Chapter 3: Bonds Broken
Beast Boy couldn't believe what had happened. The Titans were way too trusting of BlackWatch, and too set in the fact they shouldn't kill people, no matter that they were a biological terrorist and possibly one of the most dangerous beings in the world.
He would have to hunt down and kill Alex Mercer all on his own.
That was stupid however. He needed to find a way to get information from BlackWatch. He needed someone he could trust. But who?
Terra. A thought crept into his head, the blonde haired geomancer that had once been a Titan, only to feign amnesia in order to live a normal life. If he could find her, and if she was still in Jump, he may have his source. She might refuse to help, but it was definitely worth a try.
He reached out with his senses again, but this time a strange ping came out, like the sonar he would use in a bat or dolphin form. Except unlike in those forms, the return pulse didn't bounce off any walls or obstructions, since he could see them. The return pulse came from the northern part of town. For some reason, he had a feeling that Terra was that way.
Leaping onto a rooftop he began sprinting, using this strange pulse occasionally to make sure he was on target. He kept this up for a few moments, making sure to avoid patrols and helicopters from both the military and BlackWatch since he wasn't sure exactly how intertwined they were, and he soon came to a street without any sign of BlackLight.
Seems like they had contained the outbreak to the South and West parts of Jump. Whoop dee freaking doo.
Looking down, he saw the definitive long blonde hair of Terra, and jumped from his roof, landing without a scratch.
"Terra?" He asked, noting that she seemed less irritated with him than last time he had seen her.
"Tara Beast Boy. I'm not that girl." Anymore silently went between them, the changeling nodding in recognition.
"Tara then. I need some help, and you're the only one I can trust." A flash of irritation went through her large blue eyes.
"What about the Titans?" She asked, Beast Boy recognizing the hostility in her tone wasn't directed towards him, but towards the protectors of the city in general.
"As it turns out, they're willing to lay down and let BlackWatch take over. They want to turn me over to them because I want to take down Alex Mercer, the guy behind this." Terra's eyes widened in recognition at the name. "You know him?"
"Not personally, but I had a pen pal from New York, school project, who mentioned the Mercer's. Alex and his younger sister Dana. I think her name was Karen Parker…"
"That's a strange connection. I need access to BlackWatch, or the military, or Gentek. They're all on one side of this war, with Alex and his Infected on the other. Can you help me?"
"She worked for Gentek, and gave me a part time internship. I don't have access to practically anything, sorry." She apologized, and to his surprise she was actually apologetic that she was unable to help.
"I… Have a way in. I didn't want to use it, but Mercer gave me an ability that could work." He felt sick. He didn't want to Consume anyone, but it seemed that there wasn't any other option. He promised himself that despite this, he would only Consume BlackWatch and Infected, and he would avoid civilian casualties as much as possible. "Just point me in the direction of the nearest BlackWatch Base, and I can take it from there."
"It's just south of here, you can't miss it. Beast Boy… What are you planning on doing?" The schoolgirl asks, looking at him cautiously. He sighed and looked down.
"Something that means I can never return to the Titans." He handed her his communicator, a gesture that gave him a flashback to the last time he had seen her over a year ago, but this time she took it without comment. "Try and get out of town Tara, things are going to get much worse before they get better." With that he ran from the confused blonde, charging up his biomass in his legs, which allowed him to leap onto a building and keep going without any pause.
He didn't understand what had been done to him, but he did know that he could apparently focus his strength to different parts of his body to increase his speed and jump length/height, and theoretically his strength as well.
He shook this off as he approached the BlackWatch base, emerald eyes roaming over the military base and all the BlackWatch soldiers walking around. He had to find an important one and Consume them, learn what he knew. Unlike the other soldiers, he located one that wore white and had a gas mask on. Even better, BlackWatch soldiers like the one Mercer had Consumed were saluting him. And one more stroke of luck, he seemed to be leaving the base.
Beast Boy trailed him over rooftops for a while, until every other BlackWatch was out of sight of the… Commander? He jumped down behind the black ops soldier, ducking into a shop when he looked around trying to find the source of the noise.
The soldier turned back to his patrol, and Beast Boy began following him, careful to keep hidden as much as possible until the BlackWatch member came to a point where the sidewalk opened up to an alley. Deciding on an opportunity, he sprinted up to the Commander, grabbing him by the throat and pulling him into the alley, behind a building so they couldn't be seen.
"Erk… You bastard, you're just putting me at the perfect spot to kick you in the dick!" The crass officer growled threateningly at the changeling, who winced.
"Nothing personal dude… I'm sorry." A tendril erupted from the inside of his wrist, plunging into the member of BlackWatch. Several more tendrils came from him, and the agent vanished into Beast Boy. Suddenly a piercing headache made him clutch his head, flashes of a life he hadn't lived flying over his eyes.
"Hey Commander, you hear about the new test we're trying?" Sergeant Harold, a tall man who looked like he had been to jail since birth, passed him a file with a horrifying creature with massive claws on it.
"Holy shit, what the fuck is that thing?"
"The nerds call it a Berserker, and we're releasing three of them into Jump City's South park to see just how deadly they can be."
"...Sounds fucking awesome. Send me the message when it's ready, I want to see that."
The memory flashed away, and he shook off the shudders. He was Commander Walter, bloodthirsty member of BlackWatch with at least 18 lifetime sentences in prison.
