Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Journey Through Life ❯ Episode I: Divide and Conquer ( Chapter 1 )

Let me start out by saying that I do not like this chapter. While most of this will strongly resemble the cartoon, I could not branch out as much as I wanted to this early. I am going to follow the episodes very closely, copying dialogue and actions, so writing this will be a slow process. I will not, therefore, be updating once a day, since just doing a half-hour episode can take around eight hours or more with the pausing and typing. Then I go back, change what I want and add new things. Considering all my other responsibilities, an update once a week should be a realistic expectation.

Disclaimer: Teen Titans is not mine, otherwise it would still be on the air.

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Chapter One: Divide and Conquer

The leader of the team streaked forward and reached the giant first. He back flipped to avoid a punch from the rocky creature and used his landing momentum to propel himself forward.

“Starfire, go!” he cried out as he flew up and landed a kick to the giant's face with such force that the creature, easily in the excess of 500 pounds, spun halfway around. The orange-skinned girl extended her hands and her eyes, the pupil and cornea alike, began to glow a luminescent green as energy beams of the same color left her palms. They streaked towards the monster's back and impacted, causing it to stumble forward. The android did a running leap over the monster and landed on a wall. Pushing off, he threw a punch intended to hit the giant in the face; however, it still had good enough reflexes to block the attack.

Starfire threw a few more blasts at the creature as it tried to run off, but stopped when she saw her green friend take the form of a falcon and streak towards it. The bird dodged in and out of the creature's range as it scratched the face with its claws.

The creature growled, getting annoyed with how its mission was progressing: this was supposed to have been a quick assignment but was beginning to drag on. Its dull mind became clouded with anger and blindly charged at the pale-skinned girl. Her eyes began to glow pure white and she lifted her hands up, causing a slab of the cement floor to rise up like a wall. The ten-foot cement creature head butted the makeshift wall and reached out to grab the girl, but she was nowhere to be seen. Out of the corner of its eye, the fiend saw a flash of blue and witnessed her talking off. He began to follow her but the sounds of footsteps to his right distracted him. He turned and lashed out, catching the cyborg and leader in their chests.

As the two males went flying backwards, Starfire fired a few starbolts from her hands, but the creature shrugged them off before reaching out and grabbing her. Pulling her closer to him, he leaned in and snarled at her. To his surprise, a cheeky smile lit her face.

“I am sorry to disappoint you,” Starfire said as closing her eyes. When she opened them again, they were glowing the bright green again, “but I am stronger than I look!” She glared at him, brought her right leg up, and smashed it into the creature's face. It was caught off-guard by such a surprise attack and threw her across the room as he stumbled back a few steps. As it hit a wall, the falcon streaked towards the ground and morphed quickly into something that had only been seen in books: a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was just as green as the human had been, with black horizontal stripes running down its back and tail.

The dinosaur backed up a step or two and crouched, snorting and snarling. With a roar, it charged the creature with its fangs bared, only to be struck and sent flying backwards. The changeling was dazed and lost concentration, reverting to his human form as he soared through the air.

The pale girl had her eyes closed, focusing her mental energy for an attack. “Azarath… Metrion…” she chanted as she readied herself. She opened her eyes and gasped, concentration broken, as she saw a dinosaur flying towards her. The green teen rose, rubbing his head as he got to his feet.

“BeastBoy…” a menacing voice said.

Seeing the glare he was attracting from the girl made him nervous and he tried to lighten the situation with humor. “Uh, watch out for falling dinosaurs?” he quipped with a grin. She maintained her look and blew a bang of violet hair out of her face. “Yeah… I'm gonna leave you alone now, Raven,” he said as he backed away from her, not wanting to see her get mad.

The monster chuckled as he turned and made to go down the corridor again. The leader leapt onto its back and tried to get it in a stranglehold. Considering his opponent lacked a windpipe, it was proving quite difficult. The creature roared and whipped around, trying to dislodge the human from its back, but the teen held on with determination. “Thrashing only makes me hold tighter,” he warned as the cement ogre ripped a girder off the wall. A large chunk of cement was attached to the top of the girder, giving it the appearance of a crude hammer. “He wouldn't be that stupid…” the teen thought as the creature raised the girder above its head. He leapt off and watched as the monster smashed its head with the metal.

“I guess he would be that stupid,” he said.

“Now there's an idea,” the android smirked as he ripped a smaller girder off the wall. The two quickly got into a fight, using the girders as hammers. While the fiend was larger and stronger, the android was quicker and able to get in closer where the monster's huge reach was a disadvantage.

“Get him Cyborg!” the leader cheered on as he watched.

Cyborg grunted as he tried to match the strength of the creature. As it broke a weapons lock and forced him back, he charged in trying to catch it by surprise. As the cement creature spun and lashed out with its weapon, Cyborg realized he had fallen for a trap and groaned as he was with a hundred and fifty pounds of concrete. He soared backwards and his body dragged across the ground, producing an irritating screech.

The brute turned around and saw Starfire and Raven hovering. He raised the girder menacingly, but Starfire sent a beam of energy at it and caused it to glow a bright red. As the metal turned soft and lost its strength, Starfire giggled and laughed at the monster's facial expression. It ripped the soft metal in half and threw the pieces at the women, forcing them to dodge in midair, before it turned and ran down the corridor again.

