Jump city is known for many things. First off all, it used to be a really insecure place to live in. Although its growing economy brought in a lot of enterprises and factories, skyrocketing the income and making it the ideal place to start a business. It didn't take long before all sort of thugs, from powerful mafias to thieves wanna be, came lurking in a serious attempt to take profit from the growing city.

Second, it is home of the Teen Titans. As a natural response of the growing crime rate in a world where powerful meta-humans, wizards, way too many lab accidents, sorcerers, spawns of technology, aliens and the like lived in, this unusual group of teens took upon themselves to be the safeguards of the citizens of Jump city. Not just that, in a bold attempt to make a name of their own they got themselves a giant T, their headquarters. This of course held different reactions especially among other heroes: while most of them just chuckled at the brand new icon the city had and the boldness of the group behind it (ahh to be young again), some thought that headquarters should be a secret place, somewhere where one could strike from the shadows and to retreat to in the worst case scenario. Not to mention that the hero path is a dangerous one and letting all the world know where you spent your nights was a death wish in its own accord; there were others, however, that thought that what the tower really meant was a clear sign of "You wanna mess with my city? Think again", arguments were heard that the tower had a psychological effect on the villains, discouraging and inviting them to not commit crime or else.

Last but not least, Jump city had a vast history of different cultures living in it; ever since man walked this side of the earth numerous religions and cults had tried to settle themselves in this city, some succeeding and some failing the test of time. This resulted in an unusual wealth of churches, temples and even maces. To put it simple it was any archeologist's dream come true; many buildings were usually discovered (we had a church near the volcano?!?!) and it is believed there are many yet to be discovered. Unfortunately, Jump City's economy and governors favored industry over archeology, factories over museums and money over culture, resulting in an awful lot of said discoveries noted but never acknowledged or studied and finally abandoned. Being remembered only when they were in the way of some new project construction, especially the subterranean ones.

But not by everyone, in one of said subterranean buildings live appears to have returned. Not just that, it brought technology along. What used to be an old temple is now a modern base of operations, with monitors, panels, a massive computer and some crystal cylinders big enough to contain a normal size human. Light however isn't at its best, being the only sources of it a light bulb on the ceiling and the turned on monitors.

In the middle of all of this is Slade, proudly standing with his hands on his back. His stare fixed on one of the monitors which held the frozen image of a green fist in a position that suggested that it was going to smash against the "camera".

-"Humph"- Slade barely mumbled. It seemed that his creation had failed, against four titans it had put up a good fight, but the five of them… well it seemed that the neural interface still was imperfect. O well, it was still a good experiment. With all this data gathered it wouldn't take much before his creation reached perfection.

He chuckled lightly at the thought of this white being, his "creation". Approximately two months ago he stumbled on no other but Fixit himself and his marvelous technology. Even Slade couldn't help but get exited with the possibilities for such fantastic advances. Of course Fixit didn't want to share any of it with him at first, but Slade was a criminal master mind after all. He had his ways to "persuade" the robot. Finally, all that knowledge was his; he smiled evilly at the memory.

Now, he was developing the best warrior humanity had ever set eyes on. Better than that, he could develop it in great numbers. The first experiment was a failure, true, but the feedback was worth it. What he needed was to complement the interface and the encoding; he also was entertaining the idea of a boost, more powers, and he knew just where he could get it. He was also very aware that this boost would make the hole being more unstable, nothing that couldn't be handled but also that shouldn't be ignored. After balancing his chances, he opted for the power boost. After all he would be in command of something not even the most powerful meta-humans could dream to handle.

Anyway it was time then to collect the new sample. So he would have to go for…

-"uugghhh"- a lazy groan from the other side of the room interrupted his thoughts, Slade turned around and walked towards the source of such sound. His steps resounding in the whole chamber, -"It seems that I will have to increase the dose"- he said as he approached a dimly lit bed that was hidden in one of the many rooms the place had-"You are beginning to develop some resistance"-

On the bed laid a boy, chained on his arms, legs, neck and torso. Roughly 15 years old, his clothes were shredded and dirty. He is incredibly thin and his skin is ghostly white. In his right arm he has an IV. His hair is brown, and a couple of emerald green eyes are staring at Slade –"P-please…"- his voice was just above a whisper but it seemed that the mere act of speaking was proving to be quite a challenge to him –"let… me… go…"-

On the right side of the bed was a little desk, with the kid's IV, but instead of being connected to a bag like in any hospital, it was connected to a black metallic box the size of a shoebox. Near it was a heart monitor and a laptop connected to the box, Slade´s hand was actually typing something on the laptop –"Patience boy, it will be over before you know it"- striking one last key the black box made a dull beep.

