Hi all. This is the first chapter of the first collaborative fic by me and Randomgirl14. Basically we'll be writing a chapter each, I'm doing the odd ones and she's doing the even ones (though we may randomly switch that around during the fic). In theory this means that you'll get two chapters at a time and you'll get more quicker.

Basically this little bit at the start is where our authors notes, acknowledgments, responses to things in the reviews and tell you who wrote the chapter you're reading etc.

I'd like to acknowledge Randomgirl14's HUGE contribution. Without her involvement, this fic wouldn't be anywhere near as good.

And you'll probably have figured this out in a few lines though this fic was in the works before Things Change aired so this kind of clashes.

Anyway that's all from me, I hope you enjoy the fic

Regards
The Gidgeman

Hey it's moi, Randomgirl14. Well Gidgeman pretty much summed it all up. So on to the fic!

-Randomgirl-

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Terra was a hero. At least that's the way history remembered her. The fallen Teen Titan who fought off the mind control device and gave her life to save the city. The city did what they could to repay its fallen hero. Terra's cave was declared a heritage site; a permanent honor guard was posted at the entrance and the city offered one billion dollars to anyone who could cure their hero in addition to giving away countless research grants to any project that showed any promise. Despite the best efforts from some of the best scientific minds, Terra still remained a statue. The lack of progress didn't dishearten the world's scientific community who's continuing efforts, which yielded many accidental discoveries in the way of medical and geological research. To this day, many still think of her as the greatest of all the Titans

Tonight the two honor guard members on duty lay unconscious inside the cave, each with multiple contusions and broken bones. Their condition was handiwork of an abnormally large man clearing the way for his short balled comrade laden with equipment. Both assailants were in their 30's. The large man had long brown hair and a matching goatee beard; he wore a black jump suit with no arms and a large yellow M on his chest. His short bald comrade stood not much taller than the stone girl they approached. He wore a British racing green jumpsuit, a pare of electronic goggles on his forehead, a laser pistol strapped to his thigh and a large backpack stuffed with electronic equipment.
"Can't those other losers be on time for once in their lives?"

The large man just stood there looking like an idiot, as if still trying to comprehend the words of his short collogue. The short man began to set up eight thin poles around Terra. Each pole was black and had a silver ball on the top. After all the poles were set up around her, the bald man set down his backpack and ran power cables from it to each of the poles. He removed a highly modified electronic organizer from a side pouch slid down his goggles for protection and stepped back, motioning for his partner to do the same. After a moment's hesitation, the short bald man pressed a button.

Bright yellow energy bolts arced from the silver balls at the end of the rods to Terra's solidified form. The blinding light forced both assailants to shield their eyes. Thirty seconds later the poles shut off. Terra opened her eyes but her vision was far too blurred to make anything out. She tried to take a step but had neither the strength nor balance to do so. As she hit the ground, everything came back. The Titans, Slade, the last battle everything.

"Beast Boy" she softly moaned before she felt the short man's boot role her over onto her back. Terra's vision slowly began to recover. She could just make out the short man holding his organizer over her

"Her vitals are all normal. We don't need the ambulance."

Terra tried to sit up only to be roughly pushed back down while the short bald man examined her further.

"The mind control hardware looks like it's un-damaged. I can't wait to get it back to the lab"

Terra wasn't sure what was happening but she knew it wasn't good. The tremendous effort it took to stand served as a cause of amusement for the two assailants. Terra's eyes glowed yellow as she called on her powers but all she could manage was a barley noticeable tremor before falling to one knee and supporting herself with one arm.

The short bald man, still holding his organizer in one hand reached down with the other to grab Terra's wrist and pull the girl to her feet. Terra fought his grip with what little strength she had left, though this proved a fruitless exercise as he effortlessly pulled her along. In a last ditch effort, Terra kicked with all her might and her steel toed combat boots found the short man's shin causing a scream of pain and dull thud as he dropped his organizer. His large comrade moved to punch Terra.

