I do NOT own Teen Titans

Time: The following day.

Breakfast,... Practice,... Tamaranian Stew,...

Beast Boy awoke, still dressed in his clothes from the previous day. Vaguely, he could recall talking to Raven, and then nothing. It seemed his lack of sleep must have caught up with him. Looking around he noted he was still in the clinic. Fluffing his pillow, he settled back. It was still early; four a.m. from the clock on the wall. Idly he wondered whose turn it was to cook breakfast, and decided he didn't care. A thunderous rumble startled him, and he sat up, looking around. It was a second before he realized the sound had come from his stomach. It seemed two days without food was more than enough, and it was threatening to rebel. Did emoticlones eat? He wondered, sitting up.

Entering the kitchen he search through the fridge. Apparently Raven had told him the truth about Cyborg stocking it with enough tofus eggs and bacon to last a month. Staring at stack upon stack of plastic and paper cartons, he figured two months was probably a better guess. He carefully checked the labels before opening a box of each. Soon he had a small pile of bacon and eggs, the tofu kind, ready to eat. He grabbed a cup of tofu milk, and a banana, before he sat down to the table. After cooking the same meal so often, it was done to perfection. The sound of footsteps made him look up.

"Morning." Raven said.

"Morning." He replied, noncommittedly. It'd been a while since she'd greeted him in the morning without some comment or other. If he was cooking it was always a complaint. If he wasn't, then it was always something about how glad she was that it wasn't his turn to cook. For someone who supposedly didn't express her emotions, she'd done an awful lot of complaining lately.

Sensing the hostility, she wondered if she should leave. Suppressing the frown that threaten to break her stoic expression, she went to the fridge, and sorted amongst all the tofu containers until she found a pack of whole grain muffins. She took one, and set about preparing some herbal tea. The silence was deafening. "Feeling okay?" She asked. "From the scars I know Rage beat you up pretty bad."

"I'm fine." The shape shifter replied. "And for your information, I did just as much damage to her as she did to me."

"I know. I felt it." She intoned.

"You feel what they do?" He dared to ask, curious.

"Sort of. I take one eighth the pain and damage one of them do."

"Oh." He went back to his bacon. They were a part of her, so he guess that made sense.

"There's no more breakfast rules." She told him. "There's still someone assigned to cook each morning, but there's no set menu."

"I'll skip." He said, not looking up. "I won't be eating what they cook, and given that I don't see why I should cook."

"Fair." She replied, wondering why the kettle was taking so long to boil. Usually she preferred silence at breakfast, but given the last few months and the fact she'd tossed him into an alternate dimension with Rage, she wanted to make sure they were still okay. That they hadn't become unfriends, as Starfire had called it. She resisted the urge to tap her foot nervously.

He frowned, taking a bite of tofu eggs. He recalled what he'd told Rage; that seeing Raven make such a silly gesture with that poster of Robin had made him jealous. And how the emoticlone had told him that jealousy led to anger. He would have to be careful not to take it out on either Raven or Robin. Given the last few months, that would be hard to do. He sighed.

Seeing the frown and sigh, she wished she'd just left him be. She could've come back later to grab a snack. It was Cyborg's turn to cook, and while she wasn't opposed to meat there was such a thing as too much. Given I'm half demon, and needs twice the meat a normal person does, that's saying something. She mused to herself. "The tofu bacon wasn't too bad." She said, trying to start up a conversation.

"Hrmph. Given that was two months ago, sixty days at least, and you've made two or three comments about it every day since then..." He shrugged.

She gulped. That many? She thought to herself, horrified. "Sorry." She said, nearly in a whisper, realizing that was just one of the things she'd hassled him about lately. Why did he even bother to stick around? She wondered.

He shrugged, taking a sip of milk. She and Robin would make a good couple, he decided; she's serious, and he's often obsessed But where would that leave Starfire? He wondered. "I understand why you acted that way." He told her. "But it's too much. Some sarcasm I expect from you; you're usually funny. But the biting comments I'm not taking anymore."

