Titans: Elemental

Chapter 49: Transformation, Part 1

We see a leather-bound book whose front cover displays the Titans' insignia. It opens to the first page; a drawing of Earth, seen from outer space, and a kindly male voice begins to narrate.

Narrator, "long ago, on a small blue planet called Earth…."

The page turns, now a flying-saucer cutout floats against the cosmos, with Starfire grinning and flashing a peace sign inside.

Narrator, "... there was a young alien girl who lived in a T."

She beams and points to it as he finishes.

Narrator, "she had many friends."

The other Titans pop up around her, causing that smile to widen even more. Page turn, she strains to keep a flaming meteor from crushing Jump City.

Narrator, "she was very powerful…."

The page turns, and she holds a pair of smelly magenta boxer shorts at arm's length over the washing machine while Dick, Jack, Raven, and Vic keep their distance. The underwear is decorated with various animals; straight from BB's wardrobe. He is within a small panel, wearing only a towel and shower cap and laughing his head off.

Narrator, "... very brave."

The page turns, and we see her hugging Rose, Blackfire, Bryan and Percy.

Narrator, "and very kind. And although she never thought much of it…."

Page turns; we see her twirling feet, and she floats gently down in the soft light.

Narrator, "... she was also very beautiful. Her life seemed entirely perfect…. Until one day…."

A large bump pops out on her forehead; she gasps as the light returns to normal. This gives way to a hysterical scream.

…..

We see the tower during the daytime. Starfire is in the bathroom, and the glints show that she is looking in the mirror.

Starfire, "huh?"

A tentative poke at the bump makes it shiver slightly, as if it were filled with very cold pudding. She leans closer, pressing it against the glass, and moans worriedly; this is followed by a slow slide down the mirror and a little whine. She pushes down on the growth and succeeds in flattening it. However, a relieved sigh is barely out of her mouth before it crops up again. Now, each time she tries to mash it down, it simply appears in another spot beneath her hairline. A few frantic prods put the thing out of sight, but only for a moment, as it came right back to the center of her forehead.

Starfire groans in frustration and pokes furiously at the protuberance, which shifts all over her head as fast as she can get her finger after it, and finally jams down the spot where it first cropped up. Now it has gone; a knock at the door draws her attention, and it swells forth and draws another groan from her. In the hall, BB is outside the bathroom, whining and doing the classic dance favored by little kids with full bladders.

BB, "Starfire, hurry up! You've been in there for twenty minutes, and I'm not paper-trained!"

More whining follows, now doglike.

Starfire, "one moment more, please!"

He hops slowly toward the door, which opens when he is just short of the threshold. Starfire peeks out, showing her forehead back under control, but the bump asserts itself anew and she ducks back in, slamming the door. BB rushes, but an instant too late; he slams into it face first and tumbles backward, stopping himself from hitting the floor with a leg bent backward under his body.

He staggers up and claps both hands over himself to hold it in, but the sound of flowing water draws his attention elsewhere. We see Dick outside; he is wearing an apron decorated with a potted plant and whistling happily as he plays a hose over some bushes. Vic is pouring some water in a glass. He leans into view, showing a hot, sweaty face with a towel draped around the neck; that drink will come in handy indeed. Raven levitates two large boulders while floating in midair; to show the scene as a dry waterfall. Once the rocks are out of the way, a torrent gushes over the precipice below her.

Rose is currently mopping up the training room, the sound of loud water ever present.

BB looks and sounds as if he is about to explode. He starts to look around the hall.

BB, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G…. A large potted plant slides into view; he eyes it, "... H, I, J, K, L, M, N, OOOOOOOO…. PEEEEEEEEE!"

….

A little later, we see Raven, Blackfire and Starfire, on the couch in the living room. Starfire has put on a large, floppy green hat that covers her entire forehead; Raven is, as usual, immersed in heavy reading.

Starfire is whispering to her sister, " I fear something may be terribly wrong with me", she speaks louder, "I could have Irinean measles, or perhaps my epidermis has become infested with steiner mites, or…."

Raven slams her book shut.

Raven, "okay. What are you talking about?"

Starfire, "I caution. What you are about to see may shock and disturb you."

Blackfire, "come on sis, it can't be that bad."

She shudders a bit and prepares to lift the headgear; she gets it off. The sound of her new growth popping out is heard, but Raven just stays deadpan.

Raven, "it's a zit. Everybody gets them. Deal with it."

Starfire, "then I am normal?"

Blackfire, "yes, sister. Plenty of Tamaranians get them as well."

