Chapter 14
Terra and Tears...
Polybius couldn't help but be bothered by Starfire's findings. Even though it had been two weeks ago since she had her little trip to the future, the fact that the only Titan she didn't encounter, or even heard anything about, was himself. It may have been because he was off in Gotham or Rome. But the fact that he never once came up in her story, did concern him.
But not as much as the hunt for Montezuma. With it having been now over two months since Polybius and Wonder Woman joined forces to bring down the Aztec, neither one had figured anything out. Again, there were no clues, no signs, no evidence. And with the rise of new evils, as much as neither one wanted to do it, they collectively had to put Montezuma on the back burner. There was just simply no trace or evidence of him anywhere.
However, a week after Beast Boy was temporarily made some big space rock guy's pet for about eight hours, the Titan responded to a call about a giant scorpion in the desert. This lead the Titans to find the monster chasing a small young girl, likely about Beast Boy's age, through the desert.
When the girl came to the end of the trial however, she turned on the overgrown insect.
Suddenly taking control of the small land bridge Polybius was standing on, the mute Titan quickly jumped off of it as she dropped it on the scorpion, killing it almost instantly.
The young girl then used her powers to create a rock column that raised her up to the top of the cliff where all of the Titans were standing in awe.
"What?" She asked the group "You guys never seen a superhero before?"
Following a short conversation between Terra and the team, it was collectively decided by Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy that she should spend some time with them in the tower. She agreed and as those four took off, Robin, Polybius, and Raven lagged behind.
Once in the tower, Terra quickly made herself at home. She ate Starfire's cooking, which by that point in time, Polybius was the only one brave enough to do so. Of course, the other Titans didn't believe him as he never ate it in front of them and accused him of throwing it away while she wasn't looking. Yet because of how Polybius digested food, he didn't taste anything, therefore, while the other Titans complained about the taste of the food, it didn't bother him in the slightest.
Terra also took a mud bath while in the tower. Which when Polybius saw the state of the bathroom once she was done about had a heart attack as it was his week to clean it. She also did her laundry in the sink, which was weird to the others, but not Polybius. Once she hung them up on a line, she took out her iPhone, put in some AirPods, and passed out on the couch in her white bathrobe.
With her seemingly passed out, the Titans began discussing her. Specifically, adding her to the team.
Raven was against adding her to their roster as she didn't like change or people. And while Polybius was in the same boat in her in that sense, unlike her, however, he was very open to change and backed the others in giving her a chance.
With that put in place, Polybius headed into his room and headed over to his window. Looking out, Polybius saw the watery horizon, but his eyes drifted away to the right. There, he laid eyes on Jump City, specifically a suburbanized area of the city. Ironically, that area was also where the fire monster Slade had created when Thunder and Lighting had their 'fun.'
His eyes then drifted back a little bit further to the forest behind it. Out of all of the biomes that the world had to offer, the forest is where he felt most comfortable. It was his favorite biome and recently, he had wanted to take a walk through one again.
But what the mute Titan didn't realize, that in that little suburban division, staring right back at him, was Montezuma.
The Aztec warrior had paused from torturing Donna for lunch. It had also been a while since he had last heard from the Sun God.
To put it bluntly, he was getting quite tired of torturing the girl. Every day he would try to do something different but had run out of ideas long ago. The only thing he had left to do rape her, but he had been forbidden from doing that. As much as he wanted to violate Hernán Cortés for raping his women, he refrained from doing so.
"Montezuma!" The voice called out.
"Yes?" The Aztec questioned.
"Isn't your birthday today?" The voice questioned.
"It is." Montezuma said, "What about it?"
"Well, that, combined with all of the hard and good work you have been doing, I want to reward you for your hard efforts." The voice stated.
"Oh!?" The Aztec sounded surprised.
"Yes." The voice bellowed "I got your reservations at your favorite food place!"
"Applebees!?" Montezuma said with excitement in his voice.
"Yeah!" The voice sounded "8 PM, you had better be at Applebees, the one over on Market Street."
"I will be there!" Montezuma said happily.
"Yes, yes." The voice went on "Just keep up the hard work."
"For Applebees, I won't take out the trash! I will eat the trash!" Montezuma declared.
There was a moment of silence before the Sun God spoke again.
