Ron Stoppable trudged through the automatic doors to Titan headquarters, looking like he had just fought off the zombie apocalypse singlehandedly. He threw himself onto the couch with a groan. "Ooh! Never. Again."

Kim, Raven, Cyborg, Star, and Beast Boy came in just behind him. "Hey," Kim said, trying to cheer her boyfriend up, "at least you didn't completely fail at…everything. You totally dodged that boulder at the end."

"Just not the other five," Raven qualified.

"Ooh…" Ron moaned. "I think broke my spleen."

"That's impossible," Raven replied. Kim gave her a look. "Sorry," she said. "Here, let me help." She walked over to sit beside the obstacle course's victim. "Where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere," Ron grumbled.

Beast Boy stood next to Kim behind the sofa, looking down at the scene. "You know, dude," he said, "you really would have had it in the bag if you hadn't frozen in the middle of the laser section."

"I was trying to access my Mystical Monkey Powers!" Ron insisted. "What's the point of having powers if you can't use them to be awesome?"

Raven pulled down her hood and surveyed the damage, which there was a lot of. "Right," she said. "You have Mystical Monkey Powers."

"Well, I do!"

"Okay, okay," she said, verbally backing off while she examined his most bruised arm. "I believe you. Don't worry about controlling your powers. It just takes practice."

Cyborg added, from where he was standing in the kitchenette, "You're also gonna need to practice not tripping over your own feet if you want that 'Booyah King' title."

"Timing, Cy," Kim said.

"I'm just saying," he continued. "We'll just say I won this round. Yo, any of y'all hungry? That car chase was so distracting that we forgot all about lunch."

"Oh, yes!" Starfire exclaimed. "I do desire the lunch!"

"Me too!" Beast Boy chimed in.

"Same," Kim nodded.

"Please," Ron groaned.

Raven looked up from Ron's bruised body. "Sure. Food would be nice."

"Okay." He opened the phone app on his arm. "Lucky thing I have the pizza place on speed dial. Any requests?"

"Veggie!" exclaimed Beast Boy.

"Cheese," groaned Ron.

"Pepperoni," Kim suggested.

"Whatever," said Raven.

"Cheese!" squeaked Rufus, who had been trying to teach Silkie to play Go Fish in the corner of the room, with little success, and only just now made his presence known.

"Mustard and ice cream!" Starfire blurted out. An awkward silence followed, after which she said timidly, "Or the pepperoni. Robin always likes the pepperoni."

"Y'all need to learn that Meat Lover's Supreme is the only way to go," Cyborg told them, pressing a couple of buttons on his arm. "Star, why don't you check and see if Robin wants any pizza."

Starfire perked up instantly and flew out of the room. Surely the thought of hot pepperoni pizza could break the Boy Wonder out of his research. She approached the door to the evidence room with a big grin on her face, but paused before opening it to consider the situation.

With Shego and Slade working together, Robin was twice as obsessed as usual. Pizza alone might not be enough to cut it. Still, Starfire was determined to get her boyfriend to take a break, for his own good. She needed something really out of the ordinary, something that was more distracting than pepperoni. Then she might be able to drag him out. She stood outside the evidence room door for a moment, trying to decide. Then, an idea came. A great idea. She passed the evidence room and entered her own.

In less than a minute, Robin heard a knock on the door. Without looking away from his work or getting up from his seat, he called, "Come in!"

Starfire floated inches above the ground and entered the room. "Have you had any of the luck, Robin?" she asked hopefully, looking at the wall before him. A map and multiple highlighted newspaper clippings were tacked up and connected with various strands of string and sticky notes. Every sighting of Slade or Shego was documented with a bright red thumbtack, and a giant black "X" was marked over three individual neighborhoods. Downtown was circled in red.

Robin tapped his marker against his desk anxiously, still not turning around. "Oh, hey, Star. I haven't found Slade yet, but I've done some narrowing down. He's not going to be in hiding for much longer. It's just a question of where Shego is capable of accessing the sewer without drawing attention to herself…"

"Robin," Starfire interrupted his explanation.

