What he wanted to say was, "Guys, we got trouble," but with the Metropolis androids standing right there, that might do more harm than good. Beast Boy was all tensed up, ready to shift, but into what only the shapeshifter knew. Cyborg, meanwhile, was trying to calculate what his next move was.

The gold android seemed to look around both of the teens, its voice strong when it next said, "Primary objective, is there anyone in danger?"

The tin android was just standing there, then the next second was gone. Cyborg wasn't sure if he heard the zip sound that happened simultaneously, but in the next second it was back, but on the opposite side of the group of robots.

"I-I-I found n-n-no people except for th-the ones fighting," the tin android reported. "I-I-I placed th-them all where th-they were s-s-safe."

"Are you trying to steal my thunder?!" Kid Flash demanded, suddenly right next to Cyborg, but it wasn't as jarring as it used to be. Maybe he was starting to get used to speedsters and their tendency to show up whenever, wherever, and with whatever.

The gold android gave a sharp nod. "Next objective."

The iron android punched a fist into a palm. "Eliminate the threat."

Oh hell no.

Cyborg raised his arm cannon, aiming it right at the androids just as they all began to leap into action. Both Beast Boy and Kid Flash looked about to jump into action themselves as the androids…went right past the three of them as if they weren't there.

"I'm sensing high levels of radiation. I will commence dispersing it," the platinum android reported, the not-quite silver body beginning to glow softly.

Barely a few seconds later, the Geiger scan began to lower, detecting a decrease in radioactivity. As Cyborg was whipping his body about, he heard the crackle of electricity before he saw the bolt fire, striking Monster Boy right between the eyes. The green goop absorbed the attack like it had done many times with other energy-based attacks, but it was safe to say the androids now had its attention.

The iron one fired a pink blast from its forehead while Lead tore up the streets by levitating boulders though the assault. The tin one scooped up the broken pieces of road that could fit into its hands as well as any smaller rocks that were pulled out of the earth, and acted like a rock-based machine gun.

The gold one continued to fire bolt after bolt of electricity, but Monster Boy began using its hands to draw the bolts into them, metal highly conductive and all. It did put him at a disadvantage and opened him up from a strike from the platinum one. The glow on her—ahem its—body increased in intensity right before firing a blast—oh yeah, that was nuclear based like Captain freaking Atom. However, unlike other attacks that had been used, this nuclear blast contained its radioactivity while not causing any of the deadly fumes to escape from Monster Boy's body.

Cyborg had to take a moment to grasp what he was seeing, then process and understand it. These same robots, androids, whatever, were choosing to fight Monster Boy and not them. What was going on? This didn't make sense to him.

"Cyborg, am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Red's voice in his ear—the robotic one as well as his flesh one—was what broke him out of his stupor.

"You see those robots from Metropolis fighting Monster Boy? Yeah, I'm seeing the same thing," he confirmed.

"What's going on? Am I missing something?" Beast Boy said weakly.

"See if you can't reach the others," Red told him. "Keep the girls in the air and watch for any opportunities. These robots want to fight the monster, so let's let them. But we can't stand around and hope they take each other out. Do what you need to do, but make sure the big one goes down hard and stays down."

Cyborg frowned. "Are you suggesting we team up with these guys? After they tried to kill us before?"

Before Red could respond, Kid Flash piped up. "One's missing—Mercury. Where's that one? He was all 'kill all humans' and all that, but why isn't he here with his buddies?"

Right, right, there were supposed to be six. That was the headcount he learned later, and the current count was the five he could see. They were missing one. Had this Mercury decided to go his, er, its own way and go solo?

Red must not have heard the speedster. "For now, we might need to. Stopping this thing from leaving Vegas is priority number one. Maybe one of the robots' powers can deal some real damage. We'll need to jump on that if it happens."

Giving a sigh, Cyborg straightened his posture. "Alright guys, new battle plan. We let bygones be bygones for now and team up with the Luthor flunkies here. Above all else, we don't let Monster Boy here leave the Strip."

"Right!" Kid Flash punched a fist into the palm of his other hand. "So how are we going to do that?"

