A/N: I have no clue what possessed me to do this when I haven't updated my existing stories in ages, but you'll have to bear with me. Consider this an attempt to get the mental cobwebs out of my head after a very sad event in my life took away my will to write for quite some time. Having moved on now, I present you with something that has been floating ceaselessly in my head long enough to make me feel a compulsion to put it down on (digital) paper. Please note that for story purposes, this takes place after Things Change in a very minor AU where Jinx never switches sides. Please also note that there will be a period of time very heavy in OCs, so if that makes you barf, read with caution.
Mandatory Disclaimer: This individual and his affiliates, henceforth referred to as "Yo Mama", do not own the Teen Titans franchise, networking rights, or intellectual properties. Yo Mama uses the characters and settings contained within this work under the right of free creative license for non-profit recreation. Yo Mama does not condone the copy or distribution of this work containing said intellectual properties for the purpose of obtaining a profit. All original intellectual properties contained within this work, including (but not limited to) characters, settings, plot, and (questionably) witty facsimiles of legal language are copyrighted by Yo Mama, all rights reserved.
Changeling: Chapter 1
Explosions rocked the nearby trees as a flurry of green starbolts found their mark.
Cinderblock was on the loose again, and had for some unfathomable reason decided to start trouble in Central Park. The explosive bolts hadn't seemed to have an effect on the creature, who was visibly enraged from the assault.
'Why?' Beast Boy had been unable to resist asking himself.
He should have been able to predict that The Brain would have a contingency plan to set them free if they ever fell victim to their own freeze device. Though to his credit, nobody could have predicted the exact day and hour victims of the ray were set to flash-defrost if the appropriate codes weren't entered. Still, why couldn't he stop him? Why did the cycle have to repeat indefinitely with neither side ever gaining an edge significant enough to end things forever?
Starfire gasped and swerved to the right just in time to avoid a lamppost headed in her direction. It was followed by a park bench and then a large chunk of earth torn directly out of the ground. She nimbly danced through the air to avoid the deadly projectiles before returning fire with another wave of starbolts.
"My starbolts are as usual not harming the Cinderblock." She announced for the benefit of whomever might be listening.
While the creature was distracted by Starfire's antagonizing tactics, the other titans took the opportunity to launch a coordinated assault against the seemingly invincible wall of stone.
"Raven, you hold him.", the voice of their masked leader commanded, "Cyborg, help me get him down."
"Hey, what about me?" Beast Boy protested, his emerald eyes flashing with annoyance.
Robin turned his head, a hint of sheepishness in his features. "Just… make sure he doesn't do anything funny. You'll only get in the way if you charge in. Titans, go!"
Robin turned too fast to see the look of hurt that crossed the green boy's face before settling back into a neutral expression.
"Well fine then." Beast Boy mumbled before taking to the air as a pterodactyl.
Flapping his wings slowly, he did the only thing he could: observe.
With a chant of her mantra, Raven had managed to temporarily bind the hulking creature, who growled audibly as the dark energy encased it and pinned it in place. In perfect synchrony, Robin tossed a handful of flash bombs at the creature as Starfire pummeled the creature with yet another wave of explosive bolts. At that moment, Raven 's control broke, but the damage had been done. Blind, angry, and off-balance, a well placed shot from Cyborg's sonic cannon sent Cinderblock toppling over.
"Haha, record time!" Cyborg announced jovially. "We're getting better at this."
"No time for celebrations yet." Their leader announced, seeing that the creature was attempting to right itself.
Beast Boy's eyes lit up. Finally, an opportunity! Soaring above Cinderblock, he shifted to an elephant and let gravity do the rest.
The midday sun must have betrayed him by causing him to cast a shadow because the creature, having made it up to its knees, suddenly glanced up and extended its arms.
Beast Boy let out a peal as he felt his momentum redirected away from Cinderblock by a pair of hulking hands. The thing had actually caught him in mid-air and continued his plunge into the ground instead of its face! He did not have time to consider it further as his world went black with a sickening thud.
…
…
"Hey guys, he's waking up! Hey Beast Boy."
There was the sound of a mechanical door opening and closing a few times.
'Wazzat?'
