Chapter 22
It's Just a Prank...
Beast Boy slyly snuck down the hall. It had been a few months since Polybius had trashed the Wicked Scary monsters, and the stigma of fear that came with it had long worn off. Now, Beast Boy was back to his usual antics against him. Pranking him and other things along those lines.
But now, Beast Boy had hatched a new plan. A plan so good that not even Raven was going to deny how good it was! At least that's what he thought.
Transforming into a small spider, Beast Boy patiently waited for Polybius's door to open. He had learned that usually about an hour before the sun went down, Polybius would go downstairs to tend his garden. He often wouldn't be back in his room until he went to sleep that night.
However, today was a rather odd one as Beast Boy waited and waited. Yet, Polybius still hadn't come out of his room.
Transforming back into his human form, the green Titan pulled out his phone and looked at the time. He then did a facepalm at his own stupidity.
He forgot that they had just set the clocks an hour forward! That meant that Polybius had already left and was out and about right now.
That didn't matter as the green teen needed only five minutes to set this up. Turning into a wasp, Beast Boy quickly flew through the vents and into the mute's room. Once inside, he found the place to be empty. Taking a quick peek out the window revealed to him that Polybius was outside tending the garden.
"Perfect." Beast Boy said devilishly.
Quickly rushing over to the mute's computer desk, he hopped in the swivel chair. Pulling out a washable Crayola black marker, Beast Boy grabbed the first picture, which was of the team.
"Now, to give Cyborg a goatee." Beast Boy said, "Raven bunny ears. Star a Mario mustache, Robin an Indian dot. Leave me alone and give Polybius a… a Santa beard!"
Going through the five different picture frames on his desk, Polybius drew some extra things on everyone. The last picture was of the mute and Donna. The green Titan actually stopped himself as he looked at the picture.
"Say, didn't I take that?" Beast Boy questioned, looking at the photo "Yeah, I did. Why does he got it here?"
That didn't matter as Beast Boy quickly got to work defacing the picture. Once he was done, he moved onto phase two.
Moving over to the nightstand on the other side of the bed, Beast Boy quickly dug into it and pulled out all of the 'health mixes.' Letting out an evil laugh, Beast Boy quickly put all of them in the backpack he had brought with him. He had already taken the three from Polybius's bag while the mute wasn't looking. He was going to hide them from Polybius to give him a good scare later.
And moving onto the final phase, Beast Boy moved over to the bulletin board. He then wasted no time arranging everything on it just to mess with Polybius. However, there was one thing that caught his attention.
"Mount Jackson Exposed." Beast Boy read the article out loud.
This confused Beast Boy as the article was dated to be over seven years old. Long before the Titans had joined together a year and a half ago. He couldn't help but wonder why Polybius was so interested in Mount Jackson as the green Titan had never heard about it.
Deciding he would do some research on it later, Beast Boy grabbed the article and stuffed it into his backpack. And with that, the green Titan quickly transformed into a wasp and flew away.
Once back outside and at his room, he pulled out the article and began reading it.
"Mount Jackson? A place that spews a horrifically lethal amount of radiation every day that keeps all at bay. Or at least that's what we've been told to believe." Beast Boy read out loud.
Most of the words in that sentence didn't make any sense to the green Titan. He needed somebody who knew words better than him to explain this to him.
Knowing exactly who to go to, he quickly made his way down the hall towards Raven's room. He knocked on the door and got a surprisingly quick response.
"What?" Raven asked.
"I need your help." Beast Boy said, holding up the article, "I can't quite understand this."
Raven then took the article from him and read the headline.
"Mount Jackson?" Raven said, "What's there to not understand. In the 60s, the American government had used it as a nuclear weapons construction area miles underground. However, the tunnels collapsed, and despite everyone's best efforts to get back into the rooms, they couldn't. Then, about seven years ago, everything came to a head when years of neglect and decay caused a massive radiation spill to happen, and now it's been marked off as a no go zone, and nobody is allowed to visit it."
"Really?" Beast Boy asked.
"Well, that's not the whole story of the place." Raven went on "It's also been nicknamed Mount Jackson Asylum. The reason being is that there are a lot of conspiracies floating around about that place. Some people think that the warhead construction was just a cover-up, and they were really doing something far more horrific. And that it all came to a head, and they blew the tunnels to keep something from getting out."
"Woah." Beast Boy said.
"Of course, this has never been proven." Raven countered, "Although some people, like the author of this article, would have you believe otherwise."
"Cool." Beast Boy commented.
"Where did you get this anyway?" Raven asked, "The Mount Jackson conspiracies have died off right around the time we formed our team. Nobody cares about that place anymore."
