A/N: I don't own Nightstar. Brother Bludgeon and I own the rest of the Titans and Snicker-Doodle. Enjoy the story!
Teen Titans: The Second Generation
Chapter Five: The Pet
It was a quiet Saturday afternoon and the Teen Titans were at Titans Tower where Hallie was working on advancing her magic. Channeler sang the circus theme while Nightstar, Burrower, Beast Girl, and Falcon watched Hallie's tricks. "For my next trick, I will pull from this simple, ordinary hat... not one... not two... not three..."
"Get on with it!" Channeler shouted, pausing in her song.
"Four! Four completely different animals a cuddly rabbit, a gentle dove, a ferocious tiger, and... though you may doubt your very senses when you see-"
"GET ON WITH IT!" the Titans shouted as one.
"A majestic elephant. Four animals, one hat, and five soon to be amazed teen super heroes!" She waved her wand and tapped the edge of the hat. "Hocus Pocus! Alba-shabam! Halakazzuh!" Hallie reached into her hat to pull out the first animal. Instead, she pulled out a furry, white creature with black stripes, large, wing-shaped ears, a fluffy white elephant's trunk, dove feet, rabbit back feet, and a rabbit's tail. The creature was about the size of a large rabbit.
"What in Azar's name is that?!" exclaimed Falcon. Nightstar grabbed her friends and jumped behind the couch.
Hallie looked at the animal and screamed as she dropped it on the floor. It looked up at her with big, sad eyes as if to ask 'why did you drop me?'
Channeler came from behind the couch and stared at the creature. "It's… it's… it's so cute!" She turned to the others with a huge grin on her face. "Can we keep it? Can we keep it?!"
Falcon and Nightstar gave each other worried looks. Burrower approached Hallie. "Are you okay?"
"I must have messed up the spell," said Hallie with a frustrated sigh. "I don't know how to fix this."
"Awwww, but it's so cute!" said Channeler. She picked up the creature and began to cuddle it. The creature began to coo. "See? It's friendly!"
Suddenly, the creature's wing-shaped ears opened and it jumped out of Channeler's arms and began to fly around the room. "We need to contain it!" exclaimed Nightstar.
"It's not hurting anybody," said Channeler in the creature's defense.
"We can't just let it just fly around the Tower and do Azar-knows-what to the equipment or our belongings," said Falcon. All of a sudden, the creature landed on Hallie's shoulder.
"My parents can't know about this. They'll ground me for life or worse, make me quit the Titans," said Hallie nervously. She removed the creature and handed it to Nightstar.
"Did your grandpa ever create something like this?" Burrower asked.
"Not that I can think of," said Hallie.
"See? You did something your grandpa never did. That's really impressive," said Burrower with a shrug.
Hallie sighed. "My parents are going to freak."
"You never know. They could say 'wow, you created this creature all on your own? That's incredible!'" said Burrower.
Hallie looked at him with disbelief. "No, more like 'see, Hallie, this is why you shouldn't mess with magic.'"
"Hey, we'll figure something out," said Burrower reassuringly.
"Agreed," said Nightstar. "Falcon, you help Hallie find a spell to get rid of this thing while we keep an eye on it." Falcon nodded and the two left the room.
"Awwww, do we have to get rid of it?" Channeler whined. She tried to pet it, but Nightstar shifted away.
"Channeler, we can't keep it," Nightstar insisted.
"But it's so cute!" Channeler continued to complain.
"I have to agree with Channeler on this one," said Beast Girl. "This is a living creature."
"Cute living creature!" Channeler repeated. "I can't stress this enough!"
"We can't keep it," said Nightstar firmly.
"Come on, Nightstar, just look at it!" Channeler insisted.
"Guys, we can't get attached. If we do, it'll be harder for us when we get rid of it," said Nightstar.
"Burrower, you're Hallie's boyfriend. You have an opinion in this," Beast Girl pressed.
Channeler suddenly seemed to tower over him, her face in shadow and her eyes glowing so much brighter and more menacingly than usual.
"If only you knew the power of the Cute Side..."
Burrower looked nervous. "I don't want to get rid of it, but we can't risk Hallie being taken off the team."
Just then, Falcon and Hallie came back. "We couldn't find anything," Hallie sighed.
"Hey, Hal, maybe it would be better if we just kept it?" Burrower hesitantly suggested. "We could keep it here and during the summer, we can stay here so it won't be lonely."
"What about when school starts up again?" Hallie asked.
"We can rotate between houses... just not yours," said Beast Girl.
"Come on," Channeler insisted as she took the creature from Nightstar, "just look at that face!"
Hallie looked at the creature she had made and realize it was actually very cute. "I guess we could keep it. And there's six of us to make sure it's taken care of." She turned to Nightstar. "What do you think?"
