Hello all Solo Gamer here with the next chapter of The Beast Inside! Hope you enjoy! People seem to like this story so it shall continue! The Titans and Logan have reconciled and are friends again, or are they? Is it really that easy? Could the Titan be that trusting? Read on to find out!
As Logan flew through the air on the energy construct of a Thunder bird with Raven and Starfire beside him, he kind of hoped that after all these years, new villains would've shown up or the villains in Jump would've gotten stronger or smarter. When the trio arrived on the scene Logan let the energy disappear and dropped to the ground twenty feet below, landing with a resounding thud. Raven and Starfire flew down next to him while Cyborg and Robin arrived in the T-car just in time to see the front of the Jump City Bank explode. Citizens were running in terror from the explosion, scattering in all directions in order to get away from the coming battle. The plume of smoke from the explosion slowly dissipated, and Logan's hopes were proven wrong when the group arrived and found it was just the Hive Five standing outside the demolished front of the bank. Logan sighed loudly, catching the attention of all present.
"Man this kinda sucks…," he said as he put his hands behind his head with a dejected look on his face, "I was hoping for someone new or something, but it's just you guys…"
"Who do you think you are you…" began Gizmo before he was cut off by Logan.
"Save it baby-man. Let's just get this over with."
"Who is this guy?" yelled Gizmo, confusion and anger clear on his face at being disregarded, "The shirtless wonder."
"It's alright, we didn't quite recognize him at first either, but he's someone who's put you behind bars before," replied Cyborg as he readied his sonic cannon.
The Hive Five stared at Logan for a moment taking in his appearance, and then the green skin finally registered. Before any of them could shout their finding, an arrogant voice replied first.
"Hey! The beast dweeb has finally grown a spine and shown up after all these years! Ready to lose again?"
At the sound of the voice Logan growled lowly. He recognized that voice.
"Adonis," he growled out.
"What's up loser?"
Logan clenched his fists so hard that he pierced the skin on his palms and blood began to drip to the ground. He was vaguely aware of Robin, tired of talking, pulling out a few bird-erangs and the rest of the team launching into action. Logan lost track of where the rest of the Titans were, his vision had tunneled onto the laughing form of Adonis. He streaked forward straight at the red suited villain, a green blur ready to deliver pain and fear to his enemy. He could feel his anger rolling inside his soul. It was Adonis' fault after all.
He got him drenched in the chemicals.
He caused his beast to manifest.
He was the reason he had to leave all those years ago.
HE was going to make him pay.
Adonis surged forward to meet Logan's charge, his fists raised and ready to crush the green teen's skull as he drew closer and closer. Logan leapt high in the air reaching Adonis's height and cocked his right fist back. Adonis launched a fist at the airborne Titan hoping to knock him out of the air. Logan, seeing the attack coming, used his left hand and smashed his palm down on the top of the incoming fist. The fists momentum spun him causing him to cleanly dodge the attack as he landed on top of Adonis' arm. The moment his feet touched down Logan launched himself forward and with his already cocked right arm delivered a devastating haymaker to the face of the mechanical villain. Logan could feel the crunch of broken metal as Adonis' jaw ricochet off his fist and he skid back a few feet.
Not letting up, Logan was sprinting towards the dazed villain as soon as his feet touched down. Before the villain could comprehend what happened, Logan sent a flurry of jabs and kicks at him. Adonis tried to defend the attack, but the blows were raining down so quickly that Adonis wasn't able to dodge or block them all. More and more attacks slipped through, and with each hit the crunch of metal could be heard. Each attack was denting the metal suit that the villain was inside of. Adonis tried to counter attack, raising his fists and bringing them down in a hammer strike, but Logan jumped backwards at the last second dodging the strike as the villains' fists smashed into the earth, breaking the pavement. Logan capitalized on the opportunity and jumped forward, landing on the giant fists. He pushed off the fist and sent his left knee careening into the mechanical teens' stomach. The attack launched the villain into the air several feet before he crashed back to earth, cracking the pavement upon impact.
Logan knew he needed to stop soon. If he didn't he wouldn't be able to stop himself and he'd have a repeat of what happened a year ago. Deciding to end it, he waited until Adonis was stumbling into a standing position before striking. Using his emerald energy he created a bull and had it charge straight at Adonis. The bull struck him in the gut where he just received a knee, doubling the giant villain over. The changeling launched surged forward and executed his final attack. He leapt up, turning in the air as he did so, and wrapped his right arm around the villain's' neck. Letting gravity take its course Logan pulled Adonis down, not letting go until they collided with the pavement. The landing stung as Logan landed on his back, but it was something that would be healed in a few moments. Adonis took the worst of the fall. Smacking face first into the pavement, the blow not only knocked him out, but caused his severely damaged armor to explode off of him, falling to rest in the pavement too dented and broken for use anymore.
