Three months had passed quickly since the Titans' first battle with Slade, and they had not seen him again so far. But it was not as if they were out of a job; they had plenty to do, ranging from super villains, monsters, or just plain every-day criminals. As the first team before them, they were mostly adored by the people of Jump City, and frequently they were stopped on the street and asked for autographs or pictures.

Stardust had finally caved in and let herself trust Angel, and he was now an offical Titan, and he never slacked at his job. Though no one pointed it out, he was the best and most experienced fighter on the team, and when they were faced with the losing of a fight, he always solved the problem. In the first stages of battle, he mostly stood back and let the original members do the work, but if he felt it necessary, he would always come in and take the enemy down.

Now he crossed his legs at the ankles and leaned his back against the brick wall of the abandoned building. He wasn't sure what time it was (he couldn't really keep up with all the time zones and dimensional clock reading), but he knew that he had been waiting here too long. He tapped his slender fingers on the wall and sighed quietly. He had done this every night for a couple of months, and he hadn't had to wait this late. Suddenly alarmed, he dreaded that something wasn't right.

Just as he moved away from the wall and took a step, there was a thud behind him. He whirled around in a defensive stance, but relaxed when he felt a small, feminine hand on his arm.

He took the girl by the waist and kissed her affectionately, and she returned the kiss. Then he pulled back and looked down into her eyes.

"You were late, and I thought something happened-"

"Angel," she said, putting a finger to his mouth. "You don't have to worry about me."

He glanced at the ground. "I can't help it. I don't try to worry; it just happens."

She smiled and moaned happily. "I know." She put a hand on the back of his neck and ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm surprised you can still get away with coming to see me and not get yourself caught."

"So am I," he said. It had been weeks and still nobody knew. And he hoped it stayed that way. If Stardust knew he had been coming to see Miss Metal, she would kill him.

"Talon, you missed the target," Stardust said impatiently. It was the next afternoon, and the daily workout with the girl was not going so well. She knew that Talon was more powerful than she thought herself, but it was hard to prove that because her fighting skills were just... bad.

"I did?" Talon shielded her eyes from the sun and squinted. "Oh. I did."

Stardust nodded dryly. "You might want to aim your powers instead of just throwing them around blinding."

"I agree," Rorek said from the sidelines. He had had to put up a quick shield to protect himself after Talon blasted her powers around wildly. She had been aiming for the target, but had missed badly.

"I'm sorry," she said now. "I just suck so bad at this."

"Not really," Stardust said. "It's not that you can't do it; it's just that you're not trying hard enough."

"I am trying!"

"It's not good enough! I've showed you how to approach the target, but-"

"I just can't do it," Talon said stubbornly.

Stardust felt like slapping her to Gotham City. She opened her mouth to verbally abuse her, but Rorek held up a hand and shook his head. Stardust sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Well, I guess we'll try again tomorrow."

Talon nodded, discouraged, and went into the tower. Stardust turned to Rorek. "We'll see if she can hit the broad side of a barn tomorrow."

Rorek fought a smile. "She's quite complicated. She wants to learn, but she won't put up an effort."

"I know! That's what I've been trying to tell her. She just won't listen to me."

"Maybe I could show her a few things tomorrow." He held up his hands. "I'm not saying you're doing a bad job-"

"That's a great idea, would you?" she said sweetly.

He nodded slowly. "Perhaps it would do me some good."

She stared at him. "Do you some good? Why? How could she possibly teach you anything?"

He shrugged.

She narrowed her eyes at him, a small smile on her face. "You were just being humble, weren't you? Well, stop it." She smiled fliratiously and punched his arm lightly.

He grabbed his arm in mock pain and scowled at her, though she knew he wasn't serious. "Be careful, Star, you do have Tamaranian strength, you know."

"Oops," she said, putting a hand to her mouth. "I guess I do need to be more careful with that. When I still went to school, I was going into the classroom and I accidentally ripped the whole door off it's hinges."

Rorek raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, but the teachers just thought it was a problem with the door. So nobody knew about my powers until I almost blasted a girl with my eye beams..."

"Really? She must have really ticked you off."

"She did." Stardust made a fist, remembering very well what had happened that day. She closed her eyes. "But it doesn't matter anymore. Things are great, now."