"No more." She promised. How would he know why? She wondered. Even I'm not sure about that yet.

"Want to help me with something?" He asked, finishing off the last of his breakfast, and placing the dishes in the sink. Running the water, he started to wash them.

"Sure." Eagerness slipped through her control and into her voice. "When?"

"Before practice starts, so plenty of time to eat." He dried the frying pan and placed it back over the stove. "Just something I want to try. Pretty sure it's safe, but if I'm wrong ..." He shrugged.

"Oh." She nibbled on her muffin, wondering what it was.

Ten minutes later they were in the basement of the tower where there were three holding cells. The team usually turned villains over to the authorities as soon as they were caught, but circumstance sometimes prevented that.

"Lock the door." He instructed, stepping into one of the cells. The three walls, along with the floor and ceiling, were made of two-foot thick titanium. The door was a force field. Technically, when activated, not even a microbe could escape.

"Why?" She intoned, following instructions.

"I want to see if this shape is safe to use." He transformed into the beast. It came easy and was totally under his control. It was as expected. He changed back. "Okay. Safe to open the door." He said, pleased with the result.

The violet-haired girl did so. "You can use that form now?" She asked, curious.

"Yeah. When I choose to transform into it, it's just another animal." He shrugged. "I'm guessing before it was just a mutation from the chemicals, and actually had nothing to do with my ability to change into animals. It did, after all, also happen to Adonis and he can't change shape. But I did learn the form while I was mutated. It's just another animal I can change into now."

"Good." She gave the briefest of smiles. "It's pretty strong."

He nodded. "By the way, what happened to the stew Starfire was going to make for me?"

"You fell asleep before it was ready, so we had her store it somewhere safe. Why did you want it?" She was curious. No sane person would ask Starfire to cook Tamaranian food for them. No human that is. Tamaranians, being very strong, could handle it, but a human was more likely to get eaten by it than they were to eat it.

"Just an experiment. Trying to boost my effectiveness for the team and all." Despite his efforts, his voice held resentment.

"You're useful now." She said impassively. "You can do things we can't, and those skills are a great benefit. We appreciate them."

"Hrm. Sure." He said sarcastically. "Should I repeat some of the conversations I've heard."

"No." She frowned slightly. They often forgot just how sharp his hearing was. Not that they should've been talking about him behind his back in the first place. At least not like that. It was pretty stupid to gossip about someone whose hearing was four time more sensitive than normal. Within a building, even one like the tower, you never knew when they could hear you.

He sighed, knowing he'd let his anger show. "Thanks for helping." He said, making sure his voice was calm. I almost feel like Raven. He mused to himself. Trying to be impassive when I'm not.

"No problem." The violet-haired girl replied apathetically, glad for the change of subject. She followed him back up to the kitchen.

"Hey B. Hey Raven." Cyborg greeted them. "My turn to cook, how many tofu eggs and how much tofu bacon you want?" He asked Beast Boy.

"Already ate." The shape shifter replied apathetically, wondering if like Raven he should start meditating.

"Oh. Okay." The cybernetic teen continued to fry several regular eggs in a frying pan. "Game later?" He asked.

Beast Boy shrugged. "I'll probably be busy."

"Oh."

"There's no rule against game playing anymore." Raven told him.

"I wouldn't follow it anymore even if there was." Beast Boy replied, wondering where Starfire might have put the stew. Truth be told, he was terrified to be even in the same room as the orange-skinned alien's cooking. But if it helped him gain a bit more power, then he would take the risk. Deciding it was either wake the girl up, or wait until after practice, he headed to the roof.

Sitting on top of the tower, the shape shifter peered out over the ocean, and wondered why the violet-haired girl had followed him. It was a confusing situation. If he was jealous, then that meant he liked her. Right? But why would he like someone who'd been so brutal to him over the last few months? He sighed.

"Want me to leave?" Raven asked, hearing the sigh. She'd been sitting, silently meditating with her eyes closed. She wasn't sure why she'd followed him. Perhaps it was still just an attempt to make sure they weren't unfriends.

