Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Side Story 5: Speed Shifter ( One-Shot )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Side Story 5: “Speed Shifter”

Disclaimer: The concept of Teen Titans does not belong to me. The characters Nightstar and Mercury do not belong to me; the former is the property of DC Comics and the latter is jointly owned by DC and Marvel. Everyone and everything else, unless you recognize them from DC Comics, is mine.

Author's note: It's been a while coming. Meet the Parents, Future Storm style. I realize that Mercury and Beast Girl already knew each other's parents, but they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend at the time. Now that they are, relations with each other's parents might just be that little bit harder. Not to mention that a few irate villains might make an appearance.

Now let's get this story out on the road.

It was Friday night and Peter Allen, alias Mercury, was out on patrol. He could be doing what other teenagers did on Friday nights, which was go out and have a good time, but he wasn't other teenagers.

He was the fastest boy alive . . . although that was a statement Adam and Barry might want to challenge.

Mercury sped by a chop shop . . . and doubled back, vibrating through the door.

“Yo!” he shouted. “Are those your cars?”

“They are,” one of the guys there replied.

“How much did you have to spend to get them?” Mercury asked conversationally.

“What's it to you, kid?” another guy asked.

“Ok, because it looks like you're cutting them up so you can sell the parts,” Mercury commented. “Do those cars even really belong to you?”

That question resulted in all seven guys pointing Uzis at him.

“Aw, come on,” Mercury said. “You think that's gonna hurt me?”

“Depends if you can dodge automatic gunfire,” the leader replied. “And I'm betting you're not as fast as you claim.”

“See for yourselves,” Mercury challenged. “Pull the trigger.”

“Your ass,” the leader remarked nonchalantly before unleashing a salvo of automatic gunfire on the platinum-haired boy, his fellow car thieves following suit. Mercury threw himself into overdrive, ducking and weaving between bullets at speeds even greater than those of the bullets flying at him. He moved all over the chop shop, a blue-and-white blur to the thieves as they shot at him. Once they were out of bullets, he attacked.

A hundred-mile punch to the gut knocked one car thief unconscious, while a lightning-fast snap kick propelled another into one of the stolen cars and left him too stunned to do much. One of the remaining five had had enough time to reload his gun and was now shooting at the Azure Blur, who ducked and weaved between bullets while charging at him, kicking the gun out of his hand and socking him in the gut too fast for him to do anything about it except pass out.

He still had to dodge bullets from the other four, although he took the time to steal the bullets' speed so that they clattered harmlessly to the ground. A swift roundhouse kick took care of one thief, while the other three were disabled by simple chops to the neck or punches to the gut, all delivered too quickly for the thieves to react in time.

Mercury grinned and pulled out his communicator, flipping it open and contacting the police. “Hey, got a bunch of car thieves that need arresting.” He transmitted the coordinates to them and sped away from the chop shop.

He continued racing around the city, stopping random crimes here and there. At a certain point, he thought to himself, All right, I've stopped enough crime. Time for a little snog with my cute kitty cat.

With that firmly in mind, he sped to where he knew Beast Girl would be patrolling. He moved quickly and silently, not making the slightest breeze. As he advanced, he saw a purse snatcher running as though Cerberus was after him. A quick look at the night sky revealed the reason for his frantic running to the speedster.

Mercury watched with no small amount of glee as a green harpy descended upon the purse snatcher, grabbing him with her talons and carrying him away. He followed the harpy, who dropped the purse snatcher roughly on a nearby rooftop. As silent as a ghost, the Azure Blur sped up the façade of the building and stopped on the rooftop.

“You might want to give back that purse,” the harpy remarked casually.

“W-why should I?” the purse snatcher stammered, trying his hardest not to let his fear show and failing miserably.

“It's a long way to the bottom,” the harpy commented in that same casual tone. “I could catch you if you tripped, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.”

“Ok, ok!” the purse snatcher yelled. “I'll give the lady back her purse! Just get me down from here!”

