Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, all rights to the owners.


CHANGELING

I check the soup kitchen first, as I expect it to be the more useful of the two locations. I head to the north of the city where it's located (which is also close to the airport; I guess Ava and Evan used to live more north than they do now). It's a noticeably poorer area of the city for the most part. I know the area around the airport is nice, as is the main road leading to the southern part of the city, but deviate even a little off that main road and you'll find a very different city.

There's a reason all the booklets for tourists unanimously direct them towards the south. That's where all the tall buildings and nice restaurants are.

Finding the soup kitchen is difficult, mostly because it looks completely different than how Evan explained it. Apparently it used to have this big, faded, red sign across the front, and it was a decent-sized building. Now it's clearly a shadow of what it once was. The sign might be blue and shiny now, but more than half the building has been swallowed by a storage company, and the interior is lit by painfully bright fluorescent light bulbs and looks more like a doctor's office than a soup kitchen. The only reason I know it is still a soup kitchen (perhaps it's more of a food bank now actually) is that I can see someone stocking shelves with cans of… something.

I debate whether I should be sneaking in or not, and decide it's probably not necessary. Besides, I can always sneak in later if I want.

I stride into the building, casting my gaze around at the numerous shelves full of groceries. I also note the lack of tables. So it's no longer a soup kitchen, huh? Purely a food bank.

"Hey there." I say to the stocker. The boy flinches in surprise and turns around quickly. I guess he didn't hear me enter. He's shorter than me, I think he's a teenager, and has dark, nervous green eyes, brown hair, peach-colored skin, and a small acne scar on his right cheek. He's cute. Not as cute as Ruban, but cute.

Maybe I just have a thing for short people… or shy people.

"H-Hi? Hi." The boy stammers. His eyes flick up and down my body, noticeably focusing on my chest more often than not. He seems to realize this and quickly looks up at my face, but his gaze constantly slips down. "How can I help you Miss Changeling?"

A horny teenager then. Well, that's fine with me; I don't mind playing the part of a flirt if it will make him more eager to help. Besides, it's been a while since I've gotten to properly flaunt myself. I always hold back around Ruban. Besides, I'm arguably a horny teenager myself, I just hide it better. "I'm looking for information." I say. It takes a moment for me to change my voice to something sultry. It's been too long since I've used this tone. Cooing at Ruban just isn't the same thing. "Can you help me?" I ask, pouting my lips at him.

"Y-Yes!" He says, jumping to attention. "Wh-What do you need to know?"

See? Nice and eager. "Can you tell me how old this food bank is? Did it used to be a soup kitchen?"

"It's- uh- it's…" The boy scrambles for an answer. I'd almost forgotten the sort of effect I can have on people. It's adorable. "I started helping here two years ago when this place put out an ad saying it needed new volunteers. Some of the shelves were still being put in, so I think it was two years ago?"

Good enough. "And you don't know what this place used to be?"

"It might have been a soup kitchen." The boy says frantically. "I really don't know, I didn't look into it, but I know it still dealt with the poor and the homeless, and they needed new volunteers because of some sort of scandal and change of management. I think it's related to some sort of recent event too. A police officer came by recently to get in touch with the CEO and talk to the manager."

Interesting. "I don't suppose you know what the scandal was?" I lean forward, bringing my face very close to his and looking him in the eye. "Anything more you can tell me would be very appreciated."

"W-Well, I, uh-!" He stammers with his neck starting to turn red from a blush. I don't think he actually knows all that much, he's just desperate to please. God this reminds me of Ruban, especially Ruban in the past when he was servile and easily panicked. While I'm happy Ruban isn't like that anymore, I can't deny it had a unique charm. "Apparently, I think, there was some shady dealing happening. The customers were being exploited somehow. The old management was mostly in on it, and eventually the volunteers caught on and called the cops or something. That's why the change in management happened. At least, that's what I heard."

"Is that it?" I ask. The boy has been taking small, shuffling steps away from me (probably flustered because of how close I'm getting), and it's at this point where his back meets the wall and he can't retreat any further. I'm not touching him in any way, but I more-or-less have him pinned against the wall. I take it a step further by planting a hand on the wall next to him and intentionally leaning over him. I'm basically shoving my chest into his face. I really don't need to lay it on this thick but I'm having fun. Again, it's been too long since I've had a chance to flex my skills. "Nothing else?"

"Th-Th-There might have been something a-about kidnapping." The boy squeaks. His arms and hands are pulled up against his body and his legs are pressing together, both signs of acute nervousness. I need to de-escalate I suppose. "A-And metahumans? I really don't know!"