Starfire sweeps Raven and Blackfire into a hug.

Starfire, "oh, thank you, Raven, dear sister! Now I shall no longer feel worry or shame or-"

The door opens to admit Dick; she gasps in shock, a fresh sweat drop rolling down, then jams the hat back onto her head and pulls it down to cover the top half of her face. He just crosses the room to go about his business.

Raven, "just so you know, that's not really dealing with it."

Blackfire, "not at all."

Raven walls off, leaving Starfire to watch the blue-cloaked back.

Blackfire, "don't worry sis. It should be gone after a few days…."

Narrator, "but one little bump was only the beginning of her worries."

….

Starfire floats in a black space, slowly rotating with arms spread wide, as question marks blink behind her.

Narrator, "deep down inside, something strange was happening; something very strange indeed."

Starfire sits in the center, flanked by Dick and Vic; a GameStation race is in progress on the window/screen. She huddles under her big green chapeau.

Narrator, "the next day, she grew tusks on her neck."

They pop out, one protruding from each side, and she gasps and tries to pull her head down into her neck piece. A short squeal, two palms pressed to cover the new growths, and a lightning-fast dive over the couch, but Dick and Vic are so engrossed in their game that they take no notice whatsoever. She puts her eyes up over the cushions; now they give their thumbs a rest and glance her way, but she ducks back out of sight. The two racers trade a puzzled look, shrug, and throw crazed grins at the screen as they return to the game.

We see a belly-busting ice cream sundae in the kitchen, so tall that its top is cut off by the top edge of the screen. BB leans into view, hearts in his eyes and drool oozing from the corner of his mouth.

BB, "ahhhh…."

He reaches up and sets a cherry in place with great care, and Starfire is regarding the creation from the opposite side of the counter. She has put on a wide scarf to hide her neck. He turns around to rummage in the cabinets; she leans eagerly toward the sundae.

Narrator, "the day after that….", she gasps and jerks her hands from the counter; they are shaking, "... her fingernails grew long and ugly."

Those hands change to show long striped nails and badly swollen fingers. She runs a panicked eye over the digits and hastily shoves them into the sundae with a gasp. Towering scoops, chocolate syrup, and sprinkles splatter in a heap on the counter. When BB stands up from the cabinets, holding spoons for himself and Starfire, he goggles at the destruction of his masterpiece, screams, and faints.

….

We later see the alien girl openimg the door to inspect the moldy leftovers. Now she has added blue oven mitts to her ensemble.

Narrator, "and the day after that, she developed bizarre cravings for the most unusual foods."

A fly starts to buzz near her head. After a few seconds, worth of watching its flight, Starfire whips out one padded hand and seizes it. What she does next is to turn her palm over and peer carefully at it.

Fly, "help me!"

The young Tamaranean lashes out her tongue, which is now considerably longer than it has any right to be, and lays it squarely across the insect. Whisking it into her mouth, Starfire crunches down and swallows; a little hiccup comes back up after the meal, and she claps a hand to her lips. She quickly closes the fridge door.

….

After the passage of all this time, it is day again.

Narrator, "and with each passing day…."

We see a very despondent Starfire in her room, sitting on the bed. Her shadow is cast on the wall by the door.

Narrator, "... the strange little alien grew stranger…."

Her ears become large and pointed; she covers them with a gasp.

Narrator, "... and stranger…."

Now the skin of her arms becomes very scaly. One boot starts to bulge.

Narrator, "... and stranger still."

The boot splits, exposing a foot much larger than normal with auburn hair all over the upper surface. She moans sadly.

Starfire, "my friends must not see how hideous I have become…. Or they will surely think I am turning into some sort of horrible monster. I must never allow anyone to see me…. Ever again."

An alarm and flashing red light shake her out of the funk and scare a little shriek out of her.

She hears Dick from outside, "Starfire! Trouble", she looks toward the closed door, "we need to go", she pulls a blanket partway up.

Starfire, "please proceed! I will join you shortly!"

….

Later, we see an empty football stadium. Night has fallen, and the gridiron sits under the broad glare of the facility's floodlights. Faint crowd noise quickly grows to a screaming panic, whose source is soon revealed as the members of two opposing high school teams fleeing downfield. They are accompanied by cheerleaders and marching band performers. Out of the shadows comes Plasmus, stumping after them and screeching insanely! He moves in on the group, which has stuffed itself into the entrance to one of the locker rooms, and lets off a roar before slamming one slimy fist to the turf and digging it in deep. What he pulls up is several yards of a broken sewage line; he licks his lips eagerly and directs the greenish flow into his mouth.

