Chapter 5
An Aztec and a Bear...
Walking down the street with Robin, Polybius paid close attention to the leader as he spoke. It was a conversation the two needed to have away from the others.
Inside Titans Tower, it had become commonplace to find Polybius cleaning since that night Robin stumbled on him cleaning the main room a few weeks back. And the messes Polybius was cleaning up were rarely his own, rather that of the others, most commonly Beast Boy. Whether or not the green Titan was taking advantage of this was unclear. But what was clear is that Robin thought Polybius was doing too much, meanwhile the others, including himself, not enough.
Therefore, Robin wanted to create a chores list, so that way, every week, everybody has their assigned duties to do around the tower and Polybius wouldn't have to spend hours of his day cleaning.
At first, Polybius sort of shot down the idea, as he didn't really care all that much. He didn't mind cleaning up behind the others. It at least gave him something to do.
"Well Polybius, I suppose I can't really stop you from cleaning, but I don't want them to take advantage of you." Robin stated.
Polybius, who wasn't looking at Robin when he said that, whipped his head back around and looked at the leader. This took Robin off guard, but he quickly picked up on why Polybius had reacted that way.
"I guess you don't like being taken advantage of." Robin said more as a statement than a question.
Polybius nodded.
"Well then, I think you'll be on board with the new chores list?" Robin asked.
Again, Polybius nodded.
"Great!" Robin stated, "Now then, how about we-"
The leader was cut off by the crime alert.
"Trouble!" Robin said as the two took off for the jewelry department store.
Once there, the other four hadn't shown up yet. Regardless, the two pushed inside the store to confront whoever was inside.
"This gold that was stolen from my people shall once again be returned to us…" A big man said.
"That never belonged to you!" Robin barked back, gaining the criminal's attention.
What stood before Polybius and Robin was a man in clothing that looked a lot like what Starfire had tried to get him to wear a few weeks ago.
The man was big with dark skin. He didn't wear much clothing except for a turquoise groinal cloth, worn sandals, what looked like a quilt for a cape and a helmet with about a thousand feathers sticking out of it in a half-circle from ear to ear.
"And who are you to stop me?" The man asked, "You're heroes, after all, you should be supporting me taking back my people's stolen goods! Come now! Let us gather this gold and travel to my home together as allies!"
"Those goods never belonged to you!" Robin coldly returned "And the only place you're going to is jail."
"Arrogant fools!" The man barked back.
Without another word, the man reached behind him and picked up a long macuahuitl and held it with two hands. He held it in front of him and prepared for the engagement.
Robin was first to charge on the man. He pulled out his retractable metal staff and squared up with the bigger man who began to approach him as well.
Raising his macuahuitl over his head, the man brought it down on the leading Titan, who promptly blocked it with his staff. Robin then followed it up with a kick to the man's stomach. This sent the man back a few paces before he regained his composure.
Robin then tried a jump attack, but this fell short as the larger man gave the leader more ground. Once Robin landed, the man then tried to swing at the leader, who easily dogged the attack.
Robin once again tried to kick the larger man, but this time, the opponent saw it coming. He grabbed Robin's ankle and tossed him like a ragdoll across the room into a jewelry stand.
When Robin crashed into the stand, this caused the glass, jewels, and the cash register to go flying.
Polybius, who by this point had drawn out his stone club, watched this and took a more cautious approach than the leader had.
"Come on mute boy!" The man intimidated "Do you think you could possibly defeat me, Montezuma, the emperor of the New Aztecs!?"
Polybius remained silent as he squared up with Montezuma. He quickly decided in his head that his goal wasn't to beat the oversized man, but rather delay him until the others arrived. This way they could work as a team to bring him down.
"Come on coward! Strike!" The man tried but failed to intimidate the mute.
Polybius instead began side-stepping to his right, causing the man to move with him.
"What's the matter with you!?" The man demanded, now opening his arms to welcome any attack that Polybius may throw at him "Hit me!"
Polybius wished he had packed his flare gun today, but sadly it got damaged during a routine training exercise and now Polybius was waiting for a part to come in so he could fix it. If it wasn't damaged, it would have made quick work of this oversized, delusional emperor.
"You aren't going to do anything, are you?" The man asked "Just stand there and stare at me! Bah!"
The man foolishly turned his back on Polybius. Once he did, he waited a few seconds to see if Polybius was actually going to do anything. When the mute Titan didn't, he began to walk away.
Seizing the moment, Polybius launched himself through the air and hit the man hard in the back of the head.
The man stumbled forward several feet, but he didn't lose consciousness or his footing. But Polybius stayed on him and knocked him over by sweeping his legs out from under him.
