-Unfriendly encounter.
The cops arrived at the warehouse where Gar and the unconscious criminal were about 10 minutes after he called them. As BB instructed them, they arrived with an ambulance to attend X and transport him to the hospital, and the bomb squad, to neutralize any weapon hidden on his disguise. They were tempted to see the villain's face, but everyone agreed that it was better to not manipulate him so much, so the paramedics uncovered his face just enough to put an oxygen mask on it.
While X was attended, BB explained the whole thing to a pair of cops so they could write their report. Gar knew them since these particular cops had helped transport some of the villains the Titans had defeated in the past; one was a thin afro-American, Officer Jones, and the other was a slightly overweighed guy, Officer Mathew.
"So, you caught him without any help?" Matthew, arching an eyebrow, asked Gar.
"Of course, man. You guys don't think I got admitted in the team just because of my pretty face, right?" BB said in a half-proud, half-joking tone.
"Good job, Beast Boy. But, where are your friends? I think this is the first time I see any of you guys working without back-up." Jones commented.
"Well, to be honest, I wasn't working. I was just on my way downtown, and, by coincidence, I spotted X next to the rooftop I stopped to rest." Beast Boy admitted.
"Ah, you're going to Orson's, isn't it?" Matthew guessed, brightening his expression. Gar nodded.
"Give the man a cigar... no, I guess you like donuts better." BB joked while poking Matthew's belly, making both cops to chuckle. At that moment, the ambulance and the rest of the patrols left the place.
"You know, we can give you a ride if you want, Beast Boy. We have to go to the station, and we can drop you on a closer street." Jones offered.
"Hey, thanks! Just let me grab my stuff I left on the warehouse." Gar pointed, and, after both cops nodded, he morphed into an eagle, and flew to the rooftop where he had left his backpack. He returned a minute later, carrying his things, and changed back to human right next to the patrol, where the officers were already waiting for him.
Twelve minutes later, the cops dropped Gar in Kane Avenue, just two streets away from his destination. Once the patrol was out of sight, Gar took his jacket and ring out from the backpack, and put them on. He looked at his ring for a few seconds, and then pressed a hidden button on it.
Beast Boy's body got covered by a white light that turned off after a couple of seconds. Then, he took a little mirror out from one of the jacket's pockets, and looked at himself.
"Dude, I have to congratulate Cyborg later!" Gar said to himself. Instead of a green boy with pointy ears and a little fang pointing out from his lower jaw, his reflection showed a blond teenager with white skin, and regular ears and mouth. The only thing unchanged was his eyes' color, that remained with a bright green tone.
Gar carried his backpack, and started walking to his destination. According to Cyborg, he could morph even with the ring on his finger and have it back when changing again to human (just like his clothing) but the animal he turned on will be a green one, as always, since the ring's hologram was only programmed to disguise his human form.
Beast Boy passed next to a 24-hours mart, and decided to buy a coffee, since it was still dark and cold outside. Once there, he got tempted by the snacks, and started checking the aisles looking for something to eat; even if he ate at the tower before leaving, he was known for his huge appetite, and a little extra wouldn't hurt.
"Let's see... peanuts, or potato chips? The eternal question." BB thought out loud while checking two large bags of the mentioned snacks. "Guess the only way to be fair is buying them both." Gar grinned while walking out from the aisle and heading to the counter, stopping on his tracks when watching two robbers getting inside the mart... and not regular robbers.
"Okay, Snout Face, hands up, and don't try anything stupid!" Gizmo, the bald midget criminal genius directed to the cashier while pointing at him with a laser gun. His companion, the huge brute known as Mammoth, growled at the cashier and Gar, making them to freeze on the spot.
"What are you looking at, fool?" Mammoth said to Gar on his most menacing voice (of curse, he couldn't recognize him because of the holographic disguise), making him to break the trance, and run to hide behind a nearby aisle.
"Oh, please! Don't tell me all the city's villains decided to wake up early today!" Gar thought while hiding. Knowing Gizmo, he surely had deactivated the place's alarms before entering, so it was up to Gar to stop them. Once he was sure about being out of the villains' sight, he turned off his ring's hologram.
