Author's Note:
If there is a word to describe how happy I am to have this chapter done, please let me know because it was so confusing to finish.
Enough complaining. Hello my beautiful people, it is I, D-A-X, lord and ruler of all I survey. Coming to you again with another chapter here. To those who are just joining us on this journey, welcome. I am glad to have you with us. I apologize for the late release of the chapter, I've been busy, please forgive me.
To everyone else, enjoy the chapter, and remember to write a review if you want. If you have any questions or suggestions, PM me, I'm always happy to hear your thoughts.
Now that that's out of the way, let's go!
"*GASP*" Robin snapped his eyes open with a huge gasp as he sat up against a polished wood chair. He looked around to survey the area: The place was a large, partially lit atrium with several balconies running around the walls, as well as paintings lining the walls. He looked at the floor and noticed it was tiled in a black and white checkerboard pattern. He then looked at his wrists and saw them securely bound to the armrests of his chair while his ankles were bound to the front legs. He applied force to the restraints, but couldn't break free.
As he struggled, the lights of the room came on fully to show one Titan after another also clamped into chairs. They were all half-conscious, but came around with assorted groans, each having an additional binding: red energy rings around Starfire's wrists, steel straps over Cyborg's chest, a white energy band encircling Raven's, a giant rubber band on Beast Boy's, and yellow energy rings around Kylar's as well as a metal collar around his neck.
"What?" The bionic Titan questioned when he came to, noticing the large metal bands that kept him in place.
"Huh? Am I the only one who has no idea where we are?" The green teen asked as he looked around the large room.
"Why, you're right where you belong, my duckies." A male voice, with a heavy Cockney accent, called out. The six bound teens looked to the source of the voice and saw a man standing at an open set of double doors on a balcony atop a long staircase. The man was standing in front of a light that obscured his details, but they were able to discern a cane in one hand. "You're in school!" Their captor cheered as he leapt onto the banister of the nearby staircase and slid down it. Once he landed in front of the team, every detail about him was revealed.
The man was in his early forties, and had red hair in a Beatle cut with mutton chop sideburns, small rectangular sunglasses, a sport coat with the design of the British Union Jack flag, black shirt, white kerchief tied at the neck, white pants, and brown shoes with black socks. The cane he held was topped with a large ruby. "That's right, lads and loveys. You're the only students at Mad Mod's Institute for Bratty Teenage Do-Gooders." The British man, apparently known as Mad Mod, explained before tossing the cane high from his left hand and catching it with his right. "And it's high time someone taught you sprogs a lesson."
On his last words, white light flared from the ruby as he held out the cane in front of the bound teens.
"Uh-oh." Beast Boy groaned as the crazy Englishman strolled leisurely toward them.
"Titans! Move!" The Boy Wonder shouted as he tried to break free of his binds. Try as they might, but the other five were unable to do so. Beast Boy even cycled through lizard and cobra forms in an attempt to escape.
Their evil captor pranced around at the foot of the stairs while he twirled his cane, apparently finding their attempts at escaping rather amusing. "My starbolts are useless!" Starfire cried, as she could not form her energy around her hands.
"Specially designed chairs, love." Mad Mod said as he leaned into her face, "Can't have those nasty superpowers disrupting my lecture now, can I?"
"Get away from her!" Robin growled.
The bizarre Brit straightened up, glanced over at the spiky-haired Titan, and then shoved the cane into his face. Its ruby flared up anew, more intensely, causing the poor kid to recoil into his chair.
"Now don't get your knickers in a twist, my little snot." The mutton chopped man chuckled as he backed off and paced in front of the other teens; "I didn't go to all the trouble of building this school and filling your Tower with knockout gas just to finish you off lickety-split."
"Then what do you want?" Raven asked angrily.
"Just what I said, dearie." The Brit said as he leaned closer to her, "To teach you lot a lesson!" He added as he turned away and scratched his rear, much to everyone's chagrin, "Yes, I've been watching you children misbehave. And I hate misbehaving children." He heard laughter coming from the right end of the row, "Is something funny, lad?" He asked as he walked over to Kylar.
"Yeah. You." The brunette chuckled, "Who're you supposed to be, Murdoc or Ringo?" Mad Mod scowled at the teen before pressing the top of the ruby on the cane with his thumb. "Grk!" Kylar grunted as the collar around his neck crackled with electricity as the shock coursed through his body.
"Disrupting teachers' lecture will be answered with discipline." The Cockney teacher affirmed as he pressed the top of the ruby again, stopping the brunettes' punishment.
"Yeah…" Kylar coughed out a black puff of smoke, "Definitely Ringo."
"Now where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" Mad Mod rubbed his chin before snapping his fingers, "Ah, yes!" He pointed the cane off to his right. The six bound Titans looked over to the wall he pointed to and saw a picture of the teacher, done in the style of Andy Warhol. It turned around and showed Cyborg and Raven beating on Thunder and Lightning, "Fighting crime." The Brit stated as another such painting swiveled around and showed Robin and Starfire cradling kittens they rescued from a blazing fire behind them, "Saving lives." One final painting flipped over to show Beast Boy as a green dog pulling down Plasmus' shorts with Kylar floating above him in a post-throwing pose and a pie having splattered against the back of the muck monsters' head. "Interfering with the plans of hardworking villains. Why, you lot are nothing but a bunch of troublemakers!"
The mad Brit pointed his cane around at each of the teens who, in turn, reacted with varied expressions of fury, "But you'll learn your place soon enough." He taunted as he pulled his cane back away from the Titans faces, "You see, I'm older than you, so I'm bigger, badder, and better."
"Say wh-" –clang- "OW!" Cyborg cried as Mad Mod bashed him on the side of the head with his cane.