"I, uh, found it." Beast Boy lied.
"You found it?" Raven asked.
"Yeah!" Beast Boy said more convincingly "It had blown onto our island. I saw it and picked it up."
"Right…" Raven said, not fully believing him, but letting it slide, "Well, don't dig too deep into Mount Jackson. Otherwise, you'll end up at a conspiracy theory level Alex Jones could only dream of reaching."
"Right." Beast Boy said, taking the article back.
And with that, Beast Boy began down the hall back towards his room. However, he bumped into Cyborg, turning a corner, causing him to drop the article on the ground. Cyborg quickly apologized and picked up the article, but stopped short of giving it to Beast Boy when he saw the cover.
"Man, why are ya lookin into Mount Jackson?" Cyborg asked.
"I'm not!" Beast Boy said, "That article just blew onto our island! I swear. I went and asked Raven to help me figure out what it meant."
"Oh." Cyborg believed him, "Well, just don't go digging down into it. Otherwise, you'll scramble your brains."
"Got it." Beast Boy said, taking the article back.
Beast Boy then quickly headed back to his room and sat down in his bed and held the article.
"Why is Polybius so interested in this place?" Beast Boy questioned as he looked at the article.
Polybius meanwhile, was making his way back upstairs upset. The ground in Jump City, California, wasn't like the land where he grew up. These particular species of plants were having a hard time growing here. And while they always had, today was worse. Many of his plants were doing so bad that he couldn't even harvest enough to make one health mix.
At least he had a large stash of reserve plants in his room he had been building up for months. He had enough to carry him for at least two weeks in times like this. And if things got really dire, he could always go to the Walmart gardening section or order off of Amazon and buy the plants there.
Heading back upstairs, the mute Titan decided to head up to the roof. While night had fallen on Jump City, it didn't matter to him. He had always felt more comfortable outdoors than indoors.
Heading out on the roof, Polybius took in a deep breath of fresh air as the moonlight danced on the water below. This was nothing new for him, but what was new was finding Robin up there too.
"Hey, Polybius!" Robin greeted as the mute Titan approached him.
Polybius gave a small wave and a smile.
"Come, take a seat." Robin offered as he sat down, feet dangling over the edge of the tower.
The mute Titan then did as he was requested and took a seat next to the leader. The two soaked in the view and moonlight for a moment before Robin started talking.
"So any update on Montezuma?" Robin questioned.
The mute shook his head. Ever since he had rescued Donna months ago, the Aztec wannabe hadn't shown his face. There were no signs of him anywhere, and thus, he had sort of just fallen off the radar again.
"Nothing new." Robin translated, "Same with Slade."
The masked leader had been getting frustrated in the past few months, with the two major criminals showing no activity. The mute was even going so far as pondering if Montezuma was even up to any schemes. He may have dropped the mantle of Montezuma and gone off and done something else. Whatever it was, Polybius hoped that it was better than what he was doing before.
"So, how have you been Polybius?" Robin asked.
The mute Titan was a bit taken off by this question but gave a thumbs up.
"Good." Robin replied, "I'd figure I'd ask because Cyborg and I were talking about you while we fitted the T-ship for space."
It had been only a week since Starfire's puberty burst had prompted her to run away. This resulted in her turning into a chrysalis and a subsequent boost of power. Now she was able to shoot Starbolts from her eyes. They had also become more accurate and powerful.
"He expressed to me that he doesn't think we treat you right." Robin said, "How you end up being mistreated, and can't even talk to defend yourself. How we just sort of cut you off from responding. And he's right. And I promise you, things will change."
Like Polybius hadn't heard that one before.
"And I know that he keeps saying that, and then things don't, but I promise you they will." Robin assured him.
"Starfire calling Robin." Robin's communicator suddenly went off.
"Robin. Go ahead." Robin replied, grabbing his communicator.
Starfire went on to ask him some questions, which prompted Robin to go to her. Something about the new stove Cyborg had just installed and how it was on fire.
This left Polybius alone on the roof, looking out at the ocean.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" The voice of Darkbius said as he came up behind him and took a seat next to him, "More beautiful than anything you've got."
The mute Titan just waved him off. He had grown tired of seeing and hearing the darker version of himself talking. Spread lies. Both of them knew they were all false.
"Oh, come on now." Darkbius replied, "You think Beast Boy is your friend? Bah! Just wait until you get back to your room and see what he's done!"
The mute Titan got confused. Why on Earth was Darkbius making up these lies?
"Then again, it's not like he, Raven, or Cyborg are your friends." Darkbius said, "Especially them! Why the night the monster attacked, they were ready to bail on you!"
