Disclaimer:

The only thing I can claim ownership of is Furball, (a.k.a. Darian Bailey, a name I came up with myself, not based on any real-life persons I know.) not the Teen Titans or the villains that appeared in their TV show. Those are property of DC comics and Warner Bros.

Bad Hair Day

------------------------------------------------------------------------------Unspecified area or time------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Professor Bailey, renowned cryptozoologist, and teacher at the high school his son goes to, had just gone to get some food: he'd been so excited by his discovery, he almost forgot about the content of his refrigerator. Luckily for him, the absence of ham-and-cheese sandwich materials reminded him of the concerns of ordinary men. As much as he was loath to admit, his tests on the supposed Bigfoot hair-sample would have to wait.

As soon as he hopped into his car (which needed its tank refilled as well) and drove away, a bunch of teenagers appeared from behind his bush. They were dressed in a manner that suggested 'Gangsta,' except for one; he had an average outfit, glasses, and a flat haircut. That one was shivering at the thought of what he must now do, mainly because he's Professor Bailey's son, Darian.

"Go on, Darian. Ya gotta do it for your old man's sake. You care about him, don't ya?" "Y..Yeah. He's my father." "Then go in there and mess up the junk that keeps him away from real men. Men like us." With that, one of the 'Gangstas' flexed his biceps. "People like him get no respect. We wanna be able to respect the man, and to do that, you need to mess up his nerd gear. Now."

Darian quickly went into his house, not wanting to argue with them. He was still massaging the bruises from a week ago, when he didn't move like he was 'asked' to. Even the security guards laughed. (They were fired shortly afterwards, on the grounds that they weren't taking their job seriously.)

He went down the stairs, opened the door, and found himself in his father's laboratory. It was full of several large containers marked with TOXIC warning labels, Erlenmeyer flasks, and pictures of various mythical creatures. There was even a picture of his father's ex-wife on the table. Darian's task was to wreck the place, because every jock in his high school was really sick of having to put up with talk of their science teacher's work. Coincidentally, everyone who disliked that talk was failing his classes.

Darian stood there for five minutes, afraid of what the kids outside the class would say if he didn't wreck anything, yet also afraid of what his dad would do when he found his laboratory in ruins. Unable to think of anything else to do, he broke into tears. He rushed over to the table, crashed his head on the table, and cried violently, knocking everything else aside.

Unknown to him, he had knocked over some vials and flasks containing hazardous chemicals when he pounded on the table. One of them had the sample of hair mixed in with it. They spilled their contents on the floor, some of them mixing. Despite the sterile environment, the chemicals reacted, and within thirty seconds, the inevitable happened. They exploded.

Moments later, the neighbors noticed a fire in the basement, and dialed 911. Professor Bailey got the news shortly after he got home, just in time to see his son carried away on a stretcher. Everyone prayed he would survive as he was loaded onto the ambulance.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------At Titans Tower-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"..And when you wake up, you will remember nothing. One. Two. Three. Awaken."

Instantly, Beast Boy snapped out of his trance. And he smiled. He thought he did really well. Usually, when someone gets hypnotized, they feel really embarrassed. And when superheroes get hypnotized, it's usually to cause destruction per the orders of some supervillain of one variety or another. Luckily, Beast Boy was hypnotized by his friends.

Just weeks earlier, the Teen Titans had developed a mind-control susceptibility test, designed to evaluate a hero's ability to resist hypnotic suggestion, brainwashing, and other forms of mind control, so Robin could develop better strategies for when faced with a villain that used hypnosis. With Beast Boy finished, everyone had been officially tested, Titans East and a few others included. Bumble Bee had one of the highest scores, as everyone expected. (Given the way she was able to break free from Brother Blood's control.)

Beast Boy walked up to Cyborg, grinning as usual, and asked "Hey, Cy! How'd I do?" Robin and Bumble Bee were nearby, and when they noticed that Cyborg was too busy laughing, they calmly stated "You can't go into battle until you improve your willpower."

