TEN

(Monday - The Institute)

They spent an eternity floating in a timeless, formless, icy void, then reality violently slapped them in the face. Logan and Terra both leaned heavily on David, out of breath, dizzy, shaky, and freezing cold.

"Christ, David, that never gets any easier," Terra muttered.

"Yeah, I know," David replied as the energy sphere collapsed. "Took me a while to get used to it, too."

The unpleasant effects of the teleport passed quickly, and they slowly took in their new surroundings. They stood in the massive front lawn of an even more massive ivy-covered mansion. Teenagers with books and backpacks were hurriedly filing inside for their morning classes.

"Ah, home," Terra sighed, shaking off the last of the chills.

"Yeah, I remember this place," Logan remarked, then pointed to a nearby tree. "That's where the cute little ghost girl was sitting seven years ago."

"Ghost girl?" Terra asked. "You mean Kitty?"

"Yeah, that was her name. You two are still friends, huh?"

"I know I told you this, B.B.," she said, a little surprised. "Kitty's been my best friend for years, ever since I got here."

"Anyway, reset your watches, guys," David said, adjusting his own. "It's now 8:45 AM. I decided to break my own rule on synchronous timing to catch the Professor before class. Terra, this is your home turf. You want to show us around? I think first we should tell the Professor we're here."

"Easy enough," Terra replied, then put her fingers to her temple and closed her eyes, concentrating. "Professor, we're here," she muttered softly. "No, B.B. and David are with me." She lowered her hand and opened her eyes, looking to her companions. "He wants us to come to his office."

"Lead the way," David replied, gesturing toward the front door.

x

Anyway, blah …

x

They arrived at the X Institute, and stayed there a week or so. Logan was forced to accept the name Beast Boy or B.B. for the duration of the trip because that's how Terra always introduced him. He tried to explain that he's a grown man and it's just Beast now, and that he actually prefers Logan, but it was no use. There's already a Beast and a Logan, so Beast Boy stuck.

This is a school full of superheroes, and how do superheroes get to know each other? By fighting. Beast Boy was escorted to the Danger Room, where he did battle with The Beast, Colossus, Wolverine, Iceman, and Nightcrawler, among others. He even went a few rounds with Shadowcat, who's tougher than she looks.

After proving to the X-Men that he can give as good as he gets, Beast Boy was accepted as a peer. He and Cyclops spent a few hours bonding over their love of motorcycles, and the two Logans discussed the non-lethal uses of big nasty claws.

After about a week of fun with the X-Men, Beast Boy really couldn't stay any longer. 'Logan' had a life he needed to get back to. He and Terra spent one last night together, and in the morning, after a long goodbye, David and Logan left for the other dimension.

A few days later, David returned with a gift for Terra. It looked like a laptop computer, and he said it was equipped with inter-dimensional email. He showed her how to use the camera to record an audio-video message, and when she hit 'send' a magical nano-wormhole opened inside the machine for only a nano-second, just long enough to pulse a radio message through. A moment later she got a message from Logan, sitting in his apartment. David explained that the messages can be any length, but that it can only transmit a couple of times a day, so she needs to make each message count.

Terra and Logan corresponded like this daily for months. They wanted to be together, but she was not ready to leave the X-Men, and he could not forego his life in San Francisco. Logan had a plan, however. In another two years, when they had both finished their educations, he wanted to start Titans West with a few friends of his, Flamebird, Power Girl, and Impulse. He asked Terra to leave the X-Men and join him as a Titan … but only, he joked, if she'd stop calling him 'Beast Boy.'

After a few months of video correspondence, they contacted David again, to ask a favor, maybe make a deal. David said they both "owe him a favor" to be identified later, and began giving them vacations together. Every three months he would take one to the other's world for a week or so. They also spent a few of those vacations away. Twice, David took them to visit his home world, Valador, where Logan learned many new alien animal forms, and once they spent a week in Renaissance London.

After two years, Logan graduated and Terra finished her degree at the Institute. She moved to his world, they both moved to L.A., and together with some of The Beast's friends, formed Titans West. They lived happily ever after.

Titans West is Beast, Terra, Flamebird, Impulse, Power Girl, and occasionally Black Wolf, who decided to stick around for a while. In the spirit of 'living like a local,' David decided to become a superhero, adopting a costume and everything. Black Wolf is now a part time member of Titans West. He continues his romantic pursuit of Raven from across the continent, as he can teleport it easily. Also, there is definite chemistry between Black Wolf and Flamebird. Logan and Terra are in utter bliss living and working together. They are so in love it makes the others sick.

As Black Wolf, David has been using up all his magical energy much faster than before, and is forced to teleport home periodically to recharge his 'mana batteries.' He tries not to leave more than every month or so, and he stays gone for days at a time, sometimes longer, a few times up to a month. He is thus a part time Titan, as the other five go on without him much of the time. Terra carries one of his signal beacons, so he can respond instantly if the there is an emergency and the team needs him while he's away.

Beast and Black Wolf have gotten into several arguments about the ethics of being a superhero. David believes in fighting to win, and Logan believes there are rules of engagement to be followed, namely, don't kill anybody. David can't count how many badguys he's killed in his career, and feels restrained by the code of conduct required to be a superhero, including use of force against a target and treatment of prisoners. Beast has threatened more than once that if Black Wolf doesn't behave he's off the team, and Black Wolf has threatened more than once to quit. So far, they have calmed down and made up after each argument, but everyone, especially Terra, is concerned that David won't be around much longer. His recharging trips are becoming longer and more frequent, as he spends less of his time working as a superhero.

Terra has tried to reach out to David a couple of times. She fears he is headed down the path of the supervillain. She and Logan are both trying to convince him that he's not as good a goodguy as he could be, and he needs to work on his behavior.

The End?

I think that brings us up to date on the soap opera, as it's unfolding in my head. (7/9/07)