Author's Note: i am desperately sorry i was so late this time. and i'm afraid it might be stop-and-go with updates for the rest of this story. I'M SO SORRY! see, i've been really busy these last couple of weeks, with band camp, youth sunday at church, plus getting back to school! AACK! let me tell you, playing instruments and dragging drums back and forth in the seriously hot sun all day from eight in the morning to nine at night is NOT COOL. and with me having started school last week—yes, last week—without having finishing my summer work yet is DOUBLY NOT COOL. so yeah. things've been hectic, and probably will be for the rest of this school year. homework every night already…yeesh. O.O i've also been running into some personal issues that have yet to be resolved, the reason for belief of stop-and-go updates…. but i am very pleased with this chapter, though it did take time i didn't have to write. GNAH. i do believe that you guys will like this chapter as well. hopefully. also, the fact that one day i opened up my inbox to find twelve review alerts? yeah, that made me so happy i scared myself. heh. keep up the encouragement! and here are your replies to that encouragement:

Mako-Magic: you wonder if i made bb's 'normal' appearance up? well, this is not the first time making Beast Boy normal has popped into the mind of someone somewhere at sometime (though at the moment i came up with the idea i thought i was brilliant and it hadn't been attempted before. then i rethunk, realizing comics do crazy on a regular basis). to tell you the truth, the comics have already done it like five times…so based on the pictures of Beast Boy when he was little and in those instances of normality from the comics, i drew up a picture suiting to me and as close as possible to the original images of him. i have to say, i'm rather fond of redheads, thus the redheadiness…GRIN.

bubba: i wrote more but i'm afraid it was a little too late. O.o

Hell Boy: AHEM, ifi told you that there'd be no point in you reading the rest of the story! slacker…heh, JK!

dancingirl3: i'm hoping for more bb/rae fluffiness, but Rae is awful hard to convince on that part sometimes…and i'm not to fond of her angry side….

Slade's Downfall: THANK YOU, thank you! i'd like to mention all the little ppl i used as stairs to get to where i am now…hehe, no really, i LUV it when i get reviews like yours!

TDG3RD: wondering and guessing are good signs for me!

DarkBeast: i can say titans are in this one, buddy, so i hope you like this chapter better if you read it!

moonarcher: i'm good at planning, and yeah, i've heard a few rumors about season five, some believable and some way too crazy for Cartoon Network shows. heh. and, yes, Doom Patrol was one of the rumors i heard, but i didn't know about it until after i wrote the comments about them in chapter 11. WEIRD.

dragoon-bane: woo. wow. know what couple you're for, mate. GRIN.

Savi: i'm glad chapter ten's your favorite, sorry about the late update, i luv bb/rae stories too, there'll be more fun between them, and they're not supposed to contact him. secret identity junk.

FORGIVE TYPOS. There are probably a lot...

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in the Teen Titans show or comics.

"HA! I knew something was up with them!"

Gar let out a soft groan as Kassie's shout of excitement woke him from his half-sleep, a slam on the table he was using as an uncomfortable makeshift pillow jarring his head. He slit open his eyes only to immediately shut them against the sharp white light shining through the cracks of his arms, with which he had been attempting to cushion his face against.

"I don't see what's so funny about that," Michael grumbled, shifting next to Gar and rattling the table again. Gar squeezed his eyes shut tighter, wishing everyone would just stop moving.

Gar heard Kassie give a disgruntled sigh, and if he had been watching, Gar was sure she would be rolling her eyes at their lack of interest. "Oh, you're hilarious," she spat at Michael. Gar felt someone flick his arm as she continued, "Gar, you gotta see this, I picked it up while walking to school."

"Kassie, it's a tabloid," Gar heard Michael say. "You know how dependable those things are."

Kassie sniffed, Gar raising his head out of his arms at the last retort, one side of his face cool and red from where it had been pressing against the table. Michael was leaning around his shoulder, gazing at what Kassie had slammed down in front of Gar. "Some of them can be dependable, especially on local or big stori—whoa, what the hell is that?"