"Red suggested the girls stay high in the sky, so we'll come up from below," the cybernetic teen replied. "Let's try going for the feet again, but this time we break them both. If anyone has any objections, save them for later. We got Sin City to save."

The ship left Earth's atmosphere. Where there should have been a net of Thanagarian ships, open space was instead. Oh, there were certainly other ships, but they were spread out. The Kalanorian ship, with its advanced stealth capabilities, passed through undetected.

The stealth would not have worked as well as it had if the entire Thanagarian fleet was there. All it took was one miscalculation that created a collision and no amount of stealth would have helped. But reducing the number of patrolling ships, an opening had emerged.

That waste creature had done its part. Despero hadn't expected it to work as well as it had, drawing Thanagarian attention to it. Still, they were only cordoning it to that brightly-lit Earth settlement and not doing much else. It was clear they were only there for show, a display that they were in control of Earth as they claimed, but not much else.

Despero could feel the outrage from the Earthlings, though as his ship carried him further and further away, those emotions slowly dulled. There wasn't much they could do to rectify the situation, but emotion rarely allowed logic room to breathe.

Once they were behind the Thanagarian perimeter, the ship picked up speed. As Earth shrank into a small blue dot behind them until it ultimately vanished, Despero could pick up other thoughts, ones quite familiar to him.

"Sending out hailing beacon," a Kalanorian announced from his station. Despero did not respond as he watched the screen before him, a visual of black space and flickering stars.

"Hailing beacon received," the same Kalanorian said moments later. "We shall rendezvous with the fleet in minutes."

Excellent. "How long before the fleet reaches Earth?" he asked.

"Three hours," was the response.

Three hours. After months of preparation, it was finally coming to fruition. A smile appeared on Despero's face, revealing his sharp teeth. He was hours away from showing the entire universe his might and power. Defeating not only the "mystical presence of Earth," but the Thanagarian Legion and Green Lantern Corp would be an incredible coup. The major powers of the universe had taken note of him, once as a fledgling conqueror, then a power to be reckoned with. Now it would be under the banner of the Destroyer that all worlds trembled before him.

That would only be a temporary name, however. Before long, he would be a uniter, rallying the worlds of the universe under his banner, the gift of Py'tar given to those worthy of it. It had been an error of his to hoard the Flame of Py'tar for himself in the beginning, he was willing to admit that. That was one lesson he could thank the Martian—no, J'onn J'onzz. Bestowing the gift of Py'tar to his elites had given him another weapon in his arsenal, one that even the Green Lantern Corp could not dismiss.

His moment of triumph was at hand. This time, he would take it.

The Strip had definitely seen better days. Half of it was destroyed and the other half was halfway to becoming just that. Various bursts of energy flashed all over, be it sonic, electrical, Starbolts, and whatever Raven used. In return, radioactive stuff of unknown origin spewed about along with destroyed cars, metal structures, and possibly portions of buildings. The literal earth itself was flung back and forth, and if you listened carefully, you might hear some screams.

Whether they came from Beast Boy or from dismayed gamblers, that was left to your imagination.

Cyborg was breathing heavier than he normally did. He was expending a lot of power, seeing no real signs of progress, and he had to start keeping an eye on his battery levels. Too low, and that would be a problem.

Monster Boy hadn't let up despite the metal-based robots coming to the rescue. Electricity tended to be drawn into all the metal, and the green-colored stuff that made up the body tended to do the same with the nuclear-based blasts. The constructs that really reminded the cyborg of Green Lantern didn't have a long shelf life as Monster Boy had a lot of strength. Endurance too since the combined might of Terra and Lead only slowed him down.

But wait, that was not all. They had company, but not the helpful kind.

"In the name of Thanager, lay down your arms and surrender!"

The Thanagarians had some force come in, but they had no interest in Monster Boy, and only had the mind to come after the ones trying to save the day. Here to protect them, his shiny, titanium ass!

They did not need the plasma beams from those hover tanks being fired at them, but that was the latest thing life decided to throw at them. It was as if they couldn't get any break! So now they weren't just trying to dodge whatever Monster Boy was throwing at them, but also what those bird bastards were shooting.

