Chapter 4
Having entered the tower and taken an elevator to the upper levels, Beast Boy now walked through the tower passages toward his room. The raven flew nearby. He looked around as he continued walking and realized that not much has changed about the tower over the last year. Then he came upon it – the Rec. room. It was one of the best rooms about the tower, second only to his room and first above the kitchen where he would make his favorite tofu meals.
Forgetting again about being naked, Beast Boy walked deeper into the Rec. room. The raven perched itself near the monitor. There was the comfortable sofa and the big screen monitor where he would play his favorite video games and watch good television.
What games had come out in the last year? What new TV shows and movies are on? How much have I missed? Such questions that were in his mind were instantly disrupted the second he placed his hands and weight against the sofa. Several memories flashed into his mind.
He and Cyborg played video games, or he and Robin played, or he, Cyborg, and Robin competed in a three way race of "Galactic Derby Racers 4." Several times when Robin was in the memory, Starfire would be there too.
From this same sofa, the titans were gathered together to watch a movie. On the occasion that a horror movie was being watch, Starfire was clinging to Robin. During one shocking scene, Raven was so frightened by an incident that she had not immediately realized she was holding tightly onto Beast Boy at a time before they were even dating. He was surprised at first but managed to grin all the same. Then Raven, after realizing how she reacted, pulled away in disgust. Beast Boy frowned then turned back to watch the movie feeling hurt.
In the present, Beast Boy still managed to smile.
Following that were memories of the ever goofy Beast Boy disrupting Raven who sat on the sofa, reading with a cup of herbal tea nearby. His disruptions, although intended as harmless and playful, usually resulted in retaliation by Raven. She would either yell at him to go away or she would throw him back with her power.
Then there were more pleasant memories that followed once they had started dating. Beast Boy and Raven would be alone on the sofa leaning into one another. They would either be enjoying the quiet or watching the sun set outside the window. There was even a vision in which he found himself and Raven napping, with Raven's head resting against his chest and his arms wrapped around her.
These memories also made Beast Boy smile. Additional visions brought two new faces to mind. Both were those of females. In separate visions related to these two he learned their names: Omen and Magenta.
"They must be our replacements Raven," Beast Boy said to himself. "I wonder how good they are."
He decided that was enough and returned his attention to getting to his room. Flapping its wings, the raven lifted off and followed Beast Boy. He left the Rec. room area and walked through the passageway to his room. Standing before the door, he opened it and went in. It had been cleaned up. The raven flew inside and perched itself at the edge of his bunk bed.
The room reeked of memories. Beast Boy would be dancing around to his choice of music; eating food and tossing unfinished scraps to the floor. But as he noticed the full length mirror nearby one specific memory came to mind.
Beast Boy stood before the mirror taking different stances as he attempted different tones of voice. "Raven will you go out with me?" he asked with a polite tone. He even tried it sounding sincere.
"So, Raven, how about you and me going out?" he tried with crossed arms and a cocky smile.
"Raven, I think you and I should date," he said outright.
Beast Boy groaned in defeat knowing and believing such attempts were never going to work.
Beast Boy shook his head in the direction of the mirror and huffed out a laugh through his nose at the ridiculousness of the memory. He looked over at his closet then walked over and opened it. Beast boy discovered a few of his jumpsuits of choice and accessories were still there and in good condition. He put on some underwear then pulled the forward-most uniform out and dressed. He slipped on a pair of gray gloves then a pair of boots.
"Okay, I'm dressed and ready," Beast Boy said out loud to no one. Then he turned to the raven. "What do you think?" he asked showing off his wardrobe.
The raven squawked sounding as though it disapproved. Beast Boy morphed into a raven and asked, "What now?"
"You are an emissary of vengeance," it replied. "You are not really Beast Boy anymore. Therefore I must advise you add to your appearance." It flew into the closet and swiveled its head about looking over his additional clothing. Then it noticed something. "Wear that," it said gesturing toward a black, long-leather trench coat.
"The trench coat Raven got me for my birthday?" Beast Boy asked. "Is that all?"
