Chapter Five: Hive Hassles
Beast Boy was looking over the reports again. It had been nearly a month since Phobia's attack, and ever since then not a single crime occurred. Not just the regular villains like Mumbo Jumbo or Ding Dong Daddy, but even civvie crimes like break-ins and assaults. Nothing happened at all.
Robin was naturally freaking out, paranoid about some grand scheme of Slade's or some other villain. With still no leads on whoever planted the bomb, Robin was sure they'd try again soon and wanted to be prepared. The bomb was fairly large and complex, so they deduced that whoever planted it had quite the tech know-how, and quite a bit of money and no shortage of resources. However, they likely weren't working with Professor Chang, since it didn't use any Zynothium. Beast Boy still didn't get the reasoning behind why Robin thought this, wouldn't a mad scientist be able to make a bomb? But Robin said that Chang's specialty was with rare materials such as Zynothium, and that if it had been Chang, it would have been far deadlier.
Beast Boy wasn't so sure that the mystery bomber would try again after being discovered, and with a long while without incident, Beast Boy thought it was a great time to kick back and relax. But of course, Robin had them flipping through the crime reports of the last several weeks to see if there was anything off. Beast Boy sighed. As expected, there was nothing unusual going on. Just a lull in violent crimes. That was supposed to be a good thing, and show the city they were doing their jobs. Beast Boy didn't understand why Robin was punishing them for it.
Beast Boy looked at the other members of the team. Robin and Raven were deeply invested in the work, but Cyborg was glancing up from his papers. Star was out on patrol at the moment. Lucky her. It was almost ten thirty and Robin had pushed them all really far in training. Beast Boy stifled a yawn, then turned back to the reports. Just like that, the crime alert went off. The whole team jumped, startled by the noise.
"Titans!" Robin yelled instinctively.
"Who is it?" Cyborg asked.
Raven appeared at the main computer. "It's the Hive Five. They're at the museum."
"Raven, teleport to Starfire and set up a perimeter. We'll meet you there as soon as possible. Titans, go!" Robin shouted. Raven disappeared, teleporting in a flash of shadow. Beast Boy, Robin and Cyborg raced to the garage, hopping into the T-Car. Cyborg revved the engine as the garage door opened, and they were speeding on their way.
Some people wonder how the Titans, especially the ones who can't fly, like Robin and Cyborg, get to crime scenes on time. Since they lived on an island, it'd be pretty hard to get around when there was an incident. The oversea bridge only led them to the port, and depending on the time of day, there could be a lot of traffic. That was why Cyborg installed an underwater road out into the city. Actually, it was a series of roads really, each leading to high crime areas. This way, Cyborg could go full speed without having to worry about traffic or pedestrians. The schematics of these blueprints were never digitalized, and the physical ones were kept locked away. Plus, Robin was always cautious enough to have at least three failsafes in case of an attack.
Being in the tunnels always creeped Beast Boy out. It's not like he had claustrophobia, but artificial tunneling got on his animal sense's nerves. They were too straight, too flat. Nothing in nature was like that, and the way the T-Car's lights lit up the road only for there to be even more darkness beyond was definitely creepy.
Finally, they emerged from the tunnel, just a few blocks from the museum. Cyborg careened around the corner, knocking over a trash can. Cyborg winced at the sound but didn't stop, zooming towards the museum.
"Star? Raven? Have you set up the perimeter?" Robin asked through his communicator.
"Yes," Starfire answered. "The building is the secure."
"I don't see much movement in there," Raven noted. "We should be careful moving in, there might be a trap."
"Ok, the three of us will go in. Girls, you stay over the museum and get any that make a break for it," Robin said.
"Roger," came the reply.
Robin led the charge, bursting in through the main doors. Four pairs and one large eyes looked up as they entered.
"Aw crap, it's the Titans!" Seemore shouted.
"I'm only gonna say this once. Drop the sacks and come quietly. We don't want to hurt you," Robin said.
"That's funny, cause we want to hurt you! Against the Hive Five, you won't survive!" Gizmo shouted, spider-like claws erupting from his backpack.
"If that's how you want to play. Titans, go!" Robin yelled.
Despite being outnumbered, the three Titans held their own against the Hive. With Robin battling Kyd Wykkyd and Billy Numerous, and Cyborg taking on Gizmo, that just left Mammoth and See-More for him.