"Alright." I say, and take a slow step away from him as I cast my gaze around the room, just so he doesn't feel as pressured. I can hear the boy release a deep breath beside me. "Thank you for your help. Could I also speak to a manager, if there is one here?"

"I- yes! Yes, of course." The boy says quickly, and all but runs out of the room.

Maybe I was a bit too aggressive. Avoiding that reaction is why I hold back with Ruban. Then again, just because he ran doesn't necessarily mean the boy was scared, he was probably just really flustered.

The manager is an older woman, so I don't bother trying to tease her. She mostly just parrots what the boy said, but with slightly more detail. She gives me a bunch of names to work with, both of former management as well as some of the people that went missing, as well as the families that lost those people. I write them all down and thank her for her help while the boy watches nervously out of the corner of his eyes while he goes back to stocking shelves.

The manager says that none of the freed metahumans have dropped by so far, and admits that all the shift managers are holding their breath, expecting it to happen. There's been talk of trying to get the help of an off-duty police officer, but upper management also recognizes that a lot of the people they serve aren't exactly fond of the police and might not take well to an officer hanging around, even if it genuinely is for their protection.

Either way, I now have a list of names that I'm not so sure I'll actually be able to use. It's something to go off at least.

With all the information they can give me stashed in my communicator, I decide it's time to leave. I give the boy a wink on my way out, just to make him flustered again, and then focus on finding the park.

With new information to work with and the flirting out of my system (yes, I know I only did that because Ruban isn't around, I'd flirt with him if he were here, alright?)

Hurry and wake up Ru… even if I can flirt with other people, I can't snuggle with them; I mean, I could, but I don't want to.

The park is both more and less interesting than the former soup kitchen. There's no one I care to talk to, but there's more to look at. This park being near the abandoned section of the city shows. Half of the lightpost are outright broken, with notable holes in the glass, and I have some doubts that the others are even functional judging by the sheer lack of care this park is sustaining. The only thing that seems to be in remotely good shape is the playground. The jungle gym is fucking old, but it's (relatively) clean and well taken care of compared to everything else around it.

Even in a crappy part of town like this, the kids still come first I guess.

I can also see the ocean from here. We're right on the coast. It must have been only a minute walk to pull Ava from the park to the water when she was kidnapped where she could have been taken back to the lab by one of Chang's submarines.

On a whim, I move to the water's edge and leap off. I turn into a fish before I hit the water.

The transition from breathing air to water is always mildly uncomfortable, made more so by the mild pollution. I switch around a few aquatic forms until I find one more tolerant to the pollutants, and eventually settle on a moray eel.

To be clear, morays as a family are not particularly resistant to pollution from my knowledge, it's just that the particular specimen my transformation is based on happened to be resistant, and since my transformations are more or less a direct copy of some individual specimen I've seen/studied, my moray transformation "inherited" the resistance so to speak.

My eyesight as a moray is pretty terrible though, so while I use it for moving around I turn into something with better sight, like an octopus, when actually trying to study something.

I do, in fact, find what I'm looking for down in the ocean. I study the rocks and surrounding flora and find areas that look broken or scraped off, as if something large bumped into it. I wanted some proper evidence that a submarine might have been used, and unless other people are ramming into things a few feet below the water, I think this is evidence enough.

I jump out of the water as a moray, turn into a bird, and then land on the rocks and return to human form. I don't use my transformations all that much on a day-to-day basis, but I can't deny they're useful for investigation.

The sun has just passed it's apex when I finally take a look at the time, and I decide I should probably find something to eat. I also, reluctantly, decide I should call Kima and Nathan and tell them that I'll be back for dinner. There's no information I have that needs to be acted on immediately.

ROBYN

How does one plan for a half-demon emperor, a king who is forced to obey that emperor, and your teammate's betrothed (probably) being a crazy space cultist all at once?

If you know please tell me, because I don't. This is way different than coordinating the takedown of a mob boss. There's so many variables it's not even funny. Starfire can only help so much, because (by his own admission) he really didn't like dealing with politics, so his knowledge about the greater political landscape is limited to surface elements.

"Politics was always Kom'ander's interest, not mine." Starfire admits. "Of course, if I knew something like this was going to happen I would have paid more attention."

Obviously. "How are we even going to stop this…?" I ask in frustration. "Do we actually have to kill the fucker?" I'm referring to the emperor, of course.

