Hi again! First of all, I want to thank everyone who has viewed/favorited/reviewed/followed my story! I really appreciate the encouragement! Next, I want to address the comments that were made. I understand that you want my chapters to be longer. Hey, I love reading long chapters too! However, I purposely end the chapters a certain way for a reason, but I will listen to my readers and try to make the chapters longer without cramming too much in. I really do enjoy reading the comments so please review or even give suggestions, so I can make this story as enjoyable as possible. Another thing is that Beast Boy will act a little strange, but again I do have a reason for it. If you guys are a little confused, then just tell me and I'll explain the best to my ability. Such as a reader asked why Raven smiled when she saw Beast Boy. Simply, it was because he was still alive considering the condition he was in. That and because it's nice to see a friend again regardless of the situation. Hopefully, that's better explained in this chapter. Anyways, my last statement will be is Happy Holidays! Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy whatever the hell you celebrate! I"m glad to be able to post this before Easter considering how busy I've been with work and school lately. Anyways let's continue!
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or the cover picture that I used for this story.
Time seem to stop as Raven held onto the green shifter. Her teammates watch on as the light blue aura from her hands illuminates throughout the room once it comes in contact with his battered skin. Dark green and black patches fade back to their original colors. However, nothing could to done for the tattered purple and black uniform.
Robin is the first to snap out of the unanimous stupor; walking towards them, he kneels down to get a better look at the boy. Other than the obvious difference in skin color, other oddities include pointed ears and a protruding fang. The bruises along his neck signify electric shock, most likely from the collar. Random cuts and scrapes litter his body, yet nothing too deep. Nothing appears to be broken, but he definitely not in good shape. Who knows how long he's been down here? "How is he?" Robin finally asks after his analysis.
"Unconscious, obviously, but he'll live," the violet-haired teen responses. "He was nearly dead when I found him; nevertheless I was able to stable his heartbeat. Further healing should help him recover."
"Do you know why someone would do this to, as you called him, Beast Boy?" Starfire piped up. It was hard for her to see the green teen in such a terrible condition. Her first reaction is to go over and help, except her lack of knowledge in the medical field renders her useless at the moment. Instead she just watches her friends look over the odd looking boy.
With a sigh, Raven gentle turns him over onto is back to look for more injuries. "He can shape shift into animals. Whoever did this to him was probably interested in his DNA."
"My scanners indicate that his cells are completely unstable. In fact, I have no idea how he's alive right now," Cyborg chips in as he uses his arm to evaluate him. "Was he always like this?"
Annoyed with her friend's constant questioning, thus interrupting her concentration on her healing abilities, the dark empath responses rather snippily. "As in green? Then yes, as long as I've known him. His medical records didn't exactly come up in our conversations. Now, if we get him back to the med bay in our tower then I will answer your questions." Pulling Beast Boy to her chest once more, she slowly stands up as Robin helps lift up the limp teen in her arms.
"Raven's right, we need to get him back to the tower. Cyborg, once there hook him up to an IV drip and run some tests to see what happened to him. I'll take care of Adonis and meet you back home." With that, the Titan's leader left to drag the unconscious villain to the police.
While this happens, Starfire walks closer to the shortest member in their team, "Friend Raven, please allow me to carry Beast Boy back to our tower. It is the quickest way back and it's the least I can do for him." With a nod, Raven hands her Beast Boy and walks to the T-Car with her half cybernetic ally. With extra weight in the orange alien's arms, she readjusts the boy and flies out of the building.
By the time the last Titan reaches the med bay, Beast Boy is hooked up to an IV drip, as Robin asked along with a few probes on his body. With his health status up on the computer, Cyborg is busy typing away, creating a new medical record in case they need it for future use. It's probably not the best set up considering the poor changeling has been experimented on, but they need to so they can help him.
