Chapter 4: A New Beast
It had been a couple of weeks since Beast Boy recovered from the injuries he sustained against the robotic sharks. As the moon and stars shimmered in the sky, he tossed and turned in his bed as he dreamed.
Beast Boy ran through the forest faster on his hind legs than a cheetah on an open plain would at top speed on all fours. He pounced from between tree trunks until he came to a clearing with a lake. Seeing his reflection as he walked up to the water, Beast Boy was clearly in his Were-Beast form.
His body began to shrink. The powerful, semi-bulky muscles were now compressing into an extremely lean, taut sinew. His pawed feet and clawed hands reduced in size but kept their humanoid, animalistic shape. The long mane shortened so it ended at his shoulders instead of three-quarters of the way down his back. His body was now at the regular size and proportions that it grew into with his evolutionary changes. The discernible differences were that he was now covered in green fur, had paws for feet, and claws for hands. Beast Boy's face also returned to normal, except instead of seeing pupils in his eyes, they were completely white.
Beast Boy's ears twitched as they picked up the snapping of a twig. In less than a second, he had jumped into the cover of the nearby forest line. He watched and observed a figured covered in a bluish indigo cloak come into the clearing. Beast Boy's body immediately went tense on its own accord, ready to jump the figure. Upon reaching the water, the figure lowered her hood. It was Raven.
Before he could think, Beast Boy tackled and pinned her to the ground. As his body lay on top of hers, he sunk his teeth into her shoulder where it met her neck.
"AH!" screamed the green hero as he bolted upright in his bed. He panted heavily for about thirty seconds as he dripped in perspiration. Beast Boy ran his hand through his short, green hair as he talked to himself.
"It was a dream. No matter how real it felt, it was just a dream." Failing to quell his subtly shaking hands, Beast Boy looked over at his clock. "Four-thirty in the morning…these dreams keep waking me up earlier and earlier. This whole week, I've had nothing except the transformation dream." Beast Boy covered his face with his hands and mumbled. "But why was Raven in my dreams this time? Why would I attack her, let alone injure her like that?"
He dragged himself out of bed. Well, I'm up anyways and I don't think I want to go back to sleep right now. I'll just get a shower and forget about the whole thing.
Raven woke up as the early morning sun came through her window. Sitting up and stretching, she looked over at her clock. Hmm…a little past five, time to get a shower and some meditation in before all the noisy ones get up. Soon, she was heading towards the bathroom.
As Raven neared her destination, she heard the water running. That's weird. The only time someone is up and in the shower before I am is Robin. That's only Tuesdays when he does his early morning training. Today is Friday, so who's in there? Raven heard the water get cut off and the shower curtain pulled back as she reached the bathroom door. A few minutes later, it opened revealing Beast Boy with a towel around his lower body and draped across on his shoulders.
"Raven…uh…did I…um…wake you," stuttered the green hero.
"No, I'm usually up this early. You're up really early for your normal routine though, aren't you?" Raven asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I just…just had a little troubling sleeping, nothing big." Stepping out of the doorway, he added, "Well, I've held you up long enough. I'll see you at breakfast."
"Thanks," Raven replied with a little suspicion in her tone.
Beast Boy walked by her and headed towards his room. They're only dreams. I would never do something like that to Raven. It's just not possible.
Raven watched him until he turned the corner and went out of her line of sight. I haven't seen his face look that troubled since he brooded on the shore after Cyborg gave him that antidote for the chemicals he and Adonis were exposed to. Whatever caused the troubled sleep is definitely not 'nothing big'.
Dr. Anima studied the slide under his microscope. He heard Slade's voice speak from behind him.
"So Doctor, what progress have you made?"
The scientist turned to face his current benefactor. "I've barely been able to generate the first serum. This blood you gave me, it's something else. It is extremely resistant to injections I make. I had to try breaking some of its genetic code and plug that into my serum. A bit of a reversal and a slow process, but once this serum is tested, the pace should pick up."
"Excellent, I have a subject waiting for it."
"Where is this subject?"
"Preparing to head into the field, lab tests only prove so much. I want to see how it functions in the real world." Slade's eye then narrowed. "Where's the serum?"
Dr. Anima held up the serum. It was contained in an injector designed as an epidermic pen. "How am I supposed to get data on its effectiveness?"