Cyborg sat up and groaned, rubbing his head as his vision swam. It was extremely disconcerting to have a human eye unfocused and swimming and an electronic eye determined to keep everything in focus. He saw a green glove extend towards him and grabbed it. As the spiky-haired leader helped Cyborg up, he grabbed a disk from his utility belt.

“Wanna give this guy the `Sonic Boom'?” he asked.

Cyborg smiled and raised his right arm. The machinery whirred to life, separating and changing shape until it resembled something more like a cannon. “I got the `Sonic' if you got the `Boom' Robin,” he said, looking at his teammate. The two nodded and streaked down the corridor after the escaping behemoth, with the other team members quickly following behind.

“Yo, rock-head!” Cyborg taunted to get the monster's attention. It worked; as the creature stopped running and turned around, Robin and Cyborg each ran up a wall and leapt off forward and towards each other. However, a moment before their attack, their ankles hooked together and they slammed into opposite walls. Cyborg's right arm let loose a sonic cannon blast into the ceiling above Raven and BeastBoy, causing the ceiling to cave in. BeastBoy quickly looked up and cowered while Raven's eyes glowed white again and she used her telekinesis to move the falling cement away from them. Robin's disk flew out of his hand and landed near Starfire, who let out a squeak as it exploded and sent her flying back ten feet. She caught herself in midair and hovered down to the ground safely, shocked but relatively unharmed.

The concrete creature laughed and turned around, having sensed that the mission had gone on long enough. Smashing his way through a series of wall, the Teen Titans lost sight of the creature as criminals poked their heads through the holes.

“Hey, hey; look at this: its freedom!” one of them shouted as he made his way for the exit.

“Let's get out of here,” another exulted as his fellow criminals began to rush out.

Robin staggered to his feet, dazed and wounded. He saw the incoming rush of prisoners and grabbed a foot long piece of metal from his back. It extended into a five-foot bo-staff as he motioned for his teammates to help him contain the prison break. As most of the criminals wouldn't pose a threat to one Titan even when armed, the five superheroes were able to quickly take down all but the quickest.

“Raven- head them off,” Robin barked as he took down another three gangsters. The pale girl nodded and disappeared through a swirling black vortex in the floor…

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The creature slowly walked towards a steel door, reading it to make sure he had the right one.

“Prisoner 365901. ABSOLUTE SILENCE!” the sign warned. The last word confirmed the giant's thoughts and he quickly broke the door down with three punches. He walked forward into a calm, sea-blue room. In the center was a holding tube filled with a pale-blue liquid, and floating in the middle of the liquid was the object of the ogre's search. He eyed the skinny sleeping man, wearing nothing but a rubber loincloth, with tubes sticking out of his body and a breathing apparatus covering his mouth and nose, and snorted in disgust. The creature found it difficult to believe his master would send him through so much trouble for such a small and useless person.

Growling impatiently, the giant grabbed the sides of the tube and ripped it from the wall. It held the tube, around four feet in diameter, under one arm and smashed through the floor with the other. It hopped down the hole it had created and continued in this manner until it reached the sewers. It opened a compartment on its chest and pulled out what looked like a GPS. Following the directions slowly and carefully so as not to damage his prize, the monster made its way back to its master…

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“Let's go, let's go!” one of the prisoners cried to his partner as they ran for the exit. They had made it into the courtyard and saw where the metal doors ad been blasted away. They took off for the entrance, eagerly awaiting the freedom they had been stripped of.

“I think we're going to make it,” the second one shouted as they got within fifteen feet of the hole. Suddenly, the mangled metal doors were covered in a black light and flew towards the hole, bending and refitting themselves to fit in again. Both criminals stopped short, their eyes wide and jaws dropping at the impossibility they had just witnessed.

A black energy portal opened in the doors and the hooded girl materialized out of the portal she had created. Her eyes went from glowing white back to their usual purple as she observed the stunned men with dislike. “Think again,” she said. “Or better yet, start thinking period,” she added, motioning towards them with her hands. They were wrapped in the same light the doors had been and she pulled them back into the prison complex as she flew to rejoin her team…

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BeastBoy changed back into his human self from a gorilla as he watched the prisoners be led back into new, unbroken cells. “Jail break? I don't see any jail break,” he said smugly to his teammates, trying to lighten up the mood. Raven's expression did not change except to look at BeastBoy, while Starfire was too busy anxiously watching Robin and Cyborg. Both Titans were quite upset, and the entire team was waiting for the collision that was sure to happen.

“None of us would have seen anything if Cyborg hadn't messed up,” Robin snapped, folding his arms and turning away from his cybernetic friend.

“Me?” Cyborg retaliated indignantly. “I messed up nothing. You got in my way,” he snapped.

“Well, you were too far forward, and that thing got away because of it!” Robin exclaimed angrily, turning to face his large teammate.

“You sayin' this is MY FAULT!?” Cyborg shouted.

“You want me to say it again?” Robin growled. The two looked at each other with swords dancing in their eyes.

“Stop: no more mean-talking now please,” Starfire said, putting her body between the boys'. Robin and Cyborg turned their backs again as BeastBoy decided to join in.

“Yeah guys, calm down for now at least. If you two are gonna fight, we need time to sell tickets.”

