Author's Note: This version is quite a bit longer - and darker - than the previous ones, but that's the whole idea of this experiment, to try out as many different viewpoints as possible. It was written by obsidian dreamer; he's new on the TT scene, having authored a long one-shot Jump City - Doomsday that you should definitely check out. Let's hope he'll grace us with more of his work soon!
-=oOo=-
High Stakes
"You should give up right away and save yourselves a lot of pain, dudes!" Beast Boy boasted. "I'm the king!"
His character ran and rolled under a burst of bullets, sprang up and sent a perfectly aimed headshot at Cyborg, then ducked behind a wall before Robin could riddle him. He pulled the pin from a hand grenade and bounced it off the side wall. It exploded a moment later, sending pieces of Robin's character all around.
"YEAH! Two frags ahead, nine more minutes to go!" he chortled while pumping his fist victoriously. "I ain't doin' the dishes today, that's for sure!"
Cyborg and Robin fumed while they waited impatiently for their characters to respawn. This was a high-stakes deathmatch; the loser would have to do the dishes that day. The two older Titans glanced and nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, having reached an unspoken, silent agreement.
The next three minutes they tried outflanking, pincer movements, baiting out and even a plain old frontal assault, but Beast Boy held his own against both of them combined, and even increased his lead to four frags. His opponents scowled in impotent anger and exchanged another quick, meaningful glance.
The stakes were high, indeed. High enough for Robin and Cyborg to recall the old saying that the end justifies the means. And if the rules and mechanics of the game were not supplying the proper means…
"Yo, Greenbean!" Cyborg fired the first shot with an evil smirk on his face. "Didya ever kiss a girl?"
-=( obsidian dreamer's Version starts here )=-
"...ever kissed a girl?"
"Nope, never."
All movement below two separate necks ceased, neither Robin nor Cyborg able to command their fingertips as in horrible tandem their heads rotated towards the third player, not seeing or caring as the soft hoot of a pixelated grenade launcher was drowned out a second later by an explosion and shower of virtual gibs,
"Woohoo, two-for-one; better get the marigolds ready guys, dried tofu doesn't come off easy," Beast Boy exulted, regarding them both with a grin before sobering slightly at their awed expressions, "what, something on my incredibly-handsome face?"
"You, uh," Cyborg began, not sure quite how to proceed, "never?" The changeling raised a verdant eyebrow,
"Did I stutter - never have, hopefully never will - we carrying on or you throwing in this towel and picking up that one?" He nodded towards the empty kitchen, catching a glimpse of a familiar figure lurking in the doorway to the main corridor before Robin broke in,
"What happened to chicks digging the ears?" Beast Boy merely laughed, no malice behind it that the junior detective could pick up on,
"Good one Rob, had me going for a second there," Robin swapped a sideways look with Cyborg, the older teen also looking both nonplussed and concerned at their young friends' attitude, "you saw through... you did see through it right? Oh God," the changeling looked between the Boy Wonder and the mechanical man amazed, "you actually thought I meant all that stuff?"
"You actually don't?" Cyborg riposted, game controller in one hand and all thoughts of teasing gone from his head; never once had he imagined his green friend hadn't considered himself the good lords' gift to the opposite sex, "Why wouldn't you, you're..."
"Green, I have fangs and my ears are pointed," Beast Boy cut in, not noticing the shrouded figure wince, "on top of that I'm short, on the scrawny side and competing with a six-plus half-mechanical tech wizard and Jump Citys' third most eligible bachelor, and that came out of those magazines Star loves before you say anything Rob." Fighting off a blush at the thought of that idea being both published and attracting a fan-club (memories of Kitten were bad enough), the team leader tried to refute at least part of the other boys' statement but found himself mute, his bacon only saved when Cyborg leapt into the fray,
"When do you read Stars' magazines?"
"I keep her company when she bathes Silkie, read out the fashion bits while she's wrestling the little guy into the tub. That article popped up about a month ago and we both had a good laugh, I think she cut it out in the end," the animorph shrugged, "so my chances weren't exactly high to start with."
"But, those girls..."
"Think I'm cute, or exotic sometimes, not sexy."
"Even in Japan?"
"Especially in Japan; I'm fun to snap a photo with, not take home to the parents." Cyborg licked his dry lips, preparing to venture into dangerous territory,
"Not," he began carefully, trying to judge the harm he might do, "not even, Terra?"
Apart from an on-screen misfire nothing much changed; Beast Boys' eyes closed for a second at the name and pain shone within them when they re-opened but it was swiftly subsumed, the changeling shaking his head as a near-silent breath was exhaled from someone nearby,
"No," he admitted quietly, "we never made it that far. In hindsight that was a crush, an unhealthy one on my part – I wish it had ended better but it would never have ended well regardless of her choices."
"Damn BB, that really blows," Cyborg admitted after a seconds' thought; much as he wanted to, he couldn't refute the green beans' logic and, in a way, was proud he wasn't hung up on the whole thing, especially the skinny blonde who'd almost destroyed them all and him especially, "don't give up though, she's out there somewhere."
"Yeah," the shapeshifter snorted, "hopefully a long way away."