“I'm so glad you asked,” the harpy said, flying toward the purse snatcher. She grabbed him by her talons and flew off the rooftop with him. Again, Mercury followed, still maintaining his quietly swift motions. The harpy dropped the purse snatcher by the woman he had stolen it from and he gave it back to her before running away in terror. Once the grateful woman had departed, Mercury spoke.

“I bet he'll never steal another purse in this city again.”

“Following me, Mercury?” the harpy asked, her wings and talons melting into human limbs. She turned around and grinned at him. “So what brings you here?”

“Patrol went by quick,” Mercury replied. “Criminals know better than to crawl out of their holes when I'm around.”

Beast Girl giggled at her boyfriend's cockiness.

“How'd you follow me without me noticing?”

“Great thing about being a ninja: we're really good at being quiet.”

Again, Beast Girl giggled.

“How about we take a little time off patrol?” the Shinobi of Speed suggested.

“Mercury, you know Nightstar and Bladefire are gonna be mad if we cut out of patrol,” Beast Girl answered.

“It won't take long,” Mercury persisted. “Just a few minutes of making out.” He smiled his most charming smile, the special smile he saved just for his ladylove.

Beast Girl melted. “Fine, but just a few minutes.”

The next thing the young changeling-slash-geomancer knew, she was pinned to a wall and being passionately kissed and caressed by a very amorous platinum-haired speedster. With a virtual whirlwind of romantic intensity that was Mercury, there was only thing to do about it.

Give in.

Beast Girl wrapped her arms around Mercury's neck and kissed him back with equal fervor, one of her fangs accidentally cutting his lip. When this had first happened, she'd apologized very profusely until Mercury (with a blush on his face) admitted that he kind of liked that little flash of pain. Since then, accidentally cutting his lip with her fang had tended to spice up their make-out sessions quite a bit, such as this particular moment.

Beast Girl opened her eyes for a brief moment, only to find someone pointing a digital camera at her and Mercury. She pushed Mercury away and glared at the person.

“You might want to delete those pictures,” she growled, her voice resembling an angry feline.

The person decided to flee. However, she didn't get very far. After all, most people couldn't hope to evade someone who ran at hypersonic speeds on a normal basis.

“I think it'd be best if you deleted those pics,” Mercury suggested gently. “Or at least keep them for your personal use and not sell them to some tabloid.” He paused. “Oh, you were going to sell those pictures of us to a tabloid, weren't you?”

The girl looked somewhat guilt-ridden. Mercury breezed over to her and gently took the camera from her, subsequently erasing the pictures of him and Beast Girl making out.

“I got an idea,” he said. “Beast Girl and I will pose for your pictures and you can keep them to make some kind of photo album.”

“That sounds nice,” the girl said.

“Does that sound nice, Beast Girl?” Mercury asked.

“Sure,” Beast Girl replied.

Beast Girl and Mercury posed for five pictures. One picture had them making silly faces for the camera. Another picture had them draped over each other romantically. A third picture had Beast Girl nuzzling Mercury in cat-girl form. A fourth picture had Mercury tickling Beast Girl. The final picture had the couple gently embracing each other.

“Awesome,” the girl said. “My friends won't believe this!”

“Heh, who knows?” Mercury remarked with a shrug. “By the way, it's not safe for you to be roaming about at this hour. You might wanna go home and get some shut-eye.”

“Sure,” the girl answered and hurried down the street, fueled by the excitement of her meeting with the two Titans.

Mercury vibrated his molecules, picking up the police radio. “Chasing stolen vehicle, blue Dodge sedan, license plate number 264-95S. All units respond.”

“Carjacking,” he said. He sped away, Beast Girl following in the air. Soon enough, he found the stolen sedan as the quarry in a police car chase. He ran up to the driver's door and shouted, “Pull over!”

“And why should I?” the carjacker asked.

“The police will go easier on you?” Mercury offered.

“Nice try,” the carjacker shot back.

Mercury vibrated his hand through the car window and grabbed the steering wheel, forcing the carjacker to pull over while simultaneously draining the car's speed. The police cars pursuing the carjacker pulled over as well, their drivers exiting and walking over to him.