Mammoth charged at Beast Boy, shoulder-baring for a tackle. Beast Boy turned into a kangaroo and jumped up, landing on Mammoth's head and using him as a springboard, sending him crashing to the ground. Beast Boy transformed midair into a bat, avoiding the eye-beams from See-More. Beast Boy got up close before turning into an octopus and grabbing his legs, spinning and throwing him into a few Billys.
"Hey! Watch it!" A Billy complained.
"Sorry," See-More replied sheepishly, shaking his head.
Hearing a roar, Beast Boy turned to find Mammoth bearing down on him. Just before the behemoth reached him, he changed into a mouse. Expecting resistance and finding none, Mammoth toppled forward onto the ground. Beast Boy turned back into a human and laughed.
"Ever since Jinx left you, you guys have been clowns," Beast Boy said.
"Oh yeah, let's see, how's this for a punchline!" Mammoth said, whirling and punching at Beast Boy. Beast Boy turned into a skunk and sprayed Mammoth in the face.
"A little slow on the delivery, I'd say," Beast Boy commented as Mammoth gagged and coughed. A laser hit him in the chest and sent him to the floor.
"Ha! Not so tough now, are ya you little punk?" See-More asked, coming over to time.
Beast Boy jumped to his feet, dodging a laser blast and turning into a fox. See-More backed away, firing more laser blasts at him as he scampered towards the cyclops. Beast Boy lunged at See-More, scratching his chest and sending him to the floor. Beast Boy circled the fallen villain, seeing if he was going to get back up.
Apparently he was, shooting an eye-beam at him from the ground. It hit Beast Boy in the chest, wrapping him in a pink bubble.
"Ha, look at the beast in its cage. That's a good beastie, sit and stay," See-More laughed. "Hey Mammoth, wanna get in on this?"
"My eyes burn!" Mammoth shouted.
"Get over it you big baby," See-More grumbled.
"What'd you say, one eye?" Mammoth growled, clambering to his feet, coughing once and blinking rapidly. "Why don't you say that to my face."
"I said, get over it, you big, baby," See-More repeated.
"Why don't I stick something in your big fat eye and see how you like it?" Mammoth asked, poking See-More in the chest.
See-More stumbled back, due to the sheer size of Mammoth's finger. "I'd like to see you try, you ogre."
Beast Boy, who had been probing the bubble and not really paying attention to the drama, decided this was the perfect time to morph into a scorpion and pierce the bubble. The two villains turned to look at him as he turned back into a human.
"Hey, if this isn't a good time I can come back later," Beast Boy offered.
"Oh, I think it's exactly the right time," See-More said.
"Oh yeah," Mammoth said, cracking his knuckles. "You're just in time for a knuckle sandwich, on the house."
"Come on guys, let's be civil about this," Beast Boy tried, taking a step back.
"Nah, I'd rather just smash your face in," Mammoth grunted, lunging forward with his massive hands, trying to grab the shapeshifter. Beast Boy squeaked in fright and turned into a mouse, evading the blow, then immediately transforming into a yeti, roaring as he uppercutted the Hive member in the jaw. Mammoth staggered back, and Beast Boy turned into a falcon, dodging laser blasts from See-More, zooming around the room to generate momentum. Once he was flying fast enough, he dived bombed at Mammoth's face. Inches away, Beast Boy morphed into an armadillo and hit Mammoth square between the eyes. Beast Boy bounced off, shifting back into his human form and somersaulting midair to land on his feet as Mammoth collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Beast Boy dusted off his hands, admiring a job well done.
Then he looked at See-More.
The cycloptic villain was looking back and forth between his downed teammate and Beast Boy, then turned to flee. Beast Boy just smirked and talked into his coms.
"Hey Star, you got one coming your way," Beast Boy said.
"Glorious! I will apprehend the villain," Starfire responded, and a second later Beast Boy heard a boom and high-pitched screaming from outside. He chuckled.
"What's the matter, couldn't you take him yourself?" Raven asked.
"Nah, he saw what I did to Mammoth and practically crapped his pants," Beast Boy bragged.
"Sure he did," Raven drawled.
Beast Boy rolled his eyes and looked towards the other Titans. Cyborg had taken down Gizmo and removed his backpack and was now looking for a way to tie him up. The toddler sized baddie was thrashing, trying to wiggle his way out of the hand Cyborg had clenched around the scruff of his neck.