"Beast Boy." The voice came again, urging him into consciousness.
The green boy grumbled and turned into the silky comfort of the sheets, his whole body aching.
Wait. Sheets? Where was he?
His eyes peeked open slowly, and he winced at the sudden invasion of artificial light that assaulted his retinas. At that moment, his groggy senses chose to awaken as well, leaving him quite aware of where he was.
The sterile smell of antiseptic, the slow breathing of several individuals at his bedside, it was elementary. He had been taken to the infirmary, but why?
Cyborg was the closest to him, though all of the other Titans were gathered around him. Beast Boy quickly realized that he had been the one calling to him. Simultaneously, he remembered what had put him in his current position.
Cinderblock.
"Hey there grass stain, how ya feelin? His mechanical friend asked, smiling down at him.
'Useless', Beast Boy thought.
"Like gravity has some sort of beef with me." The green boy quipped, earning a small smile from Cyborg.
"Yeah, he's all right guys, his humor gland survived the impact." The robotic teen announced to the room's other occupants.
"I am glad to hear that you are well Beast Boy, the Cinderblock… how do you say, got you good."
Starfire's cheery voice was a comfort, but that left the people he dreaded hearing from with their turn to speak.
"That was foolish. We had to look after you, you know, which doesn't help when we're trying to fight someone." The gray-skinned telepath spoke in her normal monotone.
He winced. Leave it to Raven to get straight to the point.
He turned to her to find her expression neutral as always. Her words weren't meant to hurt, they were simply a statement of fact, and somehow that cut him more deeply than any taunt or jeer ever could. Those he could laugh off. This? There was no running from it, no feasible denial.
"I'm sorry." Was the extent of what the green teenager could offer, as his eyes shrunk away from her gaze.
Always calculating, always judging, not unlike another member of the Titans that had yet to speak..
"Beastboy," Robin started.
'Here it comes.'
"I don't want to kick you while you're down, but I don't feel like I should put this off till later. You do realize that if you had just stayed out of our…"
Robin stopped abruptly, realizing what had come out of his mouth.
Too late. Beastboy didn't need to hear the end of the sentence to know what Robin was going to say. Robin had just confirmed what he had been feeling over the past few months. It just seemed like the four of them had things handled and he was the odd one out. They never needed him. Sure, he came in handy at times, but they wouldn't be any less efficient if he wasn't around.
"I mean, you know, if you had followed orders and…" Robin floundered, something in Beast Boy's eyes telling him that he had just made a mistake more major than he had initially realized. And he had realized he'd made a big mistake to start with.
Beast Boy zoned out, an unwilling passenger as his mind transported him to the last time he had heard those words. Or more accurately a less kind variation of them.
"You're a liability Beast Boy, and you get in the way of what is otherwise a well coordinated team. I'm going to have to ask you to leave the Doom Patrol." Mento's voice echoed in his mind.
He fought to bite back the tears as Robin's ramblings continuing in the background.
"I didn't mean it that way Beast Boy, it just came out wrong, you know that. Right?"
Beast Boy knew more than the boy wonder thought he did; Robin had indeed meant what he said and was currently in the process of running damage control. More than likely out of a desire to ease his own conscience moreso than an attempt mend the green teenager's feelings.
'Why?' He asked as a disobedient tear ran slowly down his face. 'Why am I so useless? Why can't I seem to fit in anywhere?'
Robin was stunned. In all of the time he'd known Beast Boy, he had never seen him cry except when he had lost Terra. How had a simple slip of the tongue affected him so deeply?
"Come on Beast Boy, I…" His tone was getting desperate, pleading.
"Just go Robin. You've said enough." The green boy interjected, his tone growing dark.
At that point, it was Raven's turn to be stunned. All of the negative emotion that had been condensing inside him like debris around a singularity had exploded outwards spectacularly. She felt her knees grow weak and forced herself to stay standing as the wave of the green teenager's resentment washed over her. It hadn't been directed at them, Beast Boy just couldn't internalize it anymore. He didn't possess that ability, especially to the extreme that she did. There were benefits to being an empath, she mused, as the others were more than likely going to think that he was mad at them, when in fact he just seemed angry with himself. She would be sure to explain that to the other Titans as soon as they were out of earshot.
