Disclaimer: Still don't own the Teen Titans.
"Speech"
Thoughts
Beast Boy and Cyborg
" 'Sup Cy," Beast Boy grinned widely at the robotic teen as he walked in through the common room doorway.
Cyborg instantly knew that something was up. He looked at his friend suspiciously. "...Yes?" He probably wants me to do him a favor or something.
"Okay, so, you know how I got that moped when I worked at that meatymeat place, right?"
"Yes?"
"Right... so, it got all banged up and stuff, so I was wondering if you could help me, ya know, fix it up a little."
"Wait, you mean the one from the meatymeat place that was actually the weird space tofu place that I actually ate and ughhhhhhh," he clutched his stomach, still reeling from the memory that he had actually eaten tofu. That had been the worst day of his life.
Beast Boy gave him a funny look. "So?"
Cyborg pondered it for a moment. "No." He said flatly.
Beast Boy gave him the puppy eyed look. "Pleaseeeee." He got on his knees in front of his friend and begged.
"No."
He turned into a little kitten.
"No."
He turned into a little dog.
"No."
He turned into a giant dinosaur. Cyborg raised an eyebrow and Beast Boy shifted back to his normal form, rubbing the back of his head. Cyborg began to walk away, but the green Titan stopped him once more.
"C'mon dude, what's it gonna take for you to help me? I'll do anything!"
Cyborg froze in place. "Anything? You sure ya mean that?"
"Positive."
Cyborg pulled out a giant leg of ham from the fridge. "Eat it. Then we'll talk." He could not help but smirk at the expression on his friend's face. Resting his elbows on the counter, he waited for an answer.
Meat. Moped. Meat. Moped. Meat... Beast Boy gulped before mustering up his courage. He had to have that moped. I mean, what else would he get the ladies with, besides his amazing handsomeness, right? But meat... he had only eaten it once before, when he had been affected by that chemical and turned into that monster. The thought of it still gave him nightmares. But the moped! But meat...
"Make up you mind already!" Cyborg's voice made him jump. He looked mournfully at the hunk of meat for a few moments.
Beast Boy mustered up his courage. "Alright. I'll do it," he said after a moment.
He glared at the metal man, who was watching him eagerly, before taking a very, very, slow, painful bite out of the piece of ham... Beast Boy spit it out immediately and pretended to choke, rolling out the ground and holding his throat. Cyborg was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face.
"You actually did it! I didn't think you would actually eat a piece of it!"
The green boy grumbled under his breath, realizing that he had been tricked. Cyborg would've helped him, meat, or no meat. But he had fallen into the trap, as he always did.
"Alright, alright, that was mean, I admit it. But what's wrong with meat, B? It's way better than that tofu junk that you eat."
"It's not junk! You're just jealous because... well... I don't know. But you're just jealous!"
"Right. I'm jealous of your height, your lack of muscles, your lack of skill at video games, your lack of intelligence," Cyborg began counting on his fingers and Beast Boy glowered at him.
"Yeah? Well... uh... I can't really argue the height and muscle points, but I'm way better than you at every game we play! And I'm not that dumb!"
"Yeah? Then how about another bet? You beat me in Super Smash Bros, I fix up your moped. I win, you have to eat normal breakfast for a week."
"You're on! And define normal."
"It's too late for you now, BB." ...
Surprisingly, Beast Boy won, using a bunch of cheats and hacks, actually, he won simply by distracting Cyborg, who had a notoriously short attention span. And so he got his new moped and keep his tofu diet. All in all, neither of them was really unhappy with the way things turned out. Beast Boy, despite having to eat a bit of meat, got his moped, and Cyborg, who had intended to help his friend anyway, had a bit of fun while at it. Of course, he had his pride hurt by losing to Beast Boy, of all people, in a video game. Sad day.
The alarm sounded in Titans' Tower and everyone came rushing out of their rooms, gathering around the computer, where Robin was already pulling up a map of the city.