"Mammoth, no!" intervened the bald guy

Did he just call him Mammoth? thought Terra. It must be a different one. This guy's way too old.

"We need her and the suit in one piece." Continued the bald man "Once we've finished with her then you can do anything you want to her."
Terra didn't like the smile on Mammoth's face or the bald man's maniacal chuckle. But this didn't scratch the sides compared to what the bald man was about to say.

"I for one can't wait to see the look on that green freak's face when we hand him the girl's head"

Terra began to shake with fear as the bald man bent over to retrieve his organizer. However when he found the organizer, it was bald man's turn to shake with fear. It had been bitten in half by something with very large teeth. He then looked to his backpack to find that it had been completely ripped to shreds along with the equipment in it.

"My tech!"

"Sorry about that. Us green freaks are known for our un-healthy appetites."

Terra held her breath. Not out of fear but anticipation, for she was sure the familiar voice belonged to the one person she'd been longing to see. Her vision was still a little blurred but she could see well enough to make out the figure standing off to their left flank.

Green skin, pointed ears and the familiar lop-sided smirk revealing a single fang. That was all Terra needed to deduce that the teen standing a few feet away was Beast Boy. She didn't spend a thought on the distinctly different uniform. This was probably owing to the fact that the matt black shirt and pants with purple course stitching at the seams looked so much like something that Beast Boy would wear. The same could be said of the cuffed white gloves, gun-metal grey belt with a purple gem for the buckle, purple and grey runners and the inch of white sock visible above each shoe. But not even the fact that he was slightly taller, more muscular and had fractionally longer hair brought any doubt to her mind.

The bald man pulled a yellow hexagonal communicator from his belt.

"Guys. Get in here NOW!"

A smug chuckle revealed a gleaming set of fangs as the green teen removed three matching communicators from his belt.

"I have to hand it to you, Gismo. This new model is fantastic. It's so much smaller and lighter. And this screen, such high resolution. Is that running at 1600 by 1200?"

That can't be Gismo Thought Terra Are these guys copycats or something?

"Yeah it's... HAY!."

"Your palls are asleep in the back of that ambulance they stole. It's parked outside. You has-beens really had this one thought out pretty well, pity you can't draw a crowd anymore. I've got to be honest with you; I'm just here for the lovely lady who you were kind enough to cure for me. I'd love to stay and chat but Terra and I are on a tight schedule so you just let us leave and I won't have to hurt you. You might even have time to make a getaway with your friends before the cops get here."

"Or how about we just kick your but?"

"Dude, all five of you couldn't kidnap me and you don't count without all your toys."

The bald man, apparently named Gismo, looked at Mammoth.

"What are you waiting for? Crush him!"

The green teen didn't waste any time morphing into an oversized gorilla and locking arms with his equally large opponent. Rather than hiding or finding cover, Terra took this opportunity to see her hero in action.

A few seconds passed as the two ridiculously large combatants remained spent a few seconds trying to force each other off the spot. The green ape stepped back with his left leg while pivoting on his right used Mammoth's own weight and strength against him to slam the over sized muscle man into the cave's solid rock wall. The sheer force of the impact was enough to shake the entire cave and stun Mammoth for a few seconds. Those few seconds were all the green ape needed to force Mammoths head down, grip him by the waste, lift him and slam the villain head first into the solid rock floor cave floor plunging him into unconsciousness.

Terra's heart raced. A perfectly executed tombstone! Only someone who watches as much TV as Beast Boy could learn a move like that!

The green teen resumed his 'human' form, smirk and all, before turning to Gismo. The short bald man shook violently. His green skinned adversary capitalized on the fear, changing his comic smirk for an evil grin that revealed a full set of sharp, gleaming fangs.

"Keep shaking like that and you'll loose some fillings, maybe even a couple teeth."
Without his weapons, Gismo proved far less brave than usual all he had left was the single laser pistol strapped to his thy. He drew the weapon far too hastily, causing it to discharge mid draw burning a hole in the cave floor.

"Get back!"