"I'm glad you think so. Sometimes, I admit, I miss my hometown and my family, but this day and age is so wonderful, though I've had a hard time adjusting."

Stardust smiled. Rorek had taken a great interest in things electronic, though he had no clue how to use them, and once had accidentally blown the TV sky high out of frustration. "I know you have."

"You've been a wonderful help in explaining things to me. Without you, I would be clueless." He looked down. "Well, without you, I wouldn't really be anywhere."

She wasn't sure exactly what he meant by that, but it made her feel excited. She had grown so fond of him over the past few months (not that she wasn't before, she was just more so now), and she wondered if he liked her as well. She had suspected he did, since he had kissed her a while back, but he was a guy, and he could have done it just because he felt like it. But she didn't see him as that kind of person. He was sweet, kind, humble, very respectful, and he had never done anything untrustworthy. In fact, she trusted him more than anyone else, even her own mother.

Stardust suddenly froze, deep in thought. It had been weeks since she had seen Kory, and now she felt kind of bad for it. Of course, the last time she went to the apartment Nightwing was there, and it had ticked her off and she went back to the tower. Now she put a hand to her forehead and stared off into space.

"Star, are you all right?" Rorek said, clearly concerned.

"Yeah... uh, yeah. I'm fine." She tossed her hair. "Where's Angel? It's late and he should have been back a long time ago."

"Well I'm sure he's fine. He can take care of himself. And everyone else."

Stardust laughed. "Tell me about it. He's a powerhouse." Her communicator sounded the alarm for trouble, and she pinpointed where they should go to take care of it. "I'm going to go tell Talon she has the day off. It'll be better that way for now."

She flew up to the roof and went in the door, down the steps, and into the living room. "Talon?"

She heard a cough, and saw the girl sitting on the couch with her legs crossed. "Yeah?"

"Why don't you just take the day off. Me and Rorek are going to go and take care of whatever's causing trouble. We'll be back soon."

"All right."

Stardust, puzzled, moved forward and put a hand on Talon's shoulder. From an angle, she suddenly realized that she was crying. "Hey, what's the matter?"

Talon sniffed. "I'm so worthless, Stardust. I'm just so worthless to this team..."

"No you're not," Stardust said sternly. "You just have a little training to go through, is all. Once you discover how your powers work, you'll rock hard."

"I dunno..."

"Don't think I don't care how you feel. I do. But I have some butt to kick, so I'll be back soon."

She left the tower and motioned Rorek to come with her, and they traveled to where the alarm signal had been sounded from. They immediately saw ice and snow on the edges of buildings and on the pavement, and Stardust sighed.

"Looks like winter finally came to California. Where's the trouble?"

"Stardust!" an unfamiliar male voice cried out. Stardust whirled around and saw a blond-haired boy in a white and blue costume, standing on a floating piece of ice. She raised one eyebrow, her mouth open.

"And you are...?"

"Ha, very funny. I'm your number one fan!"

"That's real nice, but I still don't know you. What's your name?"

"Prince. Everybody should know me." He smiled, his teeth showing.

"So you have powers. What's the reason for all this ice?"

"I just wanted to get your attention. And now that I have you here, I have just one question."

"And what's that?"

He spread his arms, his cape falling over his shoulers. "Will you go on a date with me?"

Stardust stared at him, her mouth wide open. A date? Heck no! But she didn't want to say that to him. He hadn't really done anything rude or destructive.

"A date? Sorry, but-"

"Aw, come on. What do you have to lose? It won't hurt anything."

Stardust glanced at Rorek and was surprised to see his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed evilly. She could tell that he was dying to say something, but was obviously letting her handle the situation. After all, it concerned her and not him.

"Sorry, uh... Prince. That's your name, right?"

He sighed heavily. "Just one date is all I ask."

"No, I'm sorry." She looked at Rorek. "Let's go."

Rorek nodded and took her upper arm gently, but just as his fingers made contact, his hand and all the way up to his shoulder was frozen in a block of ice.

Prince raised a finger. "Look, no touching my girl."

Stardust's eyes glowed purple. "Your girl?"

Prince ignored her and walked up to face Rorek, who blew the ice off his arm with an explosion of white light from his hand. Prince leaned forward, his head tilted up challengingly at Rorek, and grinned wickedly. "I guess that means I have some competition."

