Well, this is coming out earlier than planned, but I had spare time. Special thanks to TDG3RD for being my first (and so far only) reviewer, and to answer your questions, well you'll just have to keep reading to find out :) And now on with the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or any related material in this fanfic. All characters belong to DC Comics.
Jump City-9:37 am-12th November
In a small unit located in a nondescript area of the city, Garfield Logan awakes from his restless sleep. His breathing is fast and he is sweating, tossing and turning, when he suddenly shoots bolt upright. "No!" he whispers in a raspy yet desperate voice, it takes him a few seconds for him to realise where he is, and upon doing such, he runs a hand through his hair, muttering.
"Just another dream… just a dream…" he mutters, seeming to be trying to convince himself such. After a few minutes he is back to normal, and washing his face in the basin on the counter. He then opens his bag and reaches in, his hand bumps into something hard, and he withdraws it. Once out, Gar instantly averts his eyes; the 'something' is in fact a photo, with a gold frame.
It shows a man with blonde hair and woman with shoulder-length brown hair, standing behind a boy with blonde hair like the man, looking about five. The man has his hand on the boy's shoulder and is smiling broadly; the other two have identical expressions on their faces. It appears to be a family photo; Gar runs his fingers over the two older figures in the photo and sighs deeply. He then thrusts the photo back into the bag.
A little later, the green man pulls out another object, a silver case in the shape of a heart. He sighs deeply once again, and smiles sadly. The case clicks open and inside is a necklace with a garnet raven on the it, Gar holds the piece of jewellery about a foot from his face, the sad smile never leaving his face as he holds the two objects that remind of two of the dearest people to him.
A few moments later, the box is returned to the bag, raven and all. Gar then changes into some different clothes; donning the jacket he wore the last night once again. After hammering the non-responsive heater with a glove-covered fist, Logan walks out of the room, locking the door after him and pocketing the wallet with his keys. The green man then walks over to his motorcycle and leaves the grounds of the motel.
Garfield Logan walks through the crowds in the plaza, no one paying much attention to the unusual green individual. Despite his dark past, the Titans never told the public of the true reasons Beast Boy left the team, merely stating that Beast Boy was proceeding on with his life: without the Titans. Gar walked up to a fruit vendor and bought an apple, chewing on, as he walked through the throng.
"Hey, mister, are you Beast Boy, the former Titan?" Garfield turns to his right to see a little boy with blonde hair, about eight years old, looking at the green man with a bright and hopeful expression. Gar winces as he realises what he is going to have to do, disappointing kids is something he was never happy about and his vacation from society aided him in avoiding such problems.
"You are Beast Boy! I knew it! Can I please have your autograph?" the boy asks in the same cheery and hopeful voice as before. Gar sighs and runs a hand through his hair, a nervous habit he had recently picked up.
"Sorry to disappoint you kid, but I'm not Beast Boy and even if I were, if you knew truth, my autograph would be one of the last things you would want," Garfield reluctantly replies not looking at the boy's face, not wanting to see the bright expression slide right off his face. Garfield puts a hand on the child's shoulder and puts a bit of pressure on it as he hastily walks away.
A few minutes later however, Logan turns his head back only to spot one of the last things he ever wanted to see again, but knew he would inevitably encounter.
A man wearing a black and blue uniform, with an eye-mask plastered to his face.
Nightwing was depressed; it was the five-year anniversary of the Titans losing one of their most prized members and good friend. He had gotten up earlier than normal and had headed out into the city in the hopes that a good meal and a trek through town would renew his happiness. Unfortunately, it did little of the sort as his mind kept straying to his previous friend, Beast Boy.
Questions kept going through his head. What was he doing? How was he faring? Most importantly, where and who was he? Several places he looked in the plaza kept reminding Nightwing of his old friend, the pizza place, the arcade they went to play the latest games against each other, and of course the Tower itself as he watched it decrease in size as he crossed the bay between the island the Tower was situated on and the harbor of the city.
As he raised his head however, a hawk shot out of the crowd. Nightwing blinked, wondering what the heck a hawk would be doing in the City Plaza, let alone flying out of the crowd. Several people had even jumped aside of out surprise as though the bird had just appeared. Then it hit Nightwing, but… it couldn't be.
'Well, there's only one way to find out,' Nightwing resolved in his mind as he set off though the crowd as fast as possible. 'I need to get a better look at that bird and find out if it's really… him.'
Nightwing charged through the crowd pushing, jumping until he saw the rooftop of a building the hawk was flying over. 'Oh no you don't,' Nightwing thought as he drew out a device from the silver utility belt around his waist. He raised the device towards the rooftop and as he kept running, he then fired a crescent shaped projectile at his target. It hit the rooftop edge and hooked onto it thanks to a spike in the center of it.
Nightwing retracted the cord and shot up onto the roof, where he then bolted across it, determined to get a better look at the bird. Reaching the crest of the roof he tripped due to the fact he wasn't prepared for it, tumbling down the other side Nightwing tried to right himself. Just as he was tossed off the edge, a gloved hand shot out and gripped onto the edge. Nightwing twisted his head to the side and stared at the hawk as it flew away and, sure enough, there was a hint of green in the bird's feathers, barely visible but there nonetheless.
Nightwing's eye-mask narrowed in thought and suspicion, what was Beast Boy doing here. He had left after the incident with Slade, leaving not a trace of his whereabouts and means of leaving. This was the first Nightwing had heard or seen of the emerald changeling and it was shrouded in mystery, why the sudden take-off, let alone his appearance at such a time.