"No," the raven replied. "You need to be a symbol – someone your enemies should fear. I would recommend concealing yourself behind a mask."
"A mask?" Beast Boy repeated. He morphed back into human form and entered the closet. He noticed he still had his Doom Patrol mask hanging up inside. "I don't want to wear that anymore," he said of the mask as he reached for the trench coat and removed it from the hanger.
"Here," said Raven handing him a large, rectangular gift-wrapped box. "Happy birthday, Beast Boy."
"Thank you, Raven," Beast Boy replied. He opened it and pulled back the dark tissue paper Raven chose to cover his gift with. He looked at and removed the trench coat from the box. Beast Boy held it out, looking it up and down. "Cool," he added with a broad grin. She couldn't help but close her eyes and smile when Beast Boy kissed Raven on her cheek.
Beast Boy put the trench coat on. The purple region along the front of his uniform stood out as he left the coat untied and unbuttoned. "A Halloween mask would be pretty dumb. It'll have to be something unique." Beast Boy thought for a moment. "I'll bet Raven has just the thing." He stepped out of his room and walked down the hall towards Raven's room. The bird followed him.
Robin and Johnny Rancid were at a distance from the others. They continued speeding about in circles in a presently dead even standoff.
"Come on birdie-boy, show me what you got!" Rancid challenged.
Jinx was quick with her hex attacks, but Omen easily teleported around the showering debris. "Eventually, you'll wear down," Jinx taunted. "Your mind can't keep that up forever."
"The same can be said for you," Omen replied shifting around every projectile.
"We'll see about that."
Starfire charged downward toward Mammoth firing her starbolts at and around him. He shielded his face placing his arms in an "X" fashion to protect him from debris. But some of her starbolts did hit him, forcing him to take steps back.
Closing in on Mammoth she ceased firing. Starfire placed her fists before her, with the intent of knocking him off his feet and hopefully into unconsciousness, and roared. But that brief pause in attack allowed Mammoth to lower his arms and see what was happening. There she was, getting closer ready to collide with him.
The instant she was about to punch him into night-night, Mammoth threw his own hands out and caught her fists. Both were now trying to push each other backward, but for the moment their strength seemed evenly matched and neither of them budged – Mammoth as he stood his ground and Starfire as she remained in the air.
Over where Killer Moth lay, he began waking up from unconsciousness. He surveyed the battle as he recovered from his daze. He saw that everyone's fight seemed even. He pulled the remote given to him by Gizmo from his belt and pressed a sequence of buttons.
"This will give us a nice smoke screen," Killer Moth said to himself.
Gizmo was still being carried around by his tech pack's spider legs. He was presently at a standstill facing Magenta. Even she was motionless. They were staring each other down.
Then Gizmo taunted her. "Okay, little Miss Magnadoodle… let's see what you can do."
Gizmo launched missiles at Magenta. She easily repelled them, sending them to a safe distance to impact and to explode. Something about her counterattack caught Gizmo's attention and he smirked. But before acting on his theory, Gizmo tried again. This time he launched several projectiles the size of and shaped like sea urchins.
After Magenta caught those projectiles and hurled them away, she huffed as if she were bored. "Have you had enough? You can't touch me with your tech. Why do you think I chose to take you on?"
Gizmo gave a cocky grin. "Apparently you failed to realize something. You may have stopped my toys, but you can't stop me." His spider legs moved him forward.
Magenta set up her magnetic field again to stop his advancement. But Gizmo continued forward. He continued to smile as if victory were his. Magenta increased her magnetic powers keeping them focused on him without affecting other metals around her, but Gizmo kept advancing.
"What's wrong?" she asked out loud. "Why isn't this working?"
"My spider legs – everything that holds them together and makes them move – are made out of non-magnetic compounds!"
"No," Magenta gasped. She kept her defenses up, but took a step backward for every step Gizmo stepped forward. In keeping her defenses up, her magnetic powers were once again starting to affect her mind. As the mental pressure worsened, she disabled her magnetic powers and threw her hands to her temples. Magenta fell to her knees, breathing through her teeth as the throbbing increased.