Raven has refused to leave his side, despite having done all she could to heal him. There's a slight crease in her brow from worry as she nervously taps her foot, waiting impatiently for her friend to wake up. Starfire insisted on waiting as well, anxious to see when the strange boy will wake up. Robin examines the charts that were made and eventually interrupts the silent room. "So who is he?"
The sudden noise in the silent room grabs the rest of the heroes' attention. The nervous atmosphere seems to dissipate as all eyes turn to the half-demon, all wondering the same thing that was just asked.
Pulling her hood down, Raven begins her story, "Beast Boy is a member of the Doom Patrol, a team of superheroes stationed in Midway City. When I met him, he had green skin and the ability to turn into animals. Other than that, I don't know what else that would be helpful."
"But how did you two meet?" Starfire asks," I'm sure it's a very exciting story!"
"It's simple. I came to Earth, ran into Beast Boy, fought off a criminal, was offered to join his team, it didn't work out." Satisfied with her response, she goes back to watching the green teen, noticing the slight shift in his muscles.
"C'mon Rae! There has to be-" Before Cyborg could finish his sentence, he was irrupted by a sequence of growls and yelling.
"Get away from me!" With his eyes still closed, Beast Boy begins to blindly rip out the wires attached to him. Before he was shift into anything or causes any more damage, a gentle hand lays on his shoulder as a familiar voice penetrates his sensitive ears.
"Relax Beast Boy, we're here to help you."
"R-Raven?" Slowly, he opens his eyes, unable to believe the sight in front of him. She begins to open her mouth and leans closer, but before she could do anything else, he snaps out of her grip. "How do I know it's really you? T-this could be another trick! Just an illusion! Stop messing with me!" Before he could lunge at her, Raven restrains him to the bed with her dark energy.
"Calm down." She continues talking to him in her usual monotone voice. "Your real name is Garfield Mark Logan. Now do you believe me?'
Relaxing slightly, Beast Boy narrows his eyes in suspicion, "Why did the aardvark cross the road?"
"To beat up the idiot telling jokes about it," Raven relies without missing a beat while releasing him from his bindings.
To the other Titan's shock, this seems like the right answer. Automatically, Beast Boy's face lightens up as he jumps up from the bed to wrap his arms around Raven's neck. "Raven! It is you!" he exclaims while holding her tightly.
" There, there," she says while awkwardly patting his back.
With a laugh he squeezes her ever tighter, prolonging the hug to uncomfortable levels for the antisocial girl. Oddly enough, Raven allows it, eventually giving up her patting technique to offer him a half hug with one arm.
However, this became too strange for the resident joker just stand there without saying anything. "Would y'all just get yourselves a room already? This whole love fest involving Raven is getting creepy." Apparently, blurting this out wasn't Cyborg's brightest moment. He soon found himself encased in a black aura and thrown across the room, although this did get their patient's attention. Releasing Raven from his death grip, stars appear in Beast Boy's eyes as he jumps around excitedly.
"Oh my God! You're Cyborg!" Running over to said man, he offers a hand to help him up which the half robot readily takes. "You look even more awesome in person! Ooh, can we go get pizza? Or we can play video games! You like Mega Monkeys 4 right?"
Not at all put off by the kid's energetic behavior, he responds with his natural gusto, "Yeah man. But there's no way I'm going easy on your grass stained ass! Come on, last one there's Player two!" After this statement, Cyborg runs off to the common room to set up the game with Beast Boy hot on his heels.
Exasperated by the display that just unfolded in front of him, Robin turns to the more mature member of his team. "Is he always so… exuberant?"
Rolling her eyes, Raven pulls her hood back up while responding, "You don't know the half of it."
Starfire meanwhile simply giggles and smiles happily. "It appears that our new friend is in a glorious mood! Perhaps he would like to partake in the celebration of Blorthog!"
"Uh, we might have to hold off on that for a moment Star. Something doesn't seem right about this." The boy wonder's detective skills are kicking in as he thinks over Beast Boy's response to the situation around him. "Is it possible that he has amnesia? It's not normal for someone who suffered from something like that to just completely ignore it."
