Stardust hit the wall hard, her breath knocking violently out of her chest. She coughed and shoved her hair out of her face, her eyes on the man in front of her. The Titans had been battling Slade for the past twenty minutes, and the top floor of the tower was in shambles. The team had been driven to its knees just by one man, and now Stardust knew how the first team of Titans felt. This guy seemed unbeatable, though he had to be over the age fifty.
He cracked his neck and sighed lightly. "You don't even put up much of a fight," he said. "I was expecting more."
Just as he finished the sentence, Angel came down unexpectedly with a flying kick and knocked Slade clear across the room. Stardust saw her chance and quickly threw starbolts in the man's direction, and most of the spheres hit their mark, though the rest only blew a hole in the wall. She leveled her gaze at Slade, then let her eye beams fly directly into his stomach, knocking him out of the open hole of the tower.
"Did we just win?" Talon asked warily. There was silence for a few seconds, then a small and round device clinked to the ground in front of them, flashing red.
Stardust gasped, but there was no time to move. The bomb exploded with a tremendous crash, and she expected to be injured or at least go smashing to the ground from the force of the blast, but she did neither. She moved her arms away from shielding her face and blinked hard. Rorek had his hands extended outward, and in front of him was a white transparent shield that had protected them from the danger of the bomb. The smoke cleared on the other side, and Rorek dropped his hands and the shield died.
"Good job, Rorek," Stardust said, coughing and waving the smoke away from her face. She walked to the hole in the wall and looked down at the rocks below, but saw nothing. She turned and looked at the rest of her team. "Where is he?"
"That's a good question," Talon said. She sat down at the computer chair, which was about the only thing that wasn't damaged, and started typing. The screen appeared on the huge window, and a red dot was blinking right at the base of the tower. She pointed. "That's where he is. Which, in other words, is the basement of the tower."
"Not for long," Stardust said, and motioned for the team to follow her as she made her way downstairs.
Ten stories down, Stardust kicked the door of the basement in and flicked on the light. Between the crates and boxes, Slade stood with his arms patiently behind his back. Stardust jumped forward and made a grab for him, but she went right through him and crashed to the ground.
"A hologram!" Talon exclaimed.
"But where's the real deal?" Angel said, scanning the room with his purple eyes.
Stardust slammed her fist onto the floor in frustration. "The real Slade probably hasn't even been here tonight."
"But we fought him," Talon said. "And we felt him. It had to be him."
"No it didn't," Stardust said, getting to her feet and brushing herself off. "It could have just as well been a robot for all we know."
"I'm going to the computer to check for another signal," Talon said, and disappeared up the stairs. A few minutes later she beeped in to Stardust's communicator and sighed. "There's nothing. Robot or real guy, he's not here."
Stardust groaned. "We could have had him... or it, whatever it really was."
"Well, this is actually a good thing that he's not here anymore," Angel said, stretching his back. "It means we don't hafta fight."
"That's true," Stardust said, then went upstairs, the rest of the team following. Just as they were reaching the top floor, the alarm sounded and the lights flashed red. Stardust's grip tightened on the railing of the steps, and it crushed under the force of her strength.
"Do we ever get a break?" Talon whined, her shoulders slumping.
"Doesn't matter, we have to go anyway," Stardust said.
A few minutes later, the team was at the location of where the alarm was first sounded, which was an old abandoned building. Stardust smashed the door in, not even bothering to see if it was unlocked, and fired up her starbolts, ready for battle. She was disappointed to see nothing.
"Darn it!" Talon said. "Did we just come out here for no reason?"
No one answered, because the ground was shaking beneath them, and then a huge robot busted through the tile floor, an MM inscribed on the front of it. It shot out a long arm at them, but they all scattered just in time.
"Nope, this is a reason," Angel said, landing his backflip gracefully.
"I just want to go home!" Talon said.
"Shut-up and fight!" Stardust yelled, throwing starbolts wildy at the robot in front of them.
Suddenly the robot froze in mid-move, and then to the Titans surprise, it started melting slowly. Talon raised her eyebrow quizically and looked at Stardust, who was just as stumped over the situation. Her starbolts could heat things up and melt things occasionally, but not usually a metal this large and thick. She shrugged.
"Hey," a familiar voice said. When the robot melted down to the ground, Miss Metal was standing in the liquid remains. "Do you like what I made?"
They all stared at her silently. Her face fell, and she raised her hands. "I made it. Isn't it cool?"
Talon put her hands on her hips. "What are you trying to do pull? We don't care what you make, we just want to stop you from destroying, stealing, attacking, or whatever you plan on doing. All right?"
Miss Metal sighed. The sword she had used in their previous battle was not with her. "Hey, I didn't ask for this job." Then she extended her hand, and a metal beam that was supporting the building melted somewhat, then moved completely from where it was and bent and wrapped around Talon's arms and legs.
"That's fitting," Angel said. "She can manipulate metals."
