Oy, this chapter didn't come easy, not to mention that this month has been full of suckage of many forms. Buuuut now I've got an awesome new computer I'm borrowing from my brother when he's over in South Korea for a year. Coolness.
I was feeling bad for not updating for so long, especially when so many new faces favorited this story and its prequel so I put away some time today to finish up Chapter 8. Shout outs to Catchandelier, Sigma Glory, art-is-a-bang-yeah, titansfan1211, wingedblackwolf, IzumiTheMoogle, Hinaura, AbsolutAnda, blueoctober, and iceyxstrawberry. And you too, Ani, even if you're a little late joining the party. :D Wow, that's a lot of names! Thanks everyone!
So yeah, sorry if there's been lacking action in BB's scenes but I needed to do it this way so he could meet Brooke. Things won't be going so smoothly for them from this point on.
Chapter 8 dedication to Indy: Sep. 1, 1997 – Feb. 2, 2010. You were my dear, sweet fluff puppy who was a member of the family, not just a pet. You were one of a kind, the pick of the litter, and I'm glad you were with us as long as you were. I love and miss you so, SO much. ;_;
Arual-san
It wasn't so much that the vase was a particularly heavy thing to move, more that it was an awkward thing when two people could have fit inside. Even with his scrawny build, Beast Boy could manage moving it. It had been a slower day in the hospice and, despite her dedication to the satisfying service she could provide, Brooke had shoved her shift onto someone else and she held up the other end.
"So, so, your academy was in California?" Brooke asked, reciting what she already knew. "And was it co-ed? I've never been in co-ed before. I hardly ever even see boys except at Daddy's dinner parties and then I usually get stuck with that idiot Walter and…"
"Uh sure, "co-ed"," Beast Boy said, smiling, picking that small bit out. It wasn't the best thing to be on the other end of a one-sided female gossip fest but when Brooke got caught up in one it seemed that some of her shyness from before disappeared. That could only be a good thing.
Nodding along to what she said gave him a moment to think about that bit he'd picked out from her conversation and what it meant. Even if Beast Boy no longer had the standard academy uniform like Brooke did, she still assumed that was where he was from and not many academy boys led a double life the way he did.
And not many of them have green skin either, Beast Boy thought to himself a little wryly when a glance to his rings showed that the final red bar was blinking. This thing's going to die. Today, maybe in an hour or two.
While he'd been staying on the planet, Beast Boy had spent more time with Brooke than with anyone else and it suddenly brought him a little pang of hurt to see the trust there as she talked. He hadn't technically been lying when he'd used his friends' real names instead of their aliases or when he'd toned down the intensity of the things they went through but he was still skimming the bare truth, trying to ease her into it.
But was there really any kind of way to have anyone calmly accept that a person was a superhero that safeguarded the world every day? There were any number of ways someone could react and it was why Robin didn't encourage friendships outside of the Titans. At the thought, all the negative consequences seemed to flood in all at once, in his mind but with Robin's strict narration. And of course, he could never visit that particular subject without thinking of Terra and what would happen if ever the calcification of her body was ever to be reversed. Was he betraying her memory by even thinking about another girl so soon after she had gone?
If the hologram wasn't still going, Brooke would have seen his pointy ears droop a little.
Oooh, what am I even thinking about this for? Beast Boy scolded himself when he was sure the others would if they were there. What happened to priorities, man? Once whoever's in charge here figures out who I am I'm going to be sunk. Who knows what's going to happen? Why couldn't Benji get through his assignment faster? Why couldn't-?
Brooke came back into his thoughts like a half-imagined dream.
"Gar? Gar, hold on, stop!" And Brooke parked her feet when they reached a fork in the hallway, kicked at his feet to stop their motion when his body was too slow to react. He screeched to a stop a pace ahead of her and only just too soon from plowing into a couple of guards.
"Heh, sorry," Beast Boy tried, baring a nervous smile when the guards glared and continued on their way.
"Were you listening to me?" Brooke asked and this time she didn't give him warning when she picked up their walk again.
"S-sure, I was!" His nervous smile toned down a little when it was for her but it still remained. He'd been thinking a lot of thoughts, serious things that stressed him from the inside out, but those thoughts had been condensed into only a couple minutes.
"Oh yeah? Then what did I-?"
"Nevermind that, I – I've got a new joke! It's a great one!" That was the thing to say to distract Brooke when his brand of comedy was something totally new for her. She waited eagerly while Beast Boy's face remained frozen in his last exclamation: he had nothing and only seconds to think. " Uh…uh…
But, after he was sure of his footing on the stairs and looked back to his side, he didn't see her there.
"Uh…Brooke?" He jerked his head to the other end of the vase and just glimpsed a flash of brown hair disappear to the other end. He did it again with the same result. Was this some stuffy academy girl's strange idea of a joke? Being faster than him? Soon enough Beast Boy didn't see the flash of brown hair at all. Had she somehow been able to predict what side he would shift over to before he did? Was he really getting that slow?