Naturally, through their comm links, he was getting all the complaints.

"I am currently experiencing enemy fire! I will have to bargain with them before I resume my assault on the creature wreaking havoc!"

"Why is this thing still standing? I'm throwing everything I can without tearing apart the city, but a desert only has so many rocks! And that robot doesn't seem to care!"

"When did we get on the bird aliens' shit list?"

"I know, right?! You'd think they'd be on our side and use their plasma cannons on the big monster, but instead they're coming after us! So not mode here."

"Can you idiots try to do something useful? For once in your lives?"

Plasma beams striking a black shield gave away Raven's location. Flashes of green high up in the sky did the same for Starfire. The yellows of returning plasma gave away the Thanagarians' retaliation. Closer to the ground, the gold robot was unleashing a storm of electrical bolts, every single one of them either tearing up the street or being drawn towards Monster Boy's feet. The iron robot fired a pink-purple blast from its head, the attack entering, but accomplishing absolutely nothing in that gelatinous mass.

From on high, a metal-clad hand raced downward, forcing any in its path to make way before the violent crash. Two blurs ran around the hand, one yellow and the other a blueish gray. Wires and cables were wrapped tightly around the wrist, the makeshift ligature tired around anything and everything to try and restrict the arm from pulling back up.

All that did was create a bigger mess, Monster Boy yanking his arm up with ease and tearing up whatever the wires and cables were attached to. The metal hand climbed higher and higher without stop and an unlucky Thanagarian tank just happened to be in the way. The alien weapon was hit and it was sent into a tail dive, spinning about until it crashed out of sight.

Coming out into the open, Cyborg aimed his arm cannon at Monster Boy's face, thinking about changing things up. Energy zapped its way right between those eyes, that green radioactive gunk rippled but held firm, which just pissed the cybernetic teen off more.

This was insane! How much more damage could it take?

How much more could the Strip take?

How much more could he take?

Nearby, the platinum robot touched down on the broken street. She—it was glowing, giving off some radioactive glow of its own, but yet it felt not as dangerous as Monster Boy's. The only signature he had similar to that in his database belonged to Captain Atom. An idle thought, and one that left Cyborg's mind as quickly as it had occurred.

However, the platinum robot was called out to by its robot buddies, who were breaking off from their attacks, regrouping towards her—it.

Ugh, now he was starting to think of one of them as a girl…he must be getting tired.

"I saw it." Those words managed to cut through his thoughts. Saw it? Saw what? What was she…it…whatever talking about? "It's a Responsometer. It might be Mercury's."

"Mercury's? You mean that alien put Mercury's Responsometer in that thing?" the gold one demanded.

"Right, so we just gotta take it out," the iron one said.

The tin one looked around, uncertain. "C-can we?"

Suddenly, all of the gathered robots looked uncertain, and it was something to see. Their faces expressed it all, like they were actual people and not one hundred percent metal. It almost…no, no, no, no, not right now. Now was not the time to start getting existential and wonder if robots dreamed of electric sheep.

"Hey!" he called out, hurrying over to the robots. "What the hell are you talking about? You know something?" Hearing more than seeing, he stretched his arm cannon behind and fired, the resulting explosion telling him he struck something that had to be Thanagarian.

At least four pairs of eyes turned to him. Lead hadn't joined the party and was still off fighting Monster Boy. The iron one gave a grunt, "It's none of your business."

"No, I think it is!" Cyborg refuted, glaring. "I overheard you. You do know something. Something that could stop this thing. Well, spill. Before the rest of the city gets torn a new one."

Of course, the robots had to look at each other, doing the whole speaking without speaking thing that the closest of friends were able to do, but naturally he wasn't one of their friends and wasn't in the know.

However, before he could get too frustrated, the platinum one said, "I found what's controlling the monster. It's a Responsometer. It's like a brain for androids."

"And if we take it out, that'll put a stop to it," the cyborg finished, stopping what was sure to be a lengthy explanation.

"Who said anything about taking it out?" the iron one demanded.

