Kimada
11-05-2004, 07:31 PM
Since it's a tradition for us new writers to apologize when we make our first story, let me do so now. While I trust in my average writing skills (not counting spelling), I've never worked with a Titan storyline. Basicly, I use fanfics to try and improve my writing skills, so I would appreciate everyone telling me what was good and what needs to be improved in my style.
*Bows* This story will be posted in segments, so as not to make your eyeballs dry out. I hope you enjoy.
Of pranks and minds: a Teen Titans fanfics
Raven thought that she knew what chaos was. Aside from her studies into the mystical realms, where the laws of nature were thrown on their ears and all known rules were reversed, and her own family history, she was a member of the Teen Titans. They had battled men formed out of granite, elements made manifest, insane British stereotypes and madmen whose sole purpose in life, it seemed, was to pick fights with the small group of superheroes.
Raven had seen all this, so she was confident that nothing could faze her.
Than she saw Beast Boy on April fools day.
She had noticed the date on the calendar several seconds before she realized that the inside of her cape was now lined with glue. After peeling the cloth off her and finding a new cape (after she had tried the caps with itching powder, laughing gas, blue dye packets, and a cape that had a massive Hello Kitty logo branded on the back) she had stormed out of her room with the full intention of forcing Beast Boy to turn into a small ant, and then flush him down the toilet.
She had quickly run into the others, all of whom had similar events to tell. The transparent film over the eye holes in Robin’s mask had been replaced with regular cloth, and when he had finally found a mask he could see through he found that the tools on his belt had been replaced with plushy toys. Cyborg had woken up to find small kitchen magnets hidden all over his room, so whenever he took a step half a dozen of the small items would attach themselves to him, forming interesting word patterns of the type that had made him activate his sonic cannon. Starfire had found everything glued to the ceiling, which wouldn’t have been so bad if she was quick on the uptake first thing in the morning. Instead, she had spent a frantic half an hour wondering why her personal gravity had flipped, and she had flown around the room in a desperate attempt to fix everything. Then the glue had worn off.
When the four team members had met in the hallway, a quick decision was made: Beast Boy must be stopped.
Trouble was, he had realized this before hand and made himself scarce. Finding a person who could transform into any animal on earth was tricky, especially since he had placed more jokes around the tower.
Spring mounted pop-up animals jumped at them every time a closet was opened. The bathrooms had their drains plugged, and BB had let the water run last night, so when the doors were opened a flood would greet the person. Packs of tickle-me elmo’s were set up so if one was set off, they would all deliver sonic hell. All of the meat had been replaced with Tofu, the toaster worked backwards, the microwave froze items, a colony of ducks was loose in the garage, and the television was set on the weather channel.
That was everything they found in the first five minutes. An hour later, Robin called a halt in their trophy room, their clothing and hair showing recent signs of pranks.
“Alright, if we’re going to find him, we’ve got to split up.” Robin fingered his net gun, almost managing to sound calm and in control despite the fact that half of his hair had turned an ill shade of purple. “Cyborg and I will search the ground floors and work our way up. Raven and Starfire, you two start at the roof and work your way down. As soon as someone spots him, call everyone on the communicators.”
“What do you propose we do with our friend once we find him?” Starfire asked while wringing out her hair.
“I vote we pants him for starters, then shave him bald.” Cyborg growled, his human eye twitching as ‘The song that never ends’ repeated endlessly through his audio input sensors thanks to a software virus hidden in his power cell.
“We could redesign his room to look like a hamburger place, and then dunk him in ketchup and mustard.” Self control was important to Raven, but she had a well defined idea of revenge, and saw no reason to halt it now.
“Perhaps if we made him apologize to us, and clean up this mess, that would be enough.” Starfire squirmed as they all turned to look at her, and she added “And perhaps tie him to a stationary fan and activate it?”
Robin nodded, one hand absently running through his hair, trying to remove the dye. “All of these sound like good ideas. And since we’ve got,” He checked his watch “almost ten hours until April fool’s is over, we’ve probably got enough time to use them all. Alright, let’s find us a Beast Boy. Titans, go!” The group spit into two pairs, hurrying off to perform justice on their prankster teammate.
Several moments after they had left the trophy room, the small spider that was Beast boy fell out from his hiding place on the ceiling, morphing into his human form as he clutched his sides, tears rolling his face as he laughed and laughed and laughed.
“Oh yeah, this is the best time of year.” Beast boy managed to say as he slowly recovered. An entire day dedicated to jokes, pranks, and gags, with a built in clause for his protection. What more could a joker ask for? And since he had several hundred thousand still good tickets from their time at the fair, he could afford a heck of a lot of toys.