Gizmo advanced toward Magenta with that same cocky expression. He was about to pounce down upon her with his spider legs when he was struck by metallic debris from the side. Magenta's powers flared up once again, but briefly, in aid of the ailing titan. Gizmo was knocked out and his spider legs were contorted. When Magenta's powers faded again, her agony resumed.
Robin and Johnny Rancid were now at an apparent head on collision. But ahead of both of them were large mounds of debris. The two seemed to have the same idea – to jump over the mounds and come down upon one another. As both motorcycles launched into the air, there was only a split second of astonishment among the two opponents. Then Robin and Rancid leapt from their wheels and let those fall to the ground as the two enemies collided bodies with each other and fell to the ground themselves. This would now be a hand-to-hand match.
Cyborg was now standing less than four feet away from Control Freak. Control Freak, who found himself on the ground after being brought out of the T-car by Omen, got to his feet. He took a couple of steps back away from the angry looking metal-man.
As Cyborg took a step forward, Control Freak grinned cunningly. Control Freak raised his remote in his right hand and aimed it at the T-car. With his right thumb, Control Freak pressed two buttons on the remote and the T-car started up again. When Cyborg heard the engine he turned in shock.
But something else caught his attention. He saw Magenta hurting and knew. With more concern for his teammate than his car, Cyborg hurried over to Magenta to help her. "Take it easy, Magenta," he said soothingly. "You'll be alright." She was still agonizing.
Control Freak laughed hysterically. With control over the T-car he set it into motion and navigated it around the battle.
Cyborg looked away from Magenta to face Control Freak. He raised his right arm and formed his sonic cannon, aiming it right at the couch potato. "Stop my car and drop your remote."
"I could do that," Control Freak admitted still smiling. "But I wouldn't let your car stop before it hit someone." With his remote he increased the T-car's speed and navigated it toward Magenta and Cyborg. He laughed as he went on. "Not only would you both get run over, but think of the mess to your paint job!"
In the distance there was buzzing. As it got louder, all fighters slowly stopped fighting and dropped their guard to look. The T-car was slowed to a halt without hitting Cyborg and Magenta. From the north came a massive cloud – or rather a massive swarm. It closed in on the battle.
Jinxed turned to Killer Moth. "What are you doing?" she cried.
"Getting us out of here!" he shouted back.
Robin's eyes widened. "Titans, take cover!"
The swarm of moths was upon the battlefield. They targeted the titans. All five of them tried fighting back against Killer Moth's mutant swarm, but were overwhelmed by the enormous numbers. Even Magenta had regained enough of her senses to try and fend them off. The titans were unaware they were being taunted and distracted as the H.I.V.E. and the escapees fled the scene.
When they were clear of the prison facility, Killer Moth entered another sequence on the remote. Back at the prison the moths turned and flew off.
"Is everyone okay?" asked Robin after catching his breath.
"We should get Magenta back to the tower and let her rest," suggested Cyborg, noticing her poor condition.
"Right," Robin considered. "We should call Kid Flash and ask him to visit her. It might help."
Cyborg carried Magenta over to the T-car and set her in the back. Omen and even Starfire got into the T-car. Omen was in the back seat with Magenta and Starfire was up front as Cyborg drove them all back to the tower with Robin leading on his R-cycle.
From his lair, Slade monitored the fight with Brother Blood sitting nearby. "Very good," Slade commented. "Most impressive."
"Much better this time," added Brother Blood.
Beast Boy stood before Raven's door with the bird perched on his shoulder. Just being there brought on a couple of visions.
He was at her closed door with a look of pity. "No. I'm sorry… he broke your heart." Her door opened and she stepped out and gave him a heavy hug.
In another vision he stood at her door as it opened. "Yes, Beast Boy?" Raven asked flatly.
"Um," he began nervously. "I was wondering…" The rest came out rather quickly. "If-you're-not-doing-anything-Friday-night-would-you-like-to-go-out-with-me?" He closed his eyes tightly and ducked his head, ready for the blow.