"It would not surprise me." Starfire says. "And, with all due respect Robyn… when I am on Tamaran, I am it's prince first, and a Titan second."

"You're going to kill him if you get the chance."

"Yes."

I guess I should have expected that, and honestly I can't blame him. I'm not sure how much the Justice League would approve, but at the same time most of the aliens on Earth aren't princes and don't exactly have plans to go home so this would never be an issue.

With Changeling, she killed someone as a Titan, but for Starfire it's a different case. I don't think there's any argument that can hold weight that could suggest Starfire should be a Titan before being a prince on his own home planet.

"Is that even going to solve the problem though?" I ask. "Don't get me wrong, killing the Emperor is probably helpful, but what's going to stop him from being succeeded by an equally powerful asshole who's going to decide to nuke Tamaran using the current Emperor's death as an excuse?"

"And therein lies the problem, and why I likely will not end up killing the Emperor. Risking an attack would be unwise." Starfire agrees. "Tamaran cannot stand against the Gordanian Empire under current circumstances, unless my brother has amassed hidden alliances of which I am unaware.

"We can hope." I mutter. "And what are the odds of that?"

"Considering he is under the Emperor's direct control? Very slim."

As expected. "How are we going to get you out of this marriage…?"

"I don't know." Starfire says morosely. "Perhaps we cannot, and we must simply pray the Emperor does not force me to remain on Tamaran."

"Mmm." I murmur. "Star."

"Yes?"

"Why do you stay on Earth in the first place, and not on Tamaran in some sort of resistance."

"Because I would be a liability." Starfire says simply. "My presence on Tamaran would simply make me another pawn for the Emperor to toy with. On Earth, the hope was that I would be, as you put it, 'out of sight, out of mind', to the Emperor. I think the fact that it has taken him so long to attempt to control me in any way proves that it worked to an extent."

Fair enough. "Augh… I wish I could make some sort of plan, any sort of plan, but I don't have any information to work with."

"And that is to the Emperor's benefit." Starfire says grimly. "The less forewarning we have, the less likely we are to foil his plan. That is also likely why the wedding is so soon, with so little time for preparation."

I sigh deeply and stare out the front window. We're going to be on Tamaran's surface tomorrow morning, and I've got nothing. Batwoman would be disappointed.

###

Starfire stares grimly at the fleet of ships hovering around Tamaran. They're all Gordanian. All the big ships are similar enough, but the small ones vary wildly.

"The Gordanian military was not really a military until the Emperor took over." Starfire explains when I ask. "They were pirates, mercenaries, anything of the sort. Sometimes working under a warlord, sometimes on their own. Groups found their own ships that suited them, used scrap to repair if they couldn't afford it, and were opportunistic in grabbing a better ship whenever they could."

"I see…"

"It is often joked that Gordanians don't have to make their own ships because they're so proficient at stealing those of others." Starfire says with obvious distaste. "That is not strictly true, they at least have to make their own capital ships, but I cannot remember the last time I have seen a fighter or freighter of Gordanian make."

Considering we're in open space, not exactly trying to hide, and our ship is bright white (the ship should be black to blend in with space, a missed opportunity in my opinion) our approach is eventually noticed. Multiple fighters, a truly unnecessary amount I should mention, flock to our position. Lights around the blasters on their ships activate (an unnecessary extravagance, showing your foe when your weapons are active, maybe it's for intimidation?) and they very obviously aim it at the Javelin.

"Five bucks says they shoot before even trying to figure out who we are." Kid Flash says, suddenly running up and pressing her face against the windshield. "Wow, those are ugly ships. That's a disgusting shade of orange."

"I know." I say. It reminds me of the tower. Our ugly, destroyed, drop-pod tower. "Mumbo, be ready to shield."

"Uh… I don't think you know how my powers work." Mumbo says. "I kinda need open space to make that work."

Shit. I just assumed she could do what Crow could. Apparently not all magic is the same. "Right, uh…"

Thankfully I don't have to scramble to make a plan, because the ship's communicator crackles to life. A completely alien language comes through it, and Starfire steps up and starts talking back in the exact same language.

It didn't occur to me that Gordanians might have their own language. The Emperor spoke english, but obviously english isn't the Gordanians' native language.

Actually, why does the Emperor know english? I could understand him knowing Tamaranian or something, but english? Did he learn it purely on the chance that he'd meet Crow? He knew about his "brother" after all. That's a scary amount of effort to invest into a slim chance.

I consider all this as Starfire calmly talks to a bunch of angry-sounding Gordanians. I don't know if it's just the language changing how he speaks, but Starfire sounds a lot more authoritative than usual.

