96. For the Queen of Strings part 7 Final
"You're loyalty to me as a royal subject has been most admirable, obese one," the Puppet King nodded towards Control Freak as the two stood besides the richly attired Starfire on the edge of the launch platform. "Though it pains me that I had to choose not to mind control you, I am rather amazed by the success of your supportive endeavors regardless."
"Yeah…well…," the fat fiend shrugged and smiled aside towards Robin, Sandy, and I down below. "I only sent him about fifty billion fan mail letters. If George Lucas was a mind controlling despot, he'd be helping me take over the world too!"
Robin frowned and Sandy sighed.
I struggled in my restraints.
"The last of the infiltrators has been accosted…..," the Puppet King paced slowly towards his 'beloved'. "And as such…the ceremony shall now complete itself." He gently took Starfire's hand, and she responded to him. "My precious love, I shall soon take you far away from here. You will no longer feel tainted by this blasphemous world. Is this not tempting??"
"I am happy to join you in the destiny in the stars…," Starfire droned. A zombie Titan. A doomed bride.
"Whatever happens…," Sandy whispered from her side of the bar they were tied to. "We must not let them kiss!"
Robin gritted his teeth, "If you were any more obvious, I'd have him kiss you instead."
All that time, I was squinting. The lights were murdering my unshaded eyes. It was a hassle to keep my lids open, much less worry about my hands being tied. I tried on a couple of occasions then and there to morph my limbs into smoke form and swiftly teleport out of the restraints. But I was too beaten and worn out from my battle with Control Freak in the reactor core chamber to do hardly half of anything.
Control Freak held Starfire's hand in one grasp and then he pulled out his scepter in another. With a click, he summoned the hovering platform which he and his mind controlled subjects had forged at the last second. It throttled over on quiet jets and stood in mid-air while the bride and groom stepped onto it and rose higher and higher into the air. But they didn't ascend completely to the loading dock of the T-Sub strapped to the boosters. Instead, they hovered over the zombified 'royal subjects'. The Puppet King raised his scepter into the air and it glowed.
There were cheers and applause. Richly attired ladies and gentlemen clapped and chanted: "Long Live the Queen of Strings!!" The guards rhythmically clanked the blunt ends of their spears into the floor, creating a rich pounding noise that accompanied the fanfare.
"The Destiny In the Stars is most sacred and special!!" the Puppet King preached. "For far away from this world, the cold justice of space leaves very little for ignorance and sin!! I respect the Queen with all my heart!! And there…the two of us shall know no pain, no suffering, and surely no people! Our departure shall be followed by a rising sun! And that sun shall bring to you your retribution!"
Zombie cheers. Vocal admiration. A throng of blue-eyed golems cheered the newlyweds on.
Except for one who cleared his throat rather rudely.
"A-A-Ahem….."
Robin and Sandy sweatdropped.
I craned my neck, curious.
The Puppet King's googly eyes zeroed in on the fat fanboy and glared. "What is it…………ally?"
The obese one obscenely grinned. "Doesn't the one hundred and thirty first Rule of Acquisition entitle me to a consolation for my recent efforts."
"I do not know of such a rule…."
"Me neither," Control Freak chuckled. "I've been in prison too long and haven't been able to collect all my DS9 dvds." His face then turned serious as he uttered: "I would like my reward now. And when I say 'now', I mean 'no more than a nanosecond after the last time I freakin' said 'now'."
Groaning, the Puppet King shook his googly face. "You are most persistent in your greed. Very well. I shall grant you that which you have earned."
We all watched as—in an eerie fashion—the Puppet King reached a hand to his chest, pulled open a 'hatch' of sorts in his torso, and dug deep into his very own body. He fished around, clasped his fingers around something, and then tossed that something ten feet down at Control Freak.
Beaming happily, the fat fanboy caught the object and held it before his eyes with a satisfied sigh. "The heart of a wooden boy. The unseen wooden organ of the silent film marionette of old! So polished and pure…like the 'Puppet King' was always meant to be in his endless pursuit of Mary Lou's royal happiness!"
"You are quite the enthusiast of my wide screen exploitation," the Puppet King remarked. "While I find your level of interest fascinating, it matters very little to me now. Take your 'prize' and leave the Tower. Leave the City, in fact. Go as far away as you need to before the 'sun rises'. Then and only then can you enjoy the fruits of having captured my 'heart'. For now I grow a new heart with my beloved Queen. A new life and a new, royal destiny."
Control Freak laughed.
Puppet King narrowed his eyes. "What is so amusing?"
"For the love of Boba Fett! I didn't need to keep your stupid turd of a heart!" Control Freak cackled. "All I wanted to do was hold it up close for once! It's antique, you moron!! That means a cheesy fingered nerd like myself can't possibly keep it in my house…..or jail cell."
"But…."
"But nothing!" the fat one smiled. "Don't get me wrong, Chucky. I've gotten the best reward I could have gotten in a long time!" He flung his arms about, smiling. "I got to waltz around the inside of the Titans' Tower!" He gestured towards the doors leading to the hallways. "I got to see the evidence room firsthand and be reunited with my tools of the trade!" He walked over to the edge of the platform and pointed down at me. "I got to wail royally on my favorite shinobi's butt!"
I sweatdropped.
Control Freak turned about and smiled up at the Puppet King. "And I got to hold a piece of the greatest icon of silent movie obscurity ever to slither out of the supernatural spawning pool," he palmed the wooden 'heart' and sighed happily. "Yes……y-yes….I do believe my work here is done." He raised a finger. "But….," his cheesy teeth showed in a ridiculous grin. "What use would these happy thoughts be if my head has been evaporated and I'm kinda-sorta not able to think them?"
With that said, he whipped out his remote, spun it a few times, then zapped it towards the lights overhead. "HA!!!"
A ruby light shot up into the electric lamps.
The Puppet King gasped. "No!!!"
FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The lights overloaded. A huge pulse of blinding proportion flooded the launchpad and spread with a huge strobe throughout the rest of the Tower, covering all interiors.
I clenched my black eyes shut as tightly as I could. I wanted to scream. The edges of my lenses burned so badly. And yet, I was able to weather it. If not for the last-second way through which I preserved my optics…then for the feeling of elation that quite possibly meant…..
When the brightness died back down, Control Freak stood in an outrageously heroic pose with his remote twirling in his grip and a grin on his face.
The blue-eyed citizens….were blue-eyed no more. That is to say, the glowing signature of the Puppet King's possession left their optics. They groaned and sighed collectively and shook their heads, gradually snapping out of it. The guards dropped their spears, the engineers dropped their tools, and the royal guests blushed at the modes of suits or dresses that they were wearing.
"No….," the Puppet King muttered. His googly eyes rattled as he perched next to Starfire on the hovering platform and looked down at his slipping grip of the hundred or so souls. "No…no…no…no…no!!!"
"Yes…yes….yes….yes…yes!!" Puppet King laughed.
Sandy was speechless.
Robin and I exchanged glances.
"You….you betrayed me!!" the Puppet King growled.
"Yeah…I do that," Control Freak winked a crusty eye. "It's like the Khitomer Massacre. Only, more wood finish. I couldn't allow you to just run off and marry that chick of an alien girl. Heck…even I could make her my bride with one good zap of my remote at the right time and place! But I wouldn't want that either. Since when did married superhero babes have posters of them still made and sold at Suncoast?!"
"Infidel!!"
"You know…that's starting to get really old," Control Freak sweatdropped. "And that means a lot coming from me."
"You will not survive the rising sun!!" the demonic doll exclaimed.
"Oh….what?! You mean the overloading reactor core??" Control Freak raised a hairy eyebrow. "Pffft!! Like the one I zapped back into normal functioning parameters soon after I took shinobi to school?!?!"
I blushed and chuckled breathily.
Puppet King's jaw was dropped. "All along….you were merely deceiving me…."
"Hey…what can I say?" Control Freak shrugged.
Over a ways, Commissioner Decker stood with Robin's utility belt slung over his shoulder (as it was his possessed duty to look after it). "Nnnghhh…where am I?" he shook his head. He glanced down at his eighteenth century frills. "And what in shit's name am I wearing?"
SNAP!
Control Freak grabbed the utility belt. "A gown to the main event!!" the fanboy exclaimed. He marched over towards the edge of the launchpad. "The Titan Underdogs versus the King of Warped Wood!" He simultaneously kicked Myrkblade over and tossed the utility belt down before zapping the remote control at us and freeing us of our restraints. "A battle for a pretty alien redhead who makes Project Bluebook look like a waste of time and sperm!"