Once on the ground, Polybius then tried to restrain the bigger man, however, the strength of his opponent was too great for the mute and he was able to throw the Titan off of him.
"You coward!" The man shouted as Polybius was thrown back into a pillar "Attacking me right when I let my guard down! Pathetic fool!"
Polybius slammed into the pillar hard. Hard enough for it to collapse on him and take part of the ceiling down with it too.
"Polybius, right?" The man questioned as Polybius laid under the pile of rubble "We'll be in touch."
Ten minutes later, Polybius was being unburied by Cyborg and Starfire, who had just arrived at the scene.
"Polybius!" Starfire shouted when she removed a large piece of rubble covering his face.
The mute Titan didn't respond when she said that.
"Nod if you can hear me!" Cyborg shouted.
Polybius nodded.
"Oh thank goodness!" Cyborg said with relief in his voice.
"Are you in need of any immediate medical assistance?" Starfire asked.
Polybius shook his head. He was dazed, but not seriously hurt. In fact, the only reason he hadn't gotten up from the crash was because his arms were pinned and his backpack was pressed up to hard against his back for him to utilize his back tentacles.
Once unburied, the three met up with Robin, Beast Boy, and Raven.
"You alright Polybius?" Robin asked.
Polybius nodded.
"Dude, what happened to you guys?" Beast Boy asked.
"Some big guy was after the gold. We tried to stop him, but he threw both of us around like ragdolls." Robin explained, "What did he call himself?"
Polybius pulled out his notepad and wrote down an answer.
"Montezuma, the emperor of the New Aztecs." Robin said out loud.
"Whoever this guy is, it doesn't sound like he's up to anything good." Cyborg stated.
"Yes, but there's one thing I don't understand." Raven stated "If this guy claims to be an Aztec, why is he attacking Jump City in California? Why not down in Mexico where the empire was historically?"
"He said something about the gold being stolen from his people." Robin said, "It may be a case that at one point in the gold's lifetime, it was an Aztec treasure stolen by the Spanish."
"How would he know that?" Beast Boy asked.
"I don't know." Robin said, "But what I do know is that whoever this guy is, he's going down!"
After that, the team set out on a quick search of the city trying to locate the villain, but he was nowhere to be seen and left no detectable trail.
By the time sunset had rolled around, the team was back at the tower and Polybius was up in his room thinking about what had happened with the Aztec wannabe.
As the teen watched the sunset in his rocking chair. He was thinking about how the oversized man just tossed him like a ragdoll and easily overpowered the mute man.
A knock at the door brought him out of his thoughts. He got up and went to open it to see Starfire there.
"Greetings friend!" Starfire greeted "I ask, do you wish to join us for the dinner?"
Polybius looked back at the setting sun, which was just starting to touch the horizon. It seemed a bit early for the meal.
"I know it may seem a little bit early, but Cyborg picked up some of the Mcdonalds on the way back for all of us." Starfire explained, "So Robin decided for us to have an early dinner."
Polybius looked back at Starfire and shook his head.
"Why not?" Starfire asked "You never join us for meals. Even Raven joins us for meals, but you never do."
Polybius shook his head again. He walked over to his backpack at the foot of his bed and pulled out his notepad and wrote down a response. He then handed that response off to Starfire.
"If that is what you wish, I will bring you the nuggets of chicken." Starfire said "But do not be afraid Polybius. Whatever your personal reason is, we will not judge you for it."
With that, Starfire walked away and Polybius closed the door. He then walked back to his window but didn't sit down. Rather, he just stared out at the setting sun.
It wasn't that Polybius didn't want to join the others for meals. He really did. But the way he had to digest food like a seastar. It was a rather gross thing to watch, not to mention it was also painful for him. As was everything else for him.
Polybius then sunk into his chair and began pondering his life at the present moment. Thinking about all of the good and bad. His new friends, his pain, what he left behind. It all floated around in his mind.
It wasn't long however when Starfire was back with his chicken nuggets.
"Here you are, friend." Starfire said a bit gloomy.
Polybius smiled as he took the bag from her. He couldn't help but notice the small frown on her face.
The teen reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and he gave her a thumbs up while still holding the bag in his hand. This caused Starfire to smile.
"Thank you, friend." Starfire said.
Starfire then walked away and Polybius turned his attention to his food.
Closing the door, the mute Titan went over to his computer desk and pulled out a large Ziploc bag. Pouring all of the food inside of the bag, he then brought his stomach out of his body and ejected the digestive enzymes from his lone talon into the bag, turning it all into a green liquid. Polybius then used his stomach talon as a straw and sucked up every last drop.
