Alright, the count down is on! There should be only four more chapters (including this one and epilogue). Hope you all enjoy!
Chapter 36
"Beastboy!" Melvin cheered. Her little form clung to him disbelieving her hero was now standing here alive and well. She wanted to start dancing. She would have, too, if she was not being stared down by a recovering Nequam, son of Vita. Nequam stared at Beastboy in mild curiosity; if one could say his deformed face could show any emotion that is. "Are you the same boy?" he asked. His voice was gruff and cold. Melvin had to suppress the need to hide away from him because of his voice alone. It was Beastboy's turn to look slightly confused. "Dude, what are you talking about?"
"Are you him? The one my sister had ripped his leg from? The one that changes shape from animal to animal."
Beastboy grinned cheekily. He set Melvin aside next to the spell ensnared Raven, then stood between the demon and the two girls. "Well, I'm a changeling, but do either of these legs look ripped off to you?" He pointed to his two well attached legs. Was it not for the rip in his pant leg, Melvin would not have been able to remember which leg it had been that the child demon had stole from her green friend.
Nequam was silent as he observed the young shape changer. He could have sworn his mother had assured him that the green human named Beastboy had lost his life for his foolish challenge against her. So how was it that same boy he and his sister had help chase down stand here before him alive and free of injury.
Almost as though he read the beast's mind, Beastboy's smile widen. "Mirna says 'hi', by the way," he said. Nequam's forehead raised in a manner that looked similar to a person raising their eye brows in surprise. "You have seen the angel?" it seethed. "So the bitch still wanders these halls."
"Wooh, dude, language. There's a little kid here you know," Beastboy thumbed over his shoulder towards Melvin's direction. The little girl smiled though she knew her friend's gull would soon get him in trouble with the beast. For the time being, the injured demon was at a stand still. "You really are a strange one," he muttered. "Even after you have felt mother's wrath, you dare challenge me? You're either very brave, or very stupid."
"Yeah, most bad guys say that," Beastboy shrugged.
Nequam's lip curled in a way similar to a smirk that exposed his rotten fangs. "I suppose you're track record makes you oblivious to what kind of power you face." Melvin gasped as she noticed Nequam's skin begin to bubble as if some large bugs were crawling just under the surface. "You mortals are all idiots. I will destroy your pathetic ideals by tearing you limb from limb and sucking out every ounce of blood from your veins."
"Talk about graphic," Beastboy ventured to mock once more. Though if the smile disappearing from his face was any indication, he was actually starting to get serious.
Nequam screeched far too much like his mother. Everyone cringed at the familiar 'nails on chalkboard' noise. The bumps within his skin began to burst open. As the blood oozed onto the floor, letting off the most putrid of smells, boney hands reached from Nequam's flesh. Each hand bore some sort of facial feature; an eye or a mouth. Each little mouth bore rows of razor sharp teeth.
Beastboy and Melvin's jaws dropped. If Nequam was hideous before, their was no word in the English language that could possibly describe him now. Over each eye fingers poked from the skin. They could have been mistaken for horns… if they were not moving. Nequam reared up on his hind legs and lashed out one of it's many arms. Beastboy quickly pushed Melvin back before jumping away in the form of frog. The small amphibian was stopped mid hop as one of Nequam's other hands snatched him from the air. Beastboy's reactions were quick enough to change him into a rhino. It was a good thing too, or the teeth of the palm's mouth would have ripped off his entire back skin rather than leave tiny punctures in his hide.
More hands reached for Beastboy. The young changeling trashed his head, repeatedly stabbing his horn into the demon. The beast snarled before it's teeth reached for his back. Just before it's jaw snapped down, Beastboy transformed into a fly. Melvin screamed as she saw the demon's fangs create a cage around the small insect. Then, he was gone.
A deep growl akin to laughter emitted from the beast's throat as he eyed Melvin once more. Then Nequam's face turned to that of horror struck. His neck bulged like a balloon being filled with air. Nequam squeaked as if meaning to scream, but was cut short by his head burst clean off his shoulders. Black ooze splattered everywhere. It took no time to see that the bulg had been as a certain green triceratops fell out of the initial breaking point. Just as he hit the ground, so did Nequam's decapitated body.
