A/N: Hey, so in the last chapter I said that Beast Boy's birthday was next week. I meant to say next month because I forget how much stuff was in between Spice Game and his birthday so I corrected the error.
On a take out night, the titans were enjoying some Chinese food. Stuff like rice, noodles, tofu which Gar is especially liking, and more unique foods like dumplings, ribs, mushroom soup, salted dried duck, cured ham with pickled beans, and Kung pao chicken, which Jinx would find is her favorite Chinese dish.
"So Beast, why do you want to be called that? Didn't you have another name like Changeling?" Robin, not yet Nightwing until his new costume he ordered arrives, asked the green hero.
"Yeah, but it's not really as intimidating as Beast sounds. Plus, it sounds like something a young kid made up, which I was at the time. Putting a 'ling' after change? Not very creative. I also had this red and white version of my costume, but Robot Man would comment how it's like Christmas came around every time I entered a room with him so I changed to the team's color of purple and black. Much cooler."
"Heh, I'd probably make Christmas comments myself if you stayed the same costume colors." Cyborg chuckled.
"Friends, our feast bag contains strange strange tiny boomerangs!" Starfire cheered.
"Aw yeah, them's fortune cookies Star!" Beast answered her as she poured a bunch out. Each of the titans took one and read it.
"Follow your passion." Cyborg read. "My passion's eating meat!" He then started gobbling down the ribs and duck.
"Only by walking through an open door will you find your reward." Beast read, so he went to the living room and gasped. "Guys guys! A wheel of Parmesan cheese!" Reven then opened her fortune cookie and read it.
"You have many talents." The half-demon then smiled. "Hey, I do have lots talents! Like magic and dancing!"
"You don't have to be faster than the bear, you just have to be faster than the slowest guy running from it." Jinx chuckled. "Yeah, that would be See-More. I'd even push him towards the bear so I'd escape. Never did like that guy."
"Laugh long, hard and often." Taking a deep breath, she proceeded to laugh. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahaha! Hahahahaha! Ahaha! Hehehehe, hahaha! Hoo, hoo hoo! Hahahaha, haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha! Hahahaha!" When it seemed like Robin could ask something, he was blocked from that.
"Star-"
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Hahahahaha! Hehehehehe, hoo hoo hoo hoo! Hehehehehehehehe! Hehehehehehehehe! Hehehehehehehehe!" Taking a deep breath, Starfire said, "That was most enjoyable."
"Uh, you guys are aware that they aren't meant to be taken literally, right? I mean, my fortune says 'About time I got out of that cookie.'". Everyone snicked from Robin's 'fortune'.
Tomorrow afternoon, Robin was walking down a street whistling when he heard someone yelling.
"Stop, thief!" He looked to see that someone robbed an ice cream vendor of their money. Using a grappling hook, he zoomed forward and kicked the perpetrator onto the ground. The guy fell to the ground with a groan, and a piece of paper fell out.
"Looks like you just got a cold soft serve of justice." Robin quipped.
"Must... obey." The person groaned as they reached for the paper. Noticing that, the Boy- well, maybe just Wonder now since he's no longer a boy and Man Wonder is weird, the Wonder picked up the paper and read,
"Steal money." He felt... a strong compulsion. A compulsion to steal, but Robin shook his head and groaned. Good thing Batman taught him some subconscious tricks against mental manipulation. "What is this?" The ground started to rumble underneath, something Robin felt through the ground. Looking ahead down the street, he gasped to see dozens, maybe even hundreds of people with boxes, bags and other containment units filled with either money or valuable objects. Using another grappling line to reach a roof top along with the person underneath him, the titan and random guy avoided being trampled as the citizens of Jump City all went to somewhere. Humming in contemplation, he brought out his communicator and called out to his friends.
"Titans, this is Robin. I need back up for something big." It was then that Raven answered, and she seemed very startled about something.
"Robin! Oh you're okay."
"What is it Raven?"
"I don't know. One minute everyone else was playing around with their fortune cookies and the next they're like mindless robots. I had to escape or else be overpowered."
"Weird. I'm watching a mass of people with all sorts of valuables. I'm going to follow them, so follow my signal." On the rooftops, the titan leader followed the crowd. Reaching a secret lair, Robin has found that the people were gathering there, and found that the master mind was Brother Blood.
"Of course. Only he could control this many people at once." Raven appeared to him with a portal.
"So how are we going to do this?"