Eventually the voices die down, and Starfire turns to us. "A party is going to come aboard to verify that I am who I say I am. Try not to kill anyone."

"So maiming is fine then?" Kid Flash asks cheekily.

"Within reason." Starfire says, showing no sign that he isn't serious. "Perhaps Mumbo could turn one of them into a chicken."

"Ooh, that sounds fun!" Mumbo chirps. "I once saw a show that did something like that! Great ideas but terrible execution! Two out of ten, would recommend!"

It's unlike Starfire to joke. He must be really rattled.

"Here we go." Cyborg sighs, rising out of her seat. "This'll be fun."

I don't know exactly how the Gordanians dock their fighter to the Javelin but judging by the metallic clanging and creaking, I doubt it was professionally done. A moment later they step into our airlock in spacesuits, and we fill the chamber so they can come inside.

The six Gordanians swagger into our ship as if they actually think we're scared by them. It's their ships we're scared of. If it was us against a few hundred Gordanians without ships, I'd be laughing. Starfire could annihilate them.

The lead Gordanian says something, and Starfire calmly raises an eyebrow in response. When the Gordanian shouts again, Starfire merely lifts his hand and lets the glow of a starbolt show up for a moment before dismissing the energy.

I guess they were asking for proof that Starfire is who he says he is?

The Gordanian shouts something else, to which Starfire says nothing. This happens a few more times, and on the last shout the leader steps forward threateningly.

Starfire's arm shoots out and grabs the leader by the throat (or, where the throat would be on their spacesuit). He then calmly lifts the Gordanian into the air, ignoring the weapons pointed at him by the others. He does all of this without moving any other part of his body.

Starfire then, quietly, calmly, says a few sentences while staring the leader in the eye, unceremoniously drops them on the floor, and then turns around and walks to the front window with his arms crossed behind his back, obviously dismissing the Gordanians.

The Gordanians shout and posture and point their weapons, but Starfire doesn't react, and the rest of us firmly stay out of the confrontation (though I do see Mumbo twirling her wand behind her back, ready to strike). After it's clear they're not going to get a response, the Gordanians eventually give up (though only after someone, presumably a higher-up, shouts at them through their own radio) and angrily stomp back to their own ship.

As soon as they're out of the air lock and back in their own ship, Kid Flash lets her excitement be known, and throws an arm around Starfire's shoulder. "Now that was a power move! Nice job Star! Can I call you Star? You're the man Star!"

"My thanks." Starfire says. He glances sidelong at the speedy girl, and while he makes no move to brush her off he also makes no obvious sign of acceptance. "We're to be 'escorted' to the surface, though quite frankly I suggest we ignore that and simply move now. No Gordanian commander will actually admit that they couldn't get someone inferior to them to listen. They'd lose face."

Power moves indeed. Starfire claims he doesn't know a lot about other cultures, but he apparently knows enough about Gordanians to be able to exploit their military culture… purely in order to spite them I might add.

I quickly push the ship to full sublight speed towards the planet. I can see a few Gordanian fighters scramble to follow in the rear camera, and can hear one of them shouting over the communicator, but ignore it. They won't shoot us down. Can't risk destroying the Emperor's new pawn after all.

Starfire guides me towards X'halia, and I eventually have to reduce the ship's speed as we enter the atmosphere, but I feel satisfied at the sizable lead we have over the Gordanians behind us.

"Soo… what happened to not annoying the Emperor?" Kid Flash asks. "I mean, power moves are great and all-"

"Not now KF." I say as I try to make out the details of the city below us. "Strap in, we're going to have some turbulence as we hit the denser parts of the atmosphere."

That's my way of saying we may be going slightly too fast, but I'll be damned if I admit that outright.

Still, after a tense few minutes I do manage to bring us to a landing platform without anything exploding, so I consider that a win.

I'm surprised Kom'ander is here to greet us. I guess the Gordanians actually sent a message ahead. I didn't think they'd bother. I'm also surprised Kom'ander can casually step away from his work like this.

"Brother, I'm surprised you managed to get here without an escort." Kom'ander says as a greeting.

"I'm sure they'll catch up eventually." Starfire reponds, still speaking in his calm tone. "Hello, my King."

Kom'ander grimaces. "Yes, about that…"

"They are gone? You know for certain?"

"Yes."

There's a moment of solemn silence between the two brothers. Even Kid Flash has the good sense not to interrupt. I don't know if I was expecting a hug or something, but I get the impression neither of them are big on physical affection.