"Beast Boy…" Robin tried again, but was interrupted by something between a growl and a roar.
"GO!"
Realizing that he had been baring his teeth, Beast Boy turned in the sheets to face the wall behind him, signaling that their conversation was done.
He counted three sets of footsteps as they exited the door, and sniffed lightly to confirm that Raven's vaguely ashen scent was missing, something he compared to burnt lilacs. Satisfied, he rolled onto his back once more, staring at the fluorescent lights above him.
Far from the first time, he began to wonder if he was really cut out for the 'hero business'. He had decided to act as an agent of justice to make people accept him, since there was really no other way they would, but he couldn't help but feel that he was failing. More than anything he wanted to feel useful, like he was an important part of something, but that seemed to continually elude him. The one time in his life that he'd actually felt good at something was, naturally, what he was least proud of.
'Heh, maybe I should just go back to being a jewel thief.' He mused jokingly.
He had long since stopped feeling guilty over the period of time that spanned from when he was eight to when he was ten. After all, he was being manipulated by the people that he saw as his caretakers, and was never taught right from wrong in that regard. He'd been innocent, but darn if he hadn't been good at it. To this day he found himself thinking about things from the perspective of the criminal mind without really trying to. It was mildly scary for him to receive a briefing on a robbery and be able to come up with five ways to do it better, as opposed to the others, who would most likely have ideas on how to stop the specific incident from occurring again.
Propping himself up, he carefully slid out of the bed he had been placed in. He had been left in nothing but his navy blue boxers and the ivory linoleum was icy under his bare feet. He passed a couple more beds, also made up in sterile white sheets, as well as the computer that stored the Titans' medical records on his way to his destination: a full length mirror inside the small bathroom within the infirmary.
His strange form stared back at him, as usual; green skin, green hair, green eyes, that canine that always managed to stick out from beneath his bottom lip, his pointed elfin ears. Examining his thin body more closely, he came to the conclusion that he could definitely hit the gym. It was then that he noticed the nasty swelling going down the left side of his torso. He prodded it and winced. Apparently that was going to be tender for a while. He'd live, and his abnormally quick rate of healing wouldn't hurt matters either.
His mind came back to the features before him. All his life they had haunted him, taking away his chance to live as a normal human being. By all accounts he was a freak of nature, something that shouldn't exist.
His eyes narrowed as the long buried resentment welled up inside him again. It wasn't his fault that he had contracted Sakutia as a young child, forcing his parents to use the experimental treatment on him that had given him his powers.
With a long, heaving sigh he ran his hand through his hair. Life had dealt him this hand, and he just didn't seem to be able to play the game. He was grateful for his powers, he really was, but as a superhero he had standards against which he was constantly being judged. So he could turn into animals, so what? Robin didn't even have superpowers, and people universally agreed that he'd wipe the floor with Beast Boy in a duel, something he did regularly in training.
Beast Boy's breath shortened as his thoughts turned to the masked leader of the Titans. Why did he have to be so damn perfect? Robin, with the best of both worlds; a perfectly normal body and superhero status. Although he didn't choose to, he could go out in public in street clothes, without his mask and hero identity, and he'd be accepted without question. But him…? No. He was stuck with skin that earned him the nicknames 'grass stain' and 'green bean'. Whereas Robin was known as the 'boy wonder'.
The green teenager knew that it wasn't rational, that Robin had done nothing to deserve his anger, but he needed someone to be angry at other than himself. Why did the masked teen even keep him around if he was only getting in the way? Lord knew that he ran a tight ship, that his only focus was the bottom line and how they were going to achieve it. Even if it meant sacrificing the well-being of your friends and teammates for the sake of some crazy vendetta. But hey, being leader meant never having to say you're sorry, right?
What he would give to be Robin, to be perfectly normal and yet amazing in every way with the possible exception of his psychological state. He felt more than saw himself baring his teeth again at the thought.
"So damn perfect."He growled under his breath as he stared his reflection, willing the familiar green pigment to fade away. "So freaking righteous. And me, I'm stuck with this and I still get landed with second place."