"No." He told her truthfully, watching Robin enter the obstacle course below. As team leader the boy wonder was obsessed over safety, and usually checked the course to make sure it was okay. So long as he isn't obsessing over my eating habits. Beast Boy mused to himself. And sometimes it pays to be a little bit obsessive. He admitted. It had paid off a few times when they were fighting villains. Raven, he noticed, was peering down at the black-haired boy. He detected a slight change in her breathing, and felt anger. Jealousy. He realized.

She watched Robin go through the course below, checking each piece of equipment, not realizing a small smile had appeared on her lips. Or the scowl on the face of the boy next to her. "Time for practice." She said, not quite apathetically, as she walked over the edge of the roof, and slowly floated down to the ground.

"Yeah." He muttered to himself, watching her. Taking on the form of an eagle, he followed.

"Glorious morning, friend Beast Boy." Starfire greeted him, obviously glad to see him well after the previous day's events.

"Morning Starfire." He gave her a small smile.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, looking at him. It seemed she'd noticed his smile was faked.

"What could possibly be wrong?" He asked sarcastically, in a very Raven like tone. Seeing her frown, he berated himself. Taking his frustration out on the jubilant girl wasn't the right thing to do. "Everything's okay." He told her, shrugging. "Just not looking forward to practice."

"Oh." She mused. "Is it not fun to play games with our friends?"

He shrugged. "I'm the only one who hasn't stepped up yet. I always lose. And then I always get a lecture over it. Stop being lazy and such. It isn't fun for me."

"Oh." She said again, a small frown on her lips.

"The losing I can handle." He added. "After all, someone has to be the weak link. But the lectures are just too much."

"There won't be any lecture today." She promised, smiling as if everything was fixed.

"The equipment on the course needs some work." Their leader spoke up. "So we'll be skipping that today, and will just pair off and fight. Beast Boy versus Cyborg, and Starfire versus Raven. The two winners will get to pound me into the ground." He smiled at them. "Okay, start."

Standing around thirty feet from his opponent, Beast Boy watched him activate the Maximum-7 chip that would boost his reflexes considerably. Before, he and his cybernetic friend had been pretty evenly matched. However the chip made him nearly unbeatable, usually leaving only one way for the fight to end. It wasn't that he couldn't win against the cannon; it was just that any method of doing so risked severe injury, or even death. Sound waves were pretty deadly to something like an amoeba, so even hiding and trying to sneak into attack range wasn't a good idea. It would probably work most of the time, but random firing of the weapon would have a random chance of hitting him; being hit would leave him dead, and he really preferred to be alive. For some reason the thought cheered him up. Being alive was good, even if he lost the match and the rest of his life sucked.

"Okay B. Lets start." Cyborg said, leaving out the playful banter that had once accompanied such matches.

"Okay." The shape shifter shifted into a cheetah and charged. Even for the fastest land animal on earth, it took time to accelerate and cross the thirty feet. As his powerful legs thrust him forward, spending more time in the air than on the ground, he knew something was off. He closed within the five feet of his opponent and turned aside, reverting back to his human form.

"Pretty good." Cyborg said. "You must be improving; I wasn't able to keep track of you."

Beast Boy frowned. "Actually you had me targeted when I was still ten feet away from you. Why didn't you fire?" He shifted into a bear, and rested on the ground.

"Trust me. If I had, I would've." There was a nervous twitch in the cyborg's one good eye.

Switching back to his human form, the shape shifter closed his eyes and sighed. "You know. It's pretty stupid to try and lie to a bear. I mean, it really takes stupid to a whole new level."

"Huh?" Was the cybernetic teen's confused response.

"They can smell a lie a mile away. They're even better than bloodhounds at that." Beast Boy's tone hinted of irritation. It was bad enough to be lectured for losing when he tried his best, but now the hyper competitive fellow Titan was throwing a match? It made him angry. It wasn't the losing that bothered him, it was the unproductive lectures that did nothing but tear him down. And throwing a match was the same as treating him like a kid.