"That's not helpful B," Robin cut in, his tone sharp but not unkind and, in respect to this, the changeling softened his tone somewhat during the explanation,
"No but it's true Robin; if I find her a lot of people are going to be in danger so maybe it's better I never do." Behind his mask Robin blinked in surprise,
"Uh, what? Beast Boy that doesn't make any sense."
The younger Titan said nothing, merely regarded them for a long second, head tilted slightly as though weighing something up in his mind. The gears in his head were all but audibly grinding as the silence persisted and Cyborg was on the verge of going full big brother mode before the impasse was breached, though the sigh that preceded the metamorphs' next words seemed as alien to his normal joviality as Starfires' cooking was to a human palate.
"Maybe not to you but you don't know me like I do, neither of you do," before five organic and one cybernetic eye Beast Boy seemed to change, to age, the harlequin doffing his mask to reveal a visage older and more careworn than any of the observers had imagined he could bear, "I'm more and less than human guys. I'm not just part-animal, I'm every animal all at once and because of that my instinct is to look out for you all; it's part of everything I do. It's worse on the streets, when we're duking it out with the bad guys; I see them attack any of you and it takes everything I've got not to go for the throat. Big, small, carnivore, herbivore, insects, doesn't matter - almost every beast protects its kin and that urge, kill to protect, will only get stronger as I get older. You've seen it out there, you must have; I hang back more now because I can't fully trust myself not to go all in when you guys are in danger and that's as things stand. If I found a, sorry to put it crudely, but a mate, someone I loved," he shook his head solemnly, "no, there'd be blood all over Jump Citys' streets when it happened. I know the business we're in; people get hurt; but if I saw or maybe even thought that could happen to her the Titans would probably be looking at their first KS."
A silence followed those words; a KS, or killer-super, was a figure of awe, dread and usually tragedy in the metahuman world and, moulded by the Batman, Robin instinctively distrusted those with blood on their hands. The thought that Beast Boy had been silently wrestling with these demons and he'd noticed nothing cut to the quick, wounding so deeply he barely heard Cyborg muscle into the conversation,
"But, but you do fight, you've seen us all take hits; hell last week Cinderblock was using my arm as a backscratcher and you didn't blow up!"
"Because I've been trained not to," Beast Boy said darkly, tapping his temple as Robin felt a pit open in his stomach, "you know where I came from right, that this isn't my first dance in a team?"
"The Doom Patrol," Robin husked, face whitening as he put two and two together, "Mento, he...?"
"He helped, to a degree, but at the end of the day he wanted, needed almost, a soldier who could do what the rest of the team couldn't. He explained in the end, with Elasti-Girl, before I left and I did leave freely; rumours of us parting on bad terms are mostly just rumours. It came down to team dynamics; I could and still can do what Steve; oh don't look at me like that Rob, it's not like the Patrol is big into the whole secret identity thing; wanted but Rita said I was too young and in the end Larry and Cliff agreed. So we went our separate ways with a caveat; the spot's still open but I can't take it, not until I'm old enough to legally drink – Rita thought that'd give me time to see if I could find a balance that'd be accepted by heroes outside the Patrol."
"He wanted you to kill didn't he?" Cyborg stated, his tone hard but not quite accusing as his eye glowed a dim, baleful red,
"If necessary," Beast Boy's answer was likewise stony as he defended his former pack, "it's not the first option but if it gets the mission done we left bodies behind, ours and theirs. And don't knock what Steve did for me Tin-can; on his best day the guy's a slave-driver to rival Robin on his worst but thanks to his emotional training I was able to get the worst of the urges under control growing up – did you never wonder why I don't use more lethal animals in a fight?" Cyborg snorted in disbelief,
"More lethal – dude you're a T-Rex half the time!"
"Yeah, big, stompy, see it coming a mile off – how about a fruit fly? Go into someone's ear, or better the nose, curl up against the eardrum or into the sinuses and de-morph – gory but no-one's getting up afterwards," Beast Boy's eyes were jade stones – hard, unfeeling and all three of his audience knew he was talking from, if not experience, then certainly in-depth theoretical discussion, "hand to hand go big, wait for a mistake, then into a black mamba or Australian brown snake, one bite and they're history and that's if I'm stupid enough to have a fair fight. Evil villain relaxing on his yacht; cling on as a barnacle, wait until he goes for a dip and box-jellyfish the bastard, or go great white if I want to make a statement. Villain hideout full of goons, no-one saw the little green frog go for a dip in the beer keg or crawl over the silverware; you'll know about it when everyone drops dead of toxicosis. And getting into places, especially if some super-idiot tries the classic kidnapping-for-leverage trick," the laugh was ugly, brutal and made the hairs on the back of Robins' neck stand up as everything he thought he knew about the youngest member of his team was shaken to dust, "they'd never see me coming. A flea in someone's hair, a tick on the bottom of your shoe – gene-scanners can't pick me up, according to Steve most mentalists can't usually tune into animal thought patterns and for IR most of my venomous forms are as warm as their surroundings. There's no mercy in the animal kingdom; you kill or you're lunch; and I barely trust myself enough not to follow those instincts when you guys, my friends, are in danger never mind a potential lover. So no, I've never kissed anyone and a lot of villains out there should be grateful because me not getting any is keeping some of them alive – as soon as that state of affairs croaks and they put a foot wrong," he shrugged, his more animalistic unconcern with death apparent in his final words delivered not as a threat, or a promise, merely a statement of fact, "most likely so do they."
