Chapter 7:
A/N: As I type these words, I'm probably sleep typing
Whoo! Almost seven weeks. Sorry for the delay, but moving has been a pain in the...well, you know. Still trying to move the largest of my stuff, but I figured while I waited I'd get this out to you guys.
We're at twenty Reviews, twenty-two Favorites, thirty-two Followers, and over twenty-eight hundred views. (P.S. I use this particular note as a kind of mile stone for myself). I'd dance, but I sold my soles. Thank you for your continued support.
Don't forget to post any QCC so I can post responses (Note to audience, the longer the QCC, the longer I'm compelled to make my response. Do with that what you will)
Hard Edit Chapters 3 is out. Will try to do the others, but I'm going to focus on writing for the most part. I don't want to divide my focus when I'd rather focus on writing for now (in hindsight, I should have taken this approach sooner). If I find something I'd like to change, I'll just change it.
Disclaimer: I came back from my Flashpoint Paradox. I owned Teen Titans, but I was a woman in that reality. One day I will own it, but with my manly parts intact. I don't own the Teen Titans franchise again, but next is time travel, now where do I find 1.21 jiggawatts.
Without further adieu. *Que the dimming of the lights*
Falling Apart:
Chapter 7-
Beast Boy couldn't inhale as the scream continued to expel, but neither could he stop. What ever had coursed through him finished its trek, now pushing through the right side of his body aggressively.
The remaining Titans, and villain, watched as his screaming fell short suddenly, the silence almost as deafening as the feral shriek had been.
He rose in a sloshed fashion, as a marionette is guided by a puppeteer. His knees seemed bolted together as he stood, his arms and head drooped completely downward, his hands grazing the ground.
A bubbling sound rose from his direction. His body quivered, the bubbling intensifying as the recurring mass that had once grown from his left side, now grew from his back rapidly in a tumorous fashion.
They stared in fascinated horror as the mass grew, crackling as white bone pierced through the flesh with a ripping sound that sent blood splattering, quickly enveloped by the knitting of muscle. Skulls sprouted, sinew slinked, and the organ of skin over took the forms as if in a wave. Fur, feather, scale, or chitin covered the bulbous growth; slithering around until they found refuge on the appendages that had protruded from the mass.
Now staring back, a multitude of green beastial heads writhed on the gargantuan mass: tiger, hawk, sheep, wolf, serpent, spider, whale, fox, fish, tyrannosaurus, parasaur, etcetera infinai. Like the whole of the evolutionary chain rested on his back. Growls, hisses, shrieks, bleats, roars, and sounds yet indescribable resounded from every mouth as they came into full animation; the flesh around them still bubbling.
"And I thought looking like a goblin made him ugly," Adonis stated, interrupting their silence.
Hundreds of thousands of eyes shifted, the groan of turning necks audible as all gaze alighted on the red-suited villain.
As if in queue to this, Beast Boy's head raised, joining the multitude in their glare, his bloodied mouth slowly sprouting new canines as they regrew rapidly.
"WE…" the animals chanted as one, most looking perplexed by this development, their bestial vocals unaccustomed to human speech. Each spoke in a tone befitting their species, a conjoined orchestra of discord within the voices of the animal kingdom.
'No, please Azar, no,' Raven thought, still entrapped in the villains grasp. That response...there was no way. She could think of only one embodied creature that spoke with so many voices. 'Not that.'
"...NO...I," the multitude corrected, Beast Boy's voice becoming the lead, merely emphasized by those on his back.
All primal eyes returned to Adonis, the villain clearly uncomfortable with such attentions as they gazed violently at him.
Raven felt relief flood her. He wasn't possessed. That was a positive. There was no telling what a possessed Beast Boy could do; and she chided herself mentally for even thinking he could be possessed. But she had seen his mind just moments before….
She shook herself out of such thoughts. She had given him Hope, now she needed to exercise faith in him. Now that she was in the scope of so many eyes, of Beast Boy's eyes, she felt slightly less worried by what events could transpire. There was violence in those eyes, but she felt, unexplainably... safe.
"PUT...HER...DOWN," the legion of beasts commanded, each word just as much an emphasis as a difficulty to speak. His voices were immediately punctualized by a wave of threatening sounds escaping their lungless throats.