Again, the mute was confused by the darker version of himself.
"You don't believe me now, but just you wait. By this time tomorrow, you'll believe me again. Just you wait." Darkbius said before vanishing.
The mute Titan had no idea what his darker counterpart was going on about. However, it didn't matter. All that did was the natural beauty of nature.
After a while of just staring out at the ocean blue, Polybius finally hauled himself inside and went straight to bed without even looking around.
And as his body naturally woke him up hours later, the pain in his back quickly set it. Reaching over into his nightstand, the mute Titan became horrified upon seeing that all of his health mixes were gone.
Going straight to his backpack, Polybius found that the 3 emergency reserve bags he kept in his bag at all times were missing as well.
Panic began to set in as the mute began to try and figure out what had happened to his fourteen bags. His breathing picked up, and the pain in his back began to intensify as a result.
And of course, the crime alert had to go off.
The mute Titan tried to pick himself up and get to the main room. However, with the pain in his back, he didn't even make it to the door before being forced to stop.
Catching himself on the wall, the mute Titan slammed his fist into it hard out of pain. His knees began to buckle, his heart rate picked up, and his breathing intensified.
Forcing himself to concentrate, the mute Titan opened the door. He then forced himself to walk down the hall. He had to use the wall for support, however, as he came upon the main room.
"False alarm." He heard Robin say as he entered the room.
"Polybius?" Cyborg questioned seeing Polybius use the door for support.
The mute Titan then collapsed on the ground in pure agony. He couldn't physically take the pain.
"Polybius!" Cyborg shouted quickly, rushing over to him.
Polybius rolled over onto his back, and his face said it all.
"What's wrong with him!?" Robin asked as they quickly rushed to his side.
"He's in pain." Raven said, "A lot of it by the looks of it."
"Is it his back?" Cyborg said, "Doesn't he use homemade medication to keep that stuff at a tolerable level?"
"Is he out?" Starfire asked.
Beast Boy, meanwhile, was the only Titan who hadn't rushed to his side. He only watched on as he suddenly had a wave of guilt rush over him.
"Polybius? Are you out?" Cyborg asked, "Blink once for yes, twice for no!"
The mute Titan was in so much pain at that point, he couldn't even do that.
"Raven, can you do anything about this?" Robin asked.
"Flip him!" Raven then ordered.
Rolling him over onto his stomach, Raven attempted to use her powers to at least reduce the pain in his back. However, this didn't seem to have much of an effect on the mute, as he showed no signs of getting better.
"Starfire, go to his room and see if you can find any of his health mixes!" Robin ordered "Raven, go find your spell books and see if you can find something to help him. Cyborg, help me get him to the medical bay!"
And as the Titans vanished, Beast Boy just stood back and watched what happened. He felt incredibly guilty, but pulled himself together and ran to his room where he stashed the health mixes.
"Where are they?" Beast Boy questioned as he rummaged around his room.
Going over to his backpack, he opened it up to find Silke, the worm Robin had told him not to keep as a pet inside. Worse yet, the creature had eaten all of the health mixes.
Beast Boy let out a scream of terror when he saw this and panicked.
Meanwhile, back in the medical bay, Cyborg had Polybius hooked up to several rather scary-looking machines. Polybius meanwhile, rolled around on the bed now in complete helpless agony. Robin meanwhile, began frantically searching to see if they had anything in there that may help him.
"Here!" Robin said as he grabbed hold of a bottle of painkillers.
Quickly trying to get Polybius to take them, the mute Titan managed to gather himself enough to reject the pills. He knew his body would reject them as it always had with pills.
"Take it!" Robin was insistent.
However, at that moment, one of the screens began flashing red.
"What's going on!?" Robin demanded to know.
"Heart rate's dropping. Blood pressure!" Cyborg panicked "He's going into neurogenic shock! If something isn't done soon, he will die from the pain!"
Raven then quickly burst into the room with a box and several books right behind her. She immediately rushed to his side, as Cyborg explained that he was going into shock.
Raven quickly got to work as Starfire turned Polybius's room inside out, desperately looking for anything that may help. However, Polybius had never written down his recipe for this health mixes. And with all of them gone, it would seem that she would return empty-handed.
That was until she looked over at his computer desk and saw the defaced pictures.
"BEAST BOY!" Starfire shouted so loud it caused the entire tower to rumble.
The green teen meanwhile heard Starfire shout. His nerves were quickly overtaken with fear as his mind went blank on what to do.
Starfire meanwhile flew back into the medical bay with the defaced picture of the mute and Donna.
"Where is Beast Boy!?" Starfire demanded.
"Why?" Robin asked as Polybius he helped Cyborg hook him up to three more machines.
