Wow, we're doing pretty good with these updates, right?
Thanks to all who follow, favorite and especially review - each one is like a shot of writing caffeine!

Review Responses:
Nightmare Sired Muse - What abilities are you referring to? I've never read any of the comics unfortunately. All my experience of him comes from the show. Well then Sir/Madam, I hope you never feel inspired to write another word! And I can't wait to give you guys more!

Jimmy1201 - The team will start theorizing about stuff like that in the next few chapters. Things'll start changing a bit!

EXNativo - Oooh, big words that I certainly understand and was completely aiming for! Nah, I know what you mean man, but I don't really think that way to be honest. I just like messing around with the characters!
Yeah, I may have completely forgotten about him being frozen at the end of the show. Bit lax of me to be honest. I guess I'll either try to work that in somehow or just write it off and hope people aren't as observant as you!

iamking - It was a bit ominous, wasn't it? :)

newboy - Hey man. Yeah they'll start noticing his absence quite a bit in upcoming chapters. Both socially and professionally.
I'm still playing with the idea of the wrecked carnival at the moment mate. I've got a few ideas concerning it, but have no firm plan for including it yet. You do make some good points about it though, and it could be a really nice springboard for other events or dramas. I like it.

Sperance - Wait for the chapter after this one mate. You've read my mind!

4evermagic - Haha! Playing your emotions like a fiddle! Truly I am a master storyteller, haha :)

JasonVUK - Lovely pack of Oreos would sort him right out, wouldn't it? :) Wait, am I talking about Robin or BB?

The Flying Frog - I've not really included Terra in my plans to be honest mate. That may change, but can't really see her playing any part in this at the moment.
That's what I'm going for with Robin! I've already written part of the next chapter and you've read my mind on a part of it. Congrats!

Skrisalla - Yay! That is the best compliment I've ever received because I've been in the exact same position my friend! Thank you for reading and reviewing and I hope I continue to live up to your expectations.

Haebris - Oh dude so many tropes now! There's an entire world to explore and shape and the same stories keep popping up all the time!
Yeah Robin was a bit perfect in the show, bit flat. But he's the one in the position of power and the one I dislike the most so he is my catalyst!
And I shall try my best with the update wheel!

FF8cerberus - Good to have you back again dude!
I'm trying to make Beastboy fragile in this respect. He's lived for years without anyone inquiring about his past. He's been safe. Now he's in a position where he'll have to dig up all those memories and expose them. That's scary for him. The idea is painful. It's only pathetic because it was so horrific and he's terrified of reliving everything he's kept buried for years.
I know you want a strong, confident, self-assured Beastboy and so do I. But he's not going to come to terms with everything in day. He has to start from a bad place and that's where he is now.

GR-Rider - nicer.

Chapter 23: Extreme Ways

Beastboy thought he'd be more tired after a morning of intense and rigorous physical testing.

But he only felt a nervous excitement in his chest as he walked into the almost familiar gym a few minutes ahead of schedule. 'Not like I have anywhere else to be.' He thought, looking around for anything that looked like a sparring area.

Spotting some heavy punchbags hanging on hooks from the stone ceiling, he made his way deeper into the training area. He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, shaking his arms out in front of him. He was uncharacteristically serious.

'This is it dude. Time to show what you got.' He was desperately trying to stop the nervousness growing into something worse. Taking a deep breath, he halfheartedly trying to clear his mind with some meditation techniques Mento had attempted to pound into him. He knew it wouldn't work. It never did. 'Don't give into your instincts. Think, plan, act. You're more than just an animal.'

The building sense of hollowness in hist stomach didn't get much better.

'Damn these are uncomfortable.' He mentally cursed, leaning down and tugging on the tracksuit bottoms he had found in the shower block. The white tank top felt fine hugging his torso, but the loose bottoms felt wrong somehow.

He straightened up awkwardly, 'Eh, they'll have to do-'

Something impacted the backs of both his knees, popping them forwards.

'Ambush.'

Immediately after he felt a firm strike on his chest, the combined effect sending him falling towards the floor back first.

The world seemed to slow around Beastboy as he fell backwards through the air towards the ground.

Something rose up from deep in his belly, flowing through his whole body. His irises widened, the hair on his forearms stood on end, jaw muscles clenched together, ears twitched. 'Find.'

He acted without thinking.

Reaching straight back over his shoulders, Beastboy found the ground with his hands, at the same time turning his head to look left.

No one was there.

Thrills of energy twitched through his veins. Awareness flooded his senses and his next move became clear. 'Counter.'

He kicked his feet up and to the right, at the same time powerfully pushing off the ground with his hands.

Making use of his falling momentum, his whole body contorted into a backflip,

Except his two feet, clamped together at the ankles, that swung around in a blind arc to the upper right side of his body.

And connected.

