Note: Thank you so much, Sand Fox, for getting on my case. I'm sorry it's been late; I haven't been able to work at the computer, since I'm such a night owl. Anywho, thanks again for lighting the fire under my butt. I hope that this is long enough to keep you entertained.
A childish laughter filled the Titans' home. That high-pitched happiness was soon followed by Starfire's delighted squeals and Beast Boy's grunts. A thundering of hooves striking the carpet became mingled with the girls' joy.
"Pony! Pony!" the girl cried. "Become a pony!"
Beast Boy morphed from a camel to a small horse. He lowered his head and the girl grabbed his mane from his long neck. She tried to climb up his side, but fell off. Starfire gathered the child carefully in her arms and placed her on the green horse's back.
"Now, clutch tightly, Windy. It may be a bumpy ride!" the alien advised. Windy gulped and clung onto Beast Boy for her very life. Letting out a whinny, he dashed down the grand hallway and made a sharp turn, to which Windy yelped. He scrambled down the stairs and followed a few more twists and turns, leading him to the kitchen. He stopped, panting, and dragged his hooves to the couch. He morphed back to his humanoid self ("Owie!" Windy cried, for she was dropped from his back), and tumbled into the cushions.
"Keep going! Keep going!" Windy goaded him. "I want a chicken!" Beast Boy groaned into the pillow and rolled over.
"You've been riding me hard for the past hour, runt." He stared at this girl. The short, fuzzy hair of this former infant had grown out to her mid-back and into a dark blue color. It hid part of her rounded face, but her gray eyes shone gleefully. She was no taller than Beast Boy's chest but appeared to be eleven. Her weight shifted to one foot impatiently as her other sandaled foot scuffed the carpeting. "Has it only been two months?" the changeling asked himself.
"Huh? You're weird," Windy said and walked over to the stove. A teapot was settled onto one of the heaters and was slowly boiling. The girl took a closer look at the heater and saw a light-blue flame. Curious, she turned a knob on the stove for the lower-right hand corner of the stove. After a few clicks, a flame appeared and danced through the spiral heater. She stared at it, tilting her head to one side, and stepped back a few steps. She watched it sway with her tiniest breath and nearly die with her strongest blow.
"Windy, you're awfully quiet now. What did you do? Windy? Runt?" Beast Boy bolted upright from his couch and saw the girl leaning over to the flame. She seemed to coo softly at it, intrigued by its dance. Suddenly, the fire blazed and expanded, singeing the ceiling and destroying the teapot. It crept toward the screaming girl and engulfed her. Beast Boy ran to the sink, hastily turned the knob, and, after transforming into an elephant, sprayed the area with a powerful blast.
However, it was not the Changeling's attempts that killed the flame, but the girl's doings. The fire around her expanded into a bubble around her and was sucked into the center, imploding. All that was left was a pillar of smoke. Through this veil of smog a bright blue light shone and a voice echoed, "Fire is your enemy. Avoid it at all costs, child." The light dimmed and the smoke dissipated. The girl's shoulders heaved with her rough breathing, her eyelids lowering from apparent exhaustion.
"Time for bed yet?" was all a tired Windy could say.
"Yeah, kid. It is."
"What was all the screaming about?" asked Robin.
"There was a little stove problem," Beast Boy replied. "But everything's okay now."
"Yeah, but you forgot the ceiling," Raven pointed out, looking up. It was blackened and cracked from where the fire exploded. "This is going on your part of the bill." Beast Boy blushed and transformed into a duck. "Very funny."
"But the weird thing was," Cyborg cut in, "the fact that my sensors were picking up a high energy in the Tower! High enough for it to be considered an earthly phenomenon." Beast Boy changed back and looked down at the floor. He muttered something about funny business.
"What sort of 'funny business'?" Robin stared at Beast Boy with a piercing look and the Changeling whined, scuffing his foot against the floor and staring at a fuzz ball.
"Alright! The stove exploded, and the fire wrapped itself around the kid, who became all weird and glowy and sucked it in and a voice said to avoid fire. There, happy?" Beast Boy looked out into the television area, where Windy was sleeping. After a long silence, he said, "I don't think she's normal."
"What was your first hint?" Raven sarcastically commented. "She appeared out of a storm, has different hair colors for a human, and now she can suck on smoke and make it vanish."
Again, a quiescence fell upon the Titans.
"And that is why we must take care of this Elemental. She may help us in future battles," Starfire whispered. Everyone shifted nervously and nearly jumped when a small voice spoke.
"What's going on?" Windy asked, rubbing her eyes and advancing toward the Titans. "You're all really quiet. Was it something I did? Beast Boy, I'm really sorry," she said quickly and grabbed his hands. "I knew I shouldn't have made you transform so many times, but I was having to much fun, and… and…" She sniffled and her eyes watered.
"What? Oh, runt, it wasn't that! It was, uh, Titan stuff that we had to talk about. You didn't do anything wrong. Really!" Beast Boy comforted her. The girl sniffed again and nodded. She looked at her family's faces and saw a grim concern. Her eyes wandered and saw the blackened ceiling.
"Whoa! What happened here?"
"Hey, don't you remember? About the big fire?" Cyborg asked.
"Uh, what fire?"
"You don't remember?" Robin eyed her with interest. "It was huge, apparently, and then suddenly disappeared." Windy looked at him blankly. "I guess not."
Windy looked at them and asked, "May I go to bed, please? I'm really tired." With nods from Robin and Starfire, she made her way up the stairs and down the hall to her bedroom.
A loud sigh caused the Titans to look at Raven curiously. With her lips tightly shut, it was apparent that she was reluctant to speak. However, with the nagging from her fellow teammates, she finally said, "That girl… She has a great power."
"Uh, yeah. I think we all knew that," Cyborg cut in. Raven looked at him with a "let me finish" glance.
"A great power and a great evil looming within her."
Note: I love cliffhangers! Hope that was suspensful enough to keep you all reading this. Next one will come up soon after I finished brainstorming for the next chaper. >
Thanks again for reading this. Please keep reviewing!