"Easy there, I think he's talking about removing it, not destroying it. Right?" The gold robot put a hand on the iron robot's shoulder, but the look Cyborg was being given was flat out demanding confirmation.

"Taking it out works. How do we do that?" Cyborg agreed quickly. It was easy to see the writing on the wall here and there was no way they needed Luthor's robots turning on them. They wouldn't have the Justice League showing up this time to save them.

Another moment of trading looks happened. "The alien did it. How I…we…" The gold one shrugged its shoulders.

Oh great, wow, such contradictory information.

"Tin, go to Will," the platinum one suddenly spoke up, talking to…Tin, he guessed. "If anyone knows, it'll be Will."

Tin nodded his tin head jerkily. "O-o-okay." And then, like a flash, Tin was gone, reminding Cyborg that this particular robot had superspeed. Well, now they only had Kid Flash to help out, but maybe not for too long.

"Alright, gang, let's try to slow this guy down until Tin gets back," the gold one declared. Electricity crackled about the gold body, and then the robot took off without waiting for any kind of agreement. The iron and platinum robots followed, though, not without the iron robot giving him a look.

Okay, he might have just been given something important, something that could end all of this. First though…

"Did you get all that, Red?" Cyborg asked. Waiting a few seconds, he received no response. "Red?" he tried again. When there was no answer, he demanded, "Red?!" Again, nothing.

Damn it, they lost Red. There had better be a good reason for that.

They were cornered and there would be no escape. Tim sat on his bed, his hands grasping his knees tightly. His earpiece had been pocketed quickly, volume lowered in the hope that the fabric of his jeans would muffle any sounds coming from it.

Beside him, Cassie was just as uncomfortable as he was, and...uncharacteristically trying to shrink in on herself?

How had they gotten into this position? Trapped and with no way out. There was no fighting this. Every move either of them made would be a mistake, one that would end their lives if they even tried.

"Now, I know what you kids are like," Dad was explaining. "It's a completely normal thing. Boys and girls, we all have needs."

"What your father is saying," Mom cut in, a hand on the Drake patriarch's shoulder, "is that whatever you do, you need to be responsible."

Dad gave a nod of agreement. "Your mother's right."

This was too much, the opposition too great, and no help even from someone as brash as Cassie…

"If you're going to have relations with one another, you need to use protection." And there it was, the death blow, and who would have thought it would have been from his father of all people? "Sex is a very intimate act, but it's not as safe as it was in our day. There's a lot of diseases out there."

"And pregnancy," Mom helpfully added.

"And pregnancy," Dad agreed, nodding again. "Now, I don't know if your parents have talked to you about this," and Cassie was now fully in the line of fire, "but using a combination of contraceptives can only help reduce the risk. Have you looked into birth control? And Tim, it's not too much of an ask if you want condoms."

"We're only thinking of your best interests and want you two to be safe," Mom added her two cents.

Hell was a talk about the birds and the bees and contraception.

It was a shame humiliation wasn't lethal.

Will Magnus barely recognized the outside of LexCorp. He had spent so much time in it, literally surviving off of vending machine products and whatever could be scrounged up in the employee breakroom. He had an apartment in the city…but where was it again? He had that programmed in his phone, right? The phone he barely used because there was no one worth talking to.

Luthor was not happy, and he was especially not happy with him. It seemed like his employment here might be at an end… No, no it was at an end, it just wasn't official yet. Could Luthor change his mind? Yes, but doubtful. Very, very doubtful.

The man was still sore about the platinum.

It was to a small car, one that when you saw it, the first thing that came to mind was college student. Cars had never been his thing, even if he knew how to strip it apart for the important parts. It got you from point A to point B and did so reliably. That was all that mattered. The only question was…would it run?

If you don't use a machine for so long, the results of disuse become visible. For a car, it was rust on the brakes. Was the gas still good because gasoline had a shelf life and like milk could spoil. Oil, what didn't he know about oil? And let's not get started with the battery. When was the last time he had driven this potential death trap anyway?