I mean, I know Starfire isn't big on physical affection. That's because he's about as physically affectionate as me, which is to say not at all.

"Were you there?"

"Yes."

"I am sorry I was not present."

"And I am happy you were not." Kom'ander replies softly. "For it was not a pleasant ordeal."

There's another short pause. It occurs to me that I don't hear the fighter 'escort' landing behind us, and a quick glance back shows that they didn't bother to follow us the whole way down. I feel a sort of grim satisfaction at that.

"You're here much sooner than expected." Kom'ander says. "Your betrothed is not to arrive for a few days, and we were expecting you to arrive by teleportation."

"Teleportation is not so frequently at our disposal, so we obtained a ship." Starfire explains.

"I also see you have different companions." Kom'ander notes. "The half-demon and his guardian are not joining us, I take it? The Emperor will be disappointed. I do think he was hoping to see them again."

"Then he will be disappointed." Starfire says flatly. He then gestures to those different companions. "This is Mumbo Jumbo-"

Mumbo bows with a sweep of her hat.

"-and this is Kid Flash."

"Heya!" Kid Flash says, and winks at the king. At the king, KF. Stop it. This is not the time to look for romance.

"Hello, both of you. Welcome to Tamaran." Kom'ander says, and inclines his head to the two of them. "Unfortunately we are not exactly at our best right now. Thank you for supporting my brother. I'd like to stay longer, but I do have business to attend to. A servant will show you to your rooms." He looks to Starfire. "We shall speak later."

"Of course."

A servant girl does indeed come to lead us to our rooms, and as soon as Kom'ander is out of earshot, Kid Flash speaks up.

"Why are aliens all so hot!?" Kid Flash asks. "Seriously Rob! Did you see him!?"

"KF…"

"That is my brother you are speaking of." Starfire reminds her in a flat tone.

"Well your brother is hot." Kid Flash says bluntly. "Don't worry, you are too."

"That is not my primary concern at the moment." Starfire says. "Nor his, I imagine."

"I know, but that doesn't mean you both aren't hot." Kid Flash says without a hint of shame. "Besides, aren't you getting married? Being hot is a good thing in that case, isn't it? You want your wife-to-be to like you, right?"

"I- well-" Starfire frowns. "The plan is that I will not get married."

"Well sure, but you still want her to like you so you can get her help, right?"

"I suppose." Starfire says. He has an expression on his face that says he hadn't considered that before. "But I am not sure how much my own physical attractiveness has to do with that."

"You sorely underestimate the power of a handsome face!" Kid Flash says cheerfully.

"Or maybe you just over-value it." I respond dryly. "And are you going to hit on all my teammates? First Changeling, and now Starfire?"

"No, just them." Kid Flash says, still not showing any sort of shame. "I'm not into, uh, robots, and I'm not a shotacon."

"Sorta shallow, ain't ya?" Cyborg says. "You do know there's more to me than metal, right? And more to Crow than the fact he's got a growth defect."

Not that Kid Flash could try and hit on Crow without a very angry Changeling coming after her, but that's a good point. Thank you Cyborg.

"I- well- that's not what I meant." Kid Flash sputters.

"Really? 'Cuz that's more or less exactly what you said." Cyborg says. She's speaking in a very calm, controlled tone. "You didn't want me because I'm 'a robot', which means either that I'm metal or that I act robotic, and you didn't want Crow because he looks like a kid. Sorry if I mistook you, but to me that's exactly what you said."

Kid Flash flinches despite Cyborg very intentionally not speaking in anger. She was speaking to teach.

"Look, I'm not gonna pretend I'm physically appealing. I'm not." Cyborg says bluntly. "Let's make no argument about that, yeah? Massive injuries and prosthetics ain't exactly most people's taste. Crow… is a weird case."

"Yeah."

"Just maybe don't say that to someone's face, yeah?" Cyborg says. "And there is more to us than being a black robot girl and a child-like half-demon, just for the record."

"I know that!" Kid Flash protests. "I just… I was talking purely physically, okay? I know you're nice people."

"I figured as much. Just thought I'd remind you that tact is a thing that exists."

Kid Flash cringes again. "Sorry…"

The rest of our walk to our rooms is spent (thankfully) in silence. I'm also glad that the servant girl can't understand us.

We're put into two rooms, with a whispered explanation from the servant girl (translated by Starfire) that with all the guests the royal family is going to be hosting for this event, they're going to be low on rooms in the palace so they can't really afford to give us individual rooms. Starfire gets his old room of course, but for the rest of us, me and KF take one room and Cyborg and Mumbo have the other.