Robin on the other hand wasn't faring too well. Against an unending amount of enemies and a guy that could hit you and be gone just as fast, he was doing good, but he could only take on so many Billy's before he got exhausted. Between that and the lightning fast blows coming from Kyd Wykkyd, Beast Boy could tell Robin needed backup.
Beast Boy turned into a fly and flitted his way over to Robin. When the shady teleporter appeared, Beast Boy landed on his shoulder. When he teleported away in the nick of time, avoiding Robin's foot landing in his sternum, Beast Boy came with him. Wasting no time, Beast Boy turned into an electric eel and shocked the shadowy figure. Kyd Wykkyd jerked in surprise and pain, toppling off the beam he was crouched on and falling to the floor. Beast Boy kept his grip on the one man disappearing act until they crashed into the floor, landing on a Billy. Only then did he turn back into a human, checking to make sure he was unconscious. He was.
Beast Boy turned into a Spinosaurus, whipping his tail around and sending a bunch of Billy's flying.
"Holy moly!" One shouted. "Is that there a T-Rex?"
"No you idiot!" Another yelled, smacking him on the back of the head. "That's a spinosaur right there!"
"Eh, what's the difference?" The first asked, scratching his head.
"Uh, I'm not actually sure," the other replied, before being tossed into the air by Beast Boy's massive claws.
Beast Boy crashed through the crowd of Billy's, transforming back into a human to punch a Billy who was about to nail Robin in the back of the head in the face, sending him sprawling. Robin turned to grin at him, sweat sheening on his forehead. "About time one of you showed up."
"Cyborg and I are done with ours and I took down Wykkyd for you. Why don't you call in the girls for clean up?" Beast Boy suggested.
"Good idea, cover me," Robin said. Beast Boy nodded and at once turned into a massive gorilla, smacking away Billy after Billy. Beast Boy pounded his chest and roared, challenging the Billys. They all charged him, and Beast Boy turned into a hippo to meet them.
All of a sudden, darkness fell across the room. An inky glow, like the dark side of the moon gripped all of the Billys, clawing its way up their bodies until it covered them entirely. They began to rise from the floor and float upwards.
"Hey Billy! Look, I'm flying!" One yelled, flapping his arms.
"Yeee-haw, and Ma always said I'd never amount to nuthin! Look at me now, Ma!" Another yelled, doing a Superman pose.
Suddenly, they all slammed together, merging and mixing in an enormous shifting mass that was quite frankly disturbing for about a second until there was only one Billy left. He fell to the floor, the shadow gone.
"I feel...I feel kinda dizzy," the Billy slurred, before collapsing.
"Nice work Raven," Robin said as the sorceress rose from the shadows.
"Thanks," Raven said drily as she observed the trashed museum. "Pity. I liked this place."
"You've been here? When, you know, it wasn't getting robbed?" Beast Boy asked.
"Yeah," Raven said simply.
"Cool. I came here once, but not really my cup of tea if you know what I mean," Beast Boy said.
"How eloquent of you," Raven said.
"My elbows are the quentiest," Beast Boy agreed.
Raven just sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Good work Titans," Robin said, dragging everyone's attention back to him. "Let's get these guys in the SWAT cars before anyone decides to wake up."
Starfire hauled Mammoth and and terrified See-More outside to where the cops waited, Robin picked up Billy Numerous and Cyborg dragged the still struggling Gizmo out. Beast Boy jogged over to grab Kyd Wykkyd when suddenly he stopped.
"Robin," he yelled.
"Come on, let's get out of here," came the reply from Cyborg.
"Robin!" Beast Boy yelled again.
"What is it?" Robin asked.
"I smell sulfur," Beast Boy said. At his words the air in the room suddenly felt like stone.
"Can you tell where it's coming from?" Robin asked.
Beast Boy shook his head. "This whole place reeks of the stuff. I can't pin it down."
"Ok Titans, split up and look for it. It can't be far," Robin demanded before turning and sprinting away. Starfire and Raven flew off, and Cyborg pulled up some sort of sensor on his arm and ran the other way. Beast Boy stayed in the main room, sniffing around to see if there were any clues. But it wasn't here, and all the hallways smelled the same.
"I found it," came Raven's voice over the communicator.
"Where?" Robin demanded.
"By the Roman exhibits," Raven answered.
