Titans: Elemental

Chapter 84: Can I Keep Him?, Part 2

We later see the living room at night.

Starfire floats back and forth, visible only as a silhouette since all the lights are out. Jack follows behind her.

Starfire, "here Silkie…. Here, Silkie, Silkie. Your k'norfka wishes to locate you."

Dick pops up.

Dick, "Starfire? Jack?"

Starfire yelps, so badly surprised that she tumbles to the floor. Jack jumps down to the ground. They all can be properly seen in the moonlight. Dick has a piece of a couch cushion.

Dick, "um…. Where's the sofa?"

Starfire looks in the direction he has indicated. Except for the cushion he holds and a few others scattered about the floor, it is now gone. Time for a little more quick thinking from the overgrown maggot's would-be mommy and Uncle.

Starfire, "uh…. Your Earthly ways are strange. Please, what is this sofa of which you speak?"

Jack face-palmed at that idiotic lie.

Before Dick can react, Starfire and Jack have made it to the side door and the former has given him a little giggle.

Starfire, "bye!"

Out they go, leaving one very puzzled Titan in their wake.

….

We see the interior of a small chamber as Vic opens a circular hatch and peeks in. The view ripples as if underwater; he is looking into a toilet, we see that he is in the bathroom, holding the lid up. In a trice, he is opening the shower curtains around the bathtub to look in. Neither move yields any clues as to Silkie's whereabouts, though.

….

The entrance hall.

Here, Raven pops back and forth, checking around and under armchairs and even levitating one of them to see if Silkie might be hiding beneath it.

….

In the launch silo of the T-Ship, configured for deep-space service, Bryan enters, pops around for a brief look, and hoists the entire craft up by one engine to check beneath. Still nothing.

….

Now the search moves to the basement, down whose stairs Raven and Blackfire fly.

….

In the garage, a few random items are flung into view; an old boot, volleyball, a couple of crates, and Vic goes to it in earnest, dumping out a plethora of junk and tossing its container aside. No luck here, either.

Vic, "man, whatever this thing is, it's wasting my time. There's nothing in here-"

Silkie's drool falls on his head.

Vic, "huh?"

Vic wipes a bit of it away, stares uncomprehendingly at his fingers, and looks toward the ceiling. The vent bursts open under the creature's weight. It tumbles down with a guttural roar!

….

Vic's shrill scream is heard from inside.

….

Back to the garage, one of whose doors is promptly blown open; in come Dick, Rose, Changeling, Bryan, Blackfire and Raven.

Dick, "Victor!"

Vic is half-sprawled out on a large storage container and not going anywhere fast, because Silkie has yanked his left leg off and is sucking enthusiastically at it. One final slurp pulls the entire limb into the mouth and down the throat; it definitely likes the taste. Between the zorka berries and all the other things he has eaten, he has put on several feet and another ton or two.

Vic, "aw, man!"

Bryan clutched his robotic arm close.

Vic pushes off from the container, hopping toward Silkie while trying to draw a bead with his cannon.

Vic, "gimme my foot so I can kick your butt!"

Heavy weaponry and a lack of balance mix in just the wrong way, resulting in his tumble to the floor and a blast that rockets toward the ceiling. Debris rains down, one chunk of which raises a large red knot on Silkie's head; this gets him good and mad, and he rounds on Vic. He is lifted to safety by Changeling, who has become a pterodactyl, and both have to dodge streams of expectorated slime that fountain up after them. A few misses are followed by a bullseye, and down comes Changeling, back in human form, and then Vic, who is left badly stunned by his crash.

Roaring, Dick jumps onto a few loose crates and then onto the head. Seizing the gigantic antennae, he twists them back and forth as if trying to adjust the antenna on a cranky old television. Silkie, naturally, does not take too kindly to this and starts thrashing around to try and buck him off. It finally throws him loose after a moment or two; he goes flying past Raven and Blackfire and slams down among the storage containers.

Raven starts levitating several of them, "Azarath Metrion-"

She sends them forward.

Starfire, "no!"

The Tamaranean throws herself in the projectiles' path.

Starfire, "stop!"

Raven gasps and decelerates the boxes sharply, bringing them to a halt just short of Starfire's head so that they fall to the floor.