"You're in my world now. And you won't be getting out 'til you've learned some proper respect." The maniacal teacher explained as he held his arms out.
"We will get out." Robin threatened, "And when we do-"
-BRIIIIIIIIIING-
The ringing of a school bell cut off the spiky-haired teens threats.
"Oh, dear, there's the bell, my duckies. Off to class!" Mad Mod smirked as he gave the six troublemakers a salute.
With that, the floor tile under each chair opened like a trapdoor and dumped chair and Titan out of sight. Starting with Kylar and ending with Robin, each teen screamed as they fell into the vast unknown.
0-0
After falling through the hole in the ground, Robin made a perfect four-point landing in the middle of the floor of a new room. Shaking his head to refocus, the Boy Wonder scanned the room and noticed a large blackboard on the end wall facing him with two busts of Mad Mod flanking it while the sidewalls were left untouched.
The next thing that happened gave the masked Titan a huge shock: His captors' face was quickly drawn on the blackboard in chalk and then began speaking to him. "Now how can I teach you anything if you won't sit still and listen?" The face spoke.
A wooden hand extended from the chair's top edge and grabbed Robin's head, "Huh?" The leader let out as he tried wriggling out of its' grasp to no avail. The hand pulled the poor kid's head straight up which also forced his eyes to stay open.
"One of my hypno-screens ought to get your attention-and it'll erase everything in you brain as well." Mad Mod's face laughed as the chalk outline swirled away and formed into a pulsating pattern of concentric black and white rings.
It took everything Robin had just to resist staring at the hypnotic screen, "Can't let him hypnotize me… got to stay focused…" He strained to say. The strength of the wooden chair proved to be too much for the young Titan as it pulled his eyes open even wider. With great effort, though, he managed to tip the chair onto its side, breaking some of the wood from the right armrest.
Underneath, his wrist was held down with a metal clamp. Learning from his mentor to be prepared for every situation, Robin flicked a small lockpick out from his gloves index finger, used it to free his right arm in short order, and tore the wooden hand from the chair top. One hard throw cracked the hypno-screen wall, causing it to shut down as the images of the hypnotic trances faded from all three walls. Feeling proud about his small victory, the troublesome student set about freeing his other limbs.
"Naughty snotty." Mad Mod's voice rang through the room speakers, "If you're gonna destroy school property, school property's gonna destroy you."
Now having freed himself of the chair, Robin was crouched on the ground when he saw something very large push through the screen, "Whoa." He awed worriedly as the large object revealed itself to be an enormous missile ready to launch.
"Right, then. Count along with Moddy." The sadistic educator said as the two busts extended two laser muzzles from their eyes and spinning blades on jointed arms from their ears.
"Ten… nine… eight… seven…" As Mad Mod began his countdown, the busts moved in and fired at Robin, who rolled across the floor before hurling himself at them. "Six… five… four… three…" The acrobatic teen hid behind one of the busts and ducked as the other fired and blew its head off. As he pushed the remains aside, he gave the missile a good long look, and bolted to the ruined wall. "Two… one!" Just as the final second counted, Robin dove through another screen, tearing a hole in it to make his escape.
Behind him, the missile ignited and flew off, chasing the Boy Wonder down a tunnel decked out in a checkerboard pattern. The weapon roared behind him, entering through a trick black panel, and detonated with a blast that threw the escaping teen against the wall.
After regaining his bearings, he stood up and dusted himself off, "There goes my shot at perfect attendance." Robin quipped as he polished the R emblem on his tunic.
"Don't be so sure, my little duckie." A voice caught the delinquent by surprise. He looked down the tunnel and sure enough, Mad Mod stood at the other end, having ditched his Union Jack coat for an all black coat and pants combo. "You may be out of the classroom, but class is never dismissed." He taunted as he ran up the side of the wall so that he now stood upside down on the top surface. Robin ran toward the teacher and jumped up in a vain attempt to grab him just as he passed overhead. "Next lesson-physics!"
"Huh?" The masked Titan stared in complete bewilderment at the break in reality that transpired before him.
"What goes up; stays up!" Mad Mod laughed as he ran further down the tunnel.
"Until I take it down!" Robin growled as quickly followed.
Thus began the chase, first ranging through a network of staircases and arches that connected floor to floor. The room they ran through was filled with tricks of perspective and design, the checkerboard ceiling had more stairs coming down from it in a way that M. C. Escher would be proud of.
Soon after leaving the mind-bending room, the teacher and student found themselves in a room of nothing but black and white cubes. Mad Mod was running along the ceiling while Robin ran across the floor, approaching each other from opposite directions. Gravity decided to pull a prank on the young hero and performed a complete 180, reversing their positions and sending the Titan tumbling to his enemy's level with a yell and a thud as he landed in a heap on the floor. The crazy Brit simply hopped over him and ran off.
The chase quickly continued when Robin picked himself up and sprinted after the British scoundrel into a room filled with half vertical black and white stripes and half checkerboard tiling. Both parties dashed along the interface between the two regions, disappearing briefly behind each black stripe. Suddenly, the redhead doubled back and made his descent on a staircase hidden among the squares; Robin did the same thing, staying hot on his heels.
They then found themselves in an area consisting of two side-by-side sets of concentric squares. Mad Mod ran into the left set, which revealed to be a tunnel, and did a sharp turn into one of the white bands. When Robin tried to follow, he ran flat into a wall.
The confused teen backed up and rubbed his face, trying to ease the pain, "How did he-" He soon noticed the maniacal educator emerge inside the right set of squares and blow raspberries at him before running off again. Robin gave chase and found a closed wooden door. He opened it and found himself in an atrium, perhaps the one the team was in when Mad Mod first introduced himself.
