"… … …," Static makes a face. Eyebrow raised, he turns and glances over his shoulder as he and Starfire trudge along. He sees nothing but open forest. And yet, a trace of uncertainty hangs off his lips. "I thought I heard explosions.. … .."

"Titans," Mister Freeze's electronic voice warbles from ahead. "It would be most frugal for you to keep up with our pace."

Static grumbles. "Yeah, Yeah… …ya bigass ice cube, we're comin'.. …" He jogs a bit and joins Starfire's side. The alien girl is fidgeting slightly with her armband as he mutters to her: "God, how I hate these Gotham creeps. They're always an annoying combination of 'psychotic' and 'intelligent'. Especially Mister Clean Under Glass that we've got manhandling us here…"

"Shhh.. ….," Starfire whispers, motioning with her scarlet head towards the marching Fraust. "Dearest Virgil, do you see what I see?"

"… … …. …an emo blonde chick with icicles for lingerie?"

"She has not said a word since our present captor has taken advantage of the journey."

"So? Star, she's always been quiet! She's freaky like that."

"No.. ….No, it is not the same now," Starfire murmurs. "At first, I thought she was simply relieved to be once again in the presence of her 'adoptive father'. But her silence is not quite of the tranquil sort. There is still something flustering her countenance.. …"

"I frankly can't tell the difference!" Static shrugs. He then points: "And quite frankly, girl, I think you're overdoing this whole 'empathic alien chick' thing!"

"Hmmm?"

"First Flaar, then Fraust… .. …next thing we know, you'll be massaging Victor Fries' toes!… ….brrrrr-rrrr….."

Starfire smiles and utters gently in a low voice: "Am I the only one of generous qualities presently?"

"…. .. ….h-huh?"

"You have been most adamant, Virgil, in assisting me in my important quest. You have facilitated the use of Fraust. You have accompanied me through the wilderness. You have braved caves and frostbite and now the presence of one of the most notorious villains in this hemisphere. And yet you still maintain an air of enthusiasm and vitality that renders my soul to keep on fighting."

"Erm….eheh….," Static blushes slightly and scratches the back of his neck. "If y-you say so…"

Starfire takes a deep breath. "I do not know what p-peril truly awaits us. But I have full faith that you and I are more than qualified to meet whatever demands this debacle may bring. I would not have such faith if it were not for you."

"Well, it's not so hard to—erm….—be 'faithful' for you, Starfire."

"Oh?"

"Cuz….well….you're Starfire… ….Ya know?"

"… … …. …"

Static sighs. "I'm not making anymore sense. Not even to me," he glances around the claustrophobic forest and frowns. "There's gotta be some friggin' way out of this mess."

"On the contrary, Virgil, I suggest that we make further recreation of this event…"

Static blinks. "…. … …. You mean 'play along'?" He whispers.

"Mmmhmmm," she nods…then floats forward a space so that she is directly behind Fraust. "Uhm, Hello? I presume your name of true titleage is 'Amy'?"

"… …. ….," Fraust keeps walking.

Static winces, but Starfire persists in speaking to the fiendette: "Please, Amy. We know in firm reality as you do that any attempt we might make at escape right now would be utter futility. So please do not be so swift to ignore the words I have to graciously give you. I merely wish to know what it was that brought you to such a point of rogue existence."

Static bites his lip. "Watch the way you whack your words around, Star—"

"But, Virgil! I am merely attempting to engage on conv—"

"It is of v-very little importance h-how I am ontologically arranged," Fraust murmurs. She does not look back or so much as move her head as she marches forward and throats: "I am that which I am now, and th-that is as important as anything needs to be."

"Kind of an uneventful philosophy," Static smirks.

Starfire momentarily ignores him and floats along the ice maiden's side. "But surely, you have a past? A family?" She smiles. "Or at least the memories of such?"

"My family is m-more than obvious… ….," she utters, this time with an air of bitterness as she traces the shadow of Mister Freeze's cybernetic suit. "There is nothing l-left to discuss."

"… ….. …," Starfire hangs her head in mid-hover. A beat. "… …. …I am looking for someone.. …. ….Someone very mysterious to me, and yet strangely familiar all the same. For I sensed a warmth in him that spoke to me. A warmth that spoke of pain and desperation. A warmth that needed something hotter to melt the seams away." Starfire looks up with healthy eyes and a healthier, soft smile. "As of late—with the help of another warm soul—I have gotten so gloriously close to helping this person I am concerned about…"

Static cranes his neck at that, listening in.

Starfire continues to Fraust: "But more importantly, I am beginning to learn that it is a cold soul that speaks volumes to me all the same. I see that there is a lot of pain in you, Amy. But I sense that there is much hope too. Hope for healing. Even if that hope is being silenced—perhaps by a desperate will to fight back all distrust with the bitterness that has long been taught to you—"

"Pain is the only reality.. …," Fraust blurts. A puff of cold steam emits from her lips. "Sorrow.. …the only certainty."

"…. …. …."

