Robin blinked several times and opened his eyes. He was in an unfamiliar room that he surmised must be a prison cell. He tried to move his arms and legs only to find that he was completely paralyzed and strapped to a bed. A lone light bulb illuminated the dark room and from the shadows, a tall figure emerged.
"Oh, hello, Robin." Said Slade casually.
"Slade." Growled Robin between gnashing teeth. "What do you want with me?"
"I want to see you suffer." Slade replied as he walked in circles around Robin. "My Sladebots have intercepted your sweet little girlfriend. Would you like to hear her last words?"
"You won't touch her." Robin tried to sound as menacing as he could. "Not if I have anything to do with it."
"What can you do, Robin?" asked Slade cocking his head to one side. "You are completely paralyzed." Gritting his teeth, Robin tried to move again but found it impossible.
"How did you do this?" He demanded resentfully.
"I should've known that you'd be as impatient as always." Slade replied coolly.
"I am not going to let you blackmail me into becoming your apprentice again!" Robin cut in.
"Don't jump to conclusions." Slade replied. "I'm not going to force you to be my apprentice. Instead, I will make sure you suffer for failing me as an apprentice." With that, he was gone even before Robin could open his mouth.
As Slade was talking to Robin, Starfire was flying to Cyborg and Beast Boy as quickly as she could. She was about to reach them when five Sladebots in an airship came careening towards her. With a scream, Starfire ducked out of the way. As the airship circled over her head, she began firing her star bolts in all directions. In retaliation, the Sladebots rained explosives down on her.
Suddenly, several Sladebots jumped from the airship and pushed her out of the sky. With another scream, Starfire plummeted down before striking the surface of the water with an enormous splash. Shrieking angrily, she burst from the water's surface and headed for the airship. Flying skillfully around the explosives that were aimed at her, she reached the airship. Using her alien strength, she began pushing down on it. As the airship lost altitude, the Sladebots clambered onto its roof to face her. In the corner of her eye, Starfire saw Cyborg and Beast Boy flying haphazardly towards her in a distance. Knowing that they were counting on her, she looked up and blasted the Sladebots with her eyes as she kept pushing the airship down. However, she was outnumbered five to one and one lucky Sladebot managed to get in a kick that caused her to let go of the airship. With a scream, she tumbled backwards before lunging at the airship again. Hurling blasts of star bolts at the airship, she flew below it and punched out the engine. Thankfully, she had remembered that Robin had prevented the Centauri police from leaving with her by taking out their engine. Flying to the other side, she took out the other engine and watched with a pleased smile as the airship crashed into the ocean with a magnificent splash. But her smile quickly evaporated when she heard a huge splash. Turning around, she realized that Cyborg and Beast Boy were no longer in the sky.
"Cyborg! Beast Boy!" she yelled before streaking to the place where she heard the splash. Taking a deep breath, she dove into the ocean swam vertically downward. After diving about ten feet, she felt something metallic brush against her hand. Grabbing onto it, she swam to the surface.
Upon resurfacing and taking a large breath, she was relieved to see Cyborg with Beast Boy still tightly in his arm. Fortunately, when Cyborg ran out of power, his robotic parts locked into place, which kept him from letting go of the still unconscious Beast Boy. Taking Cyborg's other hand, a soaking wet Starfire took to the skies and headed back to the tower as quickly as she could.
Back at the tower, Starfire carried Cyborg to his charging table and tried to plug him in. In an effort to free Beast Boy from his grasp, she had torn off Cyborg's entire left arm. Having cleaned the wound on his forehead and left Beast Boy in the med bay, she was now trying to get Cyborg up and running so that he could help her with Beast Boy. Taking hold of some cables, she began trying to plug him in. After about ten minutes of fiddling and experimenting, she managed to get him plugged in, but not before leaving several large dents in his titanium body.
Having plugged him in, Starfire immediately flew back to the oilrig that she had left Robin only to find that he had disappeared without a trace. A familiar feeling of panic seized her when she glanced at her communicator and saw that she was at the right place. Sheets of frigid water now covered where the oil rig had once stood.
"Robin!" She her voice broke as she circled the area. "Where are you Robin?"
As Starfire circled the area for several hours, all that could be heard was her heartrending cries bouncing off the surface of the ocean. When she finally returned back to the tower, she looked like a suicidal girl in need of food, water, a bath and a therapist.
