Time for another chapter of this fanfic. You'll want to see how this all ends, right? Don't worry, it will end well for our heroes, though I can't promise the same for Mad Mod. Haha.
Chapter 8: School's Out
"Where in this school could Ben possibly be?" asked Gwen. She wasn't expecting to go back to school in the middle of the summer.
Suddenly, a giant hammer appeared.
"Did I mention that this is a school of hard knocks?" asked Mad Mod.
"Whoa!" shouted Gwen.
Cyborg quickly blew up the giant hammer. Being hit by that would hurt.
"We better find Ben soon before that crazy teacher gets him..." said the girl. He'd probably give him detention for five consecutive lifetimes.
"Agreed." nodded Raven.
As it turned out, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Ben were trying to open the door to the school.
"It's no good! My starbolts are doing nothing!" exclaimed Starfire.
Beast Boy tried slamming into the door as an elephant, with no luck.
"My head hurts..." complained Beast Boy.
"Maybe we need the keys?" asked Ben.
"Looks that way." nodded Starfire.
"By the way, why does Mad Mod have so many busts of himself?" inquired Beast Boy.
One of the busts opened fire on him with a rocket launcher.
"Beast Boy, look out!" exclaimed Starfire.
"Wha-" shouted Beast Boy.
The rocket hit Beast Boy, exploding and sending him flying. He was now black as Upgrade.
"That smarts..." remarked the boy.
Starfire launched starbolts at the statue busts, and they exploded.
"Whew!" exclaimed Ben.
Unfortunately, his Omnitrix was still recharging.
He was going to have to stay on his toes.
The three of them decided to look for the keys.
There was a large staircase up ahead.
However, when Ben attempted to climb up the stairs, it turned into a slide.
"Now he's just playing jokes on us." said Ben.
Starfire picked up Ben and flew him up the stairs.
"Thanks." spoke the boy.
Likewise, Beast Boy turned into a bird.
However, there were more projection screens up ahead.
If the Teen Titans looked at them for too long, they would end up as vegetables...which would be pretty ironic for Beast Boy considering he was a vegan. They said that you were what you eat, after all.
Fortunately, Ben and Starfire weren't easily hypnotized. They could probably pass through it without it messing with their heads.
However, Beast Boy was a whole different story.
How was he going to get past the hypno-screens?
He had an idea.
"I know! I'll transform into a bat so that I'll be blind! That way Mad Mod can't hypnotize me!" exclaimed Beast Boy.
Beast Boy transformed into a bat.
"There! Now I won't have to worry about the hypno screens anymore!" shouted the boy.
"Beast Boy, bats aren't actually blind. Robin told me that about them." answered Starfire.
"What? Aw man!" exclaimed Beast Boy.
Beast Boy wondered how he was going to get past those hypnosis screens without being hypnotized. He didn't want to be brainwashed into doing evil things, such as kicking puppies.
Starfire had an idea.
"Why don't you transforming into a Vulpimancer?" asked Starfire.
"A Vulpiwhat?" inquired the boy.
"The alien that I transformed into when I used the Omnitrix for the first time." explained the alien princess.
"Oh..." said Beast Boy.
Immediately, Beast Boy transformed into a Wildmutt.
"Are those hypnotization screens still hypnotizing you?" asked Ben.
Beast Boy shook his head.
"Great..." nodded the boy.
Together, the three of them went to search for the rest of the Teen Titans.
Meanwhile, Gwen, Cyborg, Raven, and Robin were chasing Mad Mod.
"You can't catch me, my duckies!" exclaimed Mad Mod.
Cyborg tackled him to the ground.
"You were saying?" asked Cyborg.
However, Mad Mod didn't seem too phased.
Suddenly, "Mad Mod" began to short-circuit.
"Huh?" inquired the half-robotic teenager.
The Mad Mod robotic duplicate then exploded.
"Aah!" shouted Cyborg.
"You alright?" asked Raven.
Fortunately, Cyborg wasn't seriously hurt.
"Yeah...that evil British man is slippery." remarked the teenage boy.
"We'll have to keep trying if we wish to catch him." said Robin.
Alternatively, they could try to find a way out.
However, when he tried cutting the walls, he didn't uncover wires. In fact, he couldn't cut the walls at all.
Apparently he wouldn't be able to shut down Mad Mod's false reality so easily this time.
"How do we escape this time?" asked Cyborg. It seemed Mad Mod had learned his mistakes from before.
"Perhaps we're trapped in some sort of simulation..." remarked Robin.
"If that's the case, how do we escape that?" inquired Raven.
"Mad Mod might be hiding the keys to the front entrance somewhere..." said Gwen.
"Once we find the others, we should focus on retrieving them." advised the leader.
