AN: what can I say? I'm feeling inspired lately and my coworker told me there are rumors floating around that the show might get picked up again which really got me fired up! I know I've got a bunch of long term fics that should be my priority, but I'm just so happy to be writing again semi regularly that I just don't care what I write as long I'm writing and enjoying it. I hope you all are also enjoying it and willing to bear with me. Also, holy shit dialogue and explanations! Seriously super hero morality is weird and complicated and spawns odd spur of the moment lectures apparently. Facts about Raven's home dimension are pulled out of my ass and vague memories from a few fics of questionable reliability. Oh right I don't own Worm or Teen Titans.

The Exterminator 1.2

"Batman, what an unpleasant if predictable surprise. Here to spank the naughty Boy Blunder and sweep his mistake under the rug?" I liked to imagine that the temperature dropped a few degrees with every word.

There was just something about the Bat that was fun to provoke. Or maybe it was just me being bitter about how he was part of a system that allowed criminals to escape and go out to murder more people… like my parents.

"Skitter." Batman answered even as his eyes narrowed into a scowl and he completely ignored my question. I rolled my eyes.

"We've been over this already, Bats. My name is Taylor. Taaaaylooor. Your memory seems to be just as bad as your protégées if you can't keep that straight. Or maybe it's your manners?"

Batman didn't respond verbally, but his eyes stayed squinted in a glare. The man could be such a drama queen, but then what did I expect from a man who liked to dress up like a bat to fight crime? Finally, he stalked off towards the Titans Tower.

An amused snort drew my attention to the ramp of their ship. Black Canary stood there one hand on her hip the other against the side if the ship with a small grin gracing her lips.

"Canary, good to see you again." I said warmly. "You seem to find your way onto a lot of my pickup runs lately."

"Ahh well, what can I say? I enjoy our little chats, and it's always interesting to see what the wider universe has to offer, even if they are all creepy crawlies." She said the last with a dramatic shudder. "So, beetle hornets?"

Obligingly I ordered one of the insects to fly up to her hand for examination and started to direct the rest of the swarm into several large steal crates for transport and later destruction. Luckily it looked like they had brought enough storage this time. I hated having to hang around while they did multiple runs. Canary hummed as she looked the insect over.

"Well it's certainly a pretty shade of blue, almost a robin's egg color, and shiny. It's big alright but not like the last trip."

I sighed a little bit at the reminder. The last group had been hercules beetles the size of cats with this amazing burgundy shell. I'd actually petitioned the UN to let me keep a single male as a house pet, but they had shot me down pretty hard. They knew I could handle it, but they really had not wanted to set that kind of precedent.

"Anything interesting about them other than the color?"

"Their venom is some kind of neurotoxin, so you might want to get someone look at it before you destroy them. Their eyesight is weird even by bug standards and they are willing to eat just about anything. Including upholstery and carpeting, though that could just be their instincts not being developed for an industrialized world, hard to say." I rattled off the pertinent details and Canary nodded along. I did leave out their reproductive cycle though, no reason to creep the woman out to much. With a mental command I had her specimen join the rest and sealed and locked the crates for transport. "How are you and archer boy doing?"

"Oh, Arrow and I are doing alright. Work still tends to get in the way but we find time for ourselves." Canary replied with a sunny smile. "How about you? Still no luck finding a good guy?"

"Ughh no, not even a little. Normal's just can't deal with me long term. They don't have the built-up tolerance for strange that people with powers have. And people with powers just can't wrap their heads around why I'm not out in costume beating up thugs or robbing banks." It was an old conversation at this point, but it was always nice to have someone willing to listen to me bitch. Canary was good like that. "Besides lately I've had my hands full dealing with Kitten's latest-ex."

"Oh, your cousin having boy trouble of her own?"

"Not, exactly…. Fang, as if that's actually his real name," I said rolling my eyes. "Is some sort of human spider hybrid. Why my sister wanted to date him…." I sighed, even as Canary made a disgusted face. "Maybe the fascination with insects is just a family trait. Regardless they were never going to last but while he was hanging around well…." I trailed off and looked away.

