CLEANSING
by Concolor44
. . .
. . .
. . .
CHAPTER FOUR
. . .
. . .
. . .
Hands weaving a continuous series of runes that hung and glowed in the air, Zatanna muttered under her breath in the Backward Speech spellcasting of the homo magi. After only a couple of minutes, she dropped her arms and turned to Green Lantern with a disgusted look on her face.
He shook his head. "Don't say it."
"The hell I won't! I told you four years ago. I told all of you."
"Zee, come on …"
"No, Hal! She was dangerous then. She's much more dangerous now. We should have done something about her while we had the chance. Something permanent."
Stepping forward, Cyborg said, "She's a hero! How can you say that about someone who risked her life to save others dozens of times?"
"I'm quite sure she had her own reasons for doing so. But I said then and I say now: altruism has no part in … that creature's makeup. She's demonic. She should have been treated as such." Glancing over at her fading runes, she twisted her mouth in frustration. "Now … I don't know. Now may be too late."
"Too late for what?" asked Robin.
"Containment. When she first got here, before her old man showed up, she was very much concerned with minimizing the effects of her powers. I could tell there were vast deeps she wouldn't touch … was probably afraid to touch." Training an eye on Green Lantern, she added, "I believe I said that, practically verbatim, in more than one meeting on the subject."
The League hero sighed and gave a small nod. "You did."
"And Batman over-ruled me each time."
"Yeah." He jerked a thumb at Robin. "Bats trusted the kid's instincts on that."
She smirked, but there was no humor on her face. "And we can see how well that worked."
Robin's scowl would have curdled milk at a hundred meters. "Are you interested in helping with the case, or just gloating?"
"Watch your tongue, boy."
His T-Com chose that moment to beep at him. Without moving his gaze from the magic-wielder, he pulled it out and flipped it open. "Yeah?"
"This is Dr. Maycross. You wanted to know if there was any change in …"
He hunched over the phone, all his attention suddenly refocused. "Is Star okay?" His voice didn't quite shake.
"More than she has any right to be. And I suspect she is on her way to see you."
He blinked rapidly several times. "… What?"
"Something happened. We aren't sure just what yet, but all the equipment turned off at the same time, and when the nurse ran in to see what was wrong, she was waking up, apparently completely healed. Does she have some kind of rapid-healing factor that regular Tamaranians don't?"
All four heroes had been listening in. Cyborg looked at Robin. "Sudden healing? Think Rae had a hand in that?"
"It's possible." Answering the doctor, he said, "No, Star heals more rapidly than a human, but then all Tamaranians do. As far as I know, though, she's just as susceptible to poisoning as we are. That's why you were treating her." He cleared his throat and added, "And you said she had left? Was on her way here?"
"Just a guess, but, yeah. Or she might be headed to the warehouse where that bomb was. Either way, I figured you ought to know."
"Thanks, Doc." He broke the connection and got Captain Gerard's attention. "Do you have anyone stationed over at the warehouse?"
"Unlikely. The CSI team cleared it two days ago, and the insurance guy was poking around yesterday."
Robin knew that Starfire didn't have her T-Com with her; he had it. "She won't know where we are. If she doesn't find us at the crime scene, she'll probably go back to the Tower. Cy, we better get back there, too."
"Gotcha." And they started for the T-Car.
"If you need to get there in a hurry," interjected Green Lantern, "I can fly us."
Robin stopped and nodded. "That'd be great!" Turning to Victor, he asked, "Did you ever get that self-guidance function worked out?"
"Well … yeah. But it's still slower than if I drive it myself."
"No worries, then. We'll fly to the Tower and the T-Car will be along when it gets there."
Green Lantern held up a finger. "Or I could just carry it, too."
Chagrined now, Robin nodded again. "Yeah. That'll … that'll work." He needed to remember that Justice League members were members because they were stupid powerful, as befits a group responsible for a whole planet (and then some) rather than just one medium-sized city.
Less than a minute later Robin was deposited on the roof; the teen punched in the code for the elevator. Green Lantern took Cyborg, Zatanna and the T-Car down to the garage with the understanding that Robin would meet them in the Operations Room.
But when Robin got to the main level and the elevator doors opened, it was to reveal a Tamaranian warrior princess already at the extreme pinnacle of 'exercised'. He took two steps toward her, his arm rising in greeting, his mouth opening to call to her. She'd been floating at the other end of the hallway, but caught sight of him instantly. Her face transfigured from righteous fury to loving ecstasy between one blink and the next, and before he could utter a word she was in front of him. "Robin! You are here!"
A brief wind buffeted his uniform, swirling the cape, and he took a step back in surprise. Her potential for extremely high velocity in flight wasn't something that he thought about a lot, but the fact that she could exceed the speed of light during interstellar travel ran through his mind just then. He recovered quickly. "Star!" He grabbed her hands. "Are you all right? You feel okay?"
Blinking, she glanced down at their clasped fingers and then back up at his eyes. A cloud of bemusement came to rest on her features as she stared at him, giving a small shudder. "Robin …" The word was a caress.