Cyborg and Raven nodded.
"By the way, why hasn't Mad Mod attacked us yet?" asked Cyborg.
"It's quiet...too quiet." remarked Raven.
"I got a bad feeling about this..." said Gwen.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of loud stomping.
The four of them started to feel rather nervous.
"What...was that?" asked Cyborg.
"It can't be anything good..." said Robin.
Curious, Gwen looked behind her.
She gasped in shock.
"Gwen? Is something wrong?" asked Raven.
"There's a giant robot heading our way!" exclaimed Gwen.
"What?!" shouted Cyborg.
As it turned out, there was indeed a giant robot headed their way. It was dressed like one of the Coldstream Guards. Cyborg wondered why they all wore those strange hats.
"Run!" shouted Robin.
Immediately, the four of them ran away from the giant robot.
"No running in the halls!" taunted Mad Mod.
However, they ended up crashing into Starfire, Beast Boy, and Ben.
"Gwen?" asked Ben.
"There you are, Ben! I've been worried about you!" exclaimed Gwen. Neither she nor Max knew where he was.
"I got kidnapped by a supervillain..." said the boy. One moment he was trying to get a comic book and the next moment he was being forced to go to summer school.
"I can see that." answered the girl.
"What were you running from?" inquired Starfire.
"Just a giant robot." answered Cyborg, pointing behind him.
"Yikes!" exclaimed Beast Boy.
"I'll take care of it...not like Silkie of course." stated Starfire.
Fortunately, her Omnitrix had recharged.
Starfire transformed into Voltage.
She then began to short-circuit the robot, making it collapse on the floor.
"Destroying school property? You naughty kids!" exclaimed Mad Mod.
"Hey! We're not kids! We're teenagers!" shouted Beast Boy.
"Well, five of us are." noted Gwen.
"Here comes another one!" shouted Cyborg.
As it turned to, there was another Coldstream Guard Robot headed their way.
Fortunately, Ben's Omnitrix had recharged as well.
He used it to transform into Upgrade.
Upgrade latched onto the Coldstream Robot and shut it down.
"Now then, where were we?" asked Raven.
"We're lucky that we managed to find you. Mad Mod was making Robin listen to this!" exclaimed Gwen.
Gwen pulled out her iPhone.
"Jingle bells, Batman smells! Robin laid an egg! The Batmobile lost its wheel and the Joker got away!"
"It was a living nightmare!" cried Robin. If he had listened to the song for five more minutes, he would be crazy as the Joker himself. Speaking of which, he hated it when the Joker got away. It made him feel like his heroics were going to waste.
"I'm so sorry that the Joker got away because the Batmobile lost its wheel. By the way, I think you should look after that egg you laid. You can ask Batman to do it, but I think he needs to take a shower." said Starfire.
"Starfire, you're being literal-minded again." stated Ben.
Starfire sweatdropped.
She rubbed her hand behind her head.
"My bad." said the alien. Sometimes she did that.
"Any luck finding the principal's office?" inquired Gwen.
Robin wasn't sure.
Finding the principal's office would be easier said than done. Mad Mod's schoolhouse was surprisingly big.
There were many different rooms...and unfortunately, there weren't any directions.
And to make matters worse, it was only a matter of time before they were attacked again. Mad Mod had plenty more tricks up his sleeve.
Ben decided to open one of the doors to see where it lead.
However, much to his surprise, he found himself coming out of another door.
"What the heck?" asked Ben.
The same thing happened when Robin tried going through another door.
This room was very perplexing.
But one thing was sure, they weren't getting anywhere.
Perhaps they needed to do something different.
"Hmm...I think I might know how to get past this..." said Gwen.
Curious, she noticed that there was a latch on the ceiling.
"Give me a boost!" ordered the girl.
Cyborg nodded.
She pulled on the string and a secret staircase appeared.
"That was pretty clever." remarked Raven.
Mad Mod scowled. It seemed that Ben's sidekick was smarter than he thought.
However, the Teen Titans still had a long ways to go before they reached the principal's office.
After climbing the staircase, they found themselves in a playground.
"This is fun!" exclaimed Beast Boy, playing on a swing.
"Beast Boy, we have no time for games." remarked Robin.
"Aw, man!" shouted the boy. If only he weren't trapped in a simulation that was designed to torture them.
Well, he had another idea as to what to do for fun.
He noticed that up ahead was a statue of Mad Mod.
He decided that he would spray graffiti on it.
"Hahahaha!" laughed Beast Boy.
"Beast Boy, what are you doing?" asked Raven.
"I'm spraying graffiti on Mad Mod's statue of himself! It's hilarious!" exclaimed Beast Boy.