"What?" he asked, finally turning around.

What Robin saw made his jaw drop. Starfire the Tamaranian space alien had miraculously transformed into Starfire the American high schooler. Instead of her usual purple uniform, she wore a pale pink tank top, dark blue jeans, hot pink tennis shoes, and shiny lip gloss. Robin even thought that he detected mascara in the limited light available. There was nothing inappropriate or immodest about her appearance. There didn't need to be. The shock of seeing Starfire dressing like a normal teenager was more than enough.

"Whoa," Robin said, after finally taking in the new look. "Starfire…but…when…what?"

"Do you like it?" she asked, twirling around to show the new outfit off. "I have purchased many other items of clothing as well. Kim Possible says that the Club Banana is the best place for making such purchases. We went there together with Monique, a friend of Kim. Is it not glorious?"

"Oh…uh…yeah."

Star frowned. "You do not approve," she guessed sadly.

"What? No!" Robin instantly insisted. "You look great, Star. It's just, well, kind of weird, honestly, seeing you like that. I mean, if you want to dress like that, I won't stop you, but it'll take some getting used to."

Starfire looked down at her shirt and her jeans. "What is the weird about it, Robin? I thought that this is the normal, not the weird."

Robin shook his head and stood up, walking closer to her a few steps. "Star, you're not normal. That's what's so great about you. I don't want you pretending to be anybody else. Combined with the red hair and the green eyes, I actually thought I was looking at Kim for a second there. She's cool and all, but she's not you. You can wear anything you want, but don't change your clothes just to fit in. Fitting in's overrated anyway."

Starfire smiled sweetly, then slightly more deviously. "Would it be the okay if Robin tried to 'fit in' a break for the pepperoni pizza?"

Robin crossed his arms, rolling his eyes behind his mask. "Of course. That's why you really came in here. Distracting me from work. How did I not see it?"

"Was it sufficiently distracting?"

"Oh yeah." Robin directed his gaze back to the map for a moment, then once again at Star. "I'm sorry, Starfire, but I can't. Every second I lose, Slade's getting closer to his goal. Pizza will have to wait." He sat down again and began studying one of the newspaper articles on the desk, along with a discarded mask of Slade's.

"But you cannot do the work with the empty stomach!" Starfire protested.

"That's what I've been doing all day."

She sighed, frustrated at him and worried about him simultaneously. "Perhaps if you would allow your friends to assist…"

"No," he said, a bit harshly. "Slade and I think the same way, so I'm the one best qualified to find him. You guys should just focus on training and be ready to go if we get a call. You know how it is with me and him. This is personal. Finding Slade is my responsibility."

Starfire looked at him sitting there, glaring at the evidence, expressionless beneath his mask, his face looking pale and tired. She knew that there was nothing more she could say to convince him, but at the same time, she could not leave him like this. She laid her hand gently on his shoulder to recapture his attention. "Please, Robin," she said. "Make the promise that you will come out and not stay here all night."

Robin looked up at her and replied solemnly, "Okay. I promise."

Satisfied, Starfire removed her hand and walked away toward the door. She stopped for a moment and asked, "But Robin, do you approve of the new clothes?"

He didn't look away from his work, but replied with a question, "Did you buy them because you honestly like them and not because you're trying to fit in?"

"Yes."

"Then they look great. Absolutely stunning."

She giggled with glee and stepped out of the room. It was a small victory, but any victory against Slade Mode was worth celebrating. Robin never broke promises, and certainly never promises to Starfire. If he said he was coming out, that was good enough for her.

She reentered the main room grinning. On the couch, now sitting up, Ron was describing his unusual powers to a clearly annoyed and unconcerned Raven. "I can literally turn blue, Raven," he insisted. "Crazy stuff happens when I turn blue."

"Sure," she deadpanned.

"Crazy stuff!"

"Uh-huh. Yeah. I got it."

Starfire joined the conversation, "What kind of the crazy stuff, friend Ron?"

"Glad you asked, Star," Ron said, eager to share. "Technically I can't talk about everything, but I'll let in on a little…" he turned his face toward her and stopped himself. "Whoa! Did you and Kim switch clothes or something?"

