Disclaimer: Don't own anything written about here. A/N Woo! 5 reviews. 4 positive and one with not enough to tell either way. Thanks. This one is slightly longer at least.
Gar woke to the sound of his alarm. Only after switching it off he realized that it wasn't his alarm, it was the tower alarm. He opened his communicator to Robin on the general frequency telling every one that town square was being attacked by Dr. Light.
Beast Boy landed on a rooftop next to Robin shortly after Starfire and Raven with Cyborg in the claws of his pterodactyl form.
"Alright team," he said looking down on Light who was destroying random scenery and building walls, "civilians in a 2 mile radius have been evacuated, but he seems to have increased the power of his suit since the last time we fought so we need to be ready for any new tricks he might have, circle him and move in don't let him out of your sights for an instant."
They were in position and were moving on Robin's command. What they did not take into account was how much more powerful he was and the spine that he had managed to grow while incarcerated.
The sheer ferocity and power behind his attack put them all off balance causing them to be pinned behind various objects. They could not take that kind of fire power on directly without an intense level of danger. They moved like the professionals that they were and adjusted their attack patterns to Lights new found power. All of this done wordlessly from hundreds of hours of training.
"I'm through getting kicked around by a bunch of children," Dr. Light screamed, "This time Titans, I will destroy you." Light kept blasting at their cover and sometimes hitting them with glancing blows. In Beast Boys case the "glancing blow" was just as powerful as one of his old attacks and knocked the wind out of Beast Boy putting him out of the fight for the moment.
"Maybe this will change your tune," Cyborg said as he shot Light in the back with a blast from his sonic cannon then yelled, "Booyah!"
Then while he was off balance Robin hit him with a couple of his exploding disks further knocking him off balance. Starfire followed this up with a few well placed star bolts Then Raven appeared directly in front of light towering above him with her demon eyes in place and hundreds of tentacles coming out from under her cloak. As she grabbed Light he smirked. Then he let loose a blast powerful enough to knock her unconscious and yelled triumphantly.
"Did you really think I wouldn't be ready for you my dear Raven," he practically crowed as he walked over to her blasting away the other Titans attempts at hitting him with no apparent effort, "Do you not see the Irony of this?" he exclaimed picking her up, "For the humiliation you have caused me I've decided to kill you," he said with a smirk.
It was at this moment with his other hand held up to her that Light was picked up and torn out of his suit before he could react by an 1100 pound green grizzly bear. Beast Boy let out a tremendous roar and then set him down where he collapsed in absolute terror.
"Good job," Robin said as Beast boy changed to his normal form and picked up lights tattered suit.
A few minutes later and Light was sitting on a park bench in handcuffs while Rob was talking to the police. Beast Boy was staring at the early morning sky.
It had been 4 days since Garfield had broken into his parents lab. He did not feel well. As a matter of fact he felt absolutely terrible, and his parents had finally told him now that he was dying. He kept trying trying to grasp that fact but couldn't. He felt like he was in a dream. He had missed everything they had said since but he realized that they were moving him to their lab.
Once they got there they set him onto one of the counters underneath a strange looking machine.
"This procedure is the only way we can come up with to save you Garfield," his mother said.
"If all goes well you will be back out side playing in the dirt in no time flat." his father said with a smile even Gar could tell was fake, as his mother was preparing the machine he had never seen.
She took a needle and wiped his wrist with a wet cloth then stuck it in. She then pressed something on the machine. He couldn't keep his eyes open so he let sleep take him.
Beast Boy was startled by Dr. Light, who had rushed him. He stumbled up confused as to why Light would do something so stupid. Then the world was white, and by the time it was back to normal Light was nowhere to be found. After searching the general vicinity and finding literally nothing of his whereabouts they called it quits.
Robin came down on Beast Boy like a ton of bricks, "Just what the hell were you doing!" he yelled irately, "Did you not think it was important just maybe to keep the light grenades from the criminal? Did it not occur to you that he was looking for a way out?" the rant went on for a few more minutes before Rob calmed down and told him he was to train extra time as long as Robin saw fit.