A violent satisfaction flooded his blood in a rush of endorphins at the successful attack. The flash of savage triumph overwhelmed his body and mind.

Beastboy's body had slowed down due to the impact. He wouldn't have enough momentum to complete the backflip.

'Adapt, attack.'

So he didn't try.

Rather than try to complete the backflip, he bailed out of it halfway through and instead pressed himself into the ground like a snake. Hands first, then face, shoulders, chest ,torso, hips –now!

He twisted again on the ground. Spinning his upper body left and his lower body right. Sending his feet in a deadly swing from their high position to close to the ground. He intended to take the feet out of the opponent he had yet to actually see.

No connection.

Primitive joy at the action was now dominating his world. No cares, no thinking, no motivation. Just the joy being alive in that very moment and living like it could be his last. 'Retreat.'

Beastboy turned the momentum of his feet into the ground twisted, rolling away from his attacker once before snapping his body into the air to land in a deep crouch on his hands and feet.

His feet hit the ground the same time Batgirl's did.

The air stilled. Muscles tense. Eyes locked. No acknowledgement. Just waiting.

Then she broke the mood with a smile.

"Not bad. Good reflex. Good kick." She rubbed her shoulder with a look of discomfort on her face.

Beastboy blinked. Twice. Uncomprehending.

He wanted to attack.

To kick. To punch. To claw.

To bite. To rip. To tear.

To dominate. To fight. To win.

'No!'

His whole head physically flinched sideways as if it had been struck. His hands surged up to grab at his hair, trying get rip the thoughts from his mind.

'No! I will not give in to this!I am not an animal! I AM NOT AN ANIMAL! I AM IN CONTROL!'

He broke through, feeling his own mind settle back into place in his head. The intense animalistic desire for combat retreated back down into himself.

All the air left his lungs as he breathed out and let his arms flop down beside him.

A hand gently touched his shoulder. His eyes snapped open, immediately meeting a pair of calm, unwavering, chocolate brown eyes.

Beastboy tried to apologize, but found he couldn't open his mouth. Instead he just met her gaze, drawing comfort from their stillness as his body unconsciously untensed itself.

He felt his vision expand outwards to include more than just the girl in front of him. Until gradually he become more aware of where he was.

"Okay?" Cassie spoke softly.

She wasn't entirely sure of herself. She had seen the look in his eyes when they had squared off. It had reminded her of his transformation. But she had stayed calm, waited patiently until she had seen the pupils of his eyes start to constrict and the his slightly lengthened fingernails start to recede back.

Beastboy swallowing thickly. 'Can I pass this off? Did she notice anything? Of course she noticed you idiot, she just asked if you were okay!'

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"What for?" Came the immediate reply.

'For wanting to kill you.'

"Nothing, sorry."

"Think you can get up?"

'What?'

Beastboy suddenly became aware of the fact he was slumped on his knees and that Cassie was kneeling in front of him to look him in the eye.

"Hehe," he chuckled nervously, "Yeah, sorry about that."

"About what?"

"Eh, nevermind."

Beastboy stood slowly. He felt fine physically. Great in fact, his whole body was still buzzing with energy and adrenaline. However, inside, he was a mess of fear, guilt, shock and emptiness.

He had completely zoned out. And just reacted. There was no thinking involved. Just instinct.

Animal instinct.

A shudder ran through him. This had never happened before. He had never lost control while in battle. He always kept an iron leash on his animal side during combat. It took most of his concentration, but he still did it. Yes, the desires frequently rose up in him during fighting, but it had never completely taken over before. He made sure they didn't.

'Was it because it was a sneak attack? Because I was unprepared and just reacted? I dunno. Whatever it was, I will not let it happen again. Stupid idiot, Beastboy! This is the reason you're here! To stop this from happening!'

Cassie silently observed Beastboy's creased brow and tight lips, wishing she knew what was going on in his head.

"What happen?"

Beastboy's eyes fazed back into focus. He reached a hand up to the back of his head and answered. "Eh, I just got a really bad-"

"Lying."

Cassie took a menacing step forwards as she cut him off. "Talked about this. No lying."

Beastboy cringed back slightly, 'Dammit, stop being an idiot! Think! You know you can't lie to her!'

But he really didn't want to answer her either.

He was saved from his dilemma from an unlikely source.

"Unorthodox. Effective. Fast and powerful."

The low voice vibrated around the wide space. Beastboy involuntarily tensed. He couldn't smell who had spoken and couldn't pinpoint the origin of the voice except for that it came from above somewhere.

Then he inhaled suddenly and started scanning the cave roof madly.

'Batman! Oh my God, It's Batman! Am I terrified or insanely excited? Don't really care! Oh damn, he probably saw that freakout! Damn, damn damn, what's he going to say-'

"Dangerous. Sloppy. High risk. Leaves you vulnerable."