Silence fell over the lounge, even the Gamestation falling into standby mode as the others present reeled from the bombshell that their friend had dropped on them. Looking to give them some space just as Steve and Rita had him some years ago and mindful of a prior appointment Beast Boy made to take his leave before another voice, this one quieter and graver, raised a salient point,
"You control the Beast though Garfield; I understand your… concerns but that you keep him restrained shows the man is stronger than the animal in you." Stiffening slightly at his name the lime-skinned Titan glanced across at his grey counterpart, realising that on this night of truths another myth would have to be shattered,
"You're wrong Raven, I don't control him the way you do Rage or your powers; he's part of me yes but he can't be tamed, only channelled. It's an… understanding, I suppose, another one I've made with myself; first time he came out he was needed and I didn't really know what I was dealing with, ever since then I let him out when it's safe."
"Safe?" Cyborg parroted, numb from his little brothers' dispassionate dissection of his thought process and now torn between disbelief and laughter, "Last time we saw him we were being overrun by Trigon's fire demons green-bean, how was that safe?!"
"Because there weren't any repercussions," both Raven and Cyborg gave their leader their attention as Robin locked eyes with the familiar stranger across the settee, his honed mind fitting the pieces together into a picture as scary as it was surreal, "against normal leg-breakers, or even the H.I.V.E. and the like the Beast would cause a blood-bath and make the front pages, and Slade and Brother Blood are both clever enough to use it ripping apart their robots to press for legal controls against the 'wild' Titan. Trigon didn't have that defence and against Adonis it was necessary, we needed your Beast to take down his," massaging his eyes through his mask the Titan leader drew in a breath, levelling his gaze at Beast Boy again as the magnitude of what the youngest member of his team endured for the rest of them began to sink in, "you're always protecting us aren't you, with the Beast and from what it could do legally if not physically?" Beast Boy's answering smile was genuine, if tinged with sadness, as he nodded,
"It's in the genes, literally in my case, and until I can keep it there fully it's better to avoid the temptation – Beast isn't the worst really. I could kill idiots like Rancid, Punk and the rest easily but it's not worth the pain it would cause you all – a lover though, a girl I kissed? One face launched a thousand ships, one kiss for me might trigger a massacre; better to have never loved than risk that, certainly for now."
For a long moment silence billowed around them all, the tower ominously still apart from the changeling stretching off and casting an eye out the window, judging the time and deciding he should start off. With this in mind he stood up and place the controller on the seat next to him as he made to leave,
"Well boys I leave you to the washing, I'm gonna grab some sky to clear my head, I'll get something while I'm out." Taking their nods as acquiescence he moved the massive window making up the tower side and cracked it open, preparing to morph when the silence was broken, perhaps the merest hint of a quaver in Raven's voice as she watched his back from under her hood,
"You, and the Beast, you protected me though? You're always there even when I threatened to send you to the darkest dimension I could find." Beast Boy took a breath, then another to prepare himself; better than me most he knew how much words, especially ill-chosen words, could hurt,
"We're always going to be there Raven, for you and the others," he didn't look over his shoulder, not trusting himself to stand the possible sight of her hurt by his words, "when it's safe or necessary it'll be him, until then you'll have to keep putting up with me." Seeing his friend preparing to leave Robin rushed one final question, knowing what had been said was Beast Boys' secret but also taught by bitter experience that secrets between the team almost always led to disaster,
"Should we tell Star?" The changeling looked over his shoulder, a slight smile playing over his lips as he began to shrink,
"She knows; she's a warrior and a princess, we talk a lot during Silkies' baths."
With that his form shifted and a green gull shot from the Titan tower a second later, cawing into the fading evening light as it sped towards the city, not seeing the blur of blackness behind him as one of the assembled tried to centre herself and the other two tried in vain to consider what step to take next following this upheaval, unaware that their friend was already moving ahead with plans of his own to assuage his genetic duty to those he considered kin.
Dusk was truly falling as Beast Boys' humanoid feet touched the ground again, his aerial route more circumspect than before and his senses alert as he waited; as was standard for the Patrol, assume all contacts are followed until proven otherwise. Shifting into a dog form he immediately caught a familiar smell in the breeze and slunk into the shadows, watching through his worse-than-human vision the other person picking their way through the construction site with an easy grace that belied their civilian attire. Giving a low but non-threatening growl to alert them to his presence, Beast Boy sat down and let his tongue loll out as she heaved herself under the sheet of tarpaulin covering the top of the partially-built warehouse, out of view of prying eyes,
"Put it away," she snorted, brushing dirt off her hands and looking down with distaste as he resumed his normal form, "another pair of shoes on your bill."
