KaliAnn: I'm glad you like the teasing, because there more coming up…poor Robin.

DianaLaura: Here is what happens next, and I'm glad you like Aqualad's leadership.

Mimmy14: Yes, a little Robin would be adorable

The Keeper of the Worlds: Yes, I had fun writing Roy

Chapter 22

Road Island

Mount Justice

Each of the boys eyes had gone wide with astonishment as the electronic female voice announced the arrival of the only former sidekick not yet present. The zeta tube had not even finished transporting Green Arrow's ex-partner before the Team was rushing forward to meet him.

So the moment the eighteen year old archer stepped out into the cave, he was surrounded by the very people who's asses he had thought he would have to drag out of whatever mess they had managed to get themselves into.

Well, that meant less work for him to do…and though he would never admit it, the relief at seeing that his friends were still in one piece was almost overwhelming.

But that was okay, Speedy didn't have to admit it…Robin could read it in the older boy's body language –in the way his shoulders relaxed and his death grip on his bow eased up upon seeing them all there.

'Aww, he loves us,' Robin thought with smirk.

"Speedy!" Wally cried out at once, sounding as though he wanted nothing more than grab the other redhead in a bear hug. And to the others' total shock, the speedster was exactly stupid enough to do it…he must have been drunk with happiness at seeing a familiar face.

"…Kid," Speedy managed to force through his teeth.

"Yeah?"

"You have five seconds to let go of me, before you forfeit your right to have two arms."

Gulping a little, Wally quickly retracted his limbs, and sped away to stand slightly behind Superboy, who scowled at him.

Ignoring the speedster, the archer turned his head to looked everybody over from top to bottom.

"Are you all alright?" he asked urgently.

"Eh, more or less," Robin said, waving his hand in a show of carelessness. "We've had worse-"

Wally snorted.

"Maybe so, but it definitely could have gone better," he retorted.

"We have suffered no severe injuries," Aqualad interceded firmly. Then tilting his head in a display of puzzlement, the Atlantean added, "But if I may ask, how did you know that we were in a battle?"

"Forget that!" Wally exclaimed, feeling that it was safe enough to come out from behind Superboy. "Were you in D.C with the League? Did they send you here to check on us? Whatsgoingon-"

"Walls, your speed talking," Robin informed his friend gently.

The boy flushed slightly.

"Sorry," he muttered.

His classic scowl returning, Speedy promptly began to answer their questions.

"Well for starters no, I wasn't with the League…probably thought it would be too much for me," he added bitterly, his death grip on his bow returning. "No I was in Star City, hunting down some drug dealers. I didn't even know there was an invasion going on. When I took out all the guys at their hidy-hole, two of them had been watching something on YouTube…your fight with the aliens in Happy Harbor."

Suddenly wide alert, Robin and the other boys snapped to attention.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute…your saying some citizen filmed us and put it on YouTube?!" Robin croaked.

He couldn't believe it, his brain couldn't process it…the mentors were going to kill them.

"Yep," Speedy replied with a smirk, popping the p sound. Looking terribly smug, the archer sheathed his bow onto his back, and made his way over to the still active holo-computer. With a few simple commands he brought the screen to Google, and then to YouTube.

Going up to the search bar, he then typed in Happy Harbor Showdown.

Just before he hit play on the video, Speedy turn to glance at the Boy Wonder out of the corner of his eye, his tone turning mocking as he said, "Before we watch, is there anything you would like to fess up to Rob?"

"…What?"

Speedy shrugged nonchalantly.

"Oh nothing, it just that what happens at the end of your fight was rather… interesting," he finished with a viscous grin, "In fact, I think I'll skip to that part."

Robin felt his face drain of blood.

Oh no.

Oh God no.

Numb with horror, Robin could only stand there as though his feet had been nailed to the ground, and stare at the screen as Speedy fast forwarded to the end part, where Robin was releasing the warrior girl from her cuffs…and then her kissing him afterwards.

…Oh God…it was on the internet…

He was dead, totally dead.

Not only had he permitted a citizen -who was clearly hiding in the upstairs of his or her house- to film him, but he had been caught in a compromising position.