"Oh."

"Try throwing a match again, and I will crawl inside your brain as an amoeba and rewire things to make you allergic to meat." He threatened.

"You can do that?" The now terrified meat lover asked, taking a step back.

"Probably not." The shape shifter admitted. "But trying would probably wreck everything in there."

The cybernetic teen gulped. "We just thought ..." He shrugged.

"It's not the losing I mind. It's the lectures afterwards." Beast Boy said. "They're stupid. Now start over." He calmed down, knowing they'd only done it to try and help him. What their line of reasoning was he had no idea. But there'd been no ill intent. He turned into a cheetah and loped a short distance away. Turning,.he charged only to be hit by his foe's sonic cannon

"No other form better for dodging?" The winner asked, not bothering to gloat.

"No."

"What about a greyhound?"

"No." This was better. Rather than just calling him lazy and telling him to step up, they were thinking and trying to help. "A cheetah is the fastest animal on the land, and one of the most agile. If it can't get close to you, then nothing can." He explained, his voice lacking any hint of his earlier anger.

"Oh." Cyborg responded. "Guess I don't know much about animals."

"If you have any more suggestion, I would appreciate it." Beast Boy replied, conversationally.

"I'll think on it." His friend promised.

An alarm interrupted the rest of the practice, saving Robin from being pounded into the ground by the combined forces of Raven and Cyborg. If only it had went of five minute earlier, it would have also saved me the humiliation of another loss. He mused without any resentment.

Fifteen minutes later they were just outside the prison facility where several major villains, including Cinderblock, were usually locked away. The massive concrete villain had broken free of his restrains, and tore a hole in the prison wall. The none too smart criminal had started to make a run for it, but had paused to rob a few banks along the way. The trail he'd left made finding him easy.

Beast Boy sat on a nearby wall, and watched the other four at work. Raven kept the villain down. It was simply a matter of creating a tiny barrier under one of his feet each time he tried to stand, tripping him. It was the sort of technique she'd worked hard on lately, and it showed in her skill. While she was at work, Cinderblock wasn't going anywhere. Starfire had taken to the air and was raining starbolts down on the prone giant. Cyborg was firing his cannon time and time again. Robin was tossing explosive discs at the concrete form. As superhumanly tough as the block of stone might be, the barrage of firepower would soon wear him down.

The shape shifter frowned. All the others had their role to play. He, on the other hand, had nothing to do. He couldn't attack from a range, and Raven was more than able to keep the villain pinned. He could only watch, and feel like an outcast. There was nothing worse than feeling useless. Sighing, he watched as the concrete form gave up the struggle and remained still.

Raven sensing the melancholy mood, looked worriedly at her friend. Of course he's depressed, he's spent the last two to three months being condemned time and time again by his friends. So would I in his shoes. She admitted to herself. It must be an awful lot like being betrayed. And I even cast him in the prison I created for Rage. She recalled the scars that had been on his body, and wondered how he was even alive. From the ones she'd removed from his arm she was pretty sure it'd been severed. And those on his chest suggested massive damage to at least one lung. Guilt flooded her, forcing her to silently meditate.

Having returned the villain to the prison, they headed back to the tower. Robin cancelled the rest of the practice, claiming bringing down the concrete criminal had served in its place.

"Friend Beast Boy." Starfire approached, beaming a smile at him. "I'm afraid the stew might have gone bad. Should we check on it?"

"Sure." The shape shifter wondered if having it go bad might have actually improved his odds of surviving.

Starfire led the way out of the tower, and down to the shoreline.

"Why're we going down to the water?" Beast Boy asked.

"Friend Raven refused to let me keep it in the tower, so I stored it outside."

"Ah." He looked up at the sun that was beating down. But somehow he though food poisoning from earthly bacteria would be the least of his problems.

"Oh my. It's gone bad." Starfire moaned, looking at a small pond of seawater left behind by the tide.