Jealousy. Anger. Disappointment. All these things raced through his head, coursing through his veins, as he continued to scowl at his own reflection. He closed his eyes, still gritting his teeth.
To be normal.
What would it be like?
He'd always had a mental picture of what he would be like now if he hadn't been… changed. His point of reference was the single surviving picture he had of him and his parents before the treatment had been needed to be administered.
His thoughts came to a screeching halt as he opened his eyes once more. Breath hitched in his throat, he reached out to touch the reflection staring back at him, mouth agape and eyes wide with a sense of wonder.
There, standing in the mirror, was a boy much like him. But… he had dusty blonde hair, green eyes of a more natural shade, and pleasantly tanned Angelo skin. No unruly canines, no pointy ears. Just a boy in his early teens.
Bringing both hands in front of his face and flexing his fingers experimentally, he realized that they indeed matched what he was seeing.
Beast Boy's brain stalled, unable to process the information his eyes were sending it.
"I… I've never been able to… To do that before." He finally managed to speak, his tone carrying the sense of awestruck wonder he felt.
Apparently some things were too good to be true, because with the realization that what he was seeing was real came the separate realization that his transformation was reversing itself without his command. His hair as well as half of his face was already back to its normal state, and green pigment was quickly making its way up his arms and legs.
"Wait, no!" He said, panicked, as he willed the wave of green to recede.
At first it appeared to work as the spread slowed and stopped, but seconds later with sweat on his brow his efforts failed as the pigment spread along his body with renewed vigor, returning him to his ordinary, green self, fangs, ears and all.
The green teen hung his head in disappointment, still examining his now green hands. Not yet willing to give up, he focused on the limbs, willing them to return to the way he had seen them a few short moments ago.
Green receded from his fingertips as flesh tones made their way halfway up his fingers before he hit an invisible wall. Struggling mentally, he forced the transformation to continue until the normal pigmentation had made its way to his knuckles before he was forced to let it recede.
A strange feeling of exhaustion came from pushing himself in such a way, as if he was exercising a muscle that he'd never known he had.
The thought was enough to cheer up the depressed teen. Maybe he could eventually replicate what he had seen if he kept trying?
In better spirits then he'd been in for several weeks, Beast Boy returned to the bed he had occupied and put on the spare costume that had been left for him on the night stand.
Practically humming as he walked to the elevator he pressed the button, his sensitive ears picking up the hydraulic whir of the approaching car long before it was within ordinary hearing range. The doors opened after what seemed like an eternity, and he selected the fifth, and main, floor where the other Titans were sure to be.
With a pleasant 'ding', the elevator released him into the living room. His ears had told him that all four of the other Titans were present in the room and discussing something before his arrival, but upon his entrance he was greeted with nothing but silence. Four sets of eyes rested on him, their owners dispersed among the sofa in front of their ridiculously large screened TV, which was off for the moment.
Looking out the huge glass face of the windows that spanned the entire outer wall of the main floor, the green teen saw that he had been unconscious long enough for sunset to fall over the city. Glancing at a clock, he estimated that he'd been out for at least 4 hours.
"Friend Beast Boy, you are up and around. This is most joyous!"
Naturally Starfire was the first to speak, leave it to her to break the ice.
"Yeah." He said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "You know I can't stand hospitals."
He exited the elevator and started making his way towards the sofa as well when Robin addressed him, a nervous look of concern on his face.
"Beast Boy, are you sure that you should be walking around right now? You took a pretty nasty hit."
The green teenager in question just gave a small smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm tougher than you think."
Seeing that their leader still seemed guilty, Beast Boy felt obligated to ease his conscience even if he hadn't personally done anything wrong.
"Hey, about earlier: I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you dude, I was just angry that Cinderblock was able to take me down so easily." He said, shoving down the wave of jealous anger that threatened to make its way to the surface again.
The masked teen relaxed visibly at the statement. Unbeknownst to Beast Boy, Raven had shared much the same information with him a few minutes prior.
The green boy smiled sardonically inside his head, seeing Robin relax. If he had actually been worried about Beast Boy he would have realized that the original issue of his verbal slip hadn't even been addressed. But such was life, forgive, forget, and move on, right?