We stood up, gathered our tools, and looked up at the fat fiend in astonishment.
He smirked and folded his arms. "What?? Didn't I say I'd help y'all for a reward?!" He smiled and winked down at us. But the wink was especially cast down at me, the 'shinobi'.
I stared up at him with a dropped jaw. I thought of how he got here….and how he beat me up royally in the reactor core room. All for this…or all for nothing? I had a stupid grin on my face as I slowly shook my head in frustrated awe.
POW!!! CLANK!!!!
Robin fired his grappling hook. He raised himself and Sandy safely onto the main platform. Frowning, he whipped out his staff and extended it as I blurred up onto the platform from below with Myrkblade unsheathed.
Sandy joined us in an angry march towards the hovering Puppet King and Starfire.
"Your pageant is over," Robin snarled. "I'm sure there's a good wood chipper out their with your filthy name on it. But I'll go with just arresting your splintery ass and calling it even." The Boy Wonder's frown dissipated slightly as he glanced over with his eyemask and addressed his Tamaranian companion. "Star…you can come down now."
"…………"
"………S-Star??"
No response. The redhead's eyes were still blue. Still glowing. And she was still standing next to the groom-to-be.
Robin gasped. "Starfire!!! You're---"
"She is MINE!" the Puppet King growled. He lowered the two of them to the ground twenty feet away. Starfire stepped gracefully off the hovering platform as the Puppet King centered himself on the device. "You infidels were far too reckless to assume that you could just steal her out from under my loving gaze!!" His scepter glowed. The hovering platform glowed. Everything about him glowed. Suddenly, in bizarre Transformers style the metal joints and limbs of the platform shaped themselves around the Puppet King so that—suddenly—a cybernetic marionette terminator loomed before everyone. He now stood the average height of the human, with heavy arms and threateningly thick skin of metal.
"Um…..," one of the citizens possessed to be an 'engineer' gulped. "D-Did we just help him build that thing??"
"And am I wearing a hoopskirt?!?!" gasped some random lady from the crowd.
"Why is Starfire still possessed?!" Robin gasped.
Sandy's goggled eyes blinked. "She was the first to be mind controlled…."
"Huh?!?!"
"In the Evidence Room, remember?! She was the first to be mind controlled and it wasn't by normal means of the Puppet King's manipulation!"
"So she's still bound by the second phase of the curse!!"
"And that means her only way of being freed is…."
"By a kiss."
Robin and Sandy looked over.
Control Freak smirked. "Funny how life throws a curve ball…WITH ARSENIC!!"
"YOU!!" Puppet King pointed with a bark. "Ignorant whelp!! You will be the first to taste the King's fury!!"
The mechanized Puppet King got into a crouched position. Thrusters erupted in his brand new limbs' structure and throttled him through the crowd of gasping, shocked citizens and straight towards the fat fiend with a metal fist flying.
Control Freak smiled. "Dude…..that suit of yours is !!!"
SMACK!!!!!
The fanboy fell down hard and cold. His remote flew out of his hand and slid across the platform floor. Two richly attired ladies looked down at it, uncertain.
SWOOOOSH!!!!
The metal-suited Puppet King flew over and landed with his foot sailing through the remote. CRACK!!!!
"EEEEK!!" the innocent ladies shrieked and fled towards the doors.
Puppet King's googly eyes shook. His mech body spun around and--
POW!!!
SWOOOOOSH!!! A grappling hook cord encircled him.
Robin gritted his teeth and pulled the grappling hook launcher and the cord tight. Without looking he told Sandy: "Go to Starfire! Keep her safe!!" A pause. "Noir?!!?!"
CHHHHING!!!
I gritted my teeth, ran alongside the length of the cord, and struck the anchored Puppet King hard with Myrkblade at the end of his anchorage.
SMACK!!!!
Sparks flew. The metal body was tough.
"Pull your own strings!!" the wooden soul exclaimed. He twisted his body mightily with a mechanical whur. The cord was yanked. Robin's body was flung towards mine.
"AAAAAAAAH!!!!"
WHUMP!!!
The Boy Wonder and I went tumbling. Myrkblade slid away on the floor.
The Puppet King flexed his metal-reinforced limbs and was about to turn towards Starfire---
SMACK!!!!
Decker's fist flew across the metal body and actually managed to punch the Puppet King towards the ground.
"Not bad for John-Freakin'-Hancock!!" Decker flexed his aching fist and glanced down at us. "As much as I'd like to know why I'm at a Paul Revere look-a-like contest…I think it's best that we leave the explanations for later, huh brats??"
I smirked tiredly at him.
Suddenly a hand reached out and offered me my sword.
"I believe this is yours, son."
I glanced up.
Blake Glover handed me Myrkblade, hilt first. He was flanked by two smiling citizens. "Go kick some butt for us. I think it's your department."
I couldn't help it. I smirked. I grabbed Myrkblade, blurred up to my feet, and streaked over at the Puppet King.
The mech-bodied doll was dizzily getting up--
SWOOOOSH-SLASH!!!
Sparks flew off its metal body from my attack.
I let out a silent scream and spun at him with a twirling slash of Myrkblade.
CL-CLANK!!!!
He deflected me back with a growl and a shaking forearm.
Then Robin swung in from some mysterious location via grappling hook and struck his metal-tipped boots into the reinforced puppet's gut.
SMACK!!!
Robin dropped to the platform floor and whipped out his staff. He lunged at the Puppet King with a growl. "YAAAUGH!!"
I joined in with Myrkblade, and soon the King had two agile heroes flipping and sidestepping and stabbing and slashing with rod and blade on either side of him. The Puppet King swung and spun his loose metal limbs. He kept us at bay. Delivering a punch or a kick or a thruster-induced shove here and there. The scepter in his grasp sparked randomly. The aura of his cursed nature could be felt by all. The crowd of post-possessed citizens watched from afar. Some cheering us on. Others trembling.
In the meantime, Sandy desperately shook Starfire's arms and shoulders.
"Miss Starfire?! Miss Starfire'm?!" the volunteer's goggled eyes blinked nervously and she bit her lip. "Wake up!! Snap out of it!!"
Starfire droned. "Are you the ring bearer?"
Sandy sweatdropped. "I-I'd end the curse right now if only I didn't like Orlando Bloom so much."
Amidst the fight, the Puppet King saw his 'beloved' so close to Sandy and gasped. "No!! You will not interrupt the ceremony!!"
"We're having a little ceremony right here!!" Robin shouted amidst kicking the Puppet King's metal legs and trying to trip him. "My foot getting married to your ass!!"
"ENOUGH!!" the Puppet King growled and flexed the suit's metal arms. "I have no time for this conflict!!" He shoved Robin back with a hard foot.
"OOF!"
I growled mutely and slashed Myrkblade down. SWOOOSH-CLANK!!!
I struck nothing but platform floor. The Puppet King had jumped back. He lunged with two fists.
WHUMP!!!
I was pushed back, where I tripped flatly over Robin's back.
"Nnngh!!"
"!!!!!"
I collapsed atop the Boy Wonder.
In the meantime, the Puppet King let loose his suit's thrusters and rocketed towards Starfire.
"Eeek!!" Sandy exclaimed and tried desperately to pull Starfire away.
SWOOOOSH!!!
The Puppet King blurred over and shoved the volunteer aside.
THWAP!!
"Ouchie!!" Sandy landed on her butt.
"My beloved and I have a destiny to make!!" the doll barked. He scooped Starfire's shimmering form in a metal arm and literally ran up the side of the support structure of the lattice holding the T-Sub and its rocket boosters in place. "In the stars!!"
Robin and I stood up.
"We must not let him get away with her!!"
I nodded. I charaded a 'rocket taking off' with my hand.
"No, stupid!!" Robin retorted. "He might kiss her!!"
I recoiled…thought about that….then gasped in horror.
"Come on!!" Robin shot a grappling hook and soared upwards towards the spiderweb of metal works.
I twirled Myrkblade as onlookers gasped and muttered. I blurred my legs and ran up the structure in a fashion identical to the Puppet King.
The mind-controlling despot in question carried the alien girl up the lattices and landed firmly on the metal gantry leading to the loading zone of the T-Sub.
"We must make haste, my love…"
He ran straight ahead.
CLANK!!!
