"I want to go home." I turned from the city and closed my eyes, as though I could wish away the city, and the alien that was terrorizing it, and the group of teenagers who were fighting against her. But life doesn't work that way, more's the pity.
"We can't leave now," said Father. "It would hurt my feelings, don't you see?"
But I didn't see. I never saw, not about feelings. "I want to go home."
People thronged the city sidewalks, but they gave the group of teenagers plenty of room. I'd forgotten that, forgotten how they left people like us a cushion of air. We'd always be outsiders, even though the robot's spent his whole life here, and the boy in tights has spent a year.
"It won't be long before we are reunited," said Father. "Almost six months."
Almost six months.
Father nudged me. "Go."
I went.
The alien picked up a bus with her restraints and threw it toward the boy in tights and the green one in a purple jumpsuit; they leapt out of the way, allowing the robot in a hoodie and sweatpants to catch the bus and toss it to the side.
The robot grunted. "Yo," he cried loudly. "Who's here messin' up my neighborhood?"
The green one cowered in front of him and pointed toward the female alien. "She started it."
The alien let out a scream as she slammed her hands into the asphalt below her. The tops of her restraints fell off, revealing her hands. She smiled and aimed them in the boys' directions as a green light emitted from her palms.
Green orbs of light shot off toward the boys, who ran for cover behind the discarded bus. When the dust settled, the boy in tights glanced at the alien. She slumped to the ground on her knees.
"Girl's gonna wreck the whole city," said the robot.
"I won't let her," the boy in tights declared. "I won't lose this fight." He turned and led the boys toward the girl.
I frowned, causing a wall of black energy to form between the boys and the alien. I stepped out of the shadows. "Maybe fighting isn't the answer," I said calmly.
The boys turned to look at me. I could only imagine what they were thinking. Perhaps, by the end of this story, we'll know. I imagine seeing a girl hidden underneath an indigo cloak would come off a little weird to normal people. But I'm not normal. And neither are they.
"Stand down," said the boy in tights when he looked back to the alien.
"What, do you think you're the boss or somethin'," asked the robot with a raised fist, as if he wanted to challenge the boy in tights.
"Just give me a chance," he ordered. He approached the alien slowly.
When she caught sight of him, she immediately got to her feet and pointed her glowing green hands at the boy. She let out a threatening growl from her pretty lips. I don't like boys either.
"Easy," said the boy. "My name is Robin. And I don't wanna hurt you; I just wanna help." He reached down to one of his many pockets and pulled out a fantastic bit of curled wire: a paper clip.
The alien frowned and let off a stream of words that even I couldn't understand.
"It's okay," said Robin with a smile. "Look." He held up the paper clip, and inserted it into the lock of the restraints. After a few moments, they fell from the alien's arms.
She rubbed them gratefully and looked up at Robin.
"There," he said. "Now maybe we can be—"
Before he could finish, she grabbed his neck and pulled him into her, connecting their lips. Kissing? People kissing? We don't go for that sort of thing in Azarath.
She released him and pushed him to the ground. "If you wish not to be destroyed, you will leave me alone!" She flew off, leaving the rest of us without any words.
The rest of us…not including the green one. "So," he said as he turned toward the robot, "I'm Beast Boy. Who are you?"
The robot ignored him. "Well, whoever she was, the girl sure knows how to make an impression."
Beast Boy smiled. "I think we made a pretty good impression. Crazy Space Girl's gone, the city's saved—mission accomplished, right, sir?"
"Seriously," said Robin, "stop calling me that."
"Roger."
"Looks like we're done here. I appreciate the help." Robin turned and started walking in the direction the alien had flown off in.
"You're gonna track down the alien," I asked, though I don't know why, because it was obvious.
"I have to find out if she's a threat," he replied.
The robot scoffed. "More like find out if she'll give him another kiss."
Beast Boy chased after Robin. "Hey, sir—I mean, Robin. Do you maybe—"
"Sorry," said Robin curtly. "I just went solo. I'm not really looking to join a team."
"Need a sidekick?"
Robin walked away.
Beast Boy turned toward me and the robot and said, "You guys wanna get a pizza?"
The robot started to walk away. I followed him with my eyes. I wasn't aware that I had been staring until Beast Boy caught my attention. I shouldn't stare. It's not polite. It's not what normal people would do. Normal people would say "yes" to the pizza. But then again, I'm not normal.
"I'm Beast Boy," said the green child. An introduction would not make me go with him.
"You may call me Raven," I said, "which makes it awfully convenient because so does everyone else."
After a hiccough of silence, Beast Boy laughed. I didn't. "Cool. So Raven, do you wanna go—"
"I shouldn't," I told Beast Boy, who seemed a little discouraged at my answer. I don't know why. I watched him as he hurried after the robot.