"I understand Beast Boy, apology accepted." Robin said with what Beast Boy was sure was meant to be a comforting smile.
The green boy's expression fell into melancholy irritation within his mind. That… jerk! He'd once again managed to make things about him. As if Beast Boy rightfully owed him an apology and he'd manned up and done the right thing.
The green boy took that moment to indulge a fantasy of Robin being obliterated by a stray cruise missile flying through the huge panoramic window before them. Hey, it could happen, right?
"Beast Boy?" Robin said, his tone confused as he watched a vacant yet strangely happy look come over the green teenager's eyes.
"I'm fine dude." Beast Boy assured him, waving his hand dismissively, "So guess what? You won't believe this."
The green teen froze, catching himself. He had been intending to show the others his newly acquired 'power' when something inside him shook its head at the notion. Oh, wow, he could make his hands half normal colored, whoopie. What use was there in them knowing that? Besides, he wanted to be able to completely transform like he had done on accident before he made the 'big reveal' so to speak.
Seeing four sets of curious eyes on him he had to think of something fast.
"Uh, I've finally decided to clean my room?" He finished, somewhat lamely.
A collective, and invisible, sigh of relief and disappointment dissipated into the air as the anticipation of the other Titans faded.
"Oh, that's nice." Robin offered, his tone unsure.
Cyborg, however was not going to pass up the opportunity for a little jab.
"Oh really, grass stain? What's wrong, finally worried about where you set your brain?"
Beast Boy rolled his eyes as he finally sat down on the sofa.
"Oh, ha ha. No, but I did lose something." He said vaguely as to conceal his falsehood.
Fate saved him from further questioning that night as alarms began to blare throughout the tower. Their computer doing most of the work for them, a picture of Apollo Bank flashed before them on the giant monitor. A red cursor not unlike a crosshair appeared on the screen, highlighting a point before the satellite feed zoomed in on that location, revealing that the front doors were blown clear off their hinges.
Robin moved to the computer and swiftly punched in some commands, displaying the real time police report for him to evaluate.
"Titans, an unidentified villain has tripped the external alarm at Apollo Bank. It appears that the security officers have fled the building, as nobody is able to contact internal security to patch into their camera feeds. We're going in blind, so let's exercise caution."
Beast Boy snorted. What kind of idiot tripped the external alarms? They took like two-to-five minutes to disarm depending on the complexity of the systems and the tools you had available (counting the time it took to locate the control system), and even if you tripped an internal alarm at some point, at least you had a head start. Granted, of course, that you didn't set off an internal alarm the second you set foot in the building, a definite perk of entering from the roof.
The Titans started filing towards the elevator and Beast Boy fell into step behind them, but was halted when Robin turned to address him.
"Oh no Beast Boy, you're going to stay here and make sure that you make a full recovery before you go out again."
"Dude, I'm fine!" A now irate Beast Boy argued.
"Beast Boy, that's an order. We'll see how you're doing in the morning. Until then I want you resting, understood?" Robin commanded, giving the green boy that look that signaled that the matter wasn't up for debate.
Beast Boy turned with a huff, obviously not agreeing with their leader's decision.
"Yeah, fine."
Cyborg gave the green teen an apologetic look as the doors closed, and it wasn't too long until he heard the characteristic squeal of the T-Car showing off just how fast it could accelerate. With nothing else to do, Beast Boy plopped himself down on the sofa once more, picked up the remote, and decided to flip on the television.
"Quieres mas tiempo libre? Necesitas mas dinero? Claro, que te dices si yo…"
The green boy flipped the channel with a lazy press of his thumb.
"Who the heck left the TV on Telemundo(1)?" He wondered aloud as he turned his head to look out the window.
Night was quickly approaching and the first glimmers of stars could be seen revealing themselves. Lights shone in the city, anticipating the rapidly descending darkness. Cards sped down streets, tiny dots milled around on sidewalks. It was Jump City, the city that he had sworn to protect, at its finest. The city that didn't need him.