"Dah!" Beastboy scrambled away from the same voice, this time coming from directly behind him.

He turned frantically to see the Dark Knight himself standing imposingly, arms crossed, eyes hard behind his mask.

Beastboy tried not to whimper.

He had never seen Batman like this. He radiated power and authority. Exuded confidence and self assurance. In the power of his stance, the intelligence of his eyes and the set of his jaw. He was the ultimate alpha male. He was to be respected and feared.

Batman regarded the quivering green hero before him. "Good innovation, bad form. Let's get to work."

He turned and strode off, Cassie following behind closely. After a few moments of gormlessly staring after the two, Beastboy shook himself out of his daze and hurried after, fighting off dread.

'Oh, this is going to majorly suck.'

It did.

After a quick warmup, Batman stepped onto the sparring area followed by a reluctant Beastboy. The arena was nothing more than a massive, flat, semi-soft mat half an inch thick. It was actually more like the type of floor used in rhythmic gymnastics than anything else.

"No powers, everything else is allowed, stop at knockout or tap. Begin."

Eight seconds later, Beastboy was unconscious.

7 seconds after that, he awoke thanks to the smelling salts under his nose.

15 seconds after that, the next round began.

11 seconds later Beastboys was flat on the floor, blinking tears out his eyes. It felt like his nose had been caved in.

This pattern persisted for the next half hour.

Beastboy couldn't figure it out. They just kept on doing the same thing. Over and over and damned over. There was no point to it. He wasn't learning anything. He was just getting the crap beaten out of him!

After the first few knockdowns, he had started fighting defensively, staying on the back foot. Relying on the martial arts training he had received during his time with the Doom Patrol and under Robin during their rare hand to hand sessions.

It made absolutely no difference. Batman just came straight forward, dodging whatever strikes Beastoy attempted and ruthlessly dispatching him in a flurry of fists, knees, elbows and feet.

It goddamn hurt! It was frustrating! It was embarrassing! It was degrading! It made no sense!

What could this possibly achieve?!

He felt the anger and exasperation at the situation build up in his throat. But he forced it back down relentlessly. He would not let what happened earlier with Batgirl occur again.

He considered quitting just once.

Facedown, twenty minutes in. Head ringing and exhaustion in his bones. Batman standing over him, "Again." He wanted to curse at him. Call an insane psychopath and worse. Transform to a T-Rex and stomp him into the ground.

But he didn't.

He forced himself to his knees, trying desperately to ignore the pain. 'I need to get better. Need his help. Need to get up.' He thought doggedly. It became his mantra for the next 6 minutes.

Right cross to temple. Headbutt to nose bridge. Left hook to kidney. Heel kick to sternum. Jumping knee to back of head.

Over and over Beast sparred against Bat and over and over Bat knocked out Beast.

Until the smelling salts couldn't revive him.

Now the two Bats stood in Beastboy's containment cube filling it to capacity, watching the bandaged and stitched up titan himself sleep off his beating. A heartbeat monitor beeped softly, a precaution in multiple senses.

"Hard to watch." Cassie said, looking down at him sadly, noting some dried blood under his nose that they must have missed during his quick really hadn't been much for them to do. His healing factor had reduced most of the damage already. She walked over to a nearby cabinet and looked around for any wet sanitation wipes.

"It was necessary, you know that." Batman replied, voice absolute.

"I know. But passed though."

Cassie remembered her first sparring session with the Batman It had went exactly the same way. Only she hadn't lasted quite as long as Beastboy had. She didn't feel bad about that though, she knew that his healing ability had had a large effect on many times he had been able to get back up.

Batman had explained it to her when she had woken up hours later in the hospital block.

He didn't have time for quitters. For whiners or people that were afraid to get back up. He needed to know that they would be able, physically and mentally, to do his training. So he effectively tortured them until they could take no more. Just to see if they would get up again when he told them to. Batman knew that drive and self motivation were things that he couldn't train into anyone. You had to already have it. And he found out more about a person in a two minute fight than an hour of conversation. Watching how someone gets up after getting knocked down for the thirtieth time tells you a lot about what they've got.

'And he has got it.' The Dark Knight mused, 'It was all in his eyes. Determination backed with just a touch of fear. Not of me, but of something else. Failure perhaps?'

"He's fine. I didn't hit any vital points. Few fractures and sprains. I was careful."

He turned to his surrogate daughter, who appeared beside him, tearing open a pack she had found. "Did you notice anything about the way he fought?"

Cassie looked away from Beastboy's beaten form and towards the Batman, thinking quickly and carefully. Every question from the Batman was a test of some sort.

"Fought badly. Tight, not relaxed. Stiff. Slow."

Batman nodded once, but didn't break eye contact.

Suddenly realizing that he wasn't just talking about his sparring with Beastboy, she elaborated.