Kim, who had been finishing her statistics homework at the other end of the couch, looked up. "No, Ron. Starfire got those at Club Banana when we were out with Monique."

Starfire looked down at her outfit again. This was the second time she had heard a statement comparing her new look with Kim Possible's. "Are our appearances really so similar?"

Beast Boy, who had been pestering Cyborg in the shape of a very clingy chimpanzee, shifted back to his normal form and said, "Yeah, sort of. Maybe we should see you next to each other. Kim, could you stand next to Starfire?"

"Oh, this is ridiculous," Kim argued, though she did follow his suggestion and take her place beside the alien. "We just shopped at the same store. We're not twins or anything."

"Just humor us," Cyborg said, "for a moment."

Kim shrugged and stood up straight beside Starfire. The rest of the team looked at the two redheads with curiosity. There was no question that they were not identical. Starfire was certainly at least a few inches taller than Kim. Her skin was also darker, practically orange, contrasting with Kim's paleness. However, they had just enough in common for some resemblance to be acknowledged. Both had red hair about the same length. Both had a similar, slender build, emphasized by each one's bare midriff. Both had bright green eyes. Granted, Starfire's were completely green as opposed to Kim's green irises, but it was still there. Both carried themselves with a similar, confident posture and expression. On top of all that, the only difference between their current choices of clothing was color.

"Well?" Kim asked, a bit impatient.

No one answered at first. Cyborg broke the silence, "You do look kind of alike. A lot of kind of."

"Kind of?" Beast Boy repeated. "Dude, if Kim grew, like, three inches and got a tan, you two would be identical!"

"I wouldn't say that," Raven intervened, "but I would not be surprised if there was a situation in which you were mistaken for each other. Not in normal circumstances. Maybe if one of you were alone in some creepy dark room at night with someone who had done vague research on the other one. Then it could happen." Ron scooted toward the other side of the couch, not daring to question how Raven had thought of that idea.

"Well I'm not growing three inches," KP said, "and believe me, I don't tan."

"And we do not speak in the same manner," Starfire added. "The person who is confused by our similarities would be capable of distinguishing the who is who as soon as one of us opened her mouth."

"That is definitely true," Raven agreed.

Something on Cyborg's arm beeped three times. He clicked on it with his metal finger and reported, "And it looks like pizza has arrived. Right on time too."

"On time?" Kim laughed. "You literally just ordered it."

Beast Boy explained, "We're like their number one customers, dude. They could find their way here in a heartbeat. Hey, Cy, do you want any help bringing it up?"

"Sure, grass stain," he replied. As he and Beast Boy headed for the door, he added, "Y'all better be ready for the best pizza in town by the time we get up here. It is definitely worthy of at least one 'booyah'."

"That is still my catchphrase!" Ron insisted, shaking a finger at Cyborg from the sofa.

"We'll see," the half-man, half-robot teen chuckled before leaving the room with his smaller, green friend.

It was only a couple of minutes before everyone was munching on delicious pizza in the kitchenette. They talked and joked like old friends, and more than just Cyborg were guilty of taking seconds and thirds. There was the usual argument between the Veggie Delight's and the Meat Lover's Supreme's superiority. Finally, reaching for a fourth meaty slice, Cyborg turned to Starfire. "Hey, Star," he asked, "didn't you say Robin was going to eat with us?"

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "Is he still doing research? Pizza outweighs work. That's pretty much the number one rule of being a teenager."

Starfire realized how much time had passed. Robin should have come out by now. He promised. "Perhaps he is unaware that the pizza has arrived," she suggested, standing up from her seat. "I will alert him." She quickly zoomed off to the evidence room.

Robin did not hear her knock at first. Seated at his desk, he was ankle deep in crumpled, failed ideas scattered all over the floor. "Where are you, Slade?" he asked, rubbing the edges of his mask as if it helped him to think. "Where are you?"

She knocked a second time, not as softly as before. He roused himself and shouted, "Come in!"