BB took the rant in silence. He had nothing to say that wouldn't just make him angrier so he figured it was pointless to say anything. He was also scared, that was the first time he had lost track of his surroundings on a mission. He wasn't sure why this had happened all of a sudden. He just knew he had to make sure he worked harder.
When they got back to the tower the sun was already all the way up so Beast Boy figured he wasn't going back to sleep and decided he was going to get started on his training. When he arrived in the training room he went directly to the simulator and set up the highest level of training for himself. After about half an hour of this he dropped the level down a little bit and completed another hour of training. When he stepped out he decided to hit the weights for awhile. Then Robin stepped in and motioned him towards the ring and they finished all of Beast Boy's remaining time in training.
"What happened?"
"I just lost focus and he must have seen that."
"Well until I think you have improved from your current state I'm going to pull you from action."
"Oh come Rob it was one screw up this isn't fair!"
"What if that screw up had been on someone who was still a threat to innocent lives?" Robin started to raise his voice but forced himself to remain calm, "What if he had killed someone in his escape?"
This made BB stop dead in his tracks then say, "OK, I understand, but I will get back out there."
"That's good to hear, well this means your free for the rest of the day."
"I think I'll stay here for a bit since I'll be off the field."
Robin just gave a nod and left.
A little while later Cyborg came in and said, "You been in here 4 hours B you planning on killing yourself?"
"I guess that's enough for now. Did you want something?"
"Wanted to see how you were taking this whole punishment thing," Cy said, "Guess there's no reason to worry."
"Yeah, thanks," BB said distantly as he headed for his room.
That night Garfield holed himself up in his room thinking about all the stuff going on recently with him. He was certain he had actually fallen asleep there but for the life of him couldn't figure out why. He had not felt tired. So why would this happen? He could not see any reason for the dreams so as all nights sleep took him late.
Garfield woke up and the first thing he noticed was that every conceivable part, and more, of his body was incredibly sore. He wanted nothing more than to just go back to sleep, but something told him he needed to get up. When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was his parents with tears streaming down their faces and big smiles.
"Hey," was all he could manage.
His parents just hugged him for a few minutes before his mom said, "It worked Garfield. You'll be perfectly healthy once your body gets over the changes."
"Changes?" Gar inquired, "What do you mean?"
His parents looked at each other and both nodded then his father gave him a mirror. What Gar saw made no sense, he couldn't understand what it was he was seeing. Then it clicked it was him he saw. The only thing that cued him in to this fact was that his eyes were left the same. Those had already been green.
"What's going on?"
"The procedure we used to save you seems to have had some... unintended side-effects," Mark admitted, "This is one of them. As for the rest we can't be sure of."
Not really seeing anything wrong with how he looked now he simply said, "So can I eat now?"
Both of his parents laughed and Marie replied, "Of course you can sweety," she then went to prepare a meal.
His dad just sat there with him as he marveled at the new skin tone he now sported.
It had been a few weeks since his life-threatening encounter with the green monkey and Garfield was now playing out side just as if he had never been bitten, except of course for his new look. The natives had not taken kindly to the green child even though Mark and Marie explained it was just caused by the procedure he went through. It was only due to their great respect for the couple that they did not shun the boy, but they would no longer allow him into their village. Although sometimes they ran across him when they came to visit his parents and they always gave him a wary eye whenever they did.
One day though a man that Garfield had not seen before came to the house on his own. He seemed to be there for a specific reason. His mother had gone inside to do some chore or other so Gar decided he would ask the man what he wanted.
When the man was close enough for there to be no need to shout he asked, "What do you want?"
The man said nothing and like lightning he had kicked Garfield off of his feet. With a yelp he landed on his back and there was a pressure on his neck. He looked up to see the man's sneering face ready to thrust a knife into his neck. At that moment two things happened. The first was he heard his mother scream although he could not understand anything she said. The second was something he had never before experienced, he was now towering over the man who was now staring at him in horror sitting on the ground. He then struck the man with his trunk launching him 15 feet into a tree. When he landed he no longer moved. The next moment Garfield was back to his normal stature and shaking. Marie reached him at that point and was hugging him while in tears.
