I know that I need to work on Marching Orders, however, this concept has been nagging at me as I consider how that story is going to progress. So, I put it down and share it with you. Rest assured I will continue Marching Orders. The project is turning out much bigger than I anticipated, and this idea is just one thing I needed to iron out.

As always, I own nothing but the plot.

Beast Boy stood in the warehouse, surrounded by the Hive Five and completely alone.

An alert had gone out in the Titans. The shit had hit the fan in Jump. Robin was taking on Slade in a quarry on the outskirts of town, Starfire was taking on Cinderblock somewhere in the Business District, Cyborg was battling it out with Overload at Jump City Mall, and Raven was chasing down Johnny Rancid and Dr. Light who were terrorizing town in a motorcycle that, according to her last report, was most likely built by Dr. Chang. That left Beast Boy to go to the pier and see what the Hive Five were up to.

See, follow, and then wait for backup. He wasn't to engage, after all, 5-1 are not good odds. But they found him, or, to be correct, they were waiting for him. After the initial attack, which he had managed to survive with some pretty good dodging—if he did say so himself—he attempted to get out of the warehouse. However, all the exits were blocked. The warehouse was more secure than a jail. The first open window he had tried to fly out of had been electrified. So, zapped, he fell back to the floor, morphed back into a human, and stood up groaning and surrounded by Mammoth, Seemore, Gizmo, Private Hive, and numerous clones of Billy Numerous.

"Gotcha now, cludgehead," sneered Gizmo as Mammoth stood behind him, cracking his knuckles ominously.

Beast Boy could feel his body groan as he retreated, his back hitting a wall.

"Time to make him a green stain on the ground," cackled Billy Numerous, as one of the clones pounded his fist into his hand, the meaty smack punctuating his threat. As Beast Boy looked around, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. These weren't the normal Hive Five, the group of wannabe villains who were a bit of a joke. Something inside him told him that this fight was different from just a normal heist, this was going to be a fight for his life.

A short, high-pitched whine sounded from Gizmo, and Beast Boy just barely managed to dodge a burst of energy that left a very solid, very lethal looking impact on the wall where he just was. After another short chase, the five villains managed to corner him against a wall by the door to the warehouse, and were moving in slowly, closing all avenues of escape.

Beast Boy felt his hackles rise, as he bared his teeth at them and growled, his ears flat against his head. He could feel the blood pounding in his head, and he could feel every animal in his body scream at him.

He wasn't human, nor was he animal. He fluctuated between the two, usually coming to rest on a side that was mostly human, with some animal characteristics. In battle, there were times he would become more animalistic, surrendering some of his human qualities. While in this state, he fought instinctively, and he fought very well. It was the one thing neither Mento nor Robin could understand. A human trains until they cannot screw up, actions become instinctive. But for Beast Boy, he already fought instinctively. The training actually confused him, making him think about what he was doing instead of going with the flow. He adapted—that's what you do as part of a team—but it limited his potential in a way that no one understood.

Slade, actually, was probably the only one who understood Beast Boy's true potential when he fought as an animal. The vicious fight on the carnival grounds that night more than proved to the supervillain that a mad Beast Boy, a Beast Boy fighting alone, was a force to be reckoned with.

Instinct, the infamous fight or flight, always raged through the green hero. Ever since he first got his abilities, the animals in him screamed at him to fight or run from his problems. His human side offered reason and shades of gray between the two. When you don't kill, you aren't fighting completely, and when you regrouped, that is not flight. The animal kingdom inside Beast Boy knew of no such nuances, just fight or flight.

The mongoose either eats the snake, or avoids it completely. When Beast Boy killed and ate the snake on that humid day in Africa as his mother looked on, he made a decision. It was natural for him, born human, the apex predator of nature, should decided that he would give more weight to the predatorial instincts dormant in him. He would fight, when it was feasible, only flying when not doing so would result in death.