Jack runs in as Starfire yells, "do not harm Silkie", she hugs him, "he is my bumgorf!"

Dick, "Starfire?"

Raven, "what's a bumgorf?"

Blackfire, "the Tamaranean word for a baby…. Wait, my sister adopted a large motj larva?"

Changeling, "that's Silkie? Dude! What have you been feeding him?"

Jack, "zorka berries."

Blackfire, "oh no…."

The super-king-size larva produces a rumbling belch that nearly peels Starfire's face off, just as before. It is now quite docile. Once the eruption subsides, she grins and giggles nervously.

….

It is now the following morning….

Jack, "alright, here's the truth…."

We see a collar that has been put on the beast; it bears a tag with the name, and a leash has been attached. Starfire holds the other end of the leash.

Starfire, "Silkie is a mutant monster created by the evil Killer Moth. But that does not make him a bad mutant monster!"

Silkie's eyes pop at something, and he slithers that way, yanking her off with a yell.

Raven, "he attacked Victor."

Vic is furiously wrenching on a new leg he has attached in place of the one it chewed up. The replacement limb is considerably less muscular, however.

Vic, "he ate my best leg!"

Bryan, "why do you even have a best leg?"

Said leg is bent over the kitchen counter.

Starfire, "and I am sure he is very sorry for that."

Silkie comes up with the refrigerator in its jaws and proceeds to down the whole thing in one gulp.

Rose, "oh come on!"

Another nervous giggle comes from Starfie, after which Silkie moves off and drags her along with a scream.

Dick, "hey!"

Silkie tries to bite into the wall as Jack, Blackfire and Starfire hold them back.

Dick gives Changeling a furious glare.

Changeling, "what? I'm not the one who fed him radioactive space berries!"

Chewing sounds surprise them both; Silkie has begun snacking on Dick's pants. It takes him some seconds to pull the hem loose, after which he gets a big, happy, slobbery lick up one side of his head.

Dick, "I'm sorry, Starfire, but he has to go."

Words fail her; all she can do is drop her head dejectedly and close her eyes at his pronouncement.

Jack sighs at this.

….

We see the two in flight, wearing that same expression. It is now evening, and they are toting the cooing Silkie overhead. It is carried toward a cloudy island that seems to be composed entirely of high, jagged cliffs and outcroppings. We see a patch of rock that has had a couple of flowers carved into it; a smiley face is completed by a starbolt. This is a boulder that has also been engraved with the message; "please be nice to monster."

Now the monster in question gurgles a bit and eases toward Starfire; they are all on a ridge that is watered by a small rill.

Starfire, "no, Silkie. It is not time for a bath. It is time….", she undoes the leash and continues, "for me to leave you."

Jack, "we're sorry, but this is for your own good…."

Sillie catches on to their sadness now, but Starfire gives it a reassuring little smile.

Starfire, "this is your new home. You will be happy. No one will harm you", she picks up a huge moss-covered slab, "and there are many strange objects for you to ingest."

Silkie wolfs the rock down in one bite, leaving a streamer of drool on her hands. After a bit of chewing, however, it spits this out and slimes over for one last tender caress.

Starfire, "oh…. Farewell, my beloved Silkie."

Jack, "we're glad we got to meet you."

Starfire turns away, intending to fly from the lip of the ridge with Jack forming a platform of Earth to fly on, but Silkie comes up behind the former and starts to cry a bit.

Starfire, "no. I am very sorry…. But you must not follow."

Not looking back again, she lifts off from the cliff; Silkie squirms as far forward as it can without going over the edge. One of Starfire's ankles gets snagged by a reaching forelimb to arrest her motion. Now she turns toward the island, sees the truly heartbroken behemoth at the cliff's edge, and starts to pull against its hold.

Starfire, "no! Please! I cannot stay! You must….", she warms up a starbolt, "... let me go!"

She puts the hand down, the glare of the shot washing back over her; Silkie retracts his freshly wounded limb in fear and confusion. It backs slowly away from the cliff, and Starfire watches with tears welling in her eyes.

Starfire, "oh, forgive me."

Sobbing, Starfire turns and flies away as rain begins to fall.

Jack flies behind her, tearing up at seeing what Starfire had to give up. He hoped to never have to do that to Percy….