Adonis complied, putting the Empath down with exaggerated care, before holding his hands up non-threateningly. He tried to smile, but it came out as pathetic.
"NOW…," Beast Boy enmass paused, as if the distinction between the multitude were confusing. But their gazes didn't waver as all heads leaned forward with a groan. "TOUCH...HER AGAIN...AND I'LL RIP YOUR FUCKING ARMS OFF!"
The entire animal kingdom roared their agreement with him.
Cyborg and Starfire didn't know what facts were worse coming out of their friend: that Beast Boy was threatening tremendous violence; that he had dropped an f-bomb like it was London 1940; that he had an enormous something or other occupying his back; or that his smile was...cruel, malicious, and hateful...just like his dark clone had as they attempted to distracted Trigon from Robin's rescue attempt of Raven three years ago.
Raven stepped forward hastily as the changeling prepared to charge, putting herself between Adonis and Beast Boy before he could step forward, one hand held out gently toward the shapeshifter. She needed to calm him. In this state, there was no telling who he'd attack. Even if he came to her defense again, she didn't want Cyborg or Starfire getting caught in his primal anger.
"Beast Boy," she said calmly. His elvish ears ticked as he stopped. A good sign. She gently took a step forward. "Hey, remember me?"
The dark smile on Beast Boy's face faltered as his human face looked blankly at her. "RAVEN," they groaned in recognition, a caw from a shifting green raven coming from the growth emphasizing his word.
"Yes," she replied, a smile touching her lips at hearing her name. She slowly began stepping forward, her hand continuously outreaching.
"Uh, Raven," Cyborg called, swallowing nervously. "Let's not aggravate him. I know it's been three years, but I still have memories of the parts I replaced because of him."
The creatures' sharp growls silenced his attempts at friendly interaction even as Raven redrew his attention back to her. "Star, be prepared to hit hard, and hit fast," the half-robot said in a low voice.
"I do not wish to do the hitting hard," she responded, her eyes still glaring at Adonis rather than Beast Boy. "If there is a creature to put the beating of down on, it is that Grebslaok that professes to be the 'manly'.
"I pray no mercy from X'al on him," she hissed, some of her radiant power leaking out angrily.
"And we don't know if Beast Boy will hurt Raven or not," he rebuddled. "He's never done...that...before." His gesture at the pustule growth covered with the heads of animals, the sight making his case.
She shook her head gently. "I have the faith that friend Beast Boy will do no such harm to Raven."
As if to reaffirm her words, Raven's hand landed peacefully on the changeling's chest. His heart pound like the rapid beats of a drum-line. His skin felt burning hot as she guided her other hand to his cheek.
He and all his forms seemed to visibly calm at the contact, his eyes dilating a little wider as he began to return to his senses.
"So, you can control him?" Adonis asked, his face twisting in confusion, laxer than he had been with a legion glaring him down. "Than I'll just have to seize that control."
Adonis moved forward, his target: the sorceress. If he could regain his hold on her, he could keep the shapeshifter from attacking. In hindsight, he didn't know why he had let her go in the first place.
Before he could get close enough to brush the rim of her cloak, a leathery green fist smashed down in front of him, quickly retreating back into the mass.
"YOU DO NOT TOUCH HER!" the creatures dischorused.
The heads gargled, imploding in on themselves as they formed into green matter that was sucked into the growth, until even that fell in on itself, retreating into Beast Boy's back.
A 'Slurp!' sounded as it finished, and the changeling morphed.
Unlike his usual transformations, he didn't just liquidize before assuming a new shape. It ripped out of him, his clothes stretching and tearing as if something larger trapped inside of his body was pushing it's way out of the confines of his skin. As if a beast were breaking out of his fleshy prison.
His tattered clothes now having disappeared, an armor-like skin pressed through his body, quickly over growing with dark green fur. His spine realigned, pushing him down on his hands as his front arms grew and his legs reduced, the form of a great ape baring down, even as it was complimented by a large hump of muscle growing into its shoulders. His mouth grew out, his lips forming a beak-like protrusion through his massive canines, and the center of his flared nostrils growing the sturdy keratin of a single pointed horn, a small secondary taking residence just behind the first. His fingers elongated, resting gently on their knuckles as strange pointed "toes" broke through his phalanges.