Well, he would find out soon enough. Sitting in the driver's seat, he had sat there for some time, staring ahead through the windshield. Keys rested in a hand that gripped them limply, but they were never raised to be inserted into the ignition.

Really, it was all too surreal now. After so long holing up in his lab and then all the breakthroughs in the last few weeks…months of his life, gone and for what? For a while, he had been feeling numb, and now the normal frustration he felt towards humanity was starting to return. Oh, he held so much disdain for humans, in particular their reliability to be unreliable. Luthor was no different than the rest and it was so aggravating, as much as the tapping on the window to his left…

Unconsciously, he turned his head to the left and stared at the sight of Tin nervously and cautiously tapping a finger on the driver's side window.

His eyes blinked slowly, then his brain processed and caught up with what he was seeing. "Tin?!" he gasped as he grabbed the door handle and pulled, pushing to open the door. He didn't stumble out as he had put on his seat belt and the strap pulled back against him, jerking his body back. With some swears he unbuckled, then clambered out, Tin pulling back to give him space.

The next words to come out of Will's mouth were, "What are you doing here? They're looking for you!"

Being in the parking garage of LexCorp was definitely not a good place for this.

"W-we th-think w-we found Mercury's Responsometer!" the thin android told him, that stuttered still there. "I-i-it's horrible. I-i-it's i-inside a monster and i-i-it's attacking a city!"

What? Hold on. "What do you mean it's inside a monster? What, did it eat it? Wait, hold on, which city?" He had a seldom used phone with practically no contacts in it, but that didn't mean he couldn't access the internet with it.

He had to dig through his pockets before he found the device and after activating it—and grimacing at the low battery life—Will brought up the internet search functions and began… "Which city is it?"

"Las Vegas."

That was a long way from here. Okay, inputting Las Vegas, monster, attack, and recent, it didn't take long to get some of the breaking news alerts and the livestreams that were all about it. It took longer than he liked to actually get a good look at the massive monster with its metal limbs and green body, and those markings, that indicated some kind of nuclear waste.

"Is this it?" He held the phone out, screen facing Tin and waited for confirmation.

"Y-yes," Tin confirmed.

Turning his phone back to himself, the young prodigy stared at the image and tried to puzzle out what it was seeing. Mercury's Responsometer was in there? But that didn't make any sense!

His mind was racing, trying to make sense of it all. Everything he knew about the Responsometers, what they were capable of…should be capable of and compared to what he did know…

"There has to be traces of Mercury in that thing," he murmured. "That's the only way."

"Wh-what is?" Tin asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"The Responsometers do more than just control bodies made of solid metal, they bond to it," Will explained. "I can't take your Responsometer and put it in gold or silver or anything else. There has to be tin, or you won't have a body. This is why your Responsometer was submerged, it was in a vat with nothing but tin. Any other trace elements could have affected or altered the Responsometer. That Mercury's is still able to function is a minor miracle, but he's not Mercury when he's in…that."

This monster that was now another creation of his was halfway through a casino, spilling the innards of the building out and literally throwing the contents at those attacking it. There were flashing lights of all colors, what might be beams of energy or plasma blinking in and out of existence, and nothing but destruction to be shown for all of it.

"What do we do?" It took a moment to process that Tin hadn't stuttered, and Will looked into wide eyes that looked to him for guidance. Why was he doing that? It wasn't like he knew what to do! He wasn't an action type of man and he definitely wasn't a leader. He wasn't the man for this kind of thing!

"Please. How do we help Mercury?"

No stutter. No stutter. Where had the stutter gone?

Metal eyes finally looked down. "I know I-I'm worthless. I-I'm only made of tin. I…I'm not as valuable as gold or platinum or the others, but I want to help. I want to save Mercury. Please, Will. We need to save him. We need to save everyone."

Save…? As in…save everyone that can be saved? Like in the programming? But why try to save another android, one that was meant to be destroyed in the worst-case scenario? They were to save people not each other.

Looking back up, Tin said, "And even though he wouldn't say it, Mercury wouldn't want this to happen. He wouldn't want to hurt people when he's supposed to save them."

