Friendship...
"Dude, that's freaking awesome!" Beast Boy proclaimed "And that's why it's the best movie in the franchise!"
"No way!" Cyborg said "The CGI is way too overdone in that movie! The first one is way better because the monster actually looks real!"
As Cyborg and Beast Boy argued over the movie franchise, Raven just tuned them out. However, they were getting louder and louder. And this wasn't made any better when Starfire jumped in in an attempt to break them up.
Seeing as she wasn't going to be able to concentrate here, she left the main room, headed downstairs and outside.
Walking over to the shore of the island, Raven looked out at the city. The place was rather quiet and calm. And when she didn't see anybody, she levitated herself in the air and began to meditate.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…" She repeated over and over to herself.
After a solid hour of meditating, she finally opened her eyes and returned her feet to the ground. She looked out at the city again and soaked in the rather beautiful view.
"That's quite pretty." Raven commented to herself as she took in the view.
Turning back, Raven was stopped when she saw Polybius. She couldn't see what he was doing, but it looked like he was focusing on whatever was by his feet.
Deciding to check it out, she walked over towards the mute Titan to see that he was looking down at some plants. The one he and Starfire had planted a few weeks ago. Specifically, he was looking at an Aloe Vera plant that didn't look like it was doing so well. It looked like it was in a state of limbo between life and death and it was clear that Polybius knew it.
Watching Polybius, she watched as the teen pulled out a razor blade from his backpack and cut the plant down. Leaving its roots and base of its stem intact. She then watched as he put it into a bag with a label she couldn't read from where she was before putting it back in his backpack.
Standing up, she watched as the Titan examined the other plants in his 'garden.' Raven was quite familiar with all of the plants Polybius was growing. She had used them in health potions in the past. And with the amount of pain Polybius had with his back, it didn't surprise her that he was growing these plants. He, just like her, knew about the healing properties of the plants. Just what Polybius was doing wasn't magical, but more scientifical.
Raven then began to approach the older Titan who was cutting down some Marigolds.
"Kinda late for gardening, isn't it?" Raven asked, referring to the sun that was getting rather low.
Polybius looked up at her and smiled before returning to his work.
"These plants." Raven said, "What do you grow them for?"
Polybius then pointed to himself.
"For yourself?" Raven asked, "To help with your back pain?"
Polybius nodded.
"You know, I could make some potions with these to help you." Raven stated as she looked at some of the Marigolds.
Polybius smiled and shook his head.
The teen then finished up gathering the last few Marigolds and put the smaller baggie in his backpack.
"Are you sure?" Raven said, "My magic can probably make a longer-lasting potion than whatever you're making."
Polybius then pulled out his notebook and wrote something down before showing it to Raven.
"I understand. It takes time to build that trust." Raven said, "But I promise Polybius that I won't intentionally hurt you."
Polybius smiled again and shook his head. Without saying another word, he took off, leaving Raven standing in the 'Garden of Eden' as Beast Boy had started calling it.
Up in his room, Polybius sat down at his desk and pulled out the baggies of plants he had collected. He then began making health mixes, reusing old baggies and a few new ones Starfire had gotten for him on her last trip to the mall.
Speaking of the mall, Starfire had found a new source of entertainment for herself. Polybius meanwhile, was able to see just how sad that place actually was.
As were many malls across America, this one too was dying, unable to compete with online shopping. A handful of stores still remained inside, the more popular ones, but the mall had seen better days.
Regardless, Starfire was still able to find the place quite entertaining with that handful of stores that were still open. Mostly clothing stores and feminine products. The Sears and Gamestop, as well as the handful of other hardware stores, didn't really grab her attention all that much from what Polybius had pieced together.
Just as the mute teen was putting away the completed health mixes into the drawer of his nightstand, there was a knock at his door. Answering it, Polybius regretted doing so almost immediately.
"But you see Star, Polybius needs some new clothing." Beast Boy slyly stated, "And I'm sure he isn't doing anything important right now and would love to go to the mall of shopping with you!"