Kassie was staring at Gar's black-and-blue left eye, having caught sight of it when he raised his head. Gar ignored her, letting his eyes adjust for a minute to the bright lights of Jump City High School's cafeteria. It was the Monday after Gar's little adventure with Raven and Adonis, and his back was killing him. He had slept through most of the rest of Saturday and Sunday, anytime he woke up too stiff or sore to move lightly. He had felt no better this morning when his alarm clock went off, though his eye had stopped throbbing and was now only aching dully. Steve had insisted he go to school, telling Gar his injuries had been his own fault and he should accept responsibility. Gar also got the feeling that Steve wanted him out of the house due to company from work, and that his door would be securely shut when he came home. So Gar had gone to school with intentions to sleep through most of his classes, but found with disappointment Carson's door locked, forcing him to make attempts at sleeping in the cafeteria amidst screams, shouts, shrieks of laughter, and the constant buzz of conversation. Michael had joined him shortly after he had managed to doze off, waking him, and now Kassie had just interrupted his second effort to fall asleep. Therefore, Gar wasn't in the best of moods, to put it nicely.

"Gar decided to run in the opposite direction everyone else was running in last Saturday. Got taught a lesson, I suppose," Michael explained to Kassie in response to her comment, stretching and settling back into the original position he had been in before Kassie arrived, face-down on his history textbook. A small pool of wetness blurred some of the inked words on the page Michael had it opened to, right were Michael's mouth had been minutes before. Gar suspected Michael hadn't gotten very far on memorizing the dates of important events in the Cold War.

Kassie raised an eyebrow and studied Gar while he scowled at Michael, whose eyes were starting to droop again. "Right," she said, watching Gar as he began to wrap his head in his arms again. Then her face lit up and she continued excitedly as she sat down across the table from Gar, "Wait, does that mean that you actually went by the fighting? Did you see—"

But Gar suddenly froze, his eyes widening as he unfolded his arms, having caught sight of the tabloid cover. Gar snatched the tabloid off the table, interrupting the beginning of what would've most likely become an interrogation, and held it in front of his face, staring at it with disbelieve. For written in black, bold, gothic-print letters across an enlarged picture of what Gar recognized all too well as an action pose of the Teen Titans—with him still in it—was:

BEAST BOY:HASTHELITTLE GREENELFGONEFROMHEROTO ZERO?

In a corner of the cover, a picture of his face was posted, a large question mark in place instead of his eyes, nose and mouth. Gar stared at the cover for what seemed like an eternity, his mind racing, clutching the tabloid so hard his knuckles were beginning to turn white. Of course he had been ready for some publicity; the Titans couldn't keep his disappearance from the team forever, but it still shocked him to see his face on a tabloid featuring a story about him, old hurt and memories surfacing at the sight of all the Titans together like that, in the picture.

"Gar?"

Kassie's voice was hesitant, causing him to pull the cover down slowly to where he could see her face. She was watching him carefully as he did so, her arms crossed on the table, curiosity and worry reflected in her eyes. He stared at her for a minute, slowly releasing the death grip he had on the tabloid and then glanced quickly at Michael, who had propped his head up on a hand, a puzzled expression etched onto his face as well. Clearing his throat quietly, Gar turned back to Kassie and asked in a strange voice that sounded too calm yet strained to be his own, "Where…did you get this?"

Kassie furrowed her brow, and answered slowly, "They're all over the city, sold in stores and on newspaper stands. This story was even on the front page of the paper today, like almost anything that has to do with the Titans…the article starts on page nine. Is…everything okay, Gar?"

She asked this last question with more suspicion and less bafflement as Gar swiftly turned the pages until he reached page nine, almost tearing a few in the process. "Yeah, sure," Gar mumbled absently as he focused on the article. Michael put his head back down on his textbook, apparently dismissing Gar's odd behavior. Kassie wasn't as easily satisfied, narrowing her eyes a tad. Gar was too busy scanning to notice. A few pictures of him before the whole bomb thing decorated the columns on the page, from blurry ones of him eating pizza with the other Titans, to poses of him with the rest of the Titans after a good fight or him actually caught in mid-action during a fight. All zoomed in on him. Gar had always dreamed of being popular to and admired by the general public while he…was…a Teen Titan—but he had never bothered to look in the paper or news for proof of those dreams coming true, and now he felt kind of violated with pictures he hadn't even known of being broadcast.