The full charge cycle took about eight hours, during which Starfire paced back and forth in the med bay and tower. She choked on her food and gagged on her water - so upset that even sustenance was a chore. Robin was perpetually on her mind and like a nurse working at the ICU, she alternated between watching Beast Boy and Cyborg like a hawk.
Cyborg sighed and opened his eyes. Having realized that he was back in the safety of his room, he unplugged himself and stood up. The last thing he remembered was falling into the ocean and now he was in his room. Starfire must have saved him. Having reattached his arm, he walked to the main room where he saw Starfire fast asleep at the table, communicator in hand. Beside her was an uneaten sandwich and a bottle of mustard.
"Star!" He shook her shoulders lightly. She awoke with a start and stared at him in a daze, trying to find her bearings.
"Cyborg!" She jumped up and wrapped him in a crushing hug. "Beast Boy is injured and Robin is gone! I tried to look for Robin but the whole oilrig did the disappearing!" Exhausted and relieved, she began to cry.
"Easy, Star. I'm sure Robin can take care of himself. I'll go check on BB. You go get some rest." He said as reassuringly as he possibly could. Starfire nodded and went back to her room. Worried as she was, Robin had always said that rest and sleep were important and she trusted that Cyborg could handle everything.
Cyborg entered the med bay and hooked Beast Boy up to several monitors. He then did some scans on his injured friend. He was dismayed with what he saw. Beast Boy had suffered a major concussion and had five broken ribs. In addition, he had broken his left arm and right leg and had sustained numerous fractures on other parts of his body. Cyborg noted that he also had sustained some lung injuries from the blows to his chest, though it was too early to tell what the lasting effects would be. After making some casts for Beast Boy and making him as comfortable as possible, Cyborg immediately got to work finding Robin.
"This is bad." Muttered Cyborg as he put his head in his hands. The oilrig that Robin had been fighting at had been completely destroyed. With no means to escape, Robin's fate could only have been one of two evils - drowning in the sea or being captured by Slade. Slade had also destroyed every oilrig and oil well in the country, using some unknown technology to stem the oil flow from the ground. It would take months to repair the damages caused meaning that the whole country would either have to buy oil or rely on emergency oil supplies.
Cyborg tried desperately to trace Robin's communicator but his repeated efforts proved futile. Satellite footage of the ocean did show the entire rig being dismantled by Sladebots, but despite enhancement, the image was too grainy to actually discern what happened to Robin. It was almost as though he had dropped off the face of the earth.
"Cyborg?" He heard a soft voice behind him. "Have you found Robin?" She asked fearing the worst.
"No, Star." Replied Cyborg, unwilling to tell her the truth. Tears filling her eyes, she sat beside him on the couch.
"How is Beast Boy?" She tried to muffle her sobs with the question.
"He's very badly injured." Cyborg replied standing up. "But you can see him if you want." Starfire nodded briefly and the two went to the med bay to check up on Beast Boy. His breaths were so labored that he looked like a dying fish. After several minutes of grave silence, Cyborg spoke up.
"Ummm… Starfire?" He said turning to her.
"Yes?" She looked up slowly.
"Thanks for saving BB and me." He said as he flashed her a small grateful smile. "We owe ya big time."
"You are welcome." She replied in a small voice.
"Look, we'll find Robin." He said understanding her sentiments. "Just like he took care of himself the last time, I'm sure he'll be able to take care of himself this time."
"If Robin does not come back…" Her voice trailed off and she stared at the floor. Her fears were too frightful to be voiced.
"Robin loves ya very much. He'll make sure he comes back for ya." Cyborg tried to encourage her. Starfire was about to respond when the titans' alarm began to beep. Rushing to the main room, they saw that Slade had intercepted an oil tanker headed for their country. Cyborg decided not to risk losing the T-Ship before he had a chance to build a new T-Car and since fuel was precious, Starfire flew them to the oil tanker.
"Ya ain't getting away with this!" Hollered Cyborg as Starfire put him down on the deck of the oil tanker. Several Sladebots landed in front of them, poised for battle. "Remember! Oil is flammable! Only super strength allowed!" he hissed to Starfire as she prepared a star bolt. Before she could respond, the Sladebots attacked. Cyborg equipped himself with a sword and sliced a Sladebot cleanly in half. Starfire on the other hand fought the same way Robin always did. She dodged blows swiftly before returning several of her own.
As the pair fought dozens of Sladebots on the upper deck, they did not notice a much flatter albeit much broader vessel pull up alongside the oil tanker. A huge pipe with the thickness of a horse was stretched across and the Sladebots began transferring oil from the oil tanker to the other vessel. As the liquid gold gushed across, Cyborg and Starfire desperately fought against Slade's minions.