“Thanks, Mercury,” one of the officers said. “We'll take it from here.”

“Sure,” Mercury replied. “Glad to be of service.” He zoomed away.

The next day, Mercury was dressed in normal clothes, specifically a blue silk button-up shirt and dark khaki slacks with black semiformal shoes. He'd taken care to comb his hair, making sure that there wasn't a single lock out of place.

Why was he taking all this care to look good? One might say that it was because of Beast Girl and that would only be partly correct. The truth was that he and Beast Girl were going to visit Beast Girl's parents. This scared Mercury a bit. Sure, Terra was just about the sweetest woman in the world, if not just a tad unladylike, and Changeling wasn't nearly as dead serious as the original Nightwing. The problem was that Changeling had a serious protective streak when it came to Beast Girl that bordered on vicious.

Not that Mercury had cause to blame him, considering what had happened to her in her young life. Still, it made him rather wary of the older shape-shifter.

In her room, Beast Girl had dressed in a cream-colored tank top with blue Capri pants and white tennis shoes. She held her blonde hair in a ponytail with the aid of a scrunchie and went to see Mercury.

“Ready to go?” he asked her.

“Just remember, my parents won't bite,” Beast Girl replied. “Besides, they've known you for years.”

“Yeah, years I spent being that `sweet yet hyperactive boy who happens to be your best friend,'” Mercury rejoined. “Now that I've graduated to boyfriend status, they're gonna be wary of me. That's how parents are.”

“You'll be fine,” Beast Girl said.

Mercury grinned and swept Beast Girl up in his arms bridal-style. “Ready for a ride on the Mercury Express?”

“Let's go,” Beast Girl replied.

The next thing Beast Girl knew, the world was accelerating so quickly that it blurred. If it wasn't for the fact that she knew Mercury's perception sped up when he did, she'd be worried that they'd crash into something. Fortunately, they made it to her parents' house safe and sound.

Mercury swallowed briefly before knocking on the door. The person who answered was Tara Markov-Logan, once known as Terra, dressed in a blouse and jeans.

“Hey,” she greeted her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend. “What's the occasion?”

“We wanted to formalize our relationship,” Beast Girl replied. “And what better way to do that than to have Peter meet you and Dad?”

“I'll get your dad,” Tara said. She turned to the stairway and shouted, “Gar! Terri wants to introduce her boyfriend to us!”

Soon enough, Gar Logan, formerly Changeling, came down to greet Beast Girl and Mercury. “Come on in. Mi casa es su casa.”

Beast Girl and Mercury entered the house and sat on the love seat, while Tara and Gar took the sofa.

“Love seat,” Gar remarked. “Interesting choice.”

Mercury blushed. “We . . . didn't mean anything by it.”

Gar chuckled. “Hey, I'm just kidding. No need to panic.”

“Sorry,” Mercury said. “I'm kinda nervous.”

“No sweat, man,” Gar said. “I was the same way when I met Tara's older brother. I gotta say, Brion is one overprotective guy.”

“He's just looking out for me, Gar,” Tara responded.

“I know, but he has a scary way of doing it,” Gar insisted.

“So what are we going to do today?” Beast Girl asked.

“I'm currently on sabbatical from writing screenplays, so I was thinking we could go to the zoo,” Gar replied.

“Sounds great,” Tara said.

The four took Gar's convertible to the zoo, with Tara sitting next to Gar and Beast Girl and Mercury sitting in the backseat. Mercury kept a considerable distance from Beast Girl, wary of incurring Gar's wrath by attempting to make out with her while in the same car as him. It didn't help that Beast Girl kept wiggling so that she was as close to him as she could reasonably get.

Tara looked in the rearview mirror and winked mischievously at Mercury, which made him blush and blanch simultaneously, if such a thing was possible.

When they reached the zoo, the four piled out of the car and went to see the various animals.

“We ought to set them free,” Mercury spoke idly.

“Who?” Tara asked.

“The tigers,” Mercury replied. “They must hate being cooped up in there.”