“That thing, whatever it was, escaped. No amount of yelling will change that, so stop acting like idiots, and let's all go home,” Raven said, trying to be the voice of reason before things got out of control. She pulled her hood down as she talked, revealing a red jewel in the middle of her forehead. Robin and Cyborg glared at one another before walking away in opposite directions. Raven rolled her eyes as Starfire followed Robin with her eyes and BeastBoy trained his on Cyborg.

“Loser,” Robin muttered under his breath.

“Jerk,” Cyborg grumbled under his.

An instant later, the two were back at each other's throats. “What did you say?” each demanded of the other.

“You got a problem, tin-man?” Robin snarled.

“Yeah: its five feet tall and smells like cheap hair gel,” Cyborg snapped back, smiling as he saw Robin clench his jaw.

“Well you're an oversized klutz and your feet smell like motor oil.”

“You're bossy; you're rude; you got no taste in music…”

“You're just mad because I always show you up in the obstacle course.”

“You don't like that I'm better than you at video games.”

“If you would stop always trying to be the first guy in none of this would have happened.”

“Me go first? You crazy, paranoid, hypercompetitive little-”

“I don't even know why you on the team,” Robin shouted. Their voices had steadily been getting louder, and their teammates stood by, following the volleying insults with their eyes.

“That makes two of us. I QUIT!” Cyborg bellowed. Eight eyes widened and four jaws dropped as the android spun on the heel of his foot and stormed down the passageway, his feet cracking the cement as he stomped. Robin stared at his friend, stunned, until Cyborg stepped out of sight. Not caring if the others saw, he hung his head and closed his eyes.

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Gears turned, creating a grinding noise. Interspersed with pistons and other pieces of mechanisms, the cavernous room echoed with a musical rhythm of machinery. A large man sat in the only chair in the room, a dull light casting down on him, giving him the appearance of a foreboding king. Only his left eye was visible, gleaming in the shadows of his face. Only pieces of his clothing could be seen, mostly a tight mesh suit with larger plates of metallic covering.

A blue light erupted, shining down on the concrete creature as it entered the room. It was still carrying the large tube with the man inside. It put the tube down gently in front of the man, almost like an offering one would make to a temple

“Cinderblock,” the man said, acknowledging the creature's presence. His voice was deep and had a rich current of emotions in it, as though it was an instrument its wielder could play expertly. It could be crushing or soothing, taunting or encouraging, enraged or pleased. And right now, it was pleased.

Very pleased.

The man's eye traveled from the thug to the trophy. “I see your mission was a success. Good. We will proceed with Phase II. Wake him,” he ordered.

Cinderblock responded immediately, pulling the lid off the tube and drawing the liquid out. The man inside slowly began to come out of his deep sleep into a doze. Moments later, he was stirring, and his beige eyes looked around in horror.

“I'm… awake?” he asked nobody in particular, terror creeping into his voice.

“Yes, Otto, you are awake,” the man in the dark stated, his voice betraying boredom.

“But… but I should never be awake,” the man protested. “I'm only human when I'm sleeping. You have to put me to sleep. You can't let me be awa-”

“But for what I have in mind, your human form is useless,” the man said coolly, interrupting Otto's ranting. “I need… Plasmus.”

At the sound of his last word, Otto's face and body began to become distorted. The form began to expand and lose its solidity. As the skin turned purple and continued to expand, the pressure on the tube caused it to explode. A pile of dark purple sludge gathered itself into a humanoid pile about seven feet tall and looked around, its green eyes glowing in the dark.

“Here, here, Plasmus,” the man taunted. “Come and play…” he said as he leapt backwards into the dark. The purple sludge followed him obediently, sensing the man was the reason for its freedom.

“Just wait and see the fun I have planned for you…” the man said as his new minion followed him into the darkness.

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“This is Cyborg. I'm either in the gym, thrashin' someone at GameStation, or kickin' bad guy butt. Leave a messa-”

“Damn!” BeastBoy growled as he heard the annoying message for what seemed like the thousandth time. He paced back and forth in the T-Tower living room, waiting for the beep so he could record another message.

“Hello, Cy pick up. Come on, Cy- pick up.” BeastBoy waited for a moment or two, hoping to hear a click. When he didn't he let out another sigh. “I know you're there: the phone's built into your arm. Come on Cy: it's been a week already. Get over your stupid fight with Robin and get back here. Robin's no fun, Starfire spends all her time in the kitchen, and Raven is-” BeastBoy cut short as the female turned to look at him from where she was working. “Working real hard at maintaining this place since you left.” When he continued to hear silence, BeastBoy clicked the phone off and growled. Raven turned around and watched him pace for a few seconds before going back to monitoring the Tower. Cyborg had the systems linked up to his circuitry, but with him gone, it required a lot more monitoring.

BeastBoy growled again out of frustration and turned around to see Starfire hovering in front of him. “Here,” she said, raising a wooden spoon with a beige gelatinous liquid. “Taste,” she added as she shoved the spoon into his mouth. BeastBoy began to gag and convulse as his body immediately began to try to expel the foreign substance. He opened his mouth and watched the pudding fly out and land on the carpet before dashing to the sink and chugging water, trying to rid his mouth of the taste.

“What is that?” he demanded. “Cream of Toenail Fungus?”

