Starfire is at the kitchen counter mixing some strange ingredients together, listening to the radio. She loves current pop music, although she doesn't understand most of the terms used by the singers. She volunteers to cook dinner for the team, trying to get used to what she calls 'Earth Style' cooking. Raven reads an occult book at the kitchen table, sipping her herbal tea. Beast Boy sits on the couch with Cyborg, game controllers in their hands playing Mario kart. They are so engrossed in their game, that they take no notice whatsoever to the horrible smells coming from the kitchen.
"Aw, man, come on!" Cyborg grumbles, thumbs mashing the controller buttons.
"Dude, ease up." Beast boy prods, his tongue peeking out the corner of his mouth in concentration.
"Come on, come on...You think you've got me...no! Yeah! Got it! Just one more..." Cyborg says, twisting the controller.
"Tighten the turn...Red Shell...and Star!" Beast boy jumps and twirls landing with a big grin on his face, excitement getting the better of him.
"You're gonna pay for that, you little grass stain."
"Psst, Cyborg," He says, sitting back down, leaning in. "I want to talk to you before Robin comes in."
"What'd you blow up this time?" He quips, eyes still on the screen, smashing the buttons in.
"The toaster, but he knows about that..."
Robin is in the gym. He is punching with great vigor at a humanoid dummy. The only sound in the vast room is his heavy breathing and the smack of his hands. He delivers a final roundhouse kick and slumps over, winded as the dummy flies off its poll into a wall. An alarm shatters the silence. A map of Jump City is projected on the screen in the lounge, with a large flashing dot that moves along.
"Trouble!"
Robin runs into the living room. "Cinderblock strikes again?"
Raven snaps her book shut and is at the computer. "No. It appears a creature is causing havoc way out in the woods by the edge of the city. It's moving fast."
"Okay, team. We have to find this thing and stop it before it does any more damage.," Robin says, punching his fist into his open palm of his other hand.
The team moves out. Robin stops for a brief moment to give Starfire a forehead kiss. She places one on his cheek. Raven cracks a tiny smile, she is so glad they're like this now. Before their trip to Tokyo, their unresolved emotional tension was reaching a breaking point. It was enough to give Raven a near-constant headache which made her very irritable. Unfortunately, it was mostly Beast Boy who walked into her cross hairs during this period.
Five young heroes are moving through the forest at a quick, steady pace.
"Way out here, it's probably just a bear." Beast Boy says, moving a branch.
"Man, why would someone call the Teen Titans about a bear?" Cyborg replies ducking under a tree limb.
"Dude we've been over this before. The bear is the most deadly animal of all time."
"No, it's not."
"Yes, it is."
"No, it's not."
"Yes, it is!"
"No, it's not!"
"If you put a bear in any playing field in the world: water-"
"Nope, hippopotamus."
"No, dude, a bear's the most-"
"A hippopotamus would kill a bear in a heartbeat," Robin interjects, looking at his communicator.
"Dude, I've been those animals! Starfire, Raven, want to weigh in?" Beast boy says, gesturing to them.
"No, this argument is pointless," Raven groans and floats away.
"I cannot. I am not familiar with this... how do you say... weigh in?" Starfire replies, a finger to her chin in contemplation.
"Okay, what about Flash vs Superman?" Beast boy proposes.
"In what?" The group speculates
"A foot race."
"Now why would the MAN OF STEEL agree to a foot race?" Cyborg scoffs. Tapping the high-end sensor in his arm, trying to pick up the creature's biometric signature.
"Uh, for charity? And Flash would totally win, 'cause he can like vibrate through walls and stuff." Beast boy says, waving his hands.
"You're crazy, man, Superman can fly around the entire planet in the blink of an eye!"
"Dude, if we're going by a pure foot race, Superman would get dusted by the Flash."
There's a rustle in the trees up ahead, near a single cabin. A big hulking shadow is moving.
"Guys! What is that thing?" Beast boy points towards the shadow. It emerges from the darkness, pushing trees aside and making its way towards the lone cabin. It's a creature with scales and reptilian eyes, body colossal in size. It begins ripping apart the cabin.
"Hey you, the Teen Titans are here. So stop trespassing." Robin shouts, pointing to the monster. It pauses what it's doing to stare at them. "So, are you going to go quietly..." The beast howls in response and thunders toward them.
Robin shrugs. "Guess not... Titans! Go!"
Raven creates energy platforms for Beast Boy and Cyborg to ride and sends the pair on ahead. They leap clear, the platforms turning into darts that strike the monster with explosive force. In midair, Beast Boy turns into a snake, which Cyborg seizes by the tail and slings to the creature. The changeling comes down as a triceratops and lets his horns smash into its huge head. Just as quickly, he takes the form of an ankylosaurus and swings his clubbed tail only to have it caught. "Uh oh." Beast Boy exclaims. "Hey ugly" Cyborg's sonic cannon blasts with a headshot, but this has no apparent effect and the monster hurls Beast Boy towards Cyborg, crashing into him.