"Plasmus, Overload, Cinderblock," Robin muttered, slamming his fist on the keyboard. "Slade's gotta be behind this one. Alright guys, we'll have to split into 3 groups. Raven, you can get rid of Plasmus by yourself, right? Just make him go to sleep."
The violet haired girl nodded.
"Alright. Star and I will take down Cinderblock. BB, Cy, you get Overload. Oh, and make sure you watch out for Slade's robots. Satellite images are showing tons of them waiting to ambush us. Got it?"
"Yeah." "On it." "Let us go and kick the butt."
"Titans, go!"
Beast Boy and Cyborg walked cautiously into the abandoned building where they had last spotted Overload headed, knowing that it could be one of Slade's messed up traps. The sun had just set and night was upon them, limiting their vision in the darkness. Cyborg refrained from turning on his light for fear that it would give their location away, so they were forced to rely on Beast Boy's bloodhound form to sniff out anything that shouldn't have been in an abandoned building.
"Cy," he whispered. "We've got a problem."
"What's up?"
"No sign of Overload, but something else is around. And there's a ton of dead bodies on the second floor," he scrunched up his face, disgusted by the smell of rotting flesh.
Cyborg's eyes widened but he said nothing. Turning his robotic eye towards the ceiling, he used his high powered x-ray vision to scan through the wooden planks and view the area above. As beast Boy had said, there seemed to be a bunch of dead bodies there, tons of bones scattered randomly about the floor with a pile of them sitting in the center of the room. Cyborg resisted the urge to puke. Slade was really a sick bastard sometimes.
"Any idea where Overload went?"
"No clue."
"Alright, we'll just have to get rid of these stupid robots and-"
"And what, exactly?" A dark voice murmured from the shadows, interrupting Cyborg's whispering. Both of the Titans' eyes bugged out as they saw a man in a black and orange mask walk forward. And then they took defensive stances, their looks of shock morphing to anger and determination.
"What are you planning to do with all those dead bodies, Slade?"
"Well you'll just have to find out, won't you?"
"I guess we'll have to beat it out of you," Cyborg said angrily, shooting his sonic cannon at the spot where Slade was just standing.
The villain disappeared into the darkness and an instant later he was behind them, delivering a powerful punch to the back of Cyborg's head. Dodging aside as Beast Boy struck at him in gorilla form, he kicked the green animal back and jumped back from one of the robotic teen's punches. And melded into the shadows once again. Cyborg activated the light on his shoulder and it shined directly on Slade's fist, which send him flying backwards to crash into his green friend. Slade moved forward quickly and tore the light off of Cyborg's shoulder before retreating into the darkness again.
"I've got another one of those, ya know. Not gonna be that easy." He activated the light on his other shoulder.
"Oh really?" Slade was behind them.
Both of them scrambled up and turned to fight him, but he was gone again.
"Just stay still!" Beast Boy muttered angrily, unable to lock down the villain with any of his normal fighting animals. Transforming into a bat, he tried detecting Slade with sound waves, but to no avail. He was moving around too quickly; Beast Boy had no way of finding him like that. And then Slade's staff came flying down into Beast Boy's body, sending him crashing down to the ground. Cyborg turned around and fired his sonic cannon right where Slade should've been standing, but he was gone as quickly as he came. And then he felt a hand on his shoulder and he spun around again to meet nothing but an empty void.
"Turn around," Slade's voice sounded behind him. Instinctively he spun around and raised his arms, barely managing to block the kick before retaliating with an upward knee of his own. It made contact with thin air. And then the villain was behind him once again. He came up before Cyborg could react and trapped him in a headlock, slowly squeezing the air out of him.
"Urgh... aghh... lemme go!" Cyborg struggled but Slade's iron vice was too much for him to break.
And then Beast Boy was behind the villain in gorilla form and trapped him in a headlock as well. "Let him go!"
"You wish."
The green Titan violently tore Slade away from his friend and smashed him into the ground before stomping on him a couple times. Seizing Slade's shoulders, Beast Boy pushed the man into the ground hard before yelling into his face.