Not that we actually split up at the moment. No, we all congregate in one room to try and lay out some semblance of a plan.

"I am likely going to be busy with preparations." Starfire says. "If you are going to try anything, it will likely have to be without myself."

"Well that makes things harder. We can't talk with anyone else then." Kid Flash mutters.

"We can use the universal language of interpretive magic!" Mumbo suggests, and pulls out her wand. "For example… if we want to find a restaurant, we can magic as so!" She flicks the wand and raises her hat, and all of a sudden there's a nice plate of beef, potatoes, corn on her head. "Voila! Beef ala Mumbo! The perfect display of culinary intent!"

"I… that's not going to work Mumbo." I sigh. "When Star first got to Earth, he had no idea what pork was, or potatoes, or corn. It's just going to look like you're pulling out a plate of weird alien food."

"Ah, disappointing." Mumbo says. She offers the plate of food to Kid Flash. "Want it?"

"Yes please~!"

I'm surprised that food is actually real. I also have to wonder if Mumbo keeps cutlery up her sleeves, because she pulls a fork and knife from her left cuff without an obvious flick of the wand or magic word. "Well, unfortunately I don't have telepathy or mind-linking magic, so I'm not so sure what I can do."

Mumbo also properly takes off her hat and taps her wand on the brim, and suddenly her turquoise skin is sucked of color and turns to a much more human pale peach, and her usual manic smile falls to a neutral expression, and she carefully sets the hat and wand on a side table. I knew her hat is the source of her magic, but I didn't realize she could just turn it on and off like that.

"It does not help that magic is very uncommon on Tamaran." Starfire says. "Incidentally, last time the Titans were here, Crow was unusually tired. Mumbo, were you feeling any similar effects?"

"Can't say I was." Mumbo says. She sits down in a chair, and I'm struck by how surprisingly old she looks. I always assumed she was young, but Mumbo actually looks solidly middle-aged without the hat on. "But you have to remember that I'm not magic, the hat is. That's different from being an inherently magical being like Crow. Also, my magic is powered by the spirit of a dead magician and not self-generated or drawn in from my surroundings. My magical mechanics are completely different from Crow's."

Fair point.

"It's going to be almost impossible to gather information if we can't understand anyone though." Cyborg says. She looks to Starfire. "I don't suppose I could download the language or something?"

"I…" A peculiar expression crosses Starfire's face. "Perhaps? I had not considered it. Tamaran has been slow to adopt computers, but there should be one that holds a dictionary. Do you have a way to connect to Tamaranian computers?"

One of Cyborg's fingers pops open to reveal a USB port that starts to reshape itself into various forms. "If it has a port, I can connect to it. Might take a minute to properly shape my connector, but I can do it."

"Good. I will attempt to find something for you to connect to." Starfire says. "Or, more likely, ask someone who knows more to find something."

"Whatever works." Cyborg says. "If I can understand what's being said, we can snoop around and try to figure something out."

"Until then though, we're sort of dead in the water." I add. "We don't know anything and we can't talk to anyone except Star, Kom'ander, and the Emperor, and we only care to talk to two of those people, and only one of those two people can potentially give us useful information at the moment. No offense."

"None taken." Starfire says.

"But we're counting on you for that computer Star."

"I shall not fail you." Starfire promises. "And I shall not be idle beyond that. There is only so much information that can be kept from me as prince. Whether the Emperor wants it or not, I will learn something that can be used against him. I simply have too much sway for that to be avoided."

"Good." I say with a grim smile. We just need a few tools to work with. The Emperor has to give an inch simply by having us here, and we are going to take much more than a mile in return.


iHateFridays: The hardest part of writing the AMAZING Mumbo is working with her base character from the show, because comic relief characters (in my personal opinion) have to land in a very narrow sweet spot, and trying to retain her charm while adding more onto her is not easy by any means.

Origami Stars: Yeah, losing her parents, her aunt being awful, having to deal with Mento, and being fiercely independent afterwards doesn't lend to Changeling taking well to even the slightest hint of parental feelings from other people (at least, when directed towards herself).

Trase: I'm always happy to hear someone likes my OCs. True OCs always feel like a gamble, even if they really aren't in this story. You've also got Kima and Nathan's motive right, and I hope I can deliver on making Mumbo and Kid Flash entertaining.

Azarath Cat: It's good that you like backstory, because there's more of that coming soon enough.