"Just you and me, then, huh? Cool. I haven't really had anyone to hang out with since I quit the Doom Patrol. This is gonna be fun. Can we play video games?" He talked so much that he hadn't even realized that the robot had stopped walking; Beast Boy ran into his back and fell onto his butt.
The robot pulled his hood off of his head and revealed his distorted face. "There!" he cried, as if proving someone's point. "Take a good long look! I had an accident, and now I'm a monster, alright? A cyborg!"
He thinks he's a monster? He has no idea what he's talking about. I would kill to be like him. I would gladly change places with the robot. But like I said before, life's not fair like that.
"Cyborg," said Beast Boy, obviously unfazed. "Cool! You're like Robot Man 2.0!"
"You're a weird little dude, you know that?"
Beast Boy laughed. "You called me 'dude'."
Cyborg began to walk away again and drew his hood up.
"Okay, so, see you later? Right? Dude?"
A shadow passed over us, and it wasn't mine. Mine are more ominous; scarier. I would know if this shadow had been created from my dark energy. But it wasn't mine. I looked up as Beast Boy pointed at an alien ship in the sky.
"Looks like Space Girl had friends," said Cyborg.
Robin passed by me. I wondered when he had decided to turn around and join us again. "Or enemies," he said with a glare as a large, orange projectile fell on a secluded island.
A projection of a crossbreed between a man and a frog—or maybe some type of fish—was displayed in the sky. "People of Earth," he said. "We come to your planet hunting an escaped prisoner—a dangerous prisoner. Do not interfere, and we will leave your city with only minimal damage. But should you attempt to assist her, your destruction will be absolute."
The projection disappeared, and the orange projectile opened up, revealing many more clones of the frog-man/man-fish.
Cyborg frowned. "That's a big ship," he commented.
"And those are some scary lookin' aliens," said Beast Boy as the frog/fish-people began to fly out in groups.
"They told us not to interfere," I said calmly.
Cyborg turned toward Robin. "You're still going after her, aren't you?"
Robin nodded.
Beast Boy, too excited, said, "Can we come too?" I don't know why he assumed I would want to go with them.
"I suppose I could team up…just this once," said Robin with a smile. No doubt he didn't truly mean the words he said.
I watched the boys go off and turned around to stick to my original plan: not interfering.
"You in," said Robin suddenly.
I looked back and realized that he was talking to me. If he knew who he was talking to, he wouldn't have asked me that question. "I'm not the 'hero' type. Trust me, if you knew what I really am, you wouldn't want me around."
He put his hand on my shoulder. How long has it been since I've had real contact with someone? "I know enough," he said with a smile. He turned toward everyone and said, "Alright, we need some way to track—"
"She's near," I said without thinking. I immediately regretted it when I saw the strange looks they gave me. "I can sense things," I said quickly, trying to atone for my mistake. I can do a whole lot more, too.
"I'll see if I can pick up her scent," said Beast Boy with a smile. He bent down and morphed into a green dog. I wasn't surprised so much as intrigued. I had wondered how he'd gotten his name.
Cyborg rolled his eyes. "There's a sonic analyzer built into my arm," he stated as he rolled up his right arm's sleeve. "If she's around, I'll hear it." A section of his arm lifted and began to beep.
The green dog suddenly morphed back into Beast Boy. "I've got her trail," he yelled quickly before he turned back into a dog.
Cyborg looked down at his arm as it beeped wildly. "And I can hear her heartbeat." He and Beast Boy led us down the street to a video game store, which had a large hole in the wall.
Inside, we found the alien scarfing down large amounts of food. She didn't bother to remove any of the plastic bits.
"Um," said Beast Boy. "Those taste better without the wrapper."
She turned on us with green eyes and held her glowing hands out to us with a threatening growl.
Robin said quickly, "It's alright. We're friends, remember?"
"Friends," she repeated. "Why? For what purpose did you free me?"
"Just trying to be nice," he replied, unsure of his answer. Weak-minded people are never sure of their answers. If he truly wanted to make a difference in our current situation, he would've said it with more confidence.
"Nice? We do not have this word on my planet. Closest is rutha—weak."
"Well, around here, 'nice' means 'nice'," said Cyborg. "And if you want us to keep being nice, you better tell us why the Lizard King took you prisoner."
The alien relaxed. "Not prisoner," she said sadly. "I am…prize. The Gordanians deliver me to the Citadel to live out my days as their servant."
"And the Citadel are…" I said.
"Not nice," she replied.
"Then you're not going with them," said Robin, stepping forward. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
"Don't you mean 'we'," said Beast Boy pointedly.
A blast of explosion knocked us all to our feet as the wall on the other side of the store gave out. From the hole came more of the lizard-people. "Seize her," they cried.
Seize her. I used to be the "her" to be seized. I used to be the "her" that people were looking for. If I could feel emotion, I would be glad that the alien now qualifies as "her".