Robin and Starfire charge in, Robin on foot, and Starfire flying to get a grip on his wrist. At just the right moment, she yanks him up and slings him through a full circle as he extends one leg for a flying kick. The combination of muscle and momentum sends the monster staggering. The Boy Wonder touches down from his acrobatics.
Raven gets ready to cast a spell. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
She levitates a section of the ground and throws it towards the monster. It snarls, shaking the dirt off. Beast Boy is back on his feet. He becomes a falcon diving in and raking his talons across the scaly body of the monster time after time. Starfire gets off both an eye blast and a double handful of starbolts at it while it's distracted. A fresh howl comes from the monster and it lunges in her direction. She throws a couple of starbolts, but is grabbed. It's big elbow drives into Starfire's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her, and she is sent skidding towards the edge of the cliff.
"Starfire, watch out!" Robin yells, giving chase and hurling his birdarangs. He jumps onto its neck and tries to put it in a headlock. "This isn't over!"
The monster picks up a nearby boulder and hurtles it towards Starfire. The huge weight hits her squarely across the back as a CRACK resonates across the forest turned battlefield. She is flung from the cliff towards the cavern below. Starfire is screaming all the way and reaching out for any handhold she might be able to get, in too much pain to fly.
"STARFIRE!"
Robin hesitates before jumping after her. In that brief moment, he didn't just see Starfire falling he saw his mother falling too, from her last performance. He's scared to death that he's going to lose Starfire the way he lost his parents. Robin fires a grappling hook, hitting above the top edge of the cliff. New boulders thunder down around the mouth of the cavern. He and Starfire swing in a moment before rocks pile up on top of them. Dust is thrown up from the impact.
"Star? Rob? Where are you?" Beast boy calls out panic-stricken he climbs down the cliff to the pile of boulders. "Come on! Gimme a sign here!" He starts to dig. "You have to be alright, okay?" He strains to lift a good-sized fragment and manages to get it clear of the pile.
"It's okay, we're alive." Robin coughs, checking Starfire's vitals as best he can in the dark cramped space. "But Starfire's hurt, bad. WHERE ARE THE OTHERS?"
"They're still trying to contain that thing!"
One of Starfire's hands glows green as a torch. She starts to sob. "Hey, hey, you're okay we're gonna get help." Robin consoles, taking her head in his hands.
"Oh, no Robin, I cannot be here." She puts a hand to her back and winces. "It reminds me too much of my prison."
"...Your prison?"
Starfire recollects.
She is on an alien warship traveling through the empty vacuum of space. She lets out a drawn-out, muffled, blood-curdling scream. Just outside her confined, pitch-black cell is two winged reptilian humanoids with long tails. Each is armed with a long spear. Her scream trails off into a feral growl. She's pounding her fists against the wall trying to break out.
The girl screaming is Koriand'r, dressed in black clothing, armored undergarments, metal-colored accents. Her hands and forearms are encased in thick, rigid cuffs connected at both ends. The two creatures stare into her cell through the slit in the door. Their eyes are blood red and hateful. The Gordanians. Rude hands when they stripped and dressed her, even ruder glances, taunting promises of worst to come.
"He doesn't want you damaged. But guess what we don't care, we're going to enjoy torturing you," they growl. She is, for lack of a better term, just plain scared.
She finishes her recollection to Robin with another sob.
"They never actually did anything, since they had orders to deliver their prize to the Citadel "undamaged" but I am traumatized all the same." She wept.
Robin worries, but he tries to put on a brave front for her and reassure her. "It's okay, I'm here, you're safe." He whispers stroking her hair holding her close, he places a soft kiss on her lips. He tries to keep casual, light conversation. "Hey, why don't you tell me about Tamaran? I never get to hear about your home."
"It's glorious." Starfire says with a smile. She tells him about how Tamaranians don't place much value in clothes. They see nothing unchaste about nudity, so they had no problem skinny dipping in the palaces crystal clear lake. About Tamaranean folk dancing. How wildfire used to pick her flowers every day from the lush jungle. She laments that the landscape is barren now from the missiles the Gordanians fired. How it's studded with immense, twisted rock formations of what was. She slips into unconsciousness. They fall asleep wrapped in each other's arms.
Light comes into the cavern, the last of the boulders being moved away by Raven's levitation. Robin comes out carrying Starfire bridal style.
"How is she?" Raven asks, taking her hands ready to heal her injuries.
"I think it fractured her spine." Robin sniffled, handing her over. They gently place her on the ground.
"Friends." Starfire croaks trying to sit up.
"Hey, Star," Cyborg says, lying her back down.
"Take it easy, you've been hurt." Beast Boy comforts, putting a hand on top of hers.
"She's lucky it's just a fracture," Raven marvels, finishing her healing.
"I am lucky to have friends like you." She gives them a weak smile.
They all return her smile with gentle hugs. Robin sheds a tear.