Robin landed in front of him from his grappling hook. He narrowed his eyes, spun his staff at ready, and snarled. "I'm thinking you're gonna remain celibate."
The Puppet King's googly eyes glared. He set down Starfire, flexed his metal prosthetics, and charged Robin atop the gantry tower with a fist. "RRRAAUGH!!!"
Robin gritted his teeth. He ducked one punch, sidestepped two more, and backflipped out of the impending stomp of the Puppet King's foot.
CLANG!!!!
Robin slid back a few feet, gripped his staff, and came charging back at the mech-suited marionette with a shout and swing of his rod.
SMACK!!!
Robin's aim was dead on. His jab lunged through the opening in the metal framework of the suit and clunked against the wooden skull of the puppet. A tiny splinter or two flew.
Robin retracted his staff, spun, and struck low to the Puppet King's metal legs.
THWAP!!!
The villain was knocked down to his metal rear end.
CLANK!!
Robin jumped up, flipped in the air, and came down with a heavy slash of his staff. "RRRRAAAUGH!!!"
The Puppet King's metal extensions gripped the support rails of the metal gantry as he lifted his legs up and met with Robin's boots. He pushed off.
Robin was sent flying backwards. He flipped and landed in a perch on the side of the T-Sub.
SWOOOSH!!
In the meantime, I blurred up finally and landed on the far side of the gantry besides Starfire. I took a breath and tried coaxing the shimmering beauty back down a tall stairwell to the launchpad platform.
But the Puppet King swiveled around, saw this, and gasped. The thrusters to his suit went into gear. He soared at us with metal arms outstretched, red with friction in the air. "You will not touch my beloved!!"
PHOOOOM!!!
I gasped and was knocked aside as the Puppet King swept up Starfire, reached the edge of the gantry at the end of his thrust, and leapt into the spiderweb lattices of the support structure. He climbed and scurried up the metal beams like a cockroach.
Robin held his breath. He whipped out another grappling hook, let loose-POW!!CLANK!!-and swung over the gantry and into the lattices just a rung or two above the Puppet King. CLAMP!!!
The mech-suited villain looked up.
"HIYAAA!!!" Robin slid down with a kung fu kick.
SMACK!!!
He knocked the Puppet King free of his grasp.
The villain gasped and grabbed a piece of metal framework with one metal hand.
Starfire went falling to the launchpad far below.
Robin kept sailing down and snatched her up in mid air.
He shot one hand out and grabbed onto a metal cross beam.
The Puppet King glared. He let go of his grip, fell, back-flipped in his descent, and flew into Robin and Starfire.
WHUMP!!!!
"AUGH!!!" Robin shouted and went flying down to the distant launchpad floor below.
The King snatched Starfire back up and went clamoring into the depths of the support structure, swinging from one metal beam to another.
The falling Robin rummaged desperately for another grappling hook.
YANK!!!!
He gasped as suddenly he was no longer falling.
He looked up.
Myrkblade had skewered through the back of his costume, between his neck and cape. I was perched on the side of the lattices with my sword stretched out in the knick of time to 'catch' him.
Robin gulped. "Do you make house calls?"
I blinked at him with my naked black eyes and simpered.
He pointed towards the Puppet King with his thumb. "Going up?"
I nodded. Straining, I 'flung' him into the metal structure. He flew free of the sword's skewer and grabbed ahold of the metal beams. Immediately he was climbing and scurrying after the metal-suited villain.
I followed with a blur of smoking limbs.
The Puppet King was three-fourths of the way to the top of the structure. From there, he could leap down and reach the T-Sub. And the liftoff could take place without a hitc--
SMACK!!!
A foot flew into his back.
He stumbled forward. The metal halo to his skull struck a bar. CLANG!!!
He grunted and lost grip of Starfire.
SWOOOOSH!!!
I blurred to a perching position beneath him and gently caught the blue-eyed girl.
From where he dangled halfway over a cross-beam, the Puppet King glanced over his metal-laced shoulder.
Robin hung over him by a bar directly above.
"Wouldn't you be safer with strings?!"
SWOOOSH!! The Boy Wonder dove.
WHAM!!!
The two went spiraling downwards through the metal webbing. They pinballed off a few bars roughly—CLANG!CLANG!CONK!—then sprawled over a thick beam running the diameter of that height of the support structured.
The Puppet King lay precariously on his back.
The Boy Wonder knelt atop his chest and started pummeling his gloved fists into his wooden face inside.
WHAP!! WHAP!!
The Puppet King's metal legs flung up.
Robin was tossed off him with a cry. He raised his hands, grabbed a bar overhead, and swiveled up so that he perched on it. He looked over his shoulder down at the Puppet King.
The villain stood up, gripped a nearby bar fiercely, broke it off—SNAP!!—and flung it at Robin with a grunt.
SWOOOOSH!!!
Robin jumped straight up as the bar clanked off the metal with a shower of sparks. He twirled around in midair, whipped out a fan of birdarangs, and flung them down at the villain.
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!
The Puppet King growled and swung his metal laced forearm.
CLANK!!!
He deflected the birdarangs.
Two flew back at Robin.
Three sailed back down at Starfire and I.
Robin flipped out of the way. The birdarangs struck the bars all around him.
I held my breath and turned the girl in my arms and myself into smoke form just quickly enough for the birdarangs to sail through.
Robin ran along a beam, grabbed a vertical bar, swung around on it, let go, and went sailing boots-first into the Puppet King.
WHAP!!!
"OOF!!"
The Puppet King plummeted through the sea of metal bars. He flew down past Starfire and I. At the last second, he reached a blind metal extension out and gripped onto a bar two rungs beneath us.
He struggled to keep his suit hanging in its grasp. But when he saw me and Starfire in my arms, he snarled and flipped his mech-suited body up with an impossible forward flip into a jump kick.
I held my breath, held Starfire close to my chest, and jumped onto another beam.
CLANK!!!
The Puppet King landed where I had been and pounced again.
So I jumped again.
From beam to beam we chased each other.
A huge, vertical beam blocked my path ahead.
I held my breath, blurred both Starfire and I into smoke form, and teleported through the metal.
CLANK!!! The Puppet King wasn't so lucky. He growled and punched a dent in the vertical beam so that he could continue climbing after me.
And that's when I reached the edge of the lattice.
I teetered over the edge, gasping for breath. Trying not to lose grip of Starfire's body. Trying not to plummet over--
WOOOOOSH-WHUMP!!!!
The Puppet King sailed in from behind and kicked me hard into the open air. A half-blink later, he shot his hand out and grabbed Starfire by her wrist. Her blue eyes remained unblinking and unemotional as he yanked her back into his grip and spun around to find his way back to the T-Sub--
SWOOOSH!! CLANK!!! Robin swung in and kicked the Puppet King hard in the chest.
Again, Starfire went flying as her holder plummeted out into empty nothingness.
Robin swiftly—gently—grabbed her and teetered back safely onto the metal lattices. "Whew…."
In the meantime……..I was falling.
"!!!!!!!"
I twirled in air. My black eyes squinted as my bandanna-free hair whipped about.
I stabbed Myrkblade into the metal structure blurring past my side.
CLANK!!! SNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! Sparks flew as my blade dug harder and harder into the metal. Friction slowed me down to a standstill. I panted. I looked up.
The Puppet King's flailing body fell down along the length of the booster rockets.
I smirked.
……and then one of his metal limbs found a metal tube hanging from a service device attached via crane to one of the rockets.
I frowned.
CLANK!!! SWOOOOSH!!! The Puppet King's end of the tube snapped free. He swung down, across the length of open air, up, and launched his body back onto the metal spiderweb roughly twenty feet below Robin's current position. He started laboriously climbing back up to try and regain his 'bride'.
I groaned, rolled my black eyes, and dug out Myrkblade so that I could scurry up and try and finish this fray once and for all.
In the meantime, Robin jumped and leapt from beam to beam with the neutrally compliant Starfire in his arms. He couldn't help but hold her a bit tighter than I ever would, as his very actions was determining her ultimate destiny; either with a cursed partner or with the freedom of her soul.
The Boy Wonder was approaching the metal stairwell…when right on cue, the Puppet King jumped up and uppercutted his face with a metal 'foot'.
SMACK!!!!
"UGH!!!" Robin stumbled back but bravely kept his balance despite the weight of Starfire in his arms or the pain from a bruised nose.
