Update: 8/12/2012
Densharr - You have a point there. I think I've fixed the issue with Beast Boy's early training. It is mostly based on a couple of scenes I recall from "Homecoming" when Beast Boy is telling himself to "think big," and assumes the shape of a T-Rex for the first thing. I think it was in a flashback. Just a little twiddle in the dialogue.
(Three Years Ago)
He'd been alone for a while. But it was okay. If nobody was treating him like a person, well, at least Mento wasn't treating him like a chess piece. With no particular place to go and a little bit of money from his birth parents, Beast Boy made his way to Jump City. He'd heard it was a happening town with lots of cool things going on. He'd hope he could find someone to at least hang out with. Maybe he could get back into the showbiz! But there just weren't many roles for a 12-year old, green, pointy eared boy. He'd been on his way to find a pizza when he'd heard the meteoroid crash into the hills downtown. He'd been out of the biz for a while, but it was hard to let go of hero-training. When he arrived it was to discover a roaring fight underway.
But the first thing he noticed was a . . . scent. It was nice.
But then he saw a girl with glowing green eyes in a running fight with a guy in a cape. Hard to tell who the bad guy was, but the girl was obviously much stronger than the boy. His weapon shattered and she leapt up into the air, prepared to pile drive the boy into the pavement.
"Geepers," he thought. "If that lands, she'll splatter him like old tofu. "
Without pausing to consider further, Beast Boy morphed into a goat and head-butted the alien girl away from the young man. To his utter shock, it was Robin. The Robin. Batman's sidekick! "Wowzers!" Cyborg, the half-robot, had joined them almost immediately thereafter. Together, the three boys had just about been ready to lay a world-class beat down on the intruder when he'd smelled that scent again, and it had pulled his attention away. Acting on the advice of the new girl, Robin had made peace with the alien and the group had been about to split up. Casting around for the source of the scent, Beast Boy approached the small girl, Raven.
"You guys wanna get a pizza?"
"I shouldn't," Raven replied, and turned to walk away.
It was her. She was what smelled so . . . good. It was subtle. It wasn't a perfume or a soap. But it was fascinating. He sniffed again as she walked away. "Mmmmm."
(Two Years Ago)
"How," Beast Boy wondered, "did I get myself into this?"
He was standing on the martial arts mat across from Robin, possibly one of the most well-trained and dangerous martial artists in North America. He'd studied in Japan, China, Thailand, and Brazil. Hell, he used to spar with the freaking Batman. Beast boy, on the other hand, was a desultory student at best. He'd played around with all five animal styles of kung-fu, mostly out of curiosity. And Robin had taught him most of what he knew.
It had started at the end of a standard training session as they debriefed.
"How come you always want me shifted into something huge?" Beast Boy had asked.
"It's your best placement as an asset," said Robin, with a shrug.
"I'm more than just a shape shifter, you know."
Cyborg had snorted, "Like what?"
"A fighter," he replied.
Robin had raised an eyebrow.
"Fighting's not really where you shine best," he'd said. "You're great at turning into something small that can gather information for us, and turning into something large that can smash things, but your human form . . ." his voice trailed off.
"What about my human form?" asked Beast Boy, his voice rising.
"I think," Starfire had said carefully, "What Robin is trying to say is that when you are shifted into one of your large animal forms, you are less likely to get hurt and . . . "
"So I'm not tough, am I? Is that it? I trained with under Mento with the Doom Patrol for over seven years!"
"Um, Beast Boy," said Robin, "wasn't most of Mento's training focused on your shapeshifting? Learning to become bigger, stronger animals?"
"Well, some of it. But not all of it!"
"Woah, green bean," interrupted Cyborg, "there's no need to get all hot and bothered. Somebody's got to be the smallest."
"Smallest? Raven's smaller than I am!"
Raven stood, walked over to Beast Boy, and looked down her nose at him. True, he wasn't much shorter than the young empath, but smaller he was."
"Never mind," he'd said. "That's not important. I can fight was well as any of you."
"Beast Boy," Raven said, "Let it go. Somebody has to be weakest. It's no shame to be the least powerful person in this room. If it weren't for your powers, you'd never survive a week doing what we do."
Beast Boy had seethed with fury.
"Oh yeah?" he'd said.
"Yes," she'd replied, flatly.
"You're so sure I can't beat Robin. Are you willing to bet?"
"Gambling is pointless," she'd said. "I don't do it."
"Sounds to me like you're not as sure as you claim to be, Raven," said Cyborg.
Irritated, she'd glared at him. "I know what I know. It's just pointless."
