'Rorschach's Journal, August 4th, 1996.
'Johnny Rancid made a comeback not long after I returned with my magic. This time he had a mechanical dog, clichély named Rex, personally I would have referenced the recently released 'A Close Shave' by calling the robot dog Preston. With some struggle, but minimal damage with sent the bulldozer-dog to the scrapheap.
'Sadly, though Rancid escaped. But I highly doubt we're ever going to see a rerun of the Larry the Imp incident.'
"Okay team," Robin said as they entered the living room "Johnny Rancid's still on the loose, I'll check the scanner while, huh?" they all stopped and stared. Beast Boy turned white.
The lounge looked an utter mess, food slipped, rubbish everywhere, and the sofa literally eaten into.
"There was a party and we were not invited?" Starfire asked.
"A party?" Robin said, "More like a tornado."
"A tornado with teeth." Raven said looking at the sofa.
"Yo!" Cyborg wailed "Who's been chewing on my game station?"
"This is exactly like that scene in A Close Shave." Rorschach said, "Has anyone reported a lost sheep, though a goat may make more sense."
Robin pealed a slice of pizza of the computer console "I'll track down Rancid. You guy track down, whatever did this."
In the corridors, Cyborg checked his arm "Sensor aren't picking up anything but a few bugs, any of ya'll know what we're looking for?"
"No." Raven said, Starfire shook her head. Rorschach took his hat off and starched his head "It's some kind of animal, my instincts are telling me that, but what?" they turned to Beast Boy "Me? No why would I?" he looked down the corridor and screamed "I saw a tentacle.", Cyborg, Raven and Rorschach moved off fast, before Starfire could Beast Boy grabbed her and hurried them to his room. Quickly he locked the door.
"Please," Starfire said, "what is the meaning…" Beast Boy quieted her "I need your help. I know who trashed the tower, and we can't let anyone find him. Okay." He asked if Starfire remembered the incident with Killer Moth. Starfire of course remember it as it led to her and Robin starting dating as a couple.
"Well even though you guys told me not to, I sort of keep one of the worms as a pet." From behind his back he produced the large larvae "Starfire, meet Silkie. You got to admit he's kind of cute, in a beady maggoty kind of way."
"Um."
"You have to take care of him for me. It's just a matter of time before Cyborg, Raven and Rorschach search my room, if they find him they'll make me get rid of him."
"They will?"
"Please, it'll be our secret."
"I do not like to kind secrets from my friends."
"Come on Star, you didn't tell us you knew Rorschach real name until he revealed it. I need you, Silkie needs you.", Starfire relented and took hold of Silkie, and actually found herself quite fond of the larvae.
A knock came on the door "Their coming, you have to get out." He opened the window and pushed her through it, Starfire flew away.
In her room Silkie rested on the bed and wailed.
"Weep not little one your k'norfka Starfire is here to attend your every need." She treated Silkie much like a baby trying everything. She found hunger plagued the larvae, she tried any Earth food she could think of, then she struck an idea "Zorka berries!" she rushed over and took a container "No creature can resist the delicious bitterness of zorka berries from my home planet, Tamaran." She took the lid of and eat a berry, humming at the taste. Silkie sniffed it and dug in. Starfire smiled "Good, Silkie! You may consume your fill while Starfire obtains a fresh blankie." She went over the curtains and took a few off.
She heard something clatter "Silkie?" she turned and gasp, the larvae grew, becoming as large as a bear "My alien food has cause you to mutate further." She lifted the creature up and started to burp the bug "Yes, more burping, you much regain your original size before Cyborg, Raven and Rorschach come to search my…"
Knock came from her door. Gingerly she existed "Friends. There is something with which I can help you?"
Rorschach's mask turned inquisitive before Raven spoke "You're supposed to be helping up find our mysterious house guest."
"We've turned the Tower upside down. Only place we haven't checked is…"
"My room," she shrieked before quickly putting on a fake smile "does not need to be searched. I have examined it thoroughly and there is no sign of…" a crash came from inside.
The entered much too Starfire's initial before seeing the room empty, only the stains on the carpet and ripped curtains she stood up "It is very messy."
"This is messy?" Cyborg said laughing "Girl have you seen Beast Boy room?"
Raven walked forward looking at the curtains "So, you and the curtains had some sort of argument?"
The alien princess looked over her shoulder "Uh, yes, today is, Gorb-Gorb, the Tamaranean festival of berating drapery. Stupid curtains!" she fired her eye beams at the window, completely destroying and putting a massive hole on the wall.
Raven rolled her eyes "Aliens."
Rorschach tilted his head "Oddly specific." He turned on his heels and walked out muttering "What kind of cultural or religious reason would make you hate curtains for a day? When did Starfire gain eye lasers?"
Cyborg sighed "Well there nothing here, guess we'll have to spilt up and the search start over again."
"A good thought." Starfire said "Please procced I shall join you shortly.", when the door closed sigh let out her breath in relief. She started searching the room for the larvae, she lifted her bed and found a hole on the floor.
