Chapter 5

As soon as she heard the word, Starfire shot herself at Valior, flipping a roundhouse kick at his face. Valior stumbled backward, righting himself and then punching at Starfire, making her drop like a rock for about ten feet before she righted herself.

"you can do better than that Troqqy," Valior mocked, his eyes glowing a sick red color. Starfire clenched her teeth and flew straight at him, punching and kicking and thrashing about. She knocked him over and kicked him so he lost about twenty meters.

"I would have expected more from "Valior"" she said, imitating his voice. Valior growled and shot red laser from his eyes. Starfire shrieked in pain and began falling. The titans stood, shock and horror on their faces. Robin bit his lip,

"Get up Star!" he cried. Starfire gasped and blinked open her eyes, swerving and beginning flying again. She shook her head and Valior just hovered there, laughing his head off. Starfire growled and attempted her starbolts. She saw them form easily but just as she was about to shoot them, they disappeared.

"huh?" she said. As she looked puzzled at her hands, suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her gut as Valior kicked straight in her stomach. She was thrown further out towards the sea about fifteen yards, swiveled and attacked again, kicking and punching as hard as she could. Valior fell about a meter, before kicking off the air and slamming into Starfire, knocking her into the sea below. Robin struggled not to jump in after her. Cyborg grabbed his shoulder to make sure.

"no interfering, remember?" he reminded. Robin took in a breath and let it out slowly. Then there was a shot of purple, orange and red flying out of the water and the titans cheered hard. Starfire shot a green laser from her eyes, knocking Valior down a couple of meters. Starfire shot down after him, attacking and punching while Valior resisted as hard as he could, not noticing that they were both falling.

"Star! Fly!" Beastboy yelled. Starfire looked up, but too late, as they both smacked straight into the ground. All Starfire saw for endless meters was rock, dirt and Valior as they crashed. The titans ran over to the hole were Starfire fell. For a while nothing happened, Robin didn't want to wait any longer. He had to continuously tell himself she was fine. When suddenly she flew up, and landed next to them, with Valior in her grip. She shook herself off and coughed a few times, still waterlogged.

"great job Starfire!" Cyborg said as she began to collapse. The titans ran to her side, watching as she pulled herself up.

"I am, okay. Valior requires help more than I do," she explained, gesturing to the knocked out Valior. Cyborg took Valior from Starfire and brought him inside while the others helped Starfire.

"are you sure you're okay?" Robin asked. Starfire smiled at him.

"did I not promise I would be?" she responded. Robin grinned. Beastboy patted Starfire on the back.

"dude! You totally kicked his butt!" he praised. Starfire giggled.

"congratulations," Raven muttered. She and Beastboy went ahead to check on Cyborg and Valior while Starfire walked with Robin towards the tower. She smiled at the titans but then her face turned to a serious expression. Robin frowned.

"what's up?" he asked. Starfire shrugged and glanced at his face briefly.

"my starbolts did not work, I could have been hurt badly if I was not lucky," she explained, looking angrily at her hands. Robin thought and stayed back for a second, before running back to walk in step with her.

"you want a checkup or something?" he asked. Starfire shrugged again.

"that could help," she said. Robin smiled again.

"I'll go with the others," he began. Starfire grabbed his arm lightly, making him turn.

"thank you for believing in me Robin," she muttered, "I could not have succeeded without you," she added, briefly kissing his cheek and flying in. Robin watched her leave. He touched his cheek and blushed lightly.

"so?" Starfire asked, her arms being scanned again and again. She looked up at the screen above her. It had her pulse and her temperature. Nothing seemed to turn up differently than usually for a while. Raven was meditating next to her, checking for bad spirits and Robin and Cyborg were checking the results.

"I don't know what's happening, scan says your all clear," Cyborg evaluated. Raven stopped meditating, a serious look plastered on her face.

"I felt something, and your aura is a light gray color, not a good sign," she explained. "do you think it's an after effect of your weird insecure phase?" she added.

"no, it has never happened before, not since I was very small," Starfire whimpered lightly. She glanced at Robin for reassurance, but he just blushed lightly, smiled small and turned away. Beastboy trotted into the room, a casual expression on his face. Starfire looked up at him.

"how is Valior?" she asked. Beastboy shrugged.

"out cold, but that's it, I hope he leaves soon," he responded. The others nodded. "so what's going on here?" he asked. Robin tossed him the results. Beastboy nodded, evaluating carefully,

"I don't get it," he said, tossing the clipboard back to Robin.

"it's something to do with the weird attack she had last night I bet," Raven mumbled. Beastboy nodded.

"do we know how to fix it?" he asked. The others shook their heads. "I bet Valior could tell us, she was attacked just after her challenge right?" he offered. Starfire considered this, bewildered since it could be a possibility. She hugged her knees up to her chest. The others watched her for a minute before speaking.

"do you wanna go talk to him?" Robin asked. Starfire smiled but shook her head.

"I believe I have infuriated him enough," she explained. Robin nodded and he, Raven and Cyborg left the room. Beastboy smiled at her, coming over and sitting next to her.

"you did great, Star," he said. Starfire smiled again.

"thank you, I am glad I managed to defeat him," she responded. Beastboy grinned.

"you know, Robin almost dove in after you when you fell," he informed. Starfire blushed and twiddled her hair around her finger.

"he is kind, he would have done it for any of us," she tried to cover it up. Beastboy chuckled.

"come on, you know he's madly in love with you, and I know you are too, you really aren't very good at hiding it," he told her. Starfire felt her face flush, she bit her lip and sighed, defeated.

"I know, I cannot help it, but I will never be able to tell him, I will not ever be able to do the "going out" he is to, shy," she confided, embarrassed and not sure if Beastboy was the right person to tell.

"don't worry, he'll come around, after a bit," Beastboy assured, putting a hand on his shoulder. Suddenly there was a massive explosion and both Beastboy and Starfire fell to the floor.

Of course, this is my life, of course this will happen, Starfire thought as she heard three earsplitting screams.