"You had a can of spray paint?" asked Robin.
"I keep one around when I'm in a pranking mood, which is often." explained the boy.
"I see." nodded Cyborg.
However, Gwen noticed that something seemed off about that statue.
She decided to take a closer look.
Gwen then noticed something alarming.
The eyes on the statue...were moving.
"Um, Beast Boy..." said Gwen.
One of the hands of the statue was moving as well.
"Beast Boy!" shouted the girl.
"What?" asked Beast Boy.
Suddenly, the statue grabbed him.
Beast Boy gasped.
"I'm on it!" exclaimed Cyborg.
Cyborg blasted the statue and it dropped Beast Boy.
"Whew!" shouted Beast Boy. He reminded himself to give Cyborg a "thank you" note later.
"You have to be more careful." said Gwen. Anything in Mad Mod's schoolhouse could be a trap, even if it looked harmless such as a painting.
Speaking of which, destroying the statue unlocked a staircase that led to an art gallery.
"Nothing seems ordinary here..." said Ben.
Suddenly, one of the paintings of Mad Mod fired lasers from its eyes at him.
"I stand corrected." spoke the boy.
Once again, the Omnitrix timed out and he turned back into a normal boy.
"Not again!" shouted Ben.
The same thing happened to Starfire.
"It feels good to be big again." answered Starfire. For some strange reason she happened to be taller than Robin, even though he was the one pulling the strings on their superhero team.
Gwen fired blasts of magic at the portraits, and they were destroyed.
"You destroyed my priceless portraits? That's it! Time to get serious, my duckies!" shouted Mad Mod.
"You're a quack." retorted Beast Boy.
Once again, another staircase appeared.
"How long does this maze go on?" asked Ben.
"We're bound to reach the principal's office eventually." answered Raven.
However, there was a problem.
Even if they were to get the keys to the front door, how were they going to make their way back? She doubted that Mad Mod would just stand there while the Teen Titans made their escape.
It seemed that getting the keys was only going to be half the battle.
In the next room was a gym.
Cannons came out of the walls, and dodge balls were thrown at them.
"Ow! Oof! Aah! Eek! Ouch!" shouted Beast Boy.
"You're not having a good day, are you?" asked Raven.
"I've had better!" exclaimed the boy.
Raven deflected the dodgeballs, and the cannons exploded.
"I'm not sure why they exploded, but it works for us, doesn't it?" asked Raven.
The next room was the library.
To get to the staircase, they would have to find a way past the giant overdue stamps.
Beast Boy tried sneaking his way past the stamps...
...only for one of them to land on him.
"Why does this keep happening to me?" asked Beast Boy, who now had an overdue stamp mark on his body and stars around his head.
"I turned my library books in on time, I swear!" exclaimed Starfire. Of course, it had taken her time to learn how to read even though she could simply speak English by kissing a boy.
Robin noticed that there seemed to be some sort of mechanism controlling the overdue stamps.
He decided to sabotage it.
The overdue stamps stopped moving.
"I wonder what books he has to read here..." remarked Gwen.
Gwen decided to check the cover of one.
"Biography Of Mad Mod: And How Awesome He Is! By Mad Mod." read the girl.
Gwen rolled her eyes.
The next room happened to be a science room.
There were puddles of acid strewn across the floor.
"Oh man, those were my good shoes!" exclaimed Beast Boy.
"You need to look before you leap, Beast Boy." warned Robin.
"I know!" shouted the unfortunate boy.
Fortunately, it seemed that if they moved carefully across the floor, they could avoid being burned by the acid.
They then opened the door.
As it turned out, the principal's office was right up ahead.
"Strange, things seem rather quiet." noted Raven.
The Teen Titans (as well as Ben and Gwen) stayed on guard.
Eventually, they reached the principal's office.
Sure enough, the keys were right on the desk.
"Why does this seem too easy?" asked Gwen.
Suddenly, a cage fell from the ceiling.
"I knew it!" shouted the girl.
Fortunately for Gwen, she managed to move out of the way and avoid being captured.
However, Ben and the Teen Titans weren't so fortunate.
"We're trapped!" shouted Ben.
"This is a cruel irony...I'm named after a bird...and I'm trapped in a cage." remarked Robin.
After Ben and the Teen Titans had been successfully captured, Mad Mod made another appearance.
"Did you think it would be that easy to escape, my duckies? I knew that you would try to grab the keys, so I decided to set up a trap! Now then, what should I do with you?" asked Mad Mod.
Ben and the Teen Titans found themselves in another classroom.
However, this one had a giant chalkboard.
"Now then, I want you to write down "I will not be a goody two-shoes that makes Mad Mod even madder!" exclaimed Mad Mod.
