Disclaimer: I do not own the existing characters that we know and love of Young Justice, although I do take ownership over the new characters i.e. some of the teammates

Chapter 01

"Right Garfield – I've got your mission briefing. Miss Martian and Nightwing believe that you were the best person to undertake it." Black Canary cheekily winked at the eighteen year old. "Don't worry, you'll have some support along the way. We thought it would be perfect mission practice for Kitty and advanced training for Raven."

Beast Boy couldn't help but internally wince at the thought of working with Raven on this mission. She had joined the Justice Team about two years ago, and had become a useful asset to the team due to her impressive abilities. The pair had grown close, even caving into the pressure from their fellow teammates to just go on a date. A real world date. Something of which was a difficult concept for the daughter of Satan and the boy with green skin, but the pair hit it off and dated for just over a year. It was fine, until the opportunity for Beast Boy to progress and develop his own sub-team arose, meaning he had less and less time for their relationship. So Raven grew angry and tired, thus calling it quits.

Everything was just a little bit awkward. A little too awkward for everyone else.

"B-B, are you following?" Black Canary was now standing firmly with her arms tightly folded. "This is a serious matter and I am going to need your fullest attention, are you one hundred per cent sure that you are capable of this?"

He hadn't even realised that the thought of working with Raven again had completely distracted him, making him stare blankly at the projections in front of him. Shaking his head to snap himself out of the confusion, Beast Boy then nodded.

"Yeah, of course I am – you know I am…"

"Say it with a little more conviction next time," Black Canary muttered, walking away from the briefing.

Beast Boy had just closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh when he had the fright of his life.

Standing to his left was Kitty. It's not her real name… Kitty was adopted into the Justice League about four years ago when her parents went missing. Her hero name was Kitty because she was an animagus – similar to Beast Boy but only one animal, a cat. She stared at the older boy from behind a cat eye mask with big round eyes that shone like the colour of vibrant fields. Her hair was straight and brown – rumours went around the Hall that she would wake up at the crack of dawn to straighten her hair.

"Kitty, why'd you always have to sneak up on me like that?" Beast Boy growled. "It's bad enough when Miss Martian camouflages, and now you're Kitty Softpaws- will I ever get a break here?" He ran his hand through his slightly tousled dark green hair before standing up.

Kitty grabbed onto his arm, gently digging her fingernails into the red and white superhero suit Beast Boy was wearing. "Are you excited that we get to go on a mission together?" she asked, beaming up at the older boy.

Worried that he might say the wrong thing, Garfield shifted into a snake and slithered his way along the way, swaying from side to side. He didn't mind that he was going on a mission with Kitty, but having both Raven and Kitty together was going to cause issues. He snaked his way down the corridors, until he heard voices that belonged to a pair of heroes he would want to keep close.

It was in the armoury that Beast Boy found Nightwing and Starfire compiling a few cases of gadgets and surveillance equipment.

"Hey Nightwing, what have you got for me?" Beast Boy reached out to pick up a small ping pong ball that had a misty and pink colour to it, but Starfire slapped his hand gently. "Hey! Oh come on Starfire, I know what it is!"

Starfire flicked her hair back behind her shoulder and folded her arms. "Oh really, well what is it then?"

Oh crap…Beast Boy felt his facial muscles twitched uncontrollably as he noticed Nightwing smirk. "It's… uh, well clearly it's just a small knock out gas ball."

She inhaled sharply, then rolled her eyes. "Lucky guess…" She walked towards the door. "Don't forget to tell Beast Boy about the mission, Nightwing, but don't bail him out like last time. Yeah, I know about that…" As Starfire turned and continued on her way, neither boy could tear their eyes away from her slender body.

Nightwing clapped the back of Beast Boy's head with his hand. "Put your tongue back in your mouth, BB, or Raven will put it further back into your throat… and you know she has the power to do so."

"You're right, Nightwing, I can…" Raven appeared beside Nightwing, the hood of her cloak was down for once. "I see Static's developed a muscle freeze mechanism. Blue Beetle will be glad to not have to be the guinea pig for the prototypes."

Across the room, Raven's eyes met Beast Boy's. There was a moment where she wasn't sure what to do, but she turned away to focus on the smaller, handheld gizmos and gadgets. It was clear that there was an icy feeling in the air, and not just because of the dying romance between the younger heroes. Raven didn't have a good opinion of Nightwing- more so because she felt that Zatanna had tried to influence his decision on allowing Raven as a part of the Justice Team.

"Beast Boy!" Kitty squealed, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing tightly. "You left without me, why would you do that?"

Beast Boy backed away from the teenage girl, looking to his fellow heroes for support, but they were offering none. He enjoyed having a younger hero idolise and look up to him, but Kitty had a habit of being clingy and not knowing when to knock it off. There was no way he could shoot her down like he wanted to – at least not whilst Raven was still in their presence. Even though she would have done the same, she was bound to say he was wrong for doing it if he did.

"So, errr… Nightwing, are we going in undercover or?" Beast Boy smiled, forced Kitty off of him. "It might be pretty cool to test out some new undercover names- see which ones stick I mean."

