life to warrant this kind of punishment? Then again, considering what kind of future that awaited her, Raven guessed that the universe was letting her off easy on this one.
Still, this was anything but enjoyable. Mad Mod was in so much trouble now, not that he was beforehand. But there was still one person who felt like objecting.
"Absolutely not! There's no way we'll ever work with scum like her!" do I even need to write who that was?
"Come on Rob, be reasonable. Sure, I don't like the idea of working with her anymore than you do, but we're all in the same boat here. And if we're to get out alive and sane, we need to work together" Cyborg explained, trying to be the voice of reason. Robin just kept glaring at him, not budging so much as an inch. Raven gave a tired sigh.
"Alright, listen here bird boy. I detest the very thought of cooperating with you, but the tin can is right here." Raven began, ignoring the indignant "Hey!" she received from behind her. "We live united, or die divided."
Raven could not believe that she had said such a cheesy line, but it must have done some good as Robin now at least looked a bit thoughtful.
"How can we trust you?" he asked suspiciously, but Raven was sure that he had already accepted the idea. He was just setting up ground rules.
"You can trust me until we're out of this place. After that…" Raven left the sentence hanging, letting him fill in the blanks. He slowly nodded his head and Raven took that as a silent cue to let go. As she released him from her grip and holstered her gun, she heard the other Titans powering down their attacks as well.
"Very well, we'll have a truce for the moment." Robin declared before he got right up in Raven's face. "But this doesn't change anything. The instant we've dealt with Mad Mod, you're next."
His attempt to intimidate her just splashed against her like water on rocks, and Raven even smirked cockily at him.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, bird boy." she said, causing Robin to grit his teeth from the nickname. But as Raven finally turned round to face the remaining Titans, she only counted three of them.
"Shouldn't there be five of you? Where's that green buffoon?" she asked. Before a verbal answer could be given, a more physical answer crawled passed their feet like a worm, drooling like a dog and making noises that resembled a seal.
For once, Raven was at a wit's end here.
"Mad Mod's hypno-screen." Robin clarified. "We can't snap him out of it, we've tried everything."
"Did you try making him laugh?" Raven merely asked. Four surprised pair of eyes were soon locked upon her. And Raven did not like it very much.
"What?" she asked irritably. Robin was the first to snap out of his stupor.
"Actually… we never tried that." he admitted sheepishly. Argent merely gave a huff of irritation.
"Great, now does anyone know how to make him laugh? The guy's got the strangest kind of humor I've ever seen." She deadpanned, causing Cyborg to smirk confidently at her.
"No problem." He said before he bent down and grabbed Beast Boy's ear. Before anyone could ask what he was doing, he let out the loudest burp he could muster straight into his ear. And as if by magic, Beast Boy snapped out of his trance and laughed as if he had just heard the joke of the century.
"Nice one!" he complimented as Cyborg smiled happily at his accomplishments while all the others were staring at the pair with a mixture of surprise and disgust. 'Maybe teaming up with these morons was a bad idea after all.' Raven thought.
It seemed to take a moment before Beast Boy became more aware of his surroundings.
"Uhhh… how did I get and why am I covered in… RAVEN?!" that last part probably came out a little wrong, but hey, he had just spotted a notorious mercenary just a few feet from himself, anyone would freak out like that.
"Easy, Beast Boy, Raven's on our side here." Robin reassured, though whether he was trying to reassure Beast Boy or himself was up for debate.
"Really?" Beast Boy asked suspiciously while directing a glare at Raven, who for her part merely smiled at him.
"Don't worry, elf, I've agreed to play nice. For now at least." She said teasingly. Beast Boy just glowered at her for the nickname.
"Wonderful!" Starfire suddenly burst out. "Now we need only to locate an exit."
The sound of a sonic cannon powering up followed her statement.
"Or just keep blasting until we make one." Cyborg offered eagerly. Clearly he was in quite a hurry to get out of this crazy house.