Cyborg knew a gorilla when he saw one, even if it was green and eight feet tall at the shoulder, like a baby Kong. But not like this, not with a horn, knuckle-toes, or flesh armor. Much less a beak-lip, a short and useless tail, and rounded ears that flicked in agitation.
"Is that a creature native of Earth?" Star asked curiously. Cyborg didn't have an answer.
The new creature roared, it's canines flashing a display of dominance as it stood on its smaller hindlegs, beating its chest angrily. It slammed down on all fours, one of it's massive forearms landing pointedly between the villain and the Empath.
"Beast Boy?" Raven whispered, starring at the back of the amalgamic creature before her, it's attention riveted on the villain.
The beast's rage primed, it charged. Adonis didn't have time to process the attack as the creature's head dipped, heaving upward, and the horn goring into his armor as he was sent skyward. The creature slid to a stop, quickly jumping from street to car to building wall, then leaping out over an airborne Adonis. Two massive forearms came down, sending the villain plummeting once more to the earth.
Adonis could feel his suit repairing as he groaned his pain but didn't have time to gather his thoughts as over half a ton of green fury crashed down on top of him.
The beast's current form cocked back it's massive forearm, and smashed, it's 'joint-toes' acting like knucklebusters as the fist thrashed Adonis's face. It lifted its fists, bring them both crashing down onto the suited villain in a series of angry grunts.
It grabbed Adonis by the leg, throwing him into a building before charging horn first into him, sending them both through the wall.
Raven watched in horrible realization as the primal feelings of the creature hit her, taking her aback for several moments. 'He's going to kill him.'
Another wall was destroyed as Adonis punched through, the panic written on his face as he made a break for it. His suit sizzled and popped as he attempted to run, his hopes quickly dashed as the creature burst out of the opening, it's hands and prehensile feet wrapping around him, knocking them both to the ground. Two massive hands wrapped around the villains head, taking a tight grip before bashing it back into the concrete. It lifted it back up and proceeded to bash again.
Raven found her body moving toward them, her emotions boiling once again as her voice broke out words that hadn't been filtered through her mind: "Stop him!"
Dark auras enveloped every lamppost she could manage to focus on. Her power responded only just, her mental energies still too drained. She was pushing herself, but she couldn't watch him like that. She couldn't stand there and watch as her friend became a murderer.
The dark-form lampposts let fly, wrapping like snakes around the enraged changeling. With a clenched fist, she pulled him back, separating him from Adonis. As he landed, the makeshift binds pierced into the concrete, holding Beast Boy down.
The creature roared, heaving and writhing as it attempted to break free. It grunted with each attempt, it's anger only becoming more apparent the longer his grasp was away from the villain.
"Star!" Cyborg called, spurred into action by Raven's distress. "Give 'im the Dome." His back opened up as strange pulsing cables shot out.
The Tamaranian flew over, catching the cables before pausing hesitantly. "Will that not harm friend Beast Boy?" she implored, glancing between the angry form of her shifted friend, and the villain who deserved the Dome for laying his filthy hands on her darker dressed friend.
"Last time we fought B like this, our butts were handed to us," Cyborg replied, a large rectangular box coming out with the last of the cables. "Adonis is down Star, but if we don't stop B, then who will?" He didn't want to use the Dome. It was originally designed for restraining more rambunctious villains, and now he was using it to restrain his less than cooperative friend.
His point became validated as the amalgam beast roared, his dark enveloped restraints beginning to fade.
"Hurry," Raven groaned, trying to maintain her grip as her focus began slipping. She was in too much emotional turmoil; she needed rest, she needed to meditate. She needed Beast Boy calm.
Her mind made up, Starfire flew the cables in a circle around Beast Boy as fast as she could, connecting the end-couplet back into the rectangular box. A small red dotted light glowed from the box for a few moments before turning green.
"It is done," she called back, setting the device down, backing away as Cyborg initiated the devices programming.
Large tendril arcs of electricity netted into an energized half-sphere, creating a cage of pure energy just as Raven's binds failed. The beast leapt upward, a jolt running through it as it plummeted back down. The sizzling scent of burnt hair could be smelled, a few noses wiggling in distaste.
