I don't own anything DC Comics or Warner Bros related.
Chapter 6: A Feminine Touch
"Duude, this lightning is wicked!" Beast Boy exclaimed from the main room. "It's almost as good as TV!"
Cyborg and Robin were in the kitchen, sadly regarding the refrigerator. Take out cartons were stored upside down and oozing all over what looked like a fuzzy blue pancake. There was something in a bowl with chopsticks that looked like a mud pie.
"Looks like we're ordering pizza," Robin said, decisively slamming the door. "And I say we hold this fridge out a window and shake until its empty."
"No problem," Cyborg said. To Robin's surprise, he hoisted the fridge off the ground and carried it away.
"I was kidding," Robin said, "But… okay."
"Aw man, that means we have to go grocery shopping," Beast Boy said it as if the sentence had instead been Aw man, that means we have to go snorkeling with piranhas.
"In this weather? All I feel like doing is inhabiting the couch for a few hours." Cyborg said, setting the fridge down like it was made out of cardboard. Robin stared for a second- his metal friends strength was often still astounding to him.
Beast Boy and Cyborg were soon immersed in a video game. Robin watched the lighting for a while, letting his mind drift. It had been quiet for the past few days.
"I… just beat you." Beast Boys voice was reverent.
"Yeah, don't get used to it Grass Stain."
"I just…. beat you!"
"Like I said-"
"AAAAAAHAHAHA!" Beast Boy wasn't listening any more. He was rapidly transforming, doing a multi-species victory dance around the living room.
"I beat Cyborg! I beeeeat CYBORG! I BEAT Cyborg! I beat-"
"Beast Boy, shh!"
"Yeah man," Cyborg said bitterly. "Shut up."
"I beat Cy-"
"Beast Boy!"
Beast Boy was instantly silent. Robin looked tense, the way he did when he sensed something was afoot.
"What is it Rob?" Cyborg asked, serious again.
"I don't know," Robin said. "But I think I just saw… green lightning."
"Um, dude, I'm the green one."
The three boys watched the rain rage against the bay window. The video game continued to play its theme song in the background, but nothing happened.
"Huh," Cyborg was uninterested.
"Maybe you're going nuts dude."
"Yeah," Robin said slowly. He sat on a kitchen stool and continued to watch the lightning. The other two settled back into the couch.
With a blast not unlike an M80, the entire tower shuddered. Green light flooded through the window, blinding the three heros.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Cyborg bellowed, covering his ears as alarms cleaved the air.
"Come on, it must have hit somewhere around the third floor."
The Titans raced down the staircase, not daring to use the elevator. Robin threw open the door.
"AUGH!" Beast Boy squeaked, and all three Titans were forced to duck as green and red fireballs rebounded around the work out room. A gaping hole was blown in the wall, and the two balls of furious light appeared to be raging as hard as the storm outside.
And before Robin could say anything, the two lights sped out the hole as violently as they had entered.
"They're headed for the city," Cyborg confirmed, rushing to look out after them. "I can't believe those things blew a hole in my tower!"
"Come on," Robin said. 'We have to stop them from destroying the city!"
Beast Boy was gone in a flash of lighting, and in his place stood a Pterodactyl. He took flight, and Cyborg and Robin each grabbed a scaly leg.
Beast Boy followed the lights at a safe distance- they lurched across the sky at a breakneck speed.
"Beast Boy, down!" Robin shouted. He dropped, ready for action, into the middle of a crowded square. Onlookers only stared for a second- more intriguing, of course, were the two balls of energy screaming towards the ground.
Cyborg and Beast Boy were behind him. He whipped rainwater from his forehead before it leaked behind his mask. The lights were sixty feet from impact… forty… twenty…
"Now!"
Robin hurled a bomb into the heart of the angry battle. It exploded, sending both red and green lights flying in opposite directions. Beast Boy, now a Rhinoceros, pinned the green light to the ground.
Cyborg raced towards the red, sonic cannon out and piping with energy. A massive red monster, looking like a cross between a goblin and a gorilla, rose from the crater where it had landed.
"Don't move, pal!" Cyborg shouted. Too late. The thing let out a roar like a freight train and came at him. With a yell, Cyborg let loose a blast of energy. It burned a hole directly through the creature's chest.
It halted, grasping for the wound as if it could pinch itself back together. And then it collapsed in a puddle of rain and red sludge.
