The Roles we Play
Approved for all audiences
Thanks to all those who have viewed, commented favorited or followed my story.
*** I still do not own anything related to the Teen Titans. ***
"The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew" –Robert Burns
***TRwP***
"Here's what we know so far." Agent Smith began, "We have dubbed him the 'Internet Killer'. You probably have already heard that he kidnaps young victims, usually in their teens, and then runs a live feed website in which he tortures and kills them based on how many people log on to view the video. Thus far he has claimed ten victims and we believe he is already looking for his next."
"Have you traced the website?" Cyborg asked, even though he already was sure of the answer.
"Tried it several times, he runs it off of a dozen servers located all over the world that he hacks into and then routes them through dozens more. Based on his skills we would put him in the mid to late twenty's. There is never any sign of a struggle so we believe he is a highly
"So what can we do to help?" Robin inquired.
"We have a plan on how to apprehend this person but we need someone with a very specific skill set, which is where you and your team come in. If one of you can go undercover and draw this person out we will be able to corner and apprehend them before anyone else can be taken."
"What do you mean 'undercover'?" The cybernetic teen inquired.
"Our plan is to have one of you pose as a potential victim, if we can force the killer into a situation that we can control with someone who is able to defend themselves then we can stop this pattern."
"No offense Agent Smith but besides Robin none of us really 'fit in' enough to be mistaken for a normal teenager." Raven pointed out.
"That is why we were hoping that your leader would volunteer for this assignment, with his tactical skill and knowledge he would be able to spot anyone suspicious and defend himself if need be. But we will lead that up to you and your team, now here is our plan for the operation…"
***TRwP***
"Robin I do not like this plan, what if something was to happen to you?" The orange-skinned girl pleaded with her lover.
"I will be fine Star, besides it's just like Raven pointed out, I am the only one who can blend in enough to pass as a potential victim."
"Actually Robin I have a backup plan for that, we could try the Holorings I created to infiltrate the HIVE as 'Stone'. It would still rule me out as a potential replacement due to my size but the others could stand in which would allow you a better vantage point for making team calls."
"I won't allow the girls to take the risk Cyborg."
"Robin he has a good point, Starfire or I could easily defend ourselves without relying on martial arts, plus you could be monitoring the entire thing with the FBI." The empath pointed out.
"Absolutely not, there are far too many things that could give you away. Starfire's super strength or problems with English could give her away, and we cannot be certain that something would not trigger your powers accidently. We only have one shot at this and if we make even the slightest error, he could change his plans entirely." The boy replied with finality, before shifting through more of his street clothes for a good disguise.
A distraught Starfire began looking to her teammates for help, before her eyes fell onto the, as of yet silent, changeling.
The expression on her face was obvious and pleading in such a way that Beast Boy could only sigh in annoyance at what he was going to have to do.
"Hey Rob what about me?"
The Boy Wonder turned to look at the youngest member of the team.
"What about you Beast Boy?"
"Well if Cyborg has one of those Holo doohickey's then I could take your place right? Then you could monitor everything, the girls could relax a bit and we still have a viable target."
"That's…. not a bad idea Beast Boy. Okay Cyborg set him up with a disguise while the girls and I start planning for surveillance."
The mechanical man just nodded before walking off towards his room, the young green boy following closely behind.
***TRwP***
"Are you sure about this BB? I mean I know you can do it but it's taking a big risk."
"Yeah Cy I will be fine, plus I know you four will have my back along with God knows how many police and FBI agents. If worst comes to worst I will just show off some of my awesome Kung-Fu moves."
"If you say so, alright I have to go meet Rob and the others down in the OP room to finalize where we will all be stationed so I will let you pick your skin. We uploaded your base imagine into the computer so you just have to make small tweaks until it feels right."
"Gotcha thanks Cy."
The large teen took one last glance down at his friend, before leaving the room and shutting the door quietly behind him.