“As sad as it is, at least they're safe here,” Gar remarked. “If they were out in the wild, the hunters would pick them off.”

“Yeah, you've got a point,” Mercury conceded. “Beautiful creatures, aren't they?”

“Yeah,” Beast Girl agreed.

“But you're the most beautiful cat I've ever known,” Mercury whispered in her ear, making her blush. “Catwoman's got nothing on you.”

“Awww, isn't that sweet?” Tara remarked. “Reminds me of you and me when we were dating.”

“Yeah,” Gar admitted, “although I wonder what he just whispered in her ear.”

“It was obviously something very romantic,” Tara said.

That was pretty much how the rest of the trip to the zoo went. Beast Girl and Mercury whispered sweet nothings in each other's ears and Tara and Gar remarked at how “sweet” they were. In between all that saccharine teen romance, Gar recited facts about the various animals they saw.

At one point, Gar pulled Mercury aside.

“Uh, what did you want to talk to me about, Mr. Logan?” Mercury asked.

“Please, call me Gar,” Gar answered, “and I'd like to talk to you about Terri. Do you love her?”

“She owns my heart completely,” Mercury replied.

“Simple yes or no question,” Gar insisted. “Do. You. Love. Her?”

“Yes. I. Love. Her,” Mercury replied in much the same way Gar had questioned him.

“Don't get sassy with me,” Gar said. “Now, I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt. You and Terri were friends long before you started making out on patrols, so I'm inclined to trust you. Problem is that she already got hurt bad by someone she trusted once and I'm not letting that happen again. So here's the deal: You break Terri's heart and even you won't be able to run far enough or fast enough to escape me. Got it?”

“Uh-huh,” Mercury answered, all temerity gone from his voice and demeanor.

Gar suddenly broke out into a smile. “Now let's go rejoin the ladies, shall we?”

Gar and Mercury came back to Tara and Beast Girl, the former noticing Mercury's uneasy expression. The geomancer pulled Gar aside, leaving their daughter and her boyfriend by themselves.

“Did you try to intimidate him?” Tara asked.

“Just keeping him honest,” Gar replied.

“It could backfire,” Tara suggested. “You might have ended up making him so scared that he'll never touch Terri again.”

“He'll get over it,” Gar replied. “And if he loves her as much as I think he does, then a little threat from me isn't going to stop him from being with her. Besides, my fastest land animal only goes at 60 to 65 miles per hour. I'd never be able to catch up with him, anyway.”

Tara kissed him softly on the cheek. “Sure. By the way, I'm sure Terri and Peter are missing us.”

“Not . . . really,” Gar contradicted, spotting Beast Girl and Mercury sharing a kiss by the gorilla cage.

“Now, Gar, there's no reason to hurt him,” Tara remarked. Then with a mischievous smirk, she added, “Unless he's a bad kisser.”

Gar snickered, remembering the years he spent refining his kissing technique with Tara.

“That was fun,” Mercury remarked as Gar drove them back to the Logan residence.

“Yeah,” Beast Girl agreed. She leaned over to whisper in his ear, “Did my dad scare you?”

“Uh, yeah,” Mercury replied.

Beast Girl ruffled his platinum hair. “Silly. My dad wouldn't harm a fly.”

“If you say so,” Mercury mumbled warily.

At the Logan residence, the foursome had a vegetarian dinner. To his surprise, Mercury found himself liking it.

“If vegetarianism is this good, then I'm swearing off meat forever!” he declared.

“I have a convert!” Gar shouted. “Peter Maxwell Allen, I hereby declare you a knight of the tofu crown.”

Beast Girl and Tara laughed at the two's antics.

“So, Terri, how's life with the Titans?” Gar asked.

“It's good,” Terri replied. “School's a pain, though. Hate algebra. Mercury makes it all better, though.”

“I'm sure he does,” Gar remarked. “Just don't get up to anything when you're supposed to be getting educated.”

“My fans are scary,” Mercury said.

“What happened?” Tara asked.