Underneath Beast Boys massive weight, the green light was fading. In the center of its receding glow, a tall, lithe girl became visible. Her eyes, Robin noted warily, were glowing a toxic green.
"Okay, I kinda want to know why these two were fighting," Cyborg came over, cannon recharging as they faced the other combatant.
"What's going on," Robin asked the girl as she struggled. "What was that thing?"
"Laft'g ofkabar jarknaf!" She shouted angrily.
Cyborg and Robin looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"Uh, WHAT YOU NAME?"
"I doubt it matters how loud you are," Robin said, as the girl shouted more gibberish back at Cyborg. "I don't think she's from around here."
"Um, I know a little Spanish…"
"Dork'fm comblomb!" She was frustrated, that much was clear, but her words sounded like a poorly executed French horn solo.
"Look," Robin tried desperately, "I can't understand you, do you know any English at all?"
The girl had had enough. With a burst of green power, she sent Beast Boy flying. The other Titans tensed, but when she stood she didn't attack. Instead, she grabbed the nearest person from the crowd- a tall, spindly looking teenager, and kissed him firmly on the lips.
The Titans stared. When she was finished, she relinquished her hold on the front of the boys' sweatshirt and turned to face them again.
"I thank you for your assistance," She said. "I am a Tamaranian… um, I believe here you call it bounty hunting. I have been hunting Gofkorp for three of Earths rotations around the sun. The planet of Tamaran will be eternally in your debt- he is a terrible criminal, guilty of many things."
"Can you please point me to the nearest launch station?"
"The nearest what?"
"I'm telling you, I think the only people that will be able to help you work at NASA, and they live in California."
"I do not understand. Is California another planet?"
"Uh," Cyborg said, never having had to explain statehood to an alien before. "For our purposes, it might as well be."
"I cannot make the journey by flying. I will need to recover from my mission before I can build the required amount of strength. Perhaps you know of a bed I could use to hibernate?"
Cyborg looked at Robin.
"We have a couch…" Robin started slowly. "I guess you could use that for now."
"What is The Couch?"
"Cheaper than a hotel."
"Dude."
"I know."
"… Dude."
There was a girl on the couch.
A girl.
"What do we do?" Beast Boy asked in a whisper.
"You should start by getting your underwear out of the kitchen sink." Robin advised.
"Man, that should be a rule with or without a girl in the house."
"You're one to talk," Beast Boy retorted as Robin smothered a snicker. "You had all your mechanical junk all over the main room when we got here."
"Guys," Robin said warily as Starfire shifted in her sleep. "I have a feeling she could seriously injure us if we woke her up, so how about we-"
Everyone jumped as the alarm went off. Starfire shot straight up into the air and, with a jet of green energy, blasted the alarm until it was silent.
"I am sorry," She said, looking worriedly into the stunned faces of her hosts. "I did not mean to harm your noisemaking toy."
"That's not a toy, Starfire," Robin explained. "That is… was a high tech alarm system. It tells us when something's not right in the city. It's our job to go and stop it- that's what Superheros do on Earth. Titans, lets move out!"
"You can fix that, right?" He muttered to Cyborg, nodding up at the smoldering black mass in the ceiling that used to be their alarm.
"Maybe? I'm not too familiar with alien firearms."
"Robin?"
Robin turned around. "Don't worry about it, okay? It'll take Cyborg about five minutes to fix it." He smiled reassuringly.
"It's not that. I was wondering if I could accompany you on The Superheroing? I am very powerful and could be of use."
The Titans looked at each other. Cyborg shrugged.
"I don't see why not," Robin grinned. "Lets go."
Broken glass was lying littered in the streets- a sure fire sign of mayhem. Robin surveyed the scene, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Starfire behind him. The mayor had explained hurriedly that someone had stolen a priceless artifact from Jump City Museum. Robin saw no sign of anyone; it was deadly silent.
Except for an eerie, high-pitched giggle.
"Show yourself!" Robin demanded. The voice seemed to find this more amusing.
"Uh dude," Beast Boy said from behind. "Check it."
Beast Boy was pointing up.
At first it appeared to Robin that someone had strung a crimson streamer between two street lamps. But then he noticed the pink stiletto boots dangling from the end that curled down around the nearest lamp. And the head of white blonde hair blowing in the breeze- grinning at them from the other street lamp.
"Hey fellas," The girl unwound her impossibly long legs from the lamp- they descended like spiders legs twelve feet to the ground. He body stretched like rubber as the rest of her followed her legs, shrinking from over ten feet to a still tall six; six feet of skin tight red suit. Three titanic jaws nearly touched the ground.