“Pudding of Sadness. It is what the people of my planet eat when bad things happen,” she corrected as she ate some. She swallowed with difficulty and shuddered as tears streamed down her face from the taste. She soared over to where Raven was and offered the bowl. “Try,” she offered with a smile. Not getting a reaction from the psychic, she added “the displeasing taste will ease your troubled mind.”

“Don't do it Raven: that stuff is terrible,” BeastBoy advised.

“Oh good: I was worried that it would come out tasting decent. I have not made it in a while. Please partake in some,” Starfire offered again.

“Unnecessary. My mind is not troubled,” Raven responded, turning to look at the hovering alien. “People come, people go: it's pointless to get upset over Cyborg,” she claimed. At her last word, her hair swirled behind her in a vortex pattern and spider-web cracks streaked throughout all the monitors along the wall. Starfire gaped, her mouth full of pudding at the reaction of Raven. “What?” Raven asked as she turned back to the monitors and began mending them with her powers.

Starfire left her two friends and began searching for Robin. BeastBoy turned to Raven and watched as she mended the glass by tracing her fingers along the glass. “You really feel that way? I mean, he's been our friend now for a few years. Don't you miss him at all? Do you even care that he's gone?”

“Of course it matters to me, but the fact remains that people in life come and go. Life is full of meetings and partings. Cyborg joined us, now he's left us. If he is meant to come back to us, he will. If not, no amount of grief and sadness will change reality,” Raven said as she finished fixing the displays.

 

Starfire wandered through the tower, searching for her other friend. She found him in the gym, viciously hitting the punching bag. She watched him as he threw attacks with lightning speed and deadly efficiency. Though the bag weighed somewhere over two hundred pounds, Robin put his full body into each blow, causing it to sway back and forth with the barrage of attacks he was unleashing. He stopped and hunched over after a few minutes, wiping his sweaty hair out of his eyes. He gazed a few feet to his left and saw his workout bench, and then looked a few feet farther to where Cyborg's had been. He saw the ridiculously heavy weights the android would use: the lightest of them equal to the biggest Robin could lift.

Sensing he was done exercising, Starfire approached him, holding her pudding close to her chest. “Here Robin, you must need this most of all, since… well,” Starfire faltered near the end as she offered him some of the pudding. Robin stood up straight and continued gazing at Cyborg's old exercise bench.

“I'm fine,” he said in a deadpan voice. “Who knows,” he said as he walked out of them room, “maybe we're better off without him…”

Starfire stayed where she was and spooned another helping of pudding into her mouth. She walked out of the gym just in time to see Raven turning the corner, nose in a book.

“Friend, I was wondering if we could converse for a moment,” Starfire said, drawing a sigh from the other girl.

“What is it Starfire?”

“Why has Robin been treating me differently lately?”

“It's because Cyborg is gone and Robin misses him, but is too pig-headed to admit it,” Raven replied in an annoyed tone. She knew Starfire was intelligent- Raven hoped there had been more to the question than that.

“Forgive me, but when have you seen Robin with the head of a hog?”

“It means `stubborn' Starfire.”

“Oh. But if he misses Cyborg, why has Robin stopped watching TV with me and cancelled talking with me late at night.”

“Because he's a boy: he doesn't understand his feelings very well and is embarrassed by them. He can't deal with Cyborg so he's taking it out on the rest of us.” Raven sighed at Starfire's crestfallen look. “It's nothing you did,” she said, trying to comfort the girl. “Robin's just adjusting to a change. Give him some time and space and he'll be alright. Crowding him will only make it worse,” Raven advised, knowing Starfire liked to be comforted when upset and could not understand why others withdrew.

 

“I need to clear my mind, relax,” Robin told himself as he wandered aimlessly throughout the tower. He arrived in the living room and saw the three hundred inch screen TV with the GameStation waiting to be played. He sighed and started up the new flying combat game Cyborg had bought. As one hour, and then two, went by, Robin began to really get into the game. He sat on the edge of his seat as he raced through the stages, seeing the high score in the corner as a challenge waiting to be beaten.

“Come on, come on,” Robin muttered to himself. “Activate the reverse thrusters, back flip somersault,” he mumbled the directions to himself, as though it would help him play better. Panicking as he saw his second-to-last hit point disappear, he mashed the buttons and let out a cry of victory as he beat the level in record time. “Oh yeah, new high score!” he exclaimed, only to frown when he saw that he had beaten Cyborg's old high score.

“Yo, who's turn to do dishes?” Robin heard BeastBoy gripe as he saw the tower of plates and bowls lining the counter by the sink. Knowing that Starfire actually enjoyed doing them and Raven was meticulous about her chores, Robin could also tell that BeastBoy wasn't trying to trick him into doing it. Robin's heart sank as he realized that he done the dishes last week.

“Cyborg's,” Robin said softly as he walked up behind BeastBoy. He picked up a plate and began to wash, slowly going through the enormous pile of dishes. BeastBoy stood there for minute before helping Robin. They passed a few minutes in an awkward silence before Robin broke it. “Do you miss him?”

BeastBoy looked stunned: Robin hadn't so much as made a reference to Cyborg for the week, opting to leave the room whenever his name was mentioned. He waited a minute before speaking, going slow so as not to destroy the opportunity he had. “Well, yeah. Cy sure kept this place going as clean as a whistle. But on the other hand, now that he's gone I have a chance at breaking a few of his records,” he added, trying to lighten the mood. Seeing Robin's stoic face, BeastBoy kept his mouth shut and kept washing dishes.