A headline of, 'Green Teen Hero Absences Finally Noted'ran across the top of the page, the corner dog-eared by Kassie. It read:

'Last Saturday morning, Jump City's famous group of teen justice-heroes, the Teen Titans, managed yet again to arise victorious from trading blows with the two infamous criminals Cinderblock and Adonis…with one exception to their normal fighting techniques: the green shape-shifter known as Beast Boy was missing from their ranks.

Reportedly the youngest and quickly becoming the most well-known member, Beast Boy was the third to join the Teen Titans while recruiting was occurring, and has been a proud part of the team since its rise to fame. But from the tourists to the residents of JumpCity, all have started to ask the same question: Where is our little green friend?

Eye-witnesses of Titan battles have been wondering about this point as early as two to three weeks ago, however. "Yeah, I don't see the squirt around much anymore," stated Max Gilkan, age 41, resident of JumpCity. "I was wandering by a bank couple days ago, and the Titans were there stopping a robbery—but I didn't see no green critters running around the place, if you know what I mean."

Gilkan hasn't been the only one to notice Beast Boy's lack of presence, either. Many who follow the Titan's activities closely have also noticed, as well as plain citizens who care about the safety of their city. "The last time I saw him was, like, three weeks ago, at Main Street's collapse," recounted Tiffany Valigo, age 17, resident of JumpCity. "I really haven't seen anything of him since." Tourists too feel the loss of one Teen Titan member. "I came here to see the Teen Titans," said Mike Hughes, a current tourist spending his spring break in JumpCity, "and I'm seeing them one member short, stumbling over each other to keep criminals in check. Not breezing through fights like everyone says they do." Hughes's wife felt more concerned: "I just hope the poor boy isn't hurt—crime-fighting is a nasty business, from what I hear."

Authorities claim everything is under control, however, and urge the public not to worry for their safety. "All we can share is that he is secure and unharmed," Mayor John Tarris admitted at a small press conference. "The Teen Titans are quite capable of handling the city even if they are a member short, and will keep doing so." The Law Enforcement Department of Jump City is behind the mayor in his statements, though more than a few individuals within the organization have reluctance and doubts. "Something shady seems to be going on, I think," one quoted, whose name he wished not to be disclosed. "Some private-eyes are working on their own to see if they can find out what's going on, I heard—trying to dig up dirt on the Titans, prolly, with politics and everything." And rumors like these are beginning to fly, with whispers of kidnappings and sabotages to bring unruly metahumans under government control—'

"Hello? Helllloooo? Earth to Gar!"

Gar's concentration on the article was broken into as he realized Kassie had been speaking to him. He now looked at her over the top of the tabloid again, a frustrated look on her face. Michael was snickering into his hand, and the only thing Gar could think to say was a spectacular, "Huh?"

Kassie rolled her eyes, throwing up her hands, while Michael continued his unsuccessfully hidden laughter. "I asked you if you were even listening, which you apparently weren't!" At Michael she growled, "And you shut up."

"Erm, sorry," Gar apologized, not very sincerely. He started to scan the rest of the story, seeing he had stopped reading right when it started sounding like a tabloid, with absurd accusations against the government and the Titans. Next there was a section on Beast Boy's history, concerning wild theories and stories about his birth to his joining of the Teen Titans, all of which were wrong. Kassie started speaking again as he kept on glancing through the paragraphs.

"I was asking you if you had seen Beast Boy during your little parade in the wrong direction on Saturday, to see if everyone's right." The next section was on government plots concerning super-heroes; they seemed all to be very far-fetched and beside the point. Some of them were extremely interesting…

"You can't always believe everything the press says, I have to admit—shut up, Michael, tabloids need reporters which do to make tabloids the press!" Gar practically blanched at the next topic: various speculations and completely random, untrue of his facts regarding his freaking love-life. This was definitely a tabloid.

"I thought something was off with them, you know, ever since a couple weeks ago at the Main Street collapse—"

Gar halted in the middle of turning a page and looked up at her, catching Kassie's last sentence. "Whoa," he intelligently blurted, "you were there?"