"What are your plans?! What do you want to do with those bodies?!"
It was silent.
"We know you're planning something," Cyborg came up behind them and spoke with controlled anger. "You might as well spill it now before we have Raven come here and search your mind."
Still silent.
Beast Boy roared and punched downward viciously, crushing the gut of what they soon realized was actually a Slade robot. The mask fell off and a screen switched on.
"Hello, Beast Boy, Cyborg. Not exactly my preferred guests, but you'll make do."
They both gritted their teeth and looked at him angrily. "What are you up to this time, Slade?"
"Me? I'm not up to anything. In fact I'm down. Beneath your feet." He moved aside and revealed a massive seismic generator behind him. "I'm sure you both know what this is. You have two hours. Good luck."
"Wait!"
"Wait? Oh yes, how rude of me. I forgot to leave you with a parting gift." Slade pulled a detonator out of his pocket and pushed the red button. "Please enjoy the view," he murmured before the screen went black. A moment later, the robot exploded, bringing the whole building down on them.
Robin arrived on the scene first, surveying the gigantic mound of rubble that, according to his communicator, his two friends were buried under. Trying to fight down his worry, he made a small hole in the debris.
"Cyborg? Beast Boy? Hello?" He called out. No answer. "Damn it," he muttered to himself, and began digging faster. And then a moment later, a metal arm pushed its way out of the top of the ruined building followed by a shoulder, then Cyborg's head.
"Robin?" He said weakly, looking like he was on the verge of passing out.
"Cyborg!" Robin ran up quickly to help his friend out.
The robotic man clutched his chest, trying to catch his breath for a moment before looking down worriedly. "BB's still in there. We gotta get him out."
"Yeah, on it," Robin started digging furiously again while Cyborg looked over his shoulder, an expression of nervousness and worry on his face. To him, it felt like an eternity, waiting for any sign of his friend to show up, but in actuality it was only probably a minute or so. Time had a way of slowing down when one was in a state of heightened emotion.
But at last Robin jumped out of the hole in the debris, carrying the limp body of the green Titan in his arms. He set him down gently on the ground and Cyborg ran over as quickly as he could, looking very scared as Beast Boy did not stir.
"Don't worry, Cyborg, he's breathing," Robin put a hand on the robotic teen's shoulder but he was shrugged off.
"B, you gotta talk to me man! You can't just give in now! You gotta fight! You gotta live!" His voice was an imploring whisper. He looked slightly more relieved as one of his companion's green eyes opened.
"Ugh..." Beast Boy's voice was startlingly weak. "I... don't think... I'm gonna... make it..."
"No! You have to! You can't just leave us now-"
"Cy... You were... a great friend..."
"You can't just leave me! I mean, I know we've had plenty of arguments about video games and tofu and shit, but you're... my best friend..."
"You're... mine... too..." his voice trailed off and in a hushed breath, he whispered one last word. "Goodbye."
It was silent for a moment as Cyborg knelt beside the still body of his best friend, shaking with rage and sadness. Robin put a hand on Cyborg's shoulder, teeth gnashed together, tears brimming in his eyes behind his mask. One of his friends, his family lost forever, killed by his archenemy, the monster of a man Slade. And yet although Robin was tempted to go on a killing spree to vent his anger, he refrained from moving because he knew just how much Beast Boy had meant to Cyborg. They were the best of friends even though it didn't seem like it at times, and as they put it, two freaks who had nobody else to look out for them except for each other. Bonded by the fact that they were both different, they had come to part after those couple years of the best friendships of their lives.
"Psyche." Beast Boy's eyes flew open and he cracked a smile at them. "Got ya."
The two Titans stared at him in shock, taking a minute to register what their eyes were seeing. Mouths agape, they merely pointed at him, stuttering. And then they were both furiously, shouting at him at the tops of their lungs.
"What the hell man! We were actually worried about you! I thought I was gonna lose you!"
