(Jump City)

The speeds this car could go where amazing, if only to the newcomer that was in the back seat. She was unlucky enough to lose to Raven in the calling of shotgun, so she'd had to resign herself to hanging her head just out the window, letting the cool breeze sweep her hair around.

She felt much better, having drank the first two cans that she had grabbed, but at the same time it was no substitute for solid food, and it was because of that she was nursing the last shake. Casually taking a loud slurp of it, she glanced over at Beast boy when he chuckled, but turned her attention back to the window. She would still have to remember where she going, and how to get to certain places. It always took her a few tries before she could remember how to get somewhere.

Taking in the city around her as they went flying down streets, the thing that Pearl noticed the most for some reason was that a lot of streetlights where out. They passed a lot of them, of course, but there was still something about it that seemed a little odd. Narrowing her eyes as she watched the metal poles on the sidewalk fly by, she thought for a moment before she simply shrugged and got back to something else: going over her pockets in her mental checklist again.

"Robin and Starfire just checked in." Raven spoke, her head turning slightly to look behind her where Beast boy and Pearl were sitting. "They're having a little issue of their own. It seems that Johnny Rancid is trying to get away with armed robbery. They'll meet up with us when they can."

"Figures." Beast boy sighed, shaking his head as he shifted underneath his safety belt. "Those two are practically a team of their own, anymore."

"Sounds kinda cute to me, in a Romeo and Juliet sort of way." Pearl said with a smirk.

"Romeo and Juliet where star-crossed lovers. They both killed themselves." Raven sighed, rubbing her forehead as she explained, trying not to be annoyed. "How romantic."

"Oh yeah! I never thought of it that way."

As they continued talking, Pearl found her attention drifting elsewhere again. Leaning against the door, she listened to this absentmindedly, her mind fixed on the sound of the wind rushing through her wide open window, as well as watching the city fly by from the unique perspective of more than eighty miles an hour.

"Hey Cyborg! How is it you can get a road that's clear enough to go this fast?" Pearl asked with a grin, letting her arm slip out the window and hang in the airflow.

"Trade secret." He answered back, not taking his eyes off the road as he made a quick change of lanes, taking an exit ramp that would put them in the right direction.

"He's got mad skills!"

"You'll learn that you're much better off if you don't ask these two any questions." Raven answered, her head faced forward as she directed her voice at Pearl.

Beast boy only glared at her in response.

"Raven, can I ask you something?" Pearl questioned, turning to face forward, leaning closer towards the blue cloaked girl in front of her.

"It will have to wait. Look." The girl answered, pointing a delicate finger at the windshield.

Her eyes turning that direction, Pearl was a little surprised to see that there was a bright glow off in the distance farther down the road they had just gotten on. This part of town was mostly factory buildings: manufacturing plants and the occasional research lab, but their where some houses around as well. A few of them where right in the area where the glow was coming from, of course. There was nothing in this area that was more than five or six stories tall, so there was very little to block the view of the horizon.

Her eyes going wide, Pearl realized quickly that it was beginning to look like the sunset was reversed, and was coming back up, the orange glow getting stronger as they got closer.

"You know, nobody told me what this thing is." She asked, glancing around at them, seeing that the other Titans had taken on a more serious look as well.

"I'll tell you when we've put it out." Cyborg answered, his human eye looking angrier than Pearl had seen before.

"I'll hold you to that."

The next few minutes where silent, with only the roaring of the T-cars engine, as they covered the distance between them and the creature. The closer they got the more ready everyone seemed. At this point, you could already hear the sirens of fire trucks and everything else off in the distance. You could already see the flames rising up from some of the taller buildings, but at this time of night, the smoke coming from all of it blended into the dark sky. It couldn't be seen that easily.

It wasn't long before they finally saw it. Coming onto a road that had single story storage buildings on either side of it, they Titans where quickly jarred to a screeching halt as the huge flaming being jumped out onto the street directly in front of them. Cyborg had to lock the brakes to keep from driving straight into it, which sent the car into a screaming twirl, and pressed Pearl against the metal frame of the doors window.

She had only caught a glimpse of what looked like a tree trunk set on fire.

