Greetings all! Here is the first chapter of my next story. This one should be about 4 or 5 chapters long and is a sequal to my previous fic "Story of a Boy" This is the second of a quadrilidry all leading towards a final climatic moment.
Thanks goes out again to Knightmare who betas my stories. As per requirements, it should be known that I do not own the Teen Titans, the Flash, Kid Flash, Batman, or Grod. I do own this new futon cover! Horray for the apartment of a 20 year old art major!
The sky was covered with a hood of clouds, the occasional star managing to break through long enough to show its shining glory. The lights of the city, however, kept even these brief glimpses of the universe hidden to the human eye, until the city went dark.
Just outside of the city, at the power plant that gave the metropolis all its power, a fight had broken out. On one side, was the cities finest, the Teen Titans. On the other, was the super intelligent gorilla Grod. The Titans were fighting valiantly against the ape, but Grod's size, intellect and pure intensity was proving too much. The Titans had been forced to regroup as Grod proceeded to redirect the power, preparing a weapon to aim at Edge City, home town of his most hated enemy, The Flash. He knew the Titans were bound to attack him soon, he knew that they wouldn't let him off so easy, and he was ready.
The first to return was the Bat's protégé, Robin. Armed with his birderangs, he started with a ranged attack, attempting to distract Grod for when he came in for melee combat. But Grod knew the boy's mentor all too well, and easily dispatched the Boy Wonder once again.
Next came Starfire, the alien girl who held Robin's heart. She was blinded by her own fury, enraged at seeing her beloved hurt. Grod knew this, and used it to his advantage. She too, was taken down easily.
The Cyborg managed to surprise Grod slightly by coming in tight rather than relying on his sonic cannon. Yet, despite Cyborg's mechanically enhanced strength, Grod was just too much, especially when he managed to tear free a grouping of his hydraulics, turning the half robot into an oversized paperweight.
For a moment, there was nothing. The ape looked around carefully, there were two more Titans left, but where were they? Then, ahead of him, he saw a pair of white eyes glowing intensely . Grod smiled evilly as he focused his mind. He locked wills with the telepath, their minds battling, and he knew who the more powerful was. Soon, the glowing faltered and the eyes faded as a cloaked figure fell into the light. Four down, one to go…but where was the changeling? The others were already coming to, Cyborg's systems redirecting power and fixing the breaks in his hydraulic system and yet Grod had not seen Beast Boy.
As the others came back at Grod he once again managed to beat them back. Still, no Beast Boy. Grod's mind came to one conclusion…though he always seemed to be stupidest member of the team, Beast Boy had been the only one smart enough to know when too much was too much, and ran away. Unbeknownst to Grod, the Titans were coming to the same conclusion.
"Where is Beast Boy?" snarled Raven. The others all looked around and shrugged. In all honesty, they had not seen the youngest Titan since their second attempt on Grod, when Beast Boy had turned into a bull and attempted to ram Grod, only to be tossed into the darkness and had yet to come out. Although she wouldn't admit it, Raven was starting to worry.
Yet though he was not seen, Beast Boy was there, watching carefully. Despite his reputation, Beast Boy always tried to be a clever fighter. He knew that Grod would be too smart for him to take down, so he watched him battle the rest, looking for something he could take advantage of. But he couldn't find anything. Now he had watched his friends get hurt several times but no more. It was time to take things back under control by doing what he did best…going in blindly, swinging wildly until he hit something!
Grod grunted in surprise as a fist blasted into his gut hard. He looked up to see another gorilla, green in color, bringing his other fist down onto the top of his head. Rage filled his blood as he turned on Beast Boy. Grabbing him by the throat, Grod pulled him close and stared him in the eye, smiling broadly.
"Pathetic human," growled Grod, "though I do applaud you for become the superior animal, you are still nothing compared to me." Beast Boy only roared in response, before transforming into a Utahraptor and bringing himself down into Grod, pushing him through a support beam. Grod returned the attack by throwing Beast Boy into his teammates like a ball into pins. Raven was about to question Beast Boy about his whereabouts when he once again charged Grod, this time as a wolf. He ran between Grod's legs, turned around and jumped onto his back, turning into a Giant Squid, wrapping his tentacles around the great ape. The two struggled, breaking through another support, causing the roof to groan.
