Beast
The water rippled like white, living glass. As the water fell it let out a continuous sheet of water vapor. The spray struck the faces of the constricting circle of men. Each soldier strained their eyes against the waters to catch a glimpse of the thing that hid in the blackness beyond the falls as they cautiously approached. Whatever had let looses the inhuman cry from within that black cavern had become now eerily silent, and each soldier felt as if a pair of cold eyes where watching from back through sheet the falling water. Inch by inch the men drew closer to the falls, and with every step their hearts began to beat more frantically. A sudden snap judgment came into the leaders mind and he signaled the troop to stop. The last thing he wanted to do was walk in to an ambush, so he walked out onto the rocks in the flowing stream alone. He would flush whatever it was out into the open. After positioning him self directly before the wall of crashing liquid he raised his gun to fire.
It looked as if the falls themselves exploded outward to grasp him, like a great liquid mouth yawning open to swallow the horrified man whole. But even before the water could reach him, the leader hit his knees and let his gun fall. The others saw blood spray as their leader fell clutching his throat as blood poured through the gaps in his fingers and down his shirt. Several feet past the man on his knees stood the green creature, knee deep in steam water. Its shoulders rose and fell as deep breaths where taken in by the Beast. Long black hair ran down past its large moving shoulders, and even longer spines grew outward from stripes down its back and arms. The lower half of it arms however had been replaced by blood stained black blades and his legs where like those that would belong to a wolf. Then as the green figure turned to face them, the men watched in horror as the blades withdrew back into the stripes, the arms became arms once more, and its legs formed back into their former state; and all that stood before them was the body of a young green teenager. The hair was still long and the black stripes still covered the monsters body but now it seemed only to be only a young green boy.
The leader of the men collapsed into the stream, his red blood dieing its clear waters crimson. The red streak of water flowed past the rocks and snaked around the ankles of the green boy. The monster stood in the life fluid and glared back at the men cowering before him, still breathing heavily. The click of a grenade into a barrel mounted grenade launcher caught the beast's attention. When the soldier raised his gun to fire his green target looked up at him, locking eye contact. The solid white eyes of the boy narrowed in to a deeper glare and his lips curled away from his sharp, white teeth into a snarl. The white eyes seemed to pierce through the soldiers mind and his trigger finger froze. Every mussel on the boy's body twitched in a moment of effort and the blades instantly formed once again. The grenade launcher barrel shook violently from the trebling of its owner's hand, and then the soldier squeezed his eyes shut to avoid the glare of those white eyes and fired the explosive. The arm blades widened into double black shields and Beast Boy held them out in defense. The grenade exploded against the black barrier and a white wave of water containing fragments of rock and dirt within its mass rose into the air before the falls. While the men covered their eyes to ward away the spray of shrapnel Beast Boy returned his arms to blades and lunged forward.
It rained scarlet water from the cloudless sky as the wave separated into small droplets of bloody liquid over their heads. As soon as grenadier opened his eyes he saw the beast flying at him, but even then it was too late. The long black blade pierced him through the chest, ripping through armor, skin and bone. From his hands the launcher fell into the flowing stream as he slowly lifted his hands and grasped Beast Boy arm that was implanted in him. One of the other men let out a cry of rage as he saw his comrade die, and began to spray the air in the direction of Beast Boy. Almost three shots flew past, but then before the third could ignite within the combustion chamber the gun was shattered into a spray of small metallic pieces from a slice of Beast Boys blade. The other black blade found its way into the owner's chest; he spit up blood then fell limp. Then the others began to fire. Bullets flew into the water of the falls and cracked off the wet rock. Beast Boy ripped his arm free of the dead mans ribcage and dashed to the left, dodging the hail of flying lead. He rolled swiftly into the trees, then dashed through the brush and circled around the group of men. He sprinted so quickly, the men continued firing where he had entered the forest. They where oblivious that the target the where trying to hit was about to flank them from the rear.
The first man Beast Boy struck was peering intensely forward, searching for his green target in a sea of dark green woods ahead of him. A snapping branch caused him to glance over his shoulder. Before he could even register what he saw, his head was pierced through by a sharp black point and his gun fell to the soft grass. The blades shrunk back into their original arm appearance, though the blood stains remained upon Beast Boys hands. His fingers began to change into long black claws. The blades on his back stiffened upwards like the short hairs on the back of a dog's neck as he charged the backs of the remaining eight soldiers. Two of the men stood besides one another, still strafing the patch of forest where Beast Boy had stood seconds ago. In two rapid ripping motions Beast Boy tore each of their jugulars open simultaneously, and then before their guns stopped firing into the air the green boy tackled another on to the ground. The others heard his screams and halted in their fire long enough to look over their shoulders and see the thing that they where trying to shoot crouching atop one of their comrades behind them amidst the slain bodies of their remaining allies. The man under Beast Boys clawed feet struggle futilely to crawl away, the green boy snarled and opened his mouth large enough to show his long sharp teeth gleam white then bit down on the crawling man neck. He ripped free a chunk of flesh as spat it aside, then stood from his victim side. Beast Boy glared at the remaining six and his tongue ran across the top row of his teeth, wiping clean the blood and revealing the unnaturally white K-9's beneath.
All but two of the rest ran back into the woods toward the road. The remaining two held their guns more like shields then weapons, and for a moment none moved. Then, in an instant, Beast Boys legs became that of a wolf's again and he dashed forward. Bullets hummed past his ears and struck the ground all around him. The brief spurt of fire echoed through the branches of the forest, and then each stopped instantaneously. The guns had been stapled to the men's chests. A long blade impaled the two men as well as the weapons they carried. Beast Boy let them hang in the air until they stopped struggling the set them to the ground. A mist of red intermixed with shredded scrap metal was torn free as he wrenched his arms from the gasping men's chests. Once his now human hands free he stood. He saw the running men in the distance, and considered giving chase, and then he remembered the cars. After closing his eyes, Beast Boy listened closely for the sound of his fleeing prey deep in the dark woods.
The snap of dead limbs breaking as the men crashed clumsily through the undergrowth was the first sound he heard, then the short panicky breaths sucked in by each terrified man, then the swift beating hearts within each of their chests, and finally he heard a pair of voices originating near the cars where the men where running. The two heart beets from where the cars sat conversed and Beast Boy heard them.
"But my general, now that he is awake then what will we…"
"Don't worry my child, I was counting on this."