Genesis, Part Four:
“Beasts”
The small green monkey scampered into the room through an open window. It peeked around the room and finally spotted its prey lying on a dresser. It grabbed up the necklace and was gone. Loren Jupiter paced back and forth in his office. “Something wrong?” Mr. Smith asked. “I just don’t understand how to instill morals in these kids,” he said. “I believe that Robin was ready to kill Trident in that simulation!” Smith smiled. “Are you sure? It may have simply been a bluff.” ”I know,” Jupiter said as he sagged into a chair behind his desk. “I just wish that I knew for sure.” “Raising children is seldom for sure,” Smith said, “and these are special children.” “I know,” Jupiter said. “How is the punishment for Mr. Grayson and Mr. Harper going?” ”Quite well,” Smith said as a smile touched his lips. “I believe that their machismo is being sufficiently depleted.” “I hate you,” Roy Harper said. Dick Grayson ignored him. Roy had been saying the same thing ever since the sadistic Mr. Smith had come up with this punishment. Being forced to clean the base was bad enough, but listening to Harper only made it worse. They were currently cleaning the ladies’ restroom and it was not a pretty sight. Roy opened another stall door and screamed. Reaching in with only his foot, he fought to hit the handle to flush the toilet. Unfortunately, while Roy was handling commodes, Dick was mopping. Roy lost his balance, overcompensated, and his feet went out from under him. Roy landed on his back, thanking his lucky stars that he hadn’t fallen forward. Dick walked past the fallen Roy and looked in the commode. “What’s the problem?” he asked. “You’ve done worse than that in our bathroom.” Dick calmly flushed the toilet. Roy pulled himself up. “That thing was alive!” he said. “It had eyes and was looking at me!” Dick rolled his eyes and picked up his mop. “You don’t have any idea what bad is,” he said as he started moving down the room again. “Try living on the streets for a while and maybe you’ll figure it out.” The monkey climbed in through the open window and laid the necklace on a desk before it returned to its natural form – that of a ragged young boy who was completely green. The man behind the desk calmly studied the necklace and replaced it. “It looks like you managed to avoid screwing this up,” Nicholas Galtry said. “You may eat.” Garfield Logan ran to a dog dish and started gulping down what food Galtry had felt like putting in it. Behind the desk, Galtry coolly studied the necklace. “Well, now. I believe that I will soon have another little task for you.” Donna Troy flew backwards as a stream of fire flew past. Below her, Garth ripped a fire hydrant up from the ground. The water’s spray reinvigorated him as he threw the hydrant at Trident. The metal hydrant slammed into the villain’s chest, sending him sprawling. It was no problem for Donna to swoop down and scoop up his weapon. “And that, as they say, is that,” she said. “Not bad,” Garth said as Donna flew down and gave him a peck. He reached out and pressed a button. The door to the training area slid open and the two walked out of the room. “How did it handle?” Mal Duncan asked as he looked up from an access panel on the side of the room. “Looked like everything was fine,” Garth said. “Good,” Mal said. “I’m working on getting some new villains ready to upload, so don’t get too used to Trident in there.” ”Don’t worry,” Donna said as she wrapped her arms around Garth’s. “Whatever happens, we can get through it.” Mal watched the two as they walked away. “Man,” he said softly, “why couldn’t they have made girls like that in my high school?” “What’s wrong? Didn’t they have girls in your high school?” Mal jerked up and banged the back of his head on the panel. He backed out and saw Wally standing there. “How long have you been there?” he asked. Wally shrugged. “Not too long.” He stuck his head in the panel. “Whatcha doing?” Mal gently pulled Wally out of the panel before he could rewire anything and slammed it shut. “Just checking on some settings,” he said. “Nothing that can’t wait. You want to give it a try?” ”Yeah,” Wally said. “Were you able to set up that program I asked