A loud whistle caught the masked teens' attention. He turned to face the source of the noise and saw the crazed Englishman at the top of the long staircase in the atrium. "You may as well chuck in the sponge, laddie!" Mad Mod shouted as he twirled his cane, "You can't catch the likes of me!"
Determined to prove him wrong, Robin charged toward the stairs and leapt up the banisters. A wave of the cane, and another crazy trick of the school left the pursuing Titan helplessly pounding his way up a long down-escalator, getting absolutely nowhere fast.
Mad Mod leaned on his cane as he lazily rubbed his left index finger and thumb together in front of his face, "Now what did I tell you? Children today won't listen to their betters!" He said, seemingly disinterested in the spiky-haired teens efforts to capture him, "Have to learn everything the hard-" –clank- "Hey, oy! No throwing things while Teacher is talking!" The Cockney crackpot shouted after getting surprised by a birdarang that ricocheted off the railing in front of him.
The miscreant then fired a grappling hook that embedded itself in the wall above the doorway as Mad Mod ran out, then reeled himself up to the landing and charged through the door. Once he got through to the next room, one eyebrow jumped in complete surprise; he came out in an atrium that looked exactly like the one he just left.
"What?!" Robin exclaimed as he stared at the large staircase in front of him, "You've gotta be kidding me!"
"NOOOO!" He heard the screams of Starfire echo from one of the side rooms.
"Starfire!" The Boy Wonder followed the screaming through a door that led him to an area with very tall library shelves, with a ladder set up to reach the topmost levels of one of them. Robin quickly climbed it and, when he got to the top, found himself gazing at a maze of shelves that stretched as far as the eye could see.
He quickly scanned the ocean of bookshelves before coming across a small room that had another hypno-screen set up among the stacks.
0-0
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Starfire cried out again as she thrashed from side to side in her chair. The room she had been placed in was set up with rows of desks with her situated in the center of the last row, along with a giant book propped up and opened that had the hypnotic images flashing in front of her. Her eyes were tightly shut, but two thin arms reached from the top of her chair. "I will not read your book of meanness and swirls!" The resisting Tamaranean yelled as the arms grabbed her head and forced her to face the front.
"Now, now, love, it's for your own good." Mad Mod's voice rang through the speakers, "Nothing teaches discipline and respect like a brain-erasing trance." She began succumbing to the trance, but quickly closed her eyes again to break contact. Her efforts were in vain, however, as the wooden fingers soon pried them back open.
"*Gasp*" She inhaled sharply as she looked toward the ceiling. A large section of tiling opened to reveal a giant rubber OVERDUE stamp that darted down and stamped the floor, crushing a few desks to splinters.
"Besides, if you won't stop squirming, I won't stop squashing!" The sadistic instructor shouted happily as the stamp crashed against the ground again, this time closer to the trapped girl.
Gasping in sheer terror, Starfire renewed her efforts to get out of the chair after having broken away from the two hands that held her head in place. Now the destructive librarians tool came down right in front of her, throwing bits of wood in her face. As she stared, horrified, the string of huge rubber letters positioned itself directly over her head and hurtled down. The auburn-haired alien screamed as the shadow of the rubber stamp fell over her.
At the last possible second, Robin dove across the floor and plowed her out of the way before the word OVERDUE was stamped into the tiles. Once they were clear of the drop zone, Robin pulled out a tiny welding torch in his glove and attacked the energy restraints that had been neutralizing his friends' starbolts.
"Are all the schools on your planet this horrible?" The Tamaranean asked as she lied on the back of her chair. After a few moments, the restraints faded and Starfire freed herself from the chair. No rest for these two Titans, however, as a new problem came to greet them: books came off the shelves and started flapping toward them like giant bats.
"Come on!" The masked teen yelled as he yanked his teammate up off the ground. Some of the books collided with her chair and exploded, blowing it to bits as they ran toward a set of shelves. Once they reached their destination, Robin began climbing his way up while Starfire flew up along the side of the books.
More flying volumes struck the bookshelves and detonated around the fleeing teens, jarring Robin loose by the blasts and sending him falling back toward the attacking literature with a scream. Saving the doomed boy, Starfire flew down, grabbed her friends' hand, and pulled the spiky-haired Titan up the shelves.
Once at the top, they continued their escape as they leapt along the tops of the shelves, avoiding the oncoming books while Starfire shot a few of them down. The two soon made their way to a door labeled Library-Quiet Please and burst through. Slamming it shut, and leaning on it with their full weight, the dynamic duo was met with a final hefty explosion from the other side that nearly pushed the door open again.
After the massive blast eased, Robin strode away from the door while Starfire followed. "Robin!" She cheered as she floated behind the masked teen, "I wish to thank you for rescuing me from-"
"Don't thank me yet." The boy said as they stopped moving, "Mad Mod still has us right where he wants us. I know we could take him if we could just get our hands on him. But every time we get out of one trap…"
Four busts of the eccentric educator rolled up behind them, catching Starfires' attention. The sunglasses on one slid up the forehead and a missile popped out of the nose, spinning blades emerged from another's ears, the third's jaw opened to reveal a stun gun, and the hair of the last one rose to show a cannon inside the head.
"…there's another one waiting." Robin growled through gritted teeth, a sight gag showing his head to have grown a few sizes while a vein throbbed on his temple. His head returned to normal as he got ready for a little kung-fu action, but Starfire yanked him by the arm, leading him down a corridor as a cannon shot landed behind them.
"Run, my duckies!" Mad Mod's voice rang out through more speakers as the two Titans ran through the black and white colored hallway, "Run all you like-but you'll never get out!"
