The Blackwolf Reunion:
a sequel to 'The Blackwolf Intervention'
Author's notes:
First, if you haven't read "The Blackwolf Intervention" then this one will make no sense. The other is a necessary prequel to this one. So, go read it first, and if you liked it then come back and check out this one.
Are you back? Good. There are a few things I feel I need to tell you about this one. I don't know if this even qualifies as fan fiction, since the characters are my own projections of what the cartoon characters might be like seven years later, having gone through the events of "The Blackwolf Intervention," and are very different from the cartoon characters. Also, I include my own original character, who, towards the end, kind of takes over the story for a while. Mostly, it's about Logan (B.B.) and Terra getting to know each other again. I will warn you, there's very little action. It's mostly a lot of dialogue. I'm really not sure how interesting this will be to anyone but me, so I'd appreciate it if you'd read this and give me some feedback. Please review!!
Those of you familiar with the comics know that it is already established what B.B. is like as a young man. 'Gar' Logan has been in the comics for years. Well, I read his 4-part miniseries simply entitled "Beast Boy," and decided Gar was unsatisfying. I knew I could make a grown up B.B. who was far cooler than this guy. Thus, I created Logan, my version of B.B. at the age of 22. Disregard everything you know about Gar, because Logan is my own character. He is based primarily on the cartoon and my own projection of how he would have changed over the years, with only a few things taken from the comic. The look, for instance. Logan looks exactly like Gar from the comic, but that's about the end of the similarity. Gar was bitten by a venomous green monkey, or some bizarre thing, and Logan is just a mutant. Gar went by Changeling, Logan goes by Beast. But then again, taken from the comic, Titans Tower is in New York. For the cartoon it was moved to a nameless west coast city. I moved it back. A trivial detail, but it may confuse cartoon fans unfamiliar with the comic. Also, there is some talk of the world population's view of mutants and superheroes, and I found I was really describing something more like Marvel's world than DC's. Oh well, whatever. It's my story.
If it isn't already obvious, I should make it clear that this story DOES NOT take place in the canonical DC universe. The arrival of David and the events of "Blackwolf Intervention" altered history, and altered B.B. and Terra's lives forever. My story is set in an alternate reality, which is appropriate since David can travel between alternate realities.
I'm not sure what my fellow Titans fans will think about what I've done to our beloved characters. You may think this insults the cartoon characters, you may think it honors them. I don't know. Thus, PLEASE REVIEW!!
A final note: This is rated Mature for language and some (tasteful, I hope) love scenes.
OK, enough of me apologizing for my work. Here it is, make of it what you will. Enjoy.
Richard Austin
Oh, and by the way, PLEASE REVIEW: )
ONE
Logan casually cruised his motorcycle across campus. San Francisco State University had been his home for two years now, and he knew it's campus like the back of his hand. It was around noon, and he was meeting his good friend Mitch for lunch before their afternoon classes.
As he slowly tooled across campus, the distinctive growl of his Harley Davidson springer softtail caught people's attention, and many of them looked up to wave a brief hello as he passed. Logan was well known on campus, and he and his bike were a familiar sight. After a few minutes he reached a small campus café. Logan parked his bike in front and started to walk in, passing a girl from one of his classes walking out.
"Hey, Logan," she said politely as they passed.
"Hey, Trisha," he replied casually. As he reached the door, it opened to another pair of students, walking out.
"Hey, look, it's The Beast," the man said, more to the woman with him than to Logan. "How ya doing, man?" he asked.
"Doing well, thanks," Logan replied with a smile as they passed in the doorway. He didn't know the couple, but wasn't surprised to be recognized. He was a bit of a campus celebrity, and having green skin and hair made him instantly recognizable to everyone. Logan was a mutant, and until recently, a professional superhero. He had given up his life of crime fighting, temporarily, to get an education here at San Fran State. Still, he was well known as the campus' resident superhero.
x
Garfield "The Beast" Logan walked into the small café and quickly spotted his friend at a back table.
"Hello, Mitch. What's up?" he said as he reached the table.
"Not a lot, Beast Boy," Mitch replied with a smile.
Logan groaned loudly as he sat down. "Don't call me that. Please don't call me that. Not in public."
Mitch laughed. "I just think it's cute, is all."
"I was Beast Boy when I was 14 years old, all right?" Logan said with an only partly fake annoyance. "I was a boy at the time, so it fit. I'm a grown man now, for God's sake. Quit calling me 'Boy'."
"You're 22, right?" Mitch asked. "Guess that's grown up enough. 'Beast Boy' just has such a ring to it, though."
"No, it really doesn't," Logan replied seriously. "Living in New York I tried for two whole years to drop the 'Boy' from my name, but my friends wouldn't have it. Then I moved out here where nobody knew me, thinking I could start fresh with a new name, but that fucking Beast Boy moniker has somehow managed to stick with me."
