So remember how Control Freak showed up during chapter 18 and he had already established a crush on Starfire? This drabble is set between chapter 12 and 13.

She shouldn't. It wasn't important. It probably wasn't even interesting.

Little swarms of brightly colored creatures scuttled out of the video game store.

Well, that was practically an invitation. Starfire landed in front of the store. Game Stall, it was called. She poked her head through the front doors. It looked dark inside, although more brightly colored creatures skittered around.

"Hello?" Starfire called, confused. "Is anyone here?"

"Greetings, Titans!" A boy's voice called out, although by the pitch, he was pubescent. "Your number one nemesi—" He cracked open one eye, then his jaw dropped. He reached in a pocket of his jacket and sprayed some kind of aerosol solution into his mouth. "Hello, my lovely," he crooned.

Starfire lowered a brow at him. "Um… Greetings?"

The boy sauntered over to her, an odd swagger in his step that seemed to be a poor imitation of a duck. He held out his hand to her. "The name is Control Freak. Computer Genius, connoisseur of television, comic books, and arcadia, and number one enemy of the Titans." As he added the last part, he clenched his hand into a fist and brought it down, an od passion in his words. "Oh, and I run a Clash of the Planets fan blog."

Starfire extended her hand hesitantly, to be polite. Control Freak took it and pressed his lips against the back of her palm, which made Starfire quickly retract her hand. "Um… My name is—"

"Oh, my lovely, I know all about you. I follow a Starfire blog. I put you in my clash of the Planets fanfiction!" he told her enthusiastically.

"Erm… Pardon me?"

"Yeah. Okay, so Control Master—he's my original character—wins the heart of the lovely princess of Tamaran—that's you—the only problem is that she's engaged to the Zedi knight, Robin, and getting out of the betrothal would mean a civil war for her planet. So they stage her capture and Robin comes to rescue her, and Control Master quickly defeats—"

He was cut off by the light thud of boots on the ground. Robin was standing from a crouch, bo-staff already in hand. He glanced around the store and raised his eyebrows at Starfire. "You work with Control Freak now?"

"No!" Starfire denied quickly, more than eager to clear up that suspicion.

Unfortunately, while she was busy protesting, Control Freak put his arm out in front of Starfire and shoved her behind him protectively. "Don't worry, Princess Starfire! I'll protect our love!"

"Love?" she squeaked from behind the overzealous boy.

"That's from chapter eighteen of my fanfic," he explained offhandedly. "Speaking of which… Hooooooo-wah!" he yelled in a high-pitched voice as he brandished a photon energy sword at Robin. It had four multicolored blades, and Starfire was immediately interested in the technology.

Robin raised an eyebrow at Starfire, who shrugged in response before flicking her gaze back to the photon energy sword.

"Prepare to breathe your last, Skyjogger!" Control Freak cackled as he performed intricate twirls and spins of the sword.

"Dude," Beast Boy groaned near the candies located near checkout, surprising Starfire, "would you quit it with the clash of the Planets references already?" He scooped some change out of a pocket in his uniform and plunked it on the counter as he selected a candy.

Still goofing around with the photon sword, Control Freak pointed his remote at Beast Boy and his candy. Beast Boy shouted as the candy grew teeth and chomped at him, flinging it against the counter.

Now Starfire raised an eyebrow at Robin, who shrugged back.

Control Freak finally decided that it was time to begin an actual attack, and he leaped at Robin. His bo-staff, reinforced by the latest Bat-tricks, met the photon energy sword with a clack and a hum of energy.

Beast Boy ran down the aisles, flailing his arms over his head as the candy bar he was about to eat snapped at his ankles, and more of the brightly colored creatures—gumballs from the machine by the entrance—joined it in pursuing the changeling. It was a spectacle.

Starfire felt awkward, standing there watching. She wasn't about to pick sides, as she felt the Titans were better left to their own devices, at least unless they asked her. But she was eager to see any chance encounters with Control Freak reduced to zero percent as quickly as possible.

Robin pushed Control Freak back and the redhead slid on the floor. The Boy Wonder used the distance to drop to his hands on the ground and spin to knock Control Freak on his back.

"Little help?" Control Freak called to Starfire, who had not moved from the middle of the floor.

"I… have decided not to take sides," she answered timidly.

Beast Boy ran past Robin and attempted to cower behind his cape. Robin did not take kindly to this gestured and shooed his teammate with a sour expression on his face. "Dude! A little help would be nice!"