"Okay…" The voice said unsure of that statement.
But what neither of them realized is back at Titan's tower, Robin was saying the same thing to Terra.
"You see." Robin started looking at Beast Boy as the team headed to the combat field "Getting Beast Boy over there to just take out the trash can be a real pain sometimes."
"Hey!" Beast Boy shouted as Terra giggled.
"On the other hand though, we've got Polybius." Robin said, "He's never got to be asked to do his weekly tasks."
"Yeah!" Cyborg agreed "With him, for us at least, he'd eat that trash."
"No way." Terra said as she giggled.
"Way!" Beast Boy assured, "Polybius is like the cleanest person in the tower."
"Is he?" Terra asked.
"Yep!" Beast Boy said.
"Of course, he wasn't appreciative of your little mud bath." Raven added, "It's his week to clean the bathrooms."
Terra then looked over at the mute Titan, who was working on the control panel, getting the course ready.
"Oh my gosh, Polybius! I'm so sorry!" Terra quickly apologized.
"It's fine." Robin stated, "Polybius is also the most forgiving Titan among us."
"After seeing the clips from his fight with Wonder Woman, and then seeing him turn around and forgive her, I'd believe that." Terra said.
It still amazed Polybius that at no point in that fight, despite him using it twice, was there any footage of his stomach rising out of his body.
"Yeah." Beast Boy said, "That picture I shared online has got like, billions of likes, retweets, upvotes, and everything else total!"
"Wow." Terra said, "I didn't know you were on those pages."
"I'm an administrator baby." Beast Boy slyly said.
Terra giggled as Raven rolled her eyes.
"Alright, Cy, want to go first?" Robin offered.
"You bet!" Cyborg said as he quickly hopped down.
As Cyborg headed down and began the course, Beast Boy kept his conversation with Terra going.
"I still can't believe he held his own against Wonder Woman." Terra commented, "All on his own too."
"Yeah, he's by far, the most, uh, what's the word?" Beast Boy asked.
"Malleable." Raven finished.
"Yeah!" Beast Boy said "He's the toughest guy on our team. He can take one heck of a beating and still keep going."
"I bet." Terra said.
"And the best part is, nothing breaks him!" Starfire added.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Terra asked.
Polybius continued to watch Cyborg as Starfire got close and whispered in Terra's ear.
"He is also the cutest Titan too." Starfire commented.
"Well yeah!" Terra said quite loudly "He is consistently ranked as one of the hottest and cutest guys alive!"
Polybius slammed his fist down into the control table hard and glared down at the three.
Starfire and Beast Boy both nervously giggle while Terra just looked up at him confused.
"What?" Terra asked, "It's a compliment."
The mute Titan then threw both of his hands up in the air and stormed away.
"Did I say something?" Terra asked.
"You called him cute." Raven said coldly.
"So?" Terra asked.
"Polybius doesn't like being called that." Robin said.
"Really?" Terra asked, still confused.
"Yes." Starfire said, "Polybius does not like being complimented on his looks."
"Why?" Terra asked.
"It doesn't matter why." Raven spat "All that matters is that he doesn't like it, so don't call him that."
Terra was still confused, but Beast Boy put a hand on her shoulder and calmly explained it.
"We don't know why." Beast Boy stated "All we know is that he gets really angry when girls flirt with him. Or when anybody comments on him on how he looks. Or sex in general."
"Oh." Terra said, with a sudden sense of clarity of the mistake she had just unknowingly made.
"What's weird about it, is he'll lowkey joke about it." Beast Boy went on "But when things get serious, that's when he gets mad."
"Weird." Terra commented.
"YO!" Cyborg shouted, "Where're the obstacles!?"
Robin quickly hopped on the control panel and let Cyborg finish the course.
"Boyah! New course record!" Cyborg shouted in victory.
"Well yeah, you're the first one to do the course." Raven commented, killing Cyborg's mood.
"Hey, where's Polybius?" Cyborg asked as he noticed the missing Titan.
"Oh, Terra tried to compliment him and he stormed off." Beast Boy said.
"What'd she say?" Cyborg asked.
"She complimented him on his looks." Raven said.
"Oh." Cyborg said.
"He's not going to hate me for that, right?" Terra asked.