"No way." answered Ben.
A boxing glove emerged from the ground and punched Ben in the face.
"He's not giving us a choice, now is he?" asked Robin.
Raven shook her head.
"I guess we better get started." said Cyborg. This was going to be a chore.
Mad Mod laughed.
"You won't get away with this, you miserable excuse of a teacher!" exclaimed Gwen.
Mad Mod scratched his head. Who said that?
Curious, he decided to have a look.
As it turned out, though Ben and the Teen Titans were writing things on the chalkboard, he could tell that someone was missing.
Now just who was it?
"Hello! I'm over here!" exclaimed Gwen.
Oh, that's right. It was his cousin Gwen.
However, despite her intelligence, he didn't think of her as a threat. He simply sneered.
"Oh! What's this? I guess you managed to avoid being captured! Very good, but ultimately futile." stated Mad Mod.
Gwen glared at Mad Mod.
"You can't beat me! You're just a little sidekick for your heroic cousin! You don't stand a chance, lassie!" shouted the teacher.
Gwen readied her magic.
Mad Mod laughed.
However, his cocky smile would soon be erased.
Suddenly, Gwen fired a burst of magic at him.
"Haha-OW!" shouted Mad Mod, being knocked off his feet.
"I'll be taking these!" exclaimed Gwen, grabbing the keys from the desk.
Mad Mod attempted to stop her, but Gwen closed the door and welded the handles together with her magic.
He tried to open the door, but could not.
It then occurred to Mad Mod that if Gwen used the keys to open the front door, the simulation would be terminated and he would be sent to the asylum by the Teen Titans.
He had to stop her...and fast!
Quickly, Mad Mod sent several busts of himself to attack Gwen.
However, Gwen redirected their projectiles back at them with her magic, causing them to explode.
He then sent another one of his guard robots after her.
Gwen countered by firing a blast of magic at the robot's feet, causing it to collapse on the ground.
He then tried using hypnosis screens, but Gwen simply blasted them away.
She then raced towards the front door.
"No! No! No!" shouted Mad Mod.
Gwen unlocked the door, and all of a sudden, the world began to unravel.
"What's going on?" asked Ben.
"I don't know, but somehow, I think it works in our favor." remarked Raven.
"Where's your cousin?" inquired Starfire.
Ben wondered that question himself.
A short while later, the simulati N was terminated.
"Are we back to reality?" asked Ben.
"It looks that way..." answered Robin.
Now, all that was left was to find Mad Mod and bring him to justice.
However, that turned out to be an easy part.
As it turned out, he was attempting to make a hasty getaway.
He had been behind a curtain the entire time.
"Why didn't I notice that before?" asked Gwen.
Perhaps she had been too focused on rescuing her brother and his friends.
Mad Mod attempted to make a getaway, but Gwen casted another spell.
A magical hand grabbed Mad Mod by the ankle and lifted him off the ground.
"Trying to give us the slip, are you?" asked Gwen. "How about a detention slip?"
"Oh no..." thought Mad Mod.
A short while later...
Mad Mod was being loaded into a van wearing a strait jacket by two men wearing white coats.
"You may have bested me, but I'll have my revenge! You'll see!" shouted Mad Mod.
"I'm sure that he'll get the counseling that he needs." remarked Gwen.
"And here he thought you were no more than a sidekick." noted Ben.
"Consider me a HYPER-competent sidekick." said the girl.
"I used to be a sidekick...then I formed the Teen Titans." noted Robin. It was surprising how much time flied, didn't it?
Well, now that Mad Mod was going to Bedlam, it looked like they could go back to performing heroics.
Or maybe they could just hang out at the tower.
Either way, it looked like they had earned this Saturday.
Together, the five of them went back to the tower.
"We should get back to Grandpa. I'm pretty sure he's worried about us." noted Gwen.
Ben had a point. It was likely that Grandpa Max WAS worried about them.
A few minutes later...
"There you are! Where have you two been?" asked Max. He was just about to go look for them himself.
"Ben got kidnapped by a supervillain, so I went to rescue him." explained Gwen.
"Is he safe?" inquired the grandfather.
"I am now." answered Ben. That madman needed a psychiatrist.
"Well, I'm glad you're safe now. How about we go get some pizza?" asked Max.
"Yes!" exclaimed Ben and Gwen, who surprisingly were agreeing on something.
And Mad Mod is off to the loony bin. And don't worry, Beast Boy will be fine. Hahaha.
Don't underestimate Gwen Tennyson!
In the next chapter, Ben's cousin-in-law is going to pay him a visit. Remember Lucy from Omniverse?
Oh, and Beast Boy will be facing off a Ben 10 villain. I found one that suits him pretty well.