Football player, "is that a sewer pipe?"

Crowd, "EWWWWW!"

Plasmus pays them no mind and continues to drink his fill. When he finishes, he lowers the pipe and wipes his mouth, but something nearby draws his surprised attention toward itself. We see one of Dick's discs in mid-flight, it and two others strike his chest and stick there. They detonate after a moment, tearing his upper body apart into purple ribbons that splay in all directions, but he quickly reassembles himself and roars in fury.

Dick, "I don't know what's more disgusting, Plasmus…. The way you look…. Or the stuff you eat."

BB, Vic, Raven, Rose, Blackfire, Jack and Bryan join him.

Plasmus responds by vomiting forth a wide stream of sludge.

Dick, "Titans! Go!"

They scatter to dodge the deluge. Dick comes down from his leap with his fighting staff ready to use; as Plasmus hurls handfuls of slime, he swerves back and forth and ends with a bound that carries him over the semi-liquid villain's head. The staff is stabbed straight down behind the eyes and disappears to its full length. After Dick lands behind him, he regurgitates a new torrent that brings up only a piece of the retractable weapon. One huge fist seizes Dick and flings him to the far goalpost; he bounces off one upright and down, no three points for this play.

Vic leaps down, sonic cannon at the ready, and fires a couple of blasts that blow holes in Plasmus' arms. The big man moves in closer for another go.

Vic, "come on, Booger-Man! Gimme what you got!"

Jack hollored, "still a better insult than anything Gizmo says!"

...

Gizmo looked up from whatever project her was working on and grumbled, "I don't know why, but I get the feeling my insults have been insulted again..."

...

This next blast blows away the mounded head, but it does not take long for Plasmus to put himself back together. He fires a gush of gunk from his chest. One surprised shout is all Dick has time for before the view shifts to the goalpost where Dick has fallen. Vic is driven backward against the support and tumbles onto the end zone, plastered head to toe with Plasmus leftovers. Sitting up, he shakes some of the mess off his head, snorts in a breath, and lets off a strangled cry before exhaling at full force; more slime, lots of it, pours from both nostrils.

Vic, "I'm gonna be smelling that for a week."

Plasmus laughs at him as Raven floats up behind the big head. She levitates the dug-up sewer line and causes it to wrap him up securely.

Raven, "Azarath Metrion-"

A gooey blast fills her mouth before she can finish the spell; Plasmus has created several tentacles at the back of his head to shut her up. She is flung over his shoulders and onto the grass hard. As she stands up with a groan, her cloak is more purple than blue, Vic walks up behind her.

Raven, "yuck."

Jack, "oh heck no!"

Jack fires a huge jet of ice at, freezing Plasmus' arms. But as they shatter, he simply forms new ones and sends Jack flying to the other end of the field.

Rose flies in and tries slashing Plasmus to bits, but he merely reforms and starts spinning her around and around until letting go. Blackfire is barely able to catch her midair as Bryan starts shooting as many blasts of lasers as he can. They go right through Plasmus, but he's unaffected by them!

BB, "Cyborg! Time for the BB Blitz!"

He goes into a leap, becomes an armadillo, and rolls himself into a ball on the way down. Vic catches him, dodges a few Plasmus strikes, and throws the green teen just before one last hit drives him backward; the armadillo becomes a rhinoceros, but Plasmus easily swats it away.. BB, back in human form, crashes into a group of coolers, and ends up amid a swamp of Gatorade and purple ooze. Pushing a cooler off his head, he licks the glop off his face.

BB, "orange-flavored bad guy? Gross, yet strangely refreshing."

Bryan, "dude... That's just disgusting..."

The Titans begin to regroup. We see Plasmus, stomping along toward them, but a sudden rain of starbolts ends his advance and fills the screen with smoke. When it clears, we see a new crater in the field, which is filling not only with sewage from the line he broke, but also with his amorphous remains. The purple gunk bubbles as Dick and the others look into the hole.

Vic, "Boo-yah!"

Rose, "alright!"

BB, "awesome!"

Jack, "yeah!"

Dick, "way to go, Star…. Fire?

On the end of this. A pair of feet in yellow galoshes descends into view. The rubbers touch down on an empty patch of field, and we soon see the rest of the hapless alien. The remains of her own footwear are visible between the tops of the galoshes and the hem of a matching raincoat. Thanks to these items, the oven mitts, the scarf, and the hat, all her skin is covered except for the top half of her face.