"And board and lodging for your little Titan bro doesn't count for diddly?" The ice-blue eye he could see narrowed while the other, either a contact lens or glass, didn't change as the taller woman shook her mane of platinum hair out from the baseball cap that had concealed it whilst flipping a carton of cigarettes from her pocket as Beast Boy wrinkled his nose,
"Do you have to; those things kill you know?"
"Wasn't planning on living long," the girl shot back, lighting a white stick and blowing a cloud of smoke in his direction, "any news?"
"Nothing yet, he's gone too quiet. Rob reckons he might, might," he was quick to make that point clear as her eye narrowed again, "have skipped town but it's unlikely."
"Very, he never leaves a job half-finished," she said with a jolt of recollection, old scars aching despite herself, "lucky Slade didn't use the serum on your leader, you'd never have got him back."
"You'd be surprised, Rob's tough but anyway, back on topic, you called. What's the hit this time?" A cold smile split thin lips as a small paper square was unfolded from her back pocket,
"Blood's looking to expand."
"Really?" Suddenly his smile echoed her own as his eyes traced her hand-drawn map, "Oh, a rushed job; not many bots, a few alarms, almost no automated turrets, heck even some H.I.V.E. brought in for security – tsk, tsk, a definite F for this one Headmaster."
"The power supply's external and lots of unsecured security ports for a download. Got the calling card?" Beast Boy grinned, holding out a small fragment of black cloth and a few spent photon cells he'd filched from the Titans' trophy cabinet,
"Almost too easy, he chickens out as soon as Rae hits the scene these days. Good thing the good doctor has an old feud with the Academy, just remember to give them a bit of a light show?" She snorted, flicking out her cigarette,
"I'm no amateur, unlike the goons that followed me when I was 'jogging'." Having seen how his current partner usually obtained her information Beast Boy winced on their behalf,
"Badly maimed?"
"Mostly their pride, one won't walk straight for a week," she stated, a note of pride in her voice before she suddenly stared him down, "but I need news on him soon."
"I'm working on it and if anyone would know first it'll be us even if people remember seeing you around; he's obsessed with our leader after all. We'll have to be quick though, look into burner phones or something; all his plans are tight and there's never much time to react."
"He's a perfectionist."
"Amen to that; I'll find a way to alert you soon as we get news, that way you can be in the right place at the right time for some father-daughter bonding." Her eye narrowed at his teasing,
"I could kill you eight different ways from here."
"Likewise, and that's without morphs," the two held a stare-down for a second before the taller of the two lit her second cigarette of the meeting, "anyway, we go in at what, eight?"
"Half-past, just after the shifts change; standard drill, you disable the power and scramble things up inside, I go intruder."
"Intruder front door," the changeling chortled as she nodded, "never change Rose. You manage to get a decent virus for his systems; Cyborg never touches them, risk of contamination." She nodded, holding out a pen drive,
"Nasty hydra this one, goes in, eats everything and leaves a feedback trail, we should be able to pick up any nearby Blood hideouts with it. Guy who programmed it called it Grey Haze."
"Lovely; how'd you get it?"
"Hacker board; coded the basics and asked for help fine-tuning."
"The chans work for free now?"
"Use a female avatar and escalate the first guy with a decent resume to drop the TOGTFO line; neckbeards work for boobs. What," as he groaned and slapped a hand over his face there was an almost predatory look in her single eye, "you've never thought about asking for a picture?"
"From you?" She nodded, "I did, then I chose life."
"Proof you've got a brain," she chuckled darkly, though recalling some of their earlier and more fraught negotiations a glimmer of respect entered her mind, "though stupid Doomers tend to die fast. Still can't believe you ran with them, or call one of them mother."
"There are worse families to have," he countered, his verbal opponent taking the blow in her stride, "and anyway I'm only here now thanks to Mento. Him downloading the known information of all supervillains and their associates operating in this part of the world directly into my brain let me pick you out as soon as you arrived."
"Luck," she spat sourly, recalling the unpleasant surprise she'd had upon arriving in her small bedsit after finally tracking down her estranged family only to see a green cat on the windowsill looking at her expectantly, "hate the stuff."
Fortunately the Titan had come alone and with an offer, a good one as he'd explained in the open a few days later, and now some months later she was almost a million dollars richer, had access to superhero information about her ultimate goal and a lot of the other Jump City villains were having serious issues with cash flow and other projects. Rose wasn't much of a people-person, her punishing training installing only the bare necessities for human interaction in favour of assassination techniques, but she could see that her new partner covered a lot of her weaknesses at the same time as kept the Titans and other law enforcement off her back by directing her towards villainous targets no-one really cared about. Without him she'd likely have already squared off against the Jump City protectors already, stalling her from confronting her misbegotten sperm-donor so she owed him for that, but exactly what he got out of the deal she'd tried to work out for some time and still couldn't see, so now she made to banish that slight doubt,
"Why are you doing this?" Rummaging in his pocket for his disguise, Beast Boy looked up at her,
"You can't do this alone Rose; I know you're good enough to handle anything Blood's got but you'll need me to…"
"No," she corrected herself, measuring his response in her linear, calculating mind, "I mean this, why are you teaming up with a supervillains daughter? You know this ends with death right, at least Slades or mine when I find him?"
