A day passes by.
Strung in between threatening bolts from the Mad Mod thunderstorm.
Detectives Walker and Decker have called on multiple occasions to check up on our investigative progress.
Robin is nowhere to be seen—most likely out on the Town, giving his all to the effort.
Static has been in and out with very little time to explain himself.
Bard's off… … …to 'help a girl with an eyepatch get pretty', or something…
Raven is sitting with a book, trying to meditate.
Beast Boy and Cyborg are hurriedly scurrying around the Tower with Terra to fix her a pretty pair of glasses because—as it turns out—
"I can't see a frickin' thing!" Terra shudders.
"Awwww, don't fret it, baby-cakes!" Beast Boy winks as he flips through the phone book. "I'll have some optometrist names in a jiffy!"
"I mean it!" Terra sighs and slouches in a couch all by herself in the Main Room. "Not a single, frickin' thing… …"
"Woo!" Cyborg wipes his brow with a smirk. "You know Terra must be ticked off! She's using the word 'frickin'!"
"I am not!" Terra hisses.
"You are too! Turn back time and listen to yourself be a female puppy!"
"I… …You….It… … ….OHhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHhhhhh," Terra waves her fists then folds her arm in a pout.
"Hehehehe—Don't you worry," Beast Boy slides in next to her with a portable phone. "I've got this covered. We're gonna give you a prescription.. …Then a manicure!"
Terra blinks. "What do I need a manicure today for?"
"Beauty Pageant, girl! Besides…," Beast Boy blushes slightly. "With pretty nails, you'll have a legitimate excuse to not punch me in the face for running you around so much once you've got the visual acuity to make contact with my green nose."
"Watch it, Beast Boy," Cyborg pats his shoulder. "With a sentence that big, you're likely to collapse."
"IT'LL BE A MARTYRDOM… … …FOR A GOOD CAUSE!" Beast Boy theatrically bellows. "A TERRA-PRETTINESS-ULTIMATRON CAUSE!"
"Oh gosssssh," Terra covers her reddened face.
Raven glances over from her window. She monotonously flips a page and reads on in perfect emotionlessness.
Beast Boy grins to the girl next to him: "Hehehe…Going undercover was never to glittery, eh, Terra?"
"You are soooooooo dead after this."
"Yeah. Cuz you're drop-dead-gorgeous," Beast Boy winks amid dialing.
"Yuck," Cyborg trots out. "The mush level in this room has gone to Defcon 2."
"While you're out wretching, wanna grab me some corn chips?" Terra waves.
"What do I look like, a robot?"
"…. … …. … ….yes."
"Screw you, little Missy. And I mean that from my heart."
"Hehe….love you too, Cyborg…."
The Android Titan shakes his head and smirks at me as he passes by. "Puppy love could do with a bit of pooper scoopers these days, don'tcha think?"
I shrug. I smile helplessly and resume making a sandwich at the kitchen table.
"Ahhhh, Noir…," Cyborg ruffles my black head of hair in a way that would make Bard jealous… … …(no, not THAT way). "Never stop being so soft-spoken. It suits you."
And he walks off through the elevator doors.
I glance after him. I blink.
"… …. …."
Is he really a teenager?
Or thirty-five?
I shrug and return to my meat… .. …sandwich.
Then I hear a clearing of the throat.
I glance up. I do a double take.
Raven is standing on the other side of the kitchen counter. And she is relatively… … …close to me.
"I see that you haven't fallen behind at least one bit," she drones.
"…. … …. ….," I raise an eyebrow.
She murmurs on: "… …. …From the incident in my mindscape last night. You haven't show any tiredness or fatigue."
I mouth: 'Oh'. I smile nervously and hand-sign.
She stares blankly.
I realize—to my stupidity—that no matter how empathic a person can be, it doesn't guarantee that they have or have not taken sign language class.
So I slap myself in the forehead and simply smile.
Smile like an idiot—
"Is there something on your mind, Noir?"
I do a double-take.
W-Wait.. … …What?
She… …Raven… … …The Dark Sorceress Girl of the Apocalypse merely stares at me.
She reiterates: "Is there something on your mind?"