Maybe it was Tin trying to defend an android that made jokes about rising up against humanity and enacting a robot revolution, and who knew how serious he was. But the programming was absolute, and with only some hiccups here and there, the Metal Men would not knowingly hurt anyone. The presence of so much foreign material would interfere with the Responsometer's functioning and the proof of that would be any lack of normal functions. This destruction should only be happening if there a reason for it.

How were lives being protected with it?

Answer: there weren't.

"Mercury's Responsometer needs to be removed. Failing that, the materials making up this monster's body needed to be rendered inert," he said at last. "The markings on the metal, there has to be a nuclear component to it. It's toxic."

"The environment no human can go into," Tin summed up.

"Right," Will agreed. He would have said more, but the sentence just spoken to him stopped him. His eyes were now wide, the implications obvious to him.

"I…I will tell the others." It was still sinking in when he noticed that Tin had turned away from him. "It…it was nice to know you, Will. I-I think everyone agrees. Even Mercury."

"Wait," he began, raising an arm up and reaching out, as if the very act would stop the Metal Man. But Luthor's addition of superspeed to this particular one worked against the young prodigy, Tin blurring away and barely leaving a streak behind.

No, no, no. Not yet. He wasn't…he was…he couldn't…

The Metal Men. The results of his years of work, engineering, programming, and coding, and off they were going.

To do exactly what he had programmed them to do.

The Bellagio had seen better days and Planet Hollywood, forget about it. More victims in the swath of destruction that was pushing further and further down the Strip. Cars flew through the air, crashing and smashing anything they ran into. In response, the very earth below the street reared up, attempting to form a protective barricade that wasn't as effective as you would think.

Metal-clad feet kicked through it, and now one of the weapons the defenders of this city used against the monster were threats to themselves. Well, for a few seconds, at least. Rocky rubble stopped in midair then zoomed back the way they came, impacting the torso of the green creature that didn't come from a lagoon.

From light posts, electricity from the city's grid flared out and bolted into the green mass. Nada. Various constructs, be they green, black, or otherwise latched onto the metal-covered limbs and pulled any which way they could. Monstrous strength inevitably pulled out of these energy-based restraints.

Sonic, nuclear, and everything else-based blasts belted the creature, but the damage was minimal, too minimal. You couldn't even see if any progress was being made. That was the most frustrating part.

It was perhaps most frustrating to those who had no long-distance abilities, only speed and shapeshifting to their names. The monster was changing things up and really stomping into the ground, shockwaves of force tearing through asphalt, damaging the water pipes below, and you could that part was happening because fire hydrants would launch into the air and at random points through the spiderwebs of cracks, small spouts of water sprayed into the air.

For Cyborg, he was just under half of his battery life, which was really alarming for him. He had expended that much power already and with little to show for it. Some quick biological scans on his friends exposed that they themselves were tiring out. Breathing was heavier, movement was slowing down, and their attacks were losing some of their oomph.

"Anybody got any bright ideas?" he called out, and it wasn't a question he kept to the Titans. Luthor's metal creations were also included. Past aggressions aside, these robots were the only allies they had right now. It wasn't like the Thanagarians were being any help. Though by now those guys hadn't shown up in a while. Maybe those assholes had done a strategic withdrawal and were waiting until after everything was said and done to make their next move.

Not a happy thought right there.

The gold robot sidled up next to him. "Between leader to leader? I don't think we have any bright ideas. We need to keep this monster from going any further."

Fat chance of that. They were really starting to lose ground here and the Strip only took up so much space.

"You know we can't keep doing this, the same thing over and over. It's not working, we need to do something else," Cyborg growled out.

"We just need to hold out until Tin gets back," the gold robot said. "Will will have an idea. He'll be able to help. Just a few more minutes."

It shouldn't have been surprising that Kid Flash chose to make himself known then, "Doesn't Tin have some knockoff superspeed? He should've been back by now. I know I would've, and the Flash would've too. By the way, who's Will?"