"Easy, last thing I smashed tried to smash me back. I'm sure this whole place is booby-trapped" Robin stated as he glanced around suspiciously, as if he was expecting a trap to be sprung at any second.
"Then how are we supposed to get out?" Beast Boy asked.
"We're not." that depressing answer came from Argent "Don't you get it? Mad Mod's just going to keep messing with us until…"
"We mess with him!" Robin interrupted her. "That cane of his controls everything in here. We get the cane…"
"… We take control." Cyborg continued.
"… And take him down." Beast Boy finished eagerly.
"What do you know? You guys actually came up with a reasonable plan." Raven commented but was ignored for the sake of their truce. It would only make it more satisfying to bring her down later.
"Oh I'll find him! That demented dude is never hypnotizing me again!" Beast Boy declared as he began advancing towards a door, right before a hypno-screen popped out of the wall and put him in a similar drooling state as he was in before. He fell right into Starfire's arms, out as a candle.
It was at that point that Mad Mod himself decided to make his appearance as he floated up from a black square, twirling his cane along the way.
"Come on, will you lot ever learn? You're in my world, my duckies! You can't win." He taunted before the door behind him opened at he sprinted away.
"Titans, go!" Robin shouted before rushing after Mad Mod, the Titans following closely behind. Left behind in their wake was Raven, who began wondering if maybe she would after all have greater chances of success if she went alone.
"Oh well, might as well." She finally said before she sprinted to catch up with the Titans.
What followed after that was a grueling and comical chase that seemed to fit more into a Saturday morning cartoon.
First they chased Mad Mod through a hallways filled with pictures of Mad Mod before they had to run for their lives as Mad Mod came after them with a bazooka as big as an elephant.
Then an endless white room whose floor and roof was covered by black spots. The craziness escalated when Mad Mod disappeared down a spot only to appear from a second one. What followed were the Titans going in and out of the spots all over the place trying to find their quarry.
And then it became a chase up a seemingly endless flight of stairs while Mad Mod was riding a moped. But eventually Mad Mod reached the top of the stairs (guess they were not so endless after all) and pressed the ruby on his cane. The stair was promptly turned into a slide and all those who lacked the ability to fly began to side down it, straight towards a meat grinder.
Though thanks to some quick thinking on Beast Boy's part and with some assistance from the two flying girls in the group, they managed to escape being crushed and were quickly back on track.
The chase then led them into a corridor filled with doors. At that point the whole gang began running from door to door going through one door only to come out of a different one. Along the way other crazy and random things came along such as Mad Mod canoeing, Beast Boy morphed as a hamster as big as a rhino, a honking car, Starfire riding on Beast Boy as an ostrich, Raven riding on a bicycle and a whole bunch of other things that I don't even want to count.
Finally, the chase ended when they found a marble statue of Mad Mod against a wall and upon flipping its head open Robin found what hopefully was an off switch. Pressing it, the Titans, plus Raven, made ready as the wall opened up for them. What they found made them wonder and hope if this crazy ride was finally over.
"No way!" Raven burst out at the sight of palm trees and sandy beaches at the end of the hall.
"Is that what I think it is?" Beast Boy asked hopefully.
"One way to find out." Robin said as he began striding towards the apparent exit. The others were quick to follow, but Raven discreetly moved to the back of the group, where she slowly placed both her hands near her holstered gun.
"Looks like the real deal." Cyborg said happily. Raven's eyes grew sharper. The moment they stepped outside, their little truce would be over, and the winner would be the fastest one to draw their weapon. So far, it seemed like the Titans were so preoccupied with the view that they forgot about the knife poised at their backs.
Though it seemed that the whole gang had celebrated too soon as the moment they reached the "exit", they only ended up falling through the poster. And what did they find on the other side? The same freakish room they had started in.
"No!" Cyborg burst out in dismay while Robin slammed the ground with his fist.
"We're right back where we started!" he stated angrily mostly to himself. Robin felt like tearing his hair off at this point. Mad Mod was just always a step ahead of them. Speaking of Mad Mod, that irritating Brit just popped out of the floor in front of them.
