(to a reviewer whose name I forget...Robin couldn't kill Star because he just couldn't bring himself to do it. I mean he's only a teen and he just couldn't handle killing someone in cold blood. The fact that she was his age and beautiful by Tameranian standards probably had something to do with it too. Thanks for reviewing.)
Star woke up. The room she was in was rather plain. Just a wooden floor and the basic wooden dresser. The walls were white and there was only one small lamp in the corner. Star felt very weak.
She left the room, heading for the brightly-lit cavern. But even the light that flooded the cavern didn't seem to be enough. She spotted a stairwell in the corner of the cavern and walked up its wide, spiraling steps. She emerged on a concrete platform of sorts. It was taller than the surrounding trees but it still seemed shelters. In Star's peripheral vision there was always a glimmer of light, regardless of where she moved. She walked to the very edge of the platform; the glimmer filled her vision. Stepping back just one step restored her vision to normal. Star was contemplating this odd light when a voice spoke from behind her.
"It's a hologram. If anyone looks over here, all they see are trees. They have to actually know we are here to be able to land on the platform."
Star looked over at the speaker. It was Raven, the girl from last night.
"I hope I didn't disrupt you from your meditations." Star said quickly, noticing the position the other girl was in. "I saw your shakra, in between your eyes last night."
"You know about shakra?" the other girl asked, giving Star her full attention. It was clear that previous to this, the other girl simply had not cared about Star at all.
"Oh yes, my sister was very interested in meditation and shakra for several years. And all royal children are educated in such manners as other religions and cultures." Star did not feel inhibited by the fact that she didn't know the girl at all. Something about the girl, and the fact that Robin obviously trusted her, made Star act normally. Normally for a royal princess who has never been outside the palace grounds except to shopping bazaars that is.
"I see." Raven said no more and proceeded to the stairs. Just before she left, she told star one last thing. "It's healthy not to deny your emotions. Trust me on this one."
Star was puzzling over Raven's words when another voice startled her. Hands were placed over her eyes and a teasing voice asked Star, "Guess who?"
Unfortunately, star had quite good reflexes from the training that all Royal princesses must go through to protect themselves. Also, unfortunately, the voice was not that of Robins and thus, unrecognizable to Star as she had only briefly heard it. With her bad luck, Star quickly threw the intruder over her back sending him straight towards the edge of the roof.
The person, who Star now recognized as BB, seemed to fall through the hologram and over the side of the roof. Never pausing, Star quickly dove after him.
She was startled to notice two things. First, there was no longer a boy, but a large crane who flew back onto the roof. Second, she could fly.
Quickly pulling out of her dive, Star spotted what she now recognized as the hologram and went straight through it. She found BB surrounded by the other Titans on the roof.
"I warned you not to sneak up on people. You should listen to me." Raven told the green boy.
"You think everyone should listen to you," the boy accused.
"That's because they should," Raven retorted calmly.
"Aww man! That must have been awesome. I only got here in time to see you land. I would have given a million bucks to see you fall," Cyborg joked. Taking a second look, he actually appeared to be serious.
"I do not understand! I threw you over the roof, how did you get back here? And where did the bird go? And how could I fly on Tameran? And what are bucks?" Star's voice rose as she became more and more panicked about the situation.
Robin laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "BB has a special talent." He nodded to BB who quickly morphed into the crane. He continued with his display and morphed into a few other animals including a kitten. Star could not help herself. She picked up the kitten and held it before it jumped away from her and turned back into BB.
"BB stands for Beast Boy," Raven said.
"But his animals aren't as cool as my electronics!" Cyborg bragged.
"Oh, I see. You all have special talents. I already know that Raven has powers, they formed a bubble around her when she meditated. But what about..."
"You could fly because all Tameranians can fly," Robin said, anticipating her question.
"But I could not..."
"...before," Robin finished her sentence. "I had Cyborg go through your shoes and he found something most intriguing."
Cyborg stepped forward. He placed a chip into Star's hands. "This chip controlled the gravity that you felt. Your parents probably didn't want you to use your powers so the boots that you had had these chips on them to help control your flying. Robin told me about Gizmo's invention," Cyborg couldn't help but snort at name of the other inventor. "The invention only attached to your shoes on top of the chips which cause them to counter out each other. That enabled you to fly again. Since you didn't know about the chip, once Gizmo's invention was removed, you were returned to the full gravity of the chips. Once I removed the chips, you were restored to your natural, flying, self."
Star grew indignant, "How dare my parents act in such a way! They only did that because they wanted me to always be wherever they wanted and to do whatever they wanted. How could they compromise my powers like that?" she railed against her parents.
"They probably did that so you'd be safe," Robin said, "I mean, it would be hard to defend you if you were flying and you got attacked."