With Kid Flash standing so still for so long—not saying much, he knew—Cyborg was able to get a good look at the black sheath that Raven had placed on all of the Titans. It was the only protection they had against the radiation the monster was emitting, and on Kid Flash alone he could see places where it was wearing thin. Either there was a time limit or Raven was getting tired herself and was starting to slip. It prompted him to look at one of his arms, do a quick once over, and scowl.

"Raven's not going to be able to keep us protected for much longer. We can't keep stalling," he stated. Looking directly into the face of the gold robot, "Once again, any bright ideas because we can certainly use one."

Or several. Really holding out hope for several.

It was a little off putting to see the twitches in the gold robot's jaw. It hinted that the robot was clenching teeth, which was a ridiculous thought, and yet it made it harder not to see this robot as human. Which, it clearly wasn't. No human had that kind of natural…um, luster?

Electricity crackled around the robot, gold arms stretched forward, and a large bolt fired out and into the monster's gut. Smaller bolts peeled off, drawn into the metal limbs, and probably weakening the attack all the more.

"Just need to hold out, and trust that Will will come through," the gold robot said.

From above, Starfire tried a new offensive. No longer using Starbolts, the Tamaranean flew down to the large monster's head. With an arm pulled back, she threw a punch that landed right under the left eye. The monster tilted to the right, ripples running throughout the head, but other than that, there was nothing to show for the effort. Starfire was not done, as she lashed out with her other fist, striking from the left. More ripples and a lean to the right.

The monster then threw its head forward, but Starfire avoided the attempted headbutt by darting up. Unfortunately, one of the monster's metal-clad hands swung in and struck her, sending the alien Titans into a backwards flight with little to no control.

Swearing, Cyborg took off and really put some of the servos in his legs to work. While he normally did not use this function of his body a lot, he was more than capable of making some impressive leaps. This occasion called for one, and using all the power that his legs could muster, launched himself up into the air and at a trajectory where he would be able to intercept Starfire.

With all the tech he had running, including so many programs, it was easy to calculate everything he needed to do to make this work. With the right amount of force, the right angle, adjusted for wind resistance and friction, he caught the stunned Tamaranean and brought her close to his torso as gravity reasserted itself on him, and down they went until his feet touched the roof of a car.

The car roof didn't stand a chance under his weight and crumpled. The plastic-based glass crumbled as it scattered out and about. The now-damaged car frame rocked back and forth then fell still, leaving only the cyborg with his friend held protectively in his arms.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked quietly.

It took a moment for Starfire to blink the stars out of her eyes, and the groan that followed was one he knew very well. "My guard descended for a fraction of a time measurement unit. My apologies." A hand pressed itself against her head as if to alleviate the ache. "I fear my strength may not be up to menial obligation."

"You're not the only one," he agreed, looking back to the monster. "We're running out of things we can do, and Red's not answering. Wonder Girl's not here either to ram her fist up its ass either. I don't know if it's even tiring either. Best I know is what Luthor's robots said, and it was some Reciprocity thing that might be its brain."

Shaking her head, Starfire pushed at his chest, a sign that she was ready to stand up. Cyborg let her go, and once she was at her full height, "Then we needs must find this brain. Removing it should stop the creature, yes?"

"Not a bad idea," he agreed. "But where in its head? You got up close to it. Did you see anything floating around in there?"

Starfire shook her head in the negative. "No, I did not. Now that I have been informed, I shall seek out this brain. Contact Raven so that she may try to detect it."

Alright. Alright, they were starting to get a plan here. Macabre as it was, yanking this thing's brain out ought to stop it. They'd handle what came next. So first thing's first—

The blur raced past him, and he didn't ignore it automatically because it wasn't yellow or red in color. His robotic eye did its best to follow it, and soon enough found the one robot that had run off earlier. Tin, it was made of tin. Immediately the other robots began to gather around it.

"They have broken off their assault," Starfire remarked.

"They must have a plan of their own," Cyborg agreed, nodding his head.

Stepping off the remains of the car, he led the way to the gathered robots. While they had a tentative plan, finding out what the robots were up to, or what they had learned could be something they could at least collaborate on.

