2013.12.31 - The Importance of Being Terra

As she's out and about looking for people to help, disasters to prevent or damages to the Earth to fix, Terra is on a patrol! While some heroes patrol on foot with super speed and other use flight, she's a bit unusual in her mode of transportation, she's totally surfing a rock, across the skies! Somehow it works, and she looks to keep her balance as she zooms by, keeping a look out for trouble.

It's late evening up in the Manhattan, sun going down as New Yorkers scury back and forth. Some duck into apartment buildings or stores. A certain Cessily Kincaid's emerging from a coffee shop right near campus, before she makes her own scurry for the subway and home. As she steps out to the corner she watches a girl zoom by on a rock, and her eyes widen. "taht's new," she says, and pulls out her phone to snap a picture. And patrolling occasionally attracts trouble: one Gar Logan, a little offbalance due to recent events*, spotted the flying rock about three minutes back and has been following it ever since-- a small green sparrow, determined and fiercely overwhelmed by emotion. Just as Cessily's snapping a picture, it's like out of nowhere that an enormous green condor basically appears in the sky above and behind Terra and swoops down to crash into her and her rock, shrieking giant bird shrieks mixed in with an almost human roar of furious heartbreak and wounds that never heal. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what's known as Not Thinking At All.

Luckily, they're above a big green open space: the campus quad. And the green bird's making enough noise that if anyone's unlucky enough to be down there, there's plenty of time to run away.


 * See 'Hey, I Just Met You' and 'Robo-Hobo' for the full story! --Ed.

Noting one girl aiming something at her, being totally unfamiliar with cameras, Terra turns to look down in Cessily's direction, which helps her to totally miss the sparrow turning into a huge condor going right at her. The impact is powerful, the rock crumbles and Terra is sent flying towards the ground with the force of the condor's ramming power. That's when a baseball catching glove forms out of the open green below and zips into the air to soften Terra's fall, as she calls out, "villain! Your sneaky ways will not help you, for I am Terra! Champion of...well, I'm a hero!"

Cessily takes a snap,then another, stepping a few steps towards the curb to get additional shots. She doesn't for a moment realize the irony of /her/ doing it. "Wha!?" she sputters, taking another quick snap and thens hoving her phone in her coat. "Ho....wait...." A big green bird. "That's Beast Boy!" Cessily calls, running into the street after the two of them, waving her arms and trying to break up the inevitable hero-fight. Those suck. The green condor wheels around and dives for Terra again, big sharp talons extended, fierce and wicked beak open, ready to rend and tear. "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!" the bird screams out, the near-madness of betrayal and old festering hurt and fury warping the voice. He's aiming right at that baseball glove, and he's so pissed he hasn't even noticed someone just called him Beast Boy again. "Your STUPID DISGUISE isn't going to fool me! Are you pretending you don't KNOW me? AGAIN? After EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE TO ME? To my FAMILY!? My FRIENDS??! YOU CAN'T PRETEND ANYMORE! I'LL SHOW THE WORLD WHAT YOU REALLY ARE!!"

Oh hero fights. They suck, but they're also always so epic.

"You -KNOW- who I am?" Terra looks stunned as the big bird, the green scary variety not cute yellow one, comes in for another attack. "Then why are you attacking me? That's stupid!" Terra throws a fist that has no chance to even remotely reach the condor, but what follows is a huge rocky hand rises from the ground to throw a titanic fist at the condor, "don't make me hurt you! You won't like it when I hurt you! And I didn't hurt anyone ever! Seriously all truth like ever!" She doesn't much notice Cessily for now, but that's mostly because of the giant bird trying to shred her to bits with its talons.