Logan stood and arched his back, cracking his spine as he let out a sigh of relief. His anger abated and his mind returned to the right state, he looked around to see his team looking at him in complete and utter shock, the Hive laying defeated at their feet. A light blush of embarrassment rose to the changeling's cheeks as he rubbed the back of his head. Applause began to sound, and for the first time since the battle the green teen noticed the civilians that had grouped together to cheer on the battle. Police cars and news vans began to appear, and while robin spoke to the officers about the detainment of the villain's, the reporters began to swarm Logan.
"Jump City news reporting live from the aftermath of the Titans battle with the Hive Five and Adonis where a mysterious green teenager defeated Adonis! Tell me something kid, just who are you?!"
"Yeah! How'd you take down Adonis so easily?"
"Why is your skin green!?"
"Are you perhaps related to the missing Beast Boy?!"
"Are you here to stay!?"
"Can I have your autograph!?"
"What's with all the scars!?"
All the people surrounding him were making his instincts go wild. It had been so long since he'd been around a lot of people, he'd forgotten how to deal with it. It was taking all his willpower not to freak out at the moment. Raven could sense his distress at the people crowding him and quickly came in to rescue him. She teleported in between Logan and the Reporters, and before they could speak she silenced them with a raise of her hand. When they all quieted she spoke.
"I'd appreciated if you didn't crowd around my teammate like that. He doesn't like being in large groups of people. This is the hero formerly known as Beast Boy. He goes by Logan now. That's all you're getting out of us so you can leave now."
The reporters began to disperse. They knew that once Raven told them to leave it was best to just leave, besides, they'd gotten enough already. After a few minutes went by the only ones left in the area were a few civilians and the team. Logan let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and turned to the team only to be verbally assaulted by their resident ball of sunshine. Logan had to lean back so he wasn't head-butted by the happy Starfire.
"Oh friend that was a most glorious display of strength! Please, you must tell us how you came to acquire such power!"
"Seriously dude," continued Cyborg, "You put the smack down on Adonis!"
Robin and Raven didn't say anything, but both of them were curious as well how Logan had gotten that strong. The teen in question looked at his team in slight shock before something Gizmo said earlier registered in his mind. He looked down at himself and saw that what the pint sized villain had said was true. He was the shirtless wonder.
"I'll tell you guys later," he began much to the disappointment of the team, "Right now I think I need to go to the mall to get some clothes. I don't think I should be walking around shirtless in public."
Starfire squealed in happiness while the rest of the team groaned. They knew if they were going to the mall that they were going to be there for a while. Logan couldn't help but poke fun at the rest of the team's discomfort.
"What you guys like me walking around shirtless? Sad that I'll be covering up my amazing six pack?"
Logan watched as Robin and Cyborg just snorted at the comment. He turned to Raven and swore he saw a blush on her face before she turned and began flying in the direction of the mall before replying,
"Oh, please. No one wants to see you shirtless Beast Boy."
Since she was turned around she didn't see him stiffen at the use of his old name, but the others did. They saw the dark look flash across his face for a moment before it was replaced with the grin he wore before. They wondered why he refused to use his old name. Just one of the many questions they wanted to ask their green friend.
"For the last time it's Logan. Now let's go. I wanna finish soon so I can get some pizza. I haven't had pizza in ages."
The team plopped down at their table at the pizza place they frequented. Everyone was exhausted except for Starfire who wore a bright smile. Shopping with Starfire was always a tiring event, so much so that Robin even classified it as a training method. Logan had gotten what he needed in thirty minutes or so since he wasn't really picky about what he was going to wear. He got several pairs of black cargo pants, a bunch of t-shirts in purple, black, and dark grey, boxers, socks, black and purple steel toed boots, and a black sleeveless hoodie. He had everything he needed. Unfortunately, Starfire was just getting started.
It took four hours for the team to convince her that she had enough things and to leave.
After finally convincing her Raven teleported all the bought items to the tower, leaving Logan with a purple shirt, socks, and his new boots to change into, and the team made their way to their favorite pizza joint where they are now about to order.
"So Logan," began Cyborg, "Were good for getting the meat lovers right? Or do I have to beat it into you?"
"Naw, meat lovers is cool," he replied.