"See if the Chicken Heart has something valuable on the backpack, and then grab all the groceries you can. I'm taking the money." Gizmo instructed Mammoth, who just nodded and walked on Gar's direction. Ever since Jinx left the HIVE and became an honorary Titan, Gizmo became the team's leader, but, despite his intelligence, he lacked vision, and had almost no respect for his companions, so Billy Numerous, See-More and Kid Wicked left to work alone (not so alone in Billy's case, of course), so now it was just him and Mammoth, committing some petty crimes here and there.
Mammoth looked for the blond boy, but, instead of him, he only found his jacket and the backpack on the floor. The giant shrugged, and leaned to get the jacket, but, the moment he grabbed it, a little green furry tail became visible from under it, and, when Mammoth decided to get a closer look...
"YEEARGH! MY EYES! I CAN'T SEE!" Mammoth yelled while covering his face. His eyes were red and teary, and a disgusting odor was easily smelled by Gizmo and the cashier.
"Hey, what's that pest?" Gizmo asked while approaching to check his partner. At that moment, a green skunk ran between Mammoth's legs, and turned into a ram, dashing against Gizmo.
WHAAM!
The midget villain flew out from the mart because of the impact, dropping his gun and landing on the mart's trash can. Gar morphed back to human, and after noticing the cahier was fine, he took out his communicator; this time he would call the Titans, even if that ruined the surprise, since he wasn't eager to risk the employee's life while fighting two HIVE members without help.
"GROOOAAARGH! I'LL GET YOU!"
Gar turned back and gasped at the sight of the red-eyed Mammoth charging against him. The cashier covered behind the counter while Gar, by pure instinct, turned into a lion to fight back. The feline pounced on Mammoth, who put his arms in front of him to protect his face. Gar handled to cut the villain's skin with his claws and fangs, but the brute's super-strength allowed him to grab the lion by the mane and pin him against the floor. Mammoth raised his fist to crack the lion's skull, but, the moment he was about to connect the deadly punch, Gar morphed into a mouse, avoiding it and escaping from the villain's grip. Unfortunately, Mammoth reacted quickly, and grabbed Gar by his tail. Before BB could change into another animal, Mammoth opened his mouth, and tossed the changeling inside it, closing his jaws a second later, a huge grin on his face.
However, the grin disappeared in a moment, replaced by a pained expression.
"GROWWLLLARGH!" Mammoth cried in pain while spitting something that looked like a green spiked ball. Gar turned into a sea urchin inside the villain's mouth, and now Mammoth had several quills piercing his mouth, especially the tongue. Mammoth forgot about Gar for the moment, and kneeled to spit all the quills he could before trying to remove them manually.
Beast Boy landed outside the mart, and switched back to human, with a shocked expression and panting quickly.
"This guy is insane! Eating your enemy is like... 8.5 in the gross-o-meter!" Gar said to himself, finally recovering from the impression of almost being eaten alive.
"And what I'll do will be a perfect 10 in the beat-o-meter, you, Vomit Skin!" Gizmo, finally recovered from the ram's charge, yelled at Gar while jumping out from the trash can and activating the spider-like legs and a few laser guns from his techno-pack.
Gar changed into a humming bird to avoid the shots while Gizmo charged at him, shooting all the guns at once. Beast Boy flied over Gizmo's head, planning to repeat the hippo's trick, but Gizmo reacted by changing the spider legs with bat-like wings to chase the changeling in the air. They started flying around the street, gaining more height while Gizmo continued attacking the bird.
Gar changed into a hawk, and flied away as fast and high as he could, with Gizmo in hot pursuit. Usually, he could use the famous "sun-on-the-face-of-your-enemy" trick to blind his chaser, but the sunrise was still almost one hour away, so he couldn't use that.
"Well, let's see if I still have some dumb luck left." Gar thought, and then made a diving flight, dashing against Gizmo while avoiding the shots.
"Move aside, you fool! We're going to crash!" Gizmo cried when realizing BB was on collision's course. Since it seemed the hawk wasn't changing his path, Gizmo made a fast twist to avoid him. The villain sighed in relief, and turned to continue the fight, but couldn't see BB anywhere.
"Where's that Knucklehead?" Gizmo asked to himself. At that moment, a green fly entered his left ear, buzzing furiously and hurting Gizmo's ear.
"AAARGH! Get out of my ear, you stupid bug!" Gizmo cried in pain, and started flying in circles, without any direction's sense. After a few seconds, the fly got out of his ear, and morphed into a monkey that jumped on Gizmo's back while covering the midget's eyes.