He had never heard that tone in her voice before. Not even close. Swallowing with difficulty, he answered, "Y-y-yeah. I'm here. Are you … were you … how … how'd you get … better?"
A slim hand was suddenly on his cheek, Starfire's half-lidded gaze pinning him to the wall. She leaned forward and breathed, "I missed you," tickling his skin with her exhalation.
He was having trouble with his vision. "Star … um … I think you … you'd better take it easy."
She cocked her head (how in the name of all that was holy could she turn that simple gesture into such an obvious sexual innuendo?) and gave him a tiny pout. "Do you not like me?"
"Buh – gah – what?!"
She sank to the carpet, kneeling, and placed her hands on her thighs in a classic pose of submission. Her gaze pellucid from under the curtain of her long bangs, she drew a lengthy breath, swelling her ample bosom dangerously, and asked, "What would Master like Starfire to do for him?"
Robin was drowning. Master?! Yeah, okay, so maybe he'd entertained a tiny little fantasy or two, but … this? He shook his head hard. A small part of his poor brain felt sure that the blush flaming his face and neck was going to ignite his collar. He couldn't form a coherent thought.
She reached forward and lightly brushed his leg, running the tips of her nails up past his knee and onto the inside of his thigh. "Whatever Master needs … Starfire will be most happy to do."
His joints seized. What do I do? What do I do? What is she … why is she doing this? Answers were not forthcoming, since his brain was being reduced to so much dryer lint under her insanely sensual touch. "S-s-st-star! Please!"
"Oh, yessss, Master!" She leaned against him, running her other arm up and around behind him. Had he not had the wall for support, he'd have collapsed. She tugged at his belt and said, "How does this come off?"
It was at that point that the elevator behind him opened again. The three of them stared for a second, mouths hanging open in shock, and then Cyborg said, "What in God's name are you two doing?"
Like a flipped switch, the righteous fury was back. Leaping to her feet, Starfire invested her hands with candent green energy and shouted, "You may not interrupt us! Robin is mine!"
Zatanna and Green Lantern exchanged a significant glance. He stepped around Cyborg and said, "We're not trying to interrupt anything, Starfire. We just want to make sure you're all right."
Victor took the few steps to get up next to her and reached for her elbow. "Why don't we take a little trip up to the medical bay and see how …"
He got no further. Her hands came up to grip his arm just behind the wrist, and squeezed. There was a brief whining, groaning sound as the superalloy composite crumpled, and Cyborg fell back with a sharp gasp.
"All right, that's enough!" said Green Lantern, and he aimed his Power Ring at her, calling up the image of a force ball in his mind.
She was faster. The starbolt hit him low in the gut, punching a neat hole some six centimeters across through his torso. He made a choking noise and flopped into an agonized ball on the floor.
"Wols Emit!" shouted Zatanna, pulling a glowing arc across in front of her.
Starfire began to turn her way, but became very progressively slower, finally coming to a near halt, her mouth open in what would have been a war cry.
The magus knelt beside Hal Jordan and ran her hands over the wound, muttering rapidly. A crimson glow outlined his form, concentrating in the injured area and taking on a slight purple cast there. She had him stabilized in a few seconds, but knew that her power over the awful wound was limited. He would need treatment at the Watchtower.
Standing, her countenance darkened as she gazed at the time-stuck alien. She knew Starfire, knew a great deal about her, and knew also that this behavior was radically out of character. The whole episode just stank of possession, and she was dead certain how that had come about. She swept off her hat, waved a hand over it, and spoke several rapid phrases, the result being that Starfire was sucked inside it.
Another quick word and the time-altering spell abated. Robin jumped away from the wall, staring around wildly. "What happened? Where's Star?"
"Your pet demon possessed her."
"What?! How do you know?"
She tapped her hat. "Magical specialist? You miss that part during orientation?"
His mouth opened and closed a few times, but Zatanna didn't waste any more daylight. Gripping the injured Green Lantern by the shoulders, she concentrated, rattled off a long string of gibberish, and then the two of them winked out.
"Rob? A little help?"
"Holy shit, Vic! What happened?"
"Star."
"… Starfire … crushed your arm?"
"Yeah. She did."
"… But …"
"I know, man, I can't believe it either. But what Zatanna said … you know …"
"Why would Raven even do that? This doesn't make any sense!"
Cyborg made a couple of internal adjustments, opened a panel in his chest, and typed in a code. His damaged arm rotated about fifteen degrees just below the elbow, and fell to the floor with a clank. "Damn. That's better. Now I don't have those neural interface pathways screaming at me." He picked up the limb and stood. "I gotta go get a replacement. Meanwhile, you might wanna get on the horn to the JL. Superman's gonna wanna know about this ASAP, and Zatanna looked like she might have her hands full with GL for a while." He stomped off up the corridor.
Reluctantly, Robin pulled out his communicator.
. . .
. . .
. . .
A/N:
And now it seems that Raven isn't the only one to have (as one reviewer so delightfully put it) gone off the reservation. The Titans aren't having a good week, are they?
Reviews are appreciated.
Concolor