"Beast Boy! Most of your jokes are lame, but that was just... sick! That wasn't funny at all!"
"Erm... sorry-"
"You better be!" "Yeah dude! You know we care about you! Why would you do something like that?!"
The green boy grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Right... so uh... where did Overload go?"
"Hmm well we lost track of him a while ago and... Yo! Stop distracting me by changing the subject!"
And then Robin jumped forward, pushing Beast Boy down to the ground as Overload reappeared, slashing at them with his arms.
"We'll talk about this later," Robin muttered to Beast Boy before getting up to face their adversary. "For now, we destroy him."
It only took a bit of drool and a fire hydrant, and the poor electrical monster was done for. Slade really had to make him waterproof if he wanted Overload as an effective force to fight the Titans with.
"Robin," Cyborg said after the monster was no more than a soaked chip on the ground. "We've got a problem. Slade's got this seismic generator underground and-"
"I know, I got the memo. Slade ambushed us too; he hit us with some sort of gas, but we seem to be okay for now. Either way, I can't deal with the generator. Star's still fighting Cinderblock and the HIVE's robbing the museum again. Raven and I will have to take care of that. You two go find this thing and shut it down."
"But Robin-"
"Go," he put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I trust your guys' abilities. I know you won't fail." And with that, he was off, leaving Cyborg and Beast Boy alone.
There was an awkward moment of silence where Beast Boy darted around his metal companion, trying to get his attention, but he got no response. "So, uh, Cy, where are we headed?"
He still got no response, but Cyborg began walking toward a manhole and dropped down into the sewer system - it was the fastest way underground.
"C'mon Cy, it was just a joke," Beast Boy pleaded with his friend. "I didn't mean to scare you like that. Dude, you take everything too seriously."
"I don't have time for this," was the grumbled response. The cybernetic man disappeared into the sewers, leaving behind his crestfallen partner.
Heaving a sigh, Beast Boy followed, knowing that he had screwed up once again. But I mean come on, it was just a joke. I guess Raven is rubbing off on everyone or something. I didn't think Cy'd take it so seriously...
He knew his friend well enough to know that Cyborg wasn't the type with a hot temper, at least not towards his friends. Unlike Robin and Raven, he generally was pretty pacifistic, trying to make peace whenever there was an argument, typically not antagonizing anyone at all. Well, he did get pretty mad when his friends were in danger, especially Beast Boy.
But now he was mad at his friend, with that cold temper of his that was much more frightening than an enraged Robin or Raven could ever be. It was the fear of disappointment that really bothered Beast Boy. He didn't want to hurt his friends.
"Look, B," Cyborg's voice brought him out of his thoughts, "forget about earlier and focus. We're fighting Slade."
"We're what? Oh... right..." There was a tense silence as they continued walking through the sewers. "Hey Cy, you're not... mad at me are you? I didn't mean to scare you like that..."
"I said forget about it," the robotic teen pointed to a chamber up ahead and looked at his arm to gauge their location. "Looks like that's where we're headed. No time to be distracted about things like that."
"But-"
"He's right, you know," Slade stepped out from the shadows behind them. The two Titans turned around immediately and readied themselves for an attack. "Now now, no need to get so defensive. I merely want to... talk."
"Whatever it is you have to say, we don't want to hear it." "Yeah! What makes you think we're just gonna stand here and listen to you?!"
"Fair enough," Slade murmured. "You'll hear what I have to say after I destroy you and your friends."
"Our friends?"
"See? You are willing to listen after all. As I was saying, I have poisoned your friends with a certain gas that causes gradual nerve degeneration and mental instability. I'm sure Robin mentioned that he had been hit with something..."
"You bastard-"
"If you want to save them, you'll have to strike a deal with me," Slade continued on nonchalantly, ignoring them. He took out a vial of something from his pocket and held it for them to see. "The only antidote that can save your petty friends-"
"What do you want?" Cyborg muttered angrily, knowing that just attacking Slade wasn't going to get them anywhere. They had to play his game his way. As always.