"There is no competing going on here," Stardust said. She pointed her finger at Prince. "Look, Freeze Pop, I don't even know you, and I wouldn't really give a crap if I did. So just go back to wherever you came from and-"

"Not without you," Prince said gently. Stardust sighed. He reached out and took her hand, smiling. "At least give me a chance. I'm not here just to flirt with you-"

His sentence was cut short by a blast of white power from Rorek's hand, and he went smashing and sliding to the ground. Rorek, his hand still raised and fingers spread, narrowed his eyes viciously. "The only thing you're here flirting with is death. If you want to fight, I gladly accept your challenge."

"Rorek, no," Stardust said, but he raised a finger to silence her.

Prince stood up from the ground and growled, and the two boys shot forward at the same time, their powers hitting each other and canceling the other out. Rorek was too fast for Prince, and came forward with a punch to the face that grounded the other boy yards away.

Stardust flew over and siezed Rorek's arm. "Stop it. Just leave him and let's go."

"Star, I don't turn down blunt challenges. Especially not this one." He leaped forward again, and the ground under Prince glowed white and exploded right under him, sending him once again flying.

Stardust put a hand to her forehead and looked down. Boys! But when she got to thinking about it, she was almost excited. Rorek was fighting another boy- over her! She didn't let it go to her head that boys were fighting because of her, but she let it go to her heart that Rorek was so quick to defend her from another guy. She hoped that it was because he liked her, and not just a protective tenth-century kind of thing.

Stardust flinched as Rorek took a hard kick to the jaw, but he did not go down. Instead he grabbed Prince's ankle in mid-air and slammed him back and forth twice onto the pavement, then threw him to the side. The entire block was covered in ice, from the ground to the top of the buildings. A flying piece of ice that had come from Prince's hand and was meant for Rorek hit her in the stomach and froze her entire body. She tried to move, but the ice was strong. Just as she was about to break free with her starbolts, Rorek came flying backwards and slammed into her frozen form, knocking her to the ground and shattering most of the ice.

"Forgive me," Rorek said, jumping quickly to get off her. She rubbed her head and looked around for prince, who was was jumping forward viciously, his sights set on Rorek, who turned just in time and extended his hand quickly. Prince stopped in mid-air, crackling from white energy, and was thrown backwards, thanks to Rorek.

Stardust looked at Rorek. "Just stop this and let's go home. Seriously." When she saw that he was about to protest, she narrowed her eyes. "That's an order, Titan." He looked at the ground, and she knew he was giving in.

Prince hit the ground and was up again just as quick, and was on his way to Rorek's location when a purple glowing fist aimed at his face made him stop on a dime or else be fried.

"Stop it," Stardust said commandingly. "This fight is over, and I don't want to see you again after this."

"All I asked for was one date! How hard could that be?"

"And I said no!" Stardust yelled, her eyes turning purple abd accompanying her glowing fist. Prince stared at her fearfully. "Now go back to where you came from before make quick work of you. If you're my number one fan, then you have to know how much my starbolts hurt. If you don't, would you like to find out?"

He only stared at her, then a gust of wind and blowing snow overtook him, and he was gone.

That night at the Tower, the Stardust, Rorek, and Talon were sitting on the cough watching TV when the door slid open unexpectedly. Angel walked in and grabbed a soda out of the fridge. They all turned to look at him.

"I didn't think you were gonna come back," Stardust said.

Angel made a big deal of swallowing his drink, then wiped his mouth on his jacket sleeve. "Why not? Do I have to be here 24/7?"

"No. I was just wondering."

"You still don't trust me, do you? What, do you think I am, a double agent or something? Give me a break."

"Okay, okay." She paused, then said, "What were you really doing, then?"

He turned and glared at her, the blackness on his eyes making him look all the more intimidating. "If you have to know, I took a trip." He frowned. "To another dimension, since I know you'll ask anyway." He mumbled the last part.

"Oh." She turned back to the TV.

He walked to the window and crossed his arms, looking out over the sparkling water and up at the full moon. What he said had been true; he really did go to another dimension, but he also had been taking a long walk with Miss Metal. He closed his eyes. He wasn't a double agent- he was just in love. And he didn't know how long he could keep this up.