Robin remembered the good times he had had with Cyborg: playing GameStation; teasing BeastBoy; teaching Starfire mechanical things; building new gadgets and upgrades; and working out. Robin was so far in his mind that he didn't even hear the City's Alert System go off until everyone else had gathered around the monitor to pinpoint the source of trouble.

“What is it? That concrete guy again?” Robin asked as he joined the team. Starfire and Raven turned around and shook their heads as BeastBoy stood staring dumbfounded at the screen.

“You wish,” he groaned. “Remember that prisoner the jail said had been kidnapped?”

“The one they codenamed `Plasmus'?”

“Well, we found him.”

As Raven and Starfire continued to look at him, Robin realized they were waiting for him. “Well, you heard BB Titans; let's move!” he said, faking as much enthusiasm as he could. The girls flew out of the room and BeastBoy quickly followed, turning into a kind of dog to keep up. Robin started to move out, but his eye caught the number of pictures the team attached to the wall in the kitchen. There were whole team shots, a few nature pictures, at least one portrait of each Titan, and a few others. One of the others was one with only Robin and Cyborg. Robin had his fist raised in victory while Cyborg leaned over his shorter teammate, ruffling Robin's hair and throwing out a “peace” sign. Robin thought back to the day that picture had been taken…

Robin and Cyborg leapt apart from where they had been crouching to avoid the bomb thrown at them. The tall, lanky character facing them let out bursts of high-pitched laughter as he threw weapon after weapon at the duo. Robin was too busy deflecting attacks with his staff to think about an attack, and Cyborg was still trying repair his weapons system, which had been damaged by a blast of acid.

“Come on, come on,” Cyborg muttered furiously as he made connections and rerouted old power sources. He looked up to see Robin fall to the floor, thrown back by a punch. “Oh yeah, baby, Cyborg is back!” he exulted, leveling his sonic cannon at the villain. A blast of energy went forth and hit the villain right in the chest. Robin looked up in time to see him go flying back to hit a wall. He quickly grabbed a flash disk off his belt and threw it. The villain rubbed his head and saw the disk coming at him. He flicked his wrists and two cards went flying out from under his suit arms. One caused the disk to explode early, while the other grazed Robin's cheek, causing a think line of blood.

“We need a new strategy,” Cyborg grumbled.

“If I could just hit him with a flash disk, it would stun him long enough for us to tie him up. But the only thing that moves fast enough to land a hit on him is your Sonic…”

“Cannon,” Cyborg finished, seeing Robin's thought. They locked eyes and nodded.

“No more jokes,” Robin shouted as he threw a few spheres. They exploded in midair, causing a bright flash that temporarily stunned the villain. Robin threw his last flash disk as Cyborg shot it with his Sonic Cannon. The disk zoomed forward and exploded as it hit their foe in the chest. He grunted and fell to the ground just as Robin threw some restraining cables, wrapping him from shoulder to kneecap.

“Oh, well done, bird-brain” the villain exclaimed as he laughed.

“Sorry Joker, your act is over,” Robin said as he stood over the man. Acid-green eyes stared out a pale face as the villain laughed.

“Oh well, I could use a nice relaxing vacation,” the Joker shrugged as he was hauled to his feet by some police.

“Thanks Robin, Cyborg,” the lieutenant said, shaking the hands of each Titan. “We couldn't have done it without you guys.”

“You won! Splendid!” Starfire exclaimed as she landed. “What do you call that last attack that you did?”

Robin and Cyborg looked at each other and spoke at the same time. “The Sonic Boom,” they said with a grin.

“Could be worse: you guys could call it `Big Bang'” BeastBoy joked. The group, save Raven, had a good laugh and Starfire snapped a photo of photo of Robin and Cyborg in a victory pose…

“I'm sorry,” Robin said quietly as he walked out the door to catch up with the others.

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A chemical factory on the outskirts of town had for some reason been turned on long after-hours. As the products were created, the toxic by-products ran off and were collected into barrels. As the barrels were moved along a conveyor belt, the sludge creature known as Plasmus would grab them and drink them. As he swallowed the sludge, Plasmus' mass began to increase. After a few dozen, he was going on twelve feet tall.

He picked up another barrel and began to drink it, savoring the taste of the toxins. Suddenly, a large blast blew a hole in the bottom of the can, causing all the chemicals to spill onto the floor. Plasmus simply stared at the barrel, gazing stupidly through the hole in the bottom. He looked around the room and saw the four Teen Titans standing in the hole in the wall Plasmus had smashed through.

“That stuff can't be good for you,” Robin stated as Starfire charged up another pair of starbolts.

Plasmus crushed the metal barrel in his three fingers and threw it away before letting out an enormous belch.

“Nice one,” BeastBoy grinned as he let out a burp of his own, nowhere near the volume of Plasmus'. Plasmus screamed and puffed out his chest, letting streams of sludge stream at the Titans. As the four teens separated, Plasmus continued to shoot blasts of his own body.

“Starfire, let him have it,” Robin shouted as he dodged the slime attacks. Starfire gaped as her attack went right through Plasmus and impacted the wall behind him, leaving a twelve-inch diameter hole in its chest.

“Did I let him have too much?” she asked worriedly. Plasmus looked at the hole in his torso and sucked in a huge breath, causing the wound to heal itself.