"Where is it?" He asked, looking around. He gulped, as a giant octopus rose out of the pond and stared at him; it looked hungry. He took a step back, studying it. It had six arms instead of eight, and each was covered in a set of rings composed of bone. It had three eyes, and the beak of an octopus was replaced with a mouth full of small, sharp looking, teeth. It looked big enough to swallow him whole. I really wish I would hit a growth spurt soon. He mused nervously. Maybe then some of those monsters we fight wouldn't look so scary.

"I'm afraid it must have got out of the pot and found something to eat." The orange-skinned alien said, frowning, but not appearing frightened.

"Hrm. Starfire. Just what is that thing?" The shape shifter, a few shades paler than his normal green, took another step back. The thing followed him.

"It's a Torkop." The orange-skinned alien replied. "They make excellent eating." She looked at the creature. "Oh well. On the bright side, there's now enough for a dozen pots of stew, and I can make a few dishes for friend Robin too." Being optimistic, she was looking at the bright side of things.

Beast Boy took another step back, wondering if he would even be alive come nightfall. The creature followed him with a hungry gleam in its eyes. The shape shifter gulped. "Starfire. Just what is a Torkop?"

"It's an ocean going creature, though it can survive being on land." She explained. "It's quite tough to capture. After the Gordanian warfleet devastated Tamaran it evolved the ability to store acid in each of its arms. It uses it to dissolve rock which it then drinks to get trace minerals that are now rare on my home world. It can eat through titanium."

"The acid or the teeth?" He wondered out loud, taking another step back. Once again the creature matched his move, not taking its eyes from him.

"Both." She cheerfully replied.

"Oh." He replied, not sounding half so cheerful. "How do we kill it?"

"You don't. Even a severed arm can grow back into a full Torkop. That's what happened to the stew." She explained.

"Well, aside from it making us lunch, if it's allowed to run free it will destroy earth's ecosystem." The shape shifter pointed out, once more taking a step backwards. The creature matched it.

"No worries." Came the peppy response. "If can only reproduce if something hurts it, and tears off an arm or two which grow into new Torkops. No earth animal can do that. So earth is safe."

"Whoopee." He replied, trying to sound grateful.

"I'm sorry the stew turned bad." She said, sounding tearful.

"Oh. No worries." The shape shifter replied. "It was just a passing fancy. Next time I'm hungry I will just ask for good, old fashion, pancakes." His back brought up against something. The Torkop actually grinned when it saw that. He wondered what Rage had meant when she'd said Tamaranian stew. "Oh well, don't suppose I should let good food go to waste." He said fatalistically, turning into a T-rex.

He charged the creature, sidestepping a burst of acid that came from one arm. It sort of deflated, and he hoped it would take time for it to refill. His teeth clamped clamped on another arm, and he bit down. Nothing. His teeth grinded against the bone rings around the limb, and even the bite of the mightiest jaws of any land predator existing on earth was useless against this prey. He drew back, and some acid splattered him. It burned through his flesh with ease, and his back became a mass of pain.

More acid splattered him, as he tried to dodge it. He had an idea, and changed into a blue whale. His own weight would crush him on land, but he could last a few seconds. The Torkop, seeing the massive creature, aimed all six arms and let loose with the acid. The shape shifter used his massive form to absorb the damage, and switched back to a T-rex. He still had serious wounds from the burning liquid, but the whale had been too large to be critically hurt by it. He bit into another arm; once again without success.

Backing off he wondered how to get through the bone armor of the creature. He noticed Starfire throwing starbolts and briefly switched to his human form. "Back off." He ordered. "I want to handle this." The arms of the creature, he noted, were starting to fill with more acid. There was only two places that weren't covered with some sort of armor; the teeth and the eyes. If he wanted to attack the creature, it would have to be in one of those two spots. He turned into a humming bird and flew in close. The arms were strong, but not quite fast enough to catch the bird. He switched to a spitting cobra, and spat venom at the eyes; nothing. Still evading the arms, he retreated a short distance and returned to his T-rex form to think.