Once Polybius was finished and his stomach back inside his body, he looked back out his window to see the sun was now halfway below the horizon. However, before he could get lost in his thoughts again, there was yet another knock on his door.
Answering it, Polybius found Beast Boy to be on the other side of the door.
"What's up, dude?" The green teen asked.
Polybius gave a small wave and a welcoming smile to the teen.
"Mind if I come in?" Beast Boy asked.
The mute Titan welcomed the green Titan into his domain. Beast Boy looked around as it was his first time in Polybius's room.
"Kinda spacious." Beast Boy said "And a little dry. Wouldn't kill you to hang some decorations on the walls."
Polybius shrugged his shoulders as he closed the door and Beast Boy looked at the window.
"But you do have a great view of the sunset." Beast Boy commented seeing the sun "Wish I had that."
Beast Boy then made his way over to Polybius's computer chair and took a seat. The mute Titan meanwhile took a seat in his rocking chair, turning it to face Beast Boy.
"So you're probably wondering why I'm here." Beast Boy stated, "Well, I was thinking, I've seen you hang out with the others, shopping with Starfire, working out with Cyborg and whatever you did with Robin, so I figured we should hang out and chill."
Polybius nodded as he hadn't yet had a chance to have any one on one time with Beast Boy. This would be a good opportunity, even if they were only chilling in his room.
"So…" Beast Boy said, "What do you want to talk about?"
Polybius gave Beast Boy a look that the green Titan immediately picked up on.
"Oh, yeah, right." Beast Boy said scratching the back of his head "Uh… So is there anything in here for us to do?"
Beast Boy began looking around his room and set his eyes on Polybius's laptop.
"Oh, I didn't know you had this." Beast Boy commented, "Let's see what you do in your spare time."
The mute Titan watched as the green Titan began exploring his laptop. Polybius had stayed logged in and laptop unlocked, as he was going to do a little research later about the Aztecs and their culture. Try to figure out more about this Montezuma guy.
"Let's check your browser history." Beast Boy said slyly with a grin on his face.
Opening it up, Beast Boy saw a very small list of websites Polybius had been too.
"Oh, so you cleared your browser history…" Beast Boy said before realizing that the oldest result was over two weeks old "Wait…"
Beast Boy looked at the dates again and realized that he wasn't getting whatever it was he was looking for.
"Why is there no…" Beast Boy questioned as he looked at the list of mostly Google searches.
Polybius wasn't quite sure what he was looking for. Something incriminating? The mute teen wasn't on his laptop all that much. Mostly just to look things up real quick, and that was it. He'd much rather be outside enjoying the fresh air. Not sitting around inside all day playing video games or mindlessly browsing the web like somebody else did.
Beast Boy then noticed that Polybius's stare was starting to grow more intense and he backed off the computer.
"Never mind." The green Titan said, "Let's try something else."
Beast Boy then got off his laptop and looked over at the bulletin board.
"Maybe you're hiding something over here!" Beast Boy said as he got up and walked over to the board.
Polybius's head moved on a swivel and his eyes followed the green Titan to the board. The green teen then began looking at the papers on the board, which by this point, was nearly full.
"Hm…" Beast Boy said as he began looking at the papers.
After a moment of searching, he noticed a picture of a bear and a reward.
"The Jump City Man-Eating Bear?" Beast Boy questioned, "Why do you have a picture of the bear that has killed and eaten three people on your wall?"
Beast Boy looked over at Polybius and after a moment of processing the item in his head, he suddenly made the connection.
"You plan on going after this bear, aren't you?" Beast Boy asked.
Polybius nodded.
"Dude!" Beast Boy said, "You're going to get hurt!"
Polybius shook his head.
"What do you mean no!?" Beast Boy demanded "Dude, that bear has killed and eaten three full-grown men! That thing is huge!"
Polybius shrugged his shoulders.
"So!?" Beast Boy shouted, "Dude, there is no way I'm going to let you go after this thing!"
Polybius shook his head, knowing full well the smallest Titan couldn't stop him.
"Come on dude!" Beast Boy pleaded "You can't go after this thing! It'll kill you!"
Polybius didn't respond as he looked out his window at the now night sky. The teen had been planning to go after that bear tomorrow as a matter of fact.
Beast Boy looked at the mute Titan and realized that he wasn't going to convince him otherwise. It seemed that Polybius was dead set on catching this bear.
"Come on man, at least writedown and tell me something!" Beast Boy pleaded.
Without turning his head, Polybius pointed to his backpack. Beast Boy picked it up and brought it over to him. He then watched as the mute teen pulled out his notebook and wrote something down.
"You plan on going after this thing tomorrow!?" Beast Boy shouted as he read the note "And I can't stop you! Come on!"