But, he rarely gave into these instincts. To do so would mean, in the short-run, giving up on his humanity, his rationality, his morals and ethics. He would kill in this state, or he would completely abandon his team and mission. Nature brooked no compromise, and instinct was not an instrument to be used to decide between nuances. Instinct was a sledgehammer, and was never subtle.

So it was that Beast Boy made a decision in that warehouse. Looking up at the advancing foes, evil sneers on their faces he held up a hand. "Wait a second," the group paused and looked at each other. Was this a trick? "I'm going to warn you, I don't know what is going to happen, but if insist attacking me, I know it will be unpleasant. I won't even turn you in. I need to help the others. Just let me go and walk out of this place and we'll forget that this ever happened."

The Hive Five looked at each other incredulously. Really? They had him in a corner, outnumbered, and he was asking them to stop? Gizmo and Billy Numerous starting laughing, while Private Hive looked mad. Mammoth looked confused.

"Have you lost your mind?" laughed Gizmo, "you gotta get a new brain. We have you surrounded, outnumbered, and can destroy you at will, and you want us to stop?" He continued laughing.

Beast Boy's eyes hardened at this point. He could feel the roar of the animals, his instinct rising up in him. "Have it your way," he growled at them, and for the first time in a long while, he gave in to his instinct. He felt his humanity leave him as the change, vicious and painful, but intoxicating and freeing at the same time overcome his body. His bones changing and reforming, his body growing and hair sprouting as he became the fearsome Beast, the greatest apex predator. The Hive Five backed up a few steps as the soulless eyes stared at them. With a growl, the great beast smashed the light switch, plunging the warehouse into darkness, then sprung forward, shoulder tackling Mammoth and making its way into the maze of boxes.

With a muffled curse, Gizmo flipped one a light and Seemore adjusted his vision so that he could see.

"Form up, you useless bunch of rag-muffins," shouted Gizmo, turning his light onto the groaning Mammoth. "Holy shit, what did he do to you!" he exclaimed, as the light showed great claw marks making their way up Mammoth's torso and face, blood liberally falling from the wounds. Off to the side, Billy Numerous gave a short gasp.

"Seemore, stay with him, the rest of you, come with me, we're finding this green nuisance and putting him down," barked out Gizmo. With that, the three members walked into the darkness of the warehouse.

The Beast was no hero. The High Five were a threat to him, his pack, and his territory. They were to be eliminated or taught their place. The Beast sought submission, not justice, and death was just as valid a form of submission as surrender. With his heightened senses, and his ruthlessness, untempered by human emotion and reason, he was superior even to those who sought to kill him in that darkened warehouse, who relied on stratagems that, themselves, relied on deceiving a human. Within the confines of instinct, freedom was the norm.

The Beast silently, ruthlessly stalked the four souls within that warehouse. Seemore was laid low, quickly and efficiently. The three stumbling through the warehouse were silently picked off. Each one who disappeared adding to the paranoia of the others.

After Gizmo was literally plucked from the air by the jaws of the Beast and swiftly carried away, his screams suddenly ending at some point in the dark, Private Hive fell and huddled against a wall. Eventually, he heard a low growl, barely two feet from his face and he could make out the fearsome outlines of the face of the Beast. Something dripping from its maw, the Beast leaned in and sniffed at the panicking bad guy. In desperation, in instinct, Private Hive lashed out, catching the Beast squarely on the nose. It fell back in surprise, and then, giving a blood chilling howl, leaped forward, giving Private Hive no time to even scream.

A little later, the door to the warehouse flew off its hinges, and a giant creature walked out. Traces of red circling its mouth and claws. The officers who had responded to the emergency call of a dockworker who heard the screams fell back in surprise at the sudden appearance of the creature, who sniffed the air and then took off, racing towards the city, intent on finding the rest of its pack and ending the threat to it and it fellows.

Perhaps a rather abrupt ending, but I like it. As always, please read and review. Nothing is more encouraging then feedback, and nothing helps a writer more than criticism. I accept both.

Thanks for reading,

Mors101