"What? You can't just get me interested and leave it there."

"Ughh he was 'bug' enough for my power to affect him and apparently he got off on someone controlling him, alright." I groaned. "I keep having to chase him off without letting Kitten know her Ex is stalking me. It's really weird and creepy."

"Oh, wow, that's just…"

"I know! Ughh and he's only a year older than Kitten! I know I'm only twenty, but he's sixteen, that just isn't going to happen. And what would I even do with a boy who was constantly under my complete control?! How on earth could that ever be a healthy relationship?"

I blew out a frustrated breath and tucked some loose hairs back behind my ear. Canary gave me an awkward one-armed hug.

"Hang in there, Taylor. I'm sure you'll find someone sooner or later." I gave the blonde a tired smile and a small nod before sighing and pulling away.

"I wish I could stay longer Canary, but I should really get going. I need to do a grid search of the area to make sure none of these things got loose, and I'm sure I'll be fielding calls from panicking politicians soon enough too."

The blonde smiled and waved me off before heading into Titans Tower no doubt going to add her own less grumpy commentary to what I hoped would be a thorough dressing down.

{}{}{}{} Raven

The Tower was quiet for once, and I couldn't even enjoy it. Normally I'd be thrilled but there was a tension in the air that ruined what would otherwise be peaceful and relaxing.

Robin was glaring at a computer monitor reading through a number of files on who knew what and pointedly glaring at Beast Boy every now and then. Cyborg was reading over a list of guidelines, procedures and laws we would need to comply with before we would be allowed to leave the planet again. Beast Boy was still admiring his new autograph and pointedly ignoring Robin. And Starfire…. well she hadn't settled in one spot for more than a few seconds since the older heroes had left.

With a sigh I closed my book resigned to the fact I wasn't going to get any reading done like this.

"Would someone please explain what the problem is for the alien and the girl from another dimension." I asked with my best 'unamused' voice. That got a reaction from the boys, mainly just them blinking in surprise, but still.

Grumbling Robin typed away for a moment before a file complete with a several year-old photo of the exterminator from earlier popped up on the big screen. Then the screen split and a second file with a more recent picture filled the other half of the screen.

"Taylor Hebert, age twenty, her metahuman ability is to control all the insects in her range, which is several city blocks, at least. She has perfect control of those insects, and a seemingly infinite ability to multitask. The first that anyone knew about her was when she used her swarm to kill the Joker. She used bugs to fill his throat and choke him to death… two weeks later she killed the Scarecrow the same way." Robin scowled at the pictures.

"Friend Robin, who are the Joker and the Scarecrow?" Robin blinked again like he couldn't believe someone asked him that before palming his forehead and typing away. The two files on Taylor were replaced by two new files.

"The one on the left is the Joker, the one on the right is the Scarecrow. They were villains in Gotham city." Beast Boy snorted and shook his head.

"Dude, you can't just call them villains and leave it at that!"

"What are you talking about Beast Boy?" Robin asked frowning.

"Dude, the only villains they've seen are the people we've fought with! I'm mean yeah some of them can fight and pack a punch, but those guys?" Beast Boy waved at the screen. "They were nuts, total crazies." Beast Boy turned to look at Starfire and I. "They both had kill counts, like a few hundred people each, I think?" Beast Boy turned to Cyborg looking for confirmation.

"Yeah, I think the Joker had just over four hundred before she killed him, and Scarecrow was getting close to two hundred." Cyborg answered seriously. Beast Boy nodded gratefully before turning back to us.

"Most of those people died from chemicals, and they were really bad ways to die. The Joker had this stuff that made people laugh themselves to death. Like, they're laid up in hospital beds and they're terrified and crying and they still can't stop laughing. The Scarecrow, he had this hallucinogen, literally scared people to death, just terrified them until their hearts gave out. She lost her Mom to the Scarecrow and her Dad to the Joker, I think. Nothing really stopped them they just kept racking up more kills." Beast Boy shrugged looking sad, his pointed ears drooped.

"Batman and I could handle them!" Robin broke into the conversation furiously.