Beast Boy thought for a moment before declaring something that made Polybius go wide-eyed.
"I'm going with you!" Beast Boy declared.
Polybius snapped his head and looked at the green Titan.
"I won't let you hunt this bear alone." Beast Boy stated "If something happens to you, and you don't come back, Star will have a heart attack, and everybody will get mad. Mad at me since I now know about this!"
Again, Polybius shrugged his shoulders. While he wasn't a fan of the idea of Beast Boy tagging along, the mute supposed it couldn't hurt to have some backup.
And sure enough, by dawn the next day, Polybius was loading up his gear. He packed a couple of extra tools for the trip. However, his lack of ranged weapons did concern him as Polybius would much rather sit up in a tree and shoot the bear with his flare gun than have to get close to it with his modern ax or weak spear. But he did have one key tool on his side and that was his explosives. Polybius knew that if he could get one within three meters of the bear, he was definitely going to kill it. If it was inside fifteen meters, then the bear was going to at least get maimed by the coins inside the bottle of booze.
As Polybius finished packing his gear, he heard a knock on his door. When he answered it he wasn't surprised to see Beast Boy but was surprised to see the rest of the Titans standing there as well.
"You ready?" Beast Boy asked.
Polybius shot him a slightly confused look.
"Look, man, when BB told us you were going to go after that bear, we decided that we couldn't let you go alone." Cyborg said.
"Yeah." Robin agreed "We are a team, and we stick together. And this bear has been terrorizing Jump City for a couple of weeks now so it is, by extension, our duty to take care of it."
"And there is no way we are going to let you fight this man-eater alone." Raven added.
"Because what kind of friends would we be if we did such a thing!?" Starfire asked.
Polybius couldn't help but smile at his friend's commitment. At that moment, he felt truly blessed that he had such great friends.
"Alright, y'all! Let's go catch us a bear!" Cyborg declared.
And with that, Polybius grabbed his weak spear, which was nothing more than a sharpened stick and the team headed out to the forest outside of Jump City.
Starting at the bear's last spotted location, which was ironically the same place that Polybius had woken up an hour before he met the Titans.
"So what should we do Robin?" Starfire asked.
"I'm going to let Polybius drive the boat on this one." Robin stated, "It was his idea to go after the bear, so I'm going to let him go with it."
Polybius smiled at the leader's decision.
"Alright then Polybius, what do we do?" Starfire then asked.
Polybius pulled out his notebook and wrote down the instructions he wanted them to do. Which was to start tracking the bear.
"On it." Cyborg said pulling up a screen in his arm.
Using his sensors, Cyborg was able to detect where the bear was within twenty meters. This made tracking a lot simpler and the mission go a lot quicker.
"The bear's about three miles north." Cyborg stated.
Polybius nodded and the team began walking in that direction.
After the long three-mile walk, the team stumbled on the bear's den. This den was located at the base of a mountain and was only accessible by a medium-sized opening in the ground that was covered by branches.
"That bear is in there." Cyborg said, looking at the screen on his arm.
"Finally." Beast Boy said after the long walk.
Polybius looked at the entrance to the den. He could definitely climb in there if he had to, but he'd rather draw it out and fight it in the open.
Using his notebook, the mute Titan quickly formulated a plan as to how they were going to deal with this bear.
"So pretty much you are going to go in there, draw it out and we're going to start blasting." Robin said.
Polybius nodded.
"I don't like that plan." Starfire said, "What if something happens to you while you're in there."
"Don't worry about it Star." Cyborg said "Dude can shrug off your starbolts. I doubt a bear is going to do a lot of damage to him.
Polybius smiled as Cyborg was right. They both knew that the chances of the bear actually hurting him were slim.
"Oh, do be careful Polybius!" Starfire worried.
"Maybe I should go with you." Beast Boy offered.
Polybius shook his head.
"You sure?" Beast Boy asked, "What if something happens?"
"He does make a good point." Raven added, "You may want back up."
Polybius then pulled out one of his explosives and flashed it for everybody to see.
"So if things go bad and we hear that pop off, that's our cue to come and get you?" Robin asked.
The mute Titan nodded.
"Alright." Robin said, "Be careful."
Polybius smiled and turned to the den entrance. He pulled out his lighter and weak spear and began his crawl inside.
"I don't understand why you let him go alone." Beast Boy stated to Robin.
"This is his mission." Robin stated, "And while I'm not a fan of the idea of him going in there alone, I think we gotta build some trust with him."
"Trust?" Beast Boy questioned.
"One thing I have noticed about him is that he seems to have a hard time trusting people." Robin said.
