Chapter 9
Earlier in the day Slade and Brother Blood continued discussing how they might go about dealing with Beast Boy.
"If his case is similar to those who have been brought back with crows, then we must capture and kill the raven," Blood declared. "Then he will be mortal again and no longer a threat."
Slade was silent for a moment. His counterpart sat by hoping he might soon agree with the idea. "Better yet… why not just capture and keep the raven?"
"Huh? What are you suggesting?" demanded Blood.
"Why should we rid ourselves of him when we could use him?"
"I see," Blood grinned as he understood. "Your quest for an apprentice never ends does it?"
"We may not go on forever, my friend, but I may rest easy knowing my goals can," Slade confidently stated. "Of course if he refuses, then we will punish him with the death of his precious soul carrier."
"You know he will resist," Brother Blood realized.
"Of course he will," stated Slade. "Even Robin resisted. But I did have leverage when I threatened to kill the boy wonder's friends. With the changeling our leverage will be the risk of his own existence."
"How do we lure Beast Boy into a trap?"
"He still has four enemies to eliminate. Considering what Johnny Rancid did to Raven, Beast Boy is likely to go after him, since it was Rancid who made the final blow on Raven. The changeling must be most anxious to get him next.
"I will tell Rancid about his allies and that the titans are coming for him. He will likely ignore my warning and go after them like the arrogant fool he is. Beast Boy will strike. Call your students and give them the same information. If they want to fight the titans they should do it at your school where there will be greater numbers. While your students battle with Beast boy we will capture the raven and gain the upper hand."
"I shall take my leave then," said Blood as he stood up and left the monitoring room.
The instant the titans' alarm went off that evening, Beast Boy snapped awake and sat up. He found himself in Medical and looked around. On the wall was a digital clock reading 7:58 p.m. He recalled what Raven did to him, what she had given him. He could feel it coursing through him. This convinced him he had not really dreamt seeing her. He even smiled a bit remembering her kiss to his cheek.
Beast Boy noticed his uniform was new. Laying flat over on a table was his coat. He stood up and went over to put it on and started for the door.
From the roof the raven kept watch. It heard doors open and engines roar. The titans were on their way to serve the city. The dark bird sent this image to Beast Boy.
Beast Boy paused when he saw it. "Good, they're leaving," he stated verbally. He opened the door and was greeted by a new face. "Who are you?" he demanded with as pleasant a tone as he could make.
"My name is Omen," she replied. "I'm a member of the titans and have been for several months now. Another new titan around here goes by the name Magenta."
"I remember. I've seen you both in visions I've had of the past. Why haven't you left with the rest of them?"
Omen stepped inside Medical. "I wanted to stay until you were awake. I also wanted to let you know that they are going after the same people you have yet to finish. Robin is going after Johnny Rancid and the others are dealing with the H.I.V.E."
"They can try, but those guys are for me to deal with." Beast Boy started passed her and stepped out of Medical, but stopped before going on. "I saw in my vision that your powers allow you to alter the mind."
"That among other things," Omen added.
"I'd like you to do something, but it can wait until this is over. I don't need the titans discovering all over again that I'm back before I've finished."
"What are you asking?" Omen was uncertain where this was going.
"I want you to make them forget that I was back and swear to never tell. I know it would be better that way. Also destroy any recorded evidence that I was back, including the memories Cyborg backs up."
"And what could be said when they find out some of our enemies are dead?"
"Act like you're venturing a guess and say, 'They must have had an enemy with a serious grudge.' Now please let me go."
Omen stepped aside. "Take care. And… I will erase their memories like you asked." After Beast Boy left Omen picked up her communicator. "Robin, Beast Boy is awake and he's escaped."
"Alright Omen," Robin replied through the communicator. "Join the others to look for Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo."
"I will," Omen complied.
Beast Boy hurried to the roof of the tower and met up with his guide. He greeted the bird by stating, "Let's finish this tonight."