It took her only a few seconds, but just as she came to understand they had stopped she heard Cyborg scream something about everyone getting out. Her mind almost numb as she registered that the others where jumping out of the car before she realized that her hand had already stripped the belt away. Her mind kicking back into gear, Pearl grit her teeth as she pushed her body up, not even bothering to open the door. Gripping the bottom of the window frame, she pushed herself up and out, twisting her body as she leapt out of the car window.

Thud!

Breath was pushed out of her body at the impact, but not painfully so. She landed on her side, luckily enough, falling onto the road with a slight jolt. Her face had scraped the pavement, but before she could even feel it she was up on her feet and trying to see what was going on.

Turning back to the car as she took several steps back, she had just enough time to see a wave of fire pour down on it, an intense flame suddenly sweeping down and bathing the car in an inferno. Crying out, Pearl could only shield her face in futility as the heat from it registered with her, her body suddenly cooking at several hundred degrees. She the skin on her face, legs, and arms begin to burn, and tried to move back more.

Before she could take a step back, however, she felt a large arm wrap around her torso and yank her off her feet. Pulling her along, the arm seemed to haul her through the much cooler air before it drove her to the ground harshly.

She was on her back now, looking up at a scorched gorilla, which quickly turned back into the green skinned Beast boy. He was looked a little charred, the hair on his head smoking slightly, but he patted it out and turned his attention back to her.

"Dudette! That's no way to get a suntan!" He joked, reaching down and gripping her wrist. "Are you okay?"

Tensing her body as she pulled him up, she winced a little as the heat ebbed through her skin, glancing at her hands to see that they where already a scorched red, and realizing her face was probably the same.

"Y-yeah." She answered, relieved to feel that the air suddenly felt much cooler. "I'll heal this really quickly. T-thank you."

Reaching to her face, she felt the cheek that had gotten scraped, relieved to see that it had almost healed already, leaving only a bit of dirt there.

"I'm really getting tired of people wrecking my car!" Cyborg's voice shouted from the other side of the street, turning their attention. "You're going down hard!"

Her hand slapping the holster on her hip, Pearl quickly drew her weapon as her eyes fell on their enemy for the night: a towering figure that stood several stories tall. A thin, dark body that radiated heat from its insides, as the outside of it burned violently. Flames roared on the very surface of its 'flesh', and along with the other fires going on it bathed the whole area in a bright glow. In response to Cyborg, it roared loudly down at them, its breath igniting the air in a plume of flame.

Though Pearl was aiming her gun at it, she found herself at a loss after she was seeing this thing for the first time. This was the first time she'd seen a monster like this in her life, even though she had heard about things like this. The next instant seemed to happen very slowly, as if seconds had become minutes. Beast boy was turning to leap into the air, but it seemed to take forever.

She was suddenly struck with the realization of how insignificant she might truly be in this fight. This thing could probably do so much damage that she might not be able to help anyone at all. She was just a girl who could take away some of the harm people did to one another, as well as take a bit more damage than a normal girl could. She had no real abilities to use offensively. She had no place here.

'Are you afraid?' a voice seemed to speak, in the corner of her mind.

It wasn't until then that she realized her hands were trembling, especially the one with the gun in it. Not just slightly, but violently. She'd come so close to being cooked that it could be chalked up to the fear of that, but it wasn't truly that. She couldn't pin it down, she silently agreed with the question.

'If you are afraid to act, you will be useless.' The voice returned, stating it so matter-of-factly that Pearl found her mind blank for a moment. "If you get past it, you will be more effective than you think."

What could she hope to do, even if she wasn't afraid?

"Titans! Move!" Cyborg shouted, raising his gun arm and readying to fire, it's blue glow gaining strength. Time had seemed to return to normal, and for a moment, Pearl was confused.

She was still shaking, but this time she decided to turn her attention towards the fire creature in front of her.

Gripping her gun tighter, Pearl quickly glanced over her arm towards Cyborg, and a bit of confusion came over her when she realized that Raven was floating there behind the metallic Titan, her purple eye gazing directly at her.

She had no time to think about this, before another wave of flame swept down at them all.