Of course, he knew that even if he managed to stay hidden until tomorrow, there would be plenty of hard feelings from the others. That’s why he planned to implement a CYB later, CYB standing for Cover Your Butt in joker terms. In the evening, he would clean up the tower, return any missing items, and treat his friends to that huge free meal he had collected from his fairground tickets. Since there was more food hidden in his room than he could eat in any of his forms, it and a clean tower would serve to wash away any ill feelings they might have about this day. Plus, he still had enough tickets to enjoy free rides at the fair for a year. Let it never be doubted that a determined Beast Boy was a master of fairground games.
Of course, they might catch him before he made nice, but he didn’t plan on getting caught.
Beast Boy checked his watch and quickly changed into a small bird, flying into the ventilation systems. Time to activate his second wave of pranks.
* * *
“Raven, if I might ask, why is it that Beast Boy is performing so many pranks? Did we somehow offend him last night when he lost so badly in the rolling ball game?” Starfire asked as the two girls floated over the roof, looking around for any out of place green animals.
“No, it’s April fool’s day.” Raven looked over the surrounding area. She couldn’t see Beast Boy anywhere, but she had a hunch that he wouldn’t run away for the day. What good were jokes if he never got to see them happen?
Starfire looked at her friend questioningly. “I do not understand. Why does a day dedicated to fools influence Beast Boy so? He might be foolhardy at times, but…”
“No, fool as in joke. This is a day where it’s traditional to play jokes and pranks on people. Theoretically, if you play a joke today, people can’t hold it against you tomorrow.” Raven didn’t feel bound by any such tradition, and had decided that the only way she’d forgive the green trickster would be if he was turned into a goose and used to stuff pillows.
“Oh, I see.” Starfire considered this for a moment while Raven mulled over the many different ways she would pay back Beast Boy. Starfire’s musings cut off Raven’s ideas before they got beyond BB strapped to a barrel and a pond full of killer ducks. “Still, I have often wondered why Beast Boy finds it so funny to irritate people through his actions. Do you know why he prefers to laugh and joke so much when it would be better that he didn’t?”
“Not, not really.” Raven was only half paying attention to her friend’s words, but a stray thought made her stop. And slowly, she began to grin.
It was not a nice grin, nor a happy grin. It wasn’t even the grin of someone who was going to get some payback. This was a full blown, I’ve-been-pushed-over-the-edge sort of grin, the kind usually reserved for people who laughed manically before they pushed the button on their doomsday device. Raven began to rub her hands together, and Starfire slowly backed away.
“Perhaps if we were to take a break for a moment, we’d be better once we renewed our search. Perhaps you could show me some new meditative techniques, or I could Yeep!” Raven grabbed Starfire by the hand and dove for the tower, flying through the doors and navigating through the hallways at top speed.
“No, this is even better. This is going to be the ultimate practical joke.” Raven may not know much about jokes, but she did know how to get revenge. And one basic rule about revenge was that it was always easier if you knew your target.
The two skidded to a halt outside of Raven’s door. A quick tap slid open the door, and Raven hurried into the room, absently kicking aside one of the dozens of large and fluffy stuffed animals that had been positioned all over her items and bed.
Even with the additional cuteness of the fluffy toys, Raven’s room was still spooky enough to Starfire that she was slow to enter, only creeping in when Raven beckoned for her to follow. The alien girl unconsciously rubbed her arms as though chilled, her eyes drifting over the strange masks and leering statues.
Raven swept a pile of toys off her desk, smiling in satisfaction when she saw that the drawers had not been opened. (At least he knows what a prank is and what a real invasion of privacy is.) She thought as she opened a drawer, removing a small item that she now kept locked up ever since two of her teammates had stumbled upon it. “Starfire, this is our payback.”
Starfire edged closer, her eyes glowing a faint green to see better in the dim room. What she saw in Raven’s hands was a small hand mirror, dark despite the light she was casting, and that Raven kept it so that she couldn’t see into its mirrored side. Taking a guess, Starfire made an attempt to figure out its purpose. “Are we going to trap Beast Boy and use a variety of earth face paints upon him?”
Raven blinked. “Uh, no, but that’s an idea. No, this is a device I use in meditation, when I want to see my mind from the inside rather than the out. Beast Boy and Cyborg stumbled upon this a while ago, and although it helped me out in the long term, a little… friendly payback wouldn’t hurt.”
“We’re going to go into his mind? But won’t he be upset?” Starfire asked as Raven closed and locked the door.