Not a second more passed when the sight of the red jewel caught his attention. Leaning closer and squinting, he confirmed it to be a chakra – exactly like hers… but smaller of course.
"Raven?" he asked with astonishment in his voice. "Please, squawk four times and tell me that's you." When his soul carrier complied he added, "You've been with me all this time."
The bird flapped its wings several times to acknowledge what he realized. In his moment of amazement he never thought to turn into a raven himself to talk to her. She took off before he could say anything more. Beast Boy dropped his coat, morphed into a hawk, and departed the tower with the raven. Johnny Rancid would be next on his list.
Rancid was zooming along the night streets of Jump City on his frighteningly custom motorcycle. His expression was grim and angry. He remembered what Slade had told him a while ago when he found Johnny.
"I've come to warn you Rancid that the titans are looking for you," Slade spoke from the shadows. "You should also be careful. Killer Moth and Control Freak are dead and I suspect someone will be coming for you. For it would seem you and your allies are the targets of a vengeful soul for your actions a year ago."
"Who does Slade think he is telling me to be careful!" Rancid stated harshly. "The titans don't scare me! And if those two boneheads are dead," he stated of his late allies, "then who cares? No one is gonna take the streets from Johnny Rancid!"
He continued cruising through the city minding his own business, yet keeping alert for the titans. The biker was not superstitious. He did not believe in vengeful souls, so he ignored any means to look for some specter.
His vigilance was rewarded. The titans' leader crossed an intersection up ahead, oblivious to Johnny's location. Rancid pulled out his blaster, clutching it in his right hand. His grin was full of villainous glee. "You're about to get yours, birdie boy."
The raven and the green hawk landed on a building three blocks ahead of Johnny. Of the lot of those who partook in Beast Boy's and Raven's deaths, this one will pay most of all. It was his action that delivered the final attack that took Raven's life.
Beast Boy remembered. Despite his failing strength he watched Rancid drive his motorcycle right over his already dying girlfriend. He remembered crying out at what he witnessed. Only when it was too late could he find the strength for one last stand.
From another direction, Beast Boy could hear another vehicle – the R-cycle. He turned and watched the mad biker pull out a blaster. Beast Boy gasped. "No! Not Robin! They'll never take another titan."
Beast Boy hurried across the rooftops on foot. He thought nothing about changing at the moment, only getting to Robin to save him and have a crack at Rancid.
Robin continued cruising through the city, unaware that danger was behind him. He was focused on the road before him believing he would find Johnny and come up from behind, yet it was he who was being tailed.
Suddenly up ahead, someone leapt from above down onto the road. This figure was so close Robin feared he would collide with this person. He swiftly swerved his R-cycle to the side but continued screeching toward the figure.
Johnny Rancid brought his motorcycle to a stop. The presence of this new arrival puzzled him. He watched as the figure pulled his own swift move. Leaping upwards, the figure then somersaulted over Robin and yanked the boy wonder from his vehicle as it scraped along the pavement to a halt.
Robin shook off the distress of the incident and looked up at the person he nearly hit. To his surprise it was Beast Boy. "I could have killed you!"
"No you couldn't have," Beast Boy replied. "And… to tell you the truth, I just saved your life." He pointed.
Robin looked back to where Beast Boy was pointing and spotted the man he had been searching for. He saw Johnny was still holding the blaster. "Let me up Beast Boy. I've got to go after him."
"No you don't," Beast Boy stated calmly. "I told you guys – that is if you got my message – that he's mine." Beast Boy let Robin go and went for Robin's R-cycle. After picking it up he hopped on in and sped after Johnny, who suddenly turned tail and sped away.
"Beast Boy that's mine!" cried Robin.
"Build another one!" Beast Boy called back as he hurried off.
Through the city's streets and around traffic, Beast Boy closed in on Rancid. Johnny looked back frequently to see his pursuer closing in on him. As the changeling closed in alongside Rancid got a good look at him. There was no mistaking the hair color and the green skin that was not painted over.