"…. …. ….," I bite my lip. I scratch my forehead. I exhale nervously… …and shake my head no.
"…. …. …very well," she balances a book under her arm and sips from a teacup in her other hand before swiftly adding: "Oh, and Robin has given an order that you go round up Bard and go meet with him at the Penitentiary."
I raise an eyebrow of curiosity.
She responds with a deliberately, whispery voice: "There is rumor… … …of another escape."
I make a nasty face.
What, again?
"Only this time… … ….it's one of our more recent playground friends."
She walks off.
I glance after her as she sashays her way down a stairwell.
I blink my black eyes.
What was that about?
I thought it was Bard's job to be worried about me.
I return to my sandwich, distracted by my inevitable pilgrimage at hand.
Awwww dang it…. ….I forgot to put mayo on the sandwich before heating it up….
Yuckkkkky….
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Starfire sits in her room.
On her round bed.
Surrounded by photos of the young, criminal suspects encountered at Chang's frigate.
'Miist.'
'Fraust.'
'Acyd.'
'Polaar'
Starfire hugs her knees to her chest.
She bites her lip.
'Flaar'…. …. ….
She takes a deep breath and hugs her knees closer.
She closes her emerald eyes.
A beat.
She reopens them.
She glances down at a particular photo.
It is an image of Fraust. That same, sad face. The cold blue eyes. The self-detrimental ghost stare.
Starfire purses her lips…… ….staring almost in a solemn sense of study… …
The frozen maiden stares back. Sad. Motionless and emotionless.
Starfire's fists tighten… … ..relax… .. …
And then, the Tamaranian girl sighs.
She swivels about. She looks towards her yellow, Titan's communicator. She reaches a hand towards it—
Beep! Beep! Beep! The communicator chimes.
"Eeek!" Starfire gasps. A beat. She sighs, deflates a bit, then reaches for the communicator with a swift palm. "What?" she barks in a sharp voice almost unbecoming of her.
"Snkkkt—Star? Hey! Star!"
The girl's emerald eyes blink. "… .. …V-Virgil?"
"You got a moment—Hell. Heh heh heh.. ….you got a week, girl?"
Starfire makes a face. She speaks into the communicator: "Erm, indeed. Most certainly, I might suppose…."
"Snkkt—GOOD. Meet me out east in the wilderness. Just beyond the mountain forests. I'm sending you the GPS coordinates right now."
"But… … …B-B-But what for, Virgil? What is this that is so important—"
"A ticket to Flaar, Star."
"… … …. …."
"A ticket to Flaar."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Snkkkt—Hold your horses, Robin. Noir and I are moseying on over there PDQ, okay? So you can rest up on the phone-call-per-minute thang, ya get me?"
"Bard… ….," Robin grumbles as he paces back and forth in the High Security Wing of the Jump City Penitentiary. "When I say 'Get Here Now' I do mean 'get here---'"
SCHWISSH! Bard and I appear through an adjacent doorway with a few guards in escort.
Robin blinks under his eyemask and murmurs last-second into the communicator: "… ….'now'." He pockets it away with a reverse Star Trek sound.
So does Bard, with a little too much smugness for his own good. I wince slightly as I watch him swagger on into the High Security Wing and stand next to the Boy Wonder' side. "So, whatcha been up to these last two days?"
"Busy," Robin merely mutters. He is disgruntled. He is pissed. He is brooding. He is our leader. "Just… ….Busy."
"And stressed?"
"None of your business…."
"Heh…I reckon you have been stressed," Bard salutes with his hat, then points at Robin's chin. "It's bee forty-eight hours and you ALMOST have stubble."
"…. … …."
"AHEM…. …," Bard smiles nervously. A little red-faced. "S-So, what's the big whooping surprise here, Robbie-boy?"
I slap my hand over my face and exhale…
Under guarded escort, Robin marches forward past the rows upon rows of prison cell entrances and rambles: "I knew something like this was going to happen. Red X was kidnapped by Chang for a reason. Now we've had this security breach and who knows WHAT HELL may be unleashed on this wretched investigation… …!"