Raven was quick to move toward the portable cage, staying a few feet back just in case. "Beast Boy," she said, stopping the creatures agitated pacing with her voice.
He responded by running toward her, smashing horn-first into the electric field with a sharp 'Zap!' that sent him staggering back. Carefully tucking his small tail, the creature sat on his haunches, giving off rapid panting grunts at his displeasure, beckoning to Raven.
She felt a great deal of inquiry and concern rolling off the creature, as if asking if she was alright. The anger was mostly subsided now that she was drawing his attention. It still amazed her that even after taking a good shocking from the Dome, his most pressing concern was her...even if he was in a strictly animalistic state.
"I'm fine," she lied to him, giving a meaningful glancing to Cyborg and Starfire as she sat cross-legged in the broken street. "Just need to meditate and rest. You were hard to hold back, Big Guy."
He snorted, his large fingers picking absently at the ground as his rounded ears turned a deeper shade of green.
Cyborg watched the transaction with some bewilderment, glancing between Raven and the changeling. It almost seemed embarrassed, as if she were either scolding or complimenting it.
"Is it not wonderful?" Starfire asked, floating just behind the tin-man. "Our friends are doing the bonding."
"I dunno," Cyborg stated with a shake of his head, glancing at the progress of Beast Boy's DNA scan. 'Thirty-two percent.'
His gaze lingering a little longer on the odd two, he walked toward Adonis, laying in a clearly uncomfortable position, with one leg bent limply under his body. His red suit was repairing itself, but it was futile at that point.
Two enormous gashes had slashed through the armor where Beast Boy's horn had pierced. The wounds were bleeding and deep, but they weren't fatal, and they hadn't punctured anything.
"I'd say you were lucky," Cyborg pointed out, earning him a groan from the downed villain. "Any longer, and B would have made you into mince-meat, and he hates meat."
He knelt down, his left eye doing a quick scan of Adonis's condition. 'Damn B.' While the gashes were terrible to look at, they weren't life threatening. But underneath, Adonis suffered multiple stress fractures, major bruising, minor nerve damage, several torn muscles, and a bloodied broken nose.
He smiled at Raven's handiwork on Adonis's nose, quickly turning serious again as he remembered why she had head-butted him. A part of him wished that they had let B finish the villain off, but...he had promised Robin, and he knew B would regret it whenever he finally returned to normal. They were heroes after all.
"He will live?" Starfire asked, clearly hoping the opposite.
"Most of the damage wasn't from BB," he replied, beginning to strip off the villain's armor, even as it attempted to slink back together. "I'd say this new suit is a double-edged sword, and he used it too much."
She seemed disappointed, and her arms crossed in mirror display of her feelings, glaring starbeams down on the villain. "I would sooner have seen him thrown to a Queen Ragnauqtorix. He dared to touch friend Raven in a most distasteful way."
Cyborg agreed, being a little more forceful as he pulled off another piece of armor. The sound of Adonis groaning brought him only a fraction of satisfaction. "I think going in the ring with B was enough punishment for now."
He looked over at the green creature that he could identify as Beast Boy. But it wasn't him at the same time. He'd only seen that level of primal savagery once, and it had nearly taken down the whole team the last time. Now it was just sitting patiently, it's eyes holding intent focus on Raven as though she might disappear at any moment. Cy was just glad Raven was awake this time.
The amalgamation turned its head, starring back at Cyborg. It glanced him over, as if sizing him up but sputtered, earning him a frown from the tin-man. It glanced down, baring its canines angrily as it looked down at Adonis, but otherwise didn't make a sound as it returned to watching Raven. She was deep in meditation as she sat cross-legged on the ground, her manta soundlessly crossing her lips.
A quick chime grabbed his attention as he turned toward Starfire. She pulled out her communicator, opening the emblazoned 'T'.
"Hello? Starfire?"
The Tamaranian's face relaxed as she beheld her Gen'da'hen. "Yes, Robin" she replied with a small smile, covering her previous anger and disappointment with the joy she felt at seeing him well. "You are laying down, yes? If you are continuing the research when you are still so injured, I will personally-"
"Relax, Starfire," Robin said with a small dismissing wave through the screen. "I was just calling to make sure you guys were alright."