Polybius then looked down at himself. Yes, his clothing was not in good condition, but it wasn't unusable. It covered what it needed too and protected him from what it was supposed to protect him from.
"Polybius's clothing is quite damaged." Starfire commented as she passed by Beast Boy "Please friend Polybius, would you like to journey to the Earthly mall of shopping with me?"
Polybius looked back up to see Beast Boy sneaking away with a grin on his face. However, before he got out of sight, he mouthed 'Have fun' before disappearing.
"Well?" Starfire asked, "It would be a perfect chance to get you into some new clothes. And for us to do some of the hanging out."
Beast Boy was right about one thing, and it was that Polybius wasn't doing anything better. And quite frankly, going out didn't sound like a bad idea.
Polybius nodded.
"Oh, glorious!" Starfire, as she grabbed hold of his arm and Polybius, prepared himself for what was going to happen next.
As always, she took off, dragging him behind her. Flying through the air while Polybius tried to catch his breath. However, with the speed she was going at it didn't take long for the two to get to their destination. Once there, she let go of him and looked at the big sign.
Jump City's Shopping Mall.
"Come, Polybius, I have the perfect idea for what you can wear!" Starfire said as the two entered the building.
It didn't take long for Starfire to begin making different outfits that she thought Polybius would look good in.
"Oh maybe if we put you in this!" Starfire said holding up a jacket that looked like the maker was on an acid trip, "With these pants!" Starfire said holding up pants that looked about two sizes too small for the mute Titan "Oh, I love this place because the possibilities here are seemingly endless!"
From what Polybius had seen, heroes could wear whatever they wanted. And that meant literally anything. Some of the costumes he had seen heroes wear threw Polybius for a loop with how absolutely outlandish they looked.
And Polybius was starting to figure out why. With what Starfire was designing for him would give most of the heroes he had seen a run for their money.
And something that Polybius would not wear under most circumstances.
"And this would look wonderful!" Starfire said as she finished costume designing.
Starfire then revealed the horrific costume that she concocted for Polybius.
Starting at the shoes, the costume traded Polybius's combat boots for ugly looking white, green and pink tennis shoes with urine yellow socks. The pants she had chosen were still two sizes small for Polybius and looked more like candy canes. The shirt was an acid trip, and the overcoat wasn't much better. The gloves were white magician gloves. And lastly, the hat, to the mute Titan, looked like something a pimp would wear.
"Oh, you must try this on!" Starfire said.
Polybius put his hands up to his shoulders and shook his head.
Starfire looked confused for a moment.
"Huh?" She questioned, "You do not like it?"
Polybius shook his head.
"What is wrong with it?" Starfire asked.
Polybius pulled out his notebook and put all of his complaints on it as nicely as possible. And that he liked what he was wearing. He then handed this off to Starfire who read it carefully before responding.
"Oh, I see." Starfire said "Too much color, and too wild."
What put Polybius on edge was that there was no sadness in her voice. Rather she said that like she was already planning a new look for him.
"What color would you like to wear?" Starfire asked.
Polybius then pointed to the color of his jacket. Black.
"Black?" Starfire said "But Black is such a simple color. Even Raven wears more color than you!"
Polybius shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't care less what Raven wore.
"Even your jeans are a shade of dark blue, you must have more color on you than just black!"
Polybius then unzipped his jacket to reveal the white tee shirt with the purple eagle on it. Starfire looked at it and studied the bird on it.
"What creature is that?" Starfire said.
Polybius then wrote down 'eagle' on his notepad and showed her.
"Eagle?" Starfire said "Oh, I have heard about this bird. Supposedly it is a very great one!"
Polybius nodded his head as he zipped up his jacket.
"Maybe you would like to wear some more purple, and white?" Starfire offered, but Polybius shook his head.
While Polybius looked roughed up, he generally didn't see anything wrong with his outfit. It was practical and had served him very well.
"Are you certain you do not wish to change your clothing attire?" Starfire asked.