"What happened?" Mark yelled as he ran from the door of their home. Marie took a moment to explain what she had witnessed and Mark gave her a flat stare. He knew his wife was not the type to start seeing things that were not there. So he took a leap of faith and said, "We have to leave now."
The next day they were on a boat heading for an American embassy still a few days ride from where they were. They had rushed packing so they only took what was absolutely necessary. Mark had also made Gar figure out how to change into an elephant again and make sure he could keep from doing it on accident before they left on the boat.
Garfield had done nothing but think about this new ability since his father had made him change again. Then suddenly he had an idea and focused on his power and imagined a bird, the first bird he could recall seeing. Then as easily as the elephant had been he was an albatross, with one of the largest wing spans of all birds. He then excitedly ran to his parents and told them the news.
Mark listened to Gar explain how he figured out he could turn into a bird then said, "That's great, but I would prefer if you didn't experiment with this ability until we are somewhere safe, OK?"
Garfield instantly deflated but nodded and said, "Yes papa."
The next two days went mostly without anything of note occurring. That is until they hit rapids in the river. Garfield followed his parents to the boat controls were they found a native standing over the skipper's corpse.
He yelled some things that Gar did not understand then stood there with a strange look in there eyes. Confused his parents led him to the deck with haunted looks in their eyes.
"Garfield I need you to do something for me," Mark said as he handed beast boy a compass, "Take this and follow the direction the red arrow points until you reach the American embassy and get help for us," as he said this Gar could not help but wonder what was going on.
"Remember Garfield that we always love you," Marie said as they both hugged him, "Now fly."
He tried to protest but his parents wouldn't listen to a word he said. So he did the only thing he could. As he reached the sky and started to soar, getting ready for a long flight, he turned to look at the boat and saw why his parents had not wanted him to stay. He let loose a noise that no animal should ever make, it sounded between a human scream and a bird screech. The boat had just disappeared over a waterfall.
He landed next to the waterfall looking down over the ledge. He wanted to scream but his throat refused. He wanted to leave but his muscles did not have any strength. So he did what was left. He collapsed and he cried until he passed out.
It had been a week since Gar's last dream and he was now sitting in his bedroom thinking about whether or not should just get up. He always woke at around seven but he usually waited until his alarm went off at eight to move. He just wasn't sure if he could take another half hour of this.
He decided he may as well get up and get ready now. When he reached the common room he ran on automatic. Somewhere in the back of his mind he noted that for once Cyborg was not up before him. He figured this was a good chance for him to get his breakfast ready without the obligatory tofu meat battle. As he sat down to eat Cyborg walked through the door.
"Hey Cy," he called with a smile plastered on his face, "You're up late."
"Hey B, I had a long night," he said vaguely.
"Well don't let it happen too much," Beast Boy joked not feeling up to ask him if anything was wrong.
Cyborg replied only with a smile and went about making his own breakfast without even making a comment on BB's choice of food. They ate in silence until everyone else came to the table and Robin explained what he wanted them to do in training that day.
Later that day after training was all said and done, Beast Boy went to the roof to clear his thought's and hope that no one asked him to participate in any activity. Something besides his dreams was bothering him, but he could not think of anything that should be bugging him. After some time of brain storming and coming up with nothing Starfire came up to the rooftop. So Beast Boy stood up and faced her to see if she wanted anything.
"Hey Star," he started.
"Hello Friend Beast Boy, I am not interrupting anything am I," she asked in a distracted tone without any of her usual enthusiasm.
"Oh no, I was just about to leave anyway," he lied then proceeded to make his way to the door and leaving her to herself in a confused manner.