"Ohmygosh!" Cessily sputters and groans. The silver teen steps back up on the curb and waves over a bystander. "Here, hold his," she says, shoving her coffee cup in his hand, then turning back around. "Hey!" Cessily shouts as loudly as she can. "Get off her!" she walks closer to the fight, legs and arms both lengthening so she can get taller and reach into the fight. Thankfully, Condor Boy isn't being /that/ clever in his fighting, so silver metal wraps around his shoulders and she yanks hard to pull him off the rock. And then a titanic fist hits Cessily in the head and knocks to the ground in a losely human-looking puddle. Too busy being crazy to listen to reason! Or to fight even remotely intelligently, yes. Just as his condor shoulders are getting grabbed in mobile metal and the Changeling is starting another incoherent rant, that gargantuan stone fist slams into him and Cessily at once, and he's suddenly human (if still very, very green) and stunned, and poor Intervention Cessily is knocked out and melting in the torn-up grass.

Fury is a pretty powerful force, though, so as dizzy and injured and confused as he is, Gar starts to try and pick himself up. "L-liar!" he croaks, and he's crying. "You-- you were always a liar, Tara-- you c-can't pretend--"

As Cessily involved herself in the fight, Terra cries out, "careful! That green bird is angry and dangerous! Don't make yourself...NOOOO!!!" Terra shrieks in horror when Cessily also gets hit by her big ol' rocky fist of titanic proportion. Immediately, Terra tries to shape the ground so Cessily's fall isn't as bad, though there's not much she can do after having flattened the girl. As of yet, she's uncertain about Cessily's powers, so she believes the big ol' condor boy just made her kill someone.

"LISTEN HERE EVIL GREEN BIRD! YOU MADE ME HURT AN INNOCENT! I SHALL MAKE YOU SORRY WITH REGRET!" Terra soon is lifted into the air by yet another rock that springs into the air under her feet, a portion of the rock breaks apart into many sharp little pebbles that float in the air all around Terra, apparently she means to pellet Changeling with many sharp projectiles. "I AM NOT A LIAR! I NEVER LIE! I AM A HERO! AND MY NAME IS NOT TARA, IT'S TERRA, DON'T WEAR IT OUT!" Just like that, Changeling is soon showered with zipping sharp pebbles of rocks, unless he makes a move to evade them. "You will apologize to the poor innocent woman!"

The silver girl's down on the ground, her body looking just a bit 'off', with the elongated limbs. As she lies there, apparently unconscious, they slowly retract back to 'normal'. The Changeling's not... really in any shape to be dodging much of anything, but as the first sharp pebbles start pelting him, he curls in on himself, arms turtled over his head -- he's very much not a bird any more, he's just Gar in his superhero suit, dazed and bleeding a little and not...

...not really able to hang on to the rage. He's trying, the angry tears are still tracking down his dirty face, but now he's getting sliced up and-- poor innocent woman? "STOP, STOP! S-STOP IT TERRA!"

A few seconds-- seven seconds-- ten seconds, and he's healed himself enough from the big whack that his head's cleared a little and he can shift again, and he shifts into an armadillo because screw you projectile gravel. So a salad-green armadillo is what starts belaboredly shuffling over to the unconscious silver girl. "Stop it and SHUT UP if you SAY you're a HERO then-- then help me with her--"

When Gar surprises her by actually calling for mercy, Terra does stop her assault, and the rest of the sharp pebbles just crumble to the ground. "Good! Now you learn you cannot defeat Terra! I am a hero and I will make sure justice wins the day!" She holds up her arm in triumph for but a moment, before she rushes towards Cessily with a concerned look on her face, poking the strange metallic girl slowly, "are you okay...? Do you need medical attention? I can make you alive again if you died..." Terra points out as if Cessily could actually answer if she was dead.

Down on the ground, in the grass of the median, Cessily's not being very talkative. She's entirely still and appears not to be breathing as Terra rushes up and gives her a nudge and a poke. Her eyes jolt open with a startle and she yelps, "Ohmygosh!" She sits up quickly, rubbing the back of her head. "You hit me!" she snaps at Terra. "My fault!" the green armadillo cries out in alarm. "Don't blame her. I-- I'm--" He shuffles back a pace or two, limping a little; his tail sweeps debris through dusty grass and torn-up earth. "I'm really sorry, miss. I--"

Suddenly Gar's standing up, a green guy in red and white unstable molecule skintights, caked with dirt and dust so he looks kind of more like lichen than lettuce, and he looks around in alarm. "SORRY! MISTAKEN IDENTITY! IS ANYONE HURT?"