Star calmed down again, as Robin had intended. "I know, but it's amazing!" she began to gush. "The wind feels great against my face! I'm so free." She twirled to emphasize her point.
Robin stared at her. With the chips finally gone, Star became even more gracefully, light twirling on her toes. 'She's amazing,' Robin thought, then quickly shook his head. 'Why do I keep thinking about this. I need to concentrate.'
Already Star's quick mind had moved on. While her understanding of many words gave her the appearance of being stupid, she was quite smart in fact. Robin had already learned about her math skills by seeing her tally up her shopping cost in her head, no meager feat. He had also seen that once something was explained, Star never forgot it, even though the grammatically use of a word would be occasionally incorrect. "So what is a buck?"
Robin snapped out of his day dream. "It's a form of money." He said automatically.
"What country's currency is it from? I have never heard of it," Star asked again.
"Oh, it's just another nickname for a dollar which is Earth money."
"I see." Robin could see Star mentally adding the word to her rapidly increasing vocabulary. He had learned that she spoke over 15 languages, many of which had nothing in common at all.
"So, wanna race? That was what I was going to ask before you turned all karate-king on me," BB said, unable to remain quite for very long.
Star quickly agreed and everyone went inside except Robin. He remained on the roof simply reflecting on his life. He used to think everything was so easy. Well, not easy, definitely not easy, but compared to now...he needed time to get everything straightened out.
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"I have here a map of their hideout. So you think you can handle them?" Slade's cold voice echoed off of the walls of the empty factory.
"Yea, sure," Gizmo, just grabbed the folder with each of the teen's information in it. He and two other teens were there, meeting Slade for the first time.
"Good. Failure is not acceptable,"
It was not a meeting he or the other two would forget for a long time.
Once they were outside, away from the emptiness that flooded the building, Gizmo turned to the other two, a girl named Jinx and another boy named Mammoth.
"I met this Star a few times. No problem. Besides having a good punch, she has no special talents."
"That doesn't go for all of them," Jinx replied flipping through the folder. "I can handle that girl Raven. Whatever her powers, they are no match for bad luck."
"I'll take BB and Robin. What ever shapes, BB can turn into are no match for my strength. I'll just skip the theatrics and crush Robin," Mammoth quickly helped to establish their battle plan after glancing at the folder that Jinx held out to him.
"I'll take care of Star, like I said. And that cyborg," Gizmo laughed at his own little joke. "I've met him before, his technology is nothing compared to mine."
"We don't have any time to waste," Jinx told them, grabbing her own backpack that was given to her by Slade. It contained everything they would need.
She led them into the woods and they began their trek to their oblivious targets.
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Star had been beaten thoroughly. After 27 games of racing, she had beaten BB only once. When he had closed his eyes and tied one hand behind his back. Even then it was close.
"We should play more often," BB said, smiling.
"Yea, he likes to win occasionally," Cyborg laughed.
"I beat you 5 times last night!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Well, you forestalled fights for over a half-hour. That's a record," Raven said dryly from the corner where she had been meditating. Raven floated back to her room before the boys could begin to throw things.
Star glanced around. No sign of Robin. She decided to look for him on the roof. She climbed up the stairs and went out into the open. Robin was sitting at the edge of the roof, his feet dangling off of the edge, poking through the hologram.
"Some one will begin to wonder if they see feet without any body hanging from a tree," Star gave a little laugh imagining what she had just described.
Robin gave a small jump. Turning he smiled, "Star."
"I hope I am not distur...."
"Of course not. I was just thinking," Robin answered. After only three days he could already tell what she was going to say. Some of the time at least.
"About what?"
"Oh, just the past couple of days. It's crazy how my entire life has changed just because of three days."
"I am a burden?" Star asked softly.
"Not at all. It's good to mix it up a little," Robin smiled. Standing up he turned to face her. "Any reason you came up?"
"Just to see how you were. I noticed you were missing from downstairs and I just wondered what you were doing,"
They stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Raven's words echoded in Star's mind. 'It's not healthy to deny your emotions.' 'What emotions?' Star thought to herself.
Robin shifted his weight, unsure of what to do. Then he straightened up. "Wanna slide?" he asked slyly.
"What is this sli..." Star's question was cut off as he grabbed her hand. He hopped onto the stair banister and pulling her after, slid down the many spirals. When the end came, he sailed off, sliding across the floor, still pulling Star after him.
They both fell down, laughing. This time it was Star who pulled him up and ran up the stairs.
'This is so much fun! Today has been perfect! Well, not with the whole BB thing, but besides that!" Star thought.
Robin was a little less concerned about his friends. 'Today has been perfect,' He thought and began a dizzying descent with Star in the lead.
Unfortunately, nothing is really perfect.