"Of course you are, my duckies." He stated as he tapped the floor with his cane, causing a section of it to rise up into the air in defiance to gravity.
"Class is over, and you lot haven't learned a thing. As a failing grade for each bliming one of you." Mad Mod declared as a red glowing "F" appeared on the underside of his floating platform. "There's only one thing for it."
As he said that, the doors swung close and the walls sunk away to reveal humongous hypno-screens. Those bloody chairs from earlier rose up from the floor and hundreds of Mad Mod marble statues advanced upon the gang.
"YOU HAVE TO REPEAT THE ENTIRE LESSON!" Mad Mod burst out before laughing maniacally. The gang instantly made ready for battle yet again, well most of them anyway since Beast Boy had already fallen victim to the hypno-screens… Again.
"Time for class, my duckies! Everyone, back to your seats!" Mad Mod eagerly exclaimed. Seriously, what is it about schools that make the teachers the only ones looking forward to a class?
"Titans, get that cane!" Robin shouted. That seemed to serve as a substitute for the usual "Titans, go!" as the entire team sprung to attack with fierce battle cries on their lips, except for Beast Boy for obvious reasons.
"Payback time!" Raven shouted gleefully as she pulled out her guns and let loose upon the encroaching statues, scoring headshots with each bullet and felling them in droves. As her guns ran dry, Raven sprinted towards a group of statues. The leading statue of the group in turn charged her with a chainsaw.
Raven smirked cockily as she jumped over it and using its head as a springboard pushed forward to land behind the group. Quickly she spun around while withdrawing a grenade and lobbing it right into their midst. As it exploded, Raven used her cloak as a shield.
Another statue tried to attack her with a Taser, but she broke the mechanical arm holding it and thrust the Taser straight into its mechanical skull before using the statue to steady herself as she swung both her legs sideways, knocking off the head of another statue.
"Oi, no roughhousing! Do I have to separate you lot?" Mad Mod demanded as suddenly several tiles rose higher into the air like pillars, creating a rough and uneven battleground that left most Titans separated from each other. Not that Raven complained.
Several flying statues with rapid firing energy guns had honed in on her and were carrying out strafing runs against her position. She had been forced to take cover behind a pillar while reloading her guns
"These guys just don't know when to quit." Raven muttered quietly to herself. Just as the statues finished another strafing run, Raven stepped out of cover and returned fire. Three of the statues went down from the unexpected counter fire and the rest scattered to avoid a similar fate.
Ground based statues took their chance to engage her in close combat, charging towards her with Tasers, chainsaws, spears and whatnot. But if they thought they had the advantage up close and personal, they were sorely mistaken, exemplified by Raven's smug grin.
"Slice 'em and dice 'em!" she hollered as she charged the statues. The first three were easily disposed off as Raven jumped right over them and decapitated them in mid-jump. The moment her feet made contact with the floor, her sword skewered another statue before she jumped over it and kicked over another one behind it.
They tried to surround her and spear her, but Raven ducked under their stabs and with a spinning slash, cut them all in half. A spear wielding one tried its luck but Raven was upon it in and instant, cleaving both spear and statue in half down the middle.
A group of four statues with four blade-like legs surrounded her, with the one in front trying to pin her to the floor. But Raven gracefully sidestepped each stab before she suddenly rammed her blade into the joint of its leg, tearing it off. She quickly snatched it up and rammed it through the underside of the statue before gliding under a second one and cleaving its small body in two from underneath it.
The two remaining tried to double team her and skewer her from two directions. Raven stood deathly still and at the last second jumped clear, causing the statues to skewer each other instead.
But more of the statues came out from the walls, surrounding Raven. She let out a groan of irritation at seeing the near endless supply of statues.
"Seriously? Is there no end to you guys?" Raven groaned loudly, wishing now more than ever that she had stayed back home.
