Thresholding by CidGregor
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.
This fic is dedicated to Post, for all that he has contributed to its existence. (sweatdrops...)
Chapter 8
Starfire sped straight up into the sky at top speed, hoping she could arrive at the fleet ship not too long after Tromand'r did. The more time he had alone to present his case, the more difficult it would be for her to undo the damage. She HAD to make it there soon…she HAD to…
Before she was even at the cloud line, however, she saw a pair of lights - one blue and one purple - justahead of her. Her heart leapt; of course! Tromand'r was going slower, assisting Lysand'r in flight thanks to his extensive injuries. It was a small miracle, Starfire thought with a mental sigh of relief. She hastened to catch up to them…
"Skknntt…STARFIRE! STARFIRE, can you hear me?.!"
Starfire winced at the sheer volume of the shouting through her earpiece. "Robin? The volume of your voice is rather uncomfor-"
"Never mind that!" Robin cut her off. "You're in serious danger!"
Starfire frowned. "Robin, I told you before we departed that I would be careful-"
"This is different! Star, look below you!"
Star craned her neck to see beneath her and continue flying upward at the same time…but what she saw brought her to a halt as she turned to stare open-mouthed at the sight.
Below and to her right was the bright orange form of the T-Ship, rushing to catch up to her…but further below and to her left were four other flying craft she was entirely unfamiliar with. They were sleek and silver in color, and though they were still far off in the distance, they were closing rapidly…faster than the T-Ship was moving at the moment.
"What are they?" Starfire asked.
"They're fighters, Star," Cyborg's voice came over the comm. "Armed and dangerous. And they're headed straight for you and the incoming ship."
Starfire gasped. "The General Graham has ordered an attack?.! Why?.! My people have only just arrived! They have done nothing to suggest hostilities!"
"It seems the General doesn't care to wait for such an invitation," Raven droned.
"Starfire, get inside that fleet ship where it's safe!"
Starfire turned and began flying toward the ship again, but not to run away to safety. "Robin, I cannot do that, not when I may be of use."
"Starfire, please, listen to me! You don't know what those things can do! They'll rip you apart!"
"I am used to danger, Robin, you know that."
"THIS IS DIFFERENT!" Robin nearly screamed. "This isn't some average criminal that's gonna dazzle us with magic tricks or teach us how great England is or blackmail us for a Prom date! These are trained, hardened, and dangerous soldiers that will kill you without a second thought if that's what Graham tells them to do! I'm ordering you to get inside that ship!"
Starfire could recognize the panic in his voice; he was serious about this, she realized.
But no…the soldiers…they would not kill those who have dedicated themselves to protecting the innocent…even under orders, they would not… she reasoned with herself. Robin is over-reacting…he is merely concerned for my safety…
"Starfire…please…get away from here…go to the ship…please…"
For a moment, Starfire nearly gave in to Robin's pleas, so desperate they sounded…it was that desperation in his tone, more than anything else, that made her realize he wasn't exaggerating. The danger here was very, very real.
But no…she had a duty. If those fighters were indeed meant for her, then they were likely meant for Tromand'r, Lysand'r, and every other Tamaranian warrior on that fleet ship. She had to defend her people…the wounded Lysand'r most of all. He needed to reach the safety of the ship far more than she did. She couldn't run and hide, not now.
"Starfire? Starfire, do you read me?.!"
"…I am sorry, Robin. But I am afraid I must disobey your orders."
And before Robin could protest, she flipped a switch, and the transmission was severed.
Hold on, my brethren…I shall assist you…"Starfire?.! STARFIRE!.!.!"
Robin pounded on the intercom, but nothing could be heard from it but static. She'd cut the transmission.
"DAMMIT!.!.!" Robin cursed. "Cyborg, get me a frequency for those F-18's, NOW!.!.!"
"Already done, Rob," Cyborg answered. "Sending it to your screen now."
Robin pulled up the frequency Cyborg sent him, twisted a few dials until the transmitter was properly tuned, and opened a connection. "F-18 squadron, this is Robin of the Teen Titans, do you copy? Over."