As a great ape he charged into battle once more. This time he grabbed an arm and tried to pull on it, hoping it could be tore off. He was lifted and slammed down on the ground. He groaned, and switched into a cheetah, leaping back out of the way before he could be tore apart by the incredibly strong tentacles.

"It uses the minerals from it dissolves from rocks to reinforce its bones with titanium." Starfire said, cheerfully watching the fight some distance away. "There's also fibers of the metal in its skin and tendons. They're very strong."

Great. He thought to himself. He wasn't going to get through that bone armor, and he wasn't going to out-muscle it. That still left the two weak spots of its eyes and its mouth. But how to make use of that? He wondered. Too bad the creature was alien or ... Wait, he'd turned into an alien animal once. But he would need its DNA and that would be hard to get. He grinned, that was what Rage had meant. There were more than just earth animals to use. And those of Tamaran were very very strong. Any that weren't had died off when the Gordanian warfleet had nearly destroyed their world. And those that had survived had only gotten stronger as they'd adapted to the nearly dead planet.

He looked at the mouth, and wondered just how far down the teeth went. Gulping, he switched into a humming bird and flew straight into the mouth of the beast. Inside, just beyond the teeth, he switched into an amoeba. He ate at the skin lining the mouth, and sampled its DNA. It was strange, but it shared many properties with earth's. One would think they'd had a similar origin, and had just branched off at some point in the past. Interesting idea. He mused, considering how Robin and Starfire were similar enough to actually be interested in each other. He pushed the thought to one side, and returned his attention to the situation. He had a sample of the creature's DNA, and could probably turn into one. But his form would be smaller than that of the alien's, and probably wouldn't help him win the fight. If an amoeba could grin, he would've. Acid that could eat through titanium would be useful; not to mention how strong the creature was. And to top it all off, it had that incredibly strong bone armor. He was very pleased.

If the creatures of earth and Tamaran are that similar then perhaps it's vulnerable to venom. He mused, and shifted into an Inland Taipan snake. Feeling the creature trying to swallow him, he frantically tried to keep slithering upward. Taking the time to sink his fangs into the unprotected flesh of the throat over a dozen times, he ejected as much toxin as he could with each bite. If the creature was at all vulnerable to it, it would be deadly; he'd pumped enough venom into the Torkop to kill over a thousand fully grown men. Fangs aching from piercing the tough skin, he wondered what to do next.

Judging the size of the space he was in, he turned into a porcupine, embedding hundred of quills into his prey's throat and mouth. They didn't penetrate very far, but they did start to draw blood. From the fact the bleeding didn't stop, he thought the venom might be working. He could feel the Torkop shivering. Definitely vulnerable to the toxin. He mused, trying to grin. Turning back to the form of an Inland Taipan snake again, he tried to bite it some more; broken fangs and lack of venom prevented him from doing more damage.

Swallowing his panic, he peered up through the mouth. Given the jaws were opening and closing, he decided to wait a bit before leaving, least he get chewed to pieces. Thinking some more he turned into a sand cat. It was the only cat form, other than a common house cat, that was small enough for this space. Soon he'd made a few slashes in the creature's throat. His claws took massive damage doing so though; the skin of the Torkop was really tough. The bleeding from the slashes he'd made didn't slow, and he figured the venom was still at work. At least, given it was his only chance, he hoped it was. He hung on for dear life, trying not to fall down into its stomach.

After a few minutes he felt the creature shuddered and go still. The bleeding from the slashes he'd made slowed and stopped. Taking a chance, he changed back into a humming bird, and flew out of the belly of the beast.

"Friend Beast Boy." Starfire greeted him, sounding worried.

"Hey Starfire. That's one tough octopus." He sat back on the ground to watch it from a safe distance. Then he collapsed.

End of Chapter.

Beast Boy admits he likes Raven. How to get Raven to start looking at Beast Boy. That might take some time to develop.

Thanks to those who read and review.