Starfire searched throughout the night. In the living room, she floated about and called out quietly.
"Starfire?" someone called, she gasped and fell onto the floor. Robin held up a piece of foam "Um, where's the sofa?" she looked back finding the entire semi-circle sofa absent, she gulped "Um, your Earthly ways are strange to me. Please what is this sofa you speak of?" she quickly ran to the side exist, laughing embarrassed to try and reassure her boyfriend she quickly left.
Robin's mark frowned showing his confusion.
"I know," another voice said as Rorschach stepped out from the archway "Starfire knows something, I can feel it, and it's something frightfully personal since she's keeping it from you, and my instincts are telling me Beast Boy's involved somehow."
Next day Cyborg and Rorschach searched the workshop. Rorschach rummaged through boxes filled with spare clutter while Cyborg simply tipped the contents of them out onto the floor "Man Josh," the mechanical jock said sitting down "whatever this thing is, it's wasting our time. There's nothing…" something slopped onto his head, both boys looked up at the air-vent. It opened and a monstrous thing fell out.
Cyborg screamed.
The doors exploded open and Beast Boy, Raven and Robin entered.
A gigantic pink caterpillar creature sat in the workshop eating Cyborg leg before swallowing it. The jock became infuriated and charged his sonic cannon "Give me my foot so I can kick your butt." He fell over without his leg to stand on, the blast went into the celling and rubble started falling.
Rorschach raised his hand to create a shield, too late as a large piece hit the monster on the head. It roared and loomed over Cyborg, Beast Boy in Pterodactyl form grabbed Cyborg and got him out the way as the caterpillar pounced crashing into the floor. It fired a pink-purple slime at the two and they crash landed.
Robin flipped onto its head and grabbed the antennae to try and control it, but it lurched about and flung him to a wall.
Raven said her words and sent several crates at it.
"No!" Starfire called as she appeared in front of the creature. Raven gasped and stopped the crates before they hit. Starfire spoke again "Do not harm Silkie. He is my bumgorf."
Robin stood up and became bemused "Starfire?"
"What's a bumgorf?" Raven asked.
"That Silkie?" Beast Boy, Rorschach looked at the changeling, and nodded to himself and Beast Boy continued "Dude, what have you been feeding him."
As if give a cue the massive larvae belched tremendously.
Robin told Starfire she couldn't let Silkie stay in the tower so she flew him to a rock island several miles away.
She sadly smiled as she explained "This is your new home, you will be happy, no one will harm you and there are many strange object for you to ingest." she sighed and turned away "I am very sorry, but you must not follow." she took off but Silkie extend one of his arms to grab hold of her "No! Please! I cannot stay! You must," she charged a Starbolt "let me go." she fired it, hitting the arms, Silkie let her go and backed away scared and confused. Tears began to form in Starfire's eyes "Oh, forgive me."
Rain began to pour as Starfire began to cry and slowly floated back to the tower.
Silkie laid down saddened when a laugh filled the air.
Johnny Rancid stood a top of a pile of cars with a chain in hand, he laughed at the destruction he caused.
"Trust me Johnny," Robin called as he stood with the other Titans "this won't seem funny once you're paying for it in jail."
"You're the one who going to pay bird-boy." Rancid called back "You loser trashed my dog, so I went out and got a monster." He pulled on his chain. The sound of stamping echoed throughout the city, a robotic carnivore dinosaur walked up behind Rancid "Say hello to Rex-zilla."
Josh rolled his eyes 'He has absolutely no imagination' the robot opened to reveal massive guns "Destroy!" Rancid called and the robot trudge forward.
Another monster appeared and swallowed both the robot and Rancid.
The Titans gasped. A giant moth flew above them.
"Silkie!" Starfire cried.
On the back of the transformed monster Killer Moth spoke "His name is Larva M319, and he belongs to me, Killer Moth." He cracked an energy whip into the creature's back and it charged at the team.
Everyone but Starfire dispersed. The Tamaranean stared stocked as her former care came nearer and nearer.
"Starfire!" Robin shouted, he jumped and held onto her as they moved out the way of the beast, the flyover causes a large shockwave
Killer Moth looked down at the team "I must say, you took excellent care of M319. What have you been feeding him?"
Starfire grimaced "He is called Silkie."
"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." he cracked the whip again. The beast charged and began to fire the pink-purple slime, everyone got out the way, of the blast.
Killer Moth circle around, just as Cyborg onto of Pterodactyl Beast Boy flew straight at him "You like my leg?" the mechanical jock called to the beast as he charged his cannon "Well chew on this." he fired but M319 quickly manoeuvred out of the way and spat another slime attack downing the two.
Raven looked from behind a building before levitating a coach-bus into the beast's side pinning it to a building, "Starfire now." she called. Starfire hesitated to attack giving Killer Moth the chance to wrap the wipe around Raven's wrist and shocked her.
With the bus gone M319 moved off again and slimed the girls.