"Rob, they had both busted out of jail at least a half dozen times. Yeah you guys could lock them up, but you couldn't keep them locked up. Every time they broke out people died." Cyborg said gently resting a hand on Robins shoulder. Robin brushed him off.

"So that somehow makes it ok for her to kill them for revenge!"

"Honestly? Kinda, yeah." Cyborg answered. Robin just gaped at the him. "I remember watching the news coverage. I heard every argument for and against what she did. The whole country did, man. If the government ever beat you and Batman to the punch they'd have shot them, and that would have been the end of it right there. Honestly it's a miracle no cop ever arranged for those two to have an 'accident' or that they were never shot and killed while 'attempting to escape.'" Cyborg said making finger quotes.

"We don't have the right to be judge, jury, and executioner! We stop the villains that's what we do, full stop!" Robin shouted.

"Dude, so do the cops, but when they have to shoot someone, or snipe a terrorist no one gets bent out of shape about it." Beast Boy cut in looking angry.

"We're not the police! We don't have government oversight, we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than that!"

From there the boys broke out into a three-way screaming match waving their arms in each other's faces. Star and I shared a glance and I gestured for her to follow as I turned to leave the room.

"Friend Raven, I am most confused." I simply nodded.

"Yeah, that didn't really clear things up. Though I don't think we'll be getting any more out of the boys anytime soon." I said with a role of my eyes. Starfire gave an affirmative little noise.

"Then how will we be getting answers? I would still like to understand." I hummed thoughtfully.

"Well we could look it up online… but if the Boy's reactions are anything like most people's we'd probably be right back where we are now."

"So, what do we do?" Star asked tilting her head.

"Simple, we ask Taylor ourselves."

{}{}{}{} Taylor

Three hours of walking and finding no evidence of alien bugs and still hours to go before I could call it a night. City busses were terrible for this kind of work because they traveled on a set route and would completely ignore the grid search I needed to do. I could have driven but in a city with the amount of super powered crime that Jump sported there was almost constant construction and repair work going on. That meant that my route was likely to be redirected or I could be stuck in traffic for hours on end. Sadly, that meant that slow as it might be and as much as my feet might protest going on foot was my best option.

While I had worked I had fielded three calls from various people in the United Nations invasive species task force, a call from the state Congressman and two calls from the Mayor. I was hungry, my feet hurt, and each phone call had left me more emotionally drained than the last.

I could understand why people panicked but I'd been through this song and dance too many times for it to really affect me anymore. Whereas every time was the first time for whatever local, and often state, politician I was forced to deal with in the aftermath. At least this time I wasn't having to do the routine through an interpreter. Last time I'd gone through three interpreters before they found someone with enough guts to not run screaming from the cloud of alien insects I was rooting out.

"Hello!" The cheery visage of Starfire appeared almost from thin air in front of me in a blur of orange skin and red hair.

"Gahh! Don't do that to people!" I jumped back surprised.

"Star, we've talked about this." The grumpy monotone had me looking over my shoulder to see Raven gliding in for a landing.

"Oops, my apologies." The alien girl said with a sheepish smile. I blew out an aggravated breath but shook off the annoyance as best I could before looking over the two teens now standing in front of me.

"It's fine, did you two need something from me?"

"Not exactly." Raven said.

"We are hopeful that you can explain why our teammates are arguing about you. They have been most out of sorts since the Batman and Canary left." Starfire said puppy dog eyes in full effect. Not that those did anything to me. I had to keep Kitten from running up a bunch of ridiculous expenses all the time already. I was pretty much immune to teenage puppy eyes at this point.

"I'm not really sure what you girls are actually asking. Your teammates are fighting about me?"

"Sort of." Raven answered. "At least it started with you. Then it turned into a shouting match about super hero morality and excessive force…"

Ahhh well that cleared things up, still I was on the clock….

"Raven, right?" The girl nodded. "Can you make platforms with you power? And float them around?" The teen shrugged.

"Sure. Why?"

"I still need to do my grid search to check for any escaped bugs, but if you help with transport I'll be able to get done quicker. Let me grab some lunch, then if you're willing to play transport we can all talk while I work."