Some blue substance made its way to the kid's IV. As his vision began to become blurry and he started to slip back to unconsciousness, he stared back at the dreaded black and orange mask with just one visible eye –"Pleaaase…"-

Beastboy's vision was blurry when he woke up, but he could have sworn that the first thing that met his eyes were a couple of blue big shiny happy eyes, blond hair and a big smile "Terra?" But as he blinked trying to gain focus, the blue eyes changed into a green emerald pair and the hair changed from blond to orange, Starfire, she was moving her lips but Beastboy just couldn't hear a thing.

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Starfire turned her head -"Robin, it appears that friend Beastboy is finally awaken"-

The team was still inside the factory, however what little order could have been kept in the after match was lost in the explosion. Cyborg was once again running his scanners but instead of the robot he was scanning a big crater on the floor. Robin was sitting on the floor, his right leg extended to a kneed Raven who was healing it. As soon as she was done with him she stood up, walked near Beastboy and kneed again.

-"How are you feeling?"-

-"WHAT?!?"-

Both Raven and Starfire quickly covered their ears, the first already annoyed at the loud noise. -"His vocals cords are fine"-

Before Beastboy could say anything else Raven reached her hands and covered Beastboy's ears focusing her healing powers. Beastboy felt a little dizzy first, but as Raven worked her magic he started hearing as he usually did, and as usual, it was one of Raven's comments what he heard: -"Just when I thought you couldn't get any louder"-

-"Friend Beastboy, are you the O.K.?"- Starfire asked.

-"Yeah, I'm fine, but wh…"-

-"Are you shure?"- Raven interrupted.

Beastboy looked at Raven a little perplexed, so used he was to Raven just insulting him. But there was also something in her eyes, she wasn't looking at him, she was looking through him, right into his soul. It wasn't the first time she did it, but it was the first time he didn't felt like being read like an open book.

-"yeah, I'm sure, what happened?"-

Starfire was the one to answer –"Friend Raven saved us"-

Beastboy's eyes widened –"How? I mean, dude when that thing started beeping I though that was it"-

Raven frowned –"I can summon shields, you know? I just made a shield on the creature and tried to contain the explosion"-

-"Tried?"-

-"Well"- she started –"it was a big explosion"-

With that they stood up and walked near Cyborg and Robin, Cyborg was just standing up –"It's no use man, my sensors are all messed up, I can't track anything"-

-"We need to see if something survived the explosion"- Robin turned to the newly arrived –"Beastboy how are you?"-

-"My head feels a little woozy, but nothing a good nap can't fix"-

-"Good, but first I need you to try and see if something of the robot is left. Right now we've only got the mask, but that's it, think you can sniff out a bit? See if you can find anything left of the body?"-

Beastboy smiled, it always felt funny when Robin asked for his help –"Leave it to me"- he morphed into a foxhound and started sniffing, trying to find anything that smelled weird. As he approached the center of the crater, the team following him, he smelled something very faint and after double checking he morphed back, -"Found something"- He dug a little bit with his hands and found a little piece of the robot's skin the size of his thumb, it was scorched around the edges. After a quick glance he gave it to Robin, morphed again into a foxhound and kept searching.

Robin took his time analyzing the piece. It was flexible; from one side was the white color they had seen all over the robot but it had tiny cooper wires running the back side of it. Judging by the texture and burning marks he could see that it wasn't plastic. He knew this kind of burnings; they always appeared on regular skin, and that disturbed him. He'd need to run some tests on it before he could figure out what was really this white material.

Beastboy morphed back -"Sorry dude, that's it, there's nothing else"-

Robin nodded –"I guess this will have to do"- He put the white piece inside his belt –"We'll run some tests back at the tower, so let's go home"-

Beastboy nodded, he wanted to go straight back home, shut in his room and try to figure out what he was going to do now with a certain blonde girl.

-"Friend Beastboy, now that the trouble is over. Please, tell us what happened with friend Terra."-

Beastboy looked down and sighed "The one thing I don't want to talk about. I should have known Star would ask.", but as he looked up he saw the looks in his other teammates. All of them wanted to know, it was just that Starfire was the first to ask about it. As he looked for the words that said "I don't want to talk about it" in the least harsh way possible he realized that as close as he was with Terra, all of them also used to be friends with her. With a chuckle Beastboy figured that they had the right to know what had happened.

But he also knew that telling everything that had happened will also mean reliving everything that had happened. This, he decided, was definitely not his day.

–"I'll tell you in the car, OK? I just want to go home."-

The tone he used was so unlike him, not harsh, nor angry and definitely not happy or goofy. Just tired, until now he hadn't shown any sign that said that he was depressed, or so he thought, but now it was clear to everyone that something was bothering him.

Starfire complied –"As you wish"-

With that said everybody turned back to the T car.