Slade snatched the pen out of the scientist's hand. "Don't worry, I'll let you know how well it works." The cunning villain disappeared into the shadows of the doctor's lab.
Beast Boy put his breakfast dishes in the sink and headed back up to his room while the others were still eating breakfast. Raven watched him with concern as he left.
Cyborg commented, "That was strange."
Robin asked, "What, Beast Boy not talking about or offering for one of us to try his tofu eggs and bacon?"
"No, he never bugged Raven this morning. He usually makes some kind of comment or at least tries to tell one bad joke the first time he sees her."
"He doesn't always talk with me in the morning," rebuffed Raven.
Cyborg smirked. "Name me the last time that happened before today then?"
Raven paused and tried to think of a time when he hadn't made some gesture or told some bad pun at a meal. She meekly answered, "He didn't for the first three days after Terra betrayed us and let all those Sladebots into the Tower."
"That's kind of my point. The dude was in the pits that last time that happened."
Starfire contested, "But he was clearly sad then. Right now he's still smiles, so he can't be that sad."
Robin interjected, "He's probably still getting use to all those changes. Just give him some time and he'll be fine."
The trouble alarm went off. The Titans promptly went to the computer. As Robin quickly pulled up the alert, Beast Boy returned to the main room.
Robin briefed the team. "Adonis, he's causing havoc at the exercise park downtown. Titans, let's go!"
Adonis tossed a two hundred pound weight onto a bench press station, destroying it. "You guys spent all your time lifting these weights and you're still a bunch of weaklings. Not a suitable challenger among you to take on Adonis." He made the pectorals of his red suit jiggle, then picked up another weight and tossed it at a leg press station. Before it hit, a black aurora surrounded it and forced it harmlessly to the ground. Robin announced the Titan's presence.
"Maybe you should try hitting the weights when you get back to jail. It'll save you money from not having to keep repairing that suit."
The cocky villain just motioned with his hand for them to come and get him. All five Titans charged into battle.
Beast Boy had the first shot at him. Running as a ram, he lowered his head. Instead of meeting him with muscle, Adonis side stepped him at the last moment with a burst of speed. The green hero wound up ramming head first into a tree.
"Not only am I stronger, but my latest upgrade makes me faster too." He then felt Cyborg's sonic cannon and Starfire's bolts smash into his back. Their combined force pushed him forward, but did not damage the suit. The villain used his new speed to quickly close the gap between him and Cyborg. The velocity of his punch sent Cyborg about fifteen yards backwards.
Suddenly, he was hit from above with avalanche of dumb bells, weighted bars, and the weights that attach to the bars. Starfire looked over a Raven.
"Do you think that was a bit too much?"
Adonis rose from the pile, some cracks in his suit, but no major damage.
"I'll say no."
Robin then jumped down from a tree and put an electrical discharge disk on his back. A few seconds after he leapt off, the charge shocked the entire suit. The material around Adonis's actual body gave way and he fell out his armor.
Beast Boy walked up rubbing his head as Cyborg walked up brushing some grass of his arms. The robotic Titan spoke.
"I think that's record time for beating him. The more upgrades he gets, the quicker he goes down."
Adonis spat out, "I really didn't want to use this, but let's see how you handle me now." He pulled out an epidermic pen, took off the needle cover, and jammed it into his thigh. Within moments his body swiftly grew and sprouted red hair. Adonis had transformed back into his werebeast form with one change from his previous transformation experience. His muscle mass had clearly increased, which made him stronger than he had ever been.
He instantly jumped and landed an uppercut to Starfire who had been floating above. Robin threw three explosion discs and Cyborg fired his sonic cannon at Adonis. Their attacks made direct contact. Descending from the smoke was the werebeast, but it was completely unarmed. Beast Boy had changed into a gorilla and threw a punch at his foe. The werebeast dodged it within a hair's breadth and counter attacked by elbowing the green hero in his back. Beast Boy went flying and bounced between some of the trees like a pinball.
Adonis kept moving around the Titans, not letting them get a clear reading on his movements.
"Man if we could only get this thing to slow down, we have a decent shot on him," complained Cyborg as the Titans kept moving around themselves so they wouldn't be sitting targets.
Suddenly the red blur halted as Beast Boy leapt back into the fray as a Sasquatch and landed a punch. The werebeast crashed into the ground and paused a moment to get back on its feet. With the Adonis not moving at top speed for a moment, Raven took the opportunity and restrained him with her energy.