Looking pleased to have struck a note of Gar's attention, but at the same time annoyed by his lack thereof before, Kassie heaved a sigh. "Yes, I was there…Well, actually, not there when the street collapsed, but I was nearby—I was hanging out at the mall with Michael and some other guys, and we decided to go down to a café shop near Main Street. We were walking down to the café when there was a huge cloud of smoke that came from about a block over, and genius Michael here got up and sprinted as fast as he could directly at it—"

"Hey, hey!" Michael exclaimed, rising from his comfortable position, appearing quite awake. "Don't bash me for disappearing! John had gone over in that direction, and I did my good deed that day! Helped a pretty beat-up guy outta the sewer—don't ask me what he was doing down there—and had the added plus of talking to that cute redhead on the Titans…what's her name? Started with an 'S'…"

"Starfire?" Gar suggested, earning a curious look from Kassie as Michael gave an excited nod. And Gar had the same nagging feeling he had had when he first met Michael, of familiarity…but that would've been impossible…like slim chance.

"Yeah! That was her! Absolute hottie, I'd go anywhere with her any day," Michael said dreamily.

Gar grinned, laughing inside for reasons only he would get. Kassie snorted through her nose. "She's an alien," she stated plainly. "But why have you never told me about this before?"

Michael looked at Kassie, dreaminess gone and his face suddenly lit up, like someone remembering a lost memory. "Wait a second, you know what? The chick was actually asking around for Beast Boy! I remember now, she started harassing this man after asking me for a minute…God, she was cute—"

"Are you saying you think Beast Boy went missing at the Main Street collapse?"

"I dunno," Michael answered, yawning. "Just saying. You're the one whose obsessed with the Titans."

"I am not obsessed with them! I just like to know what's going on in the city. Got to, if I'm planning to become a reporter someday."

"Yeah, sure, getting every freaking tabloid, magazine, or newspaper that applies to the Titans, visiting forums and shrines online dedicated to them, trying to start a fan club for the leader, and hoping to catch a glimpse of them everyday is not obsessed."

"I do not visit online shrines! I don't even have Internet connection at my house! And the fan club was when I was, like, eleven years old. Middle-school girls do that stuff. Besides, you're little less than obsessed with the girls on that team. Perv."

"What! It's not my fault they're gorgeous! I mean, who doesn't like redhead babes dressing in miniskirts and halter tops every day? And that Goth chick? Could you find a better set of curves and bad-ass attitude than she has? That leotard looks freaking fantastic on her—"

"Oooookay," Gar interjected, his face suddenly seeming warm while he felt like punching Michael in the nose. "Dude, that's seriously enough."

Kassie gave Michael a disgusted glare. "Like I said: perv."

Michael chuckled and smirked, returning her glare with a side-ways glance. "I know a certain somebody who thinks you wouldn't look too bad yourself in halter tops and miniskirts yourse-elf…"

Kassie blushed vividly and muttered under her breath, "Dumbass."

Gar scratched his head and gave a mental shrug, not following at all what Michael said. Then Kassie turned to Gar and asked eagerly, the blush fading from her cheeks, "Well? Did you?"

Gar stared at her blankly, the tabloid still in his hands. "Did I what?"

Michael shook with laughter at either Kassie's abrupt change of subject or Gar's confusion, while Kassie closed her eyes and sighed. "Did you see Beast Boy last Saturday or not?" she asked slowly, clearly trying not to snap.

"Oh!" Gar remembered, his mind nervously racing to find the right answer. He had never been excellent at hiding things. "Uhh…no, actually, I didn't," he answered, exerting all his effort to keep his voice casual-sounding. "Nope, I didn't, but you know, I was kinda busy trying not to get crushed…"

Kassie thoughtfully rubbed her cheek. "That's something to think about…"

"The fact Gar didn't see Beast Boy or that he was trying not to get crush—OW!"

Michael angrily rubbed his nose where Kassie had swatted it, scooting further away from Gar so Kassie couldn't reach him across the table as she just had.

Making no signs of what she had just done, besides smugly smiling, Kassie's thoughts seemed to zoom in on Gar without warning. "Say…what were you thinking, running into a fight like that anyway? Anyone with common sense would've followed the crowd and run away from it all."