"It would be an added responsibility to our daily routine, but not a bad one," said Nightstar. "Our parents had a pet when they were active heroes and most of us didn't have pets growing up."
"Yay! We get to have a pet!" exclaimed Channeler.
"Hey, I think it's time we gave this little guy a name," said Burrower
"I think we should name it Trunks," said Hallie as the creature gave her trunk kisses.
"How about Peanuts," Burrower asked.
"Why not just call the thing It?" asked Falcon.
"Let's call it Flop-a-lop-agus!" exclaimed Channeler.
"We could call it Little Bumgorph," suggested Nightstar.
"Let's see what this little fella wants to be named," said Beast Girl. She turned into a green elephant and grunted. The creature tilted its head to one side. Beast Girl next turned into a tiger and let out a growling roar. The creature growled back. She then turned into a dove, cooed, and fluttered her wings at it and the creature shook its head as if to shake off dust. Beast Girl lastly turned into a rabbit and wiggled her ears and twitched her nose. She morphed back into her human form with a big smile. "Its name is Snicker-Doodle," she said proudly.
"How can you be so sure?" Falcon asked skeptically.
Beast Girl gave him a serious look. "Its name is Snicker-Doodle," she said firmly.
"So how are we going to care for it?" Nightstar asked.
"We get Snicker-Doodle a place to go to the bathroom and food to eat," replied Beast Girl.
"That's obvious," said Falcon, "but what?"
The changeling repeated her shifting routine to Snicker-Doodle and returned to her human form. "Snicker-Doodle wants a litter box with a cover and to be fed peanuts, lettuce, nuts, berries, and carrots made into a salad and served in a bowl," replied Beast Girl.
"Is this Snicker-Doodle talking or you?" asked Falcon.
Beast Girl gave him the serious look again. "This is what Snicker-Doodle wants," she replied.
"Where are we going to keep a litter box?" asked Nightstar.
"Why not in the main room?" asked Burrower. He pointed to an empty space near the door. "How about over there?"
"Yeah sure, why not?" said Falcon in a monotone.
Beast Girl immediately went to work in preparing its food. Hallie and Burrower went out to get Snicker-Doodle a bowl, a litter box with a cover, a collar, a name tag and a variety of pet toys. Once they got back, Beast Girl fed Snicker-Doodle while Nighstar and Burrower set up Snicker-Doodle's litter box. Channeler put the collar around Snicker-Doodle's neck.
That afternoon, they asked their parents to visit the Tower so they could meet Snicker-Doodle. After the Titans explained what happened and how they planned to take care of the creature, their parents smiled proudly.
"It's adorable!" exclaimed Terra as she and Starfire pet Snicker-Doodle.
"Just don't give it zorkaberries," said Changeling. The other retired Titans cringed at the memory attached to the alien fruit.
"I'm glad you're taking charge with this new responsibility," said Nightwing. He suddenly leaned to the side and the others turned around to see what he was looking at.
Channeler was on the couch with Terra and Starfire and had Snicker-Doodle sitting on her lap. It was holding onto her index fingers with its front claws. She moved the arms up and down as she sang a silly song: "Little Bunny Foo-Foo, he was such a weirdo! Knew he was a rabbit, but thought he was a squirrel!" Snicker-Doodle had a smile on its face as she did this.
Everyone stared curiously at Channeler before they continued the conversation. "So anyway, great job to all of you."
The Titans spent the rest of the evening training and let Snicker-Doodle watch. Once they finished, they ate lunch and played with their new pet.
That night after dinner, the team sat on the couch and watched a movie. Snicker-Doodle sat between Channeler and Falcon. Suddenly, the dark Titan felt something furry grab his hand. He looked down and saw Snicker-Doodle use its trunk to place his hand on its back. Snicker-Doodle looked up at him with its big, dark eyes as if to say 'Pet me, please'. The dark Titan let out a sigh as he pet the furry creature. "Fine." Snicker-Doodle cooed like a dove in happiness.
It didn't take long for everyone to accept Snicker-Doodle as part of the group. Every morning they fed it and cleaned out the litter box before they went to school. When they would get home, they would feed him a snack and clean the litter box again. They would let Snicker-Doodle sit with them during meetings, combat practice, and homework so long as it behaved.
One night, Hallie was watching a movie with Burrower. Snicker-Doodle hopped onto the couch and cuddled up to Hallie. She smiled down at the creature and whispered, "I'm glad I made you."
Snicker-Doodle looked up at her with a smile that said 'I know'.
To be continued…
A/N: Special thanks to Brother Bludgeon for helping me create Snicker-Doodle. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!