It was like any other "Titans Go!" command. There was a new criminal in town, destructing infrastructure, having his way with citizens, freely taking merchandise from Jump shops; petty disturbance, really. It was just a criminal, a faceless, insignificant criminal, like most of the criminals they've faced, time and time again. It was merely routine.
The Team had been in the middle of a midday movie, and it had finally been Starfire's turn to choose the movie (although she did have her suspicions that her turn had been skipped several times for reasons she didn't quite understand.) She'd chosen The Notebook; Earth romance still mystified her, and if she was planning to have one, she would need to do her research. The first thing she'd learned even before they'd started the movie, was that boys weren't particularly comfortable with the concept, they had all collectively groaned when she made her movie pick. She didn't really understand why.
They were about 20 minutes into the movie where the star-crossed couple were slow dancing in the middle of the empty intersection when the movie had been interrupted by the Titan distress alarm. In a hurry to return to the movie, Starfire zipped through the air. She would quickly 'kick the behind' of this criminal, and put him in jail for… being a criminal… doing bad… of some sort or form. Actually, she had left Titans Tower before she actually found who the criminal was and what exactly he had been doing. It didn't matter, as soon as she was finished with this, she could return home and find out how it was that two people that were such opposites, could be so drawn to each other.
Starfire had arrived before her teammates. She could see the offender in the far distance indicated by the huge crowd of concerned Jump citizens, at the intersection, half a kilometre away,. The city mischief was merely an adolescent– in fact if you looked closer at his face, it suggested he was even younger; in his early teenage years or late preteens. He sat in a rather relaxed position on top of a traffic light, one leg hanging off and the other propped up on the horizontal bar of the traffic light. He looked like he was eating something, or some things. His chest was bare and though it was hefty; sculpted with sinew, he still appeared thin and youthful. He wore tightly fitted shorts that went to his mid-thigh and were royal purple, with similar ankle length boots, with metal arm bands. Something about him seemed unearthly yet familiar. When Starfire was then only a few metres away she saw that he had skin that was a shiny gold, with vibrant red hair, relatively short but spiked upwards in the front. It was not until she saw his eyes that she froze.
The rest of the team had just arrived. Car traffic had been halted as the other traffic lights in the intersection looked burnt out, in a literal sense, with smoke surrounding the area and some individual cars looking crushed or dented. There looked like there were almost footprint dents on the hoods of all the cars that led to the traffic light.
Cyborg was the first to communicate with the offender. "Hold it right there! You best be ready to pay for all that grub, man!"
The boy slowly turned his head to Cyborg, as his voice was louder than all the chattering of the pointing citizens. Testing the patience of the team, in response, the boy dropped one of the chip bags, it falling but being light enough that it drifted in the air and even slapped onto Beastboy's face. The boy slyly smiled, still eyeing Cyborg.
"Don't say I didn't warn ya." Fed up, Cyborg's arm weaponized, pointed towards the fugitive. It was clear a blast was on its way.
"NO!" yelled Starfire. But it was too late; the ray beam was already initiated.
The Tamaranian zipped from where she was on the ground and got herself in the air, between the blast and the boy. Starfire was blasted for at least five seconds before Robin rammed into Cyborg, toppling him over.
Out of midair, she fell and crashed into the pavement. The team quickly made their way toward where she lay.
"…Star?" Cyborg said rubbing his head from the fall he'd just taken.
The mischief also looked slightly puzzled from where he sat. He made what looked like a slow motion leap down from the top of the traffic light, landing skillfully beside her sprawled body. Not one to be easily damaged, her eyelids slowly fluttered open.
"Star, you okay?" Robin approached her from two metres away. He halted midway. In front of him stood the boy, and by his subtle body language, he was being defensive over her. He bared his teeth at the Boy Wonder. Robin bitterly glared in response, snarling. Both young men stood, non-verbally threatening the other with erect postures and disapproving frowns. Robin didn't like how the situation must have looked to him; that the Titans were the bad guys for hurting Star.
"X'hal…" Starfire murmured. Their attention diverted as both of them turned around to see Starfire standing, staring at the mischief.
The boy stepped towards her. She reached out one hand that was placed on his shoulder, the other held the side of his face. She examined the boy's face, as he was just as focused on hers.
He took a step back. "Koriand'r." he whispered.
She looked just as stunned.
The sound of Robin's staff falling onto the ground caught her attention. She glanced at her baffled teammates. She cleared her throat.
"Friends… this is my brother."