"Starfire! Cyborg! Hit him now!" shouted Robin as he threw more exploding discs. Cyborg shot both of his sonic cannons and Starfire fired beams from her hands and eyes. All the attacks connected with their target. While he was concealed by a cloud of smoke, Raven gave the group unwanted news.
"He's still struggling. I can't hold him much-" She was silenced as she was thrown back by the creature breaking her energy restraints. As she was falling backwards in an airborne state, Adonis appeared above her and kicked with both his feet, sending her into the ground and temporarily stunning her. He landed and stood over Raven, cocking back his left claw to strike her head.
Before he could swing, Beast Boy, now in his werebeast form, tackled Adonis off her. The two animals engaged each other, trading blows and moving around the park at incredible speeds.
"I can barely follow them. Mas y Menos or Kid Flash would keep up easily, but I sure can't," stated Cyborg.
"They seem to be even," commented Robin.
The two Titans heard groaning behind them. Looking back they saw Raven sitting up as Starfire kneeled beside her. The red haired beauty inquired, "Are you okay?"
Standing up Raven replied, "Yeah, I'm fine." She turned her attention towards the sounds of the battling werebeasts.
Slowly the tide of battle was turning in Adonis's favor. Once the tide was in his favor, Adonis quickly gained more of an upper hand. Soon he was using Beast Boy's werebeast form as a personal punching bag.
Robin narrowed his eyes. "Everyone we need to fall back. Cyborg we'll need you to make another antidote to what you made last time. Right now we're…"
Beast Boy's body crashed into between the two pairs of Titans. Before any of the four could start to move towards Beast Boy, Adonis appeared behind Cyborg and Robin. Punching their kidney areas simultaneously, he had the two other male Titans doubled over in pain.
"Robin!" Starfire bolted towards her boyfriend's side only to have Adonis's claw grab her face and force her to the ground.
Raven threw a dumb bell and hit Adonis in the head. The creature turned and growled at her before charging. The sorceress back pedaled as she drew him away from her friends. If I get him far enough away, I can phase into the ground and head back towards them. Then I'll get everyone out of here.
Adonis caught up with her quicker than she had expected. Raven phased through the ground and came up behind him. Without turning around, the creature jumped backwards and whacked her head with the back of his. This thing beat me badly last time, but now it seems more powerful. Not good,Raven thought as the blow's force started to send her backwards. Before she even went three feet, the werebeast spun around and landed a roundhouse kick into her hip, causing Raven to let out a cry of pain.
The sound of Raven's voice caught Beast Boy's attention. Though still in his werebeast form, the green Titan could barely move his beaten body. He saw Adonis landing punch after punch on Raven. The red werebeast clasped his claws together. With tremendous force, it brought them down as a single fist and landed on Raven's shoulder, sending her to the ground. She laid there unconscious as Adonis zoomed towards her like a missile.
Beast Boy closed his eyes to concentrate. Come on body, move. Move! MOVE! Something inside him snapped and he let out a thunderous sound that was a cross between a snarl and a howl.
Starfire, Cyborg, and Robin all looked over at Beast Boy. Their friend's body was becoming shorter. His powerful, semi-bulky muscles were now compressing into an extremely lean, taut sinew. His pawed feet and clawed hands reduced in size but kept their humanoid, animalistic shape. The long mane shortened so it ended at his shoulders. Beast Boy's body was now at his untransformed size proportions. He was still covered in the werebeast's green fur, had paws for feet, and claws for hands. Beast Boy's facial features returned to their regular looks, except instead of seeing pupils in or the whites of his eyes, they were glowing green like Starfire's eyes could, except they were a darker shade of green.
This new werebeast form shot up from the ground and intercepted Adonis in midair before he even got close to Raven. The green werebeast was now mercilessly thrashing Adonis's werebeast form from every conceivable direction. The red werebeast was completely powerless to do anything against Beast Boy's new, slightly more humanoid werebeast form. After rearing back his left fist, the green fighter connected with a punch that sent Adonis through two trees and crashing up against a third. Seconds after colliding with that tree, Adonis lost his werebeast transformation and changed back into his human form.
