~Chapter 2~
Beast Boy gazed out from the roof of Titans' Tower. The moonlit night was so...mysterious. Almost enchanting. But for some reason, tonight seemed strange, as though a great power had been unleashed somewhere nearer than expected. Being the one who embodied nature itself, he had the keen senses of every single species of organism on the planet. And even other planets. Perhaps it was an alien organism's senses that alerted him to this astounding power.
As he tried vainly to distinguish just what this new empowerment could be, he saw a serpentine silhouette slither across the star-dappled sky. The city lights glimmered below him as he stared in awe. Had he really just seen that? Could it have been an illusion?
The entire entity vanished, seeming otherworldly. It had been so serene and utterly graceful... And yet it had a powerful feel cloaked around it. Perhaps this was the power he felt earlier, but he didn't feel it anymore. Whatever it was, it was gone.
"Beast Boy," Raven deadpanned, breaking him out of his trance. The said character turned his head to look at her. "It's getting late; you should go to bed now."
The green humanimal nodded, but quickly retorted, "Then what are you still doing up?"
Raven blushed slightly, but kept a straight face as she answered, "I...thought I sensed something just now. But I might have been imagining it."
Beast Boy's eyes glanced back to the moonscape, to the spot where the shadowy figure had flown in and out of his sight. "Well," he replied, "I did see something, but I can't tell if it was really there or not. Kinda like a vague dream."
Raven nodded understandingly and opened a portal to her room. Then she descended into it, leaving Beast Boy to be on his own.
The changeling turned his attention back to the stars. Deep down, he knew he saw something, but his mind told him it was a phony. He replayed the image of a snakelike creature flying gracefully across the moon's light and disappearing into the black sky. What kind of animal was that, if it had existed?
Instead of conducting extensive research on what he thought he saw, the hero tried in vain to turn into the organism now penetrating his thoughts.
"I can't morph into it," he thought aloud, "Was it a machine?"
A cold front blew past him, and his body shivered in response.
Knowing it was time to sleep now, and that he could start his investigation tomorrow, he quickly guided himself down the stairs and into his room to escape the cold winds.
A lone girl shivered violently as another freezing wind blew on her. Her tail's fur wasn't helping much, even though she was inside her cave. She splayed her own thick hair over her shoulders and faced the entrance of the cave. Her teeth still chittered. The rocky room slightly echoed her.
Annoyed, she pulled her legs up close to her and started crying. She only thought she'd had a home, but looking at the place now... She had everything she needed, right? Shelter, abundant food and water, and even shade for when the sun got too hot. What was missing?
Maybe it wasn't her at all. Maybe the cave was just too big. But if that were so, then she wouldn't feel so confined. So it was her after all. Hopefully tomorrow would be better, and she could find some nice sunlight to bask in.
The definite sound of thunder and the distinctive flash of lightning forced her to retreat further back in her home. Those sounds didn't scare her at all, but they were indeed unpleasant. But, after all, she'd been through much worse than this before. In fact, the only reason she'd escaped that forsaken place was so she could start a new, better, and more worthwhile life. That place served none of these purposes.
The next morning, Starfire woke to the morning sun shining brightly in her eyes. She inched her eyes open and got out of bed. Being a morning person already, it didn't take long for her to get dressed and get ready to start yet another day.
The alien princess dashed out of her room and into the kitchen. Today was the day her friends would try a new Tamaranian recipe! Oh, she was ever so excited.
Getting out all the ingredients took a good amount of effort. A huge pot was placed on the stove and a matching ladle of over a foot's length was placed in it. No water was to be put in the pot. Instead, Starfire got out a strange-looking plant that seemed to move every now and then. It was big and round, much like a large pillow. She held it over the still-heating pot and squeezed it as hard as she could, until the thing was emptied of its juices.
"Such a small glorfog will not be as flavorful, but a large one would produce too much shalgal," she pondered. "But the dish should taste nearly the same, so long as I dice the glorfog."