“One day we came to school and we were practically attacked by our fans,” Mercury replied. “They mobbed us for autographs, although they wanted us to sign something other than paper.” He shuddered.

“Guys look at me funny,” Terri added.

“It's the ears,” Gar said. “You inherited my ears and ladies love my ears.”

“Uh-huh,” Peter muttered with a blush. “I suppose it'd be a bad time to say that I enjoy nibbling Terri's ears.”

“You went that far with her,” Gar remarked quizzically.

“I said that out loud, didn't I?” Peter mumbled abashedly, his amber eyes landing on a blushing Terri.

“Well, you and I have something in common,” Tara remarked, “because I just love nibbling Gar's ears.” To emphasize this, she reached over and rubbed Gar's elfin ears teasingly.

“Ah, Tara . . . not in front of the kids,” Gar mumbled.

“Point is, Petey, we're not gonna hurt you,” Tara said. “You and Terri have a beautiful thing going and we trust you not to get in over your heads.”

“What she said,” Gar agreed. “Wait, Terri. Did you tell him yet?”

“Tell him about?” Terri asked.

Gar looked at her once and she instantly remembered what he was referring to.

“I already know,” Peter said. “And I don't care. Honestly, I find her even more beautiful in her real form.”

“You're just saying that because you have a fetish for cat-girls,” Terri remarked snidely.

“True, but that's not my only reason,” Peter answered.

The next day, Peter dressed himself in a gray button-up shirt with a darker gray dragon print on the left side, black jeans, and a pair of shoes that looked like a cross between sneakers and boots. He exited his room and went to Terri's room. Not thinking to knock first, he found her in just her underwear.

“Peter!” Terri exclaimed in exasperated embarrassment. “Knock first!”

“Sorry!” the platinum-haired speedster said before vibrating through her door and back out into the hallway.

A few minutes later, Terri came out dressed in a cream-colored blouse and jean skirt over black leggings, leaving her hair loose this time.

“How do I look?” she asked.

“Stunning,” Peter replied. He took Terri's hand and held her in his arms like a groom would hold his bride. “Let's go.”

Within mere minutes, he and Terri were in Keystone City and on their way to his parents' house. They would have gotten there sooner, but Peter kept pausing to greet various people he knew there. Hell, he even stopped to help a police officer repair his car, finishing in less than half a minute.

Despite all these self-imposed interruptions, the couple did make it to the Allen residence.

“Hey, Dad,” Peter greeted.

Bart Allen pushed his mop of brown hair out of the way of his eyes, which were as amber as his son's, and grinned. “Hey, Pete.”

Father and son hugged each other, the older male releasing the younger from his embrace after a few minutes to ruffle his hair.

“So, finally saw fit to introduce your girlfriend to us, huh?” Bart remarked in mock anger, only to break down laughing. Peter laughed with him, despite not really getting the joke. “Well, your mom's gonna be happy to see you again.”

Carol Allen came down the stairs with a bright smile on her face. “Hi, Peter, Terri.” She hugged her son and ruffled his hair as his father had done earlier.

Peter chuckled. “Between you two, my hair is going to be utterly unrecognizable.”

“So, anybody feel like visiting the water park?” Bart asked.

“I do! I do!” Peter exclaimed with glee.

“Sure,” Bart said.

“Can Uncle Max come with us?” Peter asked.

“Ok, we just have to -” Bart replied, only to be cut off by a gentle gust of wind that stopped to reveal Max Crandall, alias the two-century-old speedster Max Mercury.

“Ah, I was looking for you, Peter,” the eldest of the speedsters said with a slight smile.

“Uncle Max!” Peter greeted, hugging his onetime mentor fiercely.

Technically, Max wasn't Peter's uncle, but he was Bart's first real mentor and had taken the same role with Peter when he'd advanced into the future and found his protégé married and with a super-speedy child of his own. Peter loved Max much like a nephew would love his uncle and admired him to the point where he served as the inspiration for his heroic identity and garb.

“Sure,” he said. “I'll come with you.”