"OK, OK," Mitch said apologetically. "I just think it's cute."
Just then, a pretty blonde girl walked up to their table. "Excuse me, aren't you The Beast?" she asked Logan.
Mitch laughed. "See, see? There you go, getting your wish."
Logan shot him a quick look, then turned to the girl. "Yes, I am. The name's Logan," he said as he extended his hand.
"Barbara," she replied as they shook hands. "Wow, so you're a superhero, huh? Like, a mutant? Do you have superpowers? Isn't that why you're green?"
Logan laughed and nodded, still a little embarrassed to get attention from a fan. Back home in New York, living and working with the Teen Titans, a team of professional superheroes, he had never really had to deal with the public. Since coming to school two years ago, he had been slowly learning how to deal with curious superhero fans. Fortunately, his buddy Mitch knew this embarrassed him, and was more than happy to jump in for him.
"Of course he has superpowers," Mitch told her. "He's the best shape-changer in the world. He can become any animal you can think of, and then some."
"Wow," she replied softly. "That's cool." Two of her friends, also attractive young women, walked up to join her beside Logan's table. "Hey, guys," she said to them, "This is The Beast. He's a superhero."
"Yeah, I know who he is," said the brunette girl. "Um … Logan, is it? You turn into different 'beasts,' right? Different animals?"
Logan just nodded, and Mitch added, "Any beast you can imagine."
"Any animal at all, huh? Ooh, can you do a pony?" asked the first girl, the blonde. "I love ponies."
"Fuck ponies," the brunette said. "I'd rather see a big-ass lion."
Logan laughed softly. "Ponies and lions are both kinda big for this crowded café. How about something smaller."
"How about a kitty?" said the blonde. There was a sudden blur of green motion around Logan's body, and he was instantly gone, replaced by a small, fluffy, green kitty cat. The girl jumped and let out a startled little cry, then laughed as he looked up at her from his seat and meowed. "That was cool!" she exclaimed.
"And you can do lions and bears and stuff, too?" asked the brunette.
Logan was about to turn human so he could reply, when Mitch stepped in. "And gorillas and elephants and monkeys and birds and fish and … anything you can think of."
"How about a badger?" came from the third girl, who had not yet spoken. The cat blurred for half a second, then there was a large green-furred badger sitting in Logan's chair. "Um, lemur?" she said, and the badger morphed into a small, ring-tailed critter somewhere between a squirrel and a monkey. "Cool. Ooh, bandicoot!" she said, and Logan became a small, furry, big-eared rodent. The girl thought for a second, then excitedly called out, "Oh, oh, pygmy marmoset!" and the rodent became a very small, fluffy-headed monkey thing. She started laughing, and as Logan morphed human again, she explained, "I didn't even know what a marmoset looks like, I'd just heard the name."
"Well, there ya go," Logan replied, laughing with her.
"They're not really green, are they?" asked the blonde, and her friend hit her in the arm like she had said something stupid.
Logan shook his head. "Brown and tan, sometimes black. You can always tell me from the other pygmy marmosets because, well, I'm the green one."
"Well," the blonde girl started. "Sorry for disturbing you and all. I guess we should let you get back to your lunch."
As they started to turn away, the third girl, who had called out all the animal forms, suddenly looked concerned. "I'm sorry," she said seriously. "I didn't mean to make you … you know, perform for us like that. I didn't mean it like-"
"It's OK," Logan cut her off. "It's fine. People are curious about me, I understand that. I actually get it a lot. And using my power is no big deal, you saw how casually I can do it. So since my ability is easier to demonstrate than to explain … believe me, I'm used to it."
She seemed relieved, and turned to leave. The pretty blonde girl smiled warmly at him. Perhaps a bit flirtatiously, he thought. "Well, pleasure meeting you, Beast," she said as she extended her hand to him again. "Or should I call you Logan?"
"Logan is good," he replied as he shook her hand. He thought she held it just a bit longer than normal.
"Barbara, by the way," she added. "See you around, Logan." As the girls turned and walked away, Barbara turned back and flashed him one last quick, flirtatious smile.
"She digs you, man," Mitch said quietly.
"She digs the idea of a superhero, Mitch," Logan replied. "She doesn't even know me to be able to dig me."
"Either way, you could totally fuck her," Mitch said seriously. "Maybe the brunette, too."
Logan just smiled and shook his head.
"Maybe you could nail them both together," Mitch continued. "They looked like they might be-"
"Thanks, Mitch, but it's not my style."
"Really?" Mitch said incredulously. "What about Renee? What about Sharon?"