The intersection is a mess, the median torn through to the pipes in some places, the macadam broken up and crumpled, chunks of it strewn everywhere; a traffic light's been uprooted and there's a hydrant with a fine mist around it, spraying from the tiniest fissures at very high pressure. People are filtering back and taking pictures everywhere. There's shouting and anger and approaching sirens. It's kuh-razy.

This is, however, Metropolis. The citizens know the drill: don't look back, don't linger, just... run. Terra's careful, and she's got good control of her powers; it seems as though no one but Cessily has been hurt. They're just mad because of their stuff and their appointments.

Gar's pretty confident he can pay any damages levied against him, and yeah, he'll wait for the cops all right. Or worse, his friends.

So-- once he's determined there aren't any emergencies, he crouches and looks grim. "I'm sorry, both of you." He looks from Cessily to Terra, and it's her face he lingers on for a second. "I'm really sorry. I thought you were a different Terra. I'll explain if you want me to, but now's probably not the time. My name's Gar Logan," he finishes, looking from her to Cessily again. "I'm really, really, really sorry."

Terra wasn't prepared for Cessily to come to so suddenly, and she stumbles back and falls right on her bottom, looking at Cessily in surprise, her hand pointing towards Gar, "that was totally green person creature fault! He attacked me, I fought back, because I'm a hero and heroes don't back down! I didn't think an innocent would jump in! I'm so sorry! How can I lavish you with sufficent apologies and sorrifications, ma'am?"

"See? The stupid green boy agrees with me, he was naughty!" Terra nods sagely, even though she's in a very unspectacular position, sitting on the floor after stumbling. "How can you mistake my identity if you've never met me?" A confused Terra asks Gar, looking at him strangely. "I don't look like anyone that I know!" When people run about in a panic, Terra gets up and calls out, "don't worry good people of surface world, I am Terra, and I will fix everything! I am here to help!"

"I'm...pretty tough," Cessily says, sitting up fully and brushing grass off her coat and jeans with rapidly sparkly motions of her hands. "You're Beast Boy," she says, waving a hand towards Gar. "You don't know," she says. "Ugh, so...what's going on? Or is this one of those New York street punchups for no good reason that makes us such a tourist spot?"

Cessily says, "Did you two just have a bad breakup?" This is the part where the green guy just... puts his hand over his face for a second, as Terra judges (so idiosyncratically) and declaims (so Brian Blessedly), and then drags it down, smearing grime, and sighs. "I... yeah. Okay."

"I'm Changeling," Garfield says patiently, straightening up again. He offers Cessily a hand up to her feet. "I haven't been Beast Boy since like 2005. And no. We've never met. But there was another Terra, a-- a long time ago. It's complicated. But yeah, it all basically amounts to me being stupid and not thinking."

"Oh not at all!" Terra shakes her head at Cessily's quesiton, "I assure you I broke nothing of green boy over there." As Gar introduces himself shortly after, Terra is quick to correct herself, "not green boy, I meant, Changeling! See? Now I know his name! If I just know his name now, there's no way I knew him before," turning to look at Gar, she taps her temple, "see? I'm clever!"

Dusting herself off, Terra turns to look at Gar again and points out ever so helpfully, "metal girl is right, Beast Boy sounds much better than Changeling. You should reconsider that name change..." but then he mentions having known another Terra and the girl with violet eyes blinks, "you....you met a former Terra?" While waiting for his reply, she starts to mend the ground, fix pipes in places, fix pavement and so on. She's really handy with her powers.