She proceeded to get out a large cutting board and a butcher's knife. The glorfog's screams could be heard as it was brutally severed and diced. Then it was put into the pot along with its already-boiling juice. Now the pot had violet-colored liquids and tiny cubes of glorfog floating in it.
Soon after the pot was almost overflowing with the stew, Starfire welcomed her friends into the main room. Each of them were served a helping of the Tamaranian soup.
All of them but Starfire sat at the table for at least thirty minutes looking at their food.
"Uh, this is a veggie soup, right, Star?" Beast Boy asked.
"Of course! It is a most wonderful glorfog and dargon surprise!" the bubbly Tamaranian answered.
"Time to die," Raven drawled.
"Oh, I have checked and it is not poisonous to humans," she answered, obviously not catching the sarcasm in her friend's voice.
Robin and Cyborg simply mutter to each other, testing and daring the other to eat it first and live. It came to be that Cyborg semi-ate it by collecting a sample in his armor and testing it. At that point, the muttering became an all-out argument between the two. And it was quickly settled by Beast Boy, who strangely enough was getting irritated at the bickering pair.
"Just eat it at the same time!" he yelled, catching everyone's attention.
Mouth agape and a spoonful of still-bubbling stew at hand, Raven looked at him, letting the slop slide out of her spoon as she did. "Beast Boy, what's the matter with you today?"
"What are you talking about? I'm fine," the changeling quickly replied in a fake, cover-up tone.
"You've been pretty tense ever since last night," the dark-cloaked girl stated simply.
The humanimal sighed. The truth? He had been way beyond tense. That surge of power he'd felt last night had left him feeling threatened, and as a side effect of his animal instincts, he couldn't help but respond somehow. So he just nodded slightly, almost enough to be called a twitch.
"Is anything on your mind, Beast Boy?" the Boy Wonder asked cautiously, so as not to upset him further.
Beast Boy thought it over for a few moments, but then shook his head. "No," he answered, "It's nothing."
The rest of the group gradually returned to the texture and taste of the Tamaranian dish, which hadn't been as worse as the alien pudding they'd once tried.
But as the day dragged on, the single green shapeshifter only got more tense, until the atmosphere around him was unbearable. He spent most of his time outside that day, searching and waiting for something extraordinary to appear before him and state its business on earth. Something was out there, and he couldn't rest until he found out what it was. In fact, the very thought of its power was more than enough to raise the hairs on his neck and send chills prickling through his spine.
Eventually, nighttime fell, and the now waxing moon illuminated the skies. A few darkened clouds blocked the full view of it, but the creature once again swept across the sky, as it had before. It was the same serpentine creature Beast Boy had seen the night prior.
And he was watching tonight as well; he was ready. He morphed into a bat and, using the gift of echolocation, he flapped sloppily over to where he had seen the monster flying. But once he got to the spot where he was sure the beast had been, he found himself hopelessly confused. His sound vibrations were being interrupted by another lower-pitched signal. His clear map of the skyscape was being rudely distorted. But why and how? How would probably be the other sound jamming his own signal. But why was unknown; perhaps it was unintentional.
Suddenly, though, something three or four times bigger than a blue whale knocked him sideways. Luckily for the changeling, it didn't take long to regain his balance, and he carried after it in deep pursuit.
The creature made no attempt to shake the trailing bat, but kept flying quite comfortably and smoothly over the air currents. It suddenly dropped and landed mere inches away from a medium-sized cavern. It obviously had unrivaled accuracy.
Beast Boy was stunned momentarily. The sheer size of the creature had been more than enough of a hint as to how powerful it was. But little did he know that he had literally no idea what the capability of this thing was. However, the hero had gotten the bottom line. It was powerful. But was it evil? Could it have released some of its extraordinary power in an attempt to lure the team out, so it could dispose of them? Could it be that this new animal was controlled by Slade?
That night, the small bat didn't dare go into the cave in which the creature dwelt. Instead, he camped outside and waited until morning came to call his trustworthy teammates.