“I'm thinking not enough,” BeastBoy commented as he transformed into a gorilla. His new nine-foot frame allowed him to fight on a more even plane with Plasmus, and he tried to wrestle the mutant to the floor. Plasmus' semi-solid body was able to dodge every strike BeastBoy threw simply by shifting out of the way. He leapt back a dozen feet and extended his left arm, knocking BeastBoy back and grabbing for Starfire, who quickly stared in surprise. Raven flew over and grabbed her teammate out of the way, and the two stared as the arm continued to lengthen over twenty feet, eyes widening as it arced in the air to make another grab.

“Maybe this guy just needs to chill,” Robin growled as he threw a bright blue disk at Plasmus' arm. The liquid nitrogen froze the arm into solid ice, spreading a few feet up the arm to the shoulder. Plasmus looked at his arm in surprise before roaring in rage and swinging it at Robin. Robin dodged the strike but covered himself with his cape to avoid the ice shards that flew at him as Plasmus' arm shattered. BeastBoy got to his feet and quickly transformed into a pterodactyl. He took off, aiming for Plasmus as Starfire let loose a barrage of starbolts. Though they did little damage, Starfire tried to distract the monster as BeastBoy flew in. The green dinosaur hovered in front of Plasmus and kicked out rapidly, throwing about eight clawed kicked a second. Plasmus held up his right arm, flattened it out into a shield, and hardened it to a rock-like density.

Plasmus extended his left shoulder and a swarm of tentacles streamed forth, half a dozen aiming for each Titan. Starfire flew back and shot each one with expert aim, dodging the other attacks that were thrown at her. Robin threw a few birdarangs to slice through the feelers while Raven sent waves of dark energy. BeastBoy dodged the attacks as a snake and turned into an ox as he got closer to Plasmus. He cried out in surprise as he simply charged through the slime, doing absolutely no damage to Plasmus whatsoever.

“Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos,” Raven chanted as she tried to focus her concentration. Her telekinetic energy was infused into a dozen empty barrels that she shot at Plasmus burying them in his chest and forcing him back a few feet. Plasmus roared at her and expunged them from his chest right back at her, forcing her to weave through the air to avoid the counter-attack. Robin lunged at Plasmus and kicked him right in the chest. Unfortunately, his leg sank in all the way to the thigh. He kicked out with his other foot and punched, trying to get free. The only thing he managed to do was get himself further caught in Plasmus' body.

“Ugh… come on, let me go you giant zit!” Robin cried as he struggled to get free. Plasmus looked down at him, as though just realizing Robin was there. He snarled and shot Robin across the room and into BeastBoy. Starfire flew over to make sure the two were all right while Raven, realizing hitting Plasmus with solid objects only gave him more ammunition to use against the team, sent blasts of dark mental energy at him to distract him from the other three Titans.

“Robin! Are you all right?” Starfire asked as she helped her friend to his feet.

“I'm fine… I think,” Robin groaned as he spit some of the purple sludge out of his mouth.

BeastBoy was lying on the ground, gagging and quivering as he vomited all over the floor. “And I thought Star's pudding tasted bad,” he mumbled as he shakily got to his feet.

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The man stood calmly watching the unfolding action before him, having hacked into the security cameras at the factory.

“Disappointing, really,” he said boredom in his voice. “With one Titan missing, this is almost too easy,” he mused, his left eye gleaming through the orange half of his mask. “I was expecting more of a challenge.” He turned over his shoulder, revealing the right side of his mask was black and had no eyehole, and saw Cinderblock behind him with a large yellow cannon slung over his back. “Cinderblock, begin Phase III.” Cinderblock grunted in response and began shuffling out of the complex.

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Starfire shuddered as she climbed out of a pile of sludge Plasmus had hit her and Raven with. “Ugh, I feel like the underside of a Zornian muck-beetle,” she groaned.

“Tell me about it,” Raven said as she also climbed out.

“Dude, I am not on the menu,” BeastBoy shouted as he ran from Plasmus. Three grappling hooks embedded themselves into Plasmus body and Robin quickly began running circles around Plasmus, wrapping the creature in a high-density cable.

“Maybe the best way to take you down,” Robin thought out loud as he began pulling on the ropes, “is to tie you up.” BeastBoy charged Plasmus as a rhino and knocked the mutant onto the ground. Starfire grabbed hold of some steel girders nearby and channeled her energy into them, causing them to soften like the way she had done before with Cinderblock. Raven joined in and used her mental powers to bend other girders, trapping Plasmus on the floor, who snarled and roared in protest as his freedom was cut off.

“We did it!” Starfire celebrated as they watched him try to free himself, to no avail.

“Nice work, team” Robin complimented, pleased that they had won. He pulled out his communicator and notified the police that they had finished the job.

“Yeah, for a minute there I didn't think we'd be able to pull it off without, oof” BeastBoy grunted as Raven jabbed him in the ribs, glaring at him. BeastBoy realized what he had been about to say and smiled feebly at her to show he understood.

“We finished just in time, too,” Robin said, looking down at his communicator. “That rock thing's been spotted downtown. Come on,” he said as the team prepared to leave. The rest of them followed Robin, but all stopped and turned around when they heard a stretching sound and Plasmus quiet down.