for?” ”Yep,” Mal replied. “Let me get back up to the control room and then you can head on in.” Wally was practically shaking with excitement as Mal returned to the room. Finally he was allowed in. Jay Garrick and Barry Allen stood there. “Hey, Wally,” Jay said. “Feel like going for a run?” Grinning widely, Wally joined his idols on patrol. Garfield Logan huddled before Galtry. He’d just been given his orders for the evening – break into the Jupiter Industries headquarters and steal access codes for their main computer. The swelling in his cheek reminded him of what would happen if he failed. Loren Jupiter strode out of his office building toward his limo. He was unaware that he was being watched. Just as the doors started to slide shut behind him, a small green mouse scurried into the building. The mouse looked up and hurried into an air vent. Later that night, Smith was working on a report in the security office when an alarm went off. He scowled as he didn’t see anything on the security cameras. Still, he thumbed a switch that set off an intruder alarm in the Titans’ quarters. ”What’s that noise?” Roy asked as he sat up in bed. ”Intruder alarm,” Dick said as he threw the covers back and grabbed for his uniform. “How’d you know that?” Roy asked as he rubbed his eyes. Dick rolled his eyes. “I listened at our briefing. We’ve got somebody breaking in. Move!” Fully costumed, he threw Roy’s bow at him and ran out of the room. “Jerk,” Roy said as he searched for his belt. Robin ran out into the hallway and encountered Aqualad. “Wally just went out to check the library and schoolrooms,” he said. “Donna’s checking the residential corridor upstairs.” ”Excellent,” Robin said. “Head to the gym and make sure it’s secure. I’m heading for the security office and see if Mr. Smith picked anything up.” ”What about Roy?” Aqualad asked, jerking a thumb back toward their rooms. “Forget about Sleeping Beauty,” Robin said with a scowl. “Check out the gym.” Robin ran into the elevator and was gone. Smith didn’t even look up as Robin ran in. “Excellent time, Mr. Grayson,” Smith said. “If this was just another stupid drill…” Robin started. Smith raised a hand to cut him off. “It isn’t. Look.” Smith pulled up a security schematic as Robin leaned over his shoulder to study the monitor. “Apparently our intruder has made his way to the computer core.” ”The core?” Robin asked. “I thought the security down there was foolproof!” ”As did I,” Smith said. “I would be most interested in discovering how he has managed to penetrate this building so deeply.” “Can we use our communicators?” Robin asked. “He has shown no response to any previous communications,” Smith replied. “I believe that it is safe to assume that he does not have the capability of monitoring your radio frequency.” ”Check.” Robin ran out and sprinted for the elevator. “Titans, this is Robin. I’ve just checked with Mr. Smith. He says that we’ve got an intruder in the computer core. Rendezvous there immediately!” ”Jawohl, mein Fuhrer,” a sarcastic voice replied. ”Can it, Roy,” Robin said. “Get it in gear and meet us at the computer core!” He snapped off the communicator before Speedy was able to make another response. Three minutes later, the team had assembled outside the core. Robin snapped off his communicator. “Mr. Smith confirms that our boy’s still in there,” he said. “Let’s just go slow and easy, and not screw this up, okay?” Robin threw the door open and the team rushed in. Inside they found a young man with green skin, about 13, dressed in rags. He was bent over an access terminal, frantically copying files to disks. “Hold it right there,” Robin said as the team surrounded the boy. Garfield Logan looked up. “Please don’t hurt me,” he said as he backed away. “Don’t hurt me again.” ”That’s up to you, now, isn’t it?” Roy said as he drew back an arrow. “Shut up, Roy,” Robin said. “Listen, kid, we don’t want to hurt you. We’ve just got some people who want to talk to you.” ”I’ll bet,” Logan said as a smile crossed his lips. “They’ll really want to after this!” Before the stunned team could react, Logan had changed into a green gorilla and thrown Donna, Roy and Robin into the wall. The gorilla changed into a