A New World

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I've read several truly excellent stories lately that explored facets of Starfire's character that don't usually get much screen time in your average example of fan-fiction. This is what my Muse did with the distilled experience. It will be at least two chapters, and probably more.

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Five days had sped by since the defeat of the Gordanian force that had (foolishly) attempted to recapture the strange and powerful alien girl that the others had come to know as Starfire.

Victor Stone, as it happened, was not only something of an electronics prodigy, he also had access to a great deal of money through his father, Silas. A noted S.T.A.R. Labs scientist, he had several dozen patents in his name and had secured a somewhat embarrassingly large income thereby. The elder Stone was overjoyed when his son contacted him, as they had been … well … more than somewhat estranged since the accident that killed Victor's mother and incinerated more than half his own body. Silas Stone was only too glad to front whatever funds were necessary to convert the Gordanian ship into a base of operations for the newly-formed team.

At first Robin wasn't the least bit eager to form ANY sort of team. He was used to working alone or under Batman's direction, and the thought of being responsible for the lives of four other … eh, he couldn't really call them anything else … four other heroes worried him as he hadn't been worried in some time. But a long night of analyzing the strengths that the various teens brought to the table convinced him in the end that they might just be able to pull it off … assuming, of course, that they understood he would be the team leader. They didn't seem to have a problem with that.

For reasons he kept to himself, Beast Boy desperately wanted the team to work, and just as desperately wanted to be a part of it. The others knew next to nothing about the Doom Patrol, other than that they didn't like publicity, were constantly facing off with the Brotherhood of Evil, and two of them weren't precisely human. But the young fellow was almost (Robin thought) manic in his efforts to help everyone get along. It would have been nice if his techniques were as well-developed as his enthusiasm.

Finally consenting (after some hounding by Beast Boy) to be a member of the team, Raven nonetheless made it very plain that she would require privacy for meditation, undisturbed and in large doses, unless they all wanted things to get very ugly very quickly. Not knowing anything about her other than that she could teleport, fly, and generate a quasi-telekinetic field of some sort, Robin had his share of qualms about the dark, seemingly emotionless girl. But she had been helpful (read: The Lone Voice of Reason) in his initial encounter with Starfire, and he didn't get any bad vibes off her.

Then there was Starfire herself. The alien presented him with an enigma. About certain things – Tamaranian cuisine, to take one example – she could be most voluble, explaining and extolling until the rest of them wished she would just shut up already. But about most others, especially topics related to her being on that Gordanian ship and here on Earth in the first place, she was notably reticent. She was also a tremendous help to Victor in his efforts to transform the derelict space cruiser. Her knowledge of alien tech kept him from blowing them all to their component subatomic particles more than once. And that was about all she had been doing since the previous Tuesday. By general agreement the five teens elected to stay in the ship during its conversion, to help them get to know each other and to learn how they might function more effectively as a team.

It wasn't a bad idea. Really. But, as teams go, this one got off to a rocky start …

The others could tell that Robin had never actually led anything before in his life. Alternately random and draconian in his orders, he initially seemed to have a hard time grasping that the others (with the possible exception of Raven) weren't mind readers. Learning how to make his directions clear and reasonable was a chore for him. But he did understand the importance of good communication, and threw himself into the task.

Victor (who eventually capitulated and allowed Robin to designate his "team ID" as Cyborg) was touchy about any number of things, flatly refusing to view his cybernetic systems in any sort of positive light – notwithstanding Beast Boy's constant encouragement otherwise – and jumping down Robin's throat more than once for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or phrasing a question a certain way.

Beast Boy would get on Raven's nerves with appalling regularity (actually, though they hadn't admitted it out loud, he also irritated the rest of them to one degree or another) which tended to drive her ever deeper into solitude.

Raven … well, the others really didn't know what to make of her. It was obvious that she had a lot of issues. She let slip on Friday that she'd been raised by some kind of monastic order, but wouldn't go into any detail. Beast Boy pestered her about it until finally she whipped around and presented him with a visage graced with four glowing red eyes and fangs that would rival any he could produce. He wasn't seen again until supper on Saturday.

Today, though …

"Robin?" Cyborg's voice echoed around the large chamber that was in the early stages of becoming their common room. "Yo, Robin!"

The teen in question rolled his office chair backward and stuck his head out of the door of the glorified closet that was currently serving as the surveillance nerve center. "Yeah? What's up?"

"Where's Starfire?"

