Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Only Half ❯ The Culprit ( Chapter 2 )

Only Half

 

By HeavenSentTenshi

 

Chapter 2: The Culprit

 

As the small group of five reached the skate park, they were greeted by a large group of police officers. It didn't take them long to negotiate their way in and were eventually led to the scene of the disappearances. Cyborg ducked under the yellow police tape and activated a small electronic device in his arm; this device sent out electronic pulses which were meant to search out any disturbances in the air. Confused by the lack of evidence the device found, Cyborg looked over at the rest of the group who had passed the tape and were each looking in their own manner; Beast Boy had transformed into a blood hound and was sniffing at the ground while the rest searched with their eyes for anything helpful.

 

“I'm not picking anything up,” Cyborg informed, “Anybody see anything?”

 

“Yeah,” Beast Boy muttered. He had transformed into his normal state and was squatting over a patch of cement just outside the tape. He pointed to the ground where a few small drops of blood rested. “Check this out.”

 

Robin walked over to where Beast Boy was sitting. He pulled out a small vile and collected a minimal sample of the blood droplets. “Here, Cyborg,” he called, tossing the now corked vile to him, “See if you can run a test on this when we back to the Tower.” Cyborg nodded as he placed the vile in a small compartment in his left arm. When Robin stood back up, he noticed that Beast Boy was gone. “Guys, where'd-” Raven pointed behind him to a thinning crowd of police officers. There was a green streak and before anyone could say anything else, Beast Boy stood up, again in his normal state.

 

“Hey! There's some more blood over here!” He waved them over as the group either ran or floated to where he stood. Indeed there were a couple more drops on the ground. Scanning the area, it was apparent that there was a very thin and nearly invisible trail of blood leading back through the city, off toward the docks.

 

“This is quite odd,” Starfire began, “Is it possible that this blood belongs to the culprit?”

 

“It probably does…” Cyborg muttered as he collected as much more blood as he could; the better to test with.

 

“I doubt running a blood test will help us,” Raven informed as she took the vile from Cyborg and studied it closely. “It doesn't seem human… it looks…”

 

“…cloudy,” Beast Boy piped up. Indeed, there seemed to be an odd murkiness to the blood sample, though it didn't seem to have been contaminated from sitting out in the open for so long.

 

“Not just that,” Raven continued. “It almost looks… pearlescent.” Again correct, the blood seemed to shimmer in the early sunlight. “I believe running a test on this will only show us that it isn't human.”

 

Cyborg snatched the vile back and again placed it in his arm compartment. “Well, then, maybe it'll give us a hint as to what it belongs to.”

 

“Ok, so now what?” Beast Boy asked, scratching his head.

 

“We follow the trail,” Robin instructed, “Cyborg, you go back to the Tower and see if you can get a reading on what it is; the rest of us will see if we can find it.”

 

“There's one problem with that,” Beast Boy pointed out. He'd again run off in some odd direction and was waving them over once more. He motioned to the ground where a few more murky, pearlescent drops of blood resided. “there's two trails.”

 

Robin barely hesitated this time. “Alright; Raven, Beast Boy, you two will follow that trail,” he pointed to new track, “and Starfire and I will follow the original one. Everyone understand?” The other four nodded their heads as they all went off in their separate directions.

 

It didn't take long before the two groups of two learned that their trail stopped at the riverside. Robin's initial thought was that it must have swam across, thinking perhaps that thing that he'd saw that morning might have actually had something to do with it. He instructed Starfire to fly over to the other side to look for any signs of the odd blood. At approximately the same time, Beast Boy and Raven both flew to the other side of the river and began a short-lived search. Both groups came up positive in their searches and again followed the nearly invisible trail once more.

 

Beast Boy had reverted to a blood hound as soon as he had touched the other bank and Raven was merely following behind. They walked for several minutes in silence before Beast Boy caught a whiff of something most foul. His nose seared as he reared back and wheeled around, shifting back to his normal state as he landed on his stomach on the ground and held his nose with a disgusted look on his face.

 

Raven looked down at him in annoyance. “Don't tell me you smell another skunk.”

 

“No, this definitely isn't a skunk! Either that or it's road kill…” Beast Boy whimpered.

 

“Well, then, what is it?”

 

“I dunno, but I think I smell blood.”

 

“Beast Boy, we're following a trail of blood!”

 

“No, no, no; it's, like, a massive amount! Way more that what we're following.”

 

“I don't smell anything…”

 

“Well, then sniff harder!” Raven grumbled something incoherent as she stepped over him and advanced down the trail. Beast Boy leapt to his feet and followed after her, thinking it best not to have a heightened sense of smell. It didn't take long before Raven stopped in her tracks, covering her nose because of the rancid stench. Beast Boy looked up. “Told'ya.”

 

Raven's eyes shifted around, attempted to see what she could smell, though failing. “What do you think it is?”

 

“Other than a massive amount of blood and rotting flesh? I dunno, you tell me.”

 

“Well, it definitely smells of death…”

 

“You don't think it's those teens, do ya?”

 

“I hope for their sakes it isn't.” With this said, Raven then continued on, her nose plugged. After a moment of walking, she stopped again. She could hear something, though she wasn't completely sure of what it was; she guessed that it was of something… eating. She looked back at Beast Boy. “Do you hear that?” He stopped and transformed into a rabbit. His ears perked up and soon he caught the noise. He nodded a little bunny nod to Raven then transformed into a green blue jay and flew off to see if he could catch sight of what was making the noise with Raven just moments behind.