"We know that if mind control doesn't work, he has no problem handling things with his fists. You just need to make me immune to mind manipulation again, while you keep everyone else at bay." From inside the lair, Brother Blood was quite please with the haul.
"Now this is quite the beautiful bounty practically the whole city has brought me, and with my hypnotizing paper with its incredibly convincing font, even Cyborg couldn't resist. Alas, I don't seem to have the complete titan collection." The villain sighed as he walked up to the brainwashed titans, until he stopped at Jinx with a smile. "Ah Jinx. Even if you have gone goody-two-shoes because of love, I can feel the nostalgia of you being one of my student full force. What a funny feeling."
"You're going to feel something alright, Brother Blood." The headmaster of HIVE turned to see Robin drop down from the ceiling. "You're going to feel humiliating defeat when I'm done with you."
"Robin, I've been expecting you. Of course, I wouldn't have expected you to just drop in, because I can control you now!" His eyes glowed red as he sent out a psycic wave, but a black force field surrounded the front of the titan leader, under the protection of Raven's spell.
"Sorry, but I'm not in the mood of being brainwashed." Brother Blood frowned.
"Fine then. Destroy Robin!"
"Destroy Robin." As the populace and the titans were honing in on him, Raven's voice filled the lair.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" A giant raven shaped soul-self came swooping down to surround the two in a sphere, cutting everyone off from Robin and BB. They saw Raven drop through the shield, waved with a smile before phasing into the floor before the villain could control her.
"No tricks Blood. Just you and me, fist to fist." Robin took a martial art stance. Brother Blood growled.
"Hmph, looks like I don't have much of a choice. Alright then, you'll get you're wish." Robin then threw multiple birdarangs at the red clothed villain, but he was able to easily dodge all of them while closing the distance between them, and attempted a roundhouse kick, but Robin ducked by falling back and kicking the older man in the chest, pushing him back. He groaned from the impact but was no worse for wear as he went on the offense. Jumping up, he tried to due a flying stomp but the young adult back flipped to dodge the attack. The two traded blows with their fists, equal in speed and ferocity. That is until Brother Blood managed to land an open palm strike against Robin's chest, sending him flying into a wall. The young lad was able to quickly recover and rolled to his right to avoid a kick which stuck itself into the wall. Right as Robin was going to try his own kick, the Wonder was blasted away thanks to some orange lightning as he removed his foot the wall. "You're good Robin, but you're not good enough to beat me. I am the HIVE headmaster! I am-Agh!" A black fist crushed Brother Blood into the ground hard enough to leave an indent in the ground. Raven came up through a portal, she and Robin smiling at each other.
"Thanks."
"Thank me later." The sorceress said as she withdrew the force field so that her soul-self became raven shaped again. As the people stepped towards her, Raven said her incantation.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Sending her soul-self over and through everyone, she freed them all from Brother Blood's mind control.
"Ugh, what happened?" Jinx moaned, holding her head.
"I think my brain has been the washed like a dish." Starfire responded.
"Yep." Raven responded. "It was Brother Blood over there." She pointed to the villain whom was being put into multiple cuffs so that even with his strength he would've be able to break out very easily.
"Oh, him." The pink hair witch growled as she walked up to him. Brother Blood was starting to regain consciousness.
"Ugh, what happened?" He asked wearily, only to get a kick in the sides, crying out in pain.
"This was over two years in the making old man! This is for taking my former friends away from me!" Kicking Brother Blood in the jaw, he was out cold. "Man that felt good! That felt completely satisfying."
"I know exactly what you mean." Cyborg chuckled as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let's get some pizza to celebrate!" All of the titans cheered. Once everyone was back in their normal places and the titans were in the living room Cyborg remembered something. "Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you something Beastie. Turns out your horoscope sign is a Libra."
"What's a Libra?"
"A horoscope sign. It's one of those constellation personality type stuff. I don't pay attention to it much but with your 18th, I thought it was be interesting to know. And coincidentally, people under Libra goes well with people under Scorpio, which is what Raven is due to her personality."
"Interesting." The half-demon girl replied as she read from her book. Then she felt Beast Boy wrap his arm over her shoulders.
"It sure is mama. If the stars themselves are saying we're meant to be, than that's very cool."
"Don't read into it." Raven responded, but she did lean into him without taking her eyes out of her book. A smile did grace her face."
"Cy, while I don't care what our signs are, I think it'd be cool if we matched as well." Jinx said, causing the metallic titan to blush and fidget.
"Yeah, it would." Starfire and Robin smiled as they got close. A ding rang to tell that the pizza came at last.
