Beast Boy and Terra Escape

(This is set between 'Titan Rising' and 'Aftershock,' when Terra presumably spent some time working as a Teen Titan.)

Terra sat on the floor of her containment cell. She absently tugged on the belly of her shirt, her brand new Teen Titans uniform. Some Titan she turned out to be, she thought, getting captured right away like this. She looked from the glowing sphere of energy that held her into an identical sphere next to it. Beast Boy looked bored. He returned her gaze, and suddenly gave a big, goofy grin. "On the bright side, haven't I been saying you and I needed to spend more time together?"

Terra smiled. "This isn't what I had in mind, B.B." She rose to her full height in the sphere just large enough to stand in. Frustrated, she punched her cell's inner wall, knowing full well that the energy wall would spark and hurt her hand. As she rubbed her sore hand she turned to Beast Boy, who still sat calmly in his cell.

"Calm down, Terra," he said. "You're not helping anyone beating yourself against the wall like that."

"Did I ever tell you I'm a little bit claustrophobic?" She smiled nervously. "Where is Robin, already? Shouldn't he be rescuing us by now?"

Beast Boy jumped to his feet. "You know what? Who needs Robin and the others when you've got Beast Boy? I'm bored with waiting to be rescued, I'm gonna go ahead and escape." He slapped his hands and rubbed them together. "You ready?"

Earlier he had tried to become something really big and rupture the field, but it hadn't worked. She didn't know what he might be planning this time.

"Now, I'm gonna have to do this first part alone, but don't worry. I'll come back for you before you know it. You won't be alone for long."

Terra suddenly looked concerned. "Beast Boy, wait! Where are you going?"

"I'm escaping. Then I'm gonna come back and rescue you. I should only be a few minutes. You'll be fine." He gave one last look around the room, then pointed to Terra. "Um… wait here," he said with a grin, then all of his mass suddenly receded toward the center of his chest. For an instant, Terra thought she saw a tiny insect, then there was nothing. Beast Boy was gone.

"Beast Boy!" Terra cried out. "Beast Boy!" She pounded the wall with both fists. It exploded where she hit, knocking her to the ground. She collected herself in the center of the circular floor, stared at the empty cell next to her, and willed herself not to cry. "It's ok," she said to herself. "B.B. knows what he's doing." She sat for a moment and remembered something Cyborg had once told her. Beast Boy can become anything, even a microscopic amoeba. He was probably so small right now that he could fit through the "bars" or whatever this energy field was made of. But then once he was out of the field, couldn't he turn human again? Maybe he doesn't know how to turn off her cell. Maybe he needs to go get a key. Even so, couldn't he let her know he was free?

"Beast Boy?" she said quietly. "Are you here?" She sat up and looked around the room. Besides her spherical cell and the one next to it, four more cell generators sat inactive, awaiting the arrival of the other Titans. The computer terminal above the work bench on the far wall blipped quietly, and the rooms only door stood closed.

"Beast Boy?" For a moment, there was nothing. Then suddenly, the door opened and in walked two of their captors henchmen.

"Where is the green one?" the human soldier barked at her. His partner, one of the mid-sized battle robots, walked in front of Beast Boy's cell. "This cell is empty," it stated in a flat computerized voice.

"I can see that!" the guard said angrily. He turned back to Terra. "Where is he?"

Terra's eyes were wide. She honestly didn't know what had happened to her friend. "I… I don't know… I don't know where he is. He escaped."

"I can see he escaped, thank you, but how?" he snapped. "This field is impenetrable."

The robot touched a button on the controls to Beast Boy's cell. "This machine is fully functional," it stated.

"We'll see about that," said the other. He grabbed what looked like a radar gun off the work table, went to Beast Boy's cell, turned off the field and began to paint the floor of the cell with light from his hand-scanner.

"Internal sensors lost the prisoner's heat signature two minutes ago," the robot intoned.

"Scanner's not showing any damage to the cell's generator," the guard muttered. "Robot, go sound the alarm. Monkey Boy's loose in the complex."

Terra looked indignant. "His name's Beast Boy, thank you."

"Whatev-" the man started to say, then was interrupted by Beast Boy's voice coming from above his head.

"DUCK!" he shouted. The startled man looked up and for just an instant saw Beast Boy falling from the room's high ceiling. Beast Boy suddenly shifted in mid-air into a massive green rhinoceros and body slammed the poor guard into the ground. Just as quickly, the rhino became a large, velociraptor-like dinosaur and charged at the startled robot. He snapped and it blocked, and his jaws closed down on the robot's forearm. He viciously slung the droid across the room, yanking back hard at the last second and keeping its arm firmly in his teeth. The droid went flying, but its severed arm stayed in the dinosaur's jaws. Beast Boy spit the sparking piece of metal at Terra, and it bounced off her prison cell in a shower of energetic sparks. For a second Terra imagined that the dinosaur was smiling at her, then it stuck out it's tongue, winked at her, turned and pounced on the damaged robot. Seconds later the dinosaur stood up with the robot's severed head in it's jaws and spit it out at the guard, who was still struggling to get to his feet. As it took a step towards him, the dinosaur became Beast Boy again.

