With lunch out of the way, I emerged out of the alley back onto the side of the street I was originally on before the ambush. The bright sunlight blinded me temporarily as I squinted my eyes and tried to shield them with my hand. I wound up bumping into a blonde woman about my age as I stumbled around.
"Uh, rudeness", she said with a condescending, but very comically high-pitched voice.
Uh, cliche, I thought in response as she reminded of literally every beach-blonde Barbie stereotype ever made with those two words alone. She continued past me to my left and kept walking. I overheard her mention something about my stench under her breath as she walked away, but I didn't care, it was the least of my concerns at the moment. I turned right and walked to the next block, back to where the payphone was.
I walked back to the payphone and searched it to see if it had any kind of camera on it. It didn't. From there I turned around and just looked. There had to have been something that saw who or what attacked me. At that moment I looked at a light post across the street, and saw a small security camera behind the glass and next to the bulb.
Lycanthropy has done wonders with my eyesight, I chuckled to myself. Just as I was beginning to cross the street again, I thought, seeing as how this didn't work so well last time, I'll just take the crosswalk. I walk to my left a few feet to the corner and join the crowd of people waiting for the traffic light to turn red so that they could walk across.
While I waited, I heard whispers and saw discrete looks of disgust from the crowd. The comments were either about my appearance, my stench, or both. Without giving them the satisfaction of pointing my head downward to look at myself, I used my powers to read a nearby man's mind and saw myself through his eyes.
I could see why I was getting so much crap, I was a mess. My white Classic shirt, that is my white t-shirt with the word "classic" written across the top in black letters with pictures of mainstream media references from the 90's underneath, was ruined. I had a huge blood stain across my stomach, which would explain why my abdomen was hurting earlier, and holes in both of my sleeves. And to make matters worse, whoever mugged me thought they were cute and scratched off the letters "L", "I", and both "C"s from the word "classic", so now it just said "ass". My blue jeans were also full of holes, and I had two wet spots on them, one on my right thigh and the other on my left knee, from when I was rolling around in the garbage. My face had a couple of scratches on it, my knuckles were bleeding a little bit from punching the dumpster, and because I was sleeping, my mini afro was pushed flat on two sides, making me look like a wannabe black Frankenstein.
Jesus, how long was I out? I exit the man's mind and raise my right wrist. God dammit, I thought to myself upon realizing that the mugger took my watch as well. I reach for my other back pocket for my afro pick. I pull it out to discover that six of the ten teeth had broken off, and almost all of them were now missing. Well, today just gets better and better, don't it?
Finally the light turned red, and the walking light turned on. More commentary from the crowd as I weaved my way in and out trying to cross as quickly as possible. Once I had crossed I break away from the crowd and lean against a nearby building for a moment to roll up my pant legs. It didn't at all help with my cleanliness problem, but I needed to air out my legs after rolling around in a dumpster for who knows how long.
While I was rolling up my pant legs, the passing patrons were all too gracious with their comments as I continued to hear mumbling and disgust about my stench and appearance. Once I had finished airing out my legs and thought I had heard the worst of the insults, the light turns green and traffic continues. It was then a sports car with college students in it thought it'd be funny to throw trash at me. One threw an empty beer bottle at my feet, giving me another cut on my leg when the glass broke, while another threw a half drunken milkshake at my head. With strawberry ice cream in my hair and glass under my feet, a third college student yelled out as they drove away.
"You could use a bath, you hobo!"
I shake my head as if I was in wolf form as I think to myself, once I catch the guy who mugged me, you three are next. Angry and irritated, I Change to my wolf form, much to many people's surprise. I continue walking towards the light post, snapping and barking at anyone that got in my way. I wasn't in a good mood. Once there, I leap up and start climbing to the top. It didn't matter who saw me and who didn't at that point, I didn't care. Once at the top, I use my claws to try to pry off the glass, with my tail underneath to catch it before it hits the ground. This task proved to be more difficult than I had hoped. "Remind me again why I'm doing this when I could just break the glass."
"Because it's the right thing to do", asked the green bat as it flew in my face out of nowhere. Shocked and surprised I accidentally rip the glass from the light post and it falls to the ground below.
It had just missed a guy on a bike as he shouts, "hey! Watch it!" I grab the bat with my left paw while hanging from my right.
"Look what you made me do, Beast Boy!"
"Beast Boy! You said it right this time!" Turns out his name was Beast Boy, or at least it's what he went by. I guess I got lucky.
"What do you want?"
"Well we saw you climbing the light post so I came to see what's up", said Beast Boy as he motioned towards the roof of the pizza joint I passed on the way here. There at a table next to the railing sat Cyborg, Starfire, Robin, and Raven respectively. Raven had her hood down. Her short hair was the same color as her violet eyes, and she had a diamond-shaped bindi on her forehead that was red with a black outline. She looked at me with the same intensity as when we first met earlier.
Wow, she's….kinda cute, actually. Oh God, how long has she been watching me from up there?
"Um, dude? You in there? Are you blushing?" I squeezed the bat tighter in my paw.
"I don't blush", I said defensively as I tossed the bat. He then resumed hovering on his own as he flew back over to me. Using my tail, I hung upside down to get a better look at the camera. The curious and nosey Beast Boy mirrored my action.
"So uh, whatcha doin'?"
"I need the footage from this camera", I said in an annoyed voice.
"Why?"
"None of your business." I was getting more annoyed.
"Don't you mean, "none of my beeswax"", asked Beast Boy as he morphed from a bat to a bee. I glare at him with as sarcastic a look as possible for him having made a terrible pun. I look up/down at him as he flies to the top of the light post. "Oh, come on, dude! Can't you take a croak", he asks again as he morphs into a toad.