The dinosaur suddenly changed into Beastboy covered in saliva and dark ooze. "Ewww…" he muttered as he held up his arms to demonstrate how Nequam's innards stuck to him.
"You did it!" Melvin cheered. She ran over to hug Beastboy just as she had earlier, but stopped dead. One of her little hands held her nose closed while the other waved away the smell. "Ichy… you need a bath."
"Later, kiddo," Beastboy said as he took her hand and led her to their still sleeping friend. When he looked over to Raven's still sleeping form, however, he went ridged. In seconds he was in the form of a lion standing over Raven as he bat away the demon's head that had slunk it's way towards her. The head stuck into one of the wooden fort posts making it look like something a murderous tribe would do to remind it's enemies not to attack them. Seeing what had happened, Melvin raced over to Raven's side opposite of the demon head. She noticed Raven's eyes were drifting open. "Raven?" she called. The empath Titan simply fell back to sleep. The demon head's growl returned Melvin's attention to it where it continued to squirm on the post. For safety's sake, she imagined once again. Her imaginary flower friends grew over the fort post and onto the head holding it in place. The jaws continued to snap, though the beast's eyes were dull.
Eventually, the vines held the giant mouth closed. All was quiet save for the roar of thunder as the two meta humans watched the head for anymore sneak attacks. Beastboy also kept an eye of Nequam's fallen body; just in case. After they were sure all was quiet, they sighed in relief. Beastboy even laughed a little. "He wasn't so tough," he breathed. Melvin smiled; if only Vita had been this easy!
Just then shadows crossed over the door. The two tensed as they looked up ready to fight once more. To their relief, it was the remainder of their team. Cyborg was the only one standing on his own while Starfire piggy backed. Teether lay nestled sleepily in Cyborg's grip. Though they each looked worse for wear, they were still alive, and that was all that matter. "Beastboy?" Cyborg's jaw dropped.
The metal titan was missing an arm, and deep claw mark were ripped into his metallic body, but he was other wise alright. Starfire was the one that looked to be in need of medical aid. On top of the burns from the garage fire, she now bore scratches up and down her arms and torso. One nasty scratch in particular now marked the side of her face. Beastboy and Melvin cringed as they noticed whatever had attacked her had meant to rip out her eyes, and- fortunately- just fell short.
Beastboy smiled at his friends. "Hey guys!" he greeted cheerily.
Starfire rubbed her eyes thinking her blood had blurred her vision. "Beastboy? Is that really you? You are…" she could not finish.
"Alive?" Beastboy finished for her. Starfire nodded on the verge of tears. "Turns out Mirna grabbed me just before I actually died," Beastboy explained. "Something about a second miracle. I don't know, but she saved me!"
"How? I mean, we found a cat's skull in the fire pit," Cyborg continued to press.
"She had to burn my old body so I could get this new one. After all, if I stayed in that other one, I would have just died."
"How do we know you are not just Vita wishing to trick us once more?" Starfire questioned. Her hand glowed threateningly with a bright orange star bolt.
"Uh…" was Beastboy's only response. The star bolt grew larger. Melvin backed away a little leaving her imaginary flower friends slowly carry Raven away from him.
"Wait, wait… uh… When we first met, I just stopped you from killing Robin, and then you threw a bus at us," Beastboy rambled.
"Memories will not work," Starfire dead-panned. "Vita had looked into my mind when she had possessed me… she knows all my memories and secrets that I know."
"Er…" Beastboy looked to Cyborg in desperation. He chanted in his head to think of a time that they had said or done something that Starfire had not known about. Something. Anything!
Cyborg was preparing for a fight as well. All Beastboy could think was just how much this stank. Stank… wait a minute, that was it! "After that whole thing with that weird dragon book guy, Raven had hit you with the stank ball a lot. Did you ever tell anyone why?" Cyborg shook his head. His posture had settled just the slightest. "It was cause Raven and me were having a moment and you cut in by hitting me with the stank ball."
"That is why? I had heard of Raven using the ball of stank to attack Cyborg, but I had not known it was because he had ruined a 'moment' between you two. Cyborg, how could you?" Starfire had dropped her star bolt. She was now looking at Cyborg slightly peeved.
"I didn't know!" Cyborg defended. Beastboy sighed in exasperation; at least now they believed it was him.