The lizard-people charged at us.
I found myself underneath Beast Boy. Without offering any gratitude—not like he really deserved any—I pushed him to the side and met our foes from a higher level. Flying is easier for me to do than walking. Walking is tiresome. Flying is effortless.
We managed to defeat the first group of lizard-people, but the second group proved to be more difficult. The alien was thrown through the wall, creating yet another hole. While Robin left to help her, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I were left to force the remaining lizard-people out onto the streets.
As the toughest, Cyborg was immediately singled out. The lizard-people pointed their spears at the robot and shot beams of light at him. At first, he proved to be capable of dodging them, but the lizards soon proved to be too much for him. When the dust settled, Cyborg was revealed to have survived…but his cover-up hadn't.
Beast Boy morphed into a pterodactyl and carried Cyborg into the sky. He must have forgotten that the lizard-people can fly—I hadn't.
My eyes flicked over to a streetlamp and lifted the object into the air. With a flourish of my hands, I used the blunt object to remove the lizard-people from the sky.
After that, the lizard-people gave up and flew away into the night.
The alien turned toward Cyborg. "I believe your expression is 'thanks'."
Cyborg ignored her; obviously he believed that he had bigger problems. He picked at the pieces of torn cloth scattered around his body. "Aw, man—my suit!"
"So?" said Beast Boy. "You look way cooler without it!"
"Yeah," said Cyborg, obviously not convinced. "Like I'm taking fashion advice from the guy in the goofy mask."
"Goofy?" For the first time since I'd met him, Beast Boy wasn't smiling. "My mask is cool. Isn't it? Raven?"
Cyborg and I shook our heads respectively.
"But what about my secret identity?"
I frowned. "What secret identity? You're green," I said simply, stating the obvious.
After
several moments, Beast Boy took off his mask and tossed it onto the ground. I noticed that his spiked hair was also green.
"This isn't over," said Robin. "Now that we've interfered—"
"Trogar will strike harder," the alien finished. "It is only a matter of—"
I pointed toward another projection, stopping the alien in her tracks.
"Fools," cried the lizard that I assumed was Trogar. "The Earth scum were warned. Your insolence will be punished. Your city shall be destroyed."
Doesn't he know that this city has already been claimed by my father? The whole planet, as a matter of fact, has been claimed. Father will not be pleased if I fail my mission.
Trogar's large ship aimed its cannon at us.
"Great," I mumbled.
"So," said Beast Boy, "after trashing a pizza joint and a perfectly good video store, now we've managed to make a humungous space gecko mad enough to vaporize our entire town?"
"Go team," Cyborg muttered. I agreed with his lack of enthusiasm. Perhaps they were not the best people to stay around. But who am I to judge?
"All the fault is yours," cried the alien in an angry voice at Robin. "I commanded that you leave me alone, but you insisted upon the being nice!"
"My fault," Robin raged. "You blast me, you kiss me, but you never stop to mention they have a gigantic particle weapon?"
As they continued to argue, Beast Boy yelled, "We are doomed!" He pointed an accusing finger at Cyborg. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this!"
"Say what?" cried Cyborg.
I placed my fingers on my temples, trying not to allow my emotions to be swayed. Emotions cause bad things. I can't allow myself to feel.
"I was ready to walk before you—"
"Quiet!" I yelled suddenly, silencing them all. My voice echoed through the streets. The team turned to look at me, as if I was supposed to say more. In a time like this, normal people would try to "act normal". I looked down at the floor as if I was shy—which I'm not—and said, "Hi."
"Look," said Robin, "it doesn't matter how we got into this mess—we're in it. And we will get out of it. Together."
We nodded.
Robin smiled. "Come on. We've got a city to save."
After we wasted much time on deciding how we were going to get on board the ship, I decided that the best way would be to do it my way. After gathering the group in a circle, I encased us with a shadow of dark energy. I closed my eyes, even though I already knew that I wouldn't be able to see anything with them open. When we emerged from the darkness, we found ourselves in the middle of a hallway.
Beast Boy shivered. "That dark energy stuff gives me the—" He stopped when he realized that I was standing beside him. "I mean, it's cool!" he said quickly, as if that would somehow make up for whatever he'd been about to say.
"We have to get to the firing controls," Robin whispered. "There isn't much time." He led the group down the hall.
We would've had more time if I had moved us earlier. Stupid. So stupid.
Irrelevant, my father would say. Move on.
"Mind telling me why you're always by yourself?" said Cyborg.
"You heard the kid," I told him simply. "I don't exactly fit in."
Cyborg smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. What is it with humans and physical contact? "He's green, half of me is metal, and she's from space—you fit in just fine." He pulled me along until I was walking in front of him.
I'm trying to leave. Don't they understand that? The more they accept me, the easier it will be for me refuse this mission. They could be spared if they weren't so stupid.