At the end of the hallway, Starfire and Robin reached a spiraling pattern of concentric squares that sent them tumbling toward its center down into another room. Crashing through a ceiling marked with the symbols of the chemical elements, the two found a room filled with giant beakers, test tubes filled with solutions, a giant microscope and Bunsen burner, and models of molecules.
"It's no good procrastinating, really." They heard the instructors' voice speak again as they walked further into the room, "Because sooner or later you'll both end up like him."
"Beast Boy!" The Boy Wonder cried as the two of them reached the end of the lab, where a few desks were set up.
At the front of the classroom, an overhead projector screen hung down from the ceiling at an angle; the hypnotic patter played across it. Once the two freed members of the team reached the chair that was front and center, they saw their shape-shifting friend sitting motionless, wearing a dunce cap, fully under the screens' spell with drool running down his chin as he babbled incoherently.
"Ah, yeah. A model student, that one. Lovely. Sits there, quietly, never thinks about misbehaving-matter of fact, he never thinks at all!" Mad Mod laughed.
"Beast Boy! Awaken!" The Tamaranean waved her left hand in front of the hypnotized teens' face while Robin used his tiny torch on the restraints, "Your friends are here!" She said as she removed the dunce cap on his head. "Beast Boy?" She tried once again to snap her friend out of his trance by actually snapping her fingers, to no avail. She then glanced over to the hypno-screen and walked toward it, warming up a starbolt to destroy it.
"Wait!" Her spiky-haired teammate called out as he ran to her and grabbed her wrist, stopping her from firing, "Trust me."
Soon after, the sounds of test tubes blowing their stoppers could be heard from around the room. The two Titans scanned the room and saw all the chemicals in the place boil over, spilling colorful slop across the floor. This odd combination of fluids proved to be acidic as it began dissolving desks when it reached them.
"Here's your hall pass." The Boy Wonder said as he freed Beast Boy from the chair and handed him to Starfire. "Meet you outside."
With a nod, his otherworldly friend flew away. He soon followed as he leapfrogged along the disintegrated desks to traverse the lab. Riding one like a surfboard across the dangerous liquid, he approached the door where Starfire stood. With one final vault, Robin bounced off one of the giant molecular models before diving through the door, where he finally slammed it shut, fully ridding themselves of the hazardous room.
0-0
After safely returning to the main atrium, the two coherent Titans placed their babbling green friend against the large staircase, where he crumpled to the floor.
"Beast Boy?" Starfire asked with concern as she knelt down next to the changeling who began drooling all over his clothes. "It is I, Starfire. Please! Speak to me!" She tried grabbing his right hand, "Beast Boy?" She then grabbed his head and shook it, "Beast Boy?" She called out louder. Nothing seemed to work as she tried knocking on his head a couple of times. For one final attempt to snap the green teen out of the trance he was in, she inhaled deeply as her head grew too many times normal size. "BEEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSSTTTTTT BOOOOOOYYYYYY!" The Tamaranean shouted with enough force to push the boys faces back on their skulls.
The force of the shout was enough to leave Robin a bit stunned, even though he shoved his fingers in his ears to protect them. When Starfire finally let up, Beast Boy only drooled and babbled some more before keeling over.
"Ah, Star? I don't think that's working." The Boy Wonder pointed out as he looked down at his fallen friend.
"But we must do something or he will remain this way forever." The worried alien said as Beast Boy sat up, wavered a bit, and then tumbled against her midsection, smearing drool against her.
The next moment, the sound of a door opening rang throughout the atrium. "Mad Mod! Come on!" The spiky-haired teen stated as he hustled behind the main staircase. Starfire, not quite sure of the proper hygiene protocol to follow, yanked Beast Boy to the same place as the Titan leader. "We'll hide here and then take him by surprise." He turned back to face the direction the door opened, but a little bit of random mumbling from the hypnotized Titan got on his nerves. "Any way to keep him quiet?"
Thinking quickly, Starfire clapped a hand over the slack mouth of the changeling, only to shudder mightily as drool oozed through her fingers. Seeing as the noise problem was taken care of, Robin peeked over the side of the stairs and saw a shadow approaching. He ducked back briefly before he and the auburn-haired girl leapt out, his foot extended for a flying kick and her hands ready to fire starbolts.
Before any attacks could be launched, Robin was caught in the air by a black orb of magic, keeping him suspended, while Starfire noticed her three missing friends in front of them. Cyborg had his sonic cannon at the ready, Raven had black orbs around her hands as she focused on the Boy Wonder, and Kylar had his aura engulfing his arms as he stood in a fighter's stance.
"Cyborg! Raven! Kylar!" The relieved orange alien cried as she dispelled her energy, "Oh, how glad we are to see you!"
Just as relieved to have found their missing friends, Cyborg and Kylar disarmed themselves while Raven placed Robin back on the ground. "This place is driving me crazy!" The masked Titan voiced his annoyance.
"Tell me about it. Mad Mod's wacked-out computer lab nearly crashed my hard drive." The bionic teen explained.
"And if I have to watch him perform another play, I think I'll go insane." The brunette added as he held up a prop skull and then promptly tossing it over his shoulder.
"Where did our captor send you?" Starfire asked the gloomy mage.
Raven opened her cloak partially and revealed that a white jersey with a large zero on its front had taken the place of her usual black outfit. "Gym." She stated flatly.
"Anybody seen BB?" Cyborg asked.
The answer to his question came from the sound of babbling on the ground. All five teammates looked toward the floor and saw their shape-shifting friend slithering along like an inchworm, with copious amounts of saliva lubricating the path.
Before anyone could ask, Robin spoke up, "Mad Mod's hypno-screens." He explained, "We can't snap him out of it. We've tried everything."
