(A/N: And we're back! This one's a little short, but it's leading up to something big. Thanks for being so patient with me. I'd update this a lot more often if real life weren't a thing. That being said, as much as I love receiving reviews from my readers, it gets a little annoying when almost every single one is just telling me to update. I'm really glad you're this into the plot and the fact that you want to read more of my writing is super cool. I know you guys mean well, and I also know that it's only a couple people doing this, but you really don't need to post basically the same comment telling me to hurry up multiple times. I read every review, so if you said it once, I probably got the message. Sorry about all this ranting. Seriously, I'm so glad there are so many readers out there who care about my first fic, especially those of you who have been around from the beginning. Thank you so much for sticking through it. You all deserve a massive Starfire hug. And now, back to the story...)
Starfire stared her robotic guard in the face, Kim's laser lipstick in her pocket. She had a weapon now. The only question was how to use it. She glanced briefly at Dr. Drakken's hunched shape at the computer, guarded by another robot. He had built these metal monsters. Surely he knew how to fight them.
She whispered, barely moving her lips, "Dr. Drakken, can your creations process the sound?"
He didn't dare turn around to look at her, but replied in a slightly louder voice, "Yes, but they only react to sounds that signify a threat. Calm speech without any triggering words should be safe."
That made Starfire breathe a little easier. "Then can you tell me how to make them stop?" she asked, now at her voice's regular volume.
"They're controlled by Slade and linked to the computer," he explained, still facing forward. "He controls their every move and can change their orders in a second. There is a way to hack into the computer and shut them down, but this one's programmed to shoot the moment I touch any button not required to fire the xenothium cannon."
"But is there not the physical way?"
"Nope. Even if you break them into pieces, they'll always put themselves back together. My best work in a while." He chuckled with pride for a moment, then stopped when he remembered that his best work was sticking a laser gun to his back. "But in the interest of not dying, you could cause some major internal damage if you had a way to overload their electrical system. Even that they might recover from, and it would take a lot of power."
Starfire's green eyes scanned her surroundings, looking for anything she could use as a distraction. They focused on something high above her head. It was one of the thinner pipes that covered the ceiling. "The robots," she asked Drakken, "do they have the heat vision, or must they see?"
"They can use heat sensing to lock onto targets," he answered, glad to finally be talking to someone who cared about his work, "but they do need to see their surroundings in order to use it. I meant to upgrade that, but what can you do on a busy schedule?"
"Thank you, Doctor."
Starfire kept her gaze fixed on the thin pipe above as she ever so gradually shifted the lipstick so that its cap pointed out of the cords, careful to be subtle enough so as not to alert the guard in front of her. Suddenly, she uncapped it and sent the red beam not into the face of the robot, but up into the middle of the pipe, puncturing it. Instantly, hot, white steam filled the entire room, blinding the machine holding her captive. Before it could clear, she burned through her cords with the same technology and made a beeline for the other end of the room, where the crystal holding her powers was contained. Destroying the robots may be impossible without superpowers, but maybe if she had them back…
She reached out to grab the crystal and felt a strong electric shock. "Ow!" she exclaimed. She tried again, this time more carefully. Again, she was shocked. Under ordinary circumstances, her super strength would have helped her force through the pain. However, these were not ordinary circumstances and she knew she could not grab that crystal.
The steam was starting to clear. Behind her, Starfire heard heavy footsteps. She spun around and found her robot guard standing before her. Remembering what Drakken had said, she stepped back until her hair was almost touching the crystal's containment field, trying to look as vulnerable and frightened as possible. Slade's metal minion fell for her trick and lunged to grab her. She jumped up at the last second and leapfrogged over its wide shoulders, landing safely on the other side while it crashed into the containment field. The electric shock coursed through every one of its wires and overloaded it, causing it to crash to the ground in a smoking heap.
Starfire picked up its laser gun from the ground and ran to Dr. Drakken, who was crouched in the nearest corner surrounded by scrap metal. In the blinding steam, he had tried to get as far away as possible from his guard. This was as far as he had gotten. Now, that guard was quickly coming towards him. His response was to throw any object he could get his hands on at it, which was doing little to slow down its approach. Star dialed the gun up to full power and fired at the robot's face. The shot was just strong enough to throw it several feet backward, landing flat on its back.
The alien picked up the mad scientist's arm and dragged him back to the computer. She told him, "You must make the cannon disabled, then shut down the robots and the shield that contains the crystal. Are you capable of doing this?"
"Capable? Ha! I'd like to remind you that I am a mad genius, missy," he said. He turned around and pushed a couple buttons, then looked behind him. "Uh, you do have a plan to take care of that one, right?" he asked as he noticed his metal captor standing up again.
Starfire fired another shot, forcing him further back. "I will see to the robot. Stop the cannon!"
Dr. D returned his focus to the keyboard, rubbed his hands together briefly, then began typing code after code into the xenothium cannon's programming. Star shot a laser bolt directly at the robot's gun, exploding it. The resulting blast broke off guard's right arm and threw it even further back than previous shots. It wasted no time in standing back up, grabbing its missing arm, screwing it back into place, and charging toward Starfire again. At least now it cannot shoot, she thought, firing another blast.
She was wrong. Just before being hit, the robot fired two thin laser beams, one from each eye, at Starfire. She ducked away from the first and barely dodged the second. "You did not tell me that they had the eye lasers," she commented to Drakken as she hurried to return to her position and aimed another shot.
"You never asked," he offered as explanation. Realizing how poor of an excuse that was, he quickly added, "Don't worry, they're not nearly as strong as the blasters. You should still have the upper hand."
The robot dodged Starfire's blast and sent one of his own into the giant computer. The alien princess pushed Drakken out of the way just in time. When he was up again, the keyboard was smoking. "Oh," he said, "maybe not."
"Hurry please!" Starfire pleaded. "The laser gun does not have the endless power and the robot is most persistent!" She shot once more, then added, "The people of the Jump City are counting on us!"
Drakken paused his rapid typing and gave her a funny look. "Um, I am still kind of a bad guy here," he pointed out.
"I apologize for suggesting you had the compassionate heart," she replied in a tone as close to sarcasm as Starfire usually came. It still wasn't extremely sarcastic, though it had come a long way after several years of living in close proximity to Raven. "Please, you must be quick!" she added, dodging another shot and firing one of her own.
"Okay, okay, I'm going…"
One minute and several coding sequences later, the monitor flashed red. Red letters flashed, "Operation Cancelled."
"Yes! Ha! Take that, you one eyed freak!" Dr. D shouted to a nonexistent Slade. "High five me, She—um, Starfire, right?"
"Yes!" Star answered, quickly giving him a high five before shoving him out of the way of another eye blast. "Now is not the time for the celebration," she reminded him.
"The robots. Right." The blue man stood up again and took his place at a different section of the computer. "This is going to take some time," he said, stretching out his fingers. "You're going to have to cover me."
"Absolutely, but please use the haste," she said, stepping behind him and shooting another beam at the robot. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the smoking remains of the first guard beginning to twitch. As she watched, the pieces began to ever so slowly connect with each other again. It was repairing itself. "Doctor, please hurry!" she shouted. Silently, she added, Robin, please hurry!