"Bzzkknntt…This is Wing Commander Amato. How the hell did you get this frequency?.!"
"That's not important right now, Commander," Robin dismissed the question. "Listen to me, those three people you're gunning for are our friends. Why are you attacking them?"
"The hell are you high on, kid? You think we're here to shoot down Starfire? She's a hero to this town a thousand times over. Our orders are to shoot down that invasion force above her. Care to give us a hand?"
The moment of relief Robin had felt at hearing Starfire was not the target evaporated in an instant. "What?.! Invasion force?.! What are you talking about?.!"
"General Graham's thoughts are that that ship is a probable threat. We've been ordered to take it out."
"What is the matter with you? They haven't threatened anybody!" Robin countered.
"They threatened the General's life. That's reason enough," Amato threw back, his voice abruptly cold. "I can tell we're going to have a disagreement here. If you aren't going to help us, I suggest you stay out of it."
"I can't do that, Commander," Robin countered. "It's our belief that General Graham is mistaken. These aliens have come in peace, but if you start blasting them without extending the hand of friendship first, you're going to start a war that will have global repercussions. Do you want to be responsible for that?"
"…I have my orders. If you interfere with our efforts to obey those orders, we will have no choice but to assume you are a hostile."
"I will not let you harm innocent lives," Robin said. "If you attack that ship, we will defend it."
"……Understood."
"……"
"…I wish we could have met under better circumstances, Robin. I've always respected you. I'm sorry it has to come to this."
The line went dead.
"…Yeah…me too," Robin muttered. "Titans, did you get all that?"
"Every word," Cyborg said grimly.
"This is soooo wrong," Beast Boy murmured. "Good guys shooting at good guys? What's the world coming to?"
"You don't intend to fight them, do you, Robin?" Raven said.
"No…but I don't intend to let them shoot down a ship full of innocent Tamaranians, either. Titans, separate and spread out. Cover those fighters and don't let any of those missiles reach their targets."
"WHAT?.!" Terra exclaimed. "Robin, I have no freaking clue what I'm doing over here! I can't fly by myself!"
"I'm sorry, Terra, but we don't have a choice. Beast Boy, stick close to Terra and watch her back."
"Don't worry, Terra," Beast Boy soothed. "It's just like Gamestation, except…more buttons."
"Oh thanks, that really eases my fears," Terra snorted.
"Robin…what about Starfire?" Raven asked.
Robin glanced up. Starfire had reached the other two Tamaranians, and now she was helping Tromand'r get Lysand'r to safety. But it was a long way still to the ship. The fighters would catch up to them before they could get inside.
"…Robin?"
Robin clenched his fists. "She's turned off her communicator. There's…nothing we can do for her but stop those fighters." He turned back to his controls. "All right, team…separate on my mark…"
"Mmmmm…" Terra murmured in a mixture of steeled nerves and pure fear.
"MARK!"
"CAPTAIN TROMAND'R!"
Starfire's call was at last heard. The warrior turned, and saw the girl rushing toward him.
"Tromand'r, we are in danger!" she said through short breaths. "General Graham has made a most rash decision and has ordered an attack on us!"
"WHAT?.!" he exclaimed. He glanced below, and saw the foursome of fighters speeding toward them. "That FOOL! I should blast every last one of his-"
"NO!" she stopped him. "Lysand'r is wounded and unable to fight! We must get him to the safety of the ship!"
Tromand'r growled, but nodded.
"Do not worry, my friends will protect us," Starfire assured him. She glanced down as well, and saw that the T-ship was splitting up into five smaller fighters. Three of them sped expertly ahead, but the other two lingered. One seemed barely under control. What was going on?
The foursome of Navy fighters, meanwhile, broke from formation as well, and flew within range of the Tamaranian craft. The four of them each fired off a missile that lanced toward the ship. The three Titans in the front darted forward, each blasting one of the four missiles out of the sky with the sonic blasters mounted on their ships…but there was no way they could swing around to stop the fourth and final missile in time…
Suddenly a sizzling blue beam fired from Starfire's left, tearing through the projectile effortlessly and blasting it to bits. The girl turned and saw Tromand'r's eyes glowing with a deep blue fury.