The water park was bustling with activity, children frolicking in the water and parents and older siblings attempting to watch over them while frolicking as well. The Allen family, along with Terri and Max, quickly waded into the scene.

Peter grabbed Terri's hand and ran (at athletic speed) toward the Torpedo, a tubular water slide that was so tall and steep that it allowed a high degree of acceleration toward the large pool beneath, hence the name. The two got on the slide together, Terri nestling herself in Peter's arms as the speedy boy held her close to him.

“Ready?” he asked softly yet excitedly.

“Yeah,” she replied.

With a gentle push, the two went down the slide at a speed that Peter gauged to be about fifty mph. He didn't know for sure; he was used to much higher speeds and he wasn't so good a mathematician.

Oh, well. Screw math. He was having fun . . . and so was Terri, and that was all that mattered to him at this moment.

The two landed in the ocean-sized pool with a merry laugh, soon engaging each other in splash warfare.

Meanwhile, Bart had persuaded Carol and Max to accompany him into the pool, where they soon engaged in their own antics. Even Max wasn't immune to Bart's extremely high spirits. Granted, his former protégé had grown up immensely in the years he'd been absent, but every now and again that same childlike exuberance emerged.

Soon enough, the three adults had run into Peter and Terri.

“Having fun, you two?” Bart asked, only to be splashed by a mini-wave from Peter, who laughed like he'd stumbled upon the world's biggest joke. The elder speedster just smirked before generating a stronger mini-wave that drenched his son even more than he already was.

“Be careful, you two,” Carol advised. “You don't want to cause a tropical disaster, do you?”

“She does have a point,” Max added.

Bart and Peter looked each other dead in the eye . . . and generated an even stronger mini-wave together, striking both Carol and Max. Neither was that happy with the two, who just hit them with another mini-wave as a way of saying, “What are you gonna do about it, huh?”

Carol, hearing the unspoken challenge, retaliated with as big a splash as she could make without speed powers. Still, it got the two good.

“You know what this means, don't you, dear?” Bart asked with a mock-sinister expression.

“Yeah,” Carol replied.

“I'll win,” Bart stated.

“You'll try,” Carol retorted playfully.

At this point, Peter reached the limits of his not-so-remarkable patience and shouted, “War!”

And so it began.

Hours later, the five were drying off and putting their clothes on over their swimsuits. Bart, Peter, and Max were drying off and changing in the men's changing stalls, while Carol and Terri were doing the same thing in the women's stalls.

“So, did you have fun today?” Carol asked.

“Yeah,” Terri replied.

“He's really a very sweet boy,” Carol remarked. “A bit too hyper for his own good and probably an incessant flirt, but a very sweet boy. I hope you two stay together for a very long time. He loves you a lot. It shows in his voice whenever he talks about you. It'd be really upsetting for him if something happened to ruin things between you and I'd have to do something about that, wouldn't I? So . . . make him happy, Terri.”

“I will,” Terri answered, catching the hidden threat in the older woman's voice.

“Good to hear,” Carol said warmly.

Later on, Peter and Terri had returned to Titans Tower.

“So how'd you like meeting my parents?” Peter asked.

“They're great people,” Terri replied. “And your uncle is so cool.”

“I know,” Peter said with a wide grin. “He's the best uncle a guy could ask for.”

“How'd you like meeting my parents?” Terri asked.

“They're cool,” Peter replied. “They didn't freak out when I mentioned that thing about me liking to nibble on your ears.”

Terri blushed, but summoned up the courage to ask, “Would you like to nibble on my ears now?”

“Would I ever,” Peter replied, taking the opportunity to do exactly that.

End Notes: Well, that's it. Originally, I intended to have some villains show up, either Flash enemy Gorilla Grodd (whom you've probably seen if you watch the latest episodes of Justice League Unlimited) or several members of the Brotherhood of Evil (particularly Gemini). Ultimately, I decided it was a stupid idea to insert a superhero/villain fight when the story should largely be a romance-comedy, or at least try to be. It's up to you to decide whether it was actually funny at all or not. Still, I'd like to know what you think, so please review.