For the second time that day, everyone looked at Logan with complete and utter shock. This needed to be explained.
"But….aren't you a vegetarian?" asked Raven, as everybody stared at the green teen.
He looked up and his eyes took on a faraway look. He was tapping his fingers on the table trying to figure out how much he should tell them. With a shrug he figured he tell them it all. They were his family after all so he should be able to trust them.
"You guys remember how I said the beast was the reason I left."
They all nodded their head in confirmation.
"Well the reason it was such a problem was because I was fighting it."
Confusion flashed across the teams face and Logan realized he'd have to explain further.
"Ok so you know how the Beast was just a conglomeration of all my negative emotions and instincts? We'll the reason it was driving me insane was because I was rejecting it. I was fighting a part of myself."
"And by fighting a part of yourself, you were throwing yourself out of balance," confirmed Raven.
Logan nodded before continuing,
"After a few months of fighting it, I realized I couldn't beat it. I wasn't meant to beat it because It was, is a part of me. I was nothing more than a wild animal at that time, but luckily I had gotten far enough into the wild so that I wouldn't hurt anyone. Once I got to that point I did something that I had never done before."
"What'd you do?" asked Robin.
"I accepted it," he replied.
"What!?" cried the team, the pizza ordering long forgotten.
"Yeah, I accepted that the Beast wasn't going anywhere. I accepted that it was a part of who I was. I accepted that I was the Beast, and the Beast was me. Like two sides of a coin you know? Once I did that the whispering lessened, and the pain stopped. I began to slowly gain control of myself again. With the Beast acceptance my appearance changed. I got taller, stronger, my senses enhanced, longer hair, pretty much what you're looking at right now."
A moment of silence passed at the table before it was broken by the rumbling of their tummies. Each of them chuckled softly before they called the waiter over and placed their orders. They filled the moment waiting for the food with idle chit chat, Logan using the time to see what the Titans had been up to over the years. It didn't take long for the pizzas to arrive and then all talk ceased as they began to eat. As they finished eating a stray thought appeared into Robins head, a thought he had to voice.
"Hey Logan," he asked.
"Yeah Robin, What's up?"
"If you gained control over yourself after a few months, why didn't you come back?"
Everyone stopped as the question sunk in. That's true they thought. Why didn't he come back? As they turned towards Logan for an answer, they saw the conflicted look on his face. Memories began to surface.
Memories of pain and suffering….
Memories of sadness….
Memories of blood and death….
Finally, his face settled onto a sad smile as he turned to look at the rest of his team. He opened his mouth to answer, but no words would come out. He turned back around and spoke as he surrounded himself with emerald energy.
"That's a story for another time. It's late and I'm tired. Let's head back to the tower."
Before anyone could talk, he took off enshrouded in the form of a small dragon, soaring towards the tower. The others shared a sad look before following after in their various modes of transportation. It looked like the mystery of their friend was only getting bigger.
A long shadow cast itself across the top of Titans tower as the sun dipped below the horizon. The shadow belonged to one Garfield Mark Logan, not quite man, not quite beast, but something in between. Memories danced in his eyes as he sat with his legs dangling off the side of the tower as he looked down at the restless sea below. He'd been sitting there for the past few hours, the restless shadows of his past tormenting him. He didn't mean for it to happen. He didn't mean to let her get…. He didn't mean for their blood to be on his hands.
But it was.
He had no choice.
It was them or him, and he wasn't ready to die.
A slight chill in the air alerted him to the presence of magical energy, which could only mean one person. Raven walked into view next to him, and sat down next to him. They sat in silence for a few moments. The silence began to eat at him. It was fine when it was just him, but not when there was someone else there. He turned to speak, but was beaten to it by Raven.
"You don't have to force yourself."
"..W-what?"
"You can tell us whenever you're ready you know? We're just worried about you….I'm worried about you…."
"Sorry…."
"It's not your fault. Obviously something happened to you that is hard for you to talk about. Whenever you're ready to talk, we'll be here to listen."
"I don't think I can tell you all at once…" he whispered.
"Then tell me," she replied, looking him in the eyes, amethyst meeting emerald, "You always told me that I shouldn't be so solitary, that I wasn't alone. Well now I'm telling you the same thing. You're not alone Logan. You don't have to hold it all in. I'll always be here for you just like you were there for me."
A soft smile spread across his face. He lifted his arm up and pulled her into his side, unable to see the bright blush that sprouted across her face. She unconsciously snuggled closer into his side, an embarrassed smile covering her face.
"Thanks Rae…"
"Anytime Logan."