The masked brow furrowed slightly. "How would I know?"

"Pleeeease. Two of ya are practically joined at the hip. She's always hangin' around you."

Yeah, asking weird questions and making weird comments. He shrugged. "I dunno. Why, what's wrong?"

"Nothin' wrong. Yet, anyway. I need her to take a look at the quaternary neutrino collector in the lower auxiliary …"

"Fine, fine, whatever." He glanced at his watch. "That's funny, though. It's almost supper time, and she's usually Johnny-on-the-spot when there's food involved." Under his breath he murmured, "Girl eats more than any two linebackers ought to. Must be a heck of a metabolism to allow her to keep that figure."

As if on cue, a green swift flew into the room, circled Cyborg once, and landed by the kitchen entrance, morphing instantly into Beast Boy. "Hey, guys!" He sniffed the air. "Nobody started supper? Cool! I'll handle it."

"Oh, hell, no!" objected Cyborg. "Yesterday you tried to pawn off that tofu crap as real food." He strode over to the smaller boy. "You go peddle yer papers. I got this."

"Aw, come on, Cy! You know I can't eat meat!"

"I know you won't eat meat. There's a big difference." He rummaged through the refrigerator and pulled out most of a ham. Then he looked through a few cabinets and lined up several more items. "Right, here we go. I'll whip up a ham an' cheese an' pineapple casserole. Won't take half an hour."

"Bleah!"

"Hey, you want somethin' else, fix it when I'm done here. I'll have the pan in the oven in ten. Maybe sooner."

The green teen slumped over and sat at the table. "You didn't even try my barbecued tofu."

"Yeah, an' I don't have to try a poke in the eye with a sharp stick to know I don't like that either."

An inky black pool formed on the floor about a meter behind Beast Boy, and Raven floated up out of it. "Ah, I see supper is …" she began.

Beast Boy shrieked and fell off his chair, coming up on the other side of the table as a gorilla. Seeing that the interloper was only Raven didn't help much. He switched back to human and said, "Don't do that!"

Projecting the very soul of innocence, she intoned, "Do what?"

"Hey, Raven," interrupted Robin, "you have any idea where Starfire is?"

The dark girl closed her eyes and concentrated … then the indigo orbs flew open wide. "Um …"

Robin caught the change in demeanor and stepped forward. "She's not in trouble, is she?"

"… Trouble? No. Decidedly not." She floated upward and phased through the ceiling.

Beast Boy scratched his head. "How does she do that?"

Cyborg and Robin looked at each other, then glanced upward. The older teen said, "Casserole can wait." He trotted toward the elevator with Robin close behind.

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When they got to the roof, it was to find Raven floating at the edge of the metal, staring upward. They followed her gaze.

Starfire was probably some two hundred meters up, and was turning long, slow loops and figure-eights in the evening sky.

"She's so … happy."

The boys looked over at Raven, and Robin cleared his throat. "Excuse me?"

Turning her shining gaze to them, she continued, "Ever since she decided to become a part of our … group? team? whatever? … she's been very restrained."

"Well, yeah. New world. New customs. New language, although that didn't seem to present her much of a problem."

"It's more than that."

"I know, I know. The whole melding-with-the-team thing is hard on some people."

"No. You aren't seeing my point. She is … different today. She has been sad, up until now." She looked back at the flying girl. "The sad is gone. None of those things you mentioned has changed. But now she is … no, happy doesn't do it justice. She's ecstatic."

"About what?"

"I think I will go find out." So saying, she rose to join the other girl.

A green falcon zipped up over the edge of the roof and landed beside Cyborg, morphing into their youngest teammate. "Hey, what's goin' on?" Then his eyes got big and he whispered, "Whoa!"

"What?" asked Robin.

Beast Boy pointed west. "Cool sunset."

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Raven came up even with Starfire. The alien noticed her immediately and swooped in suddenly, grabbing her in a rib-cracking hug. "Friend! Is it not glorious?"

After a couple of seconds to regain her bearings, Raven phased out of the vice-like embrace and floated back a few meters. "Hurrk … yeah." She cleared her throat and rubbed her chest. "Glorious? What, precisely, is glorious?"

Flinging her arms wide and ramping up her "happy vibes" until Raven had to weave a mental shield against them, the red-haired girl exclaimed, "The sky! Such colors! Such … majesty! It is … it is …" And then, since words really did fail her, she simply spun in place.