"If you have Robin, give him back to us!" Roared Starfire as she smashed her fists into a Sladebot. "I do not wish to hurt you!" she yelled as she crushed a Sladebot against a wall. "But if you do not cooperate I will have to!" she shrieked as she violently threw punches in all directions. Cyborg was now convinced that losing Robin was making Starfire lose her mind. Screaming and yelling, she destroyed the Sladebots in the same way that she had wrecked havoc when she first came to earth.
Suddenly, a speedboat pulled up to the side of the oil tanker and the remaining Sladebots jumped into it. The speedboat zoomed away leaving Cyborg and Starfire standing completely alone on the deck. The silence was eerily frightening. Cyborg began running to the control room and Starfire followed.
"They took all the oil in the tanker!" Yelled Cyborg as he scanned several gauges in the control room. "That sneak must have taken the oil when we were distracted fighting those Sladebots!"
"Where is the person who does the driving of this floating contraption?" Asked Starfire looking around the large, empty control room.
"You mean the captain?" Asked Cyborg doubtfully. Realizing that Starfire had a point, he began looking around for the crew as well. Splitting up, the two titans searched the entire tanker, but were unable to find a single crewmember. Cyborg concluded that Slade must have captured them to use their skills to siphon off more oil from other tankers. Going to the pump room, he was dismayed to find that Slade had even taken the oil tanker's own fuel supply.
"Can we leave?" Asked Starfire; suddenly remembering that Beast Boy was all alone in the tower.
"We're stuck." Replied Cyborg. "Slade took every drop of fuel on this boat."
"But I can fly." Starfire reminded him.
"Yes, but we can't just leave this boat in the middle of no where." Cyborg sighed. Suddenly, a novel idea struck him. Could he really ask her to do that? Would it be right? He had to try nonetheless. "Star! Can ya push this tanker back to the port?" he asked as she blinked several times.
"You want me to push this like when Beast Boy had to push his car back to the city because he forgot to put the fuel in it?" Starfire was quite perplexed.
"Yes," chuckled Cyborg when he remembered Beast Boy and the infamous car incident. Beast Boy had wanted to go on a picnic and had begged Cyborg for weeks to let him borrow the T-Car. Of course he could fly there, but this was different. Of all the titans, only Cyborg knew that Beast Boy liked Raven and that in a bid to impress her, he had wanted to bring her on a romantic picnic at a famous canyon about a hundred miles away from the city. Cyborg refused to loan Beast Boy the T-Car, opting instead to build a regular SUV for him, which Beast Boy proudly dubbed the 'B-mobile'.
After the car was done, Beast Boy then spent another month begging Raven to go with him. When she finally agreed out of frustration, he packed a huge picnic basket into the car and very proudly got into the driver's seat. He clearly felt very manly driving a cool car with a beautiful girl sitting next to him. Before they left, Cyborg reminded Beast Boy to stop by a gas station to put gas in it, figuring that the car should be running out of fuel since Beast Boy took it out every other day. His lovestruck friend unfortunately, was not paying attention and on the way back from their romantic picnic - that was only romantic to one of them - the car ran out of fuel. Beast Boy then gave Raven two options: 'A', she could either teleport them and the car home or 'B', get out and help him push the car a hundred miles to the city.
Already furious that Beast Boy had spilled fruit juice all over her during the picnic and ticked off by his irresponsibility to refuel the car, Raven opted for 'C', which entailed teleporting herself home and leaving Beast Boy to push the car by himself. When she returned home, she was raving mad and when the others heard that Beast Boy was pushing the car home, they tracked his communicator and at three in the afternoon the next day, gathered at the road that led into the city to wait for him to push the car in. Raven came too and when she saw the panting and exhausted Beast Boy push the car in inch by inch, she commented rather dryly,
"You do know that you could've morphed into an eagle, flew back to the city, bought some gas, flew back with it, refueled the car and drove home, right?" She asked in her monotone voice. Beast Boy burst out crying right there and then.
Remembering the scene, Cyborg rolled on the ground laughing while Starfire watched him with frightened eyes.
"Cyborg!" She cried. "What is wrong? Are you all right?"
"Yes, I am!" He said choking back laughter tears. "Can you push the boat?" he added after he had regained his composure.
"Sure…" She said before backing out of the control room. This was just too weird even for the alien girl.