A massive crater had appeared in the middle of the street. Miraculously, the T-car was still in one relative piece, though it lay on its side and from the air I could see my friends taking cover from behind it. The paint was scratched and the tires were a shredded, melted mess. A man wearing a black leather jacket and a clown mask ran toward the car and flung something small and dark through the air.
"Incoming!" Cyborg yelled, pushing Beast Boy down behind the car. Raven's eyes blazed white. The small device detonated in midair with enough force that I had to work to maintain my position in the sky. More of the clowns cheered and clapped as if the deadly bomb was merely the works of fire Robin took me to see on the Fourth of July.
I rained green fire from the sky.
"Whoohoo, that's my girl!" Cyborg's deep voice reached me over the short distance. With our enemies distracted by my fire, the Titans burst from behind their hiding place to engage. Beast Boy became the cheetah and ran into the nearest building, whose windows were shattered and the bricks blackened. He would do what he could to find survivors while we took care of the ones who had done this. There was little his forms could do against bombs, and his help would be better served off of the front lines.
"Great timing, little lady. I was thinking I was gonna' have to pull out the big guns," called Cyborg, grinning I spite of the chaos around us.
"This ends now!" Raven rose up in the air and lifted her arms high to summon her magic. "Azarath Metrion zin-". Before she could finish the incantation the clowns loosed a jet of flames at her from a strange cannon-looking device. In the middle of calling up one spell she could not change it last minute into a protection spell. I dove at her like a missile, shielding her body with my own as I pulled her out of the way. A pulse of blue light took out the weapon, followed closely by Cyborg's battle cry as he went after the monsters.
"You are undamaged?" I asked through gritted teeth as I crawled back from Raven to let her rise. Four red eyes blinked up at me.
"I'm fine. Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
There were gasps from all around us as the clowns were lifted into the air. Their eyes bulged as they clawed at their throats, unable to draw breath.
"You think causing pain and terror is funny?" Raven asked in a many-layered voice much different than her own. "I don't hear you laughing now. Maybe I'm not doing it right." She raised her hands above her head and a black portal opened in the sky. Strange red-eyed creatures looked out from the portal. They reached for the clowns, licking long tongues over jagged teeth. I shrank back.
"Raven...?"
"Raven, you're creeping us out here too!" Cyborg yelled from across the street. She bared her teeth and brought her hands down. The portal descended, engulfing all of the clowns. As I watched in fascinated horror the portal became a cage containing all of them between black bars. Raven closed her eyes and when she opened them again there were only two.
"Remind me to stay off your bad side," said Cyborg cheerily as he stepped forward to inspect the cage.
"Beast Boy needs us," said Raven curtly. She glided away and when I moved to follow the full extent of my injuries was made clear to me. I cried out.
"Starfire!" They were at my side at once.
"Azar, Star. You shouldn't have done that." Raven sounded shocked, which did not bode well.
"Your healing capabilities are needed elsewhere. I will stay with the prisoners and ensure that they remain detained until the authorities arrive." It was a mark of the pain I was in that I volunteered to speak to the authorities alone. They typically did not respond well to my alien speech patterns, treating me as though I were a child rather than the future monarch of an entire planet.
"Are you sure! I could-"
"Already it is healing." That much they could se for themselves and they left to assist Beast Boy. Further movement on my part would only slow the process and I grounded myself to allow the green energy that sustains me to focus solely on regeneration.
"There's more where that came from," called one of the clowns encased in Raven's prison. Not rising to the bait I ignored him.
"Not too bright is she?" asked another.
"The boss was right. She fell for it all right."
"You think he's got the bird?"
"Of course he does. We're not exactly dealing with Batman here, are we? But I'd rather run into this one down a dark alley than him any day of the week." The laughed collectively, and though it was not the high-pitched laugh of their master, it was tinged with the same insanity. Try as I might to block out their words, a new fear sparked inside me.
"Want to know what he's going to do to him, girlie?" called the first. My expression must have shown my fear and silently I cursed myself for giving myself away. Had Robin not schooled me endlessly about betraying nothing but confidence in the face of our enemies. Even on Tamaran such weakness was worthy of disgust.
"You will do the shutting up now," I said in a cold, distant voice. They hooted and jeered again anyway.