“He won’t know. I only found out because I’m sensitive to the workings of magic, something that he’s never been trained in.” (And the fact that Robin said that my door was open.) Raven admitted to herself as she closed the windows, and then gestured for Starfire to float across from her as she levitated in a sitting position, her legs crossed and the mirror held out between them.
“But if this mirror if for entering your mind…”
“… How will I use it on Beast Boy? He’s used this device once already, so there’s an imprint of his aura on the mirror already. I’m going to use that connection to open a link to his mind, where we can enter and look around.” Raven pulled back her hood, shaking her hair out and relaxing both physically and mentally. “I’ll need your help in grounding me to the present. Ready?”
“Yes. This is sounding like a splendid plan.” Starfire agreed with a grin. Then, she relaxed with Raven as they breathed in unison and began to chant.
Finding the link was easier than Raven expected, since Starfire’s aura was quite strong, and its strength give power to her own. Starfire had mastered the basic meditative techniques with astonishing speed, and Raven wondered sometimes of she should start to teach the higher arts to her emotional teammate. Perhaps Starfire’s own techniques could be used with her own powers…
She’d think about that later. Taking hold of the twisting shape of Beast Boy’s aura, she focused upon it and located her teammate, finding him in the garage, stalking Cyborg and planning another set of pranks. As her soul self drew closer, she hesitated. Beast Boy and Cyborg had intruded upon her mind, but they had helped her overcome the rage that had awakened within her. Was getting some petty revenge worth betraying the trust they had made?
Then she reminded herself of the pranks, and that it was unlikely that Beast Boy had a demonic presence in his mind. While he had demonstrated that a beast of sorts lay within him, it didn’t have any hostility towards his friends, and had helped her out in the past. They’d be in and out with no problem. Latching the mirror to his body and mind, she pulled back to her own body and embraced the physical once more.
“Is it ready?” Starfire asked as Raven stopped chanting.
Raven smiled. “Yep. Watch out, though, since mindscapes are real to people who are within them.” She wasn’t keen on the idea of getting this close to Beast Boy, but the potential for payback was too good to pass up.
“I am prepared. This might actually be fun as well as informative.” Starfire grinned, looking at the mirror curiously. “How do we go about activating it?”
“Just look into it.” Raven advised as she placed the mirror on the floor, reflective side up. As the two girls looked into it, they instantly felt the pull of the mirror, and with startled cries the two girls fell into the mirror.
*Bows* This story will be posted in segments, so as not to make your eyeballs dry out. I hope you enjoy.
Of pranks and minds: a Teen Titans fanfics
Raven thought that she knew what chaos was. Aside from her studies into the mystical realms, where the laws of nature were thrown on their ears and all known rules were reversed, and her own family history, she was a member of the Teen Titans. They had battled men formed out of granite, elements made manifest, insane British stereotypes and madmen whose sole purpose in life, it seemed, was to pick fights with the small group of superheroes.
Raven had seen all this, so she was confident that nothing could faze her.
Than she saw Beast Boy on April fools day.
She had noticed the date on the calendar several seconds before she realized that the inside of her cape was now lined with glue. After peeling the cloth off her and finding a new cape (after she had tried the caps with itching powder, laughing gas, blue dye packets, and a cape that had a massive Hello Kitty logo branded on the back) she had stormed out of her room with the full intention of forcing Beast Boy to turn into a small ant, and then flush him down the toilet.
She had quickly run into the others, all of whom had similar events to tell. The transparent film over the eye holes in Robin’s mask had been replaced with regular cloth, and when he had finally found a mask he could see through he found that the tools on his belt had been replaced with plushy toys. Cyborg had woken up to find small kitchen magnets hidden all over his room, so whenever he took a step half a dozen of the small items would attach themselves to him, forming interesting word patterns of the type that had made him activate his sonic cannon. Starfire had found everything glued to the ceiling, which wouldn’t have been so bad if she was quick on the uptake first thing in the morning. Instead, she had spent a frantic half an hour wondering why her personal gravity had flipped, and she had flown around the room in a desperate attempt to fix everything. Then the glue had worn off.
When the four team members had met in the hallway, a quick decision was made: Beast Boy must be stopped.
Trouble was, he had realized this before hand and made himself scarce. Finding a person who could transform into any animal on earth was tricky, especially since he had placed more jokes around the tower.