The Titans could only watch as Grod got the upper hand and threw Beast Boy off him. Beast Boy reverted into his human self for just a moment, pushed himself off the far wall and turned into a rhinoceros. He charged Grod, who easily dodged. Beast Boy turned and charged again, only to have Grod dodge like a matador dodging a bull. Beast Boy grunted as he smashed through a third support. The roof shook slightly. Beast Boy turned and pulled out his trump card. A Tyrannosaurus now charged at a slightly confused Grod. Beast Boy slammed his head into the ape, and threw him back into another support but Beast Boy, however, could not stop in time and slammed into another two supports, which proved to be too much. The Titans and their slightly dazed opponent looked up in horror as the roof began to fall down on them. Beast Boy turned into a turtle, retreating into his shell as he saw his life flash before his eyes and the thought of his only true regret came to mind. He had never told her how he truly felt and now he never would. Before he knew what happened, twin blurs came into the light, a red one blasting toward Grod, dragging the ape to safety as a yellow one grabbed Beast Boy and the remaining Titans and took them out just before the bulk of the ceiling came down.
The sensation of moving at super speed was gone too quick as the Titans fell to the ground and looked up at their savior. A young man, roughly sixteen stood before them. He wore a yellow suit, his red hair coming out of a mask. He smiled brightly at the Titans, especially Robin. The two acted like best friends as they greeted each other with a warm hug. They then turned to other Titans.
"Team," began Robin, "this is my old friend, the Kid Flash. KF, this is Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy and…um…you know Raven." Kid Flash's smile faded as he looked at Raven. She had tried to get him to rejoin the Titans when she and Robin were reorganizing it. She didn't think he would join and attempted to cast a spell on him that made him fall in love with her. It even worked for a few days, but the spell faded and though Kid Flash still felt some feelings for the witch, he also felt total disgust for her.
The awkward silence was soon broken by Kid Flash's mentor, the Flash himself, walking over with a knocked out Grod in tow. Dressed in bright red, his uniform was almost identical to Kid Flash's, only his mask covered his hair. He smiled at the Titans.
"You kids did well holding off Grod until we got here. We would have been here sooner but we were held up at Gotham City. Come on Wally, lets get going." With that, the Flash disappeared in a red blur. Kid Flash turned to the Titans, gave them all a smile stopping at Raven for a brief second, then disappeared in a golden blur. The Titans remained there for a moment thinking. Then Raven broke the silence.
"What did you think you were doing Beast Boy?" said Raven with a little more snap than she meant.
"Um…kicking Grod's hairy butt?" responded Beast Boy, slightly confused about Raven's sour attitude. As far as he was concerned, he had won the day, she should have been congratulating him!
"More like trying to bring the building down on us, and where were you anyway? We could have used you a few times back there! Or did you just want to wait so you could show off like you always try to do?" Her voice slowly grew with spite, though a brief glimpse of her concern for him came forward. She felt like a parent, scolding a child.
"Hey, easy Raven," Cyborg said, putting his hand on her shoulder "We are all OK, take it easy on him. He screwed up a little, that's all."
"Just like how he always screws up!" Raven yelled, never taking her eyes of the changeling. "Have you ever even had a real victory that wasn't pure luck or didn't spark tragedy?"
"Hey!" piped up Beast Boy, starting to yell like Raven "I didn't hear you complain when I saved you from Adonis!"
"He caught me off guard! Besides, you weren't yourself, you were a pure animal." Raven's voice rolled with spite, though she didn't mean it. What was coming over her? She wanted to stop but she just kept going. "What are you now? A stupid little boy with a mediocre power who only became a super hero so he can pick up chicks!" The others gave a collective gasp. They had seen Raven and Beast Boy fight, but they had never seen such a personal attack on Beast Boy. The poor shape-shifter just stood there, taken aback.
