Legacy of the Tamaranian
Chapter Two

Starfire cursed in her native tongue as she flew at the duo of worms to her left. Her new ally apparent Ragnarök ran towards the other two—thsoe holding Cyborg and Raven—with a large rock sword in one hand. But that was unimportant. She had to save Robin and Beast Boy, and she had to put the other thoughts out of her mind. She rushed the worm containing Robin and hurled a pair of Starbolts at it, and then dodged away as it swiped at her.

"Swiper—NO SWIPING!" she yelled as she let loose a flurry of eye lasers at the base of the worm. It crumbled under her angry assault and Starfire swooped down as the dying worm regurgitated her leader and caught him. He was barely conscious; there was no way he could help her fight.

Kori turned her attention to the other Vordlaxian Wyrm and attempted the same attack. But the one holding Beast Boy must have been smarter, because it moved it's stony carapace downward to block her assault. Starfire tried to fire at an exposed section of the creature, but it its tail out from under the streets of Jump City and slammed into the warrior princess, knocking her backwards…

…right into the worm holding Cyborg. She smashed through the rocky shell of the worm's armor and found herself trapped inside its putrid innards! She couldn't see much, and she couldn't breath. Panicking, she struggled to escape but found no way to free herself from the belly of the beast… Starfire hurled a starbolt straight up, (or at least her best guess at up) and must have hit something important because the Wyrm began writhing. Its violent death throes shook Starfire out of the monster and she took a well-needed breath of air.

Ragnarök landed beside her. "Are you alright, Starfire?"

"I am fine," she replied, standing up. The Wyrm holding Raven was impaled by many shards of rock and metal from the ground nearby. It was clearly dead or dying. Same for the one Koriand'r had toasted from the inside out. So all that remained was the Wyrm holding Beast Boy.

"Hey Star," Rag said, stepping in front of the person he was addressing, "Two and two, right? This one's mine!" Ragnarök couldn't ride flying earth like Terra had been able to. So to launch, he just made the ground explode up beneath his feet and launch him skyward at the towering Vordlaxian Wyrm.

To Starfire's surprise, he landed on the monster's head and formed a rock sword and cut Beast Boy loose. Then he used his powers to turn the rock carapace on the worms against it, constricting the creature with its own natural armor.

"I find your lack of challenge disturbing!" Rag quipped as he squeezed the life out of the Wyrm. It fell to the ground, dead, though the effort appeared to tire Ragnarök severely. "Well… Maybe the challenge... wasn't entirely lacking…"

"Very well done," Starfire, still covered in worm guts, told Ragnarök.

"Tell me that again when I wake up…" Rag said, passing out.

oooo

A few hours later, the Titans were together in Tower, recovering from their earlier ordeal. Ragnarök had strained some muscles and needed a very long nap, but Robin, (who had sustained very little injury due to the fact he was asleep for most of the battle and that Starfire had been very careful not to hurt him) wanted to question (that is to say, violently interrogate) their new hopeful member.

Raven did her best to heal Starfire's minor wounds, but her empathetic healing powers could only hold so much of Starfire's distracting emotion, and that was more powerful than the pain of her injuries. There was little Raven could do but wait as well. And Beast Boy had been trying to shrug off the traumatic experience by engrossing himself in the new Mangler Brothers video game.

Starfire herself had retreated to the roof of the tower to think after Raven had declared she had done all she could in the way of healing. What had Blackfire meant about their home world being destroyed? How could a planet simply cease to exist? What had destroyed it? And what was Koriand'r, Princess of Tamaran to do know if her sister was indeed truthful and her people really were gone.

"Galfore," Starfire whispered to herself. He had been her K'norfger as a child. Was he really gone? Would she never see her people again? She began scratching the belly of her pet, Silkie

"Hey, Star, what's up?" Victor Stone, AKA Cyborg the cyborg asked as he approached her.

"Oh, it is nothing," Starfire lied, rubbing her pet giant bug with short, nervous, and probably painful strokes

"Doesn't look like nothing'," Victor said. "Is this about us almost getting eaten by those crazy stone snakes?"

"No, Cyborg… My sister told me things today. Terrible, horrible things that I hope to X'hal aren't true."