"Uh… okay," Raven replied.
"Really?" he asked in disbelief as he looked at her.
"I suppose. Just don't do anything that's… well you. Just try to be a little better than usual."
"Okay," he said with a grin and skipped off down the hall.
Now in the present, here he was. Either old habits are hard to break, or he still felt it necessary to knock just because it was Raven's room. "Raven, I'd like to come in if it's okay." He realized he actually said that out loud.
Then he opened the door and walked in. It was as dark as ever and was still the same as he remembered during the times he intruded or was let inside by Raven. The titans kept it clean.
A flood of memories came to him, including the time he watched as Malchior charmed Raven. Others were of Beast Boy and Raven resting peacefully and holding each other in her bed.
Among the books in her library, Beast Boy noticed a thin, newer looking one. He walked over to the bookshelf where it was stored and pulled it from between two other books. The title of the book was "Please Find Me."
It was Raven's birthday, a time shortly before she and Beast Boy started dating. After she opened gifts from everyone else, Beast Boy pulled from behind him a thin gift-wrapped item.
"Happy birthday, Raven," he said handing it to Raven.
Raven unwrapped the gift to reveal a book titled "Please Find Me." She opened to some pages which revealed cartoon images. Raven looked up unimpressed. "You got me a picture book?"
"Um… yeah. Do you like it?" he asked with a hopeful grin.
"Thanks," Raven said dryly. She sighed and set the book aside, ignoring Beast Boy's pained expression.
A new vision later showed she was actually reading it. She didn't know how it was possible, but there was something about the words of the childish book that affected Raven. It seemed to awaken something new in her.
Beast Boy recalled that she had come to him at one point to apologize for the way she accepted it and thanked him for the book. It wasn't long after that day a relationship had begun between them. He placed the book back on the shelf where he pulled it from.
Then Beast Boy saw her mirror. He was curious about that. He went over to her bureau and found it still there. Beast Boy picked it up and an image of his and Cyborg's journey to Nevermore struck him. Strangely enough though, there was nothing this time.
"Of course there wouldn't be anything happening," he realized. "With Raven gone, the mirror doesn't work anymore."
Beast Boy set the mirror back down and walked around the room looking for anything he could use as a mask. There wasn't a thing. Then he noticed the dark theatrical masks that represented Comedy and Drama mounted on a nearby stand. He seemed drawn to the expression of the Drama mask. An idea came to mind and it would be the perfect mask.
Beast Boy rummaged around her room looking for make-up among Raven's accessories. He found white face paint in a kit and a tube of black lipstick. Sitting before a mirror he smeared the white face paint all over, from his forehead as close to his hairline as possible to beneath his chin. All the while, the raven had been watching from where it settled on the bureau. Beast Boy even smeared the white paint closely to his ears as well until his entire face was painted white. It made a bit of a difference covering a good deal of his green pigment.
Next he took the tube of black lipstick and spread it over his lips with a single, thin line drawn from both corners of his mouth. The lines stretched no more than half an inch in length at a downward angle, making it look a bit like Beast Boy was frowning just like the Drama mask. Finally he spread the black lipstick over his eyelids, followed by drawing a single short and thin line from above the center of his left eyebrow to blend it in with the black of his eyelids and then drew a single line center beneath the same eye. He repeated this process with his right eye.
Beast Boy stood up and turned to face the raven. Not entirely sure the trench coat would morph with him, he removed it and set it aside before changing into a raven. Strangely enough, the mask – as though it was now his actual face – morphed with him, giving his raven form a strange yet creepy look. "What do you think?"
"I believe you are about ready." The raven sounded pleased. "You should go to the gym and try to loosen up a bit more before you go out. I will watch from the tower rooftop for the titans. They are sure to return before you leave and they should not know you have been brought back."
"The gym sounds like a good idea," Beast Boy replied. "But you should know that even if I hide from them, it probably won't take long for them to find out about me. They're titans, and titans have a knack for finding things out." He restored himself to human form, picked up the trench coat, and headed for the gym.
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