TT: ASBEA- Existence Pt 4

"How'd ya get your hands on this game?!" asked a surprise Cyborg. He clutched Mega Monkeys 6 in his hands as if it were the legendary holy grail.

"I ran straight to the video game shop the moment it opened. Dude, you have no idea how long it took until I actually bought it from that super long line!" Beast Boy exasperated.

"You know you could have pre-ordered it, B. Saves a lot of time and guaranteed that you'll have one while everyone else has to fight for the last ones in stock," Cyborg noted.

Beast Boy's proud smile instantly deflated into an embarrassed look. His eyes looked at a random object in the room while his lips formed a small, puckered look.  "I knew that…"

"Uh-huh…" Cyborg smirked.

"Hey, well we could have played the game yesterday if someone wasn't hogging the TV!"

"Well ya didn't tell me it was Mega Monkey 6!"

"Yes I did!" Beast Boy said.

"No you didn't, B. Anyways, start the game," Cyborg said nonchalantly.

Beast Boy didn't continue the argument and eagerly popped the disk into the DVD hard drive. He hopped back to his seat beside his best friend as the screen flashed with the Mega Monkey 6 logo. The two boys had big grins on their faces while they glanced at one another.

The story line of the game reeled into to reveal an explosion of purple lasers shot from outer space. Several barrages of purple bolts could be heard outside the tower.

"Woah, great surround sounds. It almost sounds realistic!" Cyborg said.

"Dude, they didn't mention any surround sound on the reviews…" Beast Boy noted.

"Who cares, man? Let's get on with the story," Cyborg said excitedly.

Beast Boy pressed the A button and the mini animation clip continued to a new scene. There was a female monkey who had been separated from her friends due to an earthquake. At that moment, the room shook then became still.

"Wicked…" Beast Boy's eyes glowed.

"Best game I've ever played so far… and we didn't even start!" Cyborg exclaimed.

Robin and Raven burst through the opposite wings of the tower, alarmed.

"What was that?" Robin asked.

"Was that an earthquake?" Raven asked at the same time as Robin.

"Woah you can feel the game too?" Beast Boy asked.

"Game?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, man. BB got the new Mega Monkeys 6 game. It's pretty realistic!" Cyborg added.

Robin arched an eyebrow at the two gamers followed by the game.

"I don't think so," Raven said. From the corner of her eye she saw something fly off at a fast speed into space. Raven turned around to look out the window and searched for the flying object, only to find nothing.

"What's wrong, Raven?" Robin asked.

The two gamers stopped playing to look at Raven, a sense of worry and curiosity in their eyes.

"I thought I saw something," Raven replied.

"Are you sure?" Robin asked.

"To be honest, I'm not. But I'm picking up bad feelings about this."

"Let's go check," their leader said, "Beast Boy can you go get Starfire? She's not answering from her communicator."

"Gotcha." The green teenager scampered off the sofa and headed out the ops room in the form of a cheetah.

"Raven, let's see if you can track what you saw."

Raven nodded as she made her way to the couch, crossed her legs, and began her meditation.

"Cyborg, let's check for any sign of disturbance from the city." Both boys hopped onto a computer and began their search, unaware of the danger that had fallen to one of their teammates.

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Beast Boy soared through the sky as a hawk, searching for the alien princess. The boy was surprised to see Jump City Park empty for the day. It was usually always crowded, especially on a Saturday.

Where is everybody? the boy thought as he landed on the green, grassy plains. He phased back into a human and eyed the park. The park was pretty big, possibly thirty acres, and the whole landscape was visible, except for a line of clumped trees that separated the ocean view from the city. He stood on the side that was nearest towards the tower.

Beast Boy made his way through several rows of trees before spotting a familiar area. He found a blue blanket sprawled underneath a healthy tree, shading a familiar wooden basket. He ran up to the picnic site and opened the basket. He cringed at the sight of hot dogs, but immediately pushed the thought aside when he recognized a bottle of mustard. Sure it looked like any ordinary mustard bottle, but this one came with a taped straw on the side. Only Starfire would use mustard as a beverage, and that was enough evidence to prove that Starfire had set up this site.

Beast Boy's eyes bulged when he spotted the field behind the tree. It was as if someone had triggered hundreds of land mines and left behind smoking craters. Beast Boy phased into a dog and began sniffing the ground for Starfire's scent. The trail sent him to another crater, but it was shaped as a person's outline.