"Monkey Boy?" he started. "Did you call me Monkey Boy? I'll show you Monkey Boy." As he took another step toward the man he was suddenly a huge, green-furred gorilla. He stood over the guard and drove a huge, green fist into his chest, then picked him up with both hands and hurled him across the room. The guard bounced off the far wall and collapsed. The gorilla turned to face Terra, stood stiffly erect and gave a deep, formal bow. It morphed into Beast Boy, who slowly rose from the bow.

"Hold your applause, please," he said with a wave of his hand. "I'll be signing autographs after the show."

He stepped up to the front of her cell, then casually flipped a switch and the energy field around Terra collapsed. "Told ya I'd rescue you," he said with a smile as he offered her a hand down from the elevated platform. Terra jumped down and threw her arms around him.

"B.B., you're incredible," she whispered. Beast Boy blushed, not knowing what to say. "And your timing is perfect, too," she continued. "You got back just when they showed up."

Beast Boy looked at the ground and shook his head. "Terra, Terra… I never left."

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry I had to trick you, but…" he gestured toward the camera in the computer terminal across from them. "They were watching. To trick them I had trick you, too."

"What do you mean, B.B.? Trick me?"

"Even a microbe can't get through that energy field. I tried. So I told them, and you, that I was leaving, then got too small to see and waited for them to come in here and open my cell."

Comprehension dawned on Terra's face. "You were microscopic in your cell!" She smiled at him. "Sneaky!"

"Sometimes a flea's more powerful than a T-Rex. C'mon, we better go."

As they hurried down a quiet corridor searching for an exit, Terra closed her eyes again and concentrated on her surroundings. "It's no good," she said, opening her eyes. "I don't know where we are, but we're not underground. This complex is all steel and plastic. There's no stone anywhere."

Beast Boy nodded silently, took her hand and moved more quickly down the long hallway. After a moment, he jumped when Terra broke the silence.

"Aarh!" she exclaimed.

"Terra!" he whispered urgently. "Shh!"

"Sorry," she whispered. "It's just… there's nothing. I'm feeling around telekinetically and there's nothing. No rock, stone, or dirt anywhere. Just steel and plastic. I can't even find a paperweight!"

"You know…" he started, as he paused to check a closed door. It was locked. "Whoever built this place was planning on kidnapping you. It's possible he 'Terra-proofed' this level, or something."

"I guess. I just feel so… naked."

Beast Boy peered again into the small window set into the door. The landing of a stairwell was on the other side. He turned to face Terra, then paused and gently brushed a lock of blonde hair out of her face.

"I told you I'd rescue you," he said gently, "and I'm not done yet." He smiled and patted her shoulder. "Stick with me, kid. You're gonna be fine."

Terra smiled and seemed reassured. Beast Boy put his hand on the knob of the locked door and morphed into a large green crab, the sort with one small claw and one huge claw. It hung from the door handle by its larger claw, then squeezed and neatly sheared through the knob. As both crab and door handle started to fall, Beast Boy morphed human and caught the falling knob in one hand, raising the finger of his other hand to his mouth.

"Shhh."

Terra giggled. "You're just showing off now," she whispered as he reached a finger into the severed lock and pulled the door open.

"Up or down?" he asked as he leaned his head into the stairwell.

"Um, I dunno. Down? We're not in a basement. If we were underground I'd feel it. I think we're in a tower."

"Down it is, then," he said as he started down the stairwell.

They moved quickly down the flight of stairs with Beast Boy in a cautious lead. As they approached a landing, he slowed, eyeing it suspiciously. He held up a finger, motioning Terra to stop. "Hang on," he muttered, then morphed into a small, fuzzy bat and flittered to a landing on the handrail. The bat let out a small, soft 'eep' then sat and waited for a moment. Still perched on the handrail, he morphed human again, now perched on all fours. "That landing sounds funny. Humming electronics. I think it's got a laser eye or a pressure plate."

"Ok. Now what?"

"C'mere," he muttered, then morphed into a large green octopus, which now straddled the handrail with tentacles on both sets of stairs, bypassing the landing. He gently wrapped a tentacle around Terra's waist and carried her over to the lower set of stairs. As the octopus moved from the handrail to the stair he morphed human again, and smiled. "There. That was easy."

As Terra started down the stairs, Beast Boy put a hand up to stop her. "Hang on, I'm gonna check the others," he said, then morphed back into the small, fuzzy bat and flew off down the stairwell. Terra waited a few seconds, heard the small bat 'eep' a few times, then he returned to her side.

"The next few mid-level landings all sound boobie-trapped, too. I say we ditch this stairwell and get off at the next level."

"Agreed."

They proceeded downstairs to the next door, which was locked. Beast Boy peered through the small window and saw a quiet hallway just like the one above them. He quickly repeated his crab trick, slicing the door handle off and catching it before it hit the floor, then pushed the door open and stepped out.

As they walked down the hallway, Beast Boy spoke softly. "Find any stone yet?"

Terra shook her head. "We didn't go far enough down. If there were any on this level I would have been able to feel it upstairs. I just hope we don't run into any trouble."