What they saw was unbelievable: Plasmus' body was contorting and shifting. As his body began to liquefy, Plasmus' form oozed out of the ties the Titans had put on him and rearranged his body. His head stayed in the same place but rotated until it was upright and supported by six small crab legs. One arm became a snake, while the other morphed into something like a squid. Each leg became a type of worm, one with crab-like pincers for a head and the other with a head more resembling the claws of a scorpion.

“Uh… heads up,” BeastBoy said in a stunned tone as the five creatures started to charge. As one, the team ran in the opposite direction and slammed a pair of doors shut to try to keep Plasmus out. As the monsters slammed against the doors, Robin wracked his mind for a strategy. “Four against five: not good odds,” BeastBoy said as the door began to groan from the blows being hammered upon it.

“Forget the odds; we need a plan,” Robin grunted, though he agreed with BeastBoy. Though the doors remained standing, Plasmus' determination had given him a small victory: a couple of the tentacles from the squid creature it had spawned forced its way through the cracks. Robin knew it would only be a matter of seconds before the doors fell, and he glanced through the crack in the doorway to see all five creatures backing up for a final charge. “Titans, separate!” he commanded as he ran down one corridor. The others followed his lead, each taking a different route. Starfire flew high off the ground while Raven opted to hover lower and BeastBoy changed into a cheetah.

Starfire turned and saw the snake following her. She slowed down and turned around, flying backwards and firing starbolts as fast as she could. The snake was able to weave through them, however, and caught her in its grip. Starfire gasped for breath as the snake tried to squeeze the life out of her, and unleashed a massive blast the caused the creature to explode. Starfire landed on the ground and tried to calm her breathing when a sloshing sound caught her attention. She turned around to see the ooze reforming itself into the snake again. This time, however, it had three heads and a tail. Starfire gathered her strength and prepared to fight a harder creature…

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BeastBoy ran as fast as he could, but somehow the scorpion creature was able to keep up. Its mouth opened and a tongue shot out and wrapped itself around the cheetah, pulling it in closer. BeastBoy quickly turned himself into an ape and ripped the tongue off, but the monster tackled him to the floor. Quickly morphing into a rhinoceros, BeastBoy charged the slime but the creature expanded its jaw wide enough to swallow him whole. Shrinking quickly into a hummingbird and darting out, BeastBoy became a wolf only to be tackled again…

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Raven flew quickly down the hall, sending pieces of machinery flying behind her to try to get the squid to slow down. Unfortunately, nothing worked; the squid simply oozed its way past the projectiles. Raven slowed down and concentrated her energies, unscrewing everything in front of her, timing it so that when she past, the equipment would fall and either hit the squid outright or become an obstacle and at least slow it down. Raven looked back and smiled as she surveyed the pile of wreckage behind her. She hovered in midair and gathered her focus for when the monster broke free, unaware that it had slipped past her when she had slowed down for her attack. Hearing something behind her, Raven gasped in surprise as she saw tentacles heading for her…

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Robin dashed through the corridor, trying to regulate his breathing so he would not get winded, and jumped onto a lower level conveyor belt. He was thrown off balance from the landing and as he got to his feet, he realized he was above vats of the chemical by-products.

“Gee, I'm fighting a monster above a vat of chemicals: how more clichéd could this get,” Robin grumbled as the crab creature landed behind him. He pulled out his extendable staff and began a vicious flurry of attacks, jabbing it to try to break it apart. Eventually the staff got caught in the pincers and was snapped in half. Robin simply spun the staff and it extended back to its longer length again. He held it in both hands and swung it like a bat, intending to knock the creature to the floor but it was swatted away. Robin danced backwards, staying on the balls of his feet as he adopted a martial arts stance…

 

Starfire backpedaled as she threw blast after blast at the snake, becoming frustrated as it seemed to dodge each and every one. One of the snakeheads seized her wrists and began slamming her into the walls. Starfire grunted as her body impacted solid steel and was beaten by the snake's tail. As she fired her blasts with her free hand, Starfire screamed when she was lifted up and swallowed. Blasting her way free again, Starfire began to despair as the creature reformed itself.

“Oh, I wish Cyborg were here. He would know what this strange creature is and how to defeat it,” she said as she now fought a five-headed snake…

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Raven erected a shield to block the tentacles, forgetting that they could go around and still grab her. Ignoring the squeezing in her torso, Raven closed her eyes and tried a psionic attack.

“This thing is only an extension of the head,” Raven realized. “I can't kill it as long as the head one is concentrating on it, and he's keeping himself safe. The only way it seems we can beat Plasmus is to knock him out: then he'll become human again.”

Raven tried to free herself, but her body had taken too hard a beating during her mental excursions…

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BeastBoy tried transformation after transformation, but nothing seemed able to stop the monster he was fighting. Whenever he got a good blow in, it would just heal itself, even when he tried squishing it or even cutting it in half. And with every strike it inflicted on him, he lost energy. Head swimming with the fatigue of multiple transformations in such a short time, BeastBoy became a grizzly bear and continued to fight…

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Robin tried every martial arts move he could think of, but nothing seemed to stop this creature. It always became soft whenever he tried to strike, but would harden its body it steel whenever it came time for it to attack. Robin stood between its pincers and tried to throw it off balance but was knocked to the ground. As the crab pincer leapt on top of him, Robin looked over his shoulder to see if there was anything in the surrounding area he could use to his advantage. He saw the end of the conveyor belt and smiled, thinking of a new strategy.

