Chapter 2
The following morning, everyone's sleep was disturbed by a red alert that buzzed through the whole building.
The five members all rushed to the living room, Beast Boy being the last to enter as he grouped with the rest of his team with a deep yawn — although he had collected more sleep, it wasn't enough.
"Titans, trouble!" Bellowed Robin, whom was already standing in front of their big screen displaying the world map.
Their leader now donned a black tighsuit with a blue emblem of a robin covering his chest and back; this gave him a more authoritative presence. Despite this new look that was supposed to embody a new persona, he was still Robin as far as the others were concerned.
The red blinker soon enought pointed them to a region in Africa, deep in one of its jungles. A heads up display then projected to show villagers fleeing in terror from an unknown threat.
"Something's attacking these people, and we have to stop whatever it is."
"Well, it's about time." Cyborg chimed in with a confident smirk. "I've been waiting all day to blow off some steam."
That was when Starfire finally spoke. "My only wish is for all of us to make it back safely." Turning to their leader, and her now-boyfriend, she nudged him affectionately, to which he returned a mild blush.
The natural progress of maturity especially did its justice to the Tamaranian girl; out of all of the Teen Titans, no longer did she have the physique of a teenage superhero, but rather now, a full-grown amazonian... especially the areas where no man should dare to look for too long.
Shrugging off his little embarassment, Robin gave the greenlight. "Let's go, team!"
(SCENE BREAK)
"Yo, B!"
Beast Boy jumped in his seat like a student caught sleeping in class and flung his head left and right before he recollected that they were all in the T-Plane jetting towards their destination while high above the clouds.
"W—What?" He responded idly to Cyborg. "Could you repeat that again, Cy?"
His teamate sighed. "I was asking you if you're alright!"
"What? Of course I am!" He forced a giggle. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because you're unusually quiet today. Shouldn't you be buzzed about coming back to your old turf?"
When Beast Boy cringed to that question, Starfire decided to chime in. "Perhaps our friend is still just waking up. Is something the matter?"
"Guys, trust me! I'm totally cool!"
Raven understood more so than the others that he wanted to avoid the topic as it would delve into touchier stuff.
Robin had to interject at this point. "Guys, can we please save this for later? We have a job to do."
"He's right." She agreed loudly, hoping this would get those two to lay off him.
Thankfully, the realization hit Cyborg like a train, causing him to feel some guilt. "Oh... right. Man, I'm sorry."
"It's cool, guys." Beast Boy assured. "I'm glad you care though."
"There is nothing to assure us otherwise." Starfire concluded.
(SCENE BREAK)
In the village, now ravaged and set aflame, a monstrous entity prowled through the black smoke, its gigantic bladed paws reducing every piece of rubble in its path to nothing.
Nothing else of its features could be identified, apart from the numerous rows of teeth that should have belonged to a shark, and the ooze trailing down its elongated tongue.
Despite terrorizing countless herds of prey, its carnivorous thirst had yet to be satiated — for once, it desired a challenge.
Its wish was granted when out of nowhere, an R-labelled flash bomb flew its way. It leaped away from its blast radius before it could detonate, and then wheeled its head to the source.
There were the Titans huddled in their combat-ready stance, Robin with his bird-a-rang, Cyborg arming his upgraded plasma cannon, Starfire and Raven floating closely above, and finally, Beast Boy crouched like a predator ready to strike.
When the thick darkness of the smoke parted, the heroes were given their first real view of this creature.
It had the build of a silverback ape on steroids, its bulking arms and legs tensed, its veins thick as roots found in soil. Fur, on the other hand, was non-existent anywhere; covering most of its body, especially its back, were scales portruding to resemble a reptilian hybrid. Its head, however, took after a dragon's with its long snout and devilish antlers.
"What is that thing?" Cyborg was awestruck. "Some kind of berserker?"
"We'll go with that." Raven answered.
When it roared out to its attackers, the sound it made was like a mix of the shrilling of train wheel braking against the rails, the hiss of a rabid viper and the ferocity of an alpha lion.
At last, Robin shouted his famous order. "Titans, go!"
And so, they engaged the berserker. Robin and Cyborg charged first, the former tossing more flash bombs as to distract it so that his mechanical teammate can fire a few blasts from his plasma cannon.
The women of the team took to the air to fire bombard the creature with their projectiles, Starfire with her green starbolts, and Raven with her gleaming white spells; ever since she mastered her emotions, no longer did she conjure the dark aura that dominated her powers.
But Beast Boy... he had to hang back for a little bit to once again hold the swelling pain in his chest before forcing it aside to join the battle.
Thinking fast, he kicked off his part by transforming into a cheetah to ignite enough speed towards the berserker, which was at the moment too occupied with the other two guys.
When Cyborg and Robin noticed the green feline dashing their way, they dodged out of his way on instinct, giving him a clear shot to then morph into a rhinocerous and ram the monster; the momentum built from his previous transformation pummeled the berserker a few yards over the waste it made.
Already low on stamina, the green Titan reverted to his human form and stood, panting like a mutt, while the others made their way to him.
Robin, still on his guard, was first to give his praise. "That was pretty creative, I gotta say. How are you holding up?"
Before Beast Boy could get a word in, Starfire zipped right in front of him, also greatly concerned. "You do not seem alright, friend. Raven and I saw you—."
The changeling peered over his friends to see the berserker barreling towards, its unnatural speed giving him mere seconds to warn them.
"WATCH OUT!"
But it was too late. With its antlers and mass, all five of the members were knocked into the air like bowling pins.
