Chapter 3: Black smoke
"Are you surer it's not broken?" Beast Boy asked quietly
Cyborg furrowed his brow.
"It couldn't be, I just built it."
"Maybe it's finicky about shape shifting."
"No way! Is you're communicator finicky about it? No. I don't make mistakes."
"There's a first time for everything." Beast Boy muttered
Cyborg crossed his arms and huffed,
"I'm half robot. I would know if I made a mistake."
Beast Boy was trapped now. If he went any further in this debate he's be insulting Cyborg's mechanics and that was a line nobody crossed.
"Beast Boy, there's something you're not telling us." Raven cut in, "You don't need empath abilities to know that; it's obvious."
The changeling's ears fell and he slumped his shoulders.
"Okay…but it's nothing you need to worry about"
"If you have a problem we should know about it." Robin said.
"Yes, and we are friends. Do you not trust us?" Starfire asked, her eye's gleaming.
Beast Boy looked from one team mate to the next, each with the same stern and curious look on their face.
A small beep followed by a flash of red light interrupted them.
"Titans, trouble!" Robin said, unnecessarily.
He opened his communicator, "It's Mad Mod. He's tearing apart City Hall. We'll have to continue this later."
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The fight with Mad Mod was a long one; as it always is what with all the illusions and mind games. And as tradition goes, the first thing to be done was hypnotizing Beast Boy again. Nobody actually had an opportunity to snap him out it until an hour later at which point he caught sight of Raven's cloak, newly painted at the British flag. He couldn't help but laugh which soon turned into a frustrated groan as he noticed the pool of slobber beneath him.
A small squeal escaped his lips as a Mod sculpture launched itself at him. Beast Boy ducked and shielded his face from the flying debris as it smashed into the wall behind him.
He looked around: the rest of the team was still fighting back with full strength. Robin was chasing after Mod himself, Raven and Cyborg were suppressing his army, and Starfire was taking out the planes shooting from above. She was vastly outnumbered.
Beast Boy jumped to his feet and morphed into a large green pterodactyl. Pain seared across his body again. Nevertheless, he held his form and leapt into flight. He began tailing one of the planes and eventually caught up, flying just above it. He morphed again into a gorilla and dropped onto the plane. The pain intensified and Beast Boy gritted his teeth. He tore off the controls and began ripping at the wires until he felt a sharp decline and smoke blocked his vision. Once again, he leapt into the air and morphed back into a pterodactyl. Even through the unbearable pain, he could still feel a bit of satisfaction as he watched the plane draw a line of black smoke to the ground. He continued this routine with quite a few more planes until Robin was finally able to apprehend Mad Mod. With his cane snapped, the planes stopped propelling themselves and quickly dropped to the ground.
Beast Boy gave a mental sigh of relief and began to gently glide toward the ground where the rest of the Titans had gathered. He was exhausted and in a lot of pain, glad the fight was over. In truth, he wasn't sure he would have been able to last much longer with such frequent changing exhausting his abilities and causing more pain each time; he already felt faint.
As he neared the ground he morphed into back into himself, but not before Mod threw the remains of his cane at him. Beast Boy lost focus, swerving out of the way and he felt a tear in his wing/arm. Beast Boy gave a strangled yell of pain as he finished morphing and he steadied himself on the ground.
His team mates turned around concernedly at his cry.
"Beast Boy?" Starfire asked.
"Don't worry, I'm fine" The changeling lied.
He turned his back to the team and looked down at his arm. From the outside it looked fine. He rolled back his sleeve. An angry purple bruise was forming the length of his arm and down his hand. He had managed to save his arm but that split second of lost focus hadn't come without its consequences; he'd probably mangled all the tissue in that arm pretty good and, while it was still perfectly functional, it would take a long time to heal. In addition to his other aches and pains Beast Boy couldn't help but let a groan of discomfort escape his lips.
"Okay B, what's up?" Cyborg called
Beast Boy looked over his shoulder and pulled down his sleeve, turning to face them.
"Just tired I guess" he said, giving Cy a weak smile.
"Dude! You were drooling for half of it! My circuits are frying!" he retorted.
Beast Boy gave a one-armed shrug, "I'm still exhausted….so do you think I could maybe catch a-"
"-No way! You are not drooling all over the T-car again; I just waxed it!" Cyborg cut in.
Beast Boy pulled his best cute face.
"Please…..I promise to sit nicely…no dogs." He pouted.
"Sorry man, not happening." He raised one of his large hands and clapped it down on Beast Boy's shoulder. As you can guess, it was the wrong shoulder and Beast Boy cried out and fell to one knee, escaping Cyborg's grip. He put his hand on his shoulder protectively and looked up into the shocked faces of the Titans.