No, he was Beast Boy, a shapeshifter out to stop BlackWatch and Alex Mercer. He clenched his fist and looked down, seeing the green and black biomass flowing over him, replacing his skin with the uniform Walter had been wearing. Everything was perfectly mimicked, from his strong stature that rang of ex military, to his slightly accelerated heart rate. Exactly on cue, a cell phone in one of the pockets rang.
"Hello? I mean… Hello?" He asked as he answered it, adjusting his voice to Walter's gravelly tone with a cough.
"Hammer, this is Dagger. We are about to begin Operation Bloody Claw. Waiting on you until we fuck shit up for the civvies." Sergeant Harold responded,
"Dagger, Hammer is on the way, don't let shit hit the fan without me." He replied as Harold hung up, before he began sprinting towards the park. He had to stop this before civilians were killed, or at least do his damn best. He realized he still had the assault rifle Walter had wielded, and he couldn't help but grin when he realized he had perfect knowledge of how to use the fully automatic weapon. That would definitely come in handy taking out the BlackWatch mooks that were supervising Bloody Claw.
He slowed to a pace that was fast but human as he began encountering black ops personnel and Gentek scientists, people in blue Hazmat suits and oxygen tanks. Soon he came across Harold, and three massive containers that rattled and roared.
"There you are Commander, I was worried you wouldn't make it." He said in a rough tone, as if he was a smoker.
"And miss this beautiful chaos? Fat chance." Beast Boy used Walter's voice again, tapping into the strange sadism that had come with the memories and body. Thankfully after years of keeping the Beast contained this was child's play, but he was worried about what may happen if he Consumed too many people. Their collective voices may be even worse than the Beast.
"... Open her up!" Harold slammed a fist against the side of one of the containers, and the gate sealed with the BlackWatch people on the other side.
"Operation Bloody Claw is a go!" A voice came over the radios, and the containers opened, allowing the Berserkers to walk out on all four clawed legs.
They were pink humanoid creatures that were semi bipedal like a reptilian gorilla, with wicked claws and faces that were twisted so much they were sickening to look at. And they were running at civilians!
He silently slipped away to remove his disguise without revealing that he was Walter, he shapeshifted to his elven form including the jumpsuit he wore as a Titan (Not noticing that instead of purple it was now black with a strange symbol that looked like four glowing deep green claw marks across his back), and he leaped over the fence, karate kicking one of the Berserkers straight in the face.
"Shit! Test subject is screwing with Operation Bloody Claw! He kicked one in the face! Permission to engage?" Harold asked, forgetting about Walter for whatever reason and aiming his assault rifle through the fence.
"Negative! Either the subject takes out Bloody Claw and we learn more about him, or the Berserkers wipe that shit stain off the face of the Earth!" Beast Boy could hear the radio crackle in response as he ducked below a claw strike, focusing his biomass to fire off a huge punch that impacted one of the Infected creatures right where its solar plexus would be, sending it into the air as he leaped up right behind it, allowing the other two to claw at each other as he raised his hands above the launched Berserker's head, slamming them down into the creature's skull with so much force it cracked.
He landed on his feet, finding that the first Berserker was bleeding out and barely moving, while the other two were struggling to avoid meeting and clawing at each other once again. Seeing his opportunity, he grabbed at the first creature, forcing tendrils to erupt and absorb as much of this thing's biomass as he could. The Berserker fell to the ground dead, and BB collapsed to his knees as his body began adapting to what it could take from this thing's DNA.
He let out a bestial roar and thrust out his hands, biomass focusing into them as black ooze replaced his arms, massive silver claws replacing all his fingers. They were incredibly similar to the one's Mercer attacked him with earlier, but they seemed different somehow…
He lunged at one of the startled Berserkers that was left standing, the claws gouging out the strange scaly skin across the creature's chest as his left set of claws raised to deflect a blow from the other Infected. To his surprise, the defense caused the creature's claw to fall off and it to roar in anguish.
As he grabbed at the broad chest of the reptilian BlackLight with his claws, tearing it to pieces, he realized why his claws were different: They were double edged. He absorbed the Berserker, and felt himself grow even stronger. His claws were sharper, his senses better, and he could feel every muscle growing in strength and ability. The very same happened with the final Berserker, whose head he cut off.
He was growing stronger every time he Consumed someone or something, and he could already feel the urge to start absorbing everything in sight, until he could take on Mercer with one hand tied behind his back.
But he shook this off. That was Commander Walter the sociopath and Alex Mercer the biological terrorist talking, not Beast Boy the hero. Or did he count as an anti-hero since he's killed someone, no matter how evil that person was?
"Get some APCs and tanks over here! We need to put down this fucker while we have the chance!" Harold shouted, and BB couldn't help but grin. The idiots thought he was tired after taking on these Berserkers, but he felt better than ever!
"Bring it BlackWatch!" He shouted, tearing the fence to shreds before shifting his hands back to normal and slamming a haymaker into one of the poor mooks, using his reflexes to duck down and avoid a rocket launched at him as he saw the vehicles coming at him. There were over a dozen of them, and he knew there was no way he could fight them all off, and he wouldn't consume so many BlackWatch operatives at once, that could send him over the edge no matter how prepared he was. "Or… Maybe not."
He took off running at an even greater speed, leaping over a building and shifting into Walter once more, smirking behind the gas mask.
He wasn't a Titan any longer, nor a hero, or even human if he had qualified as such before. He had broken these bonds, and he was certain they would never be repaired. And he was okay with that, as long as Mercer fell and BlackLight was gone.
As long as Jump City is safe, he could live with that.