Hey yo, author here! I know I only finished Pack Mentality today and I won't be uploading again for a minute while I take a small break, but thought I would upload a sort of prologue, that I had already written, for my new story, just short and sweet! Have a lot of ideas for it and looking forward to getting stuck in!

As always, much love - Seadavid41

Ch. 1 Four Walls in this Prison

Drip…drip…drip…drip…

Deep within the confines of a chemical laboratory located on the outskirts of Jump City, a single leaky pipe had resulted in a constant drip of water. Almost every second, a droplet would squeeze its way out of a fault in the metal work before it cascaded to the ground, their impacts echoing out into the cavernous room within which the pipe resided. It was almost midnight, and most employees of the facility had already gone home, leaving the stresses of another workday behind them as they went. The only people that remained on site where a handful of technicians who were on call and the privately hired security guards. But that wasn't the only life in the facility…not by a longshot…

Practically every room in the place was lined with animals, all in cages, all with blood samples on file…all being denied even the very basics of compassion. It was an unspoken understanding by those who worked in the laboratory that the need for security was not for the protection of lab results…but for the protection of reputation. Every single one of them knew that the conditions that specimens were kept in would spark outrage from animal rights groups around the world…but even that wasn't the darkest secret hidden within these walls.

That lay entirely with one test subject.

Many of the employees could remember the day he walked through the doors of the facility for the first time and in all fairness, at the time, all those years ago, the lab really was a beacon of innovation, pushing the boundaries of human health and they had just managed to find, not only the perfect test subject, but a test subject who was willing. He knew he could help, and he wanted to help. However, the pressure to keep producing breakthroughs…to keep turning over profits…resulted in bad choices…choices that simply couldn't be taken back, but rather than attempt to make amends for them, the decision was made to double-down.

Jump City Laboratories only dealt with animal subject…as such, all subjects would be treated like animals.

Drip…drip…drip…drip…

It was rare for him to raise his head unprovoked anymore…why would he? Any chance he got to simply rest…to be left alone…he took without question…but the constant dripping of the water intrigued him…it was something novel…and after a few minutes of thinking about it, he realised what him had so interested.

For the first time in a long time…it helped him give perspective to the passing of time.

He had no idea how long he had been here at this stage. Between the rampant testing he was subjected too where he was pumped full of chemical cocktails, to the tests of stamina, to the endurance trials, he had long ago lost any sense of time and place. He knew the four walls of the room around him…and that all he needed to know, as decided by the people who put him here.

That didn't mean he couldn't remember how he'd ended up here in the first place. He'd been so young and bright-eyed. A young superhero striking out on his own for the first time. He'd worked with the Doom Patrol; he'd already fought the Brotherhood of Evil; but he couldn't stomach his old leader's attitude towards him or his team…the people he considered family.

So, he'd left. He hadn't had much of a plan at the time, but he had a place in his head.

Jump City.

It was perfect. No heroes had laid claim to it yet. There was already a long list of villains operating within the city that the local police force were in dire need of help dealing with and as a bonus, he'd heard rumours that the Robin was potentially in the city doing some solo work. How could he not have wanted to go there?

He'd arrived on one summer morning, flying above the city as a seagull, his mind going into overdrive at the metropolis before him. He'd never been to California. Hell, he'd never been to any of the major cities in the US and the sheer scale of everything had blown him away. He'd flown to the pavement and shifted nonchalantly back into a human, scaring the life out of a few civilians going about their day. He'd apologised with a sheepish grin and a friendly wave before setting off down the street, wanting to see the city at the ground level. He'd stopped to help an old woman cross the road; he'd chatted to a few teenagers who had asked him if he was really Beast Boy because they had seen him on the news.

He'd gone to Jump City Park to sit in the sun when a group of kids had sprinted up to him asking about his green skin and he'd smiled at them…he'd always loved kids. So, he'd shifted for them, gave them turns riding on his back while he was a pony…and a velociraptor for the one kid that was really into dinosaurs. Their parents had come to gather them together and as Beast Boy had been waving them off…that's when he had heard the voice that would end up haunting him for the rest of his life.

"I'm sorry young man…but…but your powers are remarkable!"

He'd listened politely as the rather formal looking man introduced himself as the head of a local pharmaceutical company before rambling on, but one thing he said piqued his interest.

" If you were interested, I'd love you to come and see what we do. My boy, the advances we could make if you were willing to assist in our work, my god, we could make some diseases a thing of the past! With your genetics and our technology, we could change the world!"

Change the world…it had sounded so nice. He'd suddenly started thinking about what he could do to be a hero in a completely different way. What if this was how he could help? He'd always thought in the back of his head that he could be useful for science…after all, his parents had been geneticists…they'd literally made him who he was today…maybe it was a way he could honour them.

So, he'd agreed. He'd let them man put an arm around him and bring him to the edge of the city, where he'd brought him into a laboratory unlike any Beast Boy had ever seen before. It was state-of-the-art, clean…his parents would have salivated at the sight of it. They'd given him a place to sleep, food to eat…and promised him that come the next day, they'd make start making advances together that could change the world.

That night, he'd been watching the news from a television that they'd put in his room, when a "BREAKING NEWS" banner flashed across the screen. There wasn't any sound, but he was transfixed by the images. There was the Robin, a big, half-metal dude catching a bus, an orange-haired alien and a blue-hooded girl fighting off an alien invasion! That…that was the hero work he had dreamed of. He had almost wanted to shift into a fly right then and there and leave the building through a vent…

But the thought of his parents had crept back into his mind…how they'd worked their entire lives to help people…and they didn't have powers…but they'd tried to make the world better anyway. There were loads of people who could be superheroes…but genuinely, he could have been the only person on the planet who could help humanity in the way he could. So, he'd stayed and went to bed thinking about how he was going to change the world.

Unfortunately, the world then seemed to forget about him.

Drip…drip…drip…drip…

Experiments and tests that had started out with his comfort in mind soon became tests that he had to sign consent for because of their demanding nature. Originally, they had asked him not to shift when not in a test so that he didn't mess with blood level readings. Then, one day, during a fitness test, they'd slapped him with a device around his ankle, that allowed them to control when he could shift.

It's only a small shock…just to remind you…

Trials with consent forms went out the window a little while later and it wasn't long after that they decided that rather than give him his own room, he could simply be made to stay as whatever animal he'd been subjected to a test as and placed into a holding container or pen. Experiments became more and more frequent, his time as a human being became less and less…there were only so many needle injections and blood samples he could take…

Drip…drip…drip…drip…

The green German shepherd lowered its head back down to the floor of its cage. He wasn't allowed to be placed with the other animals. He had to be always monitored individually…. gods forbid it skewed the results. The gentle dropping of water echoed through his head as he gave the heavy sigh of an abused animal…and even though he could hear the literal seconds tick by…he didn't care because no matter how much time passed, there was still no end in sight. Of course, he'd tried to break free in the early days, but his attempts were quickly snuffed out, and punishment was swift. As long as they controlled his shifting…they controlled him. The only definite in his life everyday…were the four walls of his cage…and the four walls of the room he never left…a prison within a prison. He'd thought that he'd made the right decision. He was going to honour his parents. He was going to be a hero like they were for him. He was going to dedicate his life to them.

Unfortunately, for Garfield Logan, life just wasn't very fair.

Drip…drip…drip…drip…