Looks like Star had some trouble, he thought. Starfire wasn't the type to struggle much from a fight. Sure she was attacked and time to time she was hit, but the crater of her body was ridiculous! Not only was there her body, but a small hole, that was probably three feet deep imprinted on it! It was as if Mammoth had shown up to fight her off! But Beast Boy couldn't find Mammoth's scent anywhere. What worried him more was Starfire's location.

"Starfire? Starfire you there?" Beast Boy hollered.

There was no reply from the alien princess.

"C'mon Star! Answer me!" Beast Boy called out, panic began to overwhelm him.

Beast Boy scanned the area, searching for any signs of movement. His ears strained, listening desperately for any signs of her voice.

Then a distant smoke came from the furthest line of trees caught his attention. Beast Boy wasted no time as he sped off to that direction. His heart stopped as he came across a familiar pool of red hair peeking out of a pile of leaves.

"Starfire!" Beast Boy cried out.

Starfire's body was lying vertically on top of a crushed tree. Her left arm was on her stomach, while her right arm was hanging limply off of a tree's branch. Her eyes were closed, while her mouth was slightly open as if she was smiling from a good dream.

Beast Boy fell to his knees beside her body. He gingerly pulled her off the tree by wrapping his right arm on her back while his left crossed over to the right side of her body and placed it on her back. Carefully, he pulled her upper half on his leg.

"No… this can't be happening," Beast Boy said as his eyes watered.

Two memories flashed before his eyes as he gazed at her face.

One was the time he had dug in the mounds of rocks, digging for Starfire's body during the fight with Thunder and Lightning. He was apologizing to her about the dirty, motor oil prank he pulled on her.

Another was his parents. He watched helplessly as they plummeted to their death from the waterfall. Their body's resurfaced, but their pulses were long gone.

Beast Boy's face paled and became expressionless as more hot tears raced down his face. You can't be dead! he thought. You just can't!

Beast Boy quickly rubbed his tears away on his right forearm and carefully laid Starfire on the ground. He transformed into a pterodactyl and held her by her shoulders. He lifted both of them off the ground and headed straight to the tower.

You're gonna be okay, Star.

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Beast Boy carefully laid Starfire on the roof of the tower before changing back into his human form. Then he carried her frail body in his arms. He took two steps at a time and made his way to the medical bay. He gingerly set her on the bed as he thought of ways to call Raven without leaving Starfire. Suddenly he remembered his communicator.

His hands fumbled in one of the compartments of his belt and pulled out the device.

"R-Raven!" he called out, half losing control of his voice.

"What--" Before Raven could ask, she was cut off by the sight of a stricken-face Beast Boy.

"Starfire… medical bay now!"

Without a second thought, Raven's body was enveloped by her dark powers and transformed into a black raven. She flew out of the ops room and towards the medical bay within three seconds.

Raven's eyes widened as she took in Starfire's injured form. She was bruised from head to toe. She was burned from her upper neck to her chin. Her mouth was covered in blood.

She took action almost immediately. Raven's hands glowed black as several wires hooked up to her body, followed by blue. She raised her hands over the girl's wounds, immediately healing them.

Beast Boy sat on the bed parallel to the two girls mumbling, "You can't be dead" over and over again. He grasped his head, cursing himself, blaming himself for not being with her. He just had to choose that stupid video game over one of his friends.

Beast Boy was unaware that Raven had finished until she clasped a hand on his shoulder.

Raven met Beast Boy's tearful eyes and squeezed his shoulder. "She'll be okay, Beast Boy. You saved her on time. So stop blaming yourself."

Without thinking of his consequences, Beast Boy pulled Raven into a tight hug. Raven's body instantly went rigid. She was annoyed, but she brushed it off for this moment. She hugged Beast Boy back. She could sense his emotions were out of control, overwhelmed with grief, depression, desperation, sadness, and relief all at the same time. She only hoped that this small gesture could help him calm down.

Although she didn't know much of Beast Boy, something told her that he had been through this before and he couldn't handle it.

"She'll be fine," Raven murmured as she brushed his hair with one hand, the other patted his back softly.

The only sound in the room was the monitor of Starfire's steady beating heart.