Titans West

“Hello!” Gar Logan called as he stepped into the Titans West headquarters. He frowned as no one responded. "That’s weird,” he mused as he closed the door. “I just talked to them yesterday and everything was fine. What’s going on?” Gar shrugged and carried his suitcase into the residential corridor.

As soon as he reached his door, he knew something was wrong. The door was smashed and the room was destroyed. Gar dropped his suitcase and ran down the hall. His blood chilled when he saw Red Star’s door also blown in. He paled as he reached down and picked up a small amount of dirt. “No,” he whispered. Without changing form, Gar ran toward the monitor room.

When he arrived, he saw the main screen smashed with a large earthen boulder wedged inside it. “What now?” Gar whispered before he picked up the phone and dialed.

DEO agent Dakota Jamison swiftly picked up the phone. “Karen Duncan’s office,” she said briskly.

“I need to speak to Dr. Duncan,” Gar said.

“I’m sorry but that isn’t possible,” Jamison replied. “Apparently both she and her husband were abducted yesterday. Who is this?” Jamison only heard a click and a dial tone as a reply.

Gar slumped down and thought. “Who’s left?” he whispered. “Karen, Mal and Leonid are all gone. Bette!” Gar ran out and returned with his laptop, which he quickly attached to the phone jack. He quickly pulled up a local news website.

“UCLA Student Abducted!” read the main headline. Below it was: “Similar Attack on Local Restaurant.” Gar scowled. “Maybe I can get some answers out there,” he said softly. He shifted into a falcon and took off.

Gar landed on the windowsill of the dorm room. He changed into an ant and crawled inside. When he reached the floor, he returned to his normal self. He quickly scanned Jason’s room. Gar opened the desk and quickly searched the drawers, smiling when he discovered a campus phone book.

Changeling murmured to himself as he flipped through the pages of the book. “Let’s see now, it said that Alex Richards was the one who saw Jason get attacked. Let’s see if I can’t find her room...” Gar smiled before replacing the phone book in the drawer and leaving the way he came.

Alex Richards laid down her anatomy book when she heard tapping on the window. “How’d a cat get onto that sill?” she thought as she opened the window. She jumped back with a cry as the cat jumped into the room. By the time she recovered, the green cat had returned to the form of Gar Logan.

“You must be Alex,” he said. “I’m a friend of Jason’s.”

“You’re the Changeling,” she said.

Gar smiled. “I’m going after the people who took Jason. Did you see anybody?”

Alex shook her head. “Just this big wall of dirt that tried to grab him. He told me to head for cover and he led it away.” Alex closed her eyes as tears slipped down her cheeks. “Is Jason going to be okay?” she asked quietly. “I mean, first the police, then those DEO people show up... I’m really worried about him.”

Gar gently hugged Alex. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Jason’s going to be fine. Just don’t tell anyone I was here, okay? I don’t want whoever this is finding out that I’m still on the loose.”

“No problem,” said Alex, trying to smile. “Go help them.”

Gar flashed Alex one more reassuring smile, then changed back into a bird and flew out the window.

Gar had to change into a mouse to get into the closed Blue Note. Once inside, he reverted to human form and headed for Mal’s office. As he walked through the eating area, he saw the huge hole where a table had once been. His eyes widened as he saw something glinting in the poor light. He grabbed it up and brushed it off. It was a gold earring, with a BK engraved on it. Gar clenched it in his fist as he recognized it.

“Bette,” he whispered. “Maybe Cody got away!” He ran for Mal’s office and grabbed the open reservation book. He scanned it for Bette Kane’s name and came up empty. His face fell as he recognized Cody Driscoll’s name in the book, reserving a table for 2. Gar slumped back and slammed his fist into the desk. “How could this happen again?” he whispered.

The hawk that was Garfield Logan flew through the air, thoughts racing through his head. He just kept coming back to how? “How could she betray us again?”

Gar finally lighted and returned to normal at the base. He stepped into the monitor room and saw a light blinking on a barely functional panel. He pressed the button next to it and a holographic mask appeared.

Hello, Gar, it said. I am the Oracle. I hope you receive this message. I have seen several reports over the past few hours describing strange abductions. A Dr. Karen Duncan and her husband Mal were abducted from the Los Angeles branch of S.T.A.R. Labs by a strange mass of earth. A UCLA student was abducted from the campus, same attacker. I did some digging and discovered that the abductee is the brother of Golden Eagle, a former Titan. Could this be the new Golden Eagle I’ve heard so much about? After that, there was an attack on a restaurant where two unidentified diners were abducted. I’ve also not gotten any response when I tried to contact your headquarters.

Gar, it looks as if someone with earth-altering powers has kidnapped your entire team. I don’t know how much this will help, but I’ve gotten some odd readings. Apparently a building in– The message cut off abruptly as the mask faded. Gar heard sizzling inside the monitor and wondered what had fried now.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied. “I know where they are.”

Gar opened the door to Terra’s room and looked around. Nothing was out of place. He looked inside the open closet and saw that all of her clothes were still there. All that was missing was her uniform. Gar’s face grew hard as he walked out and headed for the T-jet.

As he flew east, thoughts of the previous Terra ran through his head. He remembered how she’d seemed so innocent and abused. The night that she’d joined the team. The night they all revealed their secret identities to her. Waking up after being drugged to see the face of the one who’d betrayed the Titans. The ways she’d tried to bury and crush him. He remembered holding her body as Wonder Girl returned to the rest of the group. He remembered a sunny day, surrounded by friends while they stood before a gray tombstone.

Tears started to flow as Gar then recalled another sunny day shortly after another betrayal to the team when a girl dressed as Terra had appeared above him. He remembered how sweet and innocent she had seemed. Angrily, he stabbed buttons on an in-flight phone.

Miriam Delgado picked up her ringing phone. “Hello?” Mirage asked.

“Miri. This is Gar. Is Tara there?”

“No.” Miri paused a moment. “Gar, what’s going on? Is there some sort of trouble?” There was nothing but silence.

Gar clicked off the phone and returned his focus to flying. “Damnit. We did it again.” Rage seethed inside him. “We let another traitor in. First Tara, then Jericho...” Gar was deathly silent as he continued piloting into Colorado.

High in the Rockies, Gar kept climbing toward one certain spot. He’d landed the jet and was now climbing in the form of a polar bear. Finally he saw his goal. He squinted as the sunlight revealed the golden dome-shaped building. With a scowl (or as close as a bear could manage), he headed toward it.

Gar entered the former HIVE base as a gopher, returning to his human form once he tunneled upward. He looked around as ghosts appeared in his mind. Starfire blasting doors closed to stop fleeing HIVE soldiers. Wonder Girl, flying free. Tara... Gar put that thought out of his head and kept moving toward the main meeting room.

Gar approached and saw that the doorway was still blocked. He changed back into a gopher and tunneled through. Once on the other side, he changed into a flea. What he saw shocked him.

The team was attached to the same power neutralizer that the HIVE had used when the old team had been captured by the Terminator and...

After some quick exploration, he saw the person responsible. It shocked him so badly he returned to human form.

“Hiya, Logan,” Terra sneered. “Looks like the gang’s all here. Let’s start the party.”

To Be Continued...

Next Issue: The truth about Terra is revealed! And there’s only one way that the team can survive – an old, absent friend! Don’t miss the conclusion of Terra Rising – Final Triumph!

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