Spring mounted pop-up animals jumped at them every time a closet was opened. The bathrooms had their drains plugged, and BB had let the water run last night, so when the doors were opened a flood would greet the person. Packs of tickle-me elmo’s were set up so if one was set off, they would all deliver sonic hell. All of the meat had been replaced with Tofu, the toaster worked backwards, the microwave froze items, a colony of ducks was loose in the garage, and the television was set on the weather channel.
That was everything they found in the first five minutes. An hour later, Robin called a halt in their trophy room, their clothing and hair showing recent signs of pranks.
“Alright, if we’re going to find him, we’ve got to split up.” Robin fingered his net gun, almost managing to sound calm and in control despite the fact that half of his hair had turned an ill shade of purple. “Cyborg and I will search the ground floors and work our way up. Raven and Starfire, you two start at the roof and work your way down. As soon as someone spots him, call everyone on the communicators.”
“What do you propose we do with our friend once we find him?” Starfire asked while wringing out her hair.
“I vote we pants him for starters, then shave him bald.” Cyborg growled, his human eye twitching as ‘The song that never ends’ repeated endlessly through his audio input sensors thanks to a software virus hidden in his power cell.
“We could redesign his room to look like a hamburger place, and then dunk him in ketchup and mustard.” Self control was important to Raven, but she had a well defined idea of revenge, and saw no reason to halt it now.
“Perhaps if we made him apologize to us, and clean up this mess, that would be enough.” Starfire squirmed as they all turned to look at her, and she added “And perhaps tie him to a stationary fan and activate it?”
Robin nodded, one hand absently running through his hair, trying to remove the dye. “All of these sound like good ideas. And since we’ve got,” He checked his watch “almost ten hours until April fool’s is over, we’ve probably got enough time to use them all. Alright, let’s find us a Beast Boy. Titans, go!” The group spit into two pairs, hurrying off to perform justice on their prankster teammate.
Several moments after they had left the trophy room, the small spider that was Beast boy fell out from his hiding place on the ceiling, morphing into his human form as he clutched his sides, tears rolling his face as he laughed and laughed and laughed.
“Oh yeah, this is the best time of year.” Beast boy managed to say as he slowly recovered. An entire day dedicated to jokes, pranks, and gags, with a built in clause for his protection. What more could a joker ask for? And since he had several hundred thousand still good tickets from their time at the fair, he could afford a heck of a lot of toys.
Of course, he knew that even if he managed to stay hidden until tomorrow, there would be plenty of hard feelings from the others. That’s why he planned to implement a CYB later, CYB standing for Cover Your Butt in joker terms. In the evening, he would clean up the tower, return any missing items, and treat his friends to that huge free meal he had collected from his fairground tickets. Since there was more food hidden in his room than he could eat in any of his forms, it and a clean tower would serve to wash away any ill feelings they might have about this day. Plus, he still had enough tickets to enjoy free rides at the fair for a year. Let it never be doubted that a determined Beast Boy was a master of fairground games.
Of course, they might catch him before he made nice, but he didn’t plan on getting caught.
Beast Boy checked his watch and quickly changed into a small bird, flying into the ventilation systems. Time to activate his second wave of pranks.
* * *
“Raven, if I might ask, why is it that Beast Boy is performing so many pranks? Did we somehow offend him last night when he lost so badly in the rolling ball game?” Starfire asked as the two girls floated over the roof, looking around for any out of place green animals.
“No, it’s April fool’s day.” Raven looked over the surrounding area. She couldn’t see Beast Boy anywhere, but she had a hunch that he wouldn’t run away for the day. What good were jokes if he never got to see them happen?
Starfire looked at her friend questioningly. “I do not understand. Why does a day dedicated to fools influence Beast Boy so? He might be foolhardy at times, but…”
“No, fool as in joke. This is a day where it’s traditional to play jokes and pranks on people. Theoretically, if you play a joke today, people can’t hold it against you tomorrow.” Raven didn’t feel bound by any such tradition, and had decided that the only way she’d forgive the green trickster would be if he was turned into a goose and used to stuff pillows.
“Oh, I see.” Starfire considered this for a moment while Raven mulled over the many different ways she would pay back Beast Boy. Starfire’s musings cut off Raven’s ideas before they got beyond BB strapped to a barrel and a pond full of killer ducks. “Still, I have often wondered why Beast Boy finds it so funny to irritate people through his actions. Do you know why he prefers to laugh and joke so much when it would be better that he didn’t?”
“Not, not really.” Raven was only half paying attention to her friend’s words, but a stray thought made her stop. And slowly, she began to grin.