"I bring you apology," said the alien to Robin.
"Don't worry about it," he replied. "I'm sorry I yelled, too."
"And again, you are nice," she said with a hint of wonder. "On my world, only my k'norfka has shown me such kindness."
"Well, things are different here."
Even before this time now, when they are together and happy, I knew that the two of them were experiencing the well-known "sparks" that one gets in their hearts when they feel an attraction. I am lucky that I will never have to experience such things.
"I think they know we're here," said Beast Boy as he pointed at a group of lizard-people who were running toward us from both directions.
"Lord Trogar," said a lizard from the other side of the wall. "The weapon has reached full power."
"Then begin the firing sequence," said a muted Lord Trogar. "The earth scum shall learn it takes more than five juvenile heroes to defy the mighty Lord Trogar."
Robin placed one of his gadgets on the wall, creating a hole. Holes seem to be recurring mode of transport for us, for we rushed into the room. "We're not five heroes," said Robin, "we're one team."
Lord Trogar growled. Apparently, it was enough for the other lizards to decide to fight us.
Beast boy changed into a kangaroo and took out two of them. Lord Trogar snuck up on him and threw him into the wall. As Beast Boy slumped to the ground, the lizard-man charged forward, fist raised.
On impulse, I traveled to the ground in front of Beast Boy and created a shield with my left hand. Lord Trogar beat down on the shield, causing me to use both of my hands. I was forced to the ground as my attacker hit harder. His last blow caused me to lose my concentration, and my shield fell.
Robin jumped onto the lizard-man's back and managed to get him away from me. He was, of course, thrown off, but Robin was quick to get back on his feet. He was not, however, quick enough to avoid being thrown into the wall as well.
The alien screamed, "Robin," and turned on Lord Trogar with glowing green hands. She fought him pretty well, but ended up being tossed to the ground.
I turned toward Beast Boy and helped him stand. "Are you…okay?" I don't really care, but I asked because I know that I'm thought of as a part of the "team" now.
He smiled at me. "I am now. Thanks."
"No problem." I looked up and realized that Lord Trogar and the lizard-people had surrounded the others. "Get away from my friends!" I shouldn't get angry. I shouldn't let myself feel. And I should never say these words: "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"
I wish I could say what happened next, but I don't really know. A ball of black energy might've exploded in the room, which would explain why the entire ship fell into the river below us, but I can't really say for sure.
Lord Trogar stood up—the only lizard-person survivor—and faced me. As his claws grew, I looked up into his face and realized that I was going to die.
Good. I wanted to die. I was almost sorry that Beast Boy would have to die too, but it would be for a good cause. If I die, the Earth is saved.
A blast of an electric current was shot into Lord Trogar's back. With a loud grunt, he fell to the ground. Whether he was dead or unconscious, I will never be able to say, but all that mattered was that he would not be able to kill me. I would live. And I wasn't happy about it.
"Alright," said Cyborg as his right hand turned from a cannon into a hand again, "I'm only gonna say this once: Boo-yah!"
Clean up afterwards was boring. Somewhere during that time, the alien left. When the boys and I were finally done, the sun had already risen. We climbed up the island and stared out at the city.
Everyone was thinking it; I just might've been the only one who could say it. "That's quite a view." And it was. The sun hadn't completely cleared all of the tops of the buildings yet, so it created a beautiful horizon. It almost reminded me of Azarath.
"Somebody oughta build a house out here," said Cyborg.
Beast Boy smiled. "Yeah, if you like sunshine and the beach…" He elbowed me.
I found myself laughing. It had been ages since I'd heard my own laugh. It was rusty, but serviceable. "You know, you're kinda funny," I told him. I regret saying that to him now.
"You think I'm funny? Dude, I know some jokes!"
"Please," said the alien as she returned, "I look nice?" She had changed clothes. It all still looked like space get-up to me, but she didn't look bad in it.
"I still don't know your name," said Robin.
"In your language, it would be Star…fire."
"Welcome to Earth, Starfire."
"I thank you all for your bravery and help. And I wish to ask permission to remain here, where the people are most strange…but also most kind."
"You don't need our permission," I told her. Especially not mine.
"But if you want our friendship," said Robin, "you've got it."
Cyborg shrugged. "I guess we could all use some friends."
Beast Boy smiled and said, "Besides, we kinda made a good team."
Robin nodded. "I thought we might wanna keep in touch, so Cyborg and I designed these." He reached into his pocket and pulled out three communicators. Beast Boy, Starfire, and I took one.
"Made 'em out of my own circuits," said Cyborg.
I don't know whether to be impressed or slightly disgusted at that.
Robin smiled and looked us each in the eye. "When there's trouble, you know who to call."
I looked away, at the horizon, where I felt comfortable. If only they knew…