Rorschach stood in the middle of the street, he focused his power and formed a large shield. Never did he tried and stop something this large. 'This will work, I'm a lot more powerful than before.' The Monster Moth still came and rammed heard first into the shield. And broke straight through it. Combined with the amount of energy used and the shockwave Rorschach got flung into a lamppost head first and collapsed unconscious.
Robin ran on the rooftops before fired his grapple, which attached to one of M319's legs and he swung up and over onto the beast's back and began fighting Killer Moth, who lost his whip.
Eventually the two fell of the monster and started fighting on the rooftops. Until M319 slimed Robin causing the Boy Wonder to fall off the roof. Beast Boy quickly can and grabbed him before passing him to Cyborg.
Starfire looked down at the passed-out Rorschach and then to her encased love 'I must help my friends. Even if it means harming my Silkie." she charged her hands and flew to meet Killer Moth. She focused her energy and fired a bolt that knocked the villain off, however the whip grabbed onto her ankle and dragged her down while shocking her. Killer Moth crashed onto the pavement and Starfire crashed into a car.
The Monster Moth landed and looked to the carter in the pavement and Killer Moth recovered "M319 come."
"No Silkie." Starfire get up onto the car roof "He is evil. You belong with you k'norfka. You belong with me." The two began to try and convince the creature to their own side. It looked from one to another. Then exploded, knocking the two back.
Pink slime and large chunks began to fall, including Rancid.
"So, nasty." Raven commented. Cyborg recovered the leg taken from him.
Starfire float into the large slime covered remains. Then a wailing caught her attention she dived into the slime and found Silkie back to normal.
Robin wrapped a chain around Johnny and Moth as Rorschach re-joined the group shaking himself as he observed the scene "Okay, can someone make sense of this? I don't know what my minds saying after going head first into a lamppost. Lucky I strengthened my hat and mask."
"He wasn't mutating," Beast Boy said, "he was just, moulting."
"Some moulting." Rorschach commented.
"Fascinating." Raven said "Can we go home now? I need a shower in the worst way."
Starfire turned to Robin and fluttered her eyelids, the Boy Wonder sighed "Alright he can stay, as long as you don't give him anymore alien food."
"But I do not know what else to feed him." The larva suddenly jumped out of Starfire's arms and began eating the slime, much to the other's, bar Starfire's, revulsion. Starfire took a small bit of the slime and tasted it, disgusting the others further, Rorschach's mask even formed an X, overcome with joy she didn't notice "It taste just like zorka berries." And began to wolf the stuff down.
As the two ate away Beast Boy changed into a horse and they put the tied up Rancid and Moth on his back. Rorschach spoke with Robin "Sasu's Kitsune companion Cynefrith would be a lot safe in the tower then walking aimlessly through the streets and risk being caught." He rubbed the back of his neck "And it'll also give Sasu a reason to come down more often.", Robin rolled his eyes then Rorschach spoke again "Of course it depends if the little chap wants to stay in the tower. Freedom's an important thing to a Kitsune, you can't force one to do something it doesn't want to, and if you do you may end up burnt."
Robin's eyes widened and looked back at Starfire and Silkie still gorging on the slime "Shouldn't we, maybe try and stop her?"
Raven spoke next "That stuffs got to get cleaned up somehow."
"And," Rorschach said as the five walked off "I think we can do without the road sweeper all having the 'They don't pay me enough for this' expression."
'Rorschach's Journal, August 6th, 1996.
'Both Sasu and Cynefrith agreed to the idea of the Kitsune stay in the tower. I ended up having to explain to the other what a Kitsune truly was, Raven seemed quite surprised. Beast Boy took an immediate liking to the little chap as they both shared a sense of mischief. Silkie and Cynefrith started a friendship, both the companions to the significate others of Titan members, though a quite a lot of differences, I mean one was the genetic experiment of a madman in a moth suit, I think, and the other is a twelve-year-old supernatural fox descended from a long-lived race of supernatural creatures. I still have no idea how he got here from Japan.
'This was not the only thing that change when we returned. Apparently after Starfire's misadventure in that alternate reality Robin contacted Batman about possibly changing his persona to Nightwing, Batman, apparently adopting a new ward agreed and let our Robin become Nightwing so this new ward could become the next Robin. Only now is the new suit complete.'
Outside on the train ground Nightwing face against the drones. He jumped gripping onto the flaps on the side of his costume allowing him the glide, he threw his upgraded Bird-a-rang, at the guns and blew them up. He landed and look out to Cyborg and Starfire "How I do?"
The mechanical jock looked at the console "Out did your previous record by about five seconds, those wings off yours really helped."
"Glorious." Starfire said clasping her hands together. She looked at her boyfriend's new appearance. Unlike in the alternate future here Richard Grayson kept his hair short and the small domino mask as before. The blue bird insignia extended down his arms and appeared in a lighter blue than she remembered. He removed the cape but made the wings flaps out of the same high-density polymerised titanium as the capes, probably because of the incident with the Centauri Police and how it saved the day.
Rorschach came out of the workshop "The paintjob's done, the R-Cycle is now the Wing-Cycle."
"Thanks. This feels great. I can't wait until the cities sees me like this, no more bird-boy."