Beast Boy gasped. Cyborg, in between laughs, added "Dude, you got hit instantly! You're an embarrassment to the team!" "Aww, c'mon! I didn't do that bad!" Bumble Bee spoke up: "B, you did worse than Aqualad did. And he has no eyelids! He can't look away!" "DUUDE! This test is TOTALLY stacked in Aqualad's favor! Everyone loves him!"

Robin steps in front of Beast Boy, looks at him sternly, and says "The test is supposed to be fair. Aqualad may be popular, ('that's an understatement' thought Beast Boy) but that doesn't change the fact that you scored the worst out of anyone on the team. You need to get special training to strengthen yourself against mind control. Until then, it's too risky to let you come into battle with us."

Beast boy stomped away in anger. He could not believe what he just heard! He, who led a ragtag team of honorary titans into the Brotherhood of Evil's stronghold, a team that was able to hold its own against an army of villains for any length of time, was now forbidden to fight! He dared not show his face again. He didn't answer when Raven called him up to her study, so she could get him started on his training.

He didn't even say goodbye to his friends as they left to take care of another villain.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Later, at the Wayne Enterprises building---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What happened here? Was there a breakout at the jail or something?"

The main lobby was in ruins, and half of the experimental technology had been stolen. Unconscious people were lying all around. The Titans and their allies responded to the alarm too late.

Just as everyone started to leave, Jericho gestured for them to wait. He gently pulled the eyelids of the guards back, and used his powers on all of them, restoring their consciousness. While he was busy doing that, he combed their memories, and found out that Overload had done this.

While he possessed the last guard, he told his friends of his discovery. In short order, Thunder and Lightning had tracked him down, and the rest of the Titans were on the scene.

Overload was stomping throughout the street, absorbing abandoned cellular phones as he went. He passed a news truck, and he extended his glowing arms to absorb all of the equipment contained within. Aqualad simply said "Leave this one to me." He focused on a nearby fire hydrant, commanding the water underneath to burst out and drench the water-intolerant monstrosity…

But before it could, the fire hydrant suddenly grew eyes and blasted water at Aqualad! He was caught off guard, so he was knocked back. The remainder of the Titans looked around, and quickly surmised the cause- Control Freak had used his remote on the fire hydrant!

"Take that, Titans! The Techno-Freaks are in town, and we would like our power-source to remain dry, if you please!" As he said this, the remainder of the 'Techno-Freak' group of villains (Control Freak, Adonis, Johnny Rancid and Overload) appeared. "Techno-Freaks? You keep getting lamer by the second." commented Speedy.

"I'd love to stay and discuss my obvious coolness, but we kinda have a schedule to keep. Overload needs to be stronger, and you are in the way!" Control Freak exclaimed. Then the battle started.

Adonis rushed forward, forcing the Titans East to dodge the incoming bull-rush. Robin shouted "Titans, GO!" and attempted to intercept the charge with a disc-bomb. No luck. He barely managed to leap on top of Adonis, microseconds before he got flattened against a wall.

Johnny Rancid rode his motorcycle in a zigzag, preventing anyone from catching him. Thunder and Cyborg aimed a dual sonic blast at him, but they missed.

Control Freak ordered his hydrant-minion to blast Lightning with a gush of water, rendering his electricity-generation powers useless. Mas y Menos recovered, grabbed each other's hand, and ran straight for him, but he summoned an obstacle in their path: A tank from an old WWII documentary, which proceeded to begin shooting up the city. Luckily, Bumble Bee was able to shrink herself down and enter it, disabling its movement and cannons.

Starfire and Raven flew ahead, and attempted to distract Overload from absorbing anything more.

All the while, someone looked at all of this from behind a corner, someone very frightened.

I admit, not a very good start, but I accidentally forgot to plan this out as far as I did my previous works! Am mentally slapping myself now!

Cast of Characters: Teen Titans, Titans East, Jericho, Thunder, and Lightning.

Not to mention my OC, coming up soon!