Beast Boy sighed as he glanced at the TV half-interestedly to find a rather plump southern woman explaining how the secret ingredient in great mashed potatoes was heavy cream to complement the butter. What was he doing here? He was a little achy, but otherwise fine. How was he going to show people that he was of use if Robin made him stay home? The boy wonder had the best of intentions, the green teenager didn't question that, but that didn't make his decision fair.
That was what bugged Beast Boy the most. The masked jerk wasn't trying to be a jerk. On the contrary, he was trying his hardest to do what was best for the team. Mentally chewing on the concept, he began to regret his harsh thought about Robin and his vendetta earlier. Their leader had eventually snapped out of his unhealthy obsession and had been able to channel it into a fierce determination, even if his unbending dedication to the bottom line often times left individuals feeling gypped. Everybody had things they weren't proud of, so how long was he going to hold that against the masked teen?
But it wasn't that easy to just let go. Beast Boy had some deep-seated resentment towards their leader that wasn't going to go away because he would never address it. After all, who would expect his wacky demeanor to belie someone that fought inner demons like anyone else? Certainly Beast Boy was nothing more than relatively slow source of comic relief, right? It certainly couldn't be an overly exuberant attempt to bury his actual self, someone who carried an increasing list of emotional wounds as life went on and didn't want to deal with painful questions. And it definitely didn't factor into a desperate attempt to make people like him, to be somebody that people would accept and want to be around.
Not that he often took the time to actively think about it himself; after all, wear a mask long enough and it will become you.
He couldn't help it if he was jealous, and Robin certainly had done some things warranting an apology that never came. The dude was pretentious, end of story, and somewhere along the way his ego had gotten a tad too big for his britches. Not to say that the boy wonder couldn't deliver on his words, but would it kill him to ask for opinions instead of expecting others to treat his word as law? Maybe that was just what he was expected to accept as 'confidence' and 'leadership ability'.
The green boy shook his head as he began to channel surf again. It hadn't been that long ago that he'd staged the rescue attempt of the Titans captured by the Brotherhood of Evil alongside The Herald, Jericho, Pantha, and Mas. He'd felt more useful then than ever before, but had known that it had very little to do with his own powers. To be perfectly accurate, it had been Jericho and The Herald that had saved the day by revealing the location of the Brotherhood of Evil's base and transporting them there under the guise of prisoners. He'd had very little to do with the whole affair beyond convincing the remaining Titans to stick together; he hadn't even come up with the plan.
"500 channels and nothing to watch." Beast Boy joked with a light smile, "This is bullcrap."
He was sure he could have found something to watch if he really wanted to, but his mind just wasn't in it at the moment. He wanted to be at Apollo Bank kicking some bad guy butt.
Beast Boy was spared another half-hour of mindless channel flipping by a sudden bright idea. Why didn't he listen in to what was going on at the bank with his communicator? Flipping the bright yellow device open, he tuned into the Titans' frequency, careful not to make a noise and give himself away.
"Ven, status!" Robin finished, obviously in the middle of a sentence.
"I'm still having trouble." Responded Raven's voice. "She doesn't seem to be getting tired and there's a lot of collateral damage happening."
The sound of a large explosion punctuated the end of her sentence followed by her letting out a scream of pain.
"Raven!" Cyborg's muffled voice called from the background.
"Can't talk now." Raven's voice spoke again, her tone making it obvious that she was gritting her teeth in pain.
That did it. Beast Boy was not going to sit around and listen to this. His friends obviously needed backup, and he'd be damned if he was going to watch Friday Night Live while they fought an obviously dangerous villain. Closing his communicator with a snap, the green teen marched to the elevator with a determined look on his features.
A green sparrow took flight from the roof of Titan's Tower not sixty seconds later.
'I'm coming guys, just hold on.'
A/N: If only you guys could see what a slow writer I am, you'd understand why I feel a little exhausted right now. XD Thankfully, that also means that this should be mercifully free of errors, though I'm not perfect by a longshot so feel free to let me know if there is anything that needs fixing.
Please remember my friends, I love constructive criticism, but have too sensitive an ego to sort through flames for the point you're making. If you want to inspire me to write with any sort consistency, by all means drop me a review reinforcing the sentiment. And most importantly, I hope that you got some enjoyment out of reading this.
1: Yo Mama does not own Telemundo.