"So?" Stardust said, dodging different pieces of the steel structure of the building that was being thrown at her. "Just concentrate on defeating her, okay?"
"Sure," Angel said, blasted her with his powers easily.
When she hit the ground, Rorek came down with a monserous punch that smashed her a few feet down into the ground. She pulled herself up, raised her hand, and threw Rorek back without even touching him.
"She can control him by his armor!" Angel whooped, nearly impressed. He knew he shouldn't be, but he couldn't help it. This girl was unlike any he had ever seen, despite all the dimensions he had been to.
"That's right," she said, and kicked Angel in the stomach, aiming to knock him off his feet, but her boot connected with a six-pack that might as well have been a brick wall. He grabbed her by the ankle and threw her over his shoulder, and she landed hard on her face.
"Tell me," Stardust said to her. "What exactly are you trying to do? Are you fighting us only for a workout?"
"Don't ask questions," Miss Metal said, and a thick stream of melted metal appeared out of nowhere and splashed down onto Stardust, knocking her onto the ground.
Talon aimed her powers and fired them crazily at the girl, but she missed every time. Miss Metal dodged way too quickly to be hit by her, but she wasn't paying attention to Rorek's power that had been shot from behind. It connected with the back of her head and sent her flipping. She slid on her face and crashed into Angel's rock-hard shoes. He bent down and grabbed her by the shoulders. She struggled to move, but had no control over her own body, and had no choice but to let Angel smash her around a bit, which he did. When he released her, they were clear across the building and out of sight of the others.
Miss Metal was laying on the ground, and she ran her fingers through her blonde hair and looked up at him. "Why are you doing this?"
"You attacked us first. Why do you think I'm doing it? Besides, I'm on a team and have to take orders. It's just the way it goes. Why are you doing this?"
She smiled almost flirtatiously at him. "Because I have to take orders, just the same as you. I guess it's just the way it goes."
Angel considered that maybe this chick didn't really want to fight the Titans, or at least him personally. She had basically already said that she was working for or with someone, and when he thought back he realized that she might be being forced to fight them. He almost felt compassion, and bent down to her level.
"Are you doing this against your will?"
She waved her hand at him. "It doesn't matter. I have to do what I have to do. I'm sure you understand that. Did you say you are a dimension-hopper?"
"Yeah."
She smiled again. "I'm sure you meet a lot of pretty girls, then."
He was badly tempted to say, Yes, but none as pretty as you, but he didn't dare. Stardust would put a hole through him if he did. So he said instead, "What's your point?"
Miss Metal's flirty expression died. "Well, I don't know. I was just pointing out a fact, I guess."
"Well let me point this out to you. You've made yourself our enemy, and we have no choice but to take you down."
She looked at the floor. "Then why don't you just do it now? You've had the chance for the past few minutes, you know."
He stared at her in surprise. The thing was, he didn't want to fight her anymore. The other day he had nearly killed her, yes, but now something was different and he didn't know why. He only looked at her, his mouth open.
"It's not every day you have that kind of opportunity," Miss Metal said, rising to her feet. "Why didn't you take it? You could have already had me defeated."
"I-" And he could say no more. He didn't know why he was so tongue-tied. She was just a girl; it wasn't like he had never been around one before. A lot of them were attracted to him because he traveled a lot, he guessed because they found it interesting. He was used to girls having crushes on him, but this was different somehow.
"You what?" she said quietly.
"I don't know," he snapped. "Just back off, okay?" With that he shot her with a stream of electricity and drove her hard into the wall.
The rest of the team located Angel and asked where Miss Metal was. He pointed to the wall where she had landed, but she wasn't there anymore. "She was just here," he said.
They searched for her only for a few minutes, but found nothing. Stardust suggested they go home, and when they reached the tower Angel immediately went to his room and closed the door. He rested his back on the wall and breathed deeply. How could one girl have such a big impact on him? Did he have feelings for her? He scoffed at himself. Of course not, he didn't even know the girl. And besides, she was a villain- an enemy; there was no way he could get involved with her, not at all. Staying away from her was the best thing, he decided. Fight her, yes, but otherwise stay away from her. Yes, he decided, smiling slightly. But he had to admit that he was attracted to her, for some odd reason he didn't know.
He slid down the wall and sat on the floor, his trenchcoat spread out across the floor. He was so used to being solitary that he found it hard to bond with other people, especially the Titans. They expected him to fight by their side and do good for the city, or whatever, but little did they know that he didn't plan on sticking around. He had told Miss Metal that he was part of a team, but it wasn't entirely true. Stardust was still making him prove himself worthy to be trusted, so she had not given him a communicator or made him officially part of the team. He pulled his knees to his chest and sighed heavily. It was only a matter of time before he moved on to the next planet or dimension.
His past was quite tragic, and therefore he never talked about it. He was sure he wasn't the only one that had that kind of thing in his past, so he didn't use it as an excuse to be violent or rude. And he didn't plan on telling anyone about the pain he was going through and the secrets he held.
Unless he found someone that he trusted with his whole heart.