We see the hopelessly bewildered Silkie. Booming, grating laughter catches him by surprise; a black figure standing tall atop the island's pinnacle. We see a long chain in their hands, fuzzy contour on the shoulders, and two antennae on top of an insect head; not to mention large wings folded down over the back. Killer Moth, the madman who threatened Jump City with destruction unless Dick took his daughter to the prom, is on the loose again.

Lightning cracks over the island, and as it subsides….

….

…. We see Johnny Rancid on the loose again!

The storm front has not made it this far yet. He too is laughing and holding a chain, but his perch is a large stack of wrecked cars in a Jump City intersection. A long, wide trench has been cut into the concrete, leading to this junk pile.

Dick, "trust me, Johnny."

We see the Titans a short distance down the trench.

Dick, "this won't seem funny when you're paying for it in jail."

Rancid, "you're the one who's gonna pay! You losers trashed my dog….", he whips the chain backward around every corner, "... so I went out and got myself a monster!"

The area shakes from a series of very large footsteps.

Starfire, "Silkie?"

What lumbers into view on the end of Rancid's chain is not the overgrown larva, but rather a five-story-tall robotic dinosaur whose head is identical to that of the vanquished Wrex. Steam billows from several exhaust pipes.

Rancid, "say hello to Wrexzilla!"

Rose, "hello, scrap pile!"

We see the metal chest, from which a fearsome array of cannons and missile launchers pops out.

Rancid, "destroy!

Wrexzilla lurches toward the Titans, but before it can strike, Silkie's head rears up behind and sucks the whole contraption down its gullet. Rancid is pulled in after it with a surprised yell; a couple of chews are followed by a round of gasps from all the Titans.

Blackfire, "well that was anticlimactic…."

The face is familiar, but the body has undergone a sweeping metamorphosis and become a colossal moth that hovers over the street.

Starfire, "Silkie!"

Jack, "what happened to you?!"

Silkie's mouth is now roaring heartily. Standing on the back, holding a laser whip on one hand and the free end of his chain leash in the other, is Killer Moth. He has finally reigned in the one that got away.

Killer Moth, "his name is Larva M-Three-Nineteen. And he belongs to me…. Killer Moth!"

Bryan, "that's the dumbest name I've ever heard."

Killer Moth laughs and cracks the whip to spur Silkie into a dive straight ahead.

Killer Moth keeps one hand onto the rein and his whip at the ready. As they approach the Titans, all but Starfire and Jack scatter; they are left alone, staring wide-eyed at the former pet that has become a threat to Jump City's safety.

Dick, "Starfire!"

Raven, "Jack!"

One huge leap carries them both across the street, close enough to yank them away just in time. Silkie sweeps through the chaos of trashed cars, knocking them every which way due to its wake, then gains altitude to hover above the buildings.

Killer Moth, "I must say, you took excellent care of M-Three-Nineteen. What have you been feeding him?"

Starfire, "he is called Silkie!"

Killer Moth, "I created him, I tracked him down, I'll call him whatever I please! And as for food, I guess I'll just have to feed him you!"

A whip crack spurs Silkie into a fresh scream and a diving charge at the Titans.

Starfire, "Silkie, no!"

Jack, "this isn't you!"

The mammoth insect opens its jaws wide and spits a string of slime globs. Everyone dives for cover, but Killer Moth steers Silkie low over the street; so low, in fact, that the wake shakes the road. As he curves high for another pass, his face goes slack with shock.

Killer Moth, "huh?"

Changeling, again as a pterodactyl, is carrying Vic straight at the winged wacko.

Vic brings up his cannon, "you liked my leg? Well, chew on this!"

His shots throw both mount and rider off balance. The two Titans move for another attack, but a burst of slime nails them square on and they are forced to drop out. Raven and Blackfire are nearby, waiting behind a building for Killer Moth's approach. At the right moment, Raven levitates a bus and smashes it against Silkie's head, driving the huge flier into the architecture on the other side of the street and pinning it there.

Killer Moth cracks his whip, "fly, you worthless maggot, fly!"

Blackfire throws a bus at the giant head as Starfire flies up behind her.

She yelled, "Starfire! Now!"