Later after most everyone was either asleep, or in Robin's case working on case files in his room, Beast Boy was sitting in the common room staring at the TV, which had something that he could not be bothered to pay attention to, the same thing he could not identify had been bugging him for the rest of the day. During a commercial he used to always laugh at it hit him. He was so detached from his life that he couldn't make himself care about anything but the emergencies. Now that he was not allowed to deal with those he found it harder to appear as functioning normally. Even those didn't really matter to him it was just basically an automatic response. It hadn't even been just today, when it was obvious that Cyborg and Starfire were worried about something they each apparently did not wish to bring in the open. He used to always look for things like that in his friends so he could try to cheer them up. He could not remember the last time he had brought himself to do such a thing. A month? Two? More he thought to himself. He had changed so much he hadn't even realized he had stopped doing things that had been second nature before. Was there anything else? How much had the others noticed? He went to bed that night resolving to try harder to act like his old self.
Garfield had been on his own for the past few days since his parents had died. He had lived on fruits, he could not bring himself to kill for his food, and the rare grains he could grab from local farms. He realized this wasn't the best way to live, but did not want to go to the embassy his parents had told him about. So it was one day when he was laying down to rest from his nearly endless search for food that he started to brood. He should have realized what was happening. He should have done something differently. He should have saved them from this. He had failed. It was at these times he couldn't keep the tears in.
It was also during one of these times he was taken. Everything had happened so fast he had no chance to react and then the next thing he remembered was waking up in a dark room. It took him a few minutes before he could make out two forms watching him. Even after first making them out he could still barely see them, he could only make out their outlines. He didn't really understand what was going on or where he was but he didn't like being here.
"I see you're awake kid." Garfield could not tell which one had said it, "We been watchin' you boy."
"Where am I?" Gar questioned.
"I'll let that slide for now, but you should know that rule number one here is don't speak unless asked a question," he said as he approached and stroked Gar's face, "Trust me you don't want to know what happens if you break it," suddenly he clapped and said, "Ah were are my manner's, John hit the lights please."
When the lights were on Garfield could finally see he was in some kind of bare room with walls and floor made of concrete. Once he could open his eyes fully he saw the two men clearly. The one that had spoken was skinny and fair skinned, like his parents had been, with brown hair and gray eyes. The other was dark skinned, like the people in the village and much more muscled and had no hair and dark eyes.
"I am Jeremy," making a motion to himself then pointing at the other man, "and his name I can not pronounce, so I call him John. John does not speak seeing as he is mute. Any questions?"
"Why am I here?"
"To do what ever I tell you."
He didn't like the sound of that so he did what now came natural he attempted to escape using his powers. As soon as the change started it hit him like a train. Pain. More pain than he could remember ever experiencing.
Once it stopped Jeremy said, "Ah I see you've already tried to escape, but that wont work, feel the collar on you're neck? It will change with you and if I don't allow the change it will hurt you. Any more questions? None? Good. Feed him."
As Jeremy left John threw some whole potatoes on the floor and followed suit. Gar was so hungry he ate them without a second thought. This was only the beginning of his troubles with the two men. As innumerable days passed Garfield was subjected to many horrible things by these men. They beat him they starved him and forced him to steal many things from many people; the natives, relief organizations, high tech research facilities hidden away from the general public. None of these places were prepared against someone with Garfield's capabilities, therefore he was never caught and rarely seen. Even if he was seen nobody would believe stories of a green cat or a green rat.
Any time Gar was left alone for long enough his thoughts always took a turn for the worse. His memories of failing his parents had always been able to do what the beatings rarely could. They made him wish for death.
"Come here boy," Jeremy had never once asked his name and always called him boy or kid, "You got another job."
Garfield barely paid attention as he was told about the place he was to break into, the only thing he needed to know was what to take and where it was.
"After this I may be able to afford to wage my own wars," Jeremy started laughing to himself, "Aw to hell with that it would cost to much money, and then I'd have to run whatever hellhole I took over."
As Garfield could have predicted John did not so much as react to what was said. If there was one thing Garfield had learned about him it was that nothing ever seemed to startle him or scare him.
"No I think I'll just figure something else out. It's not like I don't have all the time in the in the world."
After near silence for the rest of the ride John gave Jeremy a signal, "All right kid we're slowing down, now get out," Jeremy said pointing towards the building.