The girls shared a glance before nodding. With a smile I headed towards a food truck my power had noticed a block over. This conversation would no doubt be a pain but at least I could get a falafel.

{}{}{}{}

"Right." I said, stuffing the food wrapper into my pocket to throw away later. "So, super hero ethics shouting matches, and how I figure into them, right?" The two girls nodded and I sighed. I hated this conversation, but Starfire was pretty obviously an alien, and Raven was different enough she might be one as well so it made sense that they wouldn't really know any of this.

I leaned back on my hands keeping my legs crossed as we floated along on Raven's black energy platform. For a moment I closed my eyes and sunk into the swarm letting my emotions settle even as I kept a metaphorical eye out for hornet beetles.

"How much do you know about Batman, Robin and Gotham city?"

"Very little." Raven answered. "Beast Boy explained a bit about the Joker and the Scarecrow, mostly about how, and how many people they had killed." Both girls fidgeted a bit awkwardly.

Even now, years later thinking about those monsters hurt. The fact they were dead and gone made things easier, but it still hurt.

"Right… the first thing you need to understand is that Gotham City was and is a shit hole." I said bluntly. "Not enough jobs mean that people turn to crime to survive. That makes the city more dangerous and run down and then good people end up leaving looking for better places to live and so on. The city has been like that for a long time now."

The girls nodded following my words closely.

"Then Batman showed up, suddenly all the criminals had a lot more to worry about than a bunch of underpaid and underfunded cops. The city got a little safer, a little better, there was hope… then the villains started to crop up. They weren't the kind of villains you all deal with here, Gotham villains are all crazy. When Batman caught them, they got thrown in an insane asylum rather than a prison." I blew out a long sigh.

"But they would just bust out and start killing people all over again. All that progress the city made? Gone. Anyone with a lick of common sense started to get the hell out of town, more businesses closed, or some got wrecked by villains. That meant less jobs and more people turning to crime to get by. Basically, what Batman did just wasn't working anymore. Or at least not as well."

The two teens shared a glance. They looked troubled, but beyond that I couldn't even guess what they were thinking.

"Thing is, Batman has strong ideals. He's a cold hearted piece of shit who's not afraid to use fear and violence to make criminals stop… but he doesn't like killing. Goes out of his way to avoid it at all costs really. Neither of you are from earth, right?" The girls nodded. "How would people deal with unrepentant mass murderers where you come from?" Raven answered first.

"On Asarath, such a person would have their mind altered. Their personality would be… erased I suppose. They become productive members of society… but there not quite right after that. They just, sort of go through the motions. No emotions or impulses or attachments." Well… that's a terrifying thought. Starfire seemed to agree, her bright orange skin paled to an almost human tan and she shivered at the thought.

"Friend Raven that is, how could your people?! Such a fate is, is-" she trailed off like she couldn't find the proper word to describe it. "For a Tamaranian, such a fate would be worse than death, worse than being crippled! I would rather be bound to the ground with two broken legs than suffer such a fate!" Raven only shrugged looking mildly uncomfortable.

"My people believed that there was nothing worse than death. And that to take another person's life was the greatest of sins." The dark Titan shrugged. "I'm not sure I agree, I can think of plenty of fates worse than death, but they refused to kill and that was the harshest punishment they used." Starfire didn't seem happy about that but set it aside for the moment.

"My people are warriors. For one to kill their own people without just cause… prison, or death. More often death." Starfire answered.

"Here on earth it's also prison or death. But which depends on a lot of things, like where you are, how much proof has been gathered, and often enough who was killed and how they were killed."

The two titans looked at me oddly for that last bit.

"Let's say a man, a criminal, shoots and kills another man who is also a criminal. It sucks that someone died, but the truth is people expect that sort of thing. It doesn't shock and horrify them, so more than likely he's bound for jail." The girls nodded slowly.

"If that same man were to instead have tortured a mother and her daughter to death in their home." I carefully avoided mentioning anything along the lines of rape, for all that they had chosen to be heroes they still seemed far to innocent. "That upsets people, that horrifies people. It reminds them that despite what society tells them, living a law abiding life does not mean they are safe. That's more likely to get the death penalty, especially if it's not the first time." The girls nodded again, albeit slowly this time.

