April Fool's Day; Part 1
Beast Boy stood alone on the roof, watching the sun rise. He had stayed up all last night, preparing for this day. He let out a sigh—this was his least favorite day out of the whole year—April Fool's Day. It was ironic, really, that the one day that Beast Boy should greatly excel his friends was already set aside for sorrow. Usually he was open with his friends about almost everything—except this one event in his life he wish had never happened. April Fool's Day should be a day of laughing and joking with your friends, and seeing who can pull off the best prank. By the end of the day, there were no hard feelings; just a stomachache from laughing so hard for so long.
But Beast Boy would not be laughing today.
He could hear his friends moving about downstairs as they all woke up. He already knew what they planned to do today—they would try to prank him, for he was always besting them, and now they had a full day to try it themselves; on him. But he wasn't going to try to avoid them—he actually wouldn't be spending much time around them today, for he wanted to be alone. He just couldn't bear to let his friends in on his pain—he couldn't bring himself to include them and make them hurt the way he was. He would just play it cool today, putting on an air of elusiveness. Today was his day for mourning. Taking a breath, he steeled himself for the day ahead.
The futuristic sliding doors opened for Beast Boy as he walked into the common room. Here his friends were preparing their individual breakfasts, and he was greeted by the smells of waffles, coffee and herbal tea. Usually he would smile and crack some tofu-waffle joke, but not today.
"Morning, BB."
Beast Boy just nodded at Cyborg with a small smile as he got some orange juice from the fridge. He knew his friends were grinning to each other behind his back—he wasn't stupid. He knew that they would be seeking revenge against his pranks today, so he would just grin and bear it, for he couldn't spoil their fun. Beast Boy really loved his friends, and liked to try to make them laugh and put smiles on their faces, but he could not bring himself to be his usual chipper self today. His plan was to keep out of sight most of the day—the more he was out of sight, the more likely he wouldn't fall into any of the pranks, and the less likely his friends wouldn't find out about his sorrow. He finished his juice then turned to his friends.
"I'm going to have to leave for a bit. I need to go get something." Just say okay, just let me go, he pleaded silently.
The other four shared skeptical looks between them before Robin asked "What do you need to get? Do you want one of us to come with you?"
Beast Boy shook his head. He didn't want anyone to accompany him; he just wanted to be alone. "No, I need to go myself. And I'm getting wood." He almost laughed to himself as to what their reactions might be. Almost.
Cyborg certainly wasn't fooled. What could Beast Boy possibly need with wood? What type of extreme prank was it this time? Cyborg just peered closely at his green friend, trying to decipher the plan that was hatching inside that little green head. All he could find was a sort of wistfulness in Beast Boy's eyes, a kind of sadness mixed with longing. Probably just putting on the puppy-dog look, he thought, but it's time to flush out this plan of his.
"C'mon BB—wood?"
"Yep. It's a project of mine." There was no way on Earth that Beast Boy could have missed the meaning of Raven's raised eyebrow. There was no way that they would or could believe him. "I'm serious, guys." Just let me go. Much to his surprise, Robin saved him.
"Go ahead. We'll call you on your communicator if anything comes up."
Beast Boy let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Thanks," he said as he ran out of the common room. As he vanished Cyborg turned to Robin—"Man, now's our chance—let's go in his room and do some snooping. Maybe we'll be able to find the blueprints to his pranks! Ha!" With that Cyborg rushed off in the direction of Beast Boy's room, with a giggling Starfire floating right behind him. When the four got to his room, they were expecting to find complex contraptions of silliness and practical joking, but admittedly none of the expected to find what they did—nothing. Beast Boy's room was exactly as it had been any other day: messy and disorganized. Raven was the first to speak—"He's good at hiding things."
As an eagle, Beast Boy flew to the Jump City State Forest. He flew among the giant trees, searching for the right one. He flew until he found a sizable log that lay on the ground next to a large, sturdy oak. Morphing into a wood pecker, he tested the wood for soundness. Find it satisfactory, he morphed into a beaver and began to chew away. Once he had cut off a section of it—about two and half feet long by one foot—he changed into a pterodactyl, grasped the wood in his claws and flew back to Titan's Tower.