She did. "Robin," Starfire said, "the pizza has arrived. Would you please join your team in partaking of it?"

He shook his head, still focused on the map in front of him. "Not now, Star. I have to figure this out. I'm just moments away from a breakthrough, I know it!"

She was startled by his sudden change in tone. It reminded her of the time when he had believed Slade had returned, but it had all been a trick on his mind. He had nearly destroyed himself that day. She shuddered and thrust that memory back. This was nothing like that. Slade was real this time, and Robin still seemed relatively stable. "You made the promise, Robin," she reminded him. "You made the promise to take the break."

He turned around, facing her for the first time since she had entered. He looked tired and pale, and he knew it. He knew that she knew it. "Starfire, I'm fine," he told her.

"I did not ask," she said, both confused and concerned.

"I know. Look, I'm sorry, but I will take a break eventually. You're right: I promised." Noticing her worried gaze, he tried his best to hide his own pain under his mask and in the dim light. He hated to disappoint her, but he could not let this go. He had to stop Slade. "Just give me a little more time," he told her. "Believe me, I will not stay in here forever. Save me a slice of pepperoni, okay?"

"Okay," she nodded. Before turning to leave, she asked, "Robin, is the Slade taking the control over your mind again?"

"No," he said immediately. "Never. I am completely in control." Starfire was unsure of who his confident voice was meant to assure more: her or himself.

"Okay," she said again, more reluctantly this time, "but do not stay in here too late. Now is not the good time for you to be alone. I will save you the slice of the pepperoni."

"Thanks, Star. You're the best." He offered her a smile before returning to his work, as focused as before.

She sighed and left the room, walking down the hallway and back into the main room. Silently, she moved through the friendly, laughing atmosphere to place a slice of pepperoni pizza on Robin's plate, then shut it inside the microwave.

"What are you doing, Star?" Beast Boy asked. He was the first to notice, but it wasn't long before the others did too, as was evidenced by their expressions. "Where's Robin?"

"Robin…will be joining us at a later time," she stated.

Cyborg groaned. "Are you kidding me? Again? Y'all see what I saying a minute ago. Every time Slade shows his face, Robin goes nuts. He's so obsessed, he won't even come out when his own girlfriend offers him pizza."

"No!" Starfire defended. "Robin has not gone to the nuts. He works hard to find Slade before it is too late. He means well, he always does. Besides, he will not stay all the night. He made the promise."

"Seriously?" Beast Boy scoffed. "Captain Research is not going to leave the evidence room for at least a year. He's probably hibernating in there."

"He has been there a while," Kim commented. "I'm not saying he's crazy or anything, but I did take a psychology class last summer, and I'm pretty sure that's not healthy."

"Definitely not healthy when he's picking it over pizza," Ron agreed, cheese filling his own mouth like a chipmunk's cheeks.

Starfire sat down with a defiant look. "You are all wrong. Robin is only trying to help. His priorities are not the same as yours, so he chooses work over the fun. You may doubt him, but I certainly do not."

All but one of the team silently processed her words. "Wow," Cyborg said, the only one daring to break the silence.

"Wow? Wow what?" Starfire asked.

"Nothing, just…well…I hope Robin knows how lucky he is to have you around, sticking up for him and trusting him all the time. He better know."

Starfire smiled sweetly. "I believe he knows," she said teasingly as she reached for another slice of pizza. Yet, deep down, she was not completely happy. Of course she trusted Robin. That was unquestionable. She knew he had his reasons for what he did. Somehow, though, Starfire felt that something was wrong with Robin. She desperately hoped that she was mistaken.

(A/N: Again, sorry for the wait! I recently got addicted to Sherlock, and let me tell you, that show takes over your life. I think some of its influence may have bled into my characterization this chapter. Robin and Raven both feel a little Sherlocky, and Starfire seems to be channeling Molly a bit. It definitely influenced my picture of Robin's study area. But do not panic: more of this story is coming. I have a very clear picture of what will happen next, so if school does not get too intense, the next few pieces should be published faster. Oh Robin, you angsty teenager in a mask, what ever could be wrong with you?)