The Puppet King raised his metal fists and growled. "Give me my beloved back…"
"She's not yours, freak."
"Nor is she yours!!" the Puppet King snarled. His googly eyes were practically red. "All of these months she's thought about you. She's admired you. She's worried for your very well-being. And did you once return her affection??"
Robin's eyemask went crooked. "What in the Hell are you babbling about?!"
"I am not babbling!!" the Puppet King pointed. "My dearest Queen took care of me every morning! She showed me boundless affection in the very prison you tossed me in! And did I feel sorry for myself once?! Not at all! I felt sorry for her! Because there was nobody in this ignorant City that she could talk to but me! Even when surrounded by so-called-friends, I was the only one she could truly confide in! I was precious to her! While YOU and your FRIENDS were apathetic and selfish!"
"All you know about Starfire you know from some wyrd-ass doll dressing session she invented as a pastime," Robin grumbled, holding the Tamaranian closer and glaring at the supernatural maniac. "You were never there with her and her TRUE friends! You were never there to see her smile! To see her happy! To see her triumph over adversity! And to even see her experience pain or getting mad at us and everyone working it out!!"
"I don't believe you….," the Puppet King hissed. "This is all about you and her!!"
"What?!?!" Robin cackled. "She's my best friend!! I just want her to have a safe future! Away from you!!"
"And with YOU instead, infidel!!" the Puppet King took a threatening step forward on his beam. "Isn't that right??"
Robin stuttered. "I……I-I…."
"Well?!?!" the villain raised his metal fists.
Robin gulped. A bead of sweat fell down his forehead. But when he looked over the Puppet King's shoulders, he saw a figure in the shadows coming to life. A ghost in the attic.
"I'm not possessive like you….," Robin sneered. "In fact…Starfire's not just a best friend to me. But to everyone. Everyone good. That doesn't count you, asshole."
"You have blasphemed our royal matrimony for the last time….," the Puppet King growled.
Robin snuck a hand into his utility belt and pulled out a grappling hook. "Damn straight." He grinned. "Noir!!!"
I took a breath and blurred over bars and beams and rungs towards the back of the Puppet King.
Robin stretched his arms out with Starfire and the grappling hook. "Tradeoff!!!"
Smoke danced out of my eyes.
I tossed up Myrkblade.
I leapt into the Puppet King's backside.
My body teleported murkingly through him while my sword soared overhead.
Like black steam, I soared towards Robin's body.
He paused his own breath and held up Starfire.
I solidified just enough to snatch her and the grappling hook. Together, we teleported through Robin, materialized on a bar beyond him, and leapt off the metal support entirely. POW!!! I shot the grappling hook out and swung to salvation with the alien girl in my arm.
….and Robin caught Myrkblade.
SW-SWISH!! The Boy Wonder twirled it, smiled, and charged at the Puppet King. "HA!!!"
SWACK!!! He swung my weapon across the metal suit of the villain like a baseball bat.
"AUGH!!!"
He then spun and more-or-less jabbed the point of the blade deep into the metal thigh of the suit.
CLUNK!!!
He gritted his teeth and twisted the wooden blade.
A wire popped free and sparked.
The Puppet King lurched to his left.
Robin pulled out Myrkblade and brought his own leg up in a twirling high-kick.
"HAAA!!!"
SMACK!!!
The wooden head of the Puppet King rattled around inside his suit.
Robin held Myrkblade horizontally and shoved his entire weight into the villain's chest.
WHUMP!!
The King fell and pinballed off the rungs and bars beneath them violently. C LANG!! SMACK!!! WHANG!! WHAM!!
Robin twirled my sword, jumped, and performed a plummeting jump kick down through the vertical tunnel of lattices. "HAAAAAAA!!!!"
SMACK!!!
His metal-laced boot struck hard into the villain's chest. And he started pummeling the fiend senselessly.
In the meantime…
SWIIIIIIIIISH!!!!
I lowered Starfire and I down the height of the launchbay with the grappling hook. As I let loose the full extent of the cord's slack, we twirled awkwardly in our descent, making me dizzy. Though I was gripping the grappling hook launcher with my metal hand, I couldn't help but feel a great deal of strain in supporting the weight of both myself and the 'bride'. I almost wished I was half as good with Robin's grappling hook as he was with my sword on this impromptu exchange.
I looked down beneath my dangling feet and saw Sandy, Blake Glover, and Commissioner Decker gathering about with a few others beneath us. They waved their arms and cheered me on in the descent….to bring Starfire to safety.
"A-Almost there, sir!"
"Come on, Mr. Noir!!"
"Almost got her, kid!!"
I smiled.
YANK!!
My black eyes bulged. I looked up at the reason for my sudden lurching. The grappling cord had reached the extent of its slack.
I bit my lip.
So did Sandy…looking up through her goggles. "Do we have a booboo?"
I glanced at her funny. I was in no position to hand-sign.
"You're not too high!" Decker said. "If you drop the alien broad, we might be able to catch her!"
I raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry! We'll catch her!" Glover nodded.
I glanced at Starfire. Her blue eyes glowed and stared right through me. I bit my lip…again.
There had to have been another option….
Meanwhile, back up in the lattices…
Robin was continually beating the termites out of the Puppet King. He raised Myrkblade and prepared to pry the wooden puppet out of the metal suit like walnut fillings.
The Puppet King growled and kicked up with his metal limbs.
THWUMP!!!
Robin flew off of him. The Boy Wonder flipped in mid air and landed with a slide across the length of a beam across some space. He growled and leapt at the Puppet King with a downward slash of Myrkblade.
The villain got up and blocked with a metal forearm.
CLANK!!
Sparks flew.
The Puppet King punched with his other hand. "NNNGH!!!"
WHUMP!!
Robin backed up dizzily. Myrkblade lingered beneath him.
CLAMP!!!!
The Puppet King stuck the blade to the metal beam beneath them with his foot.
Robin pulled and tugged.
Myrkblade wouldn't bulge.
The Puppet King's googly eyes rattled as he raised two arms together to crush Robin's skull.
The Titan leader frowned. He stretched his other hand out. SNRKKKT!! His metal rod suddenly extended.
"….." the King froze.
SWOOOOSH-WHANG!!!
Robin struck him hard across the metal helmet.
The villain backed up, his foot coming off of Myrkblade.
Robin twirled both the sword and his staff and spun at the Puppet King across the beam with rapid jabs and slashes of both bludgeons interchangingly.
CLANG!!! SNKKKTTT!!!! SMACK!!! CRACK!!! WHANG!!!
The Puppet King's metal suit shook and jolted from each impact. Sparks flew and the wooden soul on the inside rattled about violently.
At one point, Robin swung both Myrkblade and his staff onto opposite sides of the metal helmet's 'neck'. The Puppet King was pinned in place. Robin gritted his teeth, anchored himself to the pressure of the bludgeons to the metal cranium, and swung his legs up to encircle the suit's 'waist'. He then released his weapons, acrobatically bent backwards, and stuck both the sword and rod into the ground. They acted as a fulcrum as he bent his entire body and swung the Puppet King with his legs over him and plunged the villain madly down the support structure.
SWOOOOOOSH-CLANG!!!
The Puppet King hit a beam hard.
The scepter flew out of his grasp.
He gasped in horror. "N-No!!"
Robin sweated and looked with mixed confusion and fear.
SWOOOOOSH!!!
The scepter flew down.
I was slowly lowering Starfire with my free hand down by her arm towards the group of people below with their hands upstretched.
"We got her!"
"You can drop her now!"
"You can—"
BONK!!!!
The scepter ricocheted off my skull, sparking.
If I had pupils, I'd have gone crosseyed.
Needless to say, both my grip of both the grappling hook handle and Starfire was utterly lost.
FWOOOOOSH!!!
Decker, Glover, and a few other men awkwardly caught the alien girl in her shimmering garb.
"Noir!!" Sandy exclaimed.
I was twirling awkwardly towards the floor at a wrong angle. I drifted with murking limbs towards the support structure. RIIIIP!!! My combat fatigues got caught in a sharp piece of metal jutting out. I gasped and found myself hanging upside down by my pantleg. The blood rushed to my head and my black hair hung like a horsetail.
CL-CLANK!!!! The scepter fell hard to the ground. It cracked a little and sparked.
The Puppet King's wooden jaw shook.
Robin's eyemask narrowed.
Sandy gasped. "Uh oh!!"