"Afraid you'll lose, huh?"
"Beast Boy, the city provides for our needs. None of us has any money to speak of. You don't have anything I want, and I don't have anything I'm willing to let you have if you win."
"I've got an idea," said Cyborg, grinning. "How 'bout this: if Beast Boy wins, Raven has to go to the show of his choice. If he loses, he can't tell any jokes for a month."
"I'm in," said Raven, without hesitation.
"What makes you think I'm going to have anything to do with this?" asked Robin. "I'm not going to fight him over some silly bet."
"Oh yeah?" said Cyborg, "How 'bout Bee here bets you a month of trainings. He wins, he obviously doesn't need morning training sessions, and can sleep in. You win, he clearly needs the extra time, and he'll come in an hour early for a month."
"Beast Boy," said Robin, "Are you really willing to make such a stupid bet?"
"Stupid is it? I'm SO unlikely to beat you it's STUPID to think I can?"
"Well, no, it's just that . . ."
"You're ON bird boy. Back to the gym!"
Beast Boy stomped out of the room.
"Friend Cyborg," asked Starfire, "Why are you doing this? Beast Boy may get hurt."
"Nah, Robin will be able to put him down without hurting him, he can use the practice, and Raven can use a break from his dumb jokes. He's making her insane. C'mon. Let's go watch the fun."
The team gathered back in the gym and proceeded to the martial arts mat.
"The only way I'm going to do this is with some provisions for safety," said Robin. "Full-contact tournament rules. That means no eye gouges, no bone-breaking holds, and any form of tap-out is okay."
"Great," thought Beast Boy, "He wants to give me as many possible ways to surrender as he can."
Robin continued, "I'll use no equipment, not even my boots." As he spoke, he hung up his utility belt and removed his shoes. "Beast Boy will remain in human form, using only martial arts techniques. Anybody leaving the mat forfeits. Anyone slapping the mat forfeits. Anyone who says 'matai' forfeits. Any questions?"
Beast Boy glared. "Victory conditions?"
Robin grinned. "Make me quit. Or knock me out. Ready?"
Beast Boy snarled, "Yeah, I'm ready."
"Take your best shot," Robin extended his chin.
Beast Boy wound up and threw a haymaker that started somewhere around Gotham City, passed through Metropolis, Center City, and then made it to Jump City. The problem was, the windup was so long and involved, by the time it landed, Robin had been waiting on it. He simply dodged it, and while Beast Boy was off balance, he punched him in the ear.
"Gah," shouted Beast Boy, a burning pain exploding in his sensitive ear.
His left hand jabbed straight out, stabbing at Robin's solar plexus. Robin swept his hand aside with his right hand, and counter-punched Beast Boy's cheek with his left, raising a bruise. Beast Boy staggered back, turned toward Robin and charged, arms stretched out in a flying tackle. Robin side-stepped and brought his elbow down between Beast Boy's shoulder blades. The smaller man slammed down onto the mat, face first.
Beast Boy hopped back up, staggered for a moment, then crouched. Robin smiled at him, and then motioned 'come get some.' The next few minutes did not go well for Beast boy. Ten minutes later, he hauled himself upright. One eye was swollen shut. He was bleeding from a broken nose and the corner of his mouth. His left arm was wrapped around his side, holding his floating ribs. Robin was no longer smiling.
"Look, Beast Boy, I'm sorry. Just stop. We'll call off the bet. I never should have agreed to this."
Beast Boy looked over at the other Titans. Starfire stood with her hands over her mouth, frightened. Cyborg managed to look ashamed and worried at the same time.
Raven was smirking.
She wasn't laughing. And it wasn't a big smirk. But the corner of her mouth was lifted up in amusement.
Beast Boy swiveled his head back around and faced Robin with his one good eye.
"Like hell."
He stepped back out of Robin's immediate reach and gasped, holding his side. Resting, he thought. The animals in his blood and bones had been howling at him to let them out to fight, but that wasn't happening. That would be an automatic forfeit. But the animals were what he was all about. Always. He couldn't be them. But maybe, just maybe, he could listen to them. Of them all, the mongoose was shouting loudest.
"Stop meeting the attacks head-on like a demented gorilla. Anticipate. Dodge. That two-leg fights like a cobra. So FIGHT him like he is a cobra."
"Okay – every time I strike, I get counter-punched. I think I'll go all-out defense until my head clears."
