The New Titans Issue Two: The Times are a Changin': Part Two

HIVE Base, Main floor

A woman stands in the main floor of the HIVE base as soldiers, demons, monsters and business men scurry past her. A desk lies in front of her, a microphone on it, behind it sits a man who seems flustered by his amount of work, not paying attention. The woman walks towards the desk, picks up the microphone and holds it to her mouth. Her face breaks, a fake sadness.

Woman: Everyone please, leave the premises. Go home to your families! HOLD THEM CLO...

HIVE Soldiers grab her arms and take her away, kicking and screaming. The mass amount of demons, monsters, aliens and HIVE workers stop to stare at the woman, trying to tear herself away. While being pulled away, the woman slaps the wall, leaving a small device attached.

HIVE Base, holding room

The woman is thrown down into the dark room, where bars stand tall before her. The woman pulls out a communicator from her pocket and holds it to her lip.

Woman: Okay, you're good to go.

HIVE Base, Main Floor

A HIVE soldier stares at the device on the wall, a red light rapidly blinks. He tries to pry it off, but it won't be removed. He grabs it until it violently explodes, letting out a sudden golden cloud of fire and ash.

HIVE Base, holding room

The woman stands tall, behind the bars as the gigantic monster of fire follows towards her, but then is stopped by an invisible forcefield before the bars.

Teleportation tunnel

All of the Titans stand together, tall, stoic. Batman, his caped draped over him, his eyes peering out. Cyborg, tall, sporting heavy armour, hiding every centimetre of flesh but for the large patch on his face. Raven floats, her cape levitating, moving as if it was a living creature. Starfire, wearing a white space-cadet uniform, green energy floating around her hands and eyes. Donna Troy, stands tall, the stars on her costume dying and moving as the universe expands, her bracelets shining brightly, reflecting the white rotation of the teleportation tunnel. Beast Boy crouches over, wearing his classic costume with child like wonder on his face.

Beast Boy: Are you gonna say it?

Batman stays silent.

Beast Boy: C'mon, say it, for old times sake.

Batman still stays silent.

Beast Boy: Why you guys all gotta be so joyless? Seriously, how many people died in nine years?

Donna silently screams at Beast Boy, her face full of anger.

Batman looks to Donna, in a way calling her off.

Beast Boy: Alright, I'll say it.

Batman: No.

Beast Boy: THERE'S our brooding crusader.

Batman: I'm not saying it.

Beast Boy: C'mon, say it.

Batman: I'm not saying it.

Beast Boy: Say it, say it, say it.

The teleportation tunnel starts depleting and opening up, revealing the HIVE main room, ravaged by the explosion.

Batman: TITANS, GO!

HIVE Base, Main room

The Titans leap out of the teleportation tunnel, only Beast Boy striking a battle pose. Some HIVE Soldiers stop attending to their wounds to pull their guns up and fire away at the Titans. Cyborg pulls up a holo-shield, and it surrounds the Titans, deflecting a mass amount of bullets.

The HIVE Room is populated by a large amount of HIVE Soldiers, all aiming their large futuristic guns at the Titans. The holo-shield finally gives and instantly the Titans are thrust into battle as Donna Troy drop kicks a few soldiers, blowing them back like a strong wind. Beast Boy lifts into the air as an eagle, he then plummets as an elephant, causing a shockwave that sweeps the HIVE soldiers off their feet and launching Batman into the air to punch a few soldiers while landing.

Raven starts levitating every object she can find, using her powers to their near extent, she then launches them at the soldiers, making them take a leap back, to be squashed by the impact of the swarm of objects and the back wall. Starfire fires at Donna's bracelets, causing a ricochet effect that has energy blasts being bounced around the room, hitting a mass amount of HIVE Soldiers.

Cyborg lifts his arms and hundreds of hatches open in his body, revealing small missiles which fire out of his body and stun the soldiers. The whole team finally stop, Beast Boy tries to strike a group battle pose but the rest silently decline.

Cyborg: I say we split up, some of us head to the board room and the rest establish a...

Batman: No, we go together.

Cyborg: I need to rendezvous with my agent.

Batman: HIVE Emergency release would have activated by now, she's probably gone.

Starfire: So, to the board room... any guards?