"Uh oh what?!?!" Decker asked, sitting Starfire down on the ground and dusting his hands off.
Sandy pointed at the scepter. "Th-That wand of the Puppet King's!! It's in tune to the spiritual energies in this room!! With it damaged and yet still running on power….that means…."
"Huh?!?!" Decker looked at the wand. His face fell. "Ohhhhhh you've got to be shittin' me—"
FLASH!!!!
I blinked.
Things were no longer bright. And what's more, I was no longer hanging upside down.
I looked at my hands. They were older. Drier. And the sleeves I was wearing had eighteenth century frills. I gasped….and when I did, I smelled day-old cigarette fumes coming out of my mouth.
I was in Decker's body.
Switched.
There was a loud rise of panicked commotion among everyone in the room as they undoubtedly found themselves undergoing the same transfer. Innocent citizens of the city suddenly ghosts in other people's bodies. Courtesy of the Puppet King's ruptured mind-controlling power.
I looked up—feeling the first touch of arthritis in Decker's neck. Above me, my body writhed with fright from where it hung upside down. Whoever was inside me suddenly realized that he or she couldn't speak. Much higher on the lattices alongside the rocket boosters was the body of Robin, clutching to a metal bar and shrieking in some strange woman's voice: "H-Help!! G-Get me down from here!! I-I'm afraid of h-heights!!"
I raised Decker's eyebrow.
"Robin?! Noir?!" Sandy's voice exclaimed from behind.
I spun around and did a double-take. I was looking at Glover.
"Which one of you is which?!" the aging journalist exclaimed in Sandy's tongue.
"That's exactly what I want to know!!"
The two of us looked over.
Some random, city official with graying hand marched up and placed his hands on his hips like a Titan Leader I knew. "Why's this happening?! It has something to do with that scepter, doesn't it?!"
"Exactly!" Glover—er….Sandy said. "One of us has to turn it off or else we're gonna keep switching bodies and—"
The scepter started to glow.
Glover/Sandy gasped. "AAH!! Look out!!!"
Everyone shrieked.
FLASH!!!!!
I winced. I discovered I had arms raised over my head. African American arms. I glanced curiously at myself and realized I was standing in the thick of the crowd of citizens on the launch pad. I had no idea who I was.
I panicked and pushed my way through the gasping bodies and reached the scepter just in time to meet up with a random woman and a guard.
"I assume it's you two," Sandy's voice said through the guard.
"This is just not my day…," Robin groaned through the woman.
I waved and pointed at the scepter.
"It's gonna do that again in a matter of seconds!" Sandy said.
"We gotta stop it without damaging it. We need it to get me back." A beat. The woman blinked. "To get us ALL back!"
"I dunno, Robin," the guard folded his…er……..its arms. "I think your name suits you no matter who you are."
The woman frowned.
I hand-signed with ebony fingers.
The two did a double-take at me.
"Good point," Sandy said through the guard. "Where's the Puppet King?"
"Right here."
THWOMP!!!!
The metal-suited villain landed hard from above. The vibration from his grounded figure sent the three of us reeling. He stood up, his googly eyes rattling, and he snarled: "Malfunctioning or not….it is still my power." He rushed over and scooped up Starfire's body. "And while you all are incapacitated, I can achieve my beloved's destiny. Farewell, you waifs!!"
The woman growled and pointed a hand like it should have been gloved. "Stop him!!" Robin shouted.
I gritted my teeth and ran at the villain.
The scepter started to glow.
The guard gasped. "Guys!!" Sandy shouted. "Don't look now, but it's about to—"
FLASH!!!
I continued running.
"Hey!! What are you doing?!?!" Glover's voice shouted behind me.
I realized I was in a different citizen's body and running directly towards the edge of the launchpad floor.
I skidded to a stop and teetered on the side. My thick, muscular arms flailing.
Some random woman rushed up and caught my shoulders…dragging me back.
"You almost killed yourself!" Glover said.
I nodded breathlessly…..till I realized the voice was coming out of the woman saving me and I fell on my strange butt with a gasp.
"He's getting away!!" Robin's voice shouted from…..somewhere in the crowd.
I looked towards the rocket boosters.
The Puppet King was running towards the stairwell of the support structure.
The African American I was just a few seconds ago was fast at his heels.
"I'll try and get the scepter powered down!" a random citizen exclaimed in Sandy's voice, running over and kneeling by the object.
In the meantime, Robin's new body had succeeded in grabbing the Puppet King's leg and tripping him.
WHUMP!!!
Starfire's body rolled a feet or two across the launchpad floor. She was precariously near the edge like I was.
I dashed for her.
"Sandyyyyyy!!" Robin's voice exclaimed as he wrestled with the Puppet King, trying carefully to not damage the limbs that weren't his.
"I'm trying!!" Sandy replied. "But it's too fragile! It's----LOOK OUT!!"
I gritted my teeth, leapt, grabbed Starfire, pulled her and myself safely away from the edge, and prepared for the worst—
FLASH!!!!
The world looked strangely grainy.
I blinked…and realized my eyes were being covered in a mask.
I raised two hands up and saw green gloves on them.
I gasped. I flailed my arms until I found a metal beam way up high to lean on. I panted in Robin's body and looked down.
Those closest to the Puppet King were obviously not any of my closest allies. The body by the villain and Starfire trembled as the villain got up, scooped the safe Tamaranian in his arms, and charged up the stairs.
"Noir!! Sandy!! He's getting away!!" Robin shouted through Glover….or maybe it was Decker. Aw screw it.
I was properly equipped for this job at the moment….
I clenched my gloved fists and stood up atop the beam. But when I did so, I couldn't help but….pause. Awkwardly.
Everything was…….tight.
Heh……miss that feeling...
I fumbled through random pouches in Robin's utility belt, found his last grappling hook, took aim…….somewhere above me…..and let loose the trigger. POW!!! CLANK!! I swung Robin's body into the center of the support structure, pressed the release button, and gave slack so that I soared down till I was parallel with the Puppet King charging upwards. I leapt off the cord with Robin's insanely agile frame and struck a metal-laced boot across the villain's wooden cheek.
SMACK!!!
He tumbled back.
I grabbed Starfire and flipped off the stairwell.
I landed nimbly on the floor and ran towards the crowd with the Tamaranian in my grasp.
"Heads up!!" Sandy shouted.
Crud…
FLASH!!!!!!!!
I tripped on a hoopskirt and fell flat forward. WHUMP!!! Pain shot with surprising intensity through my chest. I had no idea why until I realized I had breasts. I writhed in pain and tried standing up. WHUMP!!! I tripped again on the ridiculous eighteenth century skirt. I groaned and looked at my arms…at the tons of rich jewelry on my fingers.
Veronica Vreeland.
A pair of klingon boots appeared in front of me.
I looked up.
Control Freak panted. "Where was Starfire last?!" he asked in Robin's voice.
I broke out in breathy chuckles.
The fat….'Titan' placed his hands on his hips. "Shut up!! Where's Starfire?!?!"
I cleared my throat and looked towards the stairwell.
The Puppet King had come down and was scooping her up again. But this time he was carrying her to the double-doors leading into the Tower. "Must plan an alternate route to the T-Sub!!"
"HEY!!!" Control Freak/Robin waddled after him. "Not so fast, punk!!"
I hoisted up my skirt and scampered awkwardly after the villain too. Robin and I practically were tripping over each other.
But just before the Puppet King reached the doors, they opened before him. He gasped and carried Robin to the side as Cyborg appeared—forcing the doors apart.
"Aw man!! What in the heck is going on in this place?!?!" the undeniable Cyborg said.
FLASH!!!!!
I blinked….only to discover that I had one human eye. Everything I saw through the left one was coated in a red glow and full of cybernetic schematics. Ironically enough, I tilted my titanium skull down and saw Veronica Vreeland staring up at me.
"Um…..okay…," she said in Cyborg's voice. Then looked down at her/his prettied body. "Ah Hell no…."
"Cyborg!!" Sandy's voice shouted.
I looked over.
Robin's body was looking at me and pointing across the crowd at the Puppet King's scurrying finger. "If you're all cognitive and stuff again, we could really use your help!!" Sandy's voice said.
I hand-signed back.
"…….or Noir. Whoever. Nobody cares."
I clenched titanium fists and looked over at the fleeing villain.
In his metal suit, the Puppet King knelt with Starfire and tried prying open a maintenance hatch to escape…
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!