"Then maybe I don't have common sense," Gar proposed, realizing a split second later that his clever attempt to escape Kassie's question didn't work as planned. "Wait…I meant—"

Michael chortled as Kassie grinned and laughed. "Genius. Now, really, why didn't you?" Kassie insisted.

"I…just saw someone I knew out there, and—instincts, I guess," Gar replied truthfully.

"Like me and John, at the Main Street collapse! See?" Michael triumphantly declared. Then he faltered. "But, well, I didn't exactly see him, but still—"

"But I thought you just moved here," Kassie continued, ignoring Michael.

"That…well, that…" Gar stumbled over his words. "Actually, I was here about a week before I came to Jump High. So that doesn't mean I didn't meet anyone before you guys," Gar finished confidently.

"Really? Who was it?"

Gar subconsciously gulped, searching for a reasonable answer. "I—umm…it was—" His eyes fell on the tabloid in front of him. "—this girl named Tiffany! Yeah, she…lives in the apartment building I live at. She's…actually moving away in a couple days." Gar played with the idea, stretching it to cover other questions he might later be asked in a very wise, unlike-him move. "She showed me around Jump City, you know, took me to places and stuff. Home-schooled, so she had time to hang out with me during the week."

There was a pause while Kassie went over his story in her mind, which Michael brought to an end with a hopeful, "Is she hot?"

"Is that all you ever think about?" Kassie asked, glaring at him yet again. Michael shrugged, closing his history book and sliding into his book bag, pulling out a half-eaten PopTart from a pocket somewhere.

Kassie gave Gar a 'can-you-believe-him' look as she took the tabloid from its spot in front of Gar, folding it back so she could see the cover snapshot of the Titans again. "I'd like to think I'm not obsessed with them," she grumbled to no one in particular. "Just so much depends on them…"

Gar adjusted his backpack on the chair beside him, interested. "What do you mean?" he asked innocently.

It seemed as if Kassie was waiting for someone to ask that, launching instantly into an explanation. "It's pretty scary, sometimes—a city full of top-notch technology from places like Wayne Enterprises or S.T.A.R.R labs, military officials, some of the best investigators, and the best Law Enforcement Bureau around has to depend on five super-powered teenagers for protection. If someone got rid of those kids, we'd all be in hell five seconds later because the damn lunatics they throw in jail all the time would be loose in two seconds! Our top-notch technology is as easily available to the bad guys as it is to us, and all our firepower nothing if we don't have a freak show looking after us…no offense to the Titans," she added hastily, after saying all this very rapidly and pretty much one breath. "And now one of them goes missing, everyone who knows something refusing to say anything about it. Makes you kind of worried. If they're trying hard to keep the public population calm when we're more curious than upset, we should be nervous at least. Especially if the group we depend on for security is more than nervous."

"……"

Gar's mouth had inched slightly open during Kassie's long-winded theory, and now he swiftly closed it, still absorbing all she had said. She had definitely read into the situation more than he had ever done, even when he was a part of the situation. He could see Robin wanting to keep Gar's whole dilemma a secret, or half a secret, for unwanted publicity on both the Titan's and Gar's part. But Kassie had just explained most, if not all, of the big picture to Gar: there was a criminal or villain or vigilante or insane idiot or someone out there that had reversed if not completely eliminated a virus that had resided firmly in Gar's body since he was a toddler—a feat scientist and genealogists had been trying to accomplish for years, and not only on Gar. Not to mention that in the same act, a whole street collapsed in on itself and whoever had set off the radiation in the first place escaped with at least two Titans hot on his or her trail; something that had basically only been achieved by one criminal in Titan history…Slade.

So yeah, Gar could see where Kassie was coming from.

Michael gave a low whistle. "Wow…at least they're trying though, right?"

Kassie slipped the tabloid into her back pocket, nodding. "I wonder if they're gonna get a replacement."

Gar sat up straight, banging his elbow on the table. "What?"

The shrill calling of the warning bell echoed through the school, accompanied by the huge scraping of chairs as students got up from their tables, chattering as they made their way to class. Michael and Kassie rose too, swinging their backpacks onto their shoulders and getting ready to join the mass of people heading towards the cafeteria exits. Gar followed suit, though a little late, and got level with Kassie.