At the mart, the cashier was already gone, and Mammoth was removing the last quills from his tongue. The brute tried to talk, but his mouth and throat hurt a lot, so he could just groan and make some simple sounds. He then heard Gizmo's yelling the lousiest words he knew (we aren't repeating them here to keep the story's rating), and turned to see his partner flying back into the mart with a monkey riding him.
WHAAAM! CRAASH! CRACK! BUUMP!
Mammoth, covered by several cans and bags, shook his head to keep his conscience. The impact hurt him a lot, and certainly Gizmo and the Titan wouldn't be so good either.
"Take... me... out of ... here... you, Fuzzy Brain." Mammoth heard Gizmo's voice coming from under a pile of potato chips' bags. The giant sunk his hand inside the baggy mess, hoping to find Gizmo just by touching, but something found him instead.
Mammoth retired his hand, shaking it violently, and, after looking some bite marks on one of his fingers, started licking it, but this hurt his tongue even more, so he had to suck it instead. Gizmo's dizzy face emerged from under the bags at that moment, and, after a few seconds, his sight was clear enough to see his partner mimicking a baby.
"What're you doing, imbecile? You should be helping me, instead of sucking your big and stupid finger!" Gizmo snapped at Mammoth, but he shut up when feeling a long and cold thing moving next to his leg; before he could find out what it was, the midget felt a sharp pain on his toes.
"AAAAURRGH! Something is biting me!" Gizmo jumped out from the bags' pile, and, limping, moved next to Mammoth. He noticed his left boot was pierced, and then Mammoth showed him his wounded finger, so the bald boy could see his partner was bite as well.
At that moment, a huge green cobra's head popped out from the bags, showing its fangs to the villains, who yelled in fear and moved a few steps back, sweating cold. The cobra looked at them, and then, morphed into a green boy.
"Dudes, you should have seen your faces! It was priceless!" Beast Boy laughed loudly, making Gizmo and Mammoth to switch their scared faces for furious ones.
"That's it! We're killing you, you...!" Gizmo's speech was cut by Beast Boy, who lifted a hand to make him stop.
"Before you continue, I think it's my duty to tell you guys that the snake I turned into was a King Cobra, and it's poisonous enough to kill an elephant. If you want, we can keep fighting, but doing that effort will make the poison to act faster. So, you can try to get me, something I really doubt, because I can just turn into a cheetah and run away, or you can give up so I can call the cops and then both of you can get the antidote at the jail." Gar said in a calm voice. Mammoth and Gizmo paled.
"You aren't serious, right?" Gizmo said, fear evident on his voice. "I mean, come on, you're the idiot of the Titans! You can't be serious!"
"Heeelloooo! I'm BEAST Boy, remember? Don't you think I might know a little about the animals I turn into? And you said it; I'm not very smart, so I'm dumb enough to try anything." Gar said in a slightly upset tone.
The villains looked at each other, and gulped. It was obvious they were both bitten, and they saw the snake. If Beast Boy was right, they really needed the antidote, and had no idea about where to get it.
Actually, Gar didn't bite them as a cobra; he did it, yes, but as a boa, a non-poisonous snake, but with really strong jaws, so the bites were quite painful. Of course, since the villains only saw the cobra, they guessed it was the animal that attacked them.
"Fine, Barf Brain, you win. We give up." Gizmo said to BB while Mammoth nodded, both looking at Gar with a furious yet defeated expression. Beast Boy grinned, and took out his communicator to call the cops.
"Oh, and before I forget it, the antidote is done with snake's poison, so you'll better don't attack me while the police arrives. If there's no antidote for cobra's bite at the hospital, the doctors might need me to get the poison to prepare it." Gar said to the villains, just in case they wanted to beat him to a pulp after calling the cops. Once he did it, he walked to the aisle where, surprisingly, his jacket and backpack were undamaged, and picked them up while Mammoth and Gizmo sat at the floor, not wanting to move too much or do anything that might accelerate the toxin's action.
"Man, I'm having a lot of dumb luck today. Of course, I've never had another kind of luck." Gar said to himself, shaking his head after realizing he kind of insulted himself. He pondered about it for a few seconds, and then sighed while smiling slightly.
"I guess I'm spending too much time with Raven."