He was suddenly swept up in a bone crushing hug by Starfire. "Oh, friend, I am most overjoyed you are alive. You gave us the most offal of 'the scares'."
Beastboy tried to let the young alien princess know that her tight hug was cutting off his lung copasetic. Luckily, Cyborg noticed Beastboy face turning from green to a slight blue. "Take it easy, Star," he advised. "He just got back, we don't want him to pass out from a hug."
Starfire instantly let Beastboy go. "I am sorry," she muttered.
"It's okay, Star," Beastboy wheezed as air recollected in him.
"Good to have you back, little buddy," Cyborg added as he pat Beastboy on the back.
"Starfire, you're flying again!" Melvin made herself known. The three awake teen titans glanced at Starfire to see she was indeed flying. Starfire smiled as she flew around a bit remembering the thrill she had forgotten during her depression. "It appears my joy to see Beastboy is alive and not dead is enough to allow me to fly again," she answered.
A sudden noise near the window made everyone on the defence. Starfire had even gone so far as to fire a star bolt. After the smoke cleared, everyone was staring at a dizzy winged flashlight. It was smoking from the force of Starfire's attack. Everyone relaxed. "I swear, we're going to be paranoid for the rest of our lives when we get out of here," Beastboy muttered. Everyone nodded in agreement.
Melvin suddenly latched onto Beastboy's pant leg. "What is it, kiddo?" Beastboy asked.
"Where'd the monster go?" her little voice squeaked. Beastboy's head jerked up to look for Nequam's body. Sure enough, it was no longer there. He turned attention to the head; it was gone too. "Awe man," he grumbled.
"Awe man? No, no more 'awe man's," Cyborg responded. "I am getting sick of fighting these things."
"I am also growing ill of these creature's attacks," Starfire sighed. She was clearly still exhausted.
Everyone toppled over as the one side of the bed was thrown into the air. Melvin and Teether screamed before they were caught by Melvin's flower friends. Starfire flew to the ceiling throwing one attack after another at the shape on the other side of the bed. Beastboy ran to one side while Cyborg stood his ground to stop the bed from falling onto Raven and the kids.
The demon yowled with Starfire constant attacks being hurled at it. Beastboy took the form of a cricket to investigate which demon they were dealing with. Between the spikes and the half a dozen hands along it's body, there was no doubt it was Nequam. The little cricket quickly turned into a wolf and snapped down on the first extra hand available. He pulled as hard as he could trying to rip it off. One of the other hands came down to eye level with him. He yelped in surprise when he came eye to eye with the eye on the hand's palm. The moment Beastboy's grip slackened, the hand he had had a hold of pulled away from him. Then, in a swift motion, it smacked him hard across the face.
Nequam hissed and yowled as blood oozed while he was pelted with star bolt after star bolt. He could barely concentrate between Starfire and Beastboy's attacks. It was enough of a distraction for Cyborg to upturn the mattress and Melvin to imagine it into a flat bodied sled dog. Cyborg quickly set Raven and the children on the mattress dog's 'back'. The demon had begun to flail about; it was not safe for either the kids or the unconscious Raven to remain in the tight spaced battle ground. "Melvin, take them out of here," Cyborg ordered the child. She straighten up and saluted.
"Go Matty!" She ordered her imaginary dog. As the creature mattress made for the door, a bear form Beastboy covered their retreat. He happened a glance at Raven's sleeping form. He did not know what kind of spell kept her asleep, but he felt compelled to tell her to hang in there. Seconds later, Melvin's dog was racing down the hall away from the battle.
By then, Cyborg had joined the brawl. The monster, Nequam, roared it's frustration. Fortunately, this time, Cyborg's high frequency sonic canon was enough to counter the more annoying notes of the demon's call. "You will be quiet now!" Starfire shouted at the beast while firing star bolts into it's open jaws. The demon's neck glowed orange before the head burst clean off. The three teens breathed in exhaustion. All eyes remained on the body, because there was nothing left- save for the goo that now painted the walls- of the head this time.
"Am I the only one that thinks that was too easy?" Cyborg said cautiously approaching the body. He kicked one of the hands. It was lucky for him he had retreated after hitting the clawed hand, for it reached out trying to bite him before falling the ground once again. "Dang, this thing is still fighting," he grumbled.
"yeah, it's head came off once already, but them, boom! It's back on and fighting. It's like the energizer demon!" Beastboy commented.
