Brothers' Mountain
"Haha! That homing signal for the T-ship came in handy," Cyborg rejoiced. The team flew across the plains to Brothers' Mountain. The mountain's gray craggy jagged peak punctured the sky. The clouds surrounding it grew dark and hungry, like a fluffy monster with gray eyes. Beast Boy glared at the mountain, never flinching for a moment. "So what's the plan now?" Cyborg asked. "Toros knows we're on to him."
"We get to the mountain, stop the processing plant, and stop the Alpha terrorists," Robin said.
"What about Toros?" Starfire asked.
"Leave him to me," Beast Boy answered grimly. Raven looked at him through the ship's window hub.
"Be careful," she said.
"Don't worry. Toros won't beat me this time."
"I meant you. Remember, at the core, Toros is doing the same thing you would be doing. Like Robin did when he was Slade's apprentice."
"Don't remind me," Robin slowly rumbled through clenched teeth.
"What does that have to do with Toros and me?" Beast Boy asked.
"Because he is still your friend," Starfire said. The green teen absentmindedly looked at his control panel and grunted. He hated it when they were right.
Suddenly, a beeping noise rattled the T-ship. "Cyborg! What's wrong?"
"Someone's trying to jam our electronics! We should be fine, but it's coming from somewhere below." Beast Boy looked down on the receding plains. As the grass changed to dirt and dust on a rocky stretch of land, dark green Jeeps roared across the plain with a sprinting cheetah leading them.
"It's Toros. I'll take care of them."
"No, we need you here, Beast Boy."
"Robin-"
"I said no. Let them find us at the processing plant. We can fight them there and dispose of the whole operation with one shot," Robin replied. Beast Boy huffed, crossing his arms. He was right, but he didn't like it. As the T-Ship zoomed faster out of the jamming range, they closed in on the mountain. The clouds grew dark and angry, but the incoming storm made something stand out. Zooming past the tall cloud-clothed peak, a massive yard of trucks and even trains were sprawled out on a flat circular enclosure like hungry ants behind the mountain guarded by a sharp rock border. "There it is. Land over there by the trees."
"Wait!" Garfield shouted. "Starfire, make sure you have something around your nose."
"Why?"
"Because I don't need your Snotbolts blowing something up."
Sniff "I will not." Her voice was already stuffy. All the Titans grimaced. "Perhaps you are right."
As the team landed, Garfield jumped out, leering at the uranium site. "Let's finish this, Toros."
The Titans crept over to the yard. With the great big mountain at its back, the dark clouds overhead rumbled softly with distant thunder, adding to the yard's noisy trucks and freight cars. The team crouched behind some piping equipment as the animal-masked henchmen packaged and shipped the uranium. The ore came in long tubes through a conveyor belt embedded in the mountain. The tubes were carefully handled by the henchmen and placed into the trucks. Garfield squatted with Cyborg and peeked around the corner. "Something's not right. If they don't have a reactor, what are they using the stuff for?" Beast Boy asked. "Maybe they're just using weapons."
"No, my sensors are still picking up the uranium, but it's already been processed."
"Huh?"
"Uranium isn't useful when it's pumped straight out of the ground," Cyborg explained to BB. "They have to purify it. But if it's already coming out in those tubes, then it's already processed."
"Which means this isn't their final destination," Raven finished. The henchmen were busily carrying the tubes into the trucks, but when they closed and locked the truck doors, the henchmen would take off their masks and their green jumpsuits and climb behind the wheel; they wore uniforms underneath with a dusty desert tan camouflage pattern. The henchmen slapped bright red berets on their heads and drove off.
Beast Boy tumbled onto his rear, slack-jawed with words struggling to come out. "Yo, BB. What's wrong?" Cy asked.
"It... it all makes sense. Aw man! Toros! These aren't-"
"THERE THEY ARE!" shouted a guard. The Team suddenly found themselves surrounded by masked men with their guns drawn. A cheetah confidently walked towards them, shifting into Garfield's normal-looking mirror.
"Garfield."
"Toros." The former brothers glared at each other down. Lion against lion. Brother against brother. "Toros, you have to stop this. It's-"
"I'm sorry, Gar... I can't," Toros sighed as the two lion and lioness-masked leaders stepped up. They stood with their ominous unmoving masks with dark unblinking eyes. They stood like a couple; the lioness's arm wrapped around the lion's. It would have been cute if guns and knives weren't present.
"We're glad to have you here," said the lioness with a deceptively sweet voice. "We began to worry that Toros wouldn't do his job in bringing his little look-alike brother." Toros lowly growled, glancing back over his shoulder.
"Why are you so interested in Beast Boy?" Robin asked.
The lion laughed. "Hehe, it's just nice to see the Changing boys together." Beast Boy's shocked face turned to Raven whose emotionless eyes widened. "Now, Toros, would be so kind as to dispose of these titans?"
"What?"
"They can't know anything about this plant. Since they know, they have to be dealt with."
Toros spun around and shouted, "That wasn't the plan!"
"Plans change."