Starfire lifts one glowing hand, prepared to do a little bit of extreme animal control, but a tortured groan from Silkie stops her cold. She remembers everything about the cute little larva he once was.

Starfire is unable to bring herself to shoot, while Raven is keeping that bus Blackfire threw in place. Raven's eyes widen just before the end of Killer Moth's whip lashes out, encircling her wrists and sending a strong jolt of energy into her body. She tumbles down, releasing her hold on the bus, and Killer Moth jumps from its roof and back to his perch atop Silkie. It moves out and nails both her, Blackfire and Raven with a slime gobbet, then swoops low down a street to stir up gale-force eddies in a connecting alley.

It cruises on while Dick and Rose dash along the edge of a rooftop. A giant leap and the launch of two grappling hooks are enough to get them closer; having snagged one of the legs, they run sideways on the buildings for quite some time. They push off, swinging high over the great fuzzy back and finally planting their boots on the back near the tail. Killer Moth has barely enough time to turn back toward him before getting a steel sole in the abdomen. He is driven some distance away, dropping the whip, and comes up with Dick's footprint clearly visible.

The three spar for several seconds, but Killer Moth stops the melee briefly by seizing the pair's swinging feet and throwing them backward. The young Titans are summarily hauled up by their tunics and readied for a throw off Silkie's back; however, they each get a handful of Killer Moth's fuzz and all three end up in free fall. Dick and Rose are first to reach a rooftop and immediately jump away from the enemy's descending punch. All three end up facing off at opposite ends, whereupon Killer Moth gets his wings in gear and does a flying charge that Dick and Rose barely dodge in time. The masked heroes pull out their fighting staffs, only to get hit by a mouthful of Slikie's slime before they can use them. The monster has landed alongside and is pouring a steady pink stream over every inch of them. It stops once they are so thickly covered that only their faces and feet are visible; he stumbles blindly at the corner of the rooftop, then plunges screaming toward the street. Salvation comes in the form of the diving Changeling, who makes a fair catch and drops him into Vic's arms. The green pterodactyl resumes human form as he, Bryan and Raven run up.

Starfire and Jack arrive.

Starfire, "Nightwing! I must help my friends, even if it means harming my Silkie."

Jack, "I'm with ya, Star…."

A few tears gather in Star's eyes, only to give way to a fierce green glow, and she charges ahead to meet the terror in midair, with Jack right behind her on a slab of Earth. Killer Moth cracks his whip; Starfire responds by creating an intense energy front around herself. It spreads steadily outward, then concentrates itself and re-emerges in the form of a single blinding starbolt, carrying the entire focused discharge across the aerial distance. Killer Moth is blasted from his perch and drops screaming toward the street, but as he falls, his whip sings upward and catches Starfire's ankle. She takes a shock just like the one that knocked Raven out and is dragged along with her foe. He crashes down first, she a moment later on top of a car, and Silkie touches down in the nearby intersection. The enormous winged creature yowls toward Killer Moth's crater as he climbs out of it.

Jack flies down and helps Starfire up.

Killer Moth, "M-Three-Nineteen! Come!"

Starfire, "no, Silkie! He is evil! You belong with your k'norfka! You belong with me!"

Indecision and a puzzled grunt; Silkie looks back and forth at the two masters.

Jack adds in, "come on, little- er, big guy! Starfire loves you!"

Starfire, "here, Silkie, Silkie…. Here, my sweet little mutant."

Killer Moth, "um…. Here, Larva M-Three-Nineteen…. Come to papa."

Jack, "that's pathetic."

Starfire, "oh, Silkie, Starfire has a big hug for you."

Killer Moth, "hey, big fella. Did Killer Moth create you in a lab? Yes, he did. Yes, he did."

Jack, "he made you, but he doesn't love you like Starfire does."

We see Silkie's befuddled expression as both voices call to it.

Tons of memories of both Starfire and Killer Moth race through his mind.

The beast trembles and sweats buckets under the nervous strain put upon it, then thrashes its head back and forth violently. With no warning, it disappears in the glare of an explosion; the blast radiating out from the intersection and filling the entire block with thick gray smoke. Killer Moth, Jack and Starfire are both swept off their feet by the shock wave; when the view finally clears, a few striped wing fragments flutter down around the shocked Titans and the smoke has gone purple. Starfire gasps in terror and gets to her feet, tears streaming down her cheeks at the apocalyptic destruction of her beloved pet, and the rain that hit the rocky island finally starts in the city proper.