Batman was going to kill him, resurrect him via the Lazarus Pit, kill him a second time, and then bury him and dance on his grave.

As he stewed in this humiliation, his face as red as it had been before, Robin could just make out the sound of Wally laughing over the roaring in his ears.

"O-O-Oh God," Wally wheezed, gasping for breath as he doubled over, his arms going around his stomach. He looked as though Christmas, Thanksgiving, and his birthday had been rolled into one and had come early this year.

"D-Dude they is no way you are ever going to live this down."

"Shut up! Kid, I'm warning you-" Robin hissed furiously, his hands balling into fist.

But before he could complete his threat, Speedy waltzed over and chaught the Bat's Brat in a firm headlock.

"So the little bird got some action," Speedy said in a baby voice as he ruffled the boy's hair. "Our little Robbiekins is all grown up-"

"Shut up!"

But the archer missed the deadly tone, because he continued his teasing.

"Tell me you at least got to second base-"

But now Speedy had gone too far. He didn't know exactly what happened –one moment he was taunting Robin…

…and the next thing he knew there was a sharp pain in his knee.

Yelping, Speedy was thrown off balance, which made it all too easy for the Boy Wonder to trip him to the ground.

"What the hell Rob?" Speedy gasped, gawking up at the young hero who now stood over him.

"Shut…Up," Robin all but growled, and everyone in the room stared. Wally even stopped laughing. Kneeling down now, the young acrobat shoved a finger into the archer's chest, his eyes narrowed into slits. "You don't talk about her that way–not when she risked her life to save us."

Nodding in agreement, Aqualad looked down at Speedy disapprovingly, even as he moved to help the slack jaw boy up.

"I agree with Robin on this Speedy, It is most uncivil to talk so of any young lady, but to do so to one that helped us is disgraceful," he added sternly as he hauled the young man to his feet.

"She was scared and hurt, but she helped us anyways," Superboy added, feeling equally defensive of the young Alien-Girl…though he didn't really know what he was defending her from, as he didn't understand what Speedy had meant by second base…which was probably for the best.

"Same with me," Wally said, completely somber now, and glaring at his old friend.

His face flushing a bit now at the quartet scolding he had received, Speedy, aggravated, ran a hand through his hair. It had only been a joke…but it wasn't important.

They had other much more pressing matters to attend to, like oh he didn't know… stopping the invasion perhaps?

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," the archer grumbled sourly. But he couldn't help but add this onto it.

"Didn't mean to insult your girlfriend Rob."

If looks could kill, Roy Harper would have been six feet under due to the mini bat-glare he found himself on the receiving end of.

"She's-not-my-girlfriend," Robin gritted out… though his ears turning red somewhat ruined the overall effect. "But she's the only person who knows who these aliens are and what they're doing here, so we got to track her down and convince her to tell us what she knows…which means we have to be nice."

Y+J

Koriand'r couldn't remember a time when she had been so happy, when such joy had flowed throughout her being -echoing from the depths of her soul as she soared high into the clouds.

It was raining slightly, but the Shieldmaiden welcomed it, loving the way the water felt on her skin. It was as though she was been cleansed of the filth of slavery.

She was free.

Truly and completely now, seeing that she was back in the air where she belonged.

Never mind the fact that she was all but trapped on this little blue planet. Never mind that before her lay trials that -in all likelihood- she probably wouldn't survive. In this moment Kori refused to think of such things, and permitted herself to become lost in her delight, the way only a victorious warrior knew how.

This was her triumph.

The rain was becoming heavier now…pouring down until she was drenched, her hair matted to her back.

She loved it, the wildness of it that was.

And as the wind picked up and thunder began to boom, the warrior girl was powerless to stop a grin of almost feral excitement from spreading across her face.

Throwing back her head, she shrieked her defiance to the heavens, daring the sky to try and shoot her down and make her fall.

'Oh yes,' Kori thought with relish and a rare over confidence, 'Fire away, fire away….'

For where there was thunder, there was bound to be lighting-

As though in answer to her challenge, the skies were suddenly ripped apart as a bolt of white fire was shot down at the Shieldmaiden, attracted by the metal armor she wore.

With expert ease, Koriand'r whirled around and dodged the bolt, as she did the one that followed that…and the one that followed that.