Cessily reaches up and takes Gar's hand, pulling herself to her feet. "I missed the memo," Cessily says. "I think you guys owe the city a few bucks too," she says to them. "So...." she lets out a heavy breath. "My name's not metal girl. It's Cessily," she informs Terra. "Do I want to know the story?" she asks of changeline, "Wait, I think probably not..." "Beast Boy is a kid's name," the guy says to Atlee with a hint of irritation creeping into the resignation. "Changeling isn't stupid. Three-quarters of my fanbase prefers it." He lets go of Cessily's hand when she's upright, and then he starts brushing dirt off himself.

"But it's not my name, my name is Gar. Garfield Mark Logan," he tells Terra firmly, meanwhile, then continues, "And yeah, I'm gonna pay for everything Terra here can't fix, don't worry about it. And no, it's not a good story. It's a really awful story, and there're enough of those floating around to sink Australia, you don't need me adding to 'em. But Terra has a right to know, since she's using the name, and she's-- she's got the powers--"

That's his voice sounding a little strained, there. Maybe catching a bit. There's an air of forced cheer as he straightens up. "Just not right here in the middle of everything. I'm sure the blogosphere'll put it together, anyway."

"Don't worry, Cessily, I am fixing it right now," Terra points out, while adding in after thought, "sorry I called you metal girl, I wasn't sure what your name was...I guess I should have asked. Apologizations again!" For the moment Terra keeps her attention on repairing the damages from her impromptu fight with Changeling. "I like stories, I wouldn't mind hearing a story," Terra perhaps reveals a bit of a range on her age with her appreciation of hearing stories, even though she looks like she might be at an age to not care about stories.

"Beast Boy is a fun name, Changeling is just confusing." Terra shares her two cents, before adding, "maybe if you called yourself Beast Man you would feel better? You're definitely not a girl though, so boy is okay!" She then looks at Gar for a moment, "you have a fan base? Are you famous like Superman?" Hearing Gar mention that she got the power, she nods with enthusiasm, "I got the powers! Because I am Terra! Superhero and saver of innocents! I do justice!"

The metal girl shrugs faintly at Gar's defense. "Upgrade to Beast Man? Has that good classic ring to it, you know?" she says. "You don't want to bland things out too much!" she says, gesturing rather animatedly with her hands. "Yeah, so, can you two talk like adults about whatever's up, or are we going to mess up more of the street?" The Terra girl actually seems to be doing a half decent job of cleaningt hings up. Good for her! And she has the same suggestion Cessily herself did, which makes the chrome mutant smile and snicker faintly. "Not really like Superman. More like Gary Coleman," she says, utterly unable to resist. "So, I need to go do justice to a Euro History paper," she says hooking a thumb towards the Empire Statue campus. "You two stay out of trouble, kay?"

"Whatever," grumbles Changeling at all the harshing on his name. "I am like Wil Wheaton, not Gary Coleman. Troll." He crosses his arms, definitely defensively for a second, before he sighs. "It'll be fine. Sorry again. I owe you for being a grown-up," he tells Cessily. "Good luck with your paper."

Appropriately enough in this particular circumstance, Gar feels like more of a stupid jerk with every turn of phrase Terra uses, with every sentiment she expresses. "I'll tell you a story after I tell the police this one. Good heroing today, Terra. Very, uh, justicey."

And then he goes to talk to reporters and cops and nosy internet hipsters, walking like he's gonna have his chin up as he makes his way to the electric chair.

Terra seems pleased that Cessily sounds like she's agreeing with her about Changeling's naming convention. "See? Cessily agrees!" But as she continues with the repairs, barely much of a sign of what happened earlier, she sounds confused at Cessily's correction of the Superman comparison. "Gary Coleman? Never heard of him...is he a superhero like us?"

"Don't worry, Cessily, I stop trouble with my heroics!" Terra seems rather confident about that fact, despite what just happened. She doesn't seem to pick on Gar's feeling, but then she also entirely misses out on the complexity of what just happens. She flashes a smile and a thumbs up to Gar when he flatters her on her good work, "thank you, Gar, I appreciate that you weren't a villain after all!" Terra unlike Gar, is gone as soon as she finishes repair work, not waiting to talk to reporters, she just flies away on her rock.