Jack, "oh God…. Silkie…."

The remains of the enormous moth's carcass are interspersed with a morass of slime, the same color as the zorka berries that started the whole mess. As more wads splatter down everywhere and the rain slacks off, Starfire advances numbly toward the leftovers and the other Titans watch from a safe distance, Changeling having become a pterodactyl again. The impact of one glob-containing berry fragments liberally decorates them and deposits Rancid flat on his back.

Rancid, "I got eaten."

Bryan, "yes you did."

Raven, "so nasty."

Blackfire and Rose nodded.

Vic, "sweet!"

Changeling has resumed human form, and Vic digs his missing leg from the glop.

Vic, "my leg!"

Starfire touches down at the center of the slime patch and collapses to her knees as if her legs had not a single solid bone. She is wearing a crown of the stuff and looking as if she might burst into tears at any second; the others just watch, not knowing how to console her in a crisis like this.

Jack sighs, about to approach Starfire, when a small cry shakes Starfire out of this deep fuchsia funk.

Starfire, "huh?"

The noise grows; she looks around with a gasp. She gets up.

Starfire, "Silkie? Silkie!"

Diving into one mound, Starfire emerges an instant later with the creature in hand; it is now back to its original, small, much more appealing size.

Starfire, "Silkie!"

It gurgles happily and she lets her tears flow, now from sheer happiness rather than crushing loss.

Starfire, "oh, hello, my little bumgorf!"

She twirls him around as Dick drags Killer Moth into view.

Changeling, "he wasn't mutating, he was just…. Molting."

Rose, "neat."

Hearts float around the pet and the new owner with the other Titans watching, Killer Moth and Johnny have been tied together to keep them subdued."

Raven, "can we go home now? I need a shower in the worst way."

Starfire sighs happily and carries Silkie over to Dick, who keeps trying to sort all this out as she gives him the most plaintive smile she can. The burning question on her mind is, of course, can she keep Silkie?

Jack, "come on, Dick. I don't think you could separate these two if you tried."

Dick thinks for a long moment before answering.

Dick, "alright. He can stay."

Starfire, "yay!"

Dick, "as long as you don't give him any more alien food."

Starfire, "but…. I do not know what else to feed him."

Silkie squirms out of her arms, prompting a surprised gasp, and begins to eat the slime produced when its giant moth form blew up. It truly loves this crud.

Everyone yells, "ewww!"

Their teammate, rather than being repulsed, beams and dives to the edge of the slop next to Silkie. A bit is procured on a fingertip, given a sniff, and tasted; now she gasps again, this time in delight.

Everyone yelled again, "EWWW!"

Starfire pops up, face flushing happily.

Starfire, "oh, it tastes just like zorka berries!"

She scarfs a handful down and proceeds to dive here and there amid the muck, stuffing her face as Silkie continues to eat its fill.

Starfire, "mmmm!"

The other Titans slide up.

Changeling has become a horse, and Killer Moth and Rancid are chained together on his back.

Bryan, "this is the grossest thing I've seen all day."

Dick, "shouldn't we maybe try to stop her?"

Jack shrugged, "eh. Let her have fun. She's earned it."

Raven, "and; that stuff's gotta get cleaned up somehow."

Blackfire, "and I thought my sister's eating habits were weird before…."

They head out.

Starfire, "delicious!"

We look above the intersection as the other Titans start for home.

The pink goo is munched into the shape of a large heart, and as the sounds of the two happy diners are heard….

….

Later, back at the tower….

Jack and Starfire smile as they see Silkie and Percy napping next to each other on the couch.

Jack, "well, it'll be nice to have another pet to keep Percy company…. And I'm glad Silkie isn't fond of eating cats."

Starfire nodded in agreement.

….

Reviews:

Bailey Radcliff: thanks. Glad you're excited. The particular Scooby Doo story I plan on doing soon is a retelling of a bunch of the films with an OC member of the team.

Canadude2029: well, I'm glad you liked the chapter.

vulcran: cool.

….

And thus we wrap up a strange but kind of cute episode.