Fraust glances with glazed sapphire eyes towards the villain ahead. "Victor… …he has been my only aide. He has… …helped me… …He has h-helped me oh, so much.. …"

Starfire breathes: "But, has he healed you?"

Fraust is silent. Dead silent.

Static bites his lip.

Starfire leans forward: "Dearest Amy, do you not think it is time that you looked into--?"

GRIP! Mister Freeze hoists Starfire away from Amy by the arm. "That is enough."

"Hey!" Static frowns and runs up with both hands charging up—Zzzzt! "Let go of her, you anus-popsicle!"

"Save your strength," Mister Freeze redly glares from beyond his dome.

"Why the Hell should I?"

"Because we are here…," Fraust murmurs.

Static blinks. "Huh?"

Mister Freeze steps aside with Starfire just as Fraust walks up, rounds the nearest hill, and stands above a ditch leading into a broad, silver door.

The Mouth into the Neo H.I.V.E. laboratory… …. …

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Soldiers are running frantically through the hallways of the H.I.V.E. facility.

Security personnel are whisking instruments back and forth, barricading the doors and equipping the walls with gun turrets and laser cannons and taser rifles and all other manners of security devices.

Professor Chang is furiously, hissingly directing the orchestration of such a defense matrix. He waves his arms wildly and waddles about the chaotic interior.

Booker is stressed. Preoccupied. He scoops mounds of equipment into a cardboard box and strips his instrument benches clean of all his experimental gear. Sweating, he glances with twitching eyes beyond the glass where… …

… ….Red X is still 'crucified' to the wires and electrical grid of the torture chamber. His suited body heaves. His masked face rolls about. He tilts his cranium up and glares through a single eyeslit towards the tormentor beyond the glass.

Booker curses silently to himself: 'Damn that kid. How does that suit get open?' Booker shudders. 'The Headmistress will have my genitalia on a platter.. … ..blasted experiments.. ….'

All the while, a line of 'drafted' H.I.V.E. operatives stand along the corridor. Mammoth, Gizmo, and Kyd Wikkyd. They gaze back and forth as the intensity of the facility's emergency defense rises and rises.

"Yeesh! What's such the barfin' deal?" squeals a putrid, bald kid in a jetpack.

"Ergh.. …rumor is that Mister Freeze is payin' this place a visit."

"Freeze? HA! The Snowman from Gotham?" Gizmo's pixel eyes twitch as he wrings his tiny hands. "This will be a cakewalk! I can't wait to dig my fingers into his tech! I've always wanted to freeze half the ocean!"

"Just leave some meat on his bones for me.. …," Mammoth grumbles and slouches over. "I swear I haven't eaten a bite since that stupid Brain-Tube-Man got us all in the slammer!"

"Serves you right for making Jinx run off!"

"Hey! I didn't make the witch run off! That was Mister Speedy Kid—Or whatever his lousy name is!"

"Same scum-bucketin' difference, poop-for-brains!"

"…. ….. ….," Kyd Wikkyd glances silently at them. "… … …." He looks aside toward their leader, Zillah.

"I don't care how far away you are! Get here!" she growls into her cell phone.

Silence.

"No, I CAN'T port you over because I spent all my energy getting those worthless wretches from out East! You know, the former High-Five punks?"

Silence.

"We are NOT breaking Acyd and company out of jail! Not YET!"

"Hey! Zillah!" Gizmo flails around in his hoverpack. He grins psychotically: "Why're you callin' in the cavalry?"

"Yeah! Hah hah!" Mammoth howls. "We're just fightin' some oversized ice cube in a Diving Suit!"

Zillah sneers at them. "That's only the half of it, you whiny brats! Five Titans are hot on their trail!"

Gizmo and Mammoth freeze in mid-grin…. ….until soon their jaws are dropping and even sooner they are flailing about on the floor of the underground facility. "OhcrapOhcrapOhcrapOhcrapNOTAGAIN!"

"… … ….," Kyd Wikkyd merely sighs and adjusts his cape.

Zillah frowns, and returns hotly to her phone: "Just come in and do a number on the creeps from outside until we are ready to reverse the ambush on them from within!"

"SNkkt—But are you sure that the Titans and these other strangers are working TOGETHER?"

"What difference does it make?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Flaar flies in from the East, his red braided hair billowing in the wind.

He snarls into a headpiece as he blurs downward towards he forest in the waning sunsetlight. "It makes a LOT of difference, Z! You were't THERE at the frigate when I saw all of my partners bite the bullet on behalf of the Titans! And now that they've got greater numbers with this psychonut from Gotham and these other haunts from Neo H.I.V.E.'s past, how do we know that they won't just repeat hist—"

Flaar freezes in midair.

--or more appropriately, he melts.

A shudder runs through him, and it forces him to glance directly downward.

And he sees her.

Hovering alongside an African American hero with goggles, a blonde of icy blue aura, and a robotic fiend with a freezing gun.

All approaching the metal entrance to the underground facility with proper menace.

Flaar takes a deep breath and charges his eyes a hot green.

"Time to hang up, Z… …," the young boy murmurs and turns his hands into fists. "It's high time for a forest fire…."