"What do you do to a bird you're about to roast? Did you know a chicken keeps flapping around even after you take off its head. Wonder if robins do the same? You think he'll squawk when we pluck his feathers? I hope I'm there to hear his screams. You'd better be careful beautiful. From what I hear you just might be one of the feathers we get to pluck." He leered at me through the bars. A thick, muscled man with clown makeup running down his neck from the mixture of sweat and heat from the many bombs they had thrown.
"I am not so easily disposed of," I said. Xhal, this was difficult! I did not know what he meant by his veiled threats but I was sure it promised pain for all of us.
"Then again, maybe it's the other red-head. She may not have you in the looks department, but they go back a long way." My confusion must have shown because he cackled madly and slapped the backs of his companions in glee. What other red-head? "Oohoohoo! Even the good guys like a little action on the side! Don't let it get to you. She's the brains and you're the bod. And what a bod it is. MmMmm...reminds me of a Cat I know..."
"I weary of you," I said, turning my back on him. It was nonsense. He meant to upset me and by listening I was only allowing him to succeed. Of course Robin had friends in his past life, even friends that were girls. He had never spoken of any such girl to me before, but then I had never mentioned Karras, the Tamaranean I was to marry before I was branded a traitor for fleeing from my imprisonment from the Gordanians And nullifying the peace treaty between our species.
"Go on, walk away. Gives me a better view anyway." More dark chuckles accompanied this. Why did the men of this planet think to intimidate me with declarations of their lust. Robin had tried countless times to warn me, but on my planet we did not have such a thing as modesty. We were proud of our bodies that were strong and beautiful. Here that beauty was twisted by the viewer into something vulgar. Not even when I had been a captive and helpless had I been made to feel as if my body were to blame for the treatment I received. The Gordanians tormented all of their prisoners, choosing whichever methods would leave the most emotional scars. Had I been hideous it would not have saved me.
"Cyborg, how far out are the authorities?" I asked into my communicator.
"Should be almost there. Why? Everything okay?"
"I am feeling the need to snap some necks," I muttered. He knew I was joking, but such a threat from me was most uncommon. I have seen enough death and torture that I prefer to spare even my enemies from it most of the time. Still, I was a warrior first and foremost and what I wanted right now was blood.
"Hang in there," he said with nothing but caring in his deep brown eye. I nodded and was about to say something more when the screen went white with static. Behind me, on the giant television screen that was used for advertisements mounted on one of the city's skyscrapers, Joker's face appeared. His hair was disheveled and blood oozed from between his teeth as he grinned at the camera. The effect was chilling.
"Hiyah kids. It's been tons of fun, but I'm afraid it's time for me and the boys to go. Don't go worrying about getting us a parting gift-I've already got one." His voice dropped darkly as the camera view slid to the image of Red X strapped to a chair. Harley Quinn sat on his lap prodding his chest with a long stick that crackled with blue light at one end. Red X's head lolled, but his body spasmed violently as she stabbed him.
"Teehee. He's a little worse for wear, but he'll do just fine," said Joker gleefully as he skipped into view. He slid behind Red X and yanked his head up by the chin so everyone could see his face. The skull mask was shattered on one half of his face so that Robin's black mask was revealed. Blood flowed freely from his temple and I remembered the crowbar Joker had been twirling.
"Never took this one for a cross-dresser, but I guess I should have seen it coming. Those tights, I mean please! But I wonder what dear old Batsy would have to say if he could see you now, moonlighting as one of us. Them's the breaks kid. You couldn't hack it as a hero and you don't have what it takes to be a villain. Someone needs to put you out of your misery. But that's what I'm here for. Say buh-bye Jump!" Cruelly he pried apart Robin's jaws and forced him to mouth the words like a puppet. I covered my face with my hands, unable to tear my eyes away.
When the authorities came they took one look at me and went about their business without uttering a word. Joker's men did the cat-calling as they were loaded into the back of the police van. Ambulances arrived and without being told they rushed into the nearby buildings to assist the injured parties there.
Eventually the Titans emerged, soot-stained and grim-faced. If they expected me to be a crumpled mess on the floor they were mistaken. In that moment I was a living flame. My rage was so great that my long fall of red hair had become a whip of fire, while the rest of me emitted a soft green glow. Cyborg's mouth hardened.
"We will retrieve him," I said, daring anyone to argue.
"You mean go to Gotham?" squeaked Beast Boy. "But that's Batman's territory."
"Joker has one of our own. That makes it Titans territory," said Raven. Her four red eyes were showing again. I glanced around at my friends and nodded. Joker would pay.