Raven managed to recover and attempted to summon her mantra. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" A white spiritual ray fired out of her hands at the monster, forcing it to take evasive action on the ground — it was fast, zigzagging left and right to avoid her; the enchantress herself had to watch out to avoid getting grabbed.
In the meantime, Beast Boy had to push his strength just to get back up once he recovered, and there he saw, sprawled about on the ground unconscious, were Robin, Cyborg and Starfire.
"Guys!" He yelled, but none of them were responsive.
The creaking sound of bark being ripped from its stump brought his attention back to the berserker; it had torn a tree out from its root to try and swat Raven down, its swings barely missing her and becoming more frantic as she dodged them.
Ultimately, it struck its target, and she slammed to the ground, almost winding her pipes. She bounced back quick enough to cast a shield as the creature then tried to mash her with that same broken tree repeatedly.
"RAVEN!!"
She couldn't hold it much longer, for when the berserker broke through her shield soon enough, the shock stunned the empath, leaving her dazed and unable to rejuvenate any more defenses, leaving her wide open.
Before the scaly monster could deliver its final blow, Beast Boy changed into a gorilla and leaped onto its back to wrestle it away in a chokehold.
The berserker thrashed like a raging bull to try and throw him off, but the ape refused to let go, even when he took a round of backfists, some gnarly elbows to his sides and a gash to the face from its claws.
But in a matter of seconds, the berserker managed to grab its attacker and threw him down in front where it then tried to crush his head under its heel. The Titan was luckily fast enough to transform into a smaller critter, a snake, and slip away.
Raven recovered shortly to see that same monster now cashing around a green cheetah again, and it was already gaining on him.
Wasting no time, she caught up with those two, again repeating her mantra to cast a white band around the berserker, and then snatched her teammate off the ground.
"Thanks, Raven." He said, panting.
"I'm taking you out of here!"
"What!?" His relief busted like a balloon. "Why!?"
Raven narrowed her eyes to him. "Firstly, you don't seem well enough to fight; your stamina bothers me. Secondly, your head doesn't seem to be in the game at all."
Now Beast Boy started getting annoyed. "I can fight, Raven! You can't take that creature on your own. I mean, look what it did to our friends!"
"All the more reason you need to sit in the sidelines!"
But while they were too distracted by their argument, the berserker broke free of its restraint, picked up the same chunk of bark again and this time chucked it towards Raven — her back was turned, but even when she did turn to see the object coming at her, her hands were too full to do anything, so the wood struck her, and she plummeted to the ground, Beast Boy slipping loose from her hands as he too landed hard.
With them downed as well, the hulking monster let its tongue hang down from its teeth, almost like it was grinning, as it began its steady prowl toward them, its eyes locked mostly on cloaked Titan.
"Raven, wake up!" Beast Boy crawled over to shake her awake, but now like the rest, she was unfortunately down for the count. "It's coming towards us!"
As soon as he realized he was on his own, he scrambled to his feet, making sure to stand between her and this impossibly powerful creature, he charged head-on as a triceratops, his heavy feet quaking the earth.
The creature, however, was ready this time — once those dinosaur horns were within reach, it grasped them tightly, stopping him like a vehicle collision, and refused to let go as he tried changing into other bigger animals to break free, shuch as an elephant.
Before he had the chance to turn into a whale, the berserker threw him onto his back, mounted him as he morphed back into an ape and procceeded to inject all its tens claws into his abdomen — the pained shriek spilled out just as forcefully as the blood was drawn.
Beast Boy finally went limp, but didn't fall unconscious, as the berserker snarled down at him before it got off and kicked him away to his other friends, whom were still laid out.
Through the searing of his ribs that took the impact, the changeling squinted an eye open to see, much to his horror, that the berserker now had its sights on Raven.
"N—No!" He tried to move, tried to get up, tried to transform, but his injuried prevented him from doing so. As the berserker drew closer and closer towards the empath, he grew more and more desperate. "Leave... her... alone!"
But it was useless — he was useless. He could barely lift a finger, and his other teammates were still out cold. He grunted out of frustration, for he was rendered utterly powerless to protect her.
Right then, it was here that he felt another presence daring to rear its ugly head — it clawed from under his skin, wanting to get out... no... to break free.
He didn't fight it this time — he couldn't if he tried. At this point, he wanted a miracle.
When the berserker finally made its way to Raven, he watched with untamed fury as its turned her over and licked her face grotesquely to taste her.
That was it. "GET AWAY FROM HER!!"
And so...
Before he could even register it, the rage took over as it hardened his muscles. He felt his body sprout hair all over as it grew to an enormous height, his clothes tearing, and then his mind gave in to pure animalistic instinct.
Just before the berserker could clasp its teeth around Raven's throat, an earth-shaking growl ripped its attention away.
The sound alone was enough to pull the empath back to consciousness, and shee as well turned her head to the side to confirm where it came from — something in her gut just knew right then.
When her vision finally pulled its two blurry images together and sharpened, there she widened her eyes to see a familiar green werebeast, its own claws and teeth unsheathed and ready to wreak havoc.
"B—Beast Boy...?"
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Author's Note: Hey guys! I wanted to get this next chapter out as soon as possible, so you can expect weekly updates from now on. I hope I wrote a good action sequence, because next chapter is where the REAL fight begins!
Guest 1: Yes, it's kinda like Devil Hulk hunting Bruce Banner, but not really. This story will focus more on the personal struggles among the team.
daniele583: You'll just have to read on to find out ;)
AWESOMEROCKSTAR101: Thanks alot! I hope this chapter was just as exciting for you! Writing fight scenes is kinda hard for me, but I'm doing my best.
As always, feel free to leave a review, some critiques and questions, and I shall respond to them in the next entry. Thank you!