"A replacement," she repeated as soon as he could hear her. "To help with the balance of things if the 'green elf' doesn't have plans to come back from wherever he is."

Gar missed a step at this, falling behind Michael and Kassie. The looming feeling of dejection filled Gar, a feeling he was becoming way too used to for his liking, as he stumbled to catch up with them. His brain must be getting slow or something…nowadays, everything was bad news he should've foreseen.

The day in Jump City was fair—a robin-blue sky, with puffy, snow-white clouds lolling across it. Rays of sunshine glittered on glass skyscrapers and black-gray asphalt, a slight breeze keeping the day warm enough to comfortably go swimming yet cool enough to lay in the sun unharassed. The streets were traffic free, with late commuters scurrying down sidewalks though they were in no real hurry. Side cafés and bookstores were busy, though not unbearably so, with resident adults free of children and teens, who were at school, and most tourists, still asleep in their beds. The Titan Tower gleamed in the distance over the bay, but there was no need for its occupants at the moment. All in all, it was the kind of Monday that even Monday-haters couldn't hate.

A petite, brunette woman was gazing serenely at the street in front of her from the round café table she sat at, sipping a cup of coffee with a shopping bag from Mel's Books beside her. Long curls played across her face in the small breeze, the sun's gentle caress warming her legs. The morning's daily newspaper was laid on the table in eye's view, open to the classified section. The lady was quite content: she had no where to be until eleven o'clock, her hair was in the exact fashion she wanted, her coffee was not burnt, she had bought a book she had been looking at for weeks at half-price, and her make-up was perfect. She gave a contented sigh as a tiny convertible zoomed quietly by on the street. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Then, without warning, an orange-yellowish blur passed before her in the blink of an eye, turning of the chair opposite of the woman and wobbling the café table treacherously. The woman's curls whipped into her face, wrapping around her head and sailing in all directions, as if a fierce gale had went by; which wasn't all that unbelievable. The steam rising from her coffee that had been rising so placidly moments before was gone, extinguished, snuffed out of existence like a candle flame. The pages of the newspaper that was on the table flipped rapidly for several seconds, slowing and coming to a rest at the front page again, a snapshot picture of a certain green teenage hero at the top. The brunette woman was frozen in shock, the coffee cup mid-way to her mouth, staring directly across the street with blank eyes.

What the—!

Bart Allen snorted as he glanced back to see the woman he had passed jump up from her seat right before her form disappeared in little more than a blink of an eye. Buildings and cars flashed by Bart, brilliant flares of colors and light. He looked ahead just in time to change direction for the split second it took to avoid collision with an oblivious eighty-year-old woman, making way slowly on her cane. Dodging a few more obstacles at lightening speed, more than likely even faster than that, Bart continued to make his way through downtown Jump City…no, wait...making a severely sharp turn, he was suddenly blurring alongside Jump City's piers. Squinting against the harsh wind whipping past his face, Bart saw what had been the faint outline of the Titan Tower grow swiftly very clear, not surprising him in the least. Ready, Bart waited until he drew level with the Tower, then banked another sudden, sharp turn…straight onto the water.

Spray encased his feet as they literally flew across the water, echoing his movements as a trail of white marked his path milliseconds before. The spray hadn't even spurted up all the way before Bart was a good twenty yards off. Bart gave a loud laugh, snatched by inhuman speed from his mouth immediately as it made its debut—he was a super-speed Jesus! Almost as soon as he had thought that, rock-hard ground met his feet again, causing his eyes to widen slightly as he dug his heels into the ground before he flew through the base of the Tower, or past it, for that matter.