"WHEW-WEE!" Bard scratches his brow under his hat. "You're STILL hooked on this thang, man? I think we've moved a little BEYOND Red X and into Mad-Mod-Land. You know, I battled a Robo-Limey all afternoon yesterday."
Robin pauses before a taped-off area and turns around just to stare up at Bard.
I sweatdrop. I look at Bard.
Bard maintains his smirk. "… …. ….I tossed a water fountain into his face."
"I'm sure you did."
"All of this bores you?
"No. It pisses me off."
"You already look pissed."
"You think?" Robin turns and brushes past me, gesturing: "Noir, kick your best friend in the shins for me."
"Heh heh heh," Bard plants his hands on his hips and shakes his head. "Silly Robin, little Noirry would never—" WHAP! "—OW! DANG IT TO DEADWOOD!" Bard hops on one foot and frowns at me. "Teacher's pet… …did he give you the Asian bird flu or what?"
I shrug—
"SHH. Both of you… …come inside…" Robin proceeds into the smashed door entrance to a high security prison cell. Bard and I saunter in after him. We find ourselves in a claustrophobic, smooth-white interior with a bed, toilet, and table…. …but no prisoner.
Unless… …
Zzzzzt—Ztttt! A flickering, translucent image of Fraust lies down on the cot. It is obviously shorting out. A hologram of drastically cheap proportion.
"This some sort of way of Dr. Light broadcasting his blonde fetishes across the airwaves?" Bard shrugs.
"An hour ago, this projection was as real-life as a wax museum piece," Robin murmurs. He turns and points a green, gloved finger at a camera above and behind us. "This security camera has been remotely adjusted to reflect the intake of light back out in a specific frequency using electronic cells inside the lens, made possible by a digital rewrite of the shutter mechanism."
"…. …. ….uh huh," Bard nods. "… …so what's making the projection?"
Robin groans.
"What?"
"It's a hack-job… …a HACKER INFILTRATION of the SECURITY SYSTEM."
"Okay! OKAY! So someone decided to go all Wargames on this cell," Bard shrugged and glanced all over the abode. "And I'm guessing in the meantime, Miss Polar Bear—"
"—made her escape, right," Robin nods. He folds his arms. He sighs: "And now the mystery takes a new turn. For of all the nasties we captured on that Frigate, this girl was the last one I'd expect to jump the legal ship."
I stare closely at the broken parts of the prison cell's door frames.
There are singe marks all over the place.
I squint my sharp, black eyes.
Electrical burns… .. …?
"You think she exited for one reason and one reason alone… … ..to hurt herself?" Bard asked.
"I guarantee you this," Robin grumbles. "Somebody… …is definitely… …definitely getting hurt by this."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Virgil?"
Starfire flies.
"Dearest Virgil?"
Starfire floats.
"Where art thou, Virgil?"
Starfire hovers down through the tree tops of the mountainous wilderness.
She looks around, wringing her feminine wrists: "Virgil, did we not verbally exchange the mutual desire to acquiesce upon this vegetative location---?"
"Pssst! Star! Down here!"
Starfire blinks. She glances down.
Static—in full uniform—smiles broadly and waves at her.
Starfire floats down and stands on the soil beside him. "Virgil, what is—URP!"
He has his hand over her mouth.
"Shhhhhhhhh!" He hisses, smiles, and lets go. "It's 'Static', okay?"
"But…. …But…..," Starfire blinks. Then frowns. "I am confused."
"Not for long you're not," Static winks. "I've got us a silver bullet for this Flaar investigation."
Starfire gasps. "You did?"
"Mmmhmmm."
"But…H-How did you---"
"Not me," Static bows. "Gear did it."
"Wh-Who?"
"Good friend of mine. Handy at computers," Static winks. "Now… …about our silver bullet… …" He turns and gestures.
Starfire cranes her neck. He emerald eyes widen all the more… …
… …as Fraust steps into view. She is an ivory statue of mist and ice all over. She leans against a tree, covering it in flakes of snow.
"Hello… …," she breathes. A slight trembling… ..yet a gentle inquisition: "Are we now to make this trip to Neo H.I.V.E?"
