Gordanian Pursuit

Once upon a time, on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday morning, a shadow crossed Jump City.

The people who lived there were eating breakfast, walking dogs, waiting for school buses. They looked up and saw something that did not belong: a warship, dark and enormous, hovering in the sky above the harbor like a storm cloud made of metal. Smaller craft buzzed down from it like iron insects, patrolling the streets. Every radio and every television screen in Jump City suddenly showed the same feed — a face in a reptilian helmet, speaking in a cold voice.

The voice said: We have come for the one called Koriand'r. You have one hour.

In Titans Tower, the Teen Titans gathered around the monitor.

Koriand'r — Starfire — stood and listened to General Yal-Zor's message without moving. She had heard a voice like that before. The Gordanians were part of the Citadel's network of hunters and warriors, the ones who had once transported her from Tamaran to a prison ship and told her she was property. She had spent years learning that was not true.

She turned to her teammates — Robin, Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy — and she said, very quietly: "They have come for me. You do not have to be part of this."

Robin looked at the warship on the screen. He looked at Starfire. He said, with the calm certainty of someone who has made up their mind completely: "They aimed weapons at our city. This is everyone's fight."

Raven nodded once. Cyborg cracked his knuckles. Beast Boy turned into a small dog and barked twice, which everyone took to mean yes.

Starfire's heart felt so full it might have burst, but there was no time for that. There was a plan to make.

Cyborg was a genius with technology, and he went to work immediately. Within minutes he had found the Gordanian warship's frequency and flooded its internal communications system with Earth radio broadcasts — specifically an extremely loud and fast-paced commentary from a football game that no Gordanian soldier could possibly understand. The confusion aboard the warship was instant.

Beast Boy flew into the harbor as a seagull, then swam out as a bottlenose dolphin, drawing one of the drone ships low over the water. When the drone dipped close enough, he erupted from the surface as a rhinoceros. The drone did not survive the encounter.

Raven drifted invisible above another drone and simply reached out with her dark telekinetic energy and removed its power cell the way you might pluck a seed from an apple. The drone fell into the harbor with a distant splash.

And Starfire went straight up.

She blazed upward through the morning sky, emerald light trailing behind her like a second sunrise, heading directly for the hull of Yal-Zor's warship. She was drawing their fire on purpose — making herself the target so that every cannon pointed at her was a cannon not pointing at her city or her teammates.

A plasma bolt hit her. She spun — the air rushing past her ears — found her balance the way a hawk finds it in wind, locked onto the warship's main cannon turret, and fired.

STARBOLT.

The turret exploded in a cascade of sparks and went dark.

Yal-Zor, furious, sent his ground troops down into the streets and docklands of Jump City. He expected to overwhelm a handful of teenage heroes.

He had not fully researched the Teen Titans.

For forty minutes, the Titans moved through the docklands together. Robin's training turned every obstacle into an advantage. Cyborg's strength cleared whole groups at once. Raven moved shipping containers like chess pieces with her telekinesis. Beast Boy cycled through animals — elephant, gorilla, briefly a T-Rex. Starfire blazed overhead, directing and protecting.

When it was over, General Yal-Zor stood in the middle of Jump City's central dock, ringed by five heroes, each one ready and unbroken.

He looked up at Starfire, who hovered above him, eyes bright with green light, hands open and glowing.

She said: "I am not your prisoner. I was never truly your prisoner, even in those years on your ships. And I never will be again. Tell whoever sent you: I am home."

General Yal-Zor and his warship departed Earth's atmosphere. They did not return.

That evening in Titans Tower, Cyborg made his chili. He only made the full enormous pot on days of real victory, and tonight he made it. The whole Tower smelled warm and wonderful. Beast Boy ate four bowls and was asleep on the couch before the dishes were washed. Raven read in her corner with a small, private smile. Robin sat across the table from Starfire.

She was looking out the window at the city lights, and she was smiling, and it was the kind of smile that comes all by itself — easy and real and free.

She was home.

Close your eyes. The city is safe. The Titans are together, and Starfire is home.

Sleep well.