It was not a nice grin, nor a happy grin. It wasn’t even the grin of someone who was going to get some payback. This was a full blown, I’ve-been-pushed-over-the-edge sort of grin, the kind usually reserved for people who laughed manically before they pushed the button on their doomsday device. Raven began to rub her hands together, and Starfire slowly backed away.
“Perhaps if we were to take a break for a moment, we’d be better once we renewed our search. Perhaps you could show me some new meditative techniques, or I could Yeep!” Raven grabbed Starfire by the hand and dove for the tower, flying through the doors and navigating through the hallways at top speed.
“No, this is even better. This is going to be the ultimate practical joke.” Raven may not know much about jokes, but she did know how to get revenge. And one basic rule about revenge was that it was always easier if you knew your target.
The two skidded to a halt outside of Raven’s door. A quick tap slid open the door, and Raven hurried into the room, absently kicking aside one of the dozens of large and fluffy stuffed animals that had been positioned all over her items and bed.
Even with the additional cuteness of the fluffy toys, Raven’s room was still spooky enough to Starfire that she was slow to enter, only creeping in when Raven beckoned for her to follow. The alien girl unconsciously rubbed her arms as though chilled, her eyes drifting over the strange masks and leering statues.
Raven swept a pile of toys off her desk, smiling in satisfaction when she saw that the drawers had not been opened. (At least he knows what a prank is and what a real invasion of privacy is.) She thought as she opened a drawer, removing a small item that she now kept locked up ever since two of her teammates had stumbled upon it. “Starfire, this is our payback.”
Starfire edged closer, her eyes glowing a faint green to see better in the dim room. What she saw in Raven’s hands was a small hand mirror, dark despite the light she was casting, and that Raven kept it so that she couldn’t see into its mirrored side. Taking a guess, Starfire made an attempt to figure out its purpose. “Are we going to trap Beast Boy and use a variety of earth face paints upon him?”
Raven blinked. “Uh, no, but that’s an idea. No, this is a device I use in meditation, when I want to see my mind from the inside rather than the out. Beast Boy and Cyborg stumbled upon this a while ago, and although it helped me out in the long term, a little… friendly payback wouldn’t hurt.”
“We’re going to go into his mind? But won’t he be upset?” Starfire asked as Raven closed and locked the door.
“He won’t know. I only found out because I’m sensitive to the workings of magic, something that he’s never been trained in.” (And the fact that Robin said that my door was open.) Raven admitted to herself as she closed the windows, and then gestured for Starfire to float across from her as she levitated in a sitting position, her legs crossed and the mirror held out between them.
“But if this mirror if for entering your mind…”
“… How will I use it on Beast Boy? He’s used this device once already, so there’s an imprint of his aura on the mirror already. I’m going to use that connection to open a link to his mind, where we can enter and look around.” Raven pulled back her hood, shaking her hair out and relaxing both physically and mentally. “I’ll need your help in grounding me to the present. Ready?”
“Yes. This is sounding like a splendid plan.” Starfire agreed with a grin. Then, she relaxed with Raven as they breathed in unison and began to chant.
Finding the link was easier than Raven expected, since Starfire’s aura was quite strong, and its strength give power to her own. Starfire had mastered the basic meditative techniques with astonishing speed, and Raven wondered sometimes of she should start to teach the higher arts to her emotional teammate. Perhaps Starfire’s own techniques could be used with her own powers…
She’d think about that later. Taking hold of the twisting shape of Beast Boy’s aura, she focused upon it and located her teammate, finding him in the garage, stalking Cyborg and planning another set of pranks. As her soul self drew closer, she hesitated. Beast Boy and Cyborg had intruded upon her mind, but they had helped her overcome the rage that had awakened within her. Was getting some petty revenge worth betraying the trust they had made?
Then she reminded herself of the pranks, and that it was unlikely that Beast Boy had a demonic presence in his mind. While he had demonstrated that a beast of sorts lay within him, it didn’t have any hostility towards his friends, and had helped her out in the past. They’d be in and out with no problem. Latching the mirror to his body and mind, she pulled back to her own body and embraced the physical once more.
“Is it ready?” Starfire asked as Raven stopped chanting.
Raven smiled. “Yep. Watch out, though, since mindscapes are real to people who are within them.” She wasn’t keen on the idea of getting this close to Beast Boy, but the potential for payback was too good to pass up.
“I am prepared. This might actually be fun as well as informative.” Starfire grinned, looking at the mirror curiously. “How do we go about activating it?”
“Just look into it.” Raven advised as she placed the mirror on the floor, reflective side up. As the two girls looked into it, they instantly felt the pull of the mirror, and with startled cries the two girls fell into the mirror.