"How DARE they fire on us!" he snarled.
The four F-18s banked and sped away from the ship…but rather than swinging fully around for another pass, three began to tail the Titans who'd shot down the missiles, while the fourth made a beeline for the other two straggling Titans.
Starfire gasped with sudden understanding. How could I have not realized?.! Terra has not been trained to fly yet! And surely it is Beast Boy staying with her to protect her!
The others – Robin, Cyborg, and Raven – held their own against the tailing fighters, but Terra and Beast Boy were in serious trouble. The fourth fighter was right on their tails.
Starfire turned to Tromand'r. " I am sorry, but I must protect my friends! Get Lysand'r to safety, hurry!"
She did not wait to hear if Tromand'r agreed or not. She flew back down toward the earth as fast as she could go, praying she'd get there in time…
Halfway to her goal, she saw the F-18 suddenly open fire on the two Titans' ships, and she redoubled her efforts…but she was still much too far away to be of help as a few machine-gun rounds struck the engines of the bulky centerpiece of the T-ship; Beast Boy's seat.
"BEAST BOY!.!.!" Starfire screamed, but she could only watch as the craft spiraled out of control and down toward the earth…
Without warning the dome of the pilot seat popped off with a tiny explosion, and a green figure expelled itself from the fallen craft. It fell for a few seconds before transforming into a great green pterodactyl and halting its descent. Beast Boy was okay.
Starfire breathed a sigh of relief, but continued to speed forward. Terra was still in danger.
A few dozen feet from her goal, however, the plane locked on to Terra's wobbling craft, and a missile fired from its underbelly. Starfire swooped in on an intercept course and caught the missile barely a few seconds after it launched. She swung her body up and straddled the projectile, gripped the nose with as much force as she could muster, and yanked upward.
"Hrrrrraaaaauuugh!.!.!"
The missile wobbled, then jerked upward, flipping Starfire off of it. It spiraled upward and exploded well clear of Terra's ship.
Starfire clicked her headset back on. "Terra? Are you all right?"
"Skknntt…Starfire, behind you!" came her frantic reply.
"Huh?" she said, spinning around. Her eyes bulged. "EEP!"
The F-18 flew right at her at low speed, but 'low' for a jet was still quite fast to be crashing into anyone. By sheer instinct she wrapped her body around the nose the second it ran into her and knocked the breath out of her. She could swear she saw stars dancing around her head, but just beyond the stars was an angry human gesturing wildly at her from inside the cockpit. She couldn't make out the words he was shouting over the wind roaring past her, but she could guess they were rather rude ones.
A second later his hands grasped the controls and yanked them to the side. Starfire clung for dear life to the nose of the craft as it spun into a barrel roll, abruptly jerked to a stop, and barrel-rolled in the opposite direction. It jerked upright again, and this time swung upward in such a great loop that Starfire almost crushed the jet's nose between her legs from gripping so tightly. The pilot repeated the motions over and over, and twice Starfire almost lost her hold on the jet completely, she was becoming so dizzy…
The plane leveled out at last, which she assumed meant that the pilot was getting too dizzy for his own good…but Starfire had been pushed beyond her limit. Her face had turned a rather sickly color, her eyes had glazed over, and an unpleasant rumbling emanated from the pit of her stomachs.
The pilot's eyes widened, and he shook his head violently, but to no avail…and a second later, the cockpit window was obscured by a mess of the alien's unsettled lunch.
The plane instantly fell in a spiraling nosedive, which didn't do much to help Starfire's nausea, but she managed to focus herself long enough to tear away the now-messy cockpit window, reach in, and yank the pilot free of his restraints and out of the doomed jet.
"Urgh…" she murmured as she hovered in the air. "That is the last time I allow Beast Boy to convince me to consume his tofu concoctions." She half-glanced at the jet pilot who hung from one hand beneath her. "Are you damaged?"
"……"
"Hmm? Can you not hear me?" She looked down directly at him. The pilot was staring, wide-eyed, straight up her skirt.