He didn't realize it at once but he still came to it. He ducked to the bottom part of the vase where Brooke lay crouched, trying not to snicker too loudly and give herself away.
"Demerit for che-!" But Beast Boy was stopped short when Brooke gave a surprised yelp like a cat that had its tail trod on. She bumped her head on the base of the vase and unbalanced the whole of it, sending it toppling into Beast Boy. He gave an echoing yelp to match hers and stumbled back to keep it aloft. Brooke popped back up to help just as soon as she recovered and she yanked it back to her side too harshly. They had to step in tune to the wobbles a couple times but they steadied it.
The two shared a nervous laugh and started up their walk again.
"So, Brooke, listen umm…" he started out and, even as he was saying the words, all the troubles that could result from it waged war in his head. It didn't help that she gave a smile of complete trust just after they'd tamed the wily vase together. "There's something I need to tell you…something important."
"Is it something about the-" She looked to see if there were any spying ears and whispered, "Escape plan?"
"N-not exactly," he murmured more to the vase than to her. "Well…you know about that whole android thing that went down at your school, how those girls weren't what they seemed like on the outside. I…I mean," – Beast Boy gave a stilted laugh when there was nothing to laugh about – "your double was like the complete opposite of the real thing. That droid was a total flirt that would've jumped on the first guy that-"
"You're not…" The cheer had gone from her and her already pale face paled further.
"Brooke?"
But her gloom was a false mask and she removed it in an instant. "A secret agent super spy, are you?"
"H-hey…" And his expression flipped just as fast. "You're not far enough in your comedy training to go skipping levels and pulling a fake-out. Telling bad jokes is like…an art or something." He felt himself moving to elaborate but he shook that thought free before it could drag him along. "Anyway…it's just…" He breathed and got it out in one rush, "I'm not who you think I am."
Brooke didn't make a move to pull any other masks atop her face. She kept smiling as if she was playing along with a story. "Garfield Logan, age fourteen, freshmen at Birnamwood Academy, Room-"
"Yeeeah…there's a couple other things…" He had thought that his tongue could stop recoiling in fear once he'd said that opening statement but still it retreated and refused to work at normal speed. "I-"
But then suddenly Brooke's attention was no longer on him at all and it was no struggle to see why. Serious voices rang out from the halls ahead of them: ones that they recognized as the same guards they'd nearly plowed into. More voices sounded from behind.
"You mean we've got a Super here?"
"I just saw the kid! Fan out!"
Concern pulled at Brooke's forehead over it but nothing more when she thought it was merely someone else getting in trouble. Had she shifted her gaze only slightly she'd have seen how much greater an effect it had on Beast Boy. She didn't have the time to pick up the conversation again before Beast Boy, shifting between his feet like he was on hot coals, pushed the vase into an extreme tilt. Before Brooke could react, the boy flipped it over onto her in one fluid moment.
Not at his most graceful with the awkward piece, he managed to bang Brooke's head again before he caught the lips of the now upside down vase and lowered it to the floor.
"Oww-oww!" Brooke's voice echoed inside the vase. "My brain is a vital organ so could you please stop…wait, what are you even-!?"
"Uh…uh…" Beast Boy stalled, looking to either direction of the hall for approaching guards. He pushed the vase along the ground to a more natural looking spot. "Hide and seek? No, no, that's for kids!" A group of guards, all armed, flashed by one end of the hallway. The few options he had whipped through his mind at light-speed as his voice absentmindedly did the explaining. "Err…it's another joke, yeah that's it!"
"What?" He could envision her pressing her hands to the vase's walls. "But I don't get it, how is this-?"
"Goo…" Beast Boy squeaked at the guards' shouts. His feet pivoted back and forth, never deciding on a direction when at any moment they could come spilling out from one side. His left half wanted to go one way, his right the other, but even his genetic composition wouldn't allow him to split into two.
"It is funny…or will be, really," he insisted when he had only seconds. "You just have to wait here and be uh, quiet, really quiet, okay? Until things calm down." But Beast Boy didn't take the extra second to hear her response, assumed she would obey when she clammed up. All that he had time to do before the heavy footfall of guards turned into the corridor was to put a cloth over the unpainted base of the vase.
He needed to disappear and he did the closest thing. His feet zoomed off from the ground as he morphed into the first tiny insect he could think of. So what if the planet's fauna probably didn't include Earth flies? At least he was under the radar.
It was the first animal he could think of but not the best as the guards stormed the hallway. Beast Boy's equilibrium always seemed to be thrown off a little when he switched to the wide span of an insect's compound eyes. He hit a wall and started crawling when his flying wouldn't be at its best.
Won't be so bad, he tried convincing himself as he ran far away, several walls away from the angry voices. Just can't be human for a while. Those suckers will never find me; I'd like to see them-
Brooke's scream sent an icy wave of fear to the wing tips of his fly form. His feet forgot to stick and he plummeted from the wall. He fell but he didn't spare the time to turn himself right side up. Anger gave fire to his shapeshifting and before he knew it he was a panther taking down the nearest guard that stood in his way. A couple feral swipes from his paws cleared the doorway free of the rest.