cheetah and took off down the hall. “Cheetah? Cool,” Kid Flash said as he took off in hot pursuit. Aqualad knelt down beside the downed Titans. Robin was bleeding from a cut on his forehead. “Are you all right?” Aqualad asked. ”Barely,” he said. “Looks like Roy and Donna are both out, and I don’t think I can stand up right now. It’s up to you and Wally. Go get him.” Robin’s eyes closed as he lapsed into unconsciousness. “Great,” Aqualad said. He turned on his communicator. “Wally, where are you?” ”Level Four. Five. Six.” Aqualad closed his eyes as he ran down the hall. “Does it look like he’s going somewhere?” ”Yeah. He’s heading into the lower level of the school area.” ”The gym,” Aqualad said. He smiled as he realized the only way out of there. “Herd him toward the gym. I’ll take care of him from there.” ”Gotcha.” Garfield Logan was panting as he ran into the gym. Even in the form of the world’s fastest land animal, he’d barely managed to stay ahead of that kid in the yellow. He grinned as he saw the pool. He shifted into a small bass and jumped into the water. The blueprints he’d seen had shown that there was an outlet for the water. All he had to do was swim for it. His eyes widened as his body stopped responding and finally started rising to the top of the water. Aqualad was standing there. ”You can change back now,” he said, “and don’t try anything. You’re on my turf now.” A sullen Garfield Logan returned to his normal shape. Wally turned on his communicator. “We got him, Robin. We’re heading for the meeting room.” Robin knelt down on the roof. After Logan had explained his circumstances, this had seemed the only course of action to take. He watched as the green pigeon flew into the window. “Go,” he whispered into his communicator. Galtry accepted the disks that a shaking Garfield Logan handed him. “Wait,” Galtry said as he flipped through the disks. “Where are the security codes?” ”I’m sorry,” Logan said. “There…there was security.” ”I don’t care!” Galtry yelled as he punched Logan in the face. The boy fell to the ground. Galtry grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up. “I expect results from you, you little freak!” Galtry’s head jerked around as the rear wall of the apartment exploded. The Titans were standing in the gap. An arrow flew through the air and pinned Galtry’s sleeve to the wall. “Take you hands off him, you piece of trash,” Robin said. “You’re finished.” ”Not yet,” Galtry said as he reached for his pocket. ”He’s got a gun!” Logan yelled. ”Not anymore,” Wonder Girl replied as she grabbed his hand. Pain filled Galtry’s features as she started to squeeze. Finally, he released the gun. Donna squeezed the pistol into scrap. “You know,” Speedy said as he stepped forward, “normally I’d be happy that I just got to blow something up. But you really piss me off.” Roy’s fist slammed into Galtry’s face and he fell to the ground. “This is trespassing!” Galtry yelled as blood flowed from his flattened nose. “I’ll have you arrested!” ”And this is child abuse,” Robin said as he helped Logan to his feet. “He’s coming with us. Feel free to come after us if you can fly.” The Titans and Garfield Logan left Galtry curled up in a defensive posture on the floor of the filthy apartment. ”Is that it?” Logan asked as the team reassembled on the roof. Robin nodded. “Yeah. The police have that statement you gave them, so they’ll deal with him from here on out. Where are you off to? You know, you’re welcome to come with us.” Garfield shook his head. “Not yet. Maybe someday I will, but right now I want to go see if I can find my parents.” ”All right,” Robin said. “Here.” He handed Logan a card. “That’s a phone number to our HQ. Give us a call if we can help.” ”No problem,” Logan said. He launched into flight as the Titans departed, returning to their headquarters. In San Francisco, police were swarming around a woman on the beach. It appeared that she had just washed in with the tide, yet she remarkably wasn’t dead. She looked at the policemen and whispered two words. “My Prince…” Next Issue: There’s someone new in the base, and it spells trouble for Garth and Donna. Plus: Garth’s past is revealed! Previous Issue | Next Issue |