Gar jumped up and turned to a bird to catch the wind. As he neared the building he made good use of the raptor's eyes and spotted every possible entrance. He found a promising looking vent and dove towards it. Right before colliding he shifted into a bug small enough that it slipped right through the vent cover and waited for impact. The small body of a roach could take impacts at nearly any speed which had been one of his accidental discoveries concerning his abilities. Another was the fact that since a roach was so small he did not want to remain as such for long. Many things threatened a roach in air ducts mainly the air flows tossing them around or the possibility of rats. So he took a form that had no fears here, a cat, small enough to make no noise stepping in the ducts and large enough to not care what may lurk in them.
He proceeded along the northern edge of the building as he had been told. The room he was looking for had very tight security, for a human. Once he found it, he changed into a viper and stuck his head in. Another accidental discovery he had made was that some animals could see what others could not. For instance some birds of prey could see through mirrored windows while others could see on a moonless night. In this instance the viper was one of two animals he knew could see animals in the dark as red blobs. It could also see the lasers laced across the room. there were relatively few, after all no one would be able to make it here by normal means. Oddly enough there was a patch easily reachable by his cat form a little to his left. He memorized its exact size and location and made his change, then he took a leap of faith.
After he landed and no apparent alarms went off he went back to the viper. It was perfect, he could slide right under all the lasers. He made it to the podium with the terminal on it. All he had to do was put the stick in the computer and wait till it told him it was done. After a few seconds the alarm started going off. The computer was still working on whatever it was supposed to do. Garfield started to get scared. If he left without the information he would get beaten till he couldn't feel his legs. If he stayed he'd likely be killed. He would stay and fight if he had to, nothing brought more fear to his heart than when he knew he would get beat. The thing beeped at him right before the door to place opened. He snatched it and changed into a roach to run off to a corner.
He sat there in fear for a very long time. Then he realized he should try a new form. It was one he had always been afraid to try because it was so tiny. The fly. Roaches senses made no sense so he always figured a fly would be even worse. Roaches could be killed by a good stomp, even if they were hard to hit. Flies were easier to hit and needed much less force to kill. Well, he was right a flies senses were terrible. Luckily though he was able to make the vent with only a few close calls with some peoples' hands. After that it was smooth sailing.
When Garfield had made it back he went through the same process he did every time. John took him to his "room" while Jeremy checked over the "loot". He was never told what he got off of computers and never told why he was taking something.
There was one difference though. Like he had only a few times Gar had seen Jeremy get drunk. John never partook in this. After a while Jeremy came to Gar's room seeming not to know where he was and collapsed on the floor. That's when Garfield saw it. The remote that somehow controlled his collar. Over the time he had been here he had only seen Jeremy actually use it once, but it stuck with him. He held down the button that disabled the power then changed to one of the most powerful animals in the world, a gorilla. He then ripped of his collar and started for the exit as himself. That was when he noticed John. They looked at each other for a moment then reacted at the same time. Gar went gorilla again but found John too fast for the slow primate. He tried a lion next but found it too weak to knock him down and couldn't make him bleed much. He decided this needed to end quick and went for his wild card. He rushed John one more time but instead of slashing him changed to an elephant and threw him with his trunk with all his might. The man was out but still breathing, there was no way he was normal, Gar had killed men with a fraction of that strength. However the important thing was to get away. He had made it out of the building when he heard steps behind him.
"Where do you think you goin' boy?" Jeremy said holding his gun up. The same gun Garfield had seen him shoot down elephants with only to leave their corpses rotting in the sun. "You change back and get over here or I'll make sure you quit your oxygen habit."
He decided he'd go for broke. That gun could take down any animal any human had ever seen roam the land. He wasn't planning on letting it take him down. Garfield let loose a roar that had never been heard by mankind, in fact it had not been heard in over 65 million years. He let loose the battle cry of the Tyrants. A sound no human being could possibly hear without being filled with fear, the roar of the tyrannosaurus rex.
A/N Sooo... I guess I changed my mind about cliffhangers. Well really I just couldn't find a better place to cut it off without breaking apart the dream and that felt wrong somehow. Just remember killing authors is still illegal. No clue on when more will happen, need to tweak some stuff. Oh and please review!