"Do you have to work at being this annoying, or does it just come naturally?"
"Hahaha, good one! Hahaha…hey! For your information, my jokes are funny. Even Raven thinks so." I adjust my head back to right-side up to see his four friends at the pizza table. Robin and Cyborg were debating something about combat practices while Starfire eagerly listened with fascination. Raven on the other hand, still with her intense monotoned look on her face, was off in her own world. As a daydreamer myself, I tended to space out a lot.
Huh, I wonder if that's what I look like when that happens. I look back up at the green toad. "Yeah, forgive me if I don't believe you on that one." A sarcastic look as if to say, "everybody's a critic" appeared on his face as he expanded his throat, at least I think it's the throat that expands when toads croak.
"Geez, you and Raven oughtta hook up. You two you are meant for each other." Something about that sentence threw me off-guard because my tail lost its grip and I fell. I managed to catch myself by levitating via aura. I then Changed back into a rattlesnake and slithered back up the light post. "Dude, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Now if you'll excusssse me….", I said as I motioned him to move out of the way.
"Oh, sorry", said the toad as it then morphed into a hummingbird. "By the way, dude. From one beast to another, you really stink." I pause for a moment and glare back at him. "Shutting up now", said Beast Boy as he tucked his head into his body. I went back to work on detaching the camera from the light post, but I should've known the silence wouldn't last long. "Whoa, dude. What happened here", asked Beast Boy as he poked at the bulge in my body with his beak.
"He wassss my lunch."
"Your what", asked Beast Boy in a shocked voice. For comedic effect he morphed into a possum and played dead by hanging from his tail.
"What'ssss the big deal? You've probably hunted before haven't you?" He swung from his tail and sat back on top of the light post in his human form, if you can call it that.
"No, I'm a vegetarian! I've probably been whatever it is you've eaten", he continued as he poked the rat I swallowed. I spoke back to him in my normal voice since he was no longer in animal form.
"I bet you're fun company to have dinner with", I said sarcastically.
"Tell me about it", chimed Cyborg from down below having now joined us at the light post. "Everything is Tofu with this kid".
"Excuse me for being against cannibalism", shouted Beast Boy in response.
"You're not a pig, B. You just have the power to turn into one, that's all", said Cyborg with a cheeky grin.
"Gee, thanks. That made all the difference." I chuckled a little at their ammusing argument.
"Anything I can help with", asked Cyborg.
"You think you can detach thissss camera? I'm trying not to break it."
"No prob. Hey, Raven! If you would be so kind…", yelled Cyborg as he pointed to the light post. She stood up and waved her hand as it was soon surrounded in aura and her eyes glowed white. The light post itself soon became covered in her black aura as it was ripped out of the ground and flipped upside down, causing both me and Beast Boy to lose our grip. He morphed into a hawk and caught me in his talons before hovering over Cyborg. I looked up at him.
"Don't you even think about it", said I, the snake in the talons of a hawk.
"Calm down. I'm a vegetarian, remember?" Cyborg went right to work detaching the camera while Raven focused on keeping the upside down light post afloat. A few seconds of whizzing and buzzing noises coming from his Swiss Army fingers, and the camera was free.
"Thanks, Rae", said Cyborg as she returned the light post to its original position. "Now tell me exactly why you this again", said Cyborg to me now. I teleported from the hawk's talons and Changed back into human form in front of him.
"In case it wasn't obvious, I was jumped", I said as I held out my arms for effect. "And I believe whoever did it might've been caught on tape."
"You mean that's not the newest trend", asked Raven sarcastically out of seemingly nowhere. As she said that, another portal appeared on the ground and she rose out of it, now joining us. Seeing her look at me the way I currently was made me nervous.
What's wrong with me? Why am I nervous?
"While Cyborg decodes the data, you could use a shower." Beast Boy morphs back to his human form to chime in on the conversation.
"I second that. I haven't smelt anything that bad since we invented Stankball", said Beast Boy with a cheeky grin as he plugged his nose for comedic effect. I snarled at him in response and he morphed into a rooster, again, for comedic effect.
"Do I even want to know what Stankball is", I asked to Raven.
"Believe me when I say that I'm still wishing that I never found out what — achoo", she sneezed interrupting herself.
"Bless you", I said as I encased Beast Boy in a forcefield made from my aura.
"Thank you", said Raven as she cleared her throat. She looked at Beast Boy as he clucked in a panic inside my forcefield, and a tiny smile appeared on her face, which in turn caused me to smile a little, too. She caught me staring at her smile and started blushing a little bit. Fortunately, before things got too awkward, Robin and Starfire pulled up in a car designed with a paint job inspired by their friend, Cyborg.
"I know you are not, driving my baby", exclaimed Cyborg to Robin as he rushed over to the car. Beast Boy then morphed back to his human form so I released him from my aura.
"Very funny, dude", said Beast Boy sarcastically as he walked past us while dusting himself off. Raven then goes on to slap him upside the head as he passes. "Ow", he exclaims as he rushes to the car quicker.
"Is that all it takes to shut him up?"
"If it doesn't, it's fun to try." I chuckled a little at her joke. "How did you know", she asked in reference to my assuming that she was allergic to chicken feathers.
"Lucky guess. Took a shot in the dark, turns out I was correct." The tiny smile she had before returned for an encore.
"Can you still fly? Cyborg's pretty territorial about the T-Car."
"I'll manage. Meet you at the tower." She then turns around and walks to her group which consisted of the boys arguing about who gets to drive and who gets to ride shotgun. Once the argument was settled I prepared to Change. "Interesting way to start a Friday", I said as I armor-digivolved into Gizamon and flew after the T-Car.