Chapter Two: Abnormality

Normal was not a word people used to describe Jump City. Normal was not what you'd call the city's defenders either. They were the Teen Titans, five superheroes who constantly battled the forces of evil. They lived in Titans Tower, their own home/headquarters located off the city's coastline. They weren't what you and I would call normal, but one member felt this more acutely than the others.

Beast Boy, formerly Garfield Logan, felt especially abnormal. He was physically different from the others. Cyborg too was physically different from the others, but he was different. Cyborg's body had been replaced with cybernetic parts while his skin color was permanently altered because of the experiment that his father had performed on him to save his life. He always felt different, and insecure about himself around his friends, but hid it well with a false bravado and his humorous antics.

It was a gloomy, dreary day and the rain clouds were gathering, blocking the sun's warm light. The Titans were all in the Tower. Cyborg and Beast Boy were in the middle of an intense racing game while Raven was reading a book. Starfire was watching them with interest. Cyborg had successfully beaten Beast Boy three times in row and was quiet happy about it.

"Man, I own you on this game! You might as well throw in the towel."

"Friend Cyborg, I see no towels for Beast Boy to throw," Starfire said, not understanding what the phrase meant.

"Throwing in the towel means he gives up Star," Cyborg explained. "It's called figure of speech. It's a phrase that represents something about life."

"Oh, so you want Beast Boy to 'throw in the towel' because you 'own him' in the videogame, am I correct?" she asked.

"Yep, that's right." Cyborg finished as Robin walked into the room.

"Hey guys, we have a transmission coming in, could you turn off the Gamestation?" he asked Cyborg. They both groaned, but Cyborg switched it off. The screen was blank for a second. Then they saw a man appear on it.

"Titans, I need your help," the man said.

"What is it?" Robin asked.

"My name is Dr. Jacob Finlay. I work at S.T.A.R. Labs and they called me here to Jump City to discover what has been plaguing CEO's of Logan Estate Genetic Research Facilities."

"I see, and what does this have to do with us?" Robin asked, not quite comprehending what Dr. Finlay was requesting of them.

"I discovered that the CEOs have all come down with some strange illness. I have taken some blood samples and I have found that the disease comes from Africa."

"Africa?" Beast Boy asked, Robin noticed with interest.

"Yes, young friend. The disease is from Africa. I do not know what it is, but all I know is that he must have been injected into their system by someone."

"What makes you think that, Dr. Finlay?" Robin asked.

"None of the CEOs have ever been to Africa." The man replied simply. "Already, one of them has passed on."

"Passed on?" Raven asked. "Do you mean that they're dead?" she asked Dr. Finlay.

"Yes, Ms. He died. They took him to the infirmary, but it did him no good. No medicine in the world could save him from what this disease did to his body."

"Excuse us for a moment," Robin said, turning to his friends. "What should we do guys? We don't do murder cases. We deal with living criminals, not murder."

"We cannot refuse him, Robin. He sounds desperate," Starfire said.

"But we don't know anything about this kind of stuff," Raven said quietly.

"My dad was a scientist. And I know a lot, so I might be able to help," Cyborg offered. "I mean, whoever this is, they know what their doing if they can inject something into these CEOs without them really knowing it."

"What if this maniac contaminates the whole city? Some psycho's running around stabbing people with needles is pretty diabolical to me," Beast Boy said.

"Beast Boy, you think anything's diabolical," Raven said flatly.

"I'm afraid of needles," Beast Boy shot back.

"Meeting's over, we need to give him an answer," Robin said as they turned back to face Dr. Finlay.

"We're in. We'll come as soon as we can," Robin said as he saw a look of relief cross the man's face.

"Thank you, Robin. This means a lot." Dr. Finlay looked at him gratefully. He turned his attention to Beast Boy suddenly as he seemed to do a double take.

"Wait a second. Are you—" He shook his head. "Never mind what I said. It's just me." His voice became low, almost inaudible, but Robin managed to hear the rest of what he said, "It can't be him; he disappeared years ago." He would ask Dr. Finlay what he meant by this later, right now he had one more question for him.

"One more question: When did he show symptoms of this disease?" Robin continued to question him, trying to pick up any clues that might help him in this investigation. The fact that people were dying because of this disease disturbed him. What if this 'person' unleashed this disease on the City? What would happen if this was allowed to continue? He would help Dr. Finlay, he decided.

"Three weeks ago. First, he collapsed on the floor and we took him to the infirmary. The doctors didn't find anything wrong with him and they let him leave. Then he collapsed again and the rushed him back to the doctors.

"This time, he didn't recover. He started having bouts of sweating and shivering, and he seemed like he was in a trance. It became worse and worse until his body shut down because he wouldn't stop shaking and shivering. They gave him the best medicine they could but it did no good at all." He shook his head. "No good at all."

"Guys are you convinced?" he turned to his friends. "Because I am." They nodded at him. Beast Boy tried very hard not to show any of his reaction to the entire conversation. Though he knew exactly what the disease and its symptoms were: Skultia.