"Did you try this?" The metallic teen picked the unfortunate Titan off the ground and leaned to the side of his head. Pulling Beast Boys' ear wide open, he unleashed a major-league –BUUUURRRRP- into it.
"Nice one!" The changeling laughed, completely shaken out of his trance. His laughter died as he looked around the room. "Uh… how did I get here and why am I covered in drool?"
"Wonderful! Now we need only to locate an exit." Starfire cheered.
"Or just keep blasting 'til we make one." Cyborg smirked as he broke out his cannon.
"I'm all for that idea." Kylar agreed as he grinned maliciously and cracked his knuckles.
"Easy. Last thing I smashed tried to smash me back." Their leader told them, "I'm sure this whole place is booby-trapped."
"Then how are we supposed to get out?" Beast Boy asked as he wiped all the saliva from his body.
"We're not." Raven answered, "Don't you get it? Mad Mod's just gonna keep messing with us until-"
"We mess with him." The Boy Wonder exclaimed, "That cane of his controls everything in here. We take the cane-"
"We take control-"
"And take him down!" The greenling grinned maliciously as he began crossing the floor. "Oh, I'll find him. That demented doofus is never hypnotizing me again!" At his last word, a painting on the wall popped out and swung to face him, showing a hypnotic ring pattern. In no time flat, he was salivating, gurgling, and stumbling to the floor as Starfire ran up to catch him.
"So much for that." Kylar stated with a bored look on his face.
"Come on." A Cockney accented voice called out to them. The teens looked to the end of the room and saw their eccentric teacher rise through a trick black tile in the floor, "Won't you lot ever learn?" Mad Mod asked rhetorically as he balanced the cane on one finger before twirling it in his hand, "You're in my world, my duckies. You can't win." He taunted as he pressed the ruby on the top. The doors behind him opened and with that, he was off in a heartbeat.
"Titans! GO!" Robin exclaimed as he ran after the villainous Brit. Cyborg, Raven, and Kylar followed suit, leaving Starfire to tend to the green adolescent.
"But how do I-"
"Make him laugh!" The titanium Titan called over his shoulder before he and the other teens ran through the door.
She found herself standing alone, supporting the hypnotized Titan by his armpits. After a moment, she hoisted him up to look him in the eye. "How many Okaarans does it take to hoegee a morflark?" The Tamaranean asked with a huge smile stretched across her face, "Finbarr!" I'm sure the shape-shifting Titan would have been rolling on the ground laughing until his lungs gave out if he were Tamaranean, but since he wasn't there was no change in his mumbling and driveling. After thinking for a second, Starfire spoke again, "Um… boo-gers?"
"Hahahaha! Boogers!" Beast Boy laughed, snapping out of the trance again. "Aw, man!" He cried as he realized that Mad Mod had hypnotized him again.
Now that he was coherent, Starfire yanked the green teen by the wrist to join in the chase.
0-0
(A/N: If you want, you can listen to K2G by Puffy AmiYumi since it's such a great and upbeat song that will make anyone happy listening to it. It's also the background music playing during the chase.)
Mad Mod was wearing goggles and a sheepskin coat and helmet over his suit as he zoomed along on a motor scooter with the Titans in hot pursuit. They were running down a hallway lined with various pictures of the crazy teacher; among them was one of him in his Union Jack sport coat with a bunch of bananas hiding the face. Once the group of teens passed the picture, the redheaded Brit pulled the bananas away and glared at the team before throwing the fruit down the far end of the hall. The insane instructor then jumped from the painting and ran down the opposite end with the Titans soon following.
Back on his scooter, Mad Mod motored down the hall as the six heroes did likewise. However, they soon found themselves running for their lives back in the direction they came as their educator chased them while firing an enormous bazooka time after time.
After running out of ammo, and slipping into a nearby room, Mad Mod led the Titans to a wide room whose white floor and ceiling were marked with a lattice of large holes. The villain rolled in on his scooter again and dropped out of sight. The Titans tried to follow, but the hole solidified and blocked them. As Robin drummed his fingers on the floor, the nutcase popped back up two spots over, without his scooter. The team leader ran to grab him, but suddenly dropped through the hole between him and the educator. Beast Boy transformed into a tiger to jump after the villain but missed when his target rose through a hole in the ceiling while Kylar gave chase.
The other three began poking their heads in the holes-and popping out in all sorts of impossible places. Cyborg even picked up one hole, held it sideways, and stepped through, leaving it to fall flat like a manhole cover. Starfire jumped on the same hole for a moment and shrugged before plummeting out of sight, leaving the blue mage floating by herself. The next few moments, the heads of her teammates began popping up all around her like a Whack-a-Mole game gone haywire. She was scared into a hole when Cyborg peeked up with his head much larger than normal. A moment later, all six leapt from the holes and regrouped, only this time with musical instruments and dressed in the sort of garish clothes often used by British bands of the 1960s. Robin held a guitar, Cyborg held a bass, Raven was standing behind a keyboard, Beast Boy had a bowl cut and was seated behind a drum set, Starfire held a tambourine, and Kylar was holding a microphone. Soon after, Mad Mod drove past, leaning back on the seat, and the Titans zipped out of their new threads to give chase.
The six heroes soon found themselves running up a winding staircase as they pursued the British villain. He was powering his scooter up the incline while they raced along for all they were worth. Reaching a door at the top of the stairs, Mad Mod pressed the cane's ruby, turning the stairs into a slide. Raven, Starfire, and Kylar all floated above the surface as they watched the three others slide down. At the bottom, a hatch opened and a short stretch of stairs emerged, turning itself into a set of snapping jaws.