"I'm Elasta-Girl," She held up a long finger, from which dangled a spectacular silver necklace. "Looking for something?"
"Titans…" Robin knew he was supposed to say something, but Elasta-Girl had cocked her hip and tossed her long hair.
"Well boys," Elasta-Girl didn't seem to take notice of Starfire in the background. "Wanna play?"
"Is it time to do The Superheroing yet?" Starfire whispered, unsure why her friends hadn't commenced battle yet.
"Right," Robin snapped out of it with no small amount of difficulty. "Titans, GO!"
The Titans charged.
Elasta-Girl threw her head back and let her tinkling laugh float from her lips. As Cyborg stopped and took aim, she nimbly folded backwards, falling into a handspring. Heels over head she retreated, and then standing under a traffic stop, she stretched. Her body narrowed as her hands reached upwards. In the blink of an eye she was sitting on top of the stop, a boot perched just above the red light.
The titans raced to catch up. Stretching down to the ground, Elasta-Girl walked on her hands until her back was bent nearly in half. When she gabbed hold of a Buick parked on the side of the street, the Titans paused, wary. With a terrible groan, the Buick left the ground as her body whipped back. The car hit the Titans like a bowling ball, sending four surprised pins flying into the air.
Starfire was knocked through the window of an adjacent building. Beast Boy ended up in Cyborgs lap; tangled in the branches of a tree.
"You are so funny," Elasta-Girl squealed, laughing as Robin toppled out of the dumpster he'd landed in. "I can tell you right now, gentlemen, what your problem is."
She dropped to the ground as the Cyborg and Beast Boy fell out of the tree next to Robin. All three froze as Elasta-Girls hand found the zipper at her throat.
"You're all so…"
Their eyes followed as it lost an inch in altitude. Very. Slowly.
"Male."
Giggling again, she was airborne with snap like a rubber band. Several summersaults later, she was wrapped tightly around a flag pole.
"You may have the brute strength," She unwound and swung to the windowsill above her, "But I have a woman's grace, the finesse, the agility- AUGH!"
With a blast of green light, Elasta-Girl was thrown from her perch at the top of the building. Starfire followed her decent, flying in a beautiful arc. Elasta-Girl crashed in a heap; Starfire landed delicately on her toes.
"I am not a male." She said, eyes glowing. "And I don't like the way you tease my Earth friends."
She hurled a pair of starbolts at Elasta-Girl, who squeaked and bent her torso into a C to avoid them. With a terrified look at the alien careening towards her, she ran.
Twisting and contorting to avoid blasts of green, Elasta-Girl was considerably slower. She turned a corner and found herself face to face with Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy.
"You can't keep me for long," She snarled as Starfire landed behind her, hands still glowing green. "How long do you think it will take me to break out of a jail cell?"
"I guess we'll just send Starfire after you then," Robin said conversationally, grinning as Elasta-Girls eyes widened. "Seems like she's woman enough for the job."
Starfire smiled proudly as Cyborg produced handcuffs designed to freeze superpowers. When Elasta-Girl was packed safely into the back of a police car, and the necklace fished out of the debris, Robin turned to Starfire.
"You were fantastic," He said. "We really appreciate your help."
"I was glad to assist!" Starfire gushed. "That was most exhilarating!"
"Anyone else wondering where she keeps her wallet?" Beast Boy said. The other three turned to look at him- he was staring after the police car carrying Elasta-Girl to her cement palace. Cyborg smacked him on the back of the head.
"Pull yourself together man."
"And quit drooling," Robin added, chuckling. "There's a lady present."
"Sorry," Robin said, catching sight of big green eyes watching him over the back of the couch. "I just came in to get a snack, I didn't mean to wake you from your hibernating."
"It's alright Friend Robin, I was not asleep. I have been wanting to ask you a question."
"Shoot," Robin said, curious.
"I did not expect the joy that the Superheroing would bring me. My people, our powers are fueled by emotions, and defeating an enemy has always made me stronger."
Starfire demonstrated by lifting the couch above her head with a single hand.
"I have discovered that fighting with a team for the betterment of a society gives me great power."
"That's great, Starfire." Robin said, smiling. "Believe me, I know all about the effects of having a purpose."
"And I was wondering if… well, perhaps, if it would be alright, I could stay a little while longer?"