"I guess it's time to see what I would have looked like…"
***TRwP***
"Alright here's the plan, Cyborg will be setup with the FBI in their command post a block down from Beast Boy's location, and he will be monitoring the entire area with the mini cameras we will be adding. Raven I want you on the rooftops scanning with Empathy, we know that the killer waits until the victim is isolated to avoid suspicion so locking on and following should not be difficult. Finally, Starfire and I will be disguised in the restaurant down the street to block off that escape path should they try to escape via car. Now the FBI will have vehicles setup to block off the road in both directions so they will not be able to escape quickly that way. We also have undercover officers located in the alleyways and a few nearby buildings should they try and take him by foot."
"I don't think this will be necessary Rob I mean even if the guy takes the bait BB can hold his own against some random jerk that is used to dealing with teenagers, even if he takes them without a struggle."
"I would like to think so Cyborg, but considering Beast Boy's abilities without utilizing his animal forms I would not place any bets on it."
Before the conversation could continue any further the main door slid open with a hiss, and in walked a blond haired boy with bright blue eyes and a somewhat tanned complexion. He wore dark blue Jeans, a somewhat tight long sleeved shirt, which showed off the muscle underneath, a windbreaker jacket, and dark grey gloves.
The others just stared as he adjusted the sleeves of his coat, before he slowly glanced up at those already assembled.
"What?"
"Uh… Beast Boy?" The dark skinned man questioned.
"Yeah…"
"Beast Boy you look… different…" Robin intelligently commented.
"That is the point of the disguise right? So that no one knows who I am."
"Oh Beast Boy you look most fetching in your new outfit." The alien happily proclaimed, earning a slight glare from her pseudo boyfriend.
Raven just stared silently, her eyes wandering across his form.
"Where did you come up with that look BB?" The cybernetic man inquired, as the boy wandered over to glance at the planned layout.
"I guess it just came to me."
Robin's eyes narrowed a bit in suspicion but he quickly let it go.
***TRwP***
"All teams report in."
"Alpha Team in position."
"Bravo Team in position."
"Charlie Team in position."
"Delta Team in position."
"This is Echo team leader, my team is also in position and the bait has been set."
***TRwP***
For some reason Beast Boy never enjoyed the title of 'bait'. Probably because he had enough experience trapping targets with the Doom Patrol, the lure rarely got out of the situation unharmed.
So now, the young teen was sitting at a deserted bus stop, swinging his legs forward and backwards while trying to pass the time.
Sure, he had headphones in, and they were broadcasting the radio transmission but he was not supposed to keep them up or change the frequency just in case there was a change in plans.
Soon an hour went by, then another. Finally, Beast Boy was beginning to get a bit fidgety, and it seemed as though the trap had failed. After all, it would only take a slightly observant person to notice he had been sitting past the initial bus departure.
Before he was about to give the signal to call it a night he was alerted to a large explosion several blocks down. Standing up he gazed into the night as the flames illuminated the smoke that now rose from whatever had just occurred.
***TRwP***
"What the hell was that? Robin come in this is Cyborg there has been an explosion about a mile from BB's location, not sure on the cause though. What are your orders?"
"Star, Raven, and I will check it out. Immediately you stay put and keep an eye on Beast Boy just in case. I was going to call the operation a failure for now but this might just be what we are looking for."
As the three heroes departed, Cyborg turned back to the various monitors that in front of him, studying for any signs of movement.
Suddenly another call came over the system, "Cyborg, Cinderblock has broken free and is making his way towards a power plant. We need you to come and assist. Beast Boy still has over a dozen operatives in the area plus surveillance systems so he will be fine for another hour or so." Robin commanded before shutting off his com link.
Cyborg nodded in confirmation before relaying the instructions to the agents in the run down building, then took to the back alleys to avoid discovery.
Unfortunately, he had not noticed the slight glitch in the displays as he left, nor did the FBI agents.
***TRwP***
"Phew guess that takes care of rock head eh? Come on it is getting colder by the minute out here. I could use a late night pizza." Cyborg called out to his other three companions, before they nodded as the police began showing up to transport the villain.
As they sat down and began looking over the menu, Cyborg began feeling as if he was missing something. Suddenly he dropped his menu in shock. "Oh crap we forgot about BB!"