"Well, as my mom used to say; you should always leave the party when you're having the most fun." She mused out loud to herself as she withdrew a smoke grenade from her belt and threw it to the ground. As the thick white fog obscured the fight, Raven jumped clear of the fight, using the statues' heads as springboards.
Raven quickly ascended a pillar that gave her a good overview of the battlefield, and it was not looking good. Mad Mod was flooding the place with his statues and the Titans were being overpowered by sheer weight of numbers.
Mad Mod himself was nowhere in sight, probably hiding behind his army of statues. But Raven would need to act soon, they had not spotted her yet but that would not last. And once they found her again they would swarm her like locusts on a field.
Screw the Teen Titans here, Raven needed an exit, and fast. And as luck would have it, she found one not too far from her. a section of the wall had been torn open, showing it was nothing more than paper.
At first, Raven could only stare at what she was seeing in shock. All this time they had been trapped by damn paper? It was so absurd that Raven almost felt like laughing. But no matter the situation, she now had an exit.
So with a satisfied smirk on her lips, Raven silently slipped out of sight.
And as stated earlier, the Titans were not faring that well at the moment, being slowly overwhelmed by the huge masses of statues. But Robin had just reached the platform Mad Mod was standing on and tried to swipe his cane.
The mad Brit however was more agile than his appearance made him out to be as he skillfully dodged and sidestepped each of Robin's attacks.
"Oh, give it a rest, naughty. You've already lost!" he taunted the fuming Robin. Of course, this was like throwing oil on a fire and with a surge of strength Robin leaped at Mad Mod, catching the criminal off-guard.
The cane was within Robin's reach, just one more step and it would be in his grasp. But as his hand made a grab for it, the hand went right through the cane as if it was not even there. Robin fell face first to the ground in shock but was quickly back on his feet, facing Mad Mod.
And as he spotted a torn up section of the wall behind Mad Mod, the pieces fit together in his mind.
"The cane isn't real, which means Mad Mod is just as fake as everything else in here." Robin stated smugly as he charged right through Mad Mod's hologram. "Time for a reality check!"
With those words, Robin leaped over the edge towards the hole. Mad Mod was quick to figure out what he was attempting to accomplish and sent two flying statues armed with missiles after him.
They took aim and fired their barrage of missiles just as Robin landed outside of Mad Mod's school. They exploded harmlessly well away from Robin. As he stood back up again, Robin cast an angry glare over his shoulder at the still raging battle.
"I need to shut this down before it's too late." He stated to himself as he turned his head back forward, only to end up staring down the barrel of Raven's Desert Eagle.
"I think you've got bigger concerns right about now." She said mockingly. Robin narrowed his eyes at her.
"I thought we had a truce." He said accusingly, causing Raven to smirk widely.
"Yeah, but only until we got out. And in case you haven't noticed, we're out now. So now we're back to square one. And besides, with your friends occupied this would be a perfect opportunity to waste you."
"Sounds to me like you're scared of facing us all together." Robin stated, trying to provoke Raven. She merely shrugged her shoulders.
"As I said before; you live united, or die divided. You're divided now, so all that's left is for you to die." Raven clarified just before she pulled the trigger. Robin involuntarily twitched from the action, but the only thing that came out of the gun was a click.
Raven had run out of bullets.
"Okay, that was not supposed to happen." Raven stated, sounding completely calm despite the situation. Before she could try her luck with her second gun, Robin leaped at her with a fierce battle cry.
Raven sidestepped him and tried ramming her elbow into his back. He spun around and grabbed hold of her arm before performing a judo throw on her. He tried pinning her down, but Raven threw a flash bang into the air.
Robin was forced to backpedal and shield his eyes from the blast and that was all the time Raven needed to get back on her feet and draw her last gun. Robin saw the imminent danger and dived towards her. Raven had time to fire off one bullet that tore into Robin's shoulder before he smashed into her like a bull.
Raven crashed to the ground and Robin flipped right over her before spinning around and trying to smash his heel into her. She rolled away and was quickly back on her feet with a fist thrown at Robin.