"Wha…wha…I…er…Rav…"
"Just like I said, stupid." Then, something snapped in Beast Boy and a side of him the Titans had only seen once came out again. He began to roar as he approached Raven, his eyes burning into her.
"SHUT UP RAVEN! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO INSULT ME! YOU TEASE ME, MAKE FUN OF ME, PUT ME DOWN ALL THE TIME! AND YOU GUYS!" Beast Boy turned his attention to the other Titans " YOU GUYS NEVER SAY ANYTHING! YOU JUST SIT ON THE SIDE LINES AND LET HER SAY WHAT SHE SAYS! WHY?"
"Because it's what they are thinking but don't want to say," Raven muttered, but Beast Boy managed to pick it up.
"HEY! I TRY MY BEST! I ALWAYS PUT MYSELF OUT THERE! I AM IMPORTANT TO THE TEAM!"
"No you're not. I never understood why Robin asked you to join the team. I never will!"
"FINE! YOU DON'T WANT ME AROUND RAVEN? YOU HATE ME THAT MUCH? FINE! I QUIT!"
The other Titans gasped in horror. Despite all of Beast Boy's flaws, he was important to the team. In their shock, none of them could find the words to tell him though. They could only stand there with their mouths agape as their friend changed into a bird and flew into the night, just trying to get away from the people he thought were his friends, and…her. Now everything was brought into question. Beast Boy knew what to do though. He would go to the tower and get his old clothes, return to the life that he thought he escaped when he joined the Titans.
The Titans took a second before they all turned to Raven but to their surprise, she looked as stunned as they were.
"I…I didn't really think he would leave."
"Well, he did," said Robin, his voice a dichotomy of anger and sadness.
"Yeah, nice going Raven!" said Cyborg.
"That was the sarcasm, yes?" asked Starfire, her naivety coming through even in this intense moment. Cyborg nodded sternly. Starfire then turned to Raven and scowled.
"Star…I…"started Raven but Starfire wouldn't hear it.
"How could you do that to poor Beast Boy. I thought you two were friends but you are a bad friend…" Then Starfire stopped, a tear coming down her cheek. "I am a bad friend. Beast Boy was right. We only sit on the lined sides and do not defend our friend. I never liked the mean talking. I knew this would happen sooner or later…the drifting…but I was too afraid to take a side….too afraid to make one of you two angry at me as well." Starfire turned to Robin and started to cry into his shoulder.
"Shh…Star, it's ok. You aren't to blame. We all are. We were all too afraid to say something. Raven may have said those things but we never defended him, never told her to stop." Robin paused a second and drew a deep breath. "There is nothing more we can do here team, lets go home." Together, Cyborg, Robin and a crying Starfire walked towards Cyborg's custom built car. Raven hesitated. Weren't they all mad at her now? Did they still want HER on the team? She was mad at herself, she knew that for sure. The odd thing was, when she saw Beast Boy, standing there, smiling at Kid Flash, she only wanted to run up and hug him and tell him how happy she was that he was ok. But instead, she snapped at him.
Cyborg looked back at the cloaked girl. She helped him build the car, during which they experienced what seemed like romantic feelings for each other, but it was very short lived and nothing ever came from it. They had never kissed, never dated. They both agreed that the feelings were only the result of the bonding experience of the reconstruction of the car, more of a sibling love. Besides, Cyborg knew where her heart laid, even if she didn't realize it. But he did know how to read the girl, even though she tried to hide her emotions. Taking a trip with Beast Boy into her head hadn't hurt either. And now, though she covered it up, inside she was crying. She regretted what she said and now missed Beast Boy. Cyborg gave her a very slight smile.
"Come on Rae, you too." The telepath nodded, and floated to the car. They would go home and go to bed. Tomorrow would be another day and tomorrow they would figure out what to do about Beast Boy.
That's it for this chapter. Pleasereview and I should have a new one up in a week or so. Depending on homework and the like. Next chapter will focus on Raven and will have the return of Garfield! Until next time, laterdays! REVIEW!