"He's fine I'm sure he's just sitting on that stupid bench still, whining about something. It is actually kind of nice to have a quiet dinner without him for once." Raven replied before returning to her menu.
"She's right, like I said he is surrounded by law enforcement. They probably already brought him back to the command post and made him some hot chocolate or something by now. I also wouldn't mind a nice peaceful meal as well." Robin affirmed, calming down his second in command.
"Yeah you're right well I'll just grab him a to-go vege-pizza it should cheer him up when we get back."
"Marvelous, now who would like to split a Caramel, Marshmallow, peace, hummus covered pizza with me?" the bizarre alien girl inquired, as the others went green at the thought.
***TRwP***
As the team, minus one changeling, entered the FBI command post Robin noticed something was wrong immediately.
The agents were running around, checking through footage and accessing computer networks at an alarming rate.
Cyborg's stomach sunk, something was terribly wrong.
"Why weren't we contacted?" Robin immediately asked, getting an immediate response from the agent in charge.
"We tried. All of your communicators were off. I assume from your battle?"
"W-what happened?" The large teen called out.
"We aren't sure yet, about forty five minutes ago one of our agents went to check on the boy to see how he was holding up and he wasn't on the bench. The problem is that our cameras still showed him there. Apparently, our systems were hacked and the image was placed on a loop to appear as though nothing had changed. We have searched all of the nearby buildings and there is no trace of Beast Boy."
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THERE IS NO TRACE, HOW DID YOU LOSE HIM?" The dark skinned male roared in anger as he picked the man up with one arm.
"CYBORG ENOUGH! Put him down this isn't helping." Robin commanded earning a growl in response before the agent was dropped onto the floor.
"What do you know?" the grey-skinned girl asked, trying to conceal her worry.
"O-our last c-confirmed contact with him was a-at e-eight o clock with the patrol. H-he was gone w-when we checked again at e-eight t-thirty."
"Didn't we tell you not to do precisely timed patrols? Fine Raven Starfire star sweeping from the air, Raven I want you to focus your empathy as much as possible and…"
"It wouldn't matter Robin, Beast Boy is almost completely invisible to my powers."
"What do you mean 'invisible'? How can someone be invisible to empathy?"
"No idea but he always has been except in times of extreme emotion. I didn't feel like prying into his personal life though to inquire further, you know we all keep secrets."
"Damnit… Cyborg what about the tracking device?"
"Already checked it, it must have been destroyed, either by accident or on purpose but I am leaning towards the latter of the two. If the FBI was hacked and it was timed to this amount…"
"They knew we were here… damnit! Cyborg check all traffic cameras around the time he went missing, look for vans or other vehicles with dark windows or stolen cars. Maybe we will get luck. Star and Raven I still want you both on aerial patrol, stay in contact with the FBI while they search the ground. I am going to work on any leads we might have had to try to figure out who did this. One more thing Cyborg, I need you to be monitoring… the killer's website. If he did take Beast Boy we have to be ready to back trace it through any means necessary."
"I'm going back to the tower. I have more computing power there. Rob we have to find him, if something happens…"
"I know, don't worry nothing is going to happen to him Cyborg. This is Beast Boy remember? If nothing else he is resourceful when he needs to be."
***TRwP***
"WE SHOULDN'T HAVE LEFT HIM ALONE!" Timid cried out in despair, forcing Raven to wince in pain.
"We made the correct decision. It was one life against the possibility of losing dozens maybe even hundreds due to Cinderblock." Knowledge analyzed, though there was a slight waiver in her voice as she did so.
"When we find this prick we are going to make sure he regrets ever touching our Beast Boy!" Courage declared, before cracking her knuckles menacingly.
"For once I agree the warrior over here. This bastard is going to wish for death when we are done with him." The crimson-cloaked emoticlone growled out.
'ENOUGH, I cannot concentrate on finding him with all of you arguing like this. So for once I am asking you all to just SHUT THE HELL UP!' Raven screamed mentally, earning a fearful look from the various emotions.
***TRwP***
Several hours later, a call came from the tower. Cyborg had found something.