Raven turned west and observed the setting sun. Clouds weren't all that common in Jump City at this time of year, and she wouldn't have noticed them in any case, but she had to admit that the current display really was quite spectacular. Cumulus clouds surrounded the sun as it dipped into the ocean. Deep reds faded into pink, pink into coral, coral into magenta to the south and bright lines of gold across the tops of the massy clouds to the north. Overhead, and extending to the horizon, a speckling of cirrocumulus threw bright pink scales against the deepening blue. She cocked an eye back at the alien, who was swooshing slowly back and forth, staring blissfully into the distance and humming to herself. "Yes. It is … lovely. But, if I may ask, what is special about this particular sunset?"

"Oh, you have a name for this? Glorious!"

She certainly seems fond of that word. "Ah … yes. Do … do you not have sunsets on Tamaran?"

Stopping a moment to frown in thought, Starfire finally said, "Well, obviously we must. But our world is … very different from Earth. We do not have oceans. We do not …"

"… You mean Tamaran is dry? How do you survive with no water?"

"Oh, we have water. But most of it is … not visible? Under the top of the ground?"

"You mean subterranean?"

"Yes! That is a good word. The water is locked into caves and vast subterranean reservoirs." She grinned at the feel of the word on her tongue. "Our air is usually quite full of the dust. Most of the time the sun is only really visible in the middle of the day. As night approaches, the … ambient? Yes, that is the word. The ambient light simply dims and goes out." She stretched her arms again, as if to embrace the sky, and shouted, "This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life!" Zipping around behind Raven, she gave the shorter girl another hug (not as emphatic as the first one) and asked, "How often does this happen?"

"Um … uh …" Raven tried tactfully to extricate herself for a moment. "… That is, it, uh, happens not infrequently."

Starfire released her and whizzed back around to face her. "More than once in a year?"

"Oh … certainly." All this hugging was playing havoc with Raven's control. Physical contact multiplied the empathic leakage several times, and maintaining enough concentration to stay aloft was taking all her power. She backed away a few meters. "During certain times of the year it can happen every evening."

The green-eyed girl looked like she was about to explode with glee. "You mean I can see this every day?"

"It is likely. Especially since you can fly, you shouldn't have any trouble gaining enough altitude to monitor the sunset each evening. Now, it won't usually be quite as stunning as this one, but occasionally there should be one even more colorful."

Performing that high-speed spin again, Starfire gave vent to a long "squeeeeeeee" and then rushed up to Raven, grabbing her by the forearms. "Raven! You must bring them!"

Blink-blink. "Bring who?"

"The others! Robin and Beast Boy and Cyborg! They must see this!"

"I'm pretty sure they can see it just fine from the roof." And she pointed down.

With a gasp of delight and another squeal, Starfire fell like a meteor toward the small group below. The three of them scattered at her rapid approach, but she pulled a sudden stop and landed gently, facing west. "Yes! Yes, it is quite easily visible! Look!" She turned to the boys, pointing. "Look at the set of the sun!"

Beast Boy loped over and thudded to a stop beside her. "I know, right? Totally cool."

She frowned briefly at his usage, but then brightened. "It is the slang, yes? You do not mean that the set of the sun has a low temperature, correct?"

"Uh, yeah. Right."

"Will you watch the colors with me?"

He shrugged. "Sure. I'd love to."

Catching the others' attention, she asked, "Cyborg? And Robin? Will you watch as well? It is most glorious!"

Victor stepped over and trained his gaze on the shifting colors. The magenta was becoming more pronounced, the gold lining of the clouds more muted. "Sure thing, little lady. Don't take enough time to stop and appreciate stuff like this. Glad you noticed it."

Those lucent green eyes turned to Robin, whose collar, for reasons he didn't feel like exploring, suddenly felt a bit too tight. "Robin? Will you stay?"

"Uh … I, uh … that is, I mean …"

"He'll stay," Raven's monotone carried well in the clear air as she floated down next to Starfire. And the look she sent Robin's way brooked no dissension. "He needs a break."

"Um, sure. Yeah, Starfire, I'll be, uh, happy to watch the sunset with … uh … yeah."

Her answering smile (rated conservatively at several kilowatts) let him know he'd made the right decision.

Making themselves comfortable, the five teens sat and admired the view until the stars appeared (the odd growling stomach notwithstanding).

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Next up: Starfire discovers the ocean!

(Remember, as a wise fanfic author once said, Reviews = Love.)