Polybius nodded. The only clothing he was interested in buying was maybe a new pair of preferably black jeans if he could get them cheap, or maybe a new jacket.
However, looking down at his boots made the teen realize that he may soon have to buy a new pair as they looked like they weren't holding up all that well.
Starfire too noticed the state of the boots and her face lit up.
"You need a new pair of shoes!" Starfire said "I believe there is the 'tactical store' just across the street! You should be able to buy a new pair of boots over there!"
Polybius nodded and the two made their way over there.
Once inside the store, Polybius saw a lot of things that interested him. From holsters to weapons to an assortment of goodies that the mute teen would have a field day with.
It didn't take long for the two teens to find the footwear section and began looking through them. What amazed Polybius was that they found his near exact boots, a few years newer model, available on a sale, half off! Polybius couldn't resist jumping on that deal.
"Ah, PSC boots." The cashier said as the two went to check them out after trying them on "Those are the best combat boots on the market. If what they say about this boot's life is true, then it should last you until your twenty-five. Not to mention that they offer better protection, sustainment, and comfortability than anything else on the market. Plus they don't take that long to break in either!"
Polybius knew all of this and was quick to trade out his old, worn boots for the new ones.
Starfire giggled as Polybius smiled. It had been so long since he last got new boots he forgot how good it felt putting them on for the first time.
"I take it you are happy?" Starfire asked, to which Polybius nodded with a smile on his face "That is glorious! Come, let us go back to the mall of shopping and get you some new jeans and a new jacket!"
Hours later back at the tower, Polybius looked at himself in the bathroom mirror in his new clothing. He essentially was wearing newer versions of his old clothing. A new, sleeker jacket, a fresh pair of unripped jeans, now black instead of dark blue, fresh socks, boots. Only his hat, tee-shirt, and gloves remained the same.
Of course, when they got back, Starfire was more than eager to show Polybius's new clothing off to the other Titans. And once it came out of the wash and was all clean, he was good to go!
Regardless, he still needed to bathe. Starfire had kept him out late, later than he wanted to be out, but that didn't matter. Polybius didn't have a 'daily routine' and rather lived his life in a state of chaos, deciding what he wanted and/or needed to do as the day went on. The way he saw it, daily routines just got wrecked by the natural chaos of life.
Once Polybius was clean and taking one last look to examine himself in his new clothing in the mirror, he headed towards his room. However, on his way, he passed by Beast Boy's room.
Deciding the pay the youngest Titan a surprise visit, Polybius knocked on the door. There was a small shout of surprise before a delayed pause and the door opened to reveal Beast Boy, who was slightly red in the face.
"Oh, it's you." Beast Boy said, "I thought you were Raven or Starfire."
Polybius then noticed that the teen wasn't wearing his belt. With a sly grin on his face, Polybius decided to play with the green teen a little bit.
Reaching down towards his own waistline, Polybius then tugged on one of the belt loops of his pants.
"Oh, that, um, I was just changing uniforms!" Beast Boy said, "Good thing you knocked because I was in the middle of changing and you would have seen me naked!"
Polybius nodded his head as he looked past the teen to see Beast Boy's laptop sitting on the bed, hastily hidden by the bedsheets.
The mute teen then pointed to the electronic device and Beast Boy looked back.
"Oh, I just put it here for, uh, safekeeping!" Beast Boy said.
Polybius nodded again and saw a bottle of lotion and a box of tissues on the floor. Again, Polybius pointed to those.
"Oh, those!" Beast Boy said, "Well, my skin has been getting dry on my elbows lately, and the tissues are for, uh, my, uh, sneezing!"
Polybius nodded again.
"Yo, Polybius!" He heard Cyborg call down the hall.
The two looked down the hall to see the largest Titan making his way towards him.
"Oh, uh, hey Cyborg!" Beast Boy said as Cyborg approached them "What are you up to?"
"I was looking for Polybius." Cyborg said.
Polybius then snapped his fingers, getting Cyborg's attention. Polybius then pointed to Beast Boy's missing belt, the bottle of lotion and box of tissues on the floor and the laptop in the bed.