"Has friend Beast Boy returned?"
Raven grumbled. Starfire had been asking Raven this question once every five minutes for the past half hour, and Robin was off with Cyborg at the moment snooping around the tower for any sign of a prank. Starfire was getting quite wearisome; no amount of meditating would change that. But then again, almost everything Starfire did annoyed Raven in some way or another. "No," was her curt reply.
"Oh. When do you think he will return?"
Just then, Cyborg and Robin burst into the common room, saving the irritated Raven of another reply. "Yo! BB just got back with a piece of wood and went straight to the garage! And he asked to borrow my power tools!" Raven rolled her eyes—although she too wished sweet revenge against Beast Boy, she thought that Cyborg was too consumed with the green elf's plots to be considered sane. "Cyborg," she stated, "it's not as if any of Beast Boy's past pranks have been completely outrageous; they've just been stupid." But Cyborg would not be convinced.
"It's obvious Beast Boy is up to something—something epic, and I'm not about to underestimate his prankster abilities" said a thoughtful Cyborg. He and Robin sat down on the couch and contemplated the possible pranks involving wood, but came up short. Suddenly Robin got up and got on the Titan's computer. He pulled up the security cameras of the garage. Sure enough, there was Beast Boy working away at the piece of wood with a power saw. He turned to Cyborg with a grin on his face. "I think we may be able to find out."
Cyborg, Starfire and Raven got up and sat next to Robin, and four pairs of eyes watched the screen intensely. Unfortunately, none of them could make head nor tail of Beast Boy's intentions. It was Starfire who first voiced her puzzlement; "Why does Beast Boy not transform into any animal and carve the wood himself?" They all looked one another for an answer, but none could find one. They could only watch the screen as Beast Boy worked around the block of wood. The camera could not pick up the detail of the block—all they could see of it was a small blur that Beast Boy hovered around, shaving this, carving that. Two hours slipped away as they four watched the one work, until the working one finally straightened up and stretched. He proceeded to clean up his workspace, then picked up his object and carried it away. It took a minute for the others to realize that their investigation had come to an end before they stretched themselves. It was late afternoon.
"Alright, ya'll—I'm tired of sitting around and waiting for Beast Boy to pull it—uhh, whatever 'it' is—off on us. I say we take the offensive and prank him here and now!" Cyborg started for the door, but Robin called him back.
"Wait, Cyborg. We need to devise a plan; we can't just blunder into this because Beast Boy is smarter than we are at practical jokes" Robin said, pacing by the couch.
"What should we do?" queried Raven.
After a moment of thought, Cyborg exclaimed "I got it!" They huddled close together as Cyborg told them the plan…
"Is everything ready?"
"Yeah—Raven and Star are in position." Robin and Cyborg were hidden in the hall outside Beast Boy's room. The team of four had set up a system of pranks that were seemingly foolproof, and all were currently hidden in key locations in the Tower where the pranks were set up. The plan was quite simple; it was a chain of events, all triggered when Beast Boy would leave his room and walked across a thin piece of wire. The wire would then open a box full of Robin's exploding smoke balls, releasing a thick fog that would surround Beast Boy. Cyborg would then release a blast from his sonic cannon, which would push Beast Boy into a net. The net would be hoisted by a system of pulleys, and the inside had been smeared with grease and chicken feathers. Starfire would be hiding around the corner and at the opportune moment when Beast Boy was suspended would shoot a starbolt at the net. The net would release Beast Boy, where Raven would then grab him with a black tendril and fling him against a giant padded target on the wall, and from there he would drop onto a fluffy mattress, covered in feathers.
It may seem that this prank was a little too physical, and there was the possibility that someone could get hurt. But the Titans in all their enthusiasm didn't stop to think of the consequences—they wanted to go all out in their ultimate prank. It would provide the revenge that they thirsted for. After all, what could go wrong?
It was a tragic mistake in the making. They underestimated the power of their trap, and a semi-unsuspecting Beast Boy was about to leave his room.