"—supposed to react to anything else. The Responsometer won't function properly and until we get it out, the monster won't stop." The newly arrived tin robot was explaining everything to the other robots, and naturally Cyborg had only been able to catch the tail end of it.

"Did he say how we could take it out?" The iron one was speaking.

The tin one didn't speak, not immediately. When it did, "Someone has to go in. Just like with the alien. It needs to be physically removed, but with how big it is, and how much we would have to go through…but there's one other way."

Something was off about that. The tin one sounded so calm, and…and…wait, hold up, where was the stutter? He hadn't heard much from this particular robot, but his memory was reminding him there was a stutter. Why wasn't there one now?

"Hey!" he called out. "What's going on? Mind sharing?"

There was an explosion, guess in who's vicinity, and a hellish orange light flared momentarily. Okay, that wasn't good; had a main been hit? Perhaps he should add some urgency here.

"Sooner rather than later?"

The platinum one looked uncertain. The iron looked at him suspiciously. Lead showed no signs of life in its eyes. The gold one tried to look like it was in charge.

The tin one looked at peace. "We will fulfill our secondary function: eliminate the threat."

Cyborg stilled, not liking the sound of that. Oh, there was no mistake about what eliminate meant, but he was going to need clarification on what these robots considered a threat. Last time, it had been the Titans, and lo and behold, the Titans were here too. So far these robots hadn't attacked them, but who knew when that would change?

The tin one looked down, "I am sorry for the trouble we caused."

"What are you apologizing for?" the iron grunted.

Cyborg found his gaze being held as the tin robot established eye contact. "Please stay back a safe distance."

Before he could ask what that meant, the tin robot was running, a blur that streaked towards the menacing monster making Vegas its bitch. His own programs were barely keeping up, barely even processing what was happening, and did not predict what happened next.

Without even an ounce of hesitation, the tin robot leapt into the air, its body beginning to stretch—no, liquify—and slam right into the torso of the giant green monster. There was no ricochet or rebounding; liquid tin was entering into the freaky green waste whatever-the-hell-it-was and making itself at home!

His jaw dropped open. What the hell was it thinking?! What was it trying to accomplish?

"That's the way, huh?" the iron robot said. Punching a fist into a palm, "Alright, time to give this bastard indigestion."

Off the iron robot ran, following the lead of the tin robot. As if that was the trigger for the rest, the remaining robots followed in a run as well. Gold, platinum, and lead charged after iron, jumping over debris and the remains of cars, their solid forms beginning to lose their solidity.

One by one, they followed after the first, entering into the green gunk. Metal hands tried to grab at each metal, but the molten metals flowed around, entering easily. Within radioactive green, the various metals swirled, and metal legs began to wobble. Metal hands twitched and grasped at air, as if trying to plunge into the gelatinous body but hesitating to do so.

Slowly, the glow of radiation began to dim, green dulled, and unknown substance became more and more viscous. Wobbling became more extreme, balance could not be maintained, and the end was nigh when the reds of the eyes dimmed and vanished.

Just like that, it all collapsed. Legs gave way, hands and arms collapsed and fell, striking broken pavement with loud clangs. Formerly green gunk was now sludge and it spilled out everywhere covering and running into anything unfortunate enough to be in the way.

Cyborg was only able to watch, his single human eye wide open. He struggled to comprehend what had happened, and lucky him, he had all the programs one could ever want to figure out the mystery. According to his scans, the radiation was dying quickly, the various metals bonding with the nuclear waste and driving it inert. Oh, it certainly left a mess behind, but…

There was no movement, no nothing now. He was half expecting one of the robots to yank themselves out of the sludge and yet…nothing. It was all still and quiet…

And he was picking up nothing. Nothing at all.

Slowly, one by one, the rest of the Titans joined him, all facing what was left of Vegas' menace. For once, they were quiet, quiet enough to hear a breeze that did not blow this night. You could say that the quiet was a sign of respect.

The same respect given at a funeral. Maybe they didn't have the highest opinion of the robots that had attacked them in Metropolis, and they were still on edge of another attack, but when fighting a common foe, you at least gave some respect.

Even if you truly didn't understand.