Raven, "interesting fashion statement."

Rose, "that's putting it mildly."

BB, "yeah, uh…. Nice slicker."

Jack, "I, uh…. Like the hat…?"

Dick, "Starfire…. You've been acting kind of…. Strange lately. Is everything okay?"

Blackfire, "yeah, you've been acting very odd. Even for Tamaranians."

She backs up with a scared little whimper, but a loud rumbling diverts Dick's attention. He looks over his shoulder to the crater where she gave Plasmus what for. A maroon geyser boils up and forms a gargantuan humanoid creature with thinner arms and legs than before. A huge screaming mouth sits below a row of bulbous green eyes that stretches up both shoulders and across the top of his head. The new Plasmus lets off a long, grating scream.

Vic, "ewwww!"

Bryan, "that's just nasty."

Raven, "just when you thought he couldn't get uglier."

Jack, "he's uglier than a pugs shaved butt!'

BB, "dude! That is sick! And not in a good way."

Blackfire, "I don't think there's a good way, Beast Boy."

Dick, "no matter how nasty he gets, he's just a monster. And like every other monster, he's got to go!"

He does not notice the shock Starfire gets from his words, and after he rushes toward the enemy, she lets off a little whimper and buries her face even deeper in her scarf. Dick dashes in and lets fly with a handful of explosive discs, Raven puts a few black bursts upside the head, Jack shoots flames at his feet, Bryan starts shooting his laser gun again, and Vic fires off a cannon salvo, but the combined effect of the five Titans' weapons just makes Plasmus angrier. His eyes swell and burst like giant pimples, releasing a flood of luridly tinted ichor; Vic dives for cover with a yell, leaving Starfire to look up just in time to take it in the face. We see her hat, tumbling to the ground. It lands by her feet, and we see that the rest of her hastily-donned outerwear has been blasted away by the torrents as well.

She lets off a panicked gasp as having been exposed in this manner. In the battle zone, the other Titans, are faring very badly against Plasmus. Raven is caught up in one sludgy fist, BB has sunk to his waist in the head, Jack is being swung around by a tentacle of sludge, Rose is trying to pry Blackfire out of Plasmus' torso, Dick has been driven halfway into the ground, and Vic and Bryan are firing a fusillade of shots that do no damage at all. They stop their struggles after a moment and stare dumbstruck at her.

Dick, "Starfire?!"

Plasmus, "ewwwww!"

From Starfire's perspective, everyone starts laughing like maniacs as she tried to cover herself.

Starfire clutches her head and groans through clenched teeth.

Blackfire, "Sister?"

Dick, "Starfire! What's going...?"

She covers herself.

Starfire, "I am sorry! I have…. Got to go!"

She lifts off.

Dick, "Starfire! Wait!"

Blackfire, "come back!"

….

A violet streak zooms up from the planet and resolves into the freaked-out Tamaranean. Sniffling and sobbing, she glances over her shoulder toward her adopted home.

Starfire, "I truly am a monster."

She flies across the galaxy. Her tears float weightless in her wake, and her sobs echo through the void.

Narrator, "and so the sad, strange girl flew far away, into the cold dark loneliness of outer space…."

...

We see another region of the galaxy. Starfire floats dejectedly into view.

Narrator, "'surely', thought the odd little alien, 'a horrible ugly monster like me does not belong on Earth with such good and handsome friends.'"

She has stopped by this point and is regarding a planet whose surface is splotched with bright pink streaks, as if paint dripped onto a canvas.

Narrator, "but where was she to go?"

She floats away.

Narrator, "not even her home planet would take her in, looking as strange as she did."

She looks remorsefully back the way she came, this was Tamaran, and continues on.

Narrator, "'I must find a new world', she decided, 'one with monsters as horrible and ugly as I.'"

We see a group of planets and a dotted line starts to weave among them, marking her course. She stops at one of them, arid under a red sky, where a couple of inhabitants can be seen sporting large tusks on either side of their necks. Starfire smiles ingratiatingly up at one of them and waves.

Starfire, "hello, fellow ugly monsters!"

Her words spark a surprised gasp from the would-be new friend, who then twitters something in its own language and runs away. She hangs her head, and the view changes to the group of planets. Now her path carries her on a roundabout course to a different one, under a bright blue sky. Here are many tall trees with growths that look very much like her fingernails, and a couple of large anteater creatures are speaking to each other; their claws are of this same design, and many similar horny growths protrude from their bodies.