"You were only supposed to hold them!"
"They blew up the holding facility, Toros, and now they know about this place," the lion-masked leader bellowed.
"Wha... what's so important about this place?!" Toros shouted.
"Swe-... Toros, calm down and listen," The lioness said. "Brothers' Mountain has to be hidden. If anyone from the outside world caught wind of this, we'll be exposed and your parents will be in great danger." Toros hung his head, clenching his fists. He felt as if a rope had snaked its way around his neck, stringing him along. The word puppet came to his mind. Now here he was, betraying his friends and the family he had now. He tossed away the family he could have joined for his own. Toros looked at Garfield, mouth open and eyes pleading for help. "Take these heroes away."
"You know I never thought I'd see you two again," Beast Boy said. The lion and lioness looked at him through shadowy eyes. "But it makes sense. The government around here is trying to get their uranium illegally, pushing out the tribes around here. You're not terrorists, your political thieves trying to drain this place to the bone."
"Hehe, the green boy finally figured it out. Bravo." Beast Boy could feel the lion leader's crooked smile even behind the mask. "But it won't help you much."
"Would it help if Toros helped us?"
"Beast Boy, what are you doing?" Robin whispered.
"Trust me."
The lioness spoke in a deceptively sweet voice, "Our boy wouldn't do that. Isn't that right, Toros?"
Toros gritted his teeth but sighed, "They're right, Garfield. I can't. I have to protect my parents. I'm sorry."
Garfield narrowed his eyes, "If you want to see your parents, then turn around."
"What?"
"Come on, radioactive stuff and knowing which tribe to run off with what animal? Did you forget that stampeding elephants were a bad divine omen ONLY by the Dapper Mense? Only two people in anthroposny-"
"Anthropology," Raven muttered annoyed.
"Could have figured that out. I mean, who else do you know that called us the Changing Boys?" The truth hit Toros in the face. His eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped as he spun back around.
"Mom? Dad?"
"I was hoping you wouldn't find out here," the lion leader muttered, taking off his masks. Toros looked into the familiar hazel eyes of his father Alex and the blue eyes of his mother Rebecca. Toros slowly backed away.
"No, no... it can't be. W-Why?"
"The government shut down our work a long time ago. We tried every other avenue, but it was no use." His father said. "When they figured out about your powers, they instantly wanted our help with the uranium."
"Which was rightfully under the tribes' property," Beast Boy debated. "You're stealing from their reservation!"
"Call it what you will!" Shouted Alex. "We had no choice."
"Sounds familiar," Raven muttered. Toros balled his fists and gritted his teeth until they pained him. His heart grew in the bloody aching while a feral demon growled in his mind and mouth.
"All this time... you... you used me as your puppet," He grunted.
"It was the only way!" Toros's mother exclaimed.
"Yeah, well I'm going to fix this. My way! The right way!" Toros stomped the ground and changed his body into a massive T-Rex, roaring as loud as his hurting heart could, slapping the guards down with his tail. The Titans ducked.
"Robin, now would be a good time!" Garfield shouted.
"Titans go!" Toros smashed his tail on every car and truck insight. His foot stomped down the train set to leave, causing a rippling explosion that rocked the whole area.
"Sweetie no!" Shouted Rebecca. The T-rex's large head spun around and zoomed in on its mother.
"Go! Go!" Alex shouted as the couple ran for cover. The T-Rex roared his massive orange head at the guards. The guards screamed and ran for cover, but Toros swatted them like little gnats fluttering around him. The Titans ducked out of the T-Rex's rampage and charged towards the guards.
"TOROS WAIT!" Beast Boy yelled, but with each stomp of his foot, Toros took out another truck. As the Titans charged in every direction, Beast Boy morphed into a gorilla and smashed his way through the line of guards towards Toros. Another round of guards blocked his way, and Cyborg had to pull Garfield back and blast the enemies back.
"We have to deal with these guys first!" He cried out. Garfield nodded, transforming into a wolf, clamping his jaws into another henchman.
The blonde's mom and dad ran toward the safety of the processing plant, where they thought they could disappear among the guards. The rampaging T-Rex morphed into a human and glared in every direction, shouting, "COME OUT A FACE ME! FACE YOUR MISTAKE!" A line of guards in red berets cut him off, but Toros morphed into a giant bull and stampeded right through.
"AHH! DAHH My leg!" Shouted the guards. Toros charged right through a truck, blowing it up high into the air. The explosion rocked the ground as Beast Boy struggled to keep his balance.
"Darn it," He grunted. "He's going to blow us up! What about the radioactive stuff?!"
"The uranium should be fine in the tubes, but we have to keep those things from catching fire! We have to take down every last one of these guys!" Cyborg shouted, blasting another guard back. Suddenly, a stray bullet knocked Starfire's clothespin off. She took one sniff of the air where the chromium-tubed uranium was.
"AH... AHHHH AHHHHACHHOOOOOO!" Her snotblast blew right over the entire processing plant and up Brothers' Mountain. The large lime-green ball disappeared into the thick clouds and struck something with a distant thump.