Beast Boy dashed towards Raven, morphing into a cheetah. He arrived last, the other members of the team were already inspecting it.
"Yup, it's definitely the same model as the last one," Cyborg affirmed.
"But why would anyone put it here? It is not the very well hidden," Starfire said.
"They must've come in after the museum closed and set it up," Robin deduced.
"This one's got a remote detonator. Whoever set it up learned from the last time," Cyborg said.
"What's stopping them from setting it off now?" Beast Boy asked.
"I'm not sure but we're not finding out. Raven, can you teleport out to sea?" Robin asked.
Raven answered with glowing white eyes. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
A black portal opened up and swallowed the bomb.
"Isn't that kind of risky?" Cyborg asked. "Just leaving it out in the open ocean? We still don't know who planted it or why."
"We can't leave it here, not without some insurance it wouldn't blow up in our faces. It's too dangerous to just leave, even if we evacuated. Its blast radius is enough to level a good portion of the museum and a neighboring building. Whoever set the bomb here did so in a hurry, but is probably is watching us even now. Cy, Beast Boy, search for cameras. I'm going to have a talk with Gizmo," Robin growled.
"What would you like us to do Robin?" Starfire asked.
"Raven do you know where you sent that bomb?" Robin asked.
"Roughly, but the currents probably swept it away by now," Raven said.
"See if you can find it. Teleporting it away might have been a bit rash. We don't want to leave a live explosive out in the middle of the ocean," Robin admitted.
"Oh, Robin's admitting to a mistake? Who are you and what have you done with the real Robin?" Beast Boy laughed.
"This is no laughing matter, Beast Boy," Robin said coldly. "If the HIVE Five planted it, they either somehow got the resources to make such a deadly weapon or planted it for someone else. If they didn't know about the bomb, we either got extraordinarily lucky or someone knew they were coming and wanted to kill us or them."
With that harsh retort, Robin turned on his heel and stalked away. Beast Boy cringed as the team turned away from him and started fanning out. Cyborg was already scanning the walls with a gadget in his arm. Robin was right. Beast Boy wasn't of any use here. Suddenly the dark walls of the museum didn't feel so natural. He needed to leave, he needed to get out. Beast Boy felt himself slipping, and he let himself fall into the dark embrace.
The next morning, Beast Boy woke up drearily. He groaned and rose from his bed, sluggishly throwing off his bedsheets and crawling around his room until he found his black Metallica shirt. He dragged the journal out and flipped it open. Beast Boy had to blink a few times to get his eyes to focus. Apparently, he and Cy hadn't found anything besides the museum's security cameras. While Cy had gone through the footage logs and Robin was interrogating Gizmo, he and the girls had headed back to the tower to get some sleep. Robin had called a meeting in the morning, at 9.
What time was it now? Beast Boy fumbled over to his alarm clock and checked the time. 8:49. Dammit. Looks like breakfast would have to come later. Stupid people, making him late. The least they could do was let him have a decent night's sleep.
Beast Boy made his way down to the ops room, grumbling the whole way about boundaries. He sensed that everyone else had already gathered inside. He yawned dramatically as he entered, drawing everyone's attention to him.
"Good morning, everyone sleep good? Not me. I was tossing and turning something fierce," Beast Boy said, collapsing into his chair.
"Nice of you to finally join us," Raven muttered.
"As I was saying," Robin said, "Gizmo and the Hive had no idea about the bomb. That means they could have been potential targets. Whoever placed the bomb didn't detonate it while we were in the room, so it's possible they didn't want us there. Maybe we were the targets, and Raven got it out before they could act. However, I think that's unlikely. Whoever had the trigger had us all in the same room with more than enough time to kill us all. If the objective had been to kill us and they saw us all in the same room, they would have set it off immediately. I think we can safely conclude that we weren't the targets. That just leaves the Hive Five and the museum as targets. Either are just as likely as they are unlikely. If they wanted to destroy the museum, it had been closed for several hours before the Hive Five invaded. The night guards had passed several points where they would have all been caught in the blast radius, as well as none of them. If they wanted collateral damage, they would have blown it earlier in the night. If the bomber wanted to kill the Hive Five, they would have known we were coming and set it off as soon as possible. That being said, the only alternative I can think of is a test."
"A test?" Raven asked.