"He did it," Starfire joyfully declared. Her joy quickly turned to concern as she saw the green werebeast charging towards the defenseless Adonis. "Beast Boy, he's defeated."
Cyborg quickly activated his Sonic Cannon and fired a shot between Beast Boy and Adonis causing the werebeast to stop temporarily. "Star, I don't think BB's in total control right now."
The trio of conscious Titans heard the werebeast howl and saw the glowing green eyes glare at them. Running at full sprint, the creature charged their position. Robin swiftly pulled out three flash grenades. "Get ready."
When Beast Boy was within a couple of yards, Robin threw the flash grenades to blind him. Before they could explode, the werebeast jumped to the side and bounced off a park bench. As the werebeast lunged at Robin, Starfire fired a few starbolts. Those shots knocked the green fighter to the side for a moment. Hastily recovering, Beast Boy managed to narrowly avoid the discharge from Cyborg's Sonic Cannon. The werebeast quickly maneuvered around the park and got behind Cyborg. Beast Boy backhanded his opponent and sent Cyborg to the ground. As the semi-robotic Titan looked up, he saw a green fist heading straight for his face. Suddenly that fist and the rest of Beast Boy's body were surrounded by black energy. Looking to his left, Cyborg saw Raven partially kneeling on the ground. He turned his attention back to Beast Boy. The green werebeast wasn't fighting the energy restraint, but seemed to be struggling with some kind of cognitive dissonance.
"Come on BB, I know you're in there. Get a hold of yourself," encouraged Cyborg.
Raven attempted to channel her thoughts through energy that was restraining Beast Boy. The battle's over now; it's time for you to change back so we can all just head back home.
The muscles in his arms seemed to tense up. Then those muscles relaxed as the glow in Beast Boy's eyes faded. His fur retracted as his hands and feet returned to their normal form. A few moments after returning to his humanoid form, Beast Boy slumped to the ground. "Oh man, what just happened?" inquired the green hero as he put a hand to his forehead.
Robin walked up to the group after cuffing Adonis. "Beast Boy, there's something you should know…"
Beast Boy promptly sat up in his bed as he woke the next morning, soaked in his own sweat. That dream again. It's bad enough I've already transformed into that thing, but to worry what it might do to Raven and the others is just…just…unnerving. He glanced over at the clock. Well, at least I actually got some sleep. I made it to eight o'clock this time.
After getting a quick shower and changing into fresh clothes, Beast Boy headed to the Tower's living area. Coming from the room was Starfire with Silkie in her arms.
"Good Morning Star!"
"Morning, Beast Boy. Do you wish to go with Silkie and me to get him some more food?"
"Not this time Star. I need to get some food into me instead."
"Okay, maybe next time then," Starfire replied before she went on her way.
Now entering the Tower's living area, Beast Boy saw Namash meditating by the window.
Man, I thought Raven meditated a lot. She's got nothing on this guy."Yo, dude. I'm getting ready to fix some tofu eggs. You want some?"
Without turning to face Beast Boy, the monk replied, "Sure."
A few minutes later, Beast Boy had finished cooking. "It's ready if you're still hungry." Namash stopped meditating and came over to the breakfast nook. The green teen continued, "You know, you're the first person to stay in the Tower besides me who actually likes tofu?"
The monk slightly smiled. "These dishes of tofu are similar to ones my wife cooked. She used a food called twomushfu which seems to be very similar to your tofu. I think you would have enjoyed her cooking."
"What all did she make from two…mush… that tofu type stuff?"
"Well, one of her favorite dishes to make was…"
"Hmmm, this observational data is most…intriguing," spoke Dr. Anima.
"What about the cognitive regression?" demanded Slade.
"Not sure if there is any way to eliminate that side effect. This new serum would have to be tested on someone different to be sure."
"I have an operative in mind. Give me the serum."
Dr Anima gave an audible huff. "Fine. This partnership seems to not be paying off too well for me you know," he grunted as he handed Slade the injector.
Slade pocketed the epidermic pen. "You'll get your dues. Just have a little patience."
Mammoth dropped a huge crate full of diamonds to take a quick breath. "Man, I knew gold bricks were heavy, but I didn't think diamonds were."
"Maybe you should stick to lifting weights at a gym for a workout," Cyborg quipped behind the villain.
The genetically altered man turned to see all five Titans blocking his only exit out of the vault he was in.