A swift kick in the groin ended that.
"Hmph!" she pouted, cheeks coloring, and the now-unconscious pilot hung limply from her grip as she flew back into the fray.
Robin threw his fighter into a downward spiral, trying desperately to escape his tail. Cyborg's superior piloting skills and Raven's sheer mental abilities had saved them from their own pursuers, but Robin was still unsuccessful in shaking his own tail. His martial arts training could do him no good where he was, and though his flying skills were solid enough to fly smoothly, he was far from an ace pilot.
Just my luck that the guy tailing me happens to be one instead, he thought to himself. A grim smirk crossed his face.
Robin pulled himself out of the spiral and reversed it, spinning in the opposite direction in a near-vertical ascent. A handful of seconds later he leveled off again and pulled into a loop, but transformed it into a vertical U-turn halfway in and sped in the opposite direction. His tail followed him through every motion, every step, every fake Robin attempted, and with absolute flawlessness.
WREE-WREE-WREE-WREE-WREE!
Robin glanced at his displays, muscles tightening. His tail had managed to lock on to him. He would fire a missile off any second and blow the Boy Wonder out of the sky. He switched the craft to autopilot, which leveled it out and flew it perfectly straight, and then reached for the ejector trigger. The second that missile fired, he'd have no choice but to bail…
Except the missile never came.
Robin double-checked his displays; they were working just fine, it seemed. His pursuer was locked onto him…he had a perfect shot…but he wasn't taking it. Was he having an equipment failure? Or…
"Skknntt…Robin…this is Wing Commander Amato again. Do you read me?"
Robin stared in amazement at the comm., but nonetheless switched his end on. "Yeah….I read you. That shot…why didn't you…?"
The pilot ignored the question. "…I'm ordering my men to pull back and stand down."
Robin breathed a sigh of relief. "That's…good to hear, Commander. But…what about your orders? Won't you be landing yourself in hot water with the General?"
"Way I see it, Robin…if you're right, if these aliens are here peaceably, then it's worth risking a bit of disciplinary action to not set off a war. And I have a good feeling you are right on this."
Robin raised an eyebrow. "What changed your mind?"
"I've been doing this a long time, Robin. I know how a hostile when I see one. This ship isn't acting anything like one. If they meant anybody harm they'd have starting firing back at us the second we took the first shot."
Robin managed a genuine smile for the first time in what seemed like days. "Good to know some of you in the military aren't totally off their rockers."
"Heh…yeah, yeah…backing off now. Have your alien friend drop off our fourth man off at the aircraft carrier right below us. Amato out."
The feed was cut, and Robin's smile abruptly faded at the mention of the alien girl. All of a sudden, thinking of her brought to him something that it never had before…anger.
Robin switched frequencies. "Cyborg, you got all that?"
"Clear as crystal, Rob. That was a close one."
"Very. Cyborg, make sure Starfire knows where to take that last pilot pulled from his fighter. Raven, check and see how Beast Boy and Terra are doing."
"What about you?" Raven droned through.
"I'm going up there," Robin said, pointing toward the ship. "Tromand'r's been in there for a few minutes already. He may have already started to convince their commander after this show. I have to get up there and make sure Tromand'r can't do any more damage."
"Don't you think Starfire should be going with y-"
"No."
"Robin, what-"
"I said, no," Robin bit out. "I'm going in. Robin out."
Robin slapped the comm unit off…but the conversation was far from over.
'You might be able to block me from the comm, Dick, but you can't block me from your head,' Raven snarled at him telepathically. 'Haven't you listened to a word I've said about Starfire? This is exactly what I warned you would happen, it's beginning to affect your ability to lead this team! You need Starfire up there. That's her people you're going up there to talk to. I don't care what petty little problem is with Starfire; for the last time, GET OVER IT!'
Robin felt the words bite him…but he did not change his mind. He continued onward.
'Ugh…fine. Be an ass. Just don't come crying to me when it gets bitten.'
Raven left his mind, and only his own thoughts remained to accompany him.
Starfire…
His face burned with unnatural anger.
Why didn't you listen…?