His head jerked with the force of the stop he had attempted to make, rattling his teeth—attempted because the rest of his body didn't exactly agree with the no-speed policy his feet had just implied…leaving him face-first on the ground. After a quick minute, Bart jumped up again, dusting himself off and facing out towards the bay. The last of the foamed trail he had left was fading from sight, dust thrown up from his contact to land making him sneeze. He turned back around and craned his neck, gazing up at the monstrous construction in front of him. It loomed up into the sky, sun glancing off its teal-grey steel and dark blue panels, against the light blue morning sky. Bart continued surveying it for a second, his gaze falling from the top levels of the Tower to the base. Bart scratched his head, then zipped up to the base to stare at the navy wall before him. He walked back in forth in front of it, taking his time to observe it. After glancing behind him and to the sides, Bart quickly zoomed around the Tower once to no avail to what he was looking for. Stopping where he had first walked up to, Bart gave an annoyed sigh.

Guess I should've asked where the front door was.

Bart examined the wall in front of him again in hopes of catching something he had missed earlier. And he wasn't disappointed. Near the left side of the wall, placed about shoulder-length to a person of average height, was a rectangular silver-finished panel around hand with and length. Squinting at it curiously, Bart raised his hand and tapped it extremely in, well, super-speed. After waiting for a few minutes, Bart did it once more. Nothing happened. Shrugging, Bart placed his hand full on the silver panel, pushing slightly on it in hopes of a door-bell effect. Nothing happened. Irritated and believing his troop out here was for nothing, Bart heaved a sigh and started to remove his hand—when something suddenly did happen.

The panel glowed bright, neon blue for about three seconds, warming Bart's palm with a practically inaudible buzzing noise. Alarmed, Bart snatched his hand away—but for all his speed, not before a zap of the blue light traced the outline of a huge, rectangular set of doors. Not sure of what he had just done, Bart positioned himself in a pose to flee if anything dangerous decided to blow towards him. But…nothing happened.

Bart slowly, for a change, turned back to the Tower and cautiously walked up to the outlined doors until his nose was literally touching metal. Running a finger across the metal door, Bart looked around for a handle of any kind, but failing to find one took both his hands and pushed with all his might against the doors. They might as well have been a steel whale, though, for the lack of movement Bart managed to produce. Ready to admit the time he had wasted in coming, Bart slumped his shoulders and turned towards the bay to take off home after waiting at least five minutes for…you guessed it…something to happen. Grumbling under his breath in disappointment, Bart was about to take a step into hyper-speed when all of a sudden, a loud click sounded from the direction of the doors. Startled, Bart jumped and swerved around once more, to see one of the doors beginning to creak open.

Moving closer to the door with every inch it opened, Bart was standing directly in front of it by the time it stopped moving. Pitch black darkness emitted from the small gap between the doors, just big enough for a person to peek in or out of. Unsure of whether to go in or not, Bart leaned further towards the door, almost leaning inside the gap, and squinted into the darkness in an effort to see inside against the bright, pale light of the morning sun—and jumped what could've been a foot in the air as he was able to make out a pair of large, owl-like navy-blue eyes blinking at him. Backing up in haste, Bart realized a girl about his age was standing in the doorway, dressed in a leotard and blue cape, hood covering most of her face. Shadows cloaked most of her figure as she leaned against the door, blocking the way inside with her body. A belt of rubies or something of another glowed faintly around her hips, accenting her rather plain outfit.

"What do you want?"

It took a minute for Bart to realize it was the girl who had spoken in such a droning voice, surprising him a little. He continued to survey her, determining she was who he thought she was. At this decision, he gave a friendly, kind of idiotic grin, and held up a newspaper he had been clutching in one of hands the whole time: the current day's newspaper, with the story of the disappeared Teen Titan on front as all the others. He nodded his head at the Tower and Raven. "Thought you guys could use a bit of help," he chirped in his best nonchalant voice, looking to impress.

Raven took in his cheerfully poised figure, attired in a full-body spandex-like suit, covering his whole…well, body, with the exception of his cinnamon-gold eyes, mouth and brown hair spilling over onto his forehead. Red miniature wings, like the ones known to the Roman messenger god of Hermes, were perched on each side of his head, precisely where his ears would've been if the suit wasn't covering them. A gold lightening-bolt insignia decorated his chest, matching the orange-gold of the suit around it. The bottom of the suit was bright red, however, as well as the elbow-length gloves. Decked-out combat boots reverted back to the gold color; there was something strange in the design of the boots, but Raven couldn't put her finger on it. All in all, the boy looked like some kind of vigilante crime-fighter, though Raven had never seen him around Jump City. The lightening bolt nudged at something at the back of her mind, though.