"What?" Logan said defensively. "I had classes with both of them. They met and got to know a student named Logan, not a superhero called Beast." He sat back and smiled confidently. "I believe I bagged both of them on my own merit."
"Don't kid yourself, Beast. Renee was a superhero groupie," Mitch replied seriously.
Logan looked annoyed for a second, then dismissed it. "Either way, she was good in bed, and that's the important part," he said with a big smile.
"Amen to that, brother," Mitch replied, holding up his hand for a high five. They clapped hands and laughed, then settled in to eating lunch and discussing the petty bullshit that fills a college student's life. Logan got his usual meat-free bean burger and fries, and Mitch got what he termed 'all the dead cow you could ever want,' the triple cheeseburger.
x
"So, tell me again why you don't eat meat?" Mitch started, his mouth full of dead cow.
Logan looked surprised at the question. "We've talked about this."
"Yeah, yeah, if you can become an animal you don't want to eat the animal," Mitch replied, as though bored with that answer. "You say it's kinda like cannibalism. But-"
Logan interjected, "It's a lot like cannibalism, yes."
"But let me ask you this, my man … When you become an animal, you take on all of its physical characteristics, presumably including its dietary needs. Am I right?"
"Yeah, if I stay in one form long enough to get hungry. Why?"
"So if you were a rat, you'd crave cheese, and if you were a cat, you'd crave rats. Right?"
Logan smiled. He'd heard this argument before, just not from Mitch.
Mitch continued, "So whatever species you are at the moment, you eat like that species eats."
"Right."
"So, logically, when you're human you would eat like a human eats. There's ample physical evidence that humans are omnivores. By your own rationale you should be eating meat."
Logan nodded, preparing how to word his counter-argument. "I'm not exactly human, Mitch," Logan began seriously. "Not exactly. I'm a mutant. A mutation. A genetic 'accident' of nature. I can become physically identical to a human, but then, I can become physically identical to any other animal, too. I am my own unique species of animal."
"Wow, man, that's really deep," Mitch replied after a moment. "Don't see why that makes you vegetarian."
"Because I decide what my species eats. My species, of which I am the only one, does not eat itself, and because it can physically become any of those other species, does not eat any of those other species. It would be … the best word for it is cannibalism. I eat the living beings that I cannot become, the plants."
"Ah, but …" Mitch replied, his mouth still full of triple cheeseburger. "But … there's cheese on that bean burger."
"Never said I don't eat cheese. I love cheese. There's a big difference between eating a piece of a dead cow's flesh, and eating cheese. I can't become cheese."
"Right, right," Mitch said as he swallowed the last of his triple cheeseburger. "So you acknowledge that being vegetarian is a choice you make, not a necessity of your unique species."
"Of course it's a choice I make. My other choice is cannibalism."
"So the only way to avoid this type of cannibalism …"
"Is to not eat any animals. Thus my only option is vegetarianism."
Mitch mulled this over with a mouthful of fries. After a long drink of his soda he finally proclaimed, "Fine, you've convinced me. But only for you. What about all the other flaky little veggie-eaters running around campus? Anything to say for them?"
Logan thought about it and laughed to himself. "No," was all he said.
"What do you mean, 'no'? You gotta have an opinion on all the other vegetarians in the world."
"It's a choice they make. It's arguable if it's a good choice or the right choice, but whatever. I can't fault them for it, I mean, I do it."
Mitch looked at his watch. "This has been deep and enlightening, my friend, but we need to wrap it up."
"Right," Logan replied, shoving the last of his bean burger in his mouth.
"Hey, Logan," Mitch said, unusually serious and sincere. "Do you really think of yourself as 'not human'?"
Logan gave a big smile and patted his friend on the shoulder. "No worries, my friend. I just think that's a conversation for another time. That's a conversation for when we're stoned."
Mitch laughed loudly. "Now that's a plan. How about tonight, your place?"
"Shouldn't tonight. Got a test tomorrow. Tomorrow night?"
"Sounds good."
x
As they got up to leave the table, Logan quickly scanned the room. "Gimme a sec," he muttered to Mitch, then headed off in the direction of that pretty blonde girl, Barbara, and her friends. They saw him approach and started to say something, but Logan held up a finger to silence them.
"Before I leave," he started, "I just wanted to say …" He paused a second, then morphed into a bright green Shetland pony. Barbara's face lit up and she let out a surprised, joyous squeal.
"Oh, how cute!" she exclaimed. Logan whinnied softly and held out a hoof to Barbara. She 'shook hands' with the pony, still giggling like a child, then Logan morphed human again and turned to the pretty brunette girl.