For one brief moment Johnny's menacing expression changed to fear. "You!" Then he returned his attention to the road ahead.
Johnny tried speeding up, but Beast Boy was not falling behind. Beast Boy pulled alongside until he was literally within arms length of Johnny. Beast Boy morphed his arm and hand to that of a tiger's limb and paw. He lashed at Rancid but each attempt missed as the villain pulled away. Beast Boy tried also with pterodactyl talons and was unsuccessful as the result was the same. His third attempt was with his Beast arm, but the results were more misses.
His fourth attempt was his most lethal. He began falling back a short distance by only a few feet. Then something extended from his tailbone that pulled his trench coat up from the bottom. A tail grew and grew and grew… into a long scorpion tail as he was familiar with the Emperor Scorpions of Africa. Growing this tail, he did not leave out the bulbous vesicle or the aculeus so that he could administer venom.
Johnny watched this feat via his side-view mirrors. Being ahead of Beast Boy his look of shock was unseen by the changeling. Now he could see the R-cycle speeding up and closing in. Between this unexpected move and the traffic on the road he feared he might lose focus on his navigation, but Johnny maintained as best as he could.
Beast Boy had yet to strike and shortly they were on the highway heading toward the coast. Traffic was light so Johnny lost fear of the possibility of crashing. Still, Beast Boy kept coming and now he was ready. He brought the appendage down upon Rancid… and missed. He struck to Rancid's right, to his left. Somehow this mad biker maintained the confidence to swerve each time Beast Boy brought the tail down.
Beast Boy growled in exasperation. "Enough of this!" he hissed and retracted the tail. Beast Boy sped up.
Johnny watched his pursuer's moves and briefly relaxed, hoping he had given up. Then he realized the R-cycle was closing and panicked. "Now what will he do?"
Once again Beast Boy came alongside Rancid but did not close in as before. He tried one more technique. There was no way Johnny was getting out of this. From beneath his coat swelled several lumps on Beast Boy's back. The coat was flipped wide open as several long squid tentacles extended themselves from Beast Boy.
The set to his left swerved around and wrapped around Johnny, even securing his arms to his sides. Quickly, so that Rancid's motorcycle would not veer off the road and crash, the rest of the tentacles were wrapped around the handlebars. Beast Boy increased the speed of the R-cycle. Simultaneously the tentacles responded bringing Rancid's bike up to the same speed.
Johnny cried out, "What are you doing? You're going to kill us both!"
Beast Boy turned to look at him with no mercy in his eyes. "No… just you." He returned his attention to the road.
Both motorcycles continued on until Beast Boy steered them off the road toward the ocean. But ahead, just before the water, was a cliff. Far below the edge were rocks, large and small. Beast Boy drove himself and Rancid off the edge. The motorcycles splintered and the bodies hit the rocks.
After a few moments, Beast Boy stood up and looked around for Johnny until he saw him. What a mess. Blood was spilled everywhere, but the most of it formed a peculiar pattern. Anyone looking down from the edge of the cliff would see his legs were spread as were his arms. His blood ran along the rocks beneath his arms thinning out until it shaped like wings. A small amount even spilled from his mouth looking like a beak. And that was the end for Johnny Rancid.
Slade approached the edge of the cliff and looked down. He shook his head in disappointment for Johnny. He saw Beast Boy below standing not to far from the corpse. A sound shook him from his observation. It was the screech of a bird. He looked around and saw the raven. His single eye scowled at it. Instantly a feeling hit and he looked down. Beast Boy was looking up at him.
Receiving an image from his guide Beast Boy saw the face of Slade. The changeling gasped and looked up. An instant following Slade looked down. Recalling the vision he had from the previous night on the rooftop, it finally dawned on him.
"So you are involved!" he hissed. There was no mistaking that if he saw Slade then it meant even Brother Blood was a part of this. Before he could morph into a bird and fly back up, Slade disappeared into the darkness.
When he finally reached the top he saw the raven still perched where it had been. "We go to the H.I.V.E." And both left.
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