Beast Boy was free to race down the hallway and now panic had begun to set in alongside the initial anger. Brooke hadn't been giving a "distraction" scream like her double had done so long ago in the café, not at all. With that knowledge, he sped up and bowled straight into the next group of guards before they could even turn to face him, knocking most to the ground.
The boy snarled and lowered himself in attack position. He knew that he was letting his animal instincts – the powerful things they were – take over, but he didn't care to stop them. His human form couldn't convey what the panther did – that feline wrath was exactly what anyone should know they were dealing with when they messed with his friends.
Now that their objective had presented itself, the guards got to their feet. They fanned out into a circle to seal him off. From their belts they each pulled sticks that expanded and crackled with unfriendly blue electricity. One guard to eager to impress stabbed his wand out only for Beast Boy to move his sleek, green neck and chomp down on the weapon. He wrestled it from the startled man's hands and threw the sparking end into another guard. Sounds from the stairs told that more were coming but the ones he was already stuck with were in his way. Where was…?
"Quite a little show we've got going on here…"
Beast Boy gave another snarl but, once he snapped to the direction of the voice, his cat eyes went wide and lost their deadly sheen. He was straight back to human to front an image the least threatening.
"I feel that I should have paid admission." The alien stepped into the circle when it parted for him. Under his unforgiving hold, Brooke would've been perfectly still if not for her shivering. A stun gun hovered directly over her ear – one fully-charged shot to the brain and…
"Let her go!" Beast Boy yelled when his mind wouldn't permit him to finish that horrible thought.
When Brooke opened squinted eyes there was a liquid film cast over them that hurt Beast Boy to see. Throughout her fear for her life, there was a flicker of confusion when she looked to him. "G…Gar?"
She was seeing him for what he really looked like for the first time and for that, for everything else, any reaction could only be stalled. She could only stare and wait for what was to happen.
"Not a very good place to hide the dead weight...Beast Boy, was it?" The alien's grip on the wand was steady over its victim and it was so close that Brooke's brown hair stuck up from the static. He then gave a nod to the over-clothes Beast Boy had left behind when he'd transformed. "I'll bet you're on one of those Justice teams; much too sloppy of a superhero to ever strike it out on your own."
It was a blow to his pride like it would be to anyone's but Beast Boy couldn't allow the anger to surface, not now. He choked it back behind clenched teeth, placed his hands to his head in surrender. "I give up. Just let her go."
"In a moment. Now march."
The guard who'd had his stun gun pulled away was also the first to unnecessarily push the boy to get moving. Being in the middle of the line did something to spare Beast Boy from the sight of Brooke being continually held at laser-point, when the slightest misstep could scorch her light complexion, but that position of his didn't spare his ears. He heard her start to sniff and didn't doubt that she could no longer hold back those tears.
They were marched to the lower levels of the building, levels they'd been denied access to before, but neither cared to take in any of the scenery when their fate was uncertain and they could do nothing to prevent it. A corner turned into a hallway that interconnected with a large dome-like building they'd only viewed in passing from the windows. It was there that there ceased to be any other people or sounds at all.
He found that he didn't much like hearing only the sound of their footsteps echoing off the walls of that long hallway.
He was again shoved through a doorway simply because the guards could. When the door shut behind, more than half of the guards retreated back to their other duties, making Beast Boy's sense of unease deepen. The gate that was the only feature of the plain black room reminded him of a ticket taker gate at the movies but it was probably asking too much for the hulking figure behind it to ask for his ID for an R-rated show.
"Another new one?" the alien growled through a fanged overbite. He gave a dismissing grunt. "Doesn't look like much, does he? What are the stats?"
No sooner than Beast Boy had begun to wonder over that and a metal collar was fastened over his neck. Not expecting it, he gave a tiny yelp and craned his head in effort to see and try to identify it.
"Junior member of Earth's Justice League," the man holding Brooke said. "Shapeshifter…not much else to say really." Where Brooke had gone limp in his arms just to be spared of any harm, she was then pushed away from him as if humans were something foul. The girl paced as if unsure of what to do when only just that morning things had been as fine as they could be under the circumstances.
Brooke's teary eyes met with Beast Boy's…but she was first to break contact. She couldn't take it and she was gone through the door.
He'd been pulling at the collar to try to glimpse it, resigned himself to the fact that it probably restricted his powers somehow, but his fingers sagged and dropped from that task. She wasn't used to the very real danger he and his friends dealt with on a daily basis. She'd only been associated with him, she'd just been a convenient bartering chip at the time, and it had led to her getting hurt. All the excuses and claims that he hadn't meant for it to happen couldn't wish away the fact that it was still his fault.
Beast Boy could barely be revived from that guilt that gnawed away at his conscious but his eyes flicked up on the hulking man's last remark.
"Welcome to the Games, kid. Let's see how long you survive."