"At this rate you're going to look real stupid with that gun sticking out of your ass. It doesn't exactly take a mind reader to see you're preying I don't know that last shot was an AD."

"AD?" asked Terra

"Accidental Discharge." politely responded the green teen. His face lost all traces of malice when he looked at Terra to reply. The green teen just made his first mistake.
Fear may have impaired Gismo's motor functions but his brain and powers of observation were as sharp as ever. The green teen's gesture towards Terra emphasized that she was the primary concern. Gismo sought to take advantage of this. A quick side step to his left put Terra in arms reach. From there it was no effort to grab her by the collar and press the pistol's barrel against the back of her head. The resulting whimper and look of sheer terror in the girl's eyes further contributed to Gismo's desired effect.

"Move and she dies!"

Terra has felt completely safe up until then. It was the green teen's face that scared her. She'd seen that look before. It was a look known to all who serve as heroes. The mixture of anger, frustration and helplessness that came with the difficult situations heroes often faced.

"This is Jump City, not Munich."

The calm and quiet low whisper laced with anger would have made the green teen fit right in holding a .44 magnum in a criminal's face. It more than adequately convinced both Terra and Gismo that this guy would do whatever it took. This re-assured Terra but chiseled away at what was left of Gismo's nerves.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Know what it feels like to be eaten alive? If she gets so much as a bruise you'll find out."

"Y.. you're bluffing!"

Gismo had begun to visibly perspire

"Possibly, but wouldn't it be smarter to let her go and live rather than run the risk? It's been a while since I've eaten anything so I could do with a mid-night snack but depending on how reasonable you're willing to be, I might have more important things to deal with."

"You wouldn't!"

I didn't even sound like Gismo believed himself. All he could do was wimpier as the green teen slowly morphed into a liger. While Terra couldn't help but admire the twelve foot (about four meters) beast's majestic stance, elegant markings and handsome mane, Gismo was preoccupied with the beast's jaws, which were big enough to fit an average human head.

The giant spotted and striped green cat lazily yawned revealing its oversized teeth. The beast seemed to grin at Gismo's reaction before licking his lips and slowly but confidently beginning to walk towards Gismo. Fear paralyzed the short bald man as this monster advanced towards him and sat down six feet away. The massive green cat had to look down to meet Gismo's gaze. He gave Gismo twenty seconds in which to cower before releasing a deep and throaty roar at a deafening volume.
Gismo feinted. The weight of his limp body was too much for Terra to support. But the green liger noticed this. In one fluid movement he resumed human form, darted forward and caught Terra in his arms. As Gismo's limp body hit the floor, the green teen instinctively kicked the gun away from his hands.

"Are you alright?"

The blond girl responded by throwing her arms around him and passionately kissing him on the lips. After a brief moment of shock, the wide eyed green teen returned the kiss. They parted after a few seconds and gazed into each other's eyes.

"So... is that a yes?"

Terra couldn't help but giggle.

"Same old Beast Boy."

It was the green teen's turn to giggle.

"For a second there I could have sworn you called me Beast Boy."

This perplexed Terra

"Isn't that what I'm meant to call you?"

The previously ecstatic green teen now looked like he'd had his heart ripped out.

"You... you think that I'm Beast Boy?"

"Do you call yourself something else now?"

"What year do you think it is?"

This only served to further confuse Terra

"2005"

The green teen just blinked a couple times

"2006?" guessed Terra.

"Ok, what I'm about to tell you is going to be a lot to take in and there's really no delicate way to break it to you."
"Um, what are you talking about?"

"Ok here goes: the date is the fifth of March, 2025. I'm not Beast Boy, he's my father. My name is Mark but I go by the name 'Raptor' when I'm doing the whole hero thing."

This time it was Terra's turn to blink a few times. Though unlike Mark, she was able to respond.

"I get it..."

"You do? Well, that was easier than I thought it would be."

"You're pranks have moved up to the next level. This is a real step up."

Mark could do nothing but hang his head in defeat. This was going to be a long night.