Then it happened.
A low but growing rumble thundered down the mountain. Louder and louder, like the feet of all the elephants in Africa, the noise grew into a steady roar, like a savage lion unleashed.
"Or we can just let Starfire bury this place in a heap of rock!" Beast Boy yelped. "Huh, why am I having Deja vu?"
"Really? You're joking about that?" Raven asked. Beast Boy shrug. The guards ran for cover, abandoning their trucks and uranium tubes.
"Beast Boy, get Toros!" Robin shouted, "We'll round up the guards." Garfield nodded and ran after the charging bull. The green teen ducked and dodged the numerous oncoming guards. The rocky hailstorm started to grow into the deafening music of chaos. Toros blindly charged each and every way, until he cornered his mom and dad against the mountain.
"Please, sweetie, don't do this!" Rebecca cried, trying to raise her voice above the noise of rocks. "We were only trying to protect you! They would have killed us!"
"They should have!" Toros shouted, changing back. "At least I wouldn't be the son of two crooks!" Pebbles started sprinkling from above. Garfield finally made it to them.
"Toros! We have to go!"
"Why! What was all of this for?! Why? What was the reason?!" Toros cried to his parents; streams of tears poured down his face. Beast Boy grabbed his shoulder. "Let me go, Gar. They need to suffer!"
Beast Boy stepped between Toros and his parents, blocking his brother's way. "They're never going to suffer as much as you are! I know what it's like to be used, betrayed. But you can't let that blind you."
"How am I supposed to move on from this?! How am I supposed to fix this? What's the reason for me going on anymore?!" Toros growled.
"I don't know!" Garfield yelled, "But I know that you'll find that reason. You trust me. Don't you?" Toros blinked away his tears and wiped his eyes. Suddenly, the earth jostled and knocked them to the ground. Toros and Beast Boy looked up and large boulders were about to fall on them.
"NO!" Someone pushed the Changing Boys them out of the way. The boys tumbled to the ground as the boulders landed with a crash. As the dust cleared a bit, Toros saw his parents crushed underneath the boulders.
"NOO!" He cried, scrambling to them, but his parents weakly pushed him away. "No no no, no, no, no! I'm sorry, I...I didn't mean it! If I had just... I can't lose you! Not now! I can't!"
"Toros," His father weakly smiled. "Go, leave us. We're... sorry... It's okay... We should have never used you... we should have... told you."
"I'll get you out! I can... I can." The thick mucus in his throat choked his words as water streamed down his eyes. The ground shook violently as the landslide grew closer. "I... I can get you out! Please... don't leave me! Don't leave me again!"
"I'm sorry sweetie...There's... no time...Gar...Gar!" Toros's mother weakly called. "Look after our son. Please."
"I will." Beast Boy promised. The mountain rumbled more as larger boulders started falling. "Come on, Toros! We have to go!"
"No! Mom DAD!" Toros cried. Garfield transformed into a pterodactyl, picked Toros up, and flew out. The blonde's tear-streaked vision, through the dust and rocks, saw his father and mother smiling as if they had finally done something good for their son. Rock-filled dust clouds rushed toward the two and the landslide closed in. Beast Boy beat his wings harder and harder. He just needed to get a clear view of the sky.
"Come on, come on!" Garfield grunted, flying as fast as he could. The landslide tumbled after them, consuming cars, trucks, and trains. Toros wasn't making it easy as he flailed in Beast Boy's grip.
"Let me go back!" He wailed. "I can... I can still save them!" But Beast Boy wasn't listening. He flew faster and faster until green, black, and blue beams of light darted above his head and held the rockslide back. Beast Boy flew up and started flapping his wings easier. In the wake of the landslide, a gray rocky bed laid silent and still, covering the uranium deep underground. Beast Boy finally made it to the safety of the T-ship, where they crashed to the ground. Transforming back, he coughed out some dust he inhaled.
"ACK ACK! UGH, that's gonna suck tomorrow," Beast Boy gasped. He looked at Toros. He was clutching the ground and grass with all his might and shivering as tears watered the grass. "Toros?"
"Why?" Toros said through a tired raspy voice. "Why did you save me? After everything I did? Why did... you save me?"
Beast Boy smiled and placed his hand on his shoulder. "What are friends for?" Toros's watery eyes widened, and he shook with his heavy gasps of air. The tears leaked down his face and he fell into Beast Boy's embrace, crying his heart out. "It's okay. It's okay." The other Titans kept their distance out of respect as Toros's cries howled into the still air.
"We better make sure the other terrorists are contained," Robin proposed. Raven, Star, and Cy agreed, leaving the two brothers alone. But Raven stopped and looked at them. Beast Boy's tears wetted Toros's golden hair. She could feel Toros's overwhelming grief a mile away, but it was the emotion that came off of Beast Boy that... confused her. There was...relief? Like something had ended. Garfield, through his misty eyes, saw Raven and nodded. She nodded back and flew away.
Something did end, but something also began.
Continued...