"Gotham is in an area where we don't have the death penalty anymore. If a criminal died in a shootout with the police." I shrugged. "No one cared. One less piece of shit on the streets. But the police couldn't handle the villains and Batman, and his student, Robin, they don't kill."

"Robin is the student of the Batman?" Starfire's surprise caught me off guard but I nodded anyway.

"So, what was with the tension between them?" Raven asked.

"Wait, they're not getting along?" The girls shook their heads no. Huh, go figure. "I have no idea then. Must have something to do with why the Brat's here in jump instead of back in Gotham." We all took a moment to digest that before I moved on.

"Anyway, Batman not killing is probably a good thing. Before superheroes were common you all would have been labeled vigilantes and the police would have been out to arrest you." Both girls looked highly affronted but I just plowed on with the conversation.

"The early heroes; Batman, Superman, Flash, those guys, the fact that they didn't kill or maim criminals made people more accepting. Sure, they were taking the law into their own hands, and some people wound up with broken bones, but they weren't ignoring people's right to a trial. Supervillains showing up kind of forced people to accept it because the police just couldn't deal with them on their own. And now anyone can throw on a pair of tights and beat up criminals and no one bats an eye."

"So, the killing of the criminals is a bad thing then, yes?" Starfire asked sounding unsure. I gave her a small tired smile.

"If you killed every criminal, or even just every villain you fought, the regular people would be terrified of you and would likely try to throw you in jail. And as far as I'm concerned, they would be right to. But sometimes someone has to die and it's down to you or them, or them or the civilians. Or sometimes you know that if you don't stop them permanently then it will only be a matter of time before they are back on the streets and more people die. What do you do in those situations? Maybe you can take off a leg, or blind them, or break their spine and leave them paralyzed… or maybe you could kill them and be sure."

"Like the Joker, and the Scarecrow." Raven said thoughtfully. "You wanted to be sure?"

"I also wanted revenge, and justice." I freely admitted. "But yeah I wanted to be sure. There were other people in Gotham with similar body counts you know? I could have stuck around, kept cleaning house, only dealt with the worst of the worst. People would have thanked me for it. But I don't really want that. Super heroes, super villains… it all seems so immature to me. People dressing up in funny clothes to go do a job they won't be paid for, that they just choose to do because they can rather than because someone thought they were qualified. You all do a lot of good, but I just don't understand why you're not doing it as police with extra abilities or something." I shrugged, brushing the topic aside.

"But back to the whole morality of killing in the line of duty thing. Batman believes heroes should never kill, or only kill under the absolute worst circumstances maybe. I've never sat down and asked him exactly how strongly he feels about it, but I do know he's fought and killed during several alien invasions. Because he trained Robin the Brat thinks the same way, or at least has a very similar opinion. Before what I did people could mostly ignored the issue because up till then everyone had been on the same page; heroes didn't kill or maim super villains. But after I killed those two? After I turned myself in and the courts ruled what I did counted as self defense and defense of a third party?" I spread my hands out wide in a gesture to show how big the effect had been.

"Everyone and their uncle came out of the woodwork with their own opinion. Why hadn't those two been given the death sentence? Why hadn't Batman done what I did years ago? What gave a teenage girl the right to decide those two deserved to die? Why were other villains not being treated with the same level of violence? Nobody had a good answer then and they still don't have a good answer now. Hell, they don't even have any laws on the books about this stuff and it's been years." I shrugged. "That's what your teammates are fighting about most likely. I'm just a very controversial real world example of all that."

The three of us sat mostly silent as I directed Raven and her platform occasionally as we finished my search. Thankfully there were no signs that any of the bugs had escaped their tower. The girls dropped me off near home and I thanked them for their help and they thanked me for explaining things to them.

Feeling exhausted I made my way inside and placed an order for Chinese takeout for Kitten and I. Then I started in on the mountain of paperwork I needed to fill out. With any luck I'd be done before midnight.