Beast boy screamed and became an octopus as the three neared the floor. The three flyers made it down and grabbed a tentacle to pull him back up. As they progressed, Robin crashed into the green octopus, and then panic just in time to get four hundred pounds of bionic Titan plowed into his face. Dazed from the impact, the Boy Wonder sat up and glared at the metallic teen as he grinned sheepishly.
The chase then led the entire group into a long hallway with many doors on either side. At the end of the hallway a Mad Mod bust stood. Said teacher the bust was modeled after rode in and, as the Titans slid through in a heap, exited through a far door. Beast Boy reverted to human form and stood there slightly dazed while the other five bolted to the other end. The Limey ran across the hall and soon had a green dog nipping at his heels. Robin peeked out of another door, caught sight of the redhead, and ran toward him while Cyborg crossed the hall. After the bionic left, a green gorilla shambled through and just missed the crazy instructor riding a "penny-farthing" bicycle. Starfire and Raven soon flew through two other doors, exchanging doors as they passed each other. Kylar then flew out of a far end door just in time to see two other doors down the hall flip open, one to the ceiling, the other to the ground, and Mad Mod driving across in an old-style roadster. Once he was out of sight, the brunette flew after him before the doors could close again. The bionic Titan came in again from a nearby door and ran to the end of the hallway; this time his size didn't shrink, forcing him to crawl through the end door. The Boy Wonder then dashed out close to the back wall and toward a near door; his size also didn't change and he was left tiny, as he had to jump up to grab a door and open it.
It's a complete madhouse. Starfire charged through the hallway again, this time riding a green ostrich, and Mad Mod-now wearing a coonskin cap atop his suit-paddled a canoe across the floor. Raven flew out and floated for just a moment before a gargantuan green gerbil ran across; her eyes popped in surprise as she followed it out. After that, Robin ran into the hall and watched as the other five Titans run past him; a green whale slid past with Kylar holding onto its' tail at one point, then the other four dashed through a lower panel of a door, accompanied by a small green elephant, and through another panel as perspective-tricked miniatures.
The masked teen then saw a green penguin fly past, followed by the other four Titans and the fifth as a monkey. Finally all the Titans gathered in one place, and he pointed furiously in several directions. They fanned out to the six other doors and, at a signal from Robin, pulled them open all at once. Nothing behind any of them, so they tiptoed to the door farthest from the Mad Mod bust, which no one tried. The Boy Wonder smirked at his comrades and yanked the knob, only for the team to scream when the head of a colossal reptilian creature greeted them as it poked through and roared.
Meanwhile, Mad Mod stepped leisurely from a far door and waved to them before walking out through a hidden passageway behind the bust. The Titans ran up and Robin flipped the head back to expose a knob. A quick twist, and the wall opened. Color the teens surprised as they were faced with a passageway that lead to an opening that exposed a peaceful meadow.
"No way!" The mage exclaimed.
"Is that what I think it is?" The greenling asked in disbelief.
"One way to find out." Robin responded as he and the others began walking toward the meadow.
"Looks like the real deal." Cyborg stated before the six fell through a fabric screen, dumping them onto the floor. "No!" He cried realizing the opening was only a picture.
"You can't be serious." Kylar groaned as he lifted his body up with his hands.
"Right back where we started!" The Boy Wonder growled as he scanned room. They were back in the atrium where the whole Mad Mod fiasco began, or at least a room identical to it.
A section of the floor flipped over, bringing said villain into the room. "Of course you are, my duckies." He taunted as he tapped the tiles with his cane, causing the section of the floor to carry him high into the air. "Class is over-and you lot haven't learned a thing. That's a failing grade for each bloomin' one of ya." A big red F appeared on the underside of the platform as it rose higher and higher. "There's only one thing for it. You'll have to repeat the entire lesson!" He cackled madly.
At then end of his little speech, the main stairs retracted up to the first balcony before all the walls fell outward, exposing a curving black-and-white sunburst patter all around. It was broken only by the doors and paintings, which remained exactly where they were. Many more busts moved in, sporting a nasty variety of weapons.
Standing in the middle of the others, the re-hypnotized Beast Boy started babbling and driveling as he crumpled slowly toward the ground, Raven catching him before he hit the floor.
"Time for class, my duckies. Everyone back to your seats!" Mad Mod whooped as the busts began moving in on the teenage superheroes.
"Titans! Get that cane!" Robin shouted. Cyborg, Starfire, and Kylar gave a hearty yell at his order and charged.
"Um…" A visibly disgusted Raven uttered as she tried figuring out what to do with Beast Boy.
The fronts of several busts opened up to reveal small missile launchers that fired off a heavy salvo. The angered mage created a shield to protect herself and her charge as the glare of explosions covered her. Soon after, Cyborg plowed through the smoke, caught up to Robin, and linked his hands. The spiky-haired Titan took this opportunity to jump up onto his palms and got a hefty upward boost as a result. A bust flew in and the metallic juggernaut crushed it to gravel with a single punch.
Continuing his charge, Robin began hopping from one airborne stone head to another, dodging the occasional laser blast along the way. More busts flew in and started firing, but were blown apart by starbolts and purplish-black spheres, with the shooters flying past the clouds of dust that had been created.
"Oy, no roughhousing!" Mad Mod cried from the top of his platform, "Do I have to separate you lot?" He pressed the ruby on his cane and caused the floor tiles to rise up as square columns.
Kylar and Starfire were on a collision course with the evil educator and ready to shoot him full of holes, but had no such luxury as a column rose in front of their target without warning. The brunette had a head on collision with the pillar while the Tamaranean was just barely able to stop short of the obstacle. She tried to swerve around it, but found her path cut off by another column, and then gasped in shock as the tile that was under her feet reached her and began carrying her higher into the air. Kylar, on the other hand, slowly peeled off the wall of the column and fell to the ground.