"Polybius, did you seriously walk in on BB jackin off?" Cyborg put it bluntly.
"I- I wasn't!" Beast Boy quickly defended causing Cyborg to laugh out loud and Polybius to silently laugh.
"Uh-huh." Cyborg said, clearly not believing the youngest Titan.
Polybius then made a hand motion of jacking off. This caused Cyborg to laugh even harder and Beast Boy to get angry.
"Darn it, Polybius, what do you want!?" Beast Boy demanded, now totally red in the face.
Polybius then pulled out his notepad and wrote down that he was thankful for Beast Boy pawning Starfire off on him today as he was able to get some new clothing and toss out his old stuff.
"You're welcome." Beast Boy said as he gritted his teeth "Anything else!?"
"Yeah!" Cyborg said, "Have fun jacking off!"
Beast Boy let out a roar of rage before closing his door in the other Titans' faces, causing both of them to laugh.
"Oh…" Cyborg said after a solid minute of laughing "That was too funny."
Polybius nodded in agreement. They totally got him and while Polybius was happy he hit the mall with Starfire that night, getting Beast Boy back for that was totally worth it.
After the two calmed down, Polybius then looked up to the larger Titan.
"What did I come to get you for?" Cyborg thought for a moment "Ah! That's right! I wanted to see if you were down to hang out!"
Polybius nodded as he was always down to go hang out with the other Titans.
"Sweet!" Cyborg said, "Come on, I'll tell ya what we're doin on the way!"
And with that, the two set off towards the gym.
From what Polybius had gathered, Cyborg was very into working out before he became a cyborg. And while he can't push himself like he used to, he still enjoyed a good workout every day.
"So, I know that your back tentacles are strong, but I want to know how strong your arms and legs are!" Cyborg said, "Finally figure out if you're the stronger one!"
The two teens then set off to the workout mats on the ground.
"So, what weight do you want?" Cyborg asked.
Polybius pulled out his notebook and wrote something down before handing it off to Cyborg.
"Oh, so you prefer to use the weight of your body." Cyborg said "I can respect that. Star did say you were a heavier guy, even though you don't look like it. Heck, why don't you step on the scale so we can figure out how much you weigh, or if our girl needs to get her butt down here and join us!"
The two-headed over the scale. Polybius took off his new jacket and boots and hopped on. After waiting a moment for the numbers to register, Cyborg's jaw dropped when it loaded.
"Dude, you weigh more than me!" Cyborg said out loud in shock.
The scale flashed three hundred and thirty-three pounds. Cyborg weighed about two ninety if Polybius remembered correctly.
"How!?" Cyborg asked out loud "How could you possibly weigh more than me?"
Polybius then tapped his arm and followed it up with a pinch of his skin. Cyborg then looked at the teen's skin and then realized what the mute Titan meant.
"Dang." Cyborg said analyzing the skin with his cybernetic eye "I guess if I had skin like that, I wouldn't be a cyborg. That's why you are so malleable."
Polybius nodded. Out of all of the Titans, Polybius was the most malleable of them all and had proven it when in a fight with Johnny Rancid, Polybius took three shots from his weapon to the face. This attack didn't affect him in the slightest and it certainly scared Johnny, allowing Polybius to easily take him down as a result.
"But that doesn't fully explain why you are ahead on the villain takedown count." Cyborg said.
After their first serious encounter with a real supervillain, again their fight with Johnny, Cyborg and Beast Boy had a brilliant idea to keep track of who had the most takedowns. Supposedly there was going to be some reward for whoever took down the most criminals at the end of the month, and currently, Polybius had a strong lead of five takedowns ahead of Cyborg and Robin, who were tied for second. However, there was still a lot of month to go and with the crime alert going off at least once a day, things could change very rapidly.
"So how about we piece together the rest of the answer!" Cyborg declared.
The two largest Titans then set to work, pushing Polybius's body to the limit just to see how far he could go.