"What things?" Cyborg asked her.

"I do not wish to discuss them further, Victor. Shall we go inside?"

"Yeah. I came out here to tell you that your friend is awake. You know Robin isn't too happy about you randomly accepting help from a total stranger. And the fact that he showed up and had us distracted no more than 30 minutes before Blackfire attacked has Robin more than a little suspicious."

"Robin does not like Acquaintance Ragnarök?"

"Star… You know he's been uptight about new members since Terra betrayed us. There's no way he'll trust him. I don't trust him. And I'm surprised you do. From now on knew members will have to earn our trust. We can't make another Judas Contract, Kori."

The Biblical reference eluded the alien girl, but she asked no questions. The two simply went inside and prepared for Robin and the rookie from nowhere to come to blows.

"OK," Robin was saying. "You call yourself Ragnarök."

"Didn't we establish this five hours ago?"

"That meeting was sort of rushed with, I don't know, your insistence on leading us to the caves under the city so you could revive Terra!"

"Well… I thought it would help you trust me more. I'm sorry I couldn't do it. I've un-petrified tree's before, but whatever Terra did to herself, I can't undo with my current powers."

"Current powers? That reminds me: how did you get your current powers?" Robin studied young earthmover. He looked to be about 15 years old. He still hadn't given them his real name yet. And Robin just didn't trust him something about him seemed... false. He would ask Raven to read his mind later.

"Would you lay off the questions if I told you? Don't you have some sort of database for metahumans?"

"It could be more thorough," Robin sighed in consternation. In this time line, there was no Oracle.

"Fair enough. My name is Collin Roberts. My grandfather was a dealer in various rare antiquities and ancient artifacts. I'd tell you his name but it's mostly black market stuff and I don't want to get him in trouble. You've probably heard of him. Anyway. I was searching in his basement one night and found some sort of green orb with a pattern. I thought it looked cool. Grampa said I could have any one thing I wanted for my birthday; I liked the design on the orb, so I took it with me and kept looking. I eventually found another artifact that looked like it fit into the design on the green orb. So I put them together…"

"Let me guess," Raven interjected. "They flew into the air with magical swirly lines and bright flashing lights and colors and you passed out. When you awoke, you had that suit on and the ability to control the ground." Raven's tone was sarcastic, but not incredulous.

"Pretty much," replied Collin. "But I didn't black out… for a while. I blacked out that night and didn't actually have the ability to move earth until a few days later. Or at least… I didn't notice it until a few days later. I was always a bit of a klutz when it came to bodily functions."

Garfield Logan, AKA Beast Boy, sweatdropped. "You mean you wet the bed? Dude that is so gross and way too much information!" He randomly started gagging in place in exaggerated anime motions.

Collin followed Gar in his sweatdropping, and then turned red with embarrassment. "Well that didn't come out right… I just meant that… I'm a bit clumsy. I tend to break things and not notice what I've done until someone screams about it in my ear. Stuff like that."

Beast Boy visibly exhaled steam. "Phew. That's a relief."

"May I be the one who vouches for Friend Collin?" Starfire asked the group. Robin nodded in consent, so Kori continued, "as you know, Ragnarök fought with me against my sister's devious Wyrms of death while the rest of you, my friends, were trapped in their mouths awaiting petrifaction. He fought with bravery and valor unbecoming of a villain. I know the sting of Tara Markov's betrayal makes us weary of trusting new members too quickly, but given the benefit of the doubt, I believe Collin will prove himself a champion of justice!"

"Thanks for the props, Starfire," Collin said. He moved closer to speak more personally. "I thought you'd be a bit angrier after me... killing your sister and all."

"I have accepted that it was not your fault, Collin, but mine. I should have been more careful. I must live with this--you did your job quite well."

Just then, an alarm klaxon began to wail. Cyborg got to the computer first. "Trouble. Someone's knocking over a bank. Metahuman by the reports. Flamethrower type."

Robin shook his head. "Hasn't this city seen enough for one day? The initiations will have to wait. Move out, Titans."

I'm sorry if it seems like Collin is a Gary Stu in this chapter, but I promise it gets better! As does Robin's temperment.