Robin resumed his game of leapfrog on the busts heads, and they in turn went back to using him for target practice. He went for one huge leap and got clear of the dummies, but his face soon registered surprise. "Huh?" Was all he could muster before he too collided head-on with a column.
Cyborg quickly hemmed in and was also carried toward the ceiling, "Yo!" He cried out as the motion stopped. He looked around and saw the tiles rose into that of a staggered pyramid of steps with Robin on a different level than him.
However, the Boy Wonder had no time to ponder the geometry as laser shots from above forced him to start jumping from one level to the next. He worked his way up and seized a passing bust, which carried him yelling toward a floating door. Working up a little momentum, he flipped clear just before the sculpture crashed into it and exploded. With the force of the flip, he threw a birdarang at the villainous instructor, who leapt straight up to avoid it and passed the teen in midair.
A bust flew by and strafed, just missing Raven and Beast Boy, then doubled back for another pass as two others joined it. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" The cloaked girl chanted, hurtling three floor tiles, standing vertically, through the air and slicing the attacking stone works in half. The pieces tumbled down around her, followed by a yelling Cyborg, who had been blown off his high perch. "A little help here? I don't do funny." The mage motioned to the drooling idiot.
The bionic teen stood up quickly, happy to oblige his fellow teammate, "You asked for it." He grinned as he pulled her hood back. Next he licked his finger, depositing plenty of saliva on the tip, and shoved it into her ear. Her whole face looked as if it would split in half as her hair flew everywhere.
"Awesome!" Beast Boy laughed hysterically before realizing he had been hypnotized again, "Aw, not again!"
With an angry spark flaring on her temple, Raven put her hood back up. The next moment, Kylar slid on the ground to them, stopping in the middle of the three Titans. "Ow…" He groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head.
The three standing heroes turned toward the direction their brunette friend came from and saw busts with metal spider legs jumping down from higher platforms toward them. Beast Boy morphed into a rhinoceros and charged, smashing the models to bits.
Flying through the air, Starfire shot down a few of the flying sculptures. Spinning through the air to shoot them, she failed to notice one move in behind her with two thin metal arms extended from its shoulders. "Huh?" She looked behind her to see the stone model grab her by the wrists and haul her higher into the air, putting her into a half-spread eagle. Another Mad Mod head approached and extended a laser chainsaw from its base, but a swing of her legs knocked it away, causing it to slice a long gash through the cloth of a giant hypno-screen that formed the wall.
Kylar and Cyborg watched as the bust that cut the screen exploded behind the columns they were standing on. They then glanced to the ground and notice more sculptures on tall pedestals and tank treads coming down from vertical surfaces and up from a trapdoor to form an advancing line.
"They just keep coming." The brunette stated.
"Then we just keep smashing!" The titanium teen shouted as he leapt to the ground and incapacitated one of the busts with a kick. As it flipped in the air, the Titan seized it and heaved it straight at the oncoming enemies, destroying every one of them. Behind him, one more popped out, stun gun extended from the mouth, and rolled toward his back.
Before it could connect with bionic man, Kylar jumped on top of it, legs engulfed in aura, and smashed it to pieces. Cyborg turned around to give his friend a 'thumbs up,' but the moment was short lived as two nets flew past and trapped both of them, dragging them to the ground. "A net? Rea-Ack!" The black-jacketed Titan cried as the two nets flowed with electricity, giving both teens a hair-raising jolt that knocked them out.
The place began rearranging itself; doors and paintings changed locations, and the row of tiles the trapped Titans were lying on moved like a conveyor belt and carried them away.
Nearby, a chair, just like the one she was originally in when the team first arrived at the school, seized Raven. "No!" The mage cried out as she struggled to get free. This proved to be useless as her arms and legs were clamped to the chair, and a white energy band fastened itself around her midsection. Kylar and Cyborg were nearby, being hauled into their own chairs.
From above, the green rhino watched helplessly as his friends were being trapped in their wooden seats. Before he could do anything, a hypno-screen popped up right in front of him; reverting to human form, Beast Boy turned his head and squeezed his eyes shut as a long metal arm reached up. "Don't look at the screen, don't look at the screen." The metal arm grabbed his head and turned it toward the screen, "Don't look at the screen, don't look at the screen. Do-" For the fourth time, the green teen succumbed to the mind-numbing effects and started burbling and drooling… again.
As the only one making any progress, Robin quickly made his way up toward Mad Mod's platform. Once he reached it, he threw a kick that hit a big bunch of nothing as the villain easily sidestepped. Teacher planted his cane upright and balanced on its end.
"Oh, give it a rest, snotty. You've already lost!" The Brit shouted as he gestured with his cane and, oddly enough, stayed in midair.
The angered Titan looked down from the platform and saw Beast Boy sitting before the screen with the other four Titans secured in chairs. With a growl, he rushed at Mad Mod and dove for the cane. Extending his hand, Robin found himself completely passing through his target.
"Huh?" The rest of the Boy Wonder's body phased through the cane before he stumbled to the edge of the platform and looked at his hand. The surprised teacher hopped to his feet and slammed his stick onto the platform. "The cane isn't real!" Robin exclaimed as he figured out the entire gimmick the villain put the team through, "Which means Mad Mod is just as fake as everything else in here!" He leapt straight at the Brit's image and ran right through it. "Time for a reality check!" The Titan shouted as he flung himself off the edge.
The holographic instructor swung the cane and sent two busts out after the delinquent. Their bases opened to expose missiles locked on target with lasers coming out of their ears.