A blue stream of energy knocked him back and free of the Tamaranian girl.
"OOF!!" the King struck a railing over the launch bay hard.
I marched towards him, my right arm cannon smoking. I narrowed my human eye and fired again.
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!
The Puppet King leapt over my laser blast and flew at me with a jump kick of his metal leg.
I clenched my teeth and readied a thick fist of metal.
CLUTCH!!!!
I gripped hard fingers around the neck of his helmet. With gritting teeth, I started to squeeze….
FLASH!!!!
Starlight.
"!!!!!!!"
Everything felt strangely………soft?
"Nnngh…"
I sat up and shook my aching head. I was suddenly on the roof of the Tower.
A strand of blue hair or two fell before my eyes.
I gasped and raised a gentle hand to my forehead. I felt the chakra stone.
I blushed furiously.
"Waitttttttt a seconddddddd……"
My indigo eyes bulged.
"You'rrrrrrre notttttttt Ravennnnnnnn……"
I panicked.
"It's you, bbbbbbbboy!!!! Hahahahahaha…..welcccccccome back to my clutchesssssss!!"
I quickly tried to figure out how Raven's meditation worked.
But before any fire could build up in my…her head--
FLASH!!!!
I blinked.
Goggles.
Short height.
I looked down at Sandy's arms and legs.
Heh…why do I suddenly feel smarter--
SMACK!!!!!
I flew back from the strike of the Puppet King's metal arm….whom I was supposed to have been fighting…I guess.
I stirred painfully on the floor.
Control Freak lifted me up. "Is this your bad dream too?" Cyborg's voice said. "Can you help me?"
I gave him a goggled glance of stupidity. I then spun and looked at my attacker.
He was running to the maintenance hatch with Starfire again.
"Relentless sonofabitch, isn't he?" said Vreeland/Decker.
I took a breath and ran after him. I was soon joined by Decker's body in full sprint.
"Rrrgh!! This is annoying!!" Robin's voice said. "Where's Sandy?!"
CLANK!!!!
We both looked up as a ventilation shaft's grate popped open and a green lion flew out of it.
WHUMP!!!
The green-furred mammal knocked the Puppet King back, freeing Starfire.
"Sorry…," Sandy's voice said as the green elf posed into a fighting position above the grounded villain. "I was sidetracked…"
So was I…
"Don't you see it's all pointless?!" the Puppet King growled as he got up on metal feet. "You'll keep switching till you forget who you even are!! How could you possibly stop me?!"
Decker's body pointed with a frown. He almost looked like the real thing. "Whatever body we have, the spirit remains the same!" Robin's voice exclaimed. "We never give up!! But maybe you should!!"
"Hey guys!!" Control Freak picked up the scepter and shook it while uttering in Cyborg's voice: "Anyone notice this glowing doohickey over here?!"
Beast Boy was the first to turn around and gasp. "No!! Don't touch that—" Sandy blurted.
FLASH!!!!
I suddenly felt very…….small.
I looked down.
A green elf's costumed body.
Figures….
I looked over and saw Sandy. I immediately hand signed.
'Sandy' raised an eyebrow. "What in the Sam Hell are you trying to say, broccoli head??"
I rolled my green eyes.
"Uhhh…duude…," Glover spun around. "Like….I'm trying to find the Puppet King….but I can't even find myself!"
"Shut up, B.B.," Decker….Cyborg….somebody. "We're all together in this….in that we're all split apart."
Control Freak's eyes were thin and sarcastic. "Somebody care to tell me what I'm doing down here…….and why I smell like Cheetos and armpits?" Raven's voice.
I about gave up then and there.
"I got it!!" Cyborg shouted in Sandy's excited voice. In his/her grasp was the disabled scepter. No longer glowing…sparking…or switching.
"Um….Okay." Raven.
I smiled a toothy grin and did a thumb's up…..then sweatdropped at how 'Beast Boy' I looked.
"So….that means we're not going to switch again?" said Vreeland/Somebody.
"Dude!! That's awesome!!" Glover exclaimed. A beat. He looked at his old body. "D-Dude! Not awesome! Not awesome at all!!"
Control Freak spun around. "But where is Robin….?" A Raven blink. "And the Puppet King?!"
A shuffling of feet on the stairwell once again.
The crowd of switched people—Titans and citizens alike—swiveled to look.
The Puppet King stood with Starfire under his arm.
"Things hardly ever happen as they are written. You did your best to break the pattern. The only thing that matters is that you failed. My destiny with my beloved Queen of Strings was final from the beginning!! I leave you lot to deal with your own confusion! May Babel burn down underneath you!"
"Yeah…um….sure, dude," Glover sweatdropped.
Cyborg pointed. "You're not going anywhere fast, Puppet King!!" Sandy exclaimed.
The villain's googly eyes rattled. "Is that so?"
"Pretty damn 'so'….," Robin's voice echoed from under his armhold.
The Puppet King gasped.
Cyborg smirked.
Starfire—her eyes no longer blue—wriggled herself free of the Puppet's metal extension. With bright optics of a fiery green, the Tamaranian girl incorporated the spirit of the Boy Wonder by agilely flipped the huge hulk of the villain's metal suit up and off of the stairwell.
"AAAAAAAAAHH!!!" the Puppet King shouted in mid air.
Starfire/Robin gritted teeth and aimed a flurry of starbolts. Then let them loose….FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASHFLASHFLASHFLASH!!!!!!!
Stream after stream of energy struck the flailing body of the King and his suit. The metal melted off. The wooden body inside fell amidst a shower of sparks and ashes before slamming hard to the floor and groaning into unconsciousness. Smoking.
"Woohooo!" Glover.
"Boo ya!" Decker.
"Um…congratulations." Control Freak.
Cyborg stepped forward. "He's down for the count," Sandy said. A red eye and a human eye squinted at Starfire. "Um….that is you, right Robin?"
"Barely…," stammered the Boy Wonder's voice. Starfire shuffled down the stairwell awkwardly in her shimmering gown and sighed with a heavy exhale. "Well…some way or another…I saved Starfire." The Tamaranian girl bore a crooked, bitter sweet grin.
"Awkward sensation having your body switched, isn't it?" Raven's voice said from Control Freak.
"But…duuuuuude!" 'Glover' whined. "We can't stay like this forever!" A beat. He looked over at Sandy. "Can we?!"
Sandy's body pointed at Cyborg. "Talk to the refrigerator, dumbass."
Glover blushed. "S-Sorry, sir."
"Yo, since when was she the Puppet King expert?!" Cyborg's voice said from Decker's body.
"Since she volunteered and put her life on the line to help save this Tower from….oh forget it. Long story," Robin groaned as Starfire's body turned about and faced Cyborg's body. "Any way we can fix…….this???" Starfire's hands pointed at her center.
Cyborg's face twisted. "Umm….y-yeah. Through the scepter and all. In theory."
"In theory?!?!"
"But even if we could, it'd take forever!" Sandy's voice said. "There may be a quicker way!"
I scratched my green head of hair and looked over at 'Starfire'.
Tamaranian eyes narrowed. "What quicker way….?"
FSHHHH!!!
The doors to the launch pad opened from the Tower and Raven's body stepped in, smiling. "A kiss….," said Control Freak's voice.
Control Freak's…..body looked over. Crusty eyes flared. "Uh uh," Raven firmly throated. "No."
"Shhh!" Starfire hissed. She looked over at the entering individual as the crowd around them gasped. "What're you getting at, Control Freak??" Robin asked.
"A kiss, Boy Wonderbra," Raven's face smirked. She looked over at Control Freak's body. "Say Raven, there's this guy in your head that sounds like Linda Blair. You know 'em?"
"Uhhhhh…"
"Anyhow, what was I getting at……OH YEAH!" the dark girl struck a Klingon pose and grinned unnaturally. "You gotta remember, Robin. Just like in the last silent movie of the Puppet King of olde…a kiss seals destiny. The curse that's enveloped the Puppet King is pretty much kaputzy! You did a good number of beating him senseless. But that doesn't stop the curse from working its way on us! We're still in each other's bodies! And all of this evil, confusing energy is being channeled through one thing alone!"
"That being…."
"Starfire's soul," Raven's head leaned to the side and winked. "And it needs a kiss from a 'person of destiny' or some crap to either complete or erase the curse. A kiss by her groom-to-be Puppet King would have sealed the curse. Anyone else….and…well…she's scott free. And so will the rest of us be. Cuz the curse will fall all at once."