"Yes. The bomb was just hidden enough so the normal night guards wouldn't find it, but not so hidden that a careful observer looking for a bomb wouldn't find one. My guess was the person somehow knew the Hive Five was going to rob the museum and planted the bomb for us to find. Cyborg found evidence of hacking in the security cameras, replaying looping footage after the museum had closed. There's a seven minute window after the museum closed that our bomber could have gone in and set the bomb. I checked all possible entrances, and there were no signs of forced entry, so somehow the bomber must have gotten in with a stolen keycard or help from the inside. I've sent my findings and theories over to the JCPD and they're double checking the museum, but unless they find evidence for the contrary, my guess is that whoever set the bomb expected us to find it. There's only one villain who would do something so diabolical. Slade."
"Come on Robin, don't you think that's a bit of a stretch? We haven't seen him in a long time. There's no way to be sure," Cyborg said.
"It has to be him! No crime for weeks, then all of a sudden the Hive Five attacks a museum and there just happens to be a bomb? No! Slade somehow knew about the attack and wanted to use this to test us for some insane reason! All we need to figure out what he was testing us for. If we can figure that out maybe we can figure out his next move. If we can predict where he's going to strike next, we can find him and lock him up for good!"
"Even if we could predict Slade's next move, there's no guarantee we'd be able to catch him. I doubt Slade goes and plants bombs himself. We should focus on preventing his next strike and saving lives," Raven said.
"The best way to do that is to put Slade behind bars," Robin growled. "Maybe the materials he used for the bomb is part of a clue. Or maybe the type of bomb. What kind of bomb uses sulfur anyway? Maybe if we can find out how he's making the bombs we can ambush his supply routes and discover his base."
Robin was mumbling at this point. The Titans glanced at each other with unease. If they weren't careful, Robin would end up slipping into one of his Slade-frenzies. And no one wanted a repeat of the Red-X incident. Or the mask incident. Or the worm incident. Wow they had a lot of incidents.
"Why don't I help you track down the nearest suppliers of sulfur," Cyborg suggested. "Maybe we can find out if they've got any weird shipments or thefts."
"Good idea Cy," Robin said. "Beast Boy, I want you down by the docks. If Slade's getting shipments from somewhere outside Jump City they'll probably come in through the docks. Get down there and see if you can pick anything up. Girls, you're on standby."
Robin strode out of the room, impeding any chance for argument. Cyborg sighed. "Don't worry, I'll try and calm him down."
Beast Boy chuckled nervously. "Good luck bro."
Cyborg just gave him a smile before jogging out to meet Robin. Beast Boy stood and stretched. "Guess that means I should head out too. Have fun ladies, try not to be too bored without me."
Raven just rolled her eyes. "How will we manage?"
Beast Boy grinned as he ran up to the roof. He wasted no time leaping off the edge, flesh melting into that of a falcon. He sped off with a cry, flapping his wings as he headed to the docks.
Beast Boy did not like the docks. It was damp, smelly and windy. When it was cold, frigid gusts of air chilled him to the bone, and when it was hot, the scorching winds burned him up. It was never a comfortable experience.
Today was a hot day. Not surprising, figuring it was June. Still, that didn't mean he had to like it. Beast Boy took the form of a bloodhound, sticking to the shadow of the nearest buildings. Though he was nowhere near the skill at Robin when it went to sneaking around, Beast Boy had his experiences being stealthy from…his time before the Doom Patrol.
Nope this area didn't smell like sulfur. No Siree, nothing interesting to smell right here. He should definitely keep going down these docks and keep on sniffing. Gotta see if he smelt sulfur. Wouldn't want these bombs to keep showing up. That'd suck.
Beast Boy kept sniffing the docks. He turned into a rat to sneak aboard the boats, and into a python to slither into any suspicious warehouses. But no sulfur scent permeated the air. Ha! Permeated. Betcha Raven didn't thinked that he knew that word.
Either way, there was nothing that indicated that any sulfur had come through these docks. Looks like Slade wasn't getting his sulfur imported overseas. Hopefully Cy and Robin had better luck than him.
Beast Boy decided to get himself an ice cream. He was sitting on a bench on pier twelve, looking out into the ocean. It wasn't particularly busy today, so Beast Boy got to enjoy the sound of crashing waves.