"There's already been death," his reply made even her blink in surprise and her respect for his senses rose another couple of notches as he tapped the side of his nose, "you think I couldn't smell blood on you when we met up afterwards a few times? I'm no Robin or Cy but I'm smart enough to know people hit with blades that sharp usually don't get up again."
"I'm a killer, fine; why are you working with me?" His eyes hardened, emerald reflecting her cold sapphire as he let her in slightly,
"Better them than us."
"Us?"
"The Titans, you or me," he extrapolated, Rose paying attention to the order of his words as much as their meaning, "you're right it'll end in blood one day, either by accident or design. The Titans are heroes, we don't kill, that means we have to get lucky every time; the scum we're up against only have to get lucky once. I'm not running that risk, not with my pack," his thumbs ran across his fingertips, across the small claws she knew were concealed by his gloves, "so we're taking out the bad guys before they can fight my friends." It was a sound plan but still skipped over what was, to her, the most logical course of action,
"Why not cut the head off the snake; you could do it," she back up her query with a pointed fact about his combat potential, waiting for the changelings' answer as Beast Boy fingered his chin, regarding her levelly as he thought how best to answer.
In truth he'd been expecting this question for a while; ever since the formerly tell-tale eye-patch had triggered Mento's implanted debrief the anamorph had found almost exactly what he'd expected to find – Slade, damn his black heart and cold soul, did excellent but incomplete work with his apprentices. Even in his cat form he'd intuitively known she wasn't quite right the same way he'd know if an earthquake was coming and repeated meetings with her had borne this gut instinct out. Everything Rose had ever learned had been for the singular purpose of completing missions, anything outside that narrow focus ignored completely, culminating in the dangerous but oddly broken girl before him; she could lethally poison food using the contents of the average kitchen but lived on take-out because she couldn't cook; she could hack and code passably, and crack security devices par excellence but booting up a GameStation was currently beyond her. It was both scary and sad but was slowly improving; much like Rita with him in the early days, as long as he made and explained his points in a way she could understand she would listen; after he'd pointed out her eyepatch had made her traceable, the next time he'd seen her she'd had much more discrete glass eye in her empty socket. Now it was time for another lesson, another toe-length out of the narrow and blood-choked rut Slade had ploughed for his own flesh and blood, another inch towards his downfall and her freedom from his bale influence,
"I could kill them, you're quite right, but doing that would leave a power vacuum," he began, warming to his subject as he relived one of his favourite uncles' old lessons, "Robotman explained how supervillains work to me. Killing one off and leaving their network; computers, henchmen, molls, rackets, anything like that; intact just means another caped evil-doer swoops in, takes their good work and becomes a bigger threat. You don't assassinate the other sides' generals in a cold war, you take out their support structures," his smile was calculating and Rose found herself warming to his theme as he coached it in a language she could understand, "front companies, inheritances, fraud schemes, gang-banger gangs, robot factories, hell even this possible new school for villainy – wreck the place, leave their mainframe picking zeroes out of its teeth for months, steal anything not nailed down and hand all the evidence to the authorities. Get their financial tootsies in a vice and start squeezing; they'll run off or scream soon enough, and if you can," he nodded at the spent batteries in his hand, "make it look like someone else is doing it."
"Divide and conquer."
"Got it in one," he smiled, grateful to see the expression mirrored slightly on her face, "villains hate each other as much as they hate heroes and that's a big weakness, one we've been hammering since you got here. Some of them are almost ready to tear each other apart now; remember that garage a fortnight ago, how you drove that motorbike through the parking lot while I set the charges?"
"Yes, you said the owner was a villain."
"He is but not a serious one; Ding-Dong's never going to win any prizes but that's not the point," he leant forwards slightly, excitement in his tone as he remembered thumbing the detonator and watching the front automotive repair shop go up in flames, taking with it the car-mad evil-doers' pride and joy, "the treads on your bike matched those used by Johnny Rancid, the spent grenade launcher rounds was a standard trick for him too. Now those two hate each other and Ding-Dong's got a lot of pull with local garage owners; Rancid can't get a squirt of gas within a hundred miles of here and thinks Daddy's just being a punk; while they're squaring off with each other they're not giving us any hassle. It's the same as the Kitten trick, remember?"
"Yes," Rose admitted slowly, trying to follow this, to her, oblique line of reasoning, "I stole her purse and cloned her bank card while she was on a date with that spider-boy, then we used the clone to drain all her accounts. That made her fall out with her boyfriend but why did she blame him; she must have known he didn't do it."