"And to you, I wanted to add …" and he morphed into his best lion. The great green beast barely fit in the space between tables. The girl said nothing, but her face was suitably impressed. Logan gave a small roar, waved a massive clawed paw in her direction, then returned to his human self, a big smile on his face. "That's all I had to say. Have a good day, ladies."
As he turned and walked toward the door, he heard the brunette girl talking. "Now that was fucking cool. That's why he's a superhero. Criminals know you don't fuck with a lion. He'll rip your fucking heart out."
Logan laughed to himself as he caught up with Mitch at the door.
"Can't resist showing off to the pretty girls, can you?"
Logan smiled. "Like you said, I just might nail them both."
x
As they walked out of the café, Logan said a final 'bye' to his friend and walked back to his bike. It was hard to miss. Besides being one of the few Harleys on campus, it also had a custom paint job, dark green tiger stripes across the black gas tank. This matched his 'Beast' outfit, which was black with green tiger stripes at the ribs, biceps and thighs. The warm spring day was too hot for his cycle jacket, which was also patterned after his superhero attire, black with dark green stripes.
Logan did this because everyone already knows he's a superhero, so he figured he might as well play into it a little. As he unlocked his helmet, which was also black with green tiger stripes across the temples, he heard, "Hey, look, it's The Beast," from a group of people down the sidewalk. He looked up and waved as he pulled on the helmet and started the bike.
x
The rest of Logan's day was pretty uneventful. Biology class, then math, then back to his apartment to do his homework. That evening, after an hour of struggling to wrap his brain around calculus equations, he sat back to rest, letting his mind wander. After a minute his eyes settled on an old, familiar picture on the wall. Terra. He still missed Terra. They had been 15 the last time they saw each other, but even after seven years she was still his first and only true love. As he sat and gazed at the picture of a beautiful teenager with long blonde hair and big, bright blue eyes, his mind went back to the days when he had known her.
He had been Beast Boy then, exclusively. His only friends were fellow superheroes, and Terra herself was also a mutant superhero. None of them had 'real' names back then, and he was known only as Beast Boy, or sometimes B.B. His best friends were his Teen Titans teammates, fellow teenaged superheroes Cyborg, Robin, Starfire, and Raven. And, of course, Terra.
But that was seven years ago, and the Titans are all grown up now. They call each other Victor, Dick, and Kory now, more often than not. Raven is, in fact, her real name. He hadn't been home to see Vic, Dick, Kory and Raven in almost a year now, but at least he knew he could. Terra was completely lost to him.
Boy, was that a long story. She lived in another dimension now, and that took some explaining. When she was 15 and met the Titans, she also met the wickedly evil supervillain Slade, who lied to her, manipulated her, and convinced her to become his apprentice. She briefly turned to the dark side, believing the Titans to be her enemies, and fought them at Slade's side. In the end she realized what she had become and ended up killing Slade, nearly dying in the process. Beast Boy had saved her, but then she had to deal with the Titans, who couldn't trust her and didn't know what to do with her.
They sought help from a friend of theirs, an inter-dimensional, intergalactic traveler named David Blackwolf. They used a beacon he had left with them to summon him to Titans Tower, and they asked if he knew of anywhere that Terra might fit in, a place where she would be able to recover from the psychological damage Slade had inflicted, where she could re-learn how to be a hero. Fortunately, David knew the perfect place, a school in another dimension, on an alternate Earth. A school specifically for teenaged mutant superheroes. It seemed almost too perfect, and David took her away to a place called the Xavier Institute, where she has been living all this time.
Beast Boy had insisted on going with them to check out these so-called "X-Men" and decide for himself if Terra would be well cared for. Once they had met his approval, he said goodbye to Terra and returned home to the Titans. That was, to this day, the saddest day of his life.
x
Logan allowed himself a weak smile. Besides being the saddest day of his life, it was also his proudest moment. He had saved her. Against all the odds, against Slade, against his teammates, against Terra herself, he had fought for her and he had saved the woman he loved. If he hadn't stayed with her at Slade's lair, she'd be dead now. If he hadn't fought at length with his fellow Titans, she'd be in prison right now. But he did stay with her, he did fight for her, and now she was alive and well, and, hopefully, living a good life with these "X-Men."
From that day forward, he knew what he was capable of. He lost much of his childhood insecurity, and gained a new confidence in his own ability to do what had to be done. Knowing Terra, and saving her, had changed him in ways he knew he didn't fully understand. In some ways, he felt like he became a man that day.
As he stared into the blue eyes of Terra's picture, he could only hope that her life in this other dimension was treating her well. He hoped she got the help she needed. He hoped she was a hero again. Just as a tear was almost about to form, Logan shook himself out of it. Sitting, staring, pining away for his lost love, was something he did fairly regularly, and he was used to its effects. He pushed away the sadness and forced his mind back into calculus mode.