"Cy, what are you-"
"Shut up, B. If we don't do this his way he'll never give us that antidote and then Robin, Starfire, and Raven will all die. You want that to happen?"
"Relax, Beast Boy. This deal isn't as bad as you think it is," Slade murmured. "All you have to do is kill your friend," he pointed a thumb at Cyborg. "Or as an alternative, you volunteer your life to him if that's the way you want to do it. Either way, one of you must die here. Then I'll give you the antidote."
"You've got to be kidding-"
"Oh, I'm not joking. So what'll it be? Your life, or the lives of your friends? Make your decision fast. The clock is ticking," the villain gestured to the seismic generator in the room behind him, which showed a timer of 10 minutes remaining.
The two friends looked at each other, expressions of shock and uncertainty on their faces. They knew they couldn't risk their friends lives and the city for their own selfish purposes, but the thought of killing each other...
"I don't want to do this, BB. I... I can't do it. But we can't just let..."
"I know," Beast Boy looked at the ground. "One of us has to do it. I," he gulped. "Kill me."
"B, you know I can't do that. You have to be the one to do it." He looked his friend in the eye, a serious expression on his face. They both knew what they had to do. There was no guarantee that Slade was going to keep to his word when one of them did die, and even if he did, there was no way they were going to kill each other. But they couldn't just bet everything on trying to beat the villain in combat.
What do I do? Arghh! Beast Boy held his head in his arms. I... There's just no way... But I have to...
"Stop stalling!" Cyborg yelled at him. "We don't have time! You have to do this, B."
"But-"
"Just do it," he muttered.
And without knowing what he was doing Beast Boy transformed into a bear, tearing through the metal covering of Cyborg's chest plate and into the circuits underneath. Blue lightning surged from Cyborg's chest and he screamed pain before collapsing to the ground.
Slade watched on, intrigued. He didn't think that one of them would actually kill the other - the Titans, with the exception of Robin, would have always tried to fight him and take the antidote with force rather than play the game his way. But, how many times had that failed them? Maybe they had finally learned from their past mistakes. Or he was being duped. But as he saw the robotic man slump to the ground, he thought that he wasn't mistaken after all. It seemed that Beast Boy had actually done it. Waiting until after the blue cybernetics had turned black and become deactivated, Slade then approached the shuddering Titan. And then he jumped back as Beast Boy lashed out at him in gorilla form, tears streaming from his eyes. But before Beast Boy could attack again, the villain held out the antidote bottle.
"Do you want it or not?"
The green Titan froze in place and shifted back to his normal form. The rage on his face did not fade at all, but he swallowed his resentment and took the bottle from Slade's hand. "I'm surprised you kept your word," he spat out spitefully.
He got a hollow laugh in return. "You'd be surprised at how often I tell the truth. Now," he gestured to the thing behind him. "I trust you want to shut it off?"
"And you're just gonna let me?"
"Dear child, if I let that thing go off, it would destroy the city that I intend to conquer. Do you really think I would want to demolish something that I'll be inheriting in the future?" Slade took out a detonator from his pocket and pressed a button, causing the generator to break apart in a loud explosion.
"You son of a..."
The masked man walked forward menacingly. "One last thing. I may have said that I often tell the truth, but that does not mean I never lie. The gas I hit your friends with was nothing more than colored smoke. There was never any poison. That antidote in your hand is grape juice."
Beast Boy's eyes widened.
"And now, you're going to join your friend in Hell. Say hello for me, won't you?"
"Oh, I will," Cyborg's voice sounded from behind Slade and a sonic cannon blast sent the villain flying. Both of the Titans smirked as they advanced on the shocked criminal.
"But you were-"
"Dead? No, I could never make BB do something like that. He just deactivated my circuits for a couple minutes. Just a short catnap."