"Because it wasn't her bank card, it was her fathers; the card was made out to a D Walker, Kitten must have borrowed or stolen it for their date," Beast Boy explained, Roses' eyebrow rising as she too recalled that detail, the rest of the story becoming clear as he went one, "after we cloned the card I wiped it clean and handed her purse in to lost property. It had only been gone fifteen minutes at most and she was so grateful to find it she never thought anything of losing it afterwards; the theft took her, and her father more to the point, completely on the hop. I can't prove it, but I'd bet most of his former wealth that when Killer Moth found out he was about ready to disown her – she had to point the finger at Fang either because she genuinely thought he was responsible but couldn't prove it or to save her own skin after she filched her fathers' card. Either way the money's gone, she's grounded forever, Killer Moth's broke and on the rampage after Fang for stealing and breaking his little girls' heart, they're all blaming each other and we made out like bandits with three more villains out the way. Look them in the eye, shake them by the hand then kick them in the balls; one of Mento's old sayings for dealing with supervillains – you understand what it means?"
"Act noble but play dirty," at his nod Rose smiled in fond imagination, "a man I could get on with…"
"Hate to burst your bubble but he's happily married."
"…ha ha," her sardonic tone could have staled bread before she broke it to press on, "but he's right and so are you, though smart villains won't fall for it, Slade won't."
"Probably not, I doubt Blood will either but that's the beauty of it; no villain gets anywhere without pissing off one half a dozen others. Put yourself in Bloods' shoes tonight; someone's got him on the back foot – who is it? Is it Dr Light, someone trying to frame him, or is it a double-bluff of Dr Light getting someone else to do his dirty work and making it look like a frame-up? Who else benefits from him being in a bad way, whose toes has he stomped on recently? What should he do next to shore up and where could the next blow come from, or when? How long can he afford to go incognito, or should he get the next blow in, and how much of a blow would his pride take if Dr Light gets wind of the attack and claims credit for it? And worst come to worst, if he does work out it's a stitch-up, why would he suspect the Titans, who are heroes and too noble to fight dirty, and me least of all – I'm a joke, a prankster, I could never threaten a genius intellect like him. That's how we take down the bigger boys like your father; we hit them hard and disappear, let their paranoia do the rest; death by a thousand cuts." Rose considered this for a moment before shaking her head,
"Won't work, Slades' in this city too deep to be rattled."
"But he's on his own, we've got a city on our side; don't forget I'm a Titan. Information is power Rose, never forget that; there's a tool for every occasion. Let's say we track down a robot factory, we assume it'll be armoured like a bank vault, ready for anything a super can throw at it; can it survive an unexpected health and safety inspection following an anonymous tip-off? Are all his employees legal residents of the state, or the country; a charge, or even accusation of slavery's a really big political no-no. Got a permit for that death-laser; no – sorry, we'll take it away and here's a number to try and get it back. If his robots try to obstruct the bureaucracy he's in contempt anyway, if he goes nuclear and puts civilians at risk the Titans and probably the Justice League will be on his ass faster than the Flash after a dozen expressos, and while he's dealing with the paperwork we can start going after softer targets. It's not going to be quick Rose," he admitted, meeting her eye steadily as he impressed this point on her again, "it never is, but it's got to be done right to make sure he's left with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide."
"Never is?" She repeated, her finely-honed mind immediately isolating a deeper meaning in his words, "You've done this before?" Beast Boy nodded,
"It's why the Brotherhood is such a threat to the world and the Doom Patrol's got the reputation it has; because they work together doing what we do is what it takes to stop them. Most of our work was done isolating their bases, rooting out their political affiliates and taking out their resources the same way I just described – work in the field is dangerous as hell but isn't much of the Patrols' day job. We can't go for the throat Rose; I know that's what you were planning when you arrived here," she didn't deny it, nodding as she absorbed his knowledge silently, "that would have been suicide at best, delivering yourself right back to him at worst."
"You're right," her mental conditioning wasn't so strict that she couldn't admit fault, though doing so chafed her pride, "so why aren't all the Titans doing this for all your enemies, why just you?" Beast Boy shrugged,
"Because I'm the only one that can," he pointed out, ticking off on his fingers, "for a start it's how I've been trained; Batman's great and all but he's always after the top guys, though I suppose he has to be as they're always getting out; Gothams' courts are more bent than Elasti-Girls' yoga sessions. Robin's the same, he just doesn't see that sort of picture and even if he did he'd probably never do it; clowns like Ding-Dong are one thing but for more serious feuds it'd spill onto the street and he draws the line at death, especially with civilians at risk – even suggesting what we're doing would give him a fit of the vapours and hurt the team."
"The others that squeamish?"
"Depends; none of us want civilians involved, least of all me, but I think they'd all kill if they had to, even Rob. But that's the problem, doing it would break them afterwards and I'm not going to let that happen. Rob would completely disintegrate, Cy would be afraid he's becoming more machine than man, Starfires' a warrior so might not be too bad but it would still screw with her powers and Raven," he shuddered at the thought of the empath with blood on her hands, "she's emotionally delicate at the best of times. Even being in the tower with everyone's emotional repercussions would knock her badly, if she actually did the deed all Jump would be in for a world of hurt. Not worth the risk, better just me doing the behind-the-scenes bits and getting the information we need while you go Wolverine on their asses."
"Hate that comic, completely unrealistic."
"I know, nothing like real life but it's fun to dream sometimes right?"