Robin gave an ultimatum. "It's five on one. Why don't you just give yourself up now and spare yourself the trouble of being dragged to jail?"
Mammoth grinned maniacally as he pulled out an epidermic pen. Robin, quickly recognizing it as being an exact duplicate of the one Adonis used, threw a bird-a-rang at the villain's hand. It was too late though as Mammoth quickly injected himself with the serum.
Robin quickly thought of a plan. "Everyone get out. Raven close and hold the vault door shut as long as you can. Starfire, melt the sides to help buy us some time. Cyborg, get back to the Tower as quick as you can. Make that antidote you made for Beast Boy and Adonis a couple of years ago as quickly as you can and get back here."
As Cyborg took off, Beast Boy spoke. "What do you need me to do?"
"For now rest. If Mammoth gets loose, we're going to need everything we've got to keep him here in time for Cyborg to get back."
As Starfire was melting the sides of the vault, Raven held the door closed with her powers as the entire building seem to shake from Mammoth slamming his fists against the vault door. A few seconds after Starfire had finished her part of the plan, the vault door began to crack.
"Titans, get ready," Robin ordered.
The center of the vault broke into rubble and fell to the ground. Mammoth emerged from the other side. His body was covered in fur that was the same color was his head hair. Instead taking a form similar to Adonis, Mammoth looked more like a yeti. The newly transformed villain picked up a piece of the debris and hurled it towards Robin and Beast Boy. The duo easily dodged with Robin counter attacking with some explosion discs.
Mammoth was knocked down by the explosions, but suffered no debilitating damage. He hastily rolled to the side to avoid a barrage of starbolts from the Tamaranian Titan. Jumping to his feet, he saw Beast Boy in mid air as the green Titan changed into a Sasquatch. Mammoth purposely fell backwards and kicked his adversary into the air. Beast Boy changed into a monkey and regained his balance by grapping onto a rafter.
No sooner had Beast Boy been forced into the air, two large carts crashed onto Mammoth. Raven soon hovered over to the pile of debris. After a few moments of seeing no movement she raised a suspicious eyebrow. Suddenly, the ground behind her exploded upward and a big, furry hand reached up and grabbed her throat. Everyone abruptly heard a loud pop sound. Mammoth's gripped immediately limped as his eyes rolled back. He rapidly fell to his side as his fur started to recede. Stuck in his butt was a needle. Looking directly behind Mammoth, towards the doorway, the four Titans saw Cyborg smirking. The smug Titan cockily uttered, "Booyah."
"Let's get him to jail. I need to do some researching to figure out who might be supplying that mutagenic injector," stated Robin.
As the Titans were leaving, Starfire looked up towards Beast Boy. "Friend, are you coming?"
"Yeah Star, I'll be down in a moment." After the other Titans had left the area, Beast Boy slowly released the tight grip he had on the metal rafter. His arm and hand were ever so slightly shaking. Looking down at the rafter, he saw imprints were his fingers had been. That's not good. I wasn't even in the werebeast form and my body seemed to start transforming into the evolved form of it. If Cyborg hadn't shown up when he did… Beast Boy shook his head to help regain his composure. This isn't a good sign. Not a good sign at all.
Dr. Anima pored over his computer files. I can't find any way around it. To have more human like intelligence, I have to sacrifice some of the primal and instinctual power components of the serum. The genetic code aspects I seem to be able to break only give me part of what I need. The parts I couldn't break must hold the key to having the primal, instinctual aspects work in sync with a human's intelligence. Plus the serum's effects aren't permanent. The best this could be used for would be a temporary army or a mutagenic terrorism bluff. "I only have enough material to make one more serum. I can see which way Slade would prefer the serum to lean. I'll make it, sell it to him, and be done with all this. I guess as least I got to further my research and make some money in the end."
Aku Nefar watched as the spell encompassing his discovery continued its influence. I've never known anyone to take this long. Usually they either succumb and accept the power or utterly reject it and fight back. You might become the most powerful underling I've ever had. It should make the conquest of this world all the more satisfying. The demon sensed the barrier he had erected to shield his presence from detection starting to weaken. You're also making me have to reinforce this barrier more times than I ever have before too. He began to chant. "Qi Yiqi Bushi Ni, Qi Yiqi Bushi Ni, Qi Yiqi Bushi Ni…"