"Hit some turbulence coming in, Titans?" Slade hissed.
"Slade..." Robin quipped as usual.
"What did you do to our Tower?" asked Raven.
"You really need to stop destroying your car, Cyborg," Slade told the half-mechanical, half-human teen, completely ignoring Raven's question.
Starfire tried next. "What did you do to our Tower?"
Slade continued his one-sided chat with Cyborg. ""I'm sure the insurance rates for you are incredibly high."
Cyborg raised his sonic cannon. "I'm sort of exempt from that. Now," The weapon whined as it charged up. "what did you do to our Tower?"
"Oh, nothing," the villain responded.
"Cut the crap, Slade. We saw the explosion," said Beast Boy.
"Hmm - tough words - what was that again? Something about your precious Tower and an explosion - oh, that!" Slade looked at the Tower. The smoke still billowed from some spots. He returned his gaze to the Titans. "Just looking at the makeup and thought I'd give it a little less foundation, that's all."
The whole island suddenly began rumbling. "Whoah, whoah, whoah!" Beast Boy cried as his feet went out from under them. Then with an ear-splitting CRACK, the Tower suddenly tilted and began to fall – straight towards the Titans!
"Ah, there we go!" said Slade.
"The Tower!" Cyborg cried in horror.
Quickly, Robin launched himself at Slade, swinging his bo staff—
—but another MASSIVE explosion caught him in midair, propelling him into a rock and knocking him out as the Tower collapsed.
SHORTLY AFTERWARDS
The Titans looked gloomily at the rubble that used to be their island, Tower, and T-Car.
"Our home...it is gone..." moaned a distraught Starfire.
Robin clenched his fist in anger. "This time, Slade actually won..."
"My video games...my stuff! All of it!" Beast Boy looked on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
"Everything of ours is gone," Cyborg groaned.
"We can search through the rubble, for anything that survived - but I doubt that we'll find much," Raven said, trying miserably to raise the hopes of the others.
"Oh, why would Slade do this to us?" Starfire wailed."
"Because he's an ass?" Beast Boy retorted.
"This wouldn't have happened if Cyborg wasn't so caught up in his joyride..." Robin grumbled.
"Hey, whoah! I wasn't the one who told me to go airborne so I could crash the car like Billy Joel!" Cyborg shot back.
"Waitaminute!" Beast Boy snapped. "Don't drag me into this! I'm not the one who drives like Billy Joel! If you hadn't tried to be Mr. NASCAR, I wouldn't have gotten my stomach in a fucking knot and-" The boys entered argument city.
Raven took Starfire aside. "Wanna go?" "Yes, please," Starfire responded. The girls turned and flew off to somewhere in the city.
"Well, if you hadn't –" Robin suddenly stopped fighting and looked around.
"Um, girls?"
"Now where'd they go?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head.
"Maybe they went to search through the rubble for anything of theirs that survived," Cyborg hypothesized.
Beast Boy decided to test the theory. He turned into a pterodactyl, picked up Robin and Cyborg, and took them over to the rubble heap - some of which was still in flames.
On a monitor screen somewhere in a cavern deep below the city, Robin had no idea he was being watched as he searched the rubble.
"Starfire?" Robin's voice came through speakers with a crackle of static.
Slade grinned under his mask. "Hmm...this turned out better than I thought."
Starfire and Raven wandered the darkened streets of the city.
"Oh, Raven, what are we to do now that we have no home to return to?" Starfire inquired.
"We have a home, Starfire. We just need to rebuild it, is all." Raven didn't sound so confident, though.
"But - but it will not be the same with all of our prized possessions now destroyed!"
"No. It won't be. But we have to survive, Star. We have to survive."
"But what shall we do?"
"First off, we have to find some food. We didn't get any dinner, and I'd rather like to settle my stomach." Raven's stomach growled as if on cue.
"Yes, some food sounds preferable at the moment. But where will we go in order to find it?"
"Don't worry, Starfire. I come through all the time during the day. There's a great little Thai restaurant just up the – um…" She had come to a spot where the path split left and right - and she was completely lost.
"Up the Um? I see no road that is marked "Um," said a confused Starfire.
"Crap - uh, I just forgot which direction it was from here. Well, let's split up - you go that way, I'll go this way. But be careful, these aren't exactly nice streets at night. If you find the restaurant, contact me with the communicator - at least we still have those... It should only be two or three blocks away, you shouldn't have to go too far. Just remember, Starfire: Don't let your guard down."
Starfire nodded, and the girls split up - Raven went right, Starfire left.
Eventually, Raven found the restaurant.
She took out her communicator - but before she could even press the button to speak, something WHACKED her on the head, knocking her out cold. The communicator rolled away from her.
Starfire wandered down the alleyway some more. She crossed one block without seeing the restaurant. "Oh - it is growing quite chilly," she said to herself. She crossed the second block. Found nothing. She took out her communicator and turned back "Raven, I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to locate the restaurant. I am returning to where we first split up," she relayed. No response. "Raven?" Still no response. Starfire shrugged her shoulders. "Hmm. She must have not found it, either."
She crossed back over the second block. It had suddenly dropped in temperature. "Oh, it does get quite cold here at night," she said, hugging her shoulders for warmth.
A voice like a gravel pit cut through the chilled air.
"Wanna warm things up, baby?"
A thug emerged from the darkness, followed by his three cronies, and surrounded her.
The thug looked at one of the cronies. "What should we do with her, Lilith?"
"I don't know, Bill – the possibilities," Lilith replied.
Starfire, a bit out of the moment, suddenly came to her senses – but by the time she tried to fly away, Bob and Ed had grabbed her and forced her up against the wall.
"What-what are you doing? Please take your hands off of me!" Starfire protested.
Instead, Bill pressed up against her from behind. "Aw, I'm only gettin' started, bitch." He shoved his hand up her top and groped her breasts, then squeezed her ass. The sensation shocked Starfire. Her eyes bugged out and she half-relaxed - then she woke herself up.
"Please - although what you are doing is having a most pleasurable feel to it, I must insist that you stop immediately!"
"Oh, she likes it, boys!" Bill and his gang shared a laugh.
He leaned in close to Starfire's ear. "Well, I guess it's time that we got a little more down to business now, eh, guys?"
He dove his hand down her skirt. Starfire jumped at the feeling. As her body melted with pleasure, her mind fought tooth and nail to keep her in her senses.
"For the last time, I must warn you to — get your fucking hands off of me!" she commanded.
"Ooh! Feisty, this one!" Bill said, ignoring her plea. He only pressed against her harder and began to unbuckle his pants.
Lilith suddenly noticed something. "Uh, Bill? Ain't that one of the Titans?"
"Huh?"
Looking back, Bill saw Starfire's eyes were glowing green with rage.
"Oh." It took a moment for it to settle in. "Shit."
Two cops walked out of a small diner near an alleyway.
"Good donuts, eh?" the first officer asked his partner. "Yeah. Great coffee, too," the other cop replied.
With a FLASH of green from the alleyway beside them, Bill and his cronies SLAMMED down onto the hood of their car. The first cop jumped a foot backwards. "Holy-!"
Starfire watched as the officers arrested the crooks.
"Impressive, Starfire."
The voice was unmistakable. Starfire whirled around – to find Slade right behind her. "You!" she cried at the villain. "You are-"
Slade put a gun to her head.
"-coming with me."
He WHUMPED her on the head with the butt of the gun, knocking her out cold.