Understanding Robin's line of thinking, Raven chips in, "It's possible. However, I still sensed a great amount of pain hidden underneath his cheery exterior. Then again it's Beast Boy. It's normal for him to become easily distracted."
"Alright, but I still want to talk to him about the testing facility. Whoever captured him obviously had some motive that isn't for the greater good. I've ask the police to see if Adonis had any connection to what was going on in that warehouse. They'll alert me as soon as the find anything," the leader says, still wary of the changeling's earlier attitude.
With that being said the remaining Titan's walk towards the common room in contemplation. It's apparent that Beast Boy remembered something due to his initial reaction when waking up and Raven having to restrain him. Yet the complete change in emotions once seeing Cyborg did enough to put Robin on edge. Even though Raven trusts him, he can't allow himself to have the luxury of putting his guard down. After all he was raised by the Dark Knight, who's known for not trusting anyone unless proven otherwise. It comes with crime fighting and detective work. Being skeptical of everyone helps to not cloud judgement and allows you to rely more on facts rather than emotions.
Meanwhile, Starfire was happy to meet someone that's a friend of Raven's. She only knows what her friend told her when they switch bodies. Her secretive teammate was never keen on sharing her past or personal life, and it seems that this boy has good relationship with her. After all she did save him from the brink of death, and more importantly allowed him to hug her. Perhaps he'll be willing to share what he knows about her to the rest of the team and allow them to be closer to their reserved friend. Maybe even Beast Boy will become a great friend to them all.
Once they reach the living room, the Titans are greeted to the sight of two immature teenagers egging each other on as they play a racing game. Beast Boy is currently sitting on the couch with his feet close to his chest, pouting the entire time. While Cyborg is sitting new to him with a smirk on his face, yelling out taunts.
"Oh yeah baby! Who's the man? Who's that man? Not you!" laughing boisterously, it's obvious who is winning the race.
With a groan, Beast Boy throws his control on the ground in frustration as Cyborg's car crosses the finish line. "That's not fair! I haven't played in months. I demand a rematch!"
Before Cyborg could respond however, Robin clears his throat, getting the two boy's attention. "Actually I figured we could go out for pizza, my treat." This seems to please the green changeling as he jumps off the couch, barely able to contain his excitement.
"Dude, are you serious!? I'm starved!" the energetic kid responses. His reaction causes the two cheerier Titans to laugh. Cyborg slams a hand down on the kid's shoulder making him grunt in discomfort, while Starfire flies over to them happily.
"Yes friends! We can enjoy each other's company while feasting on the cheesy bread!" In her excitement, Starfire picks Beast Boy up by his arms and starts swinging him around, causing him to scream out in surprise. Oblivious to his discomfort, Starfire continues talking. "Then I can show you the wonders of mustard and how tasty of a drink it is! Oh it shall be a wonderful experience!"
Finally letting him go, Beast Boy walks around in a wobbly circle as he tries to get his eyes to stop spinning. "Uh yeah, sounds great Star." Shaking his head, he successfully rolls his eyes back into place as the dizzy spell recedes.
"Man, you don't wasn't that! You gotta try the meat-lovers extreme! It has ham, bacon, sausage, pepperoni, bacon, meatballs, and most importantly, bacon!" the obvious meat- lover says while pushing the others out the door. He's just as eager as Beast Boy to fill his stomach.
"No way, dude! I've been most of those animals!"
Shaking her head, Raven simply follows her lively team a few steps behind. It's nice that they're warming up to her old friend, but she can't she off the worry lingering in the back of her head. Robin's right, Beast Boy isn't acting as he should. While he's normally happy and bouncing out the walls, she can't help but think of when she first saw him in that chamber. Knowing that Robin's offering of pizza was more than just an act of kindness, she increases her pace to reach the group. Maybe he'll be more open to tell them what happened after he satisfies his hunger. One could only hope.