"Polybius? Hate?" Cyborg questioned "I didn't know that name and that word could go in the same sentence. Dude is the most forgiving person I have ever met! I'm sure if you give it some time, he'll forgive you for it."
"Really?" Terra asked.
"If he didn't, I'd say we would have a phony with us." Cyborg stated confidently.
"Oh thank goodness." Terra said with relief.
Meanwhile, back up in his room, Polybius sat down at his computer and began seeing if Terra's statement was true.
Sure enough, with a quick Google search, he found several lists ranking celebrity males by how attractive they were to women.
'Hottest teen males.' 'Hottest male superheroes.' 'Most attractive males.' 'Top Ten most attractive men.' 'All-time hottest men.' 'Men who make women wet just walking by.' 'Men we all want.' 'Men we all want to smash.' 'Hottest men to ever live.'
The more Polybius dug into this, both the more ridiculous titles he found, and consistencies. Anything newer than when the Titans had formed 11 months ago, he was consistently ranked towards, if not at the top every time.
After digging through lists for a solid half an hour, the teen finally had enough. Seeing himself in the number one spot with a picture of him, he took off his hat and put both hands on his face.
"I told you!" The voice of Darkbius began "People look at you for nothing more than your looks. Nobody cares about your person. Well, except for one person."
Meanwhile, back down on the practice field, the Titans wrapped up their training session.
"Hold on." Cyborg said, "Doesn't Polybius have to go?"
"Yeah!" Beast Boy said, "And we throw a dozen extra things at him!"
During combat practice, whenever Polybius had to run a course or do something, it had become commonplace to throw extra things at him. Ever since his first day of formal team training, it had practically become a tradition for the Titans to throw extra things at Polybius as he trained. This meant while Polybius held no course records, he was arguably, the best trained out of all of the Titans.
"I think we're going to give Polybius this day off." Robin said, "Besides, we all know he can hold himself."
"Aw, man." Cyborg said, "And to think, I built that giant robot monster all for him!"
"Do not despair friend!" Starfire assured him "There is always tomorrow!"
"Yeah." Cyborg agreed "Seeing him wreck that thing will be fun to watch."
As the Titans headed inside, Raven broke off from the main group and headed straight to her room while the others made their way to the main room.
As she walked down the hall and turning a corner, she bumped into Polybius, who was walking at a rather fast pace.
This caused the two to stumble backwards and for Raven to fall over, letting out a small "Oof." as she hit the ground.
While Polybius didn't fall over, he looked down at the girl and she looked up at him.
"Sorry." The girl apologized.
Making eye contact with the mute Titan, she could see pain in his eyes. This caught her off guard as she had never seen him like that before, and it scared her.
"Polybius?" Raven asked in a more compassionate tone than her usual monotone.
The mute Titan quickly pushed past her and power walked down the hall. Raven only watched as Polybius went straight for the elevator. He kept his head hung low and tried his best to hide his face, as he had been doing before the two had bumped into each other.
"Polybius wait!" Raven called out as she quickly flew over to him.
The mute Titan didn't stop as he quickly hopped in the elevator, the door closing just before Raven could get inside with him.
As the door shut in her face, Raven returned to the ground and stood in a mild state of shock. She had seen him get angry about being called cute, hot, and even sexy before, but never this. Never before had she seen him look like he was on the verge of breaking down.
Quickly deciding to follow the Titan, Raven made a quick dash for the stairs. However, once she got to the bottom, she could not find Polybius anywhere inside.
Moving outside, the first place she looked at was The Garden of Eden. However, the mute Titan was nowhere to be found on the island.
After conducting a thorough search of the island, Raven began to think about where the Titan could have gone? And what could have possibly caused him to break down like that?
A thought then crossed Raven's mind. It definitely had to do with something Terra said. It was her fault that her friend was hurting! It was her fault! Even though she didn't know, somebody should have stopped her. She herself should have stopped her!
Looking back at the tower, up towards the main room, Raven decided not to get the other Titans involved in this. Rather, she decided to handle this alone. She then pulled out her communicator and tried to see if she could find him on the tracker, but its beacon was coming from inside his room. So too was the one Cyborg had put on the Titan's phone.