Robin concentrated as hard as he could, knowing he would need perfect timing for his plan to work. As his shoulders left the conveyor belt, he leaned backwards and flipped his body around, flipping the monster over his head and soaring down to the ground below. Robin reached out and tried to grab part of the belt, but the metal bent and threatened to break from the weight. Robin felt the monster grab his boot and began shaking his leg, trying to get free. As he heard a squeal, Robin looked down and saw the creature falling and landing in a vat of chemicals, disintegrating under their toxicity. “So, the main part can get stronger from toxins, but the other pieces will die,” Robin thought to himself as he pulled himself up. His train of thought was broken when the conveyor belt finally snapped and he was sent plummeting towards the bright green acid. Robin closed his eyes and prepared himself for a gruesome death, having run out of grappling hooks after using them on Plasmus before.

Suddenly, a large hand caught Robin in a strong grip. As he was hauled up and to his feet, Robin gasped for breath, not even looking at his savior, his body slowly calming down after its near-death experience.

“I still got the `Sonic' if you still got the `Boom',” a familiar voice said. Robin looked up in disbelief and relief at the voice and saw Cyborg's familiar face. Robin smiled and chuckled.

“You always did have to make a grand entrance,” he wheezed as he got to his feet…

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Plasmus' head screeched and laughed as Raven, Starfire and BeastBoy were brought before him and opened his mouth wide, preparing to devour them. It was distracted, however, by two voices shouting in unison.

“Teen Titans, go!” Robin and Cyborg cried as they performed their earlier move. They leapt off the wall and this time they executed their attack perfectly. The disk was caught in the blast and accelerated so that it buried itself deep within Plasmus' head before exploding. This attack was too much for the monster to taken, and with an enormous explosion, sludge was blown everywhere. When the smoke cleared, the team looked at where Plasmus had been and saw a skinny man with an army-style crew cut snoring loudly. Moving quietly so as not to wake him up, the team picked him up and kept him restrained until the police showed up with another tube.

As Robin watched them load Plasmus onto a conveyor belt, he felt nervous and looked up at Cyborg awkwardly. “Look, uh,” he stammered, not quite sure what the best way to go about apologizing was. “Sorry about…”

“Yeah,” Cyborg cut him off, also looking uncomfortable.

“So… are we cool?” Robin asked hesitantly.

Cyborg looked at him for a moment with a stern face before grinning and bringing his fist up. “Frosty.”

As the two pounded fists, Starfire was unable to contain her happiness any longer. “You made up; glorious! I wish to initiate a `group hug.'” She said, smiling.

Raven looked at her for a moment before turning away. “Pass,” was all she felt the need to say.

Starfire's smile fell a little bit but disappeared completely at BeastBoy's next words. “Yeah yeah yeah, warm fuzzies all around,” he said impatiently, “but we still gotta stop that other thing.”

“No we don't,” Cyborg said confidently, causing the rest of the team to stare at him in surprise. “Thought I'd bring a present, in case you were still mad,” he continued, gesturing behind him. A crane was raising Cinderblock up, the large cannon he had been carrying before wrapped around his torso and stopping him from moving. He grunted and growled as he was hoisted away.

“That thing had a cannon strong enough to punch a hole in carbon steel from a mile away. It was setting one up on the outskirts of town at the mayor's office, but somehow I think it had plans to put up more.”

“Thanks, but there is one thing that's still bothering me,” Robin confessed. Starfire, BeastBoy, and even Raven all looked at him nervously, knowing how competitive Robin could be and worrying if there was going to be another fight. “Breaking into jail, using Plasmus to distract us, setting up a cannon for a possible assassination,” Robin pondered, ticking off the events on his fingers. “The whole plan seems to be a little too smart and complicated for whatever that thing was,” he finished.

“I been thinkin' the same thing,” Cyborg agreed, as the others breathed a sigh of relief.

“Someone must have been pulling the strings,” Robin concluded.

“But who?” Starfire wondered with them.

“And more importantly, why,” Raven added.

“Don't know, but one thing's for sure-” BeastBoy said, starting their motto.

“-They're no match for the Teen Titans,” Cyborg finished with a grin.

“I heard that!” Robin grinned, giving Cyborg a high-five.

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Meanwhile…

A fist slammed down on the metal armrest, denting the metal as the figure in the dark glared. “Next time my plans will succeed,” he seethed, “and the Titans will pay,” he vowed, his voice rich with anger and frustration as he narrowed his grey eye menacingly…

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Author's Note: Well, this should give you a good feel for how I'm going to conduct the series. I'll expand the conversations and back stories to flesh it out some. By the way, BeastBoy and Raven will have a lot more interaction in my series than they did in the show. Personally, I thought they set up the pairing very nicely in Season Three, but scrapped it later. Again, I didn't like how this chapter turned out. If you made it all the way down here, please read the next chapter: it will give you a better idea of how I like to work.

Please review and let me know what you thought of how I am doing. I am open to suggestions on how to improve, such as emphasis on different areas and changes in style. Even opinions are welcomed, even if there are no suggestions. As I said, I ask only that you do not simply rant about how bad (or good) this was: I'm the type of person who likes to know what made it good or bad so I can continue or stop those actions. I hope this chapter finds you all on a good day.