And she couldn't stop giggling as she did it.

She had not the smallest fear of being struck, for this was hardly the first storm she had flown into. As a matter of fact, back on Tamaran, she had Storm-Raced with other youths for fun, the goal being to find your way through to the finish line in a certain amount of time…while avoiding being zapped by lighting of course. She imagined it would hurt dreadfully.

So when the storm at last ended, she found herself rather sad and disappointed.

Oh well, all things had to end at some point…and besides, she needed to find someplace safe to rest so she could go into a healing trance. All the joy and excitement in the world didn't change the fact that she was flying on fumes…and with the last bits of her adrenaline rushing away, it wouldn't take a lightning bolt to blast her out of the air. She would simply drop dead.

'Well Princess, its back to reality,' Kori sighed mournfully inside her head.

Breathing hard, Kori shook her head, causing water droplets to go flying all around her. Pushing her soggy bangs aside, she allowed her gaze to look down on the earth below searching for a resting spot. It had to be concealed, so no one could easily find it…

And then she found it.

Directly beneath her was a neat grove of trees, aligned so perfectly next to each other that there was no doubt in Kori's mind that this was a fruit orchard.

At the thought, her stomach whined pitifully…fruit.

She was landing in an instant.

The trees were not very tall to the alien girl's eyes, only about twenty feet high. But that hardly mattered. The branches were plentiful enough to conceal her from prying eyes, and broad enough for her to lie down across one for a healing trance…more importantly, those branches were rich in ruby red fruit.

Her mouth watering shamelessly, it was all the staved girl could do not to just bolt forward and stuff herself.

She had to be careful for numerous reasons…one being that this was an entirely new world, and who could say if these fruit weren't poisonous to her kind? The second being that if the fruit was eatable, she would have to eat only a small portion, or her shrunken stomach might not keep it down –which would be as wasteful as it would be unpleasant.

And lastly…if she started eating without restraint, she might easily eat the whole orchard…and she couldn't bear to rob the farmer of his entire crop, that wouldn't be fair at all.

"Take it slow," Koriand'r muttered to herself, as she reached up and plucked one good size fruit of the nearest branch. In a quick inspection, she turned over her prize in her hands, making sure that it was healthy. Then breaking it in half, she sniffed it…and took the smallest bite she could.

It was delicious.

Taste exploded on her tongue for the first time in over a mouth, an intoxicating mixture of sweet and sour…rather like her life at the moment. And it was enough to bring tears to her eyes.

In less than five bites she had finished it and was reaching for seconds…and then thirds…and then fifths.

Tamaraneans had a different idea was what a small portion was than most species.

"Absolutely turbing," she gasped pleasantly to herself as she finished up her seventh.

And then realizing what she had just said, she stopped.

Wait a moment…turbing?

What in X'hal's name was that suppose to mean?

Somewhat alarm, but more so curious, Kori began to run through of the earthen words she now knew, with rather… interesting results.

Whelming.

Turbing.

Re-nial.

Concerted.

And much, much more…apparently her donor was rather fond of removing actual or supposed affixes from words…and most likely using the resulting neologism as puns.

…The noise started out quietly enough.

But soon it grew louder and louder. And then it could no longer be contained, so once more Koriand'r shriek her laughter to the heavens.

Though she quickly slapped a hand over her mouth to restraint her mirth, Kori was powerless the stop it.

…It had been a long time since she had any reason to laugh.

And not for the first time, the Shieldmaiden found herself wishing that she had met the Inky-Haired boy under better circumstances…because from what she had seen of him, she felt convinced that his personality and spirit far extended his actual height.

Shaking her head fondly, Kori found that she had to lean against the tree to keep from falling over.

'…What an Imp,' Koriand'r thought, smiling unabashedly, while the fingers of one hand moved unconsciously to trace her lips in remembrance…

Well, the stars of this chapter were Speedy and Star…with Wally being their co star. Did I get Roy down good, with all his hot temper tough guy stuff? And poor Robin…he is never going to live that kiss down. Did the fact that it's on-line stun you? But my favorite part of this chapter was the end, where we get to glimpse some of Star's Wild-Shieldmaiden side…and her soft spot for Robin.