"Are we to wait for this being of evil to reawaken so that we may engage another fight?" Starfire questioned.
"Not with Vita still out there," Beastboy answered. "We gotta go find the kids and Raven before she does."
"BB's right," Cyborg agreed. "This guy is down for the count for now. He'll come looking for us when he wakes up." The three teens looked over the body again noting some of the wall slim had already begun to slink together. "Come on, it's not going to take him long," Cyborg lead the way out of the room. Starfire and Beastboy quickly followed behind. Behind them, the flesh crawled together melding into a new head. One red eye ball watched them leave and the reforming lip curled in a growl.
It was relatively quiet as the mattress dog bound through the halls towards the main room. Melvin was holding it's ears as if driving it while Teether sat sobbing next to Raven. " 'Aven?" the frightened child tried to rise her. The poor boy did not know what else to do. His playmates were either gone or acting funny. And a monster was trying to hurt everyone. Like Bobby, and Robin. Did it take Timmy too?
His young mind just could not understand it, what did this thing want? He remembered hearing stories about bad monsters coming in the night to steal away naughty little children. He wasn't naughty, was he?
A small groan turned the children's attentions to the teen occupant of the ride. " 'Aven?" Teether said clearly hopeful. Raven stirred again, her eyes finally opening.
Raven's foggy mind tried to make out the images she was seeing. The inner battle was done, that she could remember. And she was… moving? She blinked a few times and heard a child's voice calling her name. Before Raven could really awaken, she was ambushed by two very happy children. "Raven! Are you awake? Why were sleeping so long? Are you okay? I was so scared! There was this monster that looks like the other monster and he wanted to eat us! I fought him! I imaged all kinds of friends to help! And guess what? Raven, you won't believe it! Beastboy's alive! Mirna saved him!" It was amazing how fast Melvin could speak. If one could compare her ramble to how fast a person could run, Raven was sure the little child was closing in on Kid Flash's speed. Though she could barely make out half the things Melvin was saying - especially over Teether's repetitive " 'Aven! 'Aven!"- but she did hear one thing in particular that had gained her full attention. "Beastboy's alive?" she gasped.
The dog mattress jolted to a stop with a loud yelp. The children hid behind Raven as she stood prepared for whatever had happened. From- seemingly- the air itself, a giant arm had reached down and was holding onto the mattress dog's head. It's claws were dug deep into the poor imaginary creature's skull and neck. "Matty!" Melvin cried before she and Teether were scooped up by Raven. The it hurt her to move, the young titan carried herself and the children to the other side of the counter to hide. Melvin and Teether crawled into the cupboard for safety as Raven watched the hand and imaginary friend from the corner.
In the time it had taken to flee, claws had dug themselves from the air. Raven realized that it was something coming out of a portal. The beast on the other side was clearly struggling with opening the portal. Eventually the other hand managed to open the vortex enough for a giant head to poke out of. A very familiar deformed head snarled at nothing while it fought it's way out of the other dimension. "Vita," Raven gasped as she fully recognized the spiked demon.
The mother demon fought and clawed her way until she was finally free. She took a quick look around before she noticed she held a living creature in her claws. The dog whimpered and cried at the sight of Vita. It howled in pain just before it's head was torn clean off. Raven had to look away as the great beast began to devour it's latest catch. Brave little Melvin, however, had spared snuck a glance at what had become of her latest imaginary friend. She gasped.
Raven instantly covered Melvin's mouth and shoved the child back into the cupboard. The damage, however, had already been done. Vita's head shot up at the noise. Blood dripped from her fangs that were now twisting into a wicked smile. Raven peeked around the corner again as she closed the cupboard door hiding away the children. She watched as Vita stocked closer like the predator she was. Inhaling deeply, Raven forced herself to calm and focus. Then, she stood facing Vita.
I'm back! And with another cliffy. Anyway, sorry for the late update… WAY too many life's problems (I'm not exaggerating either… police were involved this time). So, now that things have quieted down, I figured it's about time I update this baby, eh?
So what do you guys think? Is this chapter called "The return" because of BB's return? Or Raven's? or what about Vita's? idk, just thought I'd leave you guys thinking.
Anyway, hope you've all enjoyed. I hope to get the next part to you soon (no promises).
~Nemarra