"This!" Starfire held up the picture of the other three to see.
"You mean BB's behind this?" Cyborg asked.
"He stole his health mixes as a prank." Raven explained, suddenly realizing what was going on "A prank that is going to get Polybius killed if we don't come up with something fast."
"Find Beast Boy, we'll find his mixes." Robin said, "Raven and Cyborg, stay here with Polybius. Starfire, and I will have a look around the tower."
"You had better turn it inside out." Cyborg said.
And with that, Robin and Starfire quickly took off to go and find Beast Boy. The teen in question was found in the hall.
"BEAST BOY!" Starfire shouted in rage.
Starfire quickly flew into him and grabbed him by his collar before he could even react. Her eyes green and full of rage as Robin promptly joined her.
"Where are the mixes!?" Robin demanded.
Beast Boy was clearly overcome with both shock and terror to answer.
"Where are they!?" Starfire demanded.
"Gone!" Beast Boy said.
"What do you mean, gone!?" Both Robin and Starfire demanded.
"I, uh, sort of lost them." Beast Boy timidly replied.
Both Robin and Starfire had a brief moment of shock come over them. If there were no health mixes available, then Polybius was going to die.
"Turn his room inside out." Robin ordered.
Starfire then dropped Beast Boy and quickly flew into the green Titan's room.
"Here's one!" Starfire shouted.
"Huh?" Beast Boy questioned.
Heading back to his room, he saw Starfire picking up one of Polybius's health mixes out of his bag. How on Earth the youngest Titan missed that was way beyond him.
"Hurry!" Robin ordered Starfire, "Get that to Polybius now!"
"Right!" Starfire said, quickly flying off.
Rushing back to the medical bay, Starfire held up the lone health mix.
"Thank goodness!" Raven said.
"You gotta liquify it!" Cyborg said, "Otherwise, he'll just choke on it."
"How?" Starfire asked.
"Give it here!" Cyborg said.
Cyborg then took the baggie and stuffed it in a machine. Ten seconds later, it beeped, and all of the contents of the bag were liquified.
"Put a tube down his throat!" Cyborg ordered, "And get me a funnel!"
Putting a tube down the mute Titan's throat, Cyborg then poured the health mix down his throat. The slush quickly made its way down into his stomach. Luckily for the mute, he was able to summon enough strength and focus to suck it down with the lone talon inside his stomach.
As Polybius sucked the liquified contents dry, his pain began to leave him, and he started to regain his strength and confidence.
After about five minutes of just lying on the bed, the mute Titan finally managed to sit up.
"Polybius!" Starfire shouted as she hugged him, "You're alive!"
The mute Titan nodded weakly as the Titans gave a sigh of relief.
"Now then." Cyborg said, "Beast Boy…"
About an hour later, Beast Boy, Robin, Cyborg, and Raven had gathered in the main room to hear Beast Boy's defense.
"Why would you do this?" Robin said, "You know he uses those for his back pain!"
"I know, I know." Beast Boy said, "I just thought that the pain in his back was going to be like when he used his powers, you know. Yeah, he hurts bad, but not to the point it would send him into shock!"
"Beast Boy, that's messed up." Cyborg commented, "I mean, taking a marker to his pictures was one thing, but this…"
"This is too far." Raven put it bluntly.
"I know I messed up." Beast Boy said.
"And to think I promised Polybius that things would get better last night." Robin said.
"Well, we've been telling him that for over a year now, and that hasn't happened." Cyborg said.
"Which is a problem." Robin said, "He puts up with so much from us. I'm amazed that he puts up with it. I don't know how he does it."
"That's a question only he can answer." Raven replied.
Meanwhile, back in the mute Titans room, Starfire was sitting in his swivel chair next to him as he laid in his bed. The medication had taken effect, and his back pain was reduced to its normal level. However, the shock had caused him a massive headache, and it incapacitated him.
As he laid in bed, Starfire was silent and just stayed by his side on her cellphone. He wished she would talk because he would much rather be hearing her voice than the voice of Darkbius.
"You get what I mean now?" Darkbius asked, "I told you Beast Boy wasn't your friend."
And while Polybius now firmly believed that, he still had faith in the other Titans.
"Just you wait." Darkbius told him, "One by one, they are going to show you that they want nothing more than to cause you harm. Look at Starfire over there. I bet you she's plotting something right now!"
The mute Titan didn't believe this. Starfire was the sweetest person he had ever met. He seriously doubted that she would intentionally hurt him.
"Just wait." Darkbius said, "They will all hurt you. And they will show you that you had something better!"
Thank you for reading this chapter and have a wonderulf rest of your day!