Ten Years Earlier, somewhere

Beast Boy looks up to the sky, lying down. To his right a wonderful rainforest, filled with emerald green and earthly creatures. To his left a volcanic hell of a place where dinosaurs roam.

Beast Boy Narration:
Y'know, I hate the sky here.

The sky above him is a peculiar patchwork of different things. In one section it's filled with smoke and in another a clear blue sky. In one of the sections the sky is pink and three rainbows run across it.

Beast Boy Narration:
Is it heaven? Hell? Or My Little Pony land? We'll never know. I just want one consistent sky, a sky I can look up to and say, "Oh, that's what the sky looks like!" Sometimes you just see some weird... weirdness. Once I saw a harpy fighting a unicorn and I thought "The shark still looks fake". Why? Because I'm used to this by now.

The funny thing is it feels so... familiar. It feels like I've been here before. Oh, if you didn't know, I'm stuck in a pocket dimension that has no perception of time, on a patchwork world full of things that don't mix. It sounds like Starfire's cooking. Y'know, one day I'll look to my left and see, I dunno, Super Mario World and I'll look to my right and see... Los Angeles populated by Legend of Zelda characters.

I haven't seen either of those two, it'd be fricking awesome if I did, but you get the point. Now, we gotta find a nucleus to get out, Cyborg figured it out. It's supposed to have some kinda sentimental... whatever... to all of us.

Cyborg stands over Beast Boy, looking significantly younger and less armoured.

Cyborg: Wakey, wakey Gar. C'mon, we're gettin' outta here.

Beast Boy: You said that... a... whatever ago.

Cyborg: But we're getting out today, man.

Beast Boy: You said that too, bro.

Cyborg: Just get up.

Cyborg pulls Beast Boy to his feet, Beast Boy looks at Cyborg's armoured parts.

Beast Boy: Well... you DO need a good polish.

Cyborg: Very funny. C'mon the guy and girls are waitin' for you.

Beast Boy and Cyborg walk up to Nightwing, Wonder Girl, Starfire and Raven who all stand, chatting. They stand between two worlds, a mountainous landscape where snow constantly falls. The other world is a large desert-like area where a mammoth's corpse is picked at by a sloth.

Beast Boy: Any developments? Wait... don't tell me... NO.

Nightwing: Actually, yes.

Beast Boy: You always say that.

Nightwing: But it's true this time.

Beast Boy: So you admit you were lying the other times?

Nightwing: Shut up.

Beast Boy: No, I'd like to hear you answer that question.

Nightwing: Do you want to hear our idea?

Cyborg: Let him say it.

Nightwing: We've been doing some thinking, about the
nucleus. So, we're all in here right? What do we all have in common?

Beast Boy: Cut to the chase, red ranger.

Nightwing: Fine. If it's supposed to have emotional and sentimental relevance to us, the nucleus has to be...?

Beast Boy: What?

Nightwing: It's Titans Tower.

Beast Boy: What's Titans Tower?

Cyborg: It has that effect on you, if you're there for long enough it tires to make you forget about the sentimental whatever...

Raven: It's pointless being happy about this.

Wonder Girl: Be positive, Raven.

Starfire: Negativity will not help us get through this.
Raven: We have some idea of what it is but we do not know where it is.
Beast Boy: Oh, now I know what Titans Tower is! Can't remember where it is!

Nightwing: I thought you were supposed to be our shining example of happiness.

Beast Boy: I stopped since we landed on Frankenstein Land.

Nightwing: You've been your happiest since we landed on Frankenstein Land and NOW you're losing hope?

Beast Boy Narration:
I wish I could tell them I don't want to go.

Beast Boy: No... maybe. I don't know.

Beast Boy Narration:
The fight around every corner, the different adventure every time... Feels like heaven to me. Best thing is, we HAVE to stick together. I mean, yeah, I do want to see the outside world again, I want to... eat pizza again but I sorta like it here too.

A Hut...

The Titans sleep, lying down in an empty hut in the middle of a desert world. The bright sun still shines and never goes down. Beast Boy lies face-up staring at the ceiling.

Beast Boy Narration:
Couldn't find a world where the sun had set. Not this time.

Beast Boy yawns, where he finally rolls over and goes to sleep.