Nightwing pondered for a few minutes or maybe a few hours, after he pulled himself up of course, but eventually Starfire touched down behind him. Nightwing was so deep in thought that he never noticed the amber-skinned alien presence until the she shook his shoulder.
"Is it normal for you to be sitting on a rooftop like this or is this a new precedent, Richard," Starfire asked jokingly. Nightwing smiled as he shook his head, trying to decide whether or not to tell his girlfriend about his 'encounter' with Beast Boy.
"It's just that I thought I saw… Beast Boy," Nightwing stated, making up his mind. Starfire gasped upon hearing this but immediately motioned for the masked crusader to continue. Nightwing detailed the events to the alien and then waited for her questions.
"This is… this is… remarkable, but why would he suddenly reappear, I was led to believe that he had left our lives for good after he left us for Slade, claiming that we weren't being considerate towards his feelings, which I doubt is his real reason for turning to evil as Slade would not likely treat him much better. Perhaps-" Starfire rambled on until Nightwing interrupted her with an open palm.
"I don't know why he is back all I know is that he IS back," Nightwing calmly replied after Starfire had quieted down. "I'm not going to tell the others just in case he was passing through or I'm wrong, and I want you to not do so either. If Beast Boy is back then he will reveal himself before long and we will hopefully be able to figure out what's going on. Until then we just stay on our guard and hope that he isn't going to try to do anything bad."
Starfire nodded in reply and the two sat there for a few moments in silence before the alien princess decided to take her leave and return to the Tower. Nightwing sighed as he watched the love of his life fly away; Beast Boy's reappearance had complicated things twofold and made the masked superhero wonder just what was happening around him.
A green hawk landed in an alleyway just off mainstreet. It then quite suddenly transformed back into a man with green skin, dark green hair who was wearing a black jacket, black denim jeans and black shirt. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair; Nightwing knew it was him for sure, he wouldn't have pursued him like that if he hadn't.
Gar's head suddenly shot up as he saw something glint in the darkness, his eyes narrowed and then shot wide open as it glinted again, along with three other identical things. The changeling leapt to the side as four leaves shot at where he was before. These were not however normal leaves, for they were made of metal despite the fact that they had veins and other things that would only be present in a proper leaf. Gar rolled upon hitting the ground and he remained in a crouch, ready for whatever may come at him.
"Tch, tch. Now that wasn't being a very obedient dog, was it, jumping out of the way of your master's retribution?" asked a sweet yet dangerous voice from the shadows. The owner was soon revealed to be lady wearing indigo pants and jacket with red hair however, as she stepped out into the light.
"Well my 'master' should know by now that I'm not very obedient," Gar growled in response, as he raised into a better fighting position. "In fact he knows that I like to do the exact opposite of what he wants me to do!" The girl merely smirked at his comments.
"That's exactly why he's going to have you put down and I'm the one who's gonna do the deed," retorted Shimmer as she plucked another half-dozen leaves from the plant to her left. "So why don't you make it easy on yourself and just let me do this quickly, I promise to make it painful."
Gar reared in attack in response to these words and Shimmer quickly transmuted the leaves to metal. The changeling leapt for the plant, throwing the matter transmuter off-guard as she threw her projectiles in a fan in front of her, missing Logan completely as he transformed into a panther and sent the pot flying up the alley, before shattering and sending the plant across the pavement.
Shimmer snarled in retaliation and grabbed a loose brick from the ground and transmuted it into lead as she threw at the feline. Gar leapt at the lead brick and turned into a monkey in order to leap over it he then turned into a wolf just as he hit Shimmer in chest. He snapped at her arm but she wrenched it out off his reach and shoved the snarling beast off of her. She then rolled back into a crouch, grabbing a piece of wood from the ground as she rolled.
Gar leapt at her as she transformed the wood into iron and swung at the wolf barrelling towards her. Gar transformed into a kangaroo at the last minute and kicked off her arm and weapon before transforming back into himself in a roll. Shimmer stumbled back but quickly recovered and came back into a battle-ready stance. The two watched each other for a few moments that seemed like hours.
Gar moved first and leapt into the air transforming into a wallaby. Shimmer was ready however and swung towards the green marsupial bearing down at her. Unfortunately for the transmuter, Gar spun round and walloped Shimmer in the side of the head with his tail throwing her to the ground. The lead stick clattered to the ground a few feet from her and she vainly reached for it.
Gar however had other plans and picked her up by the collar of her jacket. He held at face level and glared into her face, Shimmer smirked uneasily at him.
"Heh, you can't hurt me, heroes don't do the whole pain thing," Shimmer informed the emerald changeling, hoping that she was right.
"You're right, heroes don't do the whole pain thing." Gar stated coldly, loosening his grip on the jacket, Shimmer's smirk widened. "But… I'm no hero."
Shimmer's eyes shot wide open as Gar let go of her jacket and swung his other arm up, which had morphed into a tiger's. Shimmer's screams filled the noonday air.
So what do you think, if you read this please review. Don't worry about Shimmer's elimination as Slade had a lot more where she came from. As for costumes, for both Starfire and Nightwing if you've read the latest comics, those are the ones I'm using for them, same with Shimmer (who is from the comics). I hope to update within a fortnight, but probably much sooner.