He managed to catch it, but unfortunately it was with his wounded arm and he felt pain flare up as his damaged shoulder protested to the sudden strain. Seeing his pained expression, Raven smirked at him.
"What's the matter? You look a little shaky there." She commented with fake concern. Robin merely gritted his teeth and ignoring the pain, he pushed Raven's arms aside and delivered a hard punch to her guts.
She staggered back from the blow, but before Robin could push his luck Raven had managed to draw her broadsword and charged at him. Robin was forced to jump back to avoid a vicious swing before he somersaulted to avoid a stab.
He tried to get in a hard swing with his leg, but Raven was faster with her blade and he was forced to dodge. Though he was not fast enough a nasty cut appeared on his thigh. He tried to distract her by throwing several birdarangs at her while putting as much distance between them as possible, but Raven merely cleaved the offending projectiles in two with her sword before rushing in again.
Raven tried a high swing that Robin ducked under, but he was not fast enough to avoid the spinning kick that followed in its wake and was knocked off his feet. As she approached him, Robin lashed out with his legs, knocking Raven's legs from under her and causing to fall unceremoniously to the floor.
Seeing an opening, Robin scrambled back to his feet and tried to pin her down, but Raven began to wildly swing her sword. It forced Robin back as Raven staggered back to her feet. Robin put as much distance between them as possible before he threw a pair of discs at her.
Raven dodged the first and easily deflected the second one before giving Robin a cocky grin.
"That's the best you can do?" she asked tauntingly. However her confidence wavered when she noticed that he too was smiling.
"Who said I was aiming for you?" he asked rhetorically. Raven was quick to realize something as she turned around to see both discs being embedded in Mad Mod's circuitry system.
And they were beeping.
"Oh crap…" was all Raven had time to say before the explosive discs went off, blasting huge chunks out of Mad Mod's system and showering Raven with smoke and debris. Robin was fortunate enough to have some cover to use.
But when he finally dared poke his head out again, Raven was gone.
"I'll worry about her later." He told himself as he went off to deal with another villain, one far more annoying.
In the control booth, Mad Mod was not having a good day. His whole system was crumbling now before his eyes. Someone had wrecked his system. Though Mad Mod was not how you would imagine him. He was an elderly man with wrinkled skin and gray hair, nothing like the youthful hologram of himself that had hounded the Titans.
As more control panels exploded in his face, Mad Mod staggered up from his chair.
"My machines! That meddling little snot will pay… Aaaahhh!" that last part was a frightened scream as he suddenly came face to face with an angry Robin, who was quick to grab hold of the front of Mad Mod's shirt and drag him off his feet.
"Oh… hello, governor." Mad Mod awkwardly said, fearing for his already bad health.
"School's out, Mod. And you're looking at about twenty years of detention." Robin stated harshly. Mad Mod could do nothing else but squirm in Robin's iron grip.
With a final heave, Cyborg opened the metal hatch that exposed the clear blue sky. He made a satisfied sound as he climbed out, followed by Argent. After they climbed out, a tied up Mad Mod was thrown out.
"Ah yeah, this is definitively the real deal." Cyborg said in satisfaction as Robin climbed out, having both his shoulder and thigh bandaged up. God bless first-aid kits.
"School always seems smaller after you graduate, doesn't it?" He joked as he peered down the hatch for the last two Titans.
"Just don't expect me to go to any reunions." Argent deadpanned just as Starfire emerged, carrying a still hypnotized Beast Boy.
"I cannot awaken Beast Boy. I have tried the tickling, all manner of bodily noises and the word underpants. I fear that this time his brain is gone forever!" she exclaimed worriedly.
"Didn't know he had a brain to begin with." Argent observed with utmost seriousness. That seemed to do the trick as Beast Boy began laughing.
"Good one!" he complimented the joke between fits of laughter, right before he actually registered what the joke was about. At which point he looked thoroughly insulted.
"Dude, that's not funny! I totally have a brain!" he burst out angrily as the other Titans calmly walked away. "I just don't use it much."