Teen Titans Art and Stories

Tired eyes flicked to various points on the screen, lids gradually lowering only to shoot open moments later. This was so boring… but he needed to do this. Large pointed ears perked up and swiveled forward as the changeling attempted to focus once more.

Beast Boy knew he wasn’t the research guy, but he’d grown tired of standing idly by and watching his friends do all the heavy thinking. He could be helpful too, he was sure. There had to be more to him than battle.

That thought became a dwindling hope as a yawn split his mouth wide open.

Why couldn’t he do this?!

“AaaaUUUGGGHHHH!” the changeling let out a loud groan of frustration, burying his face in his hands. “Why is this guy so boring?!”

“What guy?” Cyborg quirked a brow at his best friend, momentarily stepping away from his work with Robin to observe the footage.

“This guy!!!” Beast Boy pointed to a man on the screen with exasperation.

The man appeared to be rather unremarkable, save for his ill fitting attire that was bursting at the seams. He was a white man with brown eyes and short brown hair parted down the middle. His attire was that of a typical office worker; pair of tan trousers with a button up white collared shirt and a red neck tie.

“He keeps butting into the news reports to say he’ll be famous someday. We get it, Bennett Smith; you want attention! Auuugghhh,” the changeling groaned again. “He’s in the security footage too! I can’t escape him!”

Cyborg blinked with his one human eye. “… So you found a consistent figure in the case?”

There was a moment of silence as Beast Boy stared forward blankly, taking in the new information. While it took a few seconds, he was soon leaping out of his seat with an ear to ear grin.

“Dudes! I found a clue!”

“Not so fast, Sherlock,” Raven droned. “You found a possible clue.”

“Nah. I found the guy who did it,” the green teen scoffed, rubbing his fingernails on his chest and looking at them as though he could see through his gloves. “You’ll see.”

Before the magus could respond, the main ops room was flooded with red light that faded in and out, a loud alarm blaring to hammer in the alert.

“Trouble!” Robin shouted at the team leapt to their feet.

-

‘This place is a death trap,’ the changeling thought to himself as he soared through the sky, eagle eyes scanning the scrapyard below.

The various hunks of metal looked like they could infect one with tetanus from a single glance. It didn’t help that the pieces seemed so haphazardly sorted into piles that could topple from a lone gust of wind. Top it all off with equipment that looked as old as the scraps in the piles and you have a genuine threat to life and limb.

The workers here were in danger regardless of whether or not they were being held captive by some unknown force. At least he was able to spot the captives easily… too easily.

Turing mid-air, the green eagles soared back to his team, descending to the ground and landing in human form as Starfire followed.

“That place is a death trap in more ways than one,” Beast Boy informed Robin as he stood up straight, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the scrapyard.

“Yes, I do believe this location is a place of both death and traps,” the Tamaranean agreed. “There are three people being held captive in the center of the scrapyard. There seems to be no one guarding them. I suspect a trap awaits us.”

“It must be for us specifically,” Robin mused aloud. “There aren’t any police around, so we must have been the only ones to get the alert.”

“This creep must have some serious tech know-how if they could trigger our system specifically,” Cyborg noted.

“They must have something tailored to us,” Raven warned. “We’ll have to be careful.”

“Trap or no trap, we need to take whoever this is down,” Robin informed. “Here’s the plan…”

While Cyborf used the main entrance to make his way into the scrapyard, Robin used his bo staff to pole vault his way over the fence in the back. Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire were able to use their powers to descend from the sky to assorted spots throughout the scrapyard.

Best not make it easy to trap them all in one place.

As the heroes scoped out the location, the towers of scrap loomed over them and creaked ominously. If the villain didn’t get them, the rusted metal just might…

From the look of things, there was nothing out of the ordinary in the scrapyard to indicate a trap. While there may have been assorted machinery, they could handle such things with minimal effort.

The team gradually made their way to the center of the scrapyard, each making sure to keep their distance from each other.

Eyeing the captive workers, the team wondered how to best rescue them.

“...Starfire and Raven, you two get the workers out,” Robin instructed. “Me, Cyborg, and Beast Boy will keep a lookout.”

The two female members nodded, flying their way over to the captives.

As Raven used her powers to unravel the ropes that bound them, Beast Boy’s ears twitched at the sound of a rumble.

“The wrecking ball!” Beast Boy shouted in warning.

As the heavy steel sphere careened towards the captives, Starfire flew at top speed to grab the chain and keep the wrecking ball from making contact.

“Get them out, quick!” Robin shouted as he, Beast Boy, and Cyborg rushed the captives to safety.

Meanwhile, whoever was operating the crane was making the ball spin around, dragging Starfire along on its chain. The Tamaranean did her best to lift the chain, dragging the wrecking ball higher and higher out of harm’s way.

The three male Titans were quick to make their way back inside to aid their friends.

“Beast Boy! See if you can get whoever’s in the crane out!”

The changeling nodded to his leader, flying up as a falcon and flittering inside as a hummingbird.

“That’s it, dude,” Beast Boy scowled as he returned to human form, lashing out at the operator as he leapt out of the machine.

As the changeling pursued him, the mysterious man took an impossible leap out of the crane and onto the connected chain.

Their attacker climbed his way up to Starfire, who readied a star bolt, only to be distracted by the sight of a gem embedded into the man’s hand. It glowed a deep crimson as he reached out to make contact.

Not knowing what the gem could do, Starfire flew out of his reach, letting go of the chain.

Raven caught the wrecking ball with her magic and slowly lowered it to the ground, detaching it from the chain and rendering it useless.

Meanwhile, the new villain slid down the chain, landing on the now stationary wrecking ball with a crazed smile.

“Did you really think a wrecking ball would stop us?” Raven droned as the team observed the man atop the wrecking ball.

“No,” the man chuckled, leaping to the ground and dusting off his clothes. “I just wanted to make an entrance!”

“Aaauuuugggggggg!” Beast Boy let out a long groan. “It’s that boring guy again! Wait… Ha!”

The changeling pointed at Raven, eyes as wide as his smile.

“I was RIGHT! You owe me five bucks!”

“We never made a bet, moron,” Raven pointed out with a roll of he eyes

“Can’t blame a guy for tryin’,” he shrugged.

“Silence!” the man the team now recognized at Bennett Smith barked. “I will be talked over no more!”

Bennett proceeded to rip off his average attire to reveal the uniform underneath.

“Not as Osmosis!”

Villain revealed, he seemed to have an appearance that clashed horribly. His muscles bulged unnaturally, starkly contrasting the particularly average face, and his bright white uniform with red lightning bolts resembling veins stuck out too much for his look. The uniform consisted of a skin tight top and shorts below, made to look as though it was a single piece with a belt hiding the separation.

The Titans were unimpressed.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Beast Boy waved a hand dismissively. "Get your stupid villain speech out of the way already so we can get to kicking your butt!"

"Don't rile him up," Robin scowled.

"He is correct," Starfire agreed. "We do not know what he can do and we do not wish to make our situation worse."

"Well spoken, you two," Osmosis cooed, softly clapping his hands together. "A lovely couple thinking alike as any healthy couple should."

Robin's back stiffened and his eye twitched. The sickly sweet tone from that creep made his skin crawl.

"If you're tryna embarrass him with that lovey dovey stuff, we took care of that already," Cyborg pointed out with a sly grin.

"Immunization by repetition, baby!" Beast Boy laughed, pumping his fists.

"Try again," the leader scowled.

"Oh, I'd love to," Osmosis grinned, "but I need to give my speech first."