As the three teenagers ran into the command room they spotted the fourth sitting in front of a large computer monitor, his eyes glowed with a mixture of rage and sorrow.
"Cyborg? What is the matter?" the tanned girl whispered out, before gasping in horror as a masked man appeared on the monitor, behind him was Beast Boy, Chained up and dangling from the ceiling in the background.
"HELLO THERE VIEWERS! I am the infamous host of the most popular Internet series of all time, 'A view to die for'. Today we have a very special guest, the Teen Titan BEAST BOY! Say hello beastie boy." The psychotic person happily shouted out, his or her, voice obviously distorted by electronics.
Unfortunately, Beast Boy was gagged and could only glare in response.
"I'll take that as an 'I am delighted to be here good sir and would be honored if you would cut me into tiny pieces while I am still breathing so that you may dance to my screams of pain and terror'. Well don't you worry about that my friend. The fun is coming as soon as we starting getting a good audience."
"Cyborg how is the trace coming?" Robin immediately asked, as he ran to a nearby computer console to assist.
"It's running with the entire computer system of the tower and we still haven't made any progress, this guy must be a computer genius or something."
Robin nodded before doing a quick search for anyone who would have the ability to do such a project to try to find a suspect.
"Can we shut down the site?" Raven called out, earning puzzled looks from the team. "He said that he wants an audience right? So maybe if we can block him we could force him to move to a less secure network and buy us time."
"Good idea, Cyborg?"
"Working on it… DAMNIT!" The metallic teen slammed his fists down, carefully avoiding the electronics in front of him. "I still can't get any reading on this bastard's connection one way or another."
"So like I was saying folks, I was hoping to have Robin here with me this evening but apparently the 'Boy Wonder' would rather send the youngest of his teammates out as a sacrifice instead, no matter though. I am sure that many of you are as curious as I am about the color of this kid's blood. Is it green? Is it red? We will find out soon enough!"
"R-Robin… please hurry… Beast Boy…."
"I know Star, I'm trying."
"Oh my look at that, we already have more hits than ever before! We are closing in on five million views already! Tell you what folks since I am such a gracious host I will give everyone a little preview of what is in store for our favorite green shape shifter."
The man picked up the camera and held it as he swept around the room, stopping at each 'station' he had setup.
"First up is 'the peeler' where we will see what exactly is beneath all those tacky clothes and ugly skin of his." The man began, pointing to a large horrific looking device with thin curved blades.
"Next is 'the crusher', I have always been a bit curious on how much force a superhero's bones can take before they break, and although he is more of a sideshow attraction than a hero I guess it will have to do for now."
"Then we have 'the chair' where our new friend will be strapped down while I remove various, unsightly parts of our green friend, you know such as his eyes and tongue."
At this point Cyborg became ill and threw up in a nearby trashcan, Starfire was sobbing, Robin had been clenching his fists hard enough to draw blood, and Raven's face had frozen in a state of horror while her powers began tearing the room apart.
"Finally we reach the last part of our tour with a fitting end to our animal friend, a large band saw from a butcher's shop I have managed to confiscate." The maniac finished, pointing to the large vertical saw, which was connected to a conveyor belt system, leading the viewers to believe that the victim would be slowly moved into it and cut in half.
Just then, a loud metal scrapping caught the attention of the camera, like the sound of a large door opening.
***TRwP***
-Earlier-
Beast Boy woke up chained vertically to the ceiling, blinking his eyes he glanced around at the room he now found himself trapped in. The walls were a dull white tile with a grey floor to remove any idea of the location. The smell of chemicals filled the air and gave him a sickening feeling in his stomach. He always hated that stench, reminded him of hospitals and disinfectants.
'Okay so how did I end up here… last thing I remember was an electric jolt, and then being carried away. Dark tunnels, a van, engine noises. From the underlying smell, I am guessing I was in a sewer at one point and then…'
Suddenly the large metal door groaned open as a man dressed in a white surgical uniform and black mask walked in, before closing it behind him. Seeing his captive was awake, the man joyfully jogged over and stuffed a gag into his mouth, before checking on the collar that the changeling had woke up to.