Nightwing stifled any form of laughter and narrowed his eyes at the other guy. "No, you're just going to be Rachel, Georgie and Garfield – and then your hero names if it's required… Me and Kor- I mean, Starfire will be keeping everything under control-" He stopped talking. "Garfield, you need to read your mission briefing file. Star's right this time, I'm not going to bail you out and fill you in because you can't be bothered to read it. If you want to be a leader someday, you have to take responsibility. This will be a good test to see if you are really ready and serious about this." Nightwing sealed up the last case and stayed hunched over it. "Miss Martian will be taking us to location via the Bio ship so you better be ready to go when she needs us to go- she aims to leave at dusk, understood?" He stood straight immediately before walking out the room.

Beast Boy groaned an approval before disappearing out the door and up to his own little apartment that he had persuaded Nightwing to let him develop and furnish in the base. It was a home away from home ever since he lost his family. There was a photo of him and his mother back at their home, but he never really liked how it was the last one of them together – before he turned into Beast Boy and before she died… Grabbing a bag out the wardrobe, Beast Boy set about filling it with a variety of different items – some of which would be useful, and others which wouldn't be, but he felt the need to take it with them.

On the bio-ship, Kitty was scanning the land below whilst strapped into the chair. The seatbelt itself was beginning to dig into her chest and collar bone, making her fidget and writhe about in the seat. It would have been so easy to just morph into a cat and relax. But it had been drilled into Miss Georgia "Kitty" O'Connor so many times by Miss Martian to not unfasten yourself from the seat – because you never know when you might accidentally get yourself into a spot of bother and require some evasive manoeuvres.

"Um, Kitty – are you, okay?" Starfire asked, smiling across at the youngest member on board the bio-ship, her green eyes shining and empty from the black pupils most people had.

Kitty shook her head and itched at the strap. "I'll be okay..."

Outside the bio-ship, they were flying over the highways and settlements. It was Kitty's first time flying and it was exhilarating once she got past the itchy belts that were harnessing her to the seat. When she first joined the Justice Team, she would do anything to make sure that she was partnered up or training with someone who had the ability to fly – it was her own dream power despite being an animagus.

Miss Martian exhaled slowly. "Okay team – your drop off point is fast approaching… Ready yourselves for the descent. Prepare yourselves for dispatch…"

Kitty's eyes grew wide. "Descent! Isn't the bio-ship going to land and just drop us off?" Her heart began to race – heights were her fear, and flying was not helping it either. The thought of jumping from the bio-ship was making her stomach turn. All she could do was rapidly shake her head.

Nightwing was already strapping a parachute to his back and nodded to Starfire, as if to imply that it was her job to get Kitty to the ground safely. "Raven, you're with me. Miss Martian, drop us when you're ready…"

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head. "Now this is only really a suggestion, but I suppose we could just use the carry box thing… You know, for when you take a cat to the vet."

Kitty growled at him. "Why did you bring that thing?! You know how much I hate it. It's not funny when Jester puts me in there! Even if he's only a kid but still!" In moments, the young teen was blubbing and covering her eyes with her hands.

A hand rested itself on her shoulder. "Come on Kitty, it'll be okay. Me and BB will be right there with you, holding the case. All you need to do is stay calm." Starfire smiled and placed a rogue strand of Kitty's hair behind her ear. "You just need to relax. It's for the team and for the mission."

Kitty shivered, shaking a little. "Okay, but don't watch me shift…" On noticing their expressions, Kitty felt the need to explain. She didn't like people watching her shift into a cat. Part of her felt as though she might think it's okay to just shift into a cat around anyone. It was a hasty generalisation, but she felt better doing it this way. Her mind would sometimes just go into a paranoid hyperdrive – she liked to think of it as just being cautious… "Please?"

Starfire grabbed Beast Boy's shoulders and turned him to face away from Kitty.

A tiny meow signalled that Kitty had become the cat. She had become a brown tabby cat and obediently tucked herself away in the cat basket with a miserable look that made her look more Scottish Fold than tabby cat. The case was lifted up and carried over to the drop off point.

The older girl nodded to Miss Martian who dropped them out of the Bio ship before returning to the Justice Hall.

Beast Boy gripped the leather handle of the case in his talons as his eagle form swooped down through the air towards Raven and Nightwing. He did wonder if he should make the flight gentler for Kitty, but decided against it. This was a little bit of cheeky payback. Eagle Beast Boy caught Raven's eye and he turned his head away, throwing his wings out and gliding through the air effortlessly. He loved being an animal that had the ability to fly, mostly because it took him a long time to master the art of flying.

Suddenly, a tremendous blasting noise echoed through the air. A fireball soared through the air and struck Nightwing's left shoulder. Nightwing screamed out, and his grip tightened on the straps due to the pain. As the fireball continued its course, it caught the canopy of his parachute was burnt and left with a large hold in the side of it. Nightwing's body fell limply through the air, bundling itself up into the remainders of the parachute.

"Nightwing!" Starfire screamed out, racing after him before he crashed into the ground below without discussing a plan of action with the younger heroes.

Another blast echoed and nearly hit Beast Boy, but the shock of another unexpected blast made him accidentally release his claws on the basket. He shrieked a bird call and was left in the air when another fireball nearly hit him. Looking at Raven, he squawked again, as if to ask her to grab the basket that was falling through the air. A black shape released itself from Raven's hands and chased after the falling case

In the fuss to save Kitty, Beast Boy didn't even see the last fireball that slammed into his back and sent him into a dark pit of emptiness, crashing down through the trees.

Out cold…

"Beast Boy!"

Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = Thank you for checking out this little story, it's going to be a shorter story than my other one, Last of the Superheroes, but I always wanted to let you know that I'm currently in the process of writing an SYOC story for Young Justice and would love some extra submissions!