Rose nodded and a silence fell between them, Beast Boy deliberately glancing away from his partner while keeping the corner of his eye on her. Since her arrival in Jump and his fortuitous notice of it (and after a discrete call to Mento to arrange from him to verify Ravagers' words psychically from a nearby booth in the restaurant they'd held their second meeting in – though Rose hadn't known it, had the Doom Patrol veteran sensed she'd been lying she'd not have walked away from her second encounter with the youngest Titan) their joint venture had proven fruitful. Already several names had been crossed off the Titans' extensive annoyance list and tonight would strike a blow against a more serious threat, possibly a terminal one if the hasty nature of Bloods' latest construction indicated the growing desperation Beast Boy hoped it did. The Titans nailing Professor Chang six weeks ago had removed a lot of the expertise he needed to build the Cyborg copycats that represented most of Bloods' military might, compounding his and Ravagers' actions in permanently destroying his main droid processing plant and, more importantly, the back-up schematics database housed at the place shortly afterwards. Putting himself in the desperate teachers' shoes Beast Boy tried to predict his next move; springing Chang was an option but mostly he needed cash to rebuild, hence this new school plan. Several of his old students were on good terms with their former master and might advance him loans – it might be time to keep a closer eye on the H.I.V.E. for the next few weeks…
"Garfield," the surprise, both at Roses' interruption and her use of his name, broke him from his introspections so quickly he jumped, taking in the assassins' more uncomfortable body language with a glance and remaining quiet, "you do this for your friends – is it because you, really care for them? Is this, like love?"
They were making progress, though he was careful to keep elation off his face as he weighed his answer. In the time he'd known her Beast Boy had come to think of Ravager as not too dissimilar to Starfire, though with more choppy-choppy knives and deadpan seriousness than starbolts and sunshine. She was not naïve as the Tamaranean often was, but she didn't understand how normal people interacted, often listening in silence to Beast Boys' discussions of general life in the Tower prior to missions with dismissive attentions and asking questions to clarify things in her almost-autistically focussed mind. Questions meant she was receptive to a different point of view, a new idea and out of respect for this Beast Boy didn't goof around as he may have done with closer friends, instead boosting onto a pallet of bricks and drumming his heels idly as he formulated a cohesive reply,
"That's not easy to answer Rose, especially because I don't think I can love, not like humans do – don't forget I'm part if not mostly animal. I've got a different perspective on most things compared to other people and especially other superheroes; to me love, for example, means I'll fight, kill and even die to protect you, or to make sure you can't get hurt in the future – that's not what love means for normal people. It's why I don't really care about kisses or Valentines or things like that, they're not important to me."
"But you always…"
"I do that to fit in," he explained gently, Rose cocking her head as she digested this, "I'm of the age now where normal boys, and super ones come to that, are all about what girl's packing how much booty, it's just easier to go with the flow than try to stand out and have to keep explaining it. Still, back on topic I'm doing this now because it benefits my pack, my friends – it stops a possible threat to them. It's the same reason that tomorrow morning I'll be back arguing with Cy because he always wanted a little brother to argue with and beat at computer games, I'll train with Robin to make sure he doesn't start to get obsessive over your daddy dearest and annoy Raven so she doesn't close herself off from the world too much. That's just natural to me; I see a problem with a pack member or a threat to the pack I try to fix it – not always successfully I admit but I like to think at least most of the time I do some good. Some people might call that love but to me," he shrugged, "it's just what I do."
Rose didn't answer, instead balancing a short dagger she pulled from the lining of her jacket on her fingers, the mindless exercise whiling away the time to zero hour. Beast Boy gave her time and space, preparing himself in his own way and allowing his instincts to rise, the nature of the Beast rising closer to the surface but crucially not threatening to take control of the man. Night was falling rapidly now and it would soon be time to strike another blow against someone who'd come far too close to ending his beloved big brother forever; the thought made him smile darkly before a whisper of steel made him glance up at his companion again,
"I think, I understand," she began slowly, not dropping here monocular vision from his face as though scanning for deceit, "you're more relatable than others I've met – I never understood other partners, often killed them."
"Hell is other people; aha" Beast Boy quoted, giving a triumphant hiss as he finally pulled the small ring from his pocket, "we has it, the precioussss; ready to go?" She nodded, then paused and he sensed another questioning coming, one with a sharper point than any that had come before,
"You said this was a cold war," he knew what she was driving at but nodded anyway, "what if it goes hot?"
"Hopefully the Titans will be able to handle it; if the bad guys are squaring off with each other or getting desperate we should be able to take them out. If it gets nasty though we, you and me this is, change tactics, same as if their fights spill over and threaten people, kidnapping, ransom and the like" he said coldly, not breaking her gaze even as he saw her smile grow a fraction, "I'd rather strangle their businesses and run them out of town but if some of the super-idiots here decide it'll end in blood I'm going to make damned sure it's theirs, not ours."
"You'll kill?"
"If I have to," he affirmed, providing the reassurance she was looking for, "death's like love for me, different – if caring for my friends means I've got to put some of these assholes down I can live with that; I'd rather be haunted by my enemy's' ghosts than carry my friends' coffin."
