A/N: Hey all! Sorry for the delays; work and life caught up with me and I haven't had the time. Here is the next entry...and the next death. Enjoy!
A man in a worn Gotham Knights jersey and cap and navy blue jeans walked with a hurried pace towards his apartment near Crime Alley, looking nervously behind him every few seconds, as one was wont to do even in a Gotham City under One Earth "protection". Locking the door, Richard Markov rushed into his barren bathroom to wash his face, and wash away his likely irrational fears. He thought he'd seen someone familiar in the distance as he came home from his job at the Gotham Gazette, an unwelcome visitor from the past he'd been trying to bury. Just my mind playing tricks on me again, he convinced himself. He'd been doing fine here in Gotham City the past two years, no unwelcome guests or suspicions as to who he really was. Richard walked into the living room…and realized that his mind wasn't playing tricks on him at all.
The man sitting on his couch was tall, dark, and literally built like a tank. His metal frame seemed to strain Richards couch, and his one red eye looked him up and down, likely scanning the smaller man's vitals and overall health. When the man spoke, it was with the coldness of the machine that he looked like. "Been a long time, Gar. Or should I call you Richard now? Nice touch, honoring him like that."
Garfield Logan rubbed his face with a towel, removing the makeup and revealing the green skin underneath. A scowl spread across his face as he looked Cyborg's new exoskeleton up and down. "Dude, you look terrible."
Cyborg smirked. "Says the man wearing makeup and prosthetic ears. Even without my scanners confiming it, I could have picked you out of a crowd in that getup easily." Cyborg stood, towering over Beast Boy.
"How did you manage to get here without raising any commotion? Don't know if you noticed lately Vic, but you kinda stand out."
Cyborg pressed a button on his forearm, and his shape changed to that of pre-accident Victor Stone, star football player. "New hologram tech. Sure beats the two rings I had to punch together, don't you think?" He took a large step forward. "Now, I know you know what I'm here for."
Beast Boy sighed in defeat and looked up mournfully at his former best friend. "Yeah, man, I know. Honestly, I thought Rachel would be the one to do it, not you."
"She couldn't do it herself. Twisted as she's become, that's a line she won't cross. If not for the sake of her feelings, then for the sake of the little one."
His ears perked up. "What did you just say?"
"She never told you about little Arella, huh? Cute kid. Has your eyes and ears. Raven's left her with her granddad, so don't you worry about a thing 'cept the next few moments."
I have a daughter! With Raven! Who still loves me! Beast Boy rushed to the door, only to be grabbed by the collar. "Where ya goin', Beastie?"
"Dude, let go! I have to see them! Let…me…go!" Beast Boy ripped out of the jersey as his small body morphed into the powerful form of a silverback gorilla. He quickly morphed into a hummingbird to get out of the window, then a peregrine falcon to get some distance. "Whew, that was close," he said as he flew through the concrete canyon of Gotham City. "I wonder how much distance I put between us by now."
"Spoiler alert: NONE!" Cyborg retracted his grappling line and landed on Beast Boy from above, who morphed into a fly to get away just before they hit the ground, before reverting back, tired from his quick changes. Cyborg marched forward menacingly, letting the sound of his metal footfalls strike fear into the onlookers heading home from work. "I was gonna make it quick, Beastie," he said, wiping off loose debris from the crash. "But now, I'm gonna make it hurt." He charged full speed at Garfield, the nanotech in his frame enlarging his fist to near-comical proportions. Beast Boy found just enough strength to turn into a Tyrannosaurus Rex and lowered his thick skull to absorb the brunt of it. The force of Cyborg's blow shattered nearby windows, and Beast Boy's dinosaur legs buckled as he fell over. Cyborg grabbed him by one of his large teeth and started punching him in his large snout over and over.
Garfield managed to sweep him with one of his legs and quickly changed back. "I have to see them, Victor…even if it means going through you!" As he ran towards Cyborg, he felt his malleable DNA change him into a large smilodon. He tackled Cyborg back to the ground as he was getting up, impaling him through one of his shoulder joints with one of his massive fangs. "Stay down, Cy. Don't make me hurt you more."
Cyborg put a hand on Beast Boy's canine head in an attempt to unjam the tooth from his shoulder. "Funny thing about cats and dogs," he said as he struggled to push up, "they're sensitive to sounds!" He quickly turned his hand into a sonic disruptor, and fired it directly into Beast Boy's sensitive ears.
Garfield morphed back as he recoiled from Cyborg's sonic assault. He couldn't hear anything, even as he screamed, "I'm deaf! You took my hearing, you dick!" His brain was yet to unscramble itself and the world was spinning and his ruptured eardrums cost him much of his equilibrium. By the time his mind stopped swimming and he refocused on Cyborg, it was too late.
Cyborg had transformed himself into a gigantic sonic cannon, not unlike the night the Titans beat off an attack from Trigon so many years before. All Beast Boy could do was watch as a wave of sonic energy overcame him, melting his brain before reducing the rest of his wiry body to ash. Turning back into himself, Cyborg looked down one more time at his old friend. "Booyah," he said, smearing the ashes across the street with his foot before creating a Boom Tube and heading off to his next target.
A/N: Two down, more to go! Hope that was worth the wait for you guys :) Suggestions for who you want to die next? Leave a review! Just remember that Starfire, Red Hood, and Cassandra Cain are off-limits (read my story The Bat and the Eagle if you don't know why). Hold tight - the next fight will be here soon!