"Now don't say that," he scolded. "You'll jinx us."

Just as he spoke, a door a few feet down the hallway opened and two men stepped out. They were wrapped up in their own conversation for a moment until Beast Boy and Terra's presence registered to them.

"See?" Beast Boy moaned as the men scrambled for the rifles that were slung over their shoulders.

"Stay behind me!" Beast Boy shouted as he reached back to push Terra out of the way, then he lunged toward the men, becoming a large velociraptor in mid-step.

As he tackled into them, two battle droids ducked through the open door and into the hallway. One of them grabbed the green dinosaur in front of it, and the other turned and moved toward Terra. She took several quick steps away from the approaching robot, then fell over backward.

"Beast Boy! Help!" she cried out. Her view of the hallway behind the robot's back was suddenly filled with scaly green skin, and the enormous head of a T-Rex came into view. The Rex was too big to stand in the hallway, but there was just enough room to maneuver it's head. The massive jaws swung overhead and closed over the robot's steel skull. Just as quickly, the dinosaur shrank away and was gone, leaving the battle droid with a thin vertical plate of metal where it's head had been. It mechanically fell forward onto it's chest as Terra scrambled to get out of its way. She looked up to see a huge green gorilla cave in the face of the other robot, then he turned to look at her and morphed human again.

"C'mon! Let's get…" he started. The alarm went off. Red lights in the ceiling began to flash. He looked down the hallway then turned to Terra. "End of the hallway, that's an elevator. Let's go." He rushed to her side as she jumped to her feet. "You alright?" he asked.

She nodded. "Let's go."

They ran the short distance to the elevator. As they approached it, it 'dinged' and the doors opened. Inside were four men with rifles.

Beast Boy gave a huge smile. "Hi, guys!" he exclaimed as he tackled into them. The doors shut behind him. Terra heard the men shouting, heard several large thuds, then the doors opened. A large green gorilla stood in the elevator with two unconscious men under one arm, and two more held up by the shirt in his other fist. He quickly threw them down outside the elevator, then morphed human.

"What floor?" he asked as she entered the elevator.

"First. Let's get outta here."

The elevator began to move downward, and they stood in silence for a moment.

"Ya know…" Terra started, "The way you talk about yourself, someone would think you're just the Titan's comic relief. But you're really kicking butt out there, you know?"

Beast Boy looked down and grinned, blushing. Terra liked the way he blushed. Something about a green-skinned man turning red made her laugh.

The elevator dinged and he looked up, just as the doors opened onto a group of six armed men standing there, apparently waiting for the elevator. Looking past them, Terra saw that they had gone too far down and appeared to be in an underground parking structure.

"Look, guys!" she yelled, pointing excitedly at the wall to their side. "Concrete!"

With that, the wall exploded, showering the group of soldiers with boulders of debris. She pushed past Beast Boy and jumped out into the room. As he followed her, the air was thick with jagged chunks of floating concrete, all of which shot into the air, then rained down again on the soldiers, beating them into unconsciousness.

"Not feeling so naked now, are we?" she shouted, standing at the center of a swirling vortex of stone, her eyes and hands glowing yellow with telekinetic energy.

"Sweet!" was all Beast Boy could say. He turned to the elevator, but the doors closed in his face. He tried the button, but nothing happened.

"Elevators are locked out. We're stuck here."

"Oh, but I'm armed to the teeth, now!" she shouted from the center of her concrete tornado. "Let's rock!" She turned and ran towards the double doors on the far side of the room. "Follow me!"

As they approached the large doors, Terra lifted her glowing hands above her head and gestured forcefully at the door. Her army of concrete boulders flew forward, knocking the doors in. Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and a large room full of soldiers and various sized battle-bots, all paused in their combat to look up at the fallen door.

"Robin! Good to see you!" Beast Boy shouted. "On your left!"

The combat resumed as quickly as it had stopped as Terra assaulted a group of soldiers while Beast Boy lunged at the nearest robot, becoming a large ram in mid-step and plowing it into the wall. He took a step back, morphed into a bull and rammed it again, driving his horns through it's chest. With it still impaled, he turned and forcefully flung it across the room, onto a soldier who was firing at Raven, his bullets bouncing off her glowing black energy shield.

He heard one more crunch as Cyborg caved in the head of a battle droid with his fist, then let it fall to the ground. The battle was over.

"Beast Boy, Terra!" Robin started. "We were looking for you. Are you all right?"

"No problemo," Beast Boy said coolly, then gave a big thumbs up to Terra. "We were just taking care of business, right?"

Terra relaxed and let the swarm of concrete meteors settle to the ground. She smiled and returned the thumbs up. "No problemo."

As the Titans retraced their steps toward the exit, Cyborg pulled up along side Beast Boy. "So you guys seemed to be doing just fine without us, huh?"

"Oh man, Cy," he replied, "All I can say is watch Terra go. I've barely had to lift a finger."

"Really?" said Raven. She sounded impressed. "Go Terra."

Terra blushed as she caught Beast Boy's eye and smiled at him. She mouthed the words "thank you."

He looked her in the eye and smiled back. "You said it. Go Terra."

END

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