Quickly flying off the island, Raven began searching Jump City in every possible location she could think of. The mall, the tactical store, the zoo, the baseball stadium, the pizza place, everywhere. Yet in all of the locations, there was no sign of him.
After passing by the Applebees on Market Street, by this point in time, the sun had gone down, and it was almost 8 PM.
Raven took a seat on the bench in front of the restaurant and looked at the ground. The female Titan was wracking her brain as to where the mute could be. She cursed her inability to sense him.
And she wasn't the only one cursing things.
Montezuma, who was in the parking lot of the Applebees, eyes locked on the girl.
"Uh… am I supposed to do something about this?" Montezuma asked, "I really want my Applebees."
"Uh… She's not supposed to be here." The voice stated "That's alright, we'll just, uh… here!"
Suddenly, a surgical mask appeared on the car in front of Montezuma.
"What am I going to do with this?" Montezuma questioned.
"Just put it on your face!" The voice ordered, "And if she asks you about it, just say that you're trying not to catch Kung Flu."
"Kung Flu?" Montezuma questioned, thinking about it for a long moment "You mean the Coronavirus?"
"Yeah! The corn virus!" The Sun God quickly agreed "Just take it off once you get inside. She'll never suspect a thing!"
"Whatever you say." Montezuma said putting the mask on.
The Aztec, who was wearing civilian clothing, walked right past Raven, getting within a few feet of her. However, she never even looked up at him, instead just looking at the ground.
Once inside, he took the mask off and stuffed it in his pocket.
"That was close." Montezuma commented.
Back outside, Raven began looking up at the moon. However, she was brought out of her thoughts when her crime alert went off.
"Slade." Was all she needed to hear to jump into action, hoping to find Polybius.
But she wouldn't.
Rather, way out in the forest, far away from the mine that was under attack, was Polybius. He was sitting under a tree looking out at the endless forest, trying to find some comfort in the familiar environment.
He wasn't.
"Look at you." Darkbius said walking up to him from behind the tree Polybius was leaning up against "You miserable sucker. Sitting out here all alone, with no one to turn to but me."
The darker Polybius stood in front of the sitting one. He looked down on the mute Titan and shook his head.
"Oh well, that's nothing new." Darkbius said "Like your friends were real anyways. Raven, Starfire, and soon to be Terra, only see you for your pretty face, and sexy body. Too bad you can't even satisfy them, dickless!"
Polybius buried his head in his knees.
"Oh, what about the guys?" The dark Polybius questioned "Well for starters, Cyborg lies to you! You and I both know he doesn't care about you, and based on recent experiences, only uses you! Why he used you to go on that little car ride. And based on the way he was talking to you, it sure sounded like you weren't his first pick to go. He probably wanted to go with Robin, who knows far more about that stuff than you. And we both know Beast Boy is his best friend. He's closer to Starfire would have been a better passenger than you because at least she could talk. Why I bet he even went to Raven before he came to you! It sure did sound like you were his last hope for going."
The mute Titan felt tears begin to form in his eyes as Darkbius went on.
"Beast Boy?" Darkbius asked "Face it. He only uses you! How many times have you done his chores for him? Countless! And how many times has he thanked you? Not even once! He doesn't care about you, he just sees you as a tool."
Darkbius began to smile as he looked down at the suffering Polybius.
"And Robin…" Darkbius stated "You know, it seems that he is a good liar. Making you think you're capable, pushing you up, even though he knows you're not. Saying one thing to your face, and then deceiving you behind your back. Honestly, it wouldn't be that far of a stretch to say that he only looks at you for your tactical ability in the field. And once he figures out your mastery of stealth, you'll be going on undercover missions all the time. So that way he has an excuse to keep your unlikable butt away!"
The dark Polybius then chuckled.
"But you know, there is one person who will always care for you." He said, "You really should go back to them."
The mute Titan shook his head.
"Why not?" Darkbius asked "They cared for you! They gave you everything and you just walked away from them! You left after everything they did for you! Yet cause you thought things could get even better, you left!"
There was a moment of pause to let the mute Titan ponder the question, tears now streaming down his face.
"Is it going the way you thought it would?" Darkbius asked squatting down in front of him "I bet it is."
And there you have it! Chapter 14 of The Terror of Silence! I hope you enjoyed it and have a wonderful rest of your day!