So Raven took Bart's appearance in as he stood there with newspaper held up, heart thumping with anticipation…and then the metal door promptly slammed in his face.

Bart stared at the metal face of the door for a couple minutes, stunned at the pure insolence of the action, wind off the bay whipping brown strands of hair across his nose. Defeated, Bart's whole disposition suddenly collapsed in bleakness as a huge sigh rippled through his body. And he thought he would've at least been taken seriously. Wondering if he still had enough time to get to school before he was too tardy, Bart turned to run off…when the door opened yet again.

Thoroughly irritated by now, Bart swung around to face who he thought was the Gothic girl-hero, and blurted, "Make up your mind all ready!" firmly into the face of the Teen Titans' leader.

Bart froze as soon as the words left his mouth, dreading the fact that he might have just ruined any chance he had of joining the Titans. His flushing face thankfully hid behind his mask, Bart sheepishly watched Robin as he received two death-glares: one from Raven, who has hidden in the shadows behind Robin, and one from the Boy Wonder himself. Bart gave a small smile and rubbed his neck. "Heh…fancy that, I thought you weren't…erm, you," Bart apologized lamely.

Robin continued glaring. "I don't know what you're talking about," he more or less growled. He shot a look at Raven over his shoulder, and then focused his attention back on Bart. "Is this true? You're interested in joining the Titans?" Robin's voice was hard and distant, almost a little suspicious.

Bart shrugged. "You could say that, but seeing the papers and stuff, I figured it wouldn't hurt you guys to welcome someone else on board—"

"How do you know the 'papers and stuff' are true? You take anything anyone tells you in a stride?"

Taken aback, Bart blinked. "Uhh…I'd like to think not, but I just figured—"

Robin stopped him with a hand, surveying his costume. "Never mind—you're wearing the symbol of Flash, Justice League. His colors, too. Care to explain?"

Bart absently looked down at his chest. "Let's just say me and him and tight." He crossed his fingers and held them up for emphasis. Robin just stared.

"So you're a vigilante?"

"Something of the sort."

"Why haven't we heard of you?"

"I haven't made myself known."

"And that's why you want to join the team."

"I guess. I've just been waiting around for a good time."

"And you think since we're missing a member—not that we are—you can step in and take his place?"

"Er…when you say it like that—"

"So that's it then?"

"No! I mean—"

"What if we aren't missing a member and we don't need your help?"

"Dammit, are you always so difficult?"

"You didn't answer—"

"Fine, FINE! Cut the crap, now I know full well the Beast kid really is gone…and I wasn't planning on taking his place, alright? It just seemed like you could use some help nowadays, seeming as how you're being whipped in the ass repeatedly by criminals you used to throw in jail without a hitch. So I'm offering my hand. I don't even have to be a permanent member, just a temporary one, if you want."

Bart's face was red by the time he finished his little speech, waiting expectantly for Robin's reply. He was standing in the doorway, Raven a few inches behind him, watching Bart carefully with piercing navy-blue eyes. Robin's face was stone as he absorbed what Bart had said for a few moments, but Bart got the feeling he was fighting some kind of inner-battle with himself or something. Bart squinted his eyes a tad in a scrutinizing fashion. Raven and Robin both seemed to be a little too still for his comfort, the silence stretching for quite a while. Then, as spontaneously as Robin had ceased talking, his hand twitched and jaw locked as he seemed to comprehend Bart was still standing there. Robin opened the metal door to its entire entry swing, letting Bart see the first glimpse of the inside of the Titan Tower he had ever seen. Robin stepped forward, holding out his hand. "Guess there's nothing to lose," he said evenly, and a bit friendlier, though Bart was certain Robin wasn't about to clap him on the back and welcome him to the club. Raven levitated suddenly and disappeared up a set of metal stairs. Robin ignored her departure. "If you'll just follow me to the Titan's operations room, … ?"

Bart realized Robin was waiting for his name. Or codename, that is. "Kid Flash," Bart said, smiling and shaking Robin's hand. "Unoriginal, but the name's Kid Flash."