"Then all that needs to be done is for someone to kiss Starfire!" Glover said with Beast Boy's voice. "That ain't so hard…………i-is it??"
"Question is…," Decker/Cyborg looked around. "Which one of us is Starfire?"
"Duh!!" Control Freak barked through Raven's lips. "Whoever is the only person here unconscious cuz of the Queen of Strings zombie spell thingy!"
A beat.
Nervously, the Titans and the citizens started looking around. But as far as we could tell, everyone was standing and accounted for.
"It's not me…"
"Don't look here."
"Where's the Tamaranian?"
"Starfire?!"
"She's asleep! She can't hear you!"
I looked around in Beast Boy's body. Even I couldn't find anybody sleeping. Maybe I can turn into a dog and hear for low-level snoring sounds or something………heh…
"Wait a second!!"
Everyone froze and looked Starfire's way.
The alien girl held her pretty hands out. Green eyes blinked. "Has anyone seen….," Robin stammered, "…..m-my body?"
A beat.
Cyborg swiveled about. His lips smirked and a finger pointed down. "There you are, sir."
Murmurs.
Starfire gulped. She walked over while the other misplaced Titans and Control Freak followed.
A crowd of people gathered around the dazed, unconscious form of Robin's body. He was completely limp and powerless. A rather obvious glow of hypnotic blue emanated outward from the edges of his eyemask.
Starfire moaned with Robin's voice. "You have got to be friggin' kidding me…"
"Somebody had better pucker up!" Glover snickered.
"Don't look at me," Control Freak droned.
"Are we just gonna leave her like that forever?!" Cyborg exclaimed.
I hand-signed a bunch of things nobody could possibly understand.
"Are you kids going to argue about this forever?" Vreeland/Somebody/Jimmy Hoffa frowned and folded her arms. "I've got an important business meeting tomorrow!"
"Pfft! Hey, let them argue away!" Raven beamed. "I do so enjoy watching heroes split apart like factions in a Blizzard RTS campaign!"
"Look…it's just a matter of someone kissing her…," Decker said. A beat. He rolled his eyes. "Fine. You're all a bunch of whimps. I'll do it, dawg." He walked forward.
Starfire stepped in his path, frowning. "No you don't!!"
Decker froze. A beat. He grinned wide, "'No I don't'…Robin?"
Starfire bit her lip. "I…..I-I'll do it."
"Really now…," Control Freak stared.
"She is my best friend after all."
"Yeah…that explains it," Glover chuckled. "Dude….this is gonna be rich."
I shook my head, grinning.
Cyborg's arms folded. "Get it over with, Robin. We might all be staring…but think of it as we're all staring through you."
"Pfft! Baloney!" Raven laughed.
Starfire moaned. She gently scooped Robin's limp body in her arms. She looked down into his eyemask. The blue aura continued to glow. Starfire sighed exasperatingly. "Th-This is just to save you and the rest of us. Okay? J-Just to……s-save…………us……" And she was already tilting her head down.
A few of the mixed up Titans stood on tip-toes. Humored.
I could barely watched. Even I was blushing.
And under the gaze of a hundred witnesses, the Tamaranian's and the Boy Wonder's lips made contact for the first time.
A blue light emanated around them. An invisible wind picked up.
And….
FLASH!!!
FLASH!!!
FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!
Cyborg was Cyborg. Beast Boy was Beast Boy. Raven was Raven. Sandy was Sandy. Control Freak was Control Freak.
Decker, Glover, Vreeland, and everyone else in the launchpad gasped and cheered with joy. At first, they cheered for the safe return of their souls to their fleshly shells. But then when whoops and whistles joined in, it turned out to be a pair of obligated heroes at the center of their appraisal.
Slowly, Starfire's eyes fluttered open. Innocent green eyes. She blinked. Then stared point blanc into Robin's masked face. "Robin….," she remarked. "…what am I doing here and why were our cranial orifices connecting so………s-succinctly?"
Robin gulped. There wasn't a single piece of his face that wasn't red. "It's g-great to have you back, Star."
"I ," she glanced around at everyone staring. "And yet at the same time….awkwardly elated and warm."
"Ahem…..I'll explain it all s-soon, Star. C-Can you just…..I dunno……put me down now?"
"………," Starfire stared. She realized she had Robin in an extremely masculine, swooping embrace liken unto a dozen cheap books she had seen at the checkout corners of earthling supermarkets. "EEK!!!"
THWUMP!!!
"Oof!!" Robin grunted as he fell to the metal floor, wincing.
Starfire turned scarlet and sheepishly smoothed the folds in her dress. "Um…..h-hello random Terran citizens. I am dressed quite ornately right now. Would someone k-kindly inform me as to the special occasion?"
A round of light chuckles filled the air. Sandy and the Titans all ran in and gave Starfire deep hugs and pats on the back. Raven merely saluted her with a tiny grin.
Robin stood up, dusted himself off, and glared over at Control Freak.
The fat fanboy smiled back and gave a loyal wave of the hand.
The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed. "You're a fat bastard."
"Even though I pretty much saved your sorry asses more than once?"
"No. THAT is why you're a bastard."
"Heheheh…and the fat part?"
"Start with your ego and work your way down," Robin mumbled and walked off.
Control Freak planted his hands on his hips. "Then why are you so skinny?"
The Boy Wonder was gone.
"Pfft!" CF chuckled. "Stiffer than a Tholian toothbrush!" A beat. He spun around. "Wait!! Shinobi?! Where's shinobi?!"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
I waved my hands dramatically, snapped my fingers, and even whistled loudly.
But everyone was so busy with the happiness of the curse lifted off themselves and Starfire that nobody looked up to notice me.
All in good time.
I sighed and pouted with my arms crossed as I hung upside down from where my pants were caught on the metal beam.
Waiting…….
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The Puppet King awoke from his beating two hours later. He had no recollection of the recent events that transpired. He didn't even remember an iota of his romantic feelings for Starfire, the 'Queen of Strings'. As the curse lifted from him and Starfire, so did his memories of the entire fiasco. He was dubbed as a sentient being and arrested by police upon the lowering of the Tower's defenses.
While the Puppet King was carted off to prison, the hostages were all freed and welcome to return home. Beyond a few scrapes and bruises, nobody was seriously hurt. Though many an ego was shattered beyond measure. For the next week following, there wasn't a single day that Commissioner Decker didn't yell at his subordinates…or that Blake Glover hid around the office….or that Veronica Vreeland hid about her mansion (though she typically did that all the time anyways).
The defense perimeter constructed around the City was disassembled into the morning. During the rising of the Sun. The true rising of the Sun.
–T-T-T-T-T-T-
As the Sun rose, Starfire stood by the edge of the Tower's rooftop. She was still in her wedding dress. The early winds kicked at her scarlet hair as she stared out on the land ridge. City buses and trucks were carting the hostages away towards the sun scarred horizon. She watched calmly…as graceful as she was beautiful.
Robin saw her like this as he walked up the stairwell, took a long breath, and uttered: "H-Hey…"
Starfire looked over her shoulder. Instantly she smiled warmly…as always. "Greetings, Robin. It is ever so nice to see you."
Robin smiled…blushing a little. "You seem to be thinking a lot about something."
"Is it because of my thoughtful expression or my eloquent attire?" she remarked.
"A little of both and a little of neither."
"Regardless….," the Tamaranian giggle and curstied dramatically in her dress. "Ta to the daaa! How am I looking??"
Robin shook his head and chuckled. "Star….you're as pretty as ever. But aren't you forgetting that an evil kidnapper had that thing made for you?"
"Please do not be so quick to reprimand the Puppet King, Robin."
He raised an eyebrow.
"No, I do not sympathize with his villainy," Starfire said. She hugged her shimmering self and looked off towards the distant sunrise. "I have merely borne witness to his circumstances first hand. He is far more complex than most of us can understand. I hope that in some fashion or another he will have a change of heart and rethink his ways."
"Have you thought about yourself at least, Starfire?"
"How do you mean, Robin?"
"Well…," he sighed and sat on the edge of the rooftop with his legs dangling. "You were in quite a fix, Star. A fix that….th-that I feel responsible for." He leaned back with two arms and stared blankly out into the morning light. "If I hadn't kept the Puppet King's body in the evidence room, he wouldn't have come to life and tried to take over your soul the way he did. It's….it's not a nice thing to put my best friend in such jeopardy. And for that I'm sorry, Star. I'm really, truly sorry."