Starfire has landed here. She looks at her own nails, laughs, and moves across the clearing, but as soon as the two creatures get a good look at one of those hirsute feet, they squeal and make a break for it.

The planets again; the dotted-line course takes her to a third one, and a wipe to the surface shows a dense forest with many phosphorescent growths on tree trunks, all under a vivid green sky. Starfire runs screaming into view; a moment later, an enraged, torch-bearing mob of scaly greenish creatures charges by to run her out of the place.

The planets again.

This time, Starfire's sojourn brings her to one of the smaller ones; we see her down in the dumps, sitting on the surface. The curvature suggests that it's a small world after all, and this is borne out when we pull back and rotate 180 degrees to frame her upside down. This planet is not more than a few feet in diameter, and several tiny creatures with very hairy feet and no arms stand on the hemisphere opposite her perch. Though their shouted words are unintelligible, the tone reveals just how much they resent her presence. She sighs heavily and takes her leave of this miniature planet.

Narrator, "but with each new world she visited, the strange alien girl felt uglier and uglier."

We go across outer space to keep her in view. Starfire makes her way past some more planets and into an asteroid belt.

Narrator, "and with nowhere else to go, she wandered alone into the deepest, darkest part of the galaxy."

Starfire flies for a second or two later, and a silhouette clambers over the edge of an asteroid and jumps into space to follow. It looks something like a cross between a crab and a spider. Now the fleeing girl picks her way deeper through the belt, with this other creature keeping a long tail on her.

Narrator, "but she was not really alone..."

A large asteroid floats across the screen; behind it, the view changes to an empty patch of space.

….

Back at the Tower, we see Dick standing at the edge of the roof. He looks back and forth, surveying the bay.

Blackfire is standing nearby with an extremely worried look.

Blackfire, "I should have known she was going through these changes. I went through them a few years ago!"

Dick asked, "what were your changes?"

Blackfire, "I turned purple for a few days. Nothing as extreme was what happened to Starfire."

Dick, "we'll find her. I promise", he turns on his communicator, "Victor! How long until we can launch?"

Vic, "oh, about five minutes after you QUIT ASKING ME THAT!"

Dick recoils from the force he puts into his words.

….

A little later, we see inside an underground launch silo, at the level of a large craft's exhaust nozzles. As machinery kicks into gear, we look up to show them attached to a pair of large booster engines, which are in turn attached to the underside of the T-Sub. It stands with its bow pointed straight up at the silo hatch. Part of the service structure retracts, and we see that the earthbound Titans are in their individual cockpits.

Raven, "are we sure this thing is ready to fly?"

Vic, "no! The T-Sub was built for deep sea, not deep space."

Dick, "I don't care what it was built for. It's going into space. We've gotta find Starfire."

Blackfire, "I'm with ya, Dick!"

Dick reaches into view and presses a button, and bar-graph readouts start to fill up.

Dick, "main power online."

Rose, "secondary power is online."

Raven, "defensive systems active."

BB, "oxygen tanks at maximum."

Blackfire, "communication systems are active."

Bryan, "atomic batteries to power, heh, I always wanted to say that."

Vic, "fusion thrusters ready to fire."

Jack, "let's do this!"

The silo hatch slides open, allowing the T-Sub to be raised through on its supports, and we pull back to show the silo on the shore of the Tower's island.

Dick, "Titans! Launch!"

The engines fire and fill the area with their exhaust; when it clears, the island is seen from over the rooftops of Jump City. With a mighty roar, the converted T-Sub lifts clear off the island and traces a course straight for the heavens. The engines put extra thrust behind the craft.

Vic is hunched over his controls.

Vic, "told you she was ready to fly!"

Raven, "hmmm…."

The Titans are carried ever higher; after a few more seconds, the booster engines are jettisoned and the T-Sub begins to coast in outer space. The grinning driver thumbs a button and brings a couple of thrusters into action; firing from the aft quarters on port and starboard, they power the vessel across the galaxy.

….

Reviews:

Ushindi: glad you enjoyed the chapter. 1. I plan to have Kitten and Fang appear in an original chapter called, "Date Night Fright." 2. I like Young Justice. Not as much as Teen Titans, but still. I plan to adapt certain story arcs from Young Justice into the story later on.

Canadude2029: glad you enjoyed the chapter so much!

Bailey Radcliff: well, I'm glad you've enjoyed this story so much.

raven 2012: awesome.

….

There will be some context as to who the heck is reading the story. You can guess who by the end...