Robin continued sailing through the air toward the rip made by the laser chainsaw just as a salvo of lasers and missiles came right for him. Just before he could be blasted to the next world, the masked teen tumbled through the opening of a small service duct, with the ordnance exploding behind him.
0-0
Hidden away and surrounded by a bank of monitors that showed the captured Titans from many different angles, a gray-haired man worked a complex array of controls.
"Yeah, this should teach those saucy little ankle-biters some respect." The older man chuckled. The voice was the same as Mad Mod, but this man looked to be at least twenty years older, and had lost all the hair on the top of his head. He wore the same rectangular sunglasses, but his clothing was the sort you might expect on an old man of retirement age-plain, nondescript shirt and suit. The older Mad Mod continued fiddling around with some levers and wenches until one of the screens on the bank of monitors became static. "Just a tick. I've lost Robin."
With a scream, the old man watched as one by one, the other side screens winked out, leaving only the large central monitor still working.
Inside another part of the service duct, the missing disrespectful youngster was crawling around and ripping out every handful of wiring he could find.
0-0
In the crazed room, the four Titans in chairs struggled against their bonds as the fifth kept slobbering all over the floor. In front of the five, the hypnotic pattern on the screen started to waver as the Mad Mod image stepped in front of it.
"Uh… minor technical hitch, my duckies." The fake Brit tried explaining as he tugged on his collar, "Pay no mind, I'll have it fixed in a-" Before he could finish his sentence, his own image fizzled out and disappeared.
As the pattern shut itself off, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Kylar broke out of their chairs. Unfortunately, Beast Boy just lied on the floor, still mesmerized and salivating all over himself.
One after another, the pictures of Mad Mod faded away in their frames and crashed to the floor; the surviving busts were knocked over as well. The fabric walls reeled up like window shades, exposing the machinery that made all the insanity possible, and a forgotten door swung through the air on its support rope.
0-0
Back inside the hidden room with the monitors, Mad Mod yelled and stumbled backward as his systems shorted out in a plume of smoke. "My machines! That meddling little snot will pay for-AAAHHH!" The graying villain cried in fear as he turned around and discovered Robin waiting for him. He was then promptly dragged forward by his lapels and came face to face with the angry Titan. "Hello, guv'nor." The old man choked.
"School's out, Mod. And you're looking at about twenty years of detention." The Boy Wonder assured while the elderly Englishman recoiled at bit at the prospect.
0-0
"Ha!" Cyborg cheered as he opened an overhead hatch to see the sky above. Finding himself on a steel platform on the outskirts of an oil-rig, he climbed out of the hole he was in, followed by Raven, then Kylar, and a properly trussed-up Mad Mod was thrown out after. "Oh, yeah, this is definitely the real deal." The bionic Titan cheered as he stretched his arms out wide and took in the fresh air.
"School always seems smaller after you graduate, doesn't it?" Robin retorted as he emerged from the hole.
"Guess it depends where you go." Kylar added as he and the others walked back to the hole.
"Just don't expect me to go to any reunions." Raven stated as the four of them peered inside in time to hear a moan come from Starfire.
Struggling through the hole, the Tamaranean carried the fifth member of the team and place him down on the steel ground. "I cannot awaken Beast Boy," The girl cried, "I have tried the tickling, all manner of bodily noises, and the word "underpants." I fear that this time his brain is gone forever."
The other four Titans stared at the drooling changeling with no real looks of concern on their faces. "Beast Boy had a brain?" Raven asked sardonically.
After a long moment, he sat up completely cured of his trance, "Good one!" He laughed. The smile on his face quickly disappeared as the meaning of the mages' words sank in. "Dude! That's not funny!" Beast Boy shouted as he stood up. Everyone else began walking away, Cyborg carrying Mad Mod. "I totally have a brain!" Steam shot from the green teens' ears before he ran off to catch up with the rest of his friends.
"I just don't use it much."
"Always be wary of people who use quotes. I don't know who said that."
-Murdoc Niccals
Author's Note:
I suddenly have the urge to sing.
So happy to be done with this chapter. This was one of my favorite episodes because it captures the fun and wacky adventures of the Teen Titans perfectly (unlike another series that is so terrible it will not be mentioned by name) but damn was it hard and confusing to write.
Now on for the ramblings that no one wants to hear.
Hey, do you know who voices Mad Mod? C'mon, I bet you'll never guess. I'll give you some hints: He voices John Henry Eden in Fallout 3, he played the villain antagonist, Alex, in A Clockwork Orange, and was Caligula in the movie... Caligula. More recently, he plays the boss of the law firm of Franklin and Bash from the hit show Franklin and Bash!
Can you guess? It's Malcolm McDowell! Bet you don't even know who that is.
On a completely different note, have you guys heard that CW is planning on making a live action Teen Titans TV show? Apparently it's going to be in the same form as Arrow and The Flash, only it'll focus on the team members of the Titans and it'll take place when they are young adults rather than actual teens, so maybe it'll be called Titans?
Maybe it'll be good, maybe not. I don't know, I'll have to wait and see it for myself. What do you guys think of that?
And onto my final note: I got the new Super Smash Bros. Universe 3DS game, so I'll probably be very busy with that for a while, or not since I have classes and other such responsibilities. But yeah, I don't want to alarm anyone just a lot of stuff and not a lot of time.
Thus ends the pointless ramblings of a mad man. I want to thank you all for taking the time to read the chapter, you're love and support gives me the energy to continue doing what I love to do.
Remember to write a review if you want, and if you have any questions or suggestions, PM me. I love hearing your thoughts.
And... That's it!
Until next time, See You Space Cowboys.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the DC Universe nor do I own anything from Teen Titans. Any other references made belong to their respective owners, again I own nothing.