Chapter 12
Saya couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was aware that there would be consequences to touching her can's water, but she certainly wasn't expecting this!
Strength and a tan-skinned version of Beast Boy with a cape made of the pelt of a large ape (the Sasquatch from the Adonis episode), a set of Bermuda shorts, boots, and massive skeletal claws stood in the living room.
Right above Yuu's and Beast Boy's barely conscious forms.
"Beast Machine," whispered Saya.
"What!?" snapped Mrs. Kuroi.
"It's his name," she explained, "I always know their names."
The two seemed to be fairly confused about their new locations.
Until they saw their hosts.
"Yuu?" said Strength, "What have you done?"
"Why are you here?" Yuu asked, "Why am I not you?"
Strength's eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed in anger.
"You're home," she whispered to herself, "you're finally free and you still want to come back!?"
"I just want to help," replied her host, "but why am I not you?"
"Because I won't let you!" she screamed as she lifted her host by the collar, "not again! I won't let you throw this away!"
Having apparently become sick of being ignored, Beast Machine attacked, letting loose a punch at Strength. The smaller girl was caught off guard and took the punch to the cheek, flying back into the wall and dropping Yuu.
The new otherself then turned her attention on Yuu, who for the first time considered that this might have been a bad idea.
Beast Machine raised a jagged claw to finish Yuu off, only for Mato to notice and throw the blade like a javelin. He stumbled back momentarily, obviously in pain from having a metal blade in his chest, and leapt over Yuu to join the battle.
The small girl felt a hand wrap itself around her upper arm, auling her to her feet.
"What did I tell you!?" yelled Yomi as she hauled her back to the elevator.
"Technically, there are four of them."
"This is not the time!"
They had to stop when Beast Machine landed on his back in front of them, Mato on his chest with a tight grip on her sword. She pulled her arm back to recover her weapon, only to be immediately swatted out the window by Beast Machine's claw.
"Mato!"
Beast Boy's eyes snapped open.
Six blocks away from the bank robbery, Tara Markov was buying a snack. A giant cookie to be exact.
"You're gonna get fat if you keep eating those things," said her friend, Amber, as she played with the tips of her brown locks.
"I'll be fine," she replied, "I can eat all I want and I never get fat."
Amber smacked her upside the head.
"Ow… Why?"
"I don't know," she confessed, "but hearing that made me angry for some reason."
"Where's Dionne?" asked Tara as she rubbed the sore spot on her head.
"Some metas are robbing the bank," she replied, "The Titans are fighting them so traffic's backed up."
"Figures," she moaned, "should we go to the movies and hope she catches up?"
"Nah, you know how she gets," replied Amber, "next thing you'll know, we'll have to drag her emo ass out of her room to keep her from dying of vitamin D deficiency… again."
"Yeah, the hospital trip was a bit of a sour note to prom night," noted Tara, "so we wait?"
"Yep."
"Twenty questions?"
"Sure, not like anything exiting's gonna happen in the next twenty minutes."
Beast Machine was caught off guard by the sudden transformation of his host and was promptly swatted into the far wall by the green gorilla's fist.
He, however, had no desire of backing down.
Beast Machine crashed his fists together and metal began to shift as he took on his own transformation.
Metal twisted and turned as the fists extended to cover the body. Electricity arched from bone to bone as ribs, arms, and legs formed. Finally, a mask shaped like a gorilla's skull settled onto the green otherself's face, leaving the shorter boy hanging by the arms in the middle of his armor's chest.
"Ah, Beast Machine," said Mrs. Izaragi in understanding.
"Yep," replied Saya, "RUN!"
The skeletal gorilla swung an iron fist at his host, clipping him in the jaw. Beast Boy leapt in retaliation and pounded his fists into the machine's chest, caving it partway in.
Beast machine kicked his host off and swung another fist out. This match, however, was nothing like the one between Mato and her own otherself. Where Mato is your run-of-the-mill middle-schooler, Beast Boy has had more than his share of combat experience.
The green gorilla caught his skeletal counterpart's fist and flipped the machine over his shoulder. The mechanical otherself landed on his back and Beast Boy took the chance to switch into an Utahraptor.
Beast Machine did not have the ability to transform that quickly, but he was a hell of a lot more ruthless. Thinking quickly, he lunged at Strength who had been spending the time getting everyone out.
She was swatted aside by the massive gorilla as he grabbed his real target.
"Yuu!" screamed Saya.
Strength fired a bullet out of her index finger, clipping the machine's shoulder. With a green gorilla on one side and a really pissed off gungirl on the other, it was obvious he was cornered.
Taking a gamble, he tightened his grip around his hostage and leapt out the window.
"Why do you fight?"
Mato's eyes snapped open.
She had landed in an office building across the channel and had apparently made quite a mess on her way in. She could see she had destroyed the window and several cubicles. Around her, office workers stared, no doubt wary after seeing her crash in from the notorious tower. She also spotted several people frantically wiping off a familiar blue fluid.
"Are you okay?" asked a man with dark skin, short hair, a suit, and a fireman's axe.
The blue eyed girl merely nodded and sat up slowly, groaning as several bones popped, snapped, and mended themselves.
"Are-are you a… um… a criminal?" he asked as he pointed towards the tower.
Mato's head shook as she walked to the window, collecting her sword on the way over.
"Then, who are you?"
She stopped.
"I am…"
Her eye flared up, startling the workers.
"…Black Rock Shooter."
She leapt out the window.
Author's Note: So, yeah. New chapter. Not much to say this time, but shit is about to hit the fan and the primary villain will be revealed soon. I've also decided on the most likely pairings, but I think I'll have to wait for the story to play itself out.