"True," Rose flipped the dagger away and dropped her rucksack to the ground, checking her watch as she unzipped it, "get dressed." He fiddled with the ring finger on his left hand and grimacing as the holoring took effect, hiding his normal features behind a black suit with a marked skull mask, "man I hate looking like this idiot, too many bad memories."
"He's just a memory," Rose pointed out, Beast Boy looking away in reminiscence as she reached for the base of her top despite the fact she never told him not to peek,
"Too right, without the suit he's nothing," in truth Red X had been arguably the easiest villain to take out as there were very few places he could obtain the power source his suit needed. His gadgets were fancy and he was on par with Robin in a straight fight but all that counted for nothing after one of his heists, when the thrill of victory dulled his normal senses and against a wolfs' tracking nose and a girl hand-trained by the most lethal assassin in the modern world it was a mistake he'd only made once. The man behind the mask had been exposed, photographed on a multitude of media and beaten to within an inch of his life, left to crawl into (admittedly wealthy) obscurity as his suit was burned for good, its holographic representation put to better use in future missions. Rose, acting on Beast Boys' advice, had given the mangled villain two weeks to leave town and had the blackmail to make sure he stayed away; as of now he was a non-entity,
"Any idea where X actually went after the tap-dance you did on him?"
"No." Risking a glance Beast Boy let a sly smile slip over his face as he saw his companion fully decked out in her mission gear, marvelling at the accuracy of her approximation of Dr Lights' normal uniform before remembering she was also a trained infiltrator,
"Looking good, but you've not locked him in your bedroom then?"
"No; chained him upside-down to a wooden cross – don't want him to escape." Even through a holographic mask Beast Boy managed to spit-take, gazing at her small but proud smile agog,
"You, did you just joke Rose? That's awesome," knowing she wasn't fond of sudden physical contact he slowly patted her closest forearm, feeling the implanted metal tubing that he hoped was only a fake photon blaster in her uniform, "you're learning; got those blob-throwers?" She nodded and a second later he idly snatched the weapons she threw him out the air, holstering them to make his disguise more complete before nodding,
"Ready to go?" She casually threw a smokeless flare into the discarded bag, neatly removing any trace of their presence as it began to catch fire,
"Lead the way Predator."
At the name Beast Boy cursed both himself for letting the platinum blonde know his former Doom Patrol call-sign and her for using it, looking over his shoulder at the unrepentant villainess,
"What was the bargain Daddy Issues?"
"Slip of the tongue," she said unconvincingly, Beast Boy rolling his disguised eyes, "why don't you use it – it's better than Beast Boy."
"Can't be a predator without a taste for blood; I'm trying to delay that as much as possible." Kicking over the ashes of her former bag Ravager paused for a second, perhaps a hint of softness in the piercing blue eye visible through her mask,
"Looking out for the Titans?" Even through his holographic disguise she saw the naked conviction etched on his face,
"Always; Negative Man said your humour changes after you take a life, and anyway there's already one bloodstained clown in this world and he's more than enough, Robin would tell you that," thoughts of the Bird-Boys' stories about that laughing psychopath made his fists clenched slightly, feeling himself temporarily discarding the mask of the prankster to better assuage the vehement need in the core of his soul, "I'll be their brother, their student, their friend and their pain in the ass tomorrow; tonight I'm their protector, your partner and we've got work to do."
"And tomorrow, for me?"
"I'm your eye in the sky for signs of Slade and I'll keep you posted on how Jericho's settling in – he's good, I know that much, maybe even getting close to the little sparkler if rumours are true."
"Thanks; let's go."
As the two dropped noiselessly from under their plastic shielding and disappeared into the night Beast Boy had little idea that his words were finding deeper routes than he'd ever anticipated in two separate souls who now knew part of his whole truth. As one silently meditated and admitted to herself that she callously taken someone she belatedly realised was very dear to her completely for granted and thought of ways to make amends the other, as she prepared to tear through the the now blacked-out building wondered what the shapeshifter might one day be to her should she become part of his pack.
A/N: Okay, all finished and I hope you enjoyed this take on Beast Boy – I was aiming to explore what someone who was part-animal would consider love to be or kisses to mean; going off how my dogs react to different situations e.g. when a friend comes home, when they're playing with a child or adult, when they think there's a threat to the family home etc, this is what I ended up with, a Garfield trained to look out for his pack both short and long-term and animalistic enough to blur 'human' morals and mores to see them safe. I also wanted to include Ravager as a case study into someone reduced to virtual autism focussed on killing people (this isn't meant as an insult, just an observation that autistic people are usually hyper-focussed on specific things and don't like changes to their chosen environments – in this case, Slades' brutal training and the super-soldier serum he used on his daughter did pretty much the same thing to her) coming into friendly contact with someone like this Garfield. It would be a very interesting way to develop them carefully and slowly into a functional human being and with his instincts (much like dogs with difficult children) Beast Boy would have a decent handle on how to approach the problems she'd face; she might not and/or never be sexually attracted to him, but Garfield could be Rose Wilsons' best friend.
Anyway, enough of the old man's ramblings, hope you enjoyed this short and good luck in your own writings!