Silence.
Slowly, gracefully, Starfire deflated down so that she sat next to Robin…staring out alongside him at the horizon.
Quiet.
"I could not help but feel that…something wonderfully beautiful happened today."
"What's that, Star?"
"I feel that I was educated….in the Terran concept of commitment and matrimony."
Robin glanced at her…at her dress. He smirked. "Star…," he sounded humored. "The Puppet King had a lousy example of what a marriage should be."
"I do not speak of the Puppet King's example."
Robin raised an eyebrow.
She hugged her skirted knees and smiled bashfully at him. "I….I-I believe that you were most brave in what you underwent, Robin."
"How do you mean….?"
"Surely it is a struggle for a human male to so….publicly insist upon the safety of a companion possessing a different gender."
"Uhhhh….."
"W-With the application of one's cranial orifices…," she blushed.
"Oh….the kiss," he blushed too.
"Yes, the kiss."
A beat.
"I…didn't want you in any predicament whatsoever that you wouldn't feel comfortable in, Star," he said.
She leaned her head to the side. "What is this about a lack of comfort?"
Robin looked at her strangely.
She smiled a crooked smile then hid her face in her shoulder.
Robin gulped. "Yes….well…..um…..anyplace besides in the Puppet King's hands is safer…..I-I believe."
"Is that the entirety of your belief, Robin?"
The Boy Wonder chuckled and hugged her to him with one arm.
"My head is a big place, Star. Feel free to toss in ideas and make a wish."
She giggled. "But a Queen is someone who runs out of wishes and finds herself full of dreams come true."
"If you say so, Star. But you know what? No matter how much that Puppet Freak obsessed over you…you're no Queen."
"I-I'm not?" she pouted.
"Nope. And neither are you a princess."
She looked hurt.
He smiled. "You are you, Star. And that's far more precious in my eyes than any royal lady would ever be."
She smiled brilliantly at that and hugged the Teen Titan leader.
"Thank you, Robin."
"For what?"
"You know. I shall leave it at that."
"Er….okay." A beat. "I'm just worried."
"About what?"
"How the others are reacting."
Starfire giggled. "What is there to react wrongly to?"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Beast Boy ran the fiberoptic tubing from Cyborg's metal cranium to the viewscreen in the Main Room.
"Okay! Okay! Now play it back!!"
Cyborg smirked and focused….
The visual perspective from Cyborg's position of Starfire and Robin kissing was played back effortlessly.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh man!!"
"Wooooooooo!!!"
"Hehehehehehehe!!"
"That some hot stuff!! Ha ha ha ha!!"
"Wait! Wait! D-Do it again! This time in slow motion!"
"Gotcha, dawg!"
The visual recollection rolled back, stopped, and went forward at a sluggish speed. It was almost sinful how long and moist the kiss between the Tamaranian and the Boy Wonder looked that time.
Beast Boy turned into a wolf and howled mockingly.
"Ohhhhhhhhh man! I'm gonna make copies of this! Send it to Speedy!"
"And Aqualad!"
"And Supergirl!"
Raven sat on a couch with a book. "You two……………..are so immature."
"Come on!! Raven, isn't this the most hilarious thing you've ever seen?!?!"
"They were only kissing to cancel out the curse of the Puppet King. And might I add that if Robin wasn't so gung ho about leaving to take on Johnny Rancid alone with Noir, then I could have assisted in the infiltration of the possessed Tower where my powers would have been greatly benefi—"
"Yeah yeah…whatver…we know…WE KNOW!!" Cyborg cackled. "Sheesh! Miss-I-Am-Always-Right-And-Male-Pigs-Are-Always-Wrong!!"
"Pffft…have it your way," Raven said. A beat. Her eyes darted momentarily up from the pages of book and looked at the screen. She cleared her throat and flipped a page like nothing had happened.
"Dude! Play it backwards!"
"What for?"
"I'm studying Robin's lips."
"Don't you mean Starfire's lips?"
"Y-Yeah….I think our leader learned how to break curses in France. Hehehehe!!"
"Yeah! Tell me about it!! Ha ha ha!! Oh man, my titanium side's splitting!"
Sandy chuckled and shook her head. The two of us sat on stools in the kitchen unit of the Main Room.
"Why's it that every time I visit the Tower, the Titans go through embarrassing stuff?" she remarked.
I shrugged. I continued polishing Myrkblade. It was pretty scuffed up after Robin's murkless use. I was really anal about it…
"So…I suppose you're tired. You mustn't have slept a wink between Rancid, the Puppet King, and Control Freak."
I shrugged. I put down Myrkblade and hand-signed before pointing at her.
"Me??" Sandy shrugged. "I couldn't feel better! I'm more than happy to help….plus have my regular glasses back!" She smiled. "………………………………………………………….." She yawned.
I chuckled breathily and returned to my polishing.
"Say….you remember when we were switching through each other's bodies and stuff at the end of all that chaos?" Sandy asked.
I nodded emphatically. How could I have forgotten? It was a mere three hours ago…
"So…..like….y-you were in a bunch of other people's flesh, right sir?"
Again I nodded.
"With….vocal cords, ya know."
I paused. I looked at her funny.
She leaned her head to the side. "How come you never talked or anything while you were 'Decker' or 'Robin' or even me?"
My black eyes widened under my shades. She had me there…
I honestly shrugged with a grin.
"I suppose….y-you're just used to it," she simpered.
I get used to a lot of things…
"Guess…I-I'm a little confused," she leaned forward, smirking. "Just what was the reward to Control Freak? What did he go through all that stuff for? Or was it that he simply enjoyed infiltrating the Tower with us?"
I scratched my chin. I smirked and hand-signed something to Sandy.
She blinked. "Er….no….I haven't read that novel yet that you asked me to." She blushed slightly. "Besides….why're you changing the subject?"
I gestured.
"Oh….yeah….I suppose it 'doesn't matter'," she relented.
I smiled.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Inside the prison, in the Omega Wing, three cells rested side by side. The middle one housed the Puppet King in specially-tailored, shrunken prison clothes. On either side of him was the cell for Johnny Rancid…and the cell for the Control Freak.
"I'm glad they finally granted me my request and placed me here!! I've been meaning to discuss with you the positive possibilities of designing a bike to look like Robin's!" the fat fanboy said as he lay on a cot with one out of a million comic books.
"What? So you can ride around and look like the punk brat that the Boy Wookie is??" Rancid growled across the Puppet King's cell at Control Freak.
"'Boy Wookie'! Ha! That's hilarious, man!" Control Freak beamed. "You a Star Wars buff, man?"
"As a matter of fact, yeah…," Rancid grumbled with a raised eyebrow. "Once designed a bike to look like one of them speeders in Tedi."
"Tedi??"
"Yeah. Ya know. The third film? The shitty one??"
"Ohhhh! Return of the Jedi! You call it Tedi because…..lemme guess…"
"Those goddamn furballs."
"You know…they were gonna be wookies at first."
"Seriously, dude??"
"Yeah!! But it'd been crazy for Henson and company to make all of those big fur rugs for extras to wear! So they chose midgety Ewoks instead!"
"Yeah!! The furballs! God, I hated them!"
"You're not alone! Now tell me, what's that speeder bike looked like? Imperial or Rebel??"
"Pfft! Imperial, man! There ain't no Rebel speeder bikes in Tedi!"
"Ah…but in the Star Wars continuum, speeder bikes are universal! Are you familiar with the novel Jedi Frontrunner by Alexander Hingleton?!"
"I don't pay attention to the novels, man! The movies are where it's at!"
"But this story's got lots of bikes! Bikes and stormtroopers!"
"Seriously?!"
The Puppet King gripped his wooden skull and grumbled. "Rrrrrrrrrrrghhh….shut up…."
"Man…there was this wonderfully written piece with a bantha stampede and a bunch of swoop gang riders on Tantoine trying to run each other over the side of a cliff and going full throttle at it too!"
"Shut up!!"
"Did they describe the engines on those things?"
"Heck yeah! Turbogas engine cyclones!! Best in the galaxy!!"
"How's that applicable in zero g??"
"You don't want to go into Zero G, dude! That's where the damn bike-eating Mynocks live!!"
"PLEASE!!! INFIDELS!!! SHUT UP!!!!!!!!"
The Puppet King's agonized yell echoed through the halls of the prison….and remained unanswered.