 

Directly ahead of the pair were Robin and Starfire. They had been following their trail as well; unbeknownst to them, they were heading directly toward their friends. As they grew closer to them, they also began to smell the disgusting pong; they, too, identified it as blood and rotting flesh. Just as the other group had, they plugged their noses and continued on before hearing the very same noise that Raven had. The pair continued until they came to a thin veil of trees and peered through it. The first thing they saw was identical to what Raven and Beast Boy just noticed as they were watching in a tree not thirty feet from them.

 

It was a small clearing, enclosed on all sides and covered by a canopy of tree limbs, needles, and leaves. Sunlight streaked down through small holes in the ceiling, touching small patches of grass and the carpet of moss. Tiny flowers poked up through the grass blades, covered in red. A blanket of crimson engrossed everything around the gory scene. Three bodies lay lifeless upon the moss as a dark figure sat hunched over one. One body had short black hair, short enough to spike; the second had bloody blonde hair, long enough to have once made a pony tail at the base of his neck; the third also had black hair, and there were clues to show that it may have at one point been slicked back, though now it was mostly messy and streaked with blood. Their clothes lay in shreds; black, blue, and red fabric hung off of their chests, one of them was torn open. The dark figure was hunched over the blonde, his blue shirt in tatters, his neck ravaged and torn to shreds, his face and body mangled, his blood covering the figure and his friends. It was an absolute horror to see; especially while the figure was tearing out chunks of flesh and muscle, hungrily devouring it.

 

Raven and Beast Boy looked sick to their stomachs, and Starfire didn't lay eyes upon the scene for more than a moment before hiding her face in Robin's chest, while he himself looked on in a mixture of anger and disgust; anger that that thing would do something like this and that he hadn't been able to stop it.

 

Suddenly, Robin's communicator went off. The creature's head suddenly snapped up, its face now visible, though only just barely through the blood; it looked human, except for the fangs and ears. The ears were not where they normally are for a human, instead they were perched upon the top of its head; two small, black fox ears, partially covered by a long throng of black hair. It wiped its mouth and surveyed the clearing. Robin opened the communicator to see Cyborg's face on the screen.

 

“Robin, I just found something.”

 

“Yeah, so did we.” He pointed the communicator at the clearing and was sure he heard Cyborg reel in disgust. The creature, hearing the conversation, stood up on its hind legs. The first things they all saw was the fuzzy, black fox tail and the clear signs that proved that it was a “she”. She sported an odd, “X” shaped shirt; clearly it was just two strips of black fabric pulled over her chest and tied in the back; as well as a skirt that was as simple as the shirt; a piece of black fabric wrapped around her waist and tied at her left hip. Growling, the odd humanoid figure took one step back, but only just before Beast Boy dove from the tree, transformed into an ape, and held her in a tight grip. The creature screeched and thrashed, attempting to release itself from his grip. Raven leapt from the tree as well and created a black bubble with which to hold the screaming beast. Robin stepped into the clearing with Starfire just behind him, her eyes shut tight and her arm around Robin's, as not to get lost.

 

Cyborg was the first one to say anything, though he wasn't exactly there. “What is it?”

 

“Dangerous,” Raven growled, setting the ball upon the ground.

 

“I've never seen anything like it,” Beast Boy added; he being the animal expert, this caused a bit of confusion.

 

After a pause, Robin looked up. “I have.” Now thoroughly confused, the group looked over to him. “I saw that thing jump out of the river near the Tower; it woke me up this morning.”

 

Starfire opened one eye gingerly to see what it was. “Is this what you were talking about, Robin?”

 

“Yeah. I don't know what it is, though.”

 

“I think it's a she,” Beast Boy informed, poking the bubble. The creature screeched and growled just before attempting to attack him, only to be sent backward to the other side by a force Raven created.

 

“What are we to do with the boys?” Starfire asked, still refusing to lay eyes upon them again.

 

“We'll contact the police, they'll clean it up,” Robin instructed. Just then, the creature howled in fury and pressed herself against the wall.

 

“No! Food!” she screamed, sending shivers down their spines. Surprised that she could talk, they watched her growl and snarl for a moment.

 

“That's absolutely disgusting.” Beast Boy shuttered, nearly sick to his stomach again.

 

“We should take her to the police as well,” Robin began, “they'll find some place high-security enough to keep her.”

 

“Uh, hang on, Robin,” Cyborg piped up. “Maybe jail isn't a good place to put her; she seems pretty… wild.”

 

“I believe the pound would suffice,” Raven muttered.

 

“No,” Cyborg protested, “Bring her back to the Tower; that blood we found had some weird DNA in it; I wanna run some tests.”

 

“Weird DNA?” Robin asked, holding the communicator up to his face.

 

“Yeah; I'll explain when you guys get back.” The communicator then went blank.

 

“Alright guys; let's get back to the Tower. I'll call the police.” Robin did so as the four of them left the terrible scene. Just as the clearing was emptied, another dark, hunched-over figure emerged from the foliage, a snarling laugh emanating from its throat as it bent over the blonde and began to eat.