Slade's eye narrowed. It was a sign of how close the two friends were that Beast Boy actually knew that aspect of Cyborg's body. He had found out a lot about the way his friend's cybernetic portion functioned after accidentally infecting it with a virus. After exploring the many circuits which he did not understand, the central control portion, which he also did not understand, and all of the programs that helped run Cyborg's brain, which he also did not understand, there was one thing that he did find that would prove to be useful in this situation. One of Cyborg's weak points actually, an external temporary shutdown point that could be triggered by touching a certain part of his chest's circuitry. Not inclined to remember many things dealing with engineering or computers or such, in this case, Beast Boy had opted to remember all he could about the way his friend worked just in case. Because they were important to each other.
Slade snorted. "We'll meet again," he muttered, before backing away into the shadows. Cyborg and Beast Boy made a move to follow him and caught up quickly, sending the man flying into the wall in front of him. The duo pummeled their adversary into the ground like a punching bag and then up again, around this way and that, until the villain was sprawled on the ground, unmoving.
"Give it up, Slade. It's over. Just come quietly."
"Yeah, dude, you just got your ass kicked-"
"B, you really have no clue when to stop joking around, do you..."
"Sorry," he muttered. "But I mean come on, we just beat Slade. Can't we even celebrate a little?"
"Not until he's safely in jail."
"Indeed," came Slade's voice from the body on the ground, and suddenly the Titans sensed that something was up. Cyborg rushed forward and tore off the black and orange mask only to come face to face with a computer screen.
"No... not again... Damn it!" Cyborg punched the ground in frustration.
"Another time, perhaps. But for now, give my regards to Robin, won't you?" Slade's face on the screen blinked out and the only thing the two Titans were left with was a broken robot clone.
"I see," Robin muttered, holding a hand up to his chin. After the Titans had defeated the rest of the monsters and the HIVE, they had gathered back at the tower common room. Starfire, who typically went to bed very early, was already sleeping on the couch, and Raven had immediately gone up to her room, leaving the three males to discuss what had happened.
"Well, it's too bad Slade got away again, but it's not like we're going to catch him so easily. Did you bring the robot back?"
"Yeah, it's in the T-car," Cyborg replied. "But I doubt it'll give us much more information than the other ones did. I'm betting that he'll just vanish into thin air for a while like he always does."
"You mean he'll be hiding from us 'cause we beat his butt like a little girl!"
Both Robin and Cyborg sighed. "Anyway, good work stopping that generator. It's late, we can discuss the rest of it tomorrow after we get some sleep." And with that, Robin went off to his own room as well, leaving the two friends facing each other.
Beast Boy looked at Cyborg, who was staring down at him with an unreadable expression on his face. The green boy shifted uncomfortably. "So, uh... want to play a game or something or you wanna go sleep?"
His friend was still silent, still seeming to be angry about Beast Boy's joke earlier.
"C'mon dude, you know you can't resist a game of stankball!" He pulled out a ball of stinky socks out of nowhere (had he been keeping that in his back pocket? grosssssss)
Beast Boy threw the ball at Cyborg, who caught it and turned around, looking like he was about to leave.
"Alright I'm sorry! I'm sorry for making you so scared! I know you care about me, Cy. It's all my fault, I get it! Just please, please don't be mad anymore... please... I can't take it..."
"Fine."
Beast Boy's eyes widened before a huge smile appeared on his face. "You're forgiving me?"
"No," Cyborg's voice was flat, impassive. And then he turned around and threw the stankball into Beast Boy's face, sending him flying into the ground with the stench of his own unwashed socks in his face. "Now we're even. I forgive you," he smirked as his friend got up.
Beast Boy pointed a finger at him, trying to summon up the angriest face that he could, but he couldn't hold it for very long before he started laughing. And laughter, as everyone knows, is contagious, so it was not long before (despite his struggles not to) Cyborg began crying from laughter as well, and even Starfire, who was still asleep on the couch, giggled in her sleep.
Meh, this one wasn't too great, but hopefully it wasn't a complete failure.
Next up, Raven/Cyborg