She glanced at Cyborg, unsure if any of this was the 'alright'. Cy just gave a small nod, stripping off more of the armor.
"We were victorious," she responded, but something in her voice was off enough that Robin noticed.
"What happened?" he demanded. "Is someone else hurt?"
"Hey, man," Cyborg interjected, gently pulling away Stars communicator, "I'll explain when we get back. There's too much to cover in a single call."
"Alright," he said, clearly expecting them to uphold those words. "What's your ETA?"
Cyborg glanced up as the grey sky rumbled, a small sprinkle of rain beginning to fall. "Give us half-an-hour."
"Alright, don't stay too long."
"We will make with the haste," Star replied, and with that, the call ended.
Cyborg finished stripping the armor, glancing at Adonis incredulously. "Well what do ya know. He really did train."
Underneath the armor, Adonis was...filled-out...in a sense. He was taller than he had been two years ago, his suit now more fitted. His body had some definition and appeared toned if nothing else. 'Things really do change in two years.'
He glanced at Adonis, glanced at a chunk of his suit, then glanced at Beast Boy's primal embodiment.
"I'll be takin' some of this," he stated, grabbing what appeared to be a chunk of the trashed chest piece.
"You wish to take a trophy?" Starfire asked, unphased by the new, improved, and still beaten Adonis. She had seen better on Robin; so, there was no comparison.
"No. I'm taking a sample," he corrected, storing the broken armor in a spare compartment in his arm. "Call it a hunch, but there's something I need to check."
"Then it will be a trophy," Starfire insisted.
It dawned on Cyborg the next moment as he produced a set of cuffs, binding the villain.
'Oh, she's as pissed as B was,' he thought, placing a police responder on Adonis's back, activating it.
He knew she had every right to be. Adonis had crossed a very fine line. Be a villain, okay; whoop their butts, comes with the job; violate Raven….
Adonis groaned, interrupting his thoughts. Before he could stop her, Starfire had lifted the bare villain up to meet her furious eyes.
"You will pray the thankfulness you are not on Tamaran," she growled. "Your death would be the long and painful for your touching friend Raven. Should your offense transgress again, I will take the pleasure of sitting back with the corn that is popped, and the watching Beast Boy grind you into the fertilizer. It will be most glorious."
Even with her strange wording, Cyborg swallowed nervously. Her using her signature 'glorious' in such a manner made it all the more terrifying. 'Yeah, I'll leave this one to Robin.'
A/N: Yay! Chapter 7 is here! Did I have ya guys rolling for a bit there? I regret nothing!
Forever again, if there is anything that needs edited, or is connecting in a weird way for you guys, let me know and I'll try to clean up the text. I do accept grammar and spelling errors too (PM these if possible, and I'll add them to my next Hard Edit)
As always (and I'll just keep posting this because its true), keep posting your constructive criticisms, as they will help me know what to look for in my future writings, and for the days I decide to do a hard edit. I look forward to growing as a writer for you guys and myself
Tamaranian Translations (Original Translation):
Grebslaok - a coward; the lowest insult, next to Troq. Tamaranian's are a warrior race. To run from a fight is the most dishonorable thing to do. To them, a coward is less than nothing.
Ragnauqtorix - Spoilers!
Gen'da'hen - quiet literally: "one whose heart is shared"; lover; beloved; true love; soul-mate; used on Tamaran between two couples in a very deep, emotionally bonding and emotinally intimate relationship.
(Review Response disclaimer: I ramble sometimes. That's just me being excited. If I don't ramble, I'm still excited, just calm. Also, I have a "different" sense of humor. I swear it's not you, it's completely and utterly me.)
And now for the new Reviews Responses:
- FF8cerberus: Questions answered! I won't apologize for making a villain that was in hiding for two years, annoying (p.s. all three suit colors appeared in the series). And hopefully I met your satisfaction for revenge.
- Junior VB: Wish granted.
- Guest: Also wish granted.
*End of Review Response
Chapter 8 is coming soon. Stay tuned until next time.
Final Edit 10-14-2018