"Hey!" Someone called. Beast Boy looked over to see a white haired girl with an eye patch walking towards him. She seemed to be a year or two younger than him, wearing a red sweatshirt and jeans. "You're Beast Boy, right? From the Teen Titans?"
Beast Boy grinned. "What gave me away?"
The girl laughed. "It was the ears. I see a lot of green people, but none have your ears."
"I knew it! Chicks dig the ears." Beast Boy wiggled his ears for her.
"That's so cool!" The girl laughed. "Wow, I never thought I'd get to meet a real live superhero."
"Well today's your lucky day! I'm real, alive and super! I'm basically the whole package," Beast Boy laughed.
"Would it be okay if I got your autograph?" The girl asked.
"Yeah sure, you got a pen? Something to put it on?" The girl handed him a pen and pulled a dollar out of her wallet. "You sure? I don't wanna ruin your money."
"Don't worry about it. If anything, this will make it worth ten times its amount," the girl said.
"What? I'm only worth ten bucks?" Beast Boy pouted. He winked at her. "I'm only joking. Who should I make this out to?"
"Rose," the girl replied.
"Alright, here you are." Beast Boy handed the dollar back to her.
"Wow! Thank you so much!" Rose exclaimed.
"No problem. So you new to Jump?" Beast Boy asked.
"Yeah, I moved here a few weeks ago. It's so different then Killington," Rose admitted.
"I don't mean to be rude, but are you okay?" Beast Boy gestured to her eyepatch. There was gauze beneath it, a tinge of red on it.
She winced, putting a hand to her left eye. "Yeah. My dad's an alcoholic. Got real mad a couple weeks ago, smashed a beer bottle and cut me. Still hasn't totally healed. Luckily, DCF got me some foster parents here in the city."
"That's good to hear. I'm sorry that happened," Beast Boy said.
"I knew it would happen eventually. I tried to avoid staying at home. But it's in the past now, and I don't have to see the bastard ever again," Rose said in a low voice.
"Thank goodness for that. I hope your time in Jump City is better," Beast Boy said.
"Well as long as you're here it'll be an upgrade." Rose smiled at him. "Are there really supervillains here?"
"Wouldn't be much use for superheroes if there weren't," Beast Boy laughed.
"Who's the worst? They don't attack high schools, right?" Rose asked.
"Nope, they've got some kind of obsession with banks though. As for the worst, I don't know, we've got a couple options. There's Mumbo, a magician that's really annoying to fight and can be unpredictable. He always takes hostages, especially pretty ones, so watch out for him," Beast Boy winked. Rose blushed and he continued. "Brother Blood's got a school of junior villains like the HIVE Five and can brainwash people. We just finished a war with the Brotherhood of Evil. There's Red X, Slade, Phobia, Psimon and Cinderblock who are all pretty tough. We once had an interdimensional demon try and take him over the world, but we took care of him."
"Who's Slade? I've never heard of him," Rose said.
Ah. Of course. That made sense. Beast Boy growled. "He's this creepy psycho who has this obsession with taking us down. He's actually probably our most dangerous baddie but we haven't seen him for a while. He's like an evil Batman. He's a master manipulator and has this army of robots and is really good at karate. Don't worry though, he doesn't attack high schools."
"Thank goodness for that. At least he has standards, right?" Rose laughed. It seemed a little forced though.
"Where are you going to school? Murakami high?" Beast Boy asked.
"Yeah. It's a lot bigger than my old school," Rose said.
"Cool. There's a pizza joint a few blocks from it that me and the Titans visit a lot. Honestly I'm kinda surprised you haven't seen us there," Beast Boy said.
"I haven't made a lot of friends yet. I keep getting the feeling they're staring at my eye patch," Rose said, scrunching her shoulders and delicately scraping the fabric on her eye.
"Well those guys are jerks. I know a girl that goes there I think you'd get along with," Beast Boy said. "I can introduce you if you'd like."
"I…I'd appreciate that," Rose said. "Probably not today, I need to get back home soon. But yeah, maybe later this week."
"Great! Meet me at the main gate of Pilate Park next Tuesday then?" Beast Boy said.
"Sure, how bout around 2:00? Thanks Beast Boy. You're a lot nicer than I thought you'd be," Rose said.
Beast Boy smiled. "Thank you. You don't know how much it means to hear you say that."
"Okay. Well, I need to be going now. See you next week!" Rose walked down the pier. Beast Boy smiled. What a fun little liar.
