Devil in My Mind

Demon Slayer

"Beast Boy, is everything okay?" Raven tries to say in her everyday, dry tone.

"Raven, listen, Robin wants you to meet us at the Bank of Perez," she hears Beast Boy say from her communicator. "There's a break in, looks like Mad Mod's up to his tricks again. See you soon!"

Without further explanation, Beast Boy hangs up and joins the other Titans in front of the bank. They're about to stop Mad Mod from replacing all the U.S. Dollar Bills in the ATM with Great British Pounds.

"Oh no, it's the Teen Titans! Ha! You lot need teaching how to mind your own business now?" Mad Mod jokingly greets.

"You're money-replacement scheme has come to an end, Mad Mod!" Robin tells him.

"Whatchu gonna do, my duckies? The Great British Pound is worth more than your shabby American Dollar will ever be! You should be thanking me for upping the value of your country's inferior currency."

"We're happy with our Washingtons and Franklins, Mod," Cyborg replies.

"What'll it take to convince you that British is better? Oh I know what! You don't have to take my word for it at all, my hypnosis machine will tell you everything you ever needed to know about the sham your nation really is!"

He swirls his cane into a life-size hypnosis spiral, then gets behind it and laughs, brainwashing everyone within a hundred yard radius.

"Don't look at it!" Robin warns his team, as well as the useless bystanders. Of course they, as well as Beast Boy, all look at Mod's machine and become hypnotized.

"Heads up, ya yanks!" Mod yells, as two Royal Guard robots step out from behind the spiral and start firing tear gas. Everyone coughs and gags. Behind the spiral, Mad Mod snickers, "And that's how it's done, lads!"

BANG BANG BANG. The robot guards explode on either side of him, crashing into the windows of the bank. Mod is nearly wiped out for having been too close to such unexpected destruction.

"Oy, what are you all, mental? You tossers almost killed me! What happened to going to jail?!"

The Titans barely dodged the ordeal themselves.

"Hold your fire, Cyborg!" Robin coughs.

"Man, that wasn't me!" Cyborg coughs back.

A bullet hits the bullseye of Mod's seductive machine, causing it to fly out of his hands and ricochet off an uninhabited vehicle. Mod's lost his cane too! One of the elderly bystanders becomes young while Mod returns to being a frail, old man.

"Noooo! That was a two for one! I've lost my hypnosis machine and my cane!"

He trembles at the sight of a Devil Hunter pointing two souped-up pistols in his direction.

Robin realizes that Raven's brought Dante along, and he's having way too much fun terrorizing the poor, pathetic villain.

"Dante, stop!" Robin commands.

"Yes, hold your fire," Mod begs, "for the love of the mainland, hold your fire!"

Robin gets in front of Mod, blocking him from danger. Dante points his weapons upward cooperatively.

"This isn't a devil hunt! We're not here to hurt anyone if we don't have to!"

"What he said, my ducky!" Mad Mod affirms, cowering behind Robin.

Dante shrugs and is about to put his weapons away... but suddenly changes his mind.

BLAST. He shoots right over Beast Boy's head, breaking him out of the hypnosis. Something blows up behind him, leaving guts and burnt limbs all over the place.

"YAH! What in the world?!" BB cries.

A demon. And there are more. And they are big. Civilians scream and run for their lives, barely avoiding brutal dismemberment, thanks to Dante's now continuous gunfire.

Mad Mod whines, "A whole lot of devils, they are! Oh no no no!" He grips tightly onto Robin's waist, using him as a human shield, "Take the yankees, devils, take the yankees!"

"Glad I came, this is my kinda party," Dante smiles, popping multiple creatures and creating a disturbing paint job of splattered blood along the streets.

Robin yells, "Titans, move!" but every monster gets obliterated before the Titans can contribute anything. Everyone is stunned at how effortlessly a Devil Hunter is able to swiftly kill enemies that would give Batman a run for his money.

Cyborg lowers his Sonic Cannon with his jaw dropped until he is able to muster the words...

"Holy cow, this is insane."

"Something's really not right," Robin says, then corners Dante. "Alright Dante, where did you and these monsters come from?"

Dante, somewhat mockingly, puts his arms up like he's under arrest.

"Whoa whoa, take it easy, bird boy. It's just a little bit of blood. You're welcome."

Mad Mod switches to hiding behind Starfire.

"Hey laddie, don't nix the hired help. There might be more of those awful things!"

"You're welcome for what? We had it under control!"

"Did you though?"

"And you almost killed Mad Mod!"

"Hey now, don't involve me in this. I switched my allegiance. You're not gonna see me throwing a fit over those filthy wankers gettin' their heads blown off."

"He's got a point," Cyborg agrees.

"We don't fight to kill unless there's no other way," Robin reminds everyone.

"Real well that's working out for you," the mercenary snidely notes.

Robin is pissed.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, how did you get here? What you just did was not normal and I wanna know what's going on."

Raven is offended. Protectively, she warps herself between Robin and Dante. Her colors return to normal as she sternly tells her teammate...

"Leave him alone. Those demons are the ones who would have killed Mad Mod, and likely others if Dante hadn't intervened."

Robin steps back, unable to oppose her point, though bothered by her quickness to defend a bloodthirsty acquaintance, over him. This is soon forgotten when they hear nasty groans from a mammoth of a demon, peaking its hideous head out from between two brick buildings.

"I'll take care of this," Dante happily volunteers. He conjures his Devil Sword and strides down the street, slipping behind the corner with a gleeful twirl of his blade.

"We should assist, yes?" Starfire asks.

They hear a bunch of growling, grunting, banging and slashing, and finally, a monstrous scream. Then an over the top explosion! Flames burst from where the monster lurked. Mod freaks and tries to open the backseat door of a cop car.

"Lemme in, lemme in! I'm too old for this nonsense!"

They hear a motorcycle and see Dante ride a hellish-looking bike from out of the flames. He skids up to Raven, seeming sadistic to the other Titans, judging by the obvious look of thrill coloring his face. Splashed in glistening blood, he flips his crimson-drenched hair, unsticking it from his cheek, and gives Raven a gritty smile.

"Thanks for stopping by today, Raven. Come by and see me again, alright? And tell Beast Boy to take a chill pill."

"Me?!" Beast Boy calls out as he rides away, "At least I'm not a total psychopath!"

"Man, I can't tell if that was sick or sick," Cyborg remarks.

"I am lost," says Starfire. "Did he not, how you say, open a can of the whoop ass? Shouldn't we be grateful?"

"Campy show off," Robin mumbles disapprovingly.

"I think he's cool," Raven coos.