Hey, everyone! Welcome to another short story. This is actually an excerpt from a one-shot story that I've published already: see The Return on my profile- just a heads-up! I just wanted to make this a short story of its own.
I don't own the Teen Titans, and happy reading!
"So...what is this stuff?"
It was a bright day as usual in Titans Tower, and all was well- with the exception of the "food" in front of the Titans.
The team was leaning over an oversized, wide pot filled with bubbling, smelly, reddish-pink glop in the stove. There were tiny, nauseating chunks of what looked like meat but could have been anything floating above the surface of the goop.
"There is no Earthly translation for this dish, but on my home world it is quite a delicacy," Starfire explained, straightening up and hair swinging behind her back. "It is made of various plants and larvae and must be heated for at least two of your earth hours." She indicated the fire under the pot.
"Larvae?" Cyborg recoiled with disgust from the steaming stew, chuckling nervously. "You mean bugs?" He blinked several times, eyes wide with shock.
Before Starfire could answer, Raven chimed in with a wary look on her face. "Uh-" she bent over in half, putting her face in front of the pot and squinting suspiciously. "Don't you think it's been...long enough?"
A sizzling bubble burst at the top of the slimy substance, just barely missing Raven's nose, who sat up abruptly.
"It has hardly been enough of the time, friend Raven!" Starfire giggled. She got down on her knees to the ground and placed both of her arms onto the counter, observing her dish with a sudden look of confusion. "But- why is the mush sweating?"
Robin tilted his head to the side and inched closer toward the alien with a knowing smile. "Star, that's just condensation," he told her warmly.
"So why's it smoking?" Beast Boy asked skeptically, eyes narrowed, his head following the suddenly thick clouds of smoke floating up from the strawberry-pink slop. The smell began to cloud the air quickly, and the sizzling sound grew louder.
"Oh, no-" Starfire launched into the air and shoved her fingers into her hair, ruffling it. "That is not supposed to happen!"
"Hell-" Raven cut herself off as she propelled her one body into the air in search of the fire extinguisher.
Panic descended quickly upon the Titans as they realized the dish was very quickly catching fire. The smoke detector finally caught up with the situation and began wailing a loud, repetitive beep. The stew bubbled and popped, rising over the edge of the pot and gushing over the sides, drenching the stove and the floor, steaming as it did. Beast Boy hurled himself into the air to try and fan away the smoke that was very rapidly smothering them, Robin sprinted off to grab the nearest source of water, and Cyborg set to attempting to quench the luminescent scarlet flames with his own built-in hose, although it was proving to be difficult as the function had not been used recently, causing the mechanism to be rusty and slow. Starfire was becoming hysterical, circling the entire room at such speeds she was only a blurry, magenta streak through the air. Meanwhile, the pot was completely overflowing now, the contents dripping onto the floor with a hissing sound as they melted into the ground. It even appeared to somehow be- inflating?- and the edges of the pot glowed red with heat. The room was filling with the harsh stench of smoke and the Titans' mouths were dry and coated in fumes.
Finally, Raven burst back onto the scene wielding the fire extinguisher, Cyborg at last managing to break out the hose, Robin emerging, urgent, with a huge dark blue bucket splashing with water, and Beast Boy still flapping wildly with large hawk wings to eliminate the smoke. The smoke detector, however, continued its insufferable screeching.
"Great," Robin coughed, a puff of smoke hitting his face unexpectedly. "We've all-"
Then the pot finally exploded.
Burning mush flew everywhere, and the amount of stew seemed to multiply as it splattered over nearly every inch of the kitchen and common room. Shards of metal took to the air and banged against various items, creating more noise among the aggravatingly persistent shrieks of the smoke detector. A ginormous glop of goop knocked Starfire out of the air, and the sticky mess melted all over her, covering the bewildered and messy alien from head to toe in slush. Glop slid down every single wall in sight as well as the windows. A huge puff of smoke hurled itself up towards Beast Boy, who morphed back into his normal form and launched into a coughing fit. Cyborg was frantically trying to unstick his metal arm from the wall, as the mush had pinned him there, and like Starfire he was also layered in the sticky pink disaster. Robin was frozen in place, mush sliding down his uniform, and the spilled bucket of water soaking into his pants and shoes and pooling beneath his feet, adding to the already impossible mess. Raven had been thrown back into the ground along with a large, bitter-smelling portion of the stew that coated her cloak and was tangled in her hair.
There was silence- with the exception of the smoke detector.
Finally, faintly, Robin: "Is someone gonna get that thing?"
I hope you all enjoyed! Please review if you enjoyed!