Beast Boy threw a half-hearted, clumsy tiger strike at Robin's face, and it was casually swept away by the larger boy. He glanced to his right as he flung Beast Boy's attack aside and counter-punched with a backfist strike. Expecting it, Beast Boy rolled his spine like a mongoose and pulled his head out of the path of Robin's backfist. Pulled slightly off-balance by his own momentum, Robin staggered ever so slightly, grinned, and set his feet again.
The mongoose was unable to offer any useful offensive suggestions. It wanted Beast Boy to jump onto Robin's back and sink his fangs into his neck, biting his head off. Not constructive advice, especially under sparring rules. He and Robin circled each other. And Beast Boy listened to his blood again. There was another voice, below the mongoose, that vied for his attention.
"The two-leg lookssss away when he blocksss. That issss the time to ssstrike."
Beast Boy smiled to himself and carefully eased his right leg back just a hair, and settled most of his weight on it. He crouched ever so slightly, coiling. Once again, he threw a half-hearted tiger strike to Robin's face, and once again, he swept Beast Boy's arms aside with a light, almost contemptuous flick of his hands. As Beast Boy's hands were swept aside, instead of pulling back, he let them go almost limp, and pushed off of his back foot. He uncoiled his body and thrust forward with his head as hard as he could. The cobra strikes.
Robin glanced back, expecting Beast Boy to be recovering again from his block and was startled to find his field of vision completely blocked by Beast Boy's shock of forest green hair. Robin's eyes widened, but before he could react, Beast Boy's forehead slammed into the point of Robin's chin, slamming his mouth shut with a sharp 'crack.' The shockwave of the blow reached Robin's trigeminal nerve, which miss-fired, and lowered Robin's heart rate and dilated his cerebral blood vessels, causing a temporary low blood pressure state in his brain. Worse, as Robin's head snapped back, his brain actually made contact with the inside of his skull, then, as his head snapped forward, his occipital and frontal lobes also hit the inside of his skull. His vision tunneled, then shrank to a pinpoint. Robin reached deeply inside himself, gathered his inner strength . . .
Lights out.
When you get knocked out or faint, it's not like on TV where you collapse gracefully into a boneless heap. No, when you get knocked out, you generally fall like a tree. Robin rocked backward on his heels, and then fell forward. Beast Boy reached out and grabbed him before he could face-plant on the mat.
"Robin?" Beast Boy said. "Dude! I didn't mean to hit you that hard. Wake up!"
Cyborg intervened. "Easy BB, just lay him down on the mat."
He took Robin's weight from Beast Boy Cyborg produced a tablet of smelling salts and broke it under Robin's nose. Suddenly Beast Boy was jerked from his feet and found himself dangling at the end of Starfire's arm.
"You have hurt friend Robin," said Starfire, her voice going up an octave. "How could you do such a thing?!"
She shook him until his teeth rattled.
Beast Boy turned his head to look at her through his one good eye, sniffed at the blood coming out of his nose, spat out a fang and said, "Star, I think he ahead in the 'hurting a friend' sweepstakes. Please put me down."
Starfire opened her mouth to speak again when there was a moan from Robin. She tossed Beast Boy over her shoulder and rushed to Robin's side.
Robin opened his eyes, "Bruce?" he said blearily.
"No Bruce here, man," said Cyborg.
"No Bruce? Oh, man. Beast Boy? That was some shot. I haven't been hit that hard in a long time. You won, fair and square."
"Thanks Robin," Beast Boy mumbled. His jaw was beginning to swell up and it was getting harder to talk.
"Hey Raven," said Cyborg, "do you suppose you could . . . where did she go?"
Deep within the Tower, behind a locked and sealed door, Raven paced the floor of her room.
"No. No. No. Nononono. I won't do it. I won't sit through a showing of Mutant Ninja Samurai Monkeys VIII while teenagers gape at me and I marinate in a sea of hormones and emotions. I won't do it."
And with that decision comfortably made, Raven folded herself into the lotus position to meditate her stress away. The next morning, however, things were different.
She'd marched into the common room at breakfast, ready to announce her decision. After all, she was Raven. Nobody could MAKE her do anything she didn't consent to. Well, almost nobody. But before she could open her mouth, Cyborg pulled her aside.
"You're planning on welshing on your bet, aren't you?" he asked.
"I'm not going to some stupid movie with the little green idiot, if that's what you mean."
"Huh. Quick question? Who's bigger, you, or Beast Boy?"
"I'm two inches taller than him, why?"
"Never mind that. You do know that if he'd lost that fight, he'd have showed up for every single one of those trainings. Even though no one was going to make him. So who's the bigger person, you or Beast Boy?"
Raven flushed. "Okay, okay. Its one evening. I guess I can survive."