"Fought much better against me. Surprised him, but then surprised me, hit hard. Good recovery, just managed to dodge low kick."

Batman turned back to the green titan. "Yes, though you haven't explained the why yet."

Cassie followed his gaze down. She reached out slowly and gently started cleaning his upper lip, careful not to apply too much pressure, lest she disturb some injury or wake him. She thought about the question as she carefully attended to his face.

Why?

She wasn't sure, but thought aloud.

"Body was speaking differently. So thinking differently."

"Go on."

Cassie took a moment to gather her thoughts, staring down at the badly bruised face, remembering how it had looked earlier after their brief fight. "Pupils dilated during fight with me. Hair on arms standing. Body relaxed, but tight. Fighting you, eyes and muscles tense, ears forward. Hair down. Thinking differently. I guess he concentrating, not feeling. Posture different.

"So?"

"So think he was using some powers during fight with me. Not with you."

Batman was silent a moment. "You're almost right. But the only the reason you're wrong is because you don't understand his powers."

He met Cassie's curious gaze as she turned her head to regard him. "He wasn't accessing his powers during his combat against you. But he was following his instincts, and they are always heightened. He was listening to to those instincts while fighting you, but suppressing them while engaging me.

Cassie looked confused, "How know?"

Batman looked back down at the now drooling Beastboy. "You know how. You just described it to me."

"Body language?" the protege guessed.

"Correct. You may be able to read his body language better than I, but you still have to learn how to understand and interpret what you read. He was fighting you like an animal. He was fighting me like a human.

"His ears were forward when he faced you. This tells me he was using his sense of hearing much more than usual. His nostrils were flaring; he was using his sense of smell as well. The raised hairs on his forearm and neck are also indicative of awareness and sensing subtle movement in the air. None of these features were present during his sparring with me.

"Also he was fighting you without a hint of fear or apprehension; like you were his equal, or like he was the dominant one. He continually met your stare, while he wouldn't look me in the eye for more than a quarter of a second. Basic law among animals; the alpha stares, subordinates look away.. Additionally, he was taller facing you than he was facing me."

"Was crouching against me, standing against you." Cassie disagreed.

"He was crouching, but his hips were as high as his shoulders and he was up on the balls of his feet, trying to make himself look as big as possible like a threatened lion. It was a dominant stance. Standing against me, his shoulders and head were cowed down, as he stood lower on his toes. Submissive stance.

"Granted, there is a possibility he genuinely wasn't afraid of you and was of me, but that does not compute with the evidence of his personality I have observed too far. And one also has to consider his reaction after your ambush."

"Yes." Cassie turned her eyes back down, wondering how the relaxed, drooling face could ever look so...feral. "Thought he might change again."

"So did I and therein may lie the answer to his problem."

Cassie looked back at him, wondering what he could possibly mean, but knowing better than to question him on it. She asked a different question instead.

"Why you not let him speak when earlier? When he lying?"

She studied his blank face and equally blank body curiously.

"Because he doesn't know what happened earlier. And pushing him is my job, not yours."

Cassie shrunk back slightly at the edge in his voice. She knew when he was laying down the law.

"Understand." She said stiffly.

"Mention none of this to him. He has passed. I will train him."

With that, the Dark Knight turned and swept towards the exit.

"Wait," Cassie said, turn around with him. It was rare for him to offer so much information freely and she wanted to make use of it while it lasted. "If you right, why he suppress instincts?" She asked his back.

Batman took a moment before he replied, "Only he knows. But there will come a time when he will need them."

A groan broke through the following silence.

"Uhhhh, what smells of hospital?"

Cassie spun back around to see Beastboy scrunching up his nose, eyes still shut. "Sorry, had dried blood on nose. Cleaning for you."

Beastboy tried to blink the sleep from his eyes and immediately winced. "Don't apologize. I enjoy nothing more than being attended to by attractive nurses."

He shifted in his bed with a low groan, not seeing the flush spread across Cassie's face. He growled low as he tried to sit up.

"Another round then? Give me a second."

His attempt to lift himself up was stopped by a small, but firm hand on his chest.

"No, have done enough today. Sleep now."

"Oh, thank God! My face hurts. I'm going to sleep nowwwww..."

He was out before he hit the bed.

Cassie reluctantly trailed her hand off his chest to hang by her side.

Batman's voice came from behind her.

"He'll do."

So ends Beastboy's first day of 'training'.

He's not the Batman for nothing.

I think we're getting into time skip territory here guys! I'm definitely not going to be doing a '2 years later' thing. But we'll be jumping ahead weeks and months in the upcoming chapters.

So hit 'follow' and 'favorite' if you want to follow the story and if it's one of your new favorites.

And drop a review if you have a comment, or if you have a question about the plot or characters, or if you have an idea for where this all goes!

Thanks for reading you awesome peoples!

Signing off,
CJB