Control Freak grumbled and aimed his remote at a cutout of a bald, dark skinned man in a long coat with an eye patch.

Instead of the poster animating itself, a red beam bounced off the cardboard cutout and aimed itself back at Control Freak.

"What did he just do to Nick Fury?" Beast Boy demanded. The chocolate bar that was chasing him bit him on the ankle while he was distracted. "YEOWCH!" Beast Boy took off running again, the chocolate hopping along after him.

"Well?" Control Freak asked Starfire, his voice much less nasally than usual. "What's your decision?"

Confusion was evident on her face. "I… have decided to remain impartial?"

Control Freak grabbed Starfire's wrist and held it in front of his body as though he was aiming a weapon.

"But I have already decided—" she began, somewhat indignant at the redhead's behavior, but also bewildered by it.

"I recognize that you've made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it."

Robin didn't quite know how to handle this, but Starfire got angry.

"You cannot use me as a weapon!" she shouted, her eyes glowing. Using her superior strength, she flipped him over her arm so that he was flat on his back.

"Jeez, dude, how desperate are you?" Beast Boy, who'd stopped running long enough to take a jab at Control Freak, demanded.

"How desperate am I?" Control Freak countered immediately as he rose to his feet, slowly and dramatically. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you—"

"YARGH!" Beast Boy interrupted as the chocolate bit at his leg again.

Control Freak shook his head to clear it and picked up his photon energy sword. He spun it expertly. "With the combat skills of Nick Fury, I'll reduce you to so much rubble, Robin, and I can lay rightful claim to Princess Starfire!"

"Are you fighting over a girl…?" Beast Boy asked Robin, confused.

"No!" he snapped. "I don't know what he's talking about!"

"You are not alone!" Starfire told him, throwing up her hands in mild annoyance.

Control Freak began another assault on Robin, using the photon energy sword much more efficiently. Robin even had to duck a few times.

Beast Boy attempted to cower from the attack candies behind Starfire, who shushed him so she could watch the photon energy sword in action. With a frustrated cry, Beast Boy transformed into a rhino and trampled the stubborn candy under his giant feet.

As he did that, he disrupted Robin and Control Freak's fight, smashing the photon energy sword, to Starfire's dismay, and Robin soon had Control Freak handcuffed and submissive as he waited for the cops to come.

"I was just trying to get the new Zelda game before anyone else…" he lamented to anyone who would listen. (No one around him was listening.)

Starfire was poking at the squashed photon energy sword, attempting to analyze it.

"Why're you so interested in that thing, anyway?" Beast Boy questioned, looking at the movie prop brought to life disdainfully.

"This technology is far more advanced than what I have seen on Earth thus far. How does such a small hilt maintain the energy necessary for maintaining the solid shape of the beams?" she mused, mostly to herself but inviting Beast Boy to listen, as well.

"Sorry to break it to ya, but it's not real."

Starfire turned inquisitive eyes to the green Titan. "Truly?"

"Um, Yeah. Control Freak does this thing where he goes into the TV and he brings stuff out with him. So it's not a real thing. Sorry."

Starfire sighed. "Very well, then. I shall continue on my way home." She stepped outside the store and waved a quick goodbye to Robin.

"Goodbye, my sweet!" Control Freak called, eliciting a wince from Starfire. "Alas, I may be corporeally bound in Jump Juvenile Detention Center, but my love for you knows no bounds. Until next time, my ravishing—!"

Robin yanked on Control Freak's handcuffs, knocking the villain off balance an making him fall to the ground on his backside. "Don't talk to her that way," he snapped irritably.

Starfire beamed at him, glad of the interruption as Control Freak really was making her uncomfortable. "Good night, Robin," she bid sweetly before jumping in the air.

He grunted noncommittally, too busy brooding to properly answer. Starfire didn't let his incommunicative behavior spoil her good mood, however.

Okay. I had fun with the Clash of the Planets things. Sue me. Also, in my hadcanon, Marvel superheroes exist as pieces of fiction—movies, comics, cartoons, what have you—in the DCU in general, Teen Titans included. Credit goes to the Avengers for the 'stupid-ass decision' line and the 'how desperate am I' line. (The how desperate am I line didn't fit very well, but I had Beast Boy call CF desperate and I couldn't not. Sorry, not sorry.)

Next up: Alternate ending of Haunted