During one exercise, it would seem that Polybius had reached his absolute limit and Cyborg was about to call it off when suddenly, the mute Titan kicked into high gear and finished the set and then another one on top of it.
"How'd you do that!?" Cyborg asked.
Polybius then wrote down the appropriate response on his notepad and handed it off to Cyborg.
"So by biting your tongue, you can manually release adrenaline into your system at will!" Cyborg stated "And while this hurts you, it doesn't hurt you enough to make you not use it like your back tentacles! Sweet! I wish I could do that!"
That was true. Just by simply biting down on his tongue, not even hard, Polybius was able to release a ton of adrenaline into his system. And as expected, the harder and longer Polybius bit down, the more adrenaline was released into his system.
Pushing past that, by the end of the workout, Polybius's body was thoroughly exhausted. He, just as Cyborg requested, pushed himself to his limit. Now he found himself sitting next to Cyborg looking at the gym computer.
"Now let's see who's stronger." Cyborg said as he pulled up Robin's record.
Side by side, it was clear that Polybius was stronger than the masked leader. Not by a huge margin, and certainly not enough to declare super strength, but it was certainly a higher than the average amount for his body weight.
"I told Robin you were stronger!" Cyborg said with a smile on his face "Now he's gotta pay up!"
Polybius looked up at the half-metal teen with a questioning look on his face. Cyborg saw this his happy look vanished for a more nervous one.
"Uh…" Cyborg started "Robin and I had a bet going after our first practice. After watching you he was confident that he was stronger, and I said 'no way!' So we bet on who was stronger."
Polybius then motioned for the teen to go on.
"We, uh, bet fifty bucks on it." Cyborg stated.
Polybius nodded.
"You, uh, aren't mad, are you?" The teen asked the other.
Polybius shook his head.
"Oh thank goodness!" Cyborg said with relief.
Polybius then suddenly held up one finger, catching the teen's attention. The mute Titan then held up all four of his fingers on one hand, and one on the other hand. He then pointed to himself.
"You want 5?" Cyborg asked "Fine. That's fair."
Polybius smiled and shortly after that, the two went their separate ways.
The mute Titan decided to head to the main room and get a glass of water before he headed to sleep. However, when he entered he saw a pigsty of a room. It was a total mess and it looked like nobody had taken the time to clean it up.
If there was one thing Polybius didn't like, it was messes and general uncleanliness. While he wasn't a germaphobe by any means, he still preferred to live in a clean environment if it could be helped.
Pulling out the cleaning supplies from one of the kitchen drawers, Polybius set to work. He only intended to do the big stuff, however, as time wore on, the mute Titan found himself cleaning more and more until the room was spotless.
As Polybius finished up wiping off the counters, the last thing he needed to do, Robin walked in.
"What the?" Robin questioned looking around "Polybius? Did you clean this room?"
The mute teen nodded as he began to put away the cleaning supplies.
"Haven't you been out since our early morning mission?" Robin questioned.
Again, Polybius nodded.
"Well look at you being all nice and cleaning up everybody else's mess." Robin stated, "I was going to get everybody in here tomorrow and clean this, but you've gone ahead and done it."
The mute teen shrugged his shoulders.
"You didn't have to do that." Robin stated, but Polybius shook his head.
Pulling out his notebook, he wrote down an appropriate response and handed it off to Robin.
"So you don't like living in filth." Robin said "I don't blame you, but you didn't have to do this. At least alone. Next time get somebody to help you."
Polybius didn't respond to this as he pulled out his cup from his bag and filled it with water.
"Off to bed?" Robin questioned to which Polybius nodded "Well then have a good night. Be ready for combat practice tomorrow."
Polybius nodded and exited the room. He then headed back up to his room and sat on his bed. It had been a long day and he needed some good rest. That and his back pain medication was starting to wear off and he wanted to sleep before it completely wore off.
And that is it for Chapter 4, I hope you enjoyed the escape I provided you and have a good rest of your day.
Also, big thanks to kripky, don't worry, I'm currently working on getting ahead right now for next month so there is plenty more story to come.