"How so?" Beast Boy asked.
"During our fight with Montezuma yesterday, I noticed how he held back when I charged forward. It was almost as if he was expecting me to fail and deal with the problem on his own." Robin pointed out.
"And how is this going to help build that trust?" Beast Boy asked.
"Because if he fails, then we can swoop in and save him?" Raven asked.
"No." Robin said "It's going to be a process, but the first thing we need to show him is that we trust in his skill. We need to show him that we believe in him first."
"And then what?" Beast Boy asked.
"Once we've proven we trust him we-" Robin started before getting cut off by a loud roar from inside the den.
The team looked at the den with a shared look of horror on their faces as ten long and painful seconds went by accompanied by what sounded like painful roars. This was also accompanied by another sound they couldn't make out over the roars.
This was followed by another ten seconds of silence before Polybius poked his head out of the den. He then snapped his fingers and pointed at Starfire before then giving her the hand signal for her to come into the den.
Starfire wordlessly obeyed and a few seconds later, the two pulled out a massive, thought to be extinct, California Grizzly Bear.
The Titans were speechless as the bear was dragged out with a spear buried deep in its chest. Their jaws dropped to the ground as Polybius and Starfire finished dragging the body of the bear out.
"Holy crap!" Cyborg was the first to speak up "That's a California Grizzly! They've been extinct since the 1920s!"
"I guess Polybius just killed the last one." Beast Boy stated.
Polybius shook his head. He then moved for Starfire to go back into the cave again and when she did, she brought out four newborn bear cubs.
"HOLY CRAP!" Cyborg stated again.
"Dude!" Beast Boy said, "You just killed their Mom!"
Polybius then held up one finger and pointed to himself.
"She attacked you because you went inside her den, you idiot!" Beast Boy stated quite harshly.
"Hey, calm down!" Robin said, "The bear was still a threat."
"Well, what do we do with the cubs?" Beast Boy asked.
"We take them and put them in captivity." Raven said, "Hopefully with these cubs, we can restart the species and bring it back from the dead."
Beast Boy crossed his arms and looked away. It was clear to everybody that he wasn't happy with what Polybius had done. And in an attempt to defend himself, Polybius wrote down that he discovered the cubs after he killed the bear. And that there was no way he could have known that the bear was a mother.
"Still ain't right." Beast Boy stated.
Polybius looked down at the freshly killed bear before getting comforted by Cyborg.
"Ah don't worry about it." Cyborg said "He'll get over it soon. It's like you said, you couldn't have known that the bear was a mother, or that it was a long thought to be an extinct species."
"Plus, with these cubs in captivity, we can almost guarantee the species survival." Raven added.
Polybius smiled as he looked up at the two.
"Alright Titans, let's get this bear and the cubs back to the city." Robin said.
And with that, the team headed back to jump city. They turned the bear cubs over to Jump City's local zoo, who were thrilled about having four new bears as their old black bear had passed away very recently. The corpse of the Grizzly Bear was taken to the authorities, who then turned it over to the zoo for study.
Cyborg also took the time to stop by a local shop and had a mount of the bear's head made for Polybius, which the teen was very happy about. So happy about it, he mounted it on his wall right above his computer desk.
About a week after the mission, Polybius was admiring his mount on the wall when he got a knock at his door. Answering it, it revealed to be Beast Boy.
"Hey, Polybius." The green Titan said a bit gloomy.
This was the first time the youngest Titan had spoken to the oldest since the mission and Polybius was a little on edge by it.
"I just wanted to say sorry for acting so rude last week." Beast Boy said, "I guess seeing the bear's Mom die hit me a bit personally and I got angry."
Polybius smiled and waved his hand.
"So you're not mad?" Beast Boy asked.
Polybius shook his head.
"Oh thank goodness." Beast Boy stated.
There was a long moment of silence before he spoke up again.
"So you want to go into town with me and actually hang out for real?" Beast Boy questioned.
Polybius smiled, turned and grabbed his backpack and the two were off for a fun-filled day. Little did they know that the Aztec was hiding out in a gross, grimy, dirty basement.
"Titans." Montezuma muttered "A European, imperialist construct. Isn't that right my dear?"
The Aztec turned back to see a younger dark-skinned Latino woman who was tied up over a pool table. Her arms and legs were stretched out and her bare skin was exposed. Her heart was going a million miles an hour and was clearly visible in her chest.
"Oh don't worry hon." The man said, pulling out a large kitchen knife "You are going to appease the Sun God, Huītzilōpōchtli…"
I've been really excited to upload this chapter and introduce Montezuma, and I hope you all are excited to meet him.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you have a good rest of your day!