Beast Boy's Mind

Beast Boy wakes up, he sits in an interrogation room, his hands cuffed. He looks to his side, the rest of the Titans peer through a window and a shadowed figure walks towards the door. The door clicks and opens to reveal... TERRA MARKOV.

Beast Boy: No, no, no, NO!

Terra: Scared of me, babe?

Beast Boy looks to the titans disgusted.

Beast Boy: She's lying, she'll only betray...!

Terra: Didn't you miss me, sugar?

Beast Boy: No, not after what you did. No. Not now, not ever.

Terra: Fine. I guess you'll just stay cuffed.

Beast Boy: How... how are you here?

Terra: What do you fear most?

Beast Boy: ANSWER ME!

Terra: What do you fear most? I'm just gonna keep askin'.

Beast Boy: Deathstroke.

Terra: You're such a bad liar, sweetie.

Beast Boy: ...and you've got a degree in it.

Terra: Come on...

Beast Boy: Why the hell are you asking me this!?

Terra: Let me help you out. You live in a world with no perception of time, a world where you're forced to stay with your friends. What's not to love?

Beast Boy: I don't know what you're talking about.

Terra: Donna's getting married. Dick's becoming his own man. Wally's gone. Vic's got a one-way ticket to the Justice League. They're all moving on and you... you're still just a little kid not progressing, not moving, not aging. You're on your way to being alone. Now, what do you fear?

Beast Boy: Losing them.

Terra: What happened to me, Gar?

Beast Boy: I lost you.

Terra: You can't let them go, can you?

Beast Boy: No.

Terra: Don't. Stay here, in the pocket dimension. I'll stay with you.

Beast Boy: Okay...

Terra: I need you to keep a secret for me. Please?

Beast Boy: What?

Terra: You can't tell any of the titans, all right.

Beast Boy: What?

Terra: We both know where Titans Tower is.

Present Day, HIVE Base

Beast Boy and Cyborg stand together amongst the ruins of the battle they had just fought.

Beast Boy: So, you're super American military guy.

Cyborg: You could put it that way.

Beast Boy: ...and you're taller.

Cyborg: State of the art exoskeleton, almost unbreakable armor plating.

Batman: Comes with a price.

Cyborg: Excuse me?

Batman: You know what I'm talking about, Stone. You SOLD yourself to the government. State of the art yes, to be used against anybody within ARGUS or Checkmate? No.

Cyborg: To be used for the defence of the country.

Batman: Whatever you say, poster boy. I hear you've been working with Task Force X recently?

Cyborg: Shut up.

Batman: Cyberion.

Cyborg grabs him, realises the situation and then pulls back.

Cyborg: What the hell happened to you, man?

Batman stays silent. Beast Boy notices the anger on Cyborg's face and tries to intervene.

Beast Boy: So you're Robocop!

Cyborg: I'm not Robocop.

Beast Boy: You're Robocop!

Cyborg: Yeah, I'm totally Robocop!

Batman smiles, realises it and then returns to a blank expression.

Raven, Donna Troy and Starfire stand in a corner together.

Starfire: So, girls, how's it been?

Raven: Relatively the same for the past nine years.

A door smashes as a result of Raven's power.

Starfire: Okay... So, Donna, are you still with Kyle?

Donna: No, we ended it. Still see him around the watchtower though. What's up with you?

Starfire: Well, I WAS a part of the Tamaranian defence program but now there isn't a Tamaran so I've been doing some freelance monster hunting.

Donna: Sounds... eventful.

Starfire: Yeah!

Titans Tower, the nucleus, somewhere...

Terra Markov walks into a surveillance room, a masked man sits behind a large amount of screens. The screens monitor every world within the pocket dimension, one computer screen for each world.

Terra: They ain't going anywhere.

Masked man: Good, now the world...

The masked man stands up and turns around to reveal...

DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR.

Deathstroke: ...will STAY RID of the Titans.

Deathstroke turns to a computer and clicks a few buttons, the screen becomes static.

Deathstroke: We've lost contact with them.

Terra: Hmph, well... d'ya think the universe has changed without 'em?

Deathstroke: Everything changes without the Titans.

How did Deathstroke get to the pocket universe? How did Terra come back from the dead? All will be answered soon enough in THE NEW TITANS!