"I see you are awake, good. I was hoping you would be conscious for the grand tour after all. Before you bother trying to shapeshift you should know that the collar is designed to give you an electric shock should you attempt to do so and from my observations that stops you quite nicely."
The man wandered back to a table, which held a laptop and a video camera, he seemed to be activating it before starting some kind of speech and pointing the camera back towards him.
Afterwards the psychopath had begun his 'tour' of the torture chamber, giving Beast Boy enough time to begin plotting an escape route.
Unknown to the serial killer was the fact that the changeling had immediately called upon his training in the Doom Patrol, and the hours of lessons on what to do if they were ever captured in such a situation. Remain calm, analyze the surroundings, and take the situation gradually.
'All right so it looks like he was at least expecting a super hero to be captured, hence the reinforced handcuffs. Too bad the idiot left the key in plain sight on the table, just out of reach of course. Chain securely holding the cuffs, and bolted to the ceiling, but it doesn't appear to be in the best condition, I should probably break that part first then grab the key.'
As his captor turned his back and began to examine the farthest devices in the room Beast Boy realized his chance and grabbed ahold of the chain above him, then pulling himself up did a handstand in the air, before he began to twist himself up into the chain, each time getting closer and closer to the ceiling. As he finally reached the top he let go and rapidly descended, picking up speed before jerking his arms downwards at the last possible second, adding further stress on the chain which shattered in a surprisingly quiet manner.
Calling upon his experience in infiltration missions the boy moved to the table and unlocked his cuffs before making his way to the door and pushing open the large metal obstacle.
***TRwP***
The man, and by extension camera, turned just in time to catch the green teenager standing at the open door, glancing back in a somewhat smug way.
"H-how did you… well it doesn't matter boy, even if you run I will be back someday, by the time you reach any sort of authorities I will be gone. I must say I am a bit disappointed though, even though you are nowhere near Robin's skill level you were caught so easily. I doubt he would have been defeated at all. You though, well you always were the weak link right?"
"Come on BB ignore that bastard just run. RUN DAMNIT!" Cyborg shouted at the screen, for some reason hoping his best friend would hear him.
The other Titans just stood by silently praying that their youngest would follow the advice.
Instead, the boy hesitated, as if doubting something in his mind.
"Maybe I will go after your female friends next, I always do enjoy cutting girls up, and they make such interesting squeals of terror. I prefer the boys since making them cry is so much more rewarding but still. Perhaps I moved onto super heroes too quickly. I could just go back to the normal civilians I suppose." The man taunted, hoping to lure the teen back into the room.
It worked.
Beast Boy closed the door roughly, before sliding the lock back into place and turning his gaze towards the man.
It was not what the killer was expecting though. Gone was the boyish twinkle and joy that was so characteristic of the young hero. Instead, a deep anger and hatred lied behind his eyes. It spoke of experience in the art of killing far beyond what any normal person would ever have. It held the belief that the ends could justify the means and that atrocities were at times necessary.
The green boy walked towards the other occupant slowly, like a predator stalking his prey, every muscle alert and tensed, his senses covering the room to pick up every sound and smell, every slight twitch in his enemy's body.
As the boy reached the table in front of him, he glanced one last time at the camera the man held.
"This is NOT approved for all audiences." He uttered out, his voice sounding low and deadly. Then he snapped the computer in half, severing the network connection and cutting the feed.
***A/N***
For those of you worried that this plot is not going anywhere… fear not. This is just the beginning of the little saga I have started in this story.
The 'band saw' idea I got from the movie "Sherlock Holmes" when the woman is attached to that pig-slicing thing.
For those of you a bit confused as to how Beast Boy escaped his captor, I based it roughly on Vin Diesel's escape from "The Chronicles of Riddick"
For those of you who are upset with the other Titans, yes they are kind of jerks, because they were in the show to Beast Boy too. Robin was always shown as the 'star character' while BB was the silly comic relief most of the time. Fear not though, Beast Boy is going to be showing off some unusual skills in the coming chapters, nothing out of the scope of his powers though.
Hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it. A couple of the scenes were probably a bit confusing but I like how it turned out overall.