He had not forgotten what had happened to him when he was a small child. The weakness, the sweating, the shivering, the fever. All of it, he remembered so clearly in his mind. He could have said something to Robin, but he didn't. He didn't want to bring back those memories. He wanted to leave them far away in the past where they belonged.

Dr. Finlay ended the transmission as Robin looked at the Titans. "Are we ready to leave?"

"Yes, my Baby's all ready to leave. Come on y'all, we're takin' the car." They piled into the T-Car and Beast Boy, who was normally very talkative was silent the entire trip. Raven noticed this and looked at him.

"Beast Boy, are you okay?" This wasn't normal behavior for the talkative, annoying prankster who was always trying to get her to laugh at one of his corny jokes.

"I'm fine," Beast Boy lied. "I'm fine, Raven. Don't worry about me, okay?" He lied to her because he didn't want to tell her the truth. He was going back to a part of the past he wanted to forget.

Logan Estate had once belonged to his Father, Mark Logan. But when Mark Logan died, the Estate went to Nicholas Galtry, who had stolen money from the Logan family, including the inheritance that Mark had set aside for him. He hated thinking about Logan Estate because he associated it with Galtry. And he hated Galtry like Robin hated Slade.

The drove downtown until they reached the large building with the bold words, LOGAN ESTATE GENETIC RESEARCH FACILITIES engraved above the entryway. Walking into the vast, spacious building, they were greeted by Dr. Finlay, an older gentleman wearing a white doctor's coat with a small ID badge.

"Hello Titans, I'm Dr. Finlay." Dr. Finlay introduced himself politely. Robin shook his hand.

"I'm Robin. This is Starfire, Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy." Dr. Finlay shook their hands in turn. He stared long and hard at Beast Boy.

"You look…familiar somehow. Can't quite place it."

"Well, Dr. Finlay, this is the first time I've ever met you," Beast Boy admitted as he shook his hand.

He turned to Robin. "Let me show you his office." He led them down a hallway until he came to a door. Opening it, he ushered them inside. "Feel free to have a look around. This place has been untouched since he…passed on." Robin began to look around the room. Nothing seemed suspicious or out of place, but you could never tell, he had to search thoroughly so he wouldn't miss anything.

Beast Boy too, looked around the room, but unlike Robin he wasn't looking for clues. His eyes were fixed on the small wooden nameplate engraved with the name, Nicholas Galtry. Now he knew he didn't want to be there at all. Why should he help his friends investigate the murder of a man he hated? Of course, they didn't know anything about his past with Galtry. To them this was just an investigation; there wasn't anything personal about it.

He also had another question: Why would Logan Estate still hire him? He turned to Dr. Finlay. "Why did Logan Estate hire Galtry? I heard he was caught stealing money from them."

"That's true, young man. I don't know how you know that but Galtry was hired again because he paid some high powered CEOs to let him return. I didn't like it, of course, I knew that man personally, and in my opinion I'm not sad to see him go."

I'm not either, Beast Boy mentally agreed with him. Dr. Finlay continued. "Anyway, I called you all here because I believe he was murdered. Though no one else here believes me I'm glad you all do."

"Any way we can help Dr. Finlay," Robin reassured him. "Guys did you find anything?"

"I did, I think," Starfire spoke up from the desk. She pointed at something very tine on the desk. "Is that some kind of needle?"

"Yeah, I think so," Robin said. "Dr. Finlay, do you have some tweezers?" he asked. Dr. Finlay ran off to retrieve them. "Does anyone usually put needles in their office?"

Not that I know of," Cyborg replied. "I'm gonna run a scan around the room and see if I can spot anything." He used his cybernetic eye to run a scan on the room. He didn't find anything hidden or suspicious in the room. "So far, Robin, the room checks out."

"Except for that needle tip Starfire found," Raven observed. "Beast Boy, you're awfully quiet. Something wrong?"

"No, no, I'm fine, honest. All this science stuff is hurting my brain that's all," he sad hastily. Raven didn't really believe him. Dr. Finlay returned with the tweezers. Robin used them to pick up the needle tip and place it in a small back.

"I'll scan that when we get back to the Tower," Cyborg said as they walked out of the building.

"That was quick," Raven observed. Beast Boy said nothing. Raven noticed this and decided she'd talk to him about it later.

"So is the investigation over?" Starfire asked.

"Not quite Star," Robin replied. "We just have to—" He stopped in mid sentence. There was a small note on the windshield of the T-Car. Walking over, he picked it up. Opening it, he read the short message. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. He turned back to the others.

"Titans, we have a new villain in town. Look at this note." He passed it around to his friends. They read it in turn and shocked, horrified expressions crossed their faces as they read it. Raven tried to keep her face calm as